Dealing With Deborah: The Judge and The Role of Women in Ministry

On Wednesday nights I have been teaching through the book of Judges. Just last week we came to the prophetess Deborah and the important role that she plays in the narrative. I hear about Deborah a lot in discussions pertaining to the proper roles of women in ministry. Often times, and unfairly as I hope that you will see, she is used in an attempt to skirt around the clear teaching of Scripture that God created men and women in His image both equal in status (Galatians 3:28) but with different roles that compliment each other in the home (1 Corinthians 11:2-16; Ephesians 5:22-33; Colossians 3:18-19; 1 Peter 3:1-7) and in the church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35; 1 Timothy 2:11-15). I have spoken with some people who support women serving as pastors or as other head leaders in the church who have treated Deborah as THE case that proves the point that a woman can and should be behind the pulpit preaching the Word of God to a mixed audience. (Just a note, there is no problem according to God's Word for a woman to be teaching or preaching to a group of all women or to be teaching children. Just look at Titus 2:3-5. I will go on the record to say that we need more women serving in these areas. But God has limited the office of elder or pastor to that of a man just as He has designed for men to lead their homes.) However, does Deborah really solve the issue? Does her very presence in the book of Judges lead to the clear conclusion that people like me who hold that God has not intended for a woman to serve as a pastor or elder are certainly in the wrong? Or, and I really hate to type this, that this would trump Paul's teaching in his letters? Actually, a closer examination into what goes on with Deborah shows no such thing. Let's together look at Deborah's Role, Deborah's Presence, and Deborah's Purpose.

Deborah's Role
The first thing that we must recognize about Deborah is that she is identified as a prophetess and not a pastor. We are told when we are first introduced to her that she is a prophetess. In fact, this serves as her predominant role in the narrative itself. Unlike the other judges that we read about in the book, she is not a military leader. The author stresses her role as settling disputes (v. 5) and prophesying (vv. 6-7, 9), mediating a direct word from God to His people. It should be noted that there is a difference between the role of  prophesying and that of an elder or pastor in the New Testament. According to 1 Corinthians 11, women could indeed prophesy in the assembly of a local congregation but she still was not granted the authority to teach a mixed group (1 Corinthians 14:34-36). So to use Deborah as a means to support the argument that God has granted the authority for women to play a major leading role in the life of a congregation doesn't hold water. It would be the equivalent of comparing apples to oranges. We are talking about two different roles here. A prophetess is not the same thing as a pastor or an elder. Be careful not to confuse what God has determined to be distinct.

Deborah's Presence
We also have to consider Deborah's very presence being a leader during the time of the judges. The author actually goes out of his way to emphasize the fact that she is a woman. Literally in Hebrew he says concerning her in Judges 4:4, And Deborah, a WOMAN PROPHETESS, the WIFE of Lappidoth, SHE, she was judging Israel at that time (emphasis mine). He certainly wants it to be clear to everyone who reads this account that she is a female. Now, why is this? Notice as well the contrast between her and Barak. She actually sends for Barak and commissions him to go out and deliver the people (vv. 6-7). She was not asserting leadership and authority for herself but calling for a man to take charge. She was encouraging a man to step up and lead. However, that man refuses unless she goes with him (v. 8). And the ramification for this would be that the victory be at the hands of a woman instead of Barak himself (v. 9). That would have been a humiliation to Barak in this culture. And interestingly enough, in later cases when the judges are listed, Deborah's name is absent though Barak's can be found (1 Samuel 12:11; Hebrews 11:32). Is this any indication that Barak really is recognized as the one who should have primarily led in this battle? That he should not have hesitated when she asked him to take the lead? It may also be significant that nowhere does the author ever explicitly state that God raised up Deborah to serve as a judge like he does for just about every other major judge (3:9, 15; 6:11-14; 11:29; 13:2-5). Just that she was judging Israel at that time (v. 4). Could it be that the writer of this historical account wants to highlight for us a specific problem during this time? That the people lacked strong male leadership? We have a woman in leadership which certainly is rare and sticks out among all the other judges and also the man that is called to lead refuses to step up and go at it alone. Contextually, Deborah should not have been serving as this leader of the people.

Let's explore this deeper in the overall structure of the entire book. The author chooses to organize the events of this time in a way that demonstrates a continual downward spiral. That as time goes on, we have the further degradation of the nation of Israel as they become more and more mixed with the world. As they resemble the pagan Canaanites more than being God's very holy people. (A very much needed contemporary lesson for the Church today as the visible church, instead of being a ship sailing on the sea of the world, in many ways has begun to let the water of the world in and in many cases no longer can be seen as distinct from the world itself.) The author even states in the introduction of the book that every time a judge that God raised up to save them died, that they would turn back and act MORE CORRUPTLY than their fathers (2:19; emphasis mine). Not only is this degradation seen with the people themselves but also with their leaders. Everyone just becomes more and more corrupt as we move through the book. Compare the first judge, Othniel (1:11-15; 3:9-11), with the last one in the book, Samson (13:1-16:31). Othniel really is presented to us as a model judge. There is not any mention of any corruption caused by him. He is a courageous godly leader. However, on the flip side, nothing positive can really be said about Samson. He was a womanizer who broke every vow that he ever made. He was far more concerned with chasing women than he ever was about chasing after God's prescribed will. After Othniel, pretty much every judge has some sort of blemish on them. Take Ehud who was left-handed and certainly used a very questionable method to deliver Israel at the time (3:15-30). Or Gideon with his doubts and the idolatry that he encourages with the ephod that he built (6:1-8:32). Jephthah's rash vow leading him to sacrifice his very own daughter (10:6-12:7)! (I know some will attempt to argue that Jephthah didn't really sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering but it was a case of her being dedicated to the temple in perpetual virginity. However, I will just point out in passing that the Hebrew word for "burnt offering," "olah," always, in every case that we find it in Scripture, refers to a literal "burnt offering.") And then we have Samson, the worst of the worst. What each of the judges did mirrored something that the ungodly pagans practiced, not what God commanded His people to do. So, following this pattern, we should expect to see something negative about Deborah that represents the people of the time. In light of the author drawing great attention to her gender and pointing out Barak's cowardice to lead, it seems reasonable to conclude that Deborah as a judge reflects the lack of strong male leadership at this time. Perhaps it should be mentioned that part of God's chastisement of the leaders in Israel years later by the prophet Isaiah was that children and women ruled over them (Isaiah 3:12). In other words, they lacked strong male leadership. A problem certainly true in many households today and within the church itself.

Deborah's Purpose
We need to remember that the events recorded in the book of Judges are descriptive, not prescriptive. There is a difference in what the Bible reports and what it recommends. What it says and what it supports. (I am indebted to Dale Ralph Davis for this valuable insight.) Just because the Bible reports several kings having more than one wife at a time does not mean that the Bible recommends that for people today. It is just telling us what happened during the time of the kings and even recording for us the sins of the people in that day. Just because the Bible records that Deborah served as a leader in the time of the judges does not necessarily follow that it recommends that women should serve in main leadership roles in the church or as head in their families today. No more than the fact that Gideon laid out a fleece in a lack of trust in God's word or that Jephthah literally sacrificed his daughter indicates that we should do likewise. The whole purpose of this book is to show us how bad things got in those days when there was no king in Israel and man did what was right in his own eyes (21:25). Things that "were right in their own eyes" also regarding leadership. Not following God's design for leadership but creating their own way instead. As Dean R. Ulrich has put it, "Deborah was not so much a picture of the way things ought to be as she was a testimony to the way things were, and in the days of the judges, things were definitely not the way they were supposed to be" (From Famine to Fullness: The Gospel According to Ruth (The Gospel According to the Old Testament; Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2007) 8). Rather than seeing the case of Deborah as justification for disobedience against what God has established, we should instead view it as a warning. We as a church should not desire to resemble the ungodly world and culture in which we live as the nation of Israel did in the book of Judges but to remain faithful to God's Word which always is counter cultural and makes us stand out in contrast to the world.

In Christ,
Lee
Soli Deo Gloria