RISE UP, DEBORAH!!

 

JANUARY 23, 2024

JUDGES 5:7 and 12a

the highways were abandoned;
travelers took to winding paths.
7 Villagers in Israel would not fight;
they held back until I, Deborah, arose,
until I arose, a mother in Israel.

‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
Wake up, wake up, break out in song!





As I was writing yesterday’s devotion, on the influence, example, and challenge of the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, I kept thinking of a woman in the Old Testament that receives little attention but should garner more. She was someone that God raised up and whose role in the story of God’s people was significant.

I am talking about Deborah. How many of you remember her story? It is found in Judges 4 and 5. Deborah lived during the period of the Judges, when Israel was not united as a nation under one leader but rather existed as an alliance of tribes. Periodically, God would call a leader, in one of these tribes and anoint them with His Holy Spirit, and that leader (Judge) would rise to rally God’s people together to face a common threat.

We first are introduced to Deborah in her “day-job” as judge over all the people of the land. The Bible tells us that Deborah was both a prophet and a judge, in other words a wise woman: "she used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment" (Judges 4:4-5). But hearing about the oppression of the two tribes in the north, Deborah the prophet stepped into a different leadership role. In her hill country safety, she could have ignored the plight of the Israelites in the north under Jabin's occupation. Jabin king of Canaan oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. We are told he had a mighty army with "900 chariots of iron" (Judg. 4:1–3), which was likely the most advanced military technology available at that time.

God used Deborah to rally the Israelites against Jabin. At the human level, on paper, Israel didn’t stand a chance, and everyone knew it. Deborah commanded Barak (a northerner) to raise an army of 10,000 armed men whom God would use to defeat King Jabin. Remember, Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots and Israel had none; Israel's soldiers were at a serious disadvantage.

The text tells us that Barak was unwilling to call the Israelites to battle against their Canaanite foes without Deborah at his side. (4:4–8). Deborah says I’ll be with you. Over in Judges 5:7 in Deborah's song it says, “Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.” The Israelites were beaten down by 20 years of slavery. They were too tired and discouraged to fight. They needed someone to inspire them, and the Lord chose Deborah. Even though his army was  inferior to Jabin's, Barak's force of 10,000 Israelites was able to defeat the Canaanite army. The Lord kept His promise to save His people, a woman Judge and Prophet named Deborah, would receive the credit for the victory (vv. 9–10).

In the book of Judges, Deborah is the model leader, equal to the greatest leaders of Israel. No other judge was also called a prophet, indicating how closely Deborah resembles leaders like Moses and Joshua. As a prophet she had an unshakable faith in God, which gave her strength to lead her people. She knew that it was the Lord who overcame the enemy. She was merely God's instrument. Her story concludes with these words “Then the land had peace forty years.”

Most of us would consider ourselves just ordinary people. From a human perspective, we may not seem or think ourselves all that "great" or “special.” Yet from God's perspective, ordinary is what we want to be. I find both in the Bible and in life, that God brings about His will through the service of ordinary people making ordinary decisions such as the best way to teach their children the Bible or how they can love their next-door neighbor, how they can make a difference in their workplace. Yes, it is true that God uses ordinary people to do the extraordinary.

I wonder if it is time for you and me to be bold and courageous and do the unique and amazing things God is calling us to do. Wherever the Lord has placed us, will we accept the challenge to be a light, to shine the glory of God everywhere we go! We carry the hope this world needs with us, the hope of Jesus Christ. Let’s believe and trust God and follow him to where he is working today.





Prayer

I thank you, God, that you love to do extraordinary things through ordinary people like me. Release me from any limitations that have kept me from the amazing plans you have for me, so that I might arise to shine the glory of the Lord! Amen.