Tag: Biblical Characters

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Biblical People: Hagar

Hagar

Hagar is the Egyptian slave of Sarah. She is likely acquired during Abraham and Sarah’s trip to Egypt during a famine. They could have avoided so much pain had they not bought her—or used better judgment afterward. Here’s her story.

Sarah has no children, which she blames on God. She’s well past her childbearing years. Sarah thinks she can vicariously have a family through Hagar, so Sarah offers her slave to Abraham to make a baby. This is a bad idea on Sarah’s part, yet Abraham accepts it. 

Hagar does become pregnant by Abraham. Though they never marry, the Bible later refers to Hagar as Abraham’s wife. Being able to give Abraham what Sarah could not, Hagar looks down on Sarah, who blames Abraham for the whole mess.

Wanting to avoid conflict, Abraham tells Sarah to handle it. 

Sarah mistreats Hagar, who runs away. Alone in the desert, God’s angel sends Hagar back, promising that her descendants will be too numerous to count. Hagar obeys God and soon Ishmael is born.

For about fourteen years things are okay for Hagar and Ishmael, but then Sarah becomes pregnant in her old age and gives birth to Isaac. Now Abraham has two sons, from two women.

Ishmael taunts the younger Isaac. Again, Sarah demands that Abraham fix the problem. This troubles Abraham, but God tells him to follow Sarah’s wishes, for Abraham’s legacy will come through Isaac, not Ishmael.

Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael off into the desert with some food and water. When their supplies are gone, they sit down in the wilderness to die. 

But God does not abandon them, promising Hagar that her son will become a great nation. Then God shows her water. While this is the last we hear about Hagar, we know Ishmael lives to be 137, and he and Isaac eventually reconnect.

Hagar is a powerless victim who has no say over what Abraham and Sarah do to her. Nonetheless, God protects her. He cares for her, and her descendants are numerous, like a great nation. 

God cares for the powerless. How can we help?

[Discover more about Hagar in Genesis 16 and Genesis 21.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Rebekah

Rebekah

The family tree of Rebekah is confusing. She is the daughter-in-law of Abraham and Sarah, as well as their great niece (she is the daughter of their nephew, Bethuel; Abraham and Sarah share the same father.) That means Rebekah’s great aunt and uncle are also her in-laws.

Abraham doesn’t want his son Isaac marrying a local girl, so he sends his servant to his home country to find a bride for Isaac.

With God’s provision, the servant finds Rebekah—when she offers to water his camels—and she agrees to go with him to marry a man (and a relative) she has never met.

This is a tribute to her character—or perhaps a reflection of her desire to leave home and marry. Isaac is forty, but we don’t know Rebekah’s age.

Just like her mother-in-law, Rebekah is beautiful. And just like his father, Isaac passes her off as his sister, a bad lesson he learned from his parents.

It takes twenty years for Rebekah to have children, but when she does, she has twins. While Isaac favors the older, Esau, Rebekah favors the younger, Jacob. When parents play favorites, it’s never good.

The boys don’t get along and conflict ensues. When Esau threatens to kill Jacob, Rebekah feigns that she doesn’t want Jacob to marry a local girl, hoping Isaac will send him back to their homeland. Isaac does.

So Rebekah is a beautiful woman of character, who (along with her husband) isn’t such a good parent. May we not repeat their errors.

What character traits have we picked up from our parents that might cause us problems? If we have children, what are we modeling for them?

[Discover more about Rebekah in Genesis 24–28.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Deborah (1)

Deborah (1)

When Rebekah agrees to leave home to marry Isaac, her family sends her off, along with her nurse. This suggests Rebekah may be quite young at the time and still in need of guidance. We later learn the nurse’s name is Deborah, but we know nothing more about her or what she does. 

However, the Bible does mention Deborah’s death. We don’t know why, but it must have been important for God to note her passing in his written Word.

Whether our life is celebrated, receives a mere footnote in history, or is soon forgotten, what we do is important to God.

Do we do things to get the world’s attention or is God’s opinion what matters most?

[Discover more about Deborah in Genesis 24, specifically verse 59, and Genesis 35:8.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Rachel

Rachel

Rachel is Jacob’s second—and favorite—wife. She is also his first cousin. (Her father, Laban, and his mother, Rebekah, are brother and sister.)

Rachel is a shepherdess. Her story starts when Jacob’s parents send him to their home country to find a wife from his mother’s family. It must be love at first sight, for when he sees Rachel, he cries and kisses her. She’s beautiful, and Jacob falls in love.

Though they do get married, her dad first marries off her older sister Leah to Jacob. The sisters become co-wives, forever vying for their husband’s affections.

Though Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah, it’s Leah who has kids, while Rachel struggles with infertility. Rachel becomes jealous of her sister. Morality aside, this is a practical reason not to have multiple wives, especially those who are sisters.

In desperation, Rachel offers her maidservant to Jacob to produce children in her place. Jacob should have known better than to accept this, especially seeing how badly it worked out for his grandmother, Sarah, when she did this with Abraham.

Escalating the competition, Leah then does the same thing, offering her maidservant to Jacob to produce more children as her proxy.

Later, in a move reminiscent of Esau trading his birthright to Jacob for food, Rachel trades a night with her husband for some mandrakes, a plant believed to have magical powers, possibly including fertility.

Ironically, while Rachel pursues magic to get pregnant, Jacob plants a seed in Leah for another child.

God eventually answers Rachel’s prayers for a son, and Joseph is born. Then Rachel asks God for another boy. Tragically, she dies giving birth to her second son, Benjamin.

Though a beautiful woman with a loving husband, Rachel’s life is filled with conflict and in wanting what she doesn’t have.

Are we happy with what God gives us or do we desire more? When in conflict, do we escalate the situation, like Rachel and Leah, or seek peace?

[Discover more about Rachel in Genesis 29–31 and Genesis 35.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Leah

Leah

Leah, like her younger sister, Rachel, is an interesting character. While Rachel is most attractive, Leah isn’t. It’s Rachel Jacob wants to marry, but Rachel’s father pawns off Leah on Jacob instead.

When Jacob complains, he’s given Rachel too. So the two sisters go from vying for their father’s attention to competing with one another for their husband’s time.

Jacob loves Rachel but not Leah—though not so much that he won’t sleep with her. Because she’s unloved, God blesses her with children. First there’s Reuben, then Simeon, followed by Levi and Judah. 

Later, in a most unusual story, Leah gives Rachel some mandrakes, a plant believed to have magical powers, in exchange for a night with their joint husband. Leah gets pregnant again and has Issachar and later Zebulun. After that she has Dinah.

Rachel is jealous of her older sister. As the sisters compete for Jacob’s attention, they introduce their handmaids into the marriage bed. Both maids produce two sons for Jacob.

After all this, Rachel has Joseph, and much later she dies giving birth to Benjamin. At last, it seems, Leah will not need to compete with her sister for Jacob’s attention. But the reminder of Rachel forever looms, with Jacob showing favoritism to Rachel’s sons, Joseph and Benjamin, over Leah’s.

Leah is pawned off by her father to marry a man who doesn’t want her, but God cares for her, blessing her with many children and a long life.

Family relationships are sometimes unfair and can cause hurt. Do we work to make things easier for our family or more difficult?

[Discover more about Leah in Genesis 29–30, Genesis 35:16–19, Genesis 37:3, and Genesis 42:4.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Bible People: Dinah

Dinah

Dinah is the only daughter of Jacob and Leah. She is born after Zebulun, son #10, and before Joseph, son #11. Tragically, Shechem, a Hivite prince, rapes her. After his act of lust, he falls in love with her, offering whatever dowry her family asks. He demands his father make this happen.

Jacob fails to respond to his daughter’s rape. We don’t know if he’s afraid or waiting for his sons to help avenge her dishonor. Regardless, Dinah’s brothers are outraged when they hear what happened and immediately come home.

While her father fails to act, two of Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, do. They retaliate without Jacob’s knowledge. After killing Shechem and all the men of the village, they liberate their sister and leave. Was this revenge, a rescue, or both?

When her other brothers see that everyone in the town is dead, they plunder it. 

Although Jacob criticizes Simeon and Levi for their excessive reaction and the subsequent risk to the entire family—should neighboring towns take revenge—they feel justified in avenging their sister’s rape, despite the risk of retaliation.

After her rescue, we hear nothing more about Dinah. The end to her story is for us to ponder. Though we know what happens to Dinah and what happens because of her, we know nothing about what she says, does, or thinks. Though she’s the center of action in this story, she plays a minor role.

When we encounter injustice, how do we respond? Overreacting may be as bad as not reacting at all. 

[Discover more about Dinah in Genesis 34.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Bible People: Tamar (1)

Tamar.

Tamar’s a victim who takes extreme action to vindicate herself. She’s the daughter-in-law of Judah, suffers at his hand, responds with guile, and has twins with him. Talk about a messed-up situation. But she’s also one of four women mentioned in Jesus’s family tree. Here’s her story:

Tamar marries Judah’s oldest son. He’s evil, and God kills him. As is the custom of the day, she’s passed on to his brother, her brother-in-law, so she can have kids through him.

In this way he will produce children in his dead brother’s place and perpetuate his brother’s line as a surrogate husband. But the brother doesn’t cooperate and with selfish intent refuses to impregnate her.

This displeases God, and he kills the second brother too. As customary, Judah promises Tamar his third son when he’s old enough and sends her back to her parents to wait. But Judah has no intention of following through, for he fears this son may die too. 

Once Tamar realizes Judah will not do as he promised, she disguises herself as a prostitute. She waits where she knows Judah will pass. Not realizing who she is, he solicits her, leaving his seal and its cord, along with his staff as his pledge of payment. Tamar gets pregnant. 

When Judah sends a friend to pay the prostitute and reclaim his pledge, the friend can’t find her and no one in the area knows of a prostitute working there. Judah doesn’t pursue the matter further.

Three months later Judah learns his daughter-in-law is expecting a child conceived out of wedlock, from an act of prostitution. With self-righteous indignation, he condemns her to die.

Then she reveals he’s the father and offers proof, by showing his seal, cord, and staff. Judah confesses his role, and he declares Tamar as more righteous than he. 

Tamar has twins: Perez and Zerah. Judah, Tamar, and Perez are all ancestors of Jesus, and Matthew lists her in the genealogy of Jesus, one of only four women so honored.

Judah does Tamar wrong, first for promising his third son to her and not following through, then for using her as a prostitute, and last for condemning her to die.

Yet Tamar also does wrong, posing as a harlot and soliciting her father-in-law to trap him. Nevertheless, Tamar’s drastic steps ensure she has a family to care for her when she gets old. And God ensures she has a legacy.

Do two wrongs make a right? When we are wronged, may we have the wisdom to know the right answer.

[Discover more about Tamar in Genesis 38:6–30, Ruth 4:12, and Matthew 1:3.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: The Wife of Potiphar

The Wife of Potiphar

Through a series of events outside of his control, Joseph becomes a slave owned by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, who is captain of the guard.

Joseph proves himself to the captain, who eventually puts his entire estate under his slave’s care. Potiphar’s household prospers because of Joseph’s diligent work.

Joseph’s a good-looking guy, and Potiphar’s wife notices. We don’t know if her husband ignores her, if she’s bored, or if she’s simply promiscuous, but she pursues Joseph. She tries to seduce him.

He resists. He explains why he won’t sleep with her, but she ignores his words, focusing only on her desire for his body.

This goes on day after day. 

Joseph does his best to stay away from her. But one day as he goes about his work, she realizes no one else is around. She becomes aggressive, grabbing him and drawing him toward her.

He pulls away, leaving his jacket in her hands as he flees.

Failing to satisfy her desires, her lust turns to revenge. She calls in her servants, spinning lies about Joseph, of how he went after her, of how she screamed for help, and of how he fled. She holds up his jacket as proof.

When Potiphar gets home, she repeats her lies to him. In a rage, he throws Joseph in prison, where he languishes for years.

Potiphar’s wife is an unfaithful spouse and an immoral woman who makes no effort to control her sexual desires. And when she can’t seduce Joseph or even force him to sleep with her, she uses her position to destroy him.

How far are we willing to go to get what we want, even when it’s wrong? How low will we stoop to hurt those who get in our way? 

[Discover more about Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39:1–20.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Asenath

Asenath

Pharaoh later gives Joseph a wife. Her name is Asenath, and she is the daughter of the priest Potiphera. This is likely a strategic move, in hopes that Asenath will influence Joseph to accept Egyptian ways and beliefs. In this way, the king uses her as his pawn.

He expects her to influence her husband for her country. She has no say in his plan. 

Though we know Joseph is attractive and powerful, he’s also an outsider, not even allowed to eat at the same table as the Egyptians. Asenath is forced to marry a foreigner.

There is no hint of love or affection between the two. Though this could be a good life for her, it’s surely not the life she wanted.

Asenath and Joseph have two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The descendants of each boy become tribes of Israel and receive an allotment of territory in the Promised Land.

We know nothing else of the relationship between Asenath and Joseph. We don’t know if he influences her to embrace God or not, but in looking at the life of Joseph, we see no hint that she distracts him from his faith or causes him to embrace her people’s way of life.

When others try to use us, do we become their pawn or make our own path?

[Discover more about Asenath in Genesis 41:45, 50 and Genesis 46:20.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Biblical People

Biblical People: Shiphrah and Puah

Shiphrah and Puah

Shiphrah and Puah are Hebrew midwives at the time when the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt. Fearing their slaves’ mounting numbers, the king of Egypt tells Shiphrah and Puah to kill all the baby Israelite boys as they are being born.

But they fear God more than Egypt’s pharaoh, so they disregard the king’s order.

God honors them for their integrity and rewards them with their own families. Sometimes doing the right thing means disobeying human authority and manmade laws.

God may honor us as a result, but we could also suffer the consequences for our actions. 

Regardless of the outcome, are we willing to do what is right?

[Discover more about Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus 1:15–21.]

Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.