| THE WOMEN OF GENESIS |
| Despite their low status, they were anyone's equal. |
| The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man." 2:23 |
| PARTNER SOUGHT for vast creative endeavor. Global plans. Unlimited compensation. Immediate responsibilities include maintenance of large property, care and authority over all kinds of creatures - flying, walking, creeping, crawling. Object: teamwork and companionship. Female only. Contact Adam. No woman after Eve got such an opportunity. After sin came into the picture, the original idea of marriage got twisted. " 'To love and to cherish' became 'to desire and to dominate,' " as Derek Kidner put i. Throughout the Old Testament you catch only glimpses of the original spontaneous joy with which man greeted woman and regarded her as a partner. Granted, the people of God had a higher view of women than did their pagan neighbors. Still, women had value chiefly as seconds to men, whose children they bore, whose diesires they fulfilled. Yet the women of Genesis were no pushovers. They had strong character, minds of their own. They exerted all the influence they were allowed, and then some. The Joke Was on Her Sarah, Abraham's partner, was caught laughing at God's astonishing promise (18:12-15). She thought she knew better than to expect babies at the age of 90. She later had the grace to admit the joke was on her (21:6). Though the New Testament commends her as an ideal submissive wife (1 Peter 3:5-6), she certainly expressed her views strongly to Abraham. Twice she had her rival Hagar driven out of their home and into the wilderness. Hagar, though only a servant girl, showed backbone too. After her first expulsion from Abraham and Sarah's home |
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