The Book of Judges (6)
(Chapters 4 & 5)
DEBORAH

    'And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the 
LORD, when Ehud was dead' (verse 1).

    Strange is the strength of corruption which hurries men into 
sin notwithstanding the most frequent experience of its fatal 
consequences.  The land had rest for eighty years, which should 
have confirmed the children of Israel in their loyalty to Jehovah.  
On the contrary it made them secure and wanton, indulgent of 
those lusts that the worship of false gods was calculated to 
gratify.  The heart of man has not changed, for the same spirit is 
abroad today.  It was prosperity that caused them to forsake the 
One Who had done so much for them.  Material blessings had 
warped their values and hardened their hearts.  What need had 
they of their God?  They had everything they needed. 

    Ehud had kept the children of Israel close and loyal to God.  
By the influence of one good man upon whom the Spirit of the 
Lord rested, a nation was kept faithful and loyal.  When Ehud 
died they did evil in the sight of the Lord.  They alienated 
themselves from God as if He were none of theirs, and God sold 
them into the hand of their enemies.  As today Israel are only set 
aside temporarily until they repent as a nation, so here God in His 
mercy to His earthly people, allows them to be sold into captivity 
for a time, that they might learn to obey His commandments and 
walk by faith, realising their need of Him.  So we read in verse 2:
    
    'And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of 
Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was 
Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles'.

    The name Jabin king of Hazor we have come across before.  
It was in Joshua 11:1-10 :
    
    'And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard 
those things, all these kings were met together to fight against 
Israel.  Joshua smote them, until they left them none remaining.
    
    And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and 
smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was 
the head of all those kingdoms'.

    Since that humiliating defeat, another Jabin had become the 
ruler of this area.  The name means 'he is wise', and this could 
be a title as, for example, Pharaoh.  Hazor was situated in the 
north of Canaan in the Galilee area, in the territory given to the 
tribe of Naphtali.  It had been a flourishing city from very early 
days, and later on Solomon turned it into a fortress in view of its 
strategic position militarily.  It overlooked the waters of Merom, 
the most northerly of the three lakes on the river Jordan.  The city 
had evidently been rebuilt, the loss retrieved and power regained.  
This king had his revenge over Israel, and his army under the 
mighty general Sisera, crushed the armies of the tribes of Israel in 
this northern area, namely Naphtali, Zebulon, Dan and Issachar, 
and dominated the whole land.  For twenty years they mightily 
oppressed the children of Israel.  To be subjugated by those 
whom their fathers had conquered, and whom they themselves 
had foolishly spared, must have brought home to them their lack 
of faith, their unbelief, their slothfulness and their cowardice.

    When the misery of this oppression finally drives the people 
back to their God, a woman and a man are raised by this truly 
merciful God to deliver them.  For the first and the last time in 
the history of Israel, a woman is raised up by God to judge this 
people.  Deborah is her name, which signifies 'a bee'.  She 
certainly lived up to her name by her industry, sagacity and 
usefulness, her sweetness to her friends and bitterness to her 
enemies.  She was intimately acquainted with God, and had 
remained faithful to Him during this period of lapse on the part of 
Israel.  She was in fact a prophetess as well as a judge, and was 
instructed by the Spirit of the Lord.

    She was different to the other judges in this Book in this 
particular - the spirit of prophecy.  She had her judgment seat in 
the open air beneath a palm tree, as we read in verse 5, between 
Ramah and Beth-el in Mount Ephraim.  The 'Deborah palm' 
tree took its name from this lady.  Near it was another famous 
tree connected with her namesake, who was the faithful nurse of 
Rebekah.  That Deborah has her death recorded in Scripture, and 
the fact that she was buried in Beth-el under an oak, as we read 
in Genesis 35:8, means she must have been a faithful servant.

    This Deborah was most probably of the tribe of Ephraim, 
though some suggest she belonged to Issachar (Judges 5:15).  
The phrase 'wife of Lapidoth' has also been rendered 'woman of 
Lapidoth'.  Apparently the termination of this word 'oth' is not 
commonly found in the name of a man, and some commentators 
suggest it was therefore the name of a place. 

    Certainly we find in chapters 4 and 5 that she was intimately 
acquainted with God, one that was instructed in divine knowledge 
by the immediate inspiration of the Spirit of God.  As a direct 
result of that she was given wisdom that enabled her to prophesy 
events that would come to pass concerning the will of God for 
His people Israel.  In these chapters we read that the children of 
Israel came up to her for judgment from all parts of the land.  
Her judgment was not that of regal or civil authority, but as the 
word of God, not that of redressing grievances, but of turning the 
hearts of this backsliding nation back to their true God.  She 
would strengthen those who were persecuted for remaining 
faithful and not worshipping the heathen idols as the vast 
majority were doing.

N.J.DREDGE