Women: Beginnings and Endings

Equal does not mean the SAME in every way.  That’s very important.  Equal does NOT mean that men and women are the same.  Equal doesn’t mean that there may not be specific distinctions on one or more levels.  So in using the term, egalitarian, one is not necessarily saying there aren’t male/female distinctions.    

God could make women inferior.  He really could.  I believe that, and I believe that if HE did it, then it wouldn’t be wrong.  The only thing wrong would be our perception of it (if we didn’t like it), because God is God—the way He sees things is the best way to see them, the way HE wants it is the best way, etc…  I totally totally totally believe this (and this is why I did not have a problem with the idea of being made for the sole purpose of supporting a man).  If that is what God made me for, then that is a very honorable role for me to have.  Just as the horny toad glorifies God by BEING a a horny toad, right, so will I glorify Him by being WHATEVER it is I was designed to be.  If that’s someone who is inferior to males, then so be it. 

BUT…and here’s where it gets sticky for me…  Do we *know* that women are inferior?  Do we *know* that man was made for ruling and reigning, and woman was made to help him however he deems he needs her help (essentially meaning, her man would define her purpose).   

And there’s where we have to go to Scripture and read it carefully.  There are a few things we can know for sure. 

First, that man’s “rule” over woman started at the Fall. 

This part following is conjecture, but I think it’s a fairly possible thing to pull out of what we *do* know:  Somehow, after the Fall, he saw her as someone inferior, someone needing ruled.  But that doesn’t mean she actually DID need ruled, or that she actually WAS inferior.  That’s just the way he saw her…possibly because she was weaker in strength, and weakness has tended to be a negative trait after the Fall.  ?  

In any case, she was willing to let her identity be the way he saw her, because they had both lost that connection to God that they once had in the Garden…  Women are so amazingly wired to be relational…(I’m reading a great book on relational psychology right now—did you know that it wasn’t until 1975 that psychologists finally started believing incest stories?  Up  till that year, they were told that the actual amount of TRUE incest cases were one in a million, so do NOT believe the crazy woman who’s claiming that nasty stuff about her father/uncle/brother…)..

Anyways, women function via relationships.  It just makes a lot of sense, given that her primary relationship would be  her husband, that she would take on HIS view of her.  She is wired to relate, to not be alone, to be connected, to be in communion with…so if he says, “If you want to make me happy, you need to… [fill inthe blank, whether it be wear a veil, or accept my latest wife, or fix my food, or WHATEVER], she is wired to need his acceptance and approval…and plus, she wants him happy…so she does it…and then her daughters do it…and, eventually, it becomes tradition, things “good women” do.   

This is NOT saying that men are evil beasts and women are helplessly under their power.  Women are just as fallen as men are, just as messed up–”all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”   The Fall affected BOTH men and women in negative ways, both suffer under it’s breath, perhaps differently in some ways, but certainly equally. And that this is the way life is on this planet should be no more surprise to us than any other fallen aspects of this world.  Missing the mark is the NORMATIVE behaviour of humans outside of God.  That sin happens is normal, that the strong oppress the weak is NORMAL, that we can’t see outside of our own viewpoint/experience/skin-color/gender/etc is NORMAL… 

So not all women are going to have the same experiences, no.  Life is so huge and muddled with our own particular surroundings and family and culture, etc…  But the question isn’t if everything is the same, rather, it’s if women are actually *designed* to be inferior to men.  This is different from particular circumstances, because it’s a question of essence.   

We have to go to the Scriptures.  What is woman there?  What is she in the beginning, before sin, and what is she in the end, when sin is destroyed? 

When Adam sees Eve, does he make an exclamation that would lead us to learn that Eve is inferior? 

No.  If anything, we see unity.  He sees her as like him. He exclaims, “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone!”  

In the beginning, we see woman as beautiful, as treasured, as a partner in dominion-taking, as a Queen. 

When we close the Bible, who do we see beckoning us on the last page?  “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.”  Who is this Bride?  And who is this that she is working with?  Not angels, not human kings, but the Spirit Himself.  Like Wisdom, she calls to those on the outside and beckons them to come in.  She is radiant, beautiful.  Inferior is a word that is far from my tongue when I think of her.  She is His Bride. 

“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”  (Song of Songs 6:10). 

At the end, we see woman as beautiful, as treasured, as a partner in dominion-taking, as a Queen.

I don’t know all the particulars. I don’t know for certain how this is all supposed to look, is what I’m trying to say.  But what I *do* know is that woman was NOT designed to be a glorified secretary and baby-maker.  Just because history, including Biblical history, has been patriarchal does NOT mean that this was God’s initial intention.  It’s simply something that exists in a fallen world. 

 “Moses allowed this because of the hardness of your own hearts, but in the beginning, it was not so.”