The following is an excerpt from a sermon given prior to our men's leadership training. It is posted here as a supplement to the following blog article.
Here
are five reasons to believe that it was God’s pre-Fall design for man to lead
his family. First, the man was created before the woman. Look with me at Genesis
2:7. It reads, “then the LORD God formed the man of dust
from the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and the man
became a living creature.” The
woman was not created until vv21-22.
And it may seem like we’re making
something out of nothing here.
“Big deal if he was created first.
Does that mean that he has authority over the woman?” Yes, it does. It does because the NT says it does. In 1 Timothy 2:11-13, Paul confirms
that the order of creation is a significant indication of God’s plan for male
leadership of the family. There Paul requires that women “learn quietly with
all submissiveness,” not exercising authority over a man. One of the reasons
given for that command is that “Adam was formed first, then Eve.”
Additionally,
the significance of birth order throughout the Bible and especially in Genesis
would indicate that the order of creation is important. In a sense, man was the firstborn of the
two, therefore, he was given the right and responsibility of leadership in the
family.
Second, that male spiritual leadership was
God’s original design follows from the fact that God gave his very first
commandment to the man. This is
recorded in Genesis 2:16-17, which reads: “And
the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of
the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” It is likely
the case that the man then gave instruction to the woman regarding this
law. How do we know? She was able in 3:3 to quote the law
and the consequences for breaking it.
Adam’s
reception of God’s law and subsequent instruction to his wife is similar to
Moses’ reception of the law and later instruction to Israel in Exodus. God gave
the law directly to Moses in Exodus 20-31 both orally and in the form of the
two stone tablets and commanded Moses to teach it to the people (Deut 4:14).
Moses then obeyed, passing the law on to the people beginning in Exodus
35. Moses’ reception of the law
carried the automatic responsibility to convey that law to the people of God.
That
this same responsibility applies to the relationship between a husband and wife
seems to be validated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35a, which reads: “The women should keep silent in the
churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as
the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask
their husbands at home.”
Here,
Paul connects the woman’s role of submission to the role of learning from her
husband. This implies that the headship and submission roles of marriage
include the tasks of teaching and learning, respectively. It could be argued
then that male headship and female submission are indicated by man’s reception
of the law of God in Gen 2 and his subsequent passing of that law to the woman.
Third, that male spiritual leadership in
the home was God’s design before the Fall is indicated in that God made the
woman for the man. Look at Genesis 2:18 with me. It reads, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make a helper fit for him.’”
The word “helper” in this context suggests that while the man and woman
are dependent upon one another, the man has “authority.”
Is
that interpretation validated elsewhere in Scripture? Yes, it is in 1 Corinthians 11:9, where Paul notes that man
was not created for woman, “but woman for
man.” He asserts this in support of the notion that wives are under the
authority of their husbands.
Fourth, it is clear that God intended male
spiritual leadership in the home because the woman was made from the man. Look at Genesis 2:21-22. It reads, “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he
slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that
the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the
man.” Again, 1 Corinthians 11
provides the divine perspective on this.
Paul teaches that the “head of a wife is her husband” (11:3) and that
“woman is the glory of man” (11:7). He supports this point by noting that “man
was not made from woman, but woman from man” (11:8).
Fifth, that man named woman indicates that
male spiritual leadership was God’s design from the beginning. After God had created the woman from
the rib taken from the man’s side and brought the woman to the man, the man
said, “This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of
Man” (Gen 2:23).
Later, in
3:20 the man “called his wife’s name Eve.” This two-fold naming of the woman
implies man’s authority over the woman. “In ancient times, the authority to
name implied authority to govern.”
That the initial naming of the woman took place before the Fall in
Genesis 3 indicates that it was God’s original design for man to assume the
role of spiritual leader with the wife as his submissive helper.
Each of
these features of the Genesis 2 narrative reveals a clear difference of role
between the man and the woman. From the beginning man was called to bear the
responsibility of headship, while the wife was called to be the man’s perfectly
suitable helper. This was intended
to be the normal relationship between the man and the wife. Male spiritual
leadership in the home is God’s ideal.
This is what God wants in our
homes. This is what He calls us to.
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