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Religion & Spirituality19 min read
The Women of the Bible Speak
by Shannon Bream
The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today
Published: June 30, 2021
4.4 (123 ratings)
Table of Contents
1
what’s in it for me? learn powerful lessons from the women of the bible.2
the story of sarah and hagar teaches us to be understanding.3
the story of leah is one of growth through adversity.4
tamar’s story shows us that we should be merciful to those who have wronged us.5
hannah’s story assures us that god hears everyone’s anguish, no matter how quietly they suffer.6
esther’s story shows us how god prepares us for our greatest challenges.7
jesus often broke with custom to treat women as equals.8
final summaryBook Summary
This is a comprehensive summary of “The Women of the Bible Speak” by Shannon Bream. The book explores the wisdom of 16 women and their lessons for today.
what’s in it for me? learn powerful lessons from the women of the bible.#
Introduction
shannon bream.
the women of the bible speak.
the wisdom of 16 women and their lessons for today.
narrated by sian dayson and thomas florio.
if you've only a passing familiarity with the bible, you might think that women are secondary figures in the narrative.
all the big roles, you might think, from noah to abraham to jesus himself, go to the men.
well, that's a myth.
from queen esther, who saved her people from being massacred, to mary magdalene, who was the first to witness jesus' resurrection, women are center stage throughout.
in these chapters, you'll discover just how vital women are to the bible.
as well as discovering their triumphant, tragic, and redemptive stories, you'll learn powerful lessons from them too.
while gender roles were certainly different in the ancient world, the strength of these women often transcended the norms of their time.
the story of sarah and hagar teaches us to be understanding.#
chapter 1 of 6.
early in the bible, we encounter two women, sarah and hagar.
one a free woman, the other enslaved.
each played an instrumental role against the patriarchal backdrop of the ancient world.
their own relationship, sadly, was a fraught and bitter one.
and yet their story offers a useful lesson, one at the heart of christian teachings.
this is the key message.
the story of sarah and hagar teaches us to be understanding.
let's begin with a quick sketch of their tale.
sarah was wife to the patriarch, abraham, and hagar was their egyptian slave.
initially, the two women seemed to have lived side by side in harmony.
so much so, that when sarah was unable to conceive a child of her own, she told abraham that he should raise an heir with hagar.
abraham went along with the plan.
but when hagar conceived, the relationship between the two women soured.
sarah became deeply jealous, while hagar flaunted and reveled openly in her pregnancy.
then sarah badly mistreated the pregnant slave, just before she gave birth to abraham's son, ishmael.
god then appeared to abraham and told him that he would have another child, but this time by sarah.
at this point of the story, abraham is 100, and sarah 90 years old.
but just as god says, sarah gave birth to a child, a son called isaac.
these two half-brothers were named as the ancestors of the two great peoples of the near east, ishmael, the arabs, and isaac, the jews.
rather than calming sarah, however, the birth of isaac only inflamed her animosity toward hagar.
she believed the very existence of hagar's son, ishmael, threatened the future security of her own child.
one day, sarah saw ishmael laughing at isaac.
in her outrage, sarah asked abraham to banish hagar and ishmael to the wilderness.
it was a cruel end, as hagar and ishmael were forced into the desert.
but it could have been so different.
if sarah had shown kindness to hagar, rather than pride and jealousy, the younger woman might not have taunted sarah with her pregnancy.
and if hagar had shown compassion toward sarah's inability to bear children, then perhaps sarah wouldn't have treated her so horrifically.
if both women had demonstrated the understanding that is such an intrinsic part of christianity, their relationship might not have come to such a tragic, wasteful end.
the story of leah is one of growth through adversity.#
chapter 2 of 6 the story of leah begins at a well.
it was here that leah's beautiful younger sister rachel met jacob, a future patriarch of the israelites.
the couple fell desperately in love.
but the sister's father, laban, told jacob that he must work for him for seven years before he could marry rachel.
but after seven years of labor on the day of the wedding, laban tricked jacob into marrying leah, his older daughter, instead.
there was little that jacob could do, as the marriage was written into law.
but then laban made jacob another deal.
he could marry rachel, too, if he worked for him another seven years.
as jacob was so besotted with rachel, he once again agreed.
so rachel had to watch as the love of her life was married off to her older sister, and as they went on to have five children together.
it was a bitter time.
but it was just as bitter for leah, who knew that jacob loved rachel, and that she was only married because of her father's trickery.
here's the key message.
the story of leah is one of growth through adversity.
there must have been times when leah wished that rachel would simply vanish into thin air and that jacob would love her instead.
but this difficult situation had a fortifying effect on her.
she began to see what god had given her, rather than what she didn't have.
while she might never have jacob's love, she did have five beautiful sons.
she believed that god had intervened in her life in mysterious ways and was thankful.
she also saw that it was through the tangled web of marriage and deceit that she was granted her children.
indeed, it was through the trying relationship with her younger sister that she grew into a calm and self-assured woman and mother, no longer the shy, awkward older sister forever in the shadow of her beautiful sibling.
she knew her strengths.
luckily, most of us don't experience quite such complicated family circumstances as leah, but we can all relate to a difficult relationship.
many of us have secretly wished someone would disappear from the face of the earth.
but like leah, perhaps it is through dealing with those people and the obstacles that they throw up for us that we can become our best selves.
rather than wish them gone, we can learn to be strong and grow closer to god in the process.
tamar’s story shows us that we should be merciful to those who have wronged us.#
chapter 3 of 6 the story of tamar is often passed over, as it's uncomfortable and complicated.
but it packs a powerful lesson.
tamar enters the frame after she was acquired by judah as a wife for his son, eir.
because eir was a wicked man, god decided to strike him dead.
as was custom at the time, the newly widowed tamar was then married off to eir's brother, onan.
but god struck down onan too, because he was selfish.
at this point, judah decided that he wouldn't risk any more of his sons with tamar, and he blamed her for their deaths.
the key message?
tamar's story shows us the value of mercy for those who have wronged us.
rather than tell tamar the truth, judah promised her that she could marry his third and youngest son, sheila, but said that the boy was not old enough yet.
so tamar was to go and live with her father and wait for the day that he came of age.
when she discovered that she'd been deceived and that there would be no marriage to sheila, she decided to seek justice.
so, disguising herself in a veil, she waited at a spot where she knew she'd meet judah.
pretending to be a prostitute, she tricked him into sleeping with her.
before he was allowed to touch her, though, she demanded that he leave his signet ring, cord, and staff in lieu of payment.
once they had slept together, she made off with his belongings and hid them.
all along, tamar had managed to disguise her identity.
tamar became pregnant with judah's child, and it was soon visible.
though he had no interest in marrying her to his son, he was still publicly embarrassed by her pregnancy because she was linked to his family.
he demanded that she be punished.
bring her out and have her burned to death, he cried.
then tamar sent him his signet ring, cord, and staff, along with a message that read, i am pregnant by the man who owns these.
humbled, judah could only bow his head in shame.
he suddenly understood how he had wronged her.
she is more righteous than i since i wouldn't give her to my son sheila, he said.
while she could have crushed him then and there, tamar didn't seek to humiliate judah.
she delivered her message and his belongings privately.
tamar's story shows us how we can remain strong and seek justice while not inflicting gratuitous harm on those who have wronged us.
it is an example of great dignity and mercy.
hannah’s story assures us that god hears everyone’s anguish, no matter how quietly they suffer.#
chapter 4 of 6 in the bible, childbearing is particularly revered.
in those times, fertility was seen as a sign of god's favor and the greatest possible gift in a woman's life.
so it was particularly devastating for women who weren't able to bear children.
it was doubly painful to be surrounded by women who did have children and who mocked and belittled the childless.
this was hannah's situation.
she was the wife of a man named elkanah who had children with his second wife, penina.
elkanah loved hannah more, but penina shamed hannah mercilessly for not being able to conceive.
the key message here is this.
hannah's story assures us that god hears everyone's anguish, no matter how quietly they suffer.
over and over again, the cruel penina rubbed salt in hannah's wound, and hannah had no other choice than to take it.
rather than crumble under these circumstances, though, she quietly prayed to god, if you give me a son, i will give him to your service for the rest of his life.
as she was praying, a priest named eli saw her quietly chanting to herself.
in ancient times, it was customary to pray aloud, so when he saw this woman sitting there with her lips moving silently, he presumed that she was a drunkard.
he said to her, how long are you going to remain drunk?
put away your wine!
hannah, stung by this insult, answered that she was praying.
eli immediately saw his error and asked god to grant her wish.
not long after her prayer, as if by a miracle, hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son named samuel.
her prayer had been answered, and as she'd promised, at the traditional age of weaning, she took him to the temple in the city of shiloh and dedicated him to god's service.
hannah's story reminds us that no matter how intensely personal our prayers, god hears them.
even if those prayers seem too difficult to share with anyone else in the world, too painful or complicated or embarrassing, god is listening.
esther’s story shows us how god prepares us for our greatest challenges.#
chapter 5 of 6 esther is perhaps better known than any other woman in the bible.
she even has a book named for her, the book of esther.
esther was a jewish orphan who'd been raised by her cousin mordecai.
her story begins when the queen of persia, vashti, infuriated the mighty king xerxes by refusing to show herself at a banquet.
the king decided to find a new wife and ordered a beauty pageant for the purpose.
it is here that esther attracted his attention and was crowned the new queen of persia.
the fact that she was jewish was her secret.
the new queen moved into the great court of xerxes, now cut off from her cousin mordecai, her only family in the world.
here's the key message.
esther's story shows us how god prepares us for our greatest challenges.
then, one day, king xerxes appointed a man named haman to be his viceroy.
haman, however, had quite an ego.
so when esther's cousin mordecai, who was sitting outside the palace gates, refused to bow to him, he was enraged.
haman decided that he would take revenge, not just against mordecai, but against all the jews throughout xerxes' kingdom.
haman sought a royal decree to have all jews massacred on the pretext that they didn't obey the king's laws.
xerxes agreed to the plan and dispatches were sent out all over the land.
having learned of the appalling plan, mordecai sent word to esther to plead with the king.
terrified, she resisted at first.
xerxes was, after all, a tyrant who'd put people to death just for looking at him.
but mordecai pressed, arguing that she herself wouldn't be safe from the massacre when it came.
mordecai told esther that god had led her to this decisive moment where, if she were able to intervene, she alone could save her people.
so at a great banquet, when the king asked her if there was anything in the world that she would like, she revealed that she was jewish and that haman had schemed to have her people massacred.
she wanted him to spare her people.
upon this revelation, xerxes ordered that haman be hanged.
he then allowed esther and mordecai to draft a new law that protected the jews.
at this crucial moment, esther had triumphed.
though she trembled at the prospect of facing the tyrannical king, she had done it.
her story reveals how, in our hour of need, when our courage is failing and all seems lost, god will somehow pull us through.
jesus often broke with custom to treat women as equals.#
chapter 6 of 6 jesus challenged much of the orthodoxy of the ancient world.
he raised up the poor and the weak and humbled the wealthy and powerful.
unlike most of the religious leaders around him, he also treated women as important individuals with their own agency and roles to play.
and it wasn't just that he spoke to women with dignity and respect.
he spoke to marginalized and outcast women that way too.
this is the key message.
jesus often broke with custom to treat women as equals.
consider the story of the samaritan woman whom jesus meets in chapter 4 of the gospel of john.
the samaritans were viewed by the jews as an inferior people.
in fact, members of the jewish social movement known as the pharisees traveled elaborate and inconvenient paths around the region of samaria just to avoid meeting them.
but jesus paid no attention to such prejudices.
he went directly through the region on his travels.
at some point in his journey through samaria, jesus stopped and sat by a well.
when a samaritan woman came to draw water in the midday heat, he asked if she could fetch him a drink.
this woman was not only a member of a cultural group that his people avoided, but she was also a pariah, someone cast out by her own society.
but jesus wanted to talk and get to know her.
he initiated an intense discussion with her about faith.
to him, this samaritan woman was precious.
in the kingdom of god, there was no room for sexism or racism.
another example of jesus' unorthodox treatment of women comes at the resurrection.
after he'd been crucified, mary magdalene went to his tomb to grieve his loss and to anoint his body.
to her horror, she found that the rocks sealing his grave had been rolled back and his body was missing.
later, as she wept and grieved near the empty tomb, believing that his body had been stolen, she heard someone behind her speak.
unable to see through her tears, she didn't notice jesus standing there.
when he called her by name, she took notice.
he had risen again.
jesus chose mary magdalene as the first to see him after the resurrection and the one who informed the disciples that he had risen again.
it demonstrated his view of her, and by extension, the women of his time, as important proponents of the faith.
everyone was equal in his eyes.
entrusted with important messages and missions, women were at the heart of christ's work.
you've just listened to our chapters to the women of the bible speak by shannon bream.
final summary#
Conclusion
the key message in these chapters is that, rather than secondary or walk-on roles, women are at the heart of everything in the bible.
through their words, deeds, and prayers, they change the course of history.
whether it's a samaritan outcast who heard jesus out or queen esther saving her people, women are central to the christian story.
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