The Write Place

In a generation that does not know what a human is, even the church seems to level male and female attributes. These differences inform us of godly manhood and womanhood. The bible has quite a lot to say. To that end, I will show you a few examples, then conclude with a rather fascinating one in a time not unlike our own.

Man was made to tend and keep the garden. This is very physical work and wouldn’t you know it biology shows it too. Male muscle mass is significantly greater than women’s. On the flipside of it, the female body is higher fat makeup so that it can produce and nurture life.

The fall tells us something as well. Women tend to define themselves by their relationships. Look a the curse on Eve….

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^[f] your husband,
    but he shall rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16

It’s her relationships, isn’t it? She will now be at war with her husband, and bearing children will be a painful thing for her. We see a look at how women sin and how they suffer.

Men tend to define themselves by what they do. Notice what happens to Adam..

¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:17-19

His very physical labor is cursed. Men value respectability, particularly in what they do. We want to work and be successful. Now Adam’s labor is cursed to futility along the way to ultimate futility in death.

Interestingly this has a lot to do with a rather humorous passage.

Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:3

“Girding up your loins” involved taking your tunic and wrapping it so that it would not get in the way of hard labor or a fight. God treats Job like a man, assuming men are responsible for these things.

Women also are described as being saved through childbirth. Whether blessed with children or not, maternal reality is a part of how a woman can be godly as a woman.

Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
1 Timothy 2:15

This is a high view of the unique gifting of women singling them out from the good works in 1Timothy 2:10.

The Bible also goes into details about other distinctive things about men and women.

⁶ For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. ⁷ For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. ⁸ For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
1 Corinthians 11:6-8

There is a cultural background here, but it is cultivating something from nature. The New Romans were the first century feminist movement (albeit fooling many today as it did not have Christian vocabulary to manipulate). These women were known for their licentiousness and shaving or uncovering their heads. This likewise also showed a woman was sexually available. A woman did not remove her beauty if she was married, but the reality of her physical beauty being attracting needs to be honored and appreciated. So, covering a woman’s hair was a way of doing exactly that.

Perhaps a good example of how Godly men and women do the same thing entirely differently is this related and simple command.

A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 22:5

This command extends to far more than what you wear. It involves not putting on the things of the other. Women don’t go to war, men are not to act as mother’s etc. Deborah understands this and models well what a godly woman does in a time when the men are cowards.

⁴ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ⁵ She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.

Judges 4:4-5

Deborah is recognized as a prophetess and it is recognized she was acting as a judge. Of the judges, Deborah is the only one who is not introduced with the phrase “the Lord raised up.” She was serving in the position, in a garden place near God’s dwelling, but she was not the intended judge. She is a godly woman, so she tries to raise up godly men to their task which she has so unfortunately been cast into. She calls Barak to make him to take the position of judge that he has already refused, leaving her in his place.

⁶ She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. ⁷ And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” ⁸ Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” ⁹ And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Judges 4:6-9

Notice how Deborah asserts Barak has already been told to man up and lead his people in war. Barak however refuses once again. He is a coward; this is unmanly. Deborah who is serving in her position because there are no good men, tells him the honor of victory will not be his. Women step in when they have to, but even Deborah, being a good woman, attempted to raise up a man to do the job. Due to his lack of faith, Jael crushes the head of God’s enemies and is commemorated in song. But she is not the final one, that right is reserved to the Seed of the woman, not the woman herself. It is Christ who models not just the moral character of a Christian, but the perfect man as our second Adam.

It strikes me that this attempt to find maleness and femaleness may be a part of the rise in interest into natural theology. Men are looking for what makes them different from women, and someone to say that is a good thing. The standard old guard (presuppositional or just evangelly) does not look to the laws of nature. The Book of nature is not sufficient, but it is real and ordered by God. Scripture recognizes this and asserts typically male things as the norm.

I will leave you all with a passage I keep using, because people keep forgetting it. Look at Ephesians 5 and see how godly men and godly women look.

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.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Read that and tell me the two are spiritually identical.