The High View Of Women In Scripture

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: