How a woman can become of God part 2

What is the Scripture trying to tell us? Let us take it one by one. “While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.” First and foremost, a woman must be chaste and demure. At the same time, she must have fear in her heart. There are women who dress up demurely, but their behavior is coquettish. My grandmother used to call those kind of women not only a flirt but also a coquette.

There are women who dress themselves up with modesty but they act like flirts and coquettes. During our time, those kinds of women were considered whores and harlots.

The primary qualification that God wants a woman to possess is modesty, or demureness. What do demure and modest manners mean? It means that a woman acts with refinement and finesse. She is not vulgar; she is demure, and not coquettish. A demure woman had been epitomized by Maria Clara, whose hands could not even be touched by other men. No touch! And if ever her hands had been touched by a man, she would readily burst into tears and ask the man to marry her because he had disgraced her by touching her hands.

That is why in the past, whenever a man wants to marry a woman, do you know what he would be asking for? He would be asking for the “hand” of the woman. When I was young, I didn’t understand yet the meaning of that idiomatic expression. I was wondering, “Why was he asking for her hand? What would he do with her hands?” That idiomatic expression developed because in the past, if a woman’s hand had been touched by a man, it was tantamount to having disgraced her. So, the man ought to marry her … because then, the women were modest and demure, unlike today when a man can touch a woman any where. And sometimes, he does not only touch her! No wonder, nowadays, there are many unwed mothers. They get engaged in pre-marital relationships. And that is because they have set aside the chastity and the modesty that God is asks. And once chastity and modesty are gone, the outcome is not good.

For example, I, being a Christian, must not marry a woman who is not demure and modest. If the woman that you are going to marry lacks modesty and demureness, I am sure, before your wedding day comes, she has already flirted with other men. Just come to think of it. You are going to marry her; you are going to kiss her in the altar, but without your knowledge, she had already been kissed by four different men. They had kissed her ahead of you. That is not in conformity with what the Bible teaches. A woman should be demure and modest. A woman’s honor and reputation will surely be preserved if only she observes chastity and modesty. Let us read Deuteronomy 22:13-21—

“If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her. And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him. And they shall amerce him in a hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel.”

But what if she was no longer a virgin?

(20-21) “But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die.”

In Israel, if a woman deceives her would-be husband by telling him that she is still a virgin, but proven otherwise, she would be stoned to death. That was in Israel, but not among the Christians. I am just trying to tell you that a woman should safeguard her honor, considering the essence of what the Bible said. In fact, in Israel, a man should no longer take a woman to be his wife if he already knew that she was no longer a virgin. Let us read Leviticus 21:13-14—

“And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or a harlot, these shall he not take …”

If you are a servant of God, you are prohibited from taking a harlot as your wife; neither a profane nor a widow. Therefore, a woman must take care of her honor. And a woman who is demure and modest must safeguard her chastity.

Others might ask, “Brother Eli, how is that now? I did not know this doctrine before!” Of course, we can never do anything anymore if you have already lost your chastity, despite the fact you are not yet married. What else can we do? We can no longer restore it. But just the same, I am teaching you this just in case some of you have still maintained their chastity. It would be better if you will safeguard your reputation as a damsel, or maid. But, if you have gotten married … if you have committed some bad things in the eyes of God, there is still a way by which we can make up for all of those and eventually become Christians. God does not readily cast off people. If you committed those things out of your ignorance of God’s teachings, you could always repent and God would grant you forgiveness. This is the reason why we are trying to trace from the Bible how a woman may become a woman of God. And we have learned that for a woman to be of God, she must be chaste and modest. But if you are not one, you may start trying to be one. It is a must that a woman be demure and modest.

It is always nice to see women whose manners are modest and demure. Have you seen a woman who claims to be demure but wears a micro mini? Once a woman wearing a micro mini dress sits down, the tendency is for her dress to be pulled upward, thereby, exposing her thighs. And when her thighs are bared, she now tries very hard to pull her dress downward. But if we will just be honest about it, isn’t it that her main intention for wearing a micro mini is to display her thighs? So why bother to pull the dress lower? Can we consider that woman as demure? I don’t think so. If she is, she will not wear a micro mini dress.

Actually, there are many women (I am not generalizing) who dress up that way in order to be noticed. Are you agreeable to that? There was one woman who was trying to justify herself. She said that, the reason why she was trying to look attractive is because of her husband. Is that true? You are trying to look good because of your husband? If that is the case, I told her that if her husband comes home by 6 PM, then, she should take a bath by 5:30. Start fixing yourself very well because he is coming home at 6. That is, if it were true that you are trying to look attractive because of your husband.

But why is it that you fix yourself the moment that your husband leaves the house? Did you fix yourself for your husband? No! Because he is not there to appreciate your beauty! The real reason why you want to look good is because you want to attract the attention of other men! You have a different motive! Let us read the word of God who knows what’s in the hearts of men. Why do you want to look beautiful? Let us read Jeremiah 4:30—

“And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson …”

This is what a woman who wants to be noticed, do. It does not really mean that since she is wearing crimson red, she will already be noticed. In other words, she still has to do something. Let us continue reading—

“… though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting …”

She would even paint her face. According to the Bible, there are women who want to look good by painting their eyes. Painting one’s eyes was already practiced in the past. And since we are living in the modern times, women even apply glitters in their eyelids. That is why, if you would see them in the dark, with their heavily painted eyes, you would be frightened. That is not how an ideal woman looks like. I prefer a woman who has very little adornment.

There are women who would even apply foundation. If they don’t like their eyebrows, they pluck it, even if the whole process is painful. You would see how their faces get distorted because of pain, but they try to bear it. On the other hand, there are also women who totally do not like what God had given them. Please excuse me, but I am just telling the truth. There are those do not like what God gave them, so they shave their brows. But the problem is, when she drew another pair of eyebrows, she placed them higher than where they should be. That is why if you are the shy type, you will never court her because her eyes has intimidated you. She looks very arrogant with her high brows.

She adorns herself with gold, and she paints her eyes. Why? Let us continue--

“… in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee.”

The reason why there are women who want to look beautiful is because of her lovers, or wooers. A woman wants to have as many suitors. Are you aware of it, gentlemen? I know that because I had read it from the Bible. The more suitors a woman has, the more she likes it. Who among you here do not want being courted? No woman does not want not to be courted. I am not saying that all women are like that, but most of them want to be courted. That is why a woman feels desperate when nobody is courting her. So, sometimes she just grabs any man who comes along. There are women who are like that.