Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. …She sent for Barak…and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’” Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. (Judges 4:4-9)

Deborah is one of the greatest leaders in all of Scripture, a prophet and judge whose governance led to a rare period of “rest for forty years” for the nation of Israel (Judges 5:31). Today's passage shows us three leadership lessons from her extraordinary life.

#1: Deborah offered c...

One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.” (2 Kings 4:8-10)

The Shunammite woman in today’s passage shows us a model of hospitality that is both unreasonable and unexpectant. 

First, let’s look at how unreasonable her act was. This woman built a room in her house for Elisha, the traveling prophet, which is extraordinary on its own. But then she filled the room with a bed, table, chair, and lamp—everything Elisha would need to do his work on the road. The woman essentially built Elisha an ancient home office. That is unreasonable.

But her hospitality was also unexpectant. She did it expecting nothing in return. Picking up in 2 Kings 4:13, Elisha ...

His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings. (1 Samuel 25:3)

After being introduced to Nabal and Abigail, we learn that David, God’s anointed future king, came to Nabal with a request for compensation after his men had faithfully protected Nabal and Abigail’s sheep and servants. But Nabal refused. So David took 400 of his men armed with swords to confront the “surly” man.

One of the servants came directly to Abigail saying, “Disaster is hanging over our master [Nabal] and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him” (1 Samuel 25:17).

Nabal built a culture in which his team could not talk to him. But Abigail created her own culture with the team that welcomed news—even news of doom—which allowed her to masterfully deescalate the conflict with David (see 1 Samuel 25:18-42).

There’s a lesson embedded in there for you today: Great, godly leaders create cul...

Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah….When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” (Genesis 29:30-32)

With Mother's Day right around the corner, I want to spend the next few weeks studying some of the working women of the Bible and what they can teach women and men about our own work today.

Before we look at the women in this series who built businesses, led armies, and negotiated with kings, I want to start with Leah: a woman whose primary work was raising children. Because if we're going to truly talk about faith and work, we can’t ignore the fact that some of our hardest, most consequential work is the work of parenting. And Leah has something to teach every worker—paid or unpaid—about the most dangerous trap in...

[Mary Magdalene] turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” (John 20:13-15)

Up until the 1500s, many parts of medieval Europe marked the beginning of the year not on January 1, but at Easter. Why? Because they believed the first Easter launched the ultimate new thing—God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven—a project God has called us to participate in with all the vigor we naturally feel at the start of a new year.

There’s a beautiful symbol of this buried in today’s passage in which Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus as a gardener that first Easter Sunday. Jesus had just risen from the dead. Clearly he could have chosen to be mistaken as anything vocationally: a carpenter, a king, a fisherman. So, why a gardener?

Some scholars suggest ...

As the soldiers led [Jesus] away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. (Luke 23:26)

We’re in a series exploring the vocations of some of the characters of the Easter narratives and what they can teach us about our own work today. There are two lessons we can glean from Scripture’s brief mentions of Simon of Cyrene.

First, choose to serve Christ in work you didn’t choose.

Simon didn’t volunteer to carry the cross; he was “seized” and forced into it. You may not face military force, but you might feel forced into a role by economic pressure or parental expectations. And even in a dream job, there are aspects of your work you didn’t ask for: angry customers, being "voluntold" for projects, and so on.

What are we to do with work we didn’t choose? Paul answered that question for us, writing to bond servants in Colossae who certainly weren’t thrilled about their working conditions: “Whatever yo...

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face. (John 19:1-3)

God never intended for work to be painful and frustrating. According to Genesis 1 and 2, work was God’s first gift to humankind.

But when sin entered the world, the curse broke every part of creation, including the world of work. God told Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you” (see Genesis 3:17-18).

That backstory makes the Roman soldiers’ choice of a “crown of thorns” for Jesus all the more poetic. Knowingly or not, the Romans used a thorn—this symbol of the curse—to crown the One whose resurrection would overturn that curse. It is precisely because Christ allowed himself to be crowned with thorns...

[Pontius Pilate] took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” (Matthew 27:24)

Pilate wanted nothing to do with the prisoner, Jesus of Nazareth. So he tried to make him someone else’s problem, pawning him off on the Pharisees and Herod (see John 18:31 and Luke 23:6-7). But ultimately, Jesus wound up back at Pilate’s doorstep.

Exasperated, Pilate succumbed to political pressure and agreed to have Jesus crucified. But not before one final act of trying to absolve himself of responsibility. Today’s passage says that Pilate “washed his hands in front of the crowd” and said, "It is your responsibility." In other words, “This is not my problem.”

Just hours earlier, Jesus was doing a bit of washing himself. “He poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet,” to clean their external filth as a symbolic act of the deeper internal filth he was about to wash clean on the cross (see John 13:1-1...

About an hour later [a third person] asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with [Jesus], for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. (Luke 22:59-60)

With Easter fast approaching, I want to spend the next few weeks focusing on five characters in the Easter narrative and what their work can teach us about our own work today. We will start with an overlooked character in today’s passage: the rooster. 

Now, before you roll your eyes at my assertion that the rooster had a job we can glean wisdom from, bear with me. I promise this will be a great encouragement to you today. But first, let’s set the scene.

At the Last Supper, Jesus predicted Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed—a prophecy Peter vehemently rejected. But as the third denial left Peter’s lips, we see one of the most cinematic scenes in Scripture: “Just as [Peter] was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and look...

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

After losing a dramatic civil rights showdown with President Lyndon B. Johnson, Fannie Lou Hamer thought her work was in vain. To refuel her for the fight, her employer sent her on a trip to Africa.

There, resting her head on the back of a bathtub, Hamer marveled at how far God had brought her since her days picking cotton on a Mississippi plantation. Who would ever have thought that she would find herself halfway around the world relaxing in a beach bungalow on a sprawling estate in Guinea? 

Suddenly, a knock at the door interrupted her bath. “Fannie!” called the voice on the other side of the door. “The president is here. Can you come?” 

Hamer let out a laugh. “Yeah right! Tell His Excellence that I’ll see him in a couple of hours. I’m having my bath, darling.” 

But the ...