MAN AND WOMAN
Contributed by A. C. Craig
In Romans 5 Adam is regarded as responsible for the fall. He was disobedient, although not deceived (see 1 Timothy 2: 14). But the fall was conceived by the woman, the serpent being the active agent, the father—the Lord said in John 8: 44, “Ye are of the devil, as your father, and ye desire to do the lusts of your father”.
There are two things the serpent proceeded to do—to discredit the word of God, and to get the woman to step out of her place; and he was successful. “And it said to the woman, Is it even so, that God has said. Ye shall not eat? ... And the serpent said to the woman, Ye will not certainly die”, Genesis 3: 1–5. He discredited the word of God. Then he proceeds to get her to step out of her place; “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a pleasure for the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to give intelligence; and she took of its fruit, and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate”. There the
order of creation is reversed; it is now woman and man, not man and woman. She is out of her place; he ought to have given to her, if it was to be given at all, which it was not. The angels were watching. They must have been astounded at the audacity of the serpent, and his success.
But they are to witness the complete reversal now of what was done by the serpent, where the word of God will be honoured and the man and the woman will be in their proper places, and that according to the order in creation. It will all be seen perfect in the world to come, but can be seen now in those who belong to the assembly.
Paul in taking up the “law of the house”, or the principles that govern the house, sets it out in 1 Corinthians 11, where he brings forward the order in creation and headship extending down from God to Christ, and to man and woman, showing that man comes before woman as he is her head. This is not husband and wife, it is man and woman. There is that distinction, and therefore a difference, which is very much done away now in every circle among men—no doubt the work of the serpent who would make women appear as men, getting them to step out of their place and so set aside God’s order in creation. Equal opportunity and equal reward is attractive—the wiles employed with the first woman. He would have women dress like men, and act like them too. And while this is obnoxious to God, the underlying will is the more serious thing. A woman might wear clothes which look like men’s, and shorten her hair also, but the evil, the iniquity, lies in the will to do it.
These things are not seen in people going on observing the truth of the house of God. Anyone who is out of the order God has ordained for creation cannot be in the moral order suitable for His house. And this is necessary for what follows in 1 Corinthians 11, that is, the Lord’s supper, and again in that chapter we have the angels. They are watching; they look at the woman’s head, they would see her hair, her glory, not now her shame (see verse 6). She is owning her head, the man. The angels see a return to the creational order, and so far the will subdued. Paul also refers to the teaching of nature (verse 14), another allusion to the beginning. The detail of this chapter all relates to “the directions”, the word of God that must not be discredited. Our wills, our minds, must all be subdued and subject before we can approach the Lord’s supper.
The full result of the serpent’s work, commencing in Genesis, is seen in Revelation 18: 7 where the woman says, “I sit a queen, and I am not a widow”. She is not a widow, but who is her husband? She is the mother of harlots (Revelation 17: 5), but who is the father? He is the father of lies (John 8: 44).
In Revelation 20: 1, 2 John writes—“And I saw an angel descending from the heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years”. The active agency, the father of all the evil and iniquity that ever came into the world, finds his place and gets his just reward.
But what a triumph for God that in His house now, before the day of glory comes, His people can assemble in the proper creational and moral order and hold the Lord’s supper in the same scene where there has been the awful seduction and deception of His creatures that were created for His will and pleasure (Revelation 4: 11).
One thing more—the disregard of these principles will provoke the Lord’s jealousy (1 Corinthians 10: 22), and incur His discipline (1 Corinthians 11: 30). He is Son over God’s house.
Airdrie