... and You Can't Live Without 'Em!

Well, as I read more about David, I am continued to be interested in the women in his life. As stated yesterday, Michal, Bathsheba, and Tamar all either cause problems themselves, or their presence caused men to do sinful things. (I don't want to sound like I blame Tamar in anyway. I am just saying that often male sin in the Bible revolves aournd relationships with women.) But as I look at it some more, I see other women. We have Abigal saving David from mistakes. Then there is the woman who comes to show David his errors in the case with Absalom. Later, a woman helps Joab to not destroy a city for no reason. Even Michal and Bathsheba do good things. Michal helps David escape (maybe by choice maybe not), and Bathsheba helps David to put Solomon on the throne.
What does it mean. I think that we often underestimate the role that women play in the Bible. Becuase they are not kings or emperors or warriors (most of the time), we act like they are not there. That isn't true. They are all over the place, and we just don't see them. Women do so many powerful things in scripture, good and bad.
Why does any of this matter? Often we talk about women and women's roles, and we scratch our heads like they are absent in scripture. We discuss Eve, Lydia, and Jezebel, and then we can't think of anymore. Women are much, much more prevelant than I think we realize in the Scriptures. In the future we need to look at their role in the Bible. They are very powerful for good and evil, just like men.
Maybe we need to be more aware of these various characters. We have so many struggles of power in churches, yet peace broker seems to be a prominent role of several women in the Bible. Maybe we should incorporate women in some of these roles. We are having a fight in the leadership, maybe a woman could be a good mediator. Not to say that she would have the authority to declare someone right or wrong, but she may be a bridge that could help two parites to make decisions together. I don't know the implications of this, and I really am thinking of this all as I write, but what if we do help women to be in mediating role. Imagine how much better our world would be if hot headed elders talkded about their decisions with their wives. Not that women would be puppet leaders, but they would give some female counsel and impressions. Another scenario: a "men's meeting" is in a huge controversy over some issue. Side A wants thing A to happen, side B doesn't. We know a woman in the congregation is very good at reconciliation and helping peole with disputes. Would there be an authority issue if she sat down and listened to both sides and empathiticly listened, recounted what she heard, and helped translate what the two sides were saying? Most guys doen't listen well with the other person's perspective in mind. Maybe we need more Abigail's playing important roles in our churches.
I didn't mean to talk about all this, so let me wrap generally. Women are in the Bible a lot more than we realize, and we should pay more attention. I think that their are feminine strengths and roles we underutilize, because we fail to see them. Last night all I could think of was the seductive temptresses, but upon further reflection I see that God has always used both sexes in a dynamic way. That has led to issues at times, and great balance at others. We need to learn to use all of our gifts.