In the Bible God’s people are likened to a female. In the Old Testament God told His people that He was their husband and that they were His spouse. Even King David, a mighty warrior, was part of this corporate wife. David was not the husband of the children of Israel; God was.
Whenever the Israelites rebelled against God, they assumed the position of the husband, and it was as if they divorced themselves from God. By separating themselves from the Lord in this way, they were acting independently of Him. But God was merciful and called them back to Himself as the true husband.
In the New Testament the believers in Christ are considered virgins. In Matthew 25:1 the Lord Jesus likens His disciples to virgins. Furthermore, in 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul says, “For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one Husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ.” As believers, our position and our life should be that of a virgin. Christ is the unique husband, and in His eyes we all are virgins.
Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Here we see that Christ loves the church as His counterpart, His wife. Therefore, the church should never be independent; she should never be a “male,” but always be a “female.” This is why we use the feminine pronoun when speaking of the church. The church must always live a life of dependence upon Christ.
Revelation 19:7 says, “Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready.” This refers to Christ’s marrying the New Jerusalem as His bride in the millennium. When Christ comes back, He will marry not a “male,” but a female, a bride.
For eternity the New Jerusalem will be the wife of God (Rev. 21:2-3, 9). This indicates that for eternity in the new heaven and new earth we shall be living a dependent life.
We all need to live such a dependent life in the local churches today. None of us should behave as “males.” The problems among Christians and in the churches are due to brothers or sisters living an independent “male” life. Whenever there are brothers or sisters in a local church living like “males,” there will be trouble. How we must learn not to live independently of God! If we learn this lesson, we shall realize that we must not do certain things; this is not because these things are wrong, but because in doing them we would be independent of God. If we all have a healthy fear of independence, there will be no problems in the church life. Furthermore, there will be no problems among married couples. All problems in the church life, in married life, and among the saints come from one source, and that source is independence. We need to be like the midwives in Exodus; we need to pray, “Lord, I don’t want to be a strong ‘man,’ full of opinions and always insisting on my way. Lord, I want to be like the midwives in Exodus 1 and like the females in Exodus 2.”
As we shall see, when Moses confronted Pharaoh, Moses was not a “male.” In his dealings with Pharaoh, he was a “female” depending on God. Moses made no decisions nor did he make any proposals. Everything he did was initiated by God. Moses honored God as the unique initiator.
God’s initiating work is seen very clearly in the building of the tabernacle. Moses did not wake up one morning with an idea to build a tabernacle for God. On the contrary, he was called by God to ascend the mountain where God revealed to him what was on His heart and then charged him to build the tabernacle according to the pattern shown him on the mountain (25:40). God gave Moses no room to make independent decisions. Moses had to depend on God for every detail. This is the life God can use for His purpose.
In these days we have been speaking much about the perfecting of the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ. If we would be used to perfect others, we ourselves must have a dependent life. The only life the Lord desires to see perfected is the dependent life. If we live and work independently of God, the result of our work will be that other lives will be perfected to be independent. Only a dependent life can produce a dependent life. Only a life that depends on God for all things can perfect others to be “females.” Suppose a certain person is very strong in himself, confident of his abilities, proposals, and decisions. Such a one can produce only independent lives, capable persons who are independent of God. The result of such work will not be the New Jerusalem—it will be Babylon the Great, a city independent of God and rebellious against Him. The church, however, is a female. As a female, she does not have the headship, nor does she have an independent life. Her head is Christ, and her life is a dependent life. This should be the situation in the church today. If we would perfect others in a proper way and build up the church, we need such a “female” life.
The reason the church throughout the years has been torn down instead of built up is that the so-called builders have been too independent. They have been males instead of females. Nevertheless, we thank the Lord that there have been a small number who were willing to live a “female” life in dependence on the Lord.
The crucial point is that it is not a matter of how much we can do, but of how much we depend upon the Lord. We have pointed out that in John 15:5 the Lord Jesus says that apart from Him we can do nothing. Although we are familiar with this word, in our daily living we frequently forget it or set it aside. The Apostle Paul, however, was one who practiced it. In 1 Corinthians 2:3 he said, “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” Paul was fearful that he might do something in himself independently of the Lord. How we need such a fear today! May the Lord be merciful to us and grant us this proper kind of fear. If we have it, we shall be afraid to say or do anything in ourselves, anything that is independent of God.
Anything we do independently of the Lord is rebellion. Even our preaching of the gospel or our helping of the saints may be a form of rebellion. We may do many things to help the churches; yet all that we do may be rebellion because it is done independently of the Lord.
I am thankful for the light the Lord has shown us concerning the female life in the book of Exodus. The only life useful to Him is the female life. We all must learn that God never uses the male life. The females in chapter one were used to preserve the children of Israel, and the females in chapter two were used to prepare the vessel the Lord had raised up. Eventually, even Moses himself was trained to be a “female”; he became like the midwives in chapter one and like the different females in chapter two. Because he was a “female” for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, he could be used by God. But even Moses, when he was provoked by the children of Israel in the wilderness, once acted like a male and in so doing lost God’s blessing. In the Lord’s economy and in His move today in His recovery, we all must be watchful with fear and trembling not to act independently of God. May we all see that God can use us only if we are “females” depending on Him at all times and for all things. It is crucial that we learn of the Lord that only the “female” life is useful to Him.