WOMAN AS REFLECTOR!!!!

Genesis chapter 2




Today we are walking in: Woman As Reflector!!!!




Psalm 119:127

Therefore I love H157 thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.






LOVE




Today we look to the word LOVE --H157 - 'ahab --a primitive root; to have affection for:—be loved, lovely, like, friend.






The Torah testifies.........……




Exodus 20:6

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love H157 me, and keep my commandments.




Deuteronomy 6:5

And thou shalt love H157 the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.









The prophets proclaim..................




Joshua 23:11

Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love H157 the Lord your God.





Micah 6:8

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love H157 mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?











The writings bear witness............




Proverbs 17: 9

He that covereth a transgression seeketh love H157; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

THE WOMAN AS REFLECTOR




In this teaching we will discuss a second aspect of the woman’s dominion role: her role as reflector. Man, the spirit, was created out of the essence of Yah and in the image of Yah in order to receive Yah’s love and to reflect His nature. The female was created in the same pattern. She was made out of the essence of the male and in the physical image of the male in order to receive the male’s love and reflect and to reflect his nature. The parallels between the creation of the spirit-man and the creation of the female, as we learned earlier, are striking. They have significance for our personal relationships with The Most High and also our representation of the love of Hamachiach to the world. We will first look at the woman’s purpose as reflector and what this means for the male-female relationship. Then we will look at the spiritual implications of the community’s role in reflecting Yah’s nature to the world as the bride of Hamachiach.




The Woman Is The Object of the Man’s Love




The Woman Is Designed To Receive Love




The single most important reason that the female was created was so that she could receive love. Therefore, the first purpose of the female as reflector is that she was made to be the object of the male’s love and to reflect the love that he gives her.




When Yah made woman, He drew her out of man so that the man would have someone to love who was of his own nature. It was love that brought about the woman’s existence. In this way, the man was created to be a giver of love and the woman to be a receiver of love. In the last teaching, we saw how the woman’s receiving nature makes her adaptable to the man and to her environment. Yet the primary purpose of the female’s receiving nature is to receive love.




What this means is that Yah has designed the woman to function on love. Love is the fuel of a female. When you don’t give a car fuel, it can’t run. The same thing happens with a woman. If you don’t give her the love she is meant to receive, she also can’t fully function in the way she was created to. In order to be fulfilled, the woman needs love.




In Ephesians 5, Paul said, “Husbands, love your wives” (v.25). He expressed this thought three times: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Hamachiach loved the church and gave himself up for her” (v.25). “Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (v.28). “Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself” (v.33).




The man should love the woman because she was drawn from him and is a part of him. If he doesn’t love her, it’s the equivalent of the man hating himself (v.29). He treats himself well when he treats his wife well. The man’s role, then, is to love his wife as himself, with all the attributes of love that are found in 1 Corinthians 13:




Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)




When you give the female-man love, she comes alive. Yet when she receives anything less than genuine love, it is as if she short-circuits. When you don’t love a woman, you are abusing her very nature.




It is interesting to note that nowhere in the Bible does Yah tell the woman to love the man. The woman is instructed to submit to the man, to respect and to honor him. Yet Yah commands the man over and over again to love the woman. Why? It is because the Fall damaged the male’s Yah-given natural love for the female, so that he wants to rule over her rather than to love her as himself. This is why, as the male is being restored to Yah’s original design through redemption in Hamachiach, he needs to be instructed to love the woman. For the same reason, the female’s Yah-given natural honor for the male was damaged, and that is why she needs to be instructed to honor him. Thus, when Yah’s purposes are restored, peace is re establishes between males and females; however, when the fallen nature is allowed free reign, there is discord.




The female was made primarily to be loved by the male.




So the female was made primarily to be loved by the male. When Paul said, “Husband, above all else, love your wife. Don’t worry about other things before that, because you can take care of those things in due course. If you love her, you will take care of many other problems and potential problems in your marriage. When you give her the love she needs, she will function properly, because she was born to be loved.”




A woman will reflect the love or lack of love that she receives. When she is loved, she is better able to live a life of joy and peace, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. When she is unloved, it is as if there is a weight on her heart. Any man who violates a woman’s need for love is misusing and abusing Yah’s purpose for the woman. “Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them” (Colossians 3:19)




The Woman Needs To Have Love Expressed Through Affection




Women need to have love continually expressed to them through affectionate words and gestures. We will look at this topic again in a later teaching on a woman’s emotional needs. Men are basically logical and unemotional in their outlook on life, and the have a tendency to treat women in the same manner. Yet because of the way women are designed, they interpret a man’s logical approach as coldness. Men need to learn how to love their wives in such a way that they can understand and receive their love. That is the key. Women have to be able to receive it. It isn’t enough for a man to think that he is giving a woman love; he needs to learn the ways in which she receives love. He needs to learn how women in general recognize love, and he needs to learn how his wife in particular recognizes love.




For example, a man stands before the minister and the congregation of witnesses on his wedding day, and tells his wife, “I love you. I will cherish you for the rest of my life, until death do us part.” Two months pass and his wife asks, “Do you still love me?” He replies, a little surprised, “I told you that two months ago.” Two years pass and she asks, “Do you still love me?” He will be puzzled and say, “I told you that two years ago.” Ten years pass. She says, “You haven’t told me you love me in the last ten years.” He replies, “Honey, I told you that ten years ago, and it still applies! I’ll let you know if I ever change my mind.” That’s not affection, that’s ignorance! A woman functions on love, she needs to hear it expressed often. Many women say that receiving gestures of kindness and affection on a regular basis from their husbands, such as physical affection, notes, and flowers, is what communicates love to them. It is not the expense of the gifts as muuch as the true thoughtfulness behind them and the consistency of receiving them that makes the difference.




Many men believe that they are expressing proper love to their wives by providing them with the essentials in life, such as shelter, food, and clothing, or by giving them expensive items, such as major appliances, cars, and even mink coats. Certainly, many men give these things out of a motivation of love; however, giving such material items is not the essence of love. Love does not say, “I bought you this house. What more do you want?”




What then is the nature of the love a man should show a woman?




A Woman Is To Be Loved as Hamachiach Loved The Church




“Husbands, love your wives, just as Hamachiach also loved the church and he gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify her” (Ephesians 5:25-26 NKJV.) If a man is going to love his wife, he has to keep company with Hamachiach. He has to find out how Hamachiach loved His church. It will take a life time to study that manual on love! He “gave Himself for her.” Then He sanctified her.




To sanctify something means to take it away from all else, set it apart in a special place, care for it every day, and value it as a priceless gem. To sanctify something means that you do not allow anything near it that would hurt or destroy it. It is set apart for special use. This means that you don’t pass it around. It is not available to entertain other people. “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with honor” (1 Peter 3:7). When a man really loves his wife, he considers her the crème de la crème. When she receives such love, she will reflect it in her countenance, the way she looks at life, and her interactions with others.




A man can help build a woman’s self-esteem.




These principles of a woman’s need to receive love have mainly been expressed in the setting of marriage relationship. However, they can be more broadly applied. Just as we talked about how women can be a spiritual help and encouragement not only to their husbands but also to other men they encounter in their lives, men can do the same for women. They can help build a woman’s self-esteem by valuing her and treating her with kindness and Hamachiach love. Women need the affirmation of men, just as men need the honor of women. This is particularly important for men to understand, since they are often in positions in authority over women-in the community, in the workplace, and in other realms of life- and they influence their perspectives and attitudes.




We can return to 1 Corinthians 13 as the man’s guide to honoring and affirming women in any interaction or relationship he has with them. Men need to remember that females who are under their authority or supervision need to be treated with consideration so that the nature that Yah has given them will not be quenched. Women often reflect the manner in which they are treated by men; if men reflect the love and nature of Hamachiach in their dealings with women, the women also can reflect the love and nature of Hamachiach.




The Woman Represents the Nature Of The Male




The second purpose of the female as reflector is to represent the nature of the male. She is to reflect the essence of all that Yah created the man to be in His image.




First Corinthians 11:7 says that the woman is the glory of the man. “A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of Yah; but the woman is the glory of man.”




When we think of glory, we often think of a cloud filled with light. Yet glory in the sense that we are talking about here has to do with the nature of something. Remember our discussion in an earlier teaching about how the sun, moon, and stars have their own kind of splendor or glory? In its larger meaning, the word glory can be ascribed to every single thing. The glory of something is its best expression of itself. One of the definitions of glory is “a distinguished quality or asset.” You can see a flower in its true glory when it is in full bloom. You can see the sun in its true glory at twelve noon. After that, it’s light begins to fade. The glory of a thing is when it is at its full, true self. Therefore, glory refers to the manifestation, or the exposure, of the true nature of something.




“For Yah, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of Yah in the face of Yahusha Hamachiach” (2 Corinthians 4:6). “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of Yah” (1 Corinthians 10:31). When the bible says that humanity is meant to show the glory of Yah, it does not mean just lifting one’s hands and saying, “HalleluYah!” That is praise, but it is not glory in the sense in which we are speaking. Reflecting the glory of Yah means reflecting His true nature. Yah’s glory is often best manifested when we respond in a Hamachiach way in a difficult situation. For example, when somebody rubs you the wrong way at your job, Yah is saying to you, “Let the glory come out now. Let people see what Yah is like under pressure.”




Therefore, the glory of something is the manifestation of its true and best nature.




The female and the male each have a different kind of glory. The male is to reflect the “image and glory of Yah” (! Corinthians 11:7), while “the woman is the glory of man” (v.7). The Word of Yah is stating a profound truth. Essentially, it means that if you want to know what a man is like, don’t look at the man, look at the woman who is reflecting him. This means that, if you don’t like the way women are, the responsibility for it falls on the men. The women are reflecting the men. Of course, each individual is responsible before Yah for his or her own actions. For example, a woman may reflect her own selfishness rather than her husband’s kindness. Solomon said, “A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones” (Proverbs 12:4). This verse shows the powerful influence a woman can have in a man’s life. Yet men have a great responsibility to truly reflect the image and glory of Yah so that this can be reflected to the women in their lives, and so that the women can reflect Yah’s glory in turn.

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You can tell what the men in our society are like by observing women.




I have noticed that when a man gets married, he often reveals what kind of man he is by what his wife is like. If you are a woman who has an interest in a man and want to know what he is really like, don’t ask his father or his brothers; talk to his sisters and his mother. Usually, when a man’s mother has a good report about him, he’s okay. The Bible says it is unnatural for a mother to forget the baby she has nursed (Isaiah 49:15).




You can tell what the men in our society are like by observing the women. Look at our homes; who is running them? The women are often heading them by themselves. What does that tell you about the man? He is not being spiritually responsible, because he is not fulfilling his purpose and position as head of the household. Look at our children; what is their hope for the future? Many of them are directionless. What do they tell you about the man? He is not providing them with vision. Look at the women; more of them are employed than are the men. What does this tell you about the man? He is not fulfilling his purpose. The female- and often the children, as well show you what the male is like.




If a man’s wife is always depressed, angry, sad, or grouchy, it often means that she is reflecting the treatment she is receiving from her husband. A woman should be able to grow in grace and become a better person as a result of being with her husband.




The Bride of Hamachiach




When we look at the spiritual aspects of these principles, we see that Yahusha also has a bride who is meant to reflect His nature. In the original Greek, her name is ekklesia. The English translation of this word is “church.” Yahusha sent the church into the world to be a reflection of Himself. He said to His bride, “The world will know who I am and that I was sent by the Abba by the way in which you act, by your unity with one another. The world isn’t going to come to Me to find out what I’m like; the world is going to come to the bride. If you don’t love one another, they’ll never know what I’m like.” (See John 13:34-35; 17:21-23.)




Do you know why the people of the world aren’t coming to Yahusha as much as they should? It is because the church as a whole is often a terrible witness, and it is because individual marriages aren’t reflecting Yah’s glory. We are not living in the love and unity that Hamachiach said would reveal His nature to the world. Therefore, while the church is to reflect Hamachiach as His bride, it often does not do so. The Bible tells us that this is unnatural. Yahusha is the perfect husband and deserves to have His true nature reflected in His bride. The glory of The Most High is meant to be in the church.




Reflecting Yah to the World




And, we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Most High’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from The Most High, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)




A marriage is a church within the church.




It has often been said that a marriage is a church within the church. If the world isn’t seeing the nature of Hamachiach through the church in the way that it should, perhaps we should begin to correct this problem by first looking at our homes, at the relationships between husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters. We should then look at the nature of our friendships and the relationships between men and women in the community.




The woman’s role as reflector of the man’s love and nature can powerfullly reveal Yah’s remarkable love for humanity. She can show her family, her community, and the world what it means to be loved by Yah and to bear the image of the Creator. She can be a witness to the world of Yah’s compassion and sacrifice for man, and of the joy and healing we can receive through His love.




However, the male has a great responsibility in this calling, for if he does not give love that the female can receive and reflect; if he does not reflect the nature of Yah, then the witness of the family and of the community is greatly weakened.




With the redemption of Hamachiach, the dominion mandate of man expanded to include a mandate for redeemed man, the church, to cultivate the world’s people for Yah. Yahusha said to His disciples of those in the world who are lost, “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). If men and women realize the powerful impact of their relationships on the salvation of the world, they will prayerfully and seriously consider how the dominion mandate can be fulfilled as they give and reflect Yah’s love and nature in their day-to-day relationships.




Principles


The single most important reason that the female was created was so that she could receive love.


The first purpose of the female as reflector is that she was made to be the object of the male’s love and to reflect the love that he gives her.


Yah has designed the woman to function on love.


The Bible tells the man to love the woman, but it does not tell the woman to love the man. It instructs her to submit to and to honor him.


A woman will reflect the love or lack of love she receives from a man.


Women need to have love continually expressed to them through affectionate words and gestures.


Many men believe that they are expressing proper love to their wives by providing them with the essentials in life or by giving them expensive gifts. This does not express true love.


If a man is going to love his wife, he has to keep company with Hamachiach. He has to find out how Hamachiach loved his church.


A man is to “sanctify” his wife: set her apart in his heart and life and value her as a precious gem.


Men are often in positions of authority over women, and they influence their perspectives and attitudes. They should treat the woman with kindness and love so they won’t quench her Yah-given nature.


The second purpose of the female as reflector is to represent the nature of the male. She is to reflect the essence of all that Yah created the man to be in His image.


Glory refers to the manifestation, or the exposure, of the true nature of something.


The male reflects the image and glory of Yah, while the female reflects the glory of the man.


If you want to know what a man is like, don’t look at the man, look at the woman who is reflecting him.


Yahusha sent the church into the world to be a reflection of Himself.


The woman’s role as reflector of the man’s love and nature can powerfully reveal Yah’s remarkable love for humanity to the world.