COZBI !!!!!!!!

COZBI !!!!!! _And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family. (NUMBERS 25:15)  # 1 Her name means "deceitful," and deceit had helped her seduce the Israelite learders Zimri. But it doesn't seem Zimri was slow in following her, and he wasn't the only one of his people who fell. Many followed the Moabites and Midianite woman into sexual sin while worshiping  their idols.

# 2 _God's anger burned brightly against His people, and retribution followed. He commanded Moses to kill the leaders and show off their bodies to His people. Meanwhile a plague broke out among the Isralites, perhaps to give them a picture of the deadliness of their sin.

# 3 _At that moment, in front of everyone, Zimri led Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite chief, into a tent__the sort of place for prostitutes. While the rest of Israel repented of their sins, Zimri marched right by the whole assembly of Israel, ready to continue his wrongdoing.
# 4 _Aaron's grandson, Phinehas, quickly took care of the problem by running a spear through the couple's bodies, taking their lives. With the death of this willfully disobedient pair, the plague on Israel stopped__but not before twenty-four thousand people died.
# 5 _Cozbi shows us that sin doesn't pay. God may be patient with us, but He does not wink at disobedience. If we boldly continue in sin, it will eventually bring terrible judgment. Worse yet, our wrong may affect many innocent lives as well as our own. Are we willing to take that risk?

CHLOE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chloe !!!! _My brothers, some from Chloe's household have imformed me that there are quarrels among you. (1 CORINTHINANS1:11) We don't really know anything more about Chloe or her household than this verse reveals, but she was probably an important woman, since she's named as the heade of her household. And we know a lot about her church from Paul's letters to the Corinthians.

# 2 _Chloe didn't belong to a perfect congregation__division, not unity, was the hallmark of the Corinthian church. Everyone wanted to choose a leader to follow: Paul, Apollos, Peter (Cephas), or Christ. No one seemed to be in charge.   

# 3 _Obviously some faithful believer from Chloe's household, perhaps even Chloe herself, became troubled by the quarrels that divided the Corinthian church. A report got back to Paul that these foolish arguments had separated believers. When he heard, he confronted the young Corinthian Christians, even generally naming the source of his information. Because Paul received this report, he was able to save the church from an implosion.

# 4 _Should we find ourselves in her situation, Chloe gives us an example. Do we drop a word in a church learder's ear or keep it to ourselves? we wonder. God provides us with the wisdom for each problem we face. By speaking now, we could defuse a serious problem later. 

CANDACE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CANDACE !!!!!!!!!
# 1 _So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship. (ACTS 8:27)
In the first century, unlike today, Candace was not a name, but a title. It belonged to the queen mother of the ruler of an area the Greeks called Meroe, around the upper reaches of the Nile River. The people of that nation felt the king was so holy he was good for nothing temporal, so Candace carried out many of his earthly responsibilities. As a trade center, her country was very wealthy, so her powerful official in charge of the treasury would have had the ability to travel to the Holy City for worship.
# 2 _From this trip, he brought back more than Candace would have expected__the news of the Messiah struck the Ethiopian eunuch's heart quickly, and he accepted Christ. According to tradition, the woman he served also accepted Christ.
# 3 _We never know, when we share our faith, what important person may be touched by our words. Though our friends might be humble, we may connect with a poweful man or woman who needs to come to faith. With a single witness, like Phillip God's Word may reach a person of influence. Speak up!

BILHAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BILHAH !!!!!!
Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. (GENESIS 29:29)
Had Bilhah known what this change in her life would mean, perhaps she would have run the other way. For seving Rachel meant more than looking after her and running her errands. When Rachel did not have children, she decided her husband, Jacob, should follow a custom of the day and take Bilhah as a concubine. According to the custom, Rachel would adopt Bilhah's children as her own. But instead of establishing a happy family, Rachel began a competition with her sister, Leah, Jacob's other wife, who had borne him four children. Eventually their face-off saddled Jacob withtwelve sons and a far-from-peaceful household, disrupted by two wives and two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. Though God used Bilhah to raise up some of Jacob's sons, who would eventually become leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel, her role was not a thoroughly pleasant one. 
# 2 _God established marriage as between one man and one woman (See GENESIS 2:24) to reflect His covenant. Ignore that, and your family life, like Jacob's, can become as confused as the plot of a modern-day soap opera. But God blesses marriages that reflect His covenant love. Fithful love ends soap-opera lives and establishes a firm family that can serve God well. Would that  describe your family? If not, what can you change?

BATHSHEBA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BATHSHEBA !!!!!!!
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite? (2 SAMUEL 11:2__3)
Bathsheba must have been a real looker__a king was unable to resist her when he got a look at her from the roof of his palace. David sent messengers to bring the Hittite's wife to him, and then David slept with her. Scripture never seems to ask how Bathsheba felt about this. Was she offended at being commandeered by a knig, or was she flattered that he had noticed her? Whatever her response, she didn't have any say in her situation.
# 2 _Then, to her horror, Bathsheba discovered she was pregnant. In Jewish law, the punishment for adultery was death for both the man and woman. Fear must have struck this beauty's heart. Even if she though to pass the child off as her husband's, Uriah had been away at war and surely would know the child was not his. So she told David, and the king came up with a solution. He called Uriah back to Jerusalem, assuming Bathshe ba could entice him into a romantic interlude__and the problem would be solved.
# 3 _But the king, who had fallen into this sin when he should have been on the battlefield, did not count on the uprightness of this foreigner who had taken the Jewish faith to heart. Coming to the king as ordered, Uriah refused to so much as cross his own threshold. When others were camping out, readying for war, he would not sleep with his wife in Jerusalem. David made him drunk, but he still would not go home. Seeing no other alternative, and perhaps feeling growing guilt over his own sins, the king changed plans, commanding that Uriah should be placed in the heat of battle and left defenseless. The plan worked: Uriah died. 
# 4 _Bathsheba lost her husband at the connivance of her lover. Perhaps she initially felt relief at getting out of a very tight situation. But if her husband treated her tenderly, as Nathan's accusation of David in 2 Samuel 12:3 implies, she must at least have felt some emotional conflict.
# 5 _When Bathsheba's short period of mourning ended, David made her his wife. In a few moths, she gave him a son. Though the Bible never blames Bathsheba for the sin between herself and the king, she shared in his grief when God punished David by taking the life of their child. But God quickly blessed her with another son, Solomon, who was loved by God and would become one of Israel's greatest kings. She also had three more children (See CHRONICLES 3:5).
# 6_ Years later, Bathsheba stood up for her son's right to become king of Israel, when his older brother Adonijah sought to grab the throne from the aging David (See 1 KINGS 1:5__21). At her request, Daivd kept his promise to make Solomon king (See verse 29).
# 7_Still, Bathsheba must have been more kindhearted than politically savvy, for when Adonijah asked to marry Abishag, who'd been David's nurse in his old age, Bathsheba pled his case to Solomon. Solomon deeply loved his mother, if the great respect he treated her with is any sign (See 1 KINGS 2:19). But he immediately saw that his brother was again threatening his throne, denied her mission, and had his brother killed.
# 8 _Bathsheb's story is that of the second chance. Her life was turned upside down by a king's desire, and she was seduced into sin with him. But she didn't stay there. God gave her another chance as David's wife, and the rest of the biblical account shows her as a caring mother and concerned wife. No one accused her of further sin, and she lived blamelessly.
# 9 _When God gives us second chances, we can follow in Bathsheba's footsteps. As long we are alive, we are on a mission for Him. Wil we make ours as successful as hers? Remember this: Bathsheba is one of only four women mentioned in the lineage of Jesus (See MATTHEW 1:6)

ATHALIAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ATHALIAH !!!!!!!!
# 1 _When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah.  (2 CHRONICLES 22:10)
Athaliah, daughter of Israel's wicked king Ahab, is one of the bad babes of the Bible. Instead of being a godly mother, Scripture tells us she encouraged her son, Ahaziah, to do wrong (See 2 CHRONICLES 22:3). After becoming king of Judah, Ahaziah joined his uncle Joram, king of Israel, in a battle against Hazael, king of Aram. Following the battle, the warrior Jehu, who had already killed many of Ahaziah's heirs, wiped out Judah's king, too.
# 2 _When Athaliah heard the news, she immediately sought to kill off all her grandchildren so she could gain the throne. Once she did that, her claim would be reasonably uncontested. This power-hungry woman literally sacrificed her family on the alter of her own ambition.
# 3 _Had she been successful, the line of the Messiah would have been destroyed. So God placed a faithful woman, Jehosheba, near Ahaziah's son Joash. This half sister of the dead king saved her nephew and his nurse, hiding them in a bedroom. For six years the child king remained in hiding at the temple while his gradmother ruled (See 2 KINGS 11:2__4).
# 4 _In the seventh year of Athaliah's rule, the priest Jehoiada introduced Joash to the Iraelite war commaders. They covernanted with Joash and protected him while Jehoiada anointed him king. Hearing heard the noise of her grandson's coronation, Athaliah called out, "Treason!" but the troops ignored her objections and obeyed the priest. Removing her from the temple, they took her life in Jerusalems Horse Gate.
# 5 _Athaliah's actions are shocking. Few of us would sacrifice our childern or grandchildren to gain power. But sometimes our fast-paced, twenty-first century existence causes us to shortchange our family of time and attention. If our jobs always come first, we travel incessantly, or we plce our children too often in the hands of others, perhaps we've begun to make the same mistake as this wicked queen. We don't have to serve a pagan god or want to rule a nation in order to get our priorities mixed up.
# 6 _If we fail, we aren't bad babes in the mold of an Athaliah__but we do need to repent, confess our wrongdoing, and find a way to make changes. Maybe that means reorganizing our time, refusing a promotion, or working a part-time job. Whatever it takes, let's not sacrifice our families to get ahead. Because, in the end, we won't be ahead at all__either with our loved ones or the God we serve.

ANNA !!!!!!!!!

ANNA !!!!!!
There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at the very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.                                (LUKE 2:36__38)
# 2 _This is all we know of Anna__you've just read the whole biblical accout of her. But it is enough to give a thumbnail sketch of her character abd devotion to God. Her name means "gracious," and grace seems to have permeated her life. She married, but after her husband died, she dedicated the rest of her life to God. Hers was a service of many years; at eighty-four, this widow was still constantly in the temple. She may have lived within the temple confines or perhaps lived nearby and simply spent most of her time "at church" Certainly her fellow Jews would have honored her for remaining single and dedicating her life in devotion to her Lord.
# 3 _As a prophetess, Anna held a position of honor. Clearly God spoke to her as she remained in the temple, worshiping, fasting, and praying. Is it any wonder that when the Messiah first entered the temple, she walked in on Him and His parents? Surely God led her there, to be blessed by the sight of the One she had long hoped for. Immediately recognizing Jesus, she thanked her heavenly Father and spread the news to others.
# 4 _When we share Anna's ability to obey, we'll discover how gracious God has been to us. His spiritual blessings will spill over into our lives and others', too.

AHINOAM !!!!!!!!

AHINOAM !!!!!!
# 1_Abigail. . .went with David's messengers and became his wife. David had also merried Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. (1 SAMUEL 25:42__43)
Nearly every time the Bible mentions Ahinoam, David's other wife, Abigail, appears, too. Though Ahinoam was first married to David, the wealthy Abigail seems to overshadow her. Ahinoam didn't even come from an impressive city, for Jezreel was only a town in the hill country of Judah. Since her name means "gracious," perhaps Ahinoam never made trouble__but she had to feel slighted.
# 2 _With David and Abigail she traveled to find protection among the Philistines, so Saul could not destroy her husband. While David went to war at the Philistine king Achish's side, the Amalekites raided his home at Ziklag, capturing Ahinoam and Abigail. David returned early to rescure the women. What a joyous moment it must have been for Ahinoam to see her husband and his troops, for she might otherwise have become a slave.
# 3 _After Saul died, David became king of Judah, and Ahinoam bore his son Amnon. Amnon would grow up ti dishonor his half-sister Tamar, but Ahinoam may never have known that__since she's not mentioned in the story, she may no longer have been living.
# 4 _Ahinoam has only a small part in biblical history, though she was the wife of a king. She may have been quiet and faithful, getting less press than Daviv's other wives. Like Ahinoam, can we take a backseat? Or would we become resentful, needing front-page attention to be satisfied??

ADAH !!!!!!!!!

ADAH !!!!!!!!!
Lamech married two woman, one named Adah and the other Zillah. (GENESIS 4:19)
# 1 _Lamech, a man of Cain's line, became the first poloygamist in Hebrew history, marrying both Adah and Zillah. Though it might have seemed fun to him, what a wreck it made of woman's lives for centuries. For though he was the first to do it, he was hardly the last Hebrew to think more wives were better. From his example came a long history of marital confusion, conflict, and disobedience to God.
# 2 _ The Bible describes Adah and Zillah's children, but does not tell us how their mothers got along. Yet if Hebrew family history is any example, they probably didn't have a smooth life. For God intentionally commanded that one man should marry one woman (See GENESIS 2:23__24). Those who disobey God pay a price, so marital harmony probably wasn't a part of this tenthold.
Lamech's rebelliousness didn't limit itself no marriage. He took vengence by killing a man who wounded him. Like Cain, he overeacted and failed to seek God's counsels.
# 3 _From Adah's story we learn the importance of following God's laws. What must it have been like to live with this angry man? And how could Adah share her husband with Zillah, yet understand God's complete commitment to those who love Him?
# 4 _This quick picture of Adah's life teaches us to let God control our marital choices. In Him, we'll experience the warm, loving relationship we're looking for. Apart from Him, we may feel only pain.

ACSAH !!!!!!!!!

ACSAH !!!!!!!
# 1 _And Caleb said, "I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher." Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage. (JUDGES 1:12__13)
Caleb's declaration seems strange to us. How could he almost raffle off his daughter to the man who was successful in battle? But in Israel a victory in battle could pay off the bride price, which was owed to the father before the marriage. So maybe the man who really wanted her got her through his bravery.
# 2 _And the man who won Acsah would have been a good choice as a husband. Othniel became the first major judge of Israel, the leader who freed the nation from subjection to Cushan-Rishathaim, king of Aram. (Read JUDGES 3:8__9)
# 3 _As part of her dowry, Acsah received dry land in the Negev. So she told her husband to ask Caleb for another field, one that had springs. When Othniel didn't do it, Acsah took on the task hersef and got the land. Surely Caleb was a loving father, being generous with his daughter.
# 4 _What did Acsah think about this marriage? We don't know. Sometimes brides were asked for their consent, or perhaps Caleb saw this as a way to give her the man she wanted without asking money from his brother. Either way, what a method for finding a good man!! No woman today would think of it.
# 5 _Like Acsah, we may find romance in unexpected places. Let's remember to let God do the choosing for us__and no matter what the time or situation, we will be blessed. After all, look at the husband Acsah got.

ABISHAG !!!!!!!

ABISHAG !!!!!!!
Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
                        (1 KINGS 1:3)
Abishag had an unusual job: keeping the old and infirm King David warm. And not just by covering him with blankets__the comely Abishag was expected to crawl into bed with the king. David's servants said to him, "Let her lie in thy bosom, they my lord the king may get heat" (1 KINGS 1:2 kjv). That's exactly what happened, as Abishag "ministered" to David in a nonsexual way.
# 2 _We have no biblical record of Abshag's feelings toward her job. Perhaps she was pleased to be chosen as the great king's personal body warmer. Maybe she found lying in bed with a dying seventy-year old man distasteful. Possibly, her feeling shifted from day to day.
# 3 _Our feelings toward our own responsibilities__at home, at church, at the office, wherever__can vary widely. But whatever we've been called to do, we should do to the best of our abilities. As the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, "Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful" (! CORINTHIANS 4:2).
# 4 _Dream job or nightmare, know that God has called you to this particular time and place. Do your best__and, if appropriate, pray for the chance to move on. 

ABIJAH !!!!!!!!



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ABIJAH !!!!!!!!!       Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king , and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zachariah. 
(2 CHORNICLES 29:1)  There are not many reference to Abijah in Scripture, but a very important one commends her son, the king of Judah: "Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him"
(2 KINGS 18:5). Abijah's husband, Ahaz, surely never influenced his son to trust in God, for he increasingly worshiped the pagan gods and even closed Jerusalem's temple. If either of Hezekiah's parents positively influenced his faith, it would have been Abijah.      # 2 _No matter what a child has experienced, one faithful parent can have a powerful influence for God. While her husband gave himself over to pagan gods, Abijah's quiet faith may have turned her son to the Lord. It is no different today. God still raises up the children of faithful mothers. The unfaithfulness of a father can even become a clear warning and sad contrast to a mother's faith. No matter what challenges a mother faces, Father God always remains with her, if she trusts in Him and prays faithfully for her child. Though a human father may fail, our Lord never will.                                                         

 

THE TOP 100 WOMAN OF THE BIBLE !!!!!!!!

# 1 _ABIHAIL !!!!!!
Rehboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David's son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse's son Eliab. (2 CHRONICLES 11:18)
Abihail, whose name means "father is strength," was the daughter of Jesse's first son Eliab, which means "God is father." She certainly had an impressive lineage, since her uncle David and his son Solomon became Israel's greatest kings. And Abihail married one of David's sons, possibly by a concubine.
# 2 _Abihail's daughter Mahalath married a king, Rehoboam. But this mother's heart must have been saddened to watch the kingdom fall apart in her son-in-law's hands. Doubtless Mahalath also suffered as his wife, since Rehoboam had eighteen wives and sixty concubines. It couldn't have been a satisfying marriage. 
# 3 _Abihail proves that even a "premier family" background can't guarantee a trouble-free life. The Bible doesn't descrlbe her sorrows, but we may easily read between the lines and understand that lineage isn't everything.
# 4 _Today, it still doesn't matter if you hail from a family of great stature or a very humble one__troubles will come your way. Only God, the strogest Father, can protect His children and bring them through each storm. He is powerful enough to help us withstand each problem in life and bring us through safely.


















ABIGAIL # 1 !!!!!!
# 1 _His name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean in his dealings. 
         (2 SAMUEL 25:3)
Here is one of the Bible's great mismatched couples. Since it was the custom of the day to arrange marriages, Abigail had probably been wed to Nabal for his wealth, not for any meeting of the hearts. While she was a faithful and savvy woman, he was not only named "Fool" (the meaning of Nabal), his actions showed he was one.
#2 _Though women of that day generally had much less respect and authority than men, the Bible speaks highly of Abigail while recording only the mean-spiritedness and wrong-headedness of her husband. The two were certainly spiritually incompatible. While Abigail had faith, her husband had no time for God-certainly his attitudes and actions were not those of a faithful believer. Still, though theirs could not have been an easy relationship, resentment didn't crush Abigail's spirit. Instead, she used her many personal gifts and graces to bring the best to her household. 
# 3 _At the festive sheep-shearing time, the surly and greedy Nabal intentionally offened King David. Recognizing the danger, one of the wealthy landowner's servants knew whom to approach: He reported the situation to Nabal's wise wife. Immediately, Abigail understood the foolishness of turning down a polite request for support from the displaced David. Though the newly anointed king was fighting Saul for the throne, his warriors had protected Nabal's fields and clearly deserved some recompense. Food for his band of men did not seem an unreasonable request. Nabal had much, and the common custom of the day would have demanded that he share with those had protected him and his household from harm. 
# 4 _Instead of wasting time arguing with her husband, Abigail prepared food for David's men and set off to approach their leader to make peace. She mounted her donkey not a moment too soon. On the road to David's camp, she met the warrior-king and his men, headed in her direction and intent on exacting retribution.
Abigail knew her husband's attitude had risked all his holdings and placed her in a difficult position__yet her dependence lay not on her spouse, but with God. Understanding that David was doing God's work and required her support, she provided it. That simple intervention and her humble words and attitude before Israel's anointed-but-on-the-run king prevented unnecessary bloodshed.
David immediately appreciated Abigail's faith and good qualities and praised God for her quick actions. If Nabal did not know how to recognize his wife's value, the king did. He turned aside his wrath because of this faithful woman's generous response.
While Abigail worked out a peace plan, her husband partied. She returned to find him drunk, so not until the next day did she explain how she'd spent her day. Hearing what his wife had done, the brutish Nabal literally had a fit__perhaps experiencing a stroke. A few days later, he died.
# 8 _David saw Nabal's death as God's justice and immediately sought Abigail's hand in marriage. In a moment, faithful Abigail moved from a fool's wife to a king's bride. In Abigail we see many examples of faithfulness. When difficult relationships become part of our lives, we can follow her example. Will bitterness and resentment overwhelm our faith? Or, like her, can we trust God will make use even of our hardest situations? Do we do the good that falls our way, knowing that God's wisdom will bring benfit to ourselves and others??
# 9 _Though matched with unbelieving spouse, Abigail remained faithful to her Lord. Like her, do we resist allowing unsatisfactory relationships to stall us out in our faith and continue on, trusting our God? Humility clothed Abigail's strength. No radical, angry woman, she paved the way for all woman of strength to walk humbly before their God and make peace in broken relationships. God alone brings tranquility to broken lives. Abigail experienced that, and so can we. And, like Abigail, we may find that when we've passed through the troubles, God gives us a better life than we ever expected.