The Curse on the Woman
To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children; yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen 3:16).
The Lord created the man and woman to procreate, but childbirth was not intended to be painful. Because of the Fall, pain was “greatly” multiplied, resulting from the disharmony that had entered the world through sin. Before sin, all creatures lived in harmony. There was cooperation between the creation on earth and their appointed rulers. Now there was conflict, which always leads to pain.
As a part of the curse, the man was appointed to rule over the woman. This is an increasingly unpopular truth, mostly because of the tragic oppression and abuse of authority by men over women. Even so, the Lord has a “women\’s liberation movement” that will greatly transcend the one that the enemy has perpetrated to try to preempt and sidetrack it. The promulgation of true spiritual authority will be the liberation of everyone.
True spiritual authority does not bind and oppress, but it liberates. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (see 2 Cor 3:17). True spiritual authority is a protective covering that brings freedom to those who are under it, to be what they were created to be. This authority is not for the purpose of subjugation, but rather to serve and free those who are under its covering. When true spiritual authority is restored to the church as it was originally intended, it will free both men and women to be all that God created them to be. Authority will be exercised in love, not anger, and those who are under truly loving authority will be the most free people on the earth.
It is apparent that the man did have a leadership role before the Fall because the command to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge was given to the man. But there is a difference in “leading” and “ruling.” Even though they were to rule over the creation, it seems that it was not originally intended for men to rule over other men or women. Because of the Fall, the harmony had been broken. Rulership had to be established to keep the creation from falling into complete chaos until there could be a restoration from the Fall.
Rulership is now needed to keep order. Even so, true authority that is working for the redemption and restoration of man is demonstrated by love. It is not domineering, though it may at times be decisive and steadfast. It is liberating when authority is exercised for the sake of those under it. This type of authority is rare, even in the church. Even so, we must pursue true authority until it is recovered. That is why we are told in Eph 5:22-28:
- Thank the Lord for the wonderful gift of His Word. Unfortunately the Ekklesia does not take seriously the reading, studying, meditation and memorizing of this Word which is supposed to be our daily nourishment for life and Godliness.
- Pray that Jehovah will stir up in you a zeal for the consumption of larger quantities of His word during this season. Job 23:12, Psa119:9,11,105, Psalm 138:2, Jeremiah 15:16.