In the beginning, God created the woman to be man’s help mate, “for Adam there was not found a helper meet for him.” And then the first surgery happened while God put Adam down for a deep sleep. While he slept, God took one of his ribs or a part of his side and closed up the flesh (Gen. 2). So, the woman came from one of Adam’s ribs. We can’t imagine how a body is formed from a rib, with all its intrinsics complicated parts coming together to form the perfect creation of a body. But so it happened that the woman was created to be a help mate for her husband. All through the ages, women carried the character of a leader in certain things, as she became the mother of her children, and the controller of her household. Proverbs 31 well gives a picture of a virtuous woman. The picture given does not show her to be passive, but one that shows her active in every aspect of life. What her husband and children had to say about her? “Her children rise up and call her blessed and her husband boasts of and praises her [saying], Many daughters have done virtuously, nobly, and well, but you excel them all” (Prov. 31:28-29).
There are a few women in the Old Testament I would like to mention for their courage in times of great challenges. Debora the prophetess and the only woman Judge in Israel, left a legacy of leadership many of us admire; it ultra passes that of many men of yesterday and today. In her simple life style, she sat under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came up to her for judgment; and she sent and called Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in 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 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun? And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the trip you take will not be for your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Debora arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.” (Judges 4). That was not an easy task Prophetess and Judge Debora took under her. She was rewarded however, with victory, and her life lives forever in the pages of the Word of God. Among others, there is Esther. A young Jew who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives taken away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried into exile.
Hadassah had no father, and no mother; they both died and Mordecai took her as his own daughter. Hadassa was the chosen girl to replace the king’s wife Vasti for not submitting to her husband’s orders in his great celebration. She was dethroned, losing her position of queen. The law of the country was that the queen could only appear in the presence of the king when called. Meanwhile, Mordecai her uncle, learned of a plot that to destroy all the Jews from the province of Babilon. Being a Jew, he took the matter to Esther for a solution in her position of a new queen. He warned her, saying, If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and for this very occasion? Esther instructed her uncle to gather all the Jews present in Shushan, and fast for me; three days night or day. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish (Esther 4). Queen Esther sacrificed her life to save her nation with courage and determination. This is a beautiful act of love for her people. And she found favor in the king’s sight and he held out to [her] the golden scepter that was in his hand. He said, What will you have Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of the kingdom. (Esther 5). The story has a nice ending, because of faith and courage of a young girl.
Light from the Word 