What would you say if you found out you were a queen? How would you treat the king? More than likely, with knowledge of your command. You would suddenly have more influence, and if you were a wise queen, you would wield that influence on your husband for the advantage of the kingdom: and perhaps yourself.
As I started a new year with my NKJV version Bible, I decided to highlight all of the mentions God made of women. I wanted to see how much they pervade the Bible, what women were positive examples, and which were negative; I even wanted to see how much God used females for his purpose. Did you know that the dove God sent out from the ark after the Flood was a female? She carried the message of wet or dry land back from either the olive branch or her absence. God could have portrayed her as a male dove, but it seemed unusual he decided on a female.
Obviously, God's mention of females in the Bible doesn't just associate with doves. Some of women's greatest mentions are associated with their powerful influence over some very significant men. The Genesis account of Eve offering the tempting fruit to Adam---and his response to almost automatically accept it---seems like the most startling (Gen. 3), but as Genesis continues, women continue to play a huge role of influence. The daughters of men influence angels to come to earth to be with them (Gen. 6:1-2), and even minor characters like Lamech had something to admit to his wives (Adah and Zillah) that he felt were close enough confidantes and people of influence: the murder of a man (Gen.4: 23-24). Before Sarai became the mother of nations as "Sarah", she held sway not only over Egyptian kings who desired her for her beauty, but also over her husband to a great extent. Abram had already heard that God would bless him through Sarai's children, but Sarai seemed to overpower even God's voice in Abram's head by telling Abram to take Hagar, her maidservant, as his wife and bear a child with her. Abram, like his distant relative Adam, obeyed his wife's influential voice (Gen. 16).
In 1 Peter, even though Peter is discussing women with non-Christian husbands, he seems to echo well this knowledge that women affect the men they are with.
"Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives" (1 Peter 3:1-2).
What has been most fascinating to me in this verse is recalling the negative influence of women in Genesis and yet the ability and power we have as positive influences! Whether it is a husband, brother, friend, or father, the reverence of our lives and the way we treat men can greatly effect their decisions for or against the kingdom of God.
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