Longtime readers will by now know that I have a self-acknowledged “rebellious streak”
I don’t think it’s a bad thing, as Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich said:
“Well behaved women seldom make history.”
This International Women’s Day I’ve been thinking about all the disobedient and rebellious women who challenged unjust male authority in the bible:
One of my favourites is Queen Vashti who flatly refused her drunken husband’s demand that she parade herself naked before his friends so that he could boast about her beauty. It must have taken a huge amount of courage to stand up to a powerful king like that. King Xerxes exiled Vashti and replaced her with Esther who then also bravely challenged his authority, appearing before him without permission to save the Jewish people from genocide.
Then of course there’s Deborah, not only the only female judge in Israel, but also a military leader who led an army into battle when the male leader of the army was too afraid. And the incredibly bad-ass Jael who ended that battle by driving a tent-peg through the skull of the enemy general Sisera. Anyone who believes I should make more effort to be a “biblical woman” should be warned that tent pegs are always an option!
The Hebrew Midwives (Shiphrah and Puah) directly disobeyed Pharoah’s instruction to slaughter all Hebrew baby boys under the age of 2. The law was gravely unjust and so, they risked their own lives to disobey it. Likewise Rahab disobeyed her own King’s authority and made herself a traitor, hiding foreign spies to align herself with God’s people.
Moving onto the New Testament Mary the mother of Jesus sang a mighty song of rebellion about bringing down the powerful from their thrones, Mary of Bethany ignored societies rules and her sisters reprimand and chose to become a disciple of Jesus, a Canaanite woman challenged the authority of Jesus himself when he initially refused to help her daughter and Priscilla ignored conventional gender roles, ran a church and challenged Apollos when what he was teaching was wrong.
We come from a fine tradition of Godly women disobeying or challenging the authority of unjust men, long may we continue that tradition!
Have I missed anyone out? Join the conversation on social media!
