Life Matters

a. The Vital Female Role of Nurturing Submission

We were racing down the freeway at a great rate of knots. My wife, Lorelle’s contractions had developed into a pretty regular pattern. We didn’t want to be caught out, so we raced for the hospital. It was all very new and exciting; soon we would have our first child. We glided up to the labour ward, the nurse took one look at us and said, “You’re too happy, you need to go for a walk”. Well that put a hole in our drum. 45 minutes later we came back and now Lorelle wasn’t smiling any more. Another 30 minutes and we landed right in the middle of labour. Yep, there is no other word to describe it, labour, hard labour. We tried to remember all the techniques from the prenatal classes but it was hard to stay focused. Those contractions hit like a freight train coming head on. As soon as you had dealt with one the next one was straight on top of you. Finally after 11 hours, we received our firstborn son, Michael.

I am deeply grateful for my two sons (yes we went through the whole thing again!) whom my wife has given to me and of course I could not have done it without her. In the image of the divine model, the origin of life passed from me to my wife who then nurtured that seed and developed it into a beautiful child. Of course when I say she did it, I mean that God has given her all the right equipment to nurture my seed into a human life.

In the wisdom of God we can observe within the genesis process of human life the very key to developing a harmonious family, community and nation. The physical process of human creation reveals a deep spiritual truth with respect to our understanding of life source, relationship and value.

The source of the life process begins with the father, but the nurture and development of life occurs within the mother. This physical process reflects the spiritual reality of the glory of children. The seed of a child’s value is directly connected to their father, but that seed can only be nurtured and developed by the example of submission of the wife to her husband, along with her loving watch care of her children.

We need to deviate slightly at this point to address a question that will receive more treatment later, but needs to be addressed in part here. Many would argue that the life of a child comes equally from father and mother (remember that word equality; we will come to it shortly). This is where the Bible account of the origin of the human race is very important. Here is the sequence of events:

1. God made Adam from the dust and breathed life into him.	Gen 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
2. God put Adam in the garden.	Gen 2:15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
3. God warns Adam concerning the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.	Gen 2:16,17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;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."
4. God states that it is not good for Adam to be alone.	Gen 2:18 And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."
5. God formed all the animals from the dust of the ground and brings them to Adam to name.	Gen 2:19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
6. Adam names the animals and in the process learns that he alone is without a companion.	Gen 2:20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
7. God puts Adam to sleep, takes a living rib from his side and forms it into a woman and brings her to him.	Gen 2:21,22 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

It is extremely important to follow this sequence. We note a number of important points:

1. Adam receives life directly from God.
2. Adam is given an occupation (placed in the garden).
3. Adam is educated about his environment (instructed about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil).
4. Adam placed in headship over the creation and blesses the living creatures by giving names to all of them.
5. Adam senses that something is missing, that he has no one who can appreciate his thoughts, joys and aspirations.
6. God takes life (the living rib) from Adam and forms it into Eve and then brings her to him.
7. He then calls her woman, meaning taken out of man.

Eve’s material life originated from Adam, all her DNA material came from him. Why is this fact important? It highlights the fact that for some reason God made man as the source point, the beginning place; the head of the human river that would flow forth and multiply. The very name woman means – taken from man.

This whole process reveals that God designed for the man to be recognized as the source both physically and spiritually. We now turn to the critical position of the woman’s role. It is at this point we need to restate something we said in Chapter 4:

It is critical to understand that the life process must flow through the submissive agent as an example to all those who receive life under this process. If life was given to the universe without a submissive agent then the universe has no vital example of how to receive and stay connected to the life source.

To operate a life source model of dependent relationships streaming from one source point requires an example of how to stay connected to the life source. The role of the woman plays this critical role and without it, the entire system will fail.

A wife’s respectful submission to her husband is what establishes him as the designated human life source in the family. I say designated in that it is God who is the actual source, but He has channeled it through the position of the husband and father. Firstly in giving him physical seed to initiate physical life and also spiritual seed, which is reflected in the blessing and sense of value that the Bible terms “the glory of children”.

But it is only the wife that can demonstrate to her children how to connect to this designated life source. Her respectful submission is the way of life, it powerfully shows her children how they should relate to their father and that they should look to him for blessing and protection.

Since the wife plays the most critical role in building this system, a wise husband will lavish appreciation and praise upon his wife and seek every avenue in his power to bless her and make her life joyful. In this action he makes submission to him a joy and something to be desired. As we will study later, failure to do this will destroy his entire kingdom, for only a man’s wife can establish her husband’s authority; and regardless of all he has to give, without it, he has nothing and is nothing.

b. The Defining of Equality

I recently came across this news item and I thought what better way to introduce the issue of male and female equality:

Are Women Smarter Than Men? College-Enrollment Trends Suggest So

The number of bachelor's degrees earned by women jumped by 70 percent — compared with 5 percent for men — between 1975 and 2001. In 16 countries across the world, female grad rates surpass males, while men earning degrees outnumber women in only six industrialized countries.[1]

It does not take long to work out that there is an ongoing battle on this planet between the sexes. Everywhere voices are raised comparing men and women in their abilities to do things. Those wishing to liven up a conversation only have to infer that one sex is possibly better than the other. We will look at some of the reasons why this battle continues to rage in the chapter concerning the origin of inherent life source models, but at the moment I want to take a look at the first male and female relationship described in the Bible and see what it tells us about equality.

When we looked at Genesis 2 in the last section we noted this verse:

Gen 2:20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

As Adam was naming all the animals, he noticed that every male had a female, this is evidenced from the fact that God blessed the animals in Genesis 1:22 and said be fruitful and multiply.

We notice that Adam did not seem to lack anything with reference to his vocation as a gardener, he did not lack anything in terms of his position as the head of the earthly creation. He had no trouble in naming the animals which reveals quite an extensive mind that he must have had. He also was in communion with God and receiving instruction about his environment and what was required of him. All of this Adam was engaged in before Eve was created. In terms of his position, his intellect, his vocation and relation to worship of God, he lacked nothing. The one thing that he did lack was someone that could relate to him and understand him in his environment. Someone comparable to him the Bible says. What he lacked was companionship. His lack was of a relational concern.

The creation of Eve to fill this relational need defines the nature of their equality and equality in general. While Adam probably could communicate with the animals at levels much deeper than we can today, that communication did not satisfy him because none of the animals really understood him and how he thought about things. The wonderful thing about Eve was her capacity to understand Adam relationally. To appreciate his joys and excitement, to grasp the issues that he faced and support him in his decisions.

The creation of Eve defines the nature of human equality. It tells us that equality is relational and that this is the equality that humanity should aim for. If we compare Adam and Eve in terms of what they possess inherently, as we would do if we embraced one of the other life source models, then men and women are forced into this battle of comparison of the sexes. We begin to look at who was formed first, who is stronger, who is more beautiful, who was the most perfect design. Just thinking like this destroys the original intent of the creation of Eve.

When Adam was created he was given an inheritance from his heavenly Father. He had extensive real estate, a beautiful home, an excellent job and career prospects. He was very intelligent, very strong and of course extremely handsome. When Eve was created she inherited all of this when she became his wife and took on his name.

Gen 5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

It says that God called their name Adam. She took on his name and all the wealth and assets and things that Adam possessed became hers through the relationship. She did not earn it, she did not prove that she was worthy of being equal with him by her own abilities – everything she had came from Adam, so it is completely senseless to think in this way. By allowing ourselves to see Eve as coming forth from Adam and being given everything he possessed and being given a mind that can appreciate and understand him we find the true basis of how to conduct relationships and how to see them as equal.

Equality in relationships is not about power, control and assets, it is about the ability to understand and know someone and the perception of female identity in this way is the only way we can define relational equality. The woman is the key to a relational kingdom.

Therefore recognition of this male seeding/headship identity and a female nurture/submission identity reflecting the image of the heavenly Father and Son is the vital key to build a treasure of family memories upon a strong and harmonious relational system.