Then Sang Deborah

Scripture For The Day  

April 21, 2023

"Then Sang Deborah" 

 Deborah- Now, here was a woman who was not only a servant for The Lord but a respected leader and her story can be found in the OT- Judges 4. The people once again turned away from God and began doing evil in the sight of The Lord. A bit like our own culture. Because of their disobedience, The Lord allowed His people to be taken captive and treated cruelly for 20 years. Only then did they begin to cry out to The Lord for help. This is when we first meet Deborah sitting under a palm tree which was a perfect symbol of her inner strength and divine calling. Her obedience to God was going to explode in fruitfulness. Though she was assertive she was humble in her love for God.  

Deborah was not only a prophet of God; she was also the 4th judge mentioned in the book of Judges and the ONLY female judge mentioned in the entire bible. She was a big deal. She was a military leader. She was a songwriter and a musician who would lead the people in worship. She was also a wife. She was confident and assertive. Again, assertiveness is not aggressiveness even if people want to take it that way. She stood up for what was right and was not afraid to fight for The Lord. And the people respected her enough to seek her advice. Even high-ranking officials would come to her for legal advice as well as personal advice. She was respected in a society that was usually dominated by men. But she didn’t do any of this on her own. She went to The Lord. She took His Word directly and passed them on to the people.

 One day, Deborah sent a message to a man named Barak- “The LORD- the God of Israel, has commanded you to go and gather 10,000 men and lead them to Mount Tabor. Sisera (who was the cruel commander of the enemy's army) will come to you and I will help you defeat Sisera there. Barak told Deborah that He would only go if she went with him. “I will surely go with thee” Deborah answers ‘But because of your attitude, you will not be honored when Sisera is defeated. The LORD will allow a woman to defeat Sisera. You see, his stipulation for obedience resulted in less favor with God. So, Deborah went with him all the way. She tells Barak to get up for the time has come and The LORD had already cleared the way. Barak and his men attacked Sisera. During the battle, The LORD confused Sisera and his army and chariots. They didn’t know what to do. and Sisera ran away on foot. Not one of Sisera’s men was left alive. This cruel tyrant, Sisera ran into a woman’s tent to hide. She- “Jael” pretended to be his friend but ended up killing him with a tent peg and hammer in the side of his head and he died- ouch. Jael called out to Barak that the enemy was in her tent, dead- a woman killed their enemy. Another woman helped lead the army. Both found favor in The Lord. On that day the Israelites defeated Sisera, and Deborah and Barak led the people in a victory song as they celebrated. refer to Judges 5 the song tells the whole story. 

And there was peace in the land for 40 years. 



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