Women are like Trees! Stop Abusing Them

Women are like trees. Solomon compares his lady love to a palm tree! (Song of Solomon 7:7)  We know that to save a nation we need to save trees. So also to save homes and nation, we need to save women. Countless girl babies are aborted.  We lose precious women in the way of dowry deaths and brutal killings. When trees are cut, they lead to an ecological imbalance on earth. In the same way, our society is going to be disproportionate without women. Think a moment about a home and a society minus women.

Biblical Stories

The Levite’s concubine whose story comes in the book of Judges was betrayed by her lover and the host of the house. She was raped, tortured and murdered (Judges 19 &20). The world over these years has been unjust to women many a times in many ways. We also need to take note that the perpetrator of the crime in this Biblical story is a Levite. Even today researches tell about spiritual leaders who are abusing their wives at home and women in the church. No wonder the author of book of Judges told this fact to his readers that everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes (21:25). This is more close to the individualistic ideology of human nature that has been picking up fast in our generation.

As a woman I also should tell the fact that women themselves are abusive of their own breed. A woman in need runs from pillar to post to find refuge in a fellow woman who would understand her pleas and empathize with her struggles. We know how Sarah and Hagar had bitter feelings for one another. They vented it out leading to disasters in family and we reap the repercussions in history until today. We also see Miriam the sister of Moses speaking against his Ethiopian wife. God did not favour Miriam but he sides the Ethiopian wife’s cause (Numbers 12). However the book of Ruth is an ideal story of women caring for one another in a family domain. We also come to know of how Mary who was in trauma and need of help and encouragement could find what she wanted in her senior family member Elizabeth (Luke 1).

Our Responsibility

When an abused woman asks us or the church for help, it is important to remember that God has always asked people of strength to come to the assistance of those who are weak and oppressed. Ezekiel 34:4 says that it is a sin to shirk such a responsibility  Godly people need to do everything possible to provide whatever is legal and give protection to abused women. They must not send such women back to their homes or work places with the advice to "be more submissive." The Biblical intent is not to help abusive men to indulge even more in their childish lust for power and sick control (Mark 10:42-43; 1 Peter. 3:7).

The Bible admonishes husbands not to be harsh (Colossians 3:19). They need to nourish and cherish their wives as their own bodies (Ephesians 5:25-29). Overall men need to respect the bodies of women as temples of the Holy Spirit, not as objects of lust (1 Corinthians 6:15-20).

Victims of lust, power and abuse can always find freedom and strength by looking to Jesus who identifies with such women for he underwent abuse at its highest on the cross. Human agencies may fail in bringing justice. But God never fails. How ever he needs human agents of justice. Let us respond!

Trees cause rain. So are women.  Save them for a greater blessing at homes and work places. May we fulfill this year’s theme for International Women’s Day: “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women.”