54. Great Women In The Bible: The Value of Long Obedience

Episode 54

This is the first in a three part series on “Great Women In The Bible.” 

These may be different women than you are used to seeing in the "great women" category. They are the quiet and unknown ones. Do they need to be well known to be great or do great things for the Lord?

I think we underestimate the power of the quiet, faithful life.

We will look at how the Lord reveals Himself and His character by how His truth works itself out in real people’s lives. Real women who wouldn’t have big followings in today’s world of social media numbers determining influence.

Today's episode examines the slave girl from 2 Kings: 5:1-15. Her obedience gives us a great example and leads to one of my favorite stories on the value of long and complete obedience.

Show Notes

Today starts a series on “GREAT WOMEN IN THE BIBLE” 

BUT they are the quiet ones. The more unknown. Do they need to be well known to be great?

No. I think we underestimate the power of the quiet, faithful life.

We will look at how the Lord reveals Himself and His character by how His truth works itself out in real people’s lives. Real women who wouldn’t have big followings in today’s world of social media numbers determining influence.

Look to these Bible stories because THIS is not just some story book.

·      This is living.

·      it's active.

·      it slices and dices and changes us.

·      It’s more valuable than gold and sweeter than honey. 

WHAT SCRIPTURE PROMISES TO DO: (will add a few promises each week)

• (Isaiah 55:11) Not return empty

• (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains us so that we’re equipped for the work He gives us.

• More in next episodes 55 and 56.

THAT’S why every minute we spend in the Bible builds us up. Nothing we study returns empty!

Even if at the moment we don’t understand what we’re reading. The Spirit will help us understand:

• 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 ESV

  • 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

  • 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

No other discipline has yielded the fruit in my life that time in the Bible has. NOTHING. It’s my best food. My greatest sustenance. 

Some of my favorite stories and illustrations are not the well-known ones. Women are great even if stories seem small.

• As a woman, I learn from Sarah’s long wait for a child.

• And Rahab’s rise from prostitute to becoming a part of the lineage of Jesus.

• Esther became a queen

• I love the story of Mary and Martha and there struggles as sisters. There’s multiple lessons in each of those.

But we easily overlook some of the small stories. And yet there’s such deep truth in them. Because let’s face it. Most of us are not famous or noteworthy. We’re probably not going to wind up queens anywhere. Our lives probably won’t show up in a book.

And YET. (I love that word. YET. Look for it in Scripture. It highlights the unexpected and the undeserved.)

• AND YET our lives matter!

• Our faithfulness, living for the Lord, EXACTLY where He places us, MATTERS!

Today, we’ll look at three of those hidden women. The ones who choose to do the Lord’s work where they were with what they had.

Their lives prove the power of faithfulness where you are.

ANN VOSKAMP quote:

• … every day, with every word, we get to decide: Do we mar the world, or mark the world? Why in the world disdain the small? It’s always the smallest strokes that add up to the greatest masterpieces. Because the thing really is: Do we ever really know which mark we make — that will matter the most? The extraordinary things happen nowhere else but in the everyday. Do we ever really know which mark we make — that will matter the most?

• From the book: The Broken Way, by Ann Voskamp

SLAVE GIRL

2 Kings 5:1-15

The first one is a young girl--a girl of whom we don’t even know her name. Here’s what we know about her and what we can safely assume:

• She lived about 2800 years ago

• She had a rough life (think of modern day Afghanistan. If you want to pray for them, check out Episode 50: Praying For Afghanistan)

• Hebrew for little girl:

  • Naarah: a girl (from infancy to adolescence)

  • Qatan: young, small, insignificant, unimportant

• She’d been taken captive when Syrian soldiers raided her home.

  • She had lost her family

  • She’d been through deep trauma

• She now served as a servant

  • In a Syrian general’s home

  • She served the general’s wife

  • She was old enough when taken to remember important details of her home

This Scripture informs us that Naaman was:

• great, highly respected,

• the Lord had given him a victory,

• valiant.

• AND- he is a leper.

What else we know: No generals were nice guys. He would have to be brutal and determined to rule. The slave girl, in this environment, speaks words to mistress. Old enough when taken to remember Prophet of Lord.

The young girl speaks to her mistress. Her words get to the Aramean king.

Rest of the story: Namaan is cured when he obeys completely his instructions.

Here’s the other thing: her courage to speak of God’s prophet gave us this beautiful story of long obedience. Of doing ALL we are commanded, even when it doesn’t make any sense. 

• When we find ourselves where we don’t want to be

• When we question if God is still in this. 

• When we could be mad at how He allowed things to work out.

• Without her remembering the Lord and being brave enough to speak, we would miss this amazing LONG OBEDIENCE lesson!

 Next episode we will look at the long obedience lesson from the other end of life.