Today's woman needs to rediscover her identity, mission and purpose here in the earth realm. In this day and age, many women have come to believe that they are in some sort of competition with their male counterpart and therefore need to out perform them in various aspects of society and life. Be it academically, in business, sport, politics even in ministry. But the bible does not teach that. That is a very secular ideology no matter how beautiful it sounds. God said in Genesis 2:18 "... I will make help meet for him..." in other words i will make a partner to help him.
Most people say this is a man's world and therefore women need to do what they can to change that because of the abuse they may have suffered at the hands of certain men who themselves do not understand their mandate, position and authority as men within the structures of society. But the failure of a partner to carry out his duties and responsibilities is no excuse to try and permanently alter the role of the woman to suit and accommodate the failures of the man.
In the temporal sense to an extent yes, however, something needs to be done during this temporal phase.
What does this mean?
According to the bible, men are responsible for birthing nations and women are responsible for birthing families. That is why when God decided to establish the nation of Israel, He called Abraham and promised him a child, that his descendants would be innumerable Genesis 17:5 . Out of Abraham was birthed the nation Israel, God's people.
On countless occassions they turned their back on God and grieved Him through their many sins and transgressions. This happened so many times that at a point, God threatened to wipe them out as Moses lead them out of Egypt to the promise land. God had a plan. He had promised mankind a savior. God decided to start from the beginning.
You see, a nation is a group of communities under a single government or leadership and a community is made up of different families or households living within the same geographical location.
This time when God decided to send the Savior, he decided to begin from the family unit in order to birth a new nation and kingdom out of this family. That is why the bible says in Ephesians 2:19 that " Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ". When you come into Christ, you become a part of this new family, the household of God with Jesus being the first born.
In the beginning when God created Adam, He gave him a five fold mandate. He said to Adam
i. Be fruitful
ii. Multiply
iii. Replenish the earth
iv. Subdue it
v. Have dominion over all creatures of the earth. Genesis 1:28.
When God decided to bring in the woman, Eve, He said she was to help him. The question is help him to do what? and how?
Remember, after six days of creation, God looked at all things and said it was good and perfect. He was pleased with what He had done.
So was the creation of woman an afterthought? NO!.
The woman was created to help man fulfill the five fold mandate given him by God. The purpose which God put him here in the earth realm.But man could not begin to fulfill that purpose until the arrival of the woman. Why?
The bible says in Genesis 2:22. that the woman was made from the rib of the man. Again in Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; MALE and FEMALE created He them".She dwelt within him but in a different essence.
Fulfillment of God's purpose for our lives is what gives us true happiness and joy and brings us prosperity. So when God looked at man and realized that this wasn't happening, He said " it is not good for man to be alone, he needs a partner", Genesis 2:18 to fulfill this agenda. So God made Eve, the first of women. Before He did, He put Adam into deep sleep, he was not allowed a view of the processes that went into the creation of woman. Adam was the head of all creation and therefore this suggests that if he was put to sleep then all other living creation was also put to sleep. The whole process was shrouded in divine mystery. Now woman is it any surprise why men sometimes can't understand you? And men, is it any surprise that sometimes no matter how hard you try you just don't seem to understand women?
When God woke Adam up from his coma, he immediately recognized her as his equal, intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. For his first words were "this is the flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Genesis 2:23 .
The problem is that, after the fall of man the devil has been successful in deceiving almost all into believing that the woman is inferior to the man. the devil is a liar and everything he says is ultimately a lie. Some Christians, even men of God are quick to back this lie up with scripture. One of them being that, the bible says women are weaker vessels and therefore inferior. Yes the bible did say the woman is the weaker vessel, 1st Peter 3:7. But weaker not in the sense of capability or capacity, but realize the bible uses the word "WEAKER" implying that a comparison is being made with the man and that man is also weak without the grace of God on his life. The woman is weaker because although endowed with all the necessities physically,emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and psychologically to help man fulfill God's original mandate to him, she hasn't been totally empowered to carry out full functions and duties which God gave to man in the beginning unless God grants her the grace to do so.
This is why the bible is clear in God's command to man that he should take care of his home and in the same verse asks him to acknowledge the efforts of his wife and honor her. After the fall of man in the garden of Eden, he lost a clear understanding of the 5 fold mandate and with that a lack of understanding of the role of woman in his life hence the abuse most women have and still suffer at the hands of many men.
Adam blamed Eve for his disobedience and till this day some men view women as the antagonist to their well thought out plans to success. God decided to give Eve to Adam, but now God says to the man to find his own " Proverbs 18:22 "Whosoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtain favor of the LORD ". It is up to the man to search and find the woman so that he may learn to take full responsibility for whatever happens afterwards and not blame God for bringing her into his life as he did earlier. This time when God decided to create this new family, he established his covenant with the woman, Mary. Man played no role in executing this covenant except to ensure her care, safety and protection. But the covenant was between Himself and the woman out of which the first of men of this new family would be born, Jesus. As I mentioned earlier, a woman is responsible for birthing a family, and out of this man Jesus, the new nation, the kingdom of God Is established.
However you choose to look at it, women have and will always play an extremely important role in God's plan for mankind and it's time women stood up to the challenge of discovering what it is to be a Woman from and of God.
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