Life of Deborah
Deborah was an amazing woman of strength with the power to act during stressful situations. According to Webster’s dictionary strength is the power to withstand strain, force, or stress. Deborah was 1 of 11 women in the entire bible to be a judge or prophet and the only woman to be a judge over Israel . In Chapter of Judges, verses 5 “the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.” Deborah was not only a woman in a man’s world but she was also the judge over a huge area, she definitely withstood many stressful situations. Why did people come from all over Israel to seek Deborah’s guidance? The people came because Deborah’s strength wasn’t from herself. According to Judges 2:18 “Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, He was with the judge ” God was with Deborah giving her strength and raising her up. Deborah’s strength was ĕlôhîym or of the supreme God. God was with her and we see amazing results of Deborah’s ĕlôhîym strength in Judges 5 verse 31 “Then the land had peace forty years”
Judges Chapter 4 verses 6-14 shows Deborah’s ĕlôhîym strength under pressure. Deborah sent for Barak son of Abinoam and told him “The Lord your God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sistera and his troops to Kishon River and give him into your hands” Wow! Barak gets to take his whole army up to a mountain and God is just basically going to hand over his enemies to him. Strong army, assurance from God of a win, sounds like a good deal. Right? Barak responds in an unexpected way in verse 8- “Then Barak said to her, ‘If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go”
The command of a huge army came to Deborah and told her he would not go to battle without her. Deborah must have radiated her ĕlôhîym strength as she told Barak God’s direction enough so that he won’t go into battle without her with him. Maybe his request shocked her as much as it shocked me but she certainly doesn’t show it in her response, “Certainly I will go with you”. One of the things I love about Deborah is the quickness of her response; I can imagine the authority and confidence in it. Deborah had heard direction from God and she was not shying away from his direction not even in light of a war. Because of Deborah’s ĕlôhîym strength the war was won.
Has God ever called you to do something scary that seemed far too difficult? I know that I have been called to do some things that I knew were from God but I didn’t respond like Deborah in the trust of God’s strength in me. In situations where I am called to have strength I tend to think that I don’t have the strength to do it. The interesting thing is that Deborah didn’t either, Deborah didn’t have the strength to go with Barak, not within herself, because Deborah’s strength was from God, ĕlôhîym strength, she lead a fight and won. Though you most likely won’t be called to lead the United States Army into battle or lead a nation, we all need strength from God in our lives. Strength to stand up, witness to someone, make decisions, follow His calling, and just glow for Him in our everyday lives.