Women Serving Food
Women Serving Food
Receiving a meal from a woman is a normal everyday experience. It was our very first experience both inside and outside of the womb. When outside for the first time, we were nurtured at our mother’s breast. And since those beginning moments of life, we’ve enjoyed countless delicious meals, lovingly prepared by our mothers (and fathers too). It’s a normal pattern.
And so, it is no surprise that our God uses this same pattern to remind us of how important it is to listen to His voice, that is to say, to obey his commands. To “hear” in the Hebrew Bible is to obey by faith.
The First Recorded Meal in History
The first recorded meal in human history was of a woman serving a man.
She took of its fruit and ate it. She also gave to her man who was with her and he ate it. Genesis 3:6
When God called Adam to account for his faithless disobedience, He interprets the previous event for us. Rather than locating Adam’s failure in his taking of the fruit from his wife, the LORD interprets the problem differently:
Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree…Genesis 3:17
Adam’s failure is not so much that he listened to a woman’s voice per se,[1] but that he failed to listen to and obey the voice of the LORD God. And lurking behind the scene was the serpent’s voice, casting doubt on what God had said. But the context of that failure to listen and obey is a woman serving a meal to a man. And the tragic result of that meal was death. Adam ate and he died. Adam ate a meal of death.
A Second Meal: King Saul is Cast as Adam
It’s a pattern repeated in Scripture. When the author of 1 Samuel composed his account of King Saul, cast as a seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15), he echoes the initial failure of Adam at a meal.
Saul also failed to listen/obey to the voice of the LORD God (1 Samuel 28:18). And because Saul does not have a word from the LORD, he turns to a witch, a female medium to call up dead Samuel—an act strictly forbidden by God (Deut. 18: 9-22). Observe, Saul did not listen to the voice of the LORD, but he did listen to the voice of a witch. Lurking covertly behind this scene, as was the case in Eden, is the serpent’s voice again. See the pattern?
But the author of 1 Samuel is not finished with Saul. The witch insisted on making food for him. At first, Saul resists, but then caves in and “hears/obeys her word.” Saul not only fails to listen to the voice of the LORD, but he also listens to her voice and takes food from her, a woman in cahoots with the serpent. He ate, rose, and went (1 Samuel 28:25).[2] Though he does not suspect a thing, it is Saul’s last night on earth. Saul is killed and decapitated the next day on Mount Gilboa just as Adam died on Mount Eden (1 Samuel 31:4-10).
See the Pattern?
See the pattern? The roots of the scene where a man who failed to listen to the voice of the LORD, who received food from a woman influenced by the serpent, and then experienced death, go back to Eden Mountain. It’s a pattern. Saul failed just like Adam failed. In both cases, the result was death on a mountain.[3]
But there is hope. Jesus, the new Adam, who always listened to the voice of His Father, served his followers a meal in an upper room.[4] In anticipation of his death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus transformed the Genesis 3 verbs of condemnation “she took and ate” into verbs of salvation: take and eat.
And how very fortunate we are to have women in our lives who not only may serve us tasty meals, but who also listen carefully to the voice of the Lord and are diligent to observe, interpret, and apply with precision[5] what God has said in Scripture.
Thank you for reading.
[1] Boaz is one of many examples of a man listening to a woman’s voice and the result was incalculable blessing. Ruth 3: 9ff. Boaz listened to and married Ruth and from that marital union came David the son of Jesse, the seed of Jesus the Messiah. Ruth 4:18; Matthew 1:1-18. Timothy is another example from the New Testament (Acts 16:1; 2 Tim. 1:4-5) as is Apollos (Acts 18:26). The message of the resurrection of Jesus was first preached to His apostles by women (Luke 24:9-10; cf., Acts 2:17).
[2] It is no coincidence that these same three verbs are found in this particular order only one other time in all of the Old Testament: Genesis 25:34. After selling his birthright to Jacob, earmarking him as a seed of the serpent, Esau, ate, rose, and went. Saul acts like another seed of the serpent, Esau who also ate, rose, and went.
[3] The Gospel writers portray Jesus as the true Adam, refusing to take the fruit of the vine while hanging on a cross placed on a hill-like structure. And the women who watch Jesus at the cross also do not offer him food to eat. The Gospel writers portray them as better Eves.
[4] Upper rooms in the New Testament take the place of mountains in the Old Testament where God meets with His people for significant transactions.
[5] One of many students in an advanced Hebrew class I am currently taking is a young woman whose knowledge of the Hebrew language is impressive and fruitful. Her skills in Inductive Bible study enable her to be precise, accurate, and helpful to all. She is but one of many in Jesus’ church.