The birth of a child is celebrated with joy and then he is given a name with great hope for his future that he will be a blessing to the family and others in the society. But when, due to any reason, he is unsuccessful people start condemning him for the failure as if his further progress is difficult, if not impossible. God created everything and declared it ‘very good’ and then immediately proceeded to correct the loneliness of Adam. How do we fill our lives with rays of hope when surrounded by despair and darkness of failure?
Why was a woman’s testimony disregarded? God decided to ‘make a suitable helpmeet’ to ensure that Adam does not face the challenges ahead alone (Genesis 2:18). The woman was made to help man by being his strength, guide and even be his opponent when he went astray. The curse of eating of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil changed all that. While telling Eve the consequences of her sin, God declared her future life, ‘your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you’ (Genesis 3:16). With this the oppression of the ‘helpmeet’ started and it finally reached a stage up to Moses’ time that a woman was barred from inheriting any property.
As commanded by the LORD God, Moses explained the laws of inheritance to the leaders of Israel in the Promised Land. Zelophehad, from the tribe of Manasseh had no sons but five daughters and his daughters sought an inheritance for continuation of their father’s name in the Promised Land. God commanded Moses, ‘The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right; you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers’ (Numbers 27:7). A woman was also not permitted to learn Scriptures from a Rabbi but only from her husband, who may or may not teach her. As per the law established by Moses, ‘one witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established’ (Deuteronomy 19:15). Although there is no mention of a woman being excluded from being a witness, this came to be the norm in Israel and the neighboring nations.
The Scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of Israel, were always trying to ‘test and accuse’ Lord Jesus of some violation of their law. They ‘brought to Him a woman caught in adultery’ and wanted him to pass the judgment of death by stoning her (John 8:3-8). Lord Jesus highlighted their evil nature, for adultery is committed by two and there must be a witness to testify but they brought the woman only. He told them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first’ and they all left one by one for the first one was supposed to be an eyewitness. Lord Jesus forgave her sins by not condemning her but warning her, ‘go and sin no more’.
The redemption that we have from our Lord through forgiveness of sins leads us to adoption as children of God. Apostle Paul clarifies our state as believers, ‘heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ’ (Romans 8:17). This inheritance is not limited to men only but equally to women. The restoration of that sinless state to mankind includes removal of all curses ‘by becoming a curse for us’ (Galatians 3:13). This being the purpose of His coming, His sacrifice, resurrection and ascension, choosing Mary Magdalene as the first Apostle, the messenger, to carry the Good News fulfills that same purpose. Rather the message of His birth was to a woman, Mary, His mother; confirmed to and by another woman Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. She welcomed Mary into her house by declaring herself unworthy of such great honour, ‘why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ (Luke 1:43).
During later years, Apostle Paul saw the moral depravity in Corinth where the Temple of goddess Aphrodite had male and female prostitutes and sex was part of worship. His letter to the Corinthians forbade women to speak or ask questions in the Church but ask their husbands at home to ensure order in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35). Many churches adopt this practice even today, attempting to bring to no effect the salvation. Lord Jesus was the Creator in the beginning and His sacrifice on the cross is the act of re-creation of humanity and restoration of our relationship with God. Apostle Peter was commanded by God to go to Caesarea to Cornelius, the Centurion, and he could boldly say, ‘I perceive that God shows no partiality’ (Acts 10:34). God is love and He is just and desires equality for all of His children and desires the same from us.
Mary Magdalene and other women supported the ministry of the Creator who became our Redeemer and the Lord accepted that (Luke 8:2-3). Sending Mary Magdalene with the message of His resurrection and ascension, forgiving and not condemning the woman caught in adultery by the Jewish leaders are all acts performed to resurrect the lost status of a woman in society. The Church is required to do much more to bring to full effect what the Lord has done in this regard.
Our role in bringing equality in society – God first created Adam and then Eve and then they had children and formed the family structure and thus the society started. Adam had to influence his wife with the message of God and then his children. The same applies to us and the first few years of his life, a child spends with his parents. Before sending Moses back to Egypt to lead his people out of slavery, God revealed Himself as, ‘God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ (Exodus 3:15). Abraham received the revelation of and about God through His personal close relationship with Him and passed it to his son Isaac and he could also, then develop a similar personal relationship with God. Jacob learnt this from his parents, Isaac and Rebecca, to get closer to God and this individual relationship was acknowledged by God Himself. It is the responsibility of the parents to teach their children the values of life to lead them into a life of love and obedience to God and His Word and love for others. King David failed to do this and his firstborn son Amnon raped his daughter Tamar, from another wife. Absalom, Tamar’s brother, murdered Amnon in revenge and later led a rebellion against David. His other son Adonijah anointed himself as king when David was old and unwell, though Solomon was the choice of David.
We are influenced in three ways; first, by seeing and hearing our parents at home, their treatment of each other and then their behavior in society. Second, the society reinforces what we have learnt at home or tries to subvert it, and the third is what we read and see. A family that never tries to be together is directly responsible for their children not following their ways that were never taught. It is within me to affect those living with me, working with me or associated with me in any way by my behavior. Anyone may not observe and follow the social norms of Scripture of loving God and loving others, but I must. Everyone is answerable one day to God about his deeds on earth and God will judge.
As a member of the Gideons International Ministry once I met another believer who was CEO of a factory. The owner of the factory, though an unbeliever himself, had given specific instructions to preferably hire only Christians, for he was greatly impressed by their conduct, commitment to work and love for everyone. Apostle Paul has cautioned us about such a situation only, saying, ‘you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light’ (Ephesians 5:8). Our life in the world should be such that people look at us and be urged to ask the reason for that despite the evil all around us.
Jacob wrestled with God to seek His blessings and was transformed into Israel (Genesis 32:26). When the Israelites were in captivity in Babylon, the Word of Lord for them was, ‘I know the thoughts that I have towards you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope’ (Jeremiah 29:11). When we look at the darkness as prayer warriors and God wrestlers, we can maintain a clear vision for the future even in the darkest times. A Sikh activist Valerie Kaur has remarked, ‘what if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?’ With this thought process it becomes a cause for hope, for something new and good to come forward. We can be paralyzed by evil and darkness or look at it as the sign of our Lord’s coming in the clouds to take us with Him. Then we start working harder to be a blessing to some more people through our message of the Gospel and our life.
We are not to live blindly optimistic without giving due thought to the circumstances, but looking at the Divine Light of His presence in us. It is then that we get involved in the messy work of wrestling and seeking and getting hold of the future of hope from the darkness of the womb. King David cried out in suck dark moments, ‘How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?’ (Psalm 13:1 & 5).But then he could see the light and say confidently, ‘I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation’. David and his men returned to find that the Amalekites had attacked Ziklag, destroyed it and took everyone and everything captive (1 Samuel 30:6). Even David’s companions ‘spoke of stoning him’. In that darkness he saw light and ‘strengthened himself in the LORD his God’ and they recovered all and defeated the Amalekites. It is for such situations that God further revealed the result of that hope and future in Him by saying, ‘Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you’ (Jeremiah 29:12). What better assurance can anyone hope for and have but answer to prayers?
Igniting hope in darkness – Like everyone else I and my daughters have experienced such a state but then realized that there is no freedom without the slavery. The end of the story is relevant only with the beginning and the hard parts help us see the distance we have travelled on the road of hope and future. Prophet Ezekiel was lifted out in the Spirit of the LORD and shown a vision of dry bones in a valley. He was told to prophesy to the dry bones the Word of the LORD God, ‘I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live’ (Ezekiel 37:5 & 11). The identity of these dry bones was revealed to the prophet as the whole house of Israel. The prophecy was, ‘behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel’.
At some point in everyone’s life this vision comes, when our dreams of scaling great heights to challenge ourselves in deep ways, to live and love others as messengers of God and be a blessing by transforming people’s lives, are almost lost. Over time the toil of daily life overwhelms us and our ambitions get blurred and we resign to a life of desperation. The old dreams surface at times but we suppress those with shifting our focus to the reality of the present moment. Old hurts and rejection by others open up old wounds to shut our brains out. Then the prophecy of Ezekiel is heard by all believers in the name of our Creator and Redeemer, ‘Speak to your dry bones!’ And then we speak, ‘My dry bones can you hear the Word of God?’ The fire of the unfulfilled dreams and visions is never fully extinguished and we are to reignite the embers. The dry bones still have life force within that is invisible but ready to be set out to achieve God’s good purpose for our lives.
God has put ‘eternity in their hearts’ and that urge is to find out more to make the vehicle of life, that seems to be stuck in the mud, to move forward. Reach out and speak to your soul, deep within, unburden it and develop faith in God again, who will ensure completion of the good work that He has started in each one of us. The dry bones must be spoken to with the message of God, ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live’ (Ezekiel 37:9). The message is clear, ‘the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come’ (Song of Solomon 2:11-12). God desires every believer to move from his hibernation to a new season of success and joy in Him.
We see all around us lies, cover-ups, abuse, corruption and we get filled with despair and our moral and spiritual connection with our God also gets weakened. Many get filled with despair and become cynical. But God says, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5) and then He forcibly pulls us to our valley of dry bones to prophesy His Word to give them life. God calls the prophet ‘son of man’ (Ezekiel 37:3), and through him to all of us, if you are human beings, believe in the future of these dry bones, get filled with hope in their potential and see the great things that God will do.
Do not underestimate your capability and your call in the name of the Lord will impact nations across cultures. Bring life instead of death into your situation and dreams and like the disciples, you can be filled with a zeal and strength to topple various citadels of the devil. Once we do, we shall see miracles happen before our very eyes, the dry bone will return to life to change the foundations of society around us.
Charged with faith, when we start reviving the long buried dreams, then like looking through a glass that has been cleared of all dust, we can see hope. Then the ‘dry bones’ of our life’s purpose start awakening and get filled with renewed strength in the Lord to move forward. Our fear of being alone gets replaced by the power and authority of the Word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit starts revealing new ways. The four winds fill us with new zeal by turning our focus from the darkness around us to hope above in Him!
