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Status of Women
Some people say "The Bible denigrates women" some say "The Bible treats women
as chattel (property)" some say "We must throw away the Bible if women are to
ever have equality" some say "It is the Bible's fault that women are treated
like second class citizens." Many other such statements are made criticizing
our God.
I maintain that the people who make these claims simply do not know the God of
the Bible.
The OT teaches that women are of equal value to men. It also teaches that they
are NOT the same as men, don't have the same responsibilities (they have
different responsibilities.)
So Equality? YES. Same? NO. Equal Value? Yes. Subject to Husbands? Yes. Sorry,
but it's the truth - I won't stand for political correctness. Lets deal
with the truth honestly, unabashedly and forthrightly.
Job. See the lesson on Heaven. Job's wife was NOT his property. Note that it
was the ROMAN empire (and other societies) that considered women property of
the husband. This was not the teaching of the God of the OT or for that matter
the NT.
Gen 1: 27 - male AND female are made in God's image. What IS God's image?
Obviously it is an image that reflects both maleness AND femaleness. Do I
understand this? No, not really. But I believe it.
Gen 2:7 - God made Man
Gen 2:22 - God made woman.
Nowhere in here does it suggest that women are less valuable, less important or
less in the image of God.
One problem we have is with language. The word "mankind" is not a male term. It
is a non-sexual term. The word "womankind" on the other hand IS a sexual term.
The word translated "man" from Hebrew and Greek, usually is translating from a
term that applies (in their languages) to males and females equally.
Gen 3:16, the fall. God cursed women saying;
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greatly increase pains in Childbearing
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your desire is for your husband who will rule over you.
These are both a curse AND a statement of fact.
Gen 3:17
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The ground is cursed. Meaning that work (part of God's perfect plan) was turned
to toil. Part of the curse.
Psalm 31: 10-31- the Good wife.
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Works
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Helps the poor
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cares for family
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husband praises
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she fears the Lord
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receives praise from others
But consider Deborah, (Judges 4) and how she considered that her position was
because men had shirked theirs. She brough dishonor on men because she, as a
female, was doing their responsibility for them. Her claim is not "I get the
honor because..." But rather "A woman will get the honor..."
This means that, when women do the work that men were supposed to when men are
not, in particular, spiritual leadership, it is not the women that are cursed,
it is the men that are cursed.
Note that Deborah was a female prophet, and nowhere is there any indication of
shame that God choose a woman to be a prophet. It was the man's unwillingness
to follow God's lead without a woman's help that was shameful.
Ruth - a whole book about a Moabite woman! (And the
great-great-etc..-great grandmother of Jesus Christ)
Esther - a queen to a foreign King who saved her people.
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