Key Text: Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment (Judges 4:4-5).
Deborah (the Hebrew word for “bee”), the wife of Lapidoth, a prophetess and fourth in the order of the judges, proclaimed God’s decisions when the people came to her for judgment. She was divinely inspired and also pronounced verdict on Israel’s enemies. Like the rest of the judges Deborah became a leader for her people in times of national distress. It is clear that women played a predominant role in leadership in Israel at that time and their significance was a reflection on the weakness of male leadership. There is nothing in the Mosaic law directly prohibiting a woman from taking a place of responsibility that was normally the place of men. God chooses whom He pleases because He is sovereign. Today, some argue that pastors of churches should be men, not women. They quote 1 Timothy 3 and * Corinthians 14’ and claim that there are no records of women pastors in the New Testament without referencing the important places and activities of women in the New Testament congregations. Deborah was able to arouse the scattered tribes of Israel to a sense of unity and loyalty to God in their struggles against the Canaanites, a religious unity of crucial importance for the establishment and continuing life of the nation Israel.
After the death of Ehud, the eighty year period of rest came to an end, and the Israelites again sinned against God. The Scripture says that the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin (a dynastic title, rather than a personal name), king of Canaan, whose headquarters were in Hazor. Jabin’s main source of strength came from his general Sisera (probably a Hittite) from Harosheth of the Gentiles. The oppression by Jabin and Sisera lasted for twenty years because of superior military strength of the Canaanites. Verse claims that Sisera had nine hundred chariots of iron, a source of complete dominance until a situation arose in which the chariots could not be used.
Deborah’s place of residence was located between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim, about fifty miles from the scene of the battle. She did not lead the military reprisal herself, but chose Barak (an inhabitant of Kedesh-naphtali, near Hazor) to serve as the commander of the tribe. Deborah tells Barak that he is to take 10,000 men toward Mount Tabor, and that God said He would draw unto thee..Sisera…and…deliver him into thine hand” v 6. But Barak responded that he would not go unless she would be willing to go with him. Deborah replied yes but the battle would not be in his honor, “for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” v 7. So, Barak appealed to the two northern tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali to meet the Canaanites in that area. The 10,000 Israelites, who were lightly armed, engaged in the combat with the cavalry and chariots of Sisera which were caught in the sudden flooding of the swollen Kish river to such a degree that the chariots became mired in the mud, and the drivers were forced to flee on foot. The flee army was annihilated at Harosheth. Sisera fled to the tent of Heber the Kenite where he met Heber’s wife Jael, from whom he sought refuge. Verse 17 indicates that there was peace between Jabin and Heber at that time. But, instead of protecting him, Jael took the nail of a tent and a hammer, and she quietly approached her unsuspecting guest in his sleep and literally nailed him to the floor, driving the peg into his temples through his head. So when Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, he found that he was already dead and that the honor of his capture had gone to a woman, just as Deborah had prophesied. The victory led to the complete demise of Jabin and brought peace and prosperity to Israel for about forty years. AMEN!
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