Women Champions - part 2
If you did not read last week’s blog, I encourage you to do so before digging into today’s entry. We talked about several examples of champions from the Scriptures and that background will serve as foundational information for the following discussion.
Champions have many common characteristics. They know how to love their enemies and overcome hurt. Seeing the world through God’s love, champions make excellent decisions, perceive things positively, and make good choices. Champions sometimes find themselves having to make difficult decisions. I am sure Joseph thought about the possible consequences of his “no” to Potiphar’s wife, but he also realized a man without virtue is no man after all.
Every one of us as Mothers of Nations is, or has been, in a place of making tough calls. Sometimes our choices can cause pain to someone else, but the decision must be based on the honorable thing before God. Decisions can create division, and yet champions are called on by God to make those choices. The Pharisees did not like Jesus because of the choices He made. No champion is developed or fashioned without having to make the tough calls.
Champions will face opposition. Opposition is a contrary view, an opposing idea or thought. Quite often opposition surfaces when the champion is making headway or taking territory. The Bible says in Matthew 5: 11-12 (NKJV), “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The Word of God also reminds us in Matthew 5: 13 (NKJV), “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
Mothers of Nations, you are the champions of flavor and truth. So what if a little persecution comes? You are just salting the earth and bringing in the light!
The Bible character Abigail is a tremendous example for us of a woman champion. Married to a foolish man with a total lack of common sense, she overcomes the enemy of death.
David, the future king of Israel, in the process of running from Saul, finds himself and his men in need of food. He sends his messengers to Abigail’s husband, Nabal, for help. Nabal responds in a crude, disrespectful way and refuses to help David and his men. The young men return to David and tell him Nabal will not help. Angry and upset, David calls on four hundred men to go to war with Nabal to destroy his sheep and land.
Abigail hears about the problem and immediately takes action. Champions know when something must be done! She hurries and gathers two hundred loaves of bread, two jugs of wine, five sheep already prepared, five measures of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, twenty cakes of figs, and loads it all on donkeys as we find in 1 Samuel 25:18 (NKJV). Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
Abigail then sends the men and goods ahead of her and she follows on her donkey as this champion continues to take action. When she meets David, she humbles herself and begs for mercy. Read what this woman champion does next.
1 Samuel 25:19-32
19 And she said to her servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them.
21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.”
23 Now when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. 24 So she fell at his feet and said: “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. 25 Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him! But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, since the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal. 27 And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For the LORD will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil is not found in you throughout your days.
29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God: and the lives of your enemies He shall sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. 30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, 31 that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
32 Then David said to Abigail: “Blessed is the LORD God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me!”
We see in this passage that Abigail approaches David’s heart with humility and wisdom. Thankfully, he listens, and bloodshed is avoided. Abigail took a risk putting her life on the line, but she saved her family and herself by doing it. She certainly was a woman champion in the midst of a difficult situation!
Throughout my life I have known several women like Abigail who have had to divinely intervene when husbands were making foolish choices. Some women have had to take the checkbook and become the one who pays the bills because the husband gambles it away. Other women have had to dress the children for church and get them there on their own because the husband liked to stay in bed or would not go at all. There are women I know who went to work to pay bills because the man sat home on disability and was content to watch television all day. Abigail was married to a drunk, and she knew she had to intervene when his drunken behavior was costing everyone their lives. Champions know how to access situations and take action where necessary.
Hannah was another woman champion of persistence, perseverance, passion, and prayer. She was not going to give up until she got her blessing. She was a woman, scorned and barren, who wanted desperately to have a child. She took her cares to the Lord, pouring out her heart at the altar.
Like Hannah, women champions are also women of prayer. She knew her situation was hopeless unless God heard her. Comparison with others was torturing her mind, and she knew to conquer her pain and barrenness, divine intervention had to come. Thank God the prophet saw her and spoke life to her! Hannah, a champion of prayer, gave birth to a son, Samuel. As well, he also became not only a champion of prayer, but also a champion of God’s voice to the earth (1 Samuel 1:1-28).
Next week we will examine the life of one more woman champion from the Bible. She is probably my favorite and most certainly an incredible example of a Mother of Nations. Can you guess who she is? You will have to wait until next week to find out!
Dr. Sharon Predovich
