God asked the above question to Moses, for which he replied
“a Shepherd’s Staff.” (Exo. 4:2) In Dorcas’ case, it was her “Needle.” She spent
her days in stitching, remaking, mending, altering garments for poor widows who
lived in Joppa. She was always doing good and helping the poor. The name Dorcas
means, “gazelle”—an emblem of beauty. Its Hebrew equivalent, Tabitha is the
Syro-Chaldaic form of the Hebrew -
Zibiah, or Tsibiah, which was the name of a princess of Judah, the
mother of King Joash.
Life of Dorcas (Acts 9:36-43)
A Disciple
Dorcas is the only
named woman disciple in the Bible. Possibly Dorcas came to know Christ as her
Saviour from Philip, the evangelist. She caught the vision of how she could
serve Christ with her money and her needle. Her salvation experience led her to
doing this good work. We should be aware that giving of alms and doing good works alone gain no merit with
God. God sees our hearts, and then our talents.
All who do good works are not the disciples of Christ. But all disciples
of Christ are called to be doers of good work.
Apostle James at length discusses in his letter about how
salvation and good works are inseparable.
The cup of cold water is acceptable when it is given in His name. Jesus
said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name
because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” (Mark 9:41)
People who see our good works should ultimately praise God! (Matthew 5:16).
When we do good works, our attitude should be not to publicise ourselves
(Matthew 6:1). In Dorcas’ case, it was the women who spoke praises of her!
A Beautiful Woman
We do not know whether Dorcas was a physically beautiful
woman or not. In the New Testament there is not a single mention of the
physical beauty of a man or a woman, but we only read about the inner beauty of
people. She certainly lived a lovely life, and had eyes reflecting the
compassion of the Master whom she so faithfully served, who went about doing
good (Acts 10:38). Her beneficiaries saw in her, the beauty of Jesus.
She had the hands and feet of Jesus. Jesus said, “I was
naked, and you gave me clothing…. ….I assure you, when you did it to one of the
least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Matt
25:36-40, NLT). True to
these verses, the hands of Dorcas clothed the sisters who needed clothes. The woman mentioned about in Proverbs 31 had
hands to offer too. Her hands were busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting
fibre. She extended a helping hand to the poor and opened her arms to the needy
(vs 19-20). These women had hands that helped and so were beautiful. Charm is
deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be
praised. (Proverbs 31:30)
A Minister
For some reason, Dorcas became ill and died. While the
funeral procedures were happening, the women whom she had helped all along,
sent two men to call Apostle Peter who was in nearby Lydda. They knew that he would exercise supernatural
power because just then he had healed Aeneas, a paralytic man. When Peter came
he must have been moved as he saw the exhibits of the coats and garments Dorcas
had made for the needy women. He said, “Tabitha, arise!” and life returned.
Dorcas sat up, and Peter presented her alive to the saints and widows. They
would have been over-joyed to get back their much-loved Dorcas. After the resurrection of Jesus, this was the
first incident in the early church. So it became a powerful display of the
resurrected power of Jesus Christ.
In her resurrected life, a healed Dorcas would have taken up
her needle in her hand immediately. On
the one side, she started to help the needy women again. On the other hand, the
message rang, “Dorcas is alive again,” and many believed in the Lord. After the
resurrection of Lazarus we read that many of the Jews believed on Jesus. It is
true in a spiritual resurrection too. A transformed life attracts others to the
Saviour. We read that after the miracle, Peter stayed in Joppa for many days,
to teach and disciple the new believers. Peter stayed with Simon the tanner, a
saint who prepared skins for leather to the glory of God, just as Dorcas made
up her garments with her consecrated hands.
Professions, Positions, Power are powerful pulpits to
propagate the gospel. It is interesting
that in the midst of her funeral, Dorcas woke up and was able to see how she
had influenced the lives of people around her. Like Mary of Bethany she did
what she could. How have we influenced lives around us? Christianity teaches us
not only to live and let live, but also to help live. Dorcas might not have
been an outgoing personality like Deborah. Probably she did not have children
to dedicate like how Hannah and Salome did. But she had a hand and a heart to
serve. Following Ecclesiastes 9:10, let us do it with all our might whatever
our hands find to do for the glory of God!
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