SATURDAY - 11TH JANUARY, 2025
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
NEVER ACCEPTED BUT CONTENDED WITH - Unorthodox Daughter Series 005
Exodus 2:16-17, KJV
"16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock."
I made a statement yesterday which was that people are usually prejudiced against someone who wants to break the status quo or stereotype. No other persons are victims of that but these seven daughters of Jethro.
They came to water their father's flock but they were contested with, overthrown and put to flight. Beyond this literal writing, there's a meaning seething for discovery. We didn't read of Rachel being driven away from the well or once opposed by the all male shepherd squad. As a matter of fact, fellow tradesmen treated her cautiously. This is well noticed in their description and identification of Rachel as a co-professional. They said, "see...Rachel, Laban's daughter comes with the sheep (shepherding it)" (Gen.29:6). However, these seven daughters of Jethro weren't given that recognition by their colleague shepherds. It might be coming from resentment of having females in the trade or from the tyrannical rule of the male ego. Irrespective of the root cause, they were not welcomed or received as shepherds by their male counterparts. They were casted out as people who are not part of us. Another school of thought might say they were overridden because they are females who can easily be taken advantage of.
Like I began to say yesterday, breaking stereotype will call for a kind of suffering or hardship. Imagine what the first female hunter faced when she said she would become a hunter. Imagine what the first female boxer might face when she had attraction towards boxing and confessed it. The mum could have said, "so, you want to bring shame on me." It is a debatable matter and to those of that society then, an impossibility. Even in this modern world, when females seek to poke their head somewhere, they usually meet with stiff rejection.
This would also fill us with praise and appreciation for a female like Rachel who might have fought through the thick and thing of this prejudice casted on the feminine gender by the society who defines what jobs or ways of life is best suited for the genders and should not be trespassed. Having this knowledge, we're filled with more admiration for her. Though she found acceptance with other shepherds and even male shepherds, we don't know whether she once fought their rejection, hatred, aspersions, mockery and ego. How she came to win them over so much more that they now see her as a fellow shepherd is the wisdom we don't have written in the Bible literally. However which way it is, she enjoys their fellowship and probably partnership.
No one says the road will be easy on you as a daredevil who's trying to break a virgin land or achieve the uncommon. However, may God grant you favour, men like Moses who'll help regain your rights and a supportive community to cheer you on in your bid to do the classified.
This morning, I'm recalling the poem of Oumar Sesay Farouk titled THE SONG OF THE WOMEN OF MY LAND. As a tribute to the labour of some women long dead and gone but uncelebrated, it occurs to me that there may be many female heroes that were never sung. However, may God help you have a breakthrough wherever there's a hedgethrough. Break barriers and be a pioneer in that field! You won't go uncelebrated. Like Rachel, you'll be inducted into the profession and rightly called by the title of your vocation. As for Rachel, she's a shepherdess.
PRAYER: I am a pioneer female. I trail the blaze for others to follow. I am accepted and where rejected, I fight my way through. Undaunting like a lion and sweet like rose.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
Matthew 8:28-9:1-17 & Genesis 27-28
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