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Let Your Women Keep Silence!

PART 1

Table of Contents
PART 1
IN THE BEGINNING
THE OLD TESTAMENT VIEW OF WOMEN
HAS GOD EVER EMPOWERED WOMEN?
A PROPHETESS IN ISREAL

PART 2
DEBORAH ARISES IN ISREAL!
THE UNHERALDED PROPHETESS
THE WOMAN WHO CHANGED HITORY
MORE OF GOD’S LEADING LADIES

PART 3
THE ROLES WOMEN PLAY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
MARY’S EXEMPLARY ROLE
A WOMAN SPEAKS OUT
THE ACID TEST-CHRIST’S ATTITUDE TOWARD WOMEN
THE PENTECOST EXPERIENCE—NOT FOR MEN ONLY!
I SUFFER NOT A WOMAN!

PART 4
ROMANS 16—WHY SO MANY WOMEN?
DID WOMEN PROPHECY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?
ARE THERE SEPARATE GIFTS FOR MEN AND WOMEN?
THE ISSUE OF SUBMISSION

PART 5
THE DIFFICULT WORDS OF PAUL
1 CORINTHIANS 14:34-35—WHAT DID PAUL REALLY MEAN?
I TIMOTHY 2:11-15—MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!
THE FINAL ANALYSIS

Over the years since the New Testament was completed, few other issues have been as hotly debated as that of a woman’s place in the Church of God. So polarizing has this subject become that congregations have virtually come to blows over the controversy, and much argument, strife, and division has been the result.

It is generally assumed that the Bible is primarily a male-oriented book. After all, God is presented with masculine features. One never encounters such descriptive words as her, she, or mother with respect to the Almighty. It is always He or Him or His, and He is invariably called Father. There are no exceptions! Even His children are more often than not referred to as sons only rather than the collective sons and daughters.

When Yahweh was ready to create human kind, what did He do but make the man first. Eve, the first woman was taken from the previously created Adam, and there is even a statement in the early portion of Genesis that states:

“Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and you desire shall be to your husband, and HE SHALL REIGN OVER YOU” (Gen. 3:16).

As we proceed through the Scriptures we find far more prominent men arising than do we women. There were Cain and Abel, then Seth, Enoch, Jarad, Methuselah, and Lamech. When God destroyed the world with a great Flood, the name of Noah becomes famous. Even his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth are fairly well-known, but the woman Noah married–she is referred to merely as his wife.

Virtually all the various genealogies in the Scriptures are male derived in their origins. The families and tribes of the nations were invariably named after the patriarch, not the matriarch. Later, Moses is nursed by his mother, but she soon disappears behind the dim veil of history, as he becomes the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Hardly anyone can even remember the name of Moses’ mother.

It soon becomes obvious that the authorship of every book of the Bible, whether Old Testament or New, is attributed to a man, never a woman. Even the few books that bear a woman’s name (Ruth, Esther) are usually considered to have been written by someone else, and almost certainly not a woman!

As we encounter prophets, priests, and kings, one after another after another, with but a very few exceptions, we find that all of them are men. By the first century, Judea was, of course, totally controlled by men. John the Baptist, who heralded the oncoming of the Messiah, was a man. And, perhaps above all considerations, it so happens that God did not send His only begotten daughter to save the world, but rather His Son! Yahshua chose 12 apostles, but then none of them were women, and when the gospel was to be taken to the Gentiles, who did God send but yet another man, the apostle Paul.

It ought not therefore come as a great shock to anyone that women reading the Bible just might get the feeling that they were, to use the hackneyed phrase, second-class citizens! This sense, however, comes as a result of not really digging deeply enough into the Word to find out exactly how the Eternal feels about the issue. Believe it or not, the Bible actually has quite a bit to say about women, their roles, and their significance in the plan of God.

IN THE BEGINNING

The assumed story of what happened in the Garden of Eden has put women in a bad light since that ancient time until this day. I say the assumed story, because assumption plays a big part in how most people view what transpired with Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit. Let’s understand a few pertinent points in this regard.

Adam was created first, and was instructed by the Almighty before Eve ever came into existence. It was, therefore, Adam who bore the main responsibility for informing Eve about God’s expectations and prohibitions. How thorough a job he did is certainly a questionable issue, especially in light of how the Bible describes the difference between these two individuals. Notice how the apostle Paul puts it in one of the seminal passages we will be discussing in this study, I Timothy 2, where he states:

“For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (I Tim. 2:13-14).

Now in this situation you must ask yourself just exactly who had the greater problem–Adam who knew better and was not deceived, yet still partook of the forbidden fruit, or Eve, who, according to Scripture, was indeed deceived when she succumbed to the temptation of the serpent? Clearly, Adam bore the heavier responsibility in this particular matter, and this is why we read in I Corinthians 15 the following statement, again by Paul:

“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in ADAM ALL DIE, so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:21-22).

Paul confirms Adam’s part in the Garden in his letter to the Romans, where he says in chapter 5:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned...For if by ONE MAN’S OFFENSE death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Rom. 5:12, 17-19).

Even though it was Eve who first encountered the serpent in Eden, we must not forget that her husband was right there with her. He wasn’t off somewhere pruning grape vines! He was present throughout the confrontation, said absolutely nothing, though he knew better and was not deceived by Satan, and yet still went ahead and disobeyed the Almighty. No wonder it is not said in the Bible that sin entered into the world by one woman, but rather by the offence of one man, namely the man ADAM!

Many people tend to go back to the Garden scene, and put the heaviest blame for what transpired upon Eve. Then they use this faulty reasoning as their basis upon which to build a case against women, indeed a position that, though much studied and long held by numerous prominent Bible scholars, we shall come to see has many weaknesses and may well be untenable for the true believer today. But this will be something that you, the individual reader, will be compelled to prove for yourself. Hopefully this article will be helpful in achieving that objective.

THE OLD TESTAMENT VIEW OF WOMEN

While it is certainly correct that Yahweh created Adam first, it is a great mistake to assume that male superiority was God’s intention in doing so. This notion, however, has been utterly ingrained into the minds of so many people through the centuries of time, that in many respects it is simply taken for granted. This has been especially true in the case of religion, and the Christian religion in particular.

When God created Adam, He was not yet finished with His work. Indeed, we read in Genesis 2:

“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him” (Gen. 2:18).

The King James language in this verse can be a bit confusing. After all, what actually is a help meet? What it is not is some kind of assistant or servant, someone to cook Adam’s food and pick up after him, even though this has essentially been the role of most women ever since this episode transpired!! What is meant in verse 18 is that God knew that it was not good for Adam that He should be alone. Adam had a need, indeed a major need, and it was fulfilled by the Eternal in the creation of woman. When the Scripture speaks of “a help meet for him,” the intent is convey that what Adam needed was a counterpart, an opposite partner, which just happens to be precisely what the Hebrew word in this case means.

Furthermore, this word ezer rendered help meet in the Genesis passage is derived from the term that means to surround, to protect, to rescue. It is typically used of God Himself, who often is called our Helper. In other words, God’s provision of a woman for the man was not to give Adam someone who would simply make life more convenient for him, but rather a rescuer of the man from aloneness, from meaninglessness, from incompleteness. And let it be noted that Yahweh formed all of the animals out of the ground, and Adam himself from the dust, but no so the woman. Her creation was the most unique of all, for she was taken from Adam! We read in Genesis 2:20:

“And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.”

The animals, created from the same ground as Adam, were not adequate for his solitary condition. They were insufficient as rescuers, counterparts, protectors, and appropriate fulfillers of Adam’s great need as a human being. And, so God performed a special miracle in creating the woman. She was not like the other beings made from the earth.

To accomplish His purpose, the Almighty put Adam into a deep sleep, pierced his side, and brought forth his bride, his wife, that entity who was perfectly made to join him in oneness. In performing this act, God played out the future death of His Son (Adam’s deep sleep), His being wounded for our transgressions (Adam’s pierced side), and the forming of the Lamb’s Bride (the woman Eve), taken from the Messiah Himself (Adam, in type), and then being made one (Therefore shall a man...cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh). Thus the Scriptures affirm the full participation of both man and woman in the image of God. And, on the human level, they were utterly indispensable to one another.

Were Adam and Eve, therefore, created equal? The language of the Genesis creation account leaves no room for doubt. The man was incomplete without the woman, and the woman likewise apart from the man. In other words, they both needed each other, and yes, they were equal in the eyes of God, even though Satan, virtually from the beginning, twisted and perverted things to the extent that woman soon became little more than chattel—the property of man!

But didn’t God Himself say to the woman:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16).

Yes, there is no question that this statement was made in reference to Eve, but the definitive question is whether or not this condition is actually what God desired for His human creation? The answer would appear obvious, and that answer is no! In other words, Eve or woman was not originally created to be dominated and lorded over by Adam or man. The divine pronouncement in Genesis 3:16 was the result of sin. Adam and Eve both opted to choose a way to salvation other than God’s. Yahweh, therefore, immediately began operating with human kind based upon this wrong choice, and with few exceptions, this was the basis for His dealings with mankind until the arrival of the Messiah and the restoration of the rejected tree of life. It is doubtful that any truly converted, righteous husband, having chosen the tree of life, could ever or would ever legitimately insist on ruling over his wife based upon the curse which God placed on the sinful Adam and Eve.

Through the pen of the apostle Paul, the New Testament perfectly frames the equal relationship between the man and the woman, for we read in I Corinthians 11:

“Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things are of God” (I Cor. 11:11-12).

In the beginning, God did not create human beings so that one individual should rule over another, nor that any group of people would have authority over others. Ideally, ONENESS was and is the desire of the Almighty for His people. The fact that Adam was created first gave him no claim of rulership over Eve, and nothing of the kind is even intimated in the Creation account. In fact, just the opposite is revealed to have been true.

With respect to human beings, there are only two lines of authority established in the Creation account. They are both included in the following passage from Genesis 1:

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, BE FRUITFUL, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and SUBDUE IT: and HAVE DOMINION OVER the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen. 1:27-28).

Human beings were given authority by their Creator to be fruitful, that is bear children, and fill the earth, and to have dominion over the things of the earth. What is missing in this passage? Why, there are absolutely no lines of authority granted unto either the man or the woman to rule one over the other! Why? Because in God’s economy of things, such measures of control which later came upon man due to his sinfulness, were utterly unnecessary, and, in fact, would have worked against His plans completely.

God’s way was, from the beginning, that of oneness, accord, agreement, unity, cooperation, sharing, mutual submission one to another, and serving. Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden tree changed everything, including Yahweh’s approach to mankind. Had the first humans chosen to trust the Almighty and obey His voice, they would have entered into a relationship with Him that would have never required any sort of domination by one party over the other. The questions of Who’s the boss? or Who’s in charge? would have been irrelevant and meaningless.

God started with one, from which He made another one, and then merged the two back into a far greater one! Even though man was created first, and woman then formed from man, an appropriate reciprocity also transpired. Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Wheaten College, puts it well when he states:

“Thus, the mutuality between the man and the woman is complete–to the extent that the man becomes three times servant to the woman. First, he is put to sleep in order to give of himself (literally!) For the woman to receive her being. Second, he leaves his parents for her sake. Third, he brings his life to her. This goes to show again that servanthood and mutual submission constitute the lifestyle, the modus vivendi of oneness relationships” (Community 101, p. 24).

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, it was not some oversight or slight error on their part. It involved a monumental choice–the tree of life, which grants salvation freely through grace, and positions a human being in a relationship with God and his fellow man that is mutual, reciprocal, service-oriented, and that results in the most fruitful of lives, both in the physical, as well as in the Spirit; or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the pathway, not of oneness and accord and mutual submission under the grace of God, but rather a focus on the individual self, producing discord, control, imposed limitations, and an attempt to earn one’s salvation. The differences between the two trees or two paths could not possibly be greater or more significant! Since man chose the forbidden way, he has been forced to labor under curses, one of which has certainly been the domination of men over women in the worst possible sense of such a concept, and the subsequent exploitation of women that naturally has followed.

In the beginning, therefore, there was no hierarchy established among God’s human creation. There was the Almighty Himself, and there were the man and woman, both servants of Yahweh, and both equal servants of one another. Oneness and mutual submission was the way of choice from the commencement of the plan, and, frankly speaking, it still remains the ideal.

Yahshua emphasized this truth quite emphatically during His ministry upon the earth. Remember that He had come to usher in the way once again to the originally rejected tree of life–the way God always wanted things to be–indeed, they way they were in the very beginning. On one particular occasion, the disciples were engaged in an argument over, of all things, who was the greatest among them. In other words, they still were possessed of the old mindset that thought in terms of who’s over whom, a notion which the Messiah rejected out of hand, saying:

“The kings of the Gentiles exercise LORDSHIP over them; and they that exercise AUTHORITY upon them are called benefactors. But this SHALL NOT BE SO WITH YOU; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that does serve. For whether is greater, he that sits at meat, or he that serves? Is it not he that sits at meat? But I am among you as HE THAT SERVES” (Lk. 22:25-27).

And at another time, He contrasted His own disciples with those of the Pharisees, saying:

“The Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat...but all their works they do for to be seen of men...And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be you not called Rabbi: for One is your Master, even Christ; and ALL OF YOU ARE BRETHREN” (Mt. 23:1, 5-8).

The apostles and disciples were looking for the Messiah to establish lines of authority, so they could say, First there is Christ, then me, then you and you and you, etc. Yahshua put a stop to such erroneous thinking immediately!

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, comments on this same theme of oneness, unity, and mutual submission by saying:

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the UNITY of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is ONE body, and there is ONE Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all...Till we ALL come into the UNITY of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ...speaking the truth in love, that we may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which EVERY JOINT supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of EVERY PART, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:1-6, 13, 15-16).

This is merely one of many such passages in the New Testament which speak of God’s ideal of unity, of oneness, of togetherness, all equally important parts of the Body all equally operating under the headship of the Messiah. In the same letter, Paul again presses this point, saying:

“Wherefore He says, Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil...SUBMITTING yourselves ONE TO ANOTHER in the fear of God” (Eph. 5:14-16, 21).

The apostle Peter reiterates the same divine principle in his first epistle, making the following statement:

“Yea, ALL of you BE SUBJECT ONE TO ANOTHER, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble” (I Pet. 5:5).

Ideally all along, and under the New Covenant in particular, the restoration of heartfelt servanthood and mutual submission has been accomplished in and through Yahshua the Messiah. Those of us who have been mercifully granted the Holy Spirit have within us the power to walk the pathway refused by Adam and Eve. No longer ought we to view and gauge things through the distorted lens of imposed authority, but rather through the clear window of reciprocal service one toward another. God has specifically outfitted each of His people with unique spiritual inclinations and abilities, no one individual possessing them all, but all separated and dispersed throughout the various members of the Body. As we move into the New Testament coverage of our investigation, we will deal more and more with the distribution of what the Bible refers to as gifts of the Spirit, and how we are to function in relationship one to another today.

HAS GOD EVER EMPOWERED WOMEN?

Suffice it to say that with mother Eve, women got off to no better a start in the beginning than did their male counterparts. In fact, the brief account of the pre-Flood world lists only a couple of women by name, and with the exception of Eve herself, those mentioned do not even appear in the line of Seth, but rather in the evil lineage of Cain. In fact, it is not until after the Noahian Flood, when we come to the time of Abraham, that we meet a woman of substance about which we are given enough Biblical information to appreciate. This, of course, was the patriarch’s devoted wife, Sarah, one of the revered names in all of Israelite history.

When we are introduced to Abraham, he is already married to Sarah, so we have scant information on her background. Sarah was obviously a strong, righteous woman in her own right, one through whom the Almighty saw fit to bring into this world Isaac, the son of promise. This was no accidental choice. Hagar, Sarah’s handmaiden, conceived and bore Abraham his first son, Ishmael, but God rejected them both, and cast them out of the family, for He had determined that it would be Sarah who would bring forth the one who would carry on the righteous chosen line that would ultimately culminate in the birth of the Messiah. In this regard, Sarah is an ancient type of another great woman of the Scriptures, Mary the mother of Yahshua, although she is seldom characterized in this fashion.

In this matter of Hagar and Ishmael, please recall that it was Sarah, not Abraham, who saw the necessity of forcing them both out of the camp. We read in Genesis 21:

“And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of a bondwoman shall NOT BE HEIR with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son (Ishmael). And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the lad, and because of the bondwoman; in all that Sarah has said unto you, HEARKEN UNTO HER VOICE; for in Isaac shall your seed be called” (Gen. 21:9-12).

Sarah instinctively knew what Abraham apparently was willing to overlook, namely, that the son of no bondwoman would ever be heir with her son Isaac. Note carefully that, although Sarah was undoubtedly courteous and proper in all her personal interactions, she was about as bold and forthright as one could possibly be when it came to this crucial issue. She was the human being responsible for the New Testament record of this event, for we read in Paul’s letter to the Galatians the beautiful analogy of Sarah and Hagar as follows:

“For it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai, which engenders to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all...What says the Scripture? CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free” (Gal. 4:22-26, 30-31).

Take careful note of the significance of Sarah’s actions and words. What she understood about the plans of God was profound, and what she did and said with respect to Hagar and Ishmael constituted a landmark episode in the history of the human race! Sarah told Abraham to “cast out the bondwoman and her son,” and God proceeded to confirm her instructions, for Hagar was, in the divine scheme of things, typical of the Old Covenant to be made at Mount Sinai between Yahweh and Israel, and Ishmael, her son, was symbolic of those Israelites who were under that first covenant, and who operated without the Spirit of God.

In reality, Sarah and Hagar are representative of the two trees in the Garden of Eden, Sarah being indicative of the tree of life, the Messiah and his sacrifice, the grace and mercy of God, whereas Hagar portrayed the forbidden tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the way of earning one’s salvation through works of the law.

Abraham had not fully trusted God at one point during the long wait between the giving of the promise and the actual birth of the son of promise. He had had a child with Hagar the Egyptian handmaiden. To Abraham, Ishmael was his firstborn, and he loved his son, and the Scriptures state that he was grieved when Sarah made her demand that both the mother and her son be cast out. We will see this flaw in Abraham appear also in his son Isaac later in our study. In both cases, the fathers involved loved their firstborn sons so much that they were somewhat blinded as to God’s actual wishes and intentions. And it was their respective wives who sensed the will of God and did something about it!

Sarah was, in fact, the great prototypical woman of God. The righteous women of all history do not look to Eve as their spiritual forerunner, but rather to Sarah, the faithful wife of Abraham. She kept the faith along with her husband during the long nearly 25 year wait until the birth of Isaac occurred. And take note that the miracle involved was primarily with respect to Sarah rather than Abraham, for the patriarch went on to have a number of other children by another wife after the death of Sarah. It probably could be correctly stated that Sarah was the first female recipient of a personal divine miracle. So, as Abraham is called the father of the faithful, perhaps it would not at all be inappropriate to think of Sarah as the mother of the faithful.

Along with her husband, Sarah endured the hardships associated with the nomadic life, and did so without any complaint whatsoever. Like him, she shared the lot of a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth, looking for that city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10, 13). She also helped to shoulder the responsibilities involved with maintaining the extended household which Abraham accumulated through the years (remember that he had 318 trained servants, highly skilled and armed men of war, all born in his own house—Gen. 14:14).

And let us not forget that Sarah is mentioned prominently among the great heroes and heroines of the faith in classic eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where we read:

“Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised...These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them...they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:11, 13, 16).

Sarah was the first of three outstanding female servants of God, who stood faithfully with their husbands in the calling they had received. The second of those women was, of course, Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, the son of promise. The story of how they met is quite familiar to most Bible students, but a few points deserve our consideration in this study.

Abraham was very concerned about whom Isaac would marry. He was acutely aware of the divine promises that had been made to him. He knew how important it was that the absolutely perfect individual become the wife of his son. He, therefore, sent his most trusted servant with adamant instructions regarding the choice of Isaac’s future wife. The story, recorded in Genesis 24, conveys unmistakably that the eventual union of Isaac and Rebekah was the result of a direct miracle from God. And indeed, she proved to be precisely the kind of woman that was needed under some very difficult and highly significant circumstances.

Not only did Rebekah join Isaac in the nomadic life of the patriarch Abraham, she, like her husband and like Sarah before her, was a faithful believer in and follower of Yahweh. When it was discovered that Rebekah was barren, God intervened and gave her twin sons, Esau and Jacob. The story, though familiar, is one whose importance simply cannot be overstated. Remember that the two brothers struggled while still in the womb of their mother, Esau being born first.

When the boys had grown into young men, Jacob earnestly desired, some might even say coveted, his older brother’s birthright. Among other blessings, the birthright in this case carried with it the promise given to Abraham of One who would descend from his lineage through whom the entire world would be blessed, or, in other words, the Messiah. In this regard, the birthright was far more valuable and infinitely more important than the blessing of the firstborn, which was Esau’s also.

Catching Esau in a field upon his return from hunting, Jacob was busy preparing food, a sort of red pottage or stew, which Esau just happened to love. Being famished, he was desperate for some sustenance, and when he begged for food, Jacob, knowing how faint his brother was at this moment, took advantage of this vulnerability, and demanded that Esau sell him his birthright for a bowl of the tempting red stew, saying:

“Feed me, I pray you, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore his name was called Edom (red)...Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau hated his birthright” (Gen. 25:30, 32-34).

For all his flaws, Esau, however, remained his father’s favorite son. He was a man of the field, a cunning hunter, and Isaac loved the special meals that Esau was able to fix from the various animals he slew.

Jacob, on the other hand, was more highly preferred by his mother Rebekah. She knew that Jacob, not Esau, was the proper son through whom the Abrahamic line should flow. When Isaac was old and near death, he called Esau and requested that he prepare one of the venison dishes that the old man loved so much. Unbeknown to either of them, Rebekah overheard the words of her husband, especially when he said to Esau:

“Make me savor meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may BLESS YOU before I die” (Gen. 27:4).

Rebekah immediately realized exactly the thing to which Isaac was referring–the blessing of the firstborn. This was different from the birthright, which Jacob had already secured from his brother, but Rebekah wanted Jacob to have it. Even though she was a woman and a wife, note carefully in the following passage how decisively and courageously she acted on Jacob’s behalf:

“And Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebekah spoke unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold I heard your father speak unto Esau your brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless you before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, according to that which I command you. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savory meat for your father, such as he loves: and you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, and that he may bless you before his death” (Gen. 27:5-10).

It is undoubtedly impossible for we believers today to fully appreciate what Rebekah did in this crucial instance. The chance she took was absolutely remarkable. Jacob himself told her:

“Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: my father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, UPON ME BE YOUR CURSE, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them” (Gen. 27:11-12).

Breaking with all known convention, and displaying an almost unprecedented courage and determination, Rebekah sacrificed herself for the sake of Jacob and the blessing of the firstborn. Not only did she agree to take upon herself any curse that might transpire as result of the conspiracy, but she went even farther. When Jacob protested, declaring that surely his father would recognize it was him, his mother, virtually without pausing to think, did the following. Please take note.

“And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: and she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob” (Gen. 27:15-17).

Quite obviously, Rebekah was no shrinking violet. There are very few men who would have taken the chance she did under the same circumstances. Rebekah was a strong, resolute woman, one whom God could use in His plan, and indeed one whom He did well use, for Jacob, as you know, went on to pull off this deceptive act on Isaac, and ended up with both the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn. Without question, Jacob and his descendants, meaning all Israel, owe much to the character, strength, foresight, and courage of one woman–Rebekah of Nahor!

A PROPHETESS IN ISRAEL?

Almost anyone familiar with the Bible at all knows that it is full of prophets and prophecies. When one contemplates a Biblical prophet, what usually comes to mind? There could be many attributes, but first and foremost would be that the prophet was a man, not a woman. As we read through the Old Testament, indeed we see that Enoch was a prophet. Jude confirms this fact in his short, but powerful letter in the New Testament. Later, we find the rise of Noah, whom the New Testament describes as a preacher of righteousness, and thus undoubtedly a prophet of God. And after the Flood, Moses refers to himself as a prophet by saying:

“The Lord your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, LIKE UNTO ME; unto him you shall hearken” (Deut. 18:15).

Of course, we could easily go on and on mentioning one prophet after another as God sought to deal with His people Israel, famous men such as Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and lesser known men like Micaiah, Ahijah, and Obadiah. In the case of Balaam, even a pagan prophet of Baal was used. In fact, if one isn’t careful, it might appear that only men were given the gift of prophecy. That is, in fact, what many male believers and teachers have assumed throughout the centuries of time. The Scriptures, however, confirm the fact that women also were given the gift of prophecy, and that they did indeed use that gift to prophesy. Remember what Paul says to the Romans in this regard:

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to everyone that is among you, not to think of himself more highly that he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to EVERYONE the measure of faith...Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith” (Rom. 12:3, 6).

And, in a similar fashion, he writes to the Corinthians, saying:

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to EVERYONE to the profit of ALL. For to one is given BY THE SPIRIT the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit...to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy...But all these work that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to EVERYONE severally as HE WILL” (I Cor. 12:4-8, 10-11).

What should we conclude from these two passages concerning gifts of the Spirit, including prophecy? What is the point of Paul’s discourse? Clearly, it is to show us that it is the Almighty Himself, not any human being, who decides precisely what person receives what gift, and the Scriptures irrefutably demonstrate that there is no single gift that is the sole domain of either a man or a woman. Neither male nor female has the exclusive right to any specific gift of the Spirit. That decision is in the hands of God alone.

When we think about the story of the Exodus, we naturally recall outstanding individuals such as Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb, or perhaps the Pharaoh and his magicians, or maybe even rebels such as Korah and Dathan, both of whom died at the hand of the Lord. Well, someone else needs to be added to that list. I speak of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron.

We remember, of course, that Miriam played a key role in the survival of Moses shortly after his birth. After Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the baby, it was Miriam, his sister, who immediately encountered the Egyptian princess, and, no doubt inspired by God, offered to find a nurse of the Hebrews to take care of the infant, and none other than Moses’ own mother. In this regard, Miriam made a bold move on behalf of her little brother, approaching the Pharaoh’s daughter as she did. I would submit to you that Miriam was not the silent type, but rather was up front, outspoken, and quite intuitive. She seems to have been the type of person who could get things done–a woman of courage and determination, very similar in this respect to both Sarah and Rebekah before her.

Although most of the Exodus story and Israel’s wilderness trek revolves more around Moses and Aaron, Miriam still can be seen as a crucial player in a wide-ranging cast of characters. When Israel had successfully crossed the Red Sea in their escape out of Egypt, first Moses composed and sang his famous song, but not as many remember that Miriam also had a song, for we read in Exodus 15 the following:

“For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam...the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing you unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea” (Ex. 15:19-21).

There can be no question that Miriam had the highest status among the Israelite women. They all looked to her for direction and example, and, for the most part, she carried out her responsibilities very well. In the previous passage of Scripture, you may have noticed that a phrase was omitted. It was done so on purpose, because I wanted to come back and comment on another aspect of Miriam’s role among the Israelites who came up out of Egyptian bondage. Exodus 15:20 reads in full as follows:

“And Miriam THE PROPHETESS, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.”

Yes, that’s correct–Miriam, or as many men might put it, a mere woman, was indeed a PROPHETESS, one who conveyed the word of the Eternal under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In fact, among all the known Israelites of that generation, there is no record in the Bible of anyone else, save Moses, functioning in this fashion. Is it possible that Miriam was one of only two people in all of Israel with the gift of prophecy? There was, of course, the single occasion recorded in Numbers 11 concerning the seventy elders of Israel, along with two other men, Eldad and Medad, all upon whom the Holy Spirit fell, and it is stated that they prophesied in the camp, but these isolated events hardly qualify as examples of full-fledged prophets.

The point, of course, is that Yahweh is utterly sovereign. He does what He does, and although He may explain His actions to human beings, He may just as well not do so, and He certainly has no obligation in this regard. He is the One who decides who prophesies and who doesn’t. Prophets and prophetesses are not elected by the congregation, nor are they appointed to such an office by a board of elders, or any other mere human administrative action. Any gift of the Spirit, as we have already established, not only comes from God, but is also specifically chosen by God for the particular individual who is to receive it. No man, whether apostle, evangelist, pastor, teacher, or deacon, has any right whatsoever to deny that a woman can be and will be empowered by the Almighty! I can guarantee that if any of us today had lived during Israel’s wilderness trek, and had protested to Moses against Miriam being a prophetess, we would have found ourselves on the receiving end of God’s wrath!

Part 2  | Part 3  | Part 4  | Part 5