She, Herself and God
The Warning of Pontius Pilate’s Wife
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I am breaking with tradition in the way I write She, Herself, and God. Beginning March 2022, there will be additional features: monthly theme, weekly questions to ponder, and a quote to remember from each devotion. And for this month, the discussion is centered on women and patriarchy. Is it really the will of the Lord for women to be fully submissive to our husbands? Or do we have the right to let our voices be heard as well?
MONTHLY THEME: Women and Patriarchy
FEATURED VERSE: While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night I suffered much on account of him.” (Matthew 27:19, GNT)
Two years before my father’s death, he started losing weight and had slowly become weak. He also started acting differently even in public places to the point that a female family friend would often tease him and call him a person with disability (PWD). Nothing wrong though with having a disability, but this woman considered disability both as a joke and as a crime. What was worse though was that my father had no disability. He only started showing symptoms of a dying man. Therefore, he was innocent from the “crime” that he was accused of not to mention that disabilities were no joke at all. Nevertheless, my father was completely okay being teased that way because he considered it just a joke as well.
Finally, after a month or two had passed by since my father was gone, the husband of the jokester unfortunately got into a serious accident that made him a legit PWD. I will be honest, but I am not proud of this. The first thing that really came into my mind when I found out about it was “The tables are turned.” Nobody could blame me though because that was the most obvious truth. But after praying to God to purify my heart despite the justice that I thought was served, the Holy Spirit made me realize something else. He taught me that this should serve as a warning to not say or do anything against an innocent man even in a joking way because the Lord is a God of justice who can make the tables turn.
Going back to the time when Jesus was arrested and accused of a crime that he was innocent of, we can see how the Lord moved in the life of Pontius Pilate’s wife by giving her a sign in her dream. This then caused the woman to warn her husband to have nothing to do with Christ because He was an innocent Man. I do not have a personal knowledge of Pontius Pilate’s history, but I think it is safe to say that he was not a follower of Jesus. Even so, the Heavenly Father had mercy upon him during the trial of Christ because He still warned him through his wife that was why he washed his hands after giving his order for the crucifixion. Still, Pontius Pilate made a huge mistake in the end, which resulted from the fact that he did not fully listen to his wife’s warning.
As a woman of God, this story should serve as a note to self especially if we are already playing the role of a wife. The term helpmate means that we are the first to offer help to our spouses every single time. We do not only help him during the good times but especially during the bad. And as the so-called perfect half of our respective husbands, we should be the strong one when the other is weak or the perfect one when the other is imperfect. To be more specific, we should not be our husbands’ weaknesses at all because as two people involved in one marriage, what one does can directly or indirectly affect the other. Just like what Pontius Pilate’s wife did, we should warn our husbands whenever they are bound to make a decision that can ruin them. We should not be like the jokester in the story who became an instrument that would ruin her husband instead.
DEVOTIONAL PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, we thank You for using Pontius Pilate’s wife to teach us the importance of our role as wives to our husbands. Thank You for reminding us that when two become one, it does not only refer to physical union but to the unity of two human beings in all aspects of our lives as a couple. Thank You for making us understand that what we do or even say especially to an innocent man can backfire on us or on our husbands. In this regard, we have to be careful with our words and our actions and be the better half in case our spouses are in their worst season of their lives just like Pontius Pilate during the trial of Christ. Please forgive us if we had sinned against you or against any innocent being in the past. We lift up to You all our humanness, our sinfulness, and our weaknesses. We ask for the power of Your Holy Spirit so that we will be guided at all times and be a true helpmate to our dear husbands. This we pray in Jesus’s mighty Name. Amen.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
What would you do in case your husband failed to listen to your warning but later suffered the consequences of his action?
How would you deal with him as a woman of God?
How do you think Pontius Pilate’s wife dealt with him after the crucifixion of Christ?
Do you think the tables were turned in the end?
QUOTE TO REMEMBER:
A woman of God is a blessing, not a burden to her husband, and the Lord is well pleased with her.
