Women of dignity!

 

Wishing all women a very Happy Women’s Day! Women have always proved their excellence by taking different roles as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc. Bible has so many examples of women of honor but somehow inadvertently or purposefully they are not marginalized in Churches today. Let me remind the foundation verse which gives God's perspective that says in Genesis 1:27 “So God created human being in his own image. In the image of God, He created them; male and female he created them.”  God had assigned specific roles for both man and woman and expects that we play the role efficiently. To a larger extent cultures have manipulated to silence women and created a male-dominated society. Diane Langberg Christian Psychologist talks about the misuse of power beautifully. “Christendom has used scripture to sanction slavery, racism, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and other cruelties our God hates. Some corners of Christendom today have, I fear become less interested in truth and more interested in power.".

I think it is good to highlight some of the women characters from the Bible who made tremendous impact but ignored. Let's look at few of them:

1.Jochebed the mother of Moses who daringly let go of her son in faith. She put him in a basket and let him float in the Nile river (Exodus 2: 1-4).

2.Zipporah initiated and completed the circumcision procedure of her son, and established the covenant (Exodus 4:24-26).

3.Deborah was the only female in the line of judges ( of the 14 judges of Israel) and was a military leader. She wanted Barak to have the credit but because of his refusal to go on his own, he was not credited for the act (Judges 4:1-9).

4.Jael was a bold woman who kills Sisera with kindness and power, subduing the power of Canaanites (Judges 4:17-23).

5.Ruth's noble character gave way to form the lineage of Jesus (Ruth 1:16-18) through David's genealogy.

6.Hannah, the barren woman’s decision to offer her son to be one of the greatest prophets in Biblical history (1 Samuel 1: 11-28).

7.Queen Vashti is unique to be qualified in this list. The King wanted to flaunt her beauty to a bunch of drunken men. Would it not be labelled as humiliation and abuse of power in present times? And the consequences pornographic? Vashti should be considered a righteous hero for standing up for her modesty (Esther 1:-10-12).

8.Abigail was a wise woman married to a fool (as admitted by her). She gives a brilliant discourse and saved her husband from David’s wrath (1 Samuel 25: 23-31).

9.Mary Magdalene, Joanna Susanna and many other were supporters for Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8: 2).

10.Mary Magdalene, Mary of Nazareth, Mary wife Clopas stood by Christ till the last in the crucifixion history (John 19:25).

11.Priscilla along with her husband corrected Apollos, an eloquent orator on the teachings of Christ accurately (Acts 18:24-25) and was also involved in the founding of the Church at Corinth.

12.Women who witnessed the empty tomb and proclaimed the resurrection story is commendable. (Luke 24:10; Mark 16:9; Mat 27:56, 61)

I have mentioned just few and we all know there are so many more in the Bible who have set an amazing example for all of us to follow. Before I could conclude let me juxtapose two prominent male characters from the Bible. The first one is Amnon who stripped the dignity of a woman (Tamar happened to be his sister) (2 Samuel 13:1-14). The second person is Boaz who protected Ruth when she was vulnerable spending the night with him. He clothed the woman (Ruth) with dignity and extended his protection (Ruth 3: 7-18). In the world where there is so much of discrimination and abuse, women still outshine like a stars. We honor you and bless you. May you excel and ignite the world which is filled with differences, hatred and abuse.

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