In a previous essay, I discussed the necessary and important place women have in the Kingdom of God. Rather than utilizing unbiblical (secular) terms, I prefer to examine the role of women in light of what the Bible says about them. Sure, it is easy to blame Eve for the world’s problems, but it is noteworthy that the Scriptures refer to “the sin of Adam,” and gives Jesus the title of the “Second Adam.”
A survey through the Bible reveals that God is no respecter of persons, and equally calls men and women, boys and girls to service to the Kingdom. Yet, in some church circles, the pendulum swings from, on the one hand, women should always defer to men in all things, and on the other, women need to take their place as equals in all functions of church leadership.
Let me establish first and foremost, that our standards must only come from and be based on God’s Word. So, as a woman, I will never be able to say that I am the husband of one wife. Matter settled on whether or not I can be an elder. However, to say that women should never exhort, admonish, reprove, or instruct men is to add into Scripture a biased perspective.
Repeatedly in Scripture, God speaks to a wife instead of her husband. What’s more, it becomes obvious upon closer scrutiny that in many cases the husband should have paid closer attention with an eye toward obedience. It sometimes appears that a woman relating what God has told her is dismissed because God didn’t say it to a man.
A Case in Point
In Judges 13, there is the account of the Angel of the Lord appearing to the wife of Manoah, a woman who was barren. The message was that she would conceive a child. Unlike today, the absence of children felt like a curse to women and this woman would be very attentive to this message. Interestingly enough, the Bible doesn’t give us her name, only identifies her as the wife of Manoah.
She is given instructions as to what her diet should be during her pregnancy. Abstaining from wine, strong drink and unclean foods are the guidelines. It is interesting that a soon-to-be expectant mother’s intake of food is coming straight from God. Also, she is given directives as to how the child shall be raised, and information and insight as to the purpose God has for her son in delivering the people from the Philistines (v. 3-5).
Immediately, the woman goes and shares all this with her husband. It would seem that Manoah believes her to a degree, but petitions God to send the messenger back again to tell him how their future son should be raised (v.8). Keep in mind, that the instructions had already been explicitly given (v. 5), but I guess Manoah wasn’t quite sure his wife remembered it all correctly.
God answers this prayer, but does so by, once again, appearing to the wife when her husband was elsewhere. She “made haste” to find him knowing that he wanted to speak with this messenger. Manoah again displays that he doesn’t find his wife’s testimony accurate enough, and asks the man if he is the one who originally appeared to his wife (v. 11). Manoah again asks for instructions as to how to raise the son, but the messenger repeats exactly what he told the wife at the outset (v. 14). Manoah then entreats the man to stay and asks a number of other questions that he doesn’t get answers for, yet witnesses a glorious manifestation of the Angel of the Lord upon his departure (v. 20).
Manoah then comments to his wife that they will surely die after having witnessed and experienced all this (v.22). Yet, it is his wife that reminds him that should God have wanted to kill them, He would have done so already. What’s more she points out that the message was that they would have a son, which would require them to remain alive (v.23).
Marriage is a partnership. In a very real sense, God can speak to either husband or wife to reveal His will for their lives, as the two are one flesh. I’m not suggesting that a husband should in every case do his wife’s bidding or fail to check the veracity of her account. That is not the point I am trying to make. Men should know that God often speaks to women first when it comes to important matters: (Mary when the angel Gabriel announced she would bear a child, Rebecca that she would have twins and the younger would rule over the elder, Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb as the first eye-witness that Jesus had risen, etc.) In these cases, the men involved all had a difficult time believing the account of the women. Maybe these examples were intended as a corrective against the marginalizing of women in the Kingdom of God. The unique and special role women have been assigned from the beginning had everything to do with men being incomplete without them. It bears repeating that a woman’s role is much more than just physical or sexual; she is a partner in every sense of the word. Men should relish the particular orientation of women and appreciate them as a “good thing” (Prov. 18:22).
Women are an essential part of creation and the dominion mandate, and need not try to be men or compete with them in order to gain status within the Body of Christ. They already have a God-given status and one that should be exercised to the fullest. Maybe it is time for the people of God to ask the important question: What Is a Woman? The answer should not come from a humanistic framework, but from a full-orbed biblical world-and-life view.
The Kingdom-Driven Family 