"...Say you are my sister, for then I will be treated well for your sake..."
When Abram and Sarai move to Egypt, Abram fears his beautiful wife will attract Pharaoh's attention, thus risking Abram's life. So he cooks up a plan that ends up with Sarai in Pharaoh's harem. Very little is said about Sarai's role in Abram's charade. Obviously she went along with it. But did she protest? Would Abram have listened if she did? What were her thoughts, feelings, and fears?
In fact, from the Fall up to this part of the Bible, there's not much said about women. They're listed only in conjunction with their men. How did Eve, the Mother of all Living, raise her children without the support of friends and older women who had already been there, done that? Did Noah's wife have doubts about the ark, or was she as faithful as her husband? Did she pick up a hammer and work alongside her husband? Was she in charge of feeding the lions? What about the Tower of Babel? Were those women as wrongfully ambitious as their spouses? We don't know. But I would venture to guess that, as elsewhere in the Bible and throughout history, God rewards the faithful and punishes the unjust.
So now we come to Sarai. She had already followed her husband when he left their homeland to trek into the unknown. But in this story, he's not asking her to pack up and move. He's telling her to lie and make nice with Pharaoh - all so that Abram's life will be spared (no mention of whether or not this would benefit Sarai - I'm thinking that wasn't Abram's chief concern).
What's a wife to do when her husband's leadership would cause her to sin? Sarai's life was probably about to be compromised either way - if Pharaoh wanted her, he'd take her. Maybe that's the reasoning Abram used on her. So if God says the man is the head of the house, and women are to submit, does that mean we are to always blindly obey?
No. Our submission must always be to God first. We are to trust God and be obedient to Him. And if we are in a situation - as Sarai likely was - where we do not have the option of defying our husband's wishes, we should cry out to God for help. He hears, and He will answer.
Showing posts with label Submission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Submission. Show all posts
Monday, May 21, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Genesis 3:16
"...Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
Oh, Eve, what did you do? I probably shouldn't be so hard on you, because if you hadn't been the one to eat the fruit, I no doubt would have. But it's sad to think of what marriage would have been like if sin hadn't messed it up. And while all I've ever known is marriage, however good, tainted by sin, poor Eve actually knew what a perfect marriage was like - and then she lost it.
Were we created to be equal partners? I don't know. I know man and woman were given different areas of strength and giftedness, and were designed to complement each other. But was man originally intended to be the head of the household? I'm going to just take a guess and say yes. Marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church. So with that in mind, I tend to think Adam was meant to lead his family. The curse refers to woman's feelings about man's headship.
This part of the curse is different from the others. Pain in childbirth and difficulty in providing for a family are circumstances outside of our control. But a woman's desire for her husband's role is a heart issue. It seems to me that this is a part we could, and should, be able to manage (with God's help).
But we don't. We try to be better, smarter, faster, stronger. We nag and manipulate to get our way. When we do "let" him make the decisions, we're quick to say "I told you so" if things don't work out. We play all the games women are so great at playing, in an attempt to get the upper hand. Should the man be a controlling dictator? No, and there are other places in the Bible that support this (Ephesians 5, for example). Marriage should be a partnership. There should be mutual love and respect. But we women are quick to gloss over the fact that God placed man as head of the household and told woman to submit. In a godly marriage, that is how it should be.
Oh, Eve, what did you do? I probably shouldn't be so hard on you, because if you hadn't been the one to eat the fruit, I no doubt would have. But it's sad to think of what marriage would have been like if sin hadn't messed it up. And while all I've ever known is marriage, however good, tainted by sin, poor Eve actually knew what a perfect marriage was like - and then she lost it.
Were we created to be equal partners? I don't know. I know man and woman were given different areas of strength and giftedness, and were designed to complement each other. But was man originally intended to be the head of the household? I'm going to just take a guess and say yes. Marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church. So with that in mind, I tend to think Adam was meant to lead his family. The curse refers to woman's feelings about man's headship.
This part of the curse is different from the others. Pain in childbirth and difficulty in providing for a family are circumstances outside of our control. But a woman's desire for her husband's role is a heart issue. It seems to me that this is a part we could, and should, be able to manage (with God's help).
But we don't. We try to be better, smarter, faster, stronger. We nag and manipulate to get our way. When we do "let" him make the decisions, we're quick to say "I told you so" if things don't work out. We play all the games women are so great at playing, in an attempt to get the upper hand. Should the man be a controlling dictator? No, and there are other places in the Bible that support this (Ephesians 5, for example). Marriage should be a partnership. There should be mutual love and respect. But we women are quick to gloss over the fact that God placed man as head of the household and told woman to submit. In a godly marriage, that is how it should be.
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