DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS !!!!!!!!!!

DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS !!!!! _# 1 _Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She had court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.

(JUDGES 4:4_5)

# 2 _God doesn't explain Himself. Suddenly, in a time when Israel has become unfaithful to the Lord, the scripture proclaims the position of Deborah, the only female to rule Israel during the years of the judges__that era between Joshua's death and Saul's accession as king. Deborah was not just a minor judge; she was an authoritative woman who decided disputes between men and held the power common to all Israel's judges. Nor was this a piece-of-cake leadership for Deborah. Israel had been subjugated by the Canaanite ruler Jabin of Hazor, yet the Israelites never brought an army against him until this woman was in charge. Deborah became the answer to the prayer for help her people sent up to God as they saw the Canaanites commander Sisera heading their direction followed by nine hundred chariots.

# 3 _God had chosen an unusual leader in Deborah, a very strong-minded woman who was also very close to Him. (Just read her interaction with her military commander, Barak, in Judges 4:6__9, and you'll see she was used to being obeyed.) As a prophetess, Deborah would have heard and communicated God's will to His people. Though she is not the only prophetess in the Bible, she alone ruled Israel. Not only that, she effectively led her country during wartime, when many people might have chosen a man for the job. After all, she couldn't command an army, could she? In a way, she showed the doubters that she could.

# 4 _God had given her authority, and Deborah obeyed His will implicitly. Maybe you've known a powerful woman like her. An in-charge kind of person, this judge rallied her leaders and the people against the Canaanites. Barak, chosen by God as the country's military commander, seems shy and retiring compared to the confident prophetess. God spoke to her, and she told Barak all He had commanded. Deborah did not make decisions based on her own desires, but on God's direction for His people. And she showed greater faith than her commander. She was probably a "God says it, I've heard it, that settles it" kind of believer, because she did not understand why Barak balked at going to war when God told him to. Barak flatly refused to go to battle without Deborah. That may have been fueled in part by an understanding that following her was following God, but doubt also played its role. Because of Barak's hesitancy, God commanded that a woman would take the life of Sisera.

# 5 _Deborah accompanied the ten thousand troops who attacked Sisera's forces and gave them the order to go into battle on God's chosen day. When Barak and his men obeyed, God caused the Canaanites to flee before them. But this was something other than Barak's happiest moment. Deborah's prophecy of Sisera's death was fulfilled when Jael, a woman, killed Sisera in her tent, after all the Canaanite troops had been destroyed.

# 6 _Judges 5 records Deborah's wonderful song celebrating the victory. Together with Barak, she gave the credit to God. From her verses we get a clear picture of how sad life had been like under the Canaanites. She described herself as "a mother in Israel," but she had also been something of a mother to Israel, encouraging, warning, and setting the pace for a whole nation. She praised Jael for killing the enemy with tent peg and hammer. Through Jael, God ended ting and gave Israel a complete victory.

# 7 _Need a picture of a confident, powerful woman who was also humble and faithful? Look to Deborah. Being an unlikely leader didn't stop her in her tracks, and it doesn't need to stop a Christian woman today, either. She can be a successful mother, leader, and wife, if she's obeying God every day.  

 

DEBORAH - REBEKAH'S NURSE !!!!!!!!

DEBORAH - REBEKAH'S NURSE !!!!! __Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.    (GENESIS 35:8)
Did you know the name of Rebekah's nurse? Genesis 24:59 told us she accompained her change to their new home with Jacob, but it did not mention the nurse's name. Now, at Deborah's death, we finally can put a name with a position.
# 2 _Deborah spent plenty of tears with her mistress. Perhaps Rebekah appreciated Deborah's kindness to her when she was tiny. Rebekah would have still needed her nurse as she grew, because Genesis 29:29 makes it obvious the bride had no maid. For awhile after Rebekah's marriage there were no children to change in the middle of the night, but Deborah helped her charge settle into a new way of life. When children did come, Rebekah desperately needed the nurse, since she had twins. Deborah was always there to dandle a crying child or wrap him in a blanket.
# 3 _Many of us have received help with our children from a friend, teacher, or youth-group worker. Do we appreciate the effort that goes into caring for children? Like Deborah, many give tender care to youngsters who are not theirs. Will it be a thankless task or one that recieves appreciation? Rebekah appreciated her nurse: The name of that oak under which Deborah was buried became Allon Bacuth: "oak of weeping."

THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH !!!!!!

THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH !!!!

Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said. (EXODUS 2:5__6)

Being important doesn't mean everyone knows you. Though this woman was the daughter of Egypt's powerful ruler, the Bible never records her name or even that of her father. All we know of Pharaoh's daughter is her position and the fact that she had a kind spirit, for when she saw the baby Moses floating in a basket, her heart opened to him. The woman knew he was one of the Hebrews whom Pharaoh had commanded to be killed, yet this woman disobeyed her father and bravely saved the baby, who ironically became the prophet God used to free the Hebrews from Egypt's grasp.
# 2 _In time, the princess adopted Moses, opening doors of education and power to the young Hebrew. Because of the training he received in Egypt's court, he was probably in a better position to rule over the rebellious Hebrews. As an educated man, he would be able to record the first five books of the Bible for all people to read through the ages.
# 3 _Though we don't know that she ever came to faith, the princess played an important role in God's plan. Without her, the tiny baby would not have had the advantages he needed. But God placed the right woman in the right place at the right time, and He moved her heart to help young Moses. Her name may have disappeared, but her good work hasn't.
# 4 _We're probably all familiar with someone who doesn't know God but performs many good deeds. An unsaved family member may help us out and enable us to fulfill God's will in our lives. Do we recognize that this, too, comes from God? God may use many different people to accomplish His goal, but He does not abuse them. He never forces them to have faith in Him.
# 5 _Many daughters of Pharaoh live in our midst, unconsciously guided by their Creator to do His will. Yet they have no spiritual connection to Him. Do we reach out to them, hoping to help them understand Hid role in their lives? We can rejoice when they come to know Him, too. 

DAMARIS !!!!!!!

DAMARIS !!!!!!! __# 1 _A few men bacame followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. (ACTS 17:34) __Luke mentions some men who accepted Christ as their Savior when they heard Paul's message in Athens, then sddenly he drops in the name of a woman: Damris. Perhaps, as John Chrysostom, a fourth-century archbishop of Constantinople, thought, she was te wife of Dionysius.

# 2 _Others suggest she was an important, educated woman, perhaps from another country. But in an age when women rarely got much mention, she must have had some stature to be listed immediately after a member of Athen's ruling council. Indeed, for her to be present at the meeting where Paul spoke would indicate she had some unusual importance.  

# 3 _The next time someone tells you women aren't important in the Bible, remind them of Damaris, Priscilla, and the Marys of the Gospels. People may write women off as being unimportant, but God never does. He includes them at every point in His story of redemption.

# 4 _You, too, are important to God. Whether or not you're ever mentioned in a book or known worldwide, God cares for you. His Son died for you, to draw you to His side. No one for whom Jesus died is unimportant or forgotten.

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!