4 Biblical People You Forgot Were Important

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Ask most Christians to name the people in the Bible, and they will probably list the same dozen names. Jesus, Moses, Mary, David, Joseph, Abraham, Isaac, Israel and so on. It is understandable that these are the first names that most people would come up with because those are the most important characters in the grand story of the Bible. Unfortunately, most people can list only those dozen or so names. The majority of people would not be able to list all 12 sons of Israel or the other youths who were captives with Daniel. Few people could list all the prophets in the Old Testament. Fewer still could state why each prophet was important enough to merit being named.

There are over 3,200 people referenced by name in the Bible, and there are hundreds more who are identified only as “a servant,” “an Israelite,” “a gentile” or “a Samaritan.” These unnamed people are even more likely to be forgotten than those who are named. That humans forget these people, however, does not diminish the importance of lesser known and unknown characters. Here are four Biblical people everyone forgets are important but without whom the Good Book would have come to an early end.

Shiphrah and Puah

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Shiprah and Puah are both found in the early parts of the Book of Exodus. When Pharaoh begins to fear the ever increasing numbers of Israelite slaves, he orders the midwives to kill all the infant boys they deliver. Two of them, Shiprah and Puah, refuse to follow his command and come up with a clever story to cover up why the Israelites are still raising boys. The two women claim that Hebrew women give birth so quickly that there is no time for the midwives to get to the woman before the child is born. Pharaoh believes them, and God honors them for saving His people. Without these two women, many infants would have been killed, potentially including Moses himself.

Mordecai

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Mordecai was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin who was taken captive. He raised his cousin Esther in Persia as if she were his own daughter. After she was made queen, Mordecai was promoted to a high office in Ahasuerus’ court and foiled a plot to kill the king. While he was serving in his position, he angered Haman. Haman decided to murder all of the Jews in the Persian Empire in response to Mordecai’s offense. Mordecai discovered the scheme and brought it to Esther’s attention. Esther was the one who managed to frustrate Haman’s scheme and preserve the Jewish people. Without Mordecai, however, she would not have known that there was a plot that needed foiling, and that is assuming she survived her childhood as an orphan in the first place.

Samaritan Woman

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The Samaritan woman at the well is never named in the Bible. She is merely identified by her ethnicity and her location. That does not mean, however, that she does not have an important part to play in the Biblical story. It is with the Samaritan woman that Jesus first confirms He is the Messiah in the Gospel of John. She is also instrumental in getting the Samaritans to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

The Samaritan woman’s greatest influence, however, may be because of what did not happen. Jews and Samaritans did not mix. Frankly, they loathed each other. Jews regarded the Samaritans much like how the French Resistance thought of the Vichy French in World War II. Yet Jesus, a man from the line of David, willingly drank from a Samaritan woman’s cup and spent time speaking with her and teaching her. She was the clear symbol that God was sweeping away old divides. To the Jewish Apostles, the idea that even Samaritans could be saved was staggering.

Jethro

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Jethro was the high priest of Midian at the time of the Exodus. When Moses fled Egypt after killing a man, Jethro sheltered him and gave Zipporah, his daughter, to Moses for a wife. After Moses returned to Egypt and freed the Israelites, Jethro travelled to meet Moses and the Israelites. While he was with Moses, Jethro encouraged Moses to appoint others to help share the heavy burden of ministry. This allowed others to take care of the judgement of smaller matters rather than dropping the entire load on Moses.

Without Jethro, Moses may never have returned to Egypt. In fact, Moses may not have survived his flight into the desert. Jethro, however, took in a stranger, kept him safe and later became an advisor of sorts to one of the greatest prophets of all time.