Story Time- Deborah

From time to time, someone claiming the the title of "Reverend" will make some claim about female leadership, about how women are not to be leaders in the church. They'll often use various scriptures to make their point, and then say something about ineffability of scripture to make their points unassailable. 

But they have a problem. A problem many of them would rather not think about. A problem named Deborah. A problem that takes everything they think they know about Biblical Leadership and blows it to smithereens.

Deborah is a judge, her story told in the Book of Judges. Now in Judges, there is a pattern. The people of God are oppressed by some outside power. They cry out for aid and God responds by sending them a leader, known as a Judge. Judges were a combination of Priest, Prophet, Adjudicator, and Military Leader, but the position was not handed down to ones children. Of course, with so much power resting in an individuals hands, they usually came with a downside, and would lead the people of Israel into a sinful way, and before long the people would be worse off than they started. This happened over and over and over again.

With one, and only one, exception. And that would be, you guessed it, Deborah. Deborah's story has no flaws, no fall. At no point does she lead Israel astray, or abuse her power. 

While Deborah is Judging, Israel is under the thumb of Sisera, a military leader commanding 900 Chariots, which were sort of the ultimate in military technology at the time. Deborah calls to Barak, a tribal leader, and commands him to lead the warriors of Israel into battle. 

Barak says, flat out, that he will not do so unless she rides with him. She warns that this will mean that his own honor is lessened, and he is fine with that. 

THINK for a second about what that says about everyone involved. In a community where female prominence (let alone leadership) is so rare that even learning a woman's NAME in the Bible is a bit of a rare occurrence,  this military leader, with twenty thousand warriors under his command, will NOT go into battle without Deborah with him. He knows it will lessen his glory and he does not care: he wants her there. There is no doubt, even to the man who brings with him the military muscle, of who is really in charge.

So she goes. And they win. Sisera's forces are scattered, and he personally runs and hides, only to be killed while in hiding by the wife of one of his underlings, who promptly hands him over to the victorious Israelites. 

Deborah is, by any objective measure, the finest of the Judges, and one of the greatest leaders in the Bible's story. She gets two chapters in that book, one that tells a VERY truncated version of her story, and one that is a song about her. You can tell that the editor was a bit embarrassed about having her, but even the most sexist of the Biblical editors wasn't able to remove her story completely.

So if anyone claims that women are not meant to lead, then they are clearly, objectively, wrong. Because Judges were appointed by God, and God clearly appointed Deborah, who would go on to not only lead, but lead without any drawbacks... a figure of such importance that even editors who had every reason to do so were not able to remove her story completely.

So if the Biblical record is at all important to you, remember Deborah's story. And if anyone tells you that, based on the Bible, women should not lead? Point them to the Book of Judges, chapter 4.

And tell them that they are wrong.