Lovely Warrior

What does it mean to be a lovely warrior?  We are told through research of the Vikings, that their women readily went into battle with their men in defense of their homes.  But when it came to pillaging lands of their enemies, the women stayed home to tend the home fires.  These women had stout hearts that beat bravely in the face of danger, and they walked tall with honor of their heritage.

Fiction stories over the generations have depicted Viking women in different ways, and the one that stands out the most to me is The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, who placed his world in the past with a medieval setting, where the reader is introduced to a race of people in Rohan, and Lady Eowyn is the niece of the king.

I can identify with Lady Eowyn, when in The Two Towers, she reveals that she is not afraid to fight, but then is disheartened when her Uncle the King refuses to let her fight, and commands her to stay behind and care for the women and children.  Later in The Return of the King, after Lady Eowyn learns that there is to be a great battle, and many of her kin may not return, she disguises herself as a man and joins the battalion.

On the battlefield, the enemy arrives in great force and numbers, and Lady Eowyn witnesses the fall of her Uncle the King.  As she stands guard over him, she is prepared to meet her death to stop the enemy from corrupting her Uncle’s dying body, with the help of a special friend.

Following is a clip from the scene in the movie, along with the script of what is being said in the scene.  The movie is rated PG-13, but it is still gory and may not be suitable for sensitive or younger viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSNPeJAgBzo#t=44

King Theodin:  “Rally to me!  To me!”The Witch King to the Nazgul:  “Feast on his flesh!”Lady Eowyn to The Witch King:  “I will kill you if you touch him!”The Witch King to Lady Eowyn:  “Do not come between the Nazgul and his prey! … You fool!  No man can kill me! ... Die now!”Lady Eowyn to The Witch King:  “I am no man!”

As a prayer warrior, this scene moves me to tears, each and every time I see it.  For as long as I can remember, I have seen the spiritual battle that needs to be fought in the Christian life, but have not been allowed to discuss it, let alone act on it because it is considered too dangerous or not my place.  But, like Lady Eowyn, I have come to find that I have a duty to perform, regardless of what others think.  If God has given me the gift of discernment and He prompts me to pray about something specific in my life or someone else’s, then I must do so.  And it is in that moment that I find God gives me great courage to meet the task, and gives me wisdom to understand the situation and deal with it accordingly.

I am honored that God chose to place me in the lineage of Viking women, even though we don’t live like that anymore.  But I am even more honored that He would call me to do spiritual battle and give me everything I need to accomplish that task (2 Peter 1:3)

So, even though I was thinking about Lady Eowyn as I working through this Bible study on The Emancipation of Woman, she is not who inspired me to study it.  Rather, it was Deborah, an Israelite judge.

We are told in Judges 4 of the role of Deborah in Israel’s history, during the time between their exodus from Egypt and their installment of their first ruler, King Saul.  God had commanded Israel to conquer the outlying lands and destroy their enemies – any who refused to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

One General in particular, was having difficulty accepting the responsibility, and expressed his concern to Deborah, who had communicated this command to him in the Lord’s name.  Deborah told this General that she would go with him into battle, but that victory would not go to him, it would go to a woman.  Later on, when the general of the enemy army was fleeing for his life and was offered shelter in a tribal woman’s tent, she killed him in his sleep.

Returning to The Lord of the Rings, we see similar events take shape in the book, Return of the King, but because of poetic license, we see in the movie, two times where the Witch King is confronted but not defeated.  The book references that no man can defeat him.

According to the story, Aragorn whose ancestors had been corrupted by the Ring of Power, did not want to be king, and therefore hid himself within the Elves and Rangers for a time.  However, the fate of the world brought him into the picture, when Lady Arwen, the Elf Princess whom he was also romantically involved with, became ill because of the evil workings brought on by the Ringmaker's power, thus she gave him her light in the form of a pendant known as Evenstar to take with him into battle to protect him and empower him to confront his responsibility as king.  Later, Arwen's father came to Aragorn with the command for him "to become the man he was born to be", and influenced his decisions and empowered his resolve as he went forward into battle, though believing that he would not survive.

In the meantime while this was going on, we have the events written above about Lady Eowyn, and throughout the entire Trilogy, there is a group of people called the Hobbits, represented by the main character Frodo Baggins, who finds himself the Ringbearer and eventually sees the Ring destroyed.  At the end of the movie in The Return of the King, when Lady Arwen & Lady Eowyn are healed, and Aragorn is made King, the moment that the world begins to pay homage to him, he diverts the glory from himself onto the Hobbits, saying "you shall bow to no one".

Returning to the core passage of this study, we see the account of the woman who washed Jesus feet with perfume, tears and her hair.  Spiritually, she is proclaiming her homage to the Lord Jesus, anointing him in preparation for battle.  And when Jesus rose from the dead, it was she that He commanded at the empty tomb to go and proclaim the good news that He is risen.  This is a momentous occasion.  This proves that the cross accomplished emancipation for woman, and raised her to a status equal with man, as Jesus gave her a job that He would have previously given to one of his disciples.  This is glorious indeed.  What more do us women have to fear?  We must don the amour God has given us, and raise our swords and shields in Spirit and in Truth.

To God be the glory!

~ A special thanks to my husband, Dave, for helping me with the accuracy of these details.

Sherry Bowers

The Emancipation of Woman

WOMEN’S MINISTRY ~ A SYMPATHETIC SERVICE

According to Thompson’s Chain Reference Bible

Matthew 26:6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. 9 "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor."10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."  14 Then one of the Twelve--the one called Judas Iscariot--went to the chief priests 15 and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.”

·         Paraphrase of Thompson’s commentary.

o   Personal observations of how this applies to the Christian woman today.

Verses 7-10

• The Christian woman should serve to please the Lord.  Her primary goal in serving should not be  to please others.  She should  only focus on what the Lord thinks of her service, and not care what others think of her.

• In our service to others, us women should stop worrying about inconveniencing others with our service.  We need to stop worrying about their reaction to our concern about their welfare, and simply be obedient to God’s prompting to serve Him.  And, the best way to avoid conflict is to proceed anonymously.

• The Christian woman is realistic.  She does not dramatize the truth to draw attention to herself, nor does she exaggerate or embellish the truth of the matter for selfish gain.  Her ambitions are for the LORD alone.
• In our sevice to others, us women have to analyze each situation accurately.  We should not get caught up in the emotion of the moment and thereby get caught in the middle of the circumstances, nor should we get caught up in gossip about the situation which only leads to distorting the truth and ultimately hurting everyone.

• The Christian woman does not cherish her possessions more than her service to God.

o   In our service to others, us women should not become a “pack-rat”.  We need to be willing to let go of what we don’t need because someone else may have need of it more (my junk may be another’s treasure).

• The Christian woman must be prepared that even her fellow Christians will misjudge her good works, mistaking her devotion to Christ as “waste”.
• In our service to others, we need to take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows our heart, so that when others wound it, He can heal it without our getting in the way.

Verses 10-13

• The Christian woman does not over-criticize others’ work, but rather encourages them.
• In our service to others, us women must purposefully look for the good in other Christians’ actions, and deny ourselves the opportunity to cast a negative light thus robbing everyone of a blessing in the process.

• The Christian woman prioritizes her goals:  She seeks first to glorify God before edifying others.
• In our service to others, us women must purposefully live out our day in such a way that God is revealed through us so that others may see Him in us and know that we are set apart.

• The Christian woman’s gifts are hers to give by the authority of heaven, and no one can condemn her for her servant’s heart.
• In our service to others, us women must always check our motives before doing anything for anyone else, to be sure that they are godly and not carnal, because our reputation cannot be marred when we are working in the spirit of Christ, but it can be maligned if we are working for our own selfish gain.

• The Christian woman represents compassion, devotion and dedication.  She will be rewarded when God is glorified through her actions.
• In our service to others, true compassion, devotion and dedication are rarely seen in the public arena.  It is seen in the quiet of the night when we as a mother sit by our feverish child.  It is seen in the early morning when we as a wife rise to listen as our husband reads from God’s Word and shares his heart.  It is seen in the heat of the day when we as a daughter prepares a refreshing meal for her family so that her mother can rest.  These attributes are made possible  through obedience to God, through our love for Christ and our submission to the Spirit’s guidance.

• The Christian woman keeps her heart pure and her motives honorable, to bring glory to God.
• In our service to others, especially as a mother, we should encourage our children with confidence to approach God boldly, to learn directly from the Lord by the power of His Spirit, without worrying what others may think of their approach to worshipping their Lord and Savior.