Women in Leadership -- Page 3

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After the Fall to the Time of Christ

The Fall wreaked havoc in the relationship between men and women. Before the Fall, there was no controlling, power struggles, one-upmanship. Though Adam and Eve were quite different and distinct, with some different roles and functions, they co-ruled together. At the Fall however, chaos ensued. Scripture tells us, ... 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." To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Gen 3:16-19.

There are two main key questions that have to be asked about the curse. First, is God now prescribing a new design and order that He is now installing (prescription), or is he describing the natural consequences of the human condition when they walk away from God (description)? If God is prescribing a new order then we need to stick with it and not change it. If God is describing the consequences, then we have freedom to try to restore God's original intent.

The second question is what did God mean when he said to the woman, Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you? How do we understand the meaning of this curse? We will take this question first.

Some have said that this desire refers to a sexual desire for her husband. If my anecdotal interviews with any men have any validity, I think we can throw out this interpretation. The way the verse is written, desire and rule seem to be juxtaposed to each other and therefore a sexual connotation for desire does not seem to fit.

I think the more accurate interpretation is found in Gen 4. When Cain is angry and contemplating killing Abel, God says to him, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Gen 4:7. Here God describes sin as desiring to control and master Cain. It wants him. The word for desire is the same in both contexts. It is basically saying that now the woman will desire to control and manipulate her husband. However, the result is that "he will rule over you."

The curse description for the woman is basically saying that the woman is going to lose, most of the time, the battle of the sexes. Though she will seek to control and master the male, the man will rule her. This reality flows out of the male's greater physical strength and aggressiveness. Woman can try to manipulate and use passive aggressive behavior to get her way, while men, by their sheer force of physical being can get a woman to get his way. History has shown that men have dominated women and controlled women to a far greater extent.

Not only is the woman physically weaker, but because she bears and suckles the children, she is very vulnerable for long periods of time and can be easily dominated by men. It didn't take long for these factors to show up in the scriptures as they describe the social consequences of the fall. We see:

In Gen 4, with the violence of men, Cain kills Abel
Also in Gen 4 we already have the first man embracing polygamy.
Also we have in Gen 4, Lamech boasts about killing another man.
By Chapter 6, the condition is described as, "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. Gen 6:11-12
By the time of Lot, he offers his two virgin daughters to the townspeople of Sodom and Gomorrah rather than turn his guest over to the people.
Women are not allowed to inherit property, only sons.
Women are not taught the Torah
In Judges, a concubine is given to the townspeople who rape her until she dies; She was given to the violators so that the men would leave a male guest alone.
A woman is not allowed to divorce a husband, only the husband can divorce his wife.

It doesn't take long before we see men ruling women. It is ingrained in the very fabric of society. A clear hierarchy is formed and it reflects men's power over women. This was the natural consequence to Eve by her moving out of the submitting relationship to God and the mutually submitting relationship with Adam. Though before the Fall they were co-equals, now it is the stronger who rules. Before the Fall, Adam's service to Eve was by a choice of love and a willingness not to use his physical strength over her. Now that they are in a power struggle, most of the time women will come out on the bottom. The answer to the question, what does Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you? mean? We interpret the curse on Eve as describing a power struggle between the sexes by which she ultimately suffers the worst part of it.

The first question we asked, however, was whether this was a prescription of God or a description of the consequences. I think we would recognize that this situation is a description of the consequences. For instance, the curse on the man was that "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food." This clearly describes what has happened. We work by the sweat of our brow. But do we really? Hasn't man now worked to reverse the curse? Haven't we designed and built machines to reduce our sweat. Aren't there huge combines that now have air conditioning in them, with stereos and cushioned seats? Is God angry at us for trying to reverse the curse and not suffer so much? I don't think so.

Do you realize though, that though the male has always worked to reduce the curse against Adam, the woman has been made to continue to suffer the curse. Take the curse about suffering pain in child-bearing. In sixteenth century Scotland, a woman named Lufame Maclane took some pain-killing herbs to sustain her through child-birth. However, in her day it was considered against the law since pain in child-birth was God's ordained order. As a result her twins were taken away and she was burned at the stake. You see, if suffering pain during child-bearing is a prescription of God, then women should have to suffer. However, if it is only a description, then as men reduce their sweat in their work women can reduce their pain in child-bearing.

Where does this leave us in the second curse however about he will rule over you? I believe that the man ruling and dominating the woman is a curse that can also be undone. We can strive to get back to a place where we rule together. In his grace, God has shown us many ways and times in the Old Testament where women were given a chance to rule, teach, have authority and serve God faithfully. This was not because there were no good men around. In many cases men like Moses and Jeremiah were around. The infrequency of the evidence is more due to the stifling nature of men dominating women in the ancient society. Some examples where women were able to lead however were:

Miriam, Moses' sister, is called a prophetess (Ex 15:20). It was recognized that the Lord had spoken to the people through her (Num 12:1-2).In Micah, the Lord acknowledges the leadership role of Miriam: "I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam." Mic 6:4.
Deborah is recognized as a judge in Israel. She was also a prophetess (Judg 4:4) She was noted as leading Israel during her day and her husband is named. She held court and gave judgment over the disputes from the people, men and women. She gave direction and leadership to Barak who was to fight for the Lord. His lack of faith cost him the glory which was given to another woman, Jael, who slew Sisera. Deborah composed and sang a song which has become part of our Scriptures: chapter 5 of the book of Judges.
Ruth is extolled in Scripture. A Moabite woman who's faith and humility is a model for all. One whole book of the O.T. tells her story.
Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prayed to the Lord and it has become part of our authoritative Scripture in 1 Sam 2:1-10.
Huldah was a prophetess in Israel. 2 Kings 22:14 says, "Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. When Josiah, the king, discovered the book of the Law he went to Huldah for a Word from the Lord. Jeremiah the prophet was also around at the time but they went to Huldah to hear an authoritative word from the Lord."
Isaiah's wife was also referred to as a prophetess (Isa 8:3).
Esther was extolled as a leader and brave woman through whom the Lord saved Israel at a time of national crisis.
The Prov 31 woman is seen as working inside and outside the home, she engages in business and buying of property, she ears money and plants a field, she gives money, she sells clothing, and barters with merchants, she runs her household, she is discussed at the city gate.

By the time of Jesus, women were clearly second-class citizens in the Greek, Roman, and Jewish cultures. They weren't to be taught, often not to be spoken to in public, had limited or no legal rights. Wives submitting to their husbands was the rule of the land everywhere, it was unquestioned. In Greek culture wives were only for bearing heirs, the men had courtesans to take out in public and they often used boys for sexual pleasure. Society was clearly patriarchal. It could look like the following:

This male dominating characteristic we find in most societies, however, was not God's original intent nor his prescription for women. It was a natural consequence of unleashing the battle of the sexes when Adam and Eve stepped away from their loving submission to God.

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