Once again I’m going to make an effort to start writing / blogging regularly. This post is from a paper I wrote for an Old Testament class at Wycliffe College. The prompt was as follows: Discuss God’s concern for the outsider (the poor, the widow, the orphan, the marginalized, etc.) in Genesis–2 Kings.
Here is Part 1:
The Marginalized or Outsider in Genesis
Section A: The Protohistory (Gen. 1-11)
The theme of the “marginalized” or “outsider” does not at first blush seem evident in the “protohistory” of Gen. 1-11. After the depiction Gen. 1-2 of God’s creation of the universe, the Earth, and humanity, these chapters tell the story of humanity’s persistent, violent rebellion against God. This theme is summarized in Gen. 6:5: “[t]he Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (NIV). But these chapters also tell the story of God’s persistent grace and faithfulness towards the creation and particularly towards sinful humanity. In Gen. 3:21, after Adam and Eve are removed from the Garden, God provides them a covering of skin. In Gen. 4:15, God marks the murderer Cain to protect Cain from vengeance in the land “east of Eden.” In Gen. 6-9, God remembers Noah and, even after the terror of the Flood, renews His covenant with humanity. In Genesis 11:8, God scatters the nations, perhaps in part to protect humanity from its own attempt to overreach human limitations.
In a sense, then, Gen. 1-11 demonstrated the furthest depths of God’s concern for the “marginalized” or “outsider.” These chapters show that we as human beings are “outsiders” from the fellowship of God because of our own willful sin and violence. We have “marginalized” ourselves by trading our status as the crown of God’s creation for the allure of knowledge and power that properly belong only to the God who made us. We deserve exposure, but God provides covering skins; we deserve destruction, but God provides an ark; we deserve to be shattered and toppled but God scatters us into nations in which we can build functioning human societies.
Part B. The Patriarchal Narratives
In the Patriarchal narratives (Gen. 11:27 – 50:26), some of the more poignant examples of God’s concern for the marginalized and outsider are in His provision for “secondary” characters within the narratives. By convention we call these the “patriarchal” narratives, but they are also significantly “matriarchal” stories.
We feel sympathy for Abram that he is old and childless, particularly if we understand the extent to which his culture practiced primogeniture and connected an abundance of children with male success and status. (Gen. 15:2.) But Abram’s culture tended to “blame” the wife for infertility, and provided alternatives such as multiple marriages and concubinage with household servants. Indeed, although Abram believed God would keep his promise to provide Abram with heirs (Gen. 15:6) – a moment celebrated in the New Testament as a paradigmatic act of justifying faith (Romans 4:3) – it seems that Abram did not trust God to provide an heir through his wife, Sarai, and so accepted the invitation to sleep with Sarai’s maid, Hagar. (Gen. 16:1-4.) This marginalized Sarai, who would become the barren, disfavored and shamed wife, except that God also remembered and honored her. (Gen. 17:15.) When God changed Abram and Sarai’s names to “Abraham” and “Sarah,” He showed His concern both for Sarah as a marginalized woman and for all of humanity, male and female. As Eve was called the “mother of all the living” (Gen. 3:20), Sarah was named “the mother of nations.” (Gen. 17:16.) The woman who was barren was made the new Eve, and the womb that was empty became the ark that would carry the seed of “kings of peoples” who would be scattered throughout the earth to build a new peaceable kingdom. (Gen. 17:16.)
There are other instances in the “patriarchal” narratives in which God particularly remembered marginalized women: the provision for Hagar and her son Ishmael (Gen. 21:17); the opening of Leah’s womb when Leah “was not loved” (Gen. 29:31, 30:17); the provision of children to Rachel, despite her scheming (Gen. 30:22); the rescue (though violent!) of Dinah (Gen. 34:1-37); and the provision of offspring (though through nasty deceit!) for Tamar when Onan would not fulfill his duty to his brother’s widow (Gen. 38:1-30). Although some of these examples are “messy,” they illustrate that, even in a cultural setting dominated by powerful men, in narratives that emphasize the faith and failings of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, God remembers and honors women as well.