The Beauty of God
Judges 4:21, “But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent-peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground ; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died.”
Today’s verse is not a happy/go lucky verse that paints a rosy picture; in fact it’s exactly the opposite. It is a story of death, and the image you get from it is pretty dark. We can learn several things from todays verse besides the obvious moral which is NEVER cross a woman.(LOL) The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for teaching…”
The first thing we see here is that God does not only use men to accomplish His purposes. Women play a very important role in both the Old and New Testaments. It was a woman, Esther, who saved the Jews from a certain death by the hands of Haman.(Esther 3-7)
Women were the first evangelists to share the good news of the risen Christ.(Matthew 28:1-10) God never intended a hierarchical relationship between men and women as some people teach. Everyone is equal in the eyes of God!
I do believe that the Bible teaches that only men should lead a church, and it is mans responsibility to be the spiritual leader for his family. However, women are called in the same way as men to share the good news.
The Bible says that we are all one in Christ, and we have all been baptized into Christ! Therefore, never allow someone to make you think that you are any less important to God just because you are a woman, or anything else. There is no hierarchy in the kingdom of God.
Secondly, we see that the image God paints may not always start out beautiful, but it always ends up as a MASTERPIECE. The image of driving a tent stake through someone’s brain is not pleasant. It actually sounds like a theme in a horror movie, but the finished image of God’s people Israel is the most beautiful story in the world.
In the same way the image of the Son of God being beaten beyond human recognition, and then being nailed to a tree is ugly, but the finished work of God that brings salvation to all people is BEAUTFUL!!!
Just because things may not appear, at first glance, as beautiful or aesthetically pleasing as you like we must remember that God is not through yet. His finished work will be more beautiful than we can imagine!
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Father God, I thank You for reminding me that You will bring beauty when Your image is seen. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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The image above can be seen at:http://www.fanpop.com/spots/god-the-creator/images/10845334/title/beauty-gods-colors-photo
Yes, You Can Ministry 