Lesson 28- Deborah Leads the
People to Freedom
1.
Judges 1-3
a.
Chapter 1
tells of how they didn't finish conquering Canaan.
b.
Chapter 2 the
establishment of the Judges to correct Israel's worship of Canaanite deities, Baal
& Astarte.
c.
Chapter 3 -
intermarriage weakens tribes. Judges Othniel, Ehud & Shamgar.
Ø Questions
§
When Deborah
called upon the tribes to unite against the common enemy, why do you think the
tribes of Reuben, Gilead, Dan, and Asher held back?
§
Why do you
think Barak wanted Deborah to go with him?
Making the Story Your Own
§
Think of a
time when you were called to exhibit courage and strength in life.
§
Did you face
the test alone?
§
What helped
give you strength?
Memory verse: Judges 5:3b
To the Lord, I will sing, I will make melody to the Lord; the God of
Israel.
Bible
Background (taken from Journey
through the Bible, Christian Board of Publications, 1995, p. 90)
!The loose intertribal structure that is
presupposed in Joshua 24 was probably very
hard to maintain. Each of the tribes would
have been jealous of its own rights
and privileges, and there surely would have been arguments over borders,
water and grazing rights, and the like.
Each of the tribes would have had its own special holy places for worship, its own chiefs and religious leaders, and
its own leading warriors and judges
and wise men and women to give
advice. Gathering annually or every
seven years for reaffirmation of their covenant with God probably did not
suffice to make this group of
tribes, even with their shared history, a strong and unified community.
They were not only exposed to enemy tribes
and peoples but were also in danger of suffering from misconduct by some strong leader of a tribe who decided to
claim territory belonging to another tribe or to claim leadership over another tribe. No doubt, these
early Israelites would have been
fiercely jealous of their own tribal
identities and tribal rights.
2The book of Judges describes many such happenings. We have here a collection of stories of individual leaders of Israel, called "judges," though they are more political and religious
leaders than they are
administrators of justice. This collection of stories
about the judges has been interpreted by later theological leaders, probably
the teaching Levites of the ninth and
eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E.
in Israel, to provide a clear pattern. The pattern is nicely summarized in Judges 2:11-23. The people do what is evil in God's sight by
turning to the worship of the gods
of Canaan. They fall into great distress when this happens, for
the worship of other
gods soon leads to great oppression and sometimes to slavery. The people cry out to God and God raises up for them a savior, one of the "judges," who delivers them from their
enemies. And the land then has peace
for a period of years.
3One of the most respected of these leaders of Israel was a woman, Deborah. She was a
prophet, a person who
received messages from God for the people and for individuals. Deborah was married and was in fact a judge who heard
cases and settled them. Her seat of judgment
was a palm tree between the towns of Ramah
and Bethel, some fifteen miles north of Jerusalem. It is important for us to take note of Deborah's many roles in Israel, for women are often thought not to have had much standing
in early Israelite society. Deborah has great
standing. She is called "a mother in Israel" (Judges 5:7). She is a great poet, a leader in
battle, a judge, and a
prophet.
4The king of the huge town of Hazor, located above the Sea of Galilee below Mount Hermon in the far north of Canaan, moves south and begins to take over the territory claimed by several of the Israelite tribes. Probably the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were
most seriously affected. Deborah does not
seem to have had some special appearance of God or an angel to commission her, as was the case with Gideon. She summons Barak,
from the northern part of the tribe
of Naphtali, to come to her with an army that he is to recruit. Then
apparently the call goes out to all the tribes to send their representatives to take part in this defensive
war, a war that the God of Israel
will surely support.
5Some tribes come, and some do not. The battle is engaged, with Sisera
as the commander for the Canaanites
of Hazor and Barak as the
commander of Israel's forces, though we are told that Barak will not lead the armies unless Deborah accompanies him. She agrees, the armies assemble,
and the battle is
engaged. Apparently, a cloudburst comes at the height
of the battle, and Sisera's forces, with his many
chariots, are swept away in the flooding waters
of the Kishon River. This is interpreted as God's direct intervention into the
battle on the side of Israel. The forces of Sisera
are destroyed, and Sisera himself flees to the north. Exhausted along the way, he comes to the home of a Kenite named Heber. His wife, Jael,
gives Sisera food and drink, covers him with a rug as he sleeps,
and then drives a tent
peg through his temple, killing him. The great enemy of Israel has been disposed of by a woman! Jael is praised for her courageous deed,
even though she had to violate the laws of
hospitality to take Sisera's life.
6The jewel of the
Deborah story is the long poem found in
Judges 5. It is a literary classic. We are
drawn directly into the scene: those tribes that won't send their representatives but "search their hearts,"
trying to decide what to do; Jael's fierce, cruel, but brave deed; Sisera's
mother waiting at the window,
watching for her son, whom we know lies
dead—why, Sisera must be delayed because the victory was so great that they are still
collecting the plunder taken from
the Israelites, all sorts of finery
that soon we will be enjoying!
7Judges 5 gives us a glimpse of actual life during the period of the Judges. The tribes are very loosely organized, and will only help one another
out if there is a strong and reputable leader, and if tribal self-interest supports the move. Such
times produce extraordinary
leaders—like Deborah.
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Scripture
Judges 4:1-16
Narrator: The Israelites
again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, after Ehud
died. 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. 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. 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. She sent and summoned Barak
son of Abinoam from Kedesh
in Naphtali, and said to him,
Deborah: "The LORD, the
God of Israel, commands you, 'Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from
the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. 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.'"
Narrator: Barak said to her,
Barak: "If you will go with
me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go."
Deborah: "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."
Narrator: Then Deborah got
up and went with Barak to Kedesh. Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and ten thousand warriors went up behind him; and
Deborah went up with him. 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,
which is near Kedesh. When Sisera was
told that Barak son of Abinoam
had gone up to Mount Tabor, 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. Then
Deborah said to Barak,
Deborah: "Up! For this is the day on which the
LORD has given Sisera into your hand. The LORD is
indeed going out before you."
Narrator: So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand warriors
following him. 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, 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.
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