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In chapter 4 of The Book of Judges, we find two distinctive women – Deborah the prophetess, and Jael the wife of Heber. In them, we see examples of women operating powerfully in their own sphere, used mightily of God. Firstly, let us consider the circumstances in which we find them.
This period of the history of the children of Israel is a sobering one. The children of Israel are seen as continually lapsing into evil. In the previous chapter we see that God had raised up a saviour – Ehud the son of Gera – who was instrumental in overturning the oppression of the Moabites. Now, we see that “Israel again did evil in the sight of Jehovah; now Ehud was dead.” We find the Israelites given up by God into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, and oppressed for twenty years by Sisera, the captain of his army. At this juncture Deborah is introduced, “Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth.” Now, we know nothing about the husband of Deborah. He is mentioned only once in the scripture, in relation to his wife. This shows us, from the start, what kind of woman Deborah was: she was a woman who knew what it was to be under headship – the headship of her husband.
Deborah, “arose a mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7), at a time when male leadership had failed: Ehud was dead, and Barak the son of Abinoam, the military leader of the time, was apparently doing nothing to relieve the oppression of Israel by the Canaanites, despite the instruction of God to do so. Deborah sends for Barak and reminds him of his responsibilities, and urges him to take action, speaking as a prophetess for God. Still, Barak hesistates: “If thou goest with me, then I will go, but if thou goest not with me, I will not go” (Judges 4:8). Deborah’s reply is telling: “I will by all means go with thee, only that it will no be to thine honour upon the way that thou goest, for Jehovah will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Here is the divine rebuke to Barak’s failure in leadership – God will intervene, using whatever means He sees fit, but the honour of victory is taken away because of the failure.
Deborah’s intervention results in military victory for Barak, “Jehovah discomfited Sisera… with the edge of the sword before Barak” (verse 15). Yet before this occurs, Deborah encourages the reluctant leader: “Up; for this is the day in which Jehovah hath given Sisera into thy hand” (verse 14). Having delivered her rebuke, and having been used of God to stir up Barak into action, Sisera is given into his hand. God never abandons His order – not even the face of man’s abject failure under that order. Deborah, a woman under headship, never assumes the place of a man – not even when the male leadership had failed. She operates powerfully in her own sphere, acting for God, a mother in Israel, and the result is deliverance for the people of Israel.
In Deborah, we see how a woman who is subject to God’s order can be used mightily by God, for the blessing and relief of the whole of the people of God. In our next study, we shall see in Jael the wife of Heber a woman acting for God when male headship in the household has failed.