Have you heard about the “law of silence”? It’s this idea that has led many throughout the ages to say to a woman, “do not speak or teach in the church; that’s reserved for men”. This mandate has transcended to the community and other platforms, making some say that women should not have a voice in the Father’s kingdom. But when can women speak? You would be hard-pressed to find a verse of scripture more controversial than I Corinthians 14:34 that says, women are to be silent in the church. There are other scriptures that are often debated. When we read the scripture in I Timothy 2:12, “and i do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man but to be in silence”, we see that Paul says he does not allow women to teach or to have authority over men. Though there has been a lot of controversy surrounding some of Paul’s doctrine, I don’t think many are confused about having authority over a man because we know that’s the order The Most High set in place. In the book of Genesis, the husband is the head of the wife and his family; that’s the order we want. There shouldn’t be two heads because anything with two heads is a monster. We should all be praying for the sons of Israel to step into their rightful place because headship is important and should not be diminished in any way. So instead of debating about that, we’re going through the scriptures to examine the way Yah has used His vessels – those He declares to be fit for His use – whether they be male or female.
When you search the scriptures, you find many examples of women speaking and serving in leadership roles, mostly during times of crisis. We see The Most High using the daughters of Zion to help in many ways and oftentimes this is overlooked to reinforce the idea that women are to be silent. So, when the Messiah said that we are to spread the good news, was He saying that it should only be done in a church and did He say that only men should do it? We have these verses from Acts 2:17-18 and Joel 2:28-29 telling us that, “it shall come to pass, in the last days, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on My servants and on My handmaidens, I will pour out in those days, of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy”. In its scriptural sense, to prophesy means much more than to predict the future. The confusion comes from the statements of women not teaching and remaining in silence. You can rest assured that when you have verses of scripture that seem confusing or those with no precepts to confirm it, we’re either lacking information that will bring understanding, we’re reading it out of context or it may have been translated incorrectly – and there are instances of that happening. So, rather than debating the issue, let’s just take a look back in time to see how or if this mandate was enforced. It will give us a chance to look at some of the roles held by the women of Zion and see how and when they use their voice. The most notable are:
- Prophetess Huldah (II Kings 22 and II Chronicles 34)
- Judge and Prophetess Deborah (Judges 4 and 5)
- Rebekah – Wife of Isaac / Mother of Esau and Jacob (Genesis 24 – 49)
- Abigail – Wife of Nabal / future Wife of King David (I Samuel 25)
- Judith (Book of Judith – found among the apocryphal works of the Septuagint)
- Queen Esther (Esther 1 – 10)
- Prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36-38)
There are other women in scripture who allowed Yah to use them. As we continue in this awakening, many of the sisters feel that they should just sit back and soak in the information, thinking that they don’t have a role to play. My question for you that came out of churchianity is, did you feel the same way before coming into this awakening about sharing the gospel? Were you under the impression that it was the responsibility of the brothers to go out and spread the gospel, and you had no part in it? If Yah already had a call on your life and He was using you to teach, prophesy, evangelize, win souls for the kingdom, etc., why wouldn’t The Most High continue to use you? Know that your gifts and talents are needed. Our people are oppressed but they don’t know why and we need all hands on deck. I absolutely love seeing our men leading in this effort, particularly since the oppressor has tried to strip so much of that headship from them. I’m praying for our brothers often that the sons of Israel would step into their rightful place. Just like we don’t want to bash men, we don’t want to belittle the daughters of Zion either. We all have our function in the kingdom and the gifts and callings come from the One who created men and women. If ever the word needed to be shared with our people, it’s certainly now. We need to be declaring exactly what John the Baptist preached: “Repent Israel”. This series is designed to help our people see how the sons and the daughters work together in times of calamity. If you go back and do the research on this, you’ll see that it was usually when the nation was in a state of crisis, when The Most High used His daughters to step up to the plate. We need all hands on deck. We need our people to wake up and repent.
Again, there are many examples throughout history showing that indeed Yah has spoken to the nation of Israel through His daughters of Zion and He used them to speak to men and women. Why would he then stop now, especially since many of His daughters are filled with His Spirit? The scripture saying women are not to speak but to be silent is being used to muzzle the daughters of Zion and when some of them speak the words given to them by The Most High, labels are placed on them. If the Prophetess Deborah was alive today, would she be called jezebel or rebellious? Other than Paul saying that women are to be silent, where else can we find this in scripture? Is there another witness saying the same thing? When there is a contradiction or a verse of scripture that’s confusing, we’re either reading it out of context, we need additional knowledge about that particular topic or there may have been a translation (and that has happened). Wisdom tells us that, no, we’re not supposed to be listening to every single thing that a woman is saying. It tells us to examine and discern the word spoken to see if they are of The Most High – whether it’s coming from a man or a woman.
Learn more about the women used by Yah when you view the accompanying videos in the Women Do Not Speak 4-part series:
- Part 1 = Huldah: Prophet of Wisdom
- Part 2 = Deborah: Courageous and Wise
- Part 3 = Rebekah: The Intervening Mother
- Part 4 = Abigail + Esther: How to Win the Heart of a King
