Mushu: Huh? I’m sorry, did you say something?
Mulan: Mushu!
Mushu: Hey, you’re a girl again. Remember?
Mulan
(1998)
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| I assume the one in the middle is supposed to be Mary, whom I won’t be mentioning in this post, chiefly because she cannot really be plausibly described as ‘underappreciated’. Not sure who the other two are, but presumably Biblical women of some description. |
1) Leah
Perhaps a surprise to kick off
with – surely Leah’s story is a fairly well-known one? Jacob rocks up at his Uncle
Laban’s house and offers to work for him for seven years in exchange for his
daughter Rachel in marriage. Laban then tricks him into marrying his other
daughter, Leah, instead,2 and charges him another seven years’ work
for Rachel. The only information we really get about Leah up to that point is
that she had ‘weak eyes’, which is an idiom for general unattractiveness rather
than myopia or anything like that.
But take a look at the end of
the chapter:
When the Lord saw that Leah was
hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a
son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has looked
upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” She conceived again and bore
a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me
this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. Again she conceived and bore a
son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have
borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived
again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore
she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.3
Leah was desperate for her husband to love her and he just didn’t; he was, rather, devoted to his other wife, her own younger sister. It must have been absolutely miserable for her. Still, I think it would be wrong to take that first sentence of the section I quoted above to mean that Leah’s fertility was somehow divine compensation for that misery. Rather, I would see it as God’s way of working things out for his glory in that particular situation.
Leah was desperate for her husband to love her and he just didn’t; he was, rather, devoted to his other wife, her own younger sister. It must have been absolutely miserable for her. Still, I think it would be wrong to take that first sentence of the section I quoted above to mean that Leah’s fertility was somehow divine compensation for that misery. Rather, I would see it as God’s way of working things out for his glory in that particular situation.
Leah’s reaction to the birth of
each of her first three sons was a hope that now at last Jacob might feel
favourable towards her – but it’s apparent enough that nothing changed. Still,
somehow, through all that, Leah learned something: her husband’s good opinion
of her was not the most important thing she could pursue, nor the way in which
she was defined. Her relationship with God was independent of her marital
relationship; God loved her regardless of whether she had weak eyes or was spurned
by her husband, and was likewise to be praised regardless. And so when her
fourth child was born, she simply praised.
Praise God that he cares for
people whom other people reject and teaches them the truth of his glory.
2) Shiphrah
and Puah
Welcome to Call the Midwife BC.
The people of Israel are being ruthlessly enslaved in Egypt and Pharoah has
just told Israelite midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill all the baby boys they
help bring into the world. This guy is a brutal dictator and the highest
authority in the country; disobeying him would surely amount to suicide. Yet
Shiphrah and Puah serve a greater authority: “The midwives feared God and did
not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.”
Somehow Pharoah buys their lame
excuse about Hebrew women being rather more robust than Egyptian ones and
finishing giving birth before the midwives arrive (probably, I playfully
suggest, because he’s squeamish about asking for further details) and the midwives
get away with it. It’s a decision God firmly blesses: “So God dealt well with
the midwives … and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.”4
More than that, however, this act of civil disobedience, by women simply
doing their everyday jobs in a determinedly God-honouring way, preserves the life
of one particular infant through whom God’s going to do a few noteworthy things
later on; anyone heard of a guy called Moses?
 |
| Uh-huh. That guy. Here represented as awfully shiny, so we must be in Exodus 34 with this being the second set of stone tablets. |
Praise God that he blesses
right choices made out of fear for him, and that he orchestrates his grand
plans not without, but rather through, concern for individual lives.
3) Mahlah,
Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah
Before you ask, no, not Noah as
in ‘’s Ark’, who was most certainly a man, and whose name is spelt differently
in the Hebrew anyway (Noach rather than No’āh as we have here).
These were the five daughters of a chap named Zelophehad, one of the generation
of Israelites who died during the forty years of wandering in the desert after
the escape from Egypt. Since he had no son, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and
Tirzah found themselves about to be excluded from any share of his inheritance –
about which, understandably, they were pretty miffed. So, faced with this
injustice, they took their case to the top: “They stood before Moses and before
Eleazar the priest and before the chiefs and all the congregation … Moses
brought their case before the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘The daughters
of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among
their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them.
And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, “If a man dies and has no
son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.”’”5
Praise God that he is just and vindicates those who stand up for justice.
Praise God that he is just and vindicates those who stand up for justice.
4) Jael
You may recall that I mentioned
Deborah among the classic examples of ‘strong’ Biblical women I offered in last
week’s post. Jael shows up in the same chapters, although she probably doesn’t
get as much attention in the Sunday-school version of things, since her actions
aren’t exactly U-rated.
The story goes thus: enemy army
commander Sisera has been defeated in battle by an Israelite called Barak and
is on the run. He heads for Jael’s place, since her husband is a friend of his;
she comes to meet him, and provides him with a drink of milk and a place to
sleep. Then, while he’s sleeping, she grabs a tent peg and a mallet, and goes
and hammers the peg straight through the side of his head. When Barak shows up
in pursuit of Sisera, presumably ready for some single-combat heroics, Jael
points him to the bloke he’s looking for, already dead in her tent, with a peg
in his brain.
As a result of Israel’s victory
that day, they were able to press hard against their Canaanite enemies and
ultimately defeat them, resulting in forty years of peace. Jael gets a great
little encomium in Deborah and Barak’s celebratory song:
Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
He asked water and she gave him milk;
she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.
She sent her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera;
she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.
Between her feet
he sank, he fell, he lay still;
between her feet
he sank, he fell;
where he sank,
there he fell – dead.6
It’s one of those bits of the Old Testament at which I have a tendency to squirm awkwardly, because the whole smashing-tent-pegs-through-people’s-skulls thing doesn’t sit particularly comfortably with my nice, fluffy, cuddly view of God.7 Moral dubiousness is, to be fair, generally rife in the book of Judges. Still, especially worth noting here, I think, is the downright unexpectedness of the outcome: the enemy commander was not killed in the field of battle by a man with a sword, but in bed by a woman with a tent peg.
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
He asked water and she gave him milk;
she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.
She sent her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera;
she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.
Between her feet
he sank, he fell, he lay still;
between her feet
he sank, he fell;
where he sank,
there he fell – dead.6
It’s one of those bits of the Old Testament at which I have a tendency to squirm awkwardly, because the whole smashing-tent-pegs-through-people’s-skulls thing doesn’t sit particularly comfortably with my nice, fluffy, cuddly view of God.7 Moral dubiousness is, to be fair, generally rife in the book of Judges. Still, especially worth noting here, I think, is the downright unexpectedness of the outcome: the enemy commander was not killed in the field of battle by a man with a sword, but in bed by a woman with a tent peg.
 |
| Yeuch. What a way to go. (The tomato being, of course, loosely symbolic.) Thanks to Boaz Yiftach at freedigitalphotos.net. |
Praise God that he confounds
our expectations.
5) Abigail
Here’s another woman stuck in
an unfortunate marriage. Her husband Nabal (it literally means ‘fool’) decided
to be impolite and ungenerous to a bunch of guys who came to him from David (this was some time before he was anointed as king) even though Nabal was a rich man and some
of his workers had been well treated by David in the past. David was seriously
irked by this slight and, having told his men to arm themselves, went after
Nabal. Fortunately, one of Nabal’s workers let Abigail know what was going on;
she promptly got a whole load of food together and headed off to intercept
David. The speech she made to him perhaps comes across as somewhat
over-flattering, but the point is sound: don’t bother with killing Nabal,
because it’s not your job to take vengeance for yourself; God will deal with
your enemies according to his promises.
David was accordingly placated: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand! For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.”8 Abigail’s God-given quick thinking, humility, and eloquence saved a whole lot of lives, and reminded David of some important truths.
Praise God that he places people around us to remind us of what it means and looks like to live for him.
6) Huldah
David was accordingly placated: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand! For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.”8 Abigail’s God-given quick thinking, humility, and eloquence saved a whole lot of lives, and reminded David of some important truths.
Praise God that he places people around us to remind us of what it means and looks like to live for him.
6) Huldah
Here’s a question: as a king of
Judah having just rediscovered the book of the Law and been exceedingly convicted
by what it says, whom should one consult for advice on the matter?
Gold star for whoever suggested
a prophet.9 That’s the situation King Josiah found himself in after
his high priest Hilkiah found the book of the Law in God’s Temple, which was in
the process of being restored. So he sent a bunch of guys to the prophetess
Huldah, who offered a prophecy accordingly.10
What I really want to draw attention to here is that this all happened during the active ministry of such big-name prophets as Jeremiah and Zephaniah,11 and yet Huldah was the first-choice option for Josiah’s subordinates. Just because someone doesn’t have a book of the Bible named after her or him, it doesn’t mean God wasn’t working through that person. I’d consider it a certainty that there were countless individuals through whom God worked during the periods covered by Biblical history who don’t get so much as a passing mention in a genealogy. Huldah evidently wasn’t called to write a portion of scripture; that didn’t make her any less of a prophet.
Praise God that he bypasses the flawed categories of success that the world teaches us, and works through all sorts of people in all sorts of ways.
What I really want to draw attention to here is that this all happened during the active ministry of such big-name prophets as Jeremiah and Zephaniah,11 and yet Huldah was the first-choice option for Josiah’s subordinates. Just because someone doesn’t have a book of the Bible named after her or him, it doesn’t mean God wasn’t working through that person. I’d consider it a certainty that there were countless individuals through whom God worked during the periods covered by Biblical history who don’t get so much as a passing mention in a genealogy. Huldah evidently wasn’t called to write a portion of scripture; that didn’t make her any less of a prophet.
Praise God that he bypasses the flawed categories of success that the world teaches us, and works through all sorts of people in all sorts of ways.
7) Martha
This may, once again, be a
surprise inclusion in the list, since Martha is a pretty well-known character.
However, the context in which she is usually referenced is that story in Luke’s
gospel where she’s rushing round like a headless chicken trying to get a load
of chores done, while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to him. “Martha,
Martha,” Jesus says to her, “you are anxious and troubled about many things,
but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be
taken away from her.”12
And so we shake our heads at Martha’s worldliness – which is a surprisingly easy thing to do with a whacking great log in your eye13 – and move on. But take a look at what’s recorded about her in John’s gospel, when Jesus comes to see her following the death of her brother Lazarus:
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”14
So yes, Martha got her priorities wrong sometimes. She could be distracted and reluctant.15 But she believed. She heard what Jesus told her and took it to heart. Even in her deepest grief, even when it was unclear to her why Jesus hadn’t done things differently, she believed.
And so we shake our heads at Martha’s worldliness – which is a surprisingly easy thing to do with a whacking great log in your eye13 – and move on. But take a look at what’s recorded about her in John’s gospel, when Jesus comes to see her following the death of her brother Lazarus:
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”14
So yes, Martha got her priorities wrong sometimes. She could be distracted and reluctant.15 But she believed. She heard what Jesus told her and took it to heart. Even in her deepest grief, even when it was unclear to her why Jesus hadn’t done things differently, she believed.
Praise God that he allows us to
do the same – and offers us his very self and Son, the resurrection and the
life, the one through whom we might never die, when we do.
Footnotes
1 If you’d like to have a look
at last week’s post, there’s a link in the box on the right.
2 This is hilarious for two
reasons: first, Jacob was the world champion of deceiving himself, and second,
he only noticed that it was Leah the morning after he’d already slept with her.
Exactly how extraordinarily drunk was he?
3 It’s all in Genesis 29: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+29&version=ESVUK.
Go on, if you don’t check it, how do you know I’m not just making it up?
4 See Exodus 1: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+1&version=ESVUK.
5 The story is found in Numbers
27, which probably explains why more people aren’t familiar with it: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+27&version=ESVUK.
6 Judges 4 for the story and 5
for the poetry: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+4-5&version=ESVUK.
7 Krish Kandiah is quite good on
this topic in Paradoxology: “The existence of evil in the world is at
one and the same time – paradoxically, if you like – a sign of the mercy of
God. He is withholding his judgement from the earth, giving every last chance
for people to seek him. But God’s patience does have a limit to its elasticity.
He will ultimately show himself as a God who is just … When bad things happen,
we want to know where God is and why he won’t intervene. When he does intervene
we question his right to execute judgement … His patience is meaningless
without his eventual judgement; his judgement is merciless without his extreme
patience … In fact, the very inclusion in the Bible of these stories [here
referring to the book of Joshua, but equally applicable to all uncomfortably
judgement-y stories], challenging as it is, may be a mercy in itself – like a
warning shot across the bows to help remind a straying ship that God’s patience
is long, but it will not last for ever.” Kandiah, Krish, Paradoxology,
London: Hodder & Stoughton (2014).
8 See 1 Samuel 25 for the whole
story: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+25&version=ESVUK.
9 One of the very few occasions
when the answer isn’t Jesus, as goes the Sunday-school cliché.
10 1 Kings 22 or 2 Chronicles 34
both tell the story very similarly. Here’s the Kings, because why not: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings+22:14&version=ESVUK.
11 “The words of Jeremiah, the
son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of
Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of
Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.” Jeremiah 1:1-2.
Similarly, “The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son
of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son
of Amon, king of Judah.” Zephaniah 1:1.
12 It comes at the end of Luke
10: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10&version=ESVUK.
13 Yes, that is a reference to
something, in case you thought I was just being extremely odd (and who, after
all, could blame you? It wouldn’t be the first time). Matthew 7 and Luke 6 are
equally good sources, but I’ll arbitrarily supply the Matthew: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7&version=ESVUK.
14 John 11. Go. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+11&version=ESVUK.
15 I say ‘reluctant’ based on her
comment about the odour a few verses after the section I quoted, proving, among
countless other examples, that it’s by no means a case that once one has
confessed faith, one is going to be unquestionably obedient all the time.
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