October 18, 2010
Our responsibility, as women, to the poor and needy
It was one of those mornings where – from two unrelated sources – I heard two Bible clearly related Bible verses. Having these two verses land in my lap at the same time seems significant – like this is an important principle the Lord probably wants me to take to heart.
Amos 4:1 & 2 says, Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks! The Sovereign LORD has sworn by His holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.”
Proverbs 31 is a chapter of the Bible that spells out the virtues of a most excellent woman. Proverbs 31:20 says, She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hand to the needy.
It’s quite a contrast, isn’t it? There doesn’t seem to be much confusion about what God expects of us, as women. Oppressing the poor leads to judgment but care for the poor and needy is a sign of noble character.
I’m giving this some thought because I’m not in either camp really. I don’t oppress the poor…well, I don’t really know the conditions of the people who pick the produce I buy in the store. But I don’t actively or directly oppress the poor and needy. On the other hand, I don’t do anything to reach out to them or comfort them either. I live my life trying to take care of my family but – other than the annual canned food drive – my reach doesn’t extend much past my own doors.
It seems that God is calling me to something more. But what? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. How are you serving the poor in your community? And how did you get involved? I’d love to hear your story.
August 25, 2010
Adam, Eve, Jonathan Leeman, and Me – it’s the Genesis of a new posting.
Somehow, I ended up clicking on a link: http://www.9marks.org/ejournal/why-complementarianism-crucial-discipleship and reading an article called, “Why Complementarianism Is Crucial to Discipleship”. It is written by Jonathan Leeman and, truthfully, I don’t know a thing about him or his ministry. Please read the whole article – I’m only going to be commenting on one small portion of it.
Under the section titled “Theological Vision and Distinctives of Different Domains”, Mr. Leeman writes, “In the domain of marriage, here’s what the elders of my church tell couples in pre-marital counseling: According to Genesis 1, the man and woman should both focus on bringing God’s Lordship and dominion to the earth. But according to Genesis 2, they have different ways of doing that. The man is oriented to the Garden, while the woman is oriented to the man and being a suitable helper to him. She’s to employ her entire resume of gifts and talents to promote the work of his administration. He, in turn, is to steward her gifts to maximal effect and not bury them in the ground, like the unfaithful steward.”
This paragraph was pretty disturbing to me. However, the question is not “Do I like this” or “Do I agreee with this” but, instead, “Is it Biblical” or “Is it true”.
Mr. Leeman takes his premise from Genesis 1 – so let’s go there: Genesis 1:26- 28 says: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the earth, and over the creatures that move over the ground. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him: male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number: fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (I’ve underlined the word “them” to bring attention to the fact that God was address the male & female. You won’t find that word underlined in your Bible). From my reading, it seems like God created Adam and Eve to rule together over the garden. It sounds to me like God was orienting both Adam and Eve to the Garden – not just Adam. But Mr. Leeman says that Genesis 2 is important in understanding the “how” so let’s go there.
Genesis 2, beginning with verse 4 gives us a more detailed account of the creation of Adam and Eve. Adam was created and placed in the Garden that God created. In verse 15 it says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”. Then, verse 18 says, “The Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him”. God and Adam go out into the creation and God has Adam name the animals.
Then Genesis 2 goes on to give the account of Eve’s creation – where Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, Eve was formed using one of Adam’s rib bones. Interestingly, pre-sin Adam responds to the creation of Eve by saying, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.” (vs. 23) Read it again if you need to because Adam is saying that Eve is not just like (similar to) him or an inferior copy of him; Adam is saying that they are the same – same bone, same flesh. There is no division here. No one is primary and no one is secondary. They are the same. Then Genesis 2:24 says: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and shall be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (verse 24) Do you see what the Scripture says? It says that the man will be united to his wife. It does not say the man will be put over his wife. It doesn’t say it – it simply is not there.
Those in the complementarian camp read a lot into the word “helper” – they say it proves that Eve was created to assist and support Adam in the task that God assigned him. But you can plainly see that this not an accurate understanding of the Scripture. In Genesis 2, Adam is not commanded to subdue or rule over anything – he merely works in and cares for God’s garden. The command to rule and subdue was give to both Adam and Eve. The Adam and Eve who are the same flesh, the same bone, and are united to one another.
The egalitarian camp addresses the nature of Eve’s role as helper by pointing out that the Hebrew word for helper used here is “ezer”. The word “ezer” is used in Deuteronomy 33:7, 26, 29; Psalm 33:20, 70:5, 115:9-11 and 146:5 – only, in these examples, the word “ezer” is used to describe God. Clearly, God is not inferior or secondary to man; therefore, this word “helper” cannot be used as the basis for assuming that Eve is inferior or secondary to Adam. While that is certainly a point worth examining, I don’t really think it is necessary. A straightforward reading of the passage clearly reveals that (1) both Adam and Eve were created by God, (2) they are the same flesh and bone, (3)they are united, and (4) they were commanded by God to subdue and rule over the earth.
Incidentally, there is a place in Genesis where it does say that the man will rule over his wife but it isn’t until sin comes in and completely devastates the intended order of things. Sin brought troubles and consequences that God did not originally intend for Adam & Eve – things like painful toil for one’s survival, thorns, thistles, death, and (Gen 3:16) the husband will rule over the wife.
Based on this, does Mr. Leeman’s pre-marital counsel sound like good advice? Would you ever advise a young couple, “I want you to embrace the results of sin and the fall of man in your marriage”? Would any legitimate pastor tell a groom-to-be, “We know that in God’s creation, Adam had one wife. After sin, men took multiple wives. Since sin now reigns, we believe you too should take multiple wives.” Can you imagine a church built on the premise that, “Because sin caused a separation between God and man; we believe that we too should be separate from God.” Can you imagine the hymns in that church? No – this is clearly nonsense. So, why then would Mr. Leeman’s church advise young couples to embrace the brokeness between husband and wife that occurred because of sin? Didn’t Jesus come to redeem us from sin and death?
Anyway – that’s how I see it. What do you think?
June 30, 2010
Some great blogs that give me things to think about
I want to be faithful to the Word of God and willing admit that there is much I do not understand. I struggle to try to understand what the Scripture really says and to strip away the assumptions that have gone ahead of my reading. I’ve stumbled across a few threads by Mart De Haan that gave me some things to think about and I thought you might also appreciate his perspective:
- What About Women Elders? http://www.beenthinking.org/2008/12/04/what-about-women-elders/
- What’s behind Polygamy? http://www.beenthinking.org/2008/04/18/front-page-polygamy/
- Marital Abuse & The Bible http://www.beenthinking.org/2008/03/27/marital-abuse-the-bible/
- The Submission Riddle http://www.beenthinking.org/2008/02/23/the-submission-riddle/
- The Story & Truggle of Marriage: http://www.beenthinking.org/2008/05/11/the-story-and-struggle-of-marriage/
- Marriage in the Balance: http://www.beenthinking.org/2009/03/16/marriage-in-the-balance/
- Marital Submission & The Bible: http://www.beenthinking.org/2009/03/14/submission-and-the-bible/
- Some what-ifs of Marriage: http://www.beenthinking.org/2008/09/05/some-what-ifs-of-marriage/
I’ve highlighted his posts on gender issues & marriage because this blog centers around women issues but Mart De Haan has a lot of great posts on many subjects and I encourage you to read them.
Happy reading!
Why Are Women Oppressed?
There are those who want to put the blame for the oppression of women on a certain political entity, religion or ideology but an honest look at history shows that this is an ancient and recurring problem. In truth, I think the fall of humanity is where we find the root of misogyny and we certainly see it any place you don’t see man yielded to God. In Genesis 3:16, God tells Adam and Eve about the course of events that their disobedience set into action. Some people think that the verse that says “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you” is a declaration of God’s intentions but, in light of the full creation narrative, it seems clear that God is warning Eve that the decisions she made in the past will cause heartaches and problems in her future – instead of living with her husband in paradise, she’ll struggle in her relationship with the one person who should love her most. Scripture illustrates the pain of this in many examples, as well as showing that God’s heart towards women can be very different from what we sometimes experience from men whose hearts and wills are not yielded to God. I’m not saying that things are any better when women are not yielded to God – that’s just another topic for another time. Here are some examples from Scripture:
- Lot offers his virgin daughters (Genesis 19:8) to the men to the men of Sodom to do with as they liked. Contrast: the angels of the Lord defended the women by striking the men at the door with blindness.
- Gen. 20 – Abraham says that Abraham is his sister, rather than his wife, to protect his own life and Abimelech, king of Gerar took her to be his wife. Contrast: God protects both Sarah and Abimelech.
- Numbers 27: 1-11 – Daughters of Zelophehad would’ve been left out of the distribution of the land. Contrast: God tells Moses that the daughter’s are right in their claim and defends the rights of Israelite women to receive an inheritance.
- Judges 19 – The Levite & his concubine. She was thrown out to be raped and abused all night by the wicked men of Gibeah. No one was even at the door to let her in when she fell at the doorstep and died. For whatever reason, God did not intervene in this situation but it is important to note that there is nothing in this passage to excuse or defend the heartlessness of the Levite. Thousands of years have past but this account is still included in the Scripture so that we can see how hard people can be and how horribly we can treat one another.
- In most cultures – widows and orphans are vulnerable. Contrast: Psalm 68:5 – God is father to the fatherless and a defender of widows.
- John 8:1-11. A woman caught in adultery is brought before Jesus to face public ridicule and death but the man wasn’t brought out with her. Contrast: Jesus doesn’t ignore her sin but, instead, offers grace and forgiveness so that she can go on and sin no more.
Just a few examples of how God is not like sinful man
- Genesis 29:32 “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb”. This happened in a time where a barren womb often met a life of rejection and divorce for women.
- Genesis 16 & 21. Sarai & Abraham and Hagar. This whole story show just how quickly people mess everything up but we see God’s concern and goodness for both Hagar and Ishmael.
- Malachi 2:13 – 16. God does not receive the offerings of men who break faith with the wife of their youth.
Scripture Demonstrates that godly Men Should Have God’s Heart Towards Women:
- Christian men should be different from worldly men – men, who like Jesus, seek to serve; rather than be served. Acts 6:1-7. The widows of the Grecian Jews were being neglected. While the apostles didn’t feel it right to neglect the ministry of the world of God, they also didn’t feel it right for these women to be neglected so seven men who were known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to take on this responsibility. It was so important that the men were presented to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. Verse 7 says, “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
- Ephesians 5:28 – husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
- James 1:27 – Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Abuse and mistreatment of women is one of those issues that makes me crazy and people tend to think I have some horrible issues with men but it is really just the opposite: I have had such great men in my life – father, grandfathers, great grandfather, husband, teachers, and friends and my life is good and blessed. Seemingly ordinary men lived their lives to make sure that my life is good; I am loved, provided for, and have been given every opportunity (jobs, education, etc). I’ve never been abused or oppressed. Unfortunately, the world is full of women who are being horribly and violently treated and I just wish I could make it all stop. I hate the idea that women accept this treatment as somehow being ordained and encouraged by God, when nothing could be farther from the truth. And I really, really, really hate it when some Christian man thinks he’s taking a stand against feminists, progressives, and everything wrong in the world by being a jerk to his wife, daughters, and waitresses. Those men need to study the Scriptures and see how Jesus treated the women in His life.
Well – enough about that. It’s a beautiful day and life is good; there’s no reason to rant and rave. Thank you for your patience and God bless all of you wonderful men who are don’t get the recognition you deserve for the things you do for the women in your lives. You are exceptional.
April 10, 2009
Zipporah, the Bridegroom of Blood, and What They Mean To You And Me
I was reading from the book of Exodus and ran across this strange (to me) passage:
At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met (Moses) and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched (Moses’) feet with it. Surely you are a bridgroom of blood to me”, she said. So the Lord let him alone. Exodus 4: 24 – 26.
I grew up in Sunday School and have heard of the Isrealite’s exodus from Egypt about a zillion times but, strangely, this particular account was never depicted on the flannel-graph for our enlightment and edification. Likewise, we never sang any catchy little songs with foreskin-flinging hand-motions. My mother-in-law was the Sunday School Superintendent when I was a child – maybe I should bring up this glaring omission from my religious instruction next time I see her. Maybe not. Maybe you and I should just puzzle this one through together and leave our mothers-in-law out of it.
I did a quick online search for commentaries on this passage and discovered – to my great relief – that both Jewish and Christian commentators find this passage difficult to understand. I saw some rather elaborate commentaries that seemed to find a lot of information “between the lines” but I”m not comfortable with the number of assumptions that are made to “support” some of these conclusions. For our purposes, let’s just go with what we find in the text.
Here are the somethings that seem obvious:
- God was displeased enough with Moses to kill him, if the something wasn’t corrected immediately.
- Zipporah (Moses’s wife) felt that the most reasonable course of action was to immediately circumcize her son.
- This resulted in the Lord sparing Moses’s life.
Okay – here are some of my conclusions; let me know if you think they’re out of line.
Why was this such a big deal? Rushing out to circumcise your son seems like a strange form of conflict resolution unless they (Moses & Zipporah) already knew that circumcision was required. The requirement of circumcision was already given to the Isrealites a long time before Moses arrived on the scene:
Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner – those who are not your offsprings. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” Genesis 17:9- 14
This was important because Moses was not fit to represent God to Pharoah and expect Pharoah to be responsive if Moses himself was not obedient to God’s covenant.
What did Zipporah mean when she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me”? Honestly, I have no idea. Some scholars say she was contemptuous – basically saying that the requirement of circumcision was barbaric and bloody. Other scholars say that she (who was Midianite, not Jewish) was saying that her children – though of mixed race – were a part of God’s covenant to Israel because they were circumcised. I’m not smart enough to figure this one out. I wasn’t there and don’t know what she meant.
How should we apply this:
- Sometimes God does ask us to do things that seem counter-intuitive. Some of His demands seem harsh or unreasonable. We have to make a decision about whether or not we’ll obey Him when His commands seem arbitrary or harsh. We have to figure out if He is good, and therefore worthy of our trust and our obedience even when we don’t understand. If He is not good (or not even there) – we’re really in this alone and need to plan accordingly. You’ll have to work this out with the Almighty for yourself. In my life, I’ve found Him to be good and worthy of my trust even though I don’t always see the plan in it all.
- Zipporah’s actions saved her husband’s life. As women, our actions can have a huge affect on the lives of those around us – husbands, children, friends, extended family, co-workers, etc. Don’t ever be fooled into thinking your existance is unimportant, passive, or inert! For better – or for worse – you have the power to make things happen. What will you do with the power you’ve been given?
