Question: Please explain 1 Corinthians 11:5, 10, 11.
Answer: From verses 3-16 we have God’s order in creation. The man was to have his head uncovered when praying, because he represented authority. The woman was to be covered as a token that she was subject to the man, her covering being a token of the power to which she was subject. Angels learn by object lessons given by the redeemed, so the man and the woman cannot do without each other. Her hair is the sign of the place which God has given her.
“Given as a veil, her hair showed that modesty, submission—a covered head that hid itself, as it were, in that submission and in that modesty—was her true position, her distinctive glory.”
Both man and woman should also read 1 Peter 3:1-7.
A hard spirit in a man against his wife under any circumstances is forbidden of God. (Col. 3:19.)
Question: Why was Moses to write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua? (Ex. 17:14.)
Answer: Because Amalek, the active enemy of the people of God, can never be forgiven. (Compare Deut. 25:17-19; 1 Sam. 15:2, 3, 18, 32.)
It is the power of Satan in the enemies of God’s people seeking to destroy them. So it is from generation to generation.
Question: Why did the Lord hinder Mary from touching Him? (John 20:17).
Answer: Mary, in this passage, represents the new position and relationship given to the believing remnant of the Jews, and so to Christians everywhere. He was now taking His place as a risen and ascended One to the Father’s right hand. Therefore she is not to know Him any longer after the flesh, but by faith, and their relationship is a new one that could not be known before Christ died.
“My brethren.” “My Father and your Father, My God and your God.”
Inside the Jewish sheep fold this could not be known. No Old Testament saint ever called God, “Abba Father.” This belongs to saints of this present time only. (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6; 2 Cor. 5:16.)
In Matthew 28 the women hold Him by the feet, yet He did not rebuke them, for there He appears as the Messiah. So also in John 20:27 with Thomas.