One method used by those perturbed by Paul's teachings about women in the church is to find any dear female of Scripture and call her in as a witness to their point. Well, I believe I know these women too. I want to ask them to testify on the other side for awhile. Let me show you who these women really were, and how far they were from their modern counterparts.
In I Peter 3: 1-6, the apostle mentions how godly women of old trusted in God, stressed inner and not outward beauty, and were submissive to their own husbands. It is these qualities he looks for in their spiritual descendants, the women of the church.
Sarah is lifted up in Scripture as a woman who called her husband "lord" and could therefore see the lordship of God in her spouse. No church leader here!
Rebekkah, having heard God's Word to her and her husband, favored her son Jacob, and did what she could to advance him, but never without full submission to her husband.
There were disobedient women too. Dinah wandered off from her father's covering. Zipporah defied the ways of God in Moses. Miriam spoke against that same Moses and was severely chastised.
The most prominent of Old Covenant women is Deborah. If there is a woman in the Bible that gives any credence to "female leadership" advocates, it is this incredible prophetess. Nevertheless a close examination of what the Bible actually records reveals that the entire extent of her work was the receiving of God's wisdom miraculously for the people who came to her as she "would sit under the palm tree." This is how she "judged" the nation, through the wisdom of God, not the arm of fleshly power.
Here is no exalted elder. Here was a simple handmaiden of the Lord who received His messages and passed them on. She is never seen teaching in an assembly, taking authority over men.
When God called for the deliverance of Israel from its enemy, the prophetess called upon a man to do the work. With Deborah at his side, in respect for the Word of prophecy, the battle was won. The most she claims for herself in all of this is that she was "a mother in Israel." (Judges 5:7)
So the principle is established in Deborah, not broken: In all visible ways, men must lead the people of God. But this dear woman teaches us that women will be used to receive revelation from God, prophecy, since gender is not a factor when the fullness of God is present.
This principle helps us to understand more fully Paul's seeming "contradiction" in I Corinthians 14. There, women are commanded to be silent for all normal functions of the Church. But when God raises up a woman to speak (chapter 11), when He indeed fulfils the prophecy of Joel to pour His Spirit on His "handmaidens", and they prophesy the Word of the Lord, or pray empowered by that same Spirit, let not any despise them.
Remember also, that it is still possible that these prophecies, as Deborah's, could be outside the assembly, lest woman seem to be exalted in any way.
After Deborah and the judges, the kings rule Israel. No women are seen ruling the Kingdom except in gross disobedience. Jezebel is the domineering wife of Ahab who is obsessed with her own beauty and power. Her daughter Athaliah actually takes over the Kingdom of Judah after killing all but one of the royal heirs. Both of these women died violent deaths for their arrogance.
Oh! The men fared not well either in these days. Evil ruled the land. But the Kingdom had been given to men, was to be carried on by men, and was to culminate eventually in the Man Christ Jesus, Who shall reign forever and ever.
In the life of Jesus Himself, for He lived and died under this same Old Covenant, it is only with the most difficult stretches that we see any woman, even His mother, raised to "authority" by His command. Women give money to His cause. Women support their apostle husbands. Women tell the story of Jesus to their countrymen.
Women praise Him and weep for Him, and women see His resurrected Body and announce such, but no woman rules or teaches any man in all the Gospels.
Is this pattern not a sufficient word in and of itself of the will of God for the church?
http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. Just about every day I'm writing a blog featuring some news, a book, or a story of North Korea. There's a live news feed on the site, lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together!
And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond on my site.
Power Of Intension
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