FamilyLife Today®

Speaker 1

I think in Abigail, we see this little foreshadow, right, of the one who will turn away God's wrath from us sinners, from us in our foolish sins.

And so in these narratives of these women, when Jesus says, all of it points to me, we can see it in David, we can see it in Moses, but we can see it in Abigail.

Tim.

Speaker 2

So today is Women's Day at Family Life.

Speaker 1

Today it is. That's right.

Speaker 3

I love Women's Day.

Speaker 2

We've got Nana Dosay back in the studio with us. You've written a book called the Seed of the Woman. Nana, welcome back.

Speaker 1

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2

And I know it's not Women's Day, but I sort of feel like I'm just sitting here teeing up a conversation between two women about the women of the Bible.

Speaker 3

Well, that's what's so interesting.

Nana, you're a mom, you're a wife, you're a professor, you're an author, but you have a love for God's Word, and you've been passionate about going back into the Bible and really putting a highlight on the women in the Bible that often we don't even see.

So that's why you're calling it it's Women's Day.

Speaker 2

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's 30 narratives that point to Jesus. And we've already talked about several different women. We can't do all 30. But you previously said that often we hear stories of men.

Speaker 3

Your daughter said that. Like, why does the Bible just talk about men?

Speaker 2

Well, here's what I thought. I preached for 30 years, and that was me. I was convicted. Like, I can remember a few sermons. Ruth, Esther, I preached much more on the men in Scripture than I did women. There should have at least been a lot.

Speaker 3

And you probably didn't think what that communicates to a girl or a woman.

Speaker 2

What does that communicate? I've got.

Speaker 1

I mean, I think the question that my daughter was asking is, if God is using mainly the men, then can he use me?

Speaker 3

Me, too. That's my. That's my thought, too, of like, well, what's my part? Can he not use me the way he could use men? Am I not as important? Am I not?

Speaker 2

Now, have you two women felt that growing up in the church or in Christianity, have you felt like we can be used, but not as much? Or maybe you haven't felt that at all?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I'm thankful to say that. Not necessarily like, you know, I shared my coming to faith story and realizing that God made me such a different creature from before I was a Christian to becoming a Christian and gave me such an appetite for his word.

I'm thankful that I joined a church that recognized that it was an older congregation. I was this young person who was asking all these questions, attending all the classes, raising my hand. The pastor noticed and said, "She has a hunger for God's Word."

He encouraged me to go to seminary, and they were happy to give me the opportunity to teach. They gave me a chance to grow as a teacher. Perhaps my journey didn't follow a conventional path, but I think I've been encouraged by God's people to use my gifts and to teach.

So, I thank God for that.

Speaker 2

That's beautiful. You feel the same thing.

Speaker 3

I think there were times that I thought, I wish I were a man because maybe my voice would be heard. But the more I grew in my relationship with Jesus, I think there was such an awe that he loves me, that I'm in per se, like, how can I be used?

And so there was a submission to him, like, I'll do anything. I'll do anything you want. Use every single gift I have, God, but I'll do anything you want. So I don't think I ever had desires to do or to be a certain person. It was like, I want to fulfill everything you've called me to do.

And he has fulfilled that miraculously in some ways. Like what? Like, how do I get to do this? I'm not qualified. And I think that's beautiful that maybe we feel overlooked. But can we be overlooked if we're in total surrender and submission to the King of Kings? He always highlights us.

Speaker 2

Well, let's talk about some of the women highlighted in your book from the Old Testament. We've talked about many. And if you didn't listen to previous shows, go back and listen to those. Where do we start? Abigail.

Speaker 3

Yeah, let's talk about Abigail.

Speaker 1

Yeah, absolutely. So when we get to Abigail, you know, we've already walked through Genesis a little bit. We've walked through Exodus with Rahab.

Speaker 3

We.

Speaker 1

That the children of Israel were entering the land, right? So now they've been in the land, and there is now even this system of kings. And this is when we meet Abigail. With Abigail, there's a king called Saul that God is going to be moving away and bringing in this young, this younger king named David.

And so when we meet Abigail, Saul is literally chasing David around in the desert, and David is trying to hide from him. David is in the desert with about 400 men. It says that there was a rich man named Nabal, and his shepherds were in the wilderness. David protects these men; he's literally like a defensive wall around them. David's hope is that Nabal would be thankful enough to provide some things for him and his men. So he goes to ask for this.

This man Nabal is incredibly insulting. The Bible states that his name actually means fool; it means foolish. He is harsh, arrogant, hot-tempered, and just very mean. This flames David's anger, and he says, "I protected you. Now I'm going to kill all of the men in your household."

Abigail comes on the scene in the book; I call her like a triage nurse, looking to see what she needs to do to calm this down. It's very obvious that the salvation of Nabal's household rests on Abigail's shoulders. I love this picture: David has his sword strapped, 400 men with swords strapped, riding to kill Nabal's household.

Now picture this one woman on a donkey, riding to face the anger of 400 swordsmen. This is the picture of Abigail. She takes the provisions that Nabal said he wouldn't give, and she goes to face David. It says that she prostrates before David and says, "Let the blame fall on me."

Speaker 3

Which is insane.

Speaker 1

It's amazing to me.

Speaker 3

I'd be like, I know, I married an idiot.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah. She takes the blame for her unworthy husband and says, let the blame fall on me. And because of her wise, gracious words, you know, there's a passage in Proverbs that says a wise word turns away anger, turns away wrath. She models that. David actually starts to pronounce a benediction and praise God for keeping him from blood guilt, then turns away and goes back into the desert. God continues to ride on, and he strikes down Abel.

But in the picture of Abigail, you know, the book says that there are 30 narratives that point to Jesus, and in her picture, I think we see Jesus in an amazing way. Right? The one who literally rode to face God's wrath on our behalf and said, let the blame fall on me. Oh, that's good. I think in Abigail we see this little foreshadow, right? Of the one who will turn away God's wrath from us sinners, from us in our foolish sins. Jesus rises forth, and the blame is put on him, and God's wrath turns away from us.

And so in these narratives of these women, when Jesus says all of it points to me, we can see it in David, we can see it in Moses, but we can see it in Abigail, too.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I mean, when you tell it the way you did, I'm teary. It's like. I mean, part of me is amazed at her courage.

Speaker 3

Well, David ends up marrying her because he sees like this.

Speaker 2

Yeah. But I'm just thinking when she's walking forward and you described it, the swords are ready to be pulled. It's like the gun is cocked. They probably have them pointed.

And she's walking into that as a little woman. You don't expect the warrior to be a woman. And yet her humility, but courage in the midst of that changes history.

And you're right. It's a type of Christ. That's unbelievable.

Speaker 3

Let's go back to the time of the judges, because we skipped Hannah. And Hannah is a pretty remarkable story. A lot of women know that story. But let's talk about her a little bit.

Speaker 1

Oh, I love the story. I mean, I love all of these stories, honestly. But I do like the story of Hannah, especially. I think I’ve mentioned on a previous day that I’ve dealt with secondary infertility, and oh, there’s just so much pain that comes with that.

And this was a woman who was barren, and it says that her husband had another wife who literally added insults to injury in reminding Hannah, provoking her about being a barren woman. And so here’s this other wife with all of these children, and here’s Hannah, and she’s, you know, dealing with the shame.

In those days, she would have literally worn her infertility as shame.

Speaker 3

Oh, yeah. Because a woman's worth was found in the number of children she could have.

Speaker 1

Yes. And so this other woman is provoking. Provoking her.

What we have in Hannah, because we've. The book deals with other infertile women. What we have with Hannah is we. The author, the narrator, takes us close enough to hear her whispered prayers.

And so she. It says that she goes into the temple or where the ark was, and she is literally weeping, praying to God, and she calls him the Lord of Hosts.

That is the first time in the Bible that that title is used for. For God. Really? It is.

Speaker 3

I didn't know that.

Speaker 1

Yep. And the Lord of Hosts, Yahweh, Sabaoth, literally means the God who rises before legions of angelic armies. Right. It means the Lord of armies. And so just picture God in his role as the General of heaven, who rises before armies. This is who she's calling on.

When I think that this is the first time the Bible gives that title to God, you would have thought that Yahweh Sabaoth would have been invoked by the Red Sea or during the defeat of Sisera, or in some kind of major battle. But instead, it is this woman dealing with infertility who is calling on Yahweh Sabaoth.

And God remembers Hannah, opening her womb and giving her a son. She gives this son back to God, and he will be the last judge of Israel and the one who will anoint the first two kings, including King David—her son, Samuel. He will also give her other children as well.

Hannah's story ends with this beautiful prayer that Mary seems to pick up in the New Testament, where she is literally saying that he lifts up the lowly and brings down the haughty and the proud.

Speaker 3

Oh, we should read that. That's such a great prayer.

Speaker 1

So it's in First Samuel chapter two. It's called Hannah's Prayer.

It says, Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exalts in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God.

Talk no more so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.

The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sha' ol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap. He makes them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. For not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Speaker 3

When you read that, what I hear is a woman who's been in the depths of sorrow, and there's a depth to her faith as well. Like, she has been in need and torment and sad, and she's cried to the Lord and he's heard her.

And there's this. I don't know. To me, it's like anyone that has been through some hard pain, there's also, as they call on Jesus and our Father, there's this richness and depth to them, like, oh, you've known sorrow.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So even her calling on Yahweh Sabaoth, right? There isn't anything I go through that is so small that I can call on the God who is the general of heaven. It doesn't have to become this big, major national thing for Yahweh Sabaoth to move on my behalf.

She says in this prayer that God will thunder against his enemies. The Hebrew word for the provoking that Panina, the other wife, was doing is literally that she was thundering against Hannah. That's the Hebrew word. She was thundering against Hannah. And in some ways, she's thundered against.

Right. I'm reminded even when it says that those who are low, he raises up to sit with princes, and he lifts them up from the ash heap. In many ways, I'm reminded of the one that Mary will sing about—Mary's son, who it looked like it was the end for Jesus. This is a reversal in many ways. The one who had a lot is brought down, and the one who seemed to have nothing is lifted up.

That is the picture of the gospel. God raises up his son that they thought they had done away with, right? He raises him up to sit on his right hand. He is the glorified Lord Jesus. And in the gospel, all of us who lower ourselves and humble ourselves as sinners are lifted up to sit with that prince.

Speaker 3

When you were not able to conceive, did you feel like. And go to God in that way, like Hannah did?

Speaker 1

I have gone to Yahweh Sabaoth and cried. I feel like there's something about infertility. It's just so you can't do anything about it, you know, if you. Unless the Lord opens the womb.

And he does it in different ways, but it is his work to do. And there is. There is something that really calls you to cry out to him and to go to him in prayer.

And I've done. I've done that.

Speaker 3

And your son that you've adopted, have you felt like, oh, Lord, you have answered that prayer?

Speaker 1

Absolutely, Yeah. I remember a day, actually. Infertility, I think, is so hard because it's. Is. Is hope deferred.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 1

So each month brings a new hope. And hope can be painful, actually. Sometimes you don't even want to hope. Right. Because if I don't hope, then it's not the. The. The evidence of my. My bearing womb is not going to hit us hard.

Speaker 3

Same with women that are miscarrying.

Speaker 1

Exactly.

Speaker 3

Often, like, I don't want to get my hopes up.

Speaker 1

Yes. And so is this. You know, there's a passage in Proverbs that says a hope deferred makes the heart sick. And so that heart sickness.

I remember one month, it was just so hard for me, and crying. Crying out to the Lord. I remember because there was a particular name that I wanted to name this third child that the Lord might give us.

And I remember looking down just on a random piece of paper, and there was a magazine that had that name on it. And I remember thinking, you see me? You see me.

Speaker 3

What was the name?

Speaker 1

It's Ezra. The name is Ezra. And so that's our son's name, actually. Yeah. So his name. That's his name. And so. So even on that day, in my pain, God knew him.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 1

And knew the story that he was writing and that he would bring that to pass. So he's Yahweh Sabaoth, and he hears us as we cry out to him. So. Good.

Speaker 2

Yeah. And, you know, the. The son that Hannah had sort of made a difference.

Speaker 3

I'd say he did a little bit.

Speaker 2

You know, how about, you know, you look at another woman and you think this is only going to be negative. You think Bathsheba.

Speaker 1

Oh, yeah, there's a lot of negative with Bathsheba. It's a hard story. Yeah, it's a hard story.

So this David that we meet in the story of Abigail, who turns away from blood guilt, right? Because she says, "Hey, don't. Don't. Don't do that. Let the blame fall on me." And he turns back; he will commit the sin of blood guilt in Bathsheba's story.

So Bathsheba was this woman who lived next to the palace, and I love digging into her story because sometimes we don't know enough about Bathsheba.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Tell us more. Yeah, yeah. So she was actually politically connected. Her husband David had these 30 warriors, the mighty men.

Yes, yes. So Uriah was one of them. But Bathsheba's father was also one of the 30 men, and her grandfather was Ahithel, who was David's counselor.

Speaker 3

So they all knew each other.

Speaker 1

They all knew each other. And that's probably why she lives so close to the palace, because she was from a politically connected family. But there's, you know, it's springtime and the kings are at war.

But David is not at war. He's chilling in his palace, and he's on the roof, and it says he looks down and sees a woman bathing. Now, that bath was actually a ceremonial bath. It says that she had just finished her period.

And the Mosaic law said after the menstrual cycle, a woman was supposed to cleanse herself by bathing. So she's performing this really ceremonial bath. It wasn't just a bath of luxury, like, oh, let me take a bath.

Speaker 3

She wasn't trying to entice him exactly.

Speaker 1

And it was. She was cleansing herself. It was not something. It was only something. It was a ceremonial bath.

In obedience to God's law, the king of Israel should not have been looking. But he looks and says, hey, who is this? Brings her to him and sleeps with her.

Speaker 3

Do you think when she came to the palace, he knew instantly, oh, this is Bathsheba, and made the connection?

Speaker 1

Yeah. Well, she says. She asked who. Who she was, and they said, this is Bathsheba. They name her father. They name her.

Speaker 3

They did name her father and husband.

Speaker 1

Yeah, wife of Uriah. So he knew who it was.

Speaker 2

I mean, in some ways, you know, I think of that moment as First Corinthians 10:13. God always gives you a way out of temptation. Here it is. Here it is, David.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

We are reminding you what you already know, but we're just putting a pause on it. And he goes forward.

Speaker 1

He does. He does. Bathsheba doesn't say anything in this narrative. The only thing we get from her are three words: "I am pregnant." And that's the note she sends to him.

And so he starts to try to clean it up by bringing Uriah, making him drink, but he never goes home to sleep with his wife. He sends Uriah back to the battlefield with a letter that literally signs his death because they'll put him in a place where he'll die.

The picture that I get of Bathsheba is what Nathan says to David when he comes. He says this: this rich man who has all this sheep, but he doesn't take one of his own sheep to feed his visitors. He takes the pet lamb of his.

Speaker 3

Neighbor and David's enraged.

Speaker 1

Yeah, he's enraged. And he says, death will come to this man. And he says, you are that man. So he uses Bathsheba in that way. He uses her in that way. We never hear her say anything.

But when Nathan comes and says, you are the man, he tells David, God has taken away your sin, and you will not die, but the baby that you have with Bathsheba will die.

And, you know, I'm always intrigued by that. Why doesn't David die? Why doesn't David die for his sins? The Mosaic law said that someone who rapes a woman should die or sexually violates or commits adultery. Yeah.

Speaker 3

And you have this innocent baby who will die.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And. But then we read Psalm 51, where you see David crying out in repentance. That psalm is so interesting to me in light of what he did. He watched this woman and desired this woman who was being cleansed in a ceremonial bath. In Psalm 51, he's asking God to cleanse him and to wash him with hyssop.

Right. There will be a greater son that will die, ultimately, is Jesus. The sin that David commits, God doesn't sweep away anything. He is punishing your sins and then pretending that he hasn't seen mine. Right. He is a good judge. Every sin I have committed and every sin you have committed will be accounted for. Either you will reject his offer and you will suffer for it yourself, or he will place it on his Son, and Jesus will suffer for every single one of those sins.

So David's sin against Bathsheba will ultimately fall on the head of a much greater son who will suffer for it. And God, in his amazing mercy, it is not faithful, wise Abigail that goes on to have the seed, but it's actually Bathsheba who has Solomon. Bathsheba's son, Solomon, will go on to bring the Lord Jesus. Bathsheba is named right there in that lineage that you mentioned at the beginning. She becomes the long-ago mother of the Lord Jesus.

So even in this story that's full of so much sin, we see God's grace. If we're leaving it on the story of Bathsheba, there's nothing that you have done that is too filthy for God to cleanse. There's nothing that you have done that Jesus says, "I will not take on and suffer for it."

Speaker 3

And there's nothing that has been done to you.

Speaker 1

Sure.

Speaker 3

That God cannot cleanse and remove.

Speaker 1

Absolutely. Absolutely. And we will see that not only with Bathsheba, but even David's daughter, Tamar, who's raped because of this sin that's introduced to David's household because of this sin.

But God can take horrible things, ashes, and bring beauty from them. Again, he has suffered in a way that he relates to what you're going through and can sympathize with what you're going through.

You can sit across from a God who knows because he's been through it.

Speaker 3

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Speaker 2

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Speaker 3

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Speaker 2

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Speaker 3

Let's kind of backtrack about who Tamar is, and let's talk about her story.

Speaker 1

Yeah, so Tamar is David's daughter. So, you know, David is king of Israel at this point. And I think her story reminds us that, oh, some of these stories in the Bible, especially those pertaining to women, can be dark. Because, you know, the Bible isn't a fairy tale where everything is just like, you know, a Disney princess movie, right? It is. This is east of Eden. This is thorns and thistles. This is the wilderness before home.

Oh, painful things happen, and sometimes they happen to women. The Bible is not prescriptive in that sense, but descriptive, describing the wilderness experience and sometimes the violence that women face as a result. We know that even in our world today.

So, Tamar is David's daughter who's actually raped, and she's raped by her own brother. Her brother, the crown prince, the one that was supposed to succeed David, desires this sister, this half-sister. There’s a cousin that comes to him, and the scriptures describe him as crafty. I almost imagine the serpent, right?

He comes probing in the same way the serpent was probing. "Why are you sick? You're the king's son. You shouldn't be sick." He says, "I love my sister Tamar." And he says, "Here's the plan. Pretend you're sick, and David will come see you and send Tamar to you to make you some cakes. And when she's here, you can do with her what you want."

Speaker 3

And he didn't say, ask for Tamar.

Speaker 1

Yes. So she comes into his home and she will never leave the same. He rapes her.

When I was in seminary, I worked at a domestic violence shelter in Philadelphia. And this was a home for women and children. I was an intake counselor. I remember days I worked the night shift. Women would come in with bruises, blue and purple faces, telling the stories of the abuse they had encountered in their homes by people who should have protected them.

When I read Tamar's story and that description of her rape, I think of those women. I think of those women. And in the story, David does not punish his son for raping Tamar.

Speaker 3

And it's interesting too, Nana, because it says that son, after it occurred, hated her.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 3

Hated Tamar.

Speaker 1

Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. So the Mosaic Law said that if you raped a woman, you actually had to care for her because she had no hope of marriage after that, so you had to take responsibility for her care. And he takes her and literally pushes her out of his home. And she says this thing: "You're. This latter thing of pushing me away is worse than the first." Yeah. And she rips her clothes and throws ashes and lives desolate in her brother Absalom's house.

And when David heard about it, he did not do anything. Not only was he a father, but he was also the king. The king should bring justice, and we don't see David doing any of that. I wonder if the shame of his own sin made him think, "Well, if I did that, how can I punish my son with Bathsheba?" Exactly. Exactly.

But I love that the gospel is for mothers and for their children. It's for fathers and for their children. I can say something to my children even if I have struggled with that because my hope is their hope. Right. It's the same. I need Jesus as much as they need Jesus, which encourages me to speak to my kids about their sins because I'm not hiding my sins. We're all before the Lord, but David is quiet.

Speaker 3

What do you wish David would have come and done?

Speaker 1

Oh, he should have brought justice for Tamar. Absalom, not Absalom. Amnon was his name. Should have been punished according to the law, according to the law of God. And Tamar should have been cared for in a way that we don't see that happening.

Speaker 2

You know, I just gotta say, as a husband and a dad, a man, the only man in the studio right now, we can do this. We can be passive. It's almost the sin of Adam in the garden just being passive. Even with Eve, when the snake came and he knew the truth, and he just watched.

As a dad, as a husband, it takes courage to say, no. I need to step in. I need to confront my son. I need to have a conversation. I need to protect the women in my home. I need to protect the women in every home in our culture.

Again, I'm just stopping just for a second, because I know men are listening, saying, guys, it's up to us to step up. That should have never happened ever. And then once it did, it should have been dealt with quickly by a man who was called by God to protect that woman and discipline that son.

Anyway.

Speaker 3

It'd be so interesting, too. These are things you don't really think about. But, I mean, David married a lot of women, and he had a lot of kids from these other women. Don't you think they all talked about it?

Speaker 1

Oh, I'm sure they knew.

Speaker 3

I'm sure they did, too. And I'm sure the mothers and the moms were distraught and angry.

Speaker 1

Sure. Yeah. I'm reminded of a father who never fails to do that. And that's the father that I pointed these women to in the domestic violence shelter where I worked. I had a chance to help them, to see a father and a protector who doesn't fail.

It's amazing to me that even in this kind of violation, Jesus can sympathize with us. I mean, just imagine how they stripped him and hung him naked on that cross. Right? That kind of violation, that God would send his son to redeem a woman like Tamar.

And the ones that I minister to in this shelter, this is the extent to which God will go in redeeming these women. You know, Tamar would probably never marry again because she wouldn't be a virgin. And yet there is a king who welcomes women into his court not because of their purity or virginity, but because of the righteousness he gives them through his righteousness. That makes us beautiful.

Speaker 3

So good.

Speaker 1

That makes us beautiful.

Speaker 3

I remember being in downtown Detroit in a van where a friend of mine would take lunches and products and prayer into the streets of Detroit. The entire city of prostitutes and homeless people knew her van. She would pull up to the curb, and all these people would come to her. She would say to them, "How can I pray for you tonight?"

I remember being at the passenger window one night when a prostitute came up to me, and she was crying. I didn't know her, but this woman knew Donna. They called her Miss Donna. I asked, "How can we pray for you tonight?" She replied, "Oh, Miss Donna, my sixth-grade daughter was raped today at school, and I don't know what to do. I need you to pray for me."

In that moment, I thought about how I had no idea why this woman was living on the streets or what her story was. But I loved that she asked for prayer. I prayed for her, and I loved that God heard that prayer. You know, when we're hurting and distraught, and things have been done to us, God hears us.

Sometimes, in our anger, we can neglect going to God, even though He is the one who can meet us right where we are.

Speaker 1

Yeah. The darkness of these stories in the Old Testament and these women shout for the seed of the woman. Like when it gets so dark, we want light, and they shout.

In the same way that God kept that promise to Eve in the garden in bringing Jesus that first time, his first Advent, the darkness of these stories of a sixth-grade girl being raped shouts for God to keep his promise, for him to come again and to make all things new, and for us to see the foretaste of that coming.

Through stories of redemption, through her healing, right through the compassion that Christians show, the church would be a light that says, yes, he keeps his word. There is another second coming when there will be no more death, pain, and violation of children. We want to see that day for sure.

Speaker 3

Let's go now to some. A woman that had a negative impact.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 3

So let's talk about Jezebel.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Jezebel. So in my book, I actually have Jezebel with Athaliah. You know, I think Jezebel's name is known. A lot of people know Jezebel, but I don't know how. I don't know that we know the details of her. I don't think we do either.

Yeah. So she was married to King Ahab, and so she was actually a queen in Israel. By the time we get to Jezebel in the book, we know that Israel is two nations. There's a southern king, a northern kingdom, and then there's a southern kingdom. The northern kingdom had just random kings, right? The southern kingdom was the line of David, but in the north, it was just random kings one after the other. And all of them were wicked. And Ahab was one of the worst. Horrible, horrible. And he had his wife to help him in that.

Speaker 3

When I Read this story of Jezebel. She must have been powerful.

Speaker 1

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3

Because she's influencing Ahab and all kinds of people in such a negative way. And I usually will say that as women, we can carry a lot of power and influence, and we need to be careful how we wield it, because this girl, she was negative, and she.

Speaker 1

Really was the one who was behind the scenes in a lot of ways. She was the daughter of the king of Phoenicia, and her father worshiped Baal. He must have been a good discipler of his daughter because she took her father's God into Israel and would kill the prophets of the Lord. But the one story of Jezebel that we don't often know is the story of Naboth. He had this vineyard that Ahab wanted, and he did not want to give it to the king because the law said that you should not sell your land.

When Jezebel heard that, she wasn't going to applaud him for keeping the law but came up with this whole scheme to kill him and take his vineyard. She does that, and the story of Naboth really reminds us of the same kind of betrayal of an innocent man and killing him that we even see with the story of Jesus. One of the things I wanted to point out about Jezebel is that she had a daughter named Athaliah. If her father trained her well, she must have trained her daughter well because Athaliah, in a lot of ways, was even worse than her mother, Jezebel.

Athaliah married into the southern kingdom. King Jehoshaphat, who actually is one of the good kings, made the wrong move of marrying his son to Jezebel's daughter. He married his son to Athaliah, and she became queen mother in Judah. When her husband died and then her son died, she saw it as a chance to take over. So she killed her own grandchildren and murdered the entire line of David, except for one little boy, Joash, who was hidden in the temple. She didn't know Joash was alive, and so she reigned in Judah until Joash was six years old. They brought him out, and they killed Athaliah.

When I think of Athaliah's story, it reminds me how all throughout the Bible, it's like the serpent, the seed of the serpent, is rising up to try to swallow God's people. We see that with Pharaoh, and we'll see that later on in the story of Esther, but it never works. We talked about the remnant; God always preserves someone. The enemy might think that he has it under control, that he's covered the bases, but God always keeps a remnant. You can't overcome God's purposes.

So Joash comes, and Athaliah is killed. Jezebel is thrown out of a window. It encourages me to know that no matter how bad it gets, this story reminds me of the church and places where Christians are persecuted. It can be very hard to be a believer in some places right now.

Speaker 3

Just hard to understand why God. And where are you?

Speaker 1

God? Yeah. Our family, actually, my little family of five, we pray for the persecuted church every night. We have a calendar that kind of tells us who we can pray for from a different part of the world.

And some of those stories are so hard. But God preserves a remnant, and his power shows up strong when the enemy thinks that he has it, that he has God's people.

And so may he prove that even today in places where Christians are persecuted. We see that in the story of Jezebel and Athaliah. And may we see that even today.

Speaker 3

I remember watching. I forget where that was, but it was about the church in Iraq and the persecution of the people. One woman was being interviewed, and she said, "Every day I would go outside knowing that I could be killed today because I'm trying to spread the gospel of hope. I'm trying to lead a Bible study in the underground church. And I know every day that I could be killed for my faith, and I willingly will do that because I know this life is not for long."

They ended up moving to the United States. After a while, she was interviewed again, and she said, "I told my husband, I feel like I need to go back." The person interviewing her asked, "Why would you want to go back?" She replied, "Because my faith was so alive; it feels like the church here has fallen asleep."

I remember thinking, like, ugh, it is easy in the United States to feel like, you know, we're not as persecuted, and so we don't have this need in the way maybe other people do. I love that you're praying for the persecuted church.

Speaker 2

All right, well, we have to get to the scene.

Speaker 3

Welcome to the table of women.

Speaker 2

Of the woman is Elizabeth and Mary. Yes, the last two. So, yeah, take us there.

Speaker 1

Yeah. So we come into the New Testament with the last few chapters of this book. And when we come, there is darkness and there is silence. There's been 400 years of prophetic silence, right? No new revelation from God. Israel, because of her idolatry, went into exile, and a remnant came back to the land. They are praying to God, and there is silence.

God answers in a remarkable way. This promised Savior, all the way in Genesis, that He makes to Eve, comes to an old woman named Elizabeth. It says that she and her husband were Levites and they were righteous. You would think that being righteous means God answers all your prayers and there are no issues in your life. But they are barren, and they've prayed for years, and no children. How old was Elizabeth? It says they were old, but it doesn't give an exact age. It simply states that they were an old couple, righteous and faithful.

This reminds me that even when I'm hoping for something and that prayer hasn't come, I must persevere in living right before God and not charge Him with wrongdoing, but continue to live righteously. There comes a day when her husband goes into the temple, and an angel appears to him. The angel says that not only is he sending them a son, but this is the son who will prepare the way for the Son.

No wonder we kind of blame Zachariah for not believing it; it was big news. He is made mute because he doesn't believe, and he goes home. Elizabeth conceives and goes into hiding for the first two trimesters of her pregnancy. For those first six months, she, to me, is a little picture of Israel. She literally sits in silence. Her husband isn't speaking—remember, he is completely silent—and she is in hiding. So it's just silence. This was Israel: 400 years of silence. But then one day, it's like Covid.

Speaker 3

When your spouse can't even speak.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 3

And you're pregnant.

Speaker 1

Absolutely. So one day, in the courtyard of her husband, walks in Mary. And the prophetic silence breaks with singing. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, starts to prophesy and says, blessed are you among women. And Mary picks up this magnificat. Just imagine that scene of these two pregnant women. An old woman six months along, and this young girl who probably just has an embryo, right, developing in her womb. And the prophetic silence breaks with singing of these Two women, Mary, singing a song that sounds like Hannah's that says the lowly, the despised. God lifts up. Because you'll remember, Mary was a nobody. She was just this. She was from Nazareth. Nazareth was a nobody town. Nobody was thinking anything of Nazareth. But this is where God chose to send his son. He uses the despise the ones we don't think of, Right? And he shows that he's the one that's the glorious one, ultimately. And so these two women sing. And within months, the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, who will crush the head of the serpent and reverse the curse, will be born because God keeps his promise, no matter how long it takes.

Speaker 3

And let's just talk about for a second. This was no easy thing for Mary. First of all, I mean, she conceives through the power of the Holy Spirit, but she's living in a little village. Can you imagine the scandal, the scandal that would just go along with her name forever. I mean, it's not like, oh, look, there's Mary, who's the mother of the Messiah. What do you think they would have said?

Speaker 1

Yeah, and even the threat of death, not even just scandal, the scandal followed her, but there was even the threat of, she could have been killed for this. God comes to Joseph, her betrothed, and says, this is, this is of me. I've done this. And he decides to marry her because God speaks to her, but her life really could have been in danger. Which reminds me that, you know, sometimes the things God is asking us to do isn't always easy. No, it's not always easy. Even the story you told of the woman living in Iraq, I think you said it can be life threatening, but we live not for the dot of today, but for the line of eternity, right?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Again, it takes me back to, I've said it a couple times, the courage of women. I have to admit, you gals are so much more courageous than us.

Speaker 3

But it's more than courage, Dave. It's the faith.

Speaker 2

Well, it's faith, no question, it's belief. But for her to step forward, all these women you've talked about, every single one of them, there's an amount of courage that a lot of us men do not have. I marvel at it because it's inspiring to me. And I just want to say, way to go again to the women. And we just talked about a few in the Bible, but wow. I want to have the courage of my wife. I want to have the belief of my wife.

Speaker 3

You totally do.

Speaker 2

It's been inspiring to listen and Hear, Nana, the way you talk about these women, I'm inspired. I want to go back and read every passage again. And you mentioned earlier that you have women in your life that you, as you think through, have inspired you. Can you end with one?

Speaker 1

Absolutely. I want to talk about my great grandmother. Her name was Nana as well. Her name was Nana. Akoto was her name. And so this was a woman who lived in Ghana, a poor woman. She married a man who unfortunately was not faithful to her. He had other wives and had children with her that he did not care for. And so she had. I think they had, like, 11 children. She had a lot of children, and some of them went hungry because she just didn't have the means to care for. To care for all of them. But she lived in a place at a time where she did not know about Jesus. And so her trust was in these idols, these ancestral idols is who she was looking to. And she suffered so much. Her daughters. She had, I would say she had about six daughters. And most of them, five of them died giving birth to children. So one after another, her children would die in childbirth. And neighbors started to. To kind of gossip and say, well, what are you doing for your children to be dying in childbirth? And there was a day when a neighbor came to her. A neighbor came to her and said, nanakoto, these idols are not helping you. And they told her about Jesus. They told her about a God who was able to help. And my mother tells me this story that my great grandmother went and just put herself before she. There was a church that she eventually found. And she went and she lay at the altar and said, jesus, if you will. If you will have me, then take me. I'm yours. And she never turned back. So as a very little girl in Ghana, I have a memory of my great grandmother. I remember she was really wrinkled. And I would be looking at her hands, and they were so wrinkled, I was like, oh, I don't want my hands to look like that. But she always had her Bible. And she would sit in this little chair, and she would rock reading her Bible. Her Bible was in tree, which is the dialect of the Ashanti people. And she had her little Bible in tree. And she would always read her Bible. And that's the image I have of my great grandmother, her children, my mother's generation and my generation, everybody stopped dying in childbirth when she came to Jesus. And so the ones that had their children in Africa, no one died of childbirth. We that, you know, have had children here, we can thank the medical system. But ultimately, God heard her and helped her. And no one has ever died of childbirth after that day when she committed herself to the Lord. And so I thank God for the faith of my great grandmother. When I think about women whose narratives point to Jesus, I think of Nanakuto, whose story, when she tells it, points to Jesus. And I pray that my children can say the same of me and that we would have many generations of women whose stories point to Jesus.

Speaker 3

You will.

Speaker 2

That's beautiful.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 2

I mean, the seed of the woman is still going.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 3

Hey, thanks for watching. And if you like this episode, you better like it. Just hit that like button and we'd.

Speaker 2

Like you to subscribe. So all you got to do is go down and hit the subscribe. I can't say the words subscribe. Hit the subscribe button. I don't think I can say this.

Speaker 3

Word like and subscribe.

Speaker 2

Look at that. You say it so easy. Subscribe. There he goes.