This is Part 2 of a series of posts answering a multi-part question asked of me on another blog. Read my introductory post to the series here.
In the last post we saw that men and women were both created as image bearers of God. The sexes share an equality of nature and value. But does that mean that God intended them to have the same responsibilities? Or did God intend for each gender to have a unique set of responsibilities that would in no way devalue either of them?
We saw this equality of being established in Genesis 1:27. If we take another look at the creation story in chapters 1 and 2, we’ll notice something significant. Adam was given a leadership role from the start. In Genesis chapter 2 we read the detailed history of the creation mankind. We’re told that he first created man, Adam, and placed him in the garden with a job to do. Adam’s job was to be a kind of park ranger, or forester. He was to tend to the garden. But the Lord gave Adam specific instructions about one of the trees present in the garden.
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. ~ Genesis 2:17
Now the thing is, this command was given before God had created woman. The very next verse, Genesis 2:18, tells of the search for a fitting companion for Adam, and the subsequent creation of Eve.
After the creation of woman, the first marriage takes place and notice the pattern that is set in Genesis 2:24.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
The man is to initiate by leaving the comfort of his own family to start a new one. The woman is not given that same responsibility.
In the very next chapter, Genesis 3, we read the account of the Fall. This is where our first parents disobey the one and only commandment then given. They eat of the tree. When God confronts them about it, he first comes to Adam and asks him about the tree.
…Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? ~ Genesis 3:11
Adam, sadly, passes the buck and doesn’t take responsibility for his own actions. He points the finger at Eve. But the fact remains, God gave that command to Adam, and expected him to relay it on to Eve. When God is announcing the consequences of their sinful actions, he says to Adam
…Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’…
You see, God held Adam responsible. He expected Adam to act as a leader in his family. Adam is at fault because he was listening when he should have been leading, and that is exactly what Satan wanted. Why do you think Satan approached Eve instead of Adam? Because that is exactly the opposite of God’s intended arrangement. Satan drew Eve into the conversation and now she’s leading, not Adam.
Some might argue that the order of creation isn’t important. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by brance 
