Accounts of 3 women in the Bible mentioned in Jesus’ life.
We looked yesterday at the story of the widow of Zarephath who was given a hidden ministry by God. She was responsible for feeding Elijah, the national prophet to Israel and the one man who could command the drout to lift. Her test was to literally GIVE HER LAST food to Elijah, ‘but first make me some bread’ and only then could she and her son eat. Elijah only came to her home for a short time, but his presence opened the door to God’s provision for her family. He also raised her son from the dead. Jesus mentioned this widow from Sidon(along with Naaman the leper, a Syrian) centuries later in the synagogue In Nazareth and the people were incensed. Luke 4:26 They couldn’t accept God had chosen to withhold blessing from the Jews and instead bless foreigners. God is Sovereign and creator of all, He will choose to bless and use some very unlikely people in our own days!
At the end of Mark 12, following discussion on ‘the Greatest Commandment’ and ‘Whose Son is the Christ’ we find four short verses(Ch 13 is ‘Signs of the End of the Age’). Wedged between these hugely significant topics is the brief story of the ‘widow’s offering’ at the Temple(she was probably Jewish). Jesus deliberately sat down and watched the people putting their money into the Temple. Rich people came and ‘threw in large amounts’, but again Jesus singled out a poor widow ‘WHO GAVE ALL SHE HAD TO LIVE ON’(she was probably there because she had no husband to give her offering). Jesus called His disciples to Him to tell them this widow had given the most. Kingdom finances took a different view of the giving, the poor woman gave all. We know nothing more of her after this, but if the Son of God publicly praised her sacrifice, I believe she too would have received God’s provision. God’s Word tells us of these two women, who GAVE THEIR ALL.
In John 4, we read of Jesus encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well of Sycar. She came to draw water at midday, the hottest time, which might suggest she wasn’t welcome when others were there. Jesus asked for some water, Jews didn’t eat or drink with Samaritans. In the following discussion Jesus revealed her past, five husbands and now with someone to whom she wasn’t married but He didn’t condemn her. Instead He told her He was the awaited Messiah, she’d spoken of the Messiah first. She went back to her village and told them, SHE GAVE AWAY LIFE AND TRUTH to people who probably looked down on her. But they believed her and came to meet Jesus and accepted He had come to save the world.
Three women, two foreigners and probably one Jewess, none of high standing, but all recorded in the Bible. They all believed God in their own lives and situations and were willing to stake themselves and their futures on Him.
Three nobodies who became three somebodies in the story of the Kingdom of God – the only one that will count.
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