The Write Place

The perceptiveness of scripture concerning human nature is a testament to it’s truth. The bible understands the fall of man and gives us an understanding of why things are the way they are. When our first parents failed in their test, they brought about the covenant curses that would affect all of the created world. The subsequent curse upon humanity provides a perfect framing for understanding what is wrong today. That includes in our relationships with each other.

Women tend to define themselves by their relationships, men by what they do. It’s remarkable how perceptive scripture is about human nature.

In Genesis 3:14 we see the falls effect on women, and it is distinctly female.

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

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^[a] your husband,
    but he shall rule over you.”

Genesis 3:16

Womanhood is cursed to “desire” not the husband as a lover, but the husband’s position as a predator does its prey. The battle of the sexes is a result of the fall. What once was a mutually supportive partnership between distinct equals becomes corrupted.

Feminism desires to make women the same as men assuming that will make them equal, and therefore valuable. You can see the curse on women within this alone, women being important to all human life are cursed to spread this to all human life. Feminism is not about equality; it is about dominance and eliminating womanhood. Feminism simply put, is a Genesis 3 curse.

Not to be left out, she is cursed with something further. The man will still “rule over her.” This is more than the inevitability of patriarchy, natural as that is. It is now the use of the originally good strength the man possesses that was meant to protect the woman will now be turned on her.

Patriarchy is inevitable, Tyranny is of the fall. The original harmony of male and female is corrupted, not lost, in the fall.

Whatever is to be done?
Well God has a plan for both.

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.

Ephesians 3:22-24

In Christ women get to experience the restoration, purchased by Christ the faithful second Adam who actually did fight for his wife to the death. The women now submits herself to her husband (Ὑποτασσόμενοι), barring following him in sin). She now follows and supports him in every category of life, not compromising her loyalty first to God and his law. This restoration works both ways and it happens more as both follow God.

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.

Ephesians 5:25-33

Jesus really is the perfect man and in Christ men become more and more like him. He loves the church as if she were his own body, and men in Christ regain that original glory.

Adam failed miserably to protect his wife, even throwing her under the bus when God came in judgment. But now in Christ the second Adam who fought for his bride through death, restoration has come. Jesus is our peace, between every tribe, tongue and nation, and between man and woman.