Hello and welcome to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge! I’m Lisa Ann Spencer. Thank you for joining me today as we continue with part 4 of THY KINSWOMAN.
Let’s talk about GENDER in the Bible.
Q: What determines that the God of the Bible is MALE?
A: The word of God.
The title, ‘God’ is defined by the apostle Paul, as ‘the Godhead’. (See Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20 and Colossians 2:9.)
- God, the Father;
- God, the Son;
- God, the Holy Ghost.
There is one thing that I hope you will learn from my Bible studies:
All truth is founded upon God’s word!
God asks us to believe his word, to trust in his word, and to rest our faith in his word. It is such a simple thing, but our flesh is contrary to God. (Galatians 5:17)
God’s word says what it means, and it means what it says. God promised to preserve His words, and He has. I hope you will choose to believe every word of God, right down to the pronoun, “he”.
The Godhead is male.
- It is obvious that God, the Father, is male.
- It is obvious that God, the Son, Jesus Christ is male.
- It will only be apparent that the Holy Ghost is male if you believe the word of God.
For it says in the word:
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and
bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Every member of the Godhead is an “HE”.
In last week’s lesson on THY KINSWOMAN part 3, we learned that it is the words that a person speaks that define the person. We know WISDOM by her words, and we know THE STRANGE WOMAN by her words.
It is by the words of God that we are able to know the true and living God. We have to understand this because Satan is a counterfeit god; and his words are sweet, smooth and flattering. It is only by having an intimate knowledge of God’s word that will guard us against Satan’s counterfeit words.
Before we begin to look at the question:
Q: WHY is WISDOM called a woman when the Godhead is male?
I want to look at another GENDER question in Scripture that might cause confusion.
In our study of Thy Kinswoman, we saw the writer of Proverbs addressing “MY SON” numerous times.
By comparing scripture with scripture, we determined that MY SON is ISRAEL. (See Exodus 4:22 and Hosea 11:1.)
There are 3 important things to know about Israel:
- They are a chosen land
- They are a chosen nation
- Their headquarters is a chosen city
#1 Israel is a Chosen Land
God prophesied of this “great nation” that he would make of Abram in
Genesis 12:1-3, when he asked Abram to leave his country and travel to an unknown land… the land of Canaan.
Later in Genesis 17, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, and He tells him in verse 8, And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
God’s word is precise.
The land of Canaan is also called ‘Israel’.
We can see God calling the land of Canaan 'Israel' in 1 Samuel 13:19, just after God rejected Saul as king. Israel was not in full possession of the land yet, but God's word calls it “the land of Israel” because God has declared it to be so! (By studying the phrase “land of Israel”, you will realize that they have never had full possession of the promised land, therefore many prophesies remain unfulfilled.)
The land is referred to as FEMALE!
Interestingly, the land being called female is first mentioned in the book of Leviticus Chapter 18, where this study on Thy Kinswoman began.
Leviticus 18:25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
Look also at another reference from Leviticus:
Leviticus 25:19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
This verse gives us an idea why the land is FEMALE; it is because the land bears fruit. A man BEGETS offspring; a woman BEARS offspring.
WORDS MEAN THINGS!
#2 Israel is a Chosen Nation
Exodus 19:6 and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Deuteronomy 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
Israel is God’s nation! He has no other nation that He exalted into such a high position. (See 2 Samuel 7:23 and Psalm147:20.)
Israel as a nation is also destined to be the priests of the LORD to the entire earth.
Isaiah 61:6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourself.
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
# 3 Israel also has as its headquarters a Chosen City, Jerusalem.
Solomon fulfils God’s word in building a house in the CITY which God chose to put His name there.
I Kings 8:20 And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
I Kings 11:36 … Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.
JERUSALEM, THE CITY, IS ALSO FEMALE.
Ezekiel 23:19 Yet she [Jerusalem] multiplied her whoredoms, …she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
She, Jerusalem, is define in Ezekiel 23:4 … Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
Here is another reference to the land of Israel being female:
Isaiah 62:1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 2 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. 3 Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. 4 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
We see the fulfillment of this passage ☝ from Isaiah in Revelation 21:2 at the marriage supper of the Lamb when the holy CITY, new JERUSALEM comes down out of heaven as a bride.
In the future, God will pour out His spirit and cause Israel to walk in His statutes. (Ezekiel 36:27)
We see a taste of this on the day of Pentecost when Peter addresses the nation of Israel, commanding them to repent of murdering the Messiah, and turn to the LORD Jesus; but the nation refused to repent, which culminated in the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost when the rulers murdered Stephen in Acts 7.
A nation that has been cut off cannot be a light to the Gentiles as prophesied (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6;60:3; Luke 2:32), so God called Saul, who became our apostle Paul, to be a light to the Gentiles .
Acts 13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13 and Galatians 2:8).
SUMMARY:
- Israel, the nation, is referred to as a SON
- Israel, the land, is referred to as SHE
- Jerusalem, the city, is referred to as HER
I hope this helps clear up Gender Confusion in the Bible regarding the nation of Israel.
We who are saved today are not citizens of Israel. We are citizens of Heaven and members of the Body of Christ according to the dispensation of the grace of God given to the apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:2) He is the only writer to mention the church which is His Body (Colossians 1:18)
Next week we will look at why WISDOM is female and the great truth that it can teach us today.
The material covered in this blog can also be found in this YouTube video which is private. Contact me by email or leave a comment on this post for the link to the video:
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