Imagine that you are going throughout your day – working, taking care of kids, etc. – and an old, bearded man dressed in a burlap robe approaches you. He says, “I have a warning for you from the Lord.” Would he have your attention? He would certainly have mine!
Although that’s not likely to happen, God’s anointed word from the prophet Isaiah grabbed my heart this morning. Indeed, God can sound an alarm in us through words written in an ancient book.
The warning shared this morning by Mary Kassian is about how we live out womanhood. Isaiah told the people of Israel, “Your guides have misled you.” How true that our “guides” have misled us. The thinkers of our day in universities, in bookstores, and even many in the church have told us that women must grab power to survive and find happiness. Submit to your husband? That’s archaic at best, absurd at worst!
As a culture, we have chosen to do womanhood our own way. A prophet who sent a warning to women thousands of years ago is also sounding the warning for you and me about how we think and live as women. Check out Isaiah 3 where the prophet Isaiah describes some tendencies of modern-day feminism. Women have become the rulers of men, arrogant and sexually forward. Feminism isn’t just an ideology – it is an indication of saying to God, “I want to do life my way!”
“As go the women, so go the nation.” When women don’t follow God’s design, the entire culture will experience the consequences. Isaiah lists a number of personal and national consequences including emptiness, desperation, shame, identity issues, weak men, economic problems, and selfish leadership. And how true is this one – women will become desperate to find a “real man.”
The bad news is that we are now living in the midst of these consequences. Consider these recent statistics:
- More than 60% of marriages today are preceded by living together
- Over 40% of children in America are born out-of-wedlock
- More than half of American women are the primary breadwinners
- From 1960 to 2009, the number of working-age men with full-time jobs fell from 83% to 66%.
As a culture and as individuals, we have thumbed our nose as God’s design for women, for sexuality, for family, and for identity. We are paying the price.
While you might be nodding in agreement at Isaiah’s words, how do you respond when his warnings become personal? What will you do when God reveals a stubborn, unsubmissive spirit in you?
The prophet Isaiah, through modern-day teacher Mary Kassian, is sounding an alarm. Just as the people of Judah had a choice to respond to the warning, so do you. Will you continue to go along with the stream of culture? Will you just shake your head in disdain at what you see going so terribly wrong? Or will you bow down and repent?
The great news is that God will respond quickly when His women repent and turn to Him. I love the many times in Scripture where God says, “Because you prayed . . . because you sought me . . . because you humbled yourself . . .” Do you realize that God’s work in your life and in our nation is dependent upon your response to the warnings you have just read?
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Comments
Is. 1:16-19
on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 12:23 pm
We need to hear this kind of truth is is so greeing and counter cultural so it must take God to do that change in each of our hearts!
on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 1:23 pm
on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 2:46 pm
on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 2:55 pm