Tag: Women

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Seeing through eyes of mercy.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret. Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit, and she begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter. Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia, Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. Mark‬ ‭7‬:‭24‬-‭27‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In Mark’s gospel, written from Peter’s firsthand, eyewitness accounts, he wants to show the reader the power of Christ. As Jesus reveals more and more about who he is, he also progressively shows more authority. Jesus doesn’t hoard or self consume the power and authority given him. As son of man/son of God, he freely disperses it among the broken, the outlier. And in this case, to a Syrian (Gentile) Woman and her demon possessed little girl.

Jesus breaks through racial and cultural barriers to bring mercy and freedom. Jesus, raised in a typical, but poor family, would have learned all about God’s Laws and God’s ways. But if we look at the common cultural understanding of how young Jewish men and women were instructed, it was very much a separatist mentality. Gentiles (non Jews) are not good people and they should not have any interaction with them. A Jewish male would not culturally be allowed to have any contact with a woman, let alone with one who was a long historical enemy with Assyrian heritage. So either Joseph and Mary instructed Jesus differently (which is completely possible), or Father God had been teaching His own true intentions of rescuing the entire human race – not just the Jews (Isaiah 56:6-7). Either way, Jesus continued to baffle his followers and invite hostile criticism for this kind of cultural faux pas.

If Jesus was so religiously and socially counter-cultural, why do we struggle with being like Him today? I think our heart is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), but we forget there is both religious (legalism) AND humanistic wickedness. The religious have always despised Jesus’ counterculture ways. And, equally the self-serving humanist despises him as well. Normal, common people, who know they are broken and have need of being saved, have always loved Jesus’ ways. Why? Because they reflect exactly how God sees us. Religion and/or humanism both make us arrogant.

Jesus explains to this Syrian woman that his first priority is to the Jews, the people of God. Jesus, not so subtlety referring to her own people as dogs, wasn’t offensive to her at all. She knew the comparison was true. Folks have tried to soft-pedal this “dog reference” as a beloved pet in the household. That’s nonsense. The enemies of the Jews knew they were like wild dogs and were possibly proud of it! The feelings were mutual between the ethnicities.

The woman, similar to the Samaritan woman at the well, had some comments in response to Jesus’ words. She said, “but even the dogs…”

She calmly kept her cool.
She was smart.
She knew who she was, but she also knew who Jesus was!

She was telling Jesus, “I know our story,” “I know God’s intention is for His own first,” “But I don’t need the full on life of blessing and favor as given to the Jews,” “I just need the scraps, the leftovers.” Her faith saw that even the scraps of mercy from God would be powerful enough to free her daughter. Jesus commented about her faith, saying “your faith is great” (Matthew 15:28). You know the gospels record Jesus being amazed just a couple of times. One, he was amazed at his hometown folk’s “lack of faith” (Mark 6:6). Two, he was amazed at the Roman centurion’s extraordinary understanding of authority and faith (Luke 7:8).

Here in this story, the woman got what she wanted. Jesus complimented her retort, “Good answer!” She received what she came asking for. Jesus told her, “Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter.” Jesus was clearly impressed.

Do we want to know how Jesus really feels about the non-religious, even enemies of God? He shows mercy to whomever he chooses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (Exodus 33:19). I believe we can be just as culturally contrarian in how we see people today. Folks can know how we feel about them simply looking at our facial expression! Following the ways of Jesus means we see with eyes of mercy. If we see with eyes of mercy our face will follow!

Prayer

​Dad,
I absolutely know this is how you saw me, and how you see me still – through eyes of mercy. I absolutely love to wake up each morning with fresh, new mercy in my account for the day! “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”(Lamentations 3:22-23). I am ever in amazement of your enduring patience and grace. Thank you. Amen.

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Women empowerment in the Old Testament.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat. She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by. ‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Many of these stories in both the Old and New Testament are people driven. Real people with real lives, names, history and problems. Sometimes, we are told these folks names, sometimes, as in this story, we are only told a few key facts. Jeremiah, the most likely author of 1st & 2nd Kings, tells us about a wealthy woman from Shunem. Later, we find out she is married but has no children. Where is Shumen? I had no idea. That’s like asking me “Where is the country of Djibouti!” It turns out that the location of this story is interesting and you can Google it.

What is more significant is this unnamed woman’s extraordinary experience with an emotionally detached Prophet (spokesperson of God) Elisha. Elisha often sends his assistant, Gehazi, to do most of the talking! This story, like the widow story just before it, is a woman empowerment story. This great woman as KJV translates, means she was a woman of great wealth. It is her idea to urge Elisha to stop in for a bite to eat, then in what’s known as radical hospitality, she tells her husband, this man is a “holy man” let’s (translated, I am going to do this) build him an upstairs ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit)! Elisha is moved by this remarkable blessing, to not just feed him but give him a personal quarters to have a place to rest, pray, and be on his way. He wants to bless her in return.

Elijah tells Gehazi to offer the normal, networking advantages that one would offer a friend, ”Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?” But she’s doing just fine on her own, she does not need the king for special treatment, nor some kind of protection from the king’s guard. Elisha still wants to bless this woman. So, Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?” Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.” Sure, there’s some assumptions made here, this married woman with no children can mean a lot of things. But one of the most glaring needs, who will care for her when she’s too old to care for herself? We already know her husband’s pretty old.

Elisha told her himself, next year when he returns, she will be holding a son! Her reply is honest and so sweet, “No, my Lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.” Sure enough, a year later she had her son! As her son of promise grew older, he had a horrible episode while working in the field with his father. A servant took the young man home to die in his mother’s arms at noon.

It is here we find this woman’s assertive faith and determination to go and find Elisha and tell him that he was responsible for her son being given as a blessing! God granted the miracle to give life, so now in her mind, Elisha should be responsible to bring him back to life! Elisha tried to just send Gehazi, but she would not accept that, saying “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me.” So Elisha returned with her.

In the moments of radical empathy, compassion and faith, Elisha prayed and God brought the boy back to life! Yes, these stories are about the amazing miracles of God, but they are also about the powerful, determination of women who had an unshakable faith in God.

Prayer

Dad,
I have come to learn through your word AND experience that simply asking for folks to pray as a last resort is an improper understanding of who you are, but also the serious undervaluing of the power of a mother’s or grandmother’s prayer. I now believe it should be our first priority! Do I have a huge need in my life? Then I should look for women of faith to not just join with me, but take the lead in assertive determination to reach heaven! Thank you for women of great faith. And, thank you for hearing their prayers!

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When God goes silent.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

““The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day, thirsting for the Lord’s word.” Amos‬ ‭8‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Amos isn’t famous, rich or educated, but he just had enough of Israel’s abundant flaunting of wealth and hubristic treatment of the poor. Being a shepherd and a fig tree farmer didn’t stop him from hearing from God, putting together his sermons and messages about what he heard and delivering it in Bethel, where there was a large temple.

Israel, under Jeroboam 2, had become extremely powerful and wealthy. The king had won a lot of battles and secured Israel’s borders so that everyone prospered. Everyone, except the poor. The rich got richer and the poor not only got poorer, they became slaves to the wealthy families. And because they were poor, there was no representation or help when cheated in transactions. All the while, the Jewish well to do continued to go to temple, pay their taxes, and party hard in the religious celebrations. And, worst of all the people did all of this while experiencing and expanding their worship of idols. In the people’s eyes, the nation was flourishing and the wealthy were happy to add Jehovah to a list of other gods as a part of their cultural, religious experiences.

This average Amos guy comes into town with big warnings and harsh words for the privileged and those who just wanted to live the good life without giving a second thought to God or his rules. Earlier in chapter 8, God shows Amos a basket of ripe fruit, figs most likely. God says that the ripe fruit represents the people being ripe for judgment. In one verse God says “You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.” (8:5‬). Just normal folks, playing a dangerous game of living high while behaving horribly to their fellow (poor) Israelites.

In these verses, God tells Amos, the next big famine that God will send on them will be worse than the ones before. What is worse than a food famine or a disastrous drought? God will quit speaking. There will not be any words, no communication, no messages from heaven – God goes silent. If we lined up all the Old Testament prophets, the spokespersons for God, they were all speaking, warning, pronouncing both judgment and hope. Most of them were murdered to subdue their silence. This time, God would go silent for 400 years! From Malachi to Matthew, God did not speak.

What happened in that time period? The world experienced a mini apocalypse, just a foretaste of what men of war and humanity would be like without God intervening or speaking. Just a note, in the future God will not be silent. You would think that the non-God crowd, the atheists or pantheists would celebrate. But the world got very dark, brutal and wicked. Honest historians admit, this period of time led to the worse treatment of humans and the poor ever! People who think Judaism is restrictive, or that Christianity is a straitjacket of thought, morality, and science – even promoting sexism, patriarchal oppression and hate, does not know history. This period of time, the 400 years of silence was a free for all of power, wealth, abuse and domination over the weak, the poor.

It was the worse time in history to be a woman or a child! Read Tom Holland’s book, Dominion. Holland, an atheist himself, concludes that Christ and Christianity was the turning point and salvation of human morality and treatment of the poor, the weak – especially for women, children and the family structure. Modern culture seems to beg for the removal of constraints and restrictions of Christianity, of any sense of God, but we do so to our own peril, our own destruction.

Prayer

Dad,
I feel the conviction and passion of Amos’ words even today. Our “king” and country is wealthy. And, I see a lot of folks pursue whatever god promises the biggest financial bonus or fame. I also do my Sunday duties and too often continue to treat the outliers and outcasts with disdain. Father God, you’d prefer mercy over sacrifice wouldn’t you? I also know that I tend to focus on things that perpetuate instead of prevent further harm or injustices. I need the boldness of Amos’ passion to work first in me. I don’t need to look far from my own frailties. Forgive me. Help me Holy Spirit; to yield and move towards you, not away from you. In you, Oh Lord, will I find right living, peace and joy! Amen.