Beloved, we hear from the Lord in Genesis chapter 35, verse 8 this morning. And as we're only looking at one verse, I'd like to just read verses 1 through 8, and give your special attention to verse 8, please. Kind of remind us of the context from last week. So we'll read verses 1 through 8, but verse 8 will be our sermon text today. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments. And let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed And the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died. And she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak. And the name of it was called Alon Bakuth. Read that last verse again. You could almost go right by the verse into what comes next. But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died. And she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak. And the name of it was called Alon Bakuth. May God bless the reading and the preaching of his word to our hearts. By the time we get here in Genesis, and I think just in other ways your pastor has emphasized this, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that these scriptures emphasize covenant families. The scriptures emphasize the dad leading, the mom following, the two taking care of their children, rising up the church. And so that's why when reformers get back to really understanding scripture, they're really emphasizing covenant families. And that's good. But we must remember that the church is a family made up of many who are single and some who are without children. And today, today, We give you special attention and we give you special honor. I really think that's what's happening in the scripture today. When Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, dies and is buried, she is shown great honor by the covenant family and she's shown great honor by their covenant God. As I was thinking about this, I couldn't help but go back to the Reformed Presbyterian testimony. they have a testimony that follows the Westminster Confession of Faith and in chapter 24 on marriage They say these couple of things that I think are, I've just always appreciated it, because I've noticed single folks, and especially when I was at seminary, men who were single could often feel like they were sort of outcasts or, you know, inadvertently, but they could often feel like they weren't good enough, or they almost needed to be married before they could even be pastors. And they always seem to be blessed to be reminded of this in the testimony. So the first quote that I give you, they say, to be unmarried is also an equally honorable state. So they're in the section on marriage and divorce, but they want to make the point, look, being unmarried is just as honorable as being married. And I think sometimes in covenant churches that rightly emphasize covenant homes and raising children, Sometimes we have to be careful not to make singles feel as if they're not as good as everybody else. They also say this. We deny that marriage is a more spiritual state than the single life. Kind of just another way of saying it. We deny that marriage is a more spiritual state than the single life. It's not. And then I appreciate this too. They say, we deny that marriage is necessary for offices in the church. Now, that could be something that will come up sometimes. It's expected that a man to be an elder or deacon has to be married. But no, they give qualifications if you are married of what it should be like. But you don't have to be married to be an officer in the church. Now, I hope you single men can hear what the message is about today as well. But particularly today, our focus is single women because of Deborah. God will not have her single service to his church overlooked. He gives this special verse. I struggled with where to put this verse last week, and then thinking ahead to next week, I said, this verse really seems to stand out on its own. It seems to just kind of be there for us to recognize Deborah and her service to the covenant church. It would be so easy to pass over it quickly. We're not going to do that. We're going to give it our attention. What we want to see here today with Deborah is that God honors a single woman's service. God honors a single woman's service. And so I want to say to single women, you and your work are not insignificant. Who is Deborah anyway? I couldn't, I had to look around, we don't hear about her until today, we don't really hear about her with her name again later. The only time we see her name is today. If we didn't see her name today, we probably have never even thought about her. There's a reference in the scriptures I'm going to point to that is probably her, but if it wasn't for this being recorded here, we wouldn't even know about her. We would have walked right by her in all these pages of serving the church, as probably the world walked right by her all her years. So I thought, well I know what I'm going to do. We've got all these great books about women in the Bible in our library. And sermons, like all these sermons about women in the Bible. I'm surely going to find something there on Deborah. Nope. I didn't find anything just a little bit in reference to the other women or one time I think in an appendix but she almost does get overlooked I mean books on women in the Bible I thought well she'll be there but she she really hardly was she's only meant reference to you know the other women when when they're talked about there she's probably the woman who came down from Paddan Aram with Rebecca in Genesis 24 verse 59. That's probably her. She's probably that woman that comes along to care for her. We always see that with Rebecca, with Rachel, they come, even with Leah, they have their women that kind of attend to them. And that's probably who she is. But you see, she left her home too. And the thing is, she left her home with no husband. She left her home with no children. She nurses to other people's children. And sadly, folks like that can often really get overlooked. But we shouldn't overlook them. Think about Naomi. She became a widow. She nursed Ruth's child, Obed. And who came out of Obed? He was the grandfather of King David. King David. Well, her nursing, I don't think, was very insignificant. But it might have seemed so at the time. single women, your interest, your input in our lives is very meaningful. There may be no biographies written about you. You may not. We may not find your names mentioned in history books later, but you are precious. You are precious on the pages of our life. We recognize your service to Christ's kingdom today, and we want you to know that we will not forget about you. Single women, God's people deeply appreciate your care for them. How did Deborah get here? We don't hear anything about her. Perhaps she was sent back to Laban's family earlier on before Jacob went out there when he was going to be disciplined by God. Perhaps Rebecca sent Deborah on to Paddan Aram when the grand babies began to arrive. Maybe she sent her up there then to help Jacob, help Rachel and Leah with the kids. Possibly, after Jacob returns after that 20 plus years with his family, and he's in the promised land, it's likely that he's visiting back and forth his parents. Maybe he brings Deborah with him back at some point. We don't know for sure. But we do know that Deborah was a nurse, so she attended to the physical needs of the children. I think she likely raised them very much spiritually as well. You've heard of famous people or kings and queens. They have someone usually taking care of them and they become much more dear to them than their parents sometimes. I'm reading a book on Lady Jane right now. I was wondering if I bring it into the sermon, but it didn't seem the one to bring in, but you'll hear about the certain mistresses that raise and help them grow and teach them and tutor them. They become very dear to them and have significant influence on their spirituality. I think Deborah did. She would know great-grandpa Abraham. She would know grandpa Isaac. And she would therefore know the ways of the covenant God. She hadn't come from there, she'd come from Paddan Aram with Rebekah, but she would know these things now. She would know, after a long period of service, the ways of God. The ways that the covenant family should live as God's people. Remember, what did Rachel just finally get rid of last week? I mean, only just last week in the scripture we read again today. Idols. Rachel was fresh from the foreign land, essentially, and it's only now that she has let go of her idols. These, remember, seem to be a big reason that Jacob was holding back going to Bethel, where he had made his vow. And we saw last week, because he's going to go back to Bethel, he's going to clean up his house, get his house straight. So maybe Rachel really wasn't a great helpmeet to Jacob in raising covenant children. Maybe she was more about her own thing. likely, Jacob needed help teaching the ways of the Lord to his children. And I think that's a big part of why they were honoring her. I think that's a big part of why she's jumping out on the page today. Deborah's name means bee. B-E-E. Her name means bee. But she was not the queen bee. She was a worker bee. But she kept the hive alive, if you will. She was what Paul said the elder women should be in Titus chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. He said, the aged women be in behavior as becometh holiness, teacher of good things that they may teach the young women. That's what Deborah was. In fact, she served two generations of the covenant family. She was probably over a hundred at this point when she's died and buried. And they lay her under a long buck-hoof. A long buck-hoof, which means oak of weeping. Oak of weeping. And that name is representing what's going on. They're all weeping over Deborah. The whole clan, and it's a big clan at this point, they're weeping over Deborah. They're deeply mourning the loss of her. She probably had a sense of this adoration. She probably had some sense of how much they appreciated her, but no one really knows how much they're mourned after they're gone. So know today that we deeply adore you, our single women. Single women. The Almighty God takes special notice of your sacrifice for Him. Again, Deborah's burial is a surprising highlight. It's kind of like, where do you put this verse with the verses that come before and after it? It jumps out from these verses. And notice the honor that she is being bestowed by God Almighty. She is buried where? Beneath God's house. Bethel means God's house. She's buried under God's house. It's a great honor. And think about the timing of her death. How providential it is that this is where she would find herself buried. This honorable place of her burial. That God would show by having her die there and have them burying her there. That even for lowly matrons, precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints. Psalm 116 verse 15. What an honor. It is an honor to be buried like that. For instance, Westminster Abbey. I've been there in London. A lot of people are buried in the floor all over the place. That was my first experience with that and it seemed kind of funny to me, but it's meant to be an honor. It's meant to be an honor to those who are meant to be recognized as noble. I might have chosen differently with a few who are buried there, but nonetheless, that's the idea. and Deborah is buried under God's own house. Sarah is buried in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Mamre. Rachel will soon die without the help of her midwife. Jacob will bury Rachel elsewhere and build a pillar in her memory. But these matriarchs of the covenant family were not buried under God's house. They were not. Only one woman was buried under God's house. And you see it today. Deborah. Rebecca and Leah's burial is mentioned as an afterthought later in chapter 49 verses 30 and 31. We only learn where they were buried and that they obviously had died at that point before that point because they're mentioned as an afterthought. But we're not going to see really when Leah and Rebecca die. We're not really going to have an account of that. As far as I know, it's just later that it's mentioned. When they're already dead. For some time. So here we see that God gives their nurse special attention. Not only in the burial site, but by citing her this way in scripture. Here is a single woman who is singled out at the end of her long life for her long life of service. It's like God is just saying, I want to make sure you all recognize my servant Deborah. Isn't that something? Because he easily could have left it out. But he didn't. If he didn't mention Deborah's burial in this verse today and having the honor of being buried where she was, we would never even know that she existed. We would never know who she is. God is highlighting her today. He wants her to be highlighted. He wants everyone to know that he sees your death and you are precious to him. And so we remember just a few ladies for serving our church, and I of course had to rely on the accounts of others, myself only being here two years so far. Bessie Turner, a name hopefully some of you remember. Elder Renner shares that he and his wife Linda arrived in 1968, well before I was born, and here was Bessie Turner in her nineties, one of the oldest and longest members of the church. a widow, but faithful to attend as she was able. And her covenant son, George, provided the money for the Turner Memorial building in 1978. That building is where the youthful Puritan band practiced to entertain you for our dinners. That building is where your pastor shelves his books, does his studies, writes his sermons, and does most of his personal shepherding. The building right back there. Dorothy Hennion, we remember also Dorothy Hennion. Now my understanding from Elder Renner again is that Dorothy was a neighbor of Pastor Bell many years ago in Paradise Hills and they would talk across the fence and he invited her to church and she came and she became a Christian and she attended without her unbelieving husband faithfully. later as a widow. She never missed a meeting and Elder Renner said she was just the sweetest lady. I sort of felt bad I didn't get to meet her myself when I heard about her. What else was she? I think many of you know she was an avid reader. She was an avid reader. Many of the books that we have in our incredible library over here were given to us were given to us by Dorothy Hennion. And they were actually donated when she did pass from this earth during the decade, the decade interim without a pastor. Well, you and your pastor are presently served very well by that library, aren't we? And we remember her service to us, and we have a constant reminder of it with that wonderful treasure chest across the way. You know, when I was first preparing to come out here and knew that I had taken the call, talking to different pastors that have been mentors to me. One pastor, Reverend Breinsma, of the Protestant Reform Fellowship in Pittsburgh, one thing he said to me is, you know what you're going to find is that older women and widows will be your greatest encouragement. And I have found that to be the case. I have found that to be the case. And if I may take the risk at embarrassing you, Mrs. Friary, a few weeks ago when we were at a funeral together, You put your hands around my arm and talked with me. And you wouldn't know it, but you blessed me very much. Because I thought to myself, that's what my mother does. Of course, I haven't seen my mother in close to a year, 3,000 miles away, might not see her this year. And just that kind embrace and chatting with me was a blessing to me. And that's the kind of influence you all can have that you don't realize and that the world doesn't necessarily notice. But we do notice. And we can take the risk of not ever saying anything about it. And so God gives us this verse today to go out of our way to say we do recognize you. And we love you. And we're grateful for you being here every week serving the Lord. And He sees it. He sees it. He recognizes that. Just a few other examples of the kind of influence that single women have had in the church. St. Jerome, you might know Jerome. Late 300s, early 400s. He was a bit of a gruff personality. Found himself eventually doing translation work. And the wealthy Roman widow, Paula, and her daughters really ministered to him. Paula was converted to Christianity. She was a very, very wealthy Roman, and frankly, save it for another sermon, but it was beautiful to see the kind of changes she made in her life to give a good witness. She provided money, friendship, and feedback for Jerome's studies. In fact, he dedicated many of his Bible translations to her, even though apparently people didn't really appreciate seeing a woman's name at the beginning of a dedication. It was kind of considered not appropriate, but he didn't care because she had just made such an impression in his life. Paula financed the building and maintaining of Christian churches, hospitals, and monasteries, and she was buried in Bethlehem. Jerome so grieved her death that he could not preach her funeral. That's the kind of impact that she had on his life. Remember this, Jesus defended the actions of the woman who anointed his head with oil, costly oil, right? And he defends that and said it was good and right. Jesus said this woman, this woman who did this to him, she was preparing Jesus for his burial. And he said, therefore, her humble service would be memorialized throughout the world wherever the gospel is preached, as it is here today. We remember again that woman who anointed our Lord's head and he said what she did is right. And she's always going to be remembered for it. And I couldn't help but think back in college, one of my roommates who was mocking Christianity and We were in one of our discussions, I suppose, and he brought this woman up and he said, Well, what about that woman? She's supposed to be preached all over the earth, right? I said to him, You're talking about her, aren't you? I mean, he didn't have much to say. But you see, I didn't shut her up. I didn't shut him up. She shut him up. That witness so many years ago shut his mouth in college in my day back in Buffalo. God remembers. God doesn't forget. And in many ways he uses our service even after we're gone. Remember also that Jesus, your Lord, never married. But he is all of our heavenly husband, isn't he? See, we are all likely to find ourselves in a state of singleness at some point in our life, either before marriage or after marriage or never having married. And we all need the comfort of knowing we have that one husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever earthly state we find ourselves through the seasons of life. And He greatly loves single women. Or do you think that King Jesus took no notice of the many women who followed Him and ministered to him on earth, and then looked up and cried, looking at him on the cross." Do you think he didn't notice that? Doesn't appreciate that? Well, just about everybody else didn't notice. Remember, the church is the mother that nurtures and nurses Christians into maturity. maturity and service of our Heavenly Father. And you single women are not a small part of how she nurtures her young. I want you to think about Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian. His father died when he was six months old. And he speaks of his mother, Mary Hodge, this way. To our mother, my brother and myself, under God, owe absolutely everything. Our mother was a Christian. She took us regularly to church and carefully drilled us in the Westminster Catechism. How about Augustine? You know, Augustine, the early church father. Humanly speaking, he owes his conversion to his mother, Monica. Monica prayed and wept over her son for many years as he wallowed in the filth of the Roman world. As a widow, she followed him to Milan to keep trying to have an influence in him. She was so grieving over him not knowing the Lord. And that was dangerous for her to do that, by the way. She spoke with Bishop Ambrosia over her son who praised her to Augustine for having such a zealous and pious mother. When Augustine finally, it was a long time, when he was finally regenerated, he ran to tell his mother. She was so happy. They were so blessed. And they began to go back to Africa together. That's where Augustine's from, Africa. They stopped in Ostia on the way, and Augustine shares about talking of God there for hours in Ostia with Monica, his mother, looking at the garden through the window by the Tiber River. Five days later, while they were still there, she called him and said, Here shall you bury your mother. This only I ask. that you will remember me at the Lord's altar wherever you be." She died at age 56 in 387 A.D. Augustine went on to be one of the main heroes of the Christian faith who saved the church from apostasy in his day and in some ways he saved the church from Rome with his book City of God. He is quoted constantly by John Calvin and his institutes. And just last week I was listening to a lecture by Gordon Clark and he says all these people can't get this straight with this apologetic issue. He says Augustine settled it for us however many years ago. John Chrysostom. He was referred to as the golden mouth preacher of the late 4th century. He was raised by his widow mother, Anthusa, from his infancy. The famed pagan orator, Libanius, admired her purity and self-sacrifice, saying of her, Heavens, what women these Christians have. It is said that Christostom's great sermons reflected much of his mother's early teaching. And she spent a ton of time teaching him. And he was known as, that's why they called him the Golden Mouth. He was one of the best preachers around in his day. and he was given a big church, St. Sophia. They say that so much of his preaching and teaching reflected what his mother had taught him. It was her finances and her guidance that led to his formal training to be a preacher. And he became one of the greatest reformers and greatest ascetics in the church. The great preacher at the glorious St. Sophia in Constantinople. It's no surprise with a godly example like that that he challenged the immodesty of women at the time to the point where one of his frequent listeners sitting in the pews of his church the Emperor's wife was so offended that he was exiled and eventually walked to death through a snowstorm his last words lying in a room serving as his prison were glory be to God for all things. His mother would be proud. Remember 1 Corinthians chapter 7, Paul advises that unmarried and divorced and widows, he advises them to remain single like he is, to best devote yourselves to serving Christ as your husband. And he points out that in some ways being married can get in the way of that. And we who are married, we know that it's not less spiritual than being single either, but we know that being married can be, that's the argument Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 7, it can be difficult to give the kind of devotional time to the Lord that you would, because you have family to take care of. Paul points out marriage can get in the way. May no one here get in the way of you remaining single. if God wills that for you and if you prefer it. And I mean that. May you never feel pressured here that you have to be married or else you'll be a second tier citizen of the kingdom of God. I hope we see with Deborah today. God highly exalted her with this mention of such a funeral, burying her by his providence under his house. You see, your devoted service to Christ the Lord in singleness does not go unnoticed. While many women today look to identify themselves with a man, or while many women today try to identify themselves by acting like men, here, you humbly serve with singleness of mind, and you will be exalted, and you will be honored for it. But let it not be only after your death. Not by God's people. Here in God's house today, we honor you. We will weep on the day that we lose you. But you're here today, and we honor you. Today, in your presence, We rejoice over you in our presence. And we want you to know that we, God's people, honor you. And we want you to know that God honors a single woman's service. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for showing us how much attention you give to those who would be forgotten by the world and sadly often by the church. But here we see Deborah given such an incredible verse, one verse but an incredible verse. You will not have her forgotten. You will have her honored. She and her death is precious to you. We pray Lord that you will bless all of our people to know They are precious to you. And Lord, when they ignore the world and turn away from it, and rather come to serve you and be in your house, that you take notice of that. And you will bless them. And you will bless us in your house, your heavenly house forever. Lord, may those who are single in our midst today know that they are just as spiritual and just as valuable as anyone else. And Lord, some of us will find ourselves single sooner than we might even think. And in that time, you will still take notice of us. We will still be just as important to you and just as important to your church. Help us, Lord, to take encouragement in how you honor Deborah. And Lord, we do honor your single people and especially your single women today. And we thank you for them. And we ask, oh Lord, that you would lift us all up in our hearts to praise you and glorify you for every person in our church. That we would be very grateful and not neglect care for each and every person. Lord Jesus, you did not look over us. You came down from heaven and died for each one of us. Help us, Lord, to look at one another and to see the value you place on each of us. We see that value on the cross, where you shed your blood, where you screamed in agony because of how much you love us and care for us and take notice of us. We thank you, Lord. We ask you to help us to be so very content with that. We ask your blessing on us now as we sing to you in closing, that you will be glorified, that we will be thankful, and we will be conformed more into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.