In this sermon, the preacher begins by describing a characteristic situation where God's people are focused on worldly matters instead of the needs of the world. He warns that grievous famines are coming and urges the congregation to prepare. The preacher acknowledges that he may not have all the theological answers, but emphasizes the importance of seeking God's will. He concludes by asking for God's blessing and guidance for the congregation, especially during the upcoming Passover season.

I've had a long-standing love affair with the opposite sex and the greatest respect and reverence for what you are and I think one of the greatest compliments that has ever been paid me is by a woman who said to me once, Artie, she said, you have the nature of a woman. I wasn't offended, I was complimented. And I'll tell you that I had an unusual experience about 11 years ago when I was bumming around Europe with a pack on my back as the distraught Jewish intellectual looking for philosophical answers to a life that was coming unglued. I had a hankering for a kosher meal. I guess some of you understand what that means. And I was in Belgium at that time and I came to Brussels and I knew I would find a Jewish restaurant there and so I came late and exhausted. It was about nine o'clock and I remember walking up a flight of steps and the meal hour was evidently passed because when I pushed the door open everybody was at the table but playing cards. The tables had been cleared, there was smoke in the air and I stood for a moment transfixed at the doorstep looking into that room and for some reason that I can't explain my eye fell upon the pinky rings and the diamonds and the lipstick over the lip lines and the heavy mascara and the shrill laughter and shrieks and noise and I don't know, I just was stunned by that physical impression of a Jewish people who were not as Jewish as they ought to be. I hope you understand what I'm saying, that something was rubbed into my soul, that was before I came to the Lord, that he's not allowed me to forget because there was something macabre, something out of place because this was a people intended to be a holy people and a peculiar people, a nation of priests and a light unto the world and somehow for them to have come to a place of card playing and shrill laughter and catcalls and boisterous things was so jarring that my sensibilities were affected and sometimes I get the same impression when I see certain women or what seems to be happening among women, God intended them to be something very special also, something very holy, sacred, also a light unto the world and I get a little frightened sometimes and even physically arrested when I see something happening with the makeup going berserk or external things being applied that seem to be a deflection from the thing which God intended. So let's just pray that whatever God chooses to speak this morning, he's reminded me of this, maybe just to set the mood and the temper of what he's going to speak, that he'll counter the continuing pressure of the world to demean and to cheapen and to deprecate and to make low all things that God intended to be holy, especially your precious sex. We men desperately need what God intended for you to be. So let's just pray that he'll speak to us deep and original things and hold up to us an unsullied image to which we might aspire. Precious holy God, Lord, mighty God, already even before we pray we know that you are in possession of this hour. This is not a human arrangement, this is the living God who broods over his people and would speak things to us, Lord, needful for our hearing. So gracious God, I've already confessed I've not the wisdom and we look to you, great giver of grace to speak and to make known your precious will to us this day. I ask your blessing on every precious soul that has come, every man and especially every woman. Almighty God, give us a standard this day. We'll praise you and thank you in the wonderful name of Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Christ, amen. Well, they say that in the spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of something or other, but I'll tell you in the spring a growing middle-aged Jew's fancy turns to the thoughts of Passover. We are in the Passover season and tonight is the first Passover Seder and God told us in the 12th chapter of Exodus that this shall be to you the beginning of months, that these events commemorated in this week are so significant to God. There's such a beginning of great things that have to do with emancipation, with deliverance, with freedom, with fulfillment that the entire calendar has to be revised and this is the beginning of things. But I'll tell you what the beginning of beginnings is. It's got to do with your precious sex. God has used you as a beginning of beginnings. Do you know that on the traditional Shabbos, on the Shabbat, the Sabbath, the Jewish Sabbath, it's the woman that prepares the home and the Sabbath is looked upon as a queen entering a Jewish home. It's the woman who makes every preparation and puts out the best of the tablecloth and dishes and the finery and prepares the festive atmosphere to into which the Shabbat is to be celebrated. And I don't want to get lost on some tangent this morning, but I'll tell you there's a little hankering in my Jewish heart for the Shabbat that has been lost to us believers. Oh, I know Jesus is our Sabbath, true, and therefore every day is our Sabbath, but in that every day has become our Sabbath, which day is it? Which day are we holding sacred and where do we prepare as Jewish wives prepare that this day should be distinguished from every other day, a day that sanctifies the entire week. We need to be reminded of the roots of our Hebraic faith. It's the woman who comes to that time on the Friday night as the sun sets, and I've seen my mother do it many times, and strikes the match and lights the candles and makes the bracha over the candles and does this kind of a gesture, which you may have seen on Fiddler on the Roof. I suppose if I would ask my mother, what does this mean and where did you get it, she wouldn't even know how to explain to me. She saw her mother do it, and her mother, her mother, and I guess it goes back all through the generations. But I don't know, there's something suggestive about this gesture of the hands over the candles, bringing in the light of the Sabbath and sort of pushing away in the same gesture the spirit of the world, that's ugly intrusion and making something holy, sanctifying. And then she would cup her face in her hands and recite the prayer in Hebrew over the festive Shabbat lights. Isn't it interesting that God used a Jewish woman to bring the light into the world? A Jewish maiden, Mary, of whom I'm going to speak a little bit this morning, and I know it's not customary for us Protestants, is that what I am? Oh, I tell you, my heart cries out, that all the world might know the Shema Yisrael, hero Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord. That the whole phony hokey baloney of three great fates, which never had a modicum of faith to begin with, and have been nothing more than ceremonial religion, could be put aside and all people, Jew and Gentile, black and white, and if my precious wife knew that Sister Huntley had been seeking this morning, I could not have kept her away. A Danish restaurant and Sister Huntley? And this, by the way, today is Inga's birthday. Keep her in your heart, will you, because it's, I think it's rather symbolic that a husband must be away on her birthday speaking to other women. Inga would say it's the story of my life. But we Protestants, quote-unquote, speak little about Mary. She seems to be a Catholic property, but she's utterly Jewish, and there's some things about her that I want you to consider. But going back to first things, how God has used women in the inception of so many things, to bring the Shabbos light into the home, to bring the light of God into the world. In the very first chapter of Exodus, in that whole book that commemorates the coming out of bondage, there's a tremendous reference to women, to which God calls my attention this morning. You remember when the Pharaoh was frightened about the way Jews were multiplying themselves in his land? And I guess there's something about us Jewish people that have always intimidated Egyptians and made them fearful and apprehensive. And he wanted to cut down, if not altogether, eliminate the Jewish sons. And so in the 15th versary, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shephra, and the name of the other was Puah. And he said, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and you see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then you shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then you shall, then she shall live. Isn't it interesting that God has allowed the names of these two midwives to be commemorated throughout all posterity? Never another mention of them. And I don't know too much about this, but I would suppose that a midwife is not the most celebrated vocation for a woman. I suppose that it would be the vocation of a woman who was not herself a mother, a spinster, and to make herself useful would aid other women in becoming mothers. And I suppose it's a kind of a lowly calling and one that would be associated with a certain kind of reproach. And yet God has seen fit to honor at least the names of two of these women, midwives, because of this purpose, because it says that the midwives feared God and did not, as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty, and it came to pass because the midwives feared God that he made them houses. There's just a little tremor in my heart. I just love the word of God because it's so terse, because God is not like us, schmaltzy, and overdoes things, and, you know, we don't know when to stop. He made them houses, and there's a beautiful reference in the Psalms, in the 113th Psalm, it says, he raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill. I don't think it was any accident this morning that this precious sister was called upon to sing, and that what she sang about was the grace of God that's given to those that are humble, and I'll tell you that it's this quality of humility, of the quiet and meek spirit, which in God's sight is of great price, that he most associates with your sex. He raises up the poor out of the dust, midwives upon whom attained a reproach of not being able to bear children themselves had fallen, and lifts the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of the people. He maketh the barren women to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children, praise ye the Lord. Oh, I tell you, the stigma of being a barren woman is so painful and so excruciating, who can describe it? In an age like ours, where unborn children are being dumped into ash cans, and the great horror of universal murder is applauded as humane, there was a time only some centuries ago, where the privilege of giving birth was so honored, that not to be able to have a child was such a reproach to a woman, as we know from the scriptures, of the mother of the prophet Samuel, who suffered continual reproach, because she was unable to bear a child. And isn't it interesting that the two great first mothers of the Jewish people, Sarah was a barren woman, and it was only late in life, when it was impossible for her to conceive, that God allowed that one to come forth out of a womb, through whose seed was to come the Messiah of Israel and all the world. And then in the very next generation, Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, was also barren, and you begin to suspect, say, is God trying to tell us something? Yes, he is. That for all effects and purposes, when we survey the world and the hour to which God has called our lives, however much we're endowed with bright and comely qualities, however clever and gifted, and by the way, I think that you're enormously far more gifted and clever than we men, yet when we see the tasks that are set before us, we have to cry out to God and acknowledge that we are barren. And there's a certain barrenness that God wants us to recognize, that there's nothing more unbecoming to a woman, however much endowed she is in the natural, than to strive and spin her wheels and attempt to perform it, to produce out of her own strength and out of her own resources. But out of her barrenness, when she entreats God, something comes forth that is a blessing to all mankind. He maketh the barren women to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. It came to pass because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses. And there may be some precious women in this audience this morning. I don't know what's your circumstance, but you're barren for one reason or another. Or you may have all kinds of children in the natural, but in terms of a life that's significant and meaningful and productive and that affects time and eternity in the kingdom of God, you feel yourself barren and unfruitful. The key is fearing God and not catering to the pharaonic spirit that's in the world, that is the spirit of Egypt. Something happened because women feared God. God multiplied the children of Israel till they became a great people. And even in the rabbinical commentaries, it says that Pharaoh's plans for the annihilation of Israel was defeated by women, midwives who feared God. And it was the merit of pious women that Israel, it was to the merit of pious women that Israel owed its redemption from Egypt. And I'll tell you that the story continues because we know that one who was God's instrument of salvation, Moses, was spared because of women. And there was a man of the house of Levi, and he took to wife a daughter of Levi. It is interesting after that first verse about the man, we hear nothing more about him. After that, it's everything to do with women. And the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. Oh, I praise God for such women as this. I praise God for Lydia, whose heart was open, who attended to the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, no ifs, ands, but whys or hows, immediate obedience to the word of God, allowing the stigma of public baptism to fall upon her. And she constrained Paul and Silas to come into her house and abide with her. Why these dangerous Jewish radicals were going to leave in a couple of days, but the stigma of having received them under her roof would remain with her. Oh, I tell you, I have great, great respect for such women as these. And when she could no longer hide him, she took him for an ark of bullrushes and daubed it with slime and with pitch. Even as I'm reading this, the Lord is just prodding me to insert little things between the lines. How many times you precious, dainty things have had to stick your hands, symbolically speaking, into slime and into pitch. And your very soul is horrified. And here we brute things who are so gross and insensitive, who think nothing of wallowing in such matters, and yet it's not called for from us to have to stoop to such things as that in order to save God's promised instrument of redemption. You are required oftentimes in obedience to God to stick your hands into the pitch and into the slime. And everything about you that's feminine recoils from such a necessity. But God speaks of these women as the holy women of old. Praise God that in the same breath in the Psalms where he talks about building houses for barren women that they might rejoice for their children, he speaks also of dunghills. I love a God like that. He's a precious, nitty gritty Jewish God. And I remember when I lived in Israel, I got pricked in my heart that I was not paying the respect to this God that I ought. And I was going to go out before the sun rose. And I was going to go up on the hills in this town of Carmel. And I was going to seek the face of my God before that day began. And I went out there with this brave resolution of really finding him in prayer. And I went up where the shepherds tend their flocks in this broken wilderness of rocks and places where the burrs and the sticky things prick into your legs. And I sat on a stone and it was uncomfortable. And I began to try to seek the Lord. I tell you, I had a wonderful romantic vision before I left the house. See, this is why this woman told me that I had a woman's nature. I've always been given to lofty and romantic imaginings. Like when I first went to Italy as a merchant seaman at the age of 16, high school dropped out with this great gargantuan appetite for life. I was persuaded I was going to find some young woman tending flock on these green pastured hills and pieces of broken Roman statuary and ruins and romance would ensue and the mystery of my soul would be unlocked and we would overcome the problem of language and culture. Well, I found that girl, but she wasn't tending flock. She was taking on the entire ship's crew as a hardened prostitute out of a fine middle class home while her mother did the bookkeeping I'll tell you, that was a shock and more real education than ever I had received in the public schools. And if I had all at the time precious children, I could multiply in the course of the years before I came to our God the succession of visions and romantic aspirations and the disillusionment and the defeat that every one of us have experienced because we set our hearts and eyes on things that cannot satisfy. How did I get to that? I don't know. Oh yeah, so there I was with that romantic thing about praying and I thought well this is what Jesus must have did as a shepherd tending the flocks and I was in a place where these shepherds were and I'll tell you they were the sheep droppings and the sun by this time was beginning to come out and was getting hot and the flies were beginning to buzz and I was trying to brush them from my nose and something was biting me I was wearing short pants and how they sneak up there it's amazing I'll tell you that I came home after that time of prayer covered with welts and blotches from bites of insects and the stink of sheep droppings and it wasn't very spiritual but I'll tell you that before God calls a David to lead the sheep he must first follow after and I understand so well the necessity for sticking our hands into pitch and into slime before the instrument is provided by which the salvation of God's people is to come and there's not a way to come to this and to fulfill your destiny as women except you come to a very necessary cross and so she took for an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with slime with pitch and put the child in it and she laid him in the flags by the river's bank and his sister stood far off to see what would be done to him and the daughter of pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river and her maidens walked along by the riverside where she saw the ark among the flags and she sent her maid to fetch it women women women and at every hand a mother preparing something for the salvation of her child the baby floating in the river and a woman a princess coming down to the river to bathe something suggestive of the purity of women and sending her maid to fetch this peculiar thing and when she had opened it she saw the child and behold the babe wept and she had compassion on him isn't that one of your more glorious traits the compassion of women we men who are brutish and thick we look at you and and we wonder why it is that you tremble and and you have such tremors and concern but praise god for it i'll tell you my wife has been a fantastic education to me what an illumination of things that i wouldn't would have missed and have not ever been able to summon up out of my own imagination except i had seen the operation of the precious nature which is a woman her palpitations and her tremblings and a concern and compassion for things that would not ever have occurred to me to see praise god this egyptian princess opened the basket and had compassion on him and said this is one of the hebrews children then said moses's sister pharaoh's daughter shall i go and call to thee a nurse of the hebrew woman that she may nurse the child for thee hmm talk about yiddish is a certain kind of instinctive wisdom that i think available only to women you know that my wife is danish and her english isn't what it should be and she comes up with some words i'll tell you she told me once that something is smelly and i began to scratch my head i thought well that's a word that should be in the english language and then she talks about going forth and back forth and back i said no sweetie it's not forth and back it's back and forth well she said you got to go forth if you're going to go back i know that god has called us jews a peculiar people and we're all uh very strong on equality etc etc especially in this women's lib generation but i don't think that god has made us equal in the sense that he's made us the same there's an equality in god in which he has no respect to persons but he has made us so uniquely different and praise god for that uniqueness and isn't it interesting that in this very hour there's a satan hell-bent in eradicating these significant and sacred differences just as it was in times past that the priests of god could not distinguish between the things which are profane and the things are holy even so now we can go into these uh suburban department stores and we come to a section in that store what do they call it the his or hers department or unisex department and you can take off from the rack and it's appropriate to both sexes how many times have we been confused when we've seen a person from the back and could not know whether it was male or female oh it's a groovy generation but i'll tell you that what god intended is being rapidly obliterated praise god for the faculty of compassion that god has created in the feminine soul praise god for the daintiness that brings a woman in her sense of purity to be washed in moving water praise god for a woman that's willing to dip her hands into slime to protect life praise god for um these midwives who feared god more than they feared pharaoh all these are tremendous qualities ladies and i pray that you'll not uh forget them and so this child's life was preserved and the maid went and called the child's mother and pharaoh's daughter said unto her take this child away and nurse it for me and i will give thee thy wages and the woman took the child and nursed it and the child grew and she brought him unto pharaoh's daughter and he became her son now hear this i had never seen this before this morning but you know in hebrews in the 11th chapter in the new testament where he speaks of moses how does it say it maybe i better not try to paraphrase it let's this is too significant let's let's catch this whole thing accurately hebrews the 11th chapter and the 24th verse by faith moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of god than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of christ greater riches than the treasures in egypt for he had respect under the recompense of the reward what caught my eye this morning was this by faith moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter and all of a sudden my heart was smitten for pharaoh's daughter a woman who because of her compassion for a hebrew child saved its life and brought him under her own roof and raised him as her own son but when he was come to years he refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter and if i had an opportunity to interview that princess i would say to her how do you like them apples how do you like that sword that penetrates your heart if you took this forsaken child as your own and brought it up and when he came to years because of his faith to the god of israel he refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter i'll tell your precious children that in a nutshell that if you shall be the women that god intends for you to be as holy women of old with a quiet and meek spirit who fear god more than pharaoh and the spirit of this age and are willing to dip your hands into slime and into pitch to be the instrument the first of bringing god's means of redemption into this doomed world that the result of this kind of walk and faithfulness shall be the kind of sword that went into the heart of pharaoh's daughter there's a calculated and necessary slight and injury that must be suffered and if we look at the story of mary it's the exact same principle is brought forth look in in the gospel of luke do you remember that when the child was brought into the temple for dedication and there was this precious jewish man simeon a devout and just man hallelujah for such as that how rare to find such a one as that and i'll tell you if any of my kinsmen are here this morning and i pray that they're not thinking that i'm anti-semitic i wish to god that we could be so jewish as simeon a just and devout man who it says was waiting for the consolation of israel and i'm so impatient when i speak to my kinsmen today and they say well we don't believe that our messiah has yet come and i say oh really how impatiently are you waiting for him i got this strange feeling that when you say that that you're not in no great rush for his coming that he should establish his kingdom because right now you're having a pretty groovy time with the kingdom that is and i'll tell you that god told this simeon by the spirit that he would not be allowed to die until he had seen god's christ and i'll tell you that except you see god's christ before you die you'll not have a consolation throughout all eternity it's now that we should be awaiting the consolation of israel it's now that our hearts should be grieved and broken for the disfigured condition of mankind where we can't even distinguish between the sexes and god will bring you to a place maybe this is the place this morning well i'll tell you that of all of the babes that were brought to that temple who could distinguish one from another they're all lovely the moment he laid eyes on this babe he said now i may depart in peace for my eyes have seen the salvation of israel 33 years later numbers of jewish adults had the privilege of hearing that one who had come into the fullness of life the lamb of god without spot and without blemish a male of the first year heard him preach and speak such things that had never come from human lips heard him speak with such an authority that they were stunned and silenced saw him perform such works as no man had ever performed and give sight to the blind and forgive men their sins and murmured where is how does this man dare dare do these things and could not recognize that this was god's christ and taunted him even from the cross and invited him to come down and then they would believe him but a man who was just and devout waiting for the consolation of israel saw only the babe and recognized that here was the salvation of israel and he spoke a word by the spirit to the parents mine eyes have seen the salvation in israel and i can depart in peace according to thy word which thou has prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of the people israel talk about foolish women you know what my mother said to me on the phone once god bless her pray for her will you she's pushing 70 but boy is she stubborn she said to me 10 years ago this too shall pass you've been a communist you've been a marxist you've been an existentialist you've been a pragmatist this too shall pass she doesn't say that anymore still hanging in there wanting to wear the blinders and just make it to the finish line poor soul not knowing that the finish line is only an eternal beginning she said to me once over the one oh she said your messiah she said he's okay for the goyim okay for the gentiles i said come on mom either he's the he's the messiah of all the world or he's the messiah of none isn't it fantastic what understanding sagacity wisdom and brilliance we can have for business for culture for professions for every kind of thing but when it comes to the issues that are eternal all of a sudden we come we become like blabbering idiots and all of a sudden our logic deserts us and we and and we come apart at the scenes and speak like like children either he's the light to lighten the glim and the glory of the people israel or he's nothing and we jews who are called to be a nation of priests in light of the world ought to be shouting from the housetops and compelling and commanding gentiles who have followed this this blasphemer and presumer and maniac to to stop them from such foolish loyalty that will only bring them to their eternal doom but to allow them to go on in such foolish faith is this they cannot save is not becoming to us as jews who are supposed to be the guardians of the spirit this yeshua that babe is either the light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of the people israel or he's nothing indeed he deserves to be stoned for the things which came from his lips and joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him and simeon blessed them and said unto mary his mother behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against oh i've seen this so many times people mashing their teeth on me as if i have anything to do with it annoyed and vexed with me as if it's the gospel of our cats with the god that they could stop their ears and close their eyes and that i had never made my appearance in their lives and i had never walked into their jewish fraternity house and allowed it to go on with the luxury of thinking that somehow they were humanists and we're somehow going to do the world a service after they had made their fortunes but in walks this peculiar character while they're feeding their faces tired and woe be gone and not a thought in his head wasted and opens his mouth and hears himself saying well this is a characteristic situation god's servant attempting to speak to god's people while they feed their faces and all of a sudden the clatter of dishes and forks and spoons was quieted and they turned to see this peculiar phenomenon and i said right outside these walls there's a world steeped in darkness dying and here we are feeding our faces going to school obtaining our vocations and our professions and somehow applauding ourselves all the while that if we have a spare moment we might get religious or come out on the high holidays or do something philanthropic for mankind you got it all wrong guys he hasn't called us to vocations or professions or to culture he's called us to be a nation of priests and a light unto the world and indeed we're far more instrumental in propagating the pornography and the kinds of things that are reducing mankind than the holy things that will elevate them to their god well they had me stay and some of them got so irritated with the things that were spoken they they fairly gnashed their teeth on me but some of them passed in the hearing from death unto life this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in israel i'll tell you there's no rising till there's first a falling he's a stone upon which we shall fall and be broken or that stone shall fall upon us and we shall be crushed to powder this stubborn jesus what is it about him that we cannot get him out from our sight he haunts us his name is always being bandied about we can't shake him off we can't dispense him we try to flee from him and yet he waits till we come to the end of ourselves and our jacob's driving waiting to wrestle with us heart to heart and life to life that we should not let him go except that he bless us there's first the falling and there's a rising again and then we come to this interesting line yea a sword shall pierce through thy soul also simeon said to mary yes a sword shall pierce through your soul also i know that a sword pierced through the soul of this egyptian woman who took moses under her own roof and raised him as her own son i tell you precious children it shall happen every time that you shall have a quiet and meek spirit as the holy women of old in god's sight of great price women who trusted god that a soul a sword shall pierce your soul also and god wants you soberly to understand that that you should not flinch from this necessary pain in fact i think it is you who are the first to be the ones to bring light into the world shall also give to us men an understanding of what the necessary cost of obedience to our god is i don't think it's any accident that in the first pages of the chapter of luke everything has to do with women of lower states or women who are barren or elderly couples is god trying to tell us something in an age that exalts human pride human accomplishment women's lib people bristling with anger irritation everyone rising up to do his thing black power this power that power when the god who gives grace to the humble and gives houses to women who are barren we know about that couple zachariah and his wife elizabeth they were both righteous before god walking in all of the commandments and ordinances of the lord blameless and they had no child because elizabeth was barren and they were both now well stricken in years oh isn't it wonderful to understand what the way of god is and the moment that we will acknowledge lord for all my outward accomplishments for all my great human endowments however i clever i am however i bristle with energy and want to do do do until i come to the recognition of my utter barrenness when i see the great tasks that are set ahead of us at the end of the ages that when i review myself like abraham and like zachariah like elizabeth i'm stricken with years and barren to that one god shall give such fruit as shall be a blessing to all mankind and so when god came to mary a virgin espoused to a man whose name was joseph of the house of david i don't think that we celebrate this woman enough an angel came in unto her even the phrasing there is somehow suggestive of something sacred came in unto her it almost has if i can say it sexual connotations and i'm not trying to be clever or witty but there's something here that is holy there's a there's something happening between a woman and god that i think is even at the heart of all relationships and that indeed is intimate union and isn't it interesting that the same satan who is roaring and seeking to destroy and obliterate everything that's holy and established of god is running amok in this area more than any other and there's not a one of us in this room who has not been bent crippled sullied distorted and in some way affected by the foul machinations of satan over the area of things pertaining to intimate union it's at the heart of relationship and even all the world knows that if this is not affected that marriage is not consummated and yet there are unnumbered women who go to such an act again and again pursing their lips and gritting their teeth discharging their obligation waiting for it to be over and missing the glory of god we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god because as you ladies know so much better than we men how often you are the victims of our mistreatment of our unfairness of our unwise speaking of our accusations of our jealousies how right it is for you in that moment to flinch and to wince when you've when the weight of what we are not only physically but morally and spiritually and psychologically comes down upon you and you're reminded of things that justify your resentment and your irritation against us and it's very difficult in that moment to be truly submitted with a quiet and meek spirit don't laugh at this as we say in yiddish mama mia i'll tell you precious ladies that no one has the opportunity to understand the glory and the wonder and the supernatural power of the cross of christ jesus that changes something from death unto resurrection life the new precious children in such moments as that is there a place where resentment and anger and irritation and grievance and hard feeling can be brought that it might be crucified and buried with christ that there might be a resurrection unto newness of life that's got to do with love trust patience grace gentleness loving acceptance if there's not let's close this book and let's brush the crumbs off our laps and leave this place and every other such kind of exercise for its futile and vain god has not called us to religion christianity is not an alternative to judaism there's only one faith one way and one god and at the heart of that faith from genesis to revelation there's the cross of christ jesus god said to an abraham get thee out of nation kindred and father's house and follow me into land that i will show you but not a word is said to the woman who accompanied him on that journey i thought we men are so inspired of god and we receive the visions of god as we are the head of our families and the poor woman has been is required in submitted obedience to go along and yet the wrench upon her heart to leave nation kindred and father's house is far greater than anything we men can understand oh i know you with your little bric-a-brac and your your dollies and all the kinds of things that you dust and and palpitate over that you've hovered over in the heirlooms and you can't bear the idea of parting with it let alone you should pick up and wrench yourself and sever yourself from the things that are familiar and dear to follow this nut who had a maniacal vision of a god who says leave all and follow me through a wilderness to a land which i shall show you and yet of her god says and offers her as the model of a quiet and meek spirit who called abraham what and they weren't long on that journey when their first testing came and this man called the father of faith and who was not born it but became it in the same way as we through the process of trial and error in agonizings and stumblings and failings and coming back again and again to the place where he knew his god at the first at the altar went down south into egypt remember that and what a temptation we shall have in this hour when grievous famine shall come and i tell you precious children don't press me on the theology i'm not able to give it to you but everything in my heart experience and understanding says prepare grievous famines are coming upon the land we're not going to be able to palpitate over the over our priceless little things and and the kinds of things in which the world has inducted us in in the soft and indulgent generation we've lived in our catalogs and breathed and dreamed of things to possess and to have but i'll tell you there's going to be a tightening of the belt grievous famine shall come upon the land and those that are young in faith shall be tempted to go down south into egypt and press the panic button because it's always lush and fertile there but there's a price to be paid every time you go down south into egypt we jews are paying still for abraham's journey because he came up among other things with men servants and female servants and among them was hagar and we've been struggling for our life against her descendants ever since but abraham said look he said when they'll see you you're fair to look upon what a beautiful thing she must have been even at that age why they'll slay me for your sake precious children inga says that she i've never afraid of anything she said i've never seen you afraid of anything she's wrong there's only one thing of which i'm afraid to bring reproach on the name of the holy one of israel i'm not afraid of what men shall say and many times i've had to be faithful to god even against the misunderstanding of my believing brethren and even in my to see in my wife's face pain and hurt for things that i cannot explain to her because inga is a dear soul and she loves to be loving and she wants everybody to be happy that's the way she is and when you'll come she's like a jewish mother she wants to schtick you all the time eat eat eat but she's had occasions when she's seen god use her husband in such a way a sword has gone forth and men have been cut men who are dear to us and who have aided us and you never saw a more stricken face than inga's a sword shall have to go into her bosom too there's something about being a woman that is so noble such an example to us men such a revelation of what the real meaning of the cross of christ jesus is that i'll tell you that if you performed the meaning of your femininity before us that even though we were not saved and were not obedient to the word yet would we be won without the word by your chaste behavior what power resides with you women now as it was in the book of exodus in the beginning of months and what an appropriate thing to be reminded now april right on on the eve of passover itself itself of what your calling really is abraham came back out of egypt and he went back to where his altar had been at the first and it says there he called on the name of the lord isn't it precious how god is quiet and silent he just allows a curtain to be dropped and we're not allowed to press in and understand the turmoil and the anguish of heart that abraham suffered for allowing himself in his own quest to keep his own skin and neck alive to traduce his wife and to allow for her to be made a piece of merchandise in the court of pharaoh let that sink deeply into your hearing that he who is called the father of faith and the friend of god was willing that his wife be made a piece of merchandise trafficked in that womb that god intended should out of which should come holy seed in the court of pharaoh the most lecherous filthy despotic orgiastic people on the face of earth but god responded to sarah's great faithfulness just like the midwives who feared god more than they feared pharaoh and he made them houses that they should not be barren praise god for mary have you ever thought the stigma that comes upon a maiden of israel who is thought to be pregnant before her time i just spoke last night about the two failings of modern christendom the failing to understand and to communicate the holiness of god the fear of god and the terror of sin and we're shallow and doomed to a continuing shallowness by such a failure and i reminded them that we jews had an advantage in times past because we lived under the law and we saw the law performed we saw the just requirements of god when we saw blemishless animals sacrificed and their blood poured out and heard the crackling fire and saw their their beautiful white downy uh skins discolor and be consumed away it's an ugly thing to see blood spilled what a reminder it must have been daily to understand that if this is what it takes to requite sin what then must sin be in the sight of a god who is holy holy holy and there was another practice that jewish people saw in biblical times that if a maiden of israel was found not to be a virgin on the night of her marriage on the following morn the husband would take this woman and the damning evidence and bring her to the doorstep of her father's house and there every male in the community would participate in stoning her to death can you imagine what a scene that must have been the shrieks and the cries and the ugly thud of stones against flesh and the blood and their and men their own tears streaming down their faces who themselves are fathers and husbands and fathers of daughters watching this thing die by inches imagine what the horror of fornication and adultery must have been for such a generation inconceivable that a maiden of israel should not be a virgin how then would it be for mary to whom an angel came in unto her and told her such things as no mortal ears had ever heard and how would she explain that to others and i'll tell you even to this day jewish people unhappily speak of jesus as a mamzer bastard what then shall they say of his mother and yet the angel said of her hail thou that art highly favored the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be can you picture that she was so innocent she didn't think herself of anything uh to be noted she was just an ordinary jewish woman in her own sight she was really a humble a quiet and a meek spirit and could not even understand the salutation that it should be spoken of her that she was highly favored of god what was she to fear not mary for thou has found favor with god and behold thou shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth the son and shall call his name jesus he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest and the lord god shall give unto him the throne of his father david and he shall reign over the house of jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end then said mary unto the angel how shall this be seeing that i know not a man and the angel answered and said unto her the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god and behold thy cousin elizabeth she hath also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who was called baron for with god nothing shall be impossible and mary said behold the handmaid of the lord isn't that a what a humble spirit behold the hand of the lord be it unto me according to thy word and when the two women met and the babe leaped in the womb of elizabeth and we hear the words blessed is she that believe where there shall be a performance of the things which were told her from the lord well does it say in first peter the third chapter and i've been reciting it now several times through these this talk where god speaks of the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of god of great price for after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in god adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands even as sarah obeyed abraham calling him lord whose daughters you are as long as you do well and i'm not afraid holy women of old who trusted in god how shall this be seeing that i've i've not been with a man i don't know a man blessed is she that believed that there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the lord i'll tell you precious children except that faith is a matter of life or death it is not a matter of faith at all except that there's an issue over which you tremble and as you shall die except that he honored his word it doesn't require your faith if god had not honored his word and fulfilled the things which he proclaimed if he did not hover over and protect this vessel whom he had chosen because he had found favor in his sight can you imagine the unspeakable reproach that would have fallen upon this jewish maiden to have been accused of adultery or fornication even as she is by wise alex and village atheists right to this present moment an eternal reproach came upon mary because she was selected to be the first and out of whose womb would come the light unto the world the light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of the people of israel i tell you precious women i've rambled this morning and i'm trying even in my own spirit to collect and draw together what it is that god is speaking to us what is this theme it was expressed in the song that was sung about god gives grace to them that are humble it's got to do with being barren and stricken in years it's got to do with disavowing our own strength our own ability our own talents it's recognizing that except that god be god will be condemned not having houses with the joy of children will not see the fruit is being called to things that are lowly sticking our hands in pitch and slime it's being called to save an infant out of a river who when he comes to the maturity of years will not want to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter though you were a mother to him it'll be that you'll be called to be the instrument of god for bringing salvation into the world and yet the sword shall pierce through your heart also and you might even hear from the lips of that one woman what have i to do with you god mentioned two of these women by name who were midwives but so many others are unnamed of whom the world was not worthy whose husbands were cut asunder who wandered in wildernesses who knew hunger and thirst and reproach and persecution and i have great great solemn respect and reverence for this unsung unnumbered unnamed multitude of precious women to whom god gives the privilege of being first let's bow our heads precious god lords i am so eternally grateful lord that you made them male and female and precious god i don't think i would understand what being male is except i could see myself by contrast to those that you designed to be our opposite number and i praise god lord for the differences i praise god for the uniquenesses i thank you for the precious holy thing that women are for their sensitivity for their compassion for their purity because you've used all these things in the great drama of redemption that you've made available for mankind and precious god i know that your hand is upon these precious women that you've called them also to a holy calling but it's got not to do with the honors that are usually bestowed to men they shall be unseen seemingly insignificant and yet lord god if it were not for such as these there would not have been a people israel so shall it be always and lord god when you shall ask of these women again and again to stick their hands into pitch and into slime when shall you when you shall ask of them that submission of a quiet and meek spirit which is at the heart of all relationships however much lord they have been offended against may they be as sierra of old holy women who trust in god and in their willingness mighty god to be what you've intended for them shall come to that cross to that sword being stuck and pierced into their hearts that a flow of life shall go forth in bedrooms in kitchens and living rooms and homes and families and fellowships a certain grace of god without which this world would be a far more wicked and brutal place precious god i thank you on this passover season for that blemishless lamb of god i thank you for that blood which was shed 19 centuries ago on the outskirts of jerusalem where a certain jewish mother looked on whose heart was rent asunder as she watched this most precious thing in her sight born out of a womb racked and stretched and suspended between heaven and earth on three nails eking out the moments of his life in terrible physical anguish of soul and could not be comforted thank you for that blood which was shed that for whatever there is in this room male or female whose skirts have dragged in the mud who have listened more to the pharaoh of egypt rather than fear god whose virginity has been sullied whether physical or spiritual that there's a blood that's availing even now i just ask you mighty god for every woman that will raise up such a sullied heart you wash and make clean by the precious blood of the lamb jesus make of these precious handmaidens of the lord pure and holy and may they be born lord god and those who in this room this morning jewish and gentile alike who have never called upon the name of the lord a certain birth which must be performed in a stable may be a lowly place lord but let there be that something born of the same substance which was born in a jewish woman 19 centuries ago because they might say this morning with her lest it is she that believe there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the lord the lord says to you jewish and gentile women and men that the same lord over jew and gentile is rich unto all who call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved and right now if you'll call out of your precious heart great yeshua savior eternal pesach lamb wash me make me clean come into me as that angel came into mary put your life in me make of me your handmaid and use me for the fulfillment of your great purpose in this end hour and i'll thank you and praise you in jesus name yea even though a sword must come into my heart also in jesus name i pray everyone said amen