MAN AND WOMAN IN THE BIBLE

INTRODUCTION-- Several chapters at the beginning of Genesis are given to the genealogies of the Patriarchs.

1. Casual Bible readers often skip over these chapters, because they seem boring.
   
2. More dedicated readers find many things of interest in these genealogies.
   
   1. The record of the descendants of Cain contains such things as....
      
      1. Cain was the first to build a city.
         
      2. Lamech was the first polygamist.
         
      3. Jabal lived in tents and had cattle.
         
      4. Jubal was the first musician.
         
      5. Tubal was the first to work in brass and iron.
         
   2. The descendants of Seth (called the Sons of God) were active, too.
      
      1. The Patriarchs starting with Adam lived an everage of 912 years.
         
      2. Enoch lived 365 years before he was translated into heaven.
         
      3. Shem, a son of Noah, is said to be "the father of all the children of Eber," but no one seems to know exactly what this means.
         
      4. Another descendant of Noah, Peleg (meaning, division) was so named, it is said, because "in his days was the earth divided." (Again, no enlargement is made on this statement.)
         
3. The more critical modern readers of the Bible are apt to notice that of the first 20 Patriarchs descended from Adam, all had wives, and many are said to have had daughters, but names are given only to Eve and Sarah, the wives of the first and last. (Three women in Cain's line of male descendants are named.)
   
   1. This practice is typical of much of the Bible, especially the Old Testament.
      
   2. Women are mentioned many times in connection with the men, but few names are given to them. (A few men are unnamed, but very few.)
      
   3. To many women, today, this discredits the Bible as a book to guide us.

LESSON-- Are women slighted by the male dominated writings of the Bible?

1. Guided by the teaching of the New Testament, we observe several rules governing the conduct of Christian women.
   
   1. On the negative side, women are forbidden to have a leading role in the work of the church.
      
      1. 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 "let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. 35 And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church."
         
      2. 1 Timothy 2:12-15 "But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression: 15 but she shall be saved through her child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety." (Priscilla taught, but did not offend.)
         
   2. On the positive (or, not so negative) side, women are commended to a careful role in relationship to men.
      
      1. Titus 2:1-5 "But speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine: .......3 that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; 4 that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."
         
      2. 1 Peter 3:1-6 "In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives; 2 beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear. 3 Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; 4 but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 5 For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any terror."
         
   3. It seems to me that there is a positive side to all of this for women, if they can accept the reason for God putting them into a supporting role.
      
      1. When Eve sinned, and "gave unto her husband," Adam did not escape punishment.
         
         1. He was not punished because he submitted to woman, but because he disobeyed God. Genesis 3:17-19 "And unto Adam (God) said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
            
         2. Eve's punishment made her subject to her husband. Genesis 3:16 "Unto the woman (God) said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."
            
      2. However, I believe Eve and her daughters are included in Peter's commendation of the women of old who had that "incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 5 For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any terror." (1 Peter 3:4-6)
         
2. Some very commendable women are mentioned in the Bible, along with evidence that they honored their place in relationship to men.
   
   1. Deborah, a married woman "under the law," was a judge of Israel, in the absence of faithful male leaders. Judges 4:4-5 "Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time. 5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment."
      
      1. In a military crisis, she called on Barak to lead (though he was timid).
         
      2. In the Song of Deborah, she sang, "The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel."
         
   2. Ruth, a convert to Judaism, and an important ancestor of Jesus, humbly claimed her right to have children in honor of her dead husband. This law took away a childless widow's reproach. Deuteronomy 25:5-6 "If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. 6 And it shall be, that the first-born that she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother that is dead, that his name be not blotted out of Israel."
      
   3. Esther, though chosen to be queen of Persia, did not presume to break the tradition of full submission to the king, her husband, but risked her life by appearing in the Throne Room uninvited. Having been accepted, she wisely chose to persuade him to help her in her cause to save her people through a series of attempts to gain further favors from him. Her patience and humility had its reward.
      
3. But what of the men of the Bible, and their roles in service to God.
   
   1. There were very many male prophets (and a few female).
      
   2. All the priests under the Law of Moses were males (and, the Levites).
      
   3. All the kings of the Israelites, in both kingdoms, were males, by God's choices. (Where women sought to rule, it was spiritual ruin.)
      
      1. In the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Jezebel provoked her husband Ahab to do all kinds of evil, and defiled the royal houses of both kingdoms with her children.
         
      2. Athaliah, a descendant of Jezebel, and the one woman usurper in the Kingdom of David's line, was condemned for murdering most of the "seed royal." After seven years, the true king was restored, and the people assassinated her.
         
   4. All the Apostles of Christ were male.
      
   5. Elders (or, bishops) are to be male ("husband of one wife"). 1 Timothy 3
      
   6. Deacons are also to be males, and married to one wife. (Though some see an exception in Romans 16:1 "I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant [a feminine form of "deacon"] of the church that is at Cenchreae:") She was not, however, a "husband of one wife."
      
   7. All evangelists mentioned in the NT are males.
      
   8. Teachers, as we have seen can be male and female, within the protocol set by God regarding the roles of the sexes.

APPLICATION--

1. MEN-- Are you serving the Lord faithfully, in recognition of the leadership role you have been given?
   
   1. Are you fulfilling your mandate to the church? Ephesians 4:11-15 "And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: 13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and car-ried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; 15 but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ;"
      
   2. Are you fulfilling your mandate to your children? Ephesians 6:4 "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord."
      
   3. Are you exploiting your gifts to the full?
      
      1. Romans 12:6-8 "And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; 7 or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; 8 or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness."
         
      2. 1 Peter 4:10-11 "...according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; 11 if any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God; is any man ministereth, ministering as of the strength which God supplieth: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
         
2. WOMEN-- Are you fulfilling your role in God's scheme of things, as helpers fitting to your place, as teachers of the children in your charge, as laborers in the vineyard? As examples of purity, spirituality, and heirs of God?