Day 129: Amazing Biblical Women, Part 1

May 9

Today's Connected Passages: 

• Numbers 27:1-10, 36:1-13 
• Judges 4:1-5:31 
• Esther 1:13-2:18, 4:1-17 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Canon Connected, where we read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections of the Bible. It's day one hundred and twenty-nine of the Canon Connected, and since I'm not going to be on here tomorrow, which is according to the plan, actual Mother's Day, I'll say Happy Mother's Day, Happy Mother's Day weekend to you. And as I learned from being a part of you know great churches in my life, I think it's important on weekends like this to not just limit the celebration to mothers, even though if you know if people do celebrate motherhood, I think that's appropriate. For us here at the Canon Connected, though, we're using this weekend as a way to highlight women in general. And again, I think this is something that should be done, you know, year-round. I don't think it needs to be confined just to a day or a couple of days. But um, we understand some some people may not have their mother, or some people cannot be mothers, and there's all sorts of things, you know, that you have to think about, I think, um, on whenever we talk about subjects like this. So I think I find it quite appropriate, you know, just to look at strong women in the Bible with our Bible reading plan today, and not just motherhood necessarily, although that does come out in some of these stories, of course. So this will be a little bit different in that we have two days of readings today and tomorrow. You're only doing half of them today, but I'm gonna discuss today and tomorrow, because again, tomorrow is I'm as I mentioned yesterday. Tomorrow I do, we we are going to have, you know, Kayla and a special guest, pastor's wife, uh here and Sessor, um, sit down and talk about women in the Bible from a wall from women's perspective and women leader, you know, women women leaders' perspective. And uh so I'll cover all of the readings for the next two days today. Some of them you won't get to today, unless you just choose to read the today and tomorrow today. But I want to just make some brief comments about them because the connections are pretty simple, okay? We don't we we don't need to, you know, d dive too deep to understand the actual connections, and that's the overall point of this. So um the first women that I wanted you to see in the connected readings, and just in the idea of strong women, women who are courageous, women who were God fearing, women who did things that um absolutely were not safe, all right, and they were not timid, um, was Zelopiad's daughters. And I may named them yesterday, I'll name them again because they they deserve to be named. Amala, Noah, Hoglah, Milka, and Tirzai. And what you read in Numbers 27 is truly fascinating, and it is absolutely an example of courage because they could have been afraid, they should have been afraid perhaps to talk to Moses and Eliezer. I mean, these were the these were the big in-charge men, you know, these were the ones that God had called, you know, and called them by name and family to do what they did. And yet they saw a need for justice. They saw an injustice with their father being dead and having no brothers for the land to come to them. And why should you even read it? Why shouldn't it come to us? That that is not selfish, okay. I think that was a true issue of justice. And sometimes, in order to stand up for your family or maybe even yourself, you do have to do things like this, but especially when you're not talking about something that is egotistical or or primarily selfish. But this was about their their whole family and their family's name. So I think what they do is correct. And we get confirmation from that by the fact that God honors their request. Isn't that amazing? God speaks directly to Moses and Eliezer, and he says, they're right. And I love this about about these about these daughters, these women, because they they stood their ground. Um and that that happens sometimes. It's not always selfish to do so. Um sometimes the more selfish thing is to be afraid and not say anything, because you don't want to rock the boat, and you just allow yourself um to be the continual victim of injustice because you have some you know you know misappropriated sense of of of forgiveness or or whatever, you know. Um but Lopi had daughters give us an example of here what it means to be a strong Christian and specific more specifically a strong woman. Deborah and JL. I mean, this is this is awesome. I mean, this is some Joan of Arc stuff here. What they did, I mean, just as women of of truly war, okay, and skill, especially JL. Um I one of the things that always comes to my mind about JL is that years ago I did a a March Madness tournament, meaning I had my friends on Facebook, you know, boat in brackets and stuff. I still do that. But the topic was if you could read a 900-page autobiography from any woman in the Bible, who would you choose? And I picked 16 women, and I didn't pick JL. One of my friends named Daniel, I won't give his last name, but he knows who he is. He uh he made a lot of jokes on Facebook about JL, and he even voted between me and JL about who was cooler, you know, almost as if to say, how dare you leave her out, you know. But she is amazing, all jokes aside. Um, and this again, that there will some women definitely should be this way. They should be skilled, you know, in things like this, even in combat and with weapons and tools. Um, I think that that's that's normal. Even in the Bible, it was. Um, that doesn't need to be something we just consider masculine. And we even see in Deborah's case, especially, I mean, she had to really fill in a gap because of Barak's fear, you know, and she she had to she had to step up, and she was not just the judge of the time, but she she literally went into battle because she was not afraid. Esther, of course, is obvious. Still read part of her story, but I love how she's confused, okay? She's and she's surely young at this time, and yet through Mordecai's you know, advice and example, she she steps up and says, If I die, I die. You know, I'm going to the king. I'm gonna save my people, I'm gonna do what I have what needs to be done. And if I die, I die. Isn't that courage? Isn't that something to be emulated, man and woman? Hannah, I love, because again, she does come across as more meek or timid or whatever you want to say. I mean, she's obviously been through a tragedy and waiting for her first son. She's been, you know, she's we've talked about her when we talked about lamenting. She's cried out to God. She's just had the most emotional and spiritual, soul-crushing struggles. And yet, in in 1 Samuel 2, she gives, you know, this song to God, and it is so beautiful and it's so wise. It's obviously inspired by God. It's why it's in our Bible. But she was a strong woman in her own right as well. And she was strong for waiting the way that she did, even though she did, you know, cry out to God with anxiety or whatever. I mean, she she was strong in God, in the spirit of God, she was strong, I think we can say. And Mary the mother of Jesus, it's easy for us to see her as you know, meek and and young and timid and and confused and all. But when she does her magnificant, she talks about things that are issues of justice, you know, filling the stomachs of the hungry. I mean, she understands who God is from that magnificant that we read, that we're going to read. Um, she absolutely was a strong young woman in her own right in the sense of understanding who God is and being able to express it and being able to sing about it. Um, she and she may have been confused about, you know, the stuff at first about Jesus and overwhelmed and she had to treasure up these things and art and all that, but she was crystal clear on the nature of our God. I think that comes out, you know, in those 11 verses strongly. What about the women who traveled with Jesus and supported them, financial supported him financially? Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, that's Luke 8, 1 through 3. They did that. They were, they were, again, close to Jesus, not the inner circle like Peter and James and John, but they were about as close as you could be, other than that. I mean, they they did, I'm sure a lot of what the apostles did, not everything, but they they absolutely had close proximity and were, you know, had they had deep friendship with Jesus. I mean, they were like family to him, I'm sure. And Jesus even made that point one time. Those who follow me are family because his brothers were rejecting him. Um they were like Jesus' sisters. I think it's okay to say that biblically. He said it. And then Lydia and the other unnamed women gathered to pray in Acts 16. Obviously, they were the ones who were who were there praying, and that's probably been true in some of the churches of the people that are listening to this, you know, where you gather people to pray, and often the women dominate. Um that's that's often two men's shame, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate the fact that again in this story and many other stories many of us may know, the women were the backbone of the prayer movement. That's what we see in Acts 16. And then Lydia gets saved, and we see here at the end of the chapter, Paul goes to her house. I mean, how often do you see women hosting, you know, in in the Bible? Um and sharing their homes with people. And then, of course, in Timothy's family, Lois and Eunice, they are again women of faith, women of faithfulness, to be emulated, to be to be talked about, to brag on, to honor as much as we possibly can. And so there could have been many others. Again, I'm trying to keep the readings uh at 120 verses or less. I don't always achieve that, but we could have talked about others, but those were the ones we'll read about today and tomorrow, and I fully encourage you to talk about even maybe some of the ones we missed when you talk with other Christians these next couple of days, whether at church or whatever, and just you know, celebrate and honor the women of the Bible and even further. I know many of you, perhaps even all of my audience, at church tomorrow, if you're reading this, you know, on the correct day, or on not the correct day, but the original day, according to the plan day. Um, you're gonna honor women in your in your service tomorrow. Well, you know, and while we're doing that, even after the service is over, continue just to talk about, you know, women in the Bible and how they teach us about our God and how they teach us about faithfulness and courage. Oh, courage. The women, so many women in my life and so many women in these stories have been far more courageous than me in so many cases in my life. And so they convict me for sure. So, tomorrow again is a very special episode. Conversation between two women on Mother's Day, two Christian leaders. Uh, my wife's not technically pastors wifing right now, but she has been, and she's uh you know, she's a teacher and a leader in her school. She's she's just a lot like these women we're we read about today and we'll read about tomorrow. And so I thought she was appropriate, and so she's having a special guest. Come on and talk with her, and uh and I really look forward to it. It'll be very unique and I expect it to be a very well-received episode. So come back and be not necessarily with me, but with quote unquote us tomorrow as we continue to read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections on Mother's Day. Thank you.