Under a palm tree between the cities of Ramah and Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim was a tent. A tent to which the children of Israel came to be judged. The person to whom they came was Deborah, a woman whom God chose to be prophetess and judge over His people. Many times God told the children of Israel of their promised land. In the wilderness, God had told them once again through Moses, that they would receive a land flowing with milk and honey as a blessing from Him. The children of Israel were to obey God alone, worship God alone, and drive out all the inhabitants of their promised land completely. In Exodus 23:31-33, God says, “For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand: and shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”
The children of Israel vowed they would obey. Exodus 24:3 & 8 read: “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments, and all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said: Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.”
The children of Israel were not in the Promised Land long and they broke their promise. While Joshua still lived they disobeyed God’s command. Judges 1 is full of instances where individual tribes did notdrive out the inhabitants of the land, but made them their servants or dwelt with them. Before Joshua died, he showed them their sin and they saw it and repented. But, God now told them He would not utterly drive out the inhabitants, but that they would be as thorns in their sides and their gods would be a snare unto them. And the children of Israel wept.
Not long after Joshua died, and his generation with him, a generation arose that knew not Jehovah nor the works that He wrought. We know that does not mean they knew nothing about Jehovah or their wonderful deliverance from Egypt, but that they chose to forget about Him and live easy, self-pleasing lives; dwelling with the inhabitants of the land, taking their daughters to be their wives, and serving their gods.
That time and each time after that, when God sold them into the hands of a heathen king and the pressures came hard upon them, the children of Israel cried unto Jehovah. He heard their cries and raised them up judges or saviors to save them from their enemies.
The fourth such judge scripture tell us about is the prophetess, Deborah. The children of Israel could not remain true to Jehovah but after each judge died, they again turned away. At the time of Deborah, because of their sin, God had sold them into the hand of the Canaanites and their King Jabin, and his Captain, Sisera, with his great army. For twenty years God’s hand used Jabin and Sisera to oppress His people.
The little we read about Deborah herself, is that she is a prophetess, a judge, and the wife of Lappidoth. She dwelt in a tent under the palm tree of Deborah. The way God’s Word tells us, she must have been well known to the children of Israel and well honored in her ability to judge. It must have been hard to judge in those years when every man did what was right in his own eyes and almost all were serving idols and seeking self.
When the children of Israel again felt the heaviness of their oppression, they again turned to God. God came to Deborah and used her to inspire Barak, an Israelite from Kedesh-Naphtali, to lead he children of Israel to fight the Canaanites. Barak was inspired but would not go to the battle without Deborah. Perhaps he held Deborah’s prophetic office in such high esteem that he was afraid to go without her. We should remember, a prophet is an authoritive teacher of God’s will. Barak knew God put words into Deborah’s mouth and perhaps he did not dare to be far from that power in this great thing he was about to do.
Deborah returned with Barak to his home in Kedesh. A great army was gathered from Zebulon, Naphtali, and Issachar and all went to Mt. Tabor. Deborah announced the day which the Lord had chosen, and the battle was soon over. God gave great victory to the children of Israel through Barak’s sword and through rains and floods. However, God chose to teach the children of Israel yet another lesson. He allowed the Canaanites’ great captain, Sissera, to escape. Sisera fled into the hill country, and there a Kenite woman, Jael, had the final victory of killing him. From this day Jabin and the Canaanites were subdued and the children of Israel fought more and more until they had wholly conquered.
Deborah’s song is one that begins and ends in praise to God. We so often hear and remember the phrase: Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake. And she does include this command from God to her in her song, but the song begins: Raise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel. Deborah then traces the steps of the victory. She tells us that after the days of Shamgar (the previous judge) THE RULERS CEASED-until God chose a woman to lead them out of their sin (vs. 7). She then tells us of the battle to show us it was God who delivered His people out of their oppression. She tells us of some tribes of Israel who had excuses not to fight and of others who simply didn’t come and were cursed for it. She then tells of those who did come willingly to fight, of the God-given victory, and of the enemies who perished.
What do these two chapters in scripture have to say to us today? Did Deborah see something was needed and decide to do something about it? Did men step aside because Deborah was such a great and capable leader with so much power? Does this example in Holy Scripture perhaps strengthen today’s push for women preachers or office bearers? Why did God use a woman where everywhere else in scripture this is not the case?
First of all, Israel was now at about the lowest ebb spiritually that it had ever been. God placed Deborah there to the shame of the spiritually weak men of Israel. There simply was no man to rule. Deborah herself says this in chapter 5:7; “The rulers of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.” Isaiah speaks of just such a spiritually weak time in Isaiah 3:12, where he warned the people they would eat of the fruit of their doings, that children would be their oppressors and women would rule over them. God used Deborah simply because there was no man spiritually strong enough. But notice how God used Deborah. She was used to inspire Barak. Deborah herself did not look down on Barak, or lord it over him but delegated all her authority to him and took no glory to herself.
Deborah’s goal was not simply freedom from oppression for Israel, but obedience to God. We should remember Deborah not for her leadership over men, but for her closeness to God. Faith, obedience and trust came first in Deborah’s life. May we have the grace to follow this example.