When God's Man Is A Woman

When God’s Man Is A Woman

2/8/98 2 Kings 22:8-20

When we think of Black history, we cannot begin to understand it without understanding the powerful influence of how God has used women in changing the course of history. Yet there is always an attempt to direct women to the back seat of the bus, when it comes to the things of God. We don’t say it directly but we imply it in some of the things we do.

How often have we heard the phrase, "If God can’t find a man to do the job, then God will raise up a woman to get it done." God does indeed raise up women to get jobs done, but perhaps God had in mind a woman in the first place. When God went looking for someone to free the slaves, why should we think the only reason God chose Harriet Tubman is because Harry Tubman didn’t want to do it. No, I believe God had raise up Harriet Tubman for such a time as she lived in, not as a second string replacement for someone else. God has raise us all up to be on the first team.

We find two black women in positions of prominence in the bible. The first is Moses’s wife during the period in which he led the people of Israel out of Egypt. The bible doesn’t tell her much about her, but we know she had God’s stamp of approval as a choice for Moses’s wife, because God disciplined Aaron and Mariam, Moses brothers and sisters for speaking against the marriage. We haven’t had anything like that in this country yet, where the first lady in the white house was a Black woman.

The second Black woman we find in Scripture is the Queen of Sheba. She traveled a great distance to get a view of King Solomon and his greatness. Her country was a wealthy one because the bible says she gave to King Solomon a gift of 4 metric tons of gold, a huge number of spices and precious jewels. Never again did anyone bring to Jerusalem the number of spices brought by Queen Sheba.

This oustanding black woman was a powerful person not because there was not a man available to rule the nation and make it prosperous, but because God had chosen to raise her up for this purpose. God intended for Jesus to use her in one of his sermons many years later. Jesus commended the Queen of Sheba for her desire to travel great distances just to hear the wisdom from God through Solomon.

In or our Old Testament reading we find another woman who was not a fill in, but chosen by God Himself in the midst of a group of high ranking men. People don’t talk about Huldah much because she goes against the grain of how we think God ought to use women in relation to men. When the people of God were rebuilding the temple, Hilkiah the high priest found the Book of the Law, which was what Moses had written.

The high priest was the only one who was allowed to go into the holiest part of the temple. He could only go in once a year. When he found the book of the Law, he sent it to the king. When the king read what the book said, he knew they were in state of disobedience. He told his advisors to go to the temple and speak to the Lord for him and all the people. The king wanted the person who was known to be chosen by God , to speak to God on their behalf. When the high priest got the message to inquire of God, he didn’t consult the Urim and Thummin like David, he didn’t go into the Holy of Holies, he left the temple with the advisors to go and find the prophet Huldah. She was a married woman, but everybody knew the word of the Lord at that time was not coming through the priest, but through this prophet who was a married woman.

Now why didn’t God choose her husband to be the prophet. Because you see far more than we realize, God’s man to do the job has often times been a woman. God raised Huldah up to be a prophet to his people, simply because God wanted to. It had nothing to do with no man being available. God had all kind of priests at his disposal, he had the good king Josiah, and the high priest. But God chose Huldah to bring a spiritual revival to the whole nation. They recognized her authority to speak for God. It didn’t have a thing to do with her being under her husband’s covering or anything like that.