Tag Archives: Women

Chapter-a-Day

“Yeah, but…”

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/3DIRUPkGM4nK1I3TpLfaSC?si=cmXuNMP5TKS4iWCFp9YBWw

They said, “When the Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. Now suppose they marry men from other Israelite tribes; then their inheritance will be taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to that of the tribe they marry into. And so part of the inheritance allotted to us will be taken away.”
Numbers 36:2-3 (NIV)

When I present customer service training I’ve learned that every customer service skill is likely going to be challenged. A hand will go up in the air. When I call on my class member I typically year, “Yeah, but Tom…”

Now I simply call them, “Yeah, buts.” They are the typical excuses or exceptions to the general customer rule that cause people not to want to follow the rule.

The book of Numbers ends with a “Yeah, but….”

Just a few chapters ago God instructed Moses to allow Zelophahad’s daughters to inherit their father’s allotment of the Promised Land. It was a radical and revolutionary moment in history when women were suddenly given a level of equality no one could have expected.

In today’s final chapter, the men of the tribe approach Moses and say, “Yeah, but Mo, what if Zelo’s daughters marry into another tribe? By law their land would then get absorbed into the ownership of their husband’s family and now our tribe’s land becomes part of another tribe’s allotment. Doesn’t seem fair.”

Moses went before God and God provided a compromise. God did not want land being exchanged between tribes. Every tribe was to get their equitable and divinely appointed allotment of land to divide between the families of that tribe, and the land must stay with the tribe. So, Zelo’s daughters were required to marry a man from a family within their tribe if they wanted to retain ownership.

In the quiet this morning, my heart is split in two directions of thought and emotion.

I love that God has radically broken normal human protocol to divinely advance the female cause. The “Yeah, but…” that is raised is a legitimate legal question. Jewish rabbinical thought through history views God’s response as a balance of the individual rights of the daughters and the community rights of their tribe. The marriage requirement for the daughters was not seen as punishment but as a balance of justice for the daughters and order in the integrity of the tribe and its allotment. God’s divine decree is dynamic as it engages human concerns and balances the competing “good” of individuals and groups.

At the same time, as a student of history, I’m well aware that today’s chapter reflects a well-worn pattern in which men fight female rights and equality. Today’s chapter was just the first “Yeah, but…” to God’s divine decree of female land ownership. Through history, patriarchal male lawyers continued to chip away at it with their legal judgments. They increased the primacy of male heirs. They created marriage and dowry systems that channeled legal ownership to the control of male family members and circumvented the Zelophahad’s Daughter’s rule. They narrowed the circumstances in which the rule was applied and created legal loopholes by which the rule could be effectively bypassed.

The further I get in my journey the more appreciation I have for the women in my life. I love the radical move God made in naming and giving rights to Zelophahad’s daughters. I love that Jesus repeatedly broke patriarchal cultural convention to have relationship with women, even unacceptable women. Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman at the well, the woman who’d been bleeding for 12 years, and the woman caught in adultery to name a few. I love that Jesus made way for women to have a seat at the table and that in Christ there is no male and female.

In the long arc of the Great Story I see the Kingdom of God perpetually pushing against the curse of sin and the patriarchal nature of humanity that flows from that curse. Over my journey, my desire had continued to grow to do all I can to push into the equality of God’s Kingdom and impede the flow of sin’s curse and the inequality that it has shackled humanity with since the Garden.

Taking a little vacation through next week. Monday September 29th: 1 Timothy

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

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

God’s Radical Decision for Women

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So Moses brought [the case raised by Zelophehad’s daughters] before the Lord, and the Lord said to him, “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them.
Numbers 27: 5-7 (NIV)

The Hebrew tribes are camped on the Jordan River across from Jericho. On the other side of the Jordan lies the Promised Land. The time has come to take possession and everyone in the camp is talking about the land that their tribe and their families will eventually be given. The idea of land to farm and graze and a homestead for the family and future generations to live and flourish has been a common human dream throughout history.

This is a moment of promise for the Hebrews. At Mt. Sinai almost 40 years earlier God gave them a vision for this moment. He gave them his guidebook for life and community with God and others in Leviticus. God told the Hebrews that He was going to show them His ways and they would be an example to all the other nations, empires, and peoples of His ways. This included radical new ideas like a sabbath day of rest, the care for strangers, societal protection for the poor and vulnerable, and being a nation with no human king, pharaoh, or emperor.

Now, at this very moment of history on the edge of fulfilled promise of a land to call one’s own, one of the most amazing stories in the entirety of the Great Story takes place. It is a prime example of God wanting things to be different than human defaults. It is a tale no one taught or talked about in all my many years of sermons and Bible classes. It is the story of Zelophehad’s daughters.

At this moment when everyone is thinking about the land they will be given, the daughters realize they have a problem. Their father died and he had no sons. It’s just the sisters. The ancient near east, especially Mesopotamia, the nations and people groups were staunchly patriarchal. Women had no autonomy. They owned no land. They could inherit no land. Everything was legally channeled through the males in the family.

So, with divine chutzpah, the daughters approach Moses and the elders of the community. This in itself was a radical departure from cultural norm. Women didn’t participate in the meetings of the elders or the formal business affairs of the community. Nevertheless, the daughters broke protocol and they made their case before Moses. They had listened and embraced what God had said at Sinai and what Torah taught about God caring about the marginal, societal protection for the vulnerable, and justice. Why should another family get their family’s promised plot of the Promised Land simply because they had no brother?

Then something more amazing happens. Moses takes the daughters’ case before God. God quickly and unequivocally decides for the daughters. Women can inherit land and own it. God sides with women and demands that it become the law of His people. While there were other ancient cultures in which women had the right to own and inherit land (Egypt being prime among them) the right typically had certain patriarchal limits. Never before had there been a divine decree that simply and directly conferred upon women the right to inherit and own their family property. This was radical.

Remember, in the Great Story everything is connected. What God is doing with physical inheritance here in Numbers is the same thing He will do with spiritual inheritance through Christ:

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” Romans 8:17 (NIV)

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 (NIV)

There are two main themes that flow out of my meditation on Zelophehad’s daugthers in the quiet this morning.

First, I love the holy audacity of the daughters to step-up at the right moment and stand for what was right. It echoes the same chutzpah I see in Wendy and in our daughters. I love it. I love their heart for what’s just for everyone. I love that God blessed their courage and that God divinely cut against what was entrenched human cultural tradition. I hear echoes of the prophet Isaiah: “Your ways are not my ways.”

Second, history has taught me that human defaults and entrenched human culture traditions never change easily. In just a few chapters, the men will find a way to use human legal means to hem in the radical rights God has just granted to women. Early Christian “fathers” made similar moves to hem in the spiritual equality Jesus brought to the table. The tension remains to this day. I don’t think the tension will ever abate this side of eternity because it is connected to the consequences of the Garden in just the third chapter of the Great Story.

But, I can embrace God’s heart. I can embrace and celebrate what He did for the daughters of Zelophehad thousands of years ago and all the women their precedent effected through the centuries. I can embrace and celebrate what Christ did in bringing women to the table as full and equal heirs of God’s Kingdom. And, where it is in my ability I can speak and act in supporting and encouraging that spiritual reality and all that it means.

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

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

Miriam

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In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.

Now there was no water for the community…
Numbers 20:1-2a (NIV)

Wendy and I have enjoyed having our grandson, Milo, with us this week as he attends Drama Camp at our local Community Theatre. Last night Taylor and Sylvie drove down to spend the night, as well. It’s so good to have them in the house. Wendy and I enjoyed chatting with Taylor about all sorts of things late into the evening last night. It reminds me of late evening conversations I used to have with my mom who crossed Jordan and entered the Promised Land just over two years ago. I miss her.

As I continue to progress along this life journey, I’ve been able to glance back and realize just how far I’ve come. There are many different areas of life in which I have grown in knowledge and wisdom, but among the places I feel I’ve grown the most is in my knowledge of and appreciation for women. I have noted many times before that God saw fit to surround me with women. I now look back at my younger self with empathy and a touch of pity for all of my ignorance and misunderstanding when it came to the fairer sex and all things feminine.

Today’s chapter begins with the death of Miriam, Moses’ and Aaron’s elder sister. She was the caretaker and watcher of her baby brother when she launched him into the river and watched him be taken in by Pharaoh’s daughter. She risked herself to make sure Moses not only lived, but thrived. Miriam brings the victory song after the parting of the Red Sea and the defeat of the Egyptian army, leading the women in song, dance, and celebration. Miriam is the first woman named a prophetess in the Great Story. Miriam is an amazing lady, yet as with most women in the Great Story, I’ve observed that she doesn’t get the respect she deserves. This is especially true in the traditions in which I’ve traveled along this earthly journey.

In Jewish tradition, Miriam is understood and celebrated to have a much larger role in the Story. In fact, both orthodox and mystical Jewish traditional hold Miriam up with honor. In their tradition, Miriam joins Moses and Aaron as a trinity of siblings through whom God uses equally to provide and channel what is essential for His fledgling nation. Specifically, they name the clouds of glory, manna, and “Miriam’s well.”

After the briefly delivered news of Miriam’s death abruptly begins today’s chapter, the very next verse says, “Now, there was no water for the community…” that was wandering in the desert. Jewish tradition holds that these are not separate facts in the retelling, but cause and effect. Miriam the prophetess was the channel and her well was the divine source of water for the Hebrews. It was like a rolling rock or portable stream that followed them as they wandered, channeling a stream of life-giving water and sustenance to each of the twelve tribes.

Moses was busy separating oceans and walking in thunder at the top of the mountain. Aaron was swinging incense and the center of the sacrificial, ritual spectacle. Miriam, quiet and unassuming, was humbly providing nourishment and sustenance for every day life on the journey. Suddenly, I hear the song of Bob Dylan in my heart and head. It’s Just Like a Woman.

Miriam represents the divine feminine that is equally a part of who God is though I’ve observed that it makes some people squeamish to consider the truth of this. Miriam brings to the Exodus story courage, prophetic vision, song, dance, rhythm, water, and nurture. When Miriam exits, the water dries up. This wasn’t a coincidence. God is going to provide water, but the brief drought reminds the Hebrew people who Miriam was and all that she brought to their community and to their stories. As they say, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

And, this meditation on Miriam and her resourceful, feminine touch brings even more meaning to the events later in the chapter when God tells Moses to speak to the rock (speaking is such a feminine thing) so that it begins producing water and instead Moses strikes the rock with his staff (such a male way to handle things). Oh, Miriam, how you will be missed.

As Jews gather each year to continue celebrating the Passover meal as they have done for thousands of years, it has become common among many to place “the cup of Miriam” (filled with water) on the table next to “the cup of Elijah” (filled with wine).

In the quiet this morning, I find myself gratefully meditating on Miriam. She is the song before the sermon… the heartbeat before the battle… the whisper of a lullaby in a land of wails. She represents a sacred feminine force that doesn’t dominate but co-creates, that doesn’t rule through law but leads through love, rhythm, servant-heartedness, and remembrance.

I find myself thinking about my own journey, and my own story. I have been raised and rooted among strong, soulful women, and so I have an appreciation for what Miriam brought. I feel it in my bones. I’ve heard her song in lullabies, in choir lofts, at kitchen tables over coffee. Miriam isn’t just a character in the Great Story—she’s in the women who shaped me, the women who continue shaping the man I am today.

Note: I will be out next week traveling on business and then taking a few days to be with our kids and granddaughter. Lord willing, I’ll pick up this chapter-a-day journey on Monday, August 18th. If you need a fix, feel free to visit this page, pick a book, and enjoy the posts. Have a great week!

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

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Chapter-a-Day

Matthew the Quirk

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Matthew the Quirk (CaD Matt 1) – Wayfarer

Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Matthew 1:17 (NIV)

Like millions of others around the world, Wendy and I have become enamored with The Chosen, a crowdfunded, independent production that is a modern retelling of Jesus’ story. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it. I also recommend that you push through the first three or four episodes which provide a lot of backstory for that may not seem to be going anywhere when you first watch it. Trust me. If you watch the first three seasons and then go back and watch the first three episodes you’ll see a million things that the writers were telling you before you could actually see them.

One of the more creative choices that the writers of The Chosen have made is to make the character of Matthew a young man on the spectrum. Matthew is brilliant. He is gifted with numbers, which is why the Romans love him as a tax collector. However, the writers have chosen to portray the young disciple as socially awkward. Wendy and I even wondered if they chose to portray him with a mild form of Asberger’s. At any rate, it was an interesting choice.

What we know is definitely true from Matthew’s biography of Jesus is that Matthew loved numbers. The ancient Hebrews loved numbers. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet performed double duty, representing numbers as well as letters. Because of this, there are all sorts of patterns in the Hebrew text of the Great Story that are completely lost when you translate the text into English. And yet, some of them still remain.

In his introductory chapter, Matthew displays his love of numbers. Three times (three is the number of God, the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) Matthew uses the word Messiah (the Greek word Christos) in introducing Jesus.

He also provides a genealogy of Jesus, tracing Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Abraham. There are some fascinating and curious aspects to the genealogy he provides. Before I get to that, I’d like to share one more clip from The Chosen in which Matthew shares with Philip what it fees like to be an outcast. In context, Matthew is both an outcast as a Roman collaborator and because of the fact that he is on the spectrum (Note: You might have to click the link and watch it on YouTube. It doesn’t seem to want to play as an embedded object).

Matthew chooses to list women in the lineage of Jesus. That was certainly not customary in the patriarchal culture of the day. Of course, Jesus had an entire entourage of women who followed Him along with The Twelve, provided financially for His ministry, and served in caring for their daily needs. Of the women Matthew mentions:

Rahab: A non-Hebrew prostitute who sheltered Joshua and Caleb in the spying out of Canaan and Jericho. She was spared from the conquest of Jericho and accepted into the community of Hebrews.

Ruth: A non-Hebrew woman who, after being widowed, followed her mother-in-law (Ruth) back to Israel and was redeemed by, and married to, a Hebrew man named Boaz.

Bathsheba: The adulterous mistress of King David whose husband David had murdered in order to have her as his own.

Women, non-Hebrew Gentiles, a prostitute, and an adulterous mistress. Not quite the glowing personages one might choose to include in the ancestry of the Son of God.

Matthew goes on to list three (the number of God) sets of fourteen (two sets of seven, the number of completion) generations (a total of six sets of seven or twice the number three for a total of three meaningful subsets) that cover the span of Hebrew history from Abraham to Jesus.

Matthew also introduced the reader to a systemic pattern of “Fulfillment” that he will use over, and over, and over again in his biography of Jesus:

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet…”
Matthew 1:27

Matthew is a numbers guy, a systems guy, and in the Jesus Story he sees patterns that tie the entire Great Story together.

Next March I will celebrate the 20th anniversary of this chapter-a-day blogging journey which I started with a bit of a shrug and an attitude of “Hey, why not?” in March of 2006. In recent years, I’ve tended to trek through one of the four Jesus biographies (a.k.a. Gospels, or “good news”) in the Great Story each Lent season (40 days leading to Easter) and Advent season (40 days leading to Christmas). I noticed yesterday that we trekked through Mark, Luke, and John last year but it’s been three years since our last sojourn through Matthew.

So, in the quiet this morning, I’m excited to metaphorically lace ‘em up and revisit our systemic, numbers guy Matthew’s recollections and first-person account of being among Jesus’ core followers. I’m excited to take a fresh look at the Jesus Story from his unique perspective. My mind and heart are open to what new things I might discover this time through.

I love that God uses the uniqueness of every individual’s experience, personality, giftedness, and temperament for the good of the whole. It reminds me that even I, with my own individual and unique bents and quirks, have a role to play in this Great Story if only I will embrace it and choose in like Matthew did that fateful day when Jesus happened to pass by his Tax Collection booth and said, “Follow me.”

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Send Phoebe

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Send Phoebe (CaD Rom 16) – Wayfarer

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
Romans 16:1-1 (NIV)

One of the things that has changed most dramatically in my spiritual worldview in my 40-plus years as a disciple of Jesus is my thoughts on women and their role within the Body of Christ. My early spiritual journey as a believer was among conservative, even fundamentalist, groups. They believed that the role of women was to be limited, and I didn’t think much about it at the time. I simply absorbed it as all young people tend to do when they are young.

Not surprisingly, it was in college that I first encountered pushed back on some of the things I’d been taught to believe about the role of women. Even more personally, I realized that some of my own personal thoughts and feelings about women were offensive, even hurtful, to women who I cared about and deeply respected.

Over subsequent years, I was led to serve in different flavors of denominations. They had different views on the role of women than the ones with which I was raised. I actually experienced having women serving right alongside me as elders, teachers, and pastors. What I experienced was good. Women brought wisdom and understanding that expanded conversations in healthy ways. I learned from their perspectives, which were different than male perspectives.

Then, of course, God saw fit to make me a Girl Dad of two amazing daughters, and God led me to a loving, female, spiritual force of nature named Wendy. The women in my life have taught me so much about female strengths and capabilities that teach me things the men in my life never could. I have witnessed them being treated unequally and experiencing discrimination. I have heard their stories and have walked with them in their pain. I became their champion, and it changed the way I think of all women.

Finally, there’s God’s Message. Along the 18 years I’ve been doing this chapter-a-day blog and podcast, I’ve often shared my experience of continually returning to the same books, chapters, and passages I’ve read countless times over 40 years. The text doesn’t change, but I have changed. I’m on a different waypoint on the road of life. I have grown and experienced new things since the last time I read and meditated on today’s chapter. It meets me in a different place and it has new things to teach me.

Healthy things grow. Growing things change.

Today’s final chapter of Romans is a standard list of personal greetings that Paul added to his letters that were meant to be read to all of the believers and circulated around. He begins by introducing them to the person who personally carried the letter to Rome and delivered it. A woman named Phoebe. He introduces her as a “deacon” within the church at Cenchreae as a “benefactor” of many, including himself. The reality is that we don’t know for certain where the Jesus Movement was in the process of establishing official roles of organization at this point in time. Nevertheless, Paul is certainly introducing her as a respected person of means and status to whom he has appointed a personally important task.

This stood out to me as I read it in the quiet this morning. Phoebe is one of a long list of women who played a critical role in Jesus’ ministry and in the early Jesus Movement. As I meditated on this woman, Phoebe, I wondered how many times over 40 years I’ve read this chapter and completely ignored the reality that was staring me right in the face? Here is a woman of status and means, potentially an official within the Jesus’ movement, to whom Paul had given the important task of delivering his letter to the believers in Rome. Paul speaks highly of her and tells the Romans to take good care of her. She is a respected and trusted spiritual colleague. I want to be surrounded by women like that in all areas of my life. Thank God, I am.

In the quiet this morning, I once again find myself meditating on how grateful I am for the women in my life. I couldn’t do the things I do without them. They support, enhance, and empower me. They challenge me and force me to consider new perspectives. They make me a better man, and a better human being.

“Hey Paul? Who do you trust to get this letter to the believers in Rome?”

“Send Phoebe.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

Women in the Patriarchy

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Women in the Patriarchy (CaD 1 Chr 7) – Wayfarer

[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.

Chapter-a-Day

Always Believe the Women

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Always Believe the Women (CaD Lk 24) – Wayfarer

But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Luke 24:11 (NIV)

Looking back on my life journey, I’m grateful that God surrounded me with women. While I have two older brothers, they are identical twins and seven years older. Thus, growing up, it was my older sister Jody who was my constant companion. We even went to the same college. Then, God blessed me with two daughters and for pretty much the next thirty years I was the lone male in the house with three females.

Being surrounded by women has been a life-long course for me in female appreciation. The fact that my earthly journey coincided with the unprecedented rise in the role, status, and rights of women has only accelerated my understanding. Back in high school, our study of world history tracked the role of women in society throughout the ages, which was huge in preparing me for the learning I’ve had to do along the way.

My thoughts on the role and status of women have changed dramatically over the years. This is not just rooted in cultural changes, but in my spiritual maturity and understanding, as well. It’s only in the last ten years that I’ve come to increasingly appreciate one of the foundational pieces of the Great Story from the very beginning. When cursing Adam, Eve, and the evil one for the original sin God tells the serpent that there will be “enmity” between him and the woman.

I believe that the struggle of women throughout history is, among many other things, a spiritual struggle. I believe that there is a special hatred that the evil one has had for women from the beginning, and men have been largely complicit in blindly accepting the schemes. I confess I have, especially in my younger years. I have a whole host of thoughts on this subject that I hope to share in a future post and podcast, so I won’t belabor the point.

One of the things I’ve come to love about Luke’s version of the Jesus Story is the fact that he alone gives credit to the women who followed Jesus and financially made it possible. In today’s final chapter, Luke not only records that it was the women who first discovered that Jesus had risen, but he also names them. Consider that while Matthew, Mark, and John were primary sources and witnesses of events in Jesus’ story, Luke was not. He investigated the Jesus Story by interviewing and collecting evidence from primary sources. I personally believe that Luke names women like Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household because he interviewed her. He knew her, and he recognized the role she played in being among the inner circle of followers and financing Jesus’ ministry.

I also believe, as a man who has lived a life surrounded by women, that Luke records that the Eleven (The Twelve minus Judas) did not believe the women and considered their report of the risen Lord “nonsense” because the women would have clearly remembered this detail and emphatically made a point of it in their retelling. God bless Dr. Luke for honoring them by not leaving that out.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about my mother, who crossed over into eternity this past March. There is so much more that I appreciate about her today than I did even ten years ago. I think about her mother and three sisters who influenced my life as well as their mother who was the spiritual matriarch of our clan. I think about Wendy, her mother, sisters, and grandmother. I think about my daughters and granddaughters. As I consider the base enmity that the evil one harbors for them, it creates a desire within me to honor them more, appreciate them more, and encourage them more in all the days I have left on this earth.

If I could go back in time and have a chat with Peter and the boys, I would tell them, “Dudes, trust me on this. Always believe the women. Always.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

Deborah, the Leader

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Deborah, the Leader (CaD Jud 5) – Wayfarer

Villagers in Israel would not fight;
    they held back until I, Deborah, arose,
    until I arose, a mother in Israel.
Judges 5:7 (NIV)

Wendy and I just returned from spending a few days at the lake with our youngest daughter and her husband. It was so good to catch up with them. As always, the slow pace of life at the lake allowed for a lot of great conversation.

One of the topics of conversation was about struggles that each of them had with their own local gathering of Jesus followers. To their credit, they scheduled a meeting to share their feelings with leaders rather than continue to sit and stew in their frustration.

Our daughter shared her frustration with the lack of opportunities that women had in leadership. As she discussed her feelings, she referenced the strong female leaders she’d grown up with and the positive impact that they had on her and others. In contrast, what she was experiencing felt like suppression; She knew from experience the advantages and blessings of having gifted women leaders.

I couldn’t help but think of those conversations as I read today’s chapter, which is a victory song that Deborah and her colleague Barak sang after their victory over Sisera and the Canaanite forces. Deborah, “mother of Israel,” arose to lead them to victory.

Along my own life journey, my own thoughts and perceptions have been transformed, as God has surrounded me with strong, gifted women. There are clear waypoints along my path in which my own errant thinking has been brought to light. I’ve been so blessed by women who have led me in various ways and taught me things about God, life, and myself. And, listening to our daughter’s story, they have also been role models to her.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminiscing and picturing some of the amazing women who’ve impacted my life, who have capably led me, and for whom I am so grateful to call teacher, director, boss, pastor, partner, and friend. I love the story of Deborah and the 3,000-year-old example that God provides me of the strong, capable leadership of a woman.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Women and Prophets

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Women and Prophets (CaD Jud 4) – Wayfarer

Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.
Judges 4:4 (NIV)

One of my favorite characters in the Harry Potter epic is poor Professor Trelawny, and not just because my sister is a dead ringer for Emma Thompson’s portrayal of her. Professor Trelawny teaches divination at Hogwarts. The problem is that she’s terrible at it, and none of her prophesies come true. Only once had she uttered a true prophetic word, a critically important prophecy about Harry and Voldemort, but she didn’t even know or realize that she’d uttered it. Dumbledore hires her in case she ever has another one (which she eventually does). The students are stuck with a poor teacher who is terribly inept at her subject.

Prophecy has a bit of a mysterious role in the Great Story. In the law of Moses, God said that He would raise up prophets and gave instruction on discerning if they were truly a prophet of God or not. In the ancient Near East, prophets were common across religions. Kings and Pharaohs had official prophets on their courts. Interestingly enough, in Mesopotamia, the profession was predominantly held by women.

Today’s chapter is one of the most unique in all of the Great Story. In what is a predominantly patriarchal culture, God uses two women to respectively lead and deliver the Hebrew tribes from their enemy. The chapter opens with Deborah, a prophet, leading the people. When she prophetically tells a man named Barak that God wants him to raise an army and march against the Canaanite army he agrees, but only if Deborah will accompany him. She agrees but prophetically tells him that because of his lack of faith, the victory will go to a woman.

That woman was Jael. It’s hard for a modern reader to understand just what Jael had done. She invited a man (the fleeing general of the Canaanite army) who wasn’t her husband into her tent. This was a huge social taboo. By killing him, she broke a covenant her husband had made with the general’s superior which would have brought shame on her husband, another cultural no-no. She also invited him into her tent, and he was therefore her guest. To this day, Near East culture has strict cultural rules that place honoring guests, even above one’s own children. Jael’s assassination of the Canaanite general was a blatant violation of multiple cultural rules.

But Deborah’s prophecy was true.

Before Jesus, prophecy just was. It appears in the story with little or no explanation. God raised up prophets and utilized prophets, but there’s no understanding of how that exactly happened. After Jesus, the spiritual gift of prophecy is recognized as one of the important gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows on certain followers of Jesus. Paul even hailed it as being the spiritual gift of prime importance.

Both Wendy and I have, along our spiritual journeys, had the experience of receiving prophetic messages. We even have some fairly dramatic experiences of God speaking prophetically through others. I also have a number of prophetic words given to me that might as well have come from Professor Trelawny. Along my spiritual journey, I’ve learned to be discerning. I listen carefully. I hold it loosely. If it means something, I’ll know. If it doesn’t, I let it go.

As I sit and ponder today’s chapter in the quiet, the larger lesson for me is the fact that God raises up and uses women to get the job done. This is one of several examples within the Great Story in which God uses unlikely people for His purposes. It’s a reminder to me 1) never to prejudge a person since with God, all things are possible, including using unlikely tools and means. It also reminds me 2) never to think or say “God could/would never use me.” God did, after all, speak through Balaam’s ass. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You can read it in Numbers 22:28, btw).

I also see in Deborah and Jael a foreshadowing of what Jesus will do in raising the status of women within the early Jesus Movement. Paul writes to the believers in Galatia: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And so, I enter another day of the journey with a couple of good reminders. I’m afraid I have no prophetic word for you. It’s not my gift. When it comes to prophesy, I’m afraid I’m about as capable as Professor Trelawny.

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

Chapter-a-Day

“That Woman”

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"That Woman" (CaD Jos 2) – Wayfarer

Before the spies lay down for the night, [Rahab] went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you…for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.“
Joshua 2:8-9,11b (NIV)

I have often commented that God blessed me by surrounding me with strong women throughout my entire life journey. When I sat down to pen my first words to my grandson, that’s what I wrote about. When I was in high school I was blessed to have a history teacher who made the status of women a core part of the curriculum. That laid the foundation for me to begin to appreciate just how difficult life has been for women, and it still is in many ways. It’s taken me a long time of living with and walking the life journey with good women to grow in that understanding. I haven’t arrived, by the way. I’m still learning.

In today’s chapter, we meet one of the most amazing, underappreciated characters in all of the Great Story. Perhaps one of the reasons this person is underappreciated is that she was a woman, a prostitute, a sex worker, a woman of ill-repute. She was the kind of woman that doesn’t get mentioned by name in polite society. She’s “that” woman, and she lived in an ancient, walled city called Jericho. The walled city-state was just across the Jordan River from where Joshua and the Hebrew people were camped and poised on conquest.

Espionage is as old as war itself, and the newly appointed leader of the Hebrew people, Joshua, sends spies into Jericho to case the joint. It would not have been at all odd for two road-weary male travelers to enter a city and high-tail it to the red light district in search of a prostitute. That’s exactly what they did. They entered “that woman’s” house.

Now the twelve Hebrew tribes have been nomads for 40 years, continually growing in population. Scholars estimate that there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Hebrew people along with their flocks and herds. It is what scholars call the Late Bronze Age and in the land of Canaan life is a dog-eat-dog world of peoples and city-states conquering one another. The people of Jericho are well aware that the Hebrew hoard is camped on the other side of the Jordan. They have heard the stories of the miraculous escape from Egypt and of the Hebrew exploits in Sinai. In their world gods were one of a myriad of deities typically associated with a specific town or region. The Hebrews had this one mysterious, invisible God that traveled with them; The God who brought mighty Pharaoh to his knees and held back the seas.

“That woman” knew who these men were, as did others who saw the spies enter the city gate and enter “that woman’s” house.

“That woman” does two important things as she speaks with the Hebrew spies. First, she makes a statement of faith, proclaiming to her clandestine visitors that she believes the God of the Hebrews is the God of heaven and earth. Second, she acts on that faith by offering to hide the spies and save their lives, asking only that they return the favor to her and her family when Jericho falls.

She believed, and she acted on that belief.

“That woman” the Canaanite foreigner. “That woman” the prostitute. She has a name. Her name is Rahab, and her name appears, not only in today’s chapter but also in a couple of very important places in the Great Story.

Rahab is named in Jesus’ family tree. (Matthew 1:5)

Rahab is mentioned by the author of Hebrews in his “Faith Hall of Fame.” (Hebrews 11:13)

Rahab is mentioned by James as an example of faith in action. (James 2:25)

In the quiet this morning, find myself thinking about the fact that a foreign, female, pagan, prostitute became a pivotal character in the Great Story. Rahab checks all the boxes of a person who doesn’t measure up on humanity’s religious status scale. Rahab foreshadows what Jesus said that He came to do: to tear down humanity’s religious status scale altogether and to save and redeem anyone who believes and acts on that belief regardless of gender, race, language, nation, tribe, creed, or broken, sinful past. No matter who a person is, where they are from, or what they have done, redemption is sitting there for any who believe and act on that belief.

I also find myself thinking about the amazing, underappreciated women in my story, and I’m whispering a prayer of gratitude for each one.

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