The Family Hierarchy

“And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat…Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”  Genesis 3:13,16

Sometimes when we read a passage of scripture, we miss something, but later, reading it again for maybe the 20th time, it jumps out at us.  It was there all the time, but we just didn’t see it.  My blog of February 2, 2022, was about submission referencing Ephesians 5:22 and 25 wherein Paul urged wives to submit to their husbands and for husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave His life for it.  If a wife understands submission unto Christ, she also understands submission to her husband.  We are all accountable to the Lord and to each other.  Husbands are also held accountable as to how he values and treats his wife.  If he is the servant/leader emulating Christ, the wife will have no problem submitting to him and his authority over the family unit.  Submission is a controversial subject because unbelievers do not understand it since they refuse God’s word, His authority, and His sovereign reign over His creation.  Folks ignore God’s word and live their lives as thy please which has resulted in this sin-cursed world in which we live.

Satan, disguised as a serpent which, at that time, was an attractive creature, deceived Eve, Adam’s wife, into eating of the forbidden fruit.  The reason I say that he was attractive is either because he didn’t look like a rattlesnake or copperhead, or Eve didn’t know to be afraid of him.  In other words, he didn’t look scary.  God had told Adam that the fruit from the tree in the midst of the garden of Eden was off limits.  All the other fruit trees provided fruit that God allowed them to eat.  Why is it that what is forbidden is so desirable?  A child can be playing, ignoring a radio, until mom tells him not to touch it, and then he is not happy until he touches it.  In some ways, folks never grow up.  Adam told Eve not to eat from the tree nor touch it.  We don’t know if Adam told her the reason:  because God said so.  If she wasn’t standing near the forbidden tree, she had to walk over to it as temptation lured her to follow her curiosity.  Too bad Adam didn’t yell, “Run, Forest, run!”

We know what happened.  She ate and gave to Adam who also ate.  He was the one whom God created first and to whom God communicated directly.  God had given him the command concerning the tree in the midst of the garden.  Her excuse was that the serpent tricked her.  Adam had no excuse and even indirectly blamed God: “The woman that You gave to me gave me the fruit, and I ate it” (paraphrased).  They were both held responsible for disobeying God and were both punished commensurately.  Adam would end up toiling laboriously to eke out a living, and Eve would have children with very intense labor pains.  They would both experience the loss of a child at the hands of another child.  They would lose their paradise home and exist in lives of hardships and woes.

Paul wrote in I Timothy 2:14 that it was not Adam who was deceived, rather it was Eve who transgressed God’s commandment.  She was the one who succumbed to temptation and trusted Satan more than she trusted God, and thus, the reason why God required that she be under the rule of her husband.  Prior to their act of disobedience, there was nothing said about Eve being ruled by Adam.  That would seem to indicate that they were more like equal partners in their marriage with neither having dominance over the other.  God told Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit, Adam told Eve, and they were both equally responsible to obey God.  Why did Adam eat knowing that it was forbidden?  We do not know, but suspect that he knew punishment would come, and he didn’t want her to suffer alone.  This idea is just speculation, but as Paul wrote, a loving husband will make sacrifices for his wife.

Wives have inherited the command to be submissive to their husbands due to Eve’s transgression.  One might say that this command is not fair, but have we all not inherited our sin natures from Adam and Eve?  That doesn’t seem fair either, but it doesn’t take long in a person’s life to realize how sinful he or she is.  Wives are to be submissive, allowing the husband to lead the family, but men and women are on equal footing regarding salvation.  Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28 that there is neither male nor female, but rather all one in Christ Jesus.  In eternity, we will all be under the reign of and submission to Christ who will rule in righteousness, equality, and love.  At that point, men and women will be equal as the bride of Christ.