GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
ACTS 21:9-11
9 He had four daughters, virgins, who prophesied.
There are some who elevate this passage to such heights that they think it contravenes the prohibition against women pastors in Paul’s letters. Paul said both publicly (1 Corinthians 14:33-36) and privately (1 Timothy 2:11-14) that women should not teach or have authority in the churches over men, but should listen and learn in submission. That is to say, a woman must not take the authority given by God to men.
In discussing this topic, we must walk the narrow middle way between saying too little and claiming too much.
a, Perhaps in certain cases, if there are no men at all to be called to preach, a woman might organize other women to come together to pray and read the Scriptures, as did the women at Philippi until Paul and Luke came (Acts 16:13).
b, There are women who prophesied in the Scriptures. Miriam is called a prophetess and led the women in song after the crossing through the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20-21). Deborah is called a prophetess, and she sang along with Barak after the victory over Sisera and the Canaanites of Hazor (Judges 5:1-31). There was a prophetess named Huldah in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of King Josiah (2 Kings 22:14), and for some reason the king’s advisors went to consult with her rather than with Jeremiah, who had been called to be God’s prophet four or five years earlier (Jeremiah 1:2). And Anna was there to speak to the people about the Christ child when Jesus was brought to be circumcised (Luke 2:36-38).
c, These examples of the way God worked at one time among his people are not commands given to us, nor are they permission given to us to go against the clear commands we have been given through Paul. A parallel example can be found in the Sixth Commandment. God established marriage to be the union of one man and one woman, and yet there are times in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament where we see examples of bigamy and polygamy. We see it among the patriarchs like Jacob, and the beloved David. David was even told by God as he was rebuked for his adultery with Bathsheba, “I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I have given you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more” (2 Samuel 12:7). But God does not promise this kind of giving with anyone else in Scripture. Should we expect that he would bless us if we took what he does not promise or offer to us? So it is with women and the ministry of ordained pastors. God binds us with his law, but that doesn’t mean that he is bound by it. So we must be very careful to notice the difference between passages that are prescriptive, such as 1 Corinthians 14:33-36, and those that are descriptive, which means that they simply describe what some people did, such as Exodus 15. And we should also be careful to remember Deborah’s reluctance to do what the men were asking her to do (Judges 4:9).
d, If there are places where men cannot take the gospel, such as certain women’s prisons, or in counseling the growing pandemic of abused women that is being more clearly revealed year by year, then we need women trained in gospel ministry to serve in these cases. But that does not mean that we should overstep God’s Word.
e, The argument that so many other churches, even Lutheran churches, have already begun to ordain women pastors, and therefore we also should do it, is not valid in the least. This is the logic of lemmings, not Lutherans. Where is the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone in those churches? Where is the pillar upon which the Church stands or falls? It has already fallen. The reason that those churches ordain women into their regular pulpit ministry is that they have already lost all respect and obedience to the Word of God. Once a church allows itself to reject what the Bible says about who Christ is, or about how we are saved, then no other doctrine is sacred, and that church ceases to be the church of Christ crucified for our sins.
f, Why does God command that women should not be ordained into a position of authority over men in the church? The explanation Paul gives in 1 Timothy 2:13 is that this is the order of creation, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” The order of creation also showed itself in the consecration of every firstborn in the Old Testament, as only firstborn males were sacrificed or consecrated (Exodus 13:2), and the men were to be consecrated into the priestly service. The Levites took over this consecration in place of all Israel in Deuteronomy 10:8-9, but it had belonged to all firstborn sons of Israel in the beginning.
We do not know in what capacity Philip’s virgin girls prophesied. What we can certainly say is that they did not contradict Paul’s plans in any way. In every other place where Paul went on this trip, the pastors and prophets warned him that he would suffer and be arrested in Jerusalem. But Philip’s daughters said nothing. They did not teach or exercise any authority over Paul or over their father at all.
10 After we had stayed there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 He came to us, took Paul’s belt, tied his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and give him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
While the daughters of Philip stood by with the others and listened, Agabus the prophet arrived with a clear message for Paul. Using the illustration of binding his own hands and feet with Paul’s belt, he proclaimed: “The man who owns this belt will be bound this way and handed over to the Gentiles.” But like the other warnings Paul had received along the way, this wasn’t a command from the Holy Spirit to stay away. It was only a testimony that God already knew what was going to happen. It wasn’t going to be a surprise to Paul. For some reason, some word or action on Paul’s part, he would be arrested by the Jews. But like Pharaoh’s dream about gaunt cows eating fat cows (Genesis 41:1-4), this was a prophecy that shows how God is in control of human history. Just as he used Joseph for the good of his people in Egypt through troubles and the wickedness of others, he would use Paul for the good of his church despite the unbelief of the Jews.
Consider your circumstances, and the troubles you are going through. God works for the good of those who love him. Sometimes God disciplines us for our good (Hebrews 12:10), but he will indeed give good things to us (Psalm 85:12). If you long for a certain gift or position God has not given to you, pray for patience and understanding about the gifts and position he has chosen to give you instead. When our desires don’t match up with God’s desires, it is not God who is at fault. “Trust in him at all times” (Psalm 62:8), for God alone is our refuge.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Acts 21:9-11 Girls who prophesied