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WHEN JESUS SPEAKS TO WOMEN - Part 1

Hello and welcome to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge! I’m Lisa Ann Spencer.

Today we embark on the New Testament study titled, When Jesus Speaks to Women.  This is a continuation of our study from the Old Testament, When God Speaks to Women. 

Please grab your Bible and a Notebook so that you can write down the scripture references.  It is important that you verify what I teach for yourself.  I can be wrong!  When I discover that I have made an error, I update the BLOG and add notes into the description box of the video where the error was made.

In fact, I want to mention a correction that I recently added into Part One of the study on Barrenness.  While it is true that Hannah and Elkanah lived in Eprathah which is in Bethlehem-Judah; Samuel is not of the tribe of Judah.  He is a Levite as documented in 1 Chronicles 6:16-28.

If you notice any errors that I have made, please point them out to me.  We are to submit ourselves to one another and to the word of God.

INTRODUCTION

We’re going to spend about 4 lessons going through the Four Gospels in an attempt to discover every instance of Jesus addressing women directly.  I have mentioned in previous studies that the Bible is an inspired book, written by men and written to men, to be stewarded and preached by men to everyone.

Of course the Bible is written for women and children, but it is rare for God to address either. The point of these Women’s Bible Studies is to draw out all that God would have us learn about the women of the Bible.

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Before we get started in the New Testament, I would like to add an Old Testament reference that I missed in our previous study, When God Speaks to Women.  I bring this up because it relates to the study we are embarking on.   

1 Kings 17:9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

When we read this account, the bible does not tell us when or how God commanded this Gentile widow to sustain Elijah.  She does not seem to be in expectation when Elijah arrives on the scene.  But, when Elijah speaks to her, she obeys him without question, demonstrating great faith.

This account is recalled by Jesus in Luke 4:21-27.  He was showing the Jews of His hometown that God sent the prophet Elijah to a Gentile widow, and the prophet Elisha had also cleansed a Gentile of leprosy. This made the people of Nazareth so angry they wanted to kill Jesus.

We know from studying these accounts that these Gentiles had FAITH in God, whereas the Jews of Nazareth did not.  

๐Ÿ“”NOTE: Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

I have found in my studies of women in the Old Testament, when I consider these obscure accounts with many details mentioned, that God has included these in scripture to picture the nation of Israel.  Israel is God’s wife, and many women in scripture represent Israel in the varying stages of her relationship to God.  I hope to be able to prove this as we proceed into the portion of our Bible, which is labeled, “The New Testament”.

NOTE:  Remember that the “New Testament” cannot begin until Jesus’s blood is shed (Mat 26:28; Heb 9:16), which does not occur until the end of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  This helps us understand that the four gospels are still part of the Old Testament.

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As I was reading through the four gospels, I made notes when I came across an occurrence of Jesus addressing a woman, but I also used an online concordance to search for certain combinations of words:

  • “Saith” and/or “Said” plus “Her
  • “Saith” and/or “Said” plus “Woman”

You will benefit from doing this search for yourself.

Now, we will proceed through the results in order of the Canon.

MATTHEW

One of the first things I want to point out is that God did not speak to Mary.

God sent an angel to speak to her.  We are told by the angel that Mary found favor with God (Luke 1:30); but do not be deceived into the false doctrine that Mary has the ability to grant favors.

When the wise men entered the house where young Jesus was with Mary (Matthew 2:11), the text says that they fell down and worshipped Him, not her!  Mary worship is idolatry. 

Mary was a sinner (Luke2:48, Mary was a liar, just as scripture says in Psalm 116:11; Romans 3:4).

Mary was in need of a Savior just as everyone else (Luke 1:47 Mary says, “God my Savior”).

FIRST RECORDED ACCOUNT OF JESUS SPEAKING TO A WOMAN

Read Matthew 9:18-22

By comparing scripture with scripture, we can shed the light of God’s word on this passage to help us understand why this account is included in scripture.

I hope you will take time to read this same account in Mark 5:21-34 and Luke 8:40-56.

By studying these cross-references, we learn that this certain ruler is Jairus, a ruler of a synagogue in northern Israel near the sea of Galilee. We learn that Jairus has only one daughter who is twelve years old.  While Jesus is on His was to lay hands on Jairus’s daughter, he encounters this woman that had an issue of blood for twelve years, who has suffered many things of the physicians and was growing worse.

JESUS’S WORDS TO THE WOMAN in MATTHEW, MARK and LUKE

Matthew 9:22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Mark 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Luke 8:48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath  made thee whole; go in peace.

What we can learn from this first recorded conversation:

  • Jesus called her ‘Daughter’ because she is a daughter of Israel. 
  • Any woman that has an issue of blood beyond so many days is unclean (Leviticus 15:25).
  • Under the Old Covenant with Israel, none in Israel would be experiencing plagues “of long continuance” if they kept the Law (Deuteronomy 28:59).

I hope you can see the connection with Israel, represented by a woman, in her uncleanness.

Jesus had come preaching the good news to Israel that the kingdom is at hand.  A sign of this kingdom prophesied in Old Testament was that none would be sick.

Isaiah 33:24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

As Jesus went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom, He did the signs of the kingdom proving that He was the promised and expected Messiah. When this daughter of Israel demonstrated her faith in Jesus, He cleansed her and said she was “made whole”.  We will see this referenced again in an upcoming study.

It is not coincidental that Jesus was on His way to lay hands on a twelve year old ‘daughter’ who at the present time “lieth at the point of death”; and in the meanwhile, the daughter dies.

๐Ÿ“” Notice the twelve-year-old daughter and the daughter of Israel who has been unclean for twelve years! Twelve is the number associated with the nation of Israel.  We will talk more about this when we get to this account in the book of Mark.

Q: Why is this the first recorded account of Jesus speaking to a woman?

A: God is drawing our attention to His purpose and ministry to Israel.

We will stop here and pick up next week with the remaining accounts in the book of Matthew.  As a challenge, I would ask you to read through Matthew and note the women Jesus addresses. If you do not have time to read through all of Matthew, consider the following verses and read through these chapters in full:

Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Matthew 20:21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

Matthew 26 – The woman who anoints Him – He does not speak directly to her.

I look forward to seeing you in next week’s study of When Jesus Speaks to Women.

The material covered in this BLOG can be viewed in this video:



 

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