2020 A.D.:  When God's Faithful Women Are Imperiled

 

 

 

  Who is the woman of faith who, when imperiled in some way, continues to hold her faith without wavering, telling everyone that she knows with certainty that she can trust in her Lord?  That woman is in an interesting position.  She has publicly declared, when others may see little hope for her situation, that she has no doubts about the One she trusts in.  She has counted on the name of Yahweh Who is God the Father and Maker of All Things and in Jesus, His Son, who by will of the Almighty Father is the Messiah and the Savior of all of mankind that ever will be saved.  And God the Father and His Son Jesus care very, very much about Their names.  I'll double down on that thought:  they care very much about Their names.

 

  I don't say that the woman in peril can be a great, willing, unrepentant sinner and count on God to aid her.  God may aid such women, and He may not.   I don't speak about a woman that time and again willingly embraces sin, but when faced with the consequences of being a sinner she suddenly pretends to be a great follower of God in need of His aid.  I know God will consider their case also, and He will do as He chooses in their case.  But what about the woman that is truly trying to be a pleasing follower of God and Jesus?  What about the woman that has given her heart and her faith to Jesus and the Father?  Or before Jesus came in the flesh, when the Israelites following the Mosaic covenant were the people of God, what about the woman who put full faith in the Father then?  And what about the previous faithful people, from the time of Jacob/Israel clear back to Adam?  What happens when such women as these are unfairly imperiled?  What happens?  Amazing things happen.  Some of the Bible's most amazing rescues are of women in helpless seeming situations, and some of its most terrible punishments are meted out to those who make the very grave mistake of touching a 'faithful bride of God'.  

 

  To mention some of the accounts from more recent history, the A.D. centuries, consider the following events:

 

 

A Statue Depicting Alba Trimammis

 

 

 

  When the three breasted woman named Alba Trimammis (In Latin.  Also called a Gwen Teirbron by the Welsh, and Blanche by the French) who was a 6th and 7th century Briton woman known as a famously devout Christian even during her lifetime, was captured from her convent by Saxon pirates and transported across the English Channel and held prisoner there, she walked back...across the water of the English Channel.  God altered the laws of physics to accommodate His wishes for her.  It may sound like fable, but the people of the time attested to it.  And amazingly, when pirates raided her convent again years later she was among those taken captive again...and walked back home across the waters of the English Channel once again.  A great number of churches subsequent to her time were named after her.  The people of her time held the miracles that God granted her to be fact.  In her early life God had given the woman three sons suckling all at the same time (which she was well suited for!  And they all grew up and became famous Saints in the church, especially holy men in their own right.) and later He had allowed the imperiled Alba to walk back across the channel to the safety of her home.  And you can bet that a lot of people came to be believers through the faith of this woman.  The Deeds of God website has an account about it.

 

 

 

The Georgian slave girl named Nino who saved the dying Queen of the Land

 

 

 

  When a helpless 4th century Cappadocian girl, a devout Christian girl, was purchased as a slave by the Georgian people that lived near the Black Sea she was given such powers of healing by the Holy Spirit that she eventually saved the life of the Queen of the land.  Through that Queen and a further personal miracle experienced by the King, Nino was called to speak to the King about Christianity and this caused the King of the Georgians to declare their land Christian...the 2nd 'officially Christian' nation some sources say, after Armenia.  Wasn't she alone and in a hopeless situation?  No!  She was a slave but she knew she belonged personally to the greatest of all powers.  And how many came to believe by hearing of the miracles of healing wrought through this helpless girl's faith? 

 

 

 

Paraskevi was beautiful inside and out...and was she the most potently empowered of all female saints?

 

 

 

 

  When the Roman woman of Greek origins, Paraskevi by name (named after the day we call Friday), walked and preached in Italy she had no protecting army, and it was a time of Christian persecution even to death.  The Roman Emperors weight was behind it.  You did well to kill a Christian during those times.  Yet Paraskevi not only didn't hide from proclaiming salvation through Jesus but when taken into custody she utterly astounded two different government officials at two different times and places.  They tried to fry her in a bathtub filled with scorching hot oil from a fire built beneath...but she was unaffected.  She was finally killed at a later time by a third Roman official.  In that instance they tortured her all night and even laid a heavy slab of rock across her and left her there for hours on the verge of crushed suffocation.  In the morning they judged that she looked so discouraged and beaten that they led her into a pagan temple and told her she need only worship their gods and she would be released.  She raised her head and called down a curse upon those false gods in a loud voice instead and the statues crumbled throughout the temple.  The priests rushed up and drug her off, beheading her.  But the lesson was administered to their pagan minds, and many came to faith through Paraskevi.  God says that He is strongest when we are weakest, and the life of this woman was certainly an example of this.  She was a woman, tortured, beaten, and not so strong seeming to her antagonists.  What she did could only be attributed to her God Who was Jesus, the Son of Yahweh, the Makers of all humankind and both font and steward of the physical forces at work in this universe.

 

 

The Often Heeded Prayers of Saint Clare

 

 

 

  

  The woman named Clare, founder of the Order called the Poor Clares, around 20,000 strong still today, was a woman who trusted Jesus implicitly.  In 1244 A.D. Clare was the Abbess of Saint Damien's Convent in Italy near the city of Assisi (a city made famous by Clare's deceased friend Saint Francis.)  War had broken out in their area.  The Pope's forces were being fought by a man once from Italy, but now from Sicily, named King Frederic II.  He is considered to have been one of history's genuine great geniuses in many respects.  But concerning war, he employed mercenary soldiers from among the fierce Saracens of the Middle East, a feared and respected group of warriors.  

  The Saracens, who were already fighting near the city of Assisi, decided to take ladders and climb the walls of the convent to see what treasures were hidden there.  Some of the sisters saw the tops of their ladders as they made their raid, and they ran to tell Clare who was sick in bed at the time.  She rallied, and asked them to quickly bring the reliquary holding part of the remains of her deceased friend Francis and meet her on a sort of upper story deck above their courtyard.  She prayed when her nuns arrived.  Her prayer is preserved to have gone as follows:  

 

 

She said "Behold, my Lord, is it possible that you would deliver into the hands of pagans your defenseless slaves that I have taught out of love for You?  I pray to you, protect these defenseless slaves that I cannot save myself! "

  Surprisingly, a voice was heard "I will always protect you!"

  Again Clare prayed.  "Lord, if it is your wish, please also protect this city (Assisi - editor) which is sustained by your love."

  Again, a voice:  "It will have to under go trials, but it will be defended by my protection!"

From "The History of Saint Clare, Virgin", a writing by her contemporary Tomasso da Celano (1200 - 1255 A.D.)

 

  The younger nuns arrived with the reliquary and raised it up, and they all stood in prayer together.  By that time ladders were raised inside their courtyard to their very building itself and Saracen warriors were ascending towards the undefended women.  But at this moment a 'Holy Terror' overtook all of the Saracens within their compound though these women had no defending soldiers and merely stood in prayer.  The Saracens raced back towards the convent walls with their ladders and got out of the convent courtyard as fast as they possibly could, apparently in a state of complete dread and panic.  And the nuns of Saint Dominic's, the Poor Clares as they would later be called, stood in safety within their walls protected by Jesus, and needing no other protection than that of course.

  In fact the ever fervent Clare is credited with saving the entire town of Assisi on two different occasions in her life through the power of answered prayer to Jesus!  

 

 

 

 And there are other occasions that history speaks of, some more recent.   When the 19th century nuns of Loretto Chapel in New Mexico prayed for 9 days that someone would come and build stairs for their nearly completed chapel a wanderer emerged from the desert on a mule and built a set of stairs so very strange in its design that it still draws tens of thousands of tourists each year.

  And there are other testimonies of this nature from the centuries A.D. of women whose faith was so immovable that God, perhaps with a Father's great pride welling up inside of Him to see such trust in a daughter, stood and upheld them, lifting them up before all the world.  Women of God may be allowed, like spiritual soldiers, to die in His service, but I truly believe, as many do, that such women are never forgotten as they face their trials.  Instead, I believe their struggles are scrutinized very carefully by eyes from Heaven. 

  Let's consider some such cases from the pages of the Bible.

 

  1.)  Eve

  Let's begin with Eve.  She was created through God using the flesh of Adam, she was taken from his side while he was sleeping, and she was formed by God to be Adam's suitable helper.  This is similar to the Christian Church being created from the flesh and blood of the 'last Adam' as the scriptures call Jesus in at least one place.  Jesus is stabbed by the centurion's spear as He hangs deceased on the cross.  Blood and water in a surprising quantity pour out.  The battle hardened old centurion sees something that causes him to cry out that this was surely the Son of God.  A legend holds that his name was Longinus and he had cataracts in his eyes that were healed by a splash in the eyes by this water and blood, and legend holds that his spear went on to be a cult object.  Whether that legend is true or not, the blood of Jesus atones for mankind's sin.  The 'living water', a name that scripture gives to the Holy Spirit, makes men alive again.  So this was a real event, but it had figurative meaning as well.  Adam is a real man, but also a foreshadowing of the coming Jesus, and Eve a foreshadowing of the people of God...the Bride of Christ...the Jews, and then the Christian Church.  So Eve was a real woman but she did represent the coming 'followers of God and Jesus'.  Eve ate the forbidden fruit.  She was beguiled...pretty easily led astray by the serpent, such that she ate at the serpents suggestion from the only tree in the whole Garden of Eden that was off limits to man.  Adam now had a polluted bride.  Eve had been 'poisoned' with sin by the cunning serpent.  Was she still acceptable to God, Who can not even look upon sin the scriptures say?  Would He kick her out and create a new bride for Adam?

  In the Bible's narrative Adam chooses to also eat the fruit that Eve has eaten.  The serpent does not fool Adam into eating the forbidden fruit.  Only Eve speaks to Adam about eating the fruit.  But, Adam takes the fruit that Eve has eaten and eats it himself, purposely choosing to put himself in the same hot water that Eve is in.  Adam has now also become a sinner because of deciding to share Eve's fallen state for some reason.  This action of Adam's is similar to what Jesus did, in a sense, when He came down to wear the same suit of sinful flesh that mankind walks about in.  But He taught people how to behave in light of their fallen state (to repent and then be baptized, to then love God with all their heart, mind, strength, and soul, and to love their neighbor as themselves.).  And after teaching them, He died for them.  

  Adam left His position of sin-free existence to share Eve's fate.  Jesus left His Father's side to share the fate of His 'bride':  the people Who would believe what He taught and follow Him.  i.e.:  the newly forming Church, the Bride of Jesus.  

  So, long story short, when Eve, the first imperiled woman the Bible speaks of, placed herself in spiritual jeopardy, God allowed the One from whose side she was taken to become her solace and her rescue and her companion as she traveled onward through her life.  She was rescued by the one through whom she had been formed.  And the Church has likewise had their Lord Jesus dwelling among them unseen, to lead them through the centuries of their trials, after He did what was necessary to rescue His fallen bride.   

 

    2.)  Sarah

  The bride of Abraham, she was also an amazing beauty.   She was Abraham's wife, but had been raised in his same household as a step-sister of sorts though they did not have the same mother and father.  Abraham married's her, but because of her beauty Abraham asked her to claim to be his sister at such times as some powerful king might see her extraordinary beauty and desire her.  They were shepherds and wanderers, vulnerable and in foreign kingdoms as they pushed their flocks from place to place.  Some sovereign king might kill Abraham to have beautiful Sarah if that king thought Abraham was her husband!  But that same king might be kind to a 'brother' of Sarah in order to more easily win her favor.  And as Abraham and Sarah traveled it turned out to be a well founded worry on Abraham's part, for kings did, on two separate occasions notice Sarah and take her against her wishes to their palace to make her their own wife, believing Abraham to be only a brother to this beautiful Sarah.   Here is how the Bible describes it in Genesis chapter 12:

 

  Here is Josephus account of the same occurrence, from chapter 12 of Antiquities of the Jews:

  1. ABRAHAM now removed to Gerar of Palestine, leading Sarah along with him, under the notion of his sister, using the like dissimulation that he had used before, and this out of fear: for he was afraid of Abimelech, the king of that country, who did also himself fall in love with Sarah, and was disposed to corrupt her; but he was restrained from satisfying his lust by a dangerous distemper which befell him from God. Now when his physicians despaired of curing him, he fell asleep, and saw a dream, warning him not to abuse the stranger's wife; and when he recovered, he told his friends that God had inflicted that disease upon him, by way of punishment, for his injury to the stranger; and in order to preserve the chastity of his wife, for that she did not accompany him as his sister, but as his legitimate wife; and that God had promised to be gracious to him for the time to come, if this person be once secure of his wife's chastity. When he had said this, by the advice of his friends, he sent for Abraham, and bid him not to be concerned about his wife, or fear the corruption of her chastity; for that God took care of him, and that it was by his providence that he received his wife again, without her suffering any abuse. And he appealed to God, and to his wife's conscience; and said that he had not any inclination at first to enjoy her, if he had known she was his wife; but since, said he, thou leddest her about as thy sister, I was guilty of no offense. He also entreated him to be at peace with him, and to make God propitious to him; and that if he thought fit to continue with him, he should have what he wanted in abundance; but that if he designed to go away, he should be honorably conducted, and have whatsoever supply he wanted when he came thither. Upon his saying this, Abraham told him that his pretense of kindred to his wife was no lie, because she was his brother's daughter; and that he did not think himself safe in his travels abroad, without this sort of dissimulation; and that he was not the cause of his distemper, but was only solicitous for his own safety: he said also, that he was ready to stay with him. Whereupon Abimelech assigned him land and money; and they coventanted to live together without guile, and took an oath at a certain well called Beersheba, which may be interpreted, The Well of the Oath: and so it is named by the people of the country unto this day.

 

  4.)  In Chapter 26 of Genesis Isaac and Rebecca have been instructed by God to go to the Philistine city of Gerar to dwell.  Rebecca is beautiful just as Sarah was, and Isaac uses his father Abraham's technique of passing her off as his sister there, so he won't be killed by the local men so that they can obtain his widow.  She is suddenly forced to live a a single woman, as if she were not married.  We are not told her thoughts, but we can see the anguish of soul she must have been in.  And this is the woman that will have the son named Jacob (later named Israel) who is so central, as it turns out, to the future plans of God.  But does she know all of this?  She knows she is desired by strangers and has a husband who fears to even acknowledge her as wife.  But she endures the situation, and when the king incidentally sees that Isaac is trying to fool them all, again a king named Abimelech so it may be the very same Abimelech that learned a lesson through Sarah, Abraham's wife, then he rebukes Isaac, assures Rebecca of her safety, and orders that his men keep their hands off of both Isaac and Rebecca.    God had plans to keep her safe the entire time, but she seems to have not known that since she played along with Isaac's fearful plan.  She had to just endure her situation in faith.

  From Genesis chapter 20:

26 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

² And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

³ Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

⁴ And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

⁵ Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

⁶ And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

⁷ And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

⁸ And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

⁹ And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

¹¹ And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

¹² Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.

¹³ And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:

¹⁴ For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.

¹⁵ For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

¹⁶ And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

¹⁷ And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

   End quote

  Rebecca stayed faithful and endured. Much came of that, but she did not see its true fruits during her earthly lifetime.  But nearly all of the subsequent events of the Bible sprang, in a way, from the womb of this woman who was faithful under duress.    

 

   Women in the Bible give God great amounts of praise among His enemies by keeping their faith, keeping their minds calm because of faith in their Lord, and moving through the worst circumstances they will face with perfect trust that the Lord is fully in charge of their fate.  Men look upon such women and their hearts are moved, and their own faith and courage is increased.  From such women come powerful events and great movements of God.