Bold Women of the Bible

9/25/2024

Written by: Christina Gregory

I’m not a Proverbs 31 woman. I’m bad at meal planning and most of our clothes come from Amazon. I wake when the children wake, and most certainly not before the sun. But that’s not all, I’m also not a 1 Peter 3 woman…I’ve never been described as gentle or quiet spirited. And if for a moment I am, I am probably just plotting. I’m what many have described as “extra.” 

It was a source of shame for many years. Like God perhaps made me too much in one hand, but yet not enough in the other. I thought since my personality didn’t align with what a couple of verses in the Bible said a “good woman” was, that I couldn’t be useful to God. But it wasn’t just a bad understanding of theology. While you’ll never catch me complaining about being a woman, I’m not a stranger to struggles that come with the title.

It wasn’t until I took responsibility for my spiritual education that I learned that this wasn’t a reflection of God’s heart or intention for women. It wasn’t that I was being taught that women weren’t valued by God, it was just my worldly experience influencing my spiritual experience. God loves women. He uses women. He is using women. He isn’t avoiding their questions or sin. He doesn’t wish they’d sit still and be quiet. We were created in His likeness because He wanted us to be.

So I wanted to introduce you to 3 women from the Word that God used because of, not despite of, their quirkiness and their boldness. Because they’re extra!

Ruth was a widow who had every right to return to her people and find a new husband. Instead, Ruth chose to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to her hometown. But more importantly, she chooses to follow her God. There, she meets Boaz who is wealthy, single, and probably buff. He is also related to her late husband's family, which means he is privy to marrying Ruth, though he was not first in line. So taking matters into her own hands, Ruth waits in his bedroom (at his feet…because she has morals) for him to find her! The best part is, it was Naomi's idea! Mother-in-law turned wing-man! Their plan works, Boaz is flattered she would pursue him and he seeks permission from the first in line to marry Ruth. As someone who also pursued my husband (albeit not so boldly), I approve this message!

Before even laying eyes on Boaz, Ruth’s faith in God is shown. She tells Naomi in Ruth 1:16 “For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people shall be my people and your God my God.” I love how Ruth was an active participant in her pursuit of hope and restoration. And God wasn’t ashamed or put off by her boldness. On the contrary, He shows her honor by having her in the lineage of His son, Jesus! 

Joanna was a follower of Jesus. Not just in her heart or her good, moral behavior like we refer to ourselves in modern day. She was there with him and his disciples during his earthly ministry. She was healed by Jesus, himself. She was one of the first to find he had been resurrected. Jesus and Joanna were friends and she believed in Him and His mission and He respected and loved her.

Joanna was also a leader. She was trusted and revered at work. She was a lady of the court and worked as Herod Antipas' steward. We are told where Joanna worked to imply that she was probably getting paid pretty well. We learn in Luke 8:3 that Joanna, Mary Magdalene, Susanna and “many others, who provided for them out of their means.” Jesus and his ministry was funded by women! Powerful women! Smart women! Wealthy women!

But Joanna’s power didn’t overrule her need for a Savior. She wasn’t worried about fighting to be the smartest woman in the room. She wasn’t ruled by her wealth. Joanna’s day job funded her passion, which was Jesus! 

We meet Miriam as an unnamed child in Exodus 1 where she helps ensure her brother Moses safely makes it from that fateful basket on the river. When we catch back up with her in Exodus 15, she goes from being unnamed to being deemed “Miriam the Prophetess.” God uses her and her brothers to save the people of Israel from slavery. Miriam then leads the women in a song of celebration in Exodus 15:21 singing “Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted. Both horse and driver, he has hurled into the sea.” She certainly doesn’t mince words. But that’s not all, she gets herself into trouble with complaining and God has to humble her with a case of leprosy. Don’t worry, He heals her.

Miriam’s personality was big. She was brave. She seems eccentric and boisterous. Maybe being a sister amongst two brothers roughed up her soft, girly edges. Miriam stuck out, and not always in a good way. And God saw the value in it all! He used her to redeem a nation, to bring Himself praise, and to reaffirm His just nature.

Friend, I hope these stories of women who were bold, motivated, risk-takers redefines what you know a woman of God to be. I pray it emboldens you to let God use you the way He intended to when He created you, so miraculously and wonderfully!