Went and saw John and Stasi Eldredge on Life Today Tuesday night. They were on to talk about Captivating, their new book. Stasi was amazing. Of course I knew John would bellow (as always) but Stasi really brought the power! I don't know what I expected, but I was in tears most of the first session. James Robison started with Wild at Heart and the battle for a man's heart that John revealed to the world (that God revealed to the world through John). Then they talked about something I have been talking about since January. The assault against women is nastier and more fierce by far than the assault on men. Period. Has been from the beginning (that garden in Eden thing). John suggested two reasons why this is true. The first was because of Lucifer's envy of Eve's beauty. He had been created perfect in beauty before he fell. And that's a big part of why he attacked her instead of Adam. He hates the beauty of the daughters of Eve as well because they still remind him of all that he has lost.
And they are beautiful! I can't remember when I began to allow myself to say that, but it's pretty recent, to my shame. Women are beautiful. What a divine thought. Their beauty is primarily (but not exclusively) how they glorify God—how they bear His image. And the hits just keep on comin' because Lucifer still hates it. He will bruise, cut, mame, mar, rape, pillage, plunder, mock, pervert, steal, kill, and destroy it any way he can. And I'm not just talking about the rampant violence from men against women all over the world all throughout time, but even the subleties of how they are deceived to hurt themselves and how we as a human race misunderstand and abuse their beauty. I posted a comment online a while back about the double-hit that beauty has taken.
So...the next morning I finished reading Job to my family during breakfast, and I was stunned at the conclusion of the book. The part about God speaking to Job? No. The part about God scolding Job's friends? No. The conclusion. The part about God giving Job three beautiful daughters who are NAMED though his seven sons are NOT, and are praised for their beauty, and are given an inheritance along with his sons! Now, I've read the book of Job many times. I am frankly enamored with it. But for some reason this part about Job's daughters never captivated me. I think it was because I had been lied to and had probably even lied to myself about a feminine beauty for so long that I read quickly over it. But this is amazing because in ancient texts and lineage in the bible girls are rarely named, and I don't know when any girl in the bible ever got a direct inheritance! But here it is stright from the page:
The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years.
Job 42:12-17
God makes sure to note that these ladies were really beautiful! (or as the KJV says, fair) In fact, that's all that was noted about them. Job names his first daughter Dove, his second Cinnamon, and his third Darkeyes. I can only imagine. And smile. And get mad too, because even though they survived Job and went on to enjoy blessed lives, their beauty was surely met with the same malice women find themselves hated with today.
Unfortunately my beautiful wife couldn't make the show. Being 9 months pregnant, she opted to watch it when it airs on September 19-21 rather than sit in a meat locker for several hours (yes James keeps that studio freezing cold). But I did enjoy the company of some of my other favorite people in the world.
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