THE HOUSE AND THE HEAD
E.C.Muggleton
Isaiah 61: 10 ; 1 Peter 3: 1-6
This passage in Isaiah is a very attractive scripture and I trust the Spirit of God will use it to encourage us today. The prophet breaks forth in saying "I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall be joyful in my God". The first part of the verse sets out what God has done and we are to be rejoicing in His salvation. This is to be an occasion of joy and rejoicing. There is what God has done, and then what the bridegroom does and what the bride does. We read in Revelation that the bride is adorned and made suitable, the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (see chap 21: 2). The Spirit of God would impress us today that this kind of adornment is to be put on, for this is the time of preparation. And the bridegroom is to deck himself with the priestly turban; it points to headship and it is to be exercised in priestliness. The idea of the priestly turban is connected as we know from Exodus 28: 36, with the high priest; he had to wear it and the golden plate on which was inscribed, Holiness to Jehovah. So the feature of priestliness would enter into the thought of headship, for the sons of Aaron also had head-caps. One is thinking of the responsibility that our brother is taking on today; he will need to have the priestly turban on, that is to say he will have functions now in headship in his house. It is important that this should be exercised in priestliness if there are to be conditions suitable to the Lord in our households. The breakdown of headship is manifest to us all around, but it is to be maintained in the way in which the prophet draws attention to the bridegroom here, he "decketh himself with the priestly turban". I am thinking of every one of us who are heads of houses, because the breakdown has come in on this very line of headship. We can trace that in the book of Esther; it says that "the queen Vashti refused to come at the word of the king" (chap 1: 12) and it endangered the whole realm of Ahasuerus. Then the Spirit of God immediately records the word: "Every man should bear rule in his own house" (v 22). It indicates that the breakdown was in headship. We can see that when insubjection and failure come in, it has to be traced back to some failure in headship. Therefore I just refer to this passage as showing the importance of the priestly turban; headship is to be exercised in a right way for the salvation of our houses.
Then it says that the bride adorns herself with her jewels. She is thinking of her husband. This is the time when the Spirit would help us to put on these features of adornment. Peter refers to the kind of adornment which in the sight of God is of great price. The Spirit of God would exercise us as to what is of value in the sight of God, not the outward adornment but the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. The Spirit would work in that way with us as to what is inward so that there is this kind of adornment in the saints, not the outward but "the hidden man of the heart". We are to escape the corruption that is in the world and, on an occasion like this, the Spirit would exercise us that we all may escape corruption and be related to what is inward and incorruptible. God finds great pleasure in what is incorruptible. Peter says in that same epistle that we have been redeemed "not by corruptible things, as silver and gold..... but by precious blood..... the blood of Christ", chap.1: 18,19. We need to be reminded of that; and as Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians 6, ".... and ye are not your own? for ye have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body". So it is not to be the adornment that is outward but the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit; and I think the outstanding feature of adornment is subjection. Peter goes on to speak about how the wives are to be subject to their own husbands. Think of that feature of adornment in that the assembly is said to be subjected to the Christ; so we have the standard before us of Christ and the assembly. May we make room for the influence of the priestly turban, the intelligence that is to be regulated by priestliness. We have the perfection of it in Christ; but then, too, we have the answer in the assembly to every feature of adornment that in the sight of God is of great price. So Peter says that wives are to be subject to their own husbands, and of course the husband has to mould his wife as Mr Raven said, he is to mould his wife to himself. The Spirit comes into that and would encourage us in the working out of what is pleasing to God. We are in a wonderful time, and the features of adornment are being put on by the saints. Peter says as to husbands, "if any are disobedient to the word, they may be gained without the word by the conversation of the wives". So our sister and our wives today are to see about the conversation, or manner of life, that would add to this feature of adornment.
That is what I had laid on my heart, to remind us that we all need to fill out our part, those who are heads of houses to be like the bridegroom decked with the priestly turban. The function of headship is to be carried out in a priestly way for the preservation of the household; then the influence is to extend and be for the prosperity of the testimony. Then the word to the wives is to be subject to their own husbands, and to exhibit the incorruptible adornment which in the sight of God is of great price. May we be exercised, the Spirit helping us to take on these features, in order that there might be right conditions in the assembly. I think it is right to say that if we are not right in our households we shall not be right in the assembly. Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. She recognised the authority vested in the man: "woman's head is the man" as Paul reminds us in his epistle (1 Cor 11: 3). As we see around us in the world the terrible breakdown of what God instituted in the beginning, we are to be exercised to maintain what in the sight of God is of great price. May we be encouraged for His Name's sake.
OXTED
9 August 1975