Friday, October 26, 2007

By Faith... the Judges, Part 11 of 62

TEXT: "Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment"(Judges 4:4-5).

IDEA: Deborah stands out among the characters of the Old Testament as a woman of great gift and great faith.

PURPOSE: to help listeners realize what a remarkable woman Deborah was.

Do you think it is strange that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, in naming four people who lived during the time of the judges, includes as one of the four Barak, who was not a judge?

The writer could have included a woman who had a great influence on Barak, but he did not. But Deborah stands out as one of the notable people of faith in God.

I. We don’t know many things about Deborah that we would expect to know:

We don’t know about her family, or her ancestry, or even what tribe she was from.

We know she was married to a man named Lapidoth, but we know nothing about him. We don’t know how long they were married, whether they had children, etc.

II. There are two things we do know about her:

One thing we know is that she was a prophet.

What did a prophet do? S/he spoke on the basis of having a revelation from God. Sometimes it was a revelation about the future; other times it concerned what God wanted people to do in the present.

God and only God made a prophet.

Only three named women in the Old Testament played a clear role as prophets.

She was a judge (Judges 4:4).

People came from all over the nation to her so that she could hear their cases and render judgment.

The people came because of the obvious gift of God in her life. She had become the political, judicial center of the nation. People recognized the gift.

These two facts make Deborah absolutely unique. She was the only woman called of God to be a national leader of his people in the Old Testament.

Conclusion: She is clear evidence that women have gifts and can play the role of a leader.