The Women of Hebrews 11

You know the Bible uses so many different forms of writing. When God has inspired writers to put together things for us, we have the poetry of the Psalms that lend themselves well to so many songs, many songs that we sing and are so familiar with. We have the narratives of history and the historical accounts of Israel and their wanderings in the desert.

We have the dialogue of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. We have all sorts of writing, and some of it I call grand. Grand and almost majestic writing. When you read it, it's designed to inspire you. When you read it, you just want to do more. You want to get closer to God. You want to grow more in the way that he wants you to. I want to open today with one set of such scriptures that I put into that category, and that's back in Hebrews 11. You know that Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter, and in it are named several people from the Old Testament who demonstrated faith in God.

They're noted for that, and God gives us these people as examples to us of the faith we should have, because what he worked for them back in those times, he would work for us today. We can learn many things from the men and women that are listed there in Hebrews 11. Let me just begin in verse 32 and read a few verses here as we begin, because as God who inspired this chapter to be written, as he wraps it up, he says in verse 32, Escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight, the armies of the aliens. And he goes down and he says, verse 37, these were stoned, they were sawn in tune, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. And then he goes into chapter, what we call chapter 12, where he encourages us, follow God, put aside all the things, come out of the world, dedicate yourself completely to God. It's a magnificent set of verses. It's a magnificent chapter. And in it, as we go back, and if we were going to look at the men and people who are mentioned here in Hebrews 11, we would learn great lessons of faith that don't apply just to them, because they were just ordinary men and women, like you and I are today.

But because of their faith, God worked tremendous things in their lives, and they were recorded in biblical history, in the biblical record here, for you and I to take note of. You know, not every man that there was a good report of is listed in Hebrews 11. Many more besides the few that are mentioned in here. And we can go back and we learn from them.

Of note as you look at Hebrews 11, it's not just men that are listed in Hebrews 11. God included two women in Hebrews 11 as well, because they too were examples of faith. And God worked tremendous things through them. Impossible things, if you will. They were examples of valor. They were examples of people who, women who stood in the gap.

And God made note that women, the women in our lives, the women in our church, the women that we are with every day, have a special purpose and a mission in life as well. So many times we talk about everything that men do and what God has commissioned men to do. But there's something that God has commissioned women to do too. They have a role that God wants them to fulfill. We live in a world that is just so crazy.

Women down through the ages have had...the history is just horrendous when you look at it. From the time that Adam and Eve sinned and they were put out of the Garden of Eden, women have gone through a history of where they've been counted as second-class citizens, nothing more than servants, just slaves, sex objects.

Not worth listening to anything they had to say because the men have all the answers and it's got to be their way or the highway, all the way through. Even in some countries of the world today, that still lies there and that has been the fate of women.

Here in America, and I guess you would call it the modern Western nations, today women think the greatest thing to do is be a man. Hey, the men do this. They are the ones who have all these jobs. We want to be like men. That must be the answer to happiness. Of course, we live in a world that's so mixed up and messed up today that gender is just an absolute mess. And as the world grasps at things that are just so silly to say, oh, this is the way to happiness, this is the way it should be, this is where it should be, you scratch your head and you think, can it get any more crazy?

None of that's going to lead to it. And none of this stuff that the world talks about in gender, from the time that Adam and Eve left up until now and until the true return of Jesus Christ, none of it should be taken into account because none of it is God's way. None of it defined what a man should do the way God defined. None of it defined what a woman should be the way that God defined it to be. There is no happiness in what is going on in the world today.

There's no right in what the definitions that are going and you hear on the news going on. They don't know the answer, the only answer to happiness and fulfillment in the roles that we have in our lives is in the Bible. Only God who created them male and female knows what to do. And if people want fulfilled lives, they'll turn back here, as they will in the kingdom, you won't find it in the world.

This is Satan's world. And Satan plays and messes around with things and just creates confusion, havoc, and just a miserable life for everyone. So today I want to, given it's Mother's Day weekend and we're honoring our wives, mothers, and really all women on this day, I'd like to talk about the two women in Hebrews. What can we learn from them men? What can we learn from them ladies? Because you have quite a calling, just like men do. We are all heirs together. God has called us all to become what He created us to become, that we may serve Him today, we may serve each other today, and we may serve mankind and Him for eternity.

And our job in this society is to learn what those things are and to begin to do the things that God has called us to do and live the way that He wanted us to. So before we go to the two ladies, the two women of Hebrews, let's go back and see where God created man and woman. Very familiar verses, but let's turn back to Genesis 1.

Genesis 1 and verse 26. God said, Genesis 1.26, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Let us make man in our image. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created him. But at this point, He created just Adam. It was just Adam that was created first from the dust of the ground. Yet God said, male and female, He created them. So Adam was one man at that point. Yet God made that comment. If we go over to Genesis 2, we find Adam in the Garden of Eden, and He's naming all of the animals, the birds, all these things. And as He looks around, He knows that there's no companion for Him like there is for the animals that He's naming.

We'll pick it up in verse 20 of Genesis 2. So Adam, who is all alone at this point, Adam gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. He was all alone. It was just him.

And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And He took one of His ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. And the rib which the eternal God had taken from man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. One man, Adam, God took woman out and created her to be a helpmate, as it says in the Old King James, or a helper comparable to Adam.

From one man, Adam, woman was taken out, and woman was created. Now, when God took away from Adam the part that was going to be woman, in all likelihood, and I'm going to speculate a little bit on this, there were the things that make up a woman. We all know the differences. We've heard of left brain and right brain and how women are more in more relationship builders. Men are more conquerors. More men are more designed to be protectors and providers, and to be out there out front.

We're women God created to be more of the nurturers, more of those who would be behind the scenes helping and finishing up. But together, together, when God would put man and woman together in marriage, he said they're to become one. Adam was one. God made him into two. And he said, when you marry, become one again. Learn from each other. Grow together. Grow together. It's the unit that God is looking for. It's the family that he's looking for. And so he created marriage, and he created an opportunity for all of us to learn how to become one.

It's a tremendous opportunity to learn all of God's traits. Men don't have all of God's traits. Women don't have all of God's traits. Together, we learn about God's will. Together, we learn about how He is. He isn't just like men. He isn't just like women. But He does embody the characteristics of the two of them. And as a family and a marriage grows together, men learn. Women learn. We understand who God is, and we create an environment for growth, for joy, for everything that God intended for mankind to have.

Now, it's interesting when you look at verse 20 of chapter 2, because when God says, I will make man a helpmate comparable to Him, or a helpmate for Him, the Hebrew word that's translated helpmate there, or help, or helper, is Strongs 58-28. I'll give you the number. And we can learn a lot about a Hebrew word when we see how it's used in other places, because this isn't the only place in the Bible that that word helpmate or help is used.

It is used in some other places. Sometimes when people hear help, they just think of hired help, right? I hire you to clean my house, shop for me, cook for me, do all these things. That's what we might think of help. But that's not the way help is used in other places in the Bible. Let's just take a few minutes to look at how God used the word help, or this 58-28, Strongs 58-28 in other places. We'll just look at a few Psalms here, beginning in Psalm 33.

Psalm 33.

Psalm 33 and verse 20. Our soul, our soul waits for God. How many times do we have to remind you of that? We wait for God. We don't take matters into our own hands. We wake for God. Our soul waits for the eternal. He is our help and our shield. That word help? 58-28. The same word God used when He created woman and said, I'm making Adam a helpmate for him. God is our help and shield. We don't look at Him as a hired servant. We don't look at Him just to be there to do the things in life that we might not want to do or have time to do. That help is a whole different word. That's a whole support system. That's all something that we want God with us, helping us, guiding us. They are with us to be by our side. In Psalm 70 and verse 5, Psalm 70 and verse 5, Psalm 70 and verse 5, You're my help. You're my help. You're there. You're there beside me. And without you, I'm empty. Without you, I'm missing something. Without you, I'm incomplete. 1 15. 1 15 and verse 9. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. 58 28. O house of Aaron, verse 10. Trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Verse 11. You who fear the Lord, trust in Him. He is their help and their shield. Not just a hired servant, not just for menial tasks, someone with whom we have fellowship, someone with whom we are in partnership, someone with whom God has said, I have fellowship with you and I want you to be one with me as you are with one another, as you are man and wife. 1 1. Psalm 121. 121 and verse 1. I will lift my eyes to the hills. From whence comes my help? 58 28. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

And 146. Finally 146. And verse 5. Happy is he. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.

Happy is he, too, who God gives a good wife. You know, throughout the scriptures, we learn and we are reminded. Wives are a blessing from God. When God created Eve from Adam, Adam saw that as a tremendous gift. A tremendous gift! He didn't look at her menially. He wanted her. He loved her. It was a gift from God. And so we can look and should look at our wives as gifts from God. And the Bible reminds us of that in a world that has gone, well, that has been crazy, that gets crazier all the time in their definitions of how to be a woman or how to be a man. What does God say? Let's go to the next book, Proverbs. Proverbs and see a few things that he says about the value of a wife that he gives us, what he created when he took Eve out of Adam. Proverbs 12, verse 4, An excellent wife. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband. Your margin probably also references 1 Corinthians 11, verse 7. What that verse says is, the glory of women is their hair. The glory of man is the woman. Think God held women in a little higher esteem than perhaps the people down through the ages have? Do you think he held them in a higher regard and had something more to them than to just be cast aside? Or now, you know, my only way to happiness is to be the opposite gender of what I am. Not just among men or women, but men as well. Proverbs 19, verse 14.

houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers. But a prudent wife is from God. But a prudent wife is from God. A gift from him. 31. Proverbs 31, verse 10. You may think I'm going to spend the majority of the sermon today in Proverbs 31. I am not. I am not. You can go home and read Proverbs 31. You know much of what is in there. It gives a picture of a virtuous woman.

I'll read verse 10 here. Who can find a virtuous wife? Her worth is far above Ruvie's. And then Proverbs 31, the rest of it gives a beautiful picture of a woman. A woman living in an environment the man has helped create who understands also the role of women and what God created them to be and helps her to become all she can be just as she helps him to become all that he should be.

Remember always when you read Proverbs 31 that one day we'll be the bride of Christ. So this is a definition of what we need to be as well as we have our responsibilities to Christ. Ecclesiastes, next book in, Ecclesiastes 9, Solomon who had so many wives that he lost all perception of what marriage and love and all the things that God created was. He did have wisdom inspired by God and you know at least here in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 9 he makes this comment. He says, live joyfully. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which God has given you under the sun all your days of vanity.

Live joyfully. Make that marriage work. Put aside the things that separate. Don't let bitterness, don't let petty things get in between you. Live joyfully. Live joyfully. The way you live joyfully is you do it God's way. Become who God wants us to become. And finally in the last book of the Old Testament in Malachi, God shows his importance, the importance that he places on marriage and the vows that we make in this relationship. And he also lets men know, I know what your proclivity will be.

Just don't let it happen to you. Malachi 2 verse 13. As God goes through the book here and chides Israel for the many things that they don't do in his honor, he says this, verse 13, this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying. So God doesn't regard the offering anymore, nor does he receive it with good will from your hands. Yet you say, well, why? For what reason? Because he's been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously.

Yet she is your companion. I gave her to you as a gift. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Didn't he make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. Pay attention. Guard it. Make it work.

No God's way. Look into his word. Submit self to God's will and build that life, both men and women, in the way to God designed it to be. Not by modern definitions, not by modern culture, not by what you hear on the news or from the government. Do it God's way. It's the only way to a fulfilling life and a happy life.

The rest of it is absolute trash. Ephesians 4, verse 14, it says that the church operates by every joint. Every joint supplies what the church needs to function as a body. Same thing with a family. Men supply what men were designed to supply. Women are designed to produce and give to the family what they were designed to provide. And when everything is done God's way, every joint supplies what is there for the effective functioning of the unit. It works in the home and the church. Remember that God said the relationship between a man and his wife is a reflection of that of Jesus Christ and the church.

Well, let's go back to Hebrews, or four words, I should say, not Hebrews, 1 Peter. 1 Peter 3. We'll talk a little bit about Sarah, who is one of the two women who are mentioned in Hebrews 11. We'll go back to Hebrews 11 in a minute and read what it said about her. But Peter says some things about Sarah that are pretty instructive to women today. If we look in the Bible and as we read the words the way God intended them to read, we find they're not at all bad. They're not at all limiting.

They're rather engaging, inspiring, and encouraging. 1 Peter 3, verse 3. This is what Peter says about Sarah, one of two women who are mentioned in Hebrews 11. He says, Don't let your adornment be merely outward. Now, that's a definition of today, right? You can turn on TV. What do you see? Nothing but cosmetics. You see short skirts. You see shorts. You see dresses that are revealing. Don't let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel. Nothing wrong with all those things. It's fine to have all those things, but don't let that be it. Today, when you watch TV, that would be it. I've got to look good. If I look good, that's all that matters. How many people have figured out that just looking good isn't all that matters? It takes much more than that. Don't let your adornment be merely outward. Rather, verse 4, let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

See what his definition is there, what he says? A gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. Now, let me tell you a few things that a gentle and quiet spirit is not. A gentle and quiet spirit does not mean that a woman never has an opinion. A gentle and quiet spirit does not mean that a man should never listen to a woman or listen to her side or take any advice from her because he has all the answers. A gentle and quiet spirit does not mean that the woman has no value besides beyond what she does every day in the house.

A gentle and quiet spirit means how she conducts herself in a way of peace in the family, watching what's going on, understanding her role in the family, understanding what God's role is in the family, and working with her husband to create what it is that God wants them to create in that family. You know, all too often there's criticisms, there's yelling, there's all these things that go on. And I could turn to verses that I'm not going to where God talks about how a nagging woman can be an interruption to anyone's development. And they may have a point, but so many times it's how you handle things that make the point. If all we ever do is criticize, if all we ever do is point fingers and whatever, we're not going to get our points across, but a gentle and quiet spirit and something presented, if there needs to be something presented, it's going to go a lot further than loud and boisterous and all the noise that goes with it. Precious in the sight of God. You know, we read words like that. We might want to look at that. As a woman, I'd look at that and say, wow, God says that's precious in His sight. Verse 5, for in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their husbands. I know submissive is a dirty word in today's world. No one wants to be submissive to anyone. Everyone wants to do what's wired in their eyes. They've got all sorts of ideas out there, and no one is submissive to anyone anywhere in the world. In society, you look at the news, and sometimes it can come over into the church as well. We are all submissive to Jesus Christ. It's not a bad word. We find freedom. We find joy. We find future. We find hope in our submission to Jesus Christ and the truth that He has called us into. Submission, Peter says later on in this book, we all submit to one another. Be aware of one another. It doesn't mean slavery. It doesn't mean lord it over as the Gentiles or the world might be. Look at it in the manner that God says it. In this manner, this is how women adorn themselves, who trust it in God. Verse 6, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, she's an example. She called him Lord. Now, no one, if I hear any man go home and say, I want you to start calling me Lord, we will have a talk, okay?

What Sarah did was show respect to Abraham. That was the way they did it back then. You know, in Ephesians 5, verse 33, it says what each gender needs. Husbands love your wives. And we've talked before about love languages and how that all works and how a woman sees love and what we do. It's different than what men. And it says, if wives respect your husbands, show them the respect that they deserve. Don't nag, don't pick at them, don't do anything but respect what they do. Work with them, be a help with them, support them, build the relationship that God called us into. Whether you're married or not, whether you're single, young girls as you're listening, listen to what God says, learn what God says, have your parents teach you what God says so that you grow up and you have a really happy and joyous life.

Love your wives, husband. Show respect to your, no, love your, yeah, husbands, show respect to your husbands' wives.

As Sarah obeyed Abraham, last part of verse 6, whose daughters you are, if, if you do good, how do we do good? We follow God. We live his way of life. Even if husband isn't living that way of life, even if husband may be a little lax in that way of life, if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. You know, Sarah did good in her life. The other woman we'll talk about wasn't afraid, and she was in a pretty precarious position as other women in the Bible were, too. God would tell all of us, don't be afraid. Stand up for what's right. And in the face of terror, stand with God. Do good. Do good. And don't be afraid. Now let's go back to Hebrews 11 and see what God inspired to be said about Sarah here in this chapter. Hebrews 11 and verse 11.

By faith. You can see in the verses leading up to verse 11, he's talking about Abraham. We know Abraham is a man of faith. We know when God promised Isaac to our son to Abraham and Sarah, Romans 4 tells us that Abraham never wavered. He never doubted. Even as year after year after year passed by, even as Sarah grew old, well past any physical child-bearing years, he never wavered in his faith toward God that God would give them the child he promised. When we come to verse 11, we see Sarah's mentioned here, too. By faith. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful, who had promised. She had faith, too. God worked in her something that was absolutely impossible. Anyone who would go to a doctor ten years or more past their child-bearing years and say, I want to have a child, would probably look at them and say, it's impossible. When you have faith in God, everything's possible. Sometimes we think things are impossible. God can do this, but would he do this? Would he do this? Maybe we need to take a little bit of the faith of Abraham and Sarah and not waver in our faith toward him. Now, Abraham, it says, never wavered, but Sarah, on the other hand, might have had a moment of doubt.

Let's go back to Genesis 18.

But when that doubt was called to her attention from then on out, she made sure her faith was intact. Genesis 18.

Let's pick it up. Of course, this chapter is talking about, in verse 1, it tells us, The one who became Jesus Christ appeared to Abram. They fed him, sat down, and talked with him. If we pick up in verse 11 the story here, it says Abraham and Sarah, Genesis 18, verse 11, Abraham and Sarah were old. Well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I've grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? Well, here it was recounting that they would have, they would have, a son. But she laughed, saying, is that really going to happen? And the Lord said to Abraham, Why does Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything too hard for God? Is anything too hard for him? At the appointed time, I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Well, Sarah heard this, and you can imagine if you were Sarah, and you were caught laughing about something and doubting, so she did what any of us probably would have done. She denied it, saying, I didn't laugh. Oh, yes, she laughed. Oh, yes, she laughed, but she didn't want to show, but she was called for her lack of faith. And that stuck with her. From that time forward, I don't believe that she wavered in her belief at all, no matter how old she was going to be, that she was going to have that child, that God said it, and that it was going to happen. I didn't laugh, for she was afraid. But the one who became Jesus Christ said, oh, but you did laugh. You did laugh. Stand corrected, Sarah. It will happen. It will happen. Have faith. And so God and Jesus Christ, when He was on earth, showed that He can do what men would say was impossible. In Matthew 9, we have the occasion of the lady who, for 12 years, was afflicted with bleeding. It says that she had gone to every doctor on earth. She had spent her fortune for someone to try to fix what was wrong with her. Nothing worked. But then she had faith in Christ, and all she wanted was if she could just touch the hem of His garment. And when she did, combined with that faith, it stopped.

Is there anything God can't heal? There's nothing God can't heal.

I'm reminded often of 2 Corinthians 6, where Paul tells the Corinthians, oh, we're not limiting you, Corinthians. You're limited by your own affections. You limit yourself. We limit God by the lack of faith that we have sometimes. Sarah didn't lack faith. When she got past this and she understood, and they had the Son, Isaac, also mentioned in Hebrews 11, also an example. They would talk about the God of Israel, the God of the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham and Isaac reared that boy very well. They reared him together very well. We know Abraham poured his heart into that boy. That boy learned who God is. That boy learned. That boy learned to respect God. Sarah did too.

Women, wives, you have an important role in the rearing of the children. The man is supposed to set the standard. He's supposed to set the spiritual standard for the house straight down the line with God. This is what we believe. This is what must be done. But he goes off to work every day, and you are there with children. So you have a role, a hugely important role in how that child develops.

Do they see you living God's way? Do they see that it's all important to you? Is God a part of every bit of your life? Do they know the difference between what is going on in the world, which is so messed up, versus the truth and the joy that comes from living God's way of life? Do they know that? Do they understand that? Do they see that? Is that what's talked about at home? And maybe even more so as we see the world becoming even crazier with each passing day, month, and year.

You know, in the New Testament, we're introduced just briefly to a few ladies who didn't have the benefit of having a husband in the church. You know, when Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy, he talks about the faith of Timothy. He says, you know, Timothy, I see your faith. I see the faith of your mother and grandmother, Lois and Eunice, in you. Did that just come by accident? Just kind of osmosis? That's just one of the DNA things I got passed on? Or did he see in Mom and Grandma the things of God?

Did he learn faith by what they did? Even though Dad was a Greek and not a believer, Timothy grew up understanding the Scriptures. Timothy grew up with faith. Later on, in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, Paul says, the Scriptures you learn from your youth, Timothy.

Teach those. Stick by them. Live by them. He learned them from Eunice and Lois. Grandma and Mom, no excuses. Well, Dad's not here. Whatever. Stand up for what's right. Stand in the gap. Do the things that God calls to do. A woman's responsibility is to lead to God as well along with her husband. Not all 100% of the husband. It is his responsibility, and God will hold him accountable. But women have that responsibility, too, together, when we raise a child.

With the outlook and the direction in God's way, then that child will get it. We all have a lot to learn in that, and maybe some things we would even like to go back and redo in our lives. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 7. Just one verse I'm going to look at in chapter 7. 1 Corinthians 7 is kind of like the marriage chapter. It talks about the relationship between a man and a woman.

It talks about the difficulties that can occur. Paul, encouraging them, stay together. Watch out for each other's needs, but he also was aware that there's carnality, and there's going to be the problems that erupt in a marriage. But always go back, always with God's Holy Spirit, go back and fix them. Fix them and learn what it is that God wants you to do.

There are valuable lessons that will last to eternity as we learn to be one. In verse 16 in 1 Corinthians 7, how do you know, Paul writes, how do you know a wife, whether you will save your husband? You have a responsibility, even if husband's not in the church. Live a godly life. Do good. Even if your husband is in the church, and he's kind of lax and doesn't do the things he should, you live a godly life.

Don't use him as his excuse. You were called, too. You were baptized, too. You have the Holy Spirit, too. You are heirs together with him for the kingdom of God. God looks to what you are doing as well. The principle remains. You know, Paul tells us if it comes of choice between obeying God and obeying the governmental authorities, we obey God. If in a marriage, it comes of difference between obeying spouse or husband or following wife, in the case of a husband or God, you stand up and you stand for God.

You continue to follow God. That's the only way to get back on the right path. Don't let each other be a help in those times where there might be some confusion, there might be some things going on. One can be, how do you know, oh, wife, whether you will save your husband? By your good example, by you standing up for what's right, by you continuing to do it, he may see your good example and turn back to God.

Same thing for a husband. If wife isn't doing, you do the right by her. You follow the principles of what the Bible says. You do what she says. How do you know, oh, husband, whether you will save your wife? You continue to do what God says to do. Like he told Sarah, do good. Do good. Have faith in God. Trust in Him. Put all your trust in Him.

Well, that's Sarah. Let's look at the other woman in Hebrews 11. We find her down in verse 31 of Hebrews 11, and she might be a very unlikely woman for God to have included in this treatise, if you will, on faith. And people to look at as examples for us of who, he says, they've obtained a good testimony through faith. In verse 31, verse 30, we see where the woman was. She was in Jericho. In verse 31, it says, By faith the harlot Rahab, of all the women in the Old Testament, Rahab, a harlot, not even an Israelite, by faith the harlot Rahab, did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.

I don't need to recount the whole story of Jericho. You know the story of Jericho. There were spies Israel sent in there ahead of time to scout out the city.

They came across Rahab. She hid them. She could have easily feared the government, but she knew that the God of Israel was the true God. She knew the story, and she believed. So even though she might have been afraid of what she was doing, she knew it was the right thing to do. She hid those spies, and she sent them out, and she made sure they were taken care of, and she solicited and got a promise from them that when they conquered Jericho, because she knew the God of Israel would conquer Jericho, that they would spare her and her family. God looked at that faith for someone who wasn't even Israel. She just knew by the things that she had heard and watched and observed. This is the God I will follow. And she, in the face of terror and with tremendous faith, did what could have cost her her life.

How did God reward her? She married a man named Salmon later. They had a son named Boaz, who later became grandfather of David. And she's listed to Matthew 1 in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Her blood, her blood, was in Jesus Christ. She believed. She had faith. She was a strong woman. And you know when she married Salmon, and they had Boaz, and Boaz had married Ruth, and on and on and on it went, they lived God's way. Now, if she had a checkered past, I mean, even here they call her the harlot Rahab, but she wasn't a harlot after she came to know God.

She was one of his servants, became an ancestor, if you will, of Jesus Christ.

Strong, not weak, didn't fall apart and say, oh, I just got to do what the governor of Jericho does. I don't have any choice but to turn you over and whatever. No, she stood up for what she believed. She stood in the gap, too. She didn't make us think of other women. Esther, for one. There was Esther. She was all alone, you know, married, married to the king, married to the king who really held, as we're told in the book of Esther, the power of life and death in his hands. She had kept it hidden that she was a Jew, but here comes a time where the Jews are about to be extinguished. If the plan that was hatched was going to go through, she could have just kept quiet and thought, you know what? I have no idea what the king is going to do. I'm just going to sit back and it'll be God's will, whatever happens. No, she prayed. She fasted. And she knew it was her time to stand up. And she did. And her husband had great respect for her. So when he saw her, and of course, God gave her favor as well, and she saved her people.

In the face of death, she wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right, which she could make a difference. And she was the only one who could do it. There wasn't anyone else around at that time that could do it. It was only, only her. I didn't turn to James 2, verse 25, but let's do that.

Let's do that because James mentions Rahab, if I can go back to her for a moment.

He uses her as an example of something you and I all need to do. James 2, verse 25, likewise, he writes, wasn't Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? She had faith. She believed, but if all she did was believe and then just let the spies get captured or do nothing with it, that her faith was empty. She's an example of faith in works. We say we have faith. Constantly, we should be reminded, what is our faith being turned into? Are there works that demonstrate our faith in God?

Now, there's another woman. I'll throw out her name for you. Jael, J-A-E-L. Some probably know who Jael is in the Bible. She was a woman who was just an ordinary, everyday housewife, and she found herself in a situation that, you know, she didn't bargain for. She didn't really want, but it came her way, and she did the thing. She happened to be, and we find her back in the book of Judges.

If you want to turn to Judges and Judges 4. And she was there at a time, Canaan was ruling, if you will, over Israel. They were oppressed. Judges 4. Let me get to Judges 4. And at that time, there was a judge in Israel who was a woman, of all things. There wasn't a male who stepped up. God counted to be the judge. The woman, Deborah, was the one who was the judge at that time. She was married. The man by the name of Lipidath, or somewhere in here. Apparently, he wasn't up, but she knew the Bible. She could judge the matters that came before her because she knew the Bible well. God allowed her to do that when there was no one else to do that. Well, there came time for the war between Canaan and Israel. In verse 8, leading up to verse 8, Deborah tells Barak, the commander of the armies, Go out. Go out. It's time to conquer Sisera, that king. And God has shown that this is what he wants done. Verse 8, he has an interesting comment back to her. He says, If you will go with me, Judges 4, verse 8, I'll go. But if you won't go with me, I won't go. Isn't that interesting? God said, Go. Deborah, if you'll go with me, if you'll be there by my side, I'll have you by my side, too. It shows the respect that they had for her and her relationship with God. And she did in verse 9. She said, Nevertheless, I will go with you. I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the eternal will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And then they went on to battle. Turns out that that prophecy is exactly what happened. Sisera was conquered by a woman. Verse 16.

We don't need to read all the way through 16. Verse 17, However, Sisera, as he's fleeing from the army, says Sisera, this is the king of the Canaanites here of that army. However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin and the house of Heber the Kenite. Here's a friendly face. Here's someone I can take some respite in. And Jael went out to meet Sisera and said, Turn aside, my lord. Turn aside to me. Don't fear. And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket. And he said to her, Give me a little to drink. She gave him some milk. Verse 20. And he said to her, Stand at the door of the tent. And if any man comes and inquires of you and says, Is there any man here? Say no. He thought he'd be safe there. Jael had, she knew what was going on. She knew what the will of God was. She knew the opportunity that had been given her. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg, took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple. And it went down into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

Israel delivered by the hand of a woman. By the hand of a woman. Just an everyday ordinary housewife. Later on in chapter 5, you see where, as they're singing and dancing, they give honor to Jael for what she had done. And so we can go through the Bible. We can go through the Old Testament. You can look at the women and learn, ladies, a lot about what the women of God did. How they behaved themselves. You can contrast that to the situation of the world we live in today. Contrast that to the way you're living today. The things that are in our minds that need to be unwound and then replaced with the way of God as opposed to the way of the world or the way that we've been brought up in.

But you know, the story doesn't end there because when Jesus Christ was on earth, he too paid stock to women. Let's look at Luke 8. I don't know what the Pharisees did in that time, what opinion they had about women. But Jesus Christ didn't minimize them. He didn't look at them as just second-class citizens and someone to put up with. He held them in high regard, knowing why they were created and that they are heirs together with their husbands. They will be in the kingdom as well. And they also need to show God their desire to be what He created us to be. Luke 8, verse 1. There's another example. Impossible. She might have gone to some therapist who said, I don't know, there is no combination of medicines on earth that are going to help you grow. It took Jesus Christ. It took faith in Him. And she was a faithful follower. When all the men, except John, ran from Christ at the time of the crucifixion, who was there with Him? It was the women. The women were loyal. The women were there who weren't afraid of what was going to happen. Maybe there's a reason for that, I don't know. But notably, they were there. Certain women who had gone out, Mary called Magdalene. Verse 3, Angelina, the wife of Chousa, Herod Stewart, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance. They were there. He called them disciples. We read in the last Bible study in Acts 1, verse 14, as they were gathered together waiting for the return, or waiting for the promise that God was going to give them, that He said, you wait in Jerusalem until the promise of the Holy Spirit comes on you. There were women in that room, too, remember? Not just men. They were there. They were there. One chapter back in Luke 7, we find an incident, an interesting incident here, that gives us another insight to the things that women can do. Yes, faith. Yes, mothers. Yes, teaching. Yes, standing up for God. Yes, making sure that your house and working with your husband, that you are following God's way. Yes, even standing in the gap, if needs be. In verse 36 of Luke 7, we find Christ. Here, in verse 36, it says, And she began to wash his feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hair of her head. And she kissed his feet, and anointed them with the fragrant oil. What man would ever think of doing those things?

It would have never occurred to me if I was at Pharisee to do those things. And yet, to this woman, it was the thing to do to show the respect. The Pharisee, verse 39, is like, don't you know that this woman is a sinner? If he was a prophet, why would he be allowing her to do this?

Jesus knew what was in his mind, and he answered and said to him, Simon, I've got something to say to you. So he replied, teacher, say it. He does in verse 41 and 42. In verse 44, Christ turns to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she's washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.

You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You didn't anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Women provide a lot that sometimes we don't even think about. You know, I look around at Sabbath services and the things that get done. I see flowers, I see smiling faces greeting at the door.

That would never occur to me, in many cases, to do those things. Sometimes people will say, you know, remind, oh, this person is sick, should we send flowers? You know what? It almost never enters my mind to do that. I lack in that, but I appreciate when someone reminds, maybe we need to do that. That's the kind thing to do. That's the brotherly thing to do. That's showing love. That binds people together. I appreciate that with the women who do those things in church. I appreciate all the wives and all the single women and everyone who does all those things that help our church become not just a church where we come and talk, but a church that is a family, that has everything around it.

Jesus Christ, as He looked at this woman, thought, see, look what she's done. Look what she's done. Look at the beautiful occasion that she's made this. It wasn't about Him. It was about what she did. And I know, men, any man, because we've all had mothers and we've all lived in a house that had mothers in it, we look around and, you know, sometimes I shudder to think, if I had never gotten married, what my house would look like, or what I would look like.

And I appreciate those things. Women make a house a home. They may not be the ones out preaching. That isn't what God gave them to do. He gave men to do that. He gave men their responsibilities in the church. But the women have a very important responsibility, too. The glue sometimes in a family and relationships comes from a woman. We need that. In the church, that sometimes binds us together. The woman's touch is necessary. When Christ said what every joint supplies, He meant it.

And every single person in this room has something to offer in the way that God created you. Don't want to be someone else. Be what God created you to be. Women be women. There is glory in that. We'll talk about men at another time, but men be men. There's honor in that. Working altogether, we do God's will. Working altogether, His kingdom will come about.

Working altogether, we will be the example of what life could be if the world and when the world lives God's way. Not in the mess that it is today. Not in the crazy, mixed up things that you hear on TV and edicts that come out of any place on earth that says, well, this is a better way. It's not a better way. God's way is the only way. Mankind doesn't have the answers, only man. Strive to be what God made.

He made us male and female. Let's learn those and be what He wants. Let me finish here. Kind of a paraphrase of where I began in Hebrews 11. Since we're talking about mothers, and may I wish all the mothers here a happy Mother's Day tomorrow. And everyone else, too. We appreciate everything that you do. What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Elizabeth, her cousin, and the Mother of John the Baptist. Time would fail for us to talk of Phoebe and Tabitha and Lydia, of Mary and Martha, of Hannah, Ruth, Naomi, of Leah and Rebecca, of Anna the prophetess, of Priscilla, and all the others.

Thank God He preserved those examples in the Bible that we can all learn from, and that we can work together to make sure we are fulfilling what God wants in each of us.