Princess
Lei in the Star Wars movie barked orders at
Han Solo when they first met, “Into the garbage shoot fly boy.” His
comment back, “I don’t take orders from no one.” She made a comment that
she was surprised that he was still alive. I wonder how long the
love relationship would have lasted in the real world? For every
relationship there is usually a chief and then an Indian. Were they both
Type A personalities? If so, they were headed for a collision in
the future (an iceberg) like the Titanic.
There
were two curses put on woman in Genesis, one was that she would have painful
labor in child bearing, that she would be subservient to man, and her desire
would be to her husband. We see still much of this curse in affect today
as far as women being the victim of sex trafficking, sterilization and
population control forced on women in China, 14-year old Pakistan girl shot in
the head by the Taliban for advocating education for girls, spousal abuse, and
the list goes on and on of all the horror stories I’ve heard over the years of
crimes against women.
To the woman he
said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you
will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will
rule over you." Genesis 3:16
I
know many women who have taken on a leadership battle in a man’s world. There
was a CNN report about more women are in the Senate government. The tide is
changing. I spoke to a women physician in the military when I worked at
Methodist Hospital about how sergeants gave her a hard time. Many of the
military men did not respect this women pediatrician. I found the same
true when women were trying to get into the surgery field when I worked at
Methodist Hospital 17 years ago. They did not want to hire women, because
they knew most likely they would want to have children and interrupt their
five-year residency program. Leadership in the Bible is different than
secular leadership as far as God said that we will become a servant of all if
we want to be great leader.
Not that many American men would
consider a woman president even if she has all the qualifications.
Our society, and especially our Christian society, has not changed that much
from the woman suffrage movement. Jesus exalted women who had no voice in
their society, as far as women were the first to witness his resurrection from
the grave. Although a testimony of a woman would not hold water in court.
There were two women who saw Jesus, but the disciples did not
believe (accept) their testimony.
When they came
back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the
others. I was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others
with them who told this to the apostles But they did not believe the women,
because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Luke 24:9-11
This will be my
third visit to you. "Every matter must be established by the testimony of
two or three witnesses." 2 Cor. 13:1 and Duet. 19:15
Who has believed our message and to whom
has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Isaiah 53:1
There are some men and women, and some
Christian men and women that are threatened by a woman in authority or in a
high position. They would not want to answer to working for a woman
boss. I’ve been a manager of men where some worked out, and some did not
like working for me. When I worked at a small hospital, we hired temps,
and I would assign them to help me with spreadsheets and track statistics, and
they worked out very well for me. But then there have been other
times there was a lack of respect and if there was a lack of respect (honor) than
they did not work out well having any man or woman as an employee working for
me. I’ve never “sought” to be a manager, this was assigned to me by my
boss.
Be kindly
affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one
another; Romans 12:10
I’ve had several professors assign me
the role of leader in class projects or I ended up being the leader by default
that no one else wanted the job. I have had good and bad experiences in
being the leader of class projects over men and women. I’ve had projects
where both male and female students told me what they would or would not do,
I’ve had class projects where the students were substandard in their grades,
and dumped all the responsibility on me of the project, and then I’ve had class
projects where everyone pulled their own weight and we got A’s as a group and
it was a “rewarding” experience because people understood what it is to work at
a team.
To
accept a person in leadership, we have to respect a leader and believe they
have our bests interest at heart. The Pharisees did not respect
Jesus. Who made you ruler over us? By what authority Jesus do you
do these things?
Tell us by what authority you are doing
these things," they said. "Who gave you this authority?" Luke
20:2
The
Children of Israel had this problem with Moses. Miriam, Moses sister spoke
against Moses for marrying a Cushite wife and got leprosy. I love how the
Bible talks about how “humble” Moses was…wow a prince of Egypt that
ended up humble that is so amazing!
This is the same Moses whom they had
rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be
their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him
in the bush. Acts 7:35
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against
Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.
"Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked.
"Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this. (Now
Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the
earth.) At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to
the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came
out. Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the
entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped
forward, he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is
among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. but
this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him
I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" he anger
of the LORD burned against them, and he left them. When the cloud lifted from
above the Tent, there stood Miriam--leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her
and saw that she had leprosy; Numbers 12:1-10
As a mother,
there have been times I felt that I micromanaged my children too much, but as I
had more children, I liked them all to be more responsible. I had all my
children do their own laundry, and keep their room clean. The older ones
picked up their siblings at school from sports. Some of them did a better
job at responsibility than others. I was listening to Christian
radio and they talked about how privileges in life needs to be followed by
responsibility. My mother treated my brother and I pretty equally as far
as doing chores and having responsibilities around the house.
The apostle Paul worked closely with
many women and he credits them in the Bible similar to giving credits in a
Hollywood movie or writing a novel. I’ve posted some of these at the end
of this blog. I think people misunderstand Paul’s generation and that
most women were given in marriage by their father, and it was a dowry like
Rachel and Leah. Women had little choice in love and marriage in those
days. It’s pretty much the same in the 1800’s where women could not own
land or property, but it would always pass down to a male heir. If
a father had all female children in Rome or many countries, the estate would be
lost. Abraham’s inheritance was going to pass to his servant so he ended
up having Ishmael before Isaac. Women could not inherit the estate.
Paul wrote that
there is "neither male nor female" because Jesus Christ unites us.
Galatians 3:28
Christianity
and marriage is a “team” effort. (Do two walk together unless they have
agreed to do so? Amos 3:3) Peter talked about a husband and wife are “partners”
in life. 1 Peter 3:7. It goes back to woman was taken out of men’s
rib, not his head or his feet. God honors a “spirit of
cooperation/or unity.”
How good and
pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! Psalm 133:1
How pleasant it was to live in a
Christian marriage when we were in harmony/unity!
We
see an example of a man who insisted on the married judge and prophetess
Deborah coming with him to battle. So she told him the leader would be
delivered into the hands of a woman, because he was not man enough to do the
job. The account being that of Jael, the wife of Heber, a Kenite tent maker.
Jael killed Sisera by driving a tent peg through his temple as he slept.
At first she gave him a glass of milk to make him tired instead of water so he
would fall asleep. Judges 4 and 5
Barak
said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I
won’t go.” “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But
because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands
of a woman.” Judges 4:8-9
Barak
is an example of where God wanted a man to “step up to the plate” and take on
leadership.
Jewish women disciples, including Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, had accompanied Jesus during his
ministry and supported him out of their private means. Luke 8:1-3.
Although the details of these gospel stories may be questioned, in general they
reflect the prominent historical roles women played in Jesus' ministry as
disciples. Luke 8:15. There were women disciples at the foot of the
cross.
The Apostle Paul’s credits to women:
He greets Prisca, Junia,
Julia,
and Nereus'
sister, who worked and traveled as missionaries in pairs with their husbands or
brothers.[Rom 16:3,7,15] He also sends
elaborate greetings to Tryphena, Tryphosa,
who "labour for the Lord's work", and to Rufus'
mother.[Rom 16:12–15]
Priscilla or Prisca is expressly mentioned
six times in the Bible, as the wife of Aquila,
and as a missionary partner with the Apostle Paul. They were also partners in
the craft of tentmaking. The order of their names alternates between Aquila
first at first, third[3] and fifth mention, and Priscilla
first the second, fourth and final mention as Prisca. (View all 6 verses) When Paul refers to Priscilla and
Aquila, Priscilla is usually listed first, suggesting to some
scholars that she was the head of the family unit.[4]
According to Bart Ehrman, Paul praises Junia as a
prominent apostle[5] who had been imprisoned for her
labor.[Rom 16:7] Junia is “the only
female apostle named in the New Testament”.[6] Ian
Elmer states that Junia and Andronicus
are the only "apostles" associated with Rome
that were greeted by Paul in his letter to the Romans.[7] [Rom 16:7] Steven
Finlan says Paul greets this couple as "kinspersons and fellow
prisoners" and says that "they are outstanding amongst the
apostles."[8] According to Ian Elmer, the fact
that Andronicus and Junia are named as apostles suggests a priori that
they were evangelists and church-planters like Paul.[7]
Phebe or Phoebe. Paul attaches to her three
titles: diakonos meaning a deacon (lit. "servant"), sister,
and prostatis meaning "a woman in a supportive role, patron,
benefactor".[9] There is no difference when the
title of deacon is used for Phoebe and Timothy.[Rom. 16:1–2] Diakonos
(Gk.) is grammatically a masculine word, the same word that Paul uses in
regards to his own ministry. Phoebe is the only woman to be named
"deacon".[10] 1 Timothy discusses the criteria for
Deacons in the early Church which is explicitly directed to both male and
females. Phoebe was especially influential in the early Church seen in
Jerusalem from the 4th century inscription: "Here lies the slave and bride
of Christ, Sophia, deacon, the second Phoebe, who fell asleep in Christ."[11] Women flourished in the
deaconate between the 2nd and 6th centuries. The position required pastoral
care to women, instructing female candidates and anoint them at Baptism. They
were also required to be present whenever a female would address a bishop.[12] In Romans Phoebe is seen as
acting as Paul's envoy. Phoebe is named as a Patron of Paul, meaning that she
would have been financially contributing to Paul's mission.
Mary and Persis are commended for their
hard work.[Rom. 16:6,12]
Chloe, a prominent woman of Corinth, appears to be the head of a
household of an extended family. She and her household told Paul of the
divisions in the congregation of Corinth.[1 Cor. 1:11]
Euodia and Syntyche
are called his fellow-workers in the gospel.[Phil. 4:2–3]
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