MARRIAGE (PART 2)
Who is man?
Shalom women of God. I can’t wait to delve into this session. I believe it has been refreshing so far and that you are being blessed. Alright, let’s box on. On our road to the rediscovery of marriage, it is paramount to understand what man is. The understanding of man will open up great understanding of the concept of marriage.
Genesis 1: 26-27
And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them.
When God set out to create man, He spoke of singularity and plurality interchangeably. We see Him speak of a singular entity called man. Then He switches to address this man as a plural entity then explains further that this plurality of man is male and female. Whenever He spoke of creation, He addressed man as singular. Whenever He spoke of responsibility or of function, He addressed man as plural.
The main point here is that God’s image has male and female aspects. One of the ancient errors made was the belief that the male man was made in the image of God and that women were an afterthought and they were not created in the image of God. But there is nothing as far from the truth as this notion. You see, seeing the image of God as male is seeing with a glaucoma eye. That is to say not seeing the full view. It is the male and female that come together to form the image of God. So in as much as He is King, the mighty one in battle, the Prince of Peace; He is also the El- Shaddai which means the “Many Breasted One”. He is the one who says He has engraved us into His palms and so will never forget about us – this He said as He compared His love to that of a mother (Is. 49:16). Then He introduces us to the Holy Ghost who is a member of the Godhead and who shows so many feminine qualities.
It is His image that God desires to rebuild in marriage. That is why the two becoming one is not strange because it was the same image that was broken into two which has come together. If you cut an orange apiece and bring them together, you do not get two oranges but one. In the same vein, the two halves of the image of God come together to form the one full image of God.
This truth settled my heart some time ago. I nearly fell deep into the lie of the current feministic movement (I like to call it the Beijing Movement). I was young and I had watched movies and life time happenings around me where women were not respected. And the little hope I saw as a young woman in the making was in the gospel according to Beijing. I indoctrinated myself the more into this devilish theme when I searched the scriptures then and thought God’s word was in favor of men. Everything was about men. Then He opened my mind to see that His image was feminine too. And that when He called man to dominate and take mastery of the earth he spoke to both the male and female. That is the mandate to dominate and rule the earth was given to both male and female. He showed me that it was the fall of man which led to the traumatizing and abuse of women. And this anomaly He was going to correct in Christ which is the church.
In general, there is an inferiority complex which is deeply seated in the hearts of women that a revelation of being the image of God can wipe away. The phrase “It’s a man’s world” is not a folklore but a true reality that we are constantly reminded of in all areas of life. I am a medical doctor and so many times I am called a nurse by the very patient who has entered the consulting room and has just told me his or her complaints. I used to get worked up by it (please don’t get me wrong being a nurse is not derogatory it is a very noble profession). Trying to correct them made me feel proud which was not a feeling I liked. So after much thought and prayer, I stopped correcting people when they called me nurse (except on special occasions, of course) because I realized that whether they thought of me as a doctor or not did not change my status as a doctor. And with time without these people being corrected, they ended up seeing me as a doctor. What am I trying to say? If you settle in your heart that as a woman you are the image of God, no man, not even your husband can demoralize you or what we say “bring you down” emotionally. Also, submission will not be difficult irrespective of what happens because you know that your submission does not make you less of who you truly are. That is the image of God.
Shalom. If you truly read through this article then you should come to this summary:
- Women are also the image of God.
- Women also have the mandate to dominate and rule just as men.
- In marriage, God brings the two sides of his image together to form the one full image of God.
- Women should come to an understanding of being God’s image for this will settle their hearts.
