What is a Woman? Part 2
What is a Woman? Part 2
In my last blog, I set the stage for us to hear what God through His words in the Bible has to say about women. We learned that women are abused in cultures where the truths in the Bible have not touched the culture. I also challenged you to decide whether you are going to follow the truth from God the Creator in the Bible or the lies from the devil that are abundant in our culture. God wants you to have life abundant. The devil wants to destroy you. If you are reading part 2 of this series, I hope that means that you are open to hearing what our good God has to say about women.
In this blog I want to cover 2 truths from the Bible. First, the truth that God created women, and secondly that women are precious to Him.
1. God created humans as males and females. (Genesis 1:27) There is a distinct difference between the two genders, and there are only two genders, by the sovereign will of the Creator. We cannot really understand what a woman is until we acknowledge this truth. On the other hand, to deny the difference between biological males and females is to shake our fist in the face of God and declare that we know better than He does. We are saying that the all knowing, omnipotent, good, holy, gracious God doesn’t know as much as us, and that we are going to create our own reality apart from what God created. God creates what is reality because He is the Creator. But, we in our foolish sinfulness, want to create a different reality because we don’t like the true one. Every time we depart from God’s definition of reality, there are grievous consequences, and often those consequences hurt women and children the most. This is particularly true in the discussion of gender and womanhood. We are seeing this played out in a tragic way in our society. In this series, I will delve further into what God says practically about what the distinctions between the genders means for daily life.
2. I want to spend some time going through Scripture to show you that God has made clear that women are precious to Him. “In AD 370, the Roman Emperor issued a written order to Pope Damascus I requiring the Christian missionaries stop calling at the homes of pagan women…most recognized that Christianity was unusually appealing because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large.” (page 95 from Rise of Christianity) Let’s look at Scripture to see why.
Let’s start in Exodus 1. The children of Israel are slaves in Egypt. The Pharoah keeps trying to get rid of the Israelites, and keeps failing. So, he commands the Hebrew midwives to kill all baby boys that are born to Hebrew women. The Hebrew midwives refused. God honors them forever in Scripture by recording their bravery and says, “God was good to the midwives…and it came about because the midwives feared God, that He established households for them.” (Exodus 1:20-21)
In Numbers 27, as the Israelites prepare to enter the promised land, there was a problem. One man who had 5 daughters died in the wilderness and they were all alone. They ask if Moses can give them a possession in the land of Israel. Moses asks the Lord, and the Lord commends these women for asking. He says, “Further, you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘if a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.” (vs 8) Why is this noteworthy? Because women in the ancient world, and most cultures even until recently, were not able to inherit because they were not male. But God cares for women and commands that they be cared for if they are left alone.
Throughout Scripture God repeatedly tells His people to care for widows, who are the most vulnerable women. That is spelled out clearly in the law of God given to the children of Israel by Moses in the wilderness after they escaped Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:18 says of God: “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow.” In Exodus 22:22 He says, “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.” Widows were very vulnerable in a society that did not value women. When their husbands died, they lost protection in society, because their protection and provision came from their husbands. But God cares for them, and directed His people to care for them. He also tells Israel that one of the reasons He is going to judge them is because they failed to do this very thing. In Isaiah 1:17, God is calling Israel to repentance. He tells them, “Learn to do good, seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” In Matthew 23:14, Jesus reproves the Pharisees: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, even while for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.” James 1:27 says, “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
In the book of Judges, Rahab, a foreign prostitute woman in the city of Jericho who repented and believed in God hid the Israelite spies. She not only had her life protected, but was given the honor of being an ancestor of the our Savior. She is named in the genealogies of Jesus repeatedly for future generations to read, along with 3 other women. One of those women listed in the genealogies is Ruth, who was also an outcast foreign woman. The whole book of Ruth is devoted to the story of how God provided for, protected and guided Ruth and her mother in law Naomi. Ruth married Boaz, who is the son of Rahab.
God honors women with 2 books in the Old Testament that tell the story of courageous women who served God: Ruth (who I mentioned above) and Esther. Esther was used by God to save the Jews during the time of the Persians. Another woman used by God, that is in the book of Judges, was Deborah, who was a prophetess and judged Israel. With God’s direction, she led the Israelites to victory over the Canaanites who were oppressing them. I Samuel 1 and 2 tell the story of Hannah, who pleaded with God for a son when she was childless. God listened to her cries and gave her a son: Samuel, who was a great prophet of God.
The chapter of Hebrews 11 lists great people of faith whose example we should follow. These women are listed: Sarah and Rahab.
In my last blog I talked about the status of women among both Jews and Romans at the time of Jesus. Rabbis would not even talk to any woman in public, and thought women were low lifes. In contrast, Jesus took time to talk directly to women, heal them, allow them to be part of the disciples that followed Him, and to minister to Him. In Mark 12, he commends a widow who gave sacrificially to the offering, while condemning the way the Pharisees gave. In John 4, he talks to a Samaritan woman, and God uses her to proclaim the truth about Him to her village. In Luke 7:36-50, he commends and forgives the woman who came to honor him when he dined with the Pharisees, while condemning the men there because they did not honor Him. In Luke 10, He lovingly speaks to Martha and Mary when they are complaining, rather than dismissing them. He gives women protection and respect when He calls on men to not lust after them in thought or action except with the protection of marriage (Matthew 5:27-28, I Thessalonians 4:3-7) . He asked John to care of His mother while He was dying on the cross (John 19:26-27) And in the biggest honor of all, He allowed women to be the first humans to see the risen Jesus and talk to the risen Jesus (Matthew 28:1-10).
God then spoke through the apostles in their epistles to give women high honor by requiring their husbands to love them, and treat them as fellow heirs in the grace of life (Ephesians 5:25, I Peter 3:7). Women are given a special place of ministry in the church, and in their home (I will discuss this in another blog post in this series). Peter was moved by God to raise Dorcas, a godly woman in the church, from the dead in Acts 9:36-41.
The honor and care given to women in the Bible was done in a time when women were treated poorly and were given no respect. It was a radical concept to treat women with honor and respect. Yet God commands that of all His people. I hope that this sample of the care God has shown to women in the Bible encourages you to realize that God loves women and wants what is best for them. Our society has rejected this, and as a result, women are being dismissed, marginalized, erased in essence from the law, and endangered.
Rejoice that God made you a woman. He loves you and wants you to have life abundantly. We can only do that when we follow what He says in the Bible.
In part 3 of this series, I will delve further into what God says practically about what the distinctions between the genders means for daily life.
For questions or comments, you can contact me at candice@anastasihome.com