Women’s Sunday

Meditation on Michal

1 Samuel 18:20, 26

20 Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David. Saul was told, and the thing pleased him.  26When his servants told David these words, David was well pleased to be the king’s son-in-law.

2 Samuel 6, selected verses

2David and all the people with him set out to bring up the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. 3They carried the ark of God on a new cart. 5David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

16 As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

Meditation:

The story of Michal begins as a love story. Michal is the daughter of King Saul. She sees the young officer David rising through the ranks and falls in love with him. In fact, this is the only time in the Hebrew Bible that we are told that a woman loves a man.

It never says, though, that David loves Michal. He is pleased enough to marry the king’s daughter. It’s a career move for him. As the story unfolds, we get the impression that he does not return Michal’s love.

Soon after the two get married, Saul gets very jealous of David and tries to kill him. Michal saves his life. She proves her devotion to David when she lets him out a window, stalls the King’s henchmen, and accepts her father’s ire. David escapes and hides out in the mountains, where he builds up an army and gains power.

Michal sits and waits. Waits for word from him, Waits for a visit from him. Waits to be sent for. Nothing. For seven years – nothing. During this time, David visits Saul’s son Jonathan twice, but not his wife. David marries additional women who live with him, but not Michal.

I can only imagine the heartbreak this must have caused her. She loves this man. She saved his life. And he just abandons her and moves on to newer wives. She was useful to him for a while, but as he rose in power and wealth, other women served him better.

Unfortunately, this is such a familiar story. One spouse helps the other through school or to start a business or to launch a career. Once that is accomplished, a new world opens up and the old spouse no longer satisfies. All the love and sacrifice and labor given seems to count for nothing. How unfair. How unjust. How heartbreaking.

It is no wonder that in the end, Michal despises David.

What went wrong here? What can we learn for our own relationships?

Michal loved David. She did what she could to support him, even when it pitted her against her own father.

David used Michal. He married her as a career move. Later, he didn’t need her anymore and abandoned her. He married other women who brought him the money he needed to support his troops and the next step in his career.

When a relationship is based on how useful the other person can be to you, then it will be short-lived and leave people angry and resentful. When a relationship is based on mutual love and sacrifice, it can last and withstand challenges and be a blessing.

This is the kind of relationship Jesus Christ modeled for us and offers to us. Let us rejoice in our loving relationships with Jesus, with our family members, and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.

Meditation on Hannah

 1 Samuel 1, selected verses

There was a certain man whose name was Elkanah. 2He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

3 Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. 4On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; 5but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 6Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7So it went on year after year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8Her husband Elkanah said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?’

9 After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly.

12 As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. 14So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.’ 15But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 16Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.’ 17Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.’ 18And she said, ‘Let your servant find favor in your sight.’ Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.

19 They rose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked him of the Lord.’

Meditation:

On Mother’s Day we rejoice in the love of mothers for their children and in the joy of motherhood. Hannah’s story reminds us of the dark side of this day: the pain of women who long to be mothers but can’t.

Hannah is surrounded by people who do not understand her pain.

One would have hoped that her sister-wife might have been her ally in that world where a woman’s worth is tied to her ability to have children. However, that same world also has those two wives compete for the affections of their husband. As a result, Peninnah is a bully. She taunts Hannah in her childlessness.

Hannah’s husband loves her; that is a true blessing. However, he is a bit clumsy and tone-deaf in his attempts to cheer her up. He gives her extra food. I am sure many of us are familiar with the concept of comfort food, and we all know how fleeting any such comfort is.

Then he badgers her with a row of questions: ‘Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?’ They show that he doesn’t really understand her pain. He gives her no opportunity to answer. And how in the world is she to respond to the last question?

The Priest Eli is no help, either. Hannah seeks solace in the temple. She prays full of emotion and fervor. At a time when people prayed out loud, Hannah’s pleas are silent. She only moves her lips. What is Eli’s response to this unusual display of devotion? She must be drunk!

None of the people in her life fully understand Hannah’s pain. Her source of hope and comfort is God. She goes to the place of worship, pours out her soul, and makes her desire known to the Lord.

Her faith in God helped her carry on in spite of her sorrow. It gave her hope. It gave the strength she needed to deal with bullies and clumsy kindness and misjudgment.

Her faith also brings her back to the temple in thanksgiving after her prayer is answered and she does give birth to a son, Samuel. Just as earlier her prayer expressed her sadness and deep desire, now her prayer expresses joy and gratitude for a God who lifts up the lowly and answers prayers.

In sorrow and in joy, Hannah is connected to God in prayer. What a wonderful example for faithful discipleship she gives us. Amen.

Meditation on Rahab

 Joshua 2, selected verses

2Then Joshua sent two men as spies, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. 2The king of Jericho was told, ‘Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.’ 3Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, ‘Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.’ 4But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, ‘True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. 5And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.’ 6She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. 7So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords.

8 She came up to them on the roof 9and said to the men: ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land. 10For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, whom you utterly destroyed. 11As soon as we heard it, our hearts failed, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. 12Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith 13that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.’ 14The men said to her, ‘Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.’

15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself. She sent them away and they departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window.

Joshua 6:15-25

15 On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 16And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.’

24They burned down the city, and everything in it. 25But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Matthew 1:1-5 - The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers […] 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of King David.

Meditation:

The story of Rahab takes place during the time of conquest. The people of Israel have finally reached the Promised Land and are now in the process of conquering the land in order to settle there. Rahab lives in Jericho, a major city that Israel will have to take if it wants to live in peace.

To scout out the situation, Joshua, the commander of the Israelites, sends two spies into the city. Someone realizes that they are spies and sounds the alarm. The king sends his men to find and arrest him. They flee into the house of Rahab. Why Rahab?

The Bible tells us that she is a prostitute who lives in the city wall. Back then, houses were built right against the walls surrounding the city, with the city wall being the outside wall of the house. Rahab lives in one of those houses.

Thus, both in her living arrangements and in her profession, Rahab lives on the margins of her society. She is “that woman” in more ways than one.

As a woman on the margins, and as a person whose neighbors are used to seeing men going in and out of the building, Rahab becomes the spies’ best option for hiding. With the king’s men on their heels, they duck into her house.

Rahab must make a quick decision. Will she hide these men or call the police? She decides to hide them. She leads them onto the flat roof of her house and hides them under bundles of flax she is drying there. Then she lies to the king’s men and sends them into the Jordan Valley on a wild goose chase.

The immediate danger is over. Now the negotiation begins. Rahab is one tough lady! She basically says: I hid you – you owe me! And the men agree. When the Israelite army attacks, she is to bring all her relatives into her house and tie a crimson cord to her window; the soldiers will spare her and bring her to safety. They keep their word and Rahab with her family are rescued. They end up living among the Israelites for generations.

Rahab has to make a spilt-second decision for or against God’s people. What informs her decision? She has already heard about the Israelites and their God. When she talks to the spies on the roof, she tells them she has heard about the wonder of the exodus and the success in battle God has granted the people. From what she has heard, she understands God to be powerful and mighty. She wants to be on the side of that God. And so she hides the spies and furthers God’s plan. This quick, courageous action saves her and her family.

With this action, she becomes a role model for people of faith. Both the Letter to the Hebrews and the Letter of James point to her as a perfect example for someone who acts on faith, who puts faith into action. So revered is she for her faith that Matthew includes her in his genealogy of Jesus Christ!

I am closing with these words written by one commentator about this remarkable woman: If a common harlot of Canaan could become an uncommon saint of faith and courage and receive the privilege of motherhood in the line of Jesus Christ, then surely nothing is impossible with God. Rahab's amazing story is a lesson for us all. Amen.