Sunday School: Deborah and the Judges

Encore Posts: Through Joshua, God defeated the Canaanites in the land he promised to his people. He instructed them to kill all of these people, since they were devoted to particularly evil gods — chiefly Baal and his wife Asherah. They were fertility gods. Their religion promised many children and abundant crops to their followers. Part of their worship involved sexual relations with temple prostitutes and child sacrifice to influence the gods to give them what they desired. Yet Israel did not listen to God and let some of them live. This would lead to no end of trouble for them.

After Joshua died, God ruled the people of Israel directly — mostly through judges. For the most part, this worked well. Yet because often the people of Israel would fall into the temptation of worshipping the gods of Canaan, at times God allowed the Canaanites to raid or conquer one area of the land or another. When His people prayed to Him for help, God would raise up a judge in Israel to gather them together and defeat their enemies. Deborah was one of these judges. She is the only female judge mentioned in Scripture. She also one of a very few prophetesses mentioned among God’s people. Her role was political — to settle disputes between various peoples in Israel and to summon them to battle.

Deborah brought the tribes together to fight. The battle was not promising. Israel did not have chariots and faced an army that did. When the battle began, a thunderstorm soaked the field, bogging down the chariots in mud. In the confusion, the Canaanite general Sisera was defeated and fled. Once again, it is God Who rescues His people from foreign armies. They turn again to worship Him as long as Deborah lives.

During these years, the relationship between God and the people went through a depressing cycle. When they forgot what God did for them, they started to worship Canaanite gods. God would send their neighbors to harass and oppress them. They would cry to God for help. He would raise up a judge like Deborah to rescue them. They would honor God as long as the judge lived. With each cycle, the people would grow worse.

Like the people of Israel, we also go through a similar pattern. When God has mercy on us and blesses us, when honor him. Eventually we take his blessing for granted and he allows us to be afflicted with the consequences of our sins. We call out for help and God rescues us. Ultimately, it leads to physical death. Yet God has sent the Judge of Judges to rescue us. He did battle with sin, death and the devil for us. By his death he destroyed death and earned for us everlasting life. On the last day, the cycle will end once and for all. We will live forever in his blessing .

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