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Dear Friends,

Below you will find a devotional that is differently formatted from my usual Bible studies.  I wrote this as a three-day devotional for a Ladies Quilting Retreat that was recently held at my own church.  I thought you may want to use it for a similar event or for your own private devotions.  To print, just follow the usual instructions of highlighting and pasting to a word document.  May the Lord bless you.  –Patricia Dowers.

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Ladies Quilting Retreat Devotional

 

Women Who Filled Supporting Roles in the Bible

 

Day 1

 

When I was asked to do the devotional for each of the three days of the retreat, it occurred to me this would be a good opportunity to do a series on a single topic.  Next I needed a topic that would tie into the retreat but also have enough content for all three days. The Lord seemed to be leading me to research the women of the Bible who did not have leading roles but acted behind the scenes in ways that were important but sometimes overlooked.

 

When we see a movie, a play, or read a good book, we recognize that there are those who have leading roles and those who have supporting roles.  Most of the glory and the main interest generally goes to the leading roles.  The supporting roles often get little to no recognition although Hollywood has attempted to remedy this by giving out supporting awards that do not draw as much interest or acclaim.

 

Many times, we, as women, find ourselves in what seems like supporting roles in our own lives.  The world would have us believe that we should not only have the control and charge of our own lives but that we are of no use to anyone else until we have achieved this state.  We know from scripture this is not the Lord’s way and I hope we can discover from these three devotionals that His way is far better.

 

So, in what ways do we support?   Often, we find ourselves in heavily responsible, lifelong supporting roles.  Examples can be raising children, toiling at demanding careers, caring for disabled loved ones, and so on.  Our contribution can be great, but taken for granted, assumed or minimized in some other way.  We may not be looking for reward but a little appreciation now and then would help.  If we are supporting someone we love, we are happy to do it.  I never minded sitting in the stands clapping and cheering for the child I fed, clothed and nurtured as he was hitting a home run.  Did I mention I washed his uniform, made sure he ate something before he rushed out the door, and got him to practice on time?  When he was standing at the plate, he never gave any of those things a thought and neither did I.

 

Sometimes, however, we work hard for the benefit of someone else and we are used up and spent in the process.  This is common in employment situations.  How do we persevere?  The Bible tells us “do all to the glory of God” (I Cor 10:31).  Anything done for the glory of God is NOT done in a secondary role.  Children of God never play a secondary role in anyone else’s life.  Our own life is of prime importance to God.  We will look into this more a little later but for now, I have chosen a number of women out of scripture, some well-known, others, not so much, and we will examine their lives to see what they have to tell us. Let us look at these women who spent of themselves and took risks for support to others. Trust me, before this is over, I will tie it into quilting!

 

The first example is actually two women who worked together.  They were Puah and Shiphrah, Hebrew midwives at the time of the birth of Moses in Egypt (Exodus 1:15-21). Midwives at this time had very respected positions and their main function was to bring healthy babies into the world while ministering to the welfare of the mother.  Once mother and baby were together and thriving, just as it is today, the midwife or medical people step into the background.  Sometimes their special skills are even forgotten in the joy of the moment.  

 

But God had a special role of prime importance for these ladies.  They were personally responsible for saving the lives of much of the baby boys condemned to death at birth by Pharaoh because he feared the Hebrew population growth.  At peril of their own lives they defied Pharaoh’s orders to kill the male babies and God put a hedge of protection around these brave ladies for their courage.  Not only were they rewarded and personally named in scripture but they filled a major role in God’s plan for His children.   Puah and Shiphrah helped to inspire courage and obedience to God’s commandments.  There are no insignificant, secondary or merely supportive roles in the Lord’s plan.

 

The next lady is Naomi.  We find her story in the book of Ruth.  When I think of Naomi, I think, this woman is exhausted!  She supported her husband in a huge and risky move, then cared for him during possibly, a lengthy illness and death.  Next her two sons are marrying outside of their faith which had to be of great concern.  Then her sons are taken from her in death (for a Hebrew woman, this is the ultimate in devastation), and she is left with two Moabitish daughters-in-law.  Poor Naomi even tries to quit her support role when one of them insists on accompanying her back to Israel.  How would Naomi feed herself and her daughter-in-law?  Women alone in circumstances such as these were looked down upon.

 

But the Lord does not put us in a position of support without the tools and guidance to be successful.  We find the story of Naomi in the Old Testament in the Book of Ruth.  (Note, the book is not named Naomi.)  I am sure you have all read this account often and it is a beautiful love story between a man and a woman, but also between a woman and her mother-in-law.  As Naomi gained back her strength and faith in God, she was able to provide the supportive wisdom that was needed.  The lesson here is when our faith is weak, our obedience is weak, and our support to others is weak.

 

Naomi’s story ends on the highest plane she could imagine.  God gave her back a son to raise, and little known to her, this child would be in the line of King David and the Lord Jesus.  The Lord’s plan is always far-reaching. Naomi filled so much more than a supporting role to God.

 

 

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Day 2

 

What are the frustrations of a supportive role?  Let us look at some women who supported in less prominent ways.  Sometimes, it feels like the most valuable part of our lives is caught up in facilitating a single important event and the rest pales in comparison.  In fact, the rest may seem unimportant and unappreciated.  Scripture gives us some examples of these situations.

  

The first chapter of the Gospel of Luke gives us the account of Elizabeth.  She was the aging, barren wife of Zacharias, a godly priest in the temple at the time of the birth of Jesus.  My guess is that Elizabeth’s life was more or less mundane except for the fact that her heart’s desire was kept from her.  She had no son and to a Hebrew woman, that was everything.  Suddenly, everything changed!  An angel appeared to Elizabeth’s husband and told him the couple would have a child. (Luke 1:13-17).   Suddenly the spotlight was on Elizabeth.  She would not only have a son, but an important son with a very important role.   She would bare a son, raise a son in a very specific way, …and we would never hear from her again.  The spotlight was off. 

 

Sometimes raising children can feel like an important role but a supportive role, all the same.  But how does God look at this?  Could anyone have filled Elizabeth’s role?  God did not think so.  He chose Elizabeth.  He kept His eye on her.  He kept His finger on her, guiding and directing her life both before and after the birth of John.  He helped her to understand how she fit into place in His perfect plan.   This part was bonus.  He did not have to reveal His will but He did.  None of this sounds merely supportive to me.

 

Our next lady is not as well known although she is mentioned a number of times in the New Testament.  She is Priscilla, the wife of Aquila and they were tent makers at a very difficult and dangerous time in Rome.  The Emperor Claudius had evicted all Jews from Rome and they were now plying their trade in Corinth (Acts 18:2,3).  This is where the Apostle Paul on one of his missionary journeys, met them and they very courageously, lodged him and allowed him to work with them as Paul was also from a tent-making family.  This association with Paul placed them all in jeopardy because Paul had made many enemies on this missionary journey and he was a wanted man in Rome.  

 

Priscilla, like many of us was a working housewife but now she also had a boarder.  I’m sure most of her days consisted of getting up early to do her housework, get breakfast on the table and then off she went to join her husband on the job.  Maybe she left the job a little early to get dinner on the table.  But she did more than that.  She and her husband became so involved with the ministry of Paul and the church in that place, that when Paul took his leave and sailed for Syria and on to Ephesus, yet again, she found herself leaving the security of a home and business to follow her husband, who was following Paul, who was following the Lord.  

 

We can imagine what this might have felt like, living on a lower link on the support chain.  But Priscilla had an important task ahead.  She and her husband had spent so much time at the feet of Paul that they had become missionaries in their own right.  They were able to assist in training Apollos for the ministry who did a mighty work for the Lord (Acts 18:24-28).  In Rom. 16:3-4, Paul gives a special appreciation for Priscilla and Aquila for risking their lives to support the churches of the Gentiles.  What a humble start and what an amazing finish.  The Lord pieces together the lives of His willing and obedient children to form a master work for His glory.  (Quilting?)

 

How does the Lord use us in even the seemingly smallest, insignificant ways.  The Bible is absolutely full of such women who fulfill their roles as expected, but God chooses a moment in time to shine their light.  It is fun to look for them and I think it would make a great Bible study for another time.  For now, let us look at a few.

 

First, we have Phebe of Romans 16:1-2.  The Apostle Paul is writing her a glowing letter of recommendation to the churches to receive her in an honored way and help her to carry on her business.  This was in appreciation of the care and nurturing she had provided to the saints and to Paul, himself. We never know when we are serving coffee and tea what it means to someone else, but the Lord records it all.

 

Next we have the aged Anna.  This dear lady had been widowed after only seven years of marriage and had devoted the rest of her life (80 years) to serving the Lord in the temple.  The Lord blessed Anna by allowing her to behold and worship the infant Lord Jesus when he was presented at the temple by His parents.  She probably had no children of her own.  But what it must have meant to her to look down on the sweet face of her Savior!  I wonder if she was allowed to hold Him?  I am sure that was her greatest reward this side of glory.

 

Finally, in the Old Testament, we have Deborah, (not the Deborah who judged Israel) who was the childhood nursemaid or nanny of Rebekah.  We do not know much about her early life except what is implied by the end of her life.  We first meet Deborah in Gen. 24:59 but we are not even told her name.  She accompanied Rebekah on the wedding trip to meet Rebekah’s new husband, Isaac.  Many times, and often true, today, nursemaids became friends and confidantes to their charges and often became nursemaids to the next generation.  She probably assisted in the birth of Esau and Jacob.   She may have been present and given her input on the deception of Isaac by Rebekah and her son, Jacob.  At any rate, we know nothing more about her except she must have been a cherished member of the family because they stopped in their travels at the time of her death to give her an honored burial under an oak tree which they called “the oak of weeping”.  This is the first time, here in Gen. 35:8 that Deborah is named.  But God always knew her name and placed this verse which might seem out of place to us in the middle of a narrative concerning an important event in Jacob’s life.  This was her highest honor.  Lifetime roles that involve molding the lives of children are never secondary to God.

 

 

 

 

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Day 3

 

CONCLUSION:  The Proverbs 31 Woman… a servant’s heart but nobody’s doormat!

 

There are so many others I may have included in this devotional but I could not possibly leave out the Proverbs 31 Woman.  Some Christian scholars believe she was not a real woman but the embodiment of the perfect or ideal woman.  Personally, I agree with many others who believe she is real.  For one, I do not believe the Lord would give us a human example that we could not achieve.  He wants us to see what is possible if we trust in His ability and follow Him.  I just wish we were given her name, but, then again, maybe we could plug in our own names to help us set a standard in our own lives.

 

At any rate, I believe most of us are familiar with her story.  I remember we did a entire devotional on her a few years ago in Bible study, and it was very daunting in the beginning, but I think we made friends with her by the end.  My purpose here is not to be intimidated by her but to examine what she may have thought of herself.  After all, if we believe she was a real woman, then she had real women’s feelings.  

 

Pro. 31:10-30 tells us much about the activities of her daily life.  Verse 11 tells us her husband safely trusts in her.  It appears that he is not micro-managing her but trusting her to make the best of all he has put under her authority.  In the business world we call this middle management.  This means she is responsible for people below her but answers to someone above her.  It is by far, the most stressful position to be in because of the opportunity for many things to go wrong and, in turn, make everything tumble with her in the middle.

 

Because the Proverbs 31 Woman did her job so well her husband could go about his own business, but this very fact meant that he was not standing over her actually observing all that it took to make it all happen.  He calls her blessed and praises her in verse 28, most likely for the results but not the actual details, diligence and consistent attention to all that is required to make it happen.  This is not unusual especially in the households of working mothers, so I know that many of us could identify if she sometimes felt under-appreciated or in need of a helping hand.  She does not seem to be complaining, however, because she has one Resource that many in her circumstances do not have.  The clue is in verse 30 where it says, ”But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised”.  The Lord is watching over every detail and every motivation and every sacrifice.  When the Lord praises our effort we know it is coming from One Who loves and cares for us, Who wants us to succeed and will help us to succeed.  Again, as mentioned earlier, anything we do for the Lord is primary to Him, never secondary in anyone else’s life, including those we love.  As we work out the salvation He has freely and graciously given us through His blood, shed for us on the cross, everyone else benefits from the overflow of our obedience and blessing.

 

There is one other point about the Proverbs 31 Woman that I believe is worth mentioning.  Verse 15 tells us, “She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.”  This verse along with the list of what would be considered some of the menial tasks she accomplished, hints that she did not delegate much of her work but worked alongside her servants.  She really understood first-hand what she expected of them.  I am sure that was appreciated.

 

I promised I would tie this devotional to quilting.  Well, here it is.  Having had the privilege of witnessing some beautiful quilts in process and seeing the amazing results, as well as having been gifted some precious quilts, there are few crafts I appreciate more.  I don’t believe quilts are meant to be folded up and put away in a closet. What else can we create that can be considered more supportive than something in which we can wrap up for warmth and emotional soothing?  What craft can be better medicine for the eyes than the carefully chosen colors and patterns.  What craft can convey more love than the knowledge of time spent sewing for the well-being of someone else.  I heard a pastor’s wife once liken the feeling of being wrapped in a quilt to being wrapped in the arms of Jesus. 

 

One day thousands of years ago the Lord, Himself pieced together coats of the skins of His precious, created animals to clothe his sinful, needy children so they could stand in His presence.  This was a supporting gesture that pointed toward giving His own Son, Jesus, to clothe us in His own righteousness.  In truth, the only supporting roles we truly fill is to the Lord, Himself.  That is called obedience, and we do it with pleasure.  When we are obedient to the Lord, we will automatically provide godly support to those around us.  If we always keep in mind that we serve the Lord Christ, no roles filled for Him should ever be a burden or insignificant.

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