Both Valued and Valuable
Part One: Old Testament Examples
It is unfortunate how women of the Bible are viewed in many contemporary circles as lesser than men or less useful in God’s kingdom than men. God created both men and women in His image. Inasmuch as this is true, He has equal missions and equal importance for both. This is demonstrated throughout both the Old and the New Testaments, and despite the attempts of many who might claim otherwise, the Bible very clearly supports the mighty use of women in God’s work.
Abigail
There are so many women that could be referenced in
regards to God’s usage in the Old Testament.
I think first of Abigail in 1 Samuel 25.
Abigail was not a prophetess or leader of any kind. However, her humble and gentle advice to
David persuaded him not to kill Nabal.
She was instrumental in this one instance of leading the King of Israel
As Thomas Schreiner wrote:
“For women, Abigail is a model
of gentle and humble persuasion. There
was no stridency or imperiousness about her manner. She was winsome, yet bold.”
Whereas Abigail and others like her are great examples,
and there are many of them, I want to look primarily at Deborah. However, please don't misunderstand me. I am not looking at her because
she was so influential. I do think she
is a wonderful example of how God has, does, and will use women in all ways and
of the fact that the Bible is full of these kinds of stories. However, the principle reason I want to focus
on Deborah as an Old Testament example is because she was so influential. She is the primary example some have used to
prove that God does not have specific roles for women, that women can instead
function in roles that were otherwise reserved only for men.
In response to that argument I’d like to show that
Deborah was not only a messenger of God, but that the evidence from
prophecy actually indicates her fulfilling a supportive and complementary role,
even as she served as a prophetess and judge of Israel.
Deborah, Judges 4-5
The history of Deborah is contained within Judges 4-5,
and we can read what the atmosphere was in Israel
And the people of Israel
During the time of judges, this was a seemingly endless
cycle. The Lord would send an enemy to
come in on judgment of His peoples’ evil, they’d cry out to Him, and He would
send a deliverer to rescue them, generally in the form of a judge.
What is unique about this particular account of one of
Israel’s judges is the great detail given us as to how God raised Deborah up as
judge over Israel as a direct response to the cry of the people. (Judges 4:4-10) Deborah was a prophetess who was widely known
in Israel for her prophetic ability.
Clearly, God raised up Deborah and gave her this prophetic gift because
of the failure of the Levitical priests to instruct the people in the ways of
the Lord.
At the time Deborah was “judging Israel ,” the priesthood (the Levites) had become
so corrupt that the people of Israel
According to Judges 4, the prophecy was given to Deborah
who then summoned Barak to go and lead the Israelites into battle against
Sisera. Barak balks and says he won’t go
unless Deborah goes with him. She says
she will but that he must know now that since he has chosen this path of
unfaithfulness in God to lead him into victory, Sisera would be delivered to
them through a woman instead of through the efforts of Barak and his men.
In the verses that follow, that is exactly what
happened. The Israelites were defeating
Sisera and his men in battle, so Sisera got off of his horse and ran away. He ran to the tent of a woman named Jael, the
wife of Heber who was a descendant of Moses’ father-in-law. Jael tricked him into thinking she’d protect
him, then as soon as he lay down to go to sleep, she drove a tent peg through
his head. Jael then ran to Barak to show
him his dead enemy.
There are a couple of things we need to point out about
Deborah’s role here to show that it was indeed complementary to men, keeping in
line with God’s ordained role for women in leading His people.
Deborah, the “wife of Lippidoth”
Unlike any other judge in Israel’s history, when Deborah
is introduced in Biblical terms as a judge and prophetess she is identified
also as a wife. We don’t really know
anything about her husband, Lippidoth.
It doesn’t follow that the author of Judges was pointing this out because of
the importance of her husband’s family.
It seems more likely that he is instead pointing out her identity as a wife as
well as a prophetess. Other prophets are
not introduced as “husbands,” so this does seem to be significant.
Deborah as prophetess, not priest
The role of prophet, or prophetess in this case, was
different than that of a priest. A prophet
in the Old Testament did not hold the same office as a priest. A priest was a leader, an authoritative teacher
of sorts, whereas the prophet spoke forth God’s revelation to His people. It is instructive to note that in the Old
Testament, some women were prophets but never priests.
Deborah was not assuming this authoritative leadership
role. She was, however, a prophet and
inasmuch in an important position to God’s people. God made no distinction to those who might
hear His voice. Men and women alike were
given this role, though it wasn’t a role of leadership, per se.
Deborah, a different kind of judge
Deborah was a special case because she seems to be the
only judge in Judges who has no military function. The other judges also led Israel into
victory in battle, but Deborah received a word from the Lord that Barak was to
do this. Judges 4:6 says,
She (Deborah) sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from
Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel,
commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the
people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun?’”
Deborah does not assert leadership for herself but gives
priority to a man. Even in the rebuke
she gives to Barak in verse 8 she doesn’t try to take the victory from
him. Her demeanor was such that she
continued to give the leadership to a man, even when he might not be leading
like he should. She continued to give
God’s word, still displaying that disposition to submission referred to in the
previous LEM post, “Gender Specific.”
Deborah, a private judge
Deborah exercised her gift of prophecy differently than
the men who possessed this same gift.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other male prophets exercised a public
ministry where they proclaimed the word of the Lord. But note that Deborah did not prophesy in
public. Instead, her prophetic role
seems to be limited to private and individual instruction.
Judges 4:5 says,
She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in
the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for
judgment.
Note that Deborah did not go out and publicly proclaim
the word of the Lord. Instead,
individuals came to her in private for a word from the Lord. The difference between Deborah’s prophetic
ministry and that of male Old Testament prophets is clear: She did not exercise her ministry in a public
forum as they did. Even when she spoke
to Barak she called him and spoke to him in private. (Judges 4:6, 14)
I feel it is extremely important, given all of this, that
we draw the following conclusions about the history of Deborah as a judge in
Israel in the Old Testament:
- God makes no distinctions on who hears him, whether man or woman.
- Both men and women are recipients of the spiritual gifts.
- Women did and should hold important positions within God’s community.
- However, even these are to be held with a complementarian viewpoint, a disposition and practice of male leadership.
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