[Ephraim’s] daughter was Sheerah, who built Lower and Upper Beth Horon as well as Uzzen Sheerah.
1 Chronicles 7:24 (NIV)

One of my favorite classes throughout all of my education was high school World History. We had a great teacher, which I discovered makes all the difference in any history class. As we marched through history through the ages, we explored the same themes in each culture and period including the status of women.

This is the first time that I remember being presented with the realities of how unfairly women have been treated through the ages in cultures around the globe.

As I continued in my life journey, I confess that I discovered that I had to confront my own thoughts and unconscious beliefs about women. I don’t think that it’s any mistake that God surrounded me with strong women and gave me two daughters to raise. There were some deep-seated assumptions about women, both culturally and religiously, that I was forced to confront along the way, and for that I’m grateful. I shared some of these thoughts in my post First Words to My Grandson a few years ago.

As we embarked on these opening nine chapters of genealogy in 1 Chronicles, I mentioned that one of the things I look for when reading the genealogical records of the Great Story are things that stand out in contrast. Among them is the mention of women in what is obviously a patriarchal lineage. There are not one, but two of these in today’s chapter. This is highly unusual.

First the Chronicler goes out of his way to mention a specific member of the tribe of Manasseh in what is essentially a footnote or parenthetical addition. The man mentioned is Zelophehad “who had only daughters.” This reference points back to the days of Moses and Joshua when Zelophehad’s daughters rose up and argued that it was unfair for them to lose their father’s land and inheritance simply because he had no sons. Their standing up and speaking out prompted a ruling on the inheritance rights of women in a time and culture when women had no rights.

The second mention of a female in today’s chapter is that of Sheerah (not to be confused with the comic book hero Sheena, Queen of the Jungle). The Chronicler mentions that she “built” three towns. One of them, Uzzen Sheerah, even bears her name.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on women in history and women in my life. I can’t imagine how circumstances and personal strength had to align for the daughters of Zelophehad and Sheerah to accomplish the things that they did. Props to the Chronicler for mentioning them in a culture and time when no one would have questioned him for simply leaving these details out of the record. For almost all of recorded history, this has been the paradigm. Circumstances and strength of character had to align for a woman to make it into the historical record. It’s only in the last century that this has begun to change.

Which makes me think of my own wife, daughters, and granddaughters. They have given me a priceless gift as they have helped me see the world from their female perspectives. In doing so, they have continued to challenge and change my male perspective in many ways. I want them to continue to be strong women and accomplish all the purposes God has for them on their own respective journeys.

Which leads me back to this faith journey. Women played a significant, if largely unheralded, place in Jesus’ ministry. The Jesus Movement in the first century honored women in culture-changing ways just as Paul wrote to the Galatians: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, when the Jesus Movement transformed into an Empirical Institution the leaders suppressed those changes. It would be 1500 years before the institutional church began reclaiming the status and spiritual giftedness of women in the mission.

I honor this reclamation.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.