THE PRICE OF RUBIES 7: ELISABETH AND MARY

 

(Art: Jump for Joy by Corby Eisbacher)

There were once two women whose sons were to change the history of the world. Two women who shine as the brightest rubies because of their submissiveness to God’s purposes for the good of all mankind. One was a young virgin called Mary and the other her cousin, advanced in years and past the bearing age, called Elisabeth. They together proved that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

 

Elisabeth and her husband Zacharias walked blamelessly before the Lord and even though they prayed many years that Elisabeth would bear a son they arrived at the autumn of their lives childless. It was in the year of his appointed priestly service that Zacharias travelled to the temple in Jerusalem from their village of Hebron to perform sacred rites and ordinances.

 

Just as Zacharias was burning incense inside the temple, the multitude were outside praying for redemption of Israel from the Gentile yoke (Luke 1:10). As the timely prayers ascended, angel Gabriel stood on the right side of the altar of incense and spoke: “Fear not Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard: and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John” (Luke 1:11,13).

 

Six months later the same angel appeared to young Mary advising her she too will bear a son, also of a miraculous birth (Luke 1:30-33). No doubt a young girl like Mary was amazed to receive angel Gabriel's announcement that she shall be the mother of the Son of God. Every woman in Israel hoped for the privilege of becoming the mother of the expected Messiah.

 

Gabriel explained to Mary how the baby would be conceived and no doubt perceiving the alarm that must have arisen within her, he quickly told her about her cousin Elisabeth who also was a recipient of a miraculous conception. What comfort that would have been to such a young girl to know she did not stand alone in the realm of hard to explain miracles. But there was another, her cousin Elisabeth, who had conceived by a miracle so this too was possible.

 

Both of these women rose to the greatest challenge of their lives. Elisabeth did bear a son who became the forerunner of the Messiah. I think she understood her responsibility well. As Herod’s murder edict reared its ugly head and her husband lost his life unwilling to disclose the whereabouts of his son (Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51), Elisabeth took baby John into the mountains and hid him from the impending doom. This narrative does not appear in the New Testament but it comes from the early Christian tradition such as the Infancy Gospel of James, a text written around the second century A.D. It does, however, correspond with the New Testament narrative of John’s upbringing in the deserts and being raised on locusts and wild honey (Luke 1:80; Matt 3:4; Mark 1:6). It doesn’t bear thinking that John, as an infant, would have been taken into the mountains and left there alone without his mother.

 

According to historical custom of marriage in the meridian of time, it has been estimated that Mary had Jesus when she was around 15 years of age. Imagine a young girl such as that submitting herself to the will of God which would ruin her reputation as a chaste Israelite girl betrothed to another man. This was brought to Jesus’ attention by the Jews who accused Him of being born of fornication (John 8:41).

 

This young girl grew up to be an adult woman who cried at the cross of her son’s crucible. Did she at such a momentous time reflect back on the famous words she uttered: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” or did she remember Elisabeth’s words to her:  “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42). Blessed indeed…..

 

ODE TO MARY AND ELIZABETH

 

Among valiant sons of God

Who were chosen rulers to be

Stood the daughters so fair

They echoed throughout eternity.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE PRICE OF RUBIES 6: ESTHER

 

Light of Truth In the Darkness of the Persian Palace Esther and King Ahaseurus by artist Alex Levin

During the Babylonian exile, a young Jewish girl by the name  of Esther was chosen for her outstanding beauty to marry King Xerxes of Persia. This was a girl who chose to walk the path of courage, not for herself, but for the good of the whole…..something that is missing in our ‘me, myself and I’ world today.

 

Marrying outside the covenant was a big no no for the Jews but Esther was in captivity and subject to the King of Persia so in all likelihood she didn’t have a say in the matter. It was especially precarious for men to marry outside of the covenant because men that did so followed the religious convictions of their wives. It was a sure way to end up knee deep in idolatry if you married outside of the covenant in ancient Israel. (see the story of Judah in Ezra 10)

 

In Esther's case, however, the roles were mercifully reversed. She was a God-fearing woman and the man in her situation was the heathen. Esther did not seem to be at risk of abandoning her faith. She kept her religion and continued to worship the God of heaven. She did not adopt her husband's religious practices.

 

When God gave a commandment in the beginning that a man should leave his mother and father and 'cleave unto his wife' (Genesis 2:24) I believe that somehow this became a very literal mandate for men, with women being given the advantage and privilege of influence.....as was proven by Esther who saved her entire nation from annihilation (Esther 8).

 

And now here is a great lesson for us women....Esther did not rely on her beauty and her womanly wiles to convince King Xerxes not to kill her people. She could have done that. The King was clearly smitten by her to the point that he would have granted her every wish and given her even half of his kingdom (Esther 5:3,6; 7:2).

 

Instead of relying on her womanhood, Esther employed God's assistance in her influence over the king. She designated a three day fast for all the Jews in the kingdom and offered two banquets to the King and his right-hand man Haman who was intent on the Jewish annihilation. The 24 hours in between those two banquets was crucial because during that time the King had a sudden desire to read the records which threw a light on the situation at hand. This desire was obviously inspired from above (see Esther 6). The King gained a greater understanding of the situation and the disaster was averted.

 

The fasting of Esther and her people brought the Lord into the situation. It's a rather lengthy story but a highly entertaining one. The whole event is celebrated even today among the Jews through the Feast of Purim all because of the courage of a righteous woman who didn’t hesitate to put her life at risk when she approached the unapproachable King with these memorable and courageous words:

 

“If I perish, I perish”  (Esther 4:16) 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE PRICE OF RUBIES 5: RUTH

 

(Art: Ruth In the Field of Boaz by Alexandre Cabanel 1868)

This is a beautiful story of loyalty of one woman towards another and the godly path it created….. a story of another ruby above price.

Ruth's story begins in Moab, her home-land, where she married Mahlon, one of the sons of an Israelite couple called Elimelech and Naomi, who had fled from their hometown of Bethlehem because of famine and came to Moab, a gentile country east of the Dead Sea. Another Moabite woman by the name of Orpah married Chilon, the other son of that family. Neither of the women produced any children before the father and both sons died leaving three women destitute.

 

Ruth's story is a prime example of how you can go from nothing to everything if you live a life of loyalty and selflessness. When the famine abated, Naomi, the matriarch, decided to return to Bethlehem and entreated her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab and return to their families. Both of the women wept at the suggestion wanting to follow her but Orpah consented after further encouragement from Naomi while Ruth refused to abandon her aging mother-in-law who faced a life of uncertainty without offspring and opportunity (Ruth 1:15-17). And here begins a life of loyalty.

 

Ruth, a convert, accompanied her mother-in-law to Bethlehem and there gained a reputation of a virtuous woman in Israel. The entire city of Bethlehem knew how good she was and told Naomi that Ruth was better to her than seven sons (Ruth 3:11, 4:15).

 

As the poor in Israel were accustomed to do, Ruth offered to go gleaning the barley fields being harvested. Gleaning was in effect gathering any stalks of barley that fell from the harvesters' hands and that were left on the field for the poor to gather to save them from starvation. Being new in the area, Ruth, unbeknownst to her, chose a field that belonged to Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi's husband, but not just any relative. Naomi identified him as the 'next kinsmen’.

 

This is where Ruth’s sense of duty, loyalty and care comes into play. Ruth, a young woman did not seek a man closer to her own age and of her own liking to marry. She instead heeded the counsel of her mother-in-law and approached Boaz to lay claim to a 'levirate marriage'. As the 'next kinsmen' it would be his duty to marry the widowed Ruth and provide her with offspring. This duty would have fallen to her husband's brother had he remained alive.

 

What is even more interesting is that Naomi could have laid this claim herself but Naomi was too stricken in years to bear more children. If Ruth married and had a son, she would provide a way for both women to be cared for in their old age. Lucky for Ruth, Boaz was a good man and was impressed that she was following the Israelite family law in seeking a rightful husband rather than going after her own selfish desires. He regarded her proposal as 'a proof of feminine virtue and modesty by offering herself as a wife to an old man like him rather than going after young men’. (Ruth 3:10,11)

 

Ruth, a converted Gentile, came to Bethlehem empty but was filled in every way. She went from nothing to everything. By chance that she might have a son, she married an old man she didn’t know and they had a son, Obed who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was the progenitor of Mary, who was the mother of Christ (Ruth 4:17-22).

By giving birth to Obed, Ruth brought honour again to her mother-in-law who was left childless: "And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom and became nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbours, gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed...." (Ruth 4:16,17).

 

Thus by her life's choices Ruth became a symbol of selfless loyalty to be emulated by all the daughters of God……a loyalty that alleviated the suffering of another…..there is no greater.

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE PRICE OF RUBIES 4: HANNAH

 

For This Child I Prayed by Elspeth C. Young

One of the great women of the Old Testament who stands out for her devotion to God is Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel.

 

Not being able to bear children is a difficult cross to bear for many women in any age but it was especially so for Hannah. She was barren in a time when ‘it was a great reproach to a woman among the Jews’ (Clarke, Bible Commentary, 2:207). So many women must have suffered a sense of worthlessness at such a time because of this trial. No fertility treatments, no IVF….

 

It was considered a woman brought great honour to her husband by giving him children, especially sons. At an age when women had little else by which to distinguish themselves, child bearing was of utmost importance. Hannah's suffering from her condition was made even more difficult by the second wife of her husband, Peninnah, who tormented her and made her miserable by 'ostentatious exhibition of her children' because Hannah was favoured by their husband (Old Testament Student Manual Book 1, p 267). So many questions about this situation but we won’t go there…..

 

As the family went up to Shiloh to the annual festival to offer sacrifices at the tabernacle, Hannah took matters into her own hands. She knew there was only one place to go and only one God who could possibly know the state of her heart and who could alleviate her suffering. In her unwavering faith she made a covenant with the Lord that if He would give her a son she would bring him up as a Nazarite and dedicate the child to God’s service for the duration of his life (1 Sam 1:11).

 

This was an amazing act of selflessness. That she was a woman with great faith and love for God is clearly seen by her praise of Him following Samuel’s birth (1 Sam 2:1-10).

 

Hannah did bear a son and she called his name Samuel, meaning in Hebrew 'heard of God' (Keil and Delitzch, Commentary, 2:2:25). This name served as a reminder to both Hannah and Samuel of the special circumstances and commitments relating to his birth (Old Testament Student Manual Book 1, p. 268).

 

When Samuel was weaned at 3 years of age as was the custom, Hannah honoured her promise to God and brought him to the priest Eli to live and serve in the sanctuary for the remainder of his life. One cannot imagine how Hannah, who longed for a child, had the fortitude to hand him over to live with an old man and replace the carefree days of his childhood with service in the tabernacle, seeing him only once a year (1 Sam 2:20). But she had cause for another concern. Eli was not only an old man but he had failed in his parental responsibilities with his two sons who caused all of Israel to sin because of their immorality and bad example as priests (1 Sam 2:13-36).

 

So bad was the situation that ‘a man of God’ was sent to Eli to pronounce the Lord’s curse upon his house because he took no action to correct the abomination in his family and the tabernacle. It seemed by this failure that Eli honoured his sons above the Lord (2:27,29). This is in stark contrast to Hannah who had only 3 years with Samuel and trained him to honour and serve God as a child better than the adults around him (1 Sam 2:18).

 

The God of Israel knew how Hannah would feel giving up her son into someone else’s care and He did not leave her heart empty. He filled it to the brim and rewarded her for keeping her word. Hannah went on to bear three more sons and two daughters. What does this tell us about the God we worship? No sacrifice we offer is overlooked by Him….

 

I had a memory from my pre-earth life once. I was sitting with the Saviour and He was saying to me: “I will save you and I will make up for everything.”  Indeed……

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE PRICE OF RUBIES 3: REBEKAH

 

After I wrote about Sarah yesterday, I realized I had to write about Rebekah, who followed in her sacrificial footsteps and made the Abrahamic covenant a reality through her marriage to Isaac.

No union of two people had a more romantic beginning than the union of Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac was forty years old and Rebekah was a ‘damsel’ most likely in her teens (Genesis 25:20). There was a whole generation between them. Isaac’s mother Sarah was the sister of Rebekah’s grandmother Milcah. This would make Rebekah half of Isaac’s age, if not younger.

He was well-established and rich, a man of God and the heir of the priesthood and the covenant which would make him the progenitor of all the faithful. She was a righteous, young beautiful virgin and everything Abraham desired for his son’s wife (Genesis 24:16)…like Sarah….and she was destined to become ‘a mother of nations’…..like Sarah.

The marriage of Isaac and Rebekah was born out of the covenant between Abraham and his eldest servant whom he commissioned to travel back to his kindred in Mesopotamia to procure a wife from his covenant family for his beloved son. Abraham, who sought the blessings of the fathers and the priesthood could see that Isaac could not for that reason marry a Canaanite.  (Genesis 24:3-4; Abraham 1:1-4; 21-27).

I will not recount here how successful the servant was in meeting Rebekah and her family through the obvious spiritually engineered process. The amazing thing is that Rebekah agreed to leave the security of her family and travel to a land she has never been to, to marry a much older man she has never seen.

Picture a man out in the field at the eventide spotting a caravan of camels approaching. A young girl he has never before seen, wearing a vail across her face, alights and is introduced as his wife. All Genesis records is that Isaac ‘brought her into his mother’s tent, made her his wife and loved her’ (Genesis 24:67). You can just feel the cupid’s bow, can’t you???

I am amazed how men used to conquer the frontiers of this earth and women carved dynasties by the children they bore.

The heathen land of Canaan that Isaac and Rebekah lived in was not a paradise but it was the promised land for their posterity and they embraced it with trust and faith. Abraham passed on an estate of great wealth to Isaac which gave him a position of influence and prestige in the land but here is the sting… Life is not smooth sailing even for the most noble and chosen……

Like Sarah who waited 25 years for Isaac, Rebekah waited 20 years to become a mother. Genesis records that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah and 60 years old when she had Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:20,26). What went through their minds for those 20 years, no doubt knowing the promises, would have tested them to the limit….

We are told that Isaac ‘intreated’ the Lord so that Rebekah could conceive (Genesis 25:21). The dictionary defines this word as: ask earnestly, beseech, implore, BEG….

The faith and trust paid of. Through one of the children Rebekah bore were all the promises realized. Her spiritual acumen ensured the fulfilment of such as she acted upon the revelation she received whilst pregnant with her twins that Jacob, the younger of the two, would be the heir (Genesis 25:22,23). As Esau, who ‘despised’ his birthright, sold it to Jacob for a mass of pottage (vs 29-34), Rebekah ensured the rights of the priesthood went Jacob, the next patriarch, who became Israel (Genesis 27). Jacob’s 12 sons became the Tribes of Israel which roam this earth to this day….through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

Not as much is known about Rebekah, except that she too, like Sarah, was spiritually in tune enough to leave her family and follow a strange man into a strange country to marry a 40 year old man she had never seen before to become a mother of nations. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Isaac and Rebekah by Unknown Artist)

THE PRICE OF RUBIES 1: EVE

 

Eve by Rose Datoc Dall

Proverbs 31:10-12: Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

Proverbs 31: 25-31: Strength and honour are her clothing…she openeth her mouth in wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness…..her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her….favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman who reveres the Lord, she shall be praised.

The ‘prince of this world’, the adversary of all that is good, is seeking to dull our inherent spiritual natures that we as women are born with by using the world and its ideals to weaken and eliminate our influence to the great detriment of our families and the society at large.  He does this by devaluing marriage and motherhood; reinforcing the lie that a woman’s sexuality is what defines her worth; erasing of differences between the masculine and the feminine and even convincing us that we don’t know what a woman is.

Women today are encouraged to be more aggressive, tough and confrontational yet the Father made us gentle, kind, tender and loving.  Nurturing our spiritual selves and putting aside the values of this world will ensure that we sharpen these attributes and become powerful enough to lift others to higher ground; this means our children, our spouses, our extended families, our friends, our co-workers, our communities.  When we know who we are and don't allow the world to confuse us, we are being single minded, in other words, we are being at one with God who made us.

In today’s world where women who murder their children are hailed as heroes, I want to celebrate women whose womanhood exceeds the price of rubies. These are women of God whose example endures forever. These are women who will get a seat in the kingdom of God because of the goodness within them. What price would you put to the value, contribution and example of these women:

·         The suffering of Eve

·         The sacrifice of Sarah

·         The courage of Esther

·         The devotion of Hannah

·         The loyalty of Ruth

·         The motherly protection of Elisabeth

·         The submission of Mary

I will start with the suffering of Mother Eve. The woman who had no luxuries to retreat to, no appliances to make her life easier, no girlfriends who understood her difficulties and offered support, the woman who only had a willingness to start from scratch. Not only did Eve’s spiritual acumen lead her and her husband to leave the Garden of Eden and initiate the Plan of Salvation, but the courage to enter the world of suffering is beyond admiration….and suffer she did…..

A woman with much insight into Mother Eve by the name of Arta Romney Ballif paid this poetic homage to her who was the first woman to know sorrow:

God said, “BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY”

And God said, “I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY THY SORROW”

Thy sorrow, sorrow, sorrow –

I have gotten a man from the Lord

I have traded the fruit of the garden for fruit of my body

For a laughing bundle of humanity.

 

Adam, where are the boys?

Where is Abel?

He is long caring for his flocks.

Are the ewes lambing in this storm?

 

Why your troubled face, Adam? Are you ill?

Why so pale, so agitated?

Dead?  What is dead?  Merciful God!

 

I am trying to understand.

You said, “Abel is dead.”

But I am skilled with herbs….

Herbs will not heal?  Dead?

 

And Cain? Where is Cain?

Listen to that thunder.

Cain cursed?

God said, “A fugitive and a vagabond?”

But God can’t do that.

They are my sons, too.

I gave them birth in the valley of pain.

 

This is his home

This the soil he loved

Where he toiled for golden wheat

For tasselled corn.

 

To the hill country?

Quick, we must find him

I worry, thinking of him wandering

With no place to lay his head.

Cain cursed? A wanderer, a roamer?

 

Abel, my son dead?

And Cain, my son, a fugitive?

Two sons Adam, we had two sons

Both – oh, Adam – multiply sorrow.

 

Dear God, why?

Tell me again about the fruit.

Please tell me again, why?

 

-          Arta Romney Ballif

I weep for Mother Eve and all she experienced, endured and suffered. This, my friends, is a ruby far above price…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN