Encourage children to memorize Bible Scripture and learn some fun facts about the women of the New Testament. Use this short worksheet to introduce to your children a few of the women in the New Testament, who they were, and what they said. As your children read the Scripture and answer the question, “Who Said That” discuss with them facts about each woman, such as her purpose, and the reason for saying the statement quoted. If desired, add additional Scripture quotes from other women in the New Testament for extended learning. For additional activities, use these questions to play a family game of trivia. Serve popcorn and enjoy!

Ages: 8-12

What you Need:

NET Bible or computer with access to download the NET Bible version

Questions:

1. “This is what the Lord has done for me at the time when he has been gracious to me, to take away my disgrace among people.” (Luke 1:24)	__________________
2. “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:37)	__________________
3. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me.” (Luke 10:40)	__________________
4. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32)	__________________
5. “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18)	__________________
6. “If you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house.” (Acts 16:15) (Read 16:14-15)	__________________
7. “This man is not doing anything deserving death or imprisonment.” (Acts 26:31) (Read 26:30-31)	__________________
8. “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” (Matthew 26:69)	__________________
9. “Have nothing to do with that innocent man; I have suffered greatly as a result of a dream about him today.” (Matthew 27:19) (Read 27:11-19)	__________________
10. “This really is the Prophet!” (John 7:40)	__________________
11. “No one, Lord.” (John 8:11) (Read 8:1-11)	__________________
12. “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” (John 9:8)	__________________
13. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9) (Read Matthew 21:1-9)	__________________
14. “Permit these two sons of mine to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” (Matthew 20:21)	__________________
15. “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” (Luke 2:48)	__________________
16. “Sir, you have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water? 4:12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.” (John 4:11-12)	__________________
17. “He told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:39)	__________________
18. “This is certainlythe Prophet who is to come into the world.” (John 6:14)	__________________
19. “He is a good man,” but others, “He deceives the common people.” (John 7:12)	__________________
20. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!” (Matthew 15:22)	__________________

Answers:

Crowds, Elizabeth, Bernice and Others, Samaritan Woman, People, Martha, Canaanite Woman, Woman at the Well, Slave Girl, Mary, Jesus’ Mother, Mother of the Sons of Zebedee, Pilate’s Wife, Lydia, Crowds in Jerusalem, Neighbors and People, Mary of Bethany, Crowd, Adulteress Woman, Mary Magdalene

I always feel inadequate to preach, but I never feel more inadequate than when I preach on the crucifixion of Jesus. There is simply no way that I can do justice to this most profound event in the history of the world. Meditating on the cross of Christ should evoke many feelings in our hearts: mourning for our sin that put Him there; horror at God’s dreadful judgment that required such a price; gratitude for the great love and mercy of the Savior; and awe at the fact that such as One as He would do such a thing as this for such a sinner as I. Yet I lack the ability to set forth all of these things as they ought to be explained and applied. And so we all must cast ourselves afresh on God and pray that He would use His Word in our hearts beyond my ability to preach and beyond your ability to listen.

Today I am going to present an overview of the crucifixion as described by the Holy Spirit through Luke. In subsequent weeks, I am going to go back and pick out some of the details that call for more meditation than a single message allows. Today I want to set before you four broad themes that the cross displays:

The cross displays the awfulness of human sin, God’s dreadful judgment, His amazing love, and His amazing Savior.

1. The cross displays the awfulness of human sin.

Down through history, wicked men have done some terrible things: slaughtered innocent women and children, tortured people for pleasure, and resorted to cannibalism and other evils too hideous to mention. But never has the human race stooped so low as when they crucified the Lord of glory and mocked Him while He was hanging on the cross. The horror of violence is proportionate to the innocence of the victim. If one mobster shoots another mobster, we tend to say, “That’s too bad, but he had it coming.”

But if a man tortures and murders a little child, we recoil in horror, because the child did nothing to deserve such terrible treatment. But while children are relatively innocent, Jesus alone is truly innocent and undefiled (Heb. 7:26). He was never tainted by sin in thought, word, or deed. He gave up the glory of heaven and came to this earth, not for Himself, but to lay down His life for sinners. He went about doing good to all. His teaching and His miracles proved Him to be God’s anointed one, or Messiah. For men to disregard all of His miracles (which they tacitly admit when they say, “He saved others”), to make sport of torturing such a one, and then to jeer as He hung on the cross with His life slowly ebbing out of Him, was the most heinous crime imaginable!

The Bible says, “Men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The darkness of the human heart was never as dark as when they crucified the Son of God. Thus God sent darkness over the land as a portent of His judgment to come, when men who do not repent will be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30). This was not an eclipse of the sun, which is impossible during a full moon. Rather, it was a miracle sent from God so that sinful men might tremble at His power and judgment.

The hardness of the human heart is seen in that the Jewish religious leaders did not even cease their mocking, but paid no attention to this miraculous sign in the heavens. John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], “Harmony of the Gospels,” 3:317) says that “their amazing madness ought to strike us with horror,” (the French edition says, “Make our hair stand on end”) that they would be so blind as to ignore this warning from God. He then adds, “But this is the spirit of stupidity and of giddiness with which God intoxicates the reprobate, after having long contended with their malice.” He darkens their minds, so that seeing, they do not see (Matt. 13:14).

Those who witnessed this horrific event had different reactions. The religious leaders are the most guilty, since they had seen Christ’s miracles and heard His teaching, but knowingly and willfully rejected Him and even taunted Him as He died (23:35). The Roman soldiers also were guilty of mocking Him (23:36-37), but it was more out of ignorance and stupidity. Many just stood and watched out of curiosity, perhaps not knowing what to think (23:35). The thieves on the cross both mocked at first, although the one soon came to repentance (23:39-43; compare Matt. 27:44; Mark 15:32). The multitudes, after witnessing the whole spectacle, went away beating their breasts, perhaps vaguely recognizing that something terrible had taken place (23:48). Perhaps this was the initial working of God’s Spirit in convicting them of sin in preparation for Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Christ’s acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee stood at a distance, probably out of fear and confusion (23:49).

Luke paints this whole scene to show us not only the sin of those who crucified the Savior, but to get us to examine our own hearts. While we may not be as guilty as the religious leaders, we all are guilty: “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa. 53:6). Allow the spectacle of the cross to overwhelm you with the awfulness of your own sin!

2. The cross displays God’s dreadful judgment against sin.

Being sinners by nature, we tend to minimize both our sin and God’s wrath against sin. We think that our sin isn’t all that bad, and we can’t understand why God would get so worked up about it. But as Calvin explains, “It was an astonishing display of the wrath of God that he did not spare even his only begotten Son, and was not appeased in any other way than by that price of expiation” (ibid., pp. 316-317). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and nothing less than the death of God’s own Son could satisfy His holy wrath that is justly due for our sin!

God’s judgment is seen in several ways in this story. I’ve already mentioned the darkened sun as one portent of the wrath to come. It should have made every person there shake with fear and cry out for God’s mercy. Also, Jesus warned the daughters of Jerusalem who wept for Him of the coming judgment on the city. For the Jews, children were God’s blessings; it was a curse to be barren. But Jesus warned that the days were coming when they would say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed” (23:29). So great would be the suffering and slaughter, that it would be better not to have children than to watch them starve and be hacked to pieces by the Roman swords. At that time, men would call to the mountains to fall on them, since that would be a more merciful form of death than what awaited them. If it was unnatural for Jesus, the “green tree,” to be burned, how much worse would it be when God’s judgment was poured out on the guilty, dried up nation, ready for the fire?

But God’s temporal judgments on Jerusalem were nothing in comparison with the eternal judgment that Jesus often warned about. He used the most descriptive language to picture the torments of hell. In addition to describing it as a place of outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, He called it a place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). He pictured the rich man in torment, crying out for a wet finger to cool his tongue, “for I am in agony in this flame” (Luke 16:24).

Sometimes I think we err in focusing on the physical suffering of Jesus on the cross, while we miss the fact that it was just a glimpse of the spiritual agony He endured. It is significant that none of the four gospels use much detail to describe His physical suffering. Luke simply says, “They crucified Him” (23:33). Granted, most of his readers had witnessed crucifixions, so they knew the awful suffering it entailed. It was one of the most horrific, slow, tortuous deaths ever invented. But I think that G. Campbell Morgan is right when he says that he often wished that no one had painted a picture of the crucifixion. He explains,

I am not denying the tragedy of the physical, but I often feel that in connection with our children, we are in danger if we talk too much with them of the nails and the thorns and the spear. These were merely the incidentals, all of them necessary, I grant you, to work out into visibility before these poor human eyes of ours, something of the unfathomable sorrows of God in Christ in the Cross. Yet there is always a danger lest for very pity of heart, we become more occupied with the physical suffering, than with the spiritual agony. (The Gospel According to Luke [Revell], pp. 266-267.)

The point of Christ’s suffering on the cross was that He bore God’s dreadful judgment that we deserved, thus satisfying His wrath for us. If Christ crucified is your Savior, you will escape the day of God’s wrath on sinners. As Paul triumphantly puts it, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

I must underscore that you cannot eliminate or skim over this point about the cross revealing God’s wrath against sin and be a true Christian. In my next point I will talk about God’s amazing love as seen in the cross, and it is true. But to skim over God’s wrath and rush on to His love is to miss the offense of the cross. That offense is that we are sinners deserving of God’s judgment. We can do nothing in ourselves to appease that judgment. What we cannot do, God did, not sparing His own Son, so that no one can boast before God.

James Stalker points out how that, just as in Christ’s day there were religious men who said, “Come down from the cross and we will believe you,” so there are still such men. He says, that they “have no sense of their own unworthiness or of the majesty and the rights of a holy God. They do not understand a theology of sin and punishment, of atonement and redemption; and all the deep significance of His death has to be taken out of Christianity before they will believe it” (The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ [Zondervan], pp. 103-104). So we must see in the cross the awfulness of human sin and the dreadfulness of God’s judgment before we move on to the next point.

3. The cross displays God’s amazing love toward sinners.

As Charles Wesley put it in his great hymn, “Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my God shouldst die for me!” That is the only explanation for why Jesus did what He did. If He had stood on His rights, He would have said, “They deserve what they have coming. Let them all pay for their own sin! Why should I have to suffer in their place?” Thank God that He drank the cup of God’s wrath because of His unfathomable love!

That love is seen in what is called Christ’s first words from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (23:34). I hope to deal with this verse in more detail in a later message. In passing, I will say that although many weighty early New Testament manuscripts do not contain the verse, there are reasons to believe that it was a part of Luke’s original gospel. Christ’s words here breathe the same spirit that He taught in the Sermon on the Plain, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (6:27-28).

Just as the gardener in Jesus’ parable asked the owner of the fig tree to give it another year (13:6-9), so Jesus here pleads for another chance for this guilty nation (Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke [Eerdmans], pp. 608-609). And, God, who could have made the ground open and swallow these rebels on the spot, because He is full of love and mercy, answered the prayer by giving Israel 40 more years before judgment fell. He sent them the preaching of Peter on the Day of Pentecost and the ministry of the apostles and other believers, and many thousands came to repentance and faith.

We should learn here what Calvin calls the astonishing (p. 291), inestimable (p. 302) love of God towards us in Christ. He further notes (p. 303) that all the sufferings that Christ endured are here portrayed so that we may see more clearly how much our salvation cost Him. When we reflect that we justly deserved what He endured, we might more and more be moved to repentance. And, Calvin says, God here plainly shows us how wretched our condition would have been if we had not a Redeemer.

Christ’s prayer for those who so badly mistreated Him should give hope to the worst of sinners. Yes, you have abused and mistreated the Savior by your life of sin. Yes, your sin put Jesus on the cross. You need forgiveness. And forgiveness is precisely what Jesus prays on behalf of guilty sinners! He doesn’t offer it based on your deserving it, but simply because of His great love and mercy. It cost Him dearly, but it is free to you if you will receive it. The cross reveals God’s amazing love for sinners.

4. The cross reveals God’s amazing Savior for sinners.

Luke wants every eye to be on the marvelous person of Jesus Christ. The titles that His enemies mockingly hurled at Him are true, even though they did not believe. He is “the Christ of God, His Chosen One” (23:35). He is “the King of the Jews” (23:37, 38). He is the innocent (or righteous) one (23:47), who had done nothing wrong (23:41). Note these five contrasts about His person:

         Jesus is fully human, yet fully divine.

As a man, Jesus was so weak from His night in the garden and His scourging that He could not even bear His own cross. His terrible physical suffering on the cross shows His full humanity. He felt the same physical agony that the two thieves did. His emotions felt the sting of the mockery. He felt the disappointment of His disciples’ fearful defection. His soul agonized for the coming judgment that He predicted for Jerusalem. As a man, Jesus entrusted His soul to God at the point of death, just as He had trusted the Father throughout His earthly life.

And yet the fact that the creation groaned with the power of the sun being darkened shows us that this was no mere man who hung on that cross. He could predict accurately the horrible destruction of Jerusalem. His death fulfilled David’s prophecy in Psalm 22:18, of the soldiers casting lots and dividing His garments among them. He was the Christ of God, God’s Chosen One, the promised King of the Jews. As God, He could promise salvation to the penitent thief on the cross, granting him forgiveness and the assurance that he would be with Him that very day in Paradise. As God in human flesh, He was truly innocent of all wrong. He is, in Paul’s words, “our great God and Savior” (Titus 2:13). Anyone who denies either the full humanity or the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ has denied the very essence of the Christian faith.

         Jesus is innocent and righteous, yet He bore our sins.

Throughout the story of Christ’s trials and crucifixion, Luke repeatedly affirms His innocence. Three times Pilate proclaims it (23:4, 14-15, 22). The thief on the cross repeats it (23:41). The centurion reaffirms it (23:47). Jesus Christ is the righteous one, our Advocate with the Father, who is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). I think that Calvin (p. 327) is right here in saying that this Roman centurion was probably not converted so as to utter this testimony of Christ, but rather “was only for a moment the herald of Christ’s divinity.”

Christ could not have been the Savior of others if He had sins of His own. If He had blemishes on His character, He would not have been an acceptable lamb for the sacrifice for the sins of others. But by His offering of Himself, Jesus abolished that old sacrificial system, symbolized by the tearing of the veil in the temple (23:45). Those sacrifices could not permanently cleanse the worshipers (Heb. 10:1-4), but Jesus, by the one offering of Himself, once for all paid the price of our sins (Heb. 10:11-14)! This is why, by the way, the Roman Catholic celebration of the Mass is such an affront to God. They claim that the wafer actually becomes the body of Christ and that weekly they are sacrificing Him again and again, and that the worshipers must continually take His sacrifice in order to be progressively cleansed. But Scripture plainly proclaims that rather than suffering repeatedly, “now once at the consummation He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26).

         Jesus was rich, yet He became poor that we might be rich in Him.

When the soldiers gambled for the very last possession that Christ had on this earth, His clothing, He was literally stripped of everything. Calvin observes (p. 298,

For the Evangelists exhibit to us the Son of God stripped of his garments, in order to inform us, that by this nakedness we have obtained those riches which make us honorable in the presence of God. God determined that his own Son should be stripped of his raiment, that we, clothed with his righteousness and with abundance of all good things, may appear with boldness in company with the angels, whereas formerly our loathsome and disgraceful aspect, in tattered garments, kept us back from approaching to heaven.

Or, as Paul put it, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

         Jesus is full of mercy, love and forgiveness, yet He is the Judge of all.

I’ve already touched on this, so I will only mention it in passing. You see the Lord’s compassion in speaking to the women lamenting along the way to the cross. His thoughts were not on His own suffering, but on what they and their children would suffer. You see His compassion and mercy in His prayer for His persecutors, as well as with the thief on the cross. Yet, His mercy and love do not negate the sober fact of judgment. He was crucified in our place because God does not brush over sin. All sin will be judged. Either you trust in Jesus as the one who bore your judgment, or you will face it yourself.

         Jesus is the crucified one with no followers, yet He is King of all.

Jesus was basically alone on the cross. John’s gospel records how that apostle, along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, were there at the cross. But the rest stood off at a distance. The sign over the cross, stating the criminal’s offense, read, “This is the King of the Jews.” It was Pilate’s dig at the Jewish leaders. They had forced him into crucifying Jesus, so he got back at them by saying, “Here is your Jewish King!”

But Luke wants us to see that Jesus is truly not only the King of the Jews, but of all the nations. Though He was crucified in shame, He is risen and coming again to reign in power and majesty. Luke wants each of us to ask, “Is the crucified Jesus my King?”

Conclusion

John Gordon was a respected general for the South in the Civil War. After the war, he was running for the U.S. Senate, but a man who had served under him in the war, angry over some political incident, was determined to see him defeated. During the convention, he angrily stamped down the aisle with his anti-Gordon vote in hand. As he saw Gordon sitting on the platform, he noticed how his once handsome face was disfigured with the scars of battle. Overcome with emotion, he exclaimed, “It’s no use; I can’t do it. Here’s my vote for John Gordon.” Then, turning to the general, he said, “Forgive me, General. I had forgotten the scars.”

If your love for the Lord has grown cold, go back to the cross and remember the scars—not just the physical scars, but the scars of God’s wrath that Jesus bore in your place. Let His amazing love turn your heart from sin and give you more devotion to serve Him.

Discussion Questions

1. The Puritans often talked about the exceeding sinfulness of sin. How would it help us to see this more in our day?
2. The idea of God’s wrath toward sin is not popular now. How can we properly emphasize it without people shrugging us off?
3. Discuss: We cannot properly understand God’s love until we have understood His wrath against sin.

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2000, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson two Handout (Click Here).     Lesson two study group Questions (Click Here).

I. Introduction

Have you ever had to give up and let go of someone or something very precious to you?

When you let go, when you released that person or that thing, did you feel like part of you was breaking; now there was some new emptiness in your life? Transition to our next woman of influence, Jochebed…Moses’ mother. I wonder,

Can you imagine what it would be like to give away your 3-month-old baby, not knowing what would happen to him? After you had given birth, held that baby, nursed, rocked and stayed up all night trying to ease his crying and then to give him up?

I’m curious, how many here are either adopted, have adopted children or someone in your family has been adopted? Adoption is a wonderful way to unconditionally love someone but it comes with a painful price tag (as we’ll see in our story). To adopt a child means someone has to give up a child. Maybe you’ve not given a child up for adoption, but I’m sure that most everyone here has some experience with giving up something precious to you. Some of you have lost children to divorce, some have run-away, and some have even died. . Truthfully, there is a certain amount of pain, a loneliness pain, when they leave home to go to college, when they get married, when they start their own life. “Someone has said ‘mothers begin saying good-bye to their children from the moment they are born’.”¹ And we don’t want to forget there is also a pain that comes from wanting a child and yet not having one, perhaps even having to give up that possibility.

Some, its likely all of us, know the pain of giving up, letting go of someone, or something precious to you: A relationship, a job, a dream.

Life comes with the pain of losses, of giving up and letting go and we are rarely ready to let go. Life comes with the opportunity to learn the art of Releasing when we have no control, of dealing with extenuating circumstances that we can do nothing about. Question we have to ask is:

What do you do when you can’t do anything more?

II. Jochebed

1. Married

Exodus 2:1 A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi. (NET)

Exodus 6:20 Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram’s life was 137 years.) (NET)

Amram was “the Levite man” who was Moses’ father. He lived 137 years. That’s a significant fact. Possible that he was alive during the Exodus, remember Moses was 80 years old then. Amram married Jochebed who was also from the tribe of Levi, one of Jacob’s 12 sons. Jochebed’s name means, “Honor of God” or “God is glory”. We don’t know but we hope that she too was alive to see the Exodus. Amram and Jochebed were strong in their faith during a time where many Israelites had become idolatrous.

How do we know? Moses, in the wilderness, instructed them to put away pagan gods. Joshua 24:14 “throw away gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the river and in Egypt. So we know some of the Jews had compromised. Just like today, true faith was mixed with pagan beliefs. But this couple worshipped Jehovah God. This couple had great faith. Hebrews 11:23 BY FAITH they hid Moses…They saw life through the eyes of faith.

What’s the Definition of faith? = Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (NIV)

What does it mean that they had faith? Certainly faith in God, that He exists, that He made a covenant with Abraham that set them apart as a chosen people, His people. They had faith that God had made promises to them through Abraham that they would be a nation, a people with land, their land. The prophecy of 400 years of bondage (Gen 15:13) was coming to a close. So when Jochebed gave birth to Moses….

2. Moses’ Mother

1. Birth

Exodus 2:1-2 A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi. The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months. (NET)

Hebrews 11:23 By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. (NET)

“not an ordinary child” Hebrew for “fine” is “tov”(TOE v)= means “good”, “beautiful” It’s the same word that used in the Creation account in Genesis 1:4(light), 10(land and sea), 18(sun, moon, stars), 25(animals), 31(mankind, looked and said=very good). Moses was tov, beautiful, fine, good, and not ordinary. This word conveys the possibility that Jochebed sensed something was special about her new baby boy. Perhaps God might use him to fulfill the Promise. Exodus 2:2b She “hid” him for 3 months. Reason was Pharaoh’s edict.

When the plan to have the midwives kill all the male newborns failed, Pharaoh gave the order to throw all baby boys into the Nile, drown them.

Can you imagine trying to hide a newborn baby? Keep him quiet? Have you ever worked in the baby bed nursery at church? You can never get them all quiet at the same time. Someone is always crying.

What strong faith this woman had, but also what courage.

Hebrews11:23 they were “not afraid of the king’s edict”

What if she had been “found out”, they would take the baby and kill him, perhaps she would lose her life, potentially the whole family, husband, 2 other children= Miriam=young little girl and Aaron=3 years old. The choice to hid the baby put the whole family at risk.

But there came a day when she knew she couldn’t hide him any longer, had to let him go…

2. Basket Plan

Exodus 2:3-4 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile. His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him. (NET)

Think of her alterative choices. What if she kept the baby at home until eventually the authorities came? What would she do if he was snatched out of her arms and taken to certain death? Or would it be wise to just distance herself from this baby and let someone else throw him in the Nile? After all she did have a husband and two other children to consider and take care of. What to do? All her choices were difficult. Have you ever been there? Where it didn’t matter which decision you made, they all seemed risky?

Jochebed made a decision, and she made a plan.

Exodus 2:3 But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile.

“When she could hide him no longer” …She either purchased or made a basket out of papyrus and covered it with an asphalt type material that made it watertight. (Isaiah 18:2 writes that the Egyptians made their boats, skiffs out of this material. So she made a little miniature Nile boat for her baby.²) She put the child in the basket among the reeds near the bank of the river. This would be shallow water, away from the currents that would have carried him down the Nile. Here there would be less danger from crocodiles than if she just put him down on the beach. Perhaps there would be some shade too from the sun in the reeds.

Imagine the emotions, the feelings Jochebed had as she placed him down and backed away. Imagine being her as she left him here alone in the water. Yes, Miriam is watching from a distant place on the shore, but she, his mother had to let him go. She had to walk away. She didn’t just “let him go”, she was a woman of faith, and she “let him go and trusted her God. The life of Jochebed as a woman of influence teaches us that there are times in our lives when we have done all we can do, we’ve said all we can say, there is no more and we have to …

Truth: Let it go and trust God

So what happens when you trust God, eyewitness account: Miriam is near by, watching and..

III. Pharaoh’s Daughter

Exodus 2:5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,

There is great historical debate on who was Pharaoh’s daughter? The Apocrypha calls her Tharmuth, other names suggested are Merris, or Bityah, perhaps even the well-known Hatshepsut( HAT shep shoot). If the Pharaoh here is Rameses (RAM uh sees) II, he had over 60 daughters.³ We don’t know, but whoever she was, she had enough influence to kill Moses or keep him alive.

Text says she went to bathe in the Nile. Nile was considered emanation (em uh ney shun) THE SOURCE of the pagan god Osiris( O sigh rus) and the waters had magical properties.

It was not uncommon for Pharaohs and other Egyptians to bathe ceremonially in the sacred Nile River, as many Indians do today in the Ganges River. The Egyptians believed that the waters of the Nile possessed the ability to impart fruitfulness and to prolong life.⁴ Dr. Thomas Constable

While her attendants were walking up and down the banks keeping undesirable people and animals away, she saw the basket. She was curious, what could be in it? Verbs tell us that she herself opened it and saw Moses and at that very moment he cried. I wonder if she picked him up, cuddled him to stop his cries; did he smile at her and melt her heart? “she took pity” on the baby. This is a huge part of the story… Jewish Study Bible

“The verb could be given a more colloquial translation such as “she felt sorry for him.” But the verb is stronger than that; it means “to have compassion, to pity, to spare.” What she felt for the baby was strong enough to prompt her to spare the child from the fate decreed for Hebrew boys. Here is part of the irony of the passage: What was perceived by many to be a womanly weakness – compassion for a baby – is a strong enough emotion to prompt the (this) woman to defy the orders of Pharaoh. The ruler had thought sparing women was safe, but the midwives, the Hebrew mother, the daughter of Pharaoh, and Miriam, all work together to spare one child”⁵

They are women of great influence.

At just this moment, Miriam steps forward and approaches the daughter and volunteers her service to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child, and whom did she bring back? The baby’s own mother. So Jochebed got her own child back, at least for a while. Can you see the Providence of God in this story? Why to Trust?

1. Jochebed just happened to put Moses in the right spot on the Nile?
2. Pharaoh’s daughter just happened to see the basket?
3. Moses just happened to cry at the right time?
4. Miriam just happened to be near by?
5. Jochebed just happened to be available and able to nurse?
6. Pharaoh’s daughter just happened to have enough influence to save the baby Moses?

Faith and trust in God knows that even when God seems silent, He is always working for the good of His children. Faith and trust in God knows that God often works behind the scenes of our lives. What some call fate or luck or “it just happened” is really God’s providential care.

Has anything “just happened” to you recently that you know really was God working for you? Sometimes we need to slow down and learn to see Him and His presence in our circumstances and thank Him for His care.

IV. Letting Go Again: Jochebed Did Get Moses Back…

…for a little while. Probably about 3 years. Those must have been precious years. Years she had to love and influence her child for God. Those early years, pre-school years, made an indelible impression on Moses. I imagine he learned about the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the Great Covenantal promises made to the Hebrews. Perhaps he learned what it means to have faith in God and fearless courage. But there came a day when he grew older… When Jochebed had to let him go AGAIN…to let him go and trust God again.

Exodus 2:10 When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “Because I drew him from the water.”

Jochebed, she’s the one, who took him to the Royal Palace. He went from her arms to the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter. Hugs and kisses and then she turned away and went home. Again, the second time, was this time even harder for her?

I would have wondered if he would be safe? Would he be treated differently because he was Hebrew? Would he forget me? Would he forget our family? Would I ever see him again?

So we come back to the question

What do you do when you can’t do anything more?

Women of Influence choose to: Truth: Let it go and trust God

Application: Does this speak to you, where you are today?

What are some areas of your life you need to stop holding on to and start trusting God? Is it your past? My pastor often says “Give up the hope of a better past, it’s keeping you from a better tomorrow” Past hurt, past decision?

Maybe it’s a relationship that is toxic and you need to make a hard choice.

Or maybe the relationship has been too close, too controlling, or maybe the seasons of life have changed and it’s hard to let it go and move on.

What do you do when you can’t do anything more?

My story: Brent’s diabetes (Another stone of remembrance)

When my youngest son was 5 years old he started loosing weight, was always thirsty and he started wetting the bed at night though he’d been potty trained for a long time. I took him to the pediatrician and I knew it was a urinary tract infection, we’d get the pink bubble gum antibiotic and he’d be fine. But that was not the case. They took the urine sample and when the doctor came back he coldly said “I think your son has diabetes and I want you to go immediately to the Juvenile Diabetes clinic, I’ve already called them to tell them you’re on your way. I was in shock. I felt like cold water had been poured all over me. That day began a new life for my son and for our entire family and me. I learned to give injections, to plan meals, to test blood, to watch for highs and lows, and I learned to trust God in a new, powerful way. Growing up, we wanted him to have all the normal experiences of childhood, sleepovers, soccer, basketball, baseball, and football, field trips, then dates, eventually college and marriage: without me. I had to learn over and over and over again to…

Let go and trust God

Even today, I can’t tell you how hard it is at times not to want somehow control his diabetes: to make sure he’s eating good food, exercising, taking care of himself, but he has a wife and two daughters…I really have to “Let it go and trust God…and I do Trust and pray ….

I want to be sure to add, even if this sounds like heresy in our “health, wealth, prosperity” theology culture:

When you let go and trust God not all babies in baskets are rescued, not all illnesses are healed, not all jobs are restored, not all relationships are mended but this is True: when you let go and trust Him – God is glorified and He will work it out for ultimate good.

Application: So what about you? Where are you in this story?

Has He brought something to your mind that you’ve been holding on to and need to let go? Maybe you need to let go of a dream that is not going to come true; yet, the idea of letting it go seems too painful. Maybe it’s something material, a possession you have? Can you fill in the blank _____ “Lord I hear You saying ‘Let it go and trust Me with it’”

Women of Influence, women who are affecting their world, their family, their workplace, their friends for good for God have open hands. Hold on to things and people with open hands, like Jochebed they know when to release and…

“Let it go and trust God.”

Prayer

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¹ Patterson, 24.

² R. Alan Cole, “Exodus,” Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, ed. D. J. Wiseman (Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1973) 57.

³ Cole, 58.

⁴ Dr. Thomas Constable, “Constable’s Notes,” Lumina, www.bible.org.

⁵ Notes, Lumina, www.bible.org.

Lesson three Handout (Click Here).     Lesson three study group Questions (Click Here).

I. Introduction

“Jesus embodies the rule of God in which no one is beyond God’s forgiveness no matter who they are or what they have done.”¹

Do you believe that?

Women of Influence are not perfect women, we know no one is perfect. We know that all of us make mistakes, we all have failures, we all sin and that’s why we all need a Savior. So when we fail, when we sin, no matter how little or how big that sin is, we need to remember, with God there is forgiveness. Our God forgives.

Nehemiah in looking back to this period of Hebrew history says (Neh. 9:17):

They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery, BUT You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love… (NIV)

David would never get over being amazed at God’s forgiveness. (Ps 103:2-3)

Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not his benefits-who forgives all your sins… (NIV)

Paul wanted the entire world to know that in Jesus Christ God has forgiven us.

Eph 1:7 In him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (NIV)

Col 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another, Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. (NIV)

There is Forgiveness for Sin with God that is a THEME throughout Scripture all the way back to the Garden of Eden and all the way forward until eternity.

Because God has always provided a way back to Him, forgiveness for our sins, He calls us to come to Him, confess to Him, receive from Him our forgiveness.

He calls us to then Live in our Forgiveness. This also became true for Miriam, our next woman of Influence. We’re going to look at a brief overview of her life and focus on her failure and her forgiveness.

II. Miriam

1. Name means “Bitterness” Greek version= Mary, Mara, Miriam. It was/ is a popular Hebrew name.

2. Numbers 26:59 = We know that her parents were Amram and Jochebed, so she was a full sister to Aaron and Moses. Exodus 2:4 = she is the first born, the oldest of the 3 siblings.

3. Also from Ex 2 we know she was the one who stood guard when her mother put baby Moses in the basket into the Nile. She was the one who was her mother’s eyes and ears as she watched to see what happened to the baby. She was the one who bravely spoke to Pharaoh’s daughter and offered to find a Hebrew nurse for the baby.

Miriam was the key person to oversee the course of the floating cradle and then to intercede at just the right moment with a suggestion that not only ensured the baby’s life but also helped to prepare him for his destiny.² Dorothy Patterson

Quick on her feet, protective of her little brother, perhaps (ask those of you who are first born to witness) perhaps she always felt a certain responsibility for her younger brothers. I see this in my daughter who has 2 younger brothers and my granddaughter who has 2 younger brothers. There is this nurturing, some might say “mothering”. Funny, my daughter is only 18 months older than her next brother, but until he was 7 he did exactly what she said. Amazing. One day, I remember, he said “You’re not my mother!” It was all over, then we had normal sibling rivalry. The youngest brother never let her do that! I see history repeating itself in my grandchildren.

FROM OUR story we see that as a young girl, Miriam was a caring, courageous sister. But when he was about 3, Moses left her home and lived in the palace. About 40 years go by. Perhaps word got to her when Moses fled after murdering an Egyptian. We know that another 40 years pass before God uniquely calls Moses to go back to Egypt, go back and deliver the Hebrews from their oppression.

Miriam is a witness to the Exodus. She is there to see her brother Aaron as the right hand spokesman for Moses. She is there as days and likely months pass while God displays his Power and His miracles in front of Pharaoh. She is there the night they all leave Egypt and she is there when God parts the Red Sea allowing the Hebrews to cross and drowning all the Egyptians. She is there, she sees it happen and she is filled with gratitude. That’s the next time her name is mentioned.

4. Song leader, Women’s Leader, Prophetess

Exodus 15:20-21 Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand-drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her with hand-drums and with dances. Miriam sang in response to them, “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.” (NET)

The people of God have just experienced a tremendous God-given deliverance from their enemy, they are free people and this song is composed to celebrate that victory. Throughout history people compose and sing songs that solidify their experience and tell their story. We, in America have a song that tells our freedom story. “Star Spangled Banner” our national anthem. (We really fought 2 wars against the British for our freedom, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. At the end of the latter war, that Francis Scott Key penned our victory song after on morning he saw the large American flag flying triumphantly above Fort Covington, the city’s last line of defense. )

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Miriam led the women in their victory song. She was an influential leader of the women, they followed her in praise. We’re also told here that she was a prophetess=female prophet. That meant God spoke to her and spoke through her to the people. We don’t know how many prophetess were in Israel over the years; just a few are recorded. Huldah (2Kings 22:1-20) Deborah (Judges 4,5) Anna (Luke 2:36-38) Phillip’s 4 daughters who are all prophetesses (Acts 21:9). To be called a prophetess meant God was using her mightily, she had great influence for good and then…

III. Her Failure (Numbers 12)

Set this story in context. The Hebrews have been given the law, set out, they are traveling to the Promised Land. So this is early in their journey. People have been grumbling about water, food. Even Moses has complained to God that he needs help, God instructs him to delegate out to 70 elders some of the responsibility of leading. We know that complaining is contagious, next complainers are Miriam and Aaron. We are in Hazeroth when this happened.

Numbers 12:1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married an Ethiopian woman). (NET)

Then, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses…Don’t you wonder what the backstory was? We don’t know, but possibly she began to question Moses’ decisions. Perhaps if they made the decisions as a team, the 3 of them, it might be better. Or they could take turns leading. We don’t know what she was thinking but there was discontent brewing and it came to a head over Moses’ wife. …they spoke against Moses because of the Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.

Who was this woman he married? We know he married Zipporah (Ex. 2:21) she was a Midianite, so who is THIS WOMAN?

Two explanations are possible:

1. This is a reference to Zipporah, “Cushan” was a part of Midian (Hab 3:7) Both Midianites and Cushites were nomadic.

2. Moses married a second woman in Egypt, a Nubian= Cush. The latter is more plausible since Nubia was part of the Egyptian empire and dark skinned women were considered beautiful.³

Bottom-line is we don’t know, but this just seems to be a smokescreen to their real complaint.

Numbers 12:2 They said, “Has the LORD only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard it. (NET)

Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? they asked. Hasn’t he also spoken through us? Both Miriam and Aaron are involved in this but we’re focusing on Miriam. It would seem that she was discontented with the influential role God had given her and she wanted more. Miriam tried to step out of her role and wanted to step into her brother’s. We can fall into this trap too, in our churches: the ministry roles God gives us; our workplaces: complaints about our boss; even at home: our discontent with where we find ourselves can cause us to lose influence for good. Because we know that Moses had his authority to lead directly from God, her rebellion and discontent was ultimately against God Himself. So, she launches a power play that backfired.

Numbers 12:2 They said, “Has the LORD only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard it. (NET)

…and the Lord heard it. God says to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, you three, meet Me at the Tent of Meeting. When they get there, God says Aaron and Miriam, you two, step forward. Listen to me, when I talk to prophets, I send visions, dreams but not so with Moses. I talk to Him directly, face to face, I speak clearly to Him, special, unique. Why were you not afraid to speak against Him? Divine Rebuke. We’re told this made God really angry and He leaves. When He does, they look at each other and Aaron sees Miriam is covered with leprosy. We don’t begin to know how horrible that disease was in ancient times. For her it meant isolation, leaving the community and living outside the camp, alone (Numbers 5:1-3). Because of the intercession of her two brothers God limits her time for seven days before she could return.

People have often questioned why did God just punish Miriam with leprosy? Why not Aaron too? There is no biblical answer but there are hints in the text to the backstory. Jewish Study Bible and other readings conclude that…

..Miriam and not Aaron was punished because she instigated the gossip and vocalized it, as indicated by the feminine gender of the verb “spoke” in 12:1 and the placement of Miriam (name) before Aaron (name)” it’s speculated that Aaron was silent or just agreed.⁴

Joseph Telushkin suggests this difference stems from the Hebrew verb used to describe their comments about Moses’ wife. It is feminine – ve’teddaber (“and she spoke”) – indicting that Miriam was the one who initiated the conversation against Moses (Telushkin, 130).

There were consequences of her sin, just as there is with ours. She faced humiliation, a week separated from the community; surely tension in the family.

This was a great failure, a tremendous loss of influence for her. And what a great warning to us not to lose our influence for good by our own sin.

But I have included her failure for another reason.

That is to be encouraged by her forgiveness. No, we don’t hear of her again for almost 40 years, that’s not to say she doesn’t still lead, we just don’t know. But what we do know is that God recorded her death, and that’s very significant. Very few of female leaders have details of their death. Numbers 20:1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.

Many scholars believe this is the 40th year of the Exodus, toward the end of the journey, close to entering in the Promised Land. They people have come full circle and the land is just ahead. Right before they enter, all three deaths, Miriam, Aaron and Moses are recorded. The ones who had led for 40 years passed the baton to others.

Although Miriam sinned and suffered some consequences we know that God forgave her. How? God gives her Divine Biography hundreds of years later, through the prophet Micah right before Assyria captures Israel. Micah (contemporary of Isaiah) records a conversation with God who gives a case against Israel.

Micah 6:2-4 Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. (NIV)

This is the God who years later included her name as a leader of His people. He could have written her off, could have excluded her name but He forgave her and remembered her. You see:

Truth: When we do sin, we can be forgiven. We can go forward and Live in our forgiveness.

There may be consequences, but God forgives and God restores. That’s our God of grace and mercy. This is the God of Calvary.

1. This is the gospel.

We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (R3:23) but the free gift of God is forgiveness in Christ Jesus (R10: 9,10) When we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord we are forgiven. For me personally I was raised in a Christian home, in church all my life, but it wasn’t until I was married, in my mid-twenties that I embraced Christ as my Savior and Lord. It’s not enough to be raised a Christian; to have Christian parents, a believing heritage, each one must on our own embrace the faith. Each one of us is called to have a faith story. Wonder what is yours?

As we go on to live the Christian life, we live into our forgiveness by:

2. Keeping short accounts with God

I John 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us [all of us will have failures, fall into sin like Miriam did] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (NIV)

For Miriam, in another time, the law required she be put out of the camp, an isolation for seven days of purification, after which God restored her. There were seven days before she could live into her forgiveness. For you and I our relationship with God eternally is secure because of the Cross. When we fail and sin in our everyday life and we confess, he forgives instantly because of the Cross. There may be consequences of our sin we have to live through, but when you…

Live in Your Forgiveness there is no shame, no guilt, no condemnation because we are forgiven. Part of our inheritance as believers is a Peace with God (R 5:1) and we have the Peace of God ruling our hearts (Phil 4:7). You really cannot be a woman of influence if you’re still carrying your sin, if you haven’t given it to the foot of the Cross and asked for his forgiveness. But if you have, and you know that He has released you and you still carry guilt, and shame….you are not fully

Living in your Forgiveness and you won’t be able to tell others about our God who forgives all our sins.

My pastor says that when you have asked God’s forgiveness and you know that He has forgiven you, but you can’t get peace, it won’t let you go, then perhaps you need to ask for prayer, for help from the church, from others.

James 5: 13-16 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of he church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. (NIV)

There is a healing for the sin-sick heart, its called Forgiveness. But we cannot talk about Living in our Forgiveness without mentioning …

3. Forgiving others

For the believer this is not optional, it’s an integral part of our faith and our influence. The Lord’s Prayer says:

Forgive us our sins as we forgive others. It’s the key to living in harmony in our homes, churches in our world. i.e. Peacemaker’s Four Promises of Forgiveness

1. I will not dwell on this incident.

2. I will not bring this incident up and use it against you.

3. I will not talk to others about this incident.

4. I will not allow this incident to stand between us or hinder our personal relationship.⁵

My story: another stone of remembrance is learning to forgive my husband. Story of separation and rejection.

Application

1. So let me ask you, are you satisfied where God has placed you? With what he has given you to do, to be? Do you minister to others out of a grateful heart or honestly is Miriam’s discontent resonating with you? In every season of life we can face this temptation. Yet, truly women of influence are marked by contentment not resignation, contentment not rebellion. Women of influence cannot get over the fact that God would choose to use them and that reflects in a humility that allows God to use you greatly.

2. Are you carrying any guilt or shame that God has forgiven? Do you need to release it? Do you need to talk to someone you trust? A safe person?

3. Have you forgiven others? Have you let go of past wounds and pain, no matter how difficult, how great the hurt?

There is a call on our lives as believers, and that call is to …

Live in your Forgiveness

Prayer

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¹ Lewis B. Smedes

² Patterson, 58.

³ Jewish Study Bible, 308.

⁴ Jewish Study Bible, 309.

⁵ Peacemaker Ministries