With the pharaoh out to get him, Moses flees for his life. He marries the shepherdess Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian. They have two sons: Gershom and Eliezer.
Years later when Moses and his family travel to Egypt, God afflicts Moses. This is apparently because Moses has not circumcised his son Gershom, as God commanded the Israelites to do through Abraham.
Just as God is about to kill Moses for his disobedience, Zipporah takes decisive action. She whips out a knife, circumcises Gershom, and touches Moses with the removed foreskin. This appeases God, and he spares Moses.
Zipporah does what her husband did not do, she obeys God’s command, and saves her husband’s life.
Sometimes we must act when others fail to. How can we know when to act and when to wait?
[Discover more about Zipporah in Exodus 2:15–22, Exodus 4:24–26, and Exodus 18:2–6.]
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.
Through no fault of Job, Satan attacks him, wiping away his wealth and killing all his children. Next, Satan afflicts Job’s health, leaving him in agony. The suffering man wishes he were dead, that he’d never been born. All Job has left is his life, four unsupportive friends, and a wife who harasses him. Job may have been better off without her.
As Job struggles to maintain his faith in God and hold on to his righteousness, Job’s wife could choose to support him. She should be encouraging. Instead, she turns on him. She ridicules his integrity and suggests he just curse God so he can die.
Job does not waver. He calls her foolish and does not sin. God spares Job and restores what Satan took from him.
Do we encourage those closest to us when they go through tough times, or do we make things even harder for them?
[Discover more about Job’s wife in Job 1–2 and Job 42, especially Job 2:9–10.]
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.
After Lot and Abraham go their separate ways, Lot eventually moves to the city of Sodom. God is displeased with the great sin of the people who live there, and he plans to destroy the city and its inhabitants. However, two angels go there first to rescue Lot and his family.
The next day, at dawn, the angels drag Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city. As soon as they get out, the angels tell them to run for their lives, to not stop, and to not look back.
As they flee, Lot’s wife can’t help herself. She looks back at what they are leaving behind. When she does, she dies, turning into a pillar of salt.
Jesus mentions Lot’s wife when he talks about the coming kingdom of God. He effectively says, look forward to what will be. Don’t look back at what you’re leaving behind.
Don’t be like Lot’s wife.
When we follow Jesus, do we look ahead to what he offers or long for the old life we left behind?
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.
Lot has a creepy relationship with his daughters. He isn’t a good dad. I feel sorry for his girls.
First, when the inhospitable men of Sodom rush Lot’s house to have sex with the two men (actually angels) staying there, Lot tries to reason with them.
He protects the angels and begs the townsmen not to pursue their wicked desires. As an alternative, he offers them his two virgin daughters to molest. How could a father even think of doing such a despicable thing? Fortunately for the girls, the townsmen aren’t interested.
A loving dad would never consider offering his daughters to satisfy men’s depravity. What did Lot’s daughters think about their father after his cavalier dismissal of their chastity? What did his actions say about his view of their value as females? How could they maintain any self-worth?
Later, we find Lot and his daughters hunkered in a cave, isolated from other people. He’s getting old. There are no men in sight, and the girls’ biological clocks are ticking.
Desperate, they concoct a heinous plan. On successive nights, they get their dad drunk and sleep with him. Both get pregnant and each give birth to a son.
While we can blame the girls for their depravity, I accuse Lot and his bad parenting as the primary offender. He shows his moral failings by offering up his daughters for sex, and they likely form their moral compass from his actions.
Through this he effectively communicates their prime value is for sex. They merely seek to live out what he expects.
True, the girls are not innocent for their actions, but Lot could have produced a different outcome had he been a better father.
What kind of influence do we have on those around us?What must we begin to do differently?
[Discover more about Lot’s two daughters in Genesis 19:4–38.]
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.
The story of Sarah (first called Sarai) is scattered throughout the narrative in Genesis chapters 11 through 23. Not only is she the first wife of Abraham, she is also his half sister. Though this makes us squirm today, at the time, a man marrying his half sister isn’t prohibited.
Sarah, whose name means princess, is most attractive. Abraham worries that would-be suitors will kill him to get her, so he asks her to say she is his sister. He even says this will be an act of love.
She agrees and does so—twice—with other men taking her as their wife. Both times God protects Sarah and works out her return to Abraham, but what torment she must go through when they take her away, and Abraham does nothing to stop them.
Although God repeatedly promises Abraham children, Sarah grows tired of waiting. In her old age she concocts a plan where Abraham can have his promised child through her servant, Hagar. It’s an ill-conceived idea, and Abraham is boneheaded for going along with it. Conflict results.
Later God confirms that Abraham’s chosen child will come from Sarah. She laughs at this improbable promise, and God criticizes her for it. A year later, the child is born when Sarah is ninety and Abraham is one hundred. They name him Isaac, which means laughter or he laughs.
Sarah lives another thirty-seven years and dies at age 127.
With God, all things are possible, even a ninety-year-old woman having a baby or living 127 years.
Do we ever get tired of waiting for God and mess up his plans by doing things our way?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
