I want to talk about husband/wife relationships. I think a lot of people think that marriage is just two single people living together...that's wrong. There are even people that are uncertain how the husband should treat his wife. This is where I talk about how a lot of bible translators might have done a good job when they moved the bible from the language it was written in to English, but the English language is transforming rapidly. So when we read those words today it may not mean the same thing as when it was written.
The bible verse that I am talking about is Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." That word rule makes us think of slavery, but the verse is not saying that wives should be the slaves of there husbands. In Ephesians we find out that husbands are to cherish there wives like CHRIST LOVES the church.
We should not think that the phrase "rule over" means that we should be ruthless...rather we should understand the phrase "rule over" to mean that GOD wants the guys to be the team captain. (and it would be silly for the team captains to think that the wife does not have an important role)
Actually what I wanted to talk about was a warning message to guys. Genesis 3:16 has more than 1 phrase that I think is sometimes misunderstood. -- To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."-- Because people sinned GOD said that certain things would be cursed. (I guess before mankind sinned farming would have been totally different)
but GOD said to the woman that she would need to bear at least two curses (the meaning of that word is burdens) one of these burdens that would be a lot more difficult is child birth, and the second is the one that I wanted to mention. -Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you-
Plainly said a lot of ladies want to be the boss, (most women probley feel this is true for other ladies but not for them...I am going to guess that its true for about 95% of ladies.) Ladies like to do this thing that I call leading from the back. They tend to be like cattle dogs, cattle dogs create situations where the cow goes exactly where the dog wants it to go.
And most men want to keep the peace so they do not say anything. They do not provide any direction...it would be like riding in a stage coach and throwing the reigns up into the air.
Guys don't do that! I am not wanting to offend people but think of a wife like a prize horse (after all the wife is often called a help mate) You should not push that horse to the point of exhaustion, because she is a member of you team.
What I am talking about is once married the wife might want to "wear the pants" but GOD has given that responsibility to the husband.
I think that society is in the shape that it is currently in because "men" will not accept the responsibility that GOD has given them. (you might think that your being a "nice, easygoing" guy because you "know what the bible says" but you do not want to force your thoughts onto your wife or kids...well you are wrong again! GOD has designed for the man to be the priest in the house (yep us guys need to know the scriptures as well as we can) Why because: 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
So the husband and wife need to take the bible, and they all need to discuss what is the best thing to do, and if the wife interprets the bible in one way and the man interprets another way, in that case scripture tells us that the husband should have more of a say. (I think I see a problem...society is teaching men to be less than what the bible tells us that we should be.) So stop playing so many games on the computer, turn off your Xbox, unplug your PlayStation, (or however else we occupy our time) and start searching what the scriptures mean (maby GOD has yet to bless us with spouses because we are not prepared to lead a family in a biblical way?
Just the opinion of a doctor in Theology: God created best for last(female) :). I really appreciate what you are writing and hope that most men and women understand it.
When man and woman sinned there was a brokenness in their relationship. But the serpent was the one who was cursed. Adam and Eve receive a promise that Christ would restore their relationship with God and with each other. That's why in the bible it is said that a man should treat his wife as Jesus treats his church with self denial and service.
"Rule over you" is the same verb that is used when Christ rules over His church in hebrew in Is40:9-11.. It is 'mashal'. Not ruling as Hitler but with love. Things didn't change after the sin because Christ restored and healed the relationship but unfortunately Man's conception changed. Man and woman can't be happy if they are being treated as inferior or bounded. We must understand that God created identity and we must be free to be ourselves and to be respected as individuals not as robots. We must walk in togetherness and develop each other for the best.
To the question who must rule in the family???
The answer is God!!
Man and woman are coworkers. Ecc4:12 Though one may be overpowered,
Thank you for the reply, GOD did curse the serpent. But whoever claims that the serpent received the only curse is incorrect. Genesis 3:17-19 records GOD talking to Adam and GOD spoke to Adam saying:
17 To Adam he said, �Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, �You must not eat from it,�
�Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 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.�
So when mankind sinned and GOD spoke to them about it, GOD cursed both the serpent and the ground (and between those two curses HE told the woman):
�I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.�
I understand that scripture as part of the curse. A curse as I understand it is GOD saying what will change now that sin entered into the world.
I would also tend to say that the first sacrifice was a curse. (v 21) (I feel that Galatians 3:13 tends to point to the fact that animals died in order to cover our sins)
Galatians 3:13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole."
Also I think that mankind was banished from the garden as part of the curse.
In Gn 3:15 God talks about Jesus who is taking the curse of humanity. Cursed is thee that is hang to a tree. He made Himself curse for us so that we could be saved.
Adam and Eve had received the consequences of their action while disobeying. When Adam had to work it was to protect himself from idleness that leads to sin.
Jesus took all of our sins and curse so that we can have salvation and happiness.
punishment for the curse of humanity. Without the action that JESUS did all of us would have been going to hell.
So we see that there is two parts to the curse. (because of the curse people must die a physical death, also mankind must die a spiritual death...that is hell)
When JESUS died on the cross HE provided a way for people to be covered by HIS blood. (JESUS became our once and final sacrifice, What JESUS did was gave a permanent solution for the sin problem that was sending humanity to hell.)
Under the old covenant people relied on the blood of "clean" animals to protect them from the curse. (GOD told us what the curse was in Genesis 2:17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.")
When GOD told people that the day that they eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge they would die, we can understand that two things would start to happen. Those two things were that the process of death, dying, and ageing would start and the other thing that started to happen was that because of sin mankind's soul was separated from GOD (that is what hell is...eternal separation from GOD.)
So JESUS blood covers the people that invite him into there heart, but we know very well that Christians still die (however there soul has been covered by the blood of JESUS therefore they only die once)
I think that it is neat to think about what the earth would be like if we did not sin. Before the curse of sin the earth was different. Farming would be different (because there would be no weeds) In fact I don't even think that there would be any farmers (because a farmer is someone that says that they will work with the soil, and look after plants until they produce fruit, before mankind sinned I guess GOD caused food to just appear)
I think that we can learn a lesson from the fall of mankind. And one of those lessons is that sin does not just cause one problem...sin messes up everything!
Amen brother i agree with what you said. Unfortunately that's true that sin messes up everything. Firstly, our relationship with God and bcoz of that distance men are unable to behave with each other.
That's right...sin messes everything up! Our lives are like a lake, and sin is like a big rock that is thrown into the lake. (that is to say that sin does not just cause one wave) In our lives we might think that we have a secret sin, but it will cause waves! The old saying is that sin will cost you more than you are willing to pay...and it will make you go father than you wanted to go!
I have a friend that used to be a homosexual, and he told me that he was surprised at what he would do sometimes. Sin is a heart problem so no matter how small I think my actions are GOD is judging my heart and all sin is a huge problem!
