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In edification of women:

windblown

windblown

Seasoned Member
Real Person
Female
I am Moriah. I am wife to ZecAustin. His beliefs are my beliefs as I have vowed to submit to him in all things. This has been a hard road for me.

It's easy to start feeling down about being a woman when you view scripture literally. We read women should be silent in the congregation, ask their questions at home to their husbands, be gentle and meek, a priceless treasure. We read the problematic passages of Paul that everyone wants to decry as culturally irrelevant. We know the Old Testament is overflowing with difficult issues that we can't even begin to understand why God sometimes works the way He does.

It stirs up the same fears and insecurities that once made me rail against my husband's belief in polygyny.

As I read through my Bible, not nearly as frequently as I should, I rejoice at any mention of women and take note, trying desperately to understand God's vision for women. I know we were created in His likeness. I know He loves us and wants only the best, to see us protected and cared for, cherished and nourished.

Did His system fail women for millennia?

I realize I tend to focus on the cons. The hard stuff that women would rather block their ears and say lalalalalala than hear. It's my passionate backlash of the feminism that is so deeply engrained in our psyche. It's Neo waking up in the tub of goo pulling plugs off of his body. I believe we need to be jolted awake and shaken from our self-righteous fog.

But lest we lose sight of how truly amazing women are when they are walking in the will of the Father, let us look to scripture for edifying examples.

There are obviously the many main characters: Mary, Esther, etc.

Then there are minor, yet significant roles. Lydia, Timothy's mother and grandmother, etc.

There are the personifications: Israel, Wisdom, etc.

Then there are the metaphors: God's judgment likened to a laboring woman, God's protection likened to a mother hen.

I would love to go into detail about each one. But, alas, the kids are awake and pouring drinks out on the floor.

My point is, and I would love for others to pick up the thread and weave away, that God's picture, tapestry if you will, for us (though we see through a glass darkly) is to prosper us and not to harm us. And if we do things His way, we can begin to understand the deep value we women have in His kingdom.
 
windblown said:
Did His system fail women for millennia?
Click to expand...
His system is pretty darn good. But it does rely on two very important things.
1. A father must love his daughter.
2. A husband must love his wife.
When either one of those is not true, the system can very easily fall over. Unfortunately we live in a fallen world, and people make mistakes all the time. Plus there are some real nasties out there.
This is why people get upset when they think of a woman obeying her husband for example, because they know that there are horrible men out there that shouldn't be obeyed and they always think of the extreme first. Or what about a virgin that is raped? The bible says the man must pay the bride price (bride price being a whole other concept that people think is terrible, yet it protects women), and then he takes her as his wife only if the father agrees. (Eristophanes, I don't want to hear you complaining about this, I well know your stance on it, and I disagree.) So people freak out that a woman has to marry her rapist, but if she has a father who loves her and knows the guy was awful then he won't give her to him. If the father doesn't care then he will give her away anyway. And we all know there are plenty of fathers in this world who don't care.
But it's not YHWH that's at fault here. His system is perfect. It's sin and man and Satan that stuff it all up and make it look like something bad towards women. YHWH loves us. He designed a system to protect us, to prosper us, and show our true value.
 
I believe there is a great deal to be learned from the creation of the world and how God sees women.

God took a great deal of pains creating just the right place for Adam. Of course God already knew what Adam needed and made everything first, except one thing. God then made Adam see how much he needed one more element of creation in his life. He showed Adam how lonely he would be BEFORE he made Eve. Then he made Eve from Adam's flesh, to be cared for as much as the rest of his flesh. In the book Captivating by John & Stasi Eldridge in chapter 2 they walk through the creation pointing out how each thing was more complex and more beautiful, than the one before with Eve as the last master work.

WindBlown, God called Eve an ezer kenegdo to Adam. See if you can find out where else ezer appears and whom it refers to. One scholar in an effort to be accurate translating Genesis uses the phrase "sustainer beside him" for ezer kenegdo where most translations use helper or help meet.
 
What value do women have? I'd have no desire to live a world without them. What a bleak and depressing place. Seriously nothing else in all of creation is as wonderful.

Yes, God is more important, in the same way that Oxygen is more important than food. Which means I *technically* need oxygen more, though I'd still waste away without food. I get more enjoyment out of food on a regular basis though the need for oxygen is more constant. Food is more delicate than oxygen and needs to be handled with care if it is to bring the most possible enjoyment, though oxygen is deadly volatile if not given proper respect.

There is nothing more beautiful or more visceral or more motivating that has been created than woman.
 
Moriah is right though, there is a lot of value at looking at specific passages about women. What are some favorite verses and why?
 
Here's a passage I've always liked:

31Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, “Because the LORD has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” 33Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. 34She conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi. 35And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

The Lord's involvement doesn't rest on a simple system that He institutes. He gets personally involved, and is personally interested in balancing scales even for less pretty women that have to get smuggled into marriages with husbands who don't love them. Her need for love, not just sex (which she obviously got at least occasionally) was a real and tangible concern for Him, and the fact that she was unloved He saw as an injustice that He would involve Himself in personally compensating her for.

Of particular note, the Lord blessed her with sons, and He didn't stop giving her sons (every child is special, sons were the hope of a father) until she stopped focusing on her situation with her husband. He didn't give her an arbitrary amount of sons, He gave her the precise number of sons it took for her to stop complaining and start praising. Her feelings determined the number of sons she received. She would keep on bearing sons until her bitterness had passed and had been replaced with joyful gratitude.
 
GG, I'm glad you brought up the meaning of the word "helpmeet." Word studies seem to always reveal fascinating angles! At the beginning of my marriage, I ran across the significance of it in Debi Pearl's "Created to be his Helpmeet." I've also read "Captivating" but much prefer Pearl. :)

I'd really love to know why God choses to use a woman in childbirth as a metaphor since only a percentage of the population will truly know what it's like (esp. nowadays) to experience a natural birth. I've been reading through the prophets and it's everywhere in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isa. 26:17, for example, "Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs, so have we been in thy sight, O LORD." Creation groans like a woman in labor (Rom. 8:28). The end times will see the beginning of birth pangs (Mt. 2:8, Mark 13:8). Just fascinating that what only women are capable of is a recurring theme/metaphor throughout Creation and Time! There is also the salvation through childbearing verse which is a complete mystery to me. Needless to say, it is a privilege and honor to be the vessel in which God uses to bring new life into the world.

Slumberfreeze, thank you for that example. The story of Leah is very moving.
 
I have never understood the term "helpmeet", because it's not really a thing (except as a distortion of 17th century English). It's not one word, it's two—"an help meet for him"

The word "help" translates a Hebrew word that means to aid (or, well, "help") and comes from a root that connotes to 'surround' (food for thought). The word "meet" is a part of the phrase "meet for him", and could also be translated counterpart or complement. You get the same word in the NT when Jesus says (translated) "it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it unto the dogs". It is not fitting, or appropriate.

So a modern English translation of the Hebrew would be "a helper appropriate for him" or "a counterpart for him" or "a fitting helper for him", etc., etc.

Changing subjects a bit, point to ponder: I think I picked it up from Stephen Clark, but somewhere along the way I came into agreement with the theory that the idea that the woman is the solution to man's alone-ness is grounded not so much in the idea of her soulmateness in the modern or Romeo & Juliet sense as it is in her ability to create and sustain life together. God didn't just give Adam a woman to be buddies with, he gave him a nation....

Worth a look partly because of the way the Adam & Eve story is ritually used to justify monogamy.
 
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