DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible…. 

DEBORAH THE PROPHETESS 

Judges 5:1-3    

Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day:

² “That the leaders took the lead in Israel,
that the people offered themselves willingly,
bless the Lord!

³ “Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;
to the Lord I will sing;
I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. 

The story of Deborah and Barak is one worth reading as pure historical literature.  As inspired history it tells more about God than of the characters who fill the account.  In all of Old Testament history, Deborah is the only legitimate woman ruler or leader.  She is designated both as a prophetess and a judge, Judges 4:4. 

When the place of women in the church is studied it becomes plain that the preaching and teaching office is designated to be filled by called and gifted men.  But there are some interesting sides to this truth. 

The prophecy from Joel 2:28-32 quoted in Acts 2:17-21 state that a part of this new dispensation of service and worship will be daughters who prophesy.  Again in Acts 21:9 the Scriptures speak of the seven daughters of Phillip the Evangelist who prophesied.  As Acts furnishes an account of the transition from Old Testament worship to the New Testament Church it must be understood that it is not intended as either a doctrinal or ecclesiastical standard. 

What can be learned by looking at the account of Deborah and the examples given in Acts? 

1. God gives in His word a form to be followed under all ordinary conditions.
2. God Himself is not bound to this form and in times of special need, as it was with Deborah, there can be and are exceptions.
3. The exceptions God makes are rare and can be understood when investigated. 

The most vivid illustration I can think of in this contemporary Christianity is Elizabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint missionaries to the Auca Indians.  I do not have a complete background to their activity but what I do have indicates that God sovereignly chose to use those two women as the means to evangelize those particular Indians.

There are two concerns that need stating.

1.  The experience of those women of itself does not authorize any other women as missionaries, preachers, or teachers.
2. That experience did not authorize those two particular women for any other than the task of evangelizing the Aucas.

As it has been said, “God cannot be put in a box.”  But this does not mean He acts contradictory or precipitous.  The song of God’s people has been and always will be, Judges 5:31 ESV, “So may all your enemies perish, O Lord!  But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.” 

Application:

1.       The King of the church will always give His people both deliverers and deliverance.

2.      The believer’s great enemy has been defeated and the victory is complete.