Libby Doe

To an emotionally weak woman, a Strong Man is cruel, harsh, insensitive, and emotionally unavailable. To a good woman, a Strong Man is a hero, a leader, and a champion, who is brave, courageous, and lovingly sacrificial. To an emotionally weak woman who does not know her place, her Strong Man is a monster. To a good woman, a Strong Man is a hero, and he is God’s man.

A Strong Man will be who he is and by his own nature, he will attract a lot of followers who admire him, respect him, and are loyal to him. But he will likewise attract a lot of enemies and haters who disrespect him. So what gives? How can the same man cause such a varied response from different people? Why is he so polarizing? Why do some people love him while others hate him?

Well, it all depends on how you take things. Or how you receive things. How you hear the man and how you perceive him as a person. Consider the following scriptures:

2 Corinthians 2:16 "To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life."

Here the Apostle Paul was describing his own ministry and he recognized that some people identified him and the other Apostles as being the “aroma of death leading to death” and others viewed them as the “aroma of life leading to life.”

But we’re talking about the same Apostles. Sure, they were all fallen men full of faults and flaws, but some men just saw them as God’s ministers who were bringing them truth, love, and salvation. Others saw them as wicked, cruel, harsh, and mean men who were bringing them words of death and cruelty. Still others saw them as no different than the Pharisees who acted and appeared righteous but inwardly were evil and wicked men.

We know and love the Apostles today, so it’s kind of hard to imagine this. But it is so that in their own day, there were people, even people amongst the church itself, who received Paul’s ministry as being evil and wicked. They viewed Paul as one who only lifted himself up and hypocritically taught the masses while he himself was a fallen man.

Yes, people saw Paul in that light while he was still alive! So, how do you receive the leadership of your husband, your Strong Man? I have no doubt that your husband is a fallen man with lots of flaws, just like Paul, Peter, Abraham, and David. But I also have no doubt that if you’re reading this book, it is because your husband is God’s man, and he is a Strong Man, and a called leader to go out and do exploits right now for God’s Kingdom. And the only real hindrance he has in his life is his wife who does not accept or receive him as a man of God, but sees him as the “aroma of death unto death” simply because he is exercising his own righteous nature as a Strong Man. And you, an emotionally weak woman, simply cannot handle it.

Consider that Peter said the same thing about Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 2:7-8 "Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,' and 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.' They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed."

You see, to believers, Jesus is our salvation and he is precious. But to the disobedient, he is a "rock of offense" and the reason for their stumbling.

If Jesus and the Apostle Paul could be received in a negative fashion and people in their day did not view them from the proper perspective, then it’s pretty obvious that the same can happen with you and your SCM husband.

Probably the best example of this is Moses. You may remember that Israel become upset with Moses because they did not like the way that he was leading them and how he was bossing them around. So they gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, very specifically: Numbers 16:3 "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

This is such an amazing scripture because it shows that a group of people, who were amongst God’s people, looked at Moses and accused him of being proud and arrogant. They literally said that Moses exalted himself above the rest of them.

However, the Bible said this about Moses:
Numbers 12:3 "Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth."

So God judged Moses as being the most humble man on the face of the earth. But emotionally weak, and evil-hearted Israelites judged and accused Moses of being prideful, arrogant, and overbearing.

You see, it matters how you take things. What if your husband is truly a humble, honorable, and caring man of God, who, while being flawed, is executing the will of God in his life; and yet you, as an emotionally weak woman, see your Strong Man husband as a prideful, arrogant, and overbearing man who is cruel, harsh, and temperamental?

How are you going to treat him and interact with him if you see him through this negative light? And what if you’re wrong? What if your husband is God’s man for the hour, and you are simply an emotionally weak woman who sees your husband as the aroma of death unto death, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, and an overbearing, arrogant, Pharisee? What would be the consequences of that unjust perspective?

Well, we’re about to find out in the coming chapters, so hold on, and get ready to do lots of repenting…