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Judges 4: 1 - 13
The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, after Ehud died. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim. 3 Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years. At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. 5 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. 6 She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take a position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. 7 I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’ ” 8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9 And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand warriors went up behind him, and Deborah went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the other Kenites, that is, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had encamped as far away as Elon-bezaanannim [the oaks of bezaanannim], which is near Kedesh.
12 When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera called out all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the troops who were with him, from Harosheth-ha-goiim to the Wadi Kishon. 14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day on which the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. The LORD is indeed going out before you.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand warriors following him. 15 And the LORD threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his army into a panic before Barak; Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot, 16 while Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-ha-goiim. All the army of Sisera fell by the sword; no one was left.
There is a strong principle in Reformed Theology, practice, and principle, that we use the Bible to interpret the Bible.
What does that mean?
It means that we recognize that the Bible Text spans thousands of years and countless authors. It is where we meet God and are guided by the Holy Spirit, but there is no one verse that says everything. No one verse that answers all questions. As Presbyterians, we resist the temptation to easily answer and instead feel responsible to understand the whole of the Bible, not just parts.
Again. What does that mean?
It means that when we observe that there are two creation stories in Genesis - one of the days and another of Adam and Eve, this is not a contradiction, it is a way we understand different threads finding different ways to describe that we are not merely a random gathering of atoms - we are created by a God who is more than we can see or know.
It means that when we acknowledge that there are four gospels that tell of the life of Jesus Christ, there is not one gospel that is correct, but that they are each a different angle on one life, one truth, one hope – the Word made flesh.
It means that people with hearts of faith and feet firmly planted in the Biblical text can believe that it is okay to eat and enjoy shrimp – and bacon - that widows are not required to marry their brothers-in-law, and when it comes to sexuality, that God both creates and affirms spectrums of sexuality and gender.
As Presbyterians, we pray to be guided by the Holy Spirit working through all of the verses and the words, images, and promises, to help us find out way.
It’s one of the things that I love most about the Presbyterian Church, and one of the things I find most challenging, too. We can’t just dip our toes in the shallow end when it comes to the life of faith and the Bible, we’re called to swim in the whole ocean. And that means we have to be all the more humble and open to learning and expansion of our minds and hearts.
This brings us to Deborah. Deborah. A judge. A prophet. A military leader. Deborah
Alice Ogden Bellis, in her book focused on the women of the Hebrew Bible, writes:[1]
The period of history covered by Joshua and Judges was a wild time. Perhaps it was a bit like the West in the pioneer days of the United States. “Justice” was often carried out by those who had the physical strength or weaponry to enforce their idea of law and order. Women played more parts than they were destined to fulfill in later, more “civilized” times. The narrator puts it this way in Judges 21:25, the last verse of the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.”
So for times in the Bible when women don’t have power or authority, and in a world where whether they should is still debated by people of faith, we have Deborah – along with Miriam and Esther and so many others to whom we can point.
Deborah, was a woman who was called by God and served God by serving her people. Denise Carmody says that no matter what was going on in the time, the world could not deny God’s intended use for Deborah. God chose, and everything else had to give way. And while we may not always know how it happened, these women have much to teach us.[2]
Not because Deborah was extra-ordinary, or superhuman, but because she was not. What she was, was God’s chosen for this time.
A reminder that God frequently works with those we do not expect, do not anticipate.
A reminder that when we want to serve God we need to be open to the unexpected, the unanticipated.
Deborah sits under the palm tree and judges- maybe somewhat like a modern-day judge, but also more of a help in discernment. She helped people when they needed to make choices, and figure out how they wanted to go.
She foresees what is going to happen, which leads her to call Barak to her to begin a military campaign. And not only that, she plans out the military strategy they will use.
Barak then says something you wouldn’t expect a military ruler to say to a woman in ancient history. I’ll do this, but you have to go with me. I can’t do it without you.
Deborah tells him that’s fine, but he should know that he will not gain glory in this fight. It is a woman who will defeat Sisera. And so it will be a woman who defeats the mighty ruler Sisera. But not Deborah, She is not claiming this glory for herself but foreseeing what will unfold. What does unfold.
When Barak chooses to pursue the troops and chariots rather than Sisera when his army falls apart, it is the woman Jael who takes care of Sisera with a tent spike. But that’s another story.
This is the story about Deborah. And given all that we now know about her, it’s worth also knowing that there is a textual mystery in these verses, and it surrounds the word Lappidoth.
While commonly translated that Deborah is the wife of Lappidoth, more modern scholarship has been asking about that word and learning that wife of Lappidoth might not be the only viable translation.
Just as “woman of valor” in Proverbs 31 is not translated wife of valor, another valid translation is woman of lappidoth- woman of torches, woman of fire, fiery woman.[3]
Deborah, whose name means “bee”- seen in ancient times as an aggressive pursuing animal, a woman whose name also shares much in common with the Hebrew word for speaker[4], it makes sense that she would also be described here as a woman of fire.
But there’s one other thing that I think is worth noting in this text, something that I’ve been thinking about a great deal lately. And that’s that Deborah would not have been who she was without all of the people around her who were willing to go to her for help. She was a judge because despite the book of Judges telling us that people did what was right in their own eyes, we’re told that people came to Deborah for advice. Counsel. Discernment. Decisions.
Is a judge really a judge if there is nobody to ask for their counsel?
And as a military leader, Barak is willing to listen to her. To accept her guidance. To know that he cannot do it without her. What did that mean for him, for his people, for him to see Deborah as a ruler, as a mentor, as his leader.
Last week we were at Elon University to attend orientation for our daughter, our only daughter, as she begins her first year of college. And during the convocation out under the oaks, we heard the chaplain, the Dean of Student Life, the President, and others speak. And there was one message they all had in common. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Reach out to your teachers. Reach out to administration. Reach out to your classmates. You are not in this alone - and on the hard days (because there will be hard days) ask for help. People aren’t just there, they want to help. And… they all added, just as you can be a recipient of help, you might also be someone who can offer that help to someone else. It was such an important message to hear in our world that tells us we can do it and we should be strong enough to go it on our own- pull ourselves up by our bootstraps – when that’s not the gospel message at all. I was so moved by the consistency and clarity of their message that I asked several of them to send me their remarks. Ostensibly so I could send them to Sarah Allan, our daughter, but also so I could keep them myself and be reminded of what they had to say.
This also brings to mind a story I heard from the Rev. Bob Dunham, my boss in Chapel Hill, in one of his sermons. A story that comes to mind almost every week.
Bob told us that one day he went out to the front yard of his house and found his son there trying to dig out a big rock. His son, a teenager at the time, was pulling and digging and sweating and struggling. After watching him for a few minutes Bob asked his son, “Aaron, are you using all of your strength?” His son, Aaron, looked up at his dad as only a teenager can do. With irritation and an eye roll, and go back to work. More pulling and pushing and digging and straining and muttering. Bob again said, “Aaron, are you using all of your strength? I don’t think that you are,”
This time Aaron offered a few words in response, words that made clear that he was in fact using all of his strength and he continued. pulling and pushing and digging and straining and muttering.
Bob knew Aaron was reaching the end of his rope so he watched for a few more minutes and then, taking a deep breath, asked his son one more time, “Aaron, are you using all of your strength? I don’t think that you are.” And then, just as Aaron was about to explode in opposition his dad quietly said, “I don’t think you are using all of your strength because you haven’t asked for help. Let me help you.”
Aaron’s anger left him and then he and Bob got to work, getting that rock dug up, and moved.
There is much we can learn from Deborah, that is for sure, across times and cultures and so many other changes, she still has much to teach us. But maybe the biggest lesson we have to learn from this text is not from Deborah herself but from the people who listened to her, who went to her, who were willing to admit they needed help and the way God provided for them in their need.
May we go and do likewise.
Thanks be to God for the life of Deborah. Thanks be to God. Amen.
While not directly referenced or quoted: Here are other texts that helped form this sermon:
Haddox, Susan E. 2013. “Gendering Violence and Violating Gender in Judges 4-5.” Conversations with the Biblical World 33: 67–81. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a6h&AN=ATLAn3933136&site=ehost-live.
Mayeski, Marie Anne. 1997. “‘Let Women Not Despair’: Rabanus Maurus on Women as Prophets.” Theological Studies 58 (2): 237–53. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a6h&AN=ATLA0001005467&site=ehost-live.
Sterman, Judy Taubes. 2011. “Themes in the Deboarh Narrative (Judges 4-5).” Jewish Bible Quarterly 39 (1): 15–24. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a6h&AN=ATLA0001818238&site=ehost-live.
Bakon, Shimon. 2006. “Deborah: Judge, Prophetess and Poet.” Jewish Bible Quarterly 34 (2): 110–18. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a6h&AN=ATLA0001582823&site=ehost-live.
Herzberg, Bruce. 2013. “Deborah and Moses.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 38 (1): 15–33. doi:10.1177/0309089213492816.
[1] Bellis, Alice Ogden. Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes, Women’s Stories in the Hebrew Bible. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994. Page 112.
[2] Bellis, 115.
[3] Sara Koenig on WorkingPreacher.com https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-33/commentary-on-judges-41-7
[4] McCann, J. Clinton. Judges: Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994. Page 51.
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