My Story Matters: Miriam, Sister of Moses

I’m sure you’ve wondered about the randomness of these devotionals.  Really there has been no rhyme or reason to the women I’ve picked, or when I’ve picked them, except for the few surrounding the Christmas season.  

So, when I sat down to write my thought for this week, I had no clue of whom I might highlight. 

Oddly, enough Miriam came to mind – so back to the beginning of the Bible we head again. 

There are three stories surrounding Miriam’s life.  The most popular one, of course, is the one that dovetails the deliverance of her brother, Moses, placing him into the care of Pharaoh’s daughter.  

The next time we catch a glimpse of Miriam, we get a brief TikTok-version of her "happy dance" that followed the deliverance of her people from Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea (let’s "watch").

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with tambourines and dancing.  Miriam sang to them:  Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea... 

(Exodus 15:20-21)

I can hardly imagine that moment (and the heightened emotions), when the feet of every last Israelite landed on the opposite shore. 

What was the response when the wall of water, which had been held back by an invisible hand, came crashing down upon the enemy army?  

My heart pounds, even now, trying to contemplate what they all felt. 

I’m picturing a long period of silence along the shoreline, at last, interrupted by Moses, leading the males of his flock (not sheep, as pertaining to his occupation, but very sheep-like) in a spontaneously written hymn of praise.  

When Moses’ voice ebbed away, Miriam picked up her tambourine and the women followed suit; and, they began to repeat the same praise song, adding an ecstatic dance.  

In Israelite culture, every joyful occurrence was celebrated with the dance.  

Life was filled with too many difficult moments, that when the joyful occurred, it was reason to throw a praise party.  

Miriam, a leader among the women, a prophetess in her own right, often led the way, just as she did that day.  

You can read the entire story here: Exodus 15

I’ve had to stop to answer a few questions today.  Here they are:

*  Has God become my salvation?  Absolutely – he is my salvation, not by anything I have done, but by grace through faith.

*  Has the Lord proved himself to be a warrior, mighty on my behalf? Protecting me?  No question – countless times.

*  Have the deep waters covered my enemy?  Indeed, the Lord has taken my sin that threatened to consume me, and buried them in the deepest sea.

*  Is there anyone like my God: majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders on my behalf?  None!

*  Has His love proven unfailing? His strength been my guide?  His redemption complete?  Time and again!

&  Is God good?  Is He on His throne as Sovereign Lord?  Yes – he cannot be untrue to His character!

DAILY, I have a reason to dance!

There is always reason to pick up a tambourine and celebrate - no matter what the circumstances are in my world!

My God has triumphed gloriously on my behalf.  

Some may trust in horses and some in chariots, but I am able to trust in the Lord God, Creator of the Universe, Savior of my soul, Righteous Redeemer, Friend, Bridegroom, Husband...  

And, now I have to ask:

What binds my feet to the floor and prevents me from celebrating Him with joy?  

We aren't far away from the most joyous of all Christian holy-days: EASTER.  

The greatest day of victory in our history!  

This unparalleled event proves our deliverance from an unprecedented enemy!  

Let's all pick up our tambourines (and, if you don't have one, make one!)... 

Let’s begin even now, celebrating with song... 

 Let’s move our feet...  

Let's find our Happy Feet!

My Story Matters: Naaman’s Servant Girl

 

It only takes four verses in 2 Kings, chapter 5, to tell a delightful little short story.  The narrative doesn’t begin well, but it certainly has a fairy tale ending!  Here’s how it begins in verse 2:

Now bands from Aram had gone out and taken captive a young girl from Israel and she served Naaman’s wife.

These “bands” were marauding military raiders, probably sent out by General Naaman, himself, to put the final exclamation point on a decisive defeat of the Israelites. The raids were meant to humiliate the Israelites even further.  

It hurts my heart to imagine the plundering spree of these fearsome, wild-hearted men, drunk on high emotions of a tremendous victory.  

The only possibility that brought any measure of control to their actions, weighed on the high greed of their hearts.  The thought of money caused them to stop momentarily in their ruthlessness to place a value on their spoils. 

So, this band cautiously spared a few “things.”  

One of these was a young girl, who will forever remain nameless, while we are on earth.

Naaman, the commander of the king’s army, purchased her to serve his wife.  He handpicked her.  While this isn’t a devotional about Naaman, his life is so intricately involved in this young girl’s story, that we must mention him. 

 

Naaman was valiant, brave, and highly regarded by the king (vs.1). 

However, there’s a “big but” in the middle of his world that caused him no small measure of pain and heartache.  This “but” contrasts and off-sets in a big way his prowess as a man and as a soldier:  he had leprosy.  Naaman’s life was being eaten away before his eyes from the outside inward.  

Yet, in spite of having been ripped away from home, culture, family, and all this little servant girl knew and loved, she cared deeply.

She said to her mistress, “If only my master would go see the prophet, the man of God, who is in Samaria.  He would cure him of his leprosy (vs. 3).

There’s a lot left unsaid between verse two and verse three.  We don’t read of the extreme alarm and high anxiety that resided in the hearts of Naaman or his wife.  We aren’t told how, as his conditioned worsened, so did the feelings of hopelessness.  We don’t hear the cries of discouragement interrupting sleep in the middle of the long, anxious nights.  We can’t begin to feel the heaviness of despair as more spots were discovered.  We aren’t privy to the conversations.  We don’t sense the frustration over the inability to touch, hug, console, or bandage your spouse for fear the disease could spread.  

We don’t see words which tell us that Naaman and his wife related to their slave girl, because they, too, were enslaved.  Their master, Leprosy, was uncaring, cruel, and harsh.  So, they chose not to be.  We’re not told this; we can only assume it, because we do know this young girl found herself deeply affected by the story of this couple who governed her very existence.  As a result, she could not keep silent.  She believed deeply that she held the only key to Naaman’s freedom, and she offered it.  Would I?  Or, would bitterness keep my mouth closed.

These four verses speak volumes about this girl’s love, compassion, submission, humility, and uncomplaining spirit.  They also reveal the credibility she had earned with Naaman and his wife.  Naaman listened...and, end of story, discovered restored health and freedom.

Oh, that the sweetness of this little girl be mine...

So, what else do I learn from this young girl?  

Life doesn’t always go according to my plan.  It can make me bitter or better.  In her case...better!  Though, it may not go according to my plan; it always goes according to God’s plan (“through Naaman the Lord had given victory to Aram”).  Life’s circumstances may be scary, brutal, harsh, strenuous, frustrating, discouraging, unhappy, hopeless, or (you can add your word) _______________________ (now, add one of those “big buts” right here...);

 and, I’ve been given a mission in the middle of it all:

To speak God’s good news; to help bind up the broken hearted; proclaim freedom for the captives and release prisoners from darkness; to comfort those who mourn; to provide those who grieve a crown of beauty instead of ashes  (Isaiah 61:3).

Today, I am vividly aware that none of my mission will happen, unless I learn to live in the fullness of the Spirit, and let my Lord develop the same character as that of a young captive girl in Aram.  

Lord, hold me captive in your love, and let me live as your servant...sweetly surrendered...

My Story Matters: Hagar

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; and the angel of the Lord said to her:  “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your misery.” And Hagar gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her:  “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me... So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

Genesis 16: 7, 11, 13, 15

Peeking across the yard from the tent of Abraham's wife, Sarah, we find Hagar, her Egyptian maid-servant. 

Ever wonder how Hagar might have felt about being a pawn in Sarah’s forced, and frantic, arrangement to have a child?  

Let’s saunter over and see if we relate to her in any way...  

In order to understand Hagar, contemplate these questions:

* Have you ever felt as if your life had been completely ripped away from you?

* Ever felt that everything near and dear had been stripped away?

* Have you ever felt that even your identity was stolen from you, and now, you are a complete non-entity?

* In fact, have you ever felt that you were nothing more than a poker-chip? A pawn in someone else’s game of life?

* Have you ever been made to feel devalued?  Insignificant?

* Worse, have you ever felt invisible?

* And, on top of invisible, completely unheard?

* Ever felt trapped...forced to go where you didn’t want to go; to do things you never wanted to do?  Enslaved?

* Have you ever felt completely alone?

* Have you ever longed for compassion and come up empty...every. single. time?

* Have you ever felt completely hopeless, as if hanging onto life by a single thread (and even that thread seemed to be unraveling in front of your eyes)?

This was Hagar’s day to day existence.  

She was a slave.  

Probably part of the “loot” Abraham received from Pharaoh after he tried to deceive the ruler with lies about his wife, Sarah.  

Hagar was forced to leave home, family, country, comforts of a palace-life, and everything familiar to live a nomadic existence.  

She was also forced to obey the whims and fancies of her mistress.

It’s difficult to judge Hagar's reaction when she found out she was pregnant with Abraham's child - and, I wouldn't want to try.  

“When she knew she was pregnant she began to despise her mistress (Gen 16:4).”  

She began to look on Sarah, perhaps in the way she felt looked upon...with an inner attitude of “smallness.”  

She probably didn’t have to say a word to Sarah; her demeanor said it all.  

Body language conveys A LOT!

In doing so, she pushed Sarah’s core fear button with a vengeance, and Sarah (like all of us who have our core fear buttons pushed) reacted...harshly.  

So Hagar ran and hid...

BUT GOD!  

But God! Those two words have a powerful impact!

The Lord came to her in the desert - the driest place of her life!  

He “looked” at her as no one else had.  

Verse 11, the name of Hagar's son, Ishmael, means: 

"The Lord has been attentive in my humiliation.”  

God saw.  

Verse 13,  “You are El Roi – the God who sees me.” 

 Read this carefully.  

He didn’t just see – He looked right through her, examined her heart, paid close attention to her “woundedness.”  

The Lord didn’t just hear – he listened.  

Sarah was God’s princess.  Hagar was the slave.  

Yet, never once did God appear directly to Sarah, and twice (again in Genesis 21), God appeared to Hagar.  

Truth:  God doesn't look at status, when it  comes to the cry of the human heart...

Seeing and hearing Hagar's misery would have been enough in itself, but God went even further.  

He restored her significance and her hope...and He eliminated her humiliation! 

Hagar mothered her own line of descendants too numerous to count.  

(In spite of the repercussions of that tribe today, Hagar's descendants are a part of God's plan.)

Now, Hagar had a reason to return to Abraham and Sarah for a season.  

Her son needed a father until such a time as he could adult on his own.  

With restoration of her dignity, her humanization, a future and a hope, and having been comforted by the One True Comforter, Hagar could return with submission, until her next steps were revealed, as God ordained them to be.

This is our God. El Roi!  El Ysma! 

The God who Sees - me!  

The One who Hears – me!  

Do we run to that God when in need of compassion and hope?  He’s waiting!  And, we will never come up empty!

My Story Matters: The Other Tamar

 While Scripture wasn't clear about what happened between David and Bathsheba, we do know exactly what happened with David's daughter, Tamar. 

Here is her story:

In the course of time, Amnon, son of David, fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom... Amnon became frustrated on account of his sister... So (he) lay down and pretended to be ill.  When the King came to see him, Amnon said...”I would like my sister Tamar to come...so I might eat from her hand.  Tamar brought the bread she prepared to him, and he grabbed her.  “Don’t my brother!  Don’t force me.  Such a thing should not be done in Israel.  What about me?  Where could I get rid of my disgrace?  And what about you?  You’d be like one of the wicked fools...”  But he refused to listen...and since he was stronger, he raped her.  Then Amnon hated her more than he had loved her.  “Get up and get out!”  He called his personal servant and said, “Get this woman out of here and bolt the door after her.”  Tamar put ashes on her head, tore the ornamental robe she was wearing, and went away weeping.  Her brother Absalom said, “Be quiet now, my sister...don’t take this thing to heart.”  And Tamar lived in her brother’s house, a desolate woman.

2 Samuel 13:1-20

Lust.  Frustration.  Deceit.  Rape.  Hatred.  Rejection.  Shame.  Hiddenness.  Despair.  

This is Tamar’s story in nine words.  

I don’t think anything in Tamar’s life ever sounded as loud as the bolt being slid into place on the door that closed her off from what she felt might be her only redemption.  

In my mind, I imagine the noise reverberated in her mind again and again until the day she died.  When the bolt CLICKED shut, the action against her became enshrouded in silence.  

Sadly enough, Tamar’s story is more real than anyone knows.  

A simple search on the internet shows us that somewhere in America a woman is raped every two minutes.

EVERY! TWO! MINUTES! 

 The FBI estimates that only 38% are reported to the police.  Most women live out their lives in silence, even though, just like Tamar, over 70% of these women know their assailants. 

Silence is the power of shame.  

Shame is nothing more than the feeling of being “uncovered.”  

It is the feeling of one who suffers a repulse...we can bring it on ourselves, or it can come from pain and abuse, as in the life of Tamar.  

Chances are that there is something in your life that brings you shame.

Look at the symptoms of shame. 

·         We are handcuffed to our past.

·         We are crippled emotionally.

·         We are trapped in bondage of self-deception

           ....and become preoccupied with “who” we think we are... 

           ....of course, our identity is colored because we look at "who we are" based on those 

           "per spectacles"

·         We will always settle for less than we deserve.

·         We eventually fall into a performance trap.

·         We are stripped of joy.

·         We will never learn to receive love.

·         We are easily manipulated.

·         We often get involved in destructive tendencies

Don’t you imagine that our enemy, the devil, enjoys having us right where he wants us?  

All of the above, places us in a position for him to abuse over and over and over again.  

Our own shame becomes the very thing that will sabotage us from John 10:10 – LIFE, and LIFE MORE THAN ABUNDANT!

So, what’s the answer?  

More than anything: Don’t live in silence – Absalom’s advice to Tamar was the worst advice anyone can give to a victim of rape.  

Shame always loses it's power when it is brought into the light...

Find someone who you can talk to, no matter what has caused you to hide in isolation.  

Remember that Jesus came to take away our shame – read Psalm 25:3, 34:5; Romans 9:33, and 10:11.  

"No one who hopes in You will ever be put to shame...

(Ps 25:3, NIV)"

Let God restore you to the joy of His salvation.  

Remember God was in your past.  Your past does not control your future.  

As we lay ourselves on the altar as living sacrifices, the Lord will transform our lives, heal our wounds (he is particularly close to the brokenhearted), and bring us out of hiding.  

The Lord promises to repair our pasts, building on them so that we might be a reflection of his glory.  

Afterall. it is with the compassion we are shown, that we are able to offer compassion to others (Ps. 34:18; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7; Isaiah 53, and Isaiah 61).

XXXXX

PS. Back in mid-October, I addressed more on the topic of shame in the middle of Rahab's story. Please complete Tamar's story, by reading this one - link is here! My Story Matters: Rahab #2