MRS. JOB, REBEKAH, & JEZEBEL

Annie Marie Flynn
age 16,  taken 1919

Mrs. Job, Rebekah and Jezebel met at a bar.  No, not really. I made that up.

Actually they met in my study these past few weeks as I prepared for a Thursday morning Women's Bible Study at our church.

Wow!  These gals have a lot to teach us.

To say that THEY and everyone (but Jesus) in the Scriptures had a failure of faith is an understatement.  These three ancient women and their stories have been swirling around in my head for several weeks now.

Mrs. Job had everything going for her, life was good, until one day she lost everything she loved, materially and physically.  Her whole livelihood and 10 children were gone in a period of 24 hours.  All she had left was a very sick and dejected husband, who was still clinging to his faith in the living God.  She was ready for Job to curse God and go ahead and die.  What a wife that one proved to be!

Lesson:  Only God is eternal, everything else can be gone in a flash.  Cling to HIM....period.
It's called life.  If we're not having a "Job" experience yet, we will!  It's almost guaranteed. BUT....tragedy, surprises, & loss NEVER define the power, love and sovereignty of God. Only HE can bring light into darkness, comfort into despair, relief into hopelessness.  We prepare for life BEFORE it happens by knowing GOD during the calm good times.  HE is our only strong and sure foundation when tragedy hits.

Rebekah started out SO well, but after the twins were born she started playing favoritism and THAT destroyed her family.  She felt only SHE could control circumstances to bring about God's plan for her beloved Jacob and in the process lost him forever.  It is a sad, sad commentary on the power of a wife and mom.

Lessoon:  Manipulation, conniving and deceit are ingredients for a family disaster.  Rebekah pretended to be God and she failed miserably as a "wanna-be" deity.

Jezebel was probably the meanest, irreverent, ruthless, most controlling wife in ancient history. No one names their baby girl after this one.  She used her  power to manipulate and murder all in the name of "I'm going to do it my way!"   In the end wild dogs ate her up.

Lesson:  Disregarding the person and word of the Sovereign God invites holy justice. God will not be mocked.

There's too many applications in these stories to even begin to list them  in this short blog.  That's for another time and place. That's not the purpose of this article.

These women remind me of another woman.

You see, another woman's life has been swirling in my brain these past few weeks.  Annie Marie!  My grandmother on my mother's side.  I watched her up close and personal.  Let me tell you about her.

She NEVER spoke badly of her husband or children. NEVER.
She NEVER plotted against her husband or tried to manipulate him in any way...EVER!
She NEVER let tragedy (and she had experienced more than most) remove the song in her heart that I heard regularly as she sang in the kitchen.
She NEVER had her own agenda or tried to control situations, people, or facts.
She NEVER allowed personal loss to diminish her faith in God or the laughter in her house. (she cheated regularly at gin rummy and poker)
She KNEW  God could handle her pain, her tears, her loss, her fears, her children's and grandchildren's future  and her destiny.
She NEVER plotted murder or participated in false witnesses testimony.
She NEVER played favorites and loved all her children and grandchildren equally.  (I thought I was the favorite, BUT that was from my perspective, not hers!)

Annie Marie.  Her name is not written down in the Holy Scriptures or a famous biography, but indelibly on my heart. What an example, by deed more than by word.

I was blessed to have her in my life.  What a treasure!