With a title like this we automatically think of high-profile women like Deborah, the judge of Israel; or of Abigail, whose quick-thinking averted a family massacre; or of Queen Esther, who put her life on the line to rescue her entire nation.
But there were women in Scripture who stood
up for what was right, who did their duty, who served the Lord faithfully, even
though we may not know their names.
Does anybody remember Zelophehad’s
daughters? He had five of them. And what did they do? When Moses was dividing
up the land to the tribes, and the families, and the sons of sons, their father
was left out because he had no sons. In front of all the leaders of Israel,
they asked Moses for a proper share (Num. 26:33; 27:1-11), as it would have
gone to a son, and they, out of all the women of Israel, got it. The LORD
Himself said, “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right.”
Next, look at the people returning from
exile in Babylon. The walls of Jerusalem are still in shambles. Nehemiah gets
the men to work and the walls go up quickly. After 52 days, the walls and gates
are finished and Nehemiah records credits for good service. There, in the list
of priests, goldsmiths, men of Tekoa, perfume-makers, Levites, temple servants,
and merchants, is this little note: “Shallum…repaired the next section with the
help of his daughters.” (3:12) —Huge amounts of work, not just supervisory but
perhaps physical too, and no names given. We think these ladies should rate a
listing in Hebrews 11, along with the woman in Proverbs 31!
Now let’s jump into the 21st century—a young woman teaches for a week in Girls’ Camp in 2013; a camper girl trusts the Lord and wants to be baptized. The girl is from a non-Christian home and has no Church. Who will baptize her? That young teacher steps in and performs a very public baptism in the lake:----
Our final example is from the Missions
Magazine for September/October, 2015. Julie Frank, a young missionary nurse
in Zambia has been watching her neighboring country of Namibia. There doesn’t
seem to be much gospel presentation happening there. She travels across the
country with a friend, Rebekah Flynn, and at this time it comes into her heart
to have a gospel outreach in Windhoek, the capital. Over the next six months,
she organizes printing of decorative Bible texts in the local dialects; obtains
a government permit to have the outreach in Windhoek, March 9-18, 2015; lines
up twin Zambian brothers to help; and gathers all the local missionaries,
friends and relatives possible (13 in all), for the trip.
Teams were set up near the bus station,
near grocery stores and near malls. In those ten days, they gave away 15,000
Scripture texts, 1,000 children’s papers, and 1,000 Gospels of John. Halfway
through they had to get 10,000 more texts printed and gave them all away as
well. Julie’s conclusion at the end of the trip: — “People are thirsty for the
Word of God…People’s responses were overwhelming.”
And our conclusion from all these
stories: —God doesn’t need the big names to do His work—faithful devotion is
all He asks. Ì
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