Models of Biblical Womanhood
The Scriptures are thick with examples of men and women who faithfully followed the Lord, yet the church doesn’t often mine and apply those specifics. As Protestants, we are a propositional people, and sketchy hermeneutics of the past have made many wary of looking to examples of men or women in the Bible and saying, “Let’s do it that way.” It is our loss.
Yet there are exceptions, and Emma Waters’ recent article in the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood journal, Eikon, brings this to light. Her article is titled “Feminism’s Patriarchs: An Ideological Response to the Failures of Men.” After helpfully summarizing centuries of feminist history and tagging the men responsible for kicking off these eras, to resist further man-driven feminist development, she suggests we need a generation of women styled after Jael of the book of Judges. She asks an important question, “How should the wise woman respond” (61) to these patriarchs who have (and potentially will) subvert biblical sexuality?
Jael is her answer. She sees in Jael’s actions (Judges 4:17-22) “righteous cunning” (62). Under this same banner, Waters includes the actions of the woman of Thebez (2 Samuel 11:21), Tamar (Genesis 38), Rahab (Joshua 2), and the Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1) as examples of cunning for righteous ends. With righteous cunning as a tool of accountability, she includes Jael’s foresight, Esther’s hospitality (63), Deborah’s wise counsel, and Abigail’s intervention on behalf of her family as needed tools in the toolboxes of godly women to deal with nefarious male actors.
She states that in each of these ways, these women exercised wisdom, embodying “Lady Wisdom” (Proverbs 8) and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). She believes it is these type of women who will “challenge men or institutions when they are wrong, encourage them when they are weak, and provide wise counsel along the way” (63). It’s not a bad start.
Yet, for the godly woman, I find more at work in the rest of Scripture than “righteous cunning.” “Cunning” is how many describe the enemy’s disposition in the Garden—it was his cunning that allowed him to deceive Eve. With such a beginning, it is challenging to find a way to baptize cunning and turn it into something holy. The Bible doesn’t describe the actions of the women in this way, and, to Waters’ credit, she rightly suggests the origin of cunning isn’t righteous at all. However, Waters does indicate that since the actions of these women weren’t condemned by God, they are legitimate actions for imitating, “In each instance, God does not condemn this use of righteous cunning. He blesses each of these women with families of their own, including some in the lineage of Jesus Christ” (62). To adopt a “righteous cunning” paradigm for good purposes might be possible, yet I think there is a better way forward for women, and thus, for us all.
Some might find it presumptuous that I would comment on the topic at hand as a man. (If so, that itself is an indicator of how far we’ve fallen.) Without laying groundwork that can be found regularly in Eikon regarding the origin of male and female and the roles therein (as an example, see Doug Ponder’s article in the same edition; 28-40), it is wholly appropriate for me as a man to consider the Bible’s teaching on women simply because my created nature—like all men—demands women live as God made them. It’s God’s way.
If not Jael, then who?
I have to confess that Abigail of 1 Samuel 25 has always been my favorite. Her approachability, wisdom, courage, and discretion invite me back to the story time and again. Others, like Alistair Roberts, have ably commented on the troubling way women are encouraged to act in our modern culture. But Abigail continues to stand out as a more noble and effective example as she found herself in a dangerous cultural predicament. While I appreciate Waters’ article, I believe Jael is not the correct role model for the godly woman. Indeed, I believe that highlighting her as a role model in the ways Waters has done is to play into the modern view of women. That’s troubling enough, yet I will give some biblical comments on Jael and her historical moment to suggest another way.
Jael and the Judges
Jael played a role today that we might recognize as a “strong female lead.” She was thrust into her role, to be sure, yet her character and her actions are typical (suitable) for the era of the Judges (the post-Joshua generation), for our modern culture, but not for the Church.
Although her family was allied with Jabin of Canaan and not with their ancestral Israelite family, the Kenites (cf. Judges 4:11, 17), she broke both ancient character and covenant and killed Sisera, Jabin’s commander. There are several questions that arise from her actions:
- While the impact of her actions was for the benefit of the people of Israel, her allegiances made it a very surprising move: what of her husband, Heber, and his standing?
- What of the safety of her family now in the face of betraying the covenant with Jabin?
The text is silent on these, but her very surprising actions fit the general Judges’ theme of everyone doing what was right in his (or her) own eyes (Judges 21:25).
In addition to the general tenor of the time period of Judges, at each turn in their interactions, Jael acted with deceptive cunning. She convinced Sisera to come into her tent instead of her husband’s, Heber, which would’ve been proper and expected. She covered Sisera with a warm throw rug after he had been fleeing on foot. She gave him warm milk instead of the cool water he requested to drink. He requested that she stand watch and, instead, once he fell asleep from weariness, she killed him gruesomely.
We know from the story that it was the intent of the Lord to give Barak’s victory glory to another, even a woman. As it develops, we see it was Jael who received the victory glory the Lord determined to give. With this, however, Jael isn’t celebrated in the text as if she had done a noble thing. Deborah’s song mentions Jael towards the end calling her “Most blessed of women” (5:24) yet only recounts what she had done to Sisera. The focus of the song is actually on Deborah’s role. Indeed, as Daniel Block wrote, “…just because the author records her deeds does not mean he approves of them.”
We often celebrate the story for several reasons. First, her actions benefited ancient Israel and marked the end of Jabin’s oppression of the people. It was a pattern in Israel that their sins led to an outside nation’s oppression as God’s discipline. They cried out in their distress, and God raised a deliverer who freed them from their oppression. This pattern degraded until it was almost extinguished with the last deliverer: Samson. It was certainly gone after him. Second, Barak, the chosen deliverer, refused to save the nation unless Deborah the prophetess went with him. It appears he abdicated his leadership and courage even in the face of God’s promise to be with him; he insisted a woman accompany him. Steeped as we are in the glory of the “strong female lead” these days, we relish the fact that a housewife (not even Deborah) was the hero.
Yet Jael murdered Sisera; she sinned against the Lord. She was not a combatant. She was not under threat; as I mentioned above, Heber had entered into a covenant with Jabin. In our quickness to esteem her, we fail to recognize the wickedness of her actions or that the time of the Judges was no time to emulate (Jael’s behavior proved it). It was a time of rebellion, idolatry, and self-will. The double-summaries of 17:6 and 21:25 tells us all we need to know about interpreting the times and the book. Of course, godly lessons can be learned from sinful actors but that is not Waters’ intent: she mischaracterizes Jael’s actions as worthy of imitation and therefore draws inappropriate conclusions.
God raised up Jael for the dual purpose of saving Israel from their oppressors and shaming men who should have been righteously leading the nation (e.g., Barak, elders or priests). In her essay, Waters doesn’t place Jael’s actions in full context. Sure, Jael thwarted the sinful efforts of a man, Sisera (and Jabin). Perhaps she was providing accountability on her husband’s alliance with a foreigner rather than his own clan. Yet these conclusions don’t fall out naturally from the text and, given the overall cultural milieu of the book of Judges, they would be generous indeed.
The Abigail Generation
Instead of sorting through the baggage of Judges, the Deborah-Barak debacle, Jael’s sinful behavior and exhorting women to do likewise, I would suggest a paradigm drawn from the story of Abigail found in 1 Samuel 25.
Nabal, Abigail and David.
After the prophet Samuel’s death, David went down to the wilderness of Paran. It was a familiar place as David and his men had lived among the people there, shepherding their flocks in the past. One such person was a wealthy man, Nabal of Maon (25:2). Nabal was in Carmel shearing his sheep—a time of celebration and feasting. We learn about the man and his wife in verse 3:
3Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite.
David sent ten men to Nabal in peace. Their task was to greet Nabal, remind him of David’s past conduct that helped him prosper, and seek to share in the festivities. Verse 8:
8…Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ”
Nabal was true to his description and his name.1 He gives David no hospitality and instead, knowing differently, accuses David of being a runaway from his master.2 David’s response is vengeful rage (25:13). He sets off to murder Nabal and wipe his family from the land. Meanwhile, a servant of Nabal’s went to Abigail to let her know what had happened—he included a brief history of how good David and his men were to them as they cared for their flocks (25:16). Despite this, the servant was sure David would return for vengeance.
Abigail’s response was to load up pack animals with abundant food for David and his men; to give to them a portion of what Nabal should’ve given. She sends them ahead of her and mounts a donkey following to meet David. She does not tell Nabal. The narrator tells us David’s rage had not abated: 1 Samuel 25:21–22:
21Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. 22God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”
As she approached David, she made haste off her animal to fall before David’s feet, bowing to the ground. This act of respect and reverence was courageous—as Nabal’s wife, David’s hot anger could’ve flashed out at her (cf. 25:34). Her first words, both true to her marriage covenant and illustrative of her godliness, assumed responsibility for his behavior:
24She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant.
What she does next could be described as “challeng[ing] men or institutions when they are wrong, encourage them when they are weak and provide wise counsel along the way” (63). Instead of Nabal, she urges David to consider her at fault for the whole event. In doing so, she arrests David’s anger with humility and then, for the next six verses, she makes several remarkable statements:
- She speaks truly about her husband and his foolishness (25:25).
- She praises the Lord who “restrained [David] from blood guilt” and from taking matters into his own hands (25:26).
- She pleads with David to receive her gift for the men (25:27).
- She asks for his forgiveness in light of the fact that David is doing the Lord’s work, the Lord will prosper him, the Lord will set him up as King (25:28-30).
- She reminds him when that happens he will not later regret an episode of vengeance like what he had planned (25:31).
- She is bold enough to ask him to remember her actions on that day (25:31).
It worked. The Lord worked through Abigail’s humble courage and turned David away from vengeance against Nabal. In the end, David said to her:
35…“Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”
The Abigail Paradigm
How might we summarize Abigail’s actions in order to apply them in our time? In this story, three principles come to light.
First, godly women consider what is right in the eyes of the Lord in all circumstances.
This is perhaps the greatest difference between Abigail and Jael. The time of the Judges was the time when no one considered the Lord and, instead, did what was right in his and her own eyes. Jael was proof of this as she murdered Sisera in violation of both God’s law and the covenant her family had made with Jabin, his king.
Abigail’s response, however, was vastly different. It was clear from the text that what was on her mind was to persuade the anointed-to-be-installed King from committing sinful vengeance. (In fact, by her words, this seems to be her only concern!) Not only would this wipe out her family line, but it would also put the future of the nation in jeopardy by having a king with sinful vengeance in his past. Additionally, the hospitality gift she put together for David and his men, her humility as she both sought out David and approached him, and her trust in the Lord for her own life were indicators of a heart’s commitment to do what was right before the Lord.
Second, godly women work for change within the boundaries of God’s will.
God’s will in Abigail’s life included being (a) a woman, (b) a wife, (c) a mother and (d) a daughter of God. There were likely more areas in which she worked (cf. Proverbs 31:10-27) but these are most germane to the storyline.
In contrast to Jael who stepped out of these roles, Abigail maintained her commitment to the Lord from within the context of God’s will for her as a woman. In other words, in contrast to Abigail, Jael (a) adopted the male-like role of warrior, (b) she ignored her husband’s covenant with Jabin and his lieutenants, (c) she didn’t seem to give much thought to the impact of her actions on her family and (d) she ignored the law of God (Exodus 20:13).
Above we reviewed the steps Abigail took to honor the Lord, her family and her nation’s anointed leader. At no point did Abigail cross the boundaries of God’s revealed will. It is important to note that her speech to David—which included strong exhortation—was wholly appropriate. She spoke as a fellow image-bearer and fellow servant of the Lord. While under the authority of her husband and of the elders in the land, she spoke the truth with honor and discretion. She was right to bring to David a clear statement of the implications of his actions upon him, her family, and his reputation in Israel. Proverbs 31:26 describes her actions:
26She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
In contrast to Jael, Abigail’s words were truthful, honoring, and edifying. And, while Jael succeeded in killing Sisera and playing a part in the lessening of Jabin’s oppression, she did so in an illicit manner. The means she used were sinful, even as the ends achieved were not. In Abigail’s case, the means she used to accomplish her goals were godly and the results greatly beneficial to David and to her. She exemplified the kinds of godly actions esteemed by Peter in 1 Peter 3:1-2:
1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
Third, godly women trust in the Lord.
Abigail could not have known how her actions would be received by David. While her servant explained he believed David meant to return for harm (25:17), she could not have grasped the depth of David’s vengeful rage (cf. 25:21-22). Yet, her actions gave no hint of hesitation or fear; she simply did what was right before the Lord.
How could this be? If we look at her speech to David, she refers to the covenant Lord, Yahweh, seven times. While some may protest that she may have used the Lord’s name as a manipulative shield, David’s response to her proves he detected in her speech the words of wisdom from the Lord (25:32-33). She trusted in the Lord; she spoke of the Lord; she urged David to restraint in the name of the Lord. This is how godly women approach erring men:
5For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
Indeed, Abigail had no idea how her actions and words would be received. Jael’s actions were abrupt and final; Abigail’s were different. Abigail brought no armed force against David; she brought no prophet or priest to challenge him—she didn’t throw fig cakes at his head! Her actions were of hope and trust. Actions like hers provide no immediate guarantee: David could’ve ignored them or received them in anger. Furthermore, he could’ve blown past Abigail and continued on his mission to destroy Nabal. She trusted the Lord; she challenged David in the Lord and prevailed.
Conclusion
Jael did what too many modern action movie heroines do: take up a sword. (Though Waters explicitly says this is not an advisable strategy for a godly woman (62)). And, assisted by producers and directors, do what is always improbable: get their way with violence against men. Indeed, it is surprising we don’t find a Marvel Avenger named “Jael.”
But God did not intend this to be the way for godly women. He does not make them female so they could take up arms to get their way. Or, as Waters puts it, use “righteous cunning” to get their way (62). Abigail, like Sarah before her, sought to do what was right before the Lord, according to His will in her life, trusting in Him for the results.
This is the strength of a woman: to be who God made her to be. Few women will be called upon to demonstrate such faith and courage as Abigail; yet some might be. It is true that some women are victims of terribly sinful behavior and must resort to legal or protective actions against their men. Rightly so. Yet, these exceptional circumstances cannot be used to inform normal ones: Jael cannot be the norm, for she is not the biblical norm.
The Scriptures teach this and affirm it with examples like Abigail. That modern culture would work to make women into men, thinking it is right, is not surprising; that the church might go along with this, unfortunately, is. We don’t need more women like Jael; the church needs more women like Abigail.
Image: The Meeting of David and Abigail, Jan Martszen de Jonge (1609-1647). Wikimedia Commons.
