Searching the Scriptures - Samuel Pipim

assignment that was, no doubt, a joy. After the fall, however, the exercise of Adam'sheadship role as provider and protector of the family was to be carried out with toil, painand sweat (Gen 3:17-19). The divine judgment on our first parents (the so-called"curses") recognized that it was not going to be easy to fulfil the original headshiparrangement which assigned different roles to man and woman for their mutual blessing.Christ's redemptive work did not remove these gender-based roles. Yet through a faithrelationship with Him, Christians can experience the joy and harmony that results whenregenerate men and women seek to live in harmony with God's creation ordinance.Page 55[6] In the Bible, although the father assumed ultimate responsibility for teaching in thehousehold family, the mother also played a significant role in teaching, instructing andexhorting the family (see Prov 1:8; 6:20; 31:26). Thus, while the man filled the headshiprole, the ministry of both the man and woman were necessary in the home. Thisillustrates the biblical understanding of man and woman as complementary to oneanother.The analogy of the home may help us understand how to deal with unusual churchsituations, such as when there are no qualified men to provide leadership. A widowed ordivorced woman may have to earn the living, discipline the children, and get the lawnmower fixed--responsibilities her husband had largely carried. But in doing these thingsshe does not become a man or start to call herself a husband. Furthermore, her singlenessmay be only temporary until she has another husband to fulfill some of those roles.Likewise, women in unusual church situations may have to provide leadership for a time,but this does not require that they be ordained as elders or pastors (cf. note 7 below).[7] Despite the fact that women have a major part to act (see note 6 above, and also 2 Tim1:5), these texts illustrate the responsibility God has placed on fathers for the rearing oftheir children, a responsibility too widely ignored in today's world, even within thechurch. The example of Barak in the Old Testament shows how men in leadership oftendefault in their leadership responsibility (Judges 4). When such situations arise, there is aneed for God-fearing Deborahs (see chapter 3, note 1).The unique leadership of Deborah as prophet and judge in Israel is probably the bestmodel of how women can exercise their leadership gifts in the absence of capable men(Judges 4:4ff.). But note that whereas other judges led Israel into victory in battle, Godtold Deborah that Barak was to do this (vv. 6-7). Apparently, she was the only judge inthe book of Judges who had no military function. She does not assert leadership forherself, but she gives priority to a man--even though the man was reluctant to go to battlewithout her (v. 8). The failure of Barak to exercise his leadership is rebuked when he istold that the glory that day would go to a woman--not Deborah, but Jael (vv. 9, 17-25.).Thomas R. Schreiner therefore concludes that Deborah's "attitude and demeanor weresuch that she was not asserting her leadership. Instead, she handed over the leadership,contrary to the pattern of all the judges, to a man" (Schreiner, "The Valuable Ministries ofWomen in the Context of Male Leadership: A Survey of Old and New Testament