One of the great Bible heroes is a woman named Deborah. Two chapters in the book of Judges tell her story to us. According to the New International Version of the text, she was a prophet. I find it interesting that the word used is prophet and not prophetess. Many of the other versions of the Bible say that she was a prophetess and so I looked up the literal word in the Greek Lexicon on Bible Hub and they say it is the word prophetess. A prophetess is a female prophet.
Deborah is married. Her husband is a man called Lappidoth. We don’t know how long they were married or much about him. The literal translation is that she was the woman of Lappidoth. We don’t know if he was alive or dead. With the many battles of that day, he could have been killed. But what we do know is that he was from the tribe of Ephriam, or some call it Issachar. We aren’t certain, but it is obvious that Deborah was a wise and righteous judge. Unlike the ones who came before her, not much is mentioned about them. If you read Chapter three of Judges you can see who they were. I think that the one thing the Israelites were good at was doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. And God would send them into captivity to get them thinking of Him again.
Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help. Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’ ” Judges 4:1-7, (New International Version or NIV).
Oppressed for twenty years and finally the people cry out to God to save them. The tyrant, Sisera, is about to be taken out and Deborah is going into battle with Barak. I doubt that this was her first battle. She seemed to be a warrior as well as a prophetess and judge. I can see her standing there overlooking the battlefield wearing her armor made of leather and metal. She had difficulty getting her commander to go to war, though. He would not go unless she went with him.
Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him. Judges 4:8-10, (NIV).
We could speculate all day about why he wouldn’t go into battle without Deborah. Was he afraid he would lose? Did he not trust her prophecy of deliverance? Or was he afraid? Maybe he thought he needed her soldiers too. I don’t know, but it is interesting to speculate.
“I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up. “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’ ” But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died. Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead. On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him. Judges 4:19-23, (NIV).
Deborah, who was known to be a fair and honest judge, was a good leader over Israel. She didn’t back down from the commander, Barak, who might have been a little untrusting of the woman. She didn’t back down from him either when she told him that she would gladly fight side by side with him. She had a condition to attach to her agreement, that Barak would not get the glory for killing Sisera. That honor would go to a woman, and she didn’t mean herself! To me, this shows her bravery and yet her humility to not grab glory herself. She wanted another to be given that limelight. She was a fair and honest judge, and the people loved her. The 5th chapter of Judges is known as the Song of Deborah, but the truth is that it was a duet, and guess who sang it with her? Barak.
On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song: “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves—praise the Lord! “Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I, even I, will sing to the Lord; I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song. “When you, Lord, went out from Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water. The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel. “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths. Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel. God chose new leaders when war came to the city gates, but not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel. My heart is with Israel’s princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the Lord! “You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road, consider the voice of the singers at the watering places. They recite the victories of the Lord, the victories of his villagers in Israel. “Then the people of the Lord went down to the city gates. ‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song! Arise, Barak! Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’ Judges 5:1-12, (NIV).
The next part of this duet talks about how Jael killed Sisera. And then the ending of the duet is this.
“Through the window peered Sisera’s mother; behind the lattice she cried out ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’ The wisest of her ladies answer her; indeed, she keeps saying to herself, ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils: a woman or two for each man, colorful garments as plunder for Sisera, colorful garments embroidered, highly embroidered garments for my neck—all this as plunder?’ “So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had peace forty years. Judges 5:28-31, (NIV).
No wonder the people loved and revered the judge, Deborah. She was brave, valiant, compassionate, fair, and intelligent. She has sisters in every generation, perhaps you are one of them.
Until next time…Katherine
Katherine Speaks 