Temple Service
You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; 1 Peter 3:7
Vessel – Almost all of the sermons I have ever heard on this verse put the emphasis on the word “weaker”. Most of the time the sermons are almost apologetic. I think they miss the point.
While it is generally true that men are physically stronger than women, concentrating on this adjective often obscures Peter’s real point. The focus is not on a weight-lifting contest. It is on the use of God’s instrument. In order to see this, we have to know something about the word skeuos (vessel). Wuest points out that this word describes instruments used in the temple services. Certainly those were not common clay pots! While the word is also used to describe household utensils, when it is applied figuratively to people, as in Acts 9:15, it is about specific, intentional purposes. The same word describes the mast of a ship, the instrument that gives the ship power. So, it’s probably time to correct our thinking about wives. Most of them won’t win an arm-wrestling contest with a man, but that weakness has nothing to do with their designed purpose. The DNA of the ‘ezer still intends that they be the motivating power, the instrument of direction and the one set aside for God’s specific purpose in marital harmony.
Marriage is not a contest. At least it’s not supposed to be a contest. Whenever battle lines are drawn and spouses begin to think in terms of winner and loser, something tragic has happened. How can a man be a man without the motivating, directing intentional complement of the ‘ezer kenegdo? The sages recognized that a man without a woman is less than a full representation of God in the world. Genesis 2:24 makes it very clear that marriage is reunion – the joining of what was once whole and now must be brought back together by voluntary commitment. What does weaker vessel have to do with this? Nothing! The fact that Peter, a burly fisherman, recognizes that women are physically weaker takes nothing away from their design as a vessel of honor. Weakness only means that men have a greater responsibility to employ the natural strength they have been given as God intends. That strength does not give a man one iota of divinely-purposed superiority.
The potter makes vessels for his purposes. Some he makes with thick walls and solid bases. Some he makes with delicate designs and artistic flair. But every one of them is made with purpose in mind. Who would carry perfume in a 200 pound, rough-edged steel box? Specific design for specific purpose. Form follows function.
Today is a great day for appreciating the design of the (weaker) vessel. Today is a day to celebrate God’s purposes built into the choice of container. Motivator, director, guide – set apart to fulfill God’s intention.
Topical Index: vessel, weaker, woman, purpose, ‘ezer, skeuos, Genesis 2:24, 1 Peter 3:7
Since you served as commencement speaker at my 2007 graduation at MISD, I have been a reader of your writings. YES…I have learned much! The article “Temple Service”…I just did not get it. It appeared as it lack something – flow? coherence? I also did not get the part of a “reunion” in Genesis 2:24. Anyways, thanks for ALL the guidance, teachngs and instructions you have provided me.
Agape!
St. Jerome
Perhaps you didn’t connect this recent TW with the previous ones on ‘ezer kenegdo. It’s all about the special function of the wife as a designed instrument like the sacred implements of the temple.
We, the redeemed ones,in community, are the “bride of Christ.” He is the ONE who is strong, we are the ones who are weak. As the famous theologian Clint Eastwood once said, “a man’s got to know his limitations!” All through our wonderful Book of good news, we see G-d coming to the rescue and deliverance of those who are weak. “My strength is manisfested or displayed, in your weakness”, it is written. Even as I write these words, I write them from my home because I have become infected and infested with a nasty flu virus. Today (actually everyday!) I am weak.. But it is my weakness that causes me to look away from myself and my resources and unto Him Who is abundantly able to care for me. The “outward man” may be in the process of death and decay, but the “inward man” is leaping and bounding with the joy of knowing HaShem and taking in nourishment from His word(s). Whether male or female, we need to fully recognize our position and privilege in our “covenant union” with Christ as His beloved bride. Yes, we are the weaker vessel because of our humanity, but now that His blessed Breath lives within us, we can sing and shout.. “to G-d be the glory, great things He hath done”, and know that He ever loves and cares for His own. “I am weak, but Thou art strong..”, deliver us O LORD, from the evil one. Amen.
Another way of seeing this — The scripture doesn’t say the wife IS a weaker vessel, but that he shoud live with her ‘as with a weaker vessel’, in other words, as IF she were a weaker vessel. This would show his protection of her as if she were fragile, whether she is or not, always taking the heavier loads on himself, another way of saying, ‘preferring one another in love.’
Science does show that generally men are stronger than women in the short term, but over a longer term, a woman will often outlast him (e.g., carrying a baby on her hip all day as she goes about her other work). Also, mentally, she is often the stronger of the two.
Great clarification. Thanks
Skip
Thanks for the “connection” clarification Skip!
Donna, thanks for the insight. Being a Liberian (African), I lived it.
Agape,
St. Jerome