The Role of Women Theme Analysis

At the beginning of Genesis, women are portrayed as the pinnacle of God’s creation. After Adam finds no suitable partner among all God’s creatures, God undertakes a special operation (using part of Adam’s body) to create woman: “Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh[.]’” Directly created by God, Eve’s position as “flesh of [Adam’s] flesh” suggests that she is not only made from the man, but designed to be united to him—and thus inseparably part of God’s purposes for humanity. Later in Genesis, women also receive distinct blessings from God. In biblical times, God’s blessing took its most obvious form in the gift of fertility. Contrary to expectation, however, God especially displays his blessing upon women who lack fertility, like Abraham’s aging wife, Sarah. The story of Sarah and other struggling women suggests that God listens to the concerns of women (both those inside of his covenant and outside of it), and that women occupy a special place in demonstrating God’s purposes for the people of the covenant.

Genesis shows that, like men, women occupy a special role in God’s purposes for his people. And, like men, women often struggle to believe that God will do for them what he’s promised. Sarah’s story of barrenness establishes a pattern in Genesis: women desire children, meaning that barrenness leads to doubt and family strife. Sarai (later Sarah), the future matriarch of Israel, knows that God has promised offspring to her and Abraham. But when she continues to be barren, Sarai decides to take matters into her own hands: She “took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife […] Hagar […] conceived; and […] she looked with contempt on her mistress.” The Sarai and Hagar story has certain links to the story of Adam and Eve. Instead of believing what God said when he promised to give Sarai children, Sarai doubted him and sought a different solution to her problem, and Abram went along with the idea (much as Eve questioned God and suggested that she and Adam eat the forbidden fruit). Sarai’s exploitation of her slave-girl, Hagar, leads to household strife. This suggests that failure to trust God’s promises—trying to ensure blessings on one’s own terms—only leads to suffering.

Even when women’s faith falters, as Sarah’s does, God listens to women and heeds their prayers, remaining faithful to his promise to create a great nation (the Abrahamic line). By answering women’s prayers for children, God uniquely demonstrates his purposes for his people. Genesis repeatedly shows that God doesn’t overlook women, even when women don’t appear at the center of the story. When Abraham receives angelic visitors from God who repeat the promise of children, Sarah eavesdrops and laughs to herself at the notion that she could bear children at her age. Hearing this, the angel of the LORD asks, “‘Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?’ […] But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’” This passage, with its note of humor, reinforces the fact that God hears everything—even the bitter laughter of women who appear, at first, to be on the margins of the action.

God faithfully fulfills his most unlikely promises, most clearly displayed in the unlikely birth of a son to an old woman. After her son’s birth, Sarah names her son “Isaac,” from the Hebrew for “laughter.” Genesis recounts, “Now Sarah said, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me […] Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’” God’s fulfillment of his promise of offspring to Abraham is narrated through Sarah’s words—her earlier bitterness turned to joy. God has heeded her even when a child looked most unlikely, suggesting he will bring life out of barrenness for his people in general.

Genesis also shows that God also pays attention to women who, other people cast out and overlook. For instance, God cares for the exploited slave-girl, Hagar. After Sarah expels Hagar and her son, Ishmael, in anger, Hagar, weeping in the desert, is heard and helped by God: “And as she sat opposite [Ishmael], she lifted up her voice and wept […] and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven […] ‘Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” Once more, God brings life where there appears to be only death—in this case, saving the life of Abraham’s son Ishmael, even though he and Hagar are not part of the direct lineage of Israel. In other words, God’s pattern of hearing and caring for women even extends to those who aren’t the primary objects of his blessing (as the woman of the Abrahamic line are).

Sarah’s story establishes a pattern of barren women throughout Genesis. First, Abraham’s niece Rebekah, who marries Isaac, gives birth to the twins Jacob and Esau after a period of barrenness. In the next generation, Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, endures the shame of barrenness after Jacob’s other wife, Leah, has many children. Eventually, “God remembered Rachel […] and opened her womb.” It’s important to note that even here, childbearing isn’t a marker of women’s value in its own right. The implication in Genesis is that women long to fulfill their part in the story of God’s covenant with his people, and this typically takes the form of bearing future generations, who ensure that God’s people survive. Because God enables them to do this, women are honored with a special role in God’s purposes for his people.