The Write Place

We live in a moment in history of tremendous upheaval, chaos and disorder. More men and women are petering out in the dating market. Women are told to be men and that they will always be desirable. Men are made to resent women by the same and are told they are useless, evil and wicked even for their desires to provide and commit. After all, so the myth goes, they actually only want one thing. Women would rather choose 600-pound bear than the thousands of men they’ve encountered who never harmed them for the fear of the myth that all men are predators. Then they wonder why men don’t want them. Men are suffering, and so are women. Thanks to feminism (chauvinism perpetrated by women) and the sexual revolution, it seems the war between the sexes is being lost by both sides.

It was not made to be this way. Scripture tells us how we got here.

In Genesis 2 Adam inspects the animals God made for him to have dominion over. Upon inspection the animals he sees he cannot find what so many of them have upon his inspection for himself. Adam sees he is without a mate. He can see he is a male, but he has no female. Something remains incomplete in Adam, as much of an image bearer as he is alone, he needs someone to complete him, and the mission God has for him.

²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made^[h] into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”^[i]

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:22-24

Adam presents Eve with the first poem, a short descriptive song about what she means to him.

Women like songs and poetry, that’s not a coincidence nor is it a mistake.

He names her, claiming her as his own suitable queen to reign by his side, under his authority. The Woman (later named Eve) literally completes him. Their union is a reunion. She gives him someone to fight for.

And he fails.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You^[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,^[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:1-7

The Serpent, more crafty than any of the beasts of the field (an indicator something more is going on here) approaches the woman. The woman acts instead of Adam, taking his place as the lead and the high priest. She believes the serpents lie (1 Timothy 2:14, 2 Corinthians 11:3). Adam just stood there, watching as she falls. He tries to take the sin on himself by joining her, but instead brings about the curse into all the creation that was his dominion. He then proceeds to throw her under the bus as she does the same to him in their confession (loosely so called).

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool^[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”^[d] 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:8-13

The fall effects the relationships of creation. Man is alienated from God, no longer able to dwell with him. This brings us to how the effects are also devastating to the relationship between man and woman.

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing.
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to^[b] your husband,
    but he shall rule over you.”

Genesis 3:16

What may be missing to most readers is the depth of what is mentioned here. She had desired her husband naturally and beautifully already. The ESV translates it contrary, other translations render it “against.” Though not untrue, neither quite captures how the desire spoken of here is the same of a predator for its prey. The same word describes sins desire for Cain before he slew his brother Abel. She wants to take his position as a predator on the hunt, but she will fail.

Feminism’s attempt to take the man’s position and make the woman sexually as sinful as we assume men to be is found right in the pages of scripture as the curse for our disobedience.

Of course, it does not stop there.

Adam will use his strength that was made to kill the Serpent and protect the garden to be the tyrant over his wife. Systems like Islam and Karmic systems that allow the beating of a woman flow from the fallen state of nature and the sin in the man.

Patriarchy is inevitable, tyranny is of the fall.

If only there was some hope that could turn back this curse. That could undo the fall that corrupted these relationships and restore what the relationship of man and woman was meant to be.

Well…

²² Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.^[a] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body. ³¹ “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³ However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

I think now we can see how the Gospel is imaged in marriage.

In the redemptive work of the Gospel in the Church, women submit themselves to men who love them sacrificially, as bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. Christ died for his bride, fighting for her the way Adam was made to even to the point of death. Now Men are called to the same selfless, self-sacrificing leadership that Christ exemplifies. His bride the Church follows him faithfully. The oneness, so deep as to be described as being the same flesh is now in the Gospel restored at last.