Through the lens of Woman

The seventy elders ate and drank in God’s presence. Note what they did not do. They did not preach. They did not perform. They did not give a speech. They ate.

The Father has always treated tables as places where He shows up. And throughout history, the people most often setting those tables have been women.

The women of the Sinai camp — even though Exodus 24 only names the elders — would have been the ones who prepared the meal. They ground the grain. They butchered the meat. They brought the bread up to the elders. Their work made the encounter possible.

Throughout Scripture, women keep showing up at tables where God is encountered. Hannah’s annual feast at Shiloh. Mary anointing Jesus’ feet at a meal. Martha serving and Mary listening at one. The women preparing spices for the body that turned out to be alive. The table is where heaven keeps showing up — and women keep setting it.

If you have set a table this week — for your family, a friend, a small group, a hurting neighbor — that table is a theophany in the making. The Father shows up where the meal is prepared.

One small thing today: name one table you have set or will set this week. Honor it as priestly work. The Father comes where the meal is.