The Book of Judges: Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay
Deborah and Barak: The Value of Teamwork
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: The author of Hebrews, in his great panorama of men and women of faith in chapter 11, writes, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets—men of whom the world was not worthy.” We are taking the time to examine some of the lesser-known OT characters in some detail to learn what we can about how to walk with God in faith.
When I began to study Judges 4 and 5, where the story of Barak is recorded, I discovered that he was overshadowed by another person of faith—Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth. I had to ask myself why the author of Hebrews singled out Barak rather than Deborah, when she seems to be stronger in faith than he. It can hardly be because he was a chauvinist, for he has already mentioned Sarah, Moses’ mother, and Rahab as women of faith. Frankly, I don’t know why, but I have decided to speak about both Deborah and Barak this morning, because they made such a great team and, together with their contemporaries, teach us much about leadership and followership.
First, let’s set the stage for this account. We have been studying the cycles of sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation in the book of Judges. Today we will be studying the third such cycle, which is an oppression at the hands of the Canaanite, Jabin, and his able general, Sisera. While the Midianites had an effective military weapon in the camel, these Canaanites have their own formidable weapon in the chariot—900 of them, in fact.
Nine hundred chariots do not sound impressive in a world spending trillions of dollars annually on armaments, but they represented the very latest in military technology in that day. Chariots allowed the enemy to control the valleys and plains, which forced Israel to retreat into the mountain areas. In addition, there wasn’t a single shield or spear among 40,000 soldiers in Israel (5:8). God’s people were outmanned, outgunned, and out-positioned, but as always, Israel’s real problem was not military but spiritual. Their greatest need was not for iron weapons but for a living faith in God. Verse 3 indicates that finally, after 20 years of oppression, the Israelites call out to God for help, and God sends them a deliverer.
Deborah, the woman who exercised leadership well.
Her position. Deborah’s position in Israel is unusual, to say the least. First, she is a prophetess, putting her in a rare class with just two other women so designated in the OT (Miriam, Exod. 15:20, and Huldah, 1 Kings 22:14). A prophet or prophetess in those days was one to whom God saw fit to communicate revelation needed for the time. And secondly, she was a judge, which means she was the top political and civil leader of the nation, probably the only woman to occupy such a position in the history of Israel, at least until Golda Meir in our own lifetime. These two capacities of prophetess and judge probably worked together, as God would reveal information to Deborah for her use in dispensing justice to the people, for verse 5 indicates that she held court to settle disputes among the Israelites.
It is natural to ask one of two questions when one comes to this story. One might ask, “Why did God use a woman for this task?” or, perhaps better, one might be inclined to ask, “Why didn’t God use women for leadership tasks more often?” This is, of course, a sensitive topic in the church today, and without trying to offer a full-blown theology of the place of women in the church, I would suggest three important facts which need to be considered.
1). None of the spiritual gifts God has given to the church are given exclusively to men. There may be offices, like elder, or pastor, which are given only to men, but the spiritual gifts are given irrespective of gender.
2). When leadership was needed for a large body God almost always chose men to lead, whether in the OT or NT.
3). However, when men were not available for leadership, or when they refused to take leadership, God did not hesitate to use a woman.
Now frankly, I’m glad for the example of Deborah, for it shows that there is nothing intrinsically inappropriate about a woman taking leadership over men. It may not be the normal way God works, but we shouldn’t react in holy horror when a woman demonstrates godly leadership skills. Please don’t misunderstand me, this is not a defense of women preachers or even of women elders, but it is a plea for the church to take full advantage of the gifted women in the Body of Christ.
At the same time, I also want to challenge the men to rise up and exercise their responsibilities of leadership in the home and in the church. It has always bothered me that some of the men who work the hardest to “keep women in their place” are the least willing to take their own leadership responsibilities. Well, enough meddling.
From Deborah’s position, let’s turn to …
Her principles of leadership
She sees a need. Perhaps because of her work in hearing and solving problems for her people, the severe oppression of the Canaanites in the north comes to weigh heavily on Deborah’s heart. Though she herself lives over 70 miles south of the area most seriously affected, she sees the need of her countrymen and is moved with compassion for them. That’s not all she does, however. There are people who have very soft hearts and who feel very compassionately toward those in trouble, but they never seem to do anything about it. After a while the emotions wear away and nothing has changed. Not so with Deborah. She sees the need and then she acts.
She recruits help. In doing so she picks the right person from the right place in the right way. Israel has a military problem, so she recruits a military expert named Barak. In this she recognizes both her own limitations and Barak’s strengths. G. Campbell Morgan writes, “Deborah without Barak would have kindled enthusiasm, but would have accomplished nothing.”[i] One mark of a leader is that he or she is aware of his or her own limitations and is constantly looking for gifted people to whom tasks can be delegated.
Furthermore, Deborah recruits help from the right place. Barak lives in the area where the oppression is the worst. If you want soldiers who will really fight, you can’t do better than find those whose own land and families are being threatened.
And she recruits him in the right way. She confronts him with God’s command and strengthens him with God’s promise. “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go take with you 10,000 men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I (God still speaking) will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.'” It’s easy for some leaders to recruit by means of personal charisma, but it’s far more effective and lasting to challenge them with their responsibilities before God. Deborah wisely chooses the latter approach.
She has a plan. Many people see needs; some decide to do something about it; a few are willing to enlist others to help. But even after all that, leadership can fail at the point of planning and organization if one has no idea how to achieve his or her goals. I see this in church planting. The Free church is planting new churches all over the United States. Some of these efforts succeed very well from very small beginnings, while others that have every advantage in terms of people, resources and location, fail because there is no one to provide direction to the enthusiasm. Deborah has a plan, as indicated in verses 6-7. The fact that this plan evidently comes from God doesn’t lessen the credit due to her for implementing it.
Her courage. Her courage is evident in several ways, first, in her willingness to serve as a leader of her people in a day and time when women generally didn’t do that sort of thing. But even more we see it in her ready willingness to go with Barak on the military campaign. Even in our day, as women have gained so much in equality in the workplace, women in leadership in the military are relatively scarce. But Deborah doesn’t hesitate to courageously offer to be the lone woman among 10,000 men as Barak goes up against the Canaanites.
Her faith in God. In verse 14 of chapter 4 Deborah says to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” Troop strength shouldn’t be ignored, but she is reminding Barak that victory depends on God’s blessing, not the number of troops. Then in chapter 5 we have a song that Deborah and Barak sing together, following their great victory. We haven’t read the song this morning, but I would point out a few things to you. At the end of verse 3 and 4 it says, “Praise the Lord! Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I will sing to the Lord, I will sing; I will make music to the Lord, the God of Israel.” That sets the stage for the entire song, which gives the glory to God for the triumph over Jabin and Sisera. I suggest that Deborah is able to exercise leadership well primarily because of her unflinching faith in God, whom she mentions a dozen times.
Now, as already indicated, as significant as Deborah’s leadership is, she is only part of a team. I want us now to turn our attention to the other half of this team, a man who is a little more difficult to evaluate. Frankly, I’m glad we have God’s evaluation of him from Hebrews 11 as a man of faith “of whom the world was not worthy,” because that helps us read his story more affirmingly than we otherwise might. Some who read only the surface have concluded that Barak was a coward who hid behind a woman’s skirt, but that is not God’s evaluation.
I have borrowed a descriptive phrase from Stuart Briscoe in calling …
Barak, “the man who played second fiddle well.”
That describes him accurately, I believe. First, we should not overlook the fact that Barak, too, like Deborah, had significant leadership ability.
His leadership ability. His leadership may not have been on the same level with Deborah’s, but when he went back to Zebulun and Naphtali to recruit 10,000 soldiers, he apparently had no trouble doing so. Verse 10 says, “Ten thousand men followed him.” Believe me, 10,000 people don’t follow someone who lacks leadership. However, despite his leadership skill, Barak seemed to lack self-confidence.
His lack of self-confidence. I think somehow people have gotten the strange notion that great leaders are automatically people of unlimited self-assurance. That simply is not true. Every great leader I have known well has moments of intense self-doubt, deep feelings of inadequacy, and sometimes even fear of making decisions. One of the things that allows them to lead despite these facts is that they can usually hide such feelings from the public and still inspire confidence in others. But deep down inside leaders are like all the rest of us.
It’s very rare when you find a leader who is honest enough to say what Barak says, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” I think that far from being a sign of cowardice, this was a courageous thing for Barak to admit. Many leaders faced with his odds would have simply backed out, excusing themselves by saying something like, “I’m too busy,” or “I’ve evaluated the situation and the logistics are not right.” But Barak tells it like it is—he is willing to admit his lack of self-confidence.
The third thing I notice is …
His willingness to yield the limelight. I see Barak as one who is realistic about his own gifts and abilities. He knows he is not personally equipped for the top spot, but he will play a faithful second fiddle. You’ve heard of the Peter Principle: “People tend to rise to the level of their incompetence.” It wouldn’t have to be that way if more people accepted their limitations and were willing to yield the limelight. Some people make great vice-presidents but disastrous Presidents. Some men make great Associate Pastors but fail miserably as Senior Pastors. Some are super salesmen but terrible sales managers. I suggest that Barak knows himself better than Deborah knows him, and he simply refuses to be a “Peter Principle” statistic.
True, she seems to rebuke him for his refusal to go into battle without her. Verse 9 reads, “’Very well,’ Deborah said, ‘I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.’” (By the way, at first reading we might be inclined to think she is speaking of herself, but of course we later discover that the woman she is speaking of is Jael, who dispatches Sisera in a rather gruesome fashion). But despite this apparent rebuke Barak doesn’t back down or second-guess his decision. He doesn’t say, “Oh rats, I really want that honor. OK, I’ll go by myself after all.” No, it seems that he cares nothing about the honor—only about helping his team get the job done. A willingness to yield the limelight to others is a great but rare quality of leadership.
Finally, we see …
His courage and faith. I think we should not overlook the fact that, with or without Deborah, Barak faces enormous odds in his battle with the Canaanites. His troops have no weapons. The plan is for them to leave their fortifications in the mountains and attack on the plains, the very place where Sisera’s chariots have the distinct advantage. He has no way of knowing in advance that God is going to defeat the Canaanites with a flashflood, as described in verse 20-21 of chapter 5, but he rushes headlong into the valley anyway, in obedience to God. His courage and faith in God are exemplary.
Well, we have examined the two principal characters in this ancient team. But before we conclude we must look at …
The rest of the team
Deborah and Barak are certainly the key players, but they could not have won this battle by themselves. That’s important to realize, for most of us are not great leaders. We’re not even playing second fiddle; we’re way down the ladder of authority. More of us are followers than leaders. But this passage says something about followers too.
I want us to read a portion of the song in chapter 5. In the first 12 verses there is praise to God, a recounting of his deliverances in the past, a description of the desperate condition of Israel now, and a call to battle. Let’s pick up the reading in verse 13:
“Then the men who were left came down to the nobles;
the people of the Lord came to me with the mighty.
Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek;
Benjamin was with the people who followed you.
From Makir captains came down,
from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s staff.
The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
yes, Issachar was with Barak, rushing after him into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.
Why did you stay among the campfires to hear the whistling for the flocks?
In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.
Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves.
The people of Zebulun risked their very lives;
so did Naphtali on the heights of the field.”
Please note here that five tribes courageously joined the battle and thus shared in the victory, while four declined and missed out on the blessing.
Five tribes courageously join the battle and share in the victory. (5:14, 15a, 18). The ones who responded to Barak’s call for recruits, according to 4:10, were from Zebulun and Naphtali. But three other tribes are also mentioned—Ephraim, Benjamin, and Issachar. We are told that the soldiers from Issachar followed Barak as he rushed into the valley against Sisera, while the soldiers from Naphtali protected the heights. The people of Zebulun, it says, risked their very lives. They set no limit on the price they were prepared to pay in their obedience to the Lord.
What a challenge to us today! We must not read accounts like this without measuring ourselves against the kind of commitment we find here—wholehearted, spontaneous, enthusiastic, and risk-taking. But there were others whose record was not so positive.
Four tribes declined and missed out on the blessing. (5:15b-17). In verses 15-16 we are twice told, “In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart,” but then the question is asked, “Why did you stay among the campfires to hear the whistling for the flocks?” You can almost see the Reubenites meeting together, holding debates, and passing resolutions to condemn the Canaanites and affirm the efforts of Deborah and Barak, but their commitment never went any further. They were emotionally stirred and their hearts were moved, but their feet never went. They stayed at home, listening to the shepherds piping music to their sheep, moved by sentiment but not to sacrifice. This is a constant danger for Christians. It is easy to be moved emotionally, to have great stirrings of one’s heart, but then fail to translate that into action.
Then mention is made of Gilead, but all it says is that Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. Gilead isn’t the name of one tribe but two—Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, which chose to settle east of the Jordan back in the days of Joshua. You will perhaps recall that before Joshua gave them permission to settle outside the Promised Land, he made them swear they would help the other tribes drive the Canaanites out of the land. This they did for a while, but now that the Canaanites were again threatening, they chose not to march with Deborah and Barak. Perhaps the reason was that they were cut off from active fellowship with the other tribes. If so, this lesson can be learned: a voluntary lack of fellowship with other believers will often produce a lack of enthusiasm for God’s work.
Then in verse 17 the tribe of Dan is mentioned with just this short question, “And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?” The tribe of Dan had settled on the coast, where Tel Aviv is today, and northward to Joppa. The economic threat of leaving their merchant fleet was apparently more serious to them than the spiritual threat of the Canaanites. It’s not difficult to apply that to the church today, for there are many who allow economic considerations to control their lives and forget that the real battle is a spiritual one.
Finally, it says of the tribe of Asher in verse 17, “Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves.” This tribe was also on the coast but quite a bit further north, reaching even into present-day Lebanon. While apparently Dan refused to volunteer for economic reasons, the impression is left that Asher was simply apathetic. The climate and the coast along the northeast shore of the Mediterranean is one of the finest in the world. Before Lebanon disintegrated into civil war, Beirut was one of the premier resort cities anywhere. Perhaps life was too good for Asher, so they remained on the coast and stayed in their coves.
Excuses.
We all have them, don’t we? When Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1953 an invitation was sent to her friends and various Commonwealth dignitaries which read like this:
“We greet you well. Whereas we have appointed the second day of June 1953 for the solemnity of our coronation, these are therefore to will and to command, all excuses set apart, that you make your personal attendance upon us, at the time above mentioned there to do and to perform such services as shall be required of you.”
Did you notice that phrase, “all excuses set apart?” When a monarch expresses her will and issues her command, her subjects respond without hesitation or excuses. How much more should that be the case when the one issuing the call is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
Now there is one thing we should notice about these four and one-half tribes who did not respond to God’s call to drive out the Canaanites with Deborah and Barak. None ever again made a significant contribution to the cause of God. Asher virtually vanished within the next century. Dan was the first tribe to lapse into complete apostasy. The tribes east of the Jordan were overrun by pagan enemies. The chief victims of the reluctant spirit were the possessors of that spirit. They lived for themselves, refusing to risk what they had, and, as a result, they lost what they had.
It is always that way in the Christian life. If I do not have an eager, courageous and giving heart for God, my reluctant spirit will affect my fellow believers. But above all, it will injure me as I shrivel up within my own shell.
Conclusion: One’s position on a team is not nearly as important as one’s faithfulness. God called Deborah to be the top leader. Barak played second fiddle. The tribes of Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali, plus some from Ephraim and Benjamin, joined them in battle. Each saw the value of teamwork. Deborah couldn’t do it without Barak, Barak couldn’t do it without Deborah, and neither could have seen their vision completed without willing followers.
There are many different responses that people can give when called by God to serve. There is the grudging reply of duty, “Well, if I’m drafted, I guess I’ll have to serve!” Or the answer of the reluctant volunteer, “Hey, maybe if I enlist early enough, I can get a soft, easy office job.” Or the spirit of the mercenary, “What’s in it for me?” Or the attitude of the glory-seeker, “If I can’t serve as a general, I’m not interested.” Contrast that with the “willing volunteers” spoken of in Deborah’s song.
I guess the uppermost lesson I find here is this: don’t try to be what you’re not but be all you can be. Above all, be faithful! After all, the one who is calling you to serve Him loved you enough to send His one and only Son to the Cross to pay for your sin and provide you with eternal life.
DATE: July 30, 1989
Tags:
Teamwork
Women in leadership
Self-confidence
[i] G. Campbell Morgan, Living Messages of the Books of the Bible, 125-6.