Women Shaped by God
Proverbs 31:30-31 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.”
Max Lucado in his book, Next Door Savior, says that Moms are a breed apart.
“Only a mother can power a baby’s behind with one hand and hold the phone with the other. Only a mom can discern which teen is entering the door just by the sound of the key in the lock. Only a mom can spend a day wiping noses, laundering enough socks for the Yankees, balancing a checkbook down to $1.27, and still mean it when she thanks God for her kids.
Some things only a mom can fix. Like Hamburger Helper without the hamburger. Like the cabinet door her husband couldn’t and his bruised ego when he found out that she could. Broken shoelace? Broken heart? Breaking out on your face? Braking up with your sweetheart? Moms can handle that. Some things only a mom can fix.
Some things only a mom can know. The time it takes to drive from piano lessons to Little League practice? She knows. How many pizzas you need for a middle school sleepover? Mom knows.
We men usually don’t. The kids are usually clueless. Moms are a breed apart.”
I know a young bewildered boy who grew up in a small town in Kansas. He had one sister four years older than he. His father lived in his own world. This Dad lived most of his life without a personal commitment to Jesus as Savior and Lord. He was gone from home more than he was at home. This Dad talked a blue language, drank too much booze and liquor, and from time to time was a womanizer. He very seldom had time for his son or played any games with his son.
In the providence of God the mother in the home was a devout Christian. She prayed and dedicated her two children to the Lord. She put God first and her family second. She taught school to provide for her children. She faithfully took them to church and encouraged them through four years of college and three additional years for her son to attend seminary.
I was the beneficiary of this mother’s Godly influence and prayer. I praise the Lord for the Godly influence of my mother. She was a woman shaped by God.
This morning I want to give a brief character sketches of four women in the Bible, two from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. The women represent four different personality types and four different levels of Christian maturity. All four women were shaped by God.
I. Rahab – A Woman transformed by God’s love and Grace (Joshua 2)
We first learn about Rahab when Joshua sent two spies into Jericho to spy out the city. The two spies entered the city and went to the home of Rahab to stay for the night. Rahab was a prostitute and had extra rooms available.
The spies may have stayed there because they felt safe there. No officials would search that lodging place for spies.
Someone must have seen them enter Rahab’s home and told the king of Jericho spies had come to Jericho to find out the best way to attack the city. Rahab hid the men so when soldiers sent by the king came to the house Rahab said “Yes the men were here earlier but let the city just before the city gates closed.
Before the spies went to sleep Rahab went upon the roof to talk to the men she had hidden under stacks of flax. She evidently had listened to teaching on Israel’s history of being blessed of the Lord. She said, “I know the Lord has given you this land.” ‘For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above the earth below.” Joshua 2:8-11
Rahab lived in an upscale part of Jericho. Her home was built next to the wall of the city, a wall wide enough to serve as a walkway or road.
Jericho was part of the Amorite kingdom, a depraved, pagan culture devoid of faith in the Lord God of creation.
In the midst of paganism Rahab a prostitute was searching for the true God. The encounter with the two spies was her spiritual wake-up call. She asked the two spies to spare her family when they conquered Jericho.
The two spies guaranteed safety to her family, parents and children if she would hang a scarlet cord from her window to identify her home to the invading Israelite army.
Rahab could have turned in the spies for a huge financial reward. She put her life and her family at great risk by offering the spies her protection.
After the fall of Jericho and the victory over the city by the Israelites, Rahab and her family were saved. Her family probably became members of the Israelite community and from that point on Rahab honored the Lord and experienced a radical change in her life. Matthew 1:5 tells us that Rahab was the mother of Boaz, and Boaz and Ruth the parents of Obed, and Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of King David. Jesus was born in the line of David.
The transformed life of Rahab demonstrates the power of God’s grace at work. She probably told her grandchildren about her life before having faith in God and what her life was like after she trusted the Lord. Because of her faith and act of obedience her entire household was saved.
Rahab could say with the writer of the old hymn, “A New Name in Glory.” “I was once a sinner, but I came-pardon to receive from the Lord.” Rahab was transformed from sinner to saint. Rahab is even mentioned in the Hall of Faith listed in Hebrews 11: 31, “It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute did not die with all the others in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”
Whatever your situation in life we know that God will take you where you are and lead you forward. When God looks at your life he doesn’t focus on the present, He looks at the potential you have for the future.
My mother tells of a divine moment in her life. When she got married she was not walking with the Lord. My mother and father had a shotgun marriage. My mother was expecting when they got married. During the birth of their first child there were complications. My mother in a semi-conscious state heard the doctor say that the baby was dead and the mother may not live.
In her semi-conscious state my mother prayed in your heart, but she said all of heaven seemed as brass, and God seemed far away. Then my mother prayed, “O Lord remember the faith of my mother, remember the faith of Aunt Thresa my mother’s sister. Help me O Lord.” Then heaven seemed to open up and the glory of God shown forth. My mother lived, but the little baby girl died.
That was a transforming moment for my mother. She turned to the Lord, faced ridicule from my father and his family. By herself she walked mover a mile to a country church. One of the pastors of the church was Carollyn’s grandfather, Rev. J.M. Reid.
From that point of her life until her death my mother honored and served the Lord.
Whatever point of faith you are in your life you can seek the Lord and He will be found. Jesus will find you and if you are willing and transform your life. Rahab is a great example of God’s saving grace and transforming power.
II. Hannah – God hears and answers prayer (I Samuel 1)
Hannah is another woman shaped by God. She was the mother of one of the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. Hannah was a devout woman of prayer.
Hannah was married to Elkanah and lived in the hlll country of Ephraim. Elkanah had a second wife, Peninnah. She had children, but Hannah had no children. For a Hebrew woman to have no children was a source of shame.
Elkanah was a godly husband and yearly took his family to Shiloh to worship the Lord in the Tabernacle. Year after year Hannah prayed in the Tabernacle that God would give her a child.
Hannah did not give up in prayer. She continued to pray and trust God. She made a vow to God that if the Lord gave her a son she would dedicate him to the Lord. Her son would be a Nazarite for life and not drink any fermented drink or cut his hair. God heard her prayer and when Eli the priest told her that her prayer was heard she praised the Lord and began to prepare for the arrival of her new baby boy. Hannah took God at His Word and acted accordingly. The following year Hannah gave birth to her son and she gave him the name, Samuel.
Samuel became an understudy prophet with Eli and God blessed Samuel and on one occasion spoke directly to young Samuel.
Later God blessed Hannah with five more children. I Samuel 1:21
My own mother believed that God hears and answers prayer. For all practical purposes my mother cared for us as a single parent even through she was married. My father was gone most of the time so mother had the responsibility of disciplining her son and daughter. On one occasion my sister and I were fighting and out of control. Mother tried to get us to stop to no avail. While we were outside fighting our mother went into the house. When my sister and I finally come to our senses we went into the house and there were saw our mother kneeling at the sofa with a cover over her head praying. She was praying that God would help her to be a good mother and that God would speak to her children. Her prayers got our attention and we made a greater effort to get along and give more honor to our mother.
God heard my mother’s prayer and in time both my sister and I accepted the Lord and committed our lives to doing God’s will.
My mother was a “can do” person. My mother was always open to new ideas. She didn’t say
It can’t be done.
We can’t afford it.
I’m too tired.
But the children –
We don’t have time.
It’s impossible.
She would say:
Sounds great-
How can we swing it?
Let’s see how we can possibly do it.
Let’s find a way to do it.
Let’s think of a solution.
With a mom like that her children did rise up and call her blessed.
III. Martha and Mary – Personal friends of Jesus
(Luke 10:38-42)
Two sisters who were close friends with Jesus were women shaped by God.
Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus were the kind of people Jesus enjoyed hanging out with. Jesus visited Martha and Mary in their home in Bethany on his way to Jerusalem.
You know Jesus was friends with Martha and Mary because he stopped by without an appointment. A surprised visit was no problem. It was Martha who welcomed Jesus into her home. The home may have belonged to Martha. Martha may have been married and was now a widow. Martha invited Mary and Lazarus to live with her.
In Martha and Mary we see two different personality types. Martha was task oriented and Mary was people oriented. For Martha the owner of the home she felt responsible to prepare dinner for Jesus and his disciples. Mary must have started helping Martha, but when she heard Jesus teaching in the other room she left Martha and sat at the feet of Jesus listening to His teachings.
Martha was out in the kitchen slaving away and finally asked Jesus to command her sister to get off her duff and help with the meal preparation. Jesus speaks kindly to Martha, “My dear Martha, Mary has discovered the important thing in life, more important than eating.” Sitting at the feet of Jesus takes precedence over everything else.
Mothers need to guard against getting so busy carrying for her children, keeping the house in order and involved in activities outside the home that no time is given to sitting at the feet of Jesus. The goal is to keep the main thing the main thing and that is staying close to Jesus.
Jesus always saw greater value in spiritual things than in physical. When the disciples were shopping at the farm market in Sychar in Samaria, Jesus was giving his time to talking to a Samaritan woman by the well outside the city.
In a time of crisis we see how these two sisters forgot about their differences and became united in their concern for their brother Lazarus who was sick near death.
When Jesus heard that his friend Lazarus was sick he was on the other side of Jordan. He waited two days and then traveled to Bethany. When Martha heard that Jesus was getting near Bethany she went to the outskirts of the city to meet Jesus. She said, “Jesus if you had been her, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21) Jesus assured Martha that He was the resurrection and the life and all who believe in Him will never perish.
Martha returned to her home and told Mary that Jesus wanted to see her. Mary immediately went to see Jesus and when she say him she said, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and others weeping he was deeply troubled and asked where they had put Lazarus. “Then Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) Jesus had compassion for his friends. Jesus understands pain, sorrow and heavy hearts. Jesus is for you wherever you hurt.
Jesus came to the grave, a cave with a stone blocking the entrance. We know Martha was wealthy because she had her own house and gravesite. Yet all her money could not prevent her brother from dying.
Jesus told the people to roll away the stone from the grave. They protested that Lazarus had been dead four days and the odor would overcome them. Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you will see God’s glory if you believe?” So they rolled the stone away and Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus come out?” And Lazarus came out, bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in head cloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” John 11:40-44 (NLT)
Why do you suppose Martha and Mary were friends of Jesus? We know Mary had a deep love for Jesus. John 12:1-8, Jesus, along with Martha, Mary and their younger brother Lazarus were in their home in Bethany. A feast of thanksgiving was prepared to honor Jesus for the new life given to Lazarus. Mary served the dinner to Jesus and his disciples. Mary took a bottle of perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The fragrance filled the house. The perfume was worth a year’s wages. Jesus praised her for her love and offering as a way to prepare him for what was to come.
I pray that your home is a place where Jesus is welcome. I pray that all of us will be friends of Jesus. I pray that my home is a place where Jesus is welcome.
A Sunday school teacher was describing Jesus without giving His name. She said to her class, “This one of whom I speak was always living for others, always denying self, always cheerful, and always in every way helpful.” When she asked the boys to tell her of whom she was speaking, one little boy, with face shining, raised his hand and said: “Please teacher, I know who that is, that’s my Mother.”
Video Clip – “Memories of Mother”
