To “the beginning!” Where in the Hebrew Bible would you turn to find a good example of marriage? Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Leah/ Rachel/Bilhah/Zilpah, David and Bathsheba, Solomon and his 700? Where should WE look in Scripture to find the ideal marriage?

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

TO FULFIL A SYMBOL! The reason Jesus chose “males” is the same reason he chose “Jews,” and the same reason he chose “twelve”…to represent the New Israel! To fulfil this “type” he could not pick slaves, or women, or Gentiles. No other arrangement would convey the same meaning to his audience. So, Jesus intentionally selected 12 Jewish males to lead on a miracle-filled, wilderness journey of divine healing, mountain-top teaching, and conquering of demonic forces. Generations earlier, God himself had guided the 12 tribes of Israel through 40 years of wandering and miracles. By his choice, Jesus pointed to new Israel, AND he symbolically revealed his own divinity, by placing HIMSELF as the leader of the new Israel, giving new commands, and establishing a new covenant in his own blood!

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

He treated them as valuable and trusted sisters. He loved, cherished, and honored them, which is NORMAL in God’s kingdom, but SHOCKING in Jewish culture. His blood overcame sin, and his resurrection defeated death and the Fallen world, establishing the REDEEMED Family.

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

Every fallen culture has a similar list of poor and broken relationships. You can probably think of many examples in your own life. Every society has drifted far from God’s Ideal Family. Into this sad, depressed, dark, unjust, sinful world... Jesus entered! Praise God! Jesus came and shined out with a new standard, a new honor, a new hope.

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

So much changed at the Fall! Not only did sin enter the world and break people’s fellowship with God, it also fractured the relationship between male and female. With the word t’suqah, God revealed a tendency of females due to the Fall. They would struggle to devote themselves to God - often preferring the smile of a man. To this day all believers must battle to turn eyes, focus, and desires toward God, rather than turning toward the world.

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

In Genesis 3, God described the consequences of a fallen world. Female t’suqah and male mashal were not God’s plan for a harmonious and powerful world-changing family. They indicated the horrendous tragedy that occurred at the Fall— the breakdown of God’s powerful, harmonious, and collaborative team.

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

“First” does not equal “leader.” In Genesis 2, the peak of creation (man) parallels the other peak of creation (woman). Both were created in God’s image, with shared blessings, commands, responsibilities. The first woman came from man; now every man comes from a woman. What a powerful couple created to bless the world! Rather than reading “created first = leader/authority,” into the text, celebrate God’s powerful, mutual design!

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

God intended, by the creation of woman, to make a “strength” or “power” that would “correspond” to the man—equal strengths. Nothing in the text indicates the woman is inferior, weaker, lesser, limited, or in any way carries less authority than the man. God created the man and woman to be powerful counterparts with a worldwide mission!

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

God honored and blessed the first man and woman and gave them both five key commands. In the ideal perfection of sinless creation, we find God’s heart to bless humanity and establish a world reaching mandate that leads to human flourishing.

Consider God’s first words to people in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” God used plural verbs and plural pronouns.

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.

BOTH male and female are made in God’s image. Created by God, men and women are NOT divine. However, God stamps us with the Creator’s imprint. Every human has inherent value - given as a gift from the Creator. We do not earn this value or worth. God doesn’t wait to stamp boys and girls at birth with his image. God’s image is deeply woven into the being of every child - from the moment of conception.

Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ”

To view more content visit the website www.servingshouldertoshoulder.com.
You can also watch the full video version of this podcast.