For the average woman in the western world today losing a male covering, like a father or husband, is hardly more than an inconvenience. Her needs are still often met with aid from big daddy government through social security, retirement funds, wills, insurances, alimony, child support and other benefits that encourage a woman to remain alone and uncovered. Most woman are only living for today; “what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear?” To be sure, these are important issues but the most important issue is not addressed or even understood.

But for a woman of worth in Israel losing her man by death or divorce is a very big deal because she knows how important it is to have a male covering in her life. And divorce is a badge of shame which makes it that much harder for her to find a righteous man.

In Divorce and Remarriage (1) we saw that in Torah a women never chooses to leave her man. Divorce and Remarriage (2) addressed the fact that there are no righteous women dwelling alone and uncovered in Yehovah’s kingdom. And finally in Divorce and Remarriage (3) I addressed still more of the many New Testament (NT) perversions on this subject. There are many places in the NT that would have us believe that remarriage after a divorce is adultery. Such profound foolishness! These wicked ideas fly in the face of what THE Elohim (THE lawmaker and judge) of all creation said through His servant Moses.

“When a man takes a woman and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house. When she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s. If the latter man detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his woman, then her former man who divorced her must not take her back to be his woman after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before Yehovah, and you shall not bring sin on the land which Yehovah your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance. (Deu 24:1-4)

Yehovah makes it all very clear here; a woman once divorced can always get remarried once she has a certificate of divorce from her husband. But, if she does not have that certificate/bill of divorcement she is committing adultery and so is the man who she is coming to. In many of the kingdoms of men folks are married in the broad road and obtain permission from big daddy government to marry. When an annulment happens a divorce decree is issued. Once the husband signs that decree the woman is free to remarry.

When my wife left me I refused to sign the state’s divorce decree and instead gave my wife a certificate of divorce and walked out of the court with the judge pleading for me to come back. I fought for 4 years to keep my family together, but I knew that day it was over and I left. 🙁

But today there are many widowed. orphaned and divorced women who are repenting and seeking the Creator’s eternal and unchanging way for their own lives. They are starting to see that they have no relationship with Yehovah without a male covering in their life and they are now understand their reproach.

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.” (Isa 4:1)

Well most women, and men also, have not renewed their minds far enough to understand that plural marriages are a reality in Yehovah’s kingdom with its unchanging statutes, judgments and ordinances. But this will be a reality in the coming last days and the millennial kingdom. This verse alone tells me that righteous men will be in demand. But isn’t that always the case?

Their reproach is that they have suddenly found themselves alone and uncovered. To the woman Yehovah said, “He shall rule over you” not I (Yehovah) shall rule over you.

To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth sons; your desire shall be for your man, and he shall rule over you.” (Gen 3:16)

Today, these women are seeing that they need a covering in their lives but are failing to get covered because they can not find the “perfect” man. But what man is perfect? Yehovah did not say “only a righteous man shall rule over you.”

Ladies, you need a man in your life; your father, husband, son, uncle or other near of kin or perhaps even a master. That’s right, I said master! Do Israel’s men still have male and female servants in their households like Elieser and Hagar? These people can be like family members. Does Yehovah change? Does His word endure forever? Again, we need to renew our minds to what Yehovah’s word actually says. In the last days Israel will have male-servants (ebed – pronounced “eh’-ved”) and female-servants (shiphkhah – pronounced “shif-khaw”).

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My spirit on all flesh; Your [Israel’s] sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on the menservants (ebved) and on the maidservants (shiphkhah) I will pour out My spirit in those days. (Joe 2:28-29)

Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants (eved) and maidservants (shiphkhah) in the land of Yehovah; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors. (Isa 14:2)

We will have male and female servants! Here is a thought. Can a woman put herself into the service of a righteous man? I believe she can, and will. In the coming days it may mean the difference between eternal life and death.

The free woman Hagar was given to Abraham as a female servant (a shiphkhah) for Sarai.

Jasher 15:30 Now therefore here is thy wife, take her and go from our land lest we all die on her account. And Pharaoh took more cattle, men servants and maid servants, and silver and gold, to give to Abram, and he returned unto him Sarai his wife.
31 And the king took a maiden whom he begat by his concubines, and he gave her to Sarai for a handmaid.

I am sure that having her status changed from a mistress in Pharaoh’s house to a handmaid in the house of the Hebrew Abram was quite a shock. But Hagar’s father, the Pharaoh, comforted Hagar with these words as she pleaded with him to let her stay.

Jasher 15:32 And the king said to his daughter, “It is better for thee, my daughter, to be a handmaid in this man’s house than to be mistress in my house, after we have beheld the evil that befell us on account of this woman [Sarai].”

No truer words were ever spoken to Hagar; and during the course of the next ten years she learned righteousness in the house of Abram.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. (Gen 16:1)

Jasher 16:23 And Sarai, the daughter of Haran, Abram’s wife, was still barren in those days; she did not bear to Abram either son or daughter.
24 And when she saw that she bare no children she took her handmaid Hagar, whom Pharaoh had given her, and she gave her to Abram her husband for a wife.
25 For Hagar learned all the ways of Sarai as Sarai taught her, she was not in any way deficient in following her good ways.

Can a woman learn to become a woman of worth for a man who is less than righteous or one who lacks it altogether? The answer is yes, without a doubt; Abigail did! Which is better, to learn to serve an unrighteous man while encouraging him to learn and do righteousness or to perish from the earth? If I were a woman the answer to that question would be a no-brainer; I would hardly want to even close my eyes until I had found a new covering for myself.

Widows, orphans and divorcées need to make a concerted to effort the find a covering. Don’t play hard to get, play at getting, hard. Finding a man must be a priority in your life.