The Woman's Sentence

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE WOMAN’S SENTENCE

 

Gen 3:16

16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

NIV

This may be one of the most unpopular verses in the bible. Paul’s letter to Timothy has some unpopular truths regarding leadership in the family structure. This unpopularity may have only reared its head in the post-modern church. This current church has been taking more and more of its cues from society than staying the course under the authority of scripture. From this sentencing of God toward the woman it appears his intent was that Eve would not have any pain in childbearing and that she was to walk in union with Adam as co-heirs, although she was formed from Adam to be a suitable helper, or as the Hebrew puts it, an aid mate. Now God makes it clear that she will be ruled by the man, although she will desire him, that is wanting to be with him as a mate, the desire for intimacy. We could say it was God’s intent now because it was the woman who was deceived by evil, she is now to be under the rule of the man, to keep watch over her, to protect her from deceptions from the evil one. However, today’s church has gone amuck and given women leadership positions, even as pastors over the church, including the weak men within the congregations who have abdicated the rule given to them by God. We see this same abdication of leadership by men in marriages within our culture and that too has crept into the church. It is no wonder wives do not accept the rule of their husband when he has given over all authority in the marriage to his wife. As a general rule, what happened to men in this culture who became so unmanly, even to the point of becoming feminized in their manners and speech. The church should be the bastion of truth guided by the full content of the scriptures and in the case of this scripture, in relationship to marriage, where the woman has been put under the reign, or rule, or under the power of her husband, as the meaning of the Hebrew word translated as rule means. This first means the man, the husband must step up and be the one who takes all the responsibility in the marriage, for authority does not produce responsibility, however, the reverse is true, where being responsible produces authority. Let us, at least within the church, set the standard according to God’s word, and not follow the influence of this evil world. Does God intend that we walk through life as partners, absolutely, however, the man must rule over his family, being responsible for the physical and spiritual well-being of his wife, who is determined by God to be ruled by her husband. Once again, let us within the church live by God’s plan, as unpopular as it is, rather than the world’s plan.