Isaiah 4:1: And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
The first verse of Isaiah chapter 4 follows on from the description of the previous chapter (Isaiah 3:16-26), of how the modern women would become so loose, available and desperate in the last days. The last age is a demoralized one. Women have made themselves cheap, and true ladyhood is rare to find. In their becoming less feminine and more dominant, men have been put off, and some turned to homosexuality instead.
A real man is not interested in some career driven woman who will not submit to him inside the loving commitment of the marriage covenant. He does not want some assertive, domineering woman who is not interested in baring and raising his children and being a real loving wife. The women of today have largely chosen to run around with whatever man they can find. They prefer a relationship by association rather than a relationship of commitment. Divorce is rampant and marriage is becoming a thing of the past.
But Isaiah 4:1 also bares relevance to the church. During the seven church ages, the false church of each age proclaimed to be the church of Christ, and yet they would not submit to the Headship of the Word. They called themselves by His name (we are “Christians”), but each fed upon its own teaching (its own bread) and each was clothed with its own traditions. Those seven women have multiplied into thousands of denominational women today, churches that claim to be Christian, but each with its own set of teachings and each steeped in its own tradition. They like the brand name (Jesus), but they will not put on the garments of the Word that Jesus offers.
To not be married was a reproach to a woman in ancient times. But when a woman wants to take the man’s name without submitting to his headship, then she is not truly willing to come into a marriage covenant, for only by the marriage covenant to Christ can our reproach be rolled away. And so the Roman Catholic Church and the denominations are the great whore and the harlots, each guilty of committing fornication.
Fornication is a sexual act between unmarried persons, whereas adultery is between married persons. So then, the false church and her denominational daughters are flaunting the name of Christ, but they are flirters whom Christ has rejected. He never entered into a marriage covenant with them because they refused the Word for the age.