Provider/Protector

Genesis 3:6-19

It is a sad day when a woman finds that her man is not what she had hoped him to be, that he is not her knight in shining armor, in fact he may not even meet her needs of support; not emotionally or financial.  God designed the man, as the provider, and the protector of his woman, and as we saw earlier that it was God’s design for the man to leave his mother and father, and to hold fast to his wife.  In the book of Colossians 3:19, “Husbands love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.”  Did you see any “if’s”?   I’ve looked, it is not in the book, God did not tell man he could refrain from loving his wife if she got old, or fat, or was not a good cook, or even if someone else came into the picture that he thought would be a better wife.  God did not give man any escape, with the exception of his wife being unfaithful to him. 

So how is Adam doing, he new at this, he is the first man to take a wife, an until the fall, Adam walked and talked with God and I just believe God gave him some great advice on how to love, because God is Love.  We have seen the account of how the devil came to Eve in the body of a serpent and began this dialog, I’ve always wondered if it went something like this; “Good morning Eve, you look great today, but then you always look great, looks like the garden is doing super, you sure are a great gardener, it would not surprise me if you got voted the best gardener of the year.  How are the fruit trees doing, O yes, that one in the center of the garden, it sure has the most beautiful fruit.”  And you know the rest of the story, because God put it in the Bible, Genesis 3:1-6.

I always thought Eve was away from Adam in the garden and Adam was busy some where else when the serpent began his conversation, but the Scripture states that Adam was standing right there.  The end of verse six states, “she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”    Adam dropped the ball, he was right there and he did not protect his wife, in fact he accepted or allowed what happened without any active response or resistance, he was not her protector, the guy went passive.  Adam stepped out of his role as the protector, and only bad things happen when the man becomes passive.

When a man steps out of his role as the lover, warrior, provider and protector of his wife, and stands like he’s on the sidelines and allows harmful things to happen to his family; that is when bad things happen in his marriage.  When his lack of action confronts him, he will do what Adam did, it is called the blame game, and whom does he blame, the woman.  Adam, not only blamed Eve, he blamed God, because God had given him the woman.  You and I are living the rest of the story, how are you doing guys, do you have a habit of going passive on your wife, are you her protector?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice