Week 10 Judges
Deborah wore two unexpected hats. She was a judge, and she was also a prophet. She lived during the unhappy aftermath of Israel turning their backs on the Lord and being subjugated by a Canaanite commander named Sisera who ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
Eventually Deborah called on a Naphtalese soldier named Barak to rescue Israel. She gave him a prophetic guarantee that if he recruited a ten-thousand man army from Naphtali-Zebulun he would defeat Sisera.
Barak was likely a talented-enough warrior but he was also reluctant. Maybe he did the strategic-math and 10,000 infantry vs. 900 chariots + foot-soldiers looked like a competitive disadvantage. Or maybe he didn’t have confidence in the prophecy – a promise in the central hills of Ephraim was different than standing in the north-country looking across the Kishon River at Sisera’s army. Or maybe he was afraid. Maybe all three. He told Deborah: I will go, but only if you go with me!
It was a weird thing to admit in a swaggering tough-guy world. He knew it. Deborah knew it. And even though she agreed to go she told him: since you have made this choice, you will receive no honor. For the Lord’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman.
Barak went. He won the battle. But in the end it was a woman who defeated Sisera.
The surprise was that the woman wasn’t Deborah.
Note: quotes from Judges 4:3, 8-9 (NLT)