“ON ACCOUNT OF THE ANGELS”

It is important to see the place that angels have in relation to believers, and we are to be affected by the fact that they are taking great interest in all that God is working out among His people today. In the epistle to the Colossians we are warned against the worship of angels: that is to say, they are not to acquire any undue place in our minds. But one of the things that we have come to in Christianity, according to Hebrews 12: 22, is “myriads of angels, the universal gathering”; and that same epistle, in chapter 1, tells us that they are all “sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation”—a remarkable thing for us to take account of. Because they are unseen, we have perhaps but little conception of what is going on among the angels in relation to the saints.

Hence we are to be impressed with the fact that there is a great deal of activity and in the unseen world among the angels. We are told in Peter’s first epistle that the prophets of old searched diligently in regard of the things of which they prophesied, and that the angels desired to look into those things. They are sympathetic with God, and interested in all that He is doing, so that when He laid the foundations of the earth “ the sons of God shouted for joy”, Job 38: 7. Again, we are told in the epistle to the Ephesians that the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies are even now learning “through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God”.

There is increasing disorder in the world, and we need to be preserved in the presence of it; and 1 Corinthians shows that God has appointed certain order in relation to man as such, and woman as such, in relation to Christ, and then finally in relation to Himself. We know well that every kind of disorder exists in the world, and that man does not exert the influence for good that he should; that he is very far from being practically the image and glory of God, and that woman does not maintain the place that God intended she should fill. These are among the things which angels see; they take notice of the recovery of these divine thoughts in the assembly, and, indeed, the value of it becomes all the greater because it is maintained in the presence of strong currents opposed to it in the world.

Alas! a large number of men pay no attention to the fact that God has established Christ as Head for man, and therefore they get no benefit from His headship, but certainly everyone who comes into touch with Christ and is affected by Him, gets the gain of His headship. It is only in the assembly that the thing is answered to today, and so every man should be concerned to recognise that God has given him Christ as his Head. This does not refer to Christ as Head of the assembly, but to the position that God has given to Him in relation to man as such, which every man should be concerned to take account of. God has not relinquished His thought that man is His image and glory. God has given him that place in creation, that is, he is to be representative of God, and the glory of God, and that should shine in his influence and in the wisdom that marks him. These things, as needed, can be obtained from Christ. The very disorder that exists on every hand is only an increased incentive for the saints to be concerned as to the recovery of the divine thought.

The Scripture says that “the Christ is the head of every man, but woman’s head is the man”. That is the divinely appointed place that God has given to the woman in relation to any man, not simply a wife in relation to her husband. That is to say, there is a certain subjection, a spirit of subordination to the man which properly marks every woman, and every woman should recognise that God has set man in the place of influence and wisdom, available to her. That the matter may be lost sight of, and sadly dishonoured in many is true, but at the same time this is what the apostle is bringing forward in the assembly. It is a remarkable thing, that we have in Christ a Man who always and absolutely held God as His head. He derived, if we may say so reverently, all His impulse as a Man from God, and He moved in such a way that God was represented and honoured in all His movements; and now the men at any rate in the assembly, are to hold Christ as their Head, and the women are to hold man as their head.

Now the apostle goes on to speak of what should mark a woman praying or prophesying, that she should be covered. These things flow out of the order in creation that God has ordained, that man is the head and is the image and glory of God, and that the woman is subject to man and is the glory of the man. The woman is to be covered whenever she prays or prophesies, not simply when we have come together in assembly; it applies whenever she prays or prophesies. The Scripture is absolutely plain. There can be no question about it. Some say that the hair is itself the covering, but it is quite clear from the Scripture that that is not the case: “But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered puts her own head to shame”, and then it says, “If a woman be not covered, let her hair also be cut off”.

Then as the apostle proceeds, he comes to the matter of authority. He says, “Therefore ought the woman to have authority on her head, on account of the angels”. There can be no doubt that what is in mind is that the woman should always (not simply when she is praying or prophesying privately or gathered with others in the assembly, but always) have something on her head that indicates that she recognises that God has placed her under authority. That is the idea; she is to have authority on her head because of the angels; they are looking on, and they see that there is disorder in the world, but there is order in God’s assembly. It is the assembly, not simply as convened, but as that company on the earth in which the will of God is maintained in the midst of lawlessness. God’s order is for both men and women. What a triumph for God, that over against the influence of current thoughts in the world, and in the very presence of those who ignore or despise those thoughts, women should be found maintaining the divine order: angels seeing authority recognised and bowed to by the women, and divine order established among them. This is part of the commandment of the Lord.

In Luke 15: 8-10 there is a suggestion of the Spirit’s activities to bring to light amongst the saints features of the work of God. The sheep in the first part of the chapter refers to each of us in our initial state as needing to be sought and saved by the Saviour; but the piece of silver, the drachma, would represent the substantial character of the work of God in the saints, and how it is to be brought into view as possessing its own value. The drachma is a coin that can be used by the one to whom it belongs, and a piece of silver refers to us as recognising the rights of God over us through redemption.

There is the idea of responsibility in the passage; there is one out of ten lost, indicating some failure to answer to what the Lord has the right to look for from us on the ground of redemption. And so it says the woman lights a lamp and sweeps the house and seeks carefully till she finds it. The piece of silver is brought to light and it says, “Having found it she calls together the friends and neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost”, and then the Lord adds this, “I say unto you, there is joy before the angels of God for one repenting sinner”. One woman adjusted and accepting the truth and doing what is right in the sight of God causes joy before the angels of God. They are looking on and rejoicing to see God’s thoughts finding more and more an answer among the saints. The more we think over this matter of the angels and their interest in what God is doing at the present time among the saints, the more we shall be concerned that the work of God and His will regarding us should be prospered, that there should be no hindrance put in the way, but that obedience to His word should mark us. We may not at the moment see the full import of it, but obedience is the first thing, and then confirmation and understanding as to these things will follow.

LONDON

From Words of Truth 1953

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