PERFUMERS, COOKS AND BAKERS [1 Samuel 8:13]

1. INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time, there was a newly born, a baby girl.  Later when I passed by, the baby has become a girl.  In a twinkle of an eye, she had become a beautiful maiden, a young woman.  The eyes of the Lord himself were upon her.  He desired her for himself, a virgin espoused to him alone, dedicated completely to him both in body and spirit that she might serve him alone. And it came to pass one day that the Lord’s damsel thought to herself, ‘Why should I be different from all others, why must I not have a king over me as all the others have?  I am getting along in age; I should have a man come into me as it is the custom of all the earth’.  The thing should thought of and desired displeased the Lord.  ‘Daughter is better you remained without a king lording it over you.  When you marry you will face many troubles in this life.  I will like you to be free of these troubles, that you may be concerned about Me alone, how to please Me and handle my affairs with undivided devotion to Me alone.  Be my bride, Me alone and I will be king over you’.

But the Lord’s damsel refused to listen it this counsel. “I want my own king, I want to be like others for a king to lead me, lord it over me, protect me, fight my battles for me, provide for my needs”.  And the Lord answered her prayers and supplication.  He listened to her and gave her a king.  But says the Lord, “Warn her solemnly, and let her know the king’s portion, what the king who reign over her will demand of her.  For he is her lord, in his favor is life but is rage is like the roar of the lion.  And to him you shall be a perfume, cook and baker (Please pause here and read the rest of the story in 1 Sam. 8:5-22, Ezekiel l6; 1-14, Gen. 19:31, Psalm 45:11, Prov. 19: 12, Ecclesiastes 8:2-8, 1 Corinthias7: 25-35 and 1 Corinthians 11: 3).

2. DEFINITIONS

A PERFUMER (an apothecary KJV) is a person who mixes spices to make anointing oil and the incense (Exodus 30:25-35, 37:29).  The anointing oil is used to consecrated and set apart a person (or a thing) for God’s holy use (Exodus 30:22-33). The incense is a rich perfume used in sacrifices to call the attention of God, open the door into his presence and as a vehicle to carry prayer along (See Exodus 30:7-8, Ezra 6:10, Malachi 1:ll, Rev. 8:3-4).

A BAKER (Confectionery KJV) makes and supplies bread and cake, Jeremiah. 37:21. He/she kindles fire (Isaiah 44:15) and stirs up the flames of the oven.

A COOK is one who prepares food, keep portions and serve them in due season (I Sam. 9:23).

3. PERFUMERS

As defined earlier, perfumers are responsible for mixing spices for the anointing oil and the incense to be burnt on the altar.  This speaks of:

1. A ministry of praise, worship and intercession (Rev. 5:7, 8:3-4, Ezra 6:10 and Exodus 30:8). The queen Esther typifies a woman that understood her ministry well.  Contrasted to the willful Vashti, she knew the proper time and procedure (Ecclesiastes 8:2-6) to get the king to do the right thing even if he was on the wrong course already.  Likewise Zipporah (Exodus 4:24-26) knew what to do to save her minister - husband’s life, even when God was about to slay him.
   
   Woman, you have power with men and with God only if you will apply your heart to wisdom and God’s principles.  Through you the Lord can change the decision of kings.  Through your intercession the sword of death and destruction over your husband and family can be returned to its sheath without the sentence being carried out.  When as perfumers, you approach the King of Kings bearing acceptable incense of praise and worship, you will call the attention of the King sitting on his royal throne in heaven, win his favor, have his golden scepter (authority) extended to you (Esther 5:1-2).  The Lord will ask after your problems, he will grant your requests, he will delegate authority to you, seal your prayers with his divine signet (Esther 5:3, 8; 7-10).  Daughters of Zion learn to offer sacrifices of sweet aroma to the God of heaven, (that you may) pray for the life of your king | (husband) and his sons (Ezra 6:10, NKJV).
2. Creating a pleasant atmosphere at home.  Ps. 45:7-9, Songs of Solomon 1:12, 3:6 and 4:10-11 describe the fragrance spread at home by the woman.  Proverbs 27:9 tells us that perfumers and fragrant oils (incense) bring joy to the heart (makes a man happy).  When a woman functions in the ministry of the perfumery, she creates a happy pleasant, joyous atmosphere for everyone at home.  A contentious woman on the other hand causes a man to stray from his home (Proverbs 21:9, 221:19, 25:24, 27:8 and 27:15).  Woman you dictate and regulate the mood at home.  If you exude pleasant fragrance your husband, the children, brethren and unbelievers will be drawn to your home, If you pour out the stench of ill-temper, anger, contention or quarrelsomeness, you are closing doors barring gates against even your own (Proverbs 18:9). Pleasant words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul, healing to the bones (Proverb 16:24).  
   
   Daughter of Zion let your tongue be wholesome, bringing healing and life (Proverbs 15:4 NKJV.NIV.TEV). According to the multitude of the heart the mouth does speak. Let your heart be like an alabaster box, your speech like the breaking of the costly alabaster box .Let the sweet smell of your perfume, your gracious speech, fill your homes (John 12:3). Then you can enter into the ministry of intercession, have sins forgiven and an eternal memory on earth and in heaven (Matthew 26:7-13, Luke 7:37-50).
3. Another function of the perfumer is the preservative aspect.  Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of James and Salome anointed Jesus body with spices and fragrant oils (John l9: 40, Matt 26:12 Luke 23:55-56) to prevent the body from going bad.  Sisters, be the salt of the home, striving for peace at all times.
4. Closely related to the burning of incense is the lighting of the lamps (Exodus 30:7-8, 35:28). The ministry of praise, worship and intercession also opens the door for the illumination of God’s word and the knowledge of his will.  Revelation of the word, for you and your minister - husband will come easily as you function in your office as a perfumery.

4. BAKERS

The ministry of the baker is a ministry of hospitality, a restorative and refreshing ministry. Three women- Sarah (Gen l8: 1-7), the witch of Endor (1 Sam 28:20-25) and the widow of Zarepeth (1 Kings 17: 9-16) illustrate this ministry.  Psalm 104: 15c tells us bread sustains (strengthens) man.  Divine bread and water sustained Elijah for forty days (1 Kings 19: 5-8). The reprobate king Saul was revived when he ate the witch of Endow’s bread.  The hospitality of Abraham and Lot (Gen 19) opened the door for divine visitation and intervention in their lives.  So was that of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:8--l7).

Hospitality is the key to divine visitation and intervention.  Hebrew 3:2 exhort us to welcome strangers in your home, as some have welcomed angels without knowing it.  Verse 16 tells us not to forget to do well and help one another, because these are the sacrifices that please God. Another significant aspect of the baker’s ministry is to kindle (stir) the fire in the oven (Isaiah 44:l5, Hosea 7:4-6).  This speaks for the priestly intercessory duty of keeping the fire on the altar burning all night.  (Leviticus 6:8-13).  Daughters of Zion, keep the fire of intercession burning in your homes.  Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.  They that sow in tears will reap in joy.  Fight not in the flesh, with the weapons of men, after the likeness of carnal men.  Rather travail all through the night, and in the morning the flames will blaze, consumes the problems and the enemies of your soul. (See Micah 4:8-13).

One other important function of the baker is to turn the cake during baking so that the cake is well cooked on all sides.  In Hosea 7:8 Ephraim is described as a cake not turned (KJV) or “good-for-nothing as a half-baker cake!” (TLB)  Ephraim is a byword for a wilful, unbroken, proud, wayward person.  Indeed the book of Hosea is a lamentation of Ephraim’s wilfulness.  

Even the prophet Hosea was made to experience the pangs of the Ephraim’s prostitution to God when he had to marry a prostitute.  Ephraim is compared to an unbroken, stubborn calf, a mule (See Hosea 4:16 TEV, Jet. 31:18 Also Ps 32:8-9.

A major function of mothers as bakers is to make sure that children (especially daughters) turn out to be discipline and submissive.  Proverb 10:1 tells us that a wise son makes his father glad but a foolish son is the grief of his mother!  (Also Prov. 17:25 and 29:15).  Little wonder the chronicle of the kings always included a mention of their mothers-especially if the king is a bad one! (See the book of First Kings). Although Eph. 6:4 gives fathers the duty of bringing children up in the training and admonition of the Lord, mothers by the intercessory roles are better place to turn the cake during the night watches.  “To your knees, O mothers, kindle the fire during the night watches, and even though you feel the heat, turn the cake (the children) around, so that they do not end up half-baked, good for nothing, societal misfits and spiritual disasters.

Pertinent to stress here that like begets likes.  If a woman is unruly, non-submissive, unbroken, she cannot rear children that children that are otherwise, for if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root is holy, so are the branches (Rom. 11:16).  So cut off the wild olive nature and be engrafted in the root and fatness of the cultivated olive tree.  Purge yourself of the old leaven, that you may be a new lump (Rom. 11:116-25 I Corinthians 5:6-8).

5. COOKS

Apart from the text in 1 Sam 8:13, the other place the word cook is used in the scripture is 1 Sam 9:23-24 where Samuel told the cook to bring the portion given to him to set apart.  The nearest equivalent would be in Luke 12:42 where the word “steward” is used to describe the person the master designated as ruler over the household, to give the other servants their portion of food in due season. One intriguing observation is that in biblical times it was actually the steward not the wife who was the ruler over the business/affairs of the house (see Gen 24:2-10, 39:4, 43:16, Luke 12:42.  

Interestingly, Gen 39:6 exempted “food” (bread NKJV) from what Joseph the steward of Potiphar’s house was in charge of.  In Proverb 31, the virtuous wife gets up while it is still dark and provides food for her family and to tell her servant-girls what to do (verse 5 NIV, TEV) while verse 27 states she watches over the affairs of her household (look after her family’s need).  It appears to me that the woman’s primary ministry is to the man and the household, not to his work or ministry.  Yes she can have her trade (verse l3, l8, 24), her farm (verse l6) her money saving (verse l6) etc. but her primary duty is in giving the household their portion of food and clothing of the family (verses 14-16, 21-22).

6. THE KING’S PORTION

In an age when western humanist ideologies reign, it is necessary that we go to the eternal unchanging Word of God as a standard.  In an age advocating and supporting militant feminism, gender equality, women’s right and the like, Christian sisters, especially minister’s wives must uphold the scripture as the guide. Nowhere in the scripture is functional or hierarchical equality between the sexes ever upheld, modernism or not.  What are present are a king/lord/master/leader and a queen/helper/follower relationship between the sexes (Gen 3:16, 18:12, Psalm 45:10-11, S.O.S 11:4, I Corinthians 11:3-7). “He will rule over you”, my master is old” “honor him for he is your lord”, “the head of the woman is man” etc. are not the language of equality. When like the Israelite asked for a king, a woman asks for a husband, she is asking for a man who will reign over her (I Sam 8:9).  The wedding song in Psalm 45 exhorts’ the daughter to “Listen, consider and give ear”.  She is to forget her father’s house to worship (the husband) for he is (her) lord (verse 10-11).  Whether we choose a liberal or a literal translation of I Corinthians 11:1-10,verse 10 unequivocal states that “a woman should have a covering over her to show that she is under her husband’s authority” (TEV).  Every queen is subject to a king, and functions only in delegated or permitted authority (see Number 30:1-16, Esther 8,Jer 44:19). In those days everyone did just as he pleased because there was no king in Israel (Judge 17:6). There is a king in the home; the queen is not free to do as she wills (see Ecclesiastes 8:2-6).

7. ONCE UPON THE TREES

A relevant and interesting parable is recorded in Judge 9:7-15. In an age when everyone want to be king, the olive tree, the fig-tree and the grapevine rightly rejected the offer to be a king, to concentrate on their primary ministry and function. In order to be king, each would have stopped performing its divine role. You cannot be what you are not meant to be, and still be at the same time what you are meant to be.  When we usurp authority function that is not ours, we stop being a blessing rather we become hurting thrones and thistle (see also Isaiah 34:12-15)

Daughter of Zion,”each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (I Corinthians 7:17).  Miriam (Num. 12) and King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:16-23) become leprous when they went beyond their calls and ministry. May that not be your portion in Jesus name.

8. CONCLUSION

This work has concentrated on the ministry of Christian women to their husbands/households as perfumers, cooks and bakers. It is not an exhaustive exposition on all the facets of a Christian woman’s ministry. Women do function as prophetesses, pastors, missionaries, deacons and church workers. In western countries, 80% of support for God’s work still comes from women (Shepherd’s Staff, WORLD MAP 1993).  But their first call is to minister as performers, cooks and bakers to their king (husband), and then to the household. May you be a Mary (John 122-3, a Sarah (Gen. 18:6-12) and a virtuous woman in your generation. Amen.