The High View of Women in Scripture
Various Scripture
May 9, 2004
Introduction
I happen to be a fan of women. I like the idea of womanhood in general, and I¡¦m a huge fan of one woman in particular.
I think God had a good idea when He invented women. Maybe that¡¦s just me, but let me take a quick survey just to see if I¡¦m alone. How many guys in here think that God making women was a good thing? Okay.
And I think God had a good idea with the motherhood thing, too. And I hope all of you here agree with that, because none of you would be here if it weren¡¦t for your mother.
And so, I want to ask the question that I ask every mother¡¦s day, and it¡¦s this. How many of you here have either been a mother, or ever had a mother? Okay.
Now let me be honest about something here. I¡¦m not a big fan of the traditions in the Church where we single out mothers for a holiday.
Are mothers worthy of such attention? Absolutely. No doubt about it. But the origin of Mother¡¦s Day is not Scriptural, it¡¦s commercial. The greeting card companies come up with these things, including such things as Father¡¦s Day, Grandparents Day, and other such holidays.
I think one of my reasons for not liking to single out mothers is that too often our culture defines family all wrong.
You hear it all the time. A young couple gets married, and what¡¦s one of the first questions they get? ¡§When are you going to start a family?¡¨
Folks, they are already a family!!! Children are a welcome addition to the family, but they are not the family.
So today I want us to celebrate not just mothers, but women in general. And as I mentioned at the very beginning of the message, I¡¦m a big fan of women, and womanhood as defined in Scripture.
I think that God places a high value on women, whom He created, and today I want to take a look at three facts concerning women in the Bible, and give you some practical ideas on how you can honor the women in your life.
And my prayer is that when you leave here today, you will commit to taking some concrete steps to honoring them, maybe like you never have before.
Three facts concerning women in the Bible ¡V
1. God created women uniquely.
Genesis 1:27 ¡V
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Have you noticed that women are different in almost every aspect from men? Really!
They think differently than men. Their emotional structure is different than men. They process information differently than men. They are attracted to people, especially men, differently than men are attracted to women.
Women are different than men. This is GOOD! This is not something to be scorned or ashamed of.
Rather¡K
We should elevate and celebrate the differences.
You know, sometimes we men can forget what this Scripture tells us very plainly ¡V that God created both men and women in His image.
Two things here:
First, the feminist movement has tried for decades to erase any differences between men and women. The idea is that aside from the obvious biological differences, men and women are only different due to their conditioning and upbringing.
Fortunately, science has proven the folly of that idea. Men and women are incredibly different. God designed us with differences, and that¡¦s a good thing.
Second, some people aren¡¦t so worried about eliminating the differences as much as they are more concerned with belittling the differences, treating the other sex¡¦s differences as if they are not important or even not desirable.
Again, a Scriptural view of women demands that we both recognize the origin of those differences, and celebrate them.
The second fact we need to keep in mind concerning women in the Bible is that¡K
2. God sometimes used women we would avoid.
Think about something for a minute, will you? When you were in high school, there was at least one girl who had a ¡§reputation,¡¨ right?
Maybe that reputation had to do with the fact that she was a gossip, or a back-stabber, or maybe she was an easy target for the bedroom. But she had a reputation.
And that reputation caused us to generally avoid that person, except for the last example, and even then the girl¡¦s reputation was not exactly a positive one.
And when we think on those people, in the back of our minds, at least, if not the front of our minds, that nothing good could come from that person.
But the interesting thing in Scripture is that God saw past that and sometimes used women for His purposes. Let¡¦s take a look at just examples very quickly:
„h Rahab ¡V a prostitute.
We meet Rahab in the book of Joshua, and her story is familiar to most of us. When the Israelite nation was moving into the promised land, one of the first places they came to after crossing the Jordan River was the city of Jericho. And in an effort to check the city out, Joshua sent two spies into the city. They stayed in Rahab¡¦s house, which makes perfect sense, since few would question the comings and goings from a prostitute¡¦s house.
But God had opened Rahab¡¦s heart to the God of Israel, and she knew that He was the true God. This caused her to protect the spies when they were being hunted.
And she followed the Lord God all the rest of her life. In fact, she is listed in Hebrews 11, that ¡§Hall of Fame¡¨ for faith.
The second example is¡K
„h Tamar ¡V an adulterous daughter-in-law.
Tamar is not mentioned very often in the annals of the Bible, but she plays a very important part in the Bible, which I¡¦ll tell you about in just a bit.
But first, let me remind you of who she was. She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of the sons of Jacob and the namesake of one of the 12 tribes of Israel; in fact, it was the tribe from which the Messiah would come.
Tamar had been married to one of his sons, but God had killed him because he was wicked. She was then given to a brother, who was also wicked and God killed him because he refused to bring forth an heir for his brother.
Judah only had one son left, and he was very young. He deceived Tamar by telling her she could marry the youngest brother when he was old enough. But after a while, she got the hint that she would not marry him.
So she set out to trap Judah. She dressed up as a street prostitute and seduced Judah, who did not recognize her. She became pregnant in their one-night stand, and was brought out to be stoned. When she revealed who the father of her unborn child was, she was spared, later giving birth to twins who would figure prominently in the history of Israel later.
We¡¦ll come back to her in a bit, but let¡¦s move on to the third example of someone used by God who wouldn¡¦t necessarily be someone we would pick, and that is¡K
„h Ruth ¡V a foreigner from an idolatrous country.
Ruth is more familiar to us than Tamar, because she ended up becoming the great-grandmother of King David.
But it¡¦s easy to overlook the fact that Ruth was not an Israelite. She was from Moab, a nation of idolatrous people who were descendents of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters.
Yet Ruth became a follower of God, just as Rahab had done earlier. And she placed all of her faith in Him, placing her destiny in His hands.
But can you imagine what people thought when Ruth came to town in Israel? She had already buried a husband, and was now trying to support her mother in law by gleaning grain from the field of the man who would eventually become her husband.
Throughout the book that bears her name, she is referred to by the Israelites as ¡§the Moabitess.¡¨ In other words, ¡§the foreigner.¡¨
Others saw that she loved her mother-in-law and was devoted to her, but she still had that reputation as ¡§the foreigner.¡¨ And God used her in spite of that.
Moving on to the fourth example of women God used, we find¡K
„h Bathsheba ¡V an immodest wife.
The story of David sleeping with Bathsheba is familiar to most of us. We know that David, rather than going out to war as was customary at that time of year, was staying home for one reason or another.
And he¡¦s out walking around the top of his palace, and sees the very beautiful Bathsheba bathing. He calls for her, they sleep together, and she becomes pregnant.
We¡¦re very quick to condemn David¡¦s actions, and that is right. He was wrong. But let me point out something that Scripture does not say: it does not say that David raped Bathsheba, does it?
Before you say that that¡¦s because David was such a great figure that Scripture would very naturally leave something like that out, let me remind you that at times the Bible is very graphic about these kinds of things. And the Bible is very clear that even when ¡§good¡¨ people do things wrong, there are consequences.
Somehow, Bathsheba gave her consent to the relationship. Obviously we don¡¦t know all that took place, but David did not rape her, apparently.
But here¡¦s the question I¡¦ve got: why was she bathing where others could see her? I¡¦m sure they had curtains back then, didn¡¦t they? Apparently she did not have the forethought to make sure she was being modest.
Okay, enough of that. How did God use her? Well, she was used by God the same as all of these we have looked at so far: she was an ancestor of Jesus Christ Himself.
Her second child was Solomon, the third king of Israel, and forefather of Jesus. And Rahab, Tamar, and Ruth were in that genealogy of Jesus.
But let¡¦s look at a fifth example, someone from the New Testament, and that person is¡K
„h Mary Magdelene ¡V a demon-possessed woman until she met Jesus.
Mary Magdelene is one of the most prominent women in the Gospels, because she was with Jesus, especially toward the end.
Now, allow me to explode a couple of myths real quick, alright?
First, Mary was probably not the sinful woman who anointed Jesus at the house of the Pharisee, as she¡¦s been portrayed in some of the movie versions of the gospel. The Bible only tells us that she had demons that were driven out by Jesus.
Second, she was not the secret wife or lover of Jesus, and she did not bear His children, no matter what others say. It¡¦s all the rage right now to think that Jesus wasn¡¦t the sinless Messiah, but let me remind you of the Greek word for falsehood: hogwash!
And hey let me just mention something else real quick here: The Da Vinci Code is a novel, okay? It¡¦s fiction, through and through, so don¡¦t get all bent out of shape about it. Just ignore the controversy, and it will go the way of other fictions about Jesus.
But back to Mary. Let me ask you ¡V would you want to hang around someone who had seven demons hanging out inside of her in the not-so-distant past?
I¡¦ll be frank, I¡¦m not sure she¡¦d be at the top of my baby-sitters list, know what I mean?
Well, there are just five examples of God using women that some people would probably avoided.
And one last thing: God gave women prominence at the resurrection. He appeared first, not to the apostles but to some women, and told them to tell the apostles, who didn¡¦t believe them at first.
Let¡¦s take a look now at the third fact about women, and that is that¡K
3. God continues to use women for His glory today.
Now obviously this isn¡¦t in the Bible, but we can name some women that God has continued to use for His glory.
Women were instrumental in the effort to abolish slavery in the United States.
Women have been used by God to highlight workplace abuses around the world.
God used Elizabeth Elliot to win to Christ the very people who had martyred her husband a few years earlier.
And think of Mother Theresa, who was used by God to not only minister to the outcasts of her society, but also to be His megaphone to shout out the wonders of service to the lowly, and about how humility is honored by God.
There are other examples too numerous to mention, but let me venture say that even Billy Graham wouldn¡¦t have been as effective as he has been over the last 60 plus years if it were not for the loving support of His wife.
SO¡K¡K
We should honor women as God did!!
Ephesians 5:25 says this:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
Then three verses later we see this:
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
But also look at 1 Peter 3:7 ¡V
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. 1 Peter 3:7
So let me give you four quick tips for honoring the women in your life:
Tips in Giving Honor to Women:
„« Thank God for making women unique.
Really. Some of you guys might have spent most of your time complaining about what makes your wife, girlfriend, or sister unique.
But remember, God is the one who made her unique. Next¡K
„« Praise the uniqueness of the women in your life.
Now let me give a hint here: you don¡¦t have to understand all that makes women unique in order to praise their uniqueness.
But what I want to stress here is that you think of some things in particular about those ladies closest to you.
Think of the differences between you and how those differences complete or compliment.
For instance, my wife is way more organized than I am. There is no way I could make it through the week, especially with children if it weren¡¦t for my wife.
She is much calmer than I am in many instances. Sometimes I¡¦ll get excited about some great idea, and run it by her. And she is able to help me see if it really is a good idea or not, or if I had thought through everything, which is pretty rare.
Also, she¡¦s way better looking than I am, so if nothing else, people can say that I knew what I was doing when I convinced Debra to marry me.
So think through some of those things. And don¡¦t just jot these down for your own reference, tell her! Next¡K
„« If you are married (or engaged), memorize Ephesians 5:25-28.
Memorizing this passage and reviewing it often will help you stay mindful of the fact that Jesus loves His church the way we should love our wife.
And lastly, as if I should really need to tell you this¡K
„« Pray regularly for the women in your life.
Pray that they would love and follow Jesus all their lives.
Pray that God would protect them from those with less-than-honorable intentions.
Pray for the future spouse of your daughter. Pray that you would be held back from strangling her when she¡¦s a teenager, or from strangling her boyfriend. I mean, who wants to have to apply for a special release from prison when she gets married?
Pray for their spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical health.
But pray.
Conclusion
Well, there you are. I think God has a high view of women. After all, He created them, right?
So let me just encourage you once again to celebrate women. Celebrate their uniqueness, and thank God that He has allowed these particular women into your life.
And may God make us men who show the world that the love we have for our wives and the women in our lives is just a small and even imperfect picture of how much Jesus loves those who have called on Him for forgiveness and a home in heaven.
Let¡¦s pray.
