First Thursday of Advent

AI generated image of American abolitionist Sojourner Truth, on Pixabay

We had a most interesting Bible study today. We were going to talk about Mary the mother of Jesus; however, we noted that the gospel writer Matthew, in his genealogy of Jesus (ok, admit it, you skip the genealogy every time you read Matthew, right?) includes the names of three "notable" women besides Mary: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.  We reasoned that Matthew was including Mary in a "line" of faithful women of women far from the centre of power, yet who acted in a manner not expected by the social norms of their times. In doing so they taught the lessons of righteousness to men in positions of power. 

Here is the list we looked at:

• Hagar, forced with her child out of their home to face death and hardship, yet from whom came many nations (Genesis 16; 18:8-21);
• Tamar, who had to assume the part of a prostitute to shame her father-in-law to do the right thing (Genesis 38)
• Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives of Moses, who stood up to Pharoah to save many lives (Exodus 1:15-21)
• Miriam, Mary’s namesake, who participated in saving not only Moses, but the Israelites (Exodus 2:5-9; 15:20-21)
• Zipporah, who fought with God for Moses’ life (Exodus 4:24-26)
• Rahab, who saved the lives of the Israelite spies
• Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah (the 5 daughters of Zelophehad, who stood up boldly for their legal rights to land) (Num 26:33; Josh 17:4)
• Deborah, the only female judge (Judges 4-5)
• Ruth the Moabite, a model of fidelity (Ruth 1)
• Abigail, who knew how to circumvent her husband’s wrath and thus avoided catastrophe
• good queen Abijah, the wife of the idolater Ahaz, mother of the good king Hezekiah, (2 Kings 18:2; 2 Chronicles 26:5)
• Esther, who stood up courageously to both the King and to her enemy, when it was her time to act.

I just had to make the class promise they would never make me preach on every story in this list (if you took the time to read them all, you will know why!  Miraculous conception is much tidier!

These women not only point us to Mary, they point us to Jesus, that we may follow Jesus with greater faith and courage.  Thank God for women of faith, then and now!