Deborah: Leadership Uncompromisable!
Deborah was both a prophetess and a judge (Jdg. 4:4). As a prophetess, God used her to deliver His messages to His people. As a judge, God gave her the authority to render civil court decisions. Yet there was one authority of being a judge that Deborah did not take to herself. This will be explained later.
Judges 4, verse 5, states that Deborah “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.”
Note that she did not go to the people; the people came to her. She must have been known for her sound-mindedness and sense of justice. The Israelites came to her to receive just decisions.
Deborah was also recognized for her sense of decency and order. We know this because, as a prophetess, she was careful to voice God’s will, and not her own. She was yielded to Him.
God commanded Deborah to call for a man named Barak, whom He planned to use for a special military mission. When Barak came before her, she said to him, “Listen to the words of the Eternal God of Israel: ‘Go gather 10,000 warriors from the tribe of Naphtali and Zebulun, and get ready to do battle at Mount Tabor. I shall bring Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, against you. I shall bring you victory over his chariots of iron and his fighting force, and I will deliver Sisera into your hands at the River Kishon.’”
For years, the Israelites had intermarried with idol-worshipping nations, which God had long ago commanded Israel to destroy. God once again found that He had to teach His people to fear and obey Him, which was the only way they could taste true success. So God decided to use Jabin, king of Canaan, as His tool of Israel’s punishment.
Headquartered at the city of Hazor, Jabin sent 900 deadly iron-wheeled chariots and a massive army to descend upon the Israelites, spreading panic and terror throughout the land. For the next 20 years, King Jabin, with Sisera as his army commander, maintained brutal control over the lives of the Israelites (Jdg. 4:1-3).
When Deborah finished delivering God’s message, she expected Barak to rush out to do God’s will. But Barak was enslaved by fear—and this kept him from fully trusting God to deliver him from Jabin’s ruthless warriors.
And so he gave Deborah an ultimatum: “If you will go with me, then I will go: but if you will not go with me, then I will not go” (vs. 8).
Barak was suffering from spiritual short-sightedness. He could not see the “big picture” of God’s Master Plan and how he fit into it. This made Barak more afraid of the physical enemy, which he could see, than the God of the universe, whom he could not see.
Though taken back by his demand, Deborah said, “I will surely go with you: notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (vs. 9). In effect, she said, “You should have put your faith in God, not in me, His servant, nor in any other human being. You should be grateful that God has decided to still use you. Yet, because you have let your fear get the best of you, Sisera’s life will be taken by the hand of a woman. She will get the glory—not you!”
On one hand, Deborah did not limit God. She did not think to herself, “Oh, I’m just a woman. God couldn’t possibly use me.” Deborah accepted her roles as judge and prophetess, and allowed God to use her as He saw fit.
On the other hand, she did not try to get ahead of God and seek authority that did not belong to her. Carnally, she could have capitalized on her reputation for making good judgments. She could have, as Miriam the prophetess briefly did (see Numbers 12), tried to exalt herself. But Deborah knew her boundaries.
She and Barak were supposed to work together as a team. Barak was to lead the military into battle; Deborah was to provide wise counsel and support, and express God’s will to the leader of the army. Because Barak initially failed to provide strong leadership, Deborah had to “stand in the gap” (Ezek. 22:29-30), but she did so reluctantly.
An Exceptional Servant Deborah stood for courage in a time of fear. She stood for godly wisdom in a time of human reasoning, when “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” She stood for decency and order in a chaotic time of sexual perversity and idolatry. Deborah was a leader who was an exception to the rule in her time.
Sadly, such exceptional character today is rare, just as it was in Deborah’s time.
Today, people (and not just young people) dress as though they were reared in barns. They wear clothing showing flesh that should be covered up. They wear T-shirts and shorts with messages that are crass and crude. They wear their pants far lower than they should, and then wonder why they have trouble walking. They wear their dresses far higher than they should, and then wonder why they are attracting unwanted attention.
Source: Deborah
Judges 4, verse 5, states that Deborah “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.”
Note that she did not go to the people; the people came to her. She must have been known for her sound-mindedness and sense of justice. The Israelites came to her to receive just decisions.
Deborah was also recognized for her sense of decency and order. We know this because, as a prophetess, she was careful to voice God’s will, and not her own. She was yielded to Him.
God commanded Deborah to call for a man named Barak, whom He planned to use for a special military mission. When Barak came before her, she said to him, “Listen to the words of the Eternal God of Israel: ‘Go gather 10,000 warriors from the tribe of Naphtali and Zebulun, and get ready to do battle at Mount Tabor. I shall bring Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, against you. I shall bring you victory over his chariots of iron and his fighting force, and I will deliver Sisera into your hands at the River Kishon.’”
For years, the Israelites had intermarried with idol-worshipping nations, which God had long ago commanded Israel to destroy. God once again found that He had to teach His people to fear and obey Him, which was the only way they could taste true success. So God decided to use Jabin, king of Canaan, as His tool of Israel’s punishment.
Headquartered at the city of Hazor, Jabin sent 900 deadly iron-wheeled chariots and a massive army to descend upon the Israelites, spreading panic and terror throughout the land. For the next 20 years, King Jabin, with Sisera as his army commander, maintained brutal control over the lives of the Israelites (Jdg. 4:1-3).
When Deborah finished delivering God’s message, she expected Barak to rush out to do God’s will. But Barak was enslaved by fear—and this kept him from fully trusting God to deliver him from Jabin’s ruthless warriors.
And so he gave Deborah an ultimatum: “If you will go with me, then I will go: but if you will not go with me, then I will not go” (vs. 8).
Barak was suffering from spiritual short-sightedness. He could not see the “big picture” of God’s Master Plan and how he fit into it. This made Barak more afraid of the physical enemy, which he could see, than the God of the universe, whom he could not see.
Though taken back by his demand, Deborah said, “I will surely go with you: notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (vs. 9). In effect, she said, “You should have put your faith in God, not in me, His servant, nor in any other human being. You should be grateful that God has decided to still use you. Yet, because you have let your fear get the best of you, Sisera’s life will be taken by the hand of a woman. She will get the glory—not you!”
On one hand, Deborah did not limit God. She did not think to herself, “Oh, I’m just a woman. God couldn’t possibly use me.” Deborah accepted her roles as judge and prophetess, and allowed God to use her as He saw fit.
On the other hand, she did not try to get ahead of God and seek authority that did not belong to her. Carnally, she could have capitalized on her reputation for making good judgments. She could have, as Miriam the prophetess briefly did (see Numbers 12), tried to exalt herself. But Deborah knew her boundaries.
She and Barak were supposed to work together as a team. Barak was to lead the military into battle; Deborah was to provide wise counsel and support, and express God’s will to the leader of the army. Because Barak initially failed to provide strong leadership, Deborah had to “stand in the gap” (Ezek. 22:29-30), but she did so reluctantly.
An Exceptional Servant Deborah stood for courage in a time of fear. She stood for godly wisdom in a time of human reasoning, when “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” She stood for decency and order in a chaotic time of sexual perversity and idolatry. Deborah was a leader who was an exception to the rule in her time.
Sadly, such exceptional character today is rare, just as it was in Deborah’s time.
Today, people (and not just young people) dress as though they were reared in barns. They wear clothing showing flesh that should be covered up. They wear T-shirts and shorts with messages that are crass and crude. They wear their pants far lower than they should, and then wonder why they have trouble walking. They wear their dresses far higher than they should, and then wonder why they are attracting unwanted attention.
Source: Deborah