AN ANSWER, A JAR, AND PASS IT ON

Last week, you read about three kids/young adults.  From Samuel we learned that when we listen, we can hear the Lord calling us.  From Josiah we learned that hearing the Word can change a heart and soul.  From Rhoda we learned that the sound of a voice can bring great joy.

Today I want you to look at the actions of four women.

AN ANSWER

Josiah (In last week’s blog) heard the words of the lost Book of the Law and his life changed and he realized that the Law had been neglected by generations.  Josiah needed guidance and sent his advisors to the prophetess, Huldah. 

Huldah said unto the advisors that the LORD was going to bring disaster to everything written in the book because the nation had forgotten Him and turned to idols.  She also stated that this would not happen until Josiah was buried in peace.

This would not necessarily be the answer I would want to hear, but the answer is not what I want you to see.  I want you to see a person who needed advice and, in a time when women were not exactly high on the status pole, a woman answered Josiah’s question. 

A JAR

I want to shout, “Stop Jesus!  If you do this you will be on the evening news – again.  You know the Jews and the Samaritans ….. “  I might as well of kept my mouth shut.  He never listens.  Yup, he is sitting down.  Why is that woman coming to the well now?  Why didn’t she get her water this morning like the other women?  Maybe this one time Jesus will not speak …. Too late.

We all know the story.  The Samaritan woman came to the well and Jesus asked her for a drink.  A simple request that ended … ended with Jesus telling the woman, “I who speak to you am he.”  No longer was she on a mission to get water.  No longer was she afraid to go among the people. 

She said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?”  The Samaritans came to him, believed, and invited him to stay. 

One woman – an outcast – a woman with a bad reputation – and Jesus offered her living water.  This one woman told her town and they came to believe because they heard for themselves.

PASS IT ON

Timothy was raised by his mother, Eunice a Jewess, and his grandmother, Lois.  His father was Greek and is not mentioned in the scriptures.  Eunice and Lois must have been extraordinary examples of how to live, because in Paul’s letter to Timothy he said, “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded now lives in you also.”  Later in the letter, Paul says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures…”

Eunice and Lois did not know what the future would hold for Timothy.  They did not know he would travel with Paul.  They did not know he would pastor a church in Ephesus.  They taught him how to have a sincere faith.  They taught this infant how to find salvation through faith in Jesus. 

WOMEN IN THE BIBLE

A very young king sought advice from the prophetess, Huldah.  Jesus talked with a woman most people would have shunned.  Eunice and Lois lived their lives in such a way that Timothy grew in faith and used his knowledge to lead others to find salvation.

It sometimes seems that there are very few women in the Bible.  I could be snarky and say it is because men didn’t want to acknowledge that women had worth, but it really doesn’t matter what men think.  All that matters is that God valued women.  All that matters is that Jesus considered all women children of God.  Sometime look up women of the Bible.  You know all about Mary, Martha, Esther, Miriam, and Eve, but what about Abigail, Dorcas (Tabitha), Deborah, Puah, Joanna, Jael …………

Next week will be on men.  Maybe I can find a couple hidden in a passage or two.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURES:  2 Kings 22:11-20, John 4:1-30, 2 Timothy 1:5, 3:14-15, and Acts 16:1