welcome to women of the bible speak. loyalty to god does not ensure a life of happiness. it can lead to bigger challenges. this is exemplified in the hardships that come from a life of steadfast faith. >> loyalty to god means putting him first. every morning i wake up before have any other thought. i pray, thank you for your faithfulness to watch over me and i think him for a new day. if i have a pulse, i have a pure haner stands right at the center of this unfolding story. >> scripture doesn't give us that much information about haner. we don't know much of her background. she is an ordinary woman from the tribe of israel. >> she was not from a powerful family, nor was she the wife of a powerful man. she was married to a common man. >> what does leap out at us is that he is extraordinarily tender and concerned about her. he's -- >> he had another wife. that's hard for us to understand how difficult that must've been. but here's the thing her husband loved her dearly. >> he might've been married to two women that haner had his heart. she ached for a child of her own but a struggle with fertility left are barren. physical and emotional hardship. >> people don't understand the stigma of being infertile in jewish culture. it was a sign of god's favor if a woman for children, and the more children she bore, the jews felt that she was most loved of god for her it was especially tough because she wanted that it wasn't just that, it was that the other wife did have plenty of children and mocked and gave him a such a hard time. eventually, haner's team reached a breaking point and she poured out her sorrow to god. she goes to the temple at shiloh and implores god to give her this favor. it's such a remarkable thing that the priest that was bayer eli remarks on it and says there must be something wrong with haner, he thought maybe she was crazy or drunken and he said oh no please understand i'm just sharing my deepest needs before god and he told her to go and be blessed. >> soon after her faithfulness was rewarded and she became pregnant with her son, samuel. >> she weep bitter tears before the lord. the irony is that haner means favor or grace in hebrew god showed her both. she prayed that she would be blessed. samuel became the prophet recognized as david. haner is a very quiet woman who is going through a lot of persecution who comes before with humble prayer. >> i can relate to haner in the sense that there are things that i've cried bitter tears over. god wants to give us the desires of our heart. i have lived a very public life. [inaudible] can you imagine the joy she felt. i love god's faithfulness to her and her faithfulness to god haner wasn't married to a man who is famous or wealthy, they were a faithful family. we know that about them but they were a common family. miriam was the sister of moses, the leader of the interest relates. she would've been very prominent. in that way she would've been very different than haner. >> in the book of exodus her story is set in ongoing oppression of the jewish people. the jews had multiplied to the extent that the king of egypt prepared a plan to get rid of them. >> you feel like it's one of these stories that you can see and feel. the hebrews were in a terrible situation where they were worried that the human population was be good becoming too strong against the egyptians so he said every baby has to be thrown in the nile river, all the boys. not everyone obeyed the order to murder all newborn hebrew newborns. when they were unable to hide them any longer, his parents contacted the plan. what they decided to do was make a baby art for him, put him in there and have his sister miriam to come down to the nile river and put him in which i think is such an interesting picture. denial these babies, it's where moses got life. >> i love her story. we meet her at a very young age and she is concerned already about her brother who is floating around the nile and she follows it and follows it. she sets this baby and decides to take her in. i see you're taking this baby, would you have one of the hebrew women nurse him. the princess said yes. she runs to her mother and says would you like to see your child again. miriam is the one who makes it happen. >> it was because of these early years that moves us new moses initially did not win a part of this. when he told god to send somebody else, i'm not equipped and god said no i'm sending you. three people were responsible for the exile. it was most moses, aaron and miriam. the siblings of moses, they start crumbling saying why does he get all the attention, why is he favorite head miriam had been diligent with her loyalty to god, they got the best of her. he summoned him. for her to challenge her brother is an offense to challenge god and she is punished with a skin disease. the word is a kind of leprosy, we don't really know exactly what it was. it made her an outcast. it put her outside the community until she could be healed. moses and her brother prayed for her god treated muriel any other profit that made a mistake. her leadership was not a question. she was still accepted by god and her people. the scripture tells us that miriam died many years later, a great leader of her people. the death of miriam would've been so devastating to the community. haner and miriam honor god with their lives and devoted their lives to serving god, their creator. i think all of us have a choice every day, is that what we want to do too? do we want just one more selfie on a shelf or more money on our bank account? people want more. >> thank you for joining me as we unwrapped the powerful story of haner and miriam. coming up next, deborah and yale show us how to be armed and ready for the battles we may be facing in our own life. stay tuned. so you want to make the best burger ever? then make it! that means cooking day and night until you get... 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vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. i look and feel better. ask your dermatologist if cosentyx could help you move past the pain of psoriasis. whatever battles you are facing the bible teaches us to be armed and ready. this reason deborah and yale exemplified bold brave female leaders who embody the obedience and action god seeks from us. god works in mysterious ways and showed us through to women, how to be modern warriors that i feel that i have been a woman in challenge in my life and social media and career. i feel we face battles all the time. it's all about trusting in god and trusting in ourselves and taking deep breaths and realizing how much strength we have and how we can power through it. i think about i think of women in the front line in the military defending our freedom and teachers fighting for children. as politicians we are always faced with battles every day in the book of judges israel turned away from god. god allowed his army commanders to oppress the israelites. after years of abuse israel cried out for help. god answered their plea to a judge, a woman named deborah mack i really love the story of deborah. i identify with her because my legal background in working as a lawyer. i love that she was such a wise esteemed individual that she was a female leader of israel which was super unusual. deborah is extraordinary because she is the only evidence we have a female judge and we see her portrayed as a model of wisdom and discernment and good judgment. we see her dispensing legal decisions from the tribes of israel. they are sitting in judgment of her palm tree. then israel is a bunch of tiny tribes that come together when there's an outside threat there something else we see that's unusual and also because it's under the leadership of deborah. we barely see a woman as political and military leader in the scripture. they were badly outmanned the israelites in every way. didn't have any experience or weapons, they had nothing in these people have been oppressed for a long time. rather than looking at the facts on their face they said okay. >> they established an army to take on the powerful commander cicero. >> what's going on politically is that the tribes of israel are being crushed by several rival kingdom. among them his chief general cicero. deborah decides to fight back and deborah is the one who goes and finds the military commander to leave the army. god had called got deborah to take them into battle and went to their commander to say hey god told us to go do that. he said i don't want to do it unless you go with me. deborah answered and said okay, were going to do this but because of your hesitance, god is going to deliver cicero, the leader of the opposing army into the hands of a woman. she is going to get the credit for doing this. >> if god wants to use you in a situation, you should submit and say yes and trust in him. >> finally the moment arrived and deborah led her people to battle alongside the israeli army. together the impossible was achieved and cicero's army was defeated. her military strategy is right on the no's as they follow the orders and successfully defeat cicero. the army was completely wiped out. he was able to escape. that is where were introduced to our other woman in the fight. >> we see that the leader of this army has been decimated by israel gets out and just starts running. he happens upon a place that he thanks would be hospitable. jl is standing at the door and says my lord, come rest here. it's there we see her come to fruition and she literally drives home. why did she do this, we don't really know. we don't know what her motivation could have been. had she been caught in the process her life may have been in extreme danger. they praised and gave credit to god. >> it's a beautiful celebration at the end of the victory that nobody would've thought it would been able to accomplish. as she's leaving the people she's singing blessed the lord she is turning the glory back to god for the things he accomplishes even in her live now. >> the lessons we can learn is to listen to god and to let him guide you and trust in him and you're going to be okay. you can be a great talker and say the most perfect things, but if you don't listen, you're not going to really get anywhere. you really have to be a good listener in order to be a good communicator. >> coming up next, the stories of leah and rachel as they overcome challenges ♪♪ forget what your smoking-hot moms and teachers say, just remember my motto. if you ain't first... you're last! woo-hoo! when i was diagnosed with dupuytren's contracture, i waited to get treated. thought surgery was my only option. but then i found out about nonsurgical treatments. it was a total game changer. learn more about the condition at factsonhand.com if you have obstructive sleep apnea and you're often tired during the day, you could be missing out on amazing things. sunosi can help you stay awake 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about sunosi today. losing a tooth didn't stop you but your partial can act like a bacteria magnet, putting natural teeth at risk. new polident propartial helps purify your partial and strengthens and protects natural teeth. so, are you gonna lose another tooth? not on my watch! this isn't just freight. these aren't just shipments. they're promises. promises of all shapes and sizes. each with a time and a place they've been promised to be. a promise is everything to old dominion, because it means everything to you. sisters can be the most faithful friend in terms of trouble and happiness. the story of the sisters tell us how to overcome challenges and walk with god in our everyday life. rivalry, jealousy and in inadequacy are feelings that can consume us and darken our lives. this rivalry brings to light that a faith in god can guide us through. it's easy to relate to the struggles rachel and leah face. >> there's a lot of emotion in the story but it all comes back to not understanding you are worth as the lord and creator. as he instilled in each and every one of us, i think i've related to these women. i felt inadequate, i felt like i wasn't good enough. the more i grew up my faith, i realized yes i am good enough in the book of genesis, the man named jacob fled his home. he ran to his uncle a few towns away where he met his two daughters rachel and leah. >> talk about leah, though older sister had eight eyes. rachel had beautiful figure and form. she's a younger sister but she was the one that was favored for outward experiences. he is completely forgiven. it appears to be a match made in heaven. jacob quickly fell in love and asked for her hand in marriage. he said all wait for you for seven years. her hand in marriage. i love this next line. they seemed like only a few days because of his love for her. [inaudible] after the seven years of labor were completed, jacob became patient. he said give me my wife, my time is completed and i want to lie with her. the wedding celebration began. unfortunately for rachel and jacob, it was not going to be the fairytale ending they hoped for. >> they brought together all of the people of the place when evening came he took his daughter and gave her to jacob he was very excited to marry the love of his life rachel and there is this dramatic reveal but he has married leah. rachel has to feel devastated that her older sister is now married to this man. you have to wonder how he felt being snuck in, he was in his chosen love and yet she was sent in. he feels very deceived. he goes and anchored her father and says what have you done. >> unapologetic he opposed the new deal. you can marry rachel but you have to work another seven years for her. >> jacob accepted these terms in order to marry the real rachel. i think at that point everyone's in a bad place because leah knows she's not the first choice. rachel knows she will be added on as a secondary wife at this point jacob feels he's been doublecrossed by his father-in-law. >> after this they finally tied the knot. that did not solve everything. once i began having children, rachel's relationship became more strained than ever. rachel struggled through watching her sister have children. we see rivalry, we see jealousy, we see doublecrossing. >> rachel wasn't the only one who struggle. we see that the two spies. >> leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son and she said surely my husband will love me now. she said because the lord heard that i am not loved he gave me this one too. she thought all i need to do is have a baby. rachel watched as her sister had children even though rachel had jacobs love for her, it was not enough. rachel goes to jake up and says jacob, give me children or all die. children identify women as being valuable. >> i think it's tough to have in struggle and then seeing a woman you share your husband with, your own sister having child after child after child throws enormous salt in the wound. >> she said please give me your son but leah said to her wasn't enough that you took away my husband, will you take away my son mandrake too. that plant was thought to improve fertility but it wasn't until years later that her prayers were answered. she was blessed with the sun being joseph. she's overcome with gratitude and it's been a long struggle for her. god remembered rachel. she saw her pain and her prayers over child and he answered her. genesis tells us that as soon as rachel had joseph, a new obstacle arose. >> their father started accusing jacob of stealing from him and jacob can feel like his life is in danger so he goes to rachel and asked them, if i leave, will you come with me. they realize her father never really loved him the way he should happen and they were done. we see that at the end of the day these women put aside their rivalry and think about the larger future, think about their loyalty to each other. after rachel and leah left their homeland, yet another family twist. rachel tragically dies in childbirth with benjamin which is one of the reasons benjamin becomes so very special to his father. he is the last reminder of his beloved rachel and his grief over rachel. it seems to be a bitter end to a long struggle but both rachel and leah's children go on to live lasting legacies of their own and become central figures in the lord's plan. >> i think that our pain, whether it's pain in our fertility or rejection, it can drive us to god. i'm learning to communicate more with my father because i want to build my skills up because i need to have them through these difficult times. >> i think it's always possible to have rivalry and tension in our family with our sisters or brothers or anyone else. we have to go to god and teach solutions to those problems. >> coming up, we dive into the story of ruth and how she handles being an outsider. challenging times are nothing new. neither are resilient people. there's strength in every family story. learn more about yours. at ancestry. ♪ ♪i've got the brains you've got the looks♪ ♪let's make lots of money♪ ♪you've got the brawn♪ ♪i've got the brains♪ ♪let's make lots of♪ ♪uh uh uh♪ ♪oohhh there's a lot of opportunities♪ with allstate, drivers who switched saved over $700. saving is easy when you're in good hands. allstate click or call to switch today. 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[inaudible] fortunately for me i was the first person to get a divorce. thankfully i've been divorced and raise children as a divorced mother and divorce is not popular when i was young in the african-american community. of course there were others but it just wasn't done it is sometimes outsiders you've never heard of, you wouldn't think of. were not the most popular the most successful and after the most supported in the bible. it's very important to learn how to accept outsiders. [inaudible] we are introduced to a woman named naomi. naomi and her family left their homeland in judah because of salmon. after they arrived, her husband died and she was left. this is her story. >> ruth is the first woman who gets her own feature story in the bible and remarkably, it's a feature story that is not about a woman of israel. it's about ruth. she marries into a family due to famine while they're away from their homeland. years later tragedy hit the family. ruth and her sister-in-law became windows along with their mother-in-law, naomi. the three of them are unprotected without a man to watch over them in that particular time and place it was necessary naomi said she's going to go home to her people of israel. they said we want to go with you the three set off. as they traveled, ruth chose to stay and watch over her mother-in-law. >> she left everything she had and knew to travel with her mother-in-law to a new country, a noose faith and new religion. >> the important thing is at the time israel was deadly enemy. these were not friendly nations. she's also an outsider in that she has no husband, no real family although ruth was well aware of the sacrifice she was making, she and naomi arrived in bethlehem the harvest began. >> struggle is a very basic one. she needs to find a way or herself and her mother-in-law to survive. these are women without an income, and without any real way to support themselves. what ruth does is go to the field and pick up the slabs that were left because often it would be enough that they can grinding create flour and have enough to lips. there was an even closer relative who could have married her before. batman declined. he was watching over her and they turned into a love story where she ends up redeeming her and she is tied to the lineage of christ. her story is a beautiful one that shows us about compassion, dedication and god working through the worse circumstances. they were blessed with the sun. >> i love the story of ruth because there's so much sacrifice, so much grief in the beginning. all of us sometimes feel like outsiders and there's a theory among many christians that we should feel a bit like outsiders because this world is not our home and if you believe this then you feel like okay i'm always going to be a little bit of an outsider, i'm not going to be so comfortable here that i feel like this is really my home have you ever been so frustrated or desperate they turned away from god and took matters into your own hands? coming up here about women who did just that. we can all fall victim to moments of weakness. sarah evans, country music star has struggles as well. >> i get really frustrated, what are you doing, why me, literally just forgetting about all the blessings i have in that i've been given and i'm always asking the lord to forgive me for being impatient or not trusting him or not believing that everything is going to be okay and work out. it always is, even if it isn't the way you thought in the book of genesis god said to abraham, go from your country, your people and your father's. along with that they also promise that sarah would be a mother of many nations. >> sarah and abraham had the belief that they would have descendents that would number beyond the stars and yet sarah was walking through right, struggling. >> sarah is from a noble family. we don't really know anything about her origin, tradition. as years passed, serious patient grows things and she questions god's promise if she would have children of her own. in a moment of weakness she hatched a plan providing abraham with the child. sarah, in her moment of weakness, if she can somehow make god's promise be fulfilled, sarah believes that god has filled her so she needs to be the one to step into the chair and really take control and in the sense fix it. she wrote adopted child and pretty standard custom and then the child would be raised as theirs. that's not what god has in mind. that is sarah's plan abraham went along with it but then their relationship began to change. jealousy took over. they don't have any say in what happens in her own life, not a woman of choices like those who live in the western world today. they went to the wilderness hoping to find a solution. scared and alone, he is met by the angel of the lord. the first time he tries to away they say no, go back. >> i can't imagine how hard that must be knowing that she would only be mistreated. they new there would be a struggle. she talks about that, she felt seen, the god of the universe. >> they had a son. years later abraham was visited by god and there was a promise that would finally be fulfilled. >> when god came to tell abraham they would have this child, sarah overhears this promise. sarah laughed and struggled with trusting the lord about that. she thought how my going to have a baby now, i'm too old. >> it's one of the only times in scriptures that we see someone laughing at god's promises. it's so ludicrous. sarah's laughter no one years after, sarah was distressed over the inheritance. instead of waiting for god's plan she asked abraham to exile ishmael to the desert. when they are alone in the desert, it is this confrontation that brings her to peace and also brings her to water. for the first time the scripture says do not be afraid. it said again and again. [inaudible] when i think about sarah and hagar i think what a complicated relationship their lives were woven together in a way that were very difficult and very common at the time. they both have expectations that did not pan out for them. they both went through pain but i think we learned a lot through them through that we see promises fulfilled. many are long after we lived here on earth so you want to make the best burger ever? then make it! that means selling everything. and eating nothing but cheese till you find the perfect slice... even if everyone asks you... another burger truck? don't listen to them! that means cooking day and night until you get... [ ding ] you got paid! that means adding people to the payroll. hi mom. that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. ♪ ♪ are you ready to join the duers? those who du more with less asthma. thanks to dupixent. the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. du more with less asthma. talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. is mealtime a struggle? introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime. losing a tooth didn't stop you but your partial can act like a bacteria magnet, potato pay them to. putting natural teeth at risk. new polident propartial helps purify your partial and strengthens and protects natural teeth. so, are you gonna lose another tooth? not on my watch! (naj) at fisher investments, we do things differently and other money managers don't understand why. (money manager) because our way works great for us! (naj) but not for your clients. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. (money manager) so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? (naj) nope, we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. (money manager) but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? (naj) we don't have those. (money manager) so what's in it for you? (naj) our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. thank you for joining me on this journey, walking down the path of these women of the bible. gh♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ mark: hello i am markly vine, -- levin,this is "life, libertyd levin." as i prepare for my own writing. i need to tell you about what is going on with your country, rather than a surface level superficial way, i want us to dive deeper it is serious. first thing, is remind