After the fall Eve is characterized by her children. She is cursed through pain in childbirth. She suffers the tragedy of a child’s death at the hands of another. And we are told she is not forgotten but given another son, Seth. The naming of Seth is the last we hear of Eve. We leave Eve in the joy of motherhood. And we soon find Sarah laughing at the prospect that that joy could be hers.
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Category Archives: Women of the Bible
On Purim, Esther and Providence
I have been enthralled with Esther for some time. A book that does not mention God and yet so clearly portrays His providence, a woman not in her homeland and forced into a harem who became a savior, and one of the first powerful women of the Bible I was ever introduced to. I knew her name before Deborah, Jael, Rahab, and before Mary Magdalene.
But it wasn’t until we were looking down the barrel of deployment that Esther’s story resonated with me. Rather then complain about my circumstances and the year apart I decided to follow the lead of Esther and prepare my heart and my home “for such a time as this.” It became my goal to take a year and prepare for my husbands return, just as Esther prepared for her King Xerxes.
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Rahab’s Story of Prostitution and Redemption
Rahab’s story is found in the book of Joshua. Her blessing is mentioned in Hebrews 11:31 and in the lineage of Christ in Matthew 1:5. In Joshua we discover she was the prostitute who hid two spies on her roof, in Hebrews we discover that her faith saved her, in Matthew we discover her placement in the lineage of Christ.
In ninth grade, I attended a private school and my Bible teacher shared with us that because lying is a sin Rahab should have only spoken truth. He held tight to his claim that Rahab erred in lying. God in His providence would have protected the spies despite what she had told the guards. So often we need things pretty, nice and neat, wrapped up tight in black and white.
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Hagar: The Other Wife
“If the Army wants you to have a wife then they will issue you one.”
I’ve heard this joke more than once and the more I hear it the more it sounds like fact. The Army is not kind to marriages. It’s hard. I have seen this lifestyle break far more homes then I have seen it strengthen. As much as we would like to be, the Army Wife is not the number one priority for a soldier. She cannot be. His mind has to be in the mission, especially during deployments.
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Be the King, Trust No One
As I think on Eve’s story and the offer the serpent made her, my mind shifts to stories I’ve read and shows I’ve watched. This revelation that God is not sharing the whole truth, that He has lied, that what is truly in front of Eve is the ability to be on equal terms with God, to be like Him, and to possess His knowledge is a story we are all to familiar with.
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Following Eve’s Footsteps
From the very beginning of humankind’s existence God looked on us, his creation, and declared us good. He was pleased with what he created, male and female (Genesis 1:27-28).
And from the very beginning we modeled the image of the creator we were fashioned after: creative, curious, authoritative, caregivers, intuitive, and ruling. God gave us a playground of beautiful creatures and bestowed on us the rights to govern them. He created us in his image, the creator of the universe, with all of his love for beauty and a desire to create.
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What does an Army Wife and 10 Virgins have in common?
It’s funny how experience brings to life stories in the Bible that we’ve read but never quite grasped.
Mathew 25:1-13, The Parable of the 10 Virgins and their Lamps, has always been a source of struggle for me. I never quite understood why the bridegroom would refuse them entry. It’s not the overall meaning of being prepared for Christ’s return that I struggled with, it was the details of the parable itself. Really, what’s wrong with being fashionably late to a party?
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