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    Jun 23, 2019

    Deborah

    Deborah

    Passage: Judges 2:16-21

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them. Judges 2:18b

    For a long, long time I’ve thought the Old Testament – aka The Hebrew Scriptures – got a bad rap.  Haven’t you heard people talk about the God of the Old Testament and describe God as vengeful and filled with wrath?  There are certainly portions of the Old Testament where God seems really mad, but I believe the Book of Judges helps us see God in a bit different light – more like a loving parent whose patience is tried from time to time.

    At the time of the Judges the Israelites often found themselves on the wrong side of God.  There is an obvious pattern in this book.

    It was a cycle.  The amazing thing is that God had compassion on them.  Joshua 2: 18-20a says: 

    Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them.  But whenever the judge died, they would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

    The Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning.  How often do parents give in when their children are hurting?  Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse – right?

    This reminds me of a story written by Dennis Miller. 

    Miller and his wife were trying to teach their young son about freedom and responsibility.  He was just old enough to walk to his friend’s house a few blocks away, and they told him that he had to call when he got there so they knew he was safe.

    The first time the child forgot to call home, Dad called to make sure he was okay.  Then he told his boy that if he forgot again he would have to come home.  When it happened a third time, Dad thought that it was time for some accountability – or punishment.

    When there was no call, Miller picked up the phone and started to pray for wisdom.  He wrote that he seemed to hear God’s voice, “Treat him like I treat you.”  He hung up the phone on the first ring.

    A few seconds later, the phone rang, and it was the son.  “I’m here Dad!”

    Miller asked him, “What took you so long to call?”

    “We started playing and I forgot.  But Dad, I heard the phone ring once and I remembered.”

    Miller reflected:  How often do we think of God as One who waits to punish us when we step out of line?

    The beautiful thing about the stories of the Judges is that when Israel fell back into old, unhealthy and unfaithful habits, worshiping every other god but Yahweh, God was waiting not to punish but to send a helper – someone who could remind them who they were, who would teach and lead and give them a time of peace and security.

    The fourth Judge in this book is, astonishingly, a woman.  Deborah.  This was early in the period of the Judges, and Israel’s lows weren’t nearly as bad as they became later in the story.  There were periods of faithfulness followed by periods of turning away from God, but it didn’t get quite as bad early on.

    Hear the first few verses of Judges 4 where Deborah is introduced:

    After Ehud had died, the Israelites again did things that the Lord saw as evil. 2 So the Lord gave them over to King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, and he was stationed in Harosheth-ha-goiim. 3 The Israelites cried out to the Lord because Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly for twenty years.

    4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was a leader of Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraim highlands, and the Israelites would come to her to settle disputes.

    We learn several things about Deborah right off the bat.  She was a prophet.  As the children’s video showed, that meant that she listened for God’s voice and shared what she heard with the people.  And she was married.  For a married woman to have a job, especially a job as a leader/judge was perhaps not completely unheard of but certainly rare.  And for people to trust her as a leader is astonishing to me.

    Presumably as with the other judges, people came to Deborah for help – or advice.  Just as we have today, people who live in community with each other get cross-wise from time to time, and need a kind of arbiter to help them out of the argument.  Deborah apparently was skillful in mediating disputes.  She had to be smart and creative.  She was so well respected that in the next chapter, the scripture calls her a mother of Israel.  And when the time came that Israel needed a leader in the military sense, Deborah did that, too.  We will explore that some next week.

    Deborah was a strong woman who clearly took her direction from God.  She had many gifts that God used in leading the people.  There are so many great stories about male heroes in the scriptures.  Deborah was a strong leader and a great role model for our girls! 

    We are going to leave this here for this week.  Next week we will explore how Deborah led at a time of crisis.