Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter. – 2 Kings 22:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 21, 2020): 2 Kings 22

Theologian N.T. Wright argues that everything in the Bible comes in the form of co-operative opposites. The idea is that, from the very creation of the universe, we see essential pairings. Day makes necessary night. Water and dry land are critical in the definition of each other. In the mind of Wright, this is one principle that argues against the idea of gay marriage. God’s design from the very beginning is that co-operative opposites are what is critical in any endeavor. In the concept of marriage, those co-operative opposites must be “one man and one woman,” or what we have come to refer to as the traditional marriage.

I am not convinced the Wright is correct in his argument about marriage, but that does not mean that he is incorrect about the importance of both men and women in the world in which we live. Maybe one problem within contemporary feminism is held within the concept of the equality of the sexes that is presented. I believe strongly in a radical equality between the sexes, but that does not mean that men and women are the same. We aren’t. Men and women, even outside of the concept of marriage, present a necessary co-operative opposite in life. Both are required, and not just for the task of reproduction. Men and women have different ways of approaching a problem. One is not better than the other; they are just different. And the best solution usually results when both are involved in the process.

The Book of Kings offers us another example of co-operative opposites in the story of the prophet Huldah. Huldah is remembered as one of the seven prophetesses of Judaism, standing alongside women like Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, and Esther. But Huldah had a more famous male relative. His name was Jeremiah. And according to tradition, Huldah and Jeremiah were two sides of the same coin. The performed a very similar function in the religious life of the day. We know that Jeremiah, often thought of as “The Weeping Prophet,” taught a message of repentance to Judah during the last days of the nation. Jeremiah begged Judah to return to God. But it seems that his ministry was mostly to the men of the city. Huldah set herself to the same task with the women of the city, pleading that they would return to God before it was too late.

Huldah is also thought to have been an important public educator of her day. It might be that the King’s delegation went to Huldah, instead of Jeremiah, because they believed that she might be more inclined to react with compassion and intercede before God for them, rather than react with the condemnation that they expected from Jeremiah. And their decision to go to Huldah with the new document, likely the Book of Deuteronomy, made her the first person to be given the opportunity to declare that a document was scripture, as she treated the newly found text as the authoritative word of God.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 34