Inside: 4 women in the Bible you didn’t notice (and why they are important). Today we’ll look at some women in the Bible that we really love: Lydia, Priscilla, and our favorite unsung heroes, Shiphrah and Puah. These ladies were strong, brave leaders. Let’s look at these women in the Bible together!
It probably comes as no surprise to you that we at Women, Worship and Work LOVE women in the Bible. And friends, there are some really awesome women in the Bible that we find a lot of ladies just don’t know about.
We’re going to tell you about three of our favorites today.
1) Lydia
A woman with some $cash$
One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
If you have a mental image of women in the Bible not being able to add value to society, think again!
Lydia was a dealer of purple cloth.
So why does that matter? In Bible times (when dying fabric wasn’t the huge industry it is today), most clothes were the color of the material they were made of. Purple dye, like the color Lydia used, was expensive. It was made from harvested snails and was a sign of royalty and status.
You can think of Lydia as the Sarah Blakely (the founder of Spanx) of her day. We don’t know her backstory, but she was a businesswoman with some cash, and God used Paul to issue an effectual call to Lydia. She became a believer through his ministry!
We sometimes think of wealth as a problem for Christians, and it definitely can be (Jesus warned us in Matthew 6:24 NIV that “You cannot serve both God and money.”)! It’s not the money itself that’s bad, it’s how our heart is towards it. When we love money more than we love the Lord (aka when we aren’t being a good steward of the gift of money God has trusted us with), that’s when there’s a problem. But in Lydia’s case, God used her money and home to support Paul’s ministry.
Missionaries and ministries need money (and the things it can buy). That was true then, and it’s true now! Just like God used Lydia to support Paul, God is still equipping and calling women to financially support the spread of the gospel today.
Lydia was potentially the first convert in Europe, and she opened her home to make Paul’s ministry happen. You do not have to have money to do that, but it sure helps if there is an extra bathroom and a mattress for the guests. Think about your friend who is the hostess-with-mostess—a bold, go-first type of woman who loves God. Or maybe this describes you?! You may be a modern-day Lydia.
I want to encourage you to allow God to use you… all of you (your gifts and talents, your home, your wallet, and your voice).
2) Priscilla
Your co-worker bestie!
Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately.
You may recognize Priscilla from this blog. Priscilla was a displaced Jew from Rome (Acts 18:2). When Claudius Caesar kicked the Jews out of Rome, Priscilla and her husband Aquila met, worked, and traveled with Paul to Ephesus (they all were tentmakers!).
When Apollos, a new convert, came to town boldly teaching about Jesus in the synagogue, they noticed that he might be missing some facts, so Priscilla and Aquila invited him over for dinner and helped him learn more about Jesus.
Side note: I love that they took him aside. There was no need to call him out publicly here. Their goal was to educate him for the good of the gospel, and he didn’t need to be shamed in public. Paul tells us in Romans, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18 NIV). The best way to help in this situation was to pull him aside, and that’s what they did!
Let’s not miss what is happening here. Priscilla partnered with her husband to teach Apollos, and Acts records that they “explained the way of God even more accurately.” She taught Apollos, and she did it well!
I recently watched the movie Paul, The Apostle of Christ. I know it is just a movie, but you see the most beautiful interaction of Priscilla with her husband and fellow Christians. We get the key bullet points about her in Scripture, but we must use our imagination and historical research to think about her day-to-day struggles. She was living out the gospel in the middle of intense persecution. What feels like two sentences in the Bible was years in her world. When Priscilla was alive, the Roman Emperor Nero was lighting real live human bodies on fire to light up the streets of Rome—Roman Candles. I want us to recognize the bold badassery it took to be a leader during this time.
Paul calls her his “co-worker” in spreading the gospel:
Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus.
Paul recognizes Priscilla’s value to the spread of the gospel and care for others! Another New Testament woman living out the Great Commission with Paul. What a bold and beautiful legacy!
3) Shiphrah and Puah
The “not on my watch” rebels of the Old Testament
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
We are throwing it back to the Old Testament with this one (yep, there are awesome women in the Old Testament, too!).
Shiphrah and Puah are two of our favorite unsung heroes of the Bible. These brave ladies stood up to the all-powerful pharaoh of Egypt because they knew who was really all-powerful: God.
Here’s what was happening… Pharaoh was trying to keep enough Hebrews around to be his slaves, but not so many that they could revolt against him, so he hatched a plan to kill all the Hebrew boys that were born, and he ordered Shiphrah and Puah to help.
Shiphrah and Puah, who managed the group of midwives serving the Hebrew women, essentially said, “Not on my watch.” Exodus records that they feared God (aka gave Him the respect He deserved), so, at great personal risk, they didn’t obey the pharaoh’s orders. Pharoah could have had them killed for this, but God protected them and gave them families of their own. We don’t know this for sure, but women often became midwives because they weren’t able to have children. Either way, what a beautiful blessing for these ladies.
What an awesome example of standing up for your faith even when there are consequences (I think we could use a little more Shiphrah and Puah energy today, don’t you??). Yes, and Amen!
More Goodies For You
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One word:” STUNNING”