The Most Important Women of the Bible by Aaron and Elaina Sharp
Remarkable Stories of God's Love and Redemption
Aaron and Elaina look at a number of women who played a role in furthering along God's plan of redemption for humanity or who simply accepted the redemption that Jesus offered to them and then I'm sure they went on to make a difference in their world.
Women like Jochebed, who if she hadn't hid Moses, who would have led the Israelites out of Egypt? Zipporah who, with her quick thinking, saved Moses' life by circumcising one of their sons?
Rahab in protecting the spies?
The widow of Zarephath and her obedience and care for Elijah.
I'm not sure quite how all of the women they listed played a role in redemption, but they all had something to offer, something significant enough to be mentioned in the Bible, even if only a verse or two. Consider the Syrophoenician woman: we don't even know her name. Aaron and Elaina call her the believing beggar and that is appropriate. She is the one who went to Jesus pleading for her child's healing and Jesus seemed to treat with indifference and even rudeness. By saying he wasn't sent to anyone but the lost sheep of Israel and it wasn't right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. The woman was undeterred and had a comeback for Jesus, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Jesus went on to heal her daughter and to commend her for her faith. He was testing the woman to see how great her faith was and she passed with flying colors. The question is, would I have passed? I'm afraid not. I can see that I would have walked away with my tail between my legs, deeply offended. This is a good example to continue pursuing, continue pounding heaven's door even when everything seems silent.
I enjoyed the book. One thing that I will mention, it's a very small thing, but the back of the book says there are three dozen women discussed in the book. My math tells me that would be 36, but in reality there are only 31 chapter. Two chapters discuss two women, but that still brings the number up to only 33. It just sort of bugs me that there's that discrepancy. Like I said, it's minor and really doesn't take away from the book, but....
I received this book from Bethany House. I was not required to write a positive review.
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