I’ve been reading through the Bible front to back lately. I hadn’t done that in some years, so I began at Genesis and am now into II Samuel. I’d like to say I am eagerly eating up each and every account and gleaning lessons right and left. Well, some days I am. Other days, I grit my teeth, set my jaw on edge, and choose to read one more tale of a brutal, and seemingly pointless, massacre or another record of dimensions for a tent or genealogy of some tribe. I want to be inspired by every word of the Bible, but sometimes I’m not. Sometimes, I’m deeply troubled.
Today was one of those days. I read about David dancing before the ark as it was brought back to Jerusalem. His wife, Michal, watches disapprovingly as he dances almost naked and chews him out about it afterwards. David scolds her for judging him. She ends up never having any kids. I often hear people talk about this story and they give Michal a hard time. They talk about how free David is with his love for God and his joy at having the ark back. I get that. But rarely do people look at what happened to Michal before this story. She was one of Saul’s daughters, the king before David who had a love/hate relationship with him. David was supposed to be given her older sister, but then Saul took back his promise. Later, Saul promised Michal if David would bring a bride price to him. Know what it was? 100 foreskins of the enemy. Yuck! Saul was hoping David would be killed trying to achieve this. Instead, here marches in David with a gruesome evidence of his battle expertise. Woohoo! Who wouldn’t want to start their honeymoon right then and there? After that, when David has to flee from his father-in-law, Michal is given to another man as a wife. Did she have any say in this? Surely not. Now, she’s probably missing her first husband but has to get used to it. But, after her Dad is killed, she gets taken back to David. Nevermind whether she loved him, or her second husband. I started feeling some real empathy for this woman. I figure I’d be pretty hardened against all these men who were deciding my fate, too.
Now, Michal is not even close to the only woman in the bible who seems to be treated unfairly in my eyes. There are so many who are treated with even more disdain. Women left outside to be raped while their protectors hide indoors. Women who are concubines and second and third and 15th wives. Women who aren’t mentioned anywhere who mothered all these great figures of faith. I can get pretty fed up in my reformed feminist mind.
Now, I love Jesus. I love God’s Word. I hold strongly to my faith. How can I do that when I see such stories? What I continue to remember is that this book is not just a catalogue of what to do and what not to do. This Book is a record of real people in real life with a real God. I don’t follow David or Saul. They were imperfect. I don’t follow Abraham or Moses. They were imperfect. I don’t follow these men who were living in a time and in a culture where women weren’t valued the way I believe they should be. I don’t follow an imperfect holy man or prophet. I follow Jesus. He’s the one who, according to this Word, never sinned. He’s the example.
As I live in this new culture where a woman’s role is not so far from what it was in the Bible, it makes me pause. I can see women passed over. I can see women who don’t have a say. I can see women who are a second wife. I can see women with no way out of an abusive relationship. I can see women who go hungry because they are widows and have no sons. I look at my little Lucy and wonder how she will view herself when the culture around her tells her she should be quiet, hidden, submissive, and shamed for being a woman.
But, is it really any better where we come from? I see women who have no protection striving to be everything on their own. Women who feel their worth is in being the best homeschool mom, the best working mom, the best single mom, the sexiest lady in her 40s, the highest paid CEO. Is that any better of an identity for my girl? Have we evolved so well that this new independence is superior to the previous dependence? I don’t think so.
So, to soothe my heart, I go back to Jesus. How did he treat women? He told Martha to settle down, that he didn’t care about her housewifery skills. He told the woman at the well that she could be filled and that he’d save her, even with her shady past. He told the woman wrapped in nothing but a blanket that he wasn’t going to condemn her and neither should the angry mob. He provided a home for his grieving Mother before he died. He showed himself first to those women who took care of him after he rose from the dead. This is a man who esteems women. This is a man who knew their worth simply because they were his sisters and His Father’s daughters.
I guess I’ve got to get through all the mess and struggle and sin of these stories before Jesus came. I’ve got to look square in the face of what life would be like without him. I really don’t need the Bible stories for that. I can look around this world and see it, too, can’t I? But, I am so thankful today that God reminded me that all the imperfect people in the world, those that claim him and those that don’t, aren’t my example. Only Jesus is. That is very comforting today.
My little lady who goes for it!
Today was one of those days. I read about David dancing before the ark as it was brought back to Jerusalem. His wife, Michal, watches disapprovingly as he dances almost naked and chews him out about it afterwards. David scolds her for judging him. She ends up never having any kids. I often hear people talk about this story and they give Michal a hard time. They talk about how free David is with his love for God and his joy at having the ark back. I get that. But rarely do people look at what happened to Michal before this story. She was one of Saul’s daughters, the king before David who had a love/hate relationship with him. David was supposed to be given her older sister, but then Saul took back his promise. Later, Saul promised Michal if David would bring a bride price to him. Know what it was? 100 foreskins of the enemy. Yuck! Saul was hoping David would be killed trying to achieve this. Instead, here marches in David with a gruesome evidence of his battle expertise. Woohoo! Who wouldn’t want to start their honeymoon right then and there? After that, when David has to flee from his father-in-law, Michal is given to another man as a wife. Did she have any say in this? Surely not. Now, she’s probably missing her first husband but has to get used to it. But, after her Dad is killed, she gets taken back to David. Nevermind whether she loved him, or her second husband. I started feeling some real empathy for this woman. I figure I’d be pretty hardened against all these men who were deciding my fate, too.
Now, Michal is not even close to the only woman in the bible who seems to be treated unfairly in my eyes. There are so many who are treated with even more disdain. Women left outside to be raped while their protectors hide indoors. Women who are concubines and second and third and 15th wives. Women who aren’t mentioned anywhere who mothered all these great figures of faith. I can get pretty fed up in my reformed feminist mind.
Now, I love Jesus. I love God’s Word. I hold strongly to my faith. How can I do that when I see such stories? What I continue to remember is that this book is not just a catalogue of what to do and what not to do. This Book is a record of real people in real life with a real God. I don’t follow David or Saul. They were imperfect. I don’t follow Abraham or Moses. They were imperfect. I don’t follow these men who were living in a time and in a culture where women weren’t valued the way I believe they should be. I don’t follow an imperfect holy man or prophet. I follow Jesus. He’s the one who, according to this Word, never sinned. He’s the example.
As I live in this new culture where a woman’s role is not so far from what it was in the Bible, it makes me pause. I can see women passed over. I can see women who don’t have a say. I can see women who are a second wife. I can see women with no way out of an abusive relationship. I can see women who go hungry because they are widows and have no sons. I look at my little Lucy and wonder how she will view herself when the culture around her tells her she should be quiet, hidden, submissive, and shamed for being a woman.
But, is it really any better where we come from? I see women who have no protection striving to be everything on their own. Women who feel their worth is in being the best homeschool mom, the best working mom, the best single mom, the sexiest lady in her 40s, the highest paid CEO. Is that any better of an identity for my girl? Have we evolved so well that this new independence is superior to the previous dependence? I don’t think so.
So, to soothe my heart, I go back to Jesus. How did he treat women? He told Martha to settle down, that he didn’t care about her housewifery skills. He told the woman at the well that she could be filled and that he’d save her, even with her shady past. He told the woman wrapped in nothing but a blanket that he wasn’t going to condemn her and neither should the angry mob. He provided a home for his grieving Mother before he died. He showed himself first to those women who took care of him after he rose from the dead. This is a man who esteems women. This is a man who knew their worth simply because they were his sisters and His Father’s daughters.
I guess I’ve got to get through all the mess and struggle and sin of these stories before Jesus came. I’ve got to look square in the face of what life would be like without him. I really don’t need the Bible stories for that. I can look around this world and see it, too, can’t I? But, I am so thankful today that God reminded me that all the imperfect people in the world, those that claim him and those that don’t, aren’t my example. Only Jesus is. That is very comforting today.
My little lady who goes for it!
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