The significance of the woman is that she represents man before God. In the life-study message on Romans 7 we pointed out that Isaiah 54:5 says, "For thy Maker is thine husband." God is the unique, universal man. Whether we are males or females we are all a part of His wife. Man's position is not the position of the husband; it is the position of a wife. God is our husband. The headship is with God, not with us, not even with the men. Before God, the position of the brothers is the same as that of the sisters. Both sisters and brothers are females in the eyes of God.
God is our Husband and our Head, and we must always keep ourselves under His covering. The woman must cover her head and never assume the headship (1 Cor. 11:3, 5, 14-15). Since God is our Head we should always turn to Him. By the Lord's mercy, I have learned of Him. If I had been Eve in the garden and the Devil had come to me, I would not even have looked at him. I would have turned to my husband and hidden myself behind him. I would have let Adam be the head and let him exercise his headship. Then there would have been no problem.
The failure of the woman consisted in being over the man and assuming the headship (cf. 1 Tim. 2:14). This failure on Eve's part typifies man's assuming the headship and signifies his being over God and putting God aside. This same principle operates today. Whenever we act on our own, putting the Lord aside, we are defeated. If we try on our own to be victorious, that very effort is a defeat because it keeps us away from our husband, our Head. Never do anything by yourself. To try to do anything by yourself means that you are assuming the headship and forgetting your position as a wife. We should be wise and never take the position of the husband.
Eve in the garden was our representative. Nearly all of us on occasion have acted in the way she did. We have become Eve. Whatever situation occurred we faced it by ourselves. Although we might have prayed a great deal, when the problem presented itself we forgot our husband and acted as if we had none. Why do you not turn to your husband? Why do you always meet the temptations alone? As long as you confront situations by yourself you stay away from your husband. That was the basic cause of man's first fall. As a minister of the Word, I must learn the lesson of not speaking by myself. While I am speaking I must rely upon my husband. I must hide myself in Him and be one with Him. If I fail to do this, I will become another Eve and will be defeated.
Now we can see that we should not blame Satan too much. We all must blame ourselves because we have assumed the headship and have not respected our husband. We assumed the headship, forgetting that we are the wife. When mothers deal with their little children they may deal with them independently. They may say, "I know how to take care of children. I have been a mother for years. I know what to do and I know how to do it." If you adopt this attitude, you immediately become Eve. Although you may do a good job, in fact you are defeated. We must remember the principle of man's first fall: man renounced the wife's position and assumed the husband's position, making himself the head and the husband. Whether our efforts succeed or fail makes no difference. As long as we stay away from God and presume that we can act apart from Him, we have been defeated already. We must see this.
We may experience this even as we deal with our temper. To be defeated by our temper is a small thing. However, if we try by ourselves to overcome our temper, we commit a sin. The attempt itself is a great sin. Your trying to defeat your temper means that you are assuming the headship. You must learn to say, "Lord, I do not care whether or not I can defeat my temper. Lord, I rely upon You for this. It is not my responsibility to deal with my temper. Lord, I am not the husband. You are my husband. I simply rely upon You. I don't assume that I have the headship. Lord, You are my Head. Lord, You take care of my temper." If we all learn this lesson and maintain this stand before the Lord, our temper will disappear. The Devil will be defeated. We must learn this one, basic principle.