A Woman's Worth, by Elaine Stedman
"Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table." (Proverbs 9:1, 2)
Clearly, she is a woman of both strength and dignity, who by her
own choice and initiative has established her personal identity
(built her house) on the perfect righteousness of Christ (seven,
the scriptural number of perfection; pillars, the firm foundation).
Wisdom understands that she must initiate the experience of forgiveness
amplified in 1 John Chapter 1 by: (1) walking in the light of
God's truth, (2) expressing that truth in relationships with others,
and (3) experiencing forgiveness and cleansing in the confession
of sin thus exposed. In this way she "slaughtered her beasts,"
which is the allegorical statement of her personal appropriation
of "the blood of Jesus Christ" or his atoning death.
"She has mixed her wine" symbolizes the joy with which
her life is characterized, a joy resulting from a secure spiritual
identity. A joy which she is eager to share with others. And so
she sets her table to which others are invited:
"Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave simpleness, and live and walk in the way of insight" (Proverbs 9:5,6).
Her life-message is extended through others, who take up the spirit
and import of her godly perspective of herself and her freeing
insights about life. A woman thus equipped for life is a living
demonstration of the wisdom of God. By her example she initiates
positive responses in others. Her life-style motivates others
to live with freedom, joy, and dignity in the strength of a God-centered
identity.
The woman whose life personifies wisdom knows that:
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." Proverbs 9:l0
An example of this kind of applied-wisdom is cited by the Apostle
Peter in his first letter. Peter prefaces the ways in which believers
are to live as servants of God in serving one another by saying:
"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart" (1 Peter 1:22).
The married woman, for instance, will motivate her husband to
godliness by a life-style which speaks for itself, and does not
need to be propped up with holy lectures and/or nagging and chiding.
Therefore, Peter tells us:
"Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, when they see your reverent and chaste behavior." I Peter 3:l, 2
From this we may see that wisdom, which in the female mode is
the subjective application of knowledge, or objective truth, is
functional in productive and healing relationships. In Proverbs
9, the seductive woman, overt in her advances (she is noisy, wanton,
shameless, she sits, she takes and she calls) initiates ungodly
actions. Her life-message is a death sentence for those whom she
motivates. There is neither wine nor blood in her personal identity,
and therefore both joy and cleansing are absent from her relationships
with others. She exploits them for personal gratification, and
futility and death are the end product of her influence. Where
there is no encounter with the atoning death of Christ, no experience
of the Joy of his living Presence, there is no spiritual identity,
no lasting personal fulfillment. There is no recourse to the "mind
of Christ, " the wisdom from above", and the resulting
insecurity is evident in fraudulent relationships.
"Wisdom builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down" (Proverbs 14:1).
A woman who relates to life with godly wisdom is establishing
a secure identity. Anything less is self-destructive. Repeatedly,
the Old Testament prophets, calling God 's recalcitrant, disobedient
nation to repentance, referred to her as an unfaithful wife, a
harlot. In her exile she has widowed her mother city. The daughter
of Zion has departed all her majesty. The Lord has trodden as
in a wine press the virgin daughter of Judah. She is a maiden
whose lovers cannot comfort her. The epitome of spiritual unfaithfulness
is the great harlot of Revelation, "who corrupted the earth
with her fornication."
On the other hand, the new humanity, God's chosen and redeemed
society, the church, is referred to as the Bride of Christ, the
wife of the Lamb, a bride adorned for her husband. She is clothed
with fine linen, bright and pure...the righteous deeds of the
saints.
"Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure--for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." Rev. l9:7, 8
Again, the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, is pictured as the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, having the
glory of God, "with radiance like a most rare jewel, like
a jasper, clear as crystal (Revelation 21:9-11). Again we are
reminded of 1 Peter 3:3-5, and the woman there described as gentle
and quiet in spirit, which attitude is said to be an imperishable
jewel which in God's sight is very precious!
With superb poetic grace, the Song of Solomon depicts the love
relationship between Christ and his Bride. The sensuous aspects
of human love are used to depict the intimate quality of God's
relationship with his own people. Clearly depicted here is the
harmony of the spiritual with the emotional and physical aspects
of our humanity. There is no suggestion here of what is sometimes
called (wrongly) a "puritanical" view of sex, in which
the physical act itself is considered impure. It depicts the beauty
of a pure love between a man and a woman, a mutual devotion which
matures into lifelong relationship.
It is this kind of beautiful marital fulfillment which depicts
for us that the foundation for all such human love is the greatest,
richest love of all--the love of the Bridegroom who died for his
beloved bride, the church. We are reminded again that the source
of all true love is the Father-God who gave his Son, who died
for us when we were his enemies. It is he who made us for himself
in order to make us the objects of his infinite and unequivocal
love, the love which constrained him to die for his beloved. (See
the Survey of the Song of Solomon in Revised Standard Version,
pp. 640b).
The Apostle Paul expounds the message of the Song of Solomon in
Ephesians 5:22-33. The teaching on headship and submission in
the marriage relationship must be seen as the corollary to the
theology (the God-Truth) of Ephesians. He begins with phrases
so rich in spiritual romance that heart and mind fairly burst
with ecstasy:
He blessed us with every spiritual blessing...He chose us....He
destined us in love....He freely, lavishly, graced us in the Beloved
with redemption and forgiveness...He revealed to us through wisdom
and insight, the mystery of His will--the plan to unite all things
in Christ, in heaven and on earth--hope in His calling....the
riches of His inheritance in us...resurrection power, above all
rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name
that is named--forever.
And the consummate wonder and reality: He, the risen Christ, is
the
"Head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."
To that Headship, then, we are enjoined in chapter 5 to be mutually
submissive. That determines our attitude and governs our responses
so that we may serve according to who we are as sexual beings,
created for love relationship with God who called and equipped
us with His life and love through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul now speaks of the great mystery: Christ and the church. Christ
the Head, who loved the church and gave himself up for her, sanctified
and cleansed her with the word, nourishes and cherishes her as
his own body, and whose aim is her unblemished holiness (sometimes
interpreted as "wholeness".
The appropriate and indeed exciting response to all of the above
is the wives' subjection to the husband who is in turn subject
to his Head. It is her reverent response to Christ who is also
her Head. As her husband-head images the Headship of Christ over
his church, the wife is privileged to image the obedient and reverent
response of the church to Christ, her Head.
It is indeed a mystery! But such a mystery as has not been revealed
in any cultural, religious or philosophical definition. It is
unique to Christianity, and it is no wonder, then, that it has
been so vehemently attacked, by those who prefer a more "reasonable"
alternative.
It is truly the ultimate, if not the most representative, test
of the authenticity of our mutual obedience to and dependence
upon the transforming power of Christ in our human encounters.
It tests our motivation, whether our commitment is truly focused
on God's ultimate purpose, made clear by the Apostle Paul in his
theological (God-premised) treatise in Ephesians l-3.
Peace, freedom, wisdom, beauty, fidelity, love--all are symbolized
in the female gender. Are they then exclusively female characteristics?
Of course not! But may it be that the godly woman, whose gentle,
quiet Spirit is her love-response to God's loving authority, in
a unique way releases others to understand and experience these
qualities of life. Is it not possible that the woman who responds
with wise and loving submission to the authority of her husband
might set him free to headship in the home? And this headship
would, if universally practiced, set in motion a cycle of redemptive
social responses which would restore order and love to humanity.
In an article in Harper's magazine July, 1973, excerpted
from his book, "The Suicide of the Sexes," George Gilder
makes some extraordinarily perceptive comments on the implications
of sexuality in society. He articulates the disastrous results
to society of minimizing sexual differences, and states that "sexual
energy animates most of our activities and connects every individual
to a family and a community, and through these to a past and a
future." He further states that "sexuality is best examined
not as sexology, physiology, or psychology, but as a study encompassing
all the deepest purposes of a society."
With persuasive clarity he reasons that "males are the sexual
outsiders and inferiors," who without long term commitments
to and from women--without the institution of marriage--are exiles
from the procreative chain of nature. "From almost the start,"
he says, "the boy's sexual identity is dependent on acts
of exploration and initiative." These he feels are less vital
to a woman, whose sexual identity is stamped in her very being,
or patently obvious in her anatomy, even though she may fail to
bear children.
While the views expressed by Mr. Gilder in this article are from
a secular viewpoint, I see them as strongly supportive of the
necessity for the traditional and scriptural female role of nurturer
and motivator. If, indeed, the male is insecure in his sexuality
and therefore afloat in his social identity, female dominance
can only heighten his sense of uncertainty and dispossess society
of maleness. On the other hand, a woman, being secure in her sexual
identity, can support maleness by developing in man a sense of
headship responsibility. Such a woman can secure to society the
love, intimacy, and companionship of marriage and the family by
validating the man as father and provider.
Submission is a subtle and sensitive role in human relationships.
Apart from a secure spiritual identity, it will be seen as a threat
to personal autonomy. With her God-given sensitivity and a will
subject to his loving wisdom, a woman can, by her example, teach
this healing, cohesive principle to husband, family, church, and
society. Will we relinquish this privilege and responsibility
to a self-centered insistence on our rights? May we allow God
to free us from bondage to ourselves and extend that liberty of
spirit through us to others!