Deborah and Barak

There are only a few instances in the Bible where women are placed in a position of authority. Nevertheless, when a story of a woman’s leadership develops it is usually a fascinating tale that we should spend time investigating. So it is with Deborah, a woman prophetess in Israel during a time when the Lord was disciplining the nation because of its sin. In the Old Testament the Lord’s discipline usually meant that a foreign army occupied Israel. That was a bad thing, of course, because it meant that the people would be taxed out the yahoo and the occupying army would abuse them. The story of Deborah is found in Judges chapter four. I will tell the story in my own words.

Once upon a time there was this dame named Deborah who lived in Israel near Bethel and she was a prophetess. She would sit under a palm tree and hear cases that were brought to her by the people of Israel. She was like the Supreme Court. Her judgments were final and absolute. Men usually held these positions, but the people didn’t care because they knew that Deborah was fair and impartial and had the Lord on her side.

Lo and behold Deborah sends a message to a five star general named Barak to come and see her because she has a message from God. So Barak jumps in his five star Hummer and heads for Bethel. When he arrives there is the usual greetings and salutations and all that before Deborah tells him to sit down and get ready for the most important message of his life. So Barak looks around and notices that under this palm tree there aren’t any recliners, or anything for him to sit on. So he says to Deborah, “What, don’t you even have a stool here for me to sit on?” Deborah says, “I am a prophetess, I work under a palm tree, who do you think I am Donald Trump?

One of his soldiers grabs a mat from the Hummer and sets it down for General Barak who then notices that there are no chips or pretzels or anything for him to chomp on. The general says to Deborah, “Don’t you have any goodies for me to snack on because I got a case of the munchies right now. Deborah says, “I sent for you so you could hear the instruction of the Lord personally. “I did not send for you so we could have tea and biscuits.”

So Barak sits back on the mat and tells Deborah to start prophesying. So Deborah tells Barak that God wants him to take an army of ten thousand men and march against the general of the occupying army who’s name was Sisera. Deborah tells Barak that God will take care of the details and all he has to do is march. Then Barak, who was not known for his bravery, says to Deborah “If you will go with me then I will go; but if you do not go with me I will not go.” Deborah looks at him and says, “You little scardy cat. “No wonder you don’t have any medals on you.

Then Barak gets steamed and tells Deborah, “You will never be as good a prophet as Joshua.” Deborah counters by mocking Barak, “Waaaaa, Waaaaa I want my mommy. I’m afraid to fight Sisera.” Finally some of the other leaders step forward and calm them both down. Then Deborah says, “I will go with you, but because you are such a weasel the Lord will see to it that Sisera will be delivered into the hands of a woman.” Barak thinks to himself, “That’s OK with me as long as I don’t get all shot up with arrows.”

So Deborah goes with Barak into battle and the Lord routs the occupying army and Sisera flees for his life. His entire army is laid waste and Sisera finds himself wondering around looking for a place to hide from the advancing Israeli troops. Eventually Sisera ends up at the tent of someone who he thought he could trust. The wife of this man tells him to come into the tent and seek shelter there and she will watch out for him. Sisera is exhausted and falls asleep in the tent. Then the woman takes a tent peg and drives it into the head of Sisera. So Sisera was delivered into the hands of a woman just like Deborah prophesied.

Little is known of Deborah and her role as a judge over Israel. Barak, for reasons that are not clear, is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11 is called the “faith chapter” by students of the New Testament and mentions a number of people of great faith. Barak is mentioned as a person of great faith. Some have raised questions about why Barak would be mentioned here. One possible answer is that Barak was not a strong leader and he knew it, so it took a great effort on his part to believe what Deborah had prophesied to him.

I believe that the Lord will judge us according to what are abilities enable us to accomplish. There are those among us who have great talents and use those talents to make a name for themselves. Others have only a little talent and use that talent for the benefit of others. I believe on the judgment day the Lord will greatly bless the person who gave what little they had, so that others to be benefited. In the case of Barak, he may have been unskilled in battle so it took a great deal of faith to believe that God could do anything through him. If that is true then Barak is a man of great faith even though he depended on Deborah for assistance.

I believe that Deborah is a woman of great faith. No doubt she had to overcome great prejudices to become a woman judge in Israel at that time. While no mention is made of any resistance to her leadership there is little doubt that at first Deborah faced prejudices because of her gender. She may have had doubters of her calling as a judge up until the day she died. For a woman of that time to overcome her own fears and become a Judge in Israel demonstrates a high level of faith. I wonder why she wasn’t mentioned in Hebrews chapter eleven?