#women are so much more than what people say about Deborah and Jael

[reformedfaerie]

one thing about biblical womanhood posts that I’ve noticed is that when it’s talked about, they still strive to emphasize the aspects that were remarkable situations— they leave a faint taste of feminism in my mouth because they focus on Deborah, the woman raised up to lead because the men wouldn’t; they focus on Jael, the woman who kills a man with a tent spike; a woman dropping a stone, Rahab smuggling Israelites and defying authorities—

And all of these are raised up and praised as the Biblical woman with just a hint of look!! We’re strong!! We’re in the thick of it!! We’re not submissive doormats!!

In one sense, this is true. These are great, godly women. They are our examples.

But in all our striving to remind people of biblical women’s strength, we cannot forget who else are our examples.

We cannot forget Ruth. Ruth who humbled herself and remains loyal with Naomi, submitting herself to God and trusting in His provision. Ruth who lays herself at Boaz’s feet and who sacrifices possibly being a widow soon again for the sake of Naomi’s care and God’s provision.

Martha— one who serves and who desires to serve

Mary— one who sits at Christ’s feet to learn and desires to hear the words of her Lord

Lydia— who insisted on hosting and serving the Lord’s messengers; who would be possibly sacrificing her wealth being a part of the church in Philippi and serving the church

Mary— Jesus’ mother who submitted herself to God’s will, submitted herself to the scorn of her peers, who trusted the Lord to fulfill His promises and whose soul was pierced with a sword

The strength of godly wives who submit though their flesh and curse is contrary— the strength of women who order their homes, are humble, are helpers, are mothers, are servers, are menders, are teachers, are caregivers, are sellers and makers, are students of our Lord.

Don’t confuse gentleness for weakness; nor tenderness for a lack of strength.

Women are strong.

And it’s not because of tent spikes.

[injetrity]

No Man is an Island

Last time, a television program previously aired an episode about Great White Sharks. They made a research and tested if a great white shark will choose a single prey over than a pack of prey by placing a rubber seal on one side and a group of rubber seals on other side of False Bay of Cape Town, Africa. They found out that great white sharks are more likely interested in a single prey than a bunch of prey. That if you are in shark-infested waters, it is better to stay together in the pack and you will be far less likely to get attacked.1

Guess what? This world is also overrun with great white sharks, "the devil, our enemy, they prowl like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8). We all know that a separated animal on its group is far more likely to be attacked by lions. So beware of being alone or isolated.

Isolation is Jeopardy

Walking alone in the middle of a street of our relationship with Christ is very dangerous. We are the first subject when the enemy is hunting. Never a burning charcoal will prolong its ember when it keeps itself from other burning charcoals. Even though we think we have a quenchless fire, it will suppress soon if we will isolate ourself from those people who are with us.

Our life is designed to become dependent on God and live with others to achieve the growth, progress, and development we need to be like His Son. Like a broomstick which is tied together so that it will not break easily by anyone, though we know that one stick of it is so much fragile-like ours- it will become impregnable if it is bonded with others. It can clean and wipe out those garbage and dirt because they are together and the hands of God are holding them.

Two Are Better Than One

Following Christ until the end is not as easy as we think it is. We need someone - others - to keep our feet firm on the solid ground of our faith in Jesus. King Solomon knew it and said in his written book, "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-11).

Yes, it is not a wow thing; that we can stand by ourself alone, by our power, or by the knowledge we have on God. It is a woeful thing. A misery. A tragedy. Like a man who wants to finish the race of his Christian life alone with full of passion, energy, and effort, then suddenly stumbles along the way. No one is there to hold him and help him to keep his goal on the track because he made his own way-which is different from others. Catastrophic moment, as I imagine.

Do You Have Companions?

Fighting for the greatness of Christ alone is not good. It takes an army with full of faith to win the battle of our life. I'm not closing any door that a man cannot overcome the battle of his life with his skills, knowledge or strength alone. It is possible. And perhaps, might grow alone. But he will not grow on what God intends him to grow and remember that "a wise man with full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might; for waging war he needs guidance and in abundance of counselors there is victory" (Proverb 24:5-6).

God called us to go in the battle with companions. Even the great heroes of the Bible have someone on their side when facing a battle. We will see that Moses is fighting with Aaron and Hur on the top of the hill while Joshua with his troops fighting against the Amalekites (See Exodus 17:8-16). Joshua with the seven priests and people of Israel on taking the land of Jericho (See Joshua chapter 6). Also in the book of Judges, Deborah, a woman, wife of Lapidoth, won the fight against Jabin King of Canaan not only by her own hands but with the help of another woman, Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite (See Judges 4 and 5) and Gideon with his three hundred men (See Judges 7), and many more.

Surround Yourself With People Who Love Christ Above All Things

Fighting the belief and the faith we have on Jesus alone or isolating ourself from other men or women of God will be difficult for us to increase our faith more and to enjoy Him more. Being alone or isolated will suppress the passion we have for Jesus little by little. Isolating ourself from others without their knowledge of the reason why we have to might be a sign of pride thinking that we can grow alone without their guidance or help. Teamwork is always better than fighting for something else alone.

Surround and keep yourself with people who also want to finish the race of their life until the end. If you want the fire to keep burning within you or your faith to be as strong as a steal which is not easily bend, do not keep yourself from other men or women whose passion is treasuring Christ above their life. Fight for this generation and on the generations to come with them. Find men (if you are a man) or women (if you are a woman) who will help you grow in your relationship with God. Pray that you will have mentor that will give their hands to become victorious in different areas of your life. You need them. We need them; because this life we will encounter problems, temptations and trials and if you want to remain on your track and purpose do not isolate yourself. No man is an island.

(c) Matt Soo

Note: 1. http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat53/sub337/item1275.html

2. Isolation doesn't mean always for a bad thing. Sometimes we need to isolate ourself from others. In what way? Spending our time with Him alone by going to the top of the mountains or beautiful scenery and enjoy the rest of the day with Him. Solitude, devotion, and prayer in our room to hear the voice of God clearly through His word, pondering on His goodness and kindness and saying to Him what we feel and our gratitude.

3. Sorry for it takes you too long. I mean it. I believe one day this blog will be a part of my book (July 10. 2015)

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Hi!! A question I've always struggled with about liberation theology - don't get me wrong, i agree that God is on the side of the downtrodden and marginalized - but does this mean he doesn't care about the successful and accepted?? I realize this may not be the right place to ask, but you seem to know a lot about the subject. Thanks regardless!!

Hi there, wonderful question! As you can probably tell from my blog, I love liberation theology. And something I’m learning about it is that there isn’t one “version” of it – different liberation theologians may have different answers for you, so I’ll give my answer based on what I know of those theologians whom I’ve read and what I think myself.

What does a “preferential option for the poor” even mean?

First, let’s clarify what liberation theologians (and others) mean when they claim that God has a “preferential option for the poor.” Does it mean that God loves the poor more than the rich, the oppressed more than their oppressors?? And does it contradict the places in scripture that state that God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11)??

God does indeed show no partiality, and loves no one person or group of people over any other – and liberation theology actually affirms this, rather than contradicts it. It is because God loves all people that God “prefers” the poor – a word that, in liberation theology, does not mean “likes better” but rather something like “focuses more attention on” or “takes special care of.” 

Gustavo Gutiérrez explains this preference in terms of what takes precedence: “Preference implies the universality of God’s love, which excludes no one. It is only within the framework of this universality that we can understand the preference, that is, ‘what comes first.‘” So it doesn’t mean that God is ignoring the privileged but that those who are marginalized and vulnerable come first. 

I think an explanation of why “Black lives matter” does not mean that other lives don’t matter can help explain why God’s preference for the poor does not mean greater love for the poor or a hatred of the rich/oppressors/privileged. The purpose of the phrase “Black lives matter” is to point out that Black lives, which are treated in American society like they don’t matter, actually do – to emphasize Black lives because they have been de-emphasized, because they have been treated like nothing, because their inherent worth has been denied through systemic violence. Its purpose is not superiority but equity – to raise Black people’s lives and rights up to the same level as all other lives. 

Likewise, the analogy I’ve heard used by Black Lives Matter about firefighters is a good one for our purposes too: if there is a burning house and a non-burning house, firefighters are going to pay much more attention to the burning house. It would not actually be “equality” or “loving both equally” for the firefighters to use half their water on the burning house and half on the non-burning house – it would be an injustice to the burning house. The firefighters give more care to the burning house because the burning house needs it more. 

God gives the poor special attention and care not because God loves them more or because they are necessarily more “worthy” of attention and care, but because their worth has been denied and dishonored by the world. As the Puebla Conference held in 1978 in Lima, Peru, explained it, “The poor merit preferential attention, whatever may be the moral or spiritual situation in which they find themselves. Made in the image and likeness of God to be [God’s] children, this image is dimmed and even defiled. That is why God takes on their defense and loves them.”

In his book On Job, Gustavo Gutiérrez also describes how it’s not about who “deserves” God’s love or care: “God has a preferential love for the poor not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply because they are poor and living in an inhuman situation that is contrary to God’s will.”

In this way, Gustavo Gutiérrez claims, “This preference for the poor…is a key factor in authentic divine justice.” Because God is just, God must show particular care to those most in need of justice. 

God’s preference for the poor in scripture 

This idea of a “preference” for the poor/oppressed/marginalized has biblical basis. This webpage notes this fact in describing the history of the term:

“The phrase ‘preferential option for the poor’ was first used in 1968 by the superior general of the Jesuits, Father Pedro Arrupe, in a letter to his order. The term was later picked up by the Catholic bishops of Latin America. In its early usage, particularly, the option for the poor referred especially to a trend throughout biblical texts, where there is a demonstrable preference given to powerless individuals who live on the margins of society. The liberation theology movement fully embraced the concept, particularly when they closely associated the poor and vulnerable with Jesus himself, citing Matthew 25, ‘Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.’”

In On Job, Gutiérrez uses Matthew 11:25-26 to explain further just what it means for God to “prefer” the poor. The passage:

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

Here we see that God does indeed have a “preference” for the poor – here, for “infants” over those who are wise. It is the uneducated whom God favors with “hidden things” – why? Gutiérrez says:

“The condition of being privileged addressees of revelation is the result not primarily of moral or spiritual dispositions but of a human situation in which God undertakes self-revelation by acting and overturning values and criteria. The scorned of this world are those whom the God of love prefers.

…The real reason, then, for Jesus’ gratitude is his contemplation (in the full sense of the term as a form of prayer) of the Father’s goodness and love that reach out to the simple and the unimportant, and give them preference. This predilection, which does not imply exclusivity, is underscored by the hiding of revelation from the wise and important. An entire social and religious order is hereby turned upside down.”

Some other examples in scripture of God choosing the poor/marginalized/oppressed over the rich/oppressors/privileged: 

God’s choosing of younger sons over their older siblings in a society in which older siblings got everything (I’m talking about Jacob, Joseph, David, and so many more)

God’s choosing of and special care for women in a society in which women were marginalized and vulnerable (think of Hagar, of Deborah and Jael, of Hannah, of Jesus’ interactions with various women, his respect for them and sharing special wisdom with them)

God’s special care for people who are depressed, downtrodden, unloved or rejected (think of Leah, Elijah, David when he’s an outcast and on the run from the law, Ruth and Naomi who are foreigners and widows)

God’s various declarations of care for the oppressed, such as in Isaiah 56 (a message to foreigners and eunuchs that they have a place in God’s house), and Jesus’s quoting of Isaiah to proclaim he has come “with good news for the poor” and to set captives free (Luke 4). 

Hannah’s song of praise in 1 Samuel 2 and Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1 both speak of God’s preference for the poor – “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

Using this theology to carry out justice 

So what does all this mean for us, in how we act out our faith on an individual and systemic basis, on our own and with our church communities?

Gutiérrez says that recognizing the option for the poor will inspire us to solidarity: “Belief in God and God’s gratuitous love leads to a preferential option for the poor and to solidarity with those who suffer wretched conditions, contempt, and oppression, those whom the social order ignores and exploits.”

In this way we will be moved to stand with the poor and even to suffer with them. Hopefully we will be inspired to confront injustices ranging from economic and social injustice to racism, homophobia and transphobia, xenophobia, islamophobia and anti-Semitism, sexism, and all systems that pit some groups over others, that dehumanize and trap people in cycles of suffering.

Bishop Desmond Tutu lauds the way that liberation theology gives voice to the suffering of the innocent: “Liberation, theology more than any other kind of theology, issues out of the crucible of human suffering and anguish. It happens because people cry out, ‘Oh, God, how long?’ ‘Oh God, but why?…’ All liberation theology stems from trying to make sense of human suffering when those who suffer are the victims of organized oppression and exploitation, when they are…treated as less than what they are: human persons created in the image of the Triune God, redeemed by the one Savior Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Holy Paraclete.”

Thus liberation theology can help us give voice to our own suffering and compel us to hear others’ suffering, so that we will be moved to right that suffering. Lamentation and crying out to God is something many of our churches are rusty at – because it’s not easy, it’s not comfortable, and we often fear that it’s “blasphemy” to yell at God. But from Job, Habakkuk, and the Psalms to Jesus in the garden and on the cross, scripture shows us that God invites and encourages us to cry out, to bring all our messy emotions to Them – and to let others give voice to those emotions, too. 

Good news for the rich and privileged, too?

Finally, what good news is there in liberation theology for those who are not “the poor” whom God prefers – for those who are the rich, the privileged, the oppressors?

I wish I could find the passage (I think it is in Gutiérrez but it might be from a some other theologian I’ve read in seminary), but I know I have heard this somewhere: God being on the side of the poor means the spiritually poor too! Those of us who are oppressed by our own sins, our own corruption, our complicit-ness in sinful social structures, are part of God’s preference. 

As Jesus puts it in Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 19:10, then, says that “the Son of Humanity is come to seek and save that which was lost.”

Think also of biblical figures whom God chooses even though they are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination: Moses was a murderer, and Paul was too; Jacob was a trickster and yet was even blessed for “striving with God and with people”; Jesus ate with tax collectors and chose disciples who would doubt and betray him; and on and on.

God’s preferential option is thus at work on the oppressors, and on those of us who benefit from oppression whether we want to or not. It reminds me of feminists’ argument that feminism helps men too – because it can free them from the constraints of toxic masculinity. 

Now, God’s preferential option may show itself in different ways for the privileged than it does with the oppressed – it may show itself in the Spirit’s urging us to do the hard work to combat sin, both our individual sin and the systemic sin from which we benefit. It may show itself in God’s refusal to leave us to our sin that harms others, in God moving us to empathy and solidarity with the oppressed – which is never comfortable, and often painful. But it is how we move towards God’s shalom, the wholeness and abundance of life God is bringing about for all people and all creation, and so I thank God for how They unsettle me from my own comfortable privilege. 

Note, I’m not sure all liberation theologians would agree with this idea of the privileged being counted in God’s option when it comes to “spiritual poverty” in this way; I’m not even sure I fully agree with it – so in that case, even if there is not any good news specifically for the rich/privileged, at the very least there is not “bad news” for them in liberation theology. God still loves them intensely; the preferential option for the poor doesn’t change that.

Still, I would argue that those of us who are privileged in one way or another should rejoice at God’s option for the poor whether or not it directly “benefits” us, because it is directly benefiting other members of the Body of Christ. We should long for and be striving toward wholeness, dignity, and justice for the oppressed and marginalized. After all, in this Body of Christ to which we all belong, “if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

Some more resources

I hope this helps you out, anon! Let me know if you have more questions. And if anyone has more thoughts on this topic or any comments on what I wrote above, I’d love to hear them!

For more on liberation theology and explanations of God’s option for the poor:

– you can read the first bit of Gutiérrez’s On Job for free here.

– I like this article’s explanation of the preferential option for the poor, calling it an “option that’s not optional” and applying it to today’s context 

– this webpage lists some more reasons God might have an option for the poor

– see all the quotes collected in my liberation theology tag

– see this post for book recommendations for liberation theology as well as theologies sometimes considered to be “subsets” of or at least related to liberation theology, such as queer theology and Black theology

– does anyone have more resources? Share them!

[sarakellar]

wrestle.

I wrestle with my femininity like Jacob wrestled with God.

It sneaks up on me in the darkness and jumps my back and wrestles me to the ground. Sometimes it swings a sucker punch at me, and I keel before swinging one back, panting from the blow to my solar plexus. The light dawns, and I have it in a stranglehold, and it says, “Let me go.”

I say, “Bless me.”

Bless me, please, you supposed gift from God.

Where God blessed Jacob, however, femininity smiles at me with bloody teeth, slips from my hold, and attacks me again.

-

I was raised in the church, but not in church culture.

I didn’t wear dresses to church every Sunday—I have a vague memory of doing it when I was much younger, maybe six, maybe even younger, but not again in my childhood after I denounced them at eight and only wore them once a year for camp.

Pants were the name of the game, and shortly after I cut all associations with the colour pink I shopped in the boy’s clothing section exclusively for clothes for a few years. It’s not as bad now—I bought a pastel pink dress for a wedding the other day. I love that dress, but not enough to wear it 24/7. I took it off as soon as I got back to my cousin’s house, and I’m back in jeans and flannel today.

My mother told me once, as we waited at a restaurant during another out of town gymnastics excursion, that nobody would’ve been able to guess that I was a gymnast. She was referring to how I slouch, I know she was (my high school music teacher made the same claim a few years later), but as I look back on those years it wouldn’t have been just the slouch that had people stumped. The androgynous clothing would’ve done it, too.

-

I am a girl. I know I am.

My mother has been more patient than I could ever ask her to be, especially when she was still the one paying for my clothing.

Somebody I met at Bible camp told me that if I wanted to be a boy so bad, I should just get a sex change and get it over with.

I wrestle.

-

I wasn’t raised in church culture, but I know it’s caricature of femininity well. I know it, because I’ve long known that I would never be able to fit into it. A perfect Christian woman is a “Proverbs 31” woman, yet she’s also a “1 Timothy 2:11-12” and “Ephesians 5:22-24” woman. She’s useful and serves her husband but she doesn’t say anything while she does it. There is strength in that servitude, apparently. Strength to be found in that bending, in the obviously feminine spiritual gifts of hospitality and serving and encouragement and minding of children (you mean that’s not a spiritual gift?). 

There are women who do it well, with more grace than I could ever accomplish, and I admire them for it.

I, however, am loud. I have that gentle quietness within me, but it doesn’t underscore all that I do. I run around. I do sports with the boys. I can keep up in theological conversations, and want to participate in them. I want to be a wife and a mother, but I won’t be shoved to the sidelines like being a girl somehow makes me less. 

After I got my hair cut short, more than one person asked me if I liked girls. Like that, tied with all the other things, is a failsafe sign. 

I have wondered, more than once, if I would be allowed to teach from the pulpit if I simply got a sex change—as “simple” as that can be.

I will not go quietly into that good night, where any sense of femininity I have will trip me to the ground once again.

-

I never tried to fit in to the caricature—too much effort for me, would force me into a mould unlike myself—but that doesn’t mean I haven’t agonized over it. Over what being me means for my life, my future. 

Mainly in the realm of relationships. How many guys strike me off their list because I’m not their perfect picture view of femininity? The surprise I see on their faces when I tell them that I want to be a wife or a mom isn’t fake, that split-second reaction immediately after before it can be molded into something more.

I look to Jesus, and I say, “You knit me together, so what the hell is this?”

A youth leader speaks back to me: “You’re not a flowery type of girl. You were never meant to be. You’re exactly how he made you to be.”

-

I stop clinging to the caricature of the Perfect Christian Woman. Start looking past the cultural definition and look to the Bible. 

Look to Sarah, who laughed, because as much as she wanted a child she knew what her body couldn’t do.

Look to Hagar, who wept in the wilderness before God spoke to her pain.

Look to Zipporah, who single-handedly saved Moses’ life after he didn’t circumcise their son, a pagan woman doing what the Israelite God decreed.

Look to Rahab, who had more guts than I’ll ever have and hid a couple of foreign spies in her roof.

Look to Deborah, who was a judge, a spiritual and political leader of Israel, who was married and, therefore, probably also had children. She also had time to accompany Barak to war when he refused to go without her.

(Look to Jael, the unsung hero we don’t talk about in that story, who lured Sisera into her tent and drove a tent peg through his skull while he slept. “Jael” means “the LORD is God”, and he definitely showed that through her.)

Look to Abigail, who intercepted David before he could murder everyone that belonged to Nabal’s house.

Look to Jehosheba, who took away Joash when he was still very young and hid him away before he could be killed. Joash, who became king, who repaired the temple.

Look to Mary, who was no weak thing to take the burden of a scandalous pregnancy and everything that it could mean (destitution, death) on her shoulders.

Look to Mary Magedalene, who followed, and was the first person to declare the Gospel to a group of disciples who didn’t believe her. To declare that Jesus is alive.

-

It squeezes at my heart, my femininity—or, perhaps, the ever-there awareness that I’m not as everyone thinks I should be. 

I’m never going to fit into that box.

And so I wrestle on.

[diosa-loba]

Hair is a Woman’s Glory — But Why? by Deidre Havrelock

Not too long ago (2014) I had a very telling dream. The dream took place during a time in my life where I was calling out to the Spirit to tell me about Eve. In particular, I wanted to know why Eve (and women) in general have had to struggle with a lack of authority.

In my dream I was looking in the mirror admiring my hair. My hair was full and vibrant… it looked absolutely fabulous! I was filled with thankfulness over the glory of my gorgeous hair!! The verse in 1 Corinthians 11:15 never felt more true:

Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. –1 Cor. 11:13–15

Young’s Literal Translation puts it this way:

And a woman, if she have long hair, a glory it is to her, because the hair instead of a covering hath been given to her. –1 Cor. 11:15

And the Darby Bible puts it like this:

But woman, if she have long hair, it is glory to her; for the long hair is given to her in lieu of a veil. –1 Cor. 11:15

However, as I ran my fingers through my seemingly fabulous locks, I noticed the opposite was in fact true. Underneath a thin layer of seemingly thick and glorious hair, lay my bald head completely shaved!! I became furious. I was indignant. Who had done this to me?! And Why?

I immediately woke up. And as I lay there in bed, I was still mad as hell. How dare someone shave my glorious hair! I then remembered my prayer the night before regarding my question about the lost authority of Eve. I was now 1) confused and 2) excited.

I was confused because I now understood that hair and authority were linked in some weird way and I was simultaneously excited because I knew the Holy Spirit wanted to tell me about why they were linked. The rather confusing verse in 1 Corinthians 11:10 went through my mind:

Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head. –1 Cor. 11:9–10

I immediately ran to my Bible intending to do a study on the significance of hair and there I stumbled upon a very interesting verse that illuminated me in regards to the symbolic purpose of hair.

Before I tell you what that verse was, fast forward a bit to the release of Wonder Woman: Rise of the Warrior (2017) and take note of the movie’s all important tag line — “THE FUTURE OF JUSTICE BEGINS WITH HER.”  When this movie came out, I was thrilled. I grabbed my daughters and off we ran to the theater.

After the movie, my middle daughter (who is super intuitive) said “I really loved that movie except there was one thing I didn’t understand.”  Well, the one thing that made my daughter stop to think is included in the video clip below. It’s the part where Diana makes the decision to cross “no man’s land” — the land that no “man” has been able to cross. And the part that got my daughter wondering was the moment Diana stops to loosen her hair. My daughter was wondering if that moment was important and if it was …. why? I mean, why does Diana stop to let her long hair loose — surely, all that annoying hair is just going to fly in front of her eyes, obscuring her sight, right?

Well, thanks to my friend Bill Boyle, who wrote the book The visual Mindscape of the Screenplay I knew the image of Wonder Woman loosening her hair was not just a superficial, unimportant vain moment — it was there for a reason. It was a visual metaphor. Meaning, it carried heavy emotional significance. “But of what?” my daughter inquired.Perhaps watch the clip below before we move on to the wonder of Wonder Woman’s hair. This is the point in the movie where Diana makes the decision to step up for JUSTICE and to step out to HELP… this is the moment Wonder Woman steps into her divine PURPOSE and into her own AUTHORITY.

Notice how those loose locks are flowing and the people are following to fight! The reason this is such an emotional scene is not just because the female director planned it that way, it’s also because the moment carries with it a very important spiritual truth — a truth that is meant for women to grasp in their spirit. And that truth has to do with… you got it… hair.

When Locks Flow Loose…

Now remember that verse I was telling you about. The one that illuminated me in regards to the symbolic purpose of hair. Well, it’s found in the story of Jael.

Do you remember Jael? She’s the one who won the war for the Israelites when she drove a tent peg through Sisera’s skull. There she is to the left, busy at work in a painting by Jacopo Amigoni.

Now Jael’s story goes like this: the Judge Deborah (a woman in full authority) and her loyal general, Barak, unite and go after General Sisera and his Canaanite army. Barak completely destroys the army, but Sisera escapes. Sisera, according to Deborah (who is also a prophet), has a fate different from that of his army. Sisera’s life lies in the hands of an unassuming, rather pleasant — yet bold — woman named Jael… 

Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anybody comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’ ”

But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, until it went down into the ground—he was lying fast asleep from weariness—and he died. Then, as Barak came in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went into her tent; and there was Sisera lying dead, with the tent peg in his temple. So on that day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites. Then the hand of the Israelites bore harder and harder on King Jabin of Canaan, until they destroyed King Jabin of Canaan.

  Then Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:

“When locks are long in Israel, when the people offer themselves willingly— bless the LORD!  –Jdg 4:18–5:2, bold added

The New Jerusalem Bible puts the verse this way…

That the warriors in Israel unbound their hair, that the people came forward with a will, bless Yahweh! –Jdg. 5:2

The New King James Version puts it this way…

“When leaders lead in Israel, When the people willingly offer themselves, Bless the LORD! –Jdg. 5:2

The Message says it this way…

When they let down their hair in Israel, they let it blow wild in the wind. The people volunteered with abandon, bless GOD!  –Jdg. 5:2

However, what each of these versions miss is that the word translated as “leaders” and “warriors” happens to be in the FEMININE (parʿâh). Ultimately, Deborah and Barak’s song is about women with flowing hair, or women in leadership:

When [the women] let down their hair in Israel, they let it blow wild in the wind. The people volunteered with abandon, bless GOD!  –Jdg 5:2

“When [female] leaders lead in Israel, When the people willingly offer themselves, Bless the LORD! –Jdg. 5:2

“When [female] locks are long in Israel, when the people offer themselves willingly— bless the LORD!  –Jdg 4:21–5:2

That the [female] warriors in Israel unbound their hair, that the people came forward with a will, bless Yahweh! –Jdg. 5:2

So there, within the story of Jael, we have the story of Wonder Woman (who, by the way, was played by Gal Gadot who just happens to be Israeli). Pretty cool, right? You probably won’t ever look at flowing hair the same way now — at least, I hope you won’t.

A Woman’s “Covering” is an Anointing

A “mantle” is a biblical covering (like a coat), usually made from hair. The covering represents authority, power, responsibility, as well as the office of a “prophet.” In other words, a person occupies the position of “prophet” because of a particular anointing. If a woman prophecies without her “covering” (say she has her head completely shaved) then she would be disgraced because the authority of that prophet has been taken from her. And why would a prophet speak unless it is with authority given to her by God?

A mantle or covering symbolically represents the Holy Spirit setting a person (or persons) apart for a particular work. John the Baptist wore a mantle made out of camel’s hair. Esau had so much red hair covering his body that he was said to have a “hairy mantel” (Gen. 25:25). Elijah, the prophet, had a powerful mantle and Joseph was envied and hated because of his beautiful long mantle:

Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.  –2 Kings 2:8

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.  –Gen. 37:3–4

Women have a god-given “mantle” or “covering” — the hair symbolizes this anointing that all women carry. This does not mean that women can’t cut or shave their hair. It just means that hair represents a spiritual truth. It’s as Paul explained…

We speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. –1 Cor. 2:13

Women are anointed by God as the “helper.” Eve was created for the sake of Adam because Adam needed help from someone who, like him, also represented God on earth. Because of woman’s anointing as helper, she carries a symbol of authority — hair. If a woman was to lose her God-given authority, it is the same thing as being “shaved.”

Women are the ones who will come to the “rescue.” Women represent Eliezer (el-ezer) the “God of Help.” We are the Wonder Women of the world. We are the Deborahs. We are the Jaels — perhaps we lie hidden and unassuming, but we are prepared and willing to fight (or preach, teach, prophecy, and lead) when called upon by God.

Women in the church today are much like how I saw myself in that dream — our hair/authority only appears to be intact right now, but the truth is an enemy has shaved our hair and we are not operating at full authority/strength. But don’t worry because just as Samson once lost his hair (and his anointing) by letting his long locks become cut, woman’s power and authority is coming back.

This is why the story of Sampson ends on such an ominous note: “But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved” (Jdg. 16:22). Ultimately, Sampson’s last display of power ended up being his mightiest. And it will be the same for women.

That is the message to women today. Our authority is being restored, along with that so is woman’s purpose and power. Women have a very large role to play in regards to defeating the enemy and representing God here on earth. And despite the setback of once having our hair shaved by the enemy… our hair is growing back!

[dailyaudiobible]

04/25/2017 DAB Transcript

Judges 4:1-5:31 ~ Luke 22:35-54 ~ Psalm 94:1-23 ~ Proverbs 14:3-4

Today is April 25th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I'm Brian. It's great to be here with you for the next step forward in this beautiful week we have and the next step forward in the scriptures and we have been learning about Israel's judges, those who came after Joshua and kind of rose up to lead Israel; hence, the name of the book that we’re reading in the Old Testament, the book of Judges, and we’re reading from The Voice translation this week.  Judges chapter 4, verse 1 through 5:31.  

Commentary

Like we said at the beginning, we’re getting to know the judges of Israel which is a period of time of leadership in Israel where most everybody, the tribes, have kind of settled in some land and there is no real central leader other than in Shiloh at the Tabernacle.  The tribes are kind of independent, but over time they just kind of mix in with all the other people and things happen.  Different tribes are oppressed.  Different tribes are conquered or under other leaders and then a judge seems to emerge and God uses that judge to reunite his people and kind of reset things.  

We came to the story of the judge Deborah today which I love because this is a valiant woman now leading Israel and in the Deborah story is another valiant woman named Jael and she has some courage, courage enough to defeat a general of an ally in her case, which is not going to make the king very happy, which is aligning herself with God's people.  Pretty big stuff.   So if you’re one of the women who was at the More Gathering or if you’re just a woman within the sound of my voice, don’t think that you’re not a valiant person, which is not to say you should drive a tent peg through somebody's head.  I'm saying you have courage.  You have what it takes.  You are seen.  

Sometimes loving in the face of every bit of drama that comes into our lives, sometimes that is a very valiant thing to do.  Sometimes just telling the truth is a very valiant thing to do. Sometimes being patient in another's story and walking with them and staying with them when they keep tripping up and keep messing up is a valiant thing to do.  We all have it in us.  We all have that stuff rise up in us, that courage, but a lot of times we’re just aiming it at the wrong place.  Sometimes we’re aiming it in the wrong direction at the wrong person at the wrong time when we have incredible amounts of authority, power, valiant hearts and courage.  If we would understand that we are fighting the forces of evil and darkness first, if we would understand that first before we go in all these weird directions, finding the darkness and coming against that with a valiant heart, with a tent peg as it were, we would do so much more good and bring so much more goodness, if we aimed all of that courage at darkness instead at whoever is closest nearby.

May we take the story of Deborah and her song that she sang and her words that she has become the mother of Israel to heart as we move through the remainder of this week.  May we take that courage and use it against the forces of darkness in this world and in our communities and in our homes and in our families and in our relationships.

Prayer

Father, we invite you into that because sometimes it just feels like we’re the ones getting beaten down, beaten down, beaten down, just like the children of Israel, but you always brought rescue and that rescue brought a unity. So come Holy Spirit and let us each understand that what we’re really fighting against is darkness in any form, in any place, not a person.  Come Holy Spirit and help us.  We ask in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.    

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It's home base.  It's where you find out what is going on around here so be sure to check it out.  Check out the resources that are available. Check out the Prayer Wall.  Stay connected.  Find out all the places to stay connected on social media.  Just check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com as well.  I thank you humbly, profoundly for those of you who have taken the time and made the effort to sow into the community that we are.  There is a link on the home page.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today.  I'm Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Yeah, hi.  I'm a 7-year listener, first-time caller.  For this call you can call me the sex addict from Central Washington. All of the consequences of my sin are falling on my wife – hurt, betrayal.  She is all alone.  And now, after a fight, I followed the advice of legal counsel and reported domestic violence, not knowing if these charges go through, that my wife could lose her job. So please, Biola, Blind Tony, Delta Alpha Foxtrot, Asia, James, Drew, Sam, Pastor Gene, Slave of Jesus, and all the rest of you listeners, please pray.  Pray that these domestic violence charges will be reduced or stopped and that God would heal our marriage.  And I will call back with a praise.  Thank you.  

Hello my DAB family.  This is Mark S. from Sydney, Australia.  Today is the 22nd of April.  I'm calling today just to say how much I just love all of you, my community.  The response that I’ve had, the loving response from God through all of you, especially Pastor John who posted on Facebook Friends and all the people there, just too many to mention, you certainly are the hand and extension of God's love to me.  Steve from New Hampshire I heard today.  And Lisa the Encourager, you certainly encouraged me.  Lee from New Jersey, I wish I had so much more time. There is so much that I would love to say, but two minutes is not enough.  Family, I just want to let you know that I have dusted myself off.  I'm back on the narrow path and, through the mercy of God, I will keep moving forward.  There are so many miraculous things that have happened in my life true to God, and Brian and Jill, I just cannot express my gratitude that you have listened to the Lord and created this amazing body of Christ, this community that extends love to anybody who wants love from God.  How I wish…  There is nothing I can say to show my appreciation.  Thank you, my family.  I love to hear from all of you.  I love listening to everybody.  I love praying along.  I wish I had more time to do more like a lot of you do, but I’ll do what I can at the moment and keep loving all of you as well.  Thank you.  Bye-bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Nidia from New Jersey.  It is April 22nd and I'm calling for you, Annette.  I love you so much, Annette.  I love your voice.  I love your joy and I love your love and steadfast faith in our Father God. I just want to lift up right now, if we all could pray for Alex.  Father God, we just lift up, Father, Alex.  You created him and you love him so much, Father God.  We just thank you that his only injury was a broken ankle physically, Father God, but we know that his soul, Father God, is sick because he is not having a relationship with you, Father God.  You just love him and you created him for such big plans that you have for him, so Father, now that he's in prison, Father, please, please Holy Spirit, open his heart, open his eyes.  Give him faith.  Give him the faith so that he can feel the love, Father God, that you have for him, the joy and the sadness that you have because you don’t have that relationship with him.  Annette, can you send him the Reframe audio, DVD, the CD?  I just listened to it three times and I'm just so filled with God's love. Maybe Alex is in prison so that he is stayed put in one place to receive our Father.  So Father God, I just lift up Alex and Annette and we just stand in your promise because we know that you are going to heal Alex's heart and soul. In Jesus’ mighty, mighty and precious name we pray and we just thank you for Brian, for Reframe, for the message that he sends to the world and the seed that he is sowing.  In Jesus’ mighty and precious name we pray.  Amen.  

Dear Lord Jesus, this week we commit our marriages into your able hands. Thank you for our marriages. Thank you because when the enemy comes as a flood, you will raise up a sword against him.  Thank you because you are now starting to work in our marriages, O Lord. Thank you because the hearts of husbands are turning back to their wives and the wives’ hearts are turning back to their husbands too.  Thank you because you’re pulling down the stronghold of the enemy of our marriages. Thank you because you’re setting captives free.  Thank you because wives are now going to submit to their husbands as husbands submit to you, O Lord.  Thank you because husbands will love their wives and be very considerate and treat them with tenderness.  Thank you because you will rebuke Satan to get his dirty hands off our marriages. Thank you because your blood is setting captives free right now.  Lord, please ignite the fire of love, deep love between husbands and wives.  Lord, let your Holy Spirit move in our marriages. __ has been the cause of strife in our marriages, Lord, please hold __, Lord.  Please let husbands desire their wives only and wives not __ their husbands. Same thing, let husbands be very, very gracious to their wives.  Lord, help us to use our finances wisely.  Help us to always encourage each other and not pull each other down.  We speak life over our marriages.  We ask, Lord, that you remove unnatural behavior that may be destroying our marriages.  We ask, Lord, for a mighty hedge of protection over marriages. Please bring back those spouses that may have left marriages, O God, if it be your will for them to come back. Lord, we ask for total renewal in DAB marriages and yes, we thank you in advance because we know you hear our cries. Thank you, Lord.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.  This is Sheila from Texas.  

Hey, good morning.  This is Stephen from Cullman, AL.  It's Sunday, April 23rd and I just wanted to call.  I’ve been listening for I guess about six years.  Haven’t called too many times, but I was reminded today about why this has been such a life-changing habit.  I used to try to figure out what I was going to read.  I was challenged to spend time in the morning with God and I would go back and forth and didn’t have a good plan. Following this rhythm of the scriptures every day, going through the One Year Bible has just been amazing.  There are so many times where God has given me the answer right when I needed it and today I was reminded in Psalm 91 a couple years ago my youngest daughter, she was having nightmares and she was very afraid and she was convinced somebody was going to come in our house at night and shoot her.  Her room is closest to our front door and despite everything I could do to try to convince her that I would protect her and tell her I have guns and I’ll do whatever I could to protect her, it wasn’t really enough.  Until one morning about this same time a couple years ago this chapter came up and I immediately went, printed it out, I read it to her, prayed about it.  We started praying about it at night.  Taped it on her mirror in her bathroom and ever since we’ve had it taped on our garage door and it is a constant prayer I pray for my family and children.  So God used that to help me be a better father when I didn’t have the answers.  So fathers out there, I hope this encourages you.  I listen to the prayers.  

Hello everyone.  Good morning. It's Jay calling from New Jersey. I'm calling for Steve whose been listening to the Daily Audio Bible with his wife for the past 8 years and he said he is in Franklin County.  Steve, I'm going to pray for you and I'm going to pray for your daughter-in-law and your son and new baby.  Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we come to you now adoring who you are, standing and praying in awe, uniting our hearts around the love that you have given us.  God, your word tells us that we love you because you first loved us.  Father, we confess of any sins that we have committed now that we can think of, that come to our minds, into our hearts.  We ask for forgiveness, Father.  Receiving that forgiveness, we thank you.  We thank you.  We thank you for life, for health, and for strength.  We thank you for the ability to come to you as your children with these prayers.  Father, we lift up Steve and his family.  We lift up Anna.  We lift up Baby Josanna, Father.  God, this baby that is so beautiful and so precious that was born on April 1st, we thank you for her.  Father, we thank you for the union that you put between her parents.  And God, we bring forth Anna as she is going through the healing process, Father, and we prat that you will invigorate her cells to begin to heal like never before, that it could only be described as something that God has his hand on.  So we thank you, Father, for what you're doing, what you’ve already done, and what you’re going to do.  In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.  

[torreygazette]

When a Good Woman is Found

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets…..” (Hebrews 11:1, ESV)

Context matters. This particular list of the faithful matters. It confirms those heroes of the past we as Christians should admire, emulate, and praise. It’s all well and good until everything comes to a screeching halt at the mention of the name Barak. Barak, the man who failed to assume his proper role. Barak, who was so cowardly in asking for Deborah’s presence in battle that he was publically shamed by having his victory given over to the hands of a woman.

Barak’s story is consistently preached as a cautionary tale of what befalls a nation of weak men, men who do not have the faith to obey God without having to beg the women for help. If this is true, why is his name listed among those of the Noble? The Faithful? The Hebrews 11 Laureates? What gives?

My mother also read Ron Pierce’s chapter "Deborah: Only When a Good Man is Hard to Find?"  and, with a spark in her eye, announced she liked it. Why? Because it asserts that everything she and I—and pretty much every man, woman, and child I know—have been taught about Deborah and Barak is wrong. According to Pierce's contribution to Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible, Barak is not a cautionary tale; he is instead an example of a humble, faithful man submitting to something larger than himself, even if it meant that another player, a lowly tent-dwelling woman, would have the honor of avenging the rape and slaughter of the Israelite people. Because of his willingness to step back from the cultural norms, submit to Deborah’s leadership, and hand the glory over to Jael, Barak gains his place among those the author of Hebrews wants us to admire and respect.

I realize I just spent roughly 200 words talking about Barak in a review about Deborah–but that is part of the point. Current church culture, particularly the conservative, traditional side, has a knee-jerk reaction against women in positions of influence and authority. Our automatic assumption is that any scriptural example to the contrary is an indication of something off balance, rather than accepting it at face value and reaching the same conclusion the author of Hebrews apparently did—Barak’s submission to Deborah was worthy of praise, not rebuke.

Pierce argues that Deborah, a “woman of valor,” was an established, unquestioned authority in Israel, whose influence and authority was on par with Samuel. He is doubtful that she was even married, suggesting instead that “woman of Lappidoth” actually refers to “Woman of Fire.” She likely chose Barak due to his knowledge of the future battlefield and so called him rather than leading the charge herself. Pierce deviates from commonly accepted interpretations when he discusses the exchange after Deborah's charge to Barak. Peirce points out that not only does Deborah accept Barak’s request that she accompany him without hesitation, but that Barak wanting prophetic counsel while in battle is entirely reasonable and acceptable. What about the bit where Deborah tells Barak that the glory will go to a woman? Pierce asserts that Barak was so eager to dive into the task that he had actually interrupted Deborah’s commissioning speech, namely the part where Jael would be responsible for the ultimate victory. This news doesn’t seem to bother Barak in the least, and he and Deborah leave and wage a successful battle.

Pierce reminds his readers that Deborah is no troublesome woman, forced into her role as judge due to a lack of decent men. Instead, she is portrayed positively throughout Judges, serving faithfully in a role that is respected by her people. Pierce requires his readers to notice that Barak demonstrates immense faith agreeing to lead the Israelites into battle while knowing he will not gain the traditional victor’s glory, accepting potential social stigma and thousands of years of shaming from other men.

It bears repeating that Deborah operated as the unquestioned spiritual and civil leader for the Israelite people, something that is frequently overlooked or outright preached against. One of the challenges Christian women frequently face today is a consistent devaluing of our God-given gifts and contributions, both in civic and church realms. Often, we are taught from a young age that our rising to positions of prominence and influence is a sign of judgment and shame for the men around us, a mentality that is damaging for both men and women alike. According to Pierce, using Deborah’s story as an “exception to the rule” or as a cautionary tale is a wrong-headed and misleading approach. Barak is not being shamed in this episode. Rather, Deborah and Barak’s story aims to show that God, not man, gains the ultimate credit for freeing His people from oppression, even to the extent of overthrowing expectations to make a point. Deborah is given due respect, and willingly gives Barak the guidance he seeks, which he then uses to make Jael’s ultimate victory over Sisera possible. In application, Pierce encourages his readers to reconsider how they view the women around them, to follow wise, capable female leadership even in a world that is unaccustomed to such things. Women in leadership is not a sign of the end of things; if anything, it is likely a sign God may be doing something different than we would generally expect.

My takeaway? Be like Deborah. Be like Barak. Be faithful to the task God has assigned you to. And pay attention to and support those women who seek the good of those around them, even as they do it from a position of authority and influence.

[firstumcschenectady]

“Holes in the Story” based on Judges 4 and 5

It should be noted that I'm a wimp.  I blame my parents. (But in a good way.)  As a young child I was limited to an hour of TV a day and it had to be PBS.  I've never quite normalized to our culture in that I have a super low tolerance for media violence or horror.  To be honest, I don't like this story, I think it is too violence, and if I was trying to hold the Bible to a standard of “Church Appropriate” then this passage would not meet it. However, I think dealing with this story is important and necessary, so we're going to do it despite my distaste.  That being said, there are many reasons why you might not want to hear/read the rest of this sermon:

****  Trigger Warning ****

This story contains excessive violence, in detail, and sexual violence.  

****

I will not take it personally if you choose to take a very long bathroom break at this point.

Now, despite its graphic nature, this text isn't particularly easy to follow.  I had to read it half a dozen times and read several commentaries before I could even follow what is happening.  Because this text is from the book of Judges, we can start by knowing a few things.  The ancient Hebrew people have “entered the promised land” (they did that in the prior book, Joshua) and are currently functioning as a loose alliance of tribes without a central government.  They have settled into  hilly, desert land.  Later in their history the land would be in high demand because of its functionality as a crossroads, but in this early history  this land  is a bit outside of society.  It was hard to scratch out a living there, which means outsiders usually didn't bother with it.  

However, sometimes neighboring countries (and we should understand “countries” pretty loosely, maybe as akin to a small city-state) would try to expand into some part of the “Promised Land” and then there would be a need for a leader/general to guide the people in fighting back.  That leader/general would then be called a “judge” and would lead the people until their death. Then things would be OK for a while until a different country tried the same deal on a different boarder.

This is the second set of stories of such a judge in the book of Judges, and there are a few adaptations to the standard story line.  The first is that the “neighboring country” is actually an internal one.  The Israelites had invaded the land of the Canaanites, because the Canaanites were the ones living on their “promised land.”  However, the Canaanites were neither entirely destroyed nor entirely willing to adapt to Israelite customs.  So, the two both occupied the land, with ever shifting borders between them.  

According to the story, at this point in history the Canaanites were a FAR more technologically advanced society than the ancient Hebrew people.  They'd entered the “iron age”, as evidenced by the 900 iron chariots they brought to war.  (It is reasonable to assume exaggeration.)  The ancient Hebrews not only had no iron (they're in the late bronze age), they're said to have no shields nor spears.  The armies are incredibly mismatched.

The second adaptation is that the role of Judge is a bit fuzzy.  The story says that Deborah had been judge – but in that case they mean that people brought their disputes to her and trusted her to judge between them fairly.  Since she appears to have come by that reputation on her own, that's pretty cool.  Deborah is, in case you were wondering, the only woman to be called a Judge of Israel. However, she isn't the military general, so that's unusual for these stories.  And neither she, nor the general, actually complete the act of defeating their opponent.  That  role belongs to another woman, and a foreigner at that.

Now, I have a lot of issues with this story in particular and with the book of Judges in general. Judges assumes that everything that happens is God's will.  So, they think that when outsiders attack them or oppress them it is because God is punishing them.  They try to protect God's reputation, so they claim that when there is no judge in Israel, the people do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, which they assume to justify God's anger and punishment.   It doesn't work for me.  It is easy to see that the Israelites were experiencing fairly normal conflict with neighbors – internal and external to their country.  It is easy to see that the stories are trying to be faithful when they attribute all of it to God.  But they seem to miss that they make God into an egotistical abusive parent when they do so.

And, in case this isn't clear to you, I don't think God is egotistical, nor abusive (although it is fine with me if the parental metaphors work for you).

Those are my GENERAL issues.  Specifically, I pretty much hate that this is a story of war, death, and murder that is claimed as a victory.  Similar to the point I just made, I understand that those who told it and those who wrote it down thought that they were telling a story of a God who freed them from oppression, and I see why that's good.  The problem is that I believe in a God who is the God of the Israelites AND the Canaanites.  And, generally speaking, I don't think there are winners in war, even when there are victors.

So, you ask, why am I preaching on it?  Well, two reasons.  First of all because when I've spent most of a year preaching about the subversive women of the Bible, I didn't think I could reasonably skip out on the first FEMALE to lead the country (and only one said to do so rightfully).  Secondly, because war, violence, and murder are real parts of life.  To refuse a text that includes them because of them means pretending life is cleaner, easier, and more acceptable than it really is.  This story reflects the lives of many people who live today, both in literal and in metaphorical terms.

Now you might ask, WHAT HAPPENS?!?!?  Well, that's complicated.  There are actually two versions of this story.  The version in chapter 5 is much older.  Along with the (much, much shorter) song of Miriam, it is thought to be the oldest text in the Bible.  It may date to the 12th century BCE.1 (For reference, the next youngest parts were 400 years later and the majority of the Torah was written down around 800 years later.)  The two oldest parts are both women's songs, and they reflect very similar stories: natural events defeat an army and the Israelites associate that with God's work and give thanks to God for saving them.  It has been guessed that women passed down their songs from generation to generation, perhaps while the men passed down their stories.  We read from Judges 4 because it is easier to make sense of, but I want to focus on Judges 5, the poetry version passed down as song.

In Judges 5, the people have been oppressed by the Canaanites.  But when God raised up Deborah, the peasants rejoiced because she took care of them.  She is called a mother in Israel.   The song celebrates the courage of those who went to fight the Canaanites without even having any weapons, and it acknowledges Barack as the military leader.  The song emphatically claims that God, as the Divine Warrior, marched with the people.  The third time it mentions this, it puts it this way:

The stars fought from heaven, from their courses they fought against Sisera.  The torrent Kishon swept them away, the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might!  (Judges 5: 20-21, NRSV)

That is to say, with God on their side, even the stars were fighting for the Israelites against the Canaanite general, Sisera.  The battle happened in the Kishon riverbed valley.  But because it is a desert climate, the river bed usually ran dry.  The river flowed with strength enough to stop the army.

Then the song changes, and celebrates Jael.  Jael is said to be the wife of Heber the Kenite.  Moses's father in law was a Kenite, so she would have been seen as a distant but distinct relative.  Jael welcomes the general into her tent with enthusiasm.  It says he asked for water and she gave him milk curds.  Then she kills him.

Then the song turns even more vicious.  It imagines Sisera's mother waiting for him at home, fantasizing about the “spoil” he'll bring home.  In this imagining, she assumes he isn't home yet because they are busy raping the women of Israel.  The Hebrew text says, “a womb or two for every man” and then goes on to imagine the embroidery she is hoping he'll bring her.   Right after this imagining, the song ends with the words, ‘So perish all your enemies, O Lord! But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.’” (Judges 5:31a, NRSV)  Likely there is direct irony between the imagined two wombs and those of Jael and Deborah.

The prose text has a more linear plot that flows like a story, with explanations and details.  It explains why Jael and her husband were there, implying that Heber the Kenite was a smith who decided to travel with the Canaanite army to fix their chariots!2  However, it is almost certain that the prose version was created to help people understand the song, so I don't think we need to spend more time with it.

We do need to spend some more time in that tent with Sisera and Jael though.  There is a rather large hole in both versions of this story: why does she kill him?  Other stories in the Bible have taught us how sacrosanct hospitality was there.  A person welcomed into one's tent was often treated with more dignity and respect than even family members who lived in that tent.  And Jael is said to be enthusiastic in her welcome.

What happened?  Did she make a calculation that if Sisera, the general, were running away without his army that he must have lost and it would be better to have the gratitude of the Israelites?  Perhaps. That would make sense.  But since this is a woman's song, I think it would be reasonable to read into the hidden narrative.  Women were generally in subservient roles throughout the time this song was passed on, so it seems particularly likely that the song would make its points in subtext rather than in text that could be used against them.

And there is a lot of subtext.  I mentioned a moment ago that the song explicitly mentions Sisera's mother imagining him raping women. Futhermore, the details used to describe Sisera's death are surprising.   Commentators have noted that Jael “penetrates” his skull with the tent peg, and that this reads like a rape scene.  The Hebrew actually reads, “he sank, he fell, he lay still … he sank, he fell... he fell dead.”  When he dies he is said in Hebrew to fall “between her feet” or “between her legs” which is “a sexual euphemism found elsewhere in the Bible.”3 The ancient rabbis noticed all of the sexual overtones, it has long been debated.

But what do they mean?  I'm not sure, but I can think of three things. The most obvious one, and I think the one we're meant to be distracted by, is that Sisera was “shamed” by being killed by a woman and further “shamed” in the undertones by having it sound like a woman raping him.  (Please note that I don't believe that these things are shameful, rather that the text thinks they are.) However, two other options seem hidden under this.  One is the possibility of women having their own fantasy of being able to get retribution for being the “spoils of war.”  That even being able to sing a song where a woman is NOT raped by the enemy but instead has power over him kept them going through the hard times.  The final option is less empowering.  I wonder if Sisera actually raped Jael, and she choose to kill him afterward.  If so, the narrative of the rape and the narrative of the murder got folded into one.

This story has made it through 3200 years to get to us today.  It has some themes we can affirm (God liberates!  God can work through shared leadership!) and a whole bunch of others we can't.  This story captures an ancient way of thinking about God.  This conception, of God as Warrior, of God as egotistical-abuser, is in our shared general psyche.  It comes from our ancients, and as such it lives with us today.  It feels important to be able to read it as an ancient text and acknowledge that we no longer live 3200 years ago in the very beginning of the iron age.

We are allowed to have developed from this point of view, and to understand things differently now.  We can affirm that God liberates the oppressed, but we don't have to take the rest of the story with it.  We can let go of a warrior God, and make space for a God who loves ALL people (on any sides of any divide).  We can let go of the egotistical-abuser, and make space for a God of compassion, vision, and guidance.  We can be grateful for the chance to hear the stories of 3200 years ago, and still acknowledge the value of the wisdom we have today.  We aren't stuck in the past, nor in the values of the past, and we don't have to leave God there either.  Our God is not a God of violence.  We can leave that idea to the past and remove it from our collective psyche.  Thanks be!!  Amen

1 Dennis T. Olsen “Judges” in The New Interpreter's Bible Vol. 2 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1998) p. 787.

2 Danna Nolan Fewell, “Judges” in Women's Bible Commenatry edited by Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992, 1998) p. 77

3 Olsen, 788.

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

LGBTA+ Figures in the Bible

This post is meant to supplement our video on the same topic, providing more information and resources than we had time to discuss in the vid. 

The Bible belongs to LGBTA+ Christians too, and we can see ourselves reflected in its stories. We aren’t saying that all of the figures listed here were definitely LGBTA+ themselves (though we both believe that at least some certainly were), but that something about their stories resonates uniquely with us as LGBTA+ Christians. 

We invite you to add to this post -- either more ideas or resources for figures already listed, or with more Bible characters with whom you connect!

General Books:

The Queer Bible Commentary

Outing the Bible: Queer Folks, God, Jesus, and the Christian Scriptures

The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament 

Another resource is what my textbook says about sexuality in biblical society. 

And a post on why I think it’s important for us to have LGBT-specific Saints and biblical figures 

The rest of the resources are under the readmore; let me know if you are unable to access them. 

God!!!

See our God beyond gender tag, especially this post on Hosea 11 and this post 

Austen Hartke’s video: “What Are God’s Pronouns?” 

Woman Wisdom 

A spoken word piece, “God Is Gay”

Black Theologian James Cone argues that because God identifies intimately with the oppressed, so intimately that God is one of them, God is Black. I agree wholeheartedly, and likewise argue that God is queer.

ha-adam (Adam and Eve)

Genesis 1 and Genesis 2

a post on which I basically write an essay on the adam of Genesis 1 being “all genders” or else no genders, rather being a diversity of physical types, and the adam of Genesis 2 naming himself a man, rather than that gender being imposed on him 

A summary of what I say: In Genesis 1:27, God creates the human race male and female – we can read this as each human being thus being created with an innate capacity to be male, female, and/or somewhere on the spectrum hidden in that word and, as formerly discussed. Even so, the text continues to use the neutral adam in 1:28 through the majority of chapter 2 – God does not label any individual adam as an ish or an ishah, a man or a woman. In Genesis 2, which “rewinds” and offers a more detailed account of humanity’s creation, God forms the non-gender-specific adam out of clay and spirit and then forms a “helpmate” (an interesting, also non-gender-specific word discussed more in the above hoperemains link) from that adam’s rib. Only at that point do gender specific terms enter the story – not from God, but from the adam, who identifies himself as ish, a man, and labels his helpmate ishah, a woman.

Austen Hartke’s two YouTube videos on Genesis 1 and Genesis 2

Austen also responds to the call to “be fruitful and multiply” from a trans perspective 

Austen Hartke’s “Does the Image of God Have a Gender?”

A post on that non-binary “and” in Genesis 1

Hagar

Genesis 16 and 21

Austen Hartke’s “Wrestling and Renaming God,” second half 

Commentary on Dolores Williams’ Sisters in the Wilderness 

Jacob/Israel

Genesis 32

Austen Hartke’s “Wrestling and Renaming God,” first half 

A poem I wrote based on Jacob’s wrestling and renaming from the perspective of my journey as a nonbinary Christian 

Article: “Wrestling to Reconcile Body and Spirit”

Joseph

Genesis 37

A poem by J Mase iii entitled “Josephine” -- a genderqueer telling of the story 

A Presi on Queer Readings of Joseph and Jael that’s pretty interesting

“Joseph and his queer, fabulous, technicolor dreamcoat” 

“There’s Something about Joseph” 

David and Jonathon

1 Samuel 18, 1 Samuel 20, 2 Samuel 1

Article on the love between these two 

Another article, not as detailed: “The story of David and Jonathan’s love is one of the great stories of the Bible. It is a classic tale of star-crossed lovers.”

Another good article from qspirit; with images, a lot of historical info, and further links

Another article: “Why Does the Bible Focus on Their Intimate Loving Same Sex Partnership?” -- “Did God bless David and Jonathan, a same sex couple in romantic committed sexual partnership? Scripture devotes more chapters to their incredible love story than any other human love story in the Bible. What does God intend us to learn from that dramatic emphasis?”

A 2007 essay by an Anglican bishop in Liverpool, James Jones, “Making Space for Truth and Grace”:

“The second is to acknowledge the authoritative Biblical examples of love between two people of the same gender most notably in the relationship of Jesus and his beloved and David and Jonathan. ...”

“ ‘The Theology of Friendship’ Report took me in particular to the relationship between David and Jonathan. Their friendship was emotional, spiritual and even physical. Jonathan loved David “as his own soul”. David found Jonathan’s love for him, “passing the love of women”. There was between them a deep emotional bond that left David grief-stricken when Jonathan died. But not only were they emotionally bound to each other they expressed their love physically. Jonathan stripped off his clothes and dressed David in his own robe and armour. With the candour of the Eastern World that exposes the reserve of Western culture they kissed each other and wept openly with each other. The fact that they were both married did not inhibit them in emotional and physical displays of love for each other. This intimate relationship was sealed before God. It was not just a spiritual bond it became covenantal for “Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul” (1 Samuel 18:3). Here is the Bible bearing witness to love between two people of the same gender. I know that at this point some will ask, “Was the friendship sexual?”, “Were they gay?”, “Was at least one of them homosexual?”, “Were they both heterosexual?”, “Were they bisexual?” I want to resist these questions at least initially. Immediately you start using such words you conjure up stereotypes and prejudices. Further, you assume that it is a person’s sexual inclination that defines their personhood. Is it not possible to say that here are two men with the capacity to love fully, both women and men?”

A Jewish view of their relationship, in Mishnah: “Whenever love depends on some selfish end, when the end passes away, the love passes away; but if it does not depend on some selfish end, it will never pass away. Which love depended on a selfish end? This was the love of Amnon and Tamar. And which did not depend on a selfish end? This was the love of David and Jonathan (Avot 5:15)”

A poem from 1878 by John Addington Symonds called “The Meeting of David and Jonathon;” the whole poem (it’s a long one) can be found in this google book; it starts on page 151. An excerpt of the best parts is here at this post. 

Daniel and Ashpenaz

Both of these figures were possibly eunuchs, who are certainly gender non-conforming as they are (see next section); furthermore, these two may have been in love.

Daniel 1:9 -- “Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs"

Article 

Article 

Article on the other eunuchs in the book of Daniel: Shadrack, Mesach and Abednego

Esther and Eunuchs

“Esther, Vashti, and Eunuchs on Purim: Queer models for such a time as this”

“Eunuch-Inclusive Esther,” an article by Peterson Tuscano

Austen Hartke’s YouTube video on eunuchs 

A spoken word poem I wrote for my seminary’s more light service based around the story of Esther 

Naomi and Ruth

Article: “Whither thou goest;” cool art and contemporary interpretations 

See our Ruth tag, especially this post, for lots on their relationship 

Article: “Ruth Loved Naomi As Adam Loved Eve”

“Naomi and Ruth in Art”

Some other Biblical women

Austen Hartke’s video on “biblical womanhood” 

Deborah

Judges 4

A prophet and military leader, Deborah behaves outside the norms for her gender 

She was either married to a man with an odd name -- Lappidoth, meaning “torches” -- or else she had the title for herself “woman of torches.” If the former is true, she did much independently of her husband; if the latter, then she was not tied to a husband at all

Beginning on page 182, A Queer Commentary on Google Books has a section entitled “Deborah and Jael and lesbian-identified hermeneutics” 

Jael

Judges 4 and Judges 5

Jael drifts from the way women of her culture were “meant” to act. Moreover, her use of a tent peg to kill Sisera is considered phallic.  

Scholarly article: “From Gender Reversal to Genderfuck: Reading Jael through a Lesbian Lens” 

A Presi on Queer Readings of Joseph and Jael that’s pretty interesting

Judith

The apocryphal book of Judith is not in the Protestant Bible. 

Judith also behaves outside of her gender roles, using the relative freedom of her status as a widow to take charge of the situation when her city comes under siege. She and her maid go out to the enemy camp and ply the king with wine; they then cut off his head. 

Jesus

Austen Hartke’s video on the road to Emmaus, “Invisible Like Jesus”

Jesus and the Beloved Disciple

Our tag for the beloved disciple 

From a 2017 essay by Anglican bishop James Jones: “The intimacy between David and Jonathan is also evident in the relationship between the Son of David and his beloved John. We find the two at one with each other during the supper when Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. The beloved disciple is found reclining next to Jesus. Translations are not adequate to the text. Two different phrases are used in verses 23 and 25. One of them says literally that John was leaning against the bosom, breast, chest of Jesus (kolpos). No English word or phrase fully captures the closeness of the liaison. What is significant is that the word used in John 13:23 is found only on one other occasion in the Gospel of John. In John 1:18 the word is used to describe the intimate relationship between “God the only Son” and the Father. “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart (kolpos) who has made him known”. It is difficult for a human being to conceive of a closer relationship than that between the Persons of the Holy Trinity. That this word is used of the relationship between Jesus and John is a remarkable expression of the love between the two men. This love finds expression on several occasions. On the cross Jesus makes his beloved friend his mother’s son in an extraordinary covenant of love and on the day of the Resurrection love propels the bereaved and beloved disciple to outrun Peter and arrive first at the Tomb. Here is energising love, spiritual, emotional and physical.”

St. Aeldred of the 12th century compared the relationship between Jesus and John to “heavenly marriage”: "Jesus himself, is in everything like us. Patient and compassionate with others in every matter. He transfigured this sort of love through the expression of his own love; for he allowed only one - not all - to recline on his breast as a sign of his special love; and the closer they were, the more copiously did the secrets of their heavenly marriage impart the sweet smell of their spiritual chrism to their love." (source)

Article: “Lazarus: Jesus’ Beloved Disciple?”

Article: “John Evangelist: Beloved Disciple of Jesus”; includes great art and links 

Jesus is trans

Jesus did not behave according to the gender norms of his day, speaking to women freely

Jesus is God, made human. God is a genderless being, while Jesus was gendered male upon his human birth. 

See this tag

Mary

Austen Hartke’s video, “Going Home When there’s No Room at the Inn”

Mary the unwed mother and LGBT Christians: here’s a reflection by a lesbian on the virgin Mary.

“Sadly, although we are highly favored by God, receiving His gift puts us out of favor with many of His followers. I can’t fathom the societal rejection and religious condemnation Mary must have weathered as an unwed teenage mother in her day and age. Luke only writes that Mary skipped town in a hurry, but I wonder whether she wasn’t running from the pointing, the whispering, and the scowling as much as she was running to her aunt’s house.”

Mary and Martha

Luke 10

Article: “Mary and Martha formed a nontraditional family at a time when there was huge pressure for heterosexual marriage.”

The centurion and his boy

Luke 7 and Matthew 8

My post on this pair 

Article: “Jesus affirmed a gay couple” 

Article: “Gay centurion”

The Good Samaritan -- and the man on the side of the road

Austen Hartke’s video “What if you’re not the good samaritan?”

My sermon on LGBT+ people and the Good Samaritan story 

Paul

1 Corinthians 7

A post that mentions Paul being aro and/or ace 

Peter

Austen Hartke’s video with use of Peter as a model for being “called out” 

The Ethiopian Eunuch

Acts 8:26-40

“Ethiopian Eunuch: Early Church” 

see also the article on eunuchs linked back in the Esther section

Article