Learning from Deborah and Barak
The following is a slight revision of a paper I wrote for Dr. Ingrid Faro at Northern Seminary
What can an ancient Hebrew prophet named Deborah teach us in 2024? Deborah was not only the judge of God’s people in her time but also the only one in the book of Judges to be judge and prophet[1] (and the first prophet since Moses). She’s the only judge presented in a completely positive light among those whose careers are treated at length.[2]
“Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.”
– Judges 4:4-5 NIV
Lynn Japinga writes, “Deborah carried out her role as judge in an ‘office’ under a tree in a high-traffic area, and people came to her for advice and guidance.”[3] Today we think of a "judge" as a secular office, but it’s anachronistic to import this idea to Deborah’s time, where there was no distinction between civil and religious life. As both judge and prophet, Deborah led God’s covenant people. Here are three things Deborah’s story, including her partnership with Barak, teach us:
First, Deborah’s judgment was ongoing and public. The verb used for Deborah’s “judging” (shaphat) is the same verb used to describe the judicial task of Moses in Exodus 18:13 and Samuel in 1 Samuel 7:6. Shaphat (verb; Judg. 4:4) and misphat (participle; Judg. 4:5) describe a lawmaker or governor.[4] The author expresses Deborah’s role in participial form (‘judging Israel’), indicating ongoing activity (Judg. 4:4). And the phrase “she used to sit under the palm” (Judg. 4:5) refers to the public execution of duties in this ancient setting.[5]
Second, Deborah was not God’s “second choice” because the men of Israel would not lead. Deborah praises male leaders who answered the call of God through her, God’s prophet, in Judges 5:2 (“When the princes in Israel take the lead. . . Praise the Lord!”) and 5:9 (“My heart is with Israel’s princes, with the willing volunteers among the people”). Likewise, Barak was not weak or faithless. Ron Pierce reminds us that the author of Hebrews commends Barak in the “Hall of Faith” (Heb. 11:32-33). Pierce finds no evidence of cowardice in Barak’s actions, but “... given the evidence of his bravery later in the account (4:10, 14-16, 22), it is far more likely that Barak wished to have available to him the wisdom and prophetic voice of Deborah while in the uncertainty of battle.”[6]
Nijay Gupta shuts the door on the question of whether God only chose a woman because no men were virtuous or faithful enough: “But if we look at the judges as a whole, especially Gideon and Samson, it is clear that they were not chosen for their virtue or strong faith. In fact, Deborah appears to be the most faithful, the most prophetically tuned into God, and the wisest of them all.”[7]
Third, Deborah might be different from the male judges because she’s the only one who may not have physically fought.[8] But while this probably means Samson could defeat Deborah in a battle of swords or fists, it says nothing about who most faithfully spoke for God or offered the Lord’s wisdom to his covenant people.
But to guarantee that Deborah didn’t fight is to go beyond the text. Johanna W.H. Van Wijk-Bos writes, “The narrator leaves the issue of her participation in the fighting ambiguous …. If we take the subject of 4:7 to be Deborah, then she makes Barak the promise to deliver Sisera and his troops into his hand. Human cooperation with the work of Adonai is both mandated and necessary for accomplishing the task.”[9]
We see the textual possibility of Deborah as a military strategist in Judges 5. Pierce writes, “... the reader is told that in the battle, ‘the princes of Issachar stood by Deborah, and [the rest of] Issachar were faithful to Barak’ (5:15). In this instance, she appears to work closely with Issachar’s leadership, while Barak manages the rest of the tribal warriors.”[10]
Finally, if Deborah did not fight but instead worked with General Barak, we must remember that Moses likewise had Joshua to lead the troops into battle. In fact, Deborah is a Moses-figure in Judges. Robin E. Davis finds many parallels:
● Both Moses and Deborah functioned as judges (Exod. 18:13, Judg. 4:4);
● Both sat for judgment, and the people came to them (Exod. 18:13, Judg. 4:5)
● Both proclaimed the word of the Lord (Exod. 7:16, Judg. 4:6)
● Both were prophets (Deut. 18:15, Judg. 4:4)
● Both pronounced blessings (Exod. 39:43, Judg. 5:24)
● Both pronounced curses in the name of the Lord (Deut. 27:15, Judg. 5:23)
● Both had military generals (Joshua, Barak)
● Both gave instructions to the people as to how the Lord would defeat the enemies (Exod. 14:14, Judg. 4:6)
● In both cases, the Lord caused the enemy in chariots to panic and flee (Exod. 14:24, Judg. 4:15)
● God’s victory is told first in prose (Exod. 14, Judg. 4), then in poetry (Exod. 15, Judg. 5)
● Moses (and Miriam, Exod. 15:1) and Deborah (and Barak, Judg. 5:1) led the people in worshiping God after their great deliverance.[11]
Implications For Today
As a prophet and judge who decided cases and commanded her people to go to war in the name of God, Deborah is an authority figure. Believe in the giftedness of women leaders. Deborah’s song in chapter five is an inscripturated interpretation of a biblical event. Van Wijk-Bos writes, “The one who writes the interpretation of events is accorded great authority, no less in song than in narrative …. authoring text, be it poetry or prose, was and is a sign of authority and power in the ancient world.”[12]
The second consideration flows from the first: the church, including its leaders, needs more men like Barak. We need humble men who will listen to women, learn from women, equip and empower women, and celebrate the gifts and successes of women. We need men like “Israel’s princes,” the “leading volunteers among God’s people'' who will recognize when God is working through women. We need men who will enthusiastically join the fight when their sisters cry, “To your battle stations.” We need men who see Barak among that great cloud of witnesses and say, “I want to run that kind of race, as I fix my eyes on the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
[1] Ron Pierce, PhD., “Deborah: Only When a Good Man is Hard to Find?” In Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible edited by Sandra L. Glahn (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2017), 192.
[2] Nijay K. Gupta, Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2023), 12.
[3] Lynn Japinga, From Widows to Warriors: Women’s Stories from the Old Testament (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 63.
[4] Linda Belleville, “Women Leaders in the Bible.” In Discovering Biblical Equality: Biblical, Theological, Cultural, and Practical Perspectives, ed. Ronald W. Pierce and Cynthia Long Westfall, Third edition (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021), 71.
[6] Belleville, et al., Vindicating the Vixens, 196–97.
[7] Gupta and Barr, Tell Her Story, 14.
[8] DeYoung, Men and Women in the Church, 110.
[9] Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos, The End of the Beginning: Joshua and Judges (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2019), 222.
[10] Pierce, et al., Vindicating the Vixens, 203.
[11] Robin E. Davis, “Historical and Literary Parallels Between the Moses and Deborah Narratives,” unpublished paper, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Jan. 2006, 1–7. Davis cites other parallels in addition to those mentioned above.
Anything but submissive✨👏!