Damsel in Distress
It is no secret that as a young girl, I was the poster child for traditional, American femininity. My barbies had divine romances that ended in marriage. My favorite dress up dramatization was wedding. I followed the narratives of Belle and Jasmine and Ariel with an unnatural hunger, concocting for myself imaginative, desperate situations that would always end in dramatic rescue. In high school, I framed Disney movie stills and artwork above my bed. I dreamed that one day my prince would come.
I won't shame these activities in the way that I might have in more bitter years. Certainly, there are problems when we raise young girls to see helpless as synonymous with beautiful or to feel that their value is only found in partnership with a man. Yet, God has this incredible way of redeeming our broken narrative themes, the ones that so often leave us longing and unfulfilled, to reveal something deeply profound about Himself.
In the first two posts of this series, I discussed the biblical study techniques presented by Jacqueline E. Lapsley in Whispering the Word—that of listening carefully to the words of women as well as to the narrator's perspective. This last piece has been several weeks in coming because I had a harder time wrapping my head around Lapsley's third technique—discerning the values presented in a text.
To illustrate what she means, Lapsley considers the opening chapters of Exodus, when a group of women work together to save the baby Moses. Even before the main action of the story, the narrator establishes a difference between the power exerted by Pharaoh, through intimidation and oppression, and the power of the Hebrew women. She notes that the language used to describe the growth of the Israelite population means, quite literally, the women were "exploding with children." Pharaoh's first attempt to control this immigrant group that he finds threatening employs the "more bricks, less straw" strategy, afflicting the people with heavy burdens. This technically should have worked. Historically speaking, birth rates typically decline when people are oppressed, yet the Hebrew women continue to bear children at this explosive pace. Next, Pharaoh charges the midwives to kill all the newborn boys, which backfires when those women find a way to subvert his evil decree. Unwilling to murder to obey their king, the midwives explain that "the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them" (Exodus 1:19). Already in the story, we see how the Hebrew women's vigorous character and collaborative spirit preserves Israelite growth. In this story, the midwives are the first rescuers, yet they save the day in a more collective, less knight-in-shining armor kind of way. Lapsley explains Pharaoh's critical error:
The Egyptian king's narrow assumption that men are the source of the Hebrew's strength reflects a patriarchal culture in which men are valued more than women. The biblical story undermines this idea, and offers instead a picture of women as the source of the Hebrew's strength and flourishing...the ancient patriarchal culture values men more highly, but this story subtly deconstructs that ideology by disclosing the blindness and ineptitude of those persuaded of its truth (74-75).
After all this, Pharaoh continues his efforts to suppress the population growth by attacking the men. He issues a national command to throw the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile. Interestingly, Moses mother technically obeys the law—yet rescues her son—by placing Moses in a basket in the river. She positions him strategically along the bank, near where Pharaoh's daughter and entourage were bathing. Pharaoh's daughter has compassion on the crying child and Moses' sister, appearing at that opportune moment from the reeds, offers to find a lactating Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for Pharaoh's daughter. The collaboration between Moses' family and the Egyptian royalty crosses ethnic and class lines to reunite the baby Moses with his mother-turned-wet-nurse. By working together to rescue Moses, these women are the instigating force of Pharaoh's ultimate downfall.
The value systems presented in this text are truly revolutionary. While Pharaoh values a stereotypically masculine physical power, scripture suggests that true strength can come in many forms. In God's hands, it is the weak things of the world that shame the strong. This passage suggests that women who endure faithfully, those who might be considered lesser or weak, are important agents of change.
As the story progresses, we see both women rescuing men and men rescuing women. Back and forth, each main character is at times in distress and at times the rescuer. But, stopping here in our study could easily land us with the problematic Dorothy question—good witch or bad witch? The women are good because they work across race and class lines to rescue Moses. Or, the women are forced into a situation where bad, spineless men require them to gender swap and save the day.
Once again, we need to look for something bigger: the women who work cooperatively to save Moses actually image Christ.
We often think about how Moses delivering the Israelites foreshadows the way in which Christ will save all of mankind through his death and resurrection. Truly, sometimes salvation comes with the drama and flourish of parting the Red Sea. Jesus ultimate salvation act on the cross is certainly one such example. But sometimes in our lives the Holy Spirit rescues us with a still small voice. Sometimes deliverance looks like counter-cultural collaboration. The parent who faithfully continues to pray. The colleague who invites you to lunch and asks how you are really doing. The cosmic timing of showing up to church on a specific day to hear a specific message from a pastor who has never heard your story, yet speaks to the heart of it. Sometimes the Spirit guides us along the scenic route to salvation because that might be what we really need. The women in Exodus show us one facet, one small sliver, of the magnitude of God's whole-person salvation.
For Further Reading
Of course, this story leaves me with more questions about the difficult task of observing the values and themes presented in scripture and how they point us to Christ.
- Esther is another figure of deliverance in scripture. In what ways does her story present a fuller picture of the lengths God will go to in order to save us?
- What can we learn about the God of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation from ethnic outsiders like Rahab and Ruth?
- Tamar dresses as a prostitute and tricks her father-in-law into sleeping with her. How are we supposed to think about the cultural emphasis on female sexual purity when Judah calls her "more righteous than I"?
- What can we learn about the value of educating women by the way Jesus treats Mary of Bethany?