Sexism, Feminism & the Bible 1: Old Testament

I. Introduction
A. Today and next week I am preaching on the subject of women. I know that it is a touchy, controversial issue that would be easy to ignore. But my job is to teach what the Bible says, even about hot issues of debate.
B. This issue is a real obstacle for many re: Christianity, many who perceive Christianity as a system of male dominance and oppression of women.
C. The desire to preach this sermon was born years ago when I watched a Ken Burns documentary about the early feminist movement: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
1. I was shocked to find out the kind of circumstances which spawned the feminist movement: women prevented from higher education, prevented from owning or inheriting property or signing contracts, wives considered the property of husbands: having no right to divorce, no right to their children, no right to possessions even if escaping an abusive marriage, their wages belonging by law to their husband, considered indecent to speak in public, incompetent to serve on a jury, incompetent to testify in a trial.
D. Down through the ages the feminist movement has crusaded against a number of serious injustices, crusades which produced a lot of reform. They have spoken out courageously against some terrible things.
1. There are certainly issues where I think they are opposing the teaching of the Bible, like abortion.
2. However, I think we should be thankful for much of what they’ve accomplished.
E. I’m not suggesting the Bible supports the world view of modern feminism. But I argue that the Bible also doesn't support the real injustices feminism has tried to fight against.
1. Further, I would argue that the Bible has a higher and more exalted view of women than any feminist.
F. I also think many, in the name of Christ, have made serious mistakes and held sinful opinions and attitudes toward women.
1. Just like Satan when he quoted the Bible to tempt Jesus, many power-loving men have used the Bible to suppress and oppress women.
2. You can still hear it today in the way some (Christian) men speak, being dismissive of or minimizing injustices like:
a. Spousal abuse
b. Rape (prison)
c. Fear
d. Sexual harassment
e. Powerlessness
3. There are those whose views of the Bible’s role of women are fueled by sexism in the same way.
G. Societies which are not Christian have generally been even more oppressive of women. It’s not like the Christian faith has caused sexism. At times it has failed to eradicate it as it should. At times it has been used to justify it. But it certainly doesn’t produce it.
H. Why do so many feminists hate Christianity?
1. They hate the God behind it all? I’m sure this is true for some.
2. But I also think that some hate Christianity because they hate how God’s word has been used to oppress women? And I think we should hate this too.
3. Before, during and even after the Civil War a great theological debate raged in America between Christian people over slavery. And do you know that many people rejected the Bible as a result of this debate, because, not being deeply informed about the Bible and what it says, they assumed that the Bible did indeed justify the kind of slavery practiced in America. And, knowing that the slavery they had witnessed or experienced was cruel and unjust, they concluded that the Bible should be rejected. Sadly I think the same is true regarding the issue of women.
I. I think some of us need to stop and rethink our attitudes toward these things. And I hope these sermons can help us get started.
II. Old Testament and women
A. There is definitely a shift from OT to NT, which we’ll discuss next week.
B. But the OT portrayal of woman begins in Genesis 1:26–28: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
1. Even before the story of God making Adam out of the dust of the ground, even before the story of God making Eve out of the rib of Adam, we find the story of God making mankind — male and female — in His own image.
2. Some object to how the Bible uses the word MAN in a generic sense, which it does at times. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. Rather MAN is being used in a corporate sense.
a. The Bible uses the name of a person to speak of all who came from him: e.g. Moab, Edom, Israel.
b. In the OT, Adam = Man. It’s the same word. So, every time the word man is found, you can replace it with Adam, in other words, those who came from Adam. Every woman is as much from Adam as every man.
3. Sadly, the Bible has at times been used to push others down. But the fact is that in the Bible from the very beginning man and woman were equal before God.
a. Together in the image of God
b. Together in their calling to fill the earth
c. Together in their calling to manage the creation
C. And it continues. As the Bible’s story unfolds, women are intelligent, industrious, courageous, virtuous, heroic, and even valiant in battle.
1. Deborah
2. Ruth
3. Abigail
4. Prov.31
5. Esther
6. Jael
7. I don’t know how it’s possible to study the subject of women in the Bible and not think that God deeply loves and highly regards women.
8. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that leads us to think that men are smarter than women, or more upright than women, or more stable than women, or more capable than women, or more valuable than women.
D. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that leads us to think that there is anything spiritually different between male and female.
1. Each of us has two parts: a soul and a body, the soul being the more central part of our being.
2. We know the body of a man is different from the body of a woman.
3. But there’s no reason in the Bible to think that the difference goes beyond that.
4. There’s no reason to think that souls are male or female.
E. And nowhere in the Bible are females mere sexual objects. Nowhere are they mere helpless damsels in distress.
F. There were no women priests, but there were women prophets, or prophetesses, e.g. Miriam, Huldah, and there are female political leaders, both righteous (e.g. Deborah), and unrighteous (e.g. Athaliah).
G. In the OT law there’s not very much about the distinction between male and female, or the role of either. Very few of the OT laws make a distinction between male and female. E.g. the punishment for killing or hurting a woman is the same as a man, and the punishment for a woman who commits a crime is the same as a man’s.
1. There is nothing that discourages the education of women. They are allowed to own and inherit property, they were not the husband’s property but husband and wife were both God’s. They were not barred from testifying in a trial.
H. Are men and women different according to the Bible? Sure. But the ways we are the same are FAR, FAR greater than the ways we’re different.
1. Together in creation
2. Together in dignity
3. Together in vulnerability
4. Together in corruption
5. Together in tribulation
6. Together in redemption
I. In the Bible, human nature is human nature. With regard to sin and with regard to God men and women are the same.
J. Sure, women are victimized, through abuse, rape and murder in the Bible. Unfortunately that’s part of the story of mankind.
1. But it is never condoned, or giggled at or minimized.
2. And at times women victimize men, by seducing them or by falsely accusing them (as in the case of Potiphar’s wife).
3. All of this is strongly condemned.
K. We must remember that the problem is with human nature, not with maleness or femaleness. I would sin like a woman if I had been made as a woman. And my wife would sin like a man if she had been born a man. Each group would be like the other if the shoe was on the other foot.
1. For instance, the Bible sometimes speaks as if the rich are evil and the poor are good, and as if the powerful are corrupt and the weak are more righteous.
2. But this has to do with circumstances, not with nature.
a. In other words, the rich only rarely get into the kingdom because of what their richness does to them: masking their need, making them feel self-sufficient. If the poor person had been born rich, it would have had the same effect on him.
3. Our sin is not a part of our gender. Our gender certainly sometimes affects how we are tempted, but never whether we are tempted.
4. Just like the curse is slightly different on man and woman (Genesis 3:16-19) but invokes pain upon us all, so it is with sin.
III. Application
A. The Bible condemns sexism, which is nothing but pride and selfishness and rebellion.
B. But there’s a bigger point to make. The Bible is all about God, and His salvation of sinful, rebellious women and men, who are completely unworthy of any rights or honors.
C. Christianity is different from every other philosophy and world view. The biggest disagreement between Christianity and much modern feminism is not over what women should and should not be able to do, it’s over what the world looks like, and what’s really going on.
D. Is it consistent to be a Christian and a feminist?
1. Yes and no. It matters what you mean by feminist.
2. If you mean someone who opposes the demeaning and mistreatment of women, who wants to uphold the equal dignity and value of women, and equal rights under the law, then I think it’s completely consistent to be a Christian and a feminist, and all Christians should be feminists.
3. However, if by feminist you mean someone who believes that men are what’s wrong with this world, and who believes that THE BIG REALITY in this world is the injustice of male power and women's right to be free and self-determining, then I’d say it’s not at all consistent to be a Christian and a feminist.
E. You see, Christians can't just choose a side to support. God always had a different way.
1. The mind of Jesus is not conservatism OR liberalism.
2. It is not capitalism OR socialism.
3. It is not traditionalism OR progressivism.
4. It’s not feminism OR sexism.
5. When Jesus came he didn't jump on a bandwagon. He invited others to jump on his bandwagon.
6. Now often there is overlap between the mind of Christ and a particular pay or cause. But we can't allow ourselves to be led into a way of thinking just because parts of it reflect the mind of Christ.
F. Satan loves getting us fighting with each other. Fighting between:
1. Countries
2. People groups
3. Social classes
4. Regions
5. Races
6. Schools
7. Teams
8. Generations
9. Sexes
G. But living is much more than just watching out for ourselves and our group. We're all in the problem together. Our biggest problems are not with each other but with our own hearts and with our guilt and with our real enemy.
H. And the big reality in this world is not our differences or our issues or our equality. The big reality in this world is God.
I. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t be engaged in righting wrongs and correcting injustices, if we do so in the way of Christ.
1. But we must keep in mind that we have an advocate and a judge, a protector and a provider who is at the center of everything.
2. And that there is no more exalted place for a man or woman to be than in the will of God. You can't get higher than that. And that there is no happier, more fulfilling place to be that in the arms of our Savior Jesus. You can’t get more well-off than that.