What Does the Bible Say About Being a Woman?
Friends! My bible study, Very Good: What the Bible Says About Being a Woman comes out in 3 weeks! Here is an excerpt from week 2.
One thing you may be hoping for when studying what the Bible says about being a woman is a set of rules and regulations for living that are distinct for women and distinct for men. As with all areas of the Christian life, we think a to-do list would be helpful so that we can ensure we are behaving like the women God made us to be. I have possibly disappointing news for you: there are very few gendered instructions in the Bible. While we will see some gendered instructions when it comes to marriage and the gathered worship of the church in Paul’s letters in the New Testament, even those instructions often point beyond their specific context to a greater principle for the Christian life. God just doesn’t often say, “Women be like this and men be like that.”
What we do see on repeat throughout Scripture, though, is a call on God’s people to love Him and love others in the place where He has put us. God alone gives us life and breath, and God alone ordains when and where we live. He puts us right where we are, that people might seek God and find Him (Acts 17:24-27). As we turn from Creation, Fall, and God’s Promise, and move through our story of Redemption, I want to point out that the Redemption story is not passive; we have a role too. All God’s people do.
Jesus alone saves. Within God’s design, however, He also has a role for us in His redemption story. Because of this truth, I like to employ the following timeline for God’s grand story:
Creation > Fall > Promise > Redemption + Mission > Restoration*
Our restoration to the new heaven and new earth is coming. After the Fall and prior to Jesus’s arrival is the age of Promise. God promises redemption through Eve’s offspring. Between Eve and Jesus, then, we have a lineage of women whom God used to bring His promises to pass. Before Jesus came to earth as a baby in a manger, there was a biological line and people to preserve. After Jesus’s life on earth, there is a spiritual line and people to produce. Let’s look at five women who lived before Christ and were used by God to preserve His people and bring about the promised Messiah.
Shiphrah and Puah: 15th Century BC (Exodus 1:15-20)
The Israelites had settled in Egypt, thanks to God’s provision to them through Joseph, who had been appointed second in command in Egypt by Pharaoh. Joseph’s role enabled Israel to survive the famine in the land (Gen. 41). The narrative in Exodus tells us that the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied, so generations after Joseph the new Pharaoh was afraid of their vast numbers and strength. He therefore inflicted harsh slave labor on Israel. He was so intimidated, in fact, he ordered the Israelite baby boys to be killed. Shiphrah and Puah were midwives who “feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.” Exodus 1:20 tells us that “God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.”
Deborah and Jael: ~13th Century BC (Judges 4:1-16,17-24)
Eventually Israel escaped Egypt, wandered in the desert with Moses, and ultimately entered Canaan, the promised land, under the leadership of Joshua. Israel defeated many of the pagan people groups in Canaan, but not all, which proved to be the cause of ongoing pain for Israel. After Joshua died, Israel was led by various judges. When Deborah came on the scene as a judge, Israel was suffering under the oppression of the Canaanite king Jabin. Deborah and Jael, another strong Israelite woman, were instrumental in winning the battle against Sisera, commander of Jabin's army. You can read more about this fascinating story in the Bible in Judges 4.
Esther: Mid-5th Century BC (Esther 4–9)
Esther’s story takes place after Babylon conquered Israel and took them into exile. Persia conquered Babylon and while many Jews returned to Israel, many remained in Persia where they had already built their lives during the Babylonian exile. Through a series of events, ordained by God’s sovereign hand, Esther married King Ahasuerus (aka King Xerxes I) and became queen. Haman, who was second in command to King Ahasuerus, was on a mission to violently obliterate all the Jews in the Persian Empire. Esther herself and her cousin Mordecai were both Jewish and under threat. Esther was placed in her position as queen for a purpose, and God used her to save the Jewish people.
Each of these women was created by God and for God to carry out His purposes for His people in their specific time and place, with the unique gifts and roles He gave to each one. We’ve got midwives, a judge, a strong woman at home with a tent peg, and a woman of ethnic minority who became queen. They each displayed different strengths, challenges, and behaviors. God’s creativity is on display in their diversity alone!
The point is, these women—and all women throughout the Bible—don’t necessarily give us a list of dos and don’ts for women. What they do show us, though, is that God delights to write women into His story. We play an essential role in the storyline of the Bible. These women were on mission, serving God and serving His people. Their roles in God’s story were not in spite of them being women, but because they were women. Their gender gave them access to certain spaces, which enabled them to preserve God’s people. Further, these women foreshadowed the Savior to come. They were deliverers, defenders, and advocates for the people of God.
*Christopher J. H. Wright, Sweeter than Honey: Preaching the Old Testament (Langham Preaching Resources, 2015), 18–19.