This is a four part series in which I wish to address and open a line of reasoning around some things that I think are very misunderstood in our culture and in the church today. In this part I will address the idea of maleness/femaleness and what God may have intended by that. In another part I will discuss what the Image of God means and how we maybe do and don’t yet have that one in our possession. Then, in a third part, I will discuss the nature of Church authority and how Kingdom authority is not compatible at all with the world’s notion of authority. And lastly in part four, I will address some implications in practical life that arise from my suggested interpretations of these themes.

Genesis 1 is where we first get this idea of Male and Female. The plants reproduce after their kinds, and we know now that they too have “male” and “female” parts that must join to make seed and fruit. Animals also reproduce after their kind, and we observe male and female specimens of all species of animal. But God doesn’t use the words “male” and “female” until He starts talking about humans. 

“Let Us make humanity in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, over all the creatures that move along the ground.

So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”  Genesis 1:26-27

There seems to be some direct connection between Maleness and Femaleness that is unique to the Image of God and to Human-ness. You can’t really understand God until you can understand and see both sides of His nature.

In the next verses God blesses them and issues a mandate for them. The first part echoes what He said to the fish and the birds. “Be fruitful and multiply, fill (and here He adds their particular spaces to occupy, the seas and the earth.” To the humans He adds “subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and every living creature on the ground.”

I know that parallelism is a quality of Hebrew literature. That makes it easy to dismiss it. One thinks, “Yeah, God repeats Himself a lot. He’s poetic like that.” But it is interesting to note that in these first two instances of parallelism He is actually addressing pairs of beings. To the fish “be fruitful and fill the seas. To the birds, “multiply and increase on the earth (by inference, “fill the skies.”) Then to the Male “Be fruitful.” To the Female “Increase.”  To the one “Rule” and to the other “Subdue.”  I can’t say for sure, but could it be that God chose a culture to write His memoirs in that used this literary device as a way of bringing both sides of this coin into the conversation? I picture the Father and the Spirit singing in a kind of round, each echoing and reflecting the same idea.

The word “to Rule” is the word radah in Hebrew. It is important to note that it is not the same word translated to rule or govern in Genesis 1:16-18 in reference to the Sun and Moon, nor is it the same word used in Genesis 3:16 referring to Adam ruling over Eve, and it is not the word used in Genesis 4:7 regarding Cain’s need to rule over sin. I will say more in the article on Authority.

The word “Subdue” is the word kabash in Hebrew. Both radah and kabash are strong words. They are used about dominion, even about trampling or treading on one’s enemies. Strong warnings are given in Leviticus about not radah-ing with severity.

I think the key to understanding how this mandate is unique is again in the context of being made in God’s Image. Throughout Genesis 1 God the Father is seen Defining what will be. He names it. Speaks it into being, and shapes it. The Spirit hovers over the chaos waters, calming, taming, suppressing them until order is established.

There are two natures working collaboratively here to Rule and Subdue the Cosmos. Yet “Hear O Israel, the Lord your Elohim (plural) is One.”

So the way in which the Male and Female are to rule and subdue is through embodying the image of God, Father and Spirit. Not with severity, but with righteous and benevolent leadership.

2 Peter lists several attributes on the path to maturity. And by maturity, I mean ascending from our base nature to embody this Image of our Maker.  (In the article on God’s Image I will explain why I don’t think that image is an inborn given to every human, but an opportunity to be cultivated.) Peter says, “to your faith add virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge patience, to patience self-control, to self-control godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

So if the seed of the Divine Nature is faith in the Divine One, then we grow through virtue, knowledge, patience, self-control, godliness, brotherly kindness to the fruit of Love. The mature and fully formed nature of God is love. But not the love our culture talks about. Not the “you complete me” version of love, where love is finding someone who gratifies my desires and fulfills my needs and then doing whatever it takes to keep them near me for as long as I continue to feel this way. God’s love grows out of virtue, knowledge, patience and all the others. 

I have been meditating on this verse for a while, and I have had to confess to God that I get stuck somewhere around patience and self-control. I have the faith! He gave me that. I’ve cleaned up some of my bad habits with the Spirit’s help. I don’t lie, cheat or steal, really. I’ve read my bible and meditate regularly, but then comes patience and on its heels self-control.

I feel like the teacher of the law who wanted to justify himself. I try Lord, but other people are just so other, and peopley.  It is sobering to realize how little true love is genuinely mine to give. But if we are to be people of the Divine Nature, Image Bearers, who bring righteous rule and a subduing over the chaos to the earth, then we must have the power to restrain self, and to compel self to act on another’s behalf even when it is inconvenient to the ever-present Self. After all, how can someone, who is in chaos themselves, bring order to something else. We must be self-controlled. There is no one else here to tame us.

Recently my husband and I were talking and it occurred to me that the messaging that parents have given their children historically through the centuries has been for boys to persevere, work hard, keep at it even when it’s hard and you don’t want to. Men have been expected to overcome hardship to plow fields, build bridges and roads and march off to war. 

To girls the messaging was sit still, be patient and quiet, submit to the will of others. Women have been expected to serve and care for the young, the old and the sick or wounded. To lighten and brighten the mood regardless of how they personally were feeling and to follow the will of their husbands or elders without complaining.

These expectations were treated as a virtue to the man or woman who accepted them and obeyed their role. Yet, it was not a virtue for one to complete the other’s role. For a boy to be quiet and submissive, or a girl to be strong willed and determined.

If you accept Genesis 3:15-16 as God’s command, what must be, then this is a way to rule and subdue, separately, and in separate spheres. But Tim Mackey of the Bible Project calls Genesis 3 God’s Lament over what will happen because of our choices, more than a picture of God’s intent and ideal. I think he’s onto something.

Genesis 1, Image Bearer, is God’s intent. Unity and Love is God’s nature not distance, separation, lonely burdens. Furthermore, Christ died to remediate our error, and allow us to reclaim our intended mandate.

The conventional view of gender programming defined self-control differently for males than for females. Each was given almost exclusively a message of control yourself, but only in these ways and these circumstances. If you are always told that godliness and self-control are to be active and dynamic, decisive and perseverant, how then do you hear the voice of wait, be still, some are too young, too old, too ill to follow you? If you are always told to put others first, wait your turn, be quiet, then how to arrest a loved one who is charging headlong into a foolish venture. How do you advocate for the young, the old, and the weak? If self-control is only one or the other, then how do you hear each other, and share a common point of view? How do you avoid resentment at always being the only one who must control themselves, and deny themselves?

That model does rule and subdue. There is a kind of order to it, but it is a black and white, child-like definition  of “to rule and subdue.” It lacks the nuance of context to approach true Wisdom. And there is a gap between parts that does not embody the Divine Union.

What if there is a lesson here about what God is really like? His Image is Male AND Female. He rules and subdues.

He starts us off with the two halves clear and distinct, and blessing and civilization grows out of the two sides being separately expressed, but then there is a point when civilization wants to open them up and offer more choice and opportunity to its citizens.  We try to unify the two halves into one but it doesn’t lead to peace.

Our culture is currently questioning the gender programming of the past. I am not sure that is not a providential thing. Perhaps humanity is entering a kind of cosmic adolescence in which we are no longer interested in playing house and mimicking silhouettes of what our Parents are, but wanting to venture closer to true adulthood and bear weightier roles.  Unfortunately, like so many teenagers wanting to be adults, we are grabbing at freedoms without the responsibilities.  We’ve traded “you be self-controlled like this; I’ll be self-controlled like that,” for “let’s do whatever we want.”  Yet without self-control, the path to Love is lost.  We are not seeing a generation grow up with the Divine Image stamped deep into their hearts and minds because of all the freedom they have, but rather a sense of overwhelming lostness, because the path before them is so vague and unclear.

It seems to me that the two gender roles speak to two aspects of self-control. The masculine or “yang” side is proactive and determined. It does not see injustice and just sit by or walk away. It does not see an obstacle and concede defeat, but it innovates, attacks, problem solves and overcomes. The Divine Yang is the one who hears a loud boom, or feels the heat of a raging fire and runs towards it, and into it. It is noble and good!

The feminine or “yin” side stays by the side of someone in pain enduring the discomfort of those long moments that its presence might diminish the pain somewhat. It does not succumb to gloom or boredom, but rises and lifts the spirits of all who come near it. It waits for dawn; it hopes for brighter weather; it restrains doubt and fear. The Divine Yin is the one who is loyal all night if need be, for a lifetime if need be. It is regal and good!

Wisdom is both. I do not believe that the path forward is to go back to the way things were. Returning to the simplicity of childhood is not an option for one who is no longer a child. No, I believe there is a path forward. It is knowing what is needed and finding the strength within to give it, It is Jesus!

When I look at Jesus, I see a person who embodies both kinds of self-control. Submitting and obeying even to His own destruction, yet boldly and actively healing others, feeding others and confronting ignorance. Facing the cross, both fearlessly, and obediently, because it is what is needed.

What if instead of throwing away the boy/girl program that we had before and letting both genders do whatever they want and live lonely self-indulgent lives that never touch at the Divine Nature, or shoving the boys and girls back into narrowly defined labels that box them in like incomplete people with great strength, yet with unbridled sides of their nature, we did something new.

What if we embraced the idea of a dual nature to self-control. What if we taught children that life is complicated and that sometimes you must persevere and do what you do not want to do, and sometimes you must restrain your impulses and be patient with others and yield to them, and that knowing when and how to do that is impossible all the time, but that with God’s help and a lot of grace we can begin to taste His nature and see that it is good! And be grateful for the opportunity to partner with Him in growing the fruit of True Love in the world.

What if we could get over the hurdles of patience and self-control and on to godliness and brotherly kindness?!