Let Her Preach: Deborah (Judges 4-5)
Recently, I have been working on a writing project to explain why churches like mine need to support women as preachers, teachers, and leaders. The following is an excerpt from that project.
In the two centuries after Miriam’s death, the triumphant exodus and the conquest of the Promised Land faded into history. The promise Israel made in Joshua 24 to exclusively worship the Lord who had delivered them time and again was forgotten. A new generation of Israelites arose who “followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them,” and the result was predictable: “They angered the Lord” (Judges 2:12). So God “sold [Israel] to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies. Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly” (Judges 2:14-15).
Israel’s troubles stemmed from its lack of godly leaders. Three times throughout the book of Judges, the narrator reflected, “In those days there was no king in Israel” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1). To this, the author added, “The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight” (Judges 2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1) and “Everyone did whatever seemed right to him” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Nijay Gupta connected the dots, explaining, “Instead of moving forward with their mission and ministry, [the Israelites] were ‘dragged away… and enticed,’ as James puts it (Jas 1:14), by their own evil desires, which constantly got them into situations they could not get themselves out of.”[1]
God’s objective in all of this, however, was not to destroy Israel but to turn them back to him. Thus began a cycle in which Israel would wander into idolatry and sin, God would hand them over to their enemies, and when the suffering became too great, they would cry out to the Lord. When they did that, “The Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders” (Judges 2:16), and the cycle would begin again.
In Judges 3, this cycle began slowly with Othniel, who overcame the king of Aram and led the land through forty years of peace. Then there was Ehud, who delivered Israel from the Moabites and provided another eight decades of tranquility. Finally, Shamgar rescued the people from the Philistines by killing six hundred men with an oxgoad (i.e., a long, pointy stick).
One would think the Israelites would learn the lesson, but after they “again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,” God “sold them to King Jabin of Canaan” (Judges 4:1-2). Jabin’s army was under the command of Sisera and boasted nine hundred iron chariots. The ancient equivalent of a battle tank, Israel had nothing that could even dent these, and the oppression lasted for twenty years.
It was against this backdrop that Deborah appeared in Judges 4:4. Like Miriam, she was called a prophetess, but Deborah took leadership to the next level. While Miriam was responsible for establishing Israel’s culture, Deborah’s influence was holistic. While Miriam focused on recording history and composing rousing songs, Deborah would face down the strongest army Israel had seen since the Red Sea. While Miriam’s leadership was marred by her rebellion, Deborah’s had no such asterisk. While Miriam led in the shadows of at least two other men, Deborah eclipsed all of the men of her generation. Indeed, Deborah and her leadership were outstanding for several reasons.
Deborah, her own woman
Today, when someone asks us to identify ourselves, we produce a driver’s license or passport. In rarer cases, we may need to produce our Social Security card or birth certificate. In any case, these documents pronounce that the government affirms you are who you say you are. That is, they form the backbone of our identities, and we typically look no farther than this. As a result, we can probably identify our great grandparents, and maybe even our great-great grandparents, but tracing our heritage past that fifth generation requires significant effort. This is why my mother pays a monthly subscription to one of those genealogy websites and spends hours every day researching our family tree.
In contrast, the identity of a woman in the Ancient Near East was founded entirely in that of her husband or father. For example, we read in Genesis 11:29 that “Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.” So also, Hannah is introduced in 1 Samuel 1:1-2 as the first wife of Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. Even though Elkanah would go on to play a minor role when compared to that of Hannah, she was identified through her relationship with him. In fact, there are numerous women in Scripture whose names are never given and who are identified solely by their husband or father.
Further, the identity of a man in ancient Israel was founded in his relationship to his father and grandfather back to Abraham. Notice again how Elkanah was identified in 1 Samuel 1:1. So also, before we met Abraham, we were introduced to the family record of Shem, who fathered Arpachshad, who fathered Shelah, who fathered Eber, on down to Terah, who fathered Abram (Genesis 11:10-32). The significance of knowing this lineage was demonstrated in Ezra 2:62 and Nehemiah 7:64, where people whose genealogical records could not be found “were disqualified from the priesthood.”
However, Deborah’s introduction in Judges 4:4 diverged from the pattern typically followed when introducing a woman. While one might expect an introduction similar to that of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1, where Elkanah was introduced and then Hannah, Deborah is named and then Lappidoth. Second, there is no genealogical account given for Lappidoth. This exclusion suggests his family line was not as important as his relationship to Deborah. That is, she was not known as the wife of Lappidoth son of… as much as he was known as the husband of Deborah.
Intertwined with one’s family tree was the village or town from which they came. Examples include Jesse of Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:1), Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 1:24; Luke 24:19; John 18:5), and Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:11; 21:39). Simply put, when families lived, worked, and raised their children in the same town across a score of generations, the town – its geography and people – became an integral part of their identity. Thus, in Luke 2:4, Joseph and Mary went “to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David.”
In 1 Samuel 16:1, Jesse was identified as a resident of Bethlehem. Indeed, Jesse was at least the third generation of his family to live there, and his more famous son David was the fourth. David, of course, went on to become king and build a magnificent capital in the newly captured Jerusalem. For generations, then, Jerusalem was called “the city of David,” but after it was destroyed by the Babylonians, that name reverted to his hometown, Bethlehem. Thus, in Luke 2:4, Joseph and Mary went up “to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.” In other words, instead of David being identified as a citizen of Bethlehem, Bethlehem was identified as the hometown of David.
In Judges 4:5, a similar thing happened with Deborah when we learn “she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah.” This palm tree was somewhere between Ramah and Bethel, in the hill country of Ephraim, all of which were familiar. As specific as this location would seem, it still meant searching for a single tree in approximately thirty square miles – more than 19,000 acres – of ground. Yet, the author felt no need to identify the site beyond the fact that it was the place where Deborah sat and offered her guidance to Israel.
The significance of this cannot be overstated. “Deborah had no royal lineage,” George Matheson observed. “She was the wife of an obscure man. She was the head of a humble household unknown to the people of Israel.”[2] Yet, Israelites everywhere and in every generation recognized Deborah because her identity stood soundly on its own. Indeed, they sought her out not because she was related to some king or married to a wealthy man but because she was an effective leader, and when people mentioned Deborah, there was no question which Deborah they meant.
Deborah, the prophetess
A second reason why Deborah is outstanding can also be found in Judges 4:4. There, Deborah became the second person in Scripture to be called a prophetess and entered the same rarified world as Aaron, Miriam, and Moses before her. As such, much of the discussion regarding Miriam’s position applies here, but Deborah elevates the office of prophetess in two ways.
First, Deborah’s prophetic role was more defined than that of her predecessors. Instead of merely leading prophetic songs as Miriam, Deborah helped to settle disputes for all Israelites (Judges 4:5) and delivered the specific word of the Lord to Barak starting in Judges 4:6. To be fair, it is unclear whether Deborah was the first person to deliver God’s word to Barak or a reminder of the word he had already received. Even so, Barak clearly acknowledged that she had delivered the word of God and deferred to her as the national leader. In this way, she was more akin to Moses and Samuel than Aaron or Miriam.
Second, it is interesting to note that Deborah evened the score. That is, of the first four people in Scripture to hold the prophetic office, there were two men and two women. This suggests that Miriam’s title was no fluke or exception. Even William Mounce, a highly esteemed complementarian Bible scholar who defined a prophet as the person chosen and inspired by God’s Spirit to deliver “a communication from God to the people”, conceded, “On some occasions, a woman could be a prophetess (e.g., Deborah, Jdg. 4:4; Huldah, 2 Ki. 22:14).”[3] So also, Piper and Grudem confess, “Women are nowhere forbidden to prophesy.”[4]
Given that the office of prophet is most closely related to that of the modern preacher, this is a significant confession. While today’s complementarians object vehemently to the notion of a woman delivering the word of God, Deborah title indicates that God intended there to be parity between men and women among spiritual leaders. Indeed, according to the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, “In the patricentric world of the OT, few if any standing leadership offices were open to women. By contrast, there seems to have been no hesitation in Israel to engage women as prophets. This may be because in Israel the prophetic office had an ad hoc character. Whereas elsewhere, especially in the Neo-Assyrian courts, prophets tended to function as part of the courts of kings, in Israel they were engaged directly by Yahweh, and in monarchic times especially often worked in opposition to kings.”[5]
Deborah, the judge
Deborah was also outstanding for her role as judge. In Judges 4:4, the use of this language placed Deborah among the line of leaders first introduced in Judges 2:16, and we see her exercising that leadership in verse 5 when “the Israelites went up to her to settle disputes.” In this way, Deborah joined in a tradition begun by Moses in Exodus 18:13 and continued later by kings (e.g., 1 Kings 3:16-28).
Deborah’s role as the civil leader is remarkable for at least three reasons. First, she was the only woman leader chosen by the people.[6] There were, of course, other women who seized power through various means. For example, Jezebel manipulated her way into a position of great influence with her husband, King Ahab. So also, Athaliah seized upon the death of her son, King Ahaziah, to usurp the throne, and for seven years, she ruled Israel while her grandson, Joash, hid in the Lord’s temple. In contrast to these, Deborah apparently did not seek power, much less seize it by force. Rather, the text indicates that the people went to her voluntarily.
Second, she was chosen despite her apparent lack of noble descent.[7] In fact, we have no record of her lineage at all. The significance of this should not be overlooked. During this period, leaders generally were descended from nobility. That is, they were born into positions of wealth and prestige, and that afforded them power. The fact that we find no record at all of Deborah’s descent suggests that she had no such connection.
Third, she was chosen in spite of being female.[8] There is simply no escaping the reality that, in the era of the judges, rulers were men. Moreover, they were generally the tallest, strongest men. Indeed, consider the description of Saul in 1 Samuel 9:2: “[Kish] had a son named Saul, an impressive young man. There was no one more impressive among the Israelites than he. He stood a head taller than anyone else.” Size, strength, and testosterone were the hallmarks of leaders in the time of the judges.
To defy these entrenched cultural conventions, then, Deborah must have exhibited exceptional leadership abilities. The Africa Bible Commentary agreed, reasoning, “The story of Deborah shows that a woman can be as effective as any male leader, provided she has divine backing, and combine [sic] charisma with character, courage with competence, and conviction with commitment.”[9] Indeed, this is exactly what we see in Judges 4-5.
Of course, it could still be argued that Deborah was exceptional in her leadership abilities, and most women are not granted such faculties. In fact, many have asserted that Deborah was granted leadership abilities only because there was no man available or, more specifically, Barak was weak in his faith.[10] However, the fact that many of the other judges proved to have critical lapses of leadership skill and/or moral excellence suggests that God could have raised up virtually any man to lead Israel. Instead, he anointed a woman to lead.
Deborah, the commander-in-chief
In Judges, however, a judge did far more than simply settle disputes and provide civil leadership. Nijay Gupta explained, “First, they are not ‘judges’ in the sense of a gavel, a robe, and a courtroom. The majority of them functioned as temporary warrior-leaders raised up by God to get Israel out of the mess that they got themselves into.”[11] In fact, Deborah’s three predecessors in Judges 3 were all accomplished warriors, and two of them led men into victorious battle. So also, her successors included Gideon, who led 300 Israelites to victory over 135,000 Midianite soldiers in Judges 6-8, and Samson, who literally brought the roof down on the Philistines’ oppression of Israel in Judges 13-16.
It is not surprising, then, that Deborah was called upon to do more than just settle civil disputes. After twenty years of oppression at the hands of King Jabin of Canaan and his captain, Sisera, in Judges 4:6-7, Deborah summoned Barak and instructed him to gather ten thousand men to overthrow the Canaanites. Then, while The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary asserted that Deborah had nothing to do with the military act of God’s deliverance,[12] the following verses tell another story. In verse 8, Barak declined to go unless she accompanied him. In verses 9-10, Deborah agreed to go with him into battle, and in verse 14, she gave the command for Barak to launch his attack. Put another way, she was the one who drafted, with God’s help, the battle plan (Judges 4:6-7). She was the one who went along to support and supervise its implementation (Judges 4:9-10). She was the one who gave the final order to attack (Judges 4:14). In short, while Barak may have been the general who rallied the troops and executed the battle plan, Deborah played the role of commander-in-chief.
In this way, her relationship with Barak mirrored that of Jabin and his military commander Sisera. As king, Jabin no doubt ordered Sisera to keep Israel in line and probably even devised the basic strategy for accomplishing that objective. After twenty years of dominating the Israelites, the king’s presence was generally unnecessary because Sisera was capable of executing the day-to-day business of the occupation. Yet, had Jabin known there was a significant battle brewing, he almost certainly would have gone to the front lines to take charge, just as Barak asked Deborah to do.
On the battlefield, then, Deborah played the part of king, in practice if not in official title, and the result of her leadership there was spectacular. God caused Sisera’s entire force to panic, quite possibly because Jabin was not there to personally oversee the battle, and using Deborah’s plan, Barak was victorious. Sisera fled for his life and hid in a family friend’s tent only to die when his friend’s wife lulled him into taking a nap and drove a tent peg through his temple. By the end of the day, “God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites” (Judges 4:23), and the battle was the beginning of his demise (Judges 4:24).
Deborah, the righteous
Deborah is outstanding, fourthly, for her righteousness. Nijay Gupta observed, “Deborah is the only judge given extensive narration of whom nothing negative is said or implied. In fact, her narrative episode ends with a beautiful song of triumph and praise of God sung together with her military partner, Barak. In one of the darkest eras of Israel’s history, Deborah stands as a singular, but intensely bright, luminary.”[13] He later added, “Deborah appears to be the most faithful, the most prophetically tuned into God, and the wisest of [all the judges].”[14] Indeed, Deborah stood in stark contrast to Gideon, whose legacy was an ephod that was worshiped as an idol by all Israel (Judges 8:27) and a son who seized power by slaughtering all of his brothers. So also, she was the polar opposite of Samson, whose penchant for adultery with foreign women led to his own downfall, and one hesitates to put her in the same conversation as the unnamed Levite of Judges 19, who allowed his concubine to be raped and killed and then dismembered her in order to rally the rest of Israel to destroy the tribe of Benjamin.
This is interesting because some scholars have asserted that Deborah was chosen only because there were no suitable men and/or Barak’s faith was weak.[15] However, God’s choice in this period to use numerous men of, shall we say, questionable moral standards suggests that virtue and faith were not prerequisites for judges. Thus, the other judges prove that God could have used virtually any male. For example, Gideon was a coward, and Samson was as undisciplined as they come. Certainly, they were no more qualified for heroism than Deborah!
It is also interesting because modern complementarians are often quick to attack women who step into leadership roles in the church. At best, they are portrayed as overstepping the bounds of God’s will for women, and at worst, they are lampooned as false teachers and servants of the devil. For example, the renowned Bible teacher Beth Moore intentionally targeted her popular Bible study materials toward women precisely because she affirmed her denomination’s complementarian stance. Yet, when she began to speak against patterns of abuse in the church, the vitriolic attacks directed at her by leaders of that same denomination led her in 2021 to announce her departure. People accused her of being a servant of the devil, a false teacher, and worse simply because she presumed to teach men. Deborah’s sterling record, however, demonstrates that women who preach, teach, and lead are not inherently morally suspect.
Indeed, everything revealed in Scripture about Deborah indicates she was the ideal, anointed leader in an age when such leaders were extremely rare. Clearly, her leadership focus was in the civil arena, but her inclusion among Israel’s judges as a prophetess, judge, commander-in-chief, and model of righteousness is compelling evidence that women can and should preach, teach, and lead.[16]
[1] Gupta, Nijay K. 2023. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. N.p.: InterVarsity Press., 11
[2] Matheson, George. 1907. The Representative Women of the Bible. New York, NY: A.C. Armstrong and Son., 152
[3] Mounce, William D. 2006. Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words. Edited by William D. Mounce. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan., 1251
[4] Piper, John, and Wayne Grudem, eds. 2021. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Revised Edition): A Response to Evangelical Feminism. Wheaton, IL: Crossway., 86
[5] Walton, John H., and Craig S. Keener, eds. 2016. NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture. N.p.: Zondervan., 2285
[6] Matheson, George. 1907. The Representative Women of the Bible. New York, NY: A.C. Armstrong and Son., 151
[7] Matheson, George. 1907. The Representative Women of the Bible. New York, NY: A.C. Armstrong and Son., 151-152
[8] Matheson, George. 1907. The Representative Women of the Bible. New York, NY: A.C. Armstrong and Son., 151-152
[9] Adeyemo, Tokunboh. 2022. Africa Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan., Jdg 4:4
[10] Gupta, Nijay K. 2023. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. N.p.: InterVarsity Press., 14
[11] Gupta, Nijay K. 2023. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. N.p.: InterVarsity Press., 12
[12] Burge, Gary M., and Andrew E. Hill, eds. 2012. The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary (Text Only Edition). N.p.: Baker Publishing Group., Kindle Loc 6211
[13] Gupta, Nijay K. 2023. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. N.p.: InterVarsity Press., 12
[14] Gupta, Nijay K. 2023. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. N.p.: InterVarsity Press., 14
[15] Gupta, Nijay K. 2023. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. N.p.: InterVarsity Press., 14
[16] Adeyemo, Tokunboh. 2022. Africa Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan., Jdg 4:4