Picture generated by A.I.
Imagine: you live in the town of Abel, a small city in Israel. One day the walls of Abel are surrounded on all sides by the army of Israel, the soldiers carrying bows and arrows, spears and shields, and more shovels than you have ever seen. The battle-scarred soldiers quickly begin building a siege ramp of dirt that will soon rise high enough to allow them to scale the wall. The city gates are locked, but you cannot survive: the city’s crops and herds are in the fields outside the wall—being eaten and trampled by the army.
Messengers arrive with demands: in twenty-four hours the city will be destroyed, the men and boys slaughtered, the women and children captured. The city fathers have a meeting. The young men want to fight for blood and glory; the old men urge caution.
Suddenly news arrives from the gate. A “wise woman” (2 Sam.20:16) is negotiating with the enemy, shouting down from the top of the wall to the leader far below. The men run to listen:
“Joab! You seek to destroy a city in Israel: why would you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?”
He answers: “Far be it from me, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy … A man from Ephraim named Sheba, son of Bichri, hath lifted up his hand against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city.”
“Behold, his head shall be thrown down to you over the wall” 2 Samuel 20:16-21.
Hearing that, the majority agrees with the woman: better to toss over the head of Sheba—whom everyone knew to be a scoundrel—than to risk the city in a war against Israel’s own army.
“And they cut off the head of Sheba, the son of Bichri, and cast it down to Joab, and Joab blew a trumpet and they retired from the city, every man to his tent” 2 Samuel 20:22.
Men have played most of the leading roles in the pages of scripture and on the stages of history.
Most political, business, and church leaders are male. However, scripture also records the stories of numerous female leaders: Miriam, Deborah, Huldah the prophetess, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the sister of Martha, Mary Magdalene, Lydia, Phoebe, Priscilla, and Queen Esther who may have single-handedly saved the entire Jewish race.
The story of the unnamed “wise woman” who negotiated with Joab and saved the city confirms: God does use women in leadership.
Perhaps he has used men more often. Perhaps men are more interested in leadership and women less. One might argue men have an inclination toward leadership. I do not know. I can speculate. But speculation is irrelevant. What is relevant is the Biblical evidence.
The Bible reports the lives and decisions of hundreds of leaders. Most of them are men. But some of them are women. No matter what you believe about New Testament church leadership, you must accept the truth: God has used many women over the centuries, both in the scripture and in my life and yours. Any analysis of the “role of women” must begin with this truth:
God has been using women from the beginning, and God considered their actions important enough to be recorded in his word.
“There is neither Jew, not Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:28.
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