To the woman God 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."
In the past, I read this verse as a curse. My view slowly shifted when I zoomed out to a bigger picture. God was not cursing the woman, he was setting in motion a chain of responsibility reactions that would ultimately protect the earth and every thing on it. My thoughts twisted to how many people would be clawing at the ground for food if childbearing wasn't painful. How cheapened life would be and how fast the limited resources would be consumed if we could pop out litters. I shudder to think how fast society would have caved in on itself. The pain became preserving salt that slowed the decay of civilization.
As a woman, my desire is for my husband. God didn't really need to tell me that, I know that instinctively. Although, it never hurts to be reminded. But it's those five pesky words after that that I've had to wrestle with, "he will rule over you". The idea of my husband "ruling" over me pricked like a thorn. Again, a shift of thought was brought on. I zoomed in, back to my life and away from the "mankind" point of view.
God doesn't really care how I "feel" about submitting to my husband. He didn't ask me to let my husband rule over me. God told me that my husband would rule over me just as surely as my desire would be for him. He did this to protect me. My husband sees and responds to the world in a whole different way than I do. Men are completely different creations than women. He protects me when I let him and as a team, we face life. He rules over me with love and that type of man is easy to submit to.
"For your Maker is your husband- the Lord Almighty is his name- the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth." ~Isaiah
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