Originally posted by RJHinds
It is God that made man this way. The male to work hard with sweat and the
female to bring forth babies with pain. We don't have the power to change
God's will. And He has commanded us not to murder, so that's the way it is.
HalleluYah !!! 😏
Evidently it is indeed women who give birth. That is nature. That might as well be God's will. Like gravity is probably God's will rather than the ability for humans to fly, which is probably not God's will. My tea gets cold unless I drink it reasonably quickly and my grass grows as fast as I can cut it during the Spring and Summer months.
As long as God wills the bleeding obvious then we are not going to have too much difficulty, are we? When we want God to "will" or resolve the kind of ethical dilemmas facing us in modern times, however, it is surprising how indirect our biblical sources turn out to be. Requiring the careful exegesis of our male interlocutor with God.
Let me just clarify.
1. We do not have the power to change God's will. (Not 'we must not' or 'ought not' but we do not have the power).
2. He has commanded us not to murder. That's pretty clear. But we do murder - all the time. Every week in Britain, two women are murdered by their (male) partner. The most common perpetrator of violence against women and children is within the home. There is nothing else more dangerous to women and children than the man of the house. So we clearly have the power to do what is contrary to God's will and exercise that power routinely.
3. Women have always and everywhere not only carried the children but also worked. If that is not God's will then how come it is the norm and always was? The notion that women do not work, but rely on men to do so, is such a rare things in societies across the world and throughout history that it is clearly a nonsense to give it bibilical authority as God's will.
Clearly we have the power to do quite a lot of things that are not God's will (as expressed by you).
Maybe it is just women who have to do God's will? Maybe the bargain you describe - women give birth plus men work to support them - is one that is not invalidated when men, actually, not only fail to support the women in childrearing and relationships, but also organise society and the world of work to make it excessively hard for women to do either and almost impossible to do both.