Women have always been worthwhile to God and their service fulfilled His purpose. We sometimes get caught up in the familiar of only men being able to serve the living God as it is played out in the traditional churches. We must not use that as an excuse to sit back and do nothing but allow the Lord to show us through studying the Bible that He did in fact employ women to be utilized in promoting the kingdom of God here on earth. First of all He has used a woman to bring forth His word according to His timing and to nurture the Christ in the ways of being fully human.
In the Old Testament we saw Sarah being used to begin the nation of Israelites and Esther saving the same nation later on. Deborah was not only a wife but a prophetess and a judge. She was a warrior leading a group of men to victory in the book of Judges “Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment. She said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman." [1] That woman would not be Deborah but another woman, Jael.
Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid." And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him. He said to her, "Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, `Is there anyone here?' that you shall say, `No.' " But Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking." And he entered with her, and behold Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple. [2]
What about Tamar, Ruth and Naomi? And Abigail? God used all of them in a special way. Take the time to read about them in the Old Testament. As we look into the New Testament specifically the book written by Luke, we learn He was not a Jew but a Gentile, a doctor and a historian of sorts. He included more details than any other writer regarding the devotion the women of that day had to Jesus. Just as their male peers, the women had a purpose and a plan from the Father to further His kingdom. My goal today is not to downplay the role of the dedicated men or to exalt the role of the devoted women but to show the women of today, that we can look at the lives exemplified in the Bible and know without a doubt that the Lord Almighty does not want us to take a backseat and do nothing. We are to stand up, be accounted for, prepare for the battle and engage in the war against evil. The battle does belong to the Lord, and Jesus already has the victory but we must stir up the troops and be ready to be used in anyway the Lord sees fit. So let us walk together through the book of Luke and open our hearts to the lessons we can learn.
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