Women in Leadership

Judges 4:1-10

¹And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. ² And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. ³ Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years. ⁴ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ⁵ She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. ⁶ She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. ⁷ And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” ⁸ Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” ⁹ And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰ And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

After 80 years of peace under the leadership of Ehud, the people again choose idolatry rather than faithfulness and again they find themselves under the abuse of a foreign leader, King Jabin of Canaan. At this time, God has selected Deborah to adjudicate for the people. She resides northwest of Jerusalem and holds court under “The Palm of Deborah”. In her role as the leader of the people at the time she is also called a “prophetess” which means she speaks forth the Word of the Lord. In that role, the Lord has also chosen to give her information about how to defeat Jabin and free His people again.

The other player in this drama is Barak, the commander of the army of God’s people in the northern tribe of Naphtali. When we meet him, we are understandably underwhelmed. When he is told to march against the enemy, he says he will go but only if Deborah will accompany him! This is unheard of in the culture at the time. Women did not go into battle. But Deborah agreed with the warning that Jabin will indeed be defeated but by a woman, not a man. I suspect that Barak did not believe her. He would be wrong.

If you look at the map, you will see that all of this drama takes place in the northern section of what is now the land of God’s people. The tribes involved are Naphtali and Zebulon. From just these two tribes Barak is able to muster 10,000 men. This gives us just a minor glimpse into the scope of the Israel’s population at this time. These were two of the smaller tribes  and 10,000 fighting men were mustered almost overnight.

We simply must take a moment to recognize that God chooses a woman to lead the people during this time in their history. Clearly, if Barak is to be used as our example, the men were simply unwilling to step up and lead. So God grants the wisdom and strength necessary for the job to Deborah and she rises to the task. When you start to stack up the women God uses as His instruments in the Bible you come to quite a list, and someone who may appear near the top of the list is Deborah. While we certainly don’t know that the actually went into battle, we also do not know that she didn’t. Clearly, this is a remarkable woman and she gained the trust and respect of her countrymen.