day no. 16,490: do not apologize for that which deserves your applause

Numbers 30:13

Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.

Husbands can nullify the covenants of their wives. In other words, covenant heads can annul the commitments of their wards. A covenant head can void the covenant of one for whom he is covenantally responsible.

Patriarchy is not incidental to the Old Testament. It is NOT an old, outdated embarrassment or blemish on the Christian faith. It is, in fact, essential to the Good News of God in Christ.

Isaiah 28:18

And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

If we could give ourselves away, we would still be in our sins. Our contract with death would stand and we would be destined to die. But thanks be to God, a federal head can nullify our commitments. We cannot give ourselves away. We need someone to walk us down the aisle and sign off on the transfer. If that someone does not or will not, any commitments we have made can be unmade and annihilated as though they never stood.

While the federal headship of Adam may have broken everything, the federal headship of the Second Adam is our only hope of getting out of it in tact.

Masculinity takes responsibility; It is the glory of the man to step between the danger and his beloved. It is his honor to protect those under his care. Even when the danger is imposed by his beloved's decisions. It is the fame of a father to take on himself the consequences of his children's choices in order to rescue them from themselves (e.g. God's commendation of Job).

Doctrines we can be tempted to find repulsive (headship, representative government a la Adam, patriarchy, etc...) when abandoned also leave behind the strength and weight of the Gospel which is God acting on our behalf as our head and saving us from ourselves.

Do not apologize for the presence of patriarchy; rather, applaud it. Do not apologize for that which deserves your gratitude. The glory of God in Christ is manifested in breaking our covenant with sin and death without us completing the proper paperwork. He did not leave us to let live, for to us that would have been our death. He interfered by letting Himself die. He removed our promises to death from our mouths and eliminated our vows to death from our hearts.

He did not ask our permission. 

He secured our salvation.

He acted on our behalf to undo our deal with death.

Thanks be to God!