Image Equals (Lent 8, 2023)

Adam and Eve bear God’s Image equally. Jesus may have been male while He clothed Himself with humanity, but it doesn’t mean God is male or that Eve was just an add-on…or like Prince Harry, “Spare.” Or like her existence was only to take over if Adam dies and God needed someone to keep calm and carry on.

No, Adam and Eve are the purest of equals. She is his most (and only) suitable helper.

Genesis 2:20 But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

Focus for Lent: Repent of viewing men as toxic abusers and women as high-maintenance narcissists.

Questions for further thought:

Earlier in Genesis 2, God created the animals and had an “animal parade” in front of Adam who named them all. Immediately after that, it says that for Adam, no suitable helper was found. Did God really think an animal was going to satisfy that Image relationship (nope) or did the parade serve a purpose for Adam? What purpose might that be?

The Church has long been accused of being misogynistic. There is such a focus on male leadership that there is little room for women to serve outside of the marriage or a women’s/children’s ministry. How does that diminish the equality of Image-bearing, perfect complements even in ministry settings? Does this philosophy abide in our perfect Created state or is it grounded in our sin nature?

Worse, how does it drive desperate women to seek refuge in places that look like a church on the outside but deny the truth of God on the inside? Is it any wonder that so many wayward churches have women at the helm or hang flags that are offensive to God?

Prayer:

Oh Lord, this issue of male and female equality of Image-bearing as an intrinsic part of humanity and Your design for the one flesh of marriage, Oh Lord, how it has been corrupted. It’s just heartbreaking! Forgive us Lord, for all the ways that we diminish the Image-bearing of men and women (equal at Creation!) resulting in our giving the world such a warped view of who You are and how You created us to be. Lord, it is sin at its core that causes us to cast aside Your perfect plan for humanity, particularly in the sexual realm. Is it any wonder there are so many gender-confused people in this world when we haven’t been teaching the truth? Forgive us. Lord. We fall on Your mercy and ask that You would help us to communicate Your Gospel, Your original design for men and women, and to do so in such a way that we bring healing and hope back into this world. We know You destroyed the earth once, and Sodom and Gomorrah over issues not so unlike this. We fall on Your mercy Lord; we plead for Your grace; we ask for Your wisdom, and for You to grant courage for us to speak boldly in a culture that does not want to hear it. We do this for your glory, Lord. Amen.

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Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.