“This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do.”
1 Peter 3:5-6 NLT
An American footballer once said, “They say behind every great man there’s a woman. While I’m not a great man, there’s a great woman behind me“. That could be a comment based on our Bible verses today from 1 Peter 3. A woman who trusts God and accepts the authority of her husband is in a unique position. She can bring God’s perspective into a marriage relationship that would otherwise founder and be in danger of terminal decline. A wife’s influence also gives her the opportunity to correct the potential for error that a man can otherwise get caught up in. In the Old Testament there is the story of a man called Nabal, a rich man who had a reputation for being rather coarse and mean. David in his pre-king-of-Israel days was running from Saul and needed food for his band of 400 men. He sent messengers to Nabal to ask for provisions but got a mean and insulting response. But fortunately for him, Nabal had a wife called Abigail, who was apparently a “sensible and beautiful woman” (1 Samuel 25:3). David was about to send his warriors to take what he needed by force and redeem the insults, when Abigail acted to resolve the situation with a gift of food. Her diplomacy defused an otherwise ugly situation. Her reasoned appeal to David ended with, “When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel, don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant” (1 Samuel 25:30-31). David’s response to Abigail included the following, “Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands” (1 Samuel 25:33). Perhaps it was such a story that Peter had in mind when he wrote about women who “put their trust in God”. To finish the story, when Nabal found out how his wife had averted a disaster that would have probably ended with his death, he had a stroke, and died ten days later anyway.
In Genesis 12, we find the story of Abram and Sarai, faced with a situation that forced them to go to Egypt to find food. Abram forced Sarai to lie for him, by saying she was his sister. Her obedience propagated the lie and they nearly came to grief, instead being ejected from Egypt because of their deception. Sarai behaved in a way that honoured her part in the marriage, and her trust in God bought them through the crisis. Perhaps this was another story that was in Peter’s mind when he wrote about the women who firstly put their trust in God.
A husband and wife, who function in a God-ordained way, form a partnership that can withstand most of the shocks that can come against a marriage and that are stacked against us in life. In Proverbs 18:22, we read, “The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favour from the Lord“. We married men can testify to this I’m sure. Do I hear an “Amen”?
Dear God. You created men and women and intended them to be married in a Godly union. Thank You for Peter’s words of Holy-Spirit-inspired wisdom. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 