Some can get so hung up on the horrible, deplorable misogynist patriarchy that they lose sight of the fact that Scripture doesn’t exactly paint the noblest picture of men to begin with and that Scripture tells us of many women who played key roles in God’s relationship with His people.  God does not prefer men to women.  Unlike the cultural Marxists and CRT crowd currently ruling the universities with an iron fist, God does not prefer women to men.  God does prefer the righteous to sinners, but finding none righteous, He decides to work on us sinners.  Praise His grace!

There are those who point out that Paul doesn’t seem to regard women very highly—he isn’t keen on allowing them to preach (1 Tim 2:12), expects them to be silent in church (1 Cor 14:34).[1]  Pig.  Consider this, though.  While the preacher is preaching, would it be no bother to you if, here and there in the pews, people were having side discussions?  Quietly, of course, in whispers; not so very loud.  I’ve had to ask my own boys to be quiet and listen in worship.  At the church with which Devon and I worshipped in Charleston there was a mother and her young son.  They sat a pew or two in front of us.  Most of the time, the boy fidgeted and squirmed quietly enough through the service.  One time, though, he told his mother, then told her again, each time getting a little louder, “I want to go now.”  I don’t remember her telling him to hush; she may have.  I do remember a man in the pew in front of them, who finally turned around and rather firmly told the boy to be quiet.  Then he was.  We also have a reasonable expectation for attentive silence in worship.  It’s not simply good manners or being respectful.  We’re here in hope of hearing a word from God—I certainly am.  If we can’t hear because of side conversations going on around us, how will we ever receive what God wishes to give us?

But I was talking about the importance of women in the Bible.  It’s Paul himself who tells those who think women have no place and aren’t quite up to the level of men that no one would be here if it weren’t for women, just as no one would be here if it weren’t for men (1 Cor 11:11-12).  It’s when we remember we need each other, and that God gives us one another for His glory that we begin to get the right perspective.  The feminism that says women don’t need men, that men are worthless, has no place in church, any more than any attitude saying women are naturally and necessarily second-class and ought to have no will, no voice, and no vote.  That is not God’s love.  Scripture gives no warrant for treating anyone as a second-class human being.  Scripture gives warrant only for silencing the sin always asserting itself in and over our hearts.

Of course Scripture values women.  We hear next to nothing of Noah’s wife, nor the wives of Noah’s sons, but can we really think they did not also work alongside the men?  Sarah recognizes and praises God’s blessing upon her, His faithful fulfillment of His promise that even she doubted.  It’s Rebekah who is consulted about her wishes in the matter of going with Abraham’s servant to a land she had never seen to marry a man she had never met.  No one orders her to go or disregards her wish or will in this.  It’s Moses’ pagan wife Zipporah who saves Moses from the wrath of God for Moses’ failure to do even the most basic thing to raise their son in the faith.  Deborah is one of the first judges to whom we are introduced in the book of Judges.  Scripture tells us Deborah, “a prophet [. . .] was leading Israel at that time” (Jdg 4:4).  I’d say that’s important to ponder.  In another example, a descendant of Ephraim, Sheerah by name, is identified as the woman responsible for building two towns (1 Chron 7:24): I’d say that took a degree of vision and drive, as well as requiring the ability to inspire and motivate people.  Remember, also, that Scripture, and that most “patriarchal” part of it the Old Testament, is making a point of mentioning, naming, and remembering these women.  It’s the sterling character of Ruth, the foreigner from a pagan nation, which all in Bethlehem recognize and praise.  At a crucial moment, it’s the prophetess Huldah to whom King Josiah sends his officials to hear what God has to say.

I’m not arguing that Scripture is some proto-feminist tract.  I’m trying to help us to see that Scripture shows us God values women as much as men, that Scripture shows us God has ministry for women just as He does for men; I’m trying to remind us that Scripture shows, repeatedly, that men and women are for one another, that God means for us to live and work together, worship together, and love the Lord together.  Male is incomplete without female, and vice versa, as Genesis reminds us from the first.

After the great victory God gives Israel through Deborah and Barak, Deborah is sung and celebrated as “a mother in Israel” (Jdg 5:7).  What do you suppose Scripture has in mind when Deborah is sung and celebrated as a mother in Israel?  Well, there were lots of mothers!  But we know Scripture doesn’t mean one mother among others.  By how she responded to God, walked before God, and shared God with others, Deborah demonstrated something about being a true and truly blessed mother.

Just by way of reminding ourselves, it was Hannah, whom everyone assumed to be forgotten by God, who prayed with such intensity that it seemed to the priest Eli, watching her as she prayed, that the poor woman was delirious—or drunk!  God blessed Hannah, pouring out heart and soul to God in profoundest faith and love, blessed her with the answer to her prayer: a child.  And what did Hannah do then?  When the boy was old enough, maybe about as old as Morgan, Hannah made the trip back to the sanctuary and gave the child God gave her to serve God.  That is the love that gives!  Yes, God gave Isaac back to Abraham, and father and son had many more years daily together.  When Hannah gave her only son to God, she saw him thereafter only once each year.  And God blessed Samuel, and God blessed Hannah.  Singular devotion—devotion that others notice.

In my family background, my mother and father were both people of genuine faith, though regular church attendance was not a habit until late in their lives.  I thank God it finally became so.  My mother’s parents were people of deep and vital faith.  On my father’s side, it was a little different.  My father’s parents were not of the same religious persuasion.  It was my grandmother who took her five children to church and saw to it that they had the opportunity to discover Jesus.  Did you have a grandmother like that?  As for my father’s father, well, like the old Norman Rockwell illustration from years gone by, he had other pursuits on Sundays.  Now, in my mother’s father’s family, my great-grandfather was not known for deep, abiding faith.  It was my great-grandmother who helped her six sons see the beauty of faith: persevering, long-suffering faith.  Her example took.  Again, it was the mother who helped to make Christianity real for her children.  We want our fathers to lead us in faith and into faith.  In many cases, it’s our mothers who do so.  Thank God!  But, guys, this is not exactly a strong commendation for us.  Yes, we can just continue to coast, but I’m not sure that’s setting the example our wives and children and others around us need from us.  I really believe God wants a little more from us, guys.

This influential role of mother and grandmother seems to be the case for Timothy, also.  Paul writes his beloved protégé, whom he speaks of on several occasions as like his very own son: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Tim 1:5).  Timothy came to faith through the grace of God in the Holy Spirit, apart from whom no one does or can come to faith.  This Spirit works through people to bring people to faith, through fathers and grandfathers and frequently, for God’s own reasons, through grandmothers and mothers.

The gospel accounts leave us with the impression that Joseph died while Jesus was still young.  Jesus, fully human as well as fully divine, learned from Mary just as he also taught Mary.  I think every parent has had this experience.  Mary regarded it as one of the best blessings she could give, to live her faith—honestly, vulnerably, encouragingly, perseveringly—live her faith in the sight of her children.  Mothers—God has a ministry for you.  It is beautiful, vital, specially blessed, and brings such joy and peace.  And you know there are tears, too.  Teach the faith, demonstrate the faith, rely upon the faith—keep living this faith.  Not just womanhood—Christian womanhood.  I can’t think of anything more beautiful on this earth.

Deborah is celebrated as a mother in Israel.  I suppose she had children of her own.  I know she was a spiritual mother.  Not every woman is blessed with children born of her body.  I suppose Mother’s Day can be kind of hard and lonely for such women, and that makes me feel badly and sad.  The church is the place where all are welcomed and valued, where all confess their sin and their ongoing need for God’s transforming love and sustaining grace.  God willing, this is also a place where we, together, can experience this love and grace.  God does not bless everyone with children.  Only He knows why.  God does bless every believer with the Spirit so that every believer can know and show God’s love.  It’s as we show that love that we know that love.  It’s not until we know that love that we can show that love.  It’s as we live for God the same way we move and breathe, without having to think about it, as if it came naturally, our second nature, that faith becomes stunningly beautiful and lovely withal.  Such living needs the Spirit.

We are drawn to what is lovely.  We may associate gentleness, kindness, patience, and mercy with our mothers, as though these qualities were essentially feminine.  I think that’s not only regrettable but wrong.  Gentleness, kindness, patience, and mercy are just as much masculine qualities.  Above and before all, these are divine qualities.  We see them perfectly in Jesus Christ.  We are drawn to what is lovely.  Christ is strength.  Christ is confidence.  Christ is courage.  We may think of those as essentially masculine qualities.  That’s not only regrettable but also wrong.  Strength, confidence, and courage are just as much feminine qualities.  Above and before all, these qualities are gifts of the Spirit.  The Spirit does not prefer men to women or women to men.  The Spirit prefers the righteous and, finding none, the Spirit works with what He finds: poor, needy, bamboozled sinners whom God claims for His own and then loves and nurtures into life.

[1] Although apparently he has no objection to women leading prayer or prophesying, so long as it’s with head covered (1 Cor 11:5).