The Voice of a Woman Never Changes

 While at work the other day, I found out the devastating news that all Borders Book Stores were closing down, then realized I had a gift card that I needed to use up before I ran out of time. One of the books I bought is titled “Slightly Bad Girls in the Bible,” Written by Liz Curtis Higgs(she actually lives in Louisville, where I grew up). Each chapter starts off with a modern day story to help relate to what is later shared, the Biblical story. This particular one was about Sarai (later Sarah) and Abram and Hagar. In a nut shell, Abram was told by God that he would be the father of a great nation. There was only one problem, he had no children. Him and his wife were both old in age and were confused how that would be possible. Abram did have full faith in God, but his wife wasn’t so sure. After several years of an empty womb, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She offered her servant, Hagar, to her husband so that he would be able to have an heir. What amazed me was how similar Eve and Sarai were with their actions and their words.

Women have a way with persuading their husbands to do what they want them to. Both Adam and Abram were men of great faith and were content with where God had them. Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Other translations say that Abram “sat right with God.” However, his wife easily talked Abram into not trusting God and to follow her way.

A wife’s words towards her husband are sometimes more powerful than she recognizes. “The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants,” My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Oh, how true is that quote. Genesis 16:3b, 4 Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. Look at the parallels with Eve’s actions in Genesis 3:6 when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and ate it. Both women took and gave and both women took the lead. The fruit of the tree looked good, and it gave Eve something she desired. Hagar was young, said to be attractive, and was used to get something desirable – a son, an heir.

As most of us know, the actions both of these women took did not have such good results. Several things happened because of Eve’s persuasion including Sin, which includes death, child labor pain, they were banished from the Garden of Eden, and man had to work hard to eat the food from the ground and would have to worry about the thorns and thistles. With Sarai, when Hagar became pregnant, Sarai became jealous and treated Hagar badly. And later, after both bore their sons, Ishmael, Hagar’s son, became the son of Islam and Isaac, Sarai’s son, became the son of Israel, and the feuding is still continuing today. Who said women couldn’t change history?

I hope this is as much of an eye opener to my readers as it was to me. Women can be very powerful, especially with the words they chose to use with their husbands. I do not believe that it is a bad thing to speak your mind my any means, just that maybe we should think it over once or twice before we share our powerful words with our husbands. Also, our words can be used to benefit them, not to only hurt them. I know that one of the greatest things I can do for my husband is to give him a word of encouragement. It’s what keeps him going.