Last week, we saw how Deborah, a female judge of the Israelites led them to defeat their enemy, the king of Canaan. Only about 150 years after the Exodus and conquest of Israel, the people had slipped into the habits of their neighbors and the Bible tells us that when that happened, God “gave them into the hand of their enemies.” When they repent, God raises up a leader (judge) to defeat their oppressors.
It is tempting to think that God should intervene directly
in our problems. We have enemies (or at least people we disagree with)—why
doesn’t God vanquish them like in the “good old days”? Perhaps we need to
consider if we need to repent of how we have slipped into ways of acting and
living that are not in alignment with God. Like the people of Israel, it is
easy to start acting like everyone else. We may not worship carved idols, which
was always a slipping point for the ancient Israelites. What are some of the
idols we do put ahead of God? Or we may just find we aren’t living the Golden
Rule as well as we could.
Deborah was a judge of Israel. That doesn’t mean she was a
legal authority. The judges of this period of Israel were leaders, called by
God, to remind the people of their failings and lead them back to God and to
defeat the current oppressing forces. Some of the Judges, like Gideon, who was
Judge after Deborah, take physical action against the idolatries of the people.
Gideon tears down the altar of Baal and erects an altar to God in its place. (Judges
6:25-27)
Deborah’s action was to summon Barak and tell him to raise
an army against the Canaanites. In this, not so subtle way, she reminded the
people of the power of God and how God delivered them in the past and continued
to deliver them.
In the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) she reminds the people who
God is: 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 (Judges 5:4)
She then tells of her own call by God. 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! (Judges 6:7-9)
The Song ends with the exclamation, So may all your
enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in
its strength. (Judges 6:31) Returning to the theme at the start, Deborah
gives glory to God.
Deborah sees her ministry as being a mother in Israel.
Like a mother she is willing to defend her children. She says her heart was
with the princes and the people. Isn’t that a lovely image for someone in
leadership? As a mother does, as God does, she sees her leadership as nurturing
and protecting and defending the people of Israel. In this case, that
leadership leads to war. The result is freedom.
Through the leadership of Deborah and Barak, God acted. The
Song of Deborah gives all the credit to God. God used the human hands and feet,
words and weapons of Deborah and Barak to bring that victory. When we offer our
lives to God, God can do great things. Like Deborah, we need to remember
that it IS God acting through us and that we don’t do anything in our own
strength. We need to be available to God through prayer, including listening,
so that God can act in and through us in response to oppression and hatred and
division. And, that action may start with us repenting our own role in holding
onto privilege or our own power (whatever that may be).
