I just finished reading the book of Genesis, and noticed some things that are kind of interesting-or depressing, however you want to look at it.
1. First of all, several of the women in there really get the short straw out of life.
Zilphah and Bilhah, the handmaids of Leah and Rachel-they get caught up in the sisters' petty squabble for Jacob's affection, having to bear his children while Leah and Rachel claim them as their own.
I doubt anyone asked them if they wanted to.
And poor Hagar-she goes to bed with Abraham because Sarah can't have children, and gives birth to Ishmael. Then, when Sarah is able to conceive, and has Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael get kicked out into the wilderness, and even though they survive and Ishmael gets his own line of people, from then on God refers to Isaac as Abraham's only son-it's like even He forgot about Ishmael.
Again, I doubt anyone cared what Hagar wanted.
And this serves as a perfect transition to my second observation.
2. Genesis, or at least the family of Abraham, has a family tradition of the firstborn children getting passed over in favor of the younger ones.
First Ishmael gets replaced by Isaac, and in fact is basically disowned.
Then when Isaac is grown up and marries Rebekah, they have twins Esau and Jacob. Esau, the older is the favorite of his father, but Jacob is Rebekah's favorite, and he steals Esau's birthright and father's blessing.
Rachel is the younger sister, and Jacob loves her more than he does Leah.
Joseph and Benjamin, Jacob's youngest sons, are the ones he seems to love more than the others-possibly because they're the sons of Rachel, his favorite wife.
After the selling-Joseph-into-slavery fiasco, when Jacob is dying he has Joseph bring his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim to his bedside-guess which one he gives a special favor to? That's right: Ephraim, the younger one.
Even many generations later, Moses, the younger brother of Aaron and Miriam, is the one chosen by God to save the Israelites from slavery.
I'm not trying to be blasphemous or disparage the scriptures. I'm just providing some interesting food for thought.
