{"id":808,"date":"2009-01-21T22:50:02","date_gmt":"2009-01-22T06:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strivetoenter.com\/wim\/?p=808"},"modified":"2015-10-19T20:27:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T03:27:18","slug":"who-was-judge-deborah-or-barak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strivetoenter.com\/wim\/2009\/01\/21\/who-was-judge-deborah-or-barak\/","title":{"rendered":"Who was the judge of Israel, Deborah or Barak?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The story of Deborah and Barak in the book of Judges has caused many hierarchists to assign the God-given work of judge delivering the people of Israel to Barak while denying that God raised up Deborah as a deliverer.\u00a0\u00a0 By assigning a calling to Barak that scripture never assigns, it appears that the example of Deborah and Barak is a clear example of reading into the text the tradition of men and failing to identify in the text God\u2019s own inspired words which give the calling to Deborah.\u00a0 In the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood\u2019s (CBMW) Journal article<\/strong><\/a>, Barbara K. Mouser writes concerning Barak:<\/p>\n

Barak is a weak man who does the will of God when paired with a righteous and wise woman. He does the job of deliverer-judge, makes the roll call of faith, but suffers a loss of glory because of his lack of zeal and obedience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barbara Mouser also denies that Deborah is a God-given judge who is raised up by God to deliver Israel:<\/p>\n

\n

Deborah is Not a Judge<\/em><\/p>\n

She is not a judge in the sense that the book of Judges defines a judge; she is not a military deliverer.17<\/sup> Rather she is a prophetess, and as a prophetess, she commands and exhorts Barak with God\u2019s own words and authority.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The amount of \u201creading into\u201d the text is astounding in this article.\u00a0 For example, where is Barak said in scripture to be \u201craised up\u201d by God as a judge?\u00a0 Barak is never called a judge but Deborah is and Judges chapter 2 makes it very clear that all the judges were raised up by God.<\/p>\n

Judges 2:16\u00a0 Then the LORD raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The raising up must include all of the judges and in this account of deliverance it is only Deborah that is identified as a judge, not Barak.<\/p>\n

Next the CBMW article identifies women as a sign of degeneracy:<\/p>\n

Isaiah tells us that the rule of women is a sign of degeneracy, not liberation (Isa 3:12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

However, Deborah is never<\/span> listed as a Judgment of God against Israel and Isaiah 3:12 has been mistranslated with the word \u201cwomen\u201d which can be clearly seen from the NET bible and the Septuagint\u2019s translation of Isaiah.\u00a0 For more information see my article titled \u201cAre women leaders used to judge sinful men?<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Mouser goes on to note that Deborah\u2019s judging was \u201ca very rare circumstance\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n
Those who seek to extrapolate doctrine or practice from Deborah need to remember that Judges 4-5 is the historical report of a very rare circumstance in a far-from-ideal setting.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The fact that God creates a \u201crare circumstance\u201d is not proof that the \u201crare circumstance\u201d is a judgment against<\/em> Israel by God choosing to use a woman as a judge.\u00a0 The passage in the book of Judges is clear that Deborah was a blessing to Israel and not a curse of judgment against Israel.\u00a0 We can also clearly understand that in the book of the Judges, God does not give the calling of a judge to someone who by the virtue of their gender is disqualified as a judge.\u00a0 God does not break his own rules.<\/p>\n

The article goes off into speculation about the judging work of Deborah:<\/p>\n

Clearly Deborah is not providing military deliverance under her palm tree. While the text is not specific, it is most likely<\/em><\/strong> that she is rendering verdicts in lawsuits<\/em><\/strong>, and\/or giving divine guidance. (emphasis is mine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the CBMW article leaves Deborah devoid of the call of deliverer, who then is the true judge raised up by God according to CBMW and Mouser?<\/p>\n

\n

The Deliverer-Judge Barak<\/strong><\/p>\n

Call and Command<\/em><\/p>\n

She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, \u201cHas not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whatever the nature of Deborah\u2019s judging ministry, something provokes her to summon Barak (v. 6)\u2026<\/p>\n

Whether God initiated the message to Deborah to commission Barak in response to the people\u2019s cries to him, or whether the people petitioned Deborah and she sought the Lord for his word, we do not know. What we do know is that God\u2019s prophetic word is to call and command Barak to engage the enemy general, with a sure promise of victory.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is reading into the passage something that is not there.\u00a0 This passage in Judges does not say that Barak was commissioned as a judge.\u00a0 Deborah did the judging and she<\/em> called Barak to come.\u00a0 Deborah gives her prophetic message to Barak in the form of a question.\u00a0 \u201cHas not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you?\u201d\u00a0 The word of the Lord came through Deborah.\u00a0 The issue of the command was through Deborah and her direction was to be enough to send forth the troops.<\/p>\n

Mouser then attributes sin to Barak for refusing to obey an earlier command of God.\u00a0 This is attributing sin to Barak where no such charge of sin is given in the passage.\u00a0 This is nothing but speculation and eisegesis:<\/p>\n

Barak is the commander of the army; the people have cried out for salvation, and yet no deliverer has arisen. It is likely<\/em> that God has previously commanded Barak to go forth,11<\/sup> but he has refused to go.\u00a0 If <\/em>this is the case, Deborah is repeating a command Barak has already heard, but refuses to obey.\u00a0 (emphasis is mine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barak\u2019s response to Deborah showed why he was listed in the Hebrews hall of fame in Hebrews 11:32.\u00a0 It was \u201cby faith\u201d that Barak requested Deborah to go with him.\u00a0 \u201cBy faith\u201d he accepted her as the deliverer-judge and he would not take the calling for himself.\u00a0 He believed God that God would once again bring deliverance from Israel\u2019s enemies by the very word of God\u2019s chosen judge.<\/p>\n

A leader\u2019s faith and reliance upon the one true God was measured by how he aligned himself with God\u2019s appointed and called messengers.\u00a0 For those leaders who refused to obey God\u2019s prophets, they experienced neither economic nor military prosperity but found themselves ravaged by the enemy.\u00a0 But the godly leaders who accepted God\u2019s provision experienced freedom from their enemies and Barak was willing to risk his own ego to align himself completely with God\u2019s called and chosen judge even if she was a woman.\u00a0 There is nothing in the passage about Barak being called as God\u2019s chosen judge nor is there anything in the passage about Barak being a weak man who needed someone else\u2019s wife to give him courage.\u00a0 Barak is listed as a great man of faith and it is our man-made tradition that turns the passage around to make Barak a disobedient judge<\/em> who failed to receive the full calling that God had for him.<\/p>\n

We do not know why Barak does not obey the Lord straightaway. Perhaps he thinks the people do not trust him as much as they trust Deborah; perhaps he fears they will not answer his muster. Perhaps he trusts Deborah\u2019s physical presence as an assurance of God\u2019s help more than God\u2019s own promise. Whatever the reason, Barak\u2019s issuing a condition to God is not a good or admirable thing (as some have tried to make it13<\/sup>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Asking God\u2019s chosen judge to go into battle as all the other judges had gone into battle was not a good thing?\u00a0 How could this be so?\u00a0 Mouser states that both Deborah and God are displeased with Barak:<\/p>\n

Both Deborah and God are displeased with this response from Barak as we see by their responses to him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is nothing in the passage that says that God is displeased with Barak.\u00a0 Nothing at all.\u00a0 And Deborah\u2019s response to Barak\u2019s request is that she will indeed<\/span> go into battle with him.\u00a0 While Barak will receive great honor for his victory in battle, Deborah does let him know prophetically that God has chosen to give the leader of the enemy into the hands of a woman.\u00a0 Barak is not threatened by this.\u00a0 He goes with Deborah as a man of faith.<\/p>\n

The fact is that it was the Lord God who raised up the judges and the Lord was with the judges giving them credit for saving Israel all the days of the judge.\u00a0 Three times in the inspired book of Judges chapter 5, Deborah\u2019s name is listed first<\/strong> before Barak\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Judges 5:1\u00a0 Then Deborah and Barak<\/em> the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,
\nJudges 5:2\u00a0 \u201cThat the leaders led in Israel\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Judges 5:12\u00a0 \u201cAwake, awake, Deborah<\/em>; Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak<\/em>, and take away your captives, O son of Abinoam.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Judges 5:15\u00a0 \u201cAnd the princes of Issachar were with Deborah<\/em>; As was Issachar, so was Barak<\/em>;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Deborah was indeed God\u2019s appointed and called judge.\u00a0 And in her days<\/em> of judging, the land had peace for forty years:<\/p>\n

Judges 5:31\u00a0 \u201cThus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD; But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might.\u201d And the land was undisturbed for forty years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Israel had peace through the judging of Deborah and she was God\u2019s appointed judge just like all of the others that God raised up in Israel.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of Deborah and Barak in the book of Judges has caused many hierarchists to assign the God-given work of judge delivering the people of Israel to Barak while denying that God raised up Deborah as a deliverer.\u00a0\u00a0 By assigning a calling to Barak that scripture never assigns, it appears that the example of Deborah and Barak is a clear example of reading into the text the tradition of men and failing to identify in the text God\u2019s own…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,13,14,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answering-complementarian-arguments","category-authority-and-leadership","category-authority-and-women","category-old-testament-scriptures"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nWho was the judge of Israel, Deborah or Barak? - Women in Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/strivetoenter.com\/wim\/2009\/01\/21\/who-was-judge-deborah-or-barak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who was the judge of Israel, Deborah or Barak? - Women in Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The story of Deborah and Barak in the book of Judges has caused many hierarchists to assign the God-given work of judge delivering the people of Israel to Barak while denying that God raised up Deborah as a deliverer.\u00a0\u00a0 By assigning a calling to Barak that scripture never assigns, it appears that the example of Deborah and Barak is a clear example of reading into the text the tradition of men and failing to identify in the text God\u2019s own... 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