I've had a number of people over the years
ask me about women in the bible.
"Isn't the bible misogynistic?"
"Doesn't God hate women?" they ask.
All these people are quick to dismiss the bible
as worthless and useless
because they have these kinds of assumptions.
A careful look at the Bible, though, 9 00:00:20,587 --> 00:00:22,522 will tell us just the opposite.
How much God treasures and cares for
this special creation called "woman."
And so what better place to start,
as we're going to talk about great women of the bible,
than the place God started:
in the beginning,
with the first woman, Eve.
A careful reading of that first book
of the bible, Genesis,
shows us how God views women.
First of all, we take note
that God specially created woman
declaring that it wasn't good for man to be alone -
thank you God for that -
and so he designed a different sex:
female,
to complement and complete male,
biologically, emotionally,
physically and spiritually.
Also, we note that God told male and female
to be fruitful and and to multiply.
And God gave the special privilege
to woman alone to carry children.
Thank you, God, for that also.
He probably knew that we men would be sissies
when it came to childbirth.
And also with that blessing
of carrying a child,
there's that innate,
special relationship that only mothers know.
Eve was the first
for all of this.
We also know
that Eve, of course, was the first to
encounter Satan
and be tempted
and to fall into sin.
But think about how much
God treasures his delicate creature,
woman.
Who did God go and talk to first?
Actually he went to Adam first and said,
"What have YOU done?"
And later in the bible it says,
Sin and death came into this world
through one man.
All the onus of responsibility
fell onto Adam
as failing in his duties.
Well these first two humans sinned
and God came with his gracious promise
of a Savior to crush Satan and,
and to redeem mankind.
And what did Eve, the first woman, do?
She simply believed God's promise.
She had her first son, Cain,
and by the meaning of that name,
it would seem like
Eve believed that this was
the promised Messiah,
that this child was a gift from God.
A simple woman of faith.
Right away from the beginning of the bible,
we see how God views women
as his special creation to complement men.
And we see Eve as this treasure
with her beautiful faith,
trusting in God's promises.
Thank God for women of faith like Eve.
This week we're talking about
great women of the bible.
And yesterday I started with
the first woman, Eve.
Today, I want to talk about
a lesser known woman in scripture,
Rahab.
Now some of you may hear that name and think,
"What?!? Rahab?"
If you don't know, I'll fill you in.
Rahab was a prostitute.
But Rahab's story was really amazing.
Not only was she a prostitute
but she lived in the Canaanite city of Jericho,
which means that likely
at some point in her life,
she probably worshipped the Canaanite moon god
that Jericho was named after.
An adulteress and idolatress
as a great woman of the bible?
Well, let me explain this.
Joshua was the general of Israel.
He was the successor to Moses.
And he sent two spies
to check out Jericho in the promised land.
Well, the spies went to Rahab's house.
Not for business, but,
likely because that was a good hiding place
and a good place to get information about the city.
Well, the king of Jericho found out
about these spies
and came looking for them.
And what did Rahab do with these foreigners?
She protected them.
She hid them. She saved their lives.
And then, in an incredible moment
of newfound faith,
she used the savior, God's name,
Yahweh,
the Lord.
And made these spies promise
that they would spare her
when they came to take this promised land.
And she let them right out the window
of the wall and they escaped.
This was no small thing that Rahab did.
God was using this new believer
to bring his people to the promised land
where the future Savior would be born.
Rahab was acting justly
and ethically and morally right
but she was also acting boldly in faith.
And ever since then,
God has honored her in the bible,
not only with her story being recorded,
but in the great heroes of faith chapter
of the bible in Hebrews,
Rahab is listed as a hero of faith.
James, in the New Testament,
mentions that she's a righteous woman.
Or how about this incredible fact?
Rahab actually married
into the Israelite family of believers
and became the great-great-grandmother
of King David.
Rahab's in the family line
of Jesus our Savior!
Rahab shows us
what a great woman of faith is like.
She's bold
to act justly
and righteously.
She knows her sin
and yet knows her gracious savior, God, too.
Thank God for great women of faith
like Rahab.
Since we're talking about
great women of the bible this week,
we would be remiss
not to mention
Ruth.
The story of Ruth plays out
like a beautiful Hollywood drama.
There's tragedy
and sadness.
A wonderful love story.
Twists and turns and of course,
a very happy ending.
Take time to read
this wonderful book of Ruth.
There's only four chapters.
It will take you ten or fifteen minutes.
Read it for all the special details.
But today I'll give you the summary story.
Well, there was an Israelite woman
named Naomi,
who lived in the time of the judges,
a time in the Old Testament
when everyone did whatever they wanted,
sinfully.
I like to say it's kind of like
living in America today.
Well, there was a famine at this time.
And Naomi had to move to Moab.
But tragedy followed Naomi.
Her husband died.
And both of her sons died.
All she was left with were her two daughters-in-law,
Orpah
and Ruth.
Well, Naomi told them,
"Stay here. Stay in Moab.
"Move on with your life.
"Remarry."
But that's when we meet the virtue
and character of Ruth.
Ruth made this wonderful plea
to stay with her mother-in-law.
Talk about love!
Devoted to her. Devoted to her people.
And, and best of all,
devoted to the true God
that she came to know.
So Ruth and Naomi move back to Israel.
And there she showed her devoted love,
every day again,
gleaning and gathering grain
in the fields.
And one day,
Ruth met the owner of that field,
a dashing, Godly man by the name of Boaz.
And following her mother-in-law's advice,
Naomi
told Ruth to make a,
a modest, loving
humble approach to Boaz.
And sure enough,
Boaz showed love
in return to Ruth
and did everything he could in a good
and Godly way to marry Ruth.
And they lived happily ever after.
The amazing thing about this story
is that Ruth
was an unbeliever, a Moabite,
who came into God's family of believers,
and when she married Boaz,
would become the great-grandmother
of King David -
and like Rahab yesterday,
an ancestress of our Savior, Jesus.
Ruth shows us what it means
to be a great woman of faith.
She was
humble
and modest
and devoted
and loyal
and faithful
and loving.
Thank God for great women of faith
like Ruth.
Every now and then
you run across a person in the Bible
where you can clearly see
if God had not used that person,
his people could have been completely wiped out.
You might think of Noah with the ark.
Joseph, Moses, Joshua.
But a person that comes to my mind right away
is a wonderful woman named
Esther.
Esther lived at the end of Old Testament times
in the land of Babylon, except
at this time,
Persia and historically famous
King Xerxes were in control.
Well, King Xerxes got sick of his wife
and just dumped the queen
like a sack of potatoes.
And so he had this strange tryout
for a new wife and queen.
Kind of like his own version of "Persia's Got Talent"
or something like this.
One of the many women
that tried out for this
was a woman named,
Hadassah.
A beautiful, young orphan girl.
But she wanted to hide her Jewish nationality
so she went by the name,
Esther.
And sure enough,
Xerxes fell for Esther,
both her outer qualities of her looks
and her inner quality and character.
And Esther became the new queen.
Though he didn't know that she was a Jew yet.
God put this to use immediately.
He used Esther and her adopting father, Mordecai,
to expose an assassination plot
on King Xerxes and save his life.
But bigger things yet were still to come.
Later on, in the story of Esther,
there was a Persian
who absolutely hated Mordecai
and all Jews.
And he put together this plot
that was set in motion
to exterminate every Jew
from existence. It was going to be a total Holocaust
before the Holocaust that we know of.
Well, Esther did something that no
person was allowed to do.
She approached the King
without permission.
This was punishable by death.
Even for the queen.
But Esther would not sit back
and just let this happen.
Xerxes loved his dear wife, though
and actually spared her and then God used
her wisdom and creativity
to foil this plot, too.
The Jews were saved.
And more importantly,
God preserved the family line
for our Savior to come
several hundred years in the future.
Esther's actions were so monumentally big
that even still today,
Jews still celebrate this
with the festival called Purim.
Esther shows us what makes a great woman of faith.
She was meek and mild
and yet courageous and fearless
when need be.
She was a woman who trusted her life
into God's hands to do what is right in his sight.
Thank God for great women of faith
like Esther.
This week we're talking about
great women of the Bible.
And how could we have this conversation
without talking about
the most famous of them all,
Mary,
the mother of our Lord.
There is so much
that we could say about Mary.
We could do an entire
'Your Time of Grace' series just on Mary,
and maybe we will someday.
But today,
I want to focus on one thing:
Mary's humble faith.
Can you
possibly imagine
being a young
teenage girl,
a virgin,
having an angel appear out of nowhere,
telling you that God's gracious favor
rests on you
and you're going to be a mother
without a human father.
Oh and by the way,
it's going to be the son of God
and the savior of the world.
No big deal.
Mary, of course,
reacts with these questions
of "What is all this?" and
and "How will this be?"
But as the angel, Gabriel, explains more,
she responds with the most simple and humble faith,
"I am the Lord's servant.
"May it be to me as you have said."
Or how about when Jesus was born?
Or when he was a 12-year-old boy
in the temple?
Twice, we hear in the Bible that
Mary treasured all these things
and pondered them in her heart.
That simple faith that
ponders what God has done.
Or how about after the announcement
of the angel Gabriel?
When she ran off to Elizabeth,
the mother of John the Baptist,
to erupt in this beautiful song
called "The Magnificat."
I just love the opening lines
of this song.
"My soul
glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
in God my Savior."
By the way, that word, "glorifies"
in Latin is
"magnificat."
That's where we get the name of the song.
But isn't it interesting that
Mary knows
even though she's blessed to be the mother of the Lord,
she's not perfect.
She's not holy.
She's a sinner like everyone else.
What does she say?
"I rejoice in God,
my Savior."
Again, humble faith.
Or finally, let's go to the cross,
where Jesus is hanging there,
dying for all our sins
and his mother is watching her son
do what he came to do:
save his people from their sins.
Thank God for women of faith
like Mary who have
simple, humble faith that trusts
and ponders God's promises.
You know this week we've been talking about
great women of the Bible.
We talked about Eve and Rahab
and Esther and Ruth and Mary.
If only we could talk about all the others,
like Miriam the singing sister of Moses. Or,
Deborah the wonder woman general and
judge of the Old Testament. Or,
Mary and Martha, the dear friends of Jesus. Or,
Lydia, the generous, giving new
believer in Philippi.
As we take a close look at scripture,
it is amazing to see how God
specially and specifically designed women
to bring to this world
grace
and class
and care and compassion
and gentleness
and fearlessness.
And so many other qualities.
I'm so thankful for how God designed women
to complement and complete men.
And I'm so thankful for
all the great women of faith.