I Remember Sarah...

Judges 4:4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5) She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment...

As a Bible class teacher I remember hearing a little ditty that went with teaching the Judges. It went somewhat like: Shamgar had an ox goad... Regrettably, that is all of the ditty I can actually remember. Samson, I believe it said had the jawbone of--a donkey, but the gist of it is that God's servants used whatever came to hand, and in Shamgar's instance it was an ox goad, and in Samson's case it was the jawbone of a donkey.

Quite honestly if I were going up against innumerable odds...I would want more than an ox goad, or the jawbone of a donkey. However...

"Look around you," the speaker at the podium says, "we began in the 1980's trying to make a difference..." He's speaking about politics, but there is an application here for the Christian as well...

Christians of the first centuries made a difference in the societies they came in contact with, not only because of their willingness to die for the faith, but by being willing to live their faith as well. I would be willing to say unequivocally they were a people of prayer as well as action. They believed all life was sacred and precious and were instrumental in rescuing unwanted babies that were left outside the cities to die. Humility was a quality they were known for, as well as the sweet, quiet piety of their...women.

The speaker went on to urge his listeners, "Do you see any difference in what we've accomplished? Other than a few little advances here and there...no we have not made many gains..."

As he said, so say I to you...look around you. Christ began approximately 2012 years ago to make a difference. Where are we now? We have made progress, but, honestly where are we now, what happened, and where are we going?

Exactly how we got here isn't a difficult path to follow. Bible scriptures have been the very best friend women have ever had. We have allowed people snort at that statement, but it is true. In ancient societies women were no better than chattel. Judaism was different, and so is Christianity, lifting women out of the slavery/drudgery of the idolatrous world.

Yet, as often is the case the quality that has lifted women for good is used against the very object that helped elevate it. How were we side swiped?

Genesis 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."


You might say, 'What? What are you talking about?' Look at the women's 'liberation' movement. That's what has really changed things for women. In our new society women can be anything they want to be...

In the early 1900's, -we are told- that women had a life of drudgery...they were forced to 'bear' and raise children... They were forced to be 'keepers' of their own homes; they weren't encouraged to have occupations outside of their own household... How extremely ignorant and narrow minded that is! I am reminded of the cigarette advertisement from a few years back. It always snatched a 'picture' of some woman being arrested for smoking, or a woman doing a household drudgery task, or some such thing from the early 1900's, and the caption was; "You've come a long way, baby!" With a modern day miss, cigarette in hand, smiling and enjoying life... We are led to believe at least. Now of course women have the blessing of choosing to have lung cancer at a greater rate than women of previous generations...what a deal!

What we are doing is like looking at an orange and attempting to compare it to a pear. They are both fruit, but they will never be the same. Life was different then for both men and women. There were some large families back then, it was not uncommon to have a family of five children-- give or take a few...there were also childless families, or families with one or two children. The majority of people looked at children as not just a necessity, but a blessing. When two people married the natural happening was children, and that was not a bad thing.

"Do you know," my cousin says to me, "most all of the women/girls I work with are just 'shacking up'? I asked them why they would do that, and they just think it's normal. Like you got to try them on. I said, what do you think they are, shoes? You don't try people on... You find someone you want to commit your life to, and that's what you do. And you stay with that person for the rest of your life through thick and thin, good and bad...the whole ball of wax!"

I love my cousin, she has a real way with words, and she uses them well. My heart aches for women today. They really -most of them- don't know that you don't 'try' it out. That mind set puts women/girls on the par with--whores-- except they aren't paid...their services are--free.

While watching a 'new' Miss Marple video (Miss Marple was a series of spinster detective stories written by Agatha Christie back in the early to mid-nineteen hundreds), I was shocked when at the end of the video one of the charming young characters instead of getting married to the handsome young man in her life (as would have happened in that era) she tells Miss Marple, "We're just going to move in and...". That is one example of how the media slips their agenda into our lives. Taking liberty with a famous author's character gives us the impression that 'they did the same things back then that we do today. It's not new.' But that wasn't true...

Some may have, but it wasn't common, as these these modern day history changers would have us to believe...but this slight twist gives them the right to encourage and fund groups such as 'Planned Parenthood,' because this is the way it has always been...we are no better than the animals. People have always done these things, we are just more sophisticated... so they would have us erroneously believe...History does show us that sinful behavior waxes and wanes. During some decades 'morally, anything was permissible as long as you didn't scare the horses...'

I cannot even begin to list the many days after a long day of labor I have dropped into a chair and thought, "My day is so full...and I never get it all done." Days just fly!

Yet there are two of us raising our children. Two of us sharing the burdens of life--not the 'burden' of children. Children are like the flowers that make the hardships worth the trouble. They do give us challenges, but so does anything that is worthwhile. Whether a couple has children or not there will be burdens and challenges in this life. My heart aches when I think of the families that have 'tried each other on', begun little people lives, only to discover that 'the shoe didn't fit' and one of the parties leaves. No commitment you see...Single parent homes, often women and children left behind. The man moves on to a different shoe -one of the most devastating things in our society today- and it's growing more and more prevalent. How's that 'women's liberation thing working out for us, huh?

Now the woman has children and must find a way to support them, and herself, and take care of the home and the children...and no man to love and care for her or the children. Of course the first man left her for a new shoe, and eventually she will probably find a new shoe as well, but...how's that women's liberation working for us...?

Children grow up in poverty, often abused physically, mentally, and sexually. The woman part of the shoe begins to look like what she is--used. Not loved and cherished, and not loving nor cherishing others. Used...

They call it 'dead-beat dads', but it's really dead beat parents. People that have bought into a lie. ...and that's what 'women's liberation' has done.

This isn't a tirade against those 'bad men' out there that aren't living the way they should. This is a post about women who choose to be a 'significant other', when they should be a virtuous woman, and yes there are those who believe they are in the church. However, when we, the salt don't speak up we have lost our savor. We are failing to make a difference in the world around us. In this era we need prayer and Godly lives, and Godly speech...and Godly teaching- now, because of what women's liberation is doing to us.

It never was supposed to encourage life-time, loving, Godly relationships. It was a Satanic idea for tearing our homes, our society, and ultimately our country down. When even the women buy into this counter-productive behavior acting like animals, men/boys return the action in kind. That's how women's liberation is working for us.

Oddly enough, this is not the post I began with, but...

Deborah was the only woman to be a judge. Some would have us believe that the rare instances such as Deborah gives us an example that it is acceptable to God for women to take on these roles. I say that it is quite the opposite.

1Timothy 2:11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12) I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13) For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14) and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (English Standard Version)

There are a number of women that literally howl at this scripture. How dare anyone suggest that a woman should be SUBMISSIVE! Why, that's archaic, and of course it doesn't apply in these modern days...but wait...

God's direction, God's wish is that Godly men lead their households as in the instructions for elders of the church. (I Timothy 3:1-7; and deacons I Timothy 3:8-10)

In reading the book of Ruth we see how difficult life was for women, yet under the old law God gave a deliverance for the poor. In Ruth chapter 3:1 It tells us how Ruth's mother-in-law seeks to care for her widowed daughter-in-law:

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? and she tells her how to...demand her rights? to live life her own way? No, she instructs her that Boaz (a wealthy unmarried man that has shown much kindness to Ruth) has the right to marry Ruth and do the duty of redemption for her. Naomi sends Ruth to ask Boaz to fulfill his duty as the next of kin to Ruth's deceased husband, and thus, as Naomi puts it, 'seek rest' for her daughter-in-law.

Ruth does just that in Ruth 3:9. She has laid her petition at Boaz's feet (literally) when as the scriptures say: He (Boaz) said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer."

A 'redeemer', not a horrible 'task master', as the 'liberators' would have us believe.

God uses each of us for his purpose, and returning to Deborah, I believe she filled the purpose she did as a reproach to the men of her generation, and any generation that would follow that example.

Judges 4:6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, 'Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. 7) And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand'?" 8) Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go." 9) And she said, "I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10) And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

She certainly was a woman of courage, but I believe there is a clue that is overlooked. She summoned Barak and told him what God wanted him to do. His reply? I will go IF you will go with me...otherwise I will not go. ~"I will go," she said, "but it will not be to YOUR glory."

She arose and went with him...no hesitation on her part. For the rest of that story you must read the whole chapter. I don't know who Barak thought the woman would be that received the glory. Perhaps he thought Deborah spoke of herself as receiving the glory, but it wasn't Deborah, and as the Word of Jehovah said he did not receive the glory either...

Sarah...there have been many named Sarah through the centuries, but the Sarah I remember hearkens back the our early years of homeschooling our children. Pretty, long reddish hair, this young Sarah had 'children in tow'. She was one of the earliest of the early ones. She sat in on committee meetings for the legislative branches in our state, helping to change/shape better laws for homeschooling families that were in fear of their children being snatched away by the state.

In one of her last addresses to our meetings she made the statement that went somewhat like this: I have drug small children to these meetings. I have changed diapers, fed babies, wiped up spit (from the children)and done all of these things when it wasn't easy, nor convenient--to the shame of men who should have been doing this... I did it because it needed done, and I was the only one at hand...

These weren't her words verbatim, but it is the gist of what she said. You know, we need to stand in the gap as Sarah did, and speak up as my cousin did, be courageous as Deborah was. People need to see a difference in us and our lives. Submission, quietness, Godliness? Sarah exemplified these qualities even under difficult situations.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried” – G. K. Chesterton

How true this is. 'Has not been tried and found wanting...'

That women's liberation thing...it never was meant to work...and it has worked just like it was meant to work...to tear down our homes, as well as our society.

Psalms 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4) Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. 5) Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalms 113:9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!