Who hasn’t heard Let the man chase you! Men are hunters, let them hunt. So men are groomed.
The Bible says, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, . . . Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?“ (Galatians 3:1, 3).
In every case in the Bible where God is shown to have put together a husband and a wife, the wife was brought to the woman. God brought Eve to Adam (Genesis 2:22). Rebekah was taken to Isaac (Genesis 24). Ruth was divinely sent to Boaz (Ruth 2 and 3). The hunter man is shown to simply acknowledge and receive the wife God has chosen for him. Like Abraham, he was to believe God, and it would be accounted to him as having found her.
According to Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed in God, and because he believed, it was counted unto him as righteousness. The Apostle Paul expounds on this a bit further in Romans 4. Beginning with verse 3, he says, ”For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:3-5).
In Galatians 3, Paul teaches how this principle may be applied to other believers, even today’s believers. He says, ”Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:6-9).
Surely by now you’re thinking that I am forgetting to address the one verse foundational for the argument that God put in man this insatiable hunter spirit. For this reason alone, man must hunt for his wife. The verse “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22). There it is! You say, “It is the chase that must be satisfied!”
Okay. Let’s see how that went in Scripture. What man is shown in Scripture to have found his woman, his wife? Hmmm. Correct me if I am missing anyone. But I can only think of the notorious Samson. And we all know how that went. Regardless, let’s have a look.
Obviously Samson was aware that the visual was to have the woman presented to the man. Notice: “Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well” (Judges 14:1-3).
“How many are pursuing the same course as did Samson! How often marriages are formed between the godly and ungodly, because inclination [italics supplied] governs in the selection of husband or wife! The parties do not ask the counsel of God, nor have His glory in view.” So says one prophet of the LORD, Ellen G. White, in Patriarchs and Prophets, page 563. (Read also “Your Own Husband.”)
Scripturally and realistically, it seems we all would do well to subdue natural inclination and submit to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And No. I have not forgotten. Neither am I avoiding Judges 14:4, which is better understood and in keeping with the hardened heart of Pharaoh in Exodus 7, 8, 10, and 14, and as stated about the enemies of GOD’s people in Joshua 11:20. There Joshua states that “it was of the LORD to harden their hearts.” But that’s for another discussion.
Now let’s please look back at Proverbs 18:1, for context and to also understand what or who really drove Samson to wed one of Timnath, since he had apparently rejected God’s choice for him from among God’s people. “Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.” Verse 2: ”A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” Now recall Samson’s response to his parents pleadings and consider verse 6 (also in Proverbs 18): ”A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.” And Samson’s fall and fatal honor are capsulated in verse 12: “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”
This term humility or meekness is a fruit of the Spirit and is key to having the mind of Christ, “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6-11).
The fact that GOD places within the heart of man that very nature, which he must subdue to wed GOD’s choice for him is likely similar to the experience of JESUS, who had to resist all of His divine power and depend only upon GOD His Father through the Holy Spirit, as any human. When man does that, he is then qualified to be a husband. That is the man a woman can submit herself to, as unto the LORD. This is that man the Apostle Paul describes in the extremely popular verse men enjoy quoting: Ephesians 5:22, ”Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.”
And it is that kind of husband that is indeed ”head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church” (verse 23). Remember, Christ loved the church, gave Himself for it, nourished it, sanctified and cleansed it with the washing of water by the Word [daily leading in Bible study and prayer and praise in the home—not just at church]. And He cherished it. ”That he might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives” (verse 27 and first part of 28).
This is the man who has found a good thing and has obtained the favor of GOD. He has found it a good thing to subdue the spirit of hunting before marriage and can be found faithful throughout his marriage. Such a marriage is an act of worship!
So then men, it is not until you believe GOD and that belief is manifested by your obedience to His choice of a wife for you that you may be accounted as having found a wife. Those finders are keepers. And the hunters are weepers.