Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Thursday Thirteen #16

The following are, in no particular order, 13 of my favorite historical figures from the Bible. I have not included Jesus in the list, although, of course, He's my favorite. That's just going to go without saying...although, I think I just said it. Some of these are people who I wish I could be like, and others are people I relate to for one reason or another.


1. Moses - Here's a man who had to wait a really long time to find out what God had planned for his life, and even when God flat-out told him what to do, he still hedged and wanted someone else to do it, instead. He had an incredible love for his people, though, and I like how he wanted the best for them, no matter how annoying they were.
2. Deborah - One of the only woman in the Old Testament who had a specific leadership role. She told Barak that since he was too afraid to go to battle without her, a woman would get the glory of killing Sisera. (That was Jael, next)
3. Jael- This is the woman who killed Sisera. In case you don't know the story, Sisera was the enemy leader in a big battle, and he ran away from the battle to the tent of this woman who he thought would be sympathetic to him. She lulled him to sleep with a glass of warm milk, then drove a tent stake through his temple while he slept.
4. Gideon - He thought of himself as weak and pitiful, but God called him a Mighty Warrior, and then made him go prove it by saving his people.
5. David - A man after God's own heart. David in his prime (physical and spiritual) would've been one amazingly strong and feasome warrior, but also an extremely talented and inspired musician; every woman's dream (which caused him a problem or two later)
6. Daniel - A full life of service in the midst of incredible odds. He was a real leader, and a real hero.
7. Esther - A unique woman in the history of Judaism. She was the queen of Xerxes, and used her position to save her people from a holocaust.
8. Mrs. Noah - Can you imagine sticking with your man for over one hundred years while he builds the huge boat? And then, living on that boat with all those animals?
9. Rebekah - She was willing to leave her family, possibly for the rest of her life, to become the wife of a man (Isaac) whom she had never seen. She could be pretty sneaky, too, when the need arose.
10. Ruth - She, like me, learned that when you see a great man, you do what you have to to catch him.
11. Abigail - She, not like me, had a husband who was a total idiot, but she found ways to get around his mistakes, and after he died she was one of King David's wives.
12. Eunice-and
13. Lois - We know nothing about these women except that they served God faithfully and passed on their knowledge to Timothy, who helped spread the gospel of Christ. No woman can ask more.

Check here for more Thursday Thirteen.

13 comments:

Scribbit said...

#3 is one of those stories that the kids find fascinating but adults tend to edit out :)

Miscellaneous-Mum said...

Some inspirational women there, to be sure

Anonymous said...

What a great list!

Anonymous said...

I love that you included Mrs. Noah. I'd never, ever thought of her before this-- and yet where would we all be without her?

Good idea for a list.

Coco said...

Awesome list! Funny really that you should mention Jael and Abigail. These two great women... I never really realized their existence until recently as I'm reading through a Bible which includes profiles of Women of the Bible :)

BTW, thanks for visiting my TT, and honestly I'm not an organized person. I'm just trying to be ;)

Carmen said...

I've always loved the story of Esther. My mom would read it to me all the time as a kid.

JAM said...

Great list, I couldn't have come up with a better list. When I first actually sat and read through all these people's lives, not just hearing about them in preaching, I was amazed at just how "human" they all were. Took God 40 years to get Moses to where he could tell him what HE had planned for him, and then another 40 years just to get him out of the desert. A bold Charleton Heston, he wasn't. (with all due respect to Cecil B. DeMille)

We named our daughters for Rebekah and Rachel, and to this day, we often hear, "Oh! That's a neat spelling! I've never seen Rebekah spelled like that before!" She was quite deprived as a child, because none of those pre-named things like bicycle lisence plates, and mugs with names on them had her name spelled right.

My dearest grandmother was named Eunice, and she served God with all her heart too.

Spiffy list.

Lady G~ said...

Great list! I knew about all of them except 12 & 13. Don't know how I overlooked them!

I must say that aside from Jesus, my favorite historical bible figures are Joseph, Daniel & Caleb. Which is why my boys are name Joseph Andrew and Daniel Caleb.

Anonymous said...

Woot woot! I knew all of them. Jael is my fave Biblical woman.

Anonymous said...

Great breakdown of biblical people.

MaR said...

Great list and very informative to those of us who are not that familiar with the Bible. Wonderful!
happy thursday :)

Danica Favorite said...

Great List! I'm so glad you included Eunice, Lois, and Jael.

Qtpies7 said...

Great list!
I'm way behind on my visiting, my kids all had trips this weekend, and now I have a little free time!
Yes, I was actually down to TWO kids at home last night! And it will only be 4 tonight!