Modern secular-atheistic 'wisdom' wishes us to believe the doctrine that there is no difference between men and women. To the one who does not believe in any kind of purpose in life - that we are mere cosmic accidents - gender too is an 'accident'. It is not hard to see why those who believe that gender is a random event and who wish to make everything 'equal' and 'fair', as they view these terms, would want - ultimately - to eliminate gender altogether. The ultimate political correctness would therefore demand that unisexuality be the goal - first socially, and then biologically. The problem with the latter is that human beings do not have the ability to asexually reproduce and no hermaphrodite version of Homo sapiens is known. It seems we will never acquire the reproductive abilities of Paramecia or earth-worms. No doubt the hope is entertained by some that biological engineering will one day advance to such a degree of sophistication that man will one day be able to recreate himself in the image of his false 'scientific' beliefs about life.

My devotional today is not for atheists, humanists or feminists. It's for women who believe in Elohim (God) and His purpose in creating them female. Not a few women have, in my time as a minister, expressed the feeling that they would have been better off as males in this world system. It is easy to sympathise with such a sentiment given the horrible abuses against women that exist in some cultures and religions still. At the same time, it is not much fun being a man in the world system either ... unless you happen to like the world system, of course.

Yesterday we looked at the faithful man and what is required of him. One thing scripture makes very plain is that men and women are not the same. They are the same when it comes to the conditions for being saved. In other words, the first steps of the Plan of Salvation, corresponding to Pesach, Chag haMatzah and Yom haBikkurim, are identical for both genders. Both men and women must come to Yah'shua (Jesus) as little children, both men and women must individually strive to get sin out of their lives through daily repentance, and both men and women must be born-again and baptised on their own initiative. But once the two genders come up to Shavu'ot, their spiritual and temporal rôles diverge, because Shavu'ot is the Betrothal Covenant.

Once betrothed to Messiah spiritually, she is given to her husband by Messiah to be owned, loved, covered and protected. She becomes his completely. She belongs to her head just as her head belongs to his Head, and in thus belonging to her head, also belongs to his Head. She is as a branch taken from the main vine which is Messiah, and is then grafted directly into her husband (like Eve's rib being surgically reunited to Adam), as he is grafted into Messiah, and has as her calling to bear fruit to the glory of both her heads. Thereafter they are regarded as a single, growing unit whose ultimate goal is complete echad or oneness as represented by Sukkot.

Just as "he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward" (Matt.10:41, NKJV), so a wife grafted into her husband by Messiah at Shavu'ot receives everything that her husband receives from Messiah; and all that she produces for her husband, being that "woman is the glory of man" (1 Cor.11:7b, NKJV), reflects ultimately back to Messiah whom they serve as the wife serves the husband, the man being "the image and glory of Elohim (God)" (1 Cor.11:7a, NKJV). All glory passes to Messiah in this divine order.

This is the divine tavnith or pattern for the two genders. Few find it and most who do, reject it because it is contrary to the way the world does things. Those who reject it never come up to Shavu'ot properly and never reach Sukkot. Most of Christianity falls down at Shavu'ot and refuses to enter into the betrothal covenants with Yah'shua (Jesus) that require them to walk in this tavnith. For a soul programmed in the world's way of thinking and behaving, this requires an enormous change. But for those who love Yahweh and His Word, they will make this change and reap the blessings thereof, which is the fullness of the Kingdom and the glory of the first resurrection.

Selah!