The Beloved Woman

As we have mentioned earlier, Eve was supposed to provide counsel to Adam as his powerful helper and the closest companion. Wives shall provide proper counsel to their husbands without the desire to override their husbands’ decisions and volition. Samson’s mother, the wife of Manoah, was a good counselor to her husband. After the angel of the Lord talked to both of them and took their offerings, Manoah fearfully believed they would die because he realized they may have seen God. But his wife said to him,

“‘If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.’” (Judges 13:23)

Her suggestion was wise and reasonable; thus, She calmed down her scared husband and became pregnant as the angel had promised. They named him Samson, one of the greatest judges in Israel (Judges 13:1-25). Another good counselor was Pilate’s wife, who sent him a timely message about her dream and warned him not to kill Jesus because she suffered greatly in her dream from the horrifying affliction of this righteous man. However, Pilate could not take her advice at that critical moment due to the tremendous pressure from the chief priests and elders. Instead, he washed his hands, released Barabbas, and crucified Jesus (Matthew 27:15-23). If some historical writings of the first century may be trusted, when Pilot became old, he was living on a mountain, disarranged in his mind, and kept washing his hands with snow because he kept seeing blood coming out of his fingers. Pilate should have listened to his wife’s counsel.