Woman, God is not a respecter of persons; He’s got your back!

By Janet Karim

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:11-13

March is the International Women’s month, and today is Good Friday. This is the day that 2000 years ago, Roman soldiers, amid chants from the Jewish crowd and religious leadership in Jerusalem, ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene. My particular interest in the latter and tying it to the former, is the role that women played at Jesus’ death and resurrection and in other parts of the Bible. The roles underscore the Biblical principle that apart from not being a respecter of persons (favoring one over another), God also loves us (male and female, black, yellow, or white, young or old) all the same and He loves us very much. Enough to send His son Jesus to die for us.

As a woman, when I look back to both religious and non-religious history, many questions arise as to where women fit in all this “No-Respecter-Of-Persons-God.” Where do women fit in His plans? Do women carry the “burden of Eve”? Should women be quiet as even Paul admonishes women to do? (1 Timothy 2:11-12 says, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”; in 1 Corinthians 14:34, says “34 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.”)

Many women are often caused to ask perhaps they were an afterthought in the Creation story. This begs the question, are women of no use, and not part of the original Heavenly plan? Are women an accident, perhaps?

This past week, I had a deep and serious tête-à-tête (a private conversation between two beings) with the Creator of the Universe (aka Jehovah God), and He told me very uplifting and empowering things about women. He informed me that women fit in perfectly, squarely, and are equally central to His plan for man- and womankind, generally known as human beings (huperson beings). The book of Genesis 1:27 says “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” (KJ21).

Secondly, women do not carry the burden of Eve. Jesus died for each and every one of us (male and female) as we are all born sinners, and certainly all need the blood of Jesus as the remission of our sins.). Although women do carry the divine plan for continuing with God’s creation: man gives woman the seed, woman carries that seed, nurtures it in a special-to-women-only place called the womb, for nine months and then she gives birth to a baby). Thus woman is a man created by God, who has a womb, from which we get the word wo-man, or “man with a womb.”

In response to the third question about women keeping quiet, the Bible (which is both the Torah and the New Testament) is full of women crying, calling, and pleading with God; this led to saving herself, a prophet or two, her family on numerous occasions saving the entire nation of her people sometimes found in captivity. God shows how He has a compassionate ear to hear those that call out to Him. Moses’ mother hid him in a water baby cot, was looked after by his sister, and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter (at a time the Egyptian king was killing boys like Moses – a Hebrew slave’s son!). Esther called for a 3-day fast that led her to approach her husband, King Ahasuerus (although she had not been called to come to him); this brave act prevented her nation from being massacred.

Furthermore, had it not been for the four women that accompanied Joseph of Aremesia to bury Jesus the role the women played is crucial in the salvation story the courage of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Jacob, and Mary Salome), and their consequent return on the Sunday (to follow the Judeo tradition of pouring oils and herbs), no one would have known where the Christ was buried, and NO ONE WOULD HAVE SEEN HIM. The four women were the first to see the risen Christ; the first to tell of Jesus’ resurrection (and they were ridiculed); they are the first evangelists. They made the first call “He is risen! He is no longer in the grave! The tomb is empty! He is not there!” These words, which we all blast out in sermons and wax lyrical in our songs, were first made by women.

Mary the mother of Jesus, holds a very special place in God’s plan for mankind. He created Adam from dust, Eve from Adam’s rib; He could have done this for the birth of His son Jesus. But He used the normal route for babies to be born. There is no place on earth where babies are born any other way without a woman.

God’s stories in the Bible are filled with women doing exploits for Him. Some of the women are named, many others are nameless, like the woman at the well talking with Jesus, the woman with the issue of blood, and the widow of Zarephath plays a small but important role in Elijah’s story. Women are not an afterthought or an accidental part of God’s plan for human personkind. God had their roles all along.

Women are not unnecessary; they are an essential part of God’s creation of man in His own image. Women are one half of the story in carrying on our being here on earth. All over the world (I thank God) two men cannot beget a baby any more than two women can beget a baby. It is a global phenomenon that a man provides his seed to a woman (called conception), and the woman carries the baby in a special body part only women have, for nine months. After birth (again all over the world) the woman (not the man) breast feeds the baby. As God plans all the way back to the beginning of the world when God said, “Let there be……..”

Far from being an accident or an afterthought, women have been making it possible for humanity to get from two people (male and female) to today’s population of seven billion people.

This Good Friday, I call out to women of the world to arise! Women should get to know and accept that God loves them as equally as He loves men. Women must realize that they are part of God’s plan. No one should ever tell any woman that women do not matter. Women matter just as much as men matter.

Women of the world, God would have sent Jesus even if only one woman was around in the whole wide world.

Happy Good Friday! Here’s to hoping your Resurrection Sunday is a blessed one for you and your families everywhere!