This coming Sunday, Feb 1, 2015, most of the US and much of the rest of the world will be watching Super Bowl XLIX where the New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks. Now, I realize, there was no football in the Bible, but there were certainly lots of competitions, battles, and struggles which had losers and winners.

So, which event or events in the Bible would you compare to the Super Bowl? There are probably several possibilities, so I will choose one that everyone would at least agree was a showdown of epic proportions. After all, one of the best-loved movies of all time, “The Ten Commandments,” still brings this event to life at least once a year on our televisions. The event I’m thinking of is the Egyptians vs. the Hebrews at the parting of the Red Sea, or you could narrow it down even more to Pharaoh vs. Moses. The winner was Moses and the Israelites. See the book of Exodus for details.

While most anyone who knows movie trivia or knows even one Bible story, this is probably the one they know: Moses leading the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt and toward the Promised Land in Canaan. But if you were to ask the names of the women in the story, folks would probably have a more difficult time identifying the important female characters.

So, in this blog, I want to introduce you to–or remind you of–some of the female characters without whom the story would not even be known.

The first woman you need to know is Moses’ mother. Can you name her? The Bible does not even name her until 4 chapters after the birth of Moses is mentioned. Her name was Jochebed and she was from the tribe of Levi, as was her husband (see Exodus 2:1 and 6:16-20). Before Moses was born, Jochebed had two other children: Aaron and Miriam. If it weren’t for the cunning abilities of his mother Jochebed and his sister Miriam, Moses would not have survived his infancy.

Do you remember how that when Moses was born Pharaoh had ordered that all Hebrew baby boys were to be drowned in the Nile River? Jochebed’s resourcefulness allowed her to use the Nile River as a place of salvation for her young son Moses. She made a waterproof basket and placed Moses in the Nile River near where the Pharaoh’s daughter usually took her bath. With his sister Miriam watching close by, the baby’s basket was found by the royal princess and she realized he was a Hebrew baby. At that point, Miriam approached the princess and offered to find a nursemaid for the baby. The princess agreed and Moses was reunited with his own birth mother until he was weaned and taken to the palace to be raised as a royal prince. While Disney has captured this story in cinematic animation in “The Prince of Egypt,” I encourage you to read the original story in Exodus and use your own imagination.

So, Moses grew up with two mothers–a birth mother and an adoptive mother. We never learn in scripture the name of Pharaoh’s daughter who rescued Moses, but the ancient midrash writings of Jewish rabbis give her the name “Meroe.” (I have Dr. Lisa Wilson Davison to thank for these insights. See her book listed below.)

Consider the risks these women took:
1. Jochebed hid a newborn baby boy for three months, protecting him from certain death. By defying Pharaoh’s order in doing this, she was risking her own life as well.
2. She placed her infant son in the very river where so many others had been drowned, hoping that someone would find him and rescue him and provide a life for him among the Egyptians. How many other things could have happened to that baby in the basket?
3. Miriam, as a young girl herself, had to be very courageous to approach the Pharaoh’s daughter as she did.
4. The Pharaoh’s daughter, Meroe, risked everything by defying her father’s orders about killing Hebrew baby boys.

We do not know the actual fate of Jochebed or Meroe, but we do know that big sister Miriam became one of the leaders and prophets of the Hebrews along with her brothers Aaron and Moses. She was also known as a worship leader. Read more about Miriam in Exodus 2:1-10; 15:20-21; Numbers 12:1-15; 20:1; Deuteronomy 24:9. She was one of God’s spokespersons and a leader of worship for the whole community. She also suffered the consequences of disobeying God and learned some hard lessons.

Yet, Miriam is remembered in scripture and provides a wonderful example for young girls and women today regarding how God can use the courage and leadership of women to protect, instruct, and inspire others.

If you’d like to read a couple of my favorite books about biblical women, I commend to you these great resources:

Preaching the Women of the Bible by Lisa Wilson Davison, published in 2006 by Chalice Press, St. Louis, MO. Dr. Davison is currently a professor of Hebrew at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a wonderful presenter about women of the Old Testament–or as she likes to call it, the “First Testament.”

Women of the Bible: The Life and Times of Every Woman in the Bible by Sue Poorman Richards and Lawrence O. Richards, published in 2003 by Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN. This book has been an excellent resource for me for many years as I have taught classes and conferences about women in the Bible.

Something to think about:
So, if you watch the Super Bowl this weekend, consider what sacrifices the mothers, sisters, and wives of all those football players and coaches went through to help those men attain the recognition they have received.