THE WIFE
F. R. Turner
Genesis 24: 23, 24, 60, 67; Acts 18: 2; Revelation 19: 7
I am impressed, beloved, as to the thought of the wife. Scripture mentions it many times. It is a position of great trust, a position that our sister has now entered. I read these passages in Genesis 24 because before Rebecca entered into that position she had been in another very blessed relationship. She had been a daughter and had filled out that relationship with God; she had adorned it, and that qualifies her for the relationship that she enters into at the end of the chapter.
I would like to appeal to the young people to be in every relationship with the Lord. Be in submission to your parents; that is very pleasing to heaven. Most young people will have before them the joy of entering the relationship that our brother and sister have now entered, with the Lord. To qualify rightly for this you will need to learn
to be in other relationships with the Lord. You are in a position of subjection in your household. I would encourage you all to be in that with the Lord. He has undoubtedly helped our sister in this way; she has fulfilled the position in which she has been as a daughter. She is now leaving that household, although remaining a daughter. She has also been in the position of a sister. The family relationships are very precious.
The households of the saints are a sphere of salvation, and to be in it with the Lord Jesus is a very blessed matter. Our sister, through the grace of God, has filled out these positions responsibly in the household in which she has been and she has now entered into a greater relationship, that of a wife. It is greatly disregarded in the world around us, but it is greatly cherished in heaven; it speaks, too, of the assembly here and everyone who forms part of it is in a position of trust. How blessed to be in that position, beloved, standing for Christ whilst He is absent on high. How beautifully it says in The Proverbs 31, “the heart of her husband confideth in her”. Think of the position we are all in as forming part of that vessel. We are in a position of trust. I hope we may be encouraged to be fully committed to the Lord, the One who has redeemed us and would have us as His own possession.
In the scripture I have read in the Acts we have a beloved sister who is spoken of as wife,
“Aquila … and Priscilla his wife”. No doubt she was a spiritual person, as was Aquila; there was much of the work of God in each of them, and God greatly uses her in her position. Later they took Apollos to them and unfolded to him the way of God more exactly (Acts 18: 26).
They were used sovereignly of God in the formation of that vessel who was to be of such use in the testimony. They
were working together, she, as wife, in a position largely hidden, but a position of very great trust. So our sister has entered into that position and she will fill it out in that divinely given sphere of the home, the real place of the wife, the place where she can count on the blessing of God. It is the place that God has given and is divinely fitted for the wife as supporting her husband.
Now I refer lastly to that wonderful scripture, “His wife has made herself ready”. Oh to be ready, beloved, each individually, for that wonderful moment when we shall be translated into heaven, when Christ will have His cherished bride. Now she is His wife, in the position of trust, to be His confidant, to be trustworthy in the scene where He is rejected, the scene of His reproach and shame. We are reminded of it as we come to the Supper, and I hope all will be there. I hope you will be there to remember Him in the scene of His betrayal. “His wife”; what could be more blessed than to be in His confidence and His trust? However small our circumstances may be we are to be trustworthy, both individually and in our meetings too.
God grant that it may be so, for His name’s sake.