PREFACE
Widowhood is characterized by a painful experience and is an inevitable condition that cannot be avoided unless a woman dies before her husband. Most widows experience intense anguish and sorrow, but widows who cannot bear the burden of widowhood are free to remarry. This is a privilege Paul gives to widows so that they can produce children and have their own homes so that the enemy will not have anything to say against them. The advice is given so that young widows will not flirt around and that love of the pleasures of the world may not overpower their devotion to Christ.
Often, widowed women are left with no children; this is the worst case for a widow, as she has no husband and no children to care for her in her old age. A woman that has not experienced the joy of motherhood before her husband dies deserves pity, because death has erased her husband’s name from their community. Other widows have been enshrined into motherhood, and they have children for whom they desire future joy and happiness. They hope their children will fill the vacuum created by the death of their husbands, but their hopes are often shattered as death takes their beloved children from them. Such widows become lonely and walk in the shadow of desolation. Some widows may find solace in keeping company with people of good conscience, who become their helpers. They provide whatever the widows may need, such as making clothes for them or sharing good things with them, even during the Christmas season. However, when joy and happiness have seemed to return to widows, death overcomes these companions and breaks the hearts of widows again. It is now that we discover that once a woman is a widow, death will continually try to frustrate her life.
From the samples of the widows under discourse, we see that death reduced them to poverty and they were prone to the dangers of unpaid debts owed by their late husbands. Even when a woman is rich, once death declares her widow, the blow usually brings her down from the apex of her affluence because all the family responsibilities are now on her head.
We thank God that throughout the Scriptures, we have not seen a widow being disappointed by him. Though widows face trials, God shows them his loving kindness, which validates the claim that God is a husband to widows (Isa. 54:5). Naomi feels the heavy hands of death in her life, but her daughter-in-law stands by her in faith and God turns her misery to joy. Ruth becomes the mother of Obed, who then restores the family name of Elimelech. The woman of Nain weeps as if all is lost, but the moment Christ comes to the city and sees her weeping, his heart overflows with compassion for her. Her son is revived, and her misery is turned to joy. When the widows of Joppa mourn Dorcas (who made them clothes and coats), their joy is also returned to them. From all indications, these widows maintain the principles of widowhood, which are characterized by being faithful, trusting in God for sustenance, and having time for fasting and prayers. None of the Christian widows derail from faith even after the death of their husbands. Each time death or problems besiege them, we see God delivering them from their vicious predicaments. Since they rely on God alone, Satan cannot prevail against them.
We now advise every widow to take courage and believe in God, and he will never abandon them. He has promised that “you will no longer live in shame . . . and will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of your widowhood. For your Creator will be your husband” (Isa. 54:4–5, New Living Translation).
ECHOES OF THE WIDOWS
Echoes of the Widows is a study book that unveils the anguish that women experience after the death of their husbands and explores Scriptures thoroughly to place grieving widows into the comforting hands of God. The book contains three parts. Part one deals with the terrible agony of Naomi’s widowhood and God’s benevolent mercy and providence. Part two expresses the pain and suffering widows are subjected to under the cyclic web of their children’s death and how the love of God prevails over their unspeakable misery. Part three uncovers the oracle of the prophet Habakkuk over the wickedness of Judah and how people of faith prevail.
The author, F.E.C. Nwaiwu, empathizes with the sorrows widows undergo; this study guide is his condolent tribute to affected widows. He has sampled widows from the Scriptures and discovered that God never allows grief and suffering to overwhelm them. Each time death comes to break their hearts again, God arbitrates and quells their sorrows. When the sorrow of widows is turned to happiness, it usually happens in a miraculous way. Thus, Nwaiwu infers that miracles are for those who are helpless.
In the book, we see how society is unfair to widows, as the widows are threatened for the debts incurred by their late husbands. This reveals the fact that our society does not show concern for widows, because if such debts are not paid, the widows’ children will become bondmen to their creditors. When the widow of a prophet runs to Elisha for help to clear the debts her late husband owed, we see how God is at the center of the widow’s situation. The widow was delivered from a vicious creditor who would not release the debts the poor prophet owed him.
Thank God that in the Christian society, widows are not left behind. Elijah, Elisha, Dorcas and the apostles prove this point. Dorcas did not leave the widows to die in cold and starvation. She adopted a means to help them cope with the agony of widowhood. But Dorcas died, those widows she helped echo out how miserable they are because the woman that sustains them is no more. As the widows echo their sorrows over the death of their food-and-clothes-provider, God listens to them and Peter is able to raise her to life. Also when some members in the church try to depict how unfriendly the world is to widows, the apostles show them that in Christ there is no discrimination. The Grecian widows are neglected in the daily distributions of food, an idea that suggests how wicked some people are in the house of God. The Grecian widows could no longer bear the injustice and so they begin to murmur over the unfair attitudes. Such murmurings become an echo which the apostles heard and device a possible means to make peace for the interests of the widows and for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The author, F. C. Nwaiwu writes not only to grieving widows but also to everyone to learn about God’s loving mercy in hard times. Therefore, Echoes of the Widows is a comforting guide for coping with hard times.
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