Created Male and Female

by: Verlyn Verbrugge

If I asked you to name some Old Testament characters, who would come to mind? Abraham, Moses, David? But what about Sarah, Deborah, or Ruth? We must never forget that women as well as men play a prominent role in the history of God’s salvation.

In this series of devotionals, I plan to examine some of the women who appear in the pages of the Old Testament and have played significant roles in biblical history. I want to focus on the lessons we can derive from their lives.

Genesis 1:27 says that when God created human beings, he created them in his own image, then adds “male and female he created them.” Male and female. Each one fully in the image of God! In God’s creation structure, men and women stand equal to each other before God. Today, we often make value judgments about people according gender, social group, nationality, or economic ability, but God doesn’t.

Interestingly, Paul says that according to God’s plan for re-creating the fallen human race we should not make such judgments. In Christ “there is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female” (Gal. 3:28). Any attempt we make to devalue one gender (or one race, or one economic group) displeases God and is simply wrong.