Principles Behind the Woman's Headcovering — Emanuel Esh

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Special thank you to all who support this ministry. I also greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus. What a joy to be here and worship together, our God, our Lord and our Savior. I was greatly challenged by the family mercy songs and what a joy it is to know the Lord in such a way.

When we fully realize all that Christ is to us, there should be nothing but adoration and praise and worship ascending out of our lips continually and praise to our God. And then, if that's the reality in our life, we will walk and be practical.

We'll live it out. It will be a practical thing in our life every day. Not because we have to do it, but because we want to. We don't obey God because we have to. We obey Him out of a pure heart of love.

There is such a difference. You know, most of us, quite a few of us, grew up in a setting where we were taught to do the right things, but because the heart was not right with God, it just became a form and therefore was empty and was not a testimony to the world around us.

Introducing the Woman's Head Covering

I want to share this morning a message that God has been laying on my heart for several months. I only know of it being taught and principled here one time in the last eleven years that I've been here.

Yet it's a principle that we all hold to very tightly. The title of the message is The Principles Behind a Woman's Head Covering. The principles behind a woman's head covering. Well, some might ask, what is a woman's head covering?

And we'll go into the Bible, the Word of God, to find out what that is or what it says about that. The Bible has quite a bit to say about that. In the past number of years, I have been watching closely a few things concerning this.

Something happens in the spirit realm when a godly woman puts on that symbol of authority on her head. Something happens in the spirit realm. You know it. I know it. I think of a family testifying how they saw in the Word of God the principle of the woman's head covering and they decided to practice it.

They went to the local assembly the next Sunday morning. His wife for the first time had a piece of cloth on her head. Well, something happened there that morning which astonished them. The men, they responded to this woman in honor, spirit of honor and reverence about this woman.

Somehow it was almost like they bowed down to her, but they honored her. The men did. The women, they got angry and hated her for it. Now why could one piece of cloth on the top of a woman's head create such a different expression from men and from women?

Why? You want to find out why? I also think of our background. I was raised in the quote plain church where this was practiced. All the women would wear a head covering. Even the young girls would wear a head covering in going to church.

Little baby girls would come to church with a little head covering on. And it was a principle that we knew was in the Bible, but we didn't quite understand it. So we knew we did. It was to be done and we practiced it, but the spirit and the heart behind it was not there.

Many plain folks who leave the plain community or church, they go out into the world and they live like the world. And one thing that I've noticed that about the same time that a couple like that goes out into the world, about the same time that they get the television into their home, her head covering goes off.

And then I've noticed remnant families, especially coming from the worldly type settings, and they come to the word of God and they look at this thing seriously. And about the same time that that woman puts on a head covering, the television goes out the door.

And there's more things like that. There's a lot more behind the head covering than meets the natural eye. There are principles of submission under authority there. There are principles of rebellion that come when a woman doesn't wear that.

Grace, Obedience, and the Call to Study Scripture

And again, this is not law. There are some who would say we are under grace, therefore we don't have to do this. Well, I only say that if you love Jesus and you're following Jesus, you will do as Jesus did.

And he said, I do always please my Father. He didn't say I do always obey my Father. He did that too. But to please his Father is going beyond what his Father has required and obey him willingly out of a pure heart.

Because of the work of the grace of God, we want to please God. I've had several questions about this for many years. I've had doubts in my heart about it for many years. I believe that if I would have a raise of hands here this morning on the sister's side, asking for those who are convinced deep in their heart about this principle without any question, if I would ask them to raise their hand, I believe there's not very many that would do it.

We have been taught the principle. Many of us don't fully understand what it is. We only know to do it. I would to God that we could find the principle deep in our hearts, a principle of submission to authority, and out of that worship God, and out of that follow the example, put on the symbol of submission.

One of my questions has been, as I looked at many Christian women who don't wear a head covering, I believe they're Christians. I believe they're born again by the Spirit of God. I don't doubt that. My question has been, if the head covering is so important, why then does God answer their prayers when they pray uncovered?

That's been one of my questions. Or does God answer their prayers? And as I've studied their lives, I have to say yes. He does answer their prayers when they don't wear a head covering. The question I had was, why?

And then if God does answer their prayers, why then do we need to wear it? That's been a question on my heart many years. Let's turn now to 1 Corinthians 11, which is where we'll read about this. There are other places in the Bible where we could read about the head covering, but this is the main one, so we'll read these verses.

1 Corinthians 11. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Heavenly Father, we do come in Jesus Christ's name, our blessed and only potentate, our Lord and our Savior, your only begotten Son, in whom we believe and have life.

And Father, it's because we believe in Him and because we have life that we come to you with a heart. Our hearts washed with pure water, our bodies washed with pure water, our hearts sanctified by the blood of Jesus, and desiring to serve you with our full ability all the days of our life.

Father, now as we read your word, I ask you to anoint your word, anoint your servant, and anoint the ears of all those that hear this word. Father, we thank you and give it to you for your glory and your honor.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Reading in 1 Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Corinth Church, and it's basically a letter of correction, reproof, and direction. And evidently there must have been a question that he wrote this to them.

There must have been a question from the Corinth Church to Paul about this situation. I'm not sure what the question said, but we can see the answer. And perhaps if we see the answer, fully understand the answer, we'll be able to understand the question also.

Paul's Teaching in 1 Corinthians 11

Verse 1,. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God.

But the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judge in yourselves.

Is it common that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering.

But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Several years ago, I remember Brother Denny preaching a message, maybe it was Brother Mose, on the practical side of the Christian life.

I think Brother Mose titled his message, The Other Half of the Christian Life. It was a good message, and I enjoyed that, but I did not fully understand what he was talking about, until this past spring, we went to a Harcraft Revival type meeting here in Lancaster, and there was a lot of different churches represented there, and basically they were not the plain background churches.

This was a meeting held for pastors and their wives, which we attended, and we were basically the only ones that were dressed plain, or I might say our wives were about the only ones that wore a head covering.

They stood out like sore thumbs in the crowd. It was talked about over the pulpit, about these people who have gone too far. But I sat there, and I looked, and I listened, and I watched, and I had a question about the head covering.

Is it important? Does it really matter? So I began to study this principle. I knew that I had never done a real deep study on it. I just believed what others told me, so I decided I'm going to do a deep study, and I did.

I've been studying it for months, actually. God has shown me a few things, and my heart is to share with you what God has shown me. I do not have the all-inclusive answers, but I do believe that God has given me clear direction and clear vision on this subject.

Practical Christianity and Anabaptist History

One thing I saw in that Harcraft Revival meeting was that the gospel there is a good gospel, but the practical outworking of the Word of God is missing. So it began to make sense to me when I thought about the second half of the Christian life being a practical Christian life.

And you all, probably most of you, have read the book The Secret of the Strength, which gives a history of the Anabaptists' background, starting back with Martin Luther, Swingly, and Calvin, and how those three men came to a reformation.

I believe it seemed like they got born again. They had the Word of God with them, and God used them to open the doors to a new enlightenment for that age, where the Anabaptists took from those three men which were teaching, they took the Word of God literally and began to practice it literally.

And that practicing the Word of God literally made a great division between those three men and the Anabaptists. And there is still a great division between those type of churches and the churches that practice the Christian life.

There is a difference there. And I saw this difference. I know some would say it is legalism, but obedience to Christ is never legalism. Never. Legalism. Obedience to Christ. Out of a heart that is thankful and grateful, we obey God.

We please God. We go beyond obedience and please God in every area of our lives. Let's look again at verse 1 and 2. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I deliver them to you.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 4, verse 17. We will read a verse there. Verse 16, actually Paul writes, Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. He is begging the people, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son in faith with the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

Some have a question whether this means today. This means the church back there, some would say. But if you turn to verse 1 in the first chapter of Corinthians, or verse 2, you will see that Paul is writing unto the church of God, which is at Corinth.

To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. So we see this epistle is written to the church at Corinth and to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

And Paul is beseeching us to remember the ordinances as he delivered them and to keep them and do them. Now it seems that there was a question and Paul takes this question and he answers the question.

And I think the question had to do with some women in a church service who were praying or prophesying uncovered. Some history might tell us or some documentation would say that the Corinth church was in a place where there was much ungodliness and heathenism, much idol worship.

We would learn that from the Bible. And some of these idol worshipping women, when they went to worship at their idols, at the temples of their idols, they would go into those temples and bow down in front of those idols and when they worshipped there, they would uncover their heads.

The heathen women were doing that. Now you have some of these heathen women, they're hearing the gospel, they're getting saved and they started coming to church now at Corinth and as was their practice, when they went to pray or to worship or to prophesy, they would uncover their heads.

Maybe that is the question that was brought to Paul. What should we do with these women? Or Paul, can you teach us something about this? Their custom was to pray or prophesy uncovered. If you look at verse 16, the last verse in this teaching here, it says,.

But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom. What custom? Is it the custom of praying or prophesying uncovered? It seems like it might be. Some would dare to say that after Paul teaches this very clearly, he ends it with, in the last verse, saying, We don't have such a custom anymore.

That's not what he's saying. Verse 3, let's go to verse 3. But I would have you know, now he's answering the question. He's not only going to answer the question, he's going to give them a principle so they can understand clearly why the women need to have their heads covered when they pray or prophesy.

Now he's going to give the principle for that. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Now, I'm going to draw on the board here just a little diagram.

If I may, we put a place up here which we call God, and then here we have Jesus, or I should put in there Christ maybe. Then down here we have a little stick figure of a woman. Here we have a stick figure of a man.

Here you have God, here you have Christ, here you have man, here you have woman. Now it says that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man. I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

So we have an authority structure here. We actually have four levels here of an authority structure, and he's going to teach us something about authority. Why does he want to teach us something about authority?

Because the head covering has a lot to do with authority, or you might say submission and rebellion. Now he says, every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonors his head. Now if this man here prays to God, or prophesies, having his head covered, which means having a head covering on, he dishonors his head.

And the word head there, it's the same word but it means differently. The first word head means if he has his head covered, which is his physical head, when his physical head is covered when he prays or prophesies, then he dishonors his head which is Lord.

So when he prays or prophesies with his head covered, he dishonors his head which is Christ, in the verse before that. And the word pray, this man prays, he's making connection with his Father that way.

When he prophesies, he's making connection from God this way. So it's both ways, praying, making our supplication to God, or prophesying, speaking the mind and will of God. That's what verse 5 says, verse 4 says that.

Then it says in verse 5, but every woman that prayeth or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn, but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

Every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered, it is that even one as if she were shaven, it says. So you have a woman here praying or prophesying uncovered, she dishonors her head which is man, because man is next in authority.

So she dishonors her authority above her which she prays or prophesies with her head uncovered. We all understand the principle of our workplace. We have the boss who gives direction on the job. Then we have a foreman, which under the foreman we have what you might say workers, or the worker, let's say the worker there.

And this principle is what I see here. With the boss wants some work done, he gives direction to whom? He gives direction to his foreman and his foreman takes that direction and gives it to his worker.

We understand that very clearly. Now if the foreman wants something from his boss, he goes to his boss and he makes his request known. Or he prays to his boss, even in the Bible you sometimes see how they pray to someone.

I pray you please give me this. So the word here, if the foreman needs something, he prays his boss to give him something. If the worker needs something, he goes to his foreman, because he is next in authority there, and he asks the foreman for something, he prays to the foreman and says, foreman please give me this.

This is what I need to do the work. And the foreman likewise gives it to the worker. Or if the foreman doesn't have it, he goes to his boss who then gives it to him and then gives it to the worker. Now we would think it strange indeed if the worker, when he needs something, if he would bypass his authority and go straight to the boss for something.

Wouldn't we? It's a breach of authority. And the worker, he dishonors the foreman when he bypasses the foreman and goes to his boss for something. He dishonors the foreman. If the foreman, if the owner is up here and the foreman dishonors his authority or his head and goes around his head to the owner, he dishonors the boss.

Is that clear? Very clear, right? Okay, so now we have the picture here. You and I know that when we pray, especially look at us men, when you and I pray, we lift up our voice to God and we make our prayer to God, we intercede to God in heaven and we go up this way through Christ to God.

Because Jesus said, Whatsoever you ask in my name of my Father, I will give it you. So our prayer is not to Jesus, but it's to God in Jesus' name. When we go to God, we go to God in Christ's name, okay, with the full authority of Christ to ask something of God.

And when God gives us something, He comes right down through Christ, we receive it through Christ, back down to the man. Now, when a woman goes to pray, what does she do? She goes to pray and she goes out around her authority, which is man, and goes directly to God.

How can she do that? And when she prophesies, she gets something from God. In fact, God even sends it out around the man. This, I believe, is the principle that Paul wants to teach us. Now, how can a woman go out around her authority and it says, in verse 10 it says, for this cause of the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

Because of the angels. Why is that? Why should she have something on her head because of the angels? Maybe we'll get to that a little bit later. Let's look at verse 7. Actually, I should finish up in verse 5 and 6 about shaven.

If she prays or prophesies uncovered, that is the same as if she were shaven. And I looked up the word shaven and I found a reference in Deuteronomy 21 .12 which says that it talks about a man going forth to war and taking captive women and if he finds a woman that he likes, he can take her to wife.

Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house and she shall shave her head and pair her nails. Why should she shave her head and pair her nails? I believe it's because it's a shame for her to be taken captive and brought home that way.

So we have this reference here from 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 about a woman praying, uncovered, she dishonors her head and what she does when she does that is even as if she were shaven or shorn or shameful.

The Glory of God and the Glory of Man

Uncovered. Adam and Eve in the garden, they were uncovered and they had no shame. But after sin came, they were ashamed when they were uncovered. Likewise, a woman needs to be ashamed if she is uncovered.

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. And why is that? For the man indeed ought not to cover his head forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God but the woman is the glory of the man.

I preached a message a little while ago on the glory of God, which is man. I'm sure most of you probably remember that. But man is made in the image and glory of God. In the beginning when God created heaven and earth, He made all those beautiful things, all the animals, the birds, the sea, the trees, everything out there that has life in it.

And then He made something which brought God more glory than anything else. And it was man which was created, which God created man in the image and glory of God. The word image comes from the word icon.

Icon. We use that quite a bit in this computer world. We have icons on our computer screen. The Catholics have icons which they bow down and worship to. An icon is an image of something. Brothers, you and I are icons of God.

We are the image of God. And the glory of God. And I see part of the principle behind this whole thing is of the angels. The angels, the good and bad, see the image and glory of God in you and I as men.

And you and I have an opportunity to bring great glory and honor to God by worshiping Him. And it says,. But the woman is the glory of man. The woman is the glory of man. The word glory simply means, let me say it this way, that which draws attention to a thing.

Or that which makes a certain thing beautiful. That which makes a certain thing stand out and be noticed. One of the first things you would notice, if you would see Jesus, is you would see the glory. As we read in Revelations, the Apostle John, when he saw the Lord, he saw the glory of God.

Ezekiel, what did he see? He saw the glory of God. That's one of the first things they saw, was the glory of God. And I believe that if you would get the vision of God, you'd see the glory of God. That's something that would stand out to you.

It's something that would draw your attention to God. It's the glory that surrounds Him. And now, if a husband or a man has a beautiful wife, she brings glory to him. And I see that when God created Adam, then He took from Adam the rib, and He made the woman.

He made her to be a glory for Adam. And I notice that God spoke to Adam in the garden, not necessarily to Eve, because He followed the chain of command there. However, God did curse Eve after the fall.

But before that, you don't see that God talks to her. He talked with Adam. Eve was the glory of man. She was the glory of the man. The woman was. She still is the glory of man. If a man has a beautiful wife standing beside him, most people will see the glory of the man first.

They'll look at the man and they'll look at his glory, which is his wife, and they will agree he has a beautiful wife. So the beautiful wife brings glory to the man. If your wife is beautiful, she will glorify you.

And I don't think we should care much for outward beauty, but the inward beauty, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, that is the ornament of grace that is upon a woman which truly glorifies her husband.

The woman is the glory of the man. Since the woman's head is the representation of man, and to have her glory exposed is to expose the glory of man. Let me say that again. The woman's head is a representation of the man, which is her head.

Her physical head is a representation of her lord or her leader, her next authority, which is man. And if this woman reveals her own glory to the world around her, she dishonors the man. Because man is not fit to have his own glory.

But man, he has his head uncovered because his physical head represents his head, which is Christ. And if Christ represents the head or equals this, you don't cover that glory because Christ's glory should not be covered.

Therefore, if a man prays or prophesies having his head covered, he dishonors his head, which is Christ. Am I confusing you? And why is this? Why is this woman below the man? Why is the woman not equal with the man?

Verse 8. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. So we see very clearly that this woman was created for the man, not the man for the woman.

And there's a principle in that that I see very clearly. If a woman is created for the man, what should her purpose in life be? What should her sole purpose in life be? It's very simple. She's created for Him.

She should live for Him. She should work for Him. She should serve Him. She should make His priorities her priorities. She should make His goals her goals. She needs to make His dreams her dreams, because she's created for Him.

Sisters, do you realize you are created for your husband? You've been created to help your husband succeed and fulfill his dreams and his goals in every area that he goes into. If you look at verse 15, we look at the glory of the woman.

The glory of the woman is her hair. And her hair is given her for a covering. And I believe, and the question I have is, when was her hair given her for a covering? When did God make woman? God made the woman in the Garden of Eden.

He made her out of the man. And I believe He made her with long hair, which was a natural covering, which showed that she was under her husband. Her natural covering of her head shows that she's under her husband.

Why then do we need to put a covering on the hair nowadays? In the Garden of Eden, very clearly, they didn't have any clothes on. And they were naked, but they were not ashamed, because I believe the glory of God covered them.

But the woman had a natural covering, and this word here in verse 15, the word covering there, is a different word than the word further up in verse 5. The word covering in verse 15 is parabolaio, which means thrown about.

Meaning simply that when the woman was made, her hair was given for her to throw about her. You know? Cast around her and cover her. The word cover up in verse 5, verse 6, is the word katakalupta, which means to cover or to hide.

When... What is one of the first things that a woman will do to draw attention to herself? She will flaunt her glory. She'll puff it. She'll comb it. She'll roll it. She'll curl it. She'll do anything she can to flaunt or to show or to make seen or to show her glory, which is her hair.

And the purpose for that is to bring glory to herself. Right? That's to draw attention to herself. Should a woman be drawing attention to herself? No. Because she's created for Him. She's created for the man.

She is created to bring attention to the man. She's created that all would be able to look at the man and honor and reverence Him. She doesn't draw attention to herself. If you would look at 1 Peter chapter 3, we can look at a few verses there.

1 Peter chapter 3. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair or of wearing of gold or putting on apparel, but let it be 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.

The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. It says, let it be the hidden man of the heart. So we see that that's what a woman should be dressed like. Also we have the scripture in 1 Timothy 2 .9. It says, in like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame, facedness and sobriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which become as women professing godliness with good works.

Let all, let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Just a few verses there to help us understand that a woman should not adorn herself to draw attention to herself, but she should be solely for the man.

The Head Covering and the Angels

Now we look at verse 10 again. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. That's a scripture that has fascinated me for many days. Because of the angels. What do the angels have to do with this thing?

If we study the angels, we'll see. If you look in Genesis 28 verse 12, don't turn there. That's when Jacob was sleeping out there at night. He had just left home. He was on his way up to his Uncle Laban and he fell asleep there and he had a dream.

In his dream he saw a ladder going up to heaven and he saw angels descending and ascending on this stairway or this ladder. And at the very top of the ladder he saw the Almighty God. So there you have a picture of the angels coming down and going up.

Psalms 91 says, verse 11, For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. It seems like God, if you look at that chapter 91 there, he's speaking about those who love God. He's speaking to those who are Christians.

And he's saying that he gives his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. So evidently from that I believe God has given his angels charge over us. I would tend to believe he has given each one of us who is a Christian a specific angel to watch over us.