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a Fellowship of Christian Moms
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by ELIZABETH RICE HANDFORD
Excerpt from the book
Quoting the book, “Me? Obey Him?”
Copyright 1972 Used by Permission
What if a Husband Expressly Commands Something Explicitly Wrong?
But what if a husband expressly, positively, beyond the shadow of a doubt, commanded his wife to do something explicitly wrong, something plainly forbidden in Scripture? What if he told her to murder their child? What if he insisted she commit adultery? Do the Scriptures require her obedience under such circumstances?
When women ask me this question, I counter with two of my own:
1. “Have you been living in daily obedience to your husband as part of your wholehearted, loving submission to God?”
(This is an essential part of the problem. If a woman has not been submissive, God has no responsibility for her situation and cannot be blamed if her husband requires something wrong.)
2. “Has your husband ever actually commanded you to do something wrong?”
In the hundreds of times I have asked these questions, not once, if my memory is right, has a woman answered, “yes, I am always obedient, and yet my husband has required me to break one of God’s laws.”
Never! Why?
Because, when a woman takes God at His Word, submits to her husband without reservation, fears God and loves Him, then God takes up on Himself the responsibility to see that a woman does not have to sin!
Don’t misunderstand. I am aware that ungodly men sometimes demand things of their wives that are revolting and wrong. And you can tell me of many other cases. But the fact remains that I have never known of a case where, when a woman said to her husband, “I will obey you implicitly, as if you were God, and trust you to make the right decisions for me,” then set about to do it in loving, sweet, heart-yearning submission, that he required her to do wrong.
If God tells a woman to obey, then he performs whatever miracle is necessary to make her able to obey! It may be that we are no longer accustomed to expecting the intervention of an Almighty God in our personal lives. It may be that we don’t expect miracles and so God can’t do any miracles. “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matt. 13:58). How blessed is the woman who will take God at His Word, believe Him, obey Him, and leave the consequences to Him!
God put a ram in the thicket so Abraham would not have to slay his son (Gen. 22:12). God arranged circumstances so David did not have to fight his own king (1 Sam 29:9-11). God made enough manna to fall on the sixth day so no one would have to break the Sabbath to get something to eat. God just does not make people choose between commands. He is not that kind of God!
God never gives two commands impossible to obey. He will never make a woman choose between two wrongs if she wholeheartedly follows the Scriptures.
Does God really mean it when He commands a wife to be in subjection to her husband? Without a doubt! It is a positive, direct command God expects to be obeyed, in faith, knowing and doing the will of God regardless of the consequences!