Suplied by Jackie Blue
Many times women have said to me, " I have the feeling God thinks women are second
class citizens"
The more I read the Word, the more I want to shout "UNTRUE!!. God loves women!"
The "bad guy" in the Bible is not God , but the devil! Satan began his devious methods on
Eve in the Garden and he has never stopped chewing
her ancestors.
In Genesis 2:7 God formed man from the dust of the earth, and the Hebrew word for
"formed" is yatsar, which means 'to mold like a potter or
squeeze into shape.
An entirely different word is used when it comes to Eves construction in
Genesis 2:22 . When God made Eve , the Hebrew word banah is used and means "skillfully
formed". Eve was not squeezed out, but skillfully
formed and carefully molded.Gods treatment of Eve from the beginning was super special,
with care and gentleness.
When God gave His blessing in the Garden, He blessed both Adam & Eve with five
blessings. He directed them: Be fruitful & multiply, and
replensish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion. ...(Gen 1:28)
Both male & female were made in His image, and both were given power and dominion.
God did not take woman from mans foot for man to
trample upon her; she was to be his equal and near his heart. That is why she was taken
from the very rib of man.
Gods tender loving care is shown in His command in Genesis 2;24: therefore shall a man
leave his Father and his Mother , and shall cleave
unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Men were to leave their immediate families:
women were not. This is shown very clearly in Genesis
24 and the account of the servants search for Isaacs bride.
Abraham asked his faithful and wise steward to go back to his ancient homeland in
Mestopotamia, unto the city of Nahor, to find a bride for
Isaac. Isaac was not to join his bride in Mesopotamia, even though it was customary for the
new husband to leave his family and to join his
wifes family.
The command was to be changed as Isaacs new bride joined him in Gods Promised Land.
If she refused (which she had the right to do) the
servant would then be free from Abrahams charge to him.
Rebekah, the bride he chose , could have refused because of Gods marriage law, but she
did not: she went willingly to meet her new husband
Isaac.
It is interesting to note, that Jacob did not require Rachel and Leah to return with him to his
homeland. He 'requested" they go with him for he
knew he was to leave his parents, but they were not to leave theirs.
In Judges 15 we find Samsons wife stayed with her family; and in Matt 25 the virgins
waited at the home of the bride. Why did God tell men
to leave their homes? Whey didnt He call women to leave their parents? Because HE
wanted the brides parents to watch over her in order to
add protection should her husband become abusive.
Eves sin in the Garden was no greater than Adams. In Gen. 2:15 Adam was commanded to
dress and keep the Garden. In verse 18 God said,
"It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him."
From this context we can see that Adam was not only to dress the Garden , he was also to
protect it: but Adam did not protect the tree on that
infamous day when Eve ate of it.
From that dreadful moment on, there has been a burning enmity between Satan and the
woman. God commanded in Gen. 3:15 " I will put
enmity between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel".
Satan knew his days were numbered. A Seed was to come through the woman to give him
an eternal bruising. Through the virgin birth God
was to send a Savior--Jesus Christ--and through faith in Him , salvation would be open to
all who believed. Satan persecuted woman in child
bearing for she was his enemy, but her Seed to come would be his greatest enemy.
It is interesting to note, that God intervened in womans behalf. First Timothy 2:15 declares
she would be saved in child bearing.
The words of God struck deep into the heart of Eve. They also brought hope out of trouble
to the defeated Adam, for he knew there would
come redemption through the womans Seed.
Genesis 3:20 tells us that Adam called his wifes name Eve because she was the mother of
all living. Her name means " the Mother of the
living one" When Eve gave birth to her first son,Cain, she boldly confessed her faith: "I have
gotten a man from the Lord (Gen4:1) I believe
that at that moment the Spirit of prophesy rested upon her.
God also looked down the ages of time and gently touched a frustrated , barren
wife--Hannah. (1 Samuel 1)through her barreness she cried
out to God and received a son, Samuel. She then prophesied a prayer and spoke another
title of the coming Son of God. She called her Lord
the ' Anointed One" which is another word for Messiah. ( 1 Samuel 2:35) Hannah was the
first to use it, the first ever to utter the revelation of
the Messiah: and her revelation would rock the world throughout the eons of time.
Centuries passed . Then God sent His special angel on a mission to a young virgin girl
named Mary, revealing to her the Name above every
name. ( Luke 1:26-33) things in heaven, on earth, and even under the earth, would speak
that Name of all Power--Jesus!
Three women had received the major revelation of His Name. A fallen Eve there was a
Lord God; a faith filled Hannah saw a coming
Messiah; and a young virgin would give birth to Jesus, the Savior of the world!
God called Abram to become a "Father of Altitude." The word Abram comes from the
Hebrew word 'abar" which means "altitude" Because
of his living in the altitude of Gods Word, he would become Abraham, which means the
'Father of Multitudes" . His wife Sarai, meaning "
contentious" would become Sarah, meaning ' princess or beautiful" She would become the
mother of kings and nations. (Gen 17)
First Peter 3:6 tells us she obeyed Abraham and called him "Lord". Yet God told Abraham
in Genesis 21: 12 , he would profit from his wifes
counsel, so they became a team of faith. Abraham received faith to expect and recieve a
child; Sarah received faith to expect and conceive a
child.
Years later when Isaac received his lively virgin bride, Rebekah, he took her into Sarahs,
tent. Perhaps he wanted her to experience the faith
of his beautiful mother, Sarah.
So Rebekah became the matriarch, appearing in the Messianic lineage along with Leah,
Rahab, Ruth, and others. God had a special
relationship with these women, for He placed them in the lineage of Jesus Christ, His very
own Son, even though they were of foreign blood.
No male could be found in the lineage of Jesus Christ unless he met two very important
conditions: He had to be a descendant of Abraham,
and he had to be circumcised.
Yet, God took women of other nations and circumstances and wrote their names for
eternity in the lineage of His first -begotten Son.
God brought His revelation to Rebekah concerning her turbulent pregnancy, revealing to
her the plan of two nations in her womb. He also saw
fit to bring revelations to Hagar and Hannah during their pregnancys, revealing His purpose
to the wife, rather than the husband.
Rachel was a gorgeous young wife with a problem. Her sister Leah bore their mutual
husband one child after another, but Rachel was barren.
Her problem stimulated her prayer life, for Genesis 30:22 declares: God remembered
Rachel, and God hearkened to her (prayers) and opened
her womb.
Rachel conceived and bore a son, calling him Joseph, which means " adding" for later she
declared, " I know God will add another son to me"
Joseph drew on the treasure of her faith; and through his position in the wealthy nation of
Egypt, he was able to save the nation of Israel from
starvation.
Jacob prophesied on his deathbed that Josephs seed would multiply and be fruitful. Rachels
two grandchildren , Ephraim and Manasseh, did
become famous, for each would receive a tribal heritage of the two largest tribes of Isreal.
In later years ten tribes of the North would adopt
the name of Ephraim as their national name. Truly, Rachels seed was a 'fruitful bough" for
instead of adding, God multiplied her seed many
times !!
Next, we see Gods women used as prophetesses. We see their ministrys varied and
flexible, combining unique personality traits.
Miriam was the prophetess sister of Moses and Aaron . In Exodus 15:20 her prophecy
was sung, and she joined the other women of Israel to
dance in joyuous abandonment before the Lord after He had parted, then closed, the Red
Sea. God declared in Micah 6:4 that He sent Moses
, Aaron, "AND" Miriam, before Israel as leaders of the Israelites journey to the Promised
Land.
Judges 4 & 5 gives the account of another singing prophetess, Debroah, who saved her
nation. Her name means ' buzzing bee" and her words
carried a sting to Barak urging him to fulfill his duty as the militry leader of Israel. ( Judges
4:6) She was happily married to Lapidoth and did
her judging in an unusual environment--by sitting under a palm tree!
Isaiah, the prince of prophets, married a prophetess who bore him a son with one of the
longest manes in the Bible: " Maher-shalal-hash-baz" (Isa. 8:3)
Huldah was another prophetess of the Old Testament , who was not a singer, but a teacher.
Second Chronicles 34: 22 describes her as the
scholarly type, who dwelt in a college in Jerusalem, and was held in high esteem for her
knowledge of the Word.
There were also False prophetesses, even as there were false prophets. Ezekiel 13:17 states:
Likewise , thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people ,which prophesy out of
their own heart; and prophesy thou against them. Nehemiah 6:14 declares: My God , think
thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and
the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.
Jeremiah spoke concerning the women prophetesses of his day...."send for cunning
(wise) women ,
that they may come ( Jer.9:17) In Jeremiah 9:20 he said: Yet hear the word of the Lord, O
ye
women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing,
and every
one her neighbor lamentation."