Here’s a follow-up from Wednesday’s musings about the nature of men and women as defined by creation. This is from Gary Thomas’s Sacred Influence.
“The Bible affirms women in a way that was quite radical for the time in which it
was written. The Old Testament stepped outside of its cultural milieu to insist that women mirror God’s own character and image just as fully as do their male counterparts: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Right from the start, we learn that women and men together mirror the image of God. Males, by themselves, are not up to the task; since God is above gender, males alone (or females alone) fail to adequately represent his character and image.”
“Just as tellingly, the admonition to act on this world, shape this world, and even to rule over this world is ggiven to women just as much as it is to men: “God blessed them [the man and the woman] and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fisth of the sea snd the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground’” (Genesis 1:28, emphasis added).
Women are not told to sit passively on the sidelines and cheer for their husbands as the men run the show. On the contrary, from the very beginning women share God’s command for humans to rule, subdue, and manage this earth. They are co-regents.”
