“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge” (Psa. 19:1-2).
If you have not had the opportunity to study these background articles, it might be a good time to do that now. They are short reads—each one being only one page long.
Already our study has brought us to part 8 of this series, and now we need to consider similar examples in the book of Judges.
Judges 2:16-19 and Acts 13:20 speak of a time when the land of Israel was ruled by judges. It was also a time when every man ignored what the Law of Moses said, and did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6; Judges 21:25). Over and over again the cycle of sin, punishment and deliverance is seen under each man.
WHY DID GOD CHOOSE A WOMAN?
Judges 4:4 says God chose a woman to be judge in Israel. Why? Throughout the period right after the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan, almost all judges were men. Why would God choose a woman to do such a difficult job?
God took action when his people turned away from him (Judges 4:2). He does the same thing in the New Testament church (1 Cor. 11:28-32). Consider the symptom of the disease in Israel; their physical freedom was taken away. The first step should have been to recognize the symptoms and turn back to the Lord (Judges 4:3). Israel was miserable and oppressed physically and knew there was something wrong, but, unfortunately, they did not recognize the reason for the disease (Rev. 3:17).
Notice also that Barak’s faith was in God’s prophetess, not in the words God spoke (Judges 4:8). How many women have been asked to go into battle with the comander of the army? Barak had been chosen by God to lead Israel, and he should have known God would go with him. When he did not have faith in the promise of God, he was told the victory would not be for his honor, but God would deliver them from their enemies.
The prophet Isaiah understood that God hides his work from the eyes of men. “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour” (Isaiah 45:15). God had promised to draw Sisera to the river Kishon (Judges 4:7) and to deliver the armies into the Israelites hand. The Lord is the one who discomfited Sisera and slew his army (Judges 4:15). It is true he used Israel’s sword, and blessed them greatly in the battle. In Judges, chapter 5, Deborah and Barak praise the Lord for going before them to the battle (Judges 5:1-5), and the Lord takes the credit for the victory over their enemies (Judges 4:23).
Who saw God working that day? Men imagine that during the Old Testament period, there were miracles happening all around Israel all of the time. A chart in the Dickson Bible lists the miracles in the Old Testament period, and there were only forty-six throughout the entire 4,000 years. The translation of Enoch was included, which likely nobody saw and therefore would not truly be a miracle (Heb. 2:3-4). The Dickson calculation turns out to be only one miracle every eighty-seven years. The majority of ways God worked were not listed because no one could see what happened (Judges 7:22). God caused many things to happen “naturally” that gave a decisive victory (Exo. 23:27, 28).
Why did the Lord choose Deborah? She believed that God would reward her if she sought him (Heb. 11:6). Barak’s faith was that God would reward Deborah but not him. Deborah did not have confidence in herself; she believed God, when he said that Israel would win the victory (Judges 4:9). Even though she was a woman, she was not afraid to go with the army. Deborah also believed that God would deliver the captain of the enemy into the hand of a woman (Judges 4:9). Deborah believed that the Lord had gone out before Barak to fight his battles (Judges 4:14). This was when Sisera’s nine hundred chariots of iron were still intact (Judges 4:13). For 20 years Sisera had won every battle with Israel, but Deborah had faith in God’s promise that Israel would prevail (Judges 4:3).
The Lord caused Sisera to leave his chariot and run away on his feet (Judges 4:15). Seldom was there a battle that killed literally every single soldier in an army (Judges 4:16). God gave the victory to a woman who was not even an Israelitess (Judges 4:17) but a descendent of Moses’ father-in-law (Judges 4:11). Jael invited Sisera into her tent and killed him (Judges 4:18-21). We don’t need to think that it was a simple action (Judges 5:24-27), but after Jael killed him, she then cut off his head (Judges 5:26).
God took full credit for the victory that day (Judges 4:23). The Lord also blessed the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali for offering themselves willingly (Judges 5:2, 9). God expected every man to take his part of the responsibility (Judges 5:23).
God blessed Deborah, not a man, because of her faith in him (Judges 5:31). Deborah herself did not lift a sword. Deborah did not kill Sisera with the tent peg and hammer, but Deborah was faithful to stand up for the promises and commands of God (Matt. 5:19). No matter our gender, our Lord ordains that all who teach and do the commands of God are great in his sight.
–Beth Johnson