Cambridge Dictionary has added a new definition for the word “woman,” indicating that the word refers to “an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth.”  Merriam-Webster also changed the definition of female to include anyone who has “a gender identity that is the opposite of male.”  In other words, biological males are now females if they think they are.  

Fox News commented on the added definition, tweeting, “1984 wasn’t supposed to be a how-to manual.”  This referred to George Orwell’s concept of “Newspeak” where “… government-created language redefines words to control the thoughts and speech of those under the totalitarian rule of Big Brother and The Party.”  Per Fox, the woke movement is seeking to control language, thoughts, and speech.  This is what is happening with the word woman.  

A spokesperson for Cambridge Press noted, “[they] carefully studied usage patterns of the word woman and concluded that this definition is one that learners of English should be aware of to support their understanding of how the language is used.”

In a discussion of the word “woman” in World magazine, Carl Trueman makes a distinction between prescriptive and descriptive meanings for words in dictionaries.  Prescriptive meanings help “to stabilize a word’s meaning by giving formal definitions.”  A descriptive meaning reflects “the way a word is used in various contexts.” Speaking descriptively, Trueman notes that one can describe “a woman trapped in the wrong body…[which] simply reflects the utter confusion about biological sex and gender.”

Beyond this, however, in giving a prescriptive meaning, the dictionary “not only describes conventional usage of the term.  It also prescribes such usage.”  In other words, the dictionary is changing the very meaning of the word “woman.”  Trueman warns: “Words are becoming means of maintaining the power… tools by which the powerful control interpretation.”

Our needed response, notes Trueman, “is to challenge the cultural power structures of which the dictionary is one manifestation.  It’s a power-grab, but neither pure nor simple… What is happening is not a merely semantic game or the demand that we deny reality.  It is the assertion of power.” These words should be a wake-up call, giving every God-fearing man a reason to simply stand confidently in his God-given maleness, while celebrating his opposite in a biological woman. Do this and you defy the power-grab.

I agree with Trueman when he advocates, “For it is in our speech, in our speaking, that the first line of resistance to this power-grab can be mounted.”  We resist this power-grab by simply living out who we were created to be since the beginning of creation.  Nothing has changed. “This is the history of the descendants of Adam.  When God created people, he made them in the likeness of God.  He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them “human” (Gen. 5:1 NLT).

As mature men in Christ, we can simply stand confidently in our masculinity and our manhood.  “Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth” (Eph. 4:14 NLT).  We are not to live by the definitions of contemporary culture. “Live no longer as the Gentiles [ungodly] do, for they are hopelessly confused” (Eph. 4:17 NLT).  For “they don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways” (Eph. 4:19 NLT). 

Don’t forget!  We are in a spiritual battle (Eph. 6:10-12). 

Soon after the Babylonians took young King Jehoiachin and many of the leading citizens of Jerusalem into exile, God gave Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs. This exile had been smaller than the first exile of 605 BC.  This exile took place in 597 BC, nearly ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.  Those left behind believed they had been favored over those in Babylon. “They could not imagine that Babylon would be the place where the true faith would survive and thrive.  But what the people viewed as a disaster could work for good” (Grace and Truth Bible). 

In the vision Jeremiah saw, “one basket had very good figs” while “the other basket had very bad figs” (Jer. 24:2).  God provided a prophetic meaning to the visual metaphor. “The message turns popular assumptions upside down; if the people thought that those who were carried off to exile were the ones who were headed for extinction like rotten fruit, while those who remained were in for a happier future, they were completely wrong” (Bible Speaks Today). 

The Lord gives this surprising interpretation to the vision: “Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians” (Jer. 24:5).  “The Lord was announcing a remarkable theological concept.  His evaluations are not based on people’s goodness but on his sovereign grace” (Jeremiah – Huey). Those left behind believed they would be blessed by remaining in the land.  But God intended blessing and refinement for those in captivity.

God promised protection and prosperity for those in exile.  He would bring them back after 70 years in captivity. “My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them” (Jer. 24:6).

Even more than prospering, God would give them a heart to know him: “And I’ll give them a heart to know me, God.  They’ll be my people and I’ll be their God, for they’ll have returned to me with all their hearts” (Jer. 24:7 – Message). The people would choose God, while God remained in sovereign control.  “God requires his people to turn but they can no longer turn; but what they can no longer do he will do for them by giving them a new heart which can turn.  His sovereign grace will create a new reality that breaks out of the prison of human failure and inability” (Bible Speaks Today). 

In my opinion, there is an important lesson for us as we navigate the spiritual bareness of our day.  We are in many ways a people going into exile. We will be like strangers in a foreign land.  That time is coming quickly.

There are two major takeaways from this vision, as we will need to faithfully endure what will be happening.  First, we need to believe that we will prosper in exile.  How God accomplishes that is up to Him.  I cling to this promise: “I’ll build them up, not tear them down: I’ll plant them, not uproot them” (Jer. 24:6 – Message). 

Further, and more incredibly, God will give us a heart to know God even better and return to Him with all our hearts.  In words that come close to the “new creation” language of II Cor. 5:17, God promises “a heart to know me.” 

Men: be a man (and seek men) with a heart for God – open and responsive to Him.