Forty Women Weekly Lent Reading Plan

Our new Lent book by Ros Clarke, Forty Women, has got off to a great start, with groups and individuals alike picking it up to help deepen their devotion and journey towards Easter through the Bible.

Some churches like to go through a book together as a congregation, in Lent or otherwise, and Forty Women is perfect for that, even though at first glance it might appear to be ‘just’ a daily devotional for individual readers.

Traditionally, the days of Lent (with Lent 2022 falling between the 2^nd of March and the 14^th of April) would be focused on the days that aren’t Sundays – which is where we get the figure of forty from. That means, with a bit of wriggle room for starting on a Wednesday, there are seven weeks of Lent. If you are a church leader or small group leader looking to work through Forty Women this Lent, then this outline could be tool you’ll need. Perhaps you could invite a couple of different people from your small group to focus on one particular women, and share what they found moving, that helped them consider the Cross.

Week 1 (2^nd-5^th)

-          Eve

-          Sarai

-          Hagar

-          Rebekah

Week 2 (7^th-12^th)

-          Rachel

-          Leah

-          Dinah

-          Tamar

-          Shiprah and Puah

-          Pharoah’s Daughter

Week 3 (Mon March 14^th – Sat 19^th)

-          Zipporah

-          Miriam

-          Mahlah. Noah. Hoglah. Milkah. Tirzah.

-          Rahab

-          Deborah

-          Jael

Week 4 (Mon March 21^st  – Sat 26^th)

-          Delilah

-          The concubine

-          Mara

-          Ruth

-          Hannah

-          Michal

Week 5 (Mon March 28^th – Sat Apr 2^nd)

-          Abigail

-          Bathsheba

-          Tamar

-          The widow of Zarephath

-          Jezebel

-          Athaliah

Week 6 (Mon April 4^th – Sat April 9^th)

-          Jehosheba

-          Huldah

-          Vashti

-          Esther

-          Gmoer

-          The Shulammite

Week 7 (Mon April 11^th – Sat April 16^th)

-          Mary

-          The woman who had been bleeding

-          The forgiven woman

-          The woman at the well

-          Mary and Martha

-          Mary Magdalene

In the stories of these forty women, over seven weeks, you can track with Ros Clarke as she leads the reader through the arc of Scripture, from Eden to Easter, culminating at the foot of the cross. Why not invite your church to join you?