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the fullness of the seasons" being already under His Headship (Eph. 1: 10 where "gather
together in one" is literally "head up").
Hupotasso is also used of submission to earthly authorities (Rom. 13: 1, 5-7) and of
the submission of believers to one another (Eph. 5: 21); which submission is then
interpreted by the Apostle into specific terms (Eph. 5: 22 - 6: 9).
This last passage brings the idea of order and arrangement back into the field of the
subject, insofar that it speaks of the relationship between husband and wife. The long
introduction has been necessary to impress upon the mind that the most important aspect
of this whole subject is the thought that God has ordained an order, an arrangement, and
that any understanding of the God-ordained positions of man and woman, and their
relationship to each other, must be conditioned by the terms of that order. It behoves
both man and woman to know the respective positions that have been given to them in
the good pleasure and economy of God, and to walk accordingly.
Tragedy when "order" is defied.
Before entering more specifically into the enquiry of the relationship between man
and woman, it is as well to notice that when God's order or arrangement have in time
past been defied or rebelled against, tragedy has inevitably followed. Satan is the first
case in point.
Identified as Lucifer in Isa. 14: he is seen as seeking a position other that that given
him in God's order.
"I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I
will be like the Most High" (verses 13, 14).
His judgment is quickly pronounced (15-20), but the effects of Satan's fall have been
far reaching indeed, as any who know a little of Scripture will be aware.
Satan is seen at work in the garden of Eden under the guise of the "serpent". That it is
Satan here can be known from Rev. 12: 9, but just how is not made clear. The `serpent'
(Heb. nachash, a shining one) of Gen. 3:, who "beguiled Eve through his subtilty",
need not have been the limbless reptile now generally associated with that word, for
insofar that he is identified as Satan himself, he "transforms himself into an angel of
light" (II Cor. 11: 3, 14). But on the other hand there is also the possibility that Satan
demon-possessed the body of a real serpent (perhaps then in God's order not the
unwholesome creature we know today) and spoke through it to Eve.
In the latter case God's order will have been transgressed, in that, part of the creation
put under the dominion of Adam, was caused to step out of its proper place, being raised
up by Satan out of its appointed order.