Most Important Women of the Bible

Remarkable Stories of God's Love and Redemption

Aaron Sharp and Elaina Sharp

• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781493411870
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Powerful Stories of Women in the Bible that Reveal God's Mercy and LoveFrom well-known women like Eve and Esther to those lesser known like Jochebed and Zipporah, women of the Bible play a vital role in God's timeless story of redemption.This book traces the stories of three dozen of the most important women in Scripture, each handpicked by God to play a crucial part in his gracious plan for all humanity. Every chapter begins with a short biography followed by an explanation of how each woman fits into the overall narrative of the Gospel message, pointing to God's love for the individual as well as his larger plan to redeem sinners through the sending of his son. The Bible is the story of God's relationship with his people--men, women, Jews, Gentiles, saints, and sinners. But this book reveals that it's also the story of his relationship with you.

1
Eve

The First Woman, the First Sinner

Should God create another Eve, and I

Another Rib afford, yet loss of thee

Would never from my heart; no, no, I feel

The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,

Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State

Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.1

—John Milton, Paradise Lost

Scripture References

Genesis 2, 3, 4; 2 Corinthians 11; 1 Timothy 2

Biography

There is not a lot of agreement about when the first woman’s beginning took place. The book of Genesis is not entirely clear as to whether she was created with Adam on the sixth day of creation, or if God’s special act of creating the first woman came after day seven. Good people disagree as to the timing, but one thing that is definitely clear is that the first woman’s creation was unique.

God observed how the man living in the garden of Eden was alone, and His solution to this issue was to create a companion for Adam that would fit perfectly with him. Genesis 2:18 says, “I will make him a helper suitable for him” (NASB). Many English Bibles use the word suitable to translate the Hebrew word kÿnegdo, which means “opposite to” or “corresponding to.” The idea behind the creation of woman was that God would create a mate that matched the man in the garden in a way that completed him. It was as if they were two pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly.

God’s method of creating a companion for Adam was to put him into a deep sleep, and then to remove a rib, which God then used to form Adam’s companion. This act caused the first act of a smitten man writing a poem in honor of his soul mate. Adam declared, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23 NASB). The only two human beings on the planet were naked, unashamed, and “one flesh.” The happy couple lived peacefully in communion with God and animals. The only thing they had to do was not to eat of one tree in the middle of the garden.

Of course, all would not remain perfect in the idyllic garden. A walking, talking serpent convinced the woman that just maybe God had lied, or was not serious about the one rule He had given them. She bought the snake’s lies, ate the fruit, gave her husband a bite, and humanity capsized into the depths of sin. When confronted by God, Adam blamed his wife, and she in turn pointed her finger at the serpent’s deception. God responded by proclaiming curses on the snake and the world’s first couple. For her part, God told the woman, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16 NASB).

God made clothes for the couple out of animal skins to cover their nakedness, and it was at this point that Adam gave his wife the name Eve because she was going to be “the mother of all the living” (v. 20). Because of their now sinful natures, God drove Adam and Eve from the garden, never to return again.

Role in Redemption

For obvious reasons, Eve has never been the most popular biblical role model for women. Unfortunately for Eve, we don’t know much about her, and what we do know is not good. Aside from being deceived by the serpent and committing sin, all we know is that she gave birth to three sons, the eldest of which murdered the middle brother in cold blood. Not exactly the legacy that most women are looking to leave.

Eve’s reputation probably isn’t helped any by the fact that the rest of the Scriptures have precious little to say about her. After naming her third son Seth at the end of Genesis 4, Eve passes from the scene and is never mentioned again throughout the entire Old Testament. She only gets two brief mentions in the New Testament, both of which are by the apostle Paul referencing her deception in the garden. In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul warns the believers in Corinth by saying, “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (NASB). Then in 1 Timothy 2:13–14, while giving Timothy instructions about gender roles in church, he says, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression” (NASB).

A cursory glance of what the Scriptures say, and do not say, might lead us to the conclusion that the only role Eve played in God’s plan of redemption was being part of the problem. A deeper look, however, gives us a glimpse of a bigger role that she played.

After their sin, God pronounced judgment on Adam, Eve, and the serpent. First, He addressed the snake, then Eve. God’s final words to the serpent included words that applied to Eve as well: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Genesis 3:15 NASB).

This passage is very noteworthy for a number of reasons. First, this is the initial promise of a redeemer. The Old Testament contains hundreds of prophecies of a coming Messiah, and right here, in the garden, in the aftermath of humanity’s fall into sin, is the first promise that God has a plan to redeem mankind. Second, this passage is striking because of who it is addressed to. In Genesis 3:15, God is still speaking to the serpent, but His words to the snake involve and have bearing on Eve as well.

In the New Testament, Eve is said to have been deceived by the serpent, but the responsibility for sin entering the world is laid at the feet of Adam, not Eve. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (NASB). Also, 1 Corinthians 15:22 tells us, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (NASB).

Adam’s culpability in the eyes of God is what makes the first promise of a Savior all the more telling. God’s promise was not that there would be enmity between the man and the serpent, but between the woman and the serpent. It would be the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman—not the man—that would continue in hostility. Even though God would ultimately hold Adam responsible for what happened in the garden, this promise is specifically focused on the woman’s role in bringing about redemption, which would now be necessary because of Eve’s actions.

Eve’s reputation as the woman who ate the fruit and plunged the world into sin is not untrue, but it is not the whole truth. Where the serpent brought forth deception God brought forth truth. Where the serpent sought to bring about destruction God promised to bring healing. Where the serpent brought death God vowed to bring life.

The snake intended his deception of Eve to be the downfall of humanity, and the ruin of Eve. From God’s perspective, however, the exact opposite would ultimately be true. God’s promise was from His perspective: Eve would not be remembered for what she did. No, God would act, and in so doing Eve would be remembered for what God would do.

God did not promise to give Eve or her offspring a second chance. He did not respond by asking or demanding that Eve somehow redeem herself, or by giving her a pathway to work her way back into His good graces. The first promise of a Savior, delivered to a devious serpent, about the woman’s place in God’s plan was solely and exclusively about what God would do for Eve.

From that point on, Eve, her husband, and all of their offspring would exist in a world where sin ran rampant. The faults of the first couple would exist and multiply in every generation that would come after them. Yet, in this darkest of moments, God’s promise shines forth as a beacon. Eve was not just the woman who sinned in eating the fruit; she was the recipient of God’s first promise of the coming of a Savior.

By the Numbers

Bible verses that mention Eve by name:    4

Bible books in which she is mentioned:    3

Women on the earth before Eve:    0

Talking snakes encountered by Eve:    1

Things We Wondered

What did Adam and Eve use to sew fig leaves together?

How many children did Eve actually give birth to?

2
Sarah

The Laugher

Sarah’s acceptance of a promise which at first she seemed to hear with indifference is . . . a venture into the unseen world which faith makes real.1

—F. F. Bruce

Scripture References

Genesis 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25, 49; Isaiah 51; Romans 4, 9; Galatians 4; Hebrews 11; 1 Peter 2

Biography

Sarah actually made her debut in Scripture with the name Sarai. It may seem strange in today’s culture, but she married her half-brother Abram, who is one of the great patriarchs of the Old Testament.

There is no specific time line given; the Bible tells of Abram and Sarai as a married couple leaving their homeland of Ur with their father and other family members. The group’s intention was to travel to the land of Canaan, but they stopped and settled in Haran before they finished their journey.

When God appeared before Abram in Genesis 12, He instructed him to leave his homeland and his family and go “to the land which I will show you.” Abram does obey God by leaving his homeland, but he does not leave his family behind. His nephew Lot went with Abram and Sarai, and we discover later that this causes conflict among the family because of land disputes.

God also gave a promise to Abram, saying, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1–3). As Abram’s wife, God included Sarah in this promise, intending that she be the mother of Abram’s descendants. She, too, forsook her family and homeland to follow God.

After they had settled in Canaan for a period of time, a famine struck the land and forced Abram to take his family to Egypt to escape its severity. Now, Abram knew that Sarai was beautiful, and guessing that the Egyptians might kill him in order to claim Sarai as their own, Abram feared for his life. He convinced Sarai to follow his lead and to tell the Egyptians that they were merely brother and sister, which omitted the truth of their marriage. Pharaoh and his princes praised Sarai for her beauty, and took her into Pharaoh’s house. God ultimately intervened and sent great plagues upon the Egyptians until they released Sarai back to Abram. This was the first time that Abram and Sarai lied about their relationship.

A decade passed, and Sarai became tired of waiting for God to open her womb. She was impatient and decided to follow her own wisdom rather than God’s wisdom, so she gave her handmaiden Hagar to Abram, supposing that the best way for her to obtain children was through her maid. Abram went along with Sarai’s plan, and Hagar gave birth to a son named Ishmael. The outcome of this, which can only be described as utterly predictable, was that a significant strain emerged between the two women, with Abram stuck in the middle. In a strange way, there is symmetry in the plans that Abram and Sarai cooked up to “help” each other. Abram lied about their marriage, Sarai gave him her handmaid to produce an heir, and neither followed God.

Genesis 17 describes another encounter whereby God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah. The change in names signified God’s renewed promise to make Abraham into a great nation, and included Sarah because it would be her child—not Hagar’s child—through whom this promise would be fulfilled. God’s intentions for Sarah were clear: “I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her” (Genesis 17:16 NASB).

The Lord again appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18, where He gave specific details as to when the promise of a child would be fulfilled. God said that He would return around the same time the next year, and that Abraham and Sarah would have a son. Suffice it to say that when Sarah overheard Abraham’s conversation with the Lord she was a bit skeptical. Indeed, her initial response was to laugh at the absurdity of expecting a child at her advanced age, but her mirth soon gave way to fear. God heard her laugh and knew the disbelief she harbored in her heart.

The second instance of Abraham and Sarah being less than truthful about their marital relationship happened in Genesis 20, when Abraham traveled with his family...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Eve
• 2. Sarah
• 3. Tamar
• 4. Jochebed
• 5. Zipporah
• 6. Rahab
• 7. Doborah
• 8. Ruth
• 9. Naomi
• 10. Hannah
• 11. Bathsheba
• 12. The Widow of Zarephath
• 13. The Woman of Shunem
• 14. Esther
• 15. Gomer
• 16. Mary, Mother of Jesus
• 17. Elizabeth
• 18. Anna
• 19. Mary Magdalene
• 20. Mary and Martha
• 21. The Woman at the Well
• 22. The Bleeding Woman
• 23. The Syrophoenician Woman
• 24. Widow with Two Mites
• 25. The Widow of Nain
• 26. The Woman Sinner
• 27. Tabitha
• 28. Phoebe
• 29. Lois and Eunice
• 30. Lydia
• 31. Priscilla
• Notes
• About the Author
• Back Cover