What I would really like to post about is women in the Bible, but to do that subject justice may take a few days’ worth of blogging.
I have posted about Adam and Eve before, but let me just point out quickly that they were in it together. She gets the blame for ‘original sin,’ but he followed right behind her. In First Timothy 2:13-15, Paul makes the point that Adam was formed first, and then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but Eve was. Is that supposed to make me feel better about being a man? She was deceived, she didn’t know that what she was doing was wrong; if Adam wasn’t deceived, then he did know he was doing wrong, but he went ahead and did it anyway! Besides that, where was he when the serpent was talking to Eve? Why was he not there protecting his beloved?
The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Noah’s wife, and even less about Noah’s sons’ wives, but they must have been faithful women to go on board the ark.
Sarah was a faithful woman, although she has been criticized for laughing at the thought of having a child in her old age. Still, I don’t think Abraham believed any more then she did, he just was able to keep from laughing out loud. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that Abraham was sitting face to face with God, while Sarah was inside the tent—she may have thought that, in human form, God wouldn’t be able to hear her.
Abraham’s son, Isaac, married a woman named Rebekah. I blogged about her and her sons Jacob and Esau just recently.
Jacob had two wives, Rachel and Leah. The Bible says that Rachel was well favored, but Leah was tender-eyed. I’m not sure what it means to be tender-eyed (my guess would be she had allergies or maybe she just had very expressive eyes and looked at things tenderly), but I’m pretty sure that Rachel was very attractive and Leah, well, maybe Leah had nice eyes (and maybe she didn’t). One thing we know about the two women is that when Jacob took them away from their father’s house, Rachel stole some of her father’s idols. Why we would she do that? She knew that it wasn’t the custom of Jacob’s family to worship idols. Leah didn’t take any. Maybe Rachel just didn’t feel comfortable with only one God, yet. I’m tempted to comment that one should beware pretty women, but that’s not fair. Lot’s of good-looking women have been faithful to God, even though a few have not been; and lots of ugly women have gone very much against the commandments of God. The thing is, that we are naturally biased towards people whom we find attractive. A pretty women (or a handsome man) that wants to create problems can create a lot of problems, especially if she is subtle about it; but one that wants to do good, can do a lot of good, also.
Moses’ sister Miriam was a prophetess, but she got herself into trouble once because she spoke out against Moses’ wife, Zipporah. If that were the worst we have to say against Miriam, though, I would have to say she did pretty good. Very few of the men in the Bible only messed up once…
Rahab was a harlot, but she hid the Israeli spies from the soldiers at Jericho, and she and her family were spared. I would assume that she wasn’t a harlot anymore after that.
Deborah was a prophetess, who led the army of Israel into war, because the general had it in his head that she, being more easily led of God than he was, would be better able to ensure victory. There was a great victory that day, and the enemy of Israel was killed by another woman (not Deborah, a woman named Jael).
--More tomorrow
I have posted about Adam and Eve before, but let me just point out quickly that they were in it together. She gets the blame for ‘original sin,’ but he followed right behind her. In First Timothy 2:13-15, Paul makes the point that Adam was formed first, and then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but Eve was. Is that supposed to make me feel better about being a man? She was deceived, she didn’t know that what she was doing was wrong; if Adam wasn’t deceived, then he did know he was doing wrong, but he went ahead and did it anyway! Besides that, where was he when the serpent was talking to Eve? Why was he not there protecting his beloved?
The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Noah’s wife, and even less about Noah’s sons’ wives, but they must have been faithful women to go on board the ark.
Sarah was a faithful woman, although she has been criticized for laughing at the thought of having a child in her old age. Still, I don’t think Abraham believed any more then she did, he just was able to keep from laughing out loud. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that Abraham was sitting face to face with God, while Sarah was inside the tent—she may have thought that, in human form, God wouldn’t be able to hear her.
Abraham’s son, Isaac, married a woman named Rebekah. I blogged about her and her sons Jacob and Esau just recently.
Jacob had two wives, Rachel and Leah. The Bible says that Rachel was well favored, but Leah was tender-eyed. I’m not sure what it means to be tender-eyed (my guess would be she had allergies or maybe she just had very expressive eyes and looked at things tenderly), but I’m pretty sure that Rachel was very attractive and Leah, well, maybe Leah had nice eyes (and maybe she didn’t). One thing we know about the two women is that when Jacob took them away from their father’s house, Rachel stole some of her father’s idols. Why we would she do that? She knew that it wasn’t the custom of Jacob’s family to worship idols. Leah didn’t take any. Maybe Rachel just didn’t feel comfortable with only one God, yet. I’m tempted to comment that one should beware pretty women, but that’s not fair. Lot’s of good-looking women have been faithful to God, even though a few have not been; and lots of ugly women have gone very much against the commandments of God. The thing is, that we are naturally biased towards people whom we find attractive. A pretty women (or a handsome man) that wants to create problems can create a lot of problems, especially if she is subtle about it; but one that wants to do good, can do a lot of good, also.
Moses’ sister Miriam was a prophetess, but she got herself into trouble once because she spoke out against Moses’ wife, Zipporah. If that were the worst we have to say against Miriam, though, I would have to say she did pretty good. Very few of the men in the Bible only messed up once…
Rahab was a harlot, but she hid the Israeli spies from the soldiers at Jericho, and she and her family were spared. I would assume that she wasn’t a harlot anymore after that.
Deborah was a prophetess, who led the army of Israel into war, because the general had it in his head that she, being more easily led of God than he was, would be better able to ensure victory. There was a great victory that day, and the enemy of Israel was killed by another woman (not Deborah, a woman named Jael).
--More tomorrow
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