Domestic Disobedience - Glenn Conjurske
Domestic Disobedience
Far be it from me to write anything which would encourage a spirit of disobedience, or recommend disobedience as a usual practice. I am generally accused of making too much of authority, not too little. Still, there are many in this day whose doctrine of authority is so extreme as to really call for an answer. Most of the teachers of these extreme doctrines are very inconsistent. They stand for implicit and universal obedience to parents, or to husbands, or to civil authorities, but rarely to all authority, or to authority as such, so that we sometimes meet with the anomaly of people standing for implicit obedience to authority in the home, or in the state, who will recognize no authority at all in the church.
The Command to Obey God Rather than Men
All authority comes down from God, and God commands obedience. He explicitly commands obedience to parents, to husbands, to masters, to the powers that be in the state, and to them that have the rule in the church. But we absolutely deny that he commands implicit or universal obedience to any of these, or to any man whatsoever. The principle which limits our obedience to human authorities is, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” This principle is clearly stated in the New Testament (Acts 5:29), and abundantly exemplified in the Old Testament, in such cases as Daniel, his three companions, and the Hebrew midwives in Egypt. These all disobeyed the authorities, and all with the evident blessing of God. Of the midwives we read, “Therefore—[because they disobeyed the command of the king]—God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.” (Ex. 1:20-21). The Lord so far owned the disobedience of Daniel and of his three companions as to miraculously deliver the one from the mouths of the lions, and the others from the burning fiery furnace.
The Limits of Disobedience
Yet we observe that these examples give no excuse for usual or habitual disobedience, nor to any disobedience whatsoever in matters which do not affect the conscience. Daniel was so far obedient to the authorities above him that his enemies could find nothing against him, and only succeeded in condemning him by creating a new law on purpose to ensnare him. To accomplish this nefarious purpose they must leave what was Caesar’s, and invade what was God’s—for they knew they would find nothing against him, except it concerned the law of his God.
Obedience in Indifferent Matters
And here lies the crux of the matter. In all those things which God has left indifferent, we ought to obey the authorities which he has placed above us, but in all those matters in which God has spoken, whether by precept or principle, either to require or to forbid, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” If a parent, a ruler, or a husband requires us to wear black or white dresses, or forbids us to wear blue or green ones, we ought to obey, but if he requires us to wear them tight, or short, or otherwise immodest, we ought to disobey. No man has the right to require us to do wrong, and we have no right to obey any such requirement.
Disobedience in the Face of Injustice
But we observe that there are different sorts of requirements. If any man requires us to do what God forbids, the case is perfectly plain. We must obey God, and disobey the authority. On the other hand, if we are forbidden to do what God requires, the case may not be so plain, for God may not require us to do it on every occasion, or in every place. If we are forbidden to preach the gospel at all, the case is plain, but if we are only forbidden to preach it in certain places—in a city street, or in a city park—the case is not so plain, so long as we might preach the gospel elsewhere. God himself forbade his apostles to preach the gospel in Asia on a certain occasion. If a husband forbids his wife to attend the meetings of the saints at all, the case is plain. If he only forbids her to attend a certain meeting, the case is not so plain, yet we think she would be justified in disobeying him, for she ought by all means to render to God what is God’s, and if the meeting which he disallows is the one where she has found the blessing of God upon her soul, it may be a matter of rendering to God what is God’s for her to continue there. To forsake a spiritual church, where she has learned to expect the blessing of God upon her soul and upon her children, in order to submit to a husband who will have her attend a lukewarm and unspiritual church, may in reality be unfaithfulness to God. I have known a number of cases in which a spouse has said, “I will go with you if you go to this church, but I will not go to that one”—invariably preferring the lukewarm and worldly over the zealous and spiritual—and I have known spouses to submit to this, but I have never known the blessing of God to follow.
Examples of Domestic Disobedience
I am about to relate a number of cases of domestic disobedience which were owned and blessed of God, and some of these consisted precisely of disobedience to a prohibition to attend a certain meeting, where the word of God was faithfully preached. The blessing of God followed in the most signal fashion in a number of those cases.
The disobedience of an Indian Methodist wife is briefly related by another Indian convert, a Methodist preacher to his own people. “John Sunday informed us of a certain Indian, who was so much opposed to the meetings, that he confined his wife and children to one of the islands, to prevent her attending them. But this poor woman was so anxious to obey God in attendance on worship, that she was in the habit of fording the river every night, and carrying her children on her back. Her husband was afterwards converted.”
Jabez Swan’s Testimonies of Disobedience
The Baptist evangelist Jabez Swan relates several cases of wives who disobeyed their husbands. “A wife came to the church to apply for membership, whose husband said if she was baptized he would roast her when she got home; and he got his wood and commenced heating the oven before she left. She came to me for advice as to what she should do. I advised her by all means to obey the Lord, and if her husband should kill her, the Devil was sure of him, and he would never then trouble her more, for she would find rest in heaven. She promptly obeyed the Lord, and when she got home the oven fire had all burned out, and her husband lay prostrate on the floor crying to God for mercy.
“Another wife, a most genial loving Christian, informed her husband of her intention to be baptized. This so provoked his wrath that his soul—what he had left—for he was a drunkard—seemed like an uncapped volcano, and poured out wrath like cinders and smoke from hell. When the storm had partially subsided, she in a calm tone said, ‘Daniel, I love you as well as I ever did, but shall be baptized to-day, and when I am baptized, if you do not wish me to return home, I will go home with father; he will be to meeting with the family carriage.’ This unexpected coolness and determination disarmed the tiger, and he went out and waited upon her to the water, like a gentleman, as he once was, before rum had honey-combed his heart and eaten out his manhood.
“Another case where a wife wished to follow Christ in the ordinance of baptism, the husband said, ‘I never was drunk, but if you go, I will go to the tavern and get drunk, if there is whisky enough to make me so.’ He put his horses, with the crack of the whip, for the tavern; but, before arriving, he walked his team. On arriving he drank no whisky. The wife returned from church happy. He returned from the tavern with the pains of hell holding him. Night came on; the family retired. His head seemed as if heated from the fires of the pit. He arose, called on his wife to pray for him, found mercy, and united with the same church.”
John Fletcher and the Fiery Furnace
Another remarkable case of a wife whose husband threatened to roast her in the oven is related by John Fletcher. “One Sunday, when I had done reading prayers at Madeley, I went up into the pulpit, intending to preach a sermon, which I had prepared for that purpose. But my mind was so confused, that I could not recollect either my text or any part of my sermon. I was afraid I should be obliged to come down without saying anything. But having recollected myself a little, I thought I would say something on the First Lesson, which was the third chapter of Daniel, containing the account of the three children cast into the fiery furnace. I found in doing it such an extraordinary assistance from God, and such a peculiar enlargement of heart, that I supposed there must be some peculiar cause of it. I therefore desired, if any of the congregation found anything particular, they would acquaint me with it in the ensuing week.
“In consequence of this, the Wednesday after, a woman came, and gave me the following account:—-‘I have been for some time much concerned about my soul. I have attended the church at all opportunities, and have spent much time in private prayer. At this my husband (who is a butcher) has been exceedingly enraged, and threatened me severely what he would do, if I did not leave off going to John Fletcher’s church; yea, if I dared to go any more to any religious meetings whatsoever. When I told him I could not in conscience refrain from going at least to our parish church, he grew quite outrageous, and swore dreadfully, if I went any more, he would cut my throat as soon as I came home. This made me cry mightily to God, that he would support me in the trying hour. And though I did not feel any great degree of comfort, yet having a sure confidence in God, I determined to go on in my duty, and leave the event to him. Last Sunday, after many struggles with the devil and my own heart, I came down stairs ready for church. My husband asked me, whether I was resolved to go thither. I told him, I was. Well then, said he, I shall not (as I intended) cut your throat; but I will heat the oven, and throw you into it the moment you come home. Notwithstanding this threatening, which he enforced with many bitter oaths, I went to church, praying all the way that God would strengthen me to suffer whatever might befall me. While you was speaking of the three children whom Nebuchadnezzar cast into the burning fiery furnace, I found it all belonged to me, and God applied every word to my heart. And when the sermon was ended, I thought, if I had a thousand lives, I could lay them all down for God. I felt my whole soul so filled with his love, that I hastened home, fully determined to give myself to whatsoever God pleased; nothing doubting, but that either he would take me to heaven, if he suffered me to be burned to death, or that he would some way deliver me, even as he did his three servants that trusted in him. When I got almost to our own door, I saw the flames issuing out of the mouth of the oven. And I expected nothing else, but that I should be thrown into it immediately. I felt my heart rejoice, that if it were so, the will of the Lord would be done. I opened the door, and, to my utter astonishment, saw my husband upon his knees, wrestling with God in prayer for the forgiveness of his sins. He caught me in his arms, earnestly begged my pardon, and has continued diligently seeking God ever since.’ I now know why my sermon was taken from me; namely, that God might thus magnify his mercy.”
Conclusion: The Blessing of Disobedience
In this account I beg the reader to observe the very signal blessing of God which attended this woman’s disobedience, first in his providence, in securing that the appointed scripture for the day should contain the account of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, and next in the undoubted manifestation of his hand in the preacher’s great confusion of mind and the forgetting of his sermon, and further in the evident work of his Spirit in giving to Mr. Fletcher such singular and extraordinary unction on that occasion, and finally, in the further work of his Spirit in subduing the obdurate heart of the woman’s husband.
Another case of a wife’s disobedience is related by Thomas Ware. “During my labours on this district, I formed an acquaintance with some of the most devoted, holy, zealous, and faithful people I ever knew. Some of them had been called to pass through fiery trials; and their steadfastness was proverbial. A sister Jones, of Mecklenburg, was a remarkable instance of this. She was a person of superior gifts as well as grace; and her courage and perseverance in the service of the Lord constrained all who knew her to acknowledge her deep sincerity.”