Page:Woman-1949.djvu/5

May 1, 1949

The WATCHTOWER

Brooklyn, N.Y.

God's woman, could attach himself and be born as a man and become the Savior Jesus Christ. What kind of wife Eve was to Adam outside of the garden of Eden we have no details to show. In Eden she had departed from being a real help to him. She used her influence to his downfall, by not recognizing his priority of position but deciding her course without first consulting him as the one who had been given God's law and by then influencing her husband to join her in disobedience. As the proverb says: "A good wife is an honour to her husband: a shameless wife rots all his strength away." (Prov. 12: 4, Moffatt) By her course Eve did not retain honor or win respect for herself. The rule of action that she followed both toward God and toward man made her like a cancer in the man's bones. It is against this same rule of action that her daughters must guard if they do not want to fail of gaining everlasting life that God has opened up for humankind through the Seed of his woman.

¹¹ In keeping with the Creator's original purpose in providing woman, her effort should always be to help man. But noting her place in God's arrangement and nothing the influence she wields with man, Satan the Devil has made it his business to use her in influencing man to depart from obedience to Jehovah God. Many women with a fear of God and with faith in the wisdom of his arrangements have nobly resisted the crafty effort of the Serpent to use them wrongly to man's hurt. These have gained respect of God-fearing men, and God's Holy Record mentions a number of them with honor. In God's arrangement or human relations, woman's may be a secondary place; hers may be a subordinate role, but as a wife, mother, sister, daughter, she has been privileged to wield a quiet, modest influence that has been powerful with man for good.

¹² The apostle Paul writes: "A man ought not to wear anything on his head, for he is the image of God and reflects his glory"; and that is why God dealt primarily with men and why his written Word relegates womankind to the background and brings comparatively few of them individually to view. But those who have shown humble respect for the arrangements of the Most High God he, in his turn, has respected. Thus, by being submissive, trustful, and anxious to do their part within the sphere that God prescribed for them, they have gained more of God's favor and man's wholesome respect than if they had tried to assert themselves and to take the lead and force themselves into notice and into the commanding position. They have realistically considered their sex and what God's Word has to say regarding it. Without complaining at the inferior role they have been assigned to play, they have made the most of their situation to work with the male

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12 Why have women been submissive? and with what gain?

servants of God. Thus they have pleased God and not gotten in the way of his good purpose. So he has been pleased to use them in an honorable way.

¹³ Abraham's wife Sarah is the first one after Eve to be set forth by name as a right example to the daughters of Eve. Sarah did not rebel against her husband's being head over her because he was the man, did she? She did not feel deprived of rights and so, feeling injured, refuse to lend him her help in serving Jehovah's purposes, did she? To ask these questions is to answer them. Now, Sarah's husband believed. But a woman who believes and who wants to help her unbelieving husband get the Kingdom truth is under a great handicap if she is forbidden to preach the truth to him or to discuss it with him. Yet she still has a way of influencing him and possibly winning him to the truth. How? By a proper subjection to him as her man and also by letting her faithful Christian conduct speak for itself. By submission, sometimes even under an injustice, she would not hinder or prejudice her husband against accepting the truth. The apostle Peter is talking about the merit of suffering unjustly according to God's will when he discusses women with unbelieving husbands to show the silent influence they can exercise, and then uses Sarah as an example of faithful and helpful submission, saying:

¹⁴ "For when Christ suffered for you, he left you an example, and you must be following his footsteps. In the same way, you wives must be submissive to your husbands, so that even those who will not believe the Word may be won over without a word by the behavior of their wives, when they see how chaste and reverent you are. You are not to adorn yourselves on the outside with braids of hair and ornaments of gold and changes of dress, but inside, in the heart, with the immortal beauty of a gentle, modest spirit, which in the sight of God is of rare value. It was in this way that the holy women who long ago hoped in God adorned themselves. They were submissive to their husbands. Thus Sara obeyed Abraham by calling him 'lord'. And you are daughters of Sara, if you do what is right and yield to no panic."-l Pet. 2: 21 and 3: 1-6, Moffatt.

AN ABLE WIFE

¹⁵ Now a woman who has to suffer at the hands of her unbelieving mate because of her devotion to God and his kingdom can return his evil with good and be truly a good wife by helping him to the truth. Certainly, then, a woman can be helpful to a believing husband all the more. Such a woman is a precious possession for a married man to have. King Lemuel gives a beautiful description of such a wife. He tells how she, in submission to God's judgment that man

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13-14 To whom does Peter use Sarah as an example? Why?

15-17 (a) Whom could a believing wife help all more? (b) How does King Lemuel describe such a virtuous able wife?