Heroic Women of the Hebrew Scriptures Week 1

Heroic Women of the Hebrew Scriptures Week 1

I. Introduction

a. Course will run for 10 weeks.

b. Course will cover three important women of the Hebrew Scriptures

i. Debora (Judges 4-5)

ii. Ruth

iii. Esther

c. Why these three women?

i. Each woman represents a major turning point in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible

1. Deborah – transitions from Joshua to the judges.

2. Ruth – transitions from the judges to the kings.

3. Esther – transitions from the kings into exile.

ii. They all have unique stories that show their strength and importance to the entire biblical narrative.

iii. There are other women who could also be covered.

1. Moses’ mother and sister

2. Hannah – Samuel’s mother

3. Abigail – Nabel’s wife and then wife of David

II. Women in the Bible

a. What is the role of men and women in the Bible?

i. What are some of the secular impressions of women in the Bible?

b. Start in Genesis 1 and 2

i. Genesis 1:26-30

1. Humans – Adam. Vss. 26-30

a. Created like everything else.

b. Made in the image and likeness of God – to reflect God.

i. Meant to reflect God’s goodness, creativity, and character.

ii. Meant to take that reflection out into the creation.

iii. “Be fruitful and multiply” means more for humans than just making more humans.

1. Make families

2. Make cultures

3. Make art and music as a part of reflecting God’s creative image.

4. Make gardens and bring beauty to the creation.

c. Given dominion over creation. The purpose of being God’s image: God’s representatives and partners in creation.

d. Created completely as male and female.

e. All plants are given for food.

ii. Genesis 2:4-24

1. The arrival of humans.

a. The human was formed from the dust, and God’s nismat – or exhale – gave the human life.

b. The human becomes a person – this is a reference to the image of God through God’s nismat.

2. The human’s job is to cultivate (grow – expand) and tend the garden.

a. The human was to bring blessings to the rest of creation.

b. Same verbiage used to describe the priests’ work in the Tabernacle/temple.

c. The human could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as it would bring death.

3. The human needed company (vss. 18-24)

a. God created animals, and the human was to give them names.

b. Giving a creature a name gives it an identity.

c. The human needed an ezer – helpmate, Delivering ally – a term of equality, not subordination.

d. צֵלָע tsela – what does it mean?.

i. Only in Genesis 2:21-22 is it translated rib.

ii. Common translation is the side of a building, specifically, the side of the Tabernacle and the temple.

iii. The image is the human was split into two equal parts – male and female.

iv. She is to be called a woman as she was taken out of the human.

v. The joining of male and female in marriage is a reuniting of the one flesh.

vi. They were naked but not ashamed of their nudity because all they knew was good; they did not know evil.

iii. The fallout Genesis 3:7-20

1. The first thing sin produces is guilt and shame (vss. 7, 10)

2. Sin also produces a desire to shift blame (vss. 12-13)

3. Sin produces a curse:

a. Snake is cursed

i. Crawl on belly – humiliation.

ii. “And I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” – we’ll come back to this.

b. Humans are cursed:

i. Woman

1. Labor (isbone) in bearing and raising up children – another interpretation is that having children who will inherit this sin curse will cause her to have pain.

2. Inequality – husband will rule over the wife (not God’s desire).

3. Given her identity from the male–Eve, mother of all nations. Israel, as well as Babylon.

4. The man and the woman, now named Adam and Eve, are no longer bonded with equality but are separated and distinct, and unequal.

ii. Man – these curses are for women as well.

1. Creation is cursed.

2. Life will be spent in hard work (isbone), and the creation will work against that hard work.

3. Death is now certain.

4. Humans are banished from the presence of God.

5. Sin has brought on the stink of death – more on that next week in Leviticus.

iii. Sin is a decreative force.

1. Sin actively works to undo what God has done.

2. The satan deeply desires to undo God’s creation and return everything to chaos and darkness.

c. God designed humans to be completely equal and bonded by the image of God.

d. Sin broke God’s image on humans, God’s relationship with humans, and humans’ relationships with each other.

e. Women in the bible are subjugated by men, not because God wants it that way or God orders it that way, but because sin has disrupted what God intended.

f. In the New Testament, God starts to restore relationships between men and women.

i. The high place of Elizabeth in Jesus’ story.

ii. The high place of Mary in Jesus’ story as his mother. (John 2:5).

iii. The high place of women in Jesus’ ministry.

1. Mary Magdelan – the first human to experience the risen Jesus.

2. Mary and Mary – dear friends.

3. Women listed in the Passion (John 19:25-27).

iv. Women whom Jesus provided ministry

1. The dead girl and the woman with a bleeding issue in Mark 5:21-43

2. The Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30.

v. Women in Paul’s ministry.

1. Pricilla

2. Pheobe

3. All the women who are greeted in Romans 16.

g. Women play a crucial role in the biblical narrative and in God’s plan for saving humans from their sin.