Homily: Judges 4:1-7 by Warren Trenchard

The Old Testament text for today introduces us to the story of Deborah. Set in about the mid 12^th century BC, this narrative describes the activities of a female shofet, commonly called a “judge.” The shofet was an undifferentiated executive among the tribes of Israel who filled several administrative roles including the deciding of legal cases.

Deborah was unique among the listed Israelite judges not only because she was the only woman among them but also because of the wide range of her activities and varied roles that she played. She is first described as a prophetess. As the story develops, Deborah delivers a message from Yahweh to a male colleague named Barak, ordering him to prepare for battle against Sisera and the forces of the Canaanite king Jabin, who, as the text says, “had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years” (v. 3).

The text then introduces Deborah and identifies her as the wife of Lappidoth (v. 4). We know nothing else about Lappidoth or Deborah’s role as wife and possibly mother. That she was the more prominent and important of the two is obvious from the fact that, compared to the simple mention of his name, her exploits are recorded and celebrated in two chapters of the Book of Judges.

She is next identified with the position of a shofet, “judging Israel” (v. 4). Apparently, she was very well known in this role, because she conducted her official activities at a place between Ramah and Bethel in the hills of Ephraim under a special tree that bore her name, “the palm of Deborah” (v. 5).

What distinguished Deborah most was her role as a military strategist. She delivered Yahweh’s command to Barak to prepare for battle and outlined how the campaign should proceed (vv. 6-7). This is as far as our text for today goes. However, as the story continues, the insecure Barak refused to carry out this order unless Deborah accompanied him (v. 8). She agreed, but told Barak that the ultimate glory of victory would belong not to him but to a woman (v. 9). When everything was ready Deborah ordered Barak and his force of ten thousand soldiers into battle against Sisera (v. 14). The Israelites defeated the Canaanites, and only Sisera escaped (vv. 15-16). While fleeing, he was met by Jael, the wife of a supposed Kenite ally, who conned him into coming to her tent. After hiding him under a rug and giving him milk to drink, Jael killed him by driving a tent peg through his temple and pinning him to the ground while he slept. When Barak arrived, Jael met him and showed him the dead Sisera (vv. 17-22). Deborah was right. The glory of victory belonged to a woman.

What appears to be the oldest part of the story of Deborah is found in Judges 5, which consists of a lengthy poetic song of worship and celebration by Deborah and Barak. Deborah is particularly featured and called “a mother in Israel,” whose exploits led to the prosperity of her people. The song praises the Israelites who joined in the decisive battle and condemns those who did not. It concludes with two stanzas about women that, in turn, commemorate the cunning and courageous acts of Jael, who killed Sisera, and the humorous and pathetic musings of Sisera’s mother, who is waiting in vain for his victorious return from battle. Deborah’s role as singer-songwriter is perhaps the most unique role that Deborah played.

Although the leadership of women may not have been unique in this agricultural and dispersed period of Israelite history, it was certainly unusual later at the time when Israel’s legal traditions were formed and the Book of Judges came to be included in a nascent corpus of writings that also contained the Pentateuch.

In the latter, especially in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the legal and social status of women was very different. Here are some of the laws and regulations found there that reflect the legal position of women and their place in society. Women were the property of their fathers and became the property of their husbands (Exod 22:16-17; Deut 17:17; 22:29). A wife was under her husband’s authority (Num 5:29). Women were not addressed in the Decalogue but were referenced in it (Exod 20:1-17; Deut 5:6-21). Men were ordered not to covert their neighbor’s wife (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21). Women were unclean twice as long after giving birth to a daughter compared to giving birth to a son (Lev 12:1-5). To sexually defile the wife of a relative—whether father, uncle, or brother—was to sexually defile the relative himself (Lev 18:8, 14, 16; 20:11, 20, 21; Deut 27:20). Adultery was a sin by one man against another (Exod 20:10). Men’s vows or contracts were always binding; women’s vows could be nullified by their fathers or husbands (Num 30). Redeeming a woman of any age category who had been pledged to the service of God cost less than redeeming a comparably aged man (Lev 27:1-8). Virginity at the time of marriage was an issue only for women (Deut 22:13-21). It was assumed that only men could initiate marriage and divorce (Deut 24:1-4). A male slave for whom the master had provided a wife must leave her with his master when he is freed (Exod 21:4). A man who falsely accuses a bride of not being a virgin must pay her father a large fine (Deut 22:28-29). The law of levirate marriage, whereby the brother of a man who died without fathering a child must marry his widow, is based on the right of a man to have offspring (Deut 25:5-10). Laws that govern polygamy all assume arrangements involving one man with multiple wives, not the reverse (Exod 21:10; Deut 21:15-17).

In the setting of the Hebrew Bible with this negative picture of the legal and social status of women in Israelite society, the story of Deborah is remarkable. She is described and celebrated as a leader in Israel. Although she is a wife, she is also a prophetess, a civic leader, a legal expert, a military strategist, a motivator of reluctant men, and a singer-songwriter.

A couple of weeks ago the North American Division of the Adventist Church voted to permit persons with commissioned minister credentials to serve as presidents of local conferences. This action came on the heels of a decision by the Executive Committee of the General Conference to deny an earlier request from the NAD to include this provision in the model constitution for conferences. This matter is significant but also controversial only because it is really about the role of women as leaders in the Church. Women pastors are eligible for commissioned minister credentials but not ordained minister credentials. Therefore, if conference presidents must be ordained ministers, no woman can occupy that office. That is the position supported by the General Conference. However, the NAD has voted otherwise. In this division, a woman with commissioned minister credentials may now serve as a conference president.

This is all well and good. It is noteworthy and commendable as far as it goes. We should celebrate the decision for what it is. However, it is merely circumventing the real issue—the ordination of women to the gospel ministry. Until we officially acknowledge that women have full and complete, divinely given ecclesiastical rights and privileges equal to those of men, we will not have dealt adequately, ethically, or theologically with this matter. The crumbs of potential conference presidency in the North American Division are not enough. We must acknowledge the right of women to be ordained to the gospel ministry in the Adventist world community of faith.

If the world Church refuses to take this step, let us make this right locally. The Southeastern California Conference has led the Church in dealing with this issue, seriously considering the ordination of its women pastors over fifteen years ago. It stopped short of taking this action and recommending it to the Pacific Union Conference because of the encouragement of the General Conference president, who pledged to deal with it at the level of the world Church. After that failed, our conference eventually took the unprecedented action to create a single ordained/ commissioned ministerial credential for all its qualified pastors, male and female. Like the recent NAD action, this was and continues to be commendable, as far as it goes. However, it is not enough. This is an incomplete and inadequate solution.

Therefore, I call upon the Southeastern California Conference to renew its consideration of granting ordination to its current, qualified women pastors and this time to follow through on such consideration with a positive and decisive action to make it happen. To stimulate the conference to reengage in this consideration and to take this action, I call upon all members to write their conference officers . . . and strongly urge them to lead in this long overdue endeavor. I call upon my fellow members of this conference to sign petitions, to speak to their pastors, and to agitate in other ways to bring this matter to a successful conclusion. Finally, I further call upon the Pacific Union Conference to embrace and endorse such an action by our conference.

The story of Deborah, as a multi-role and unique leader within Israel, appears in the Hebrew Bible alongside the draconian and oppressive laws of the Pentateuch that limit the legal and social status of women. What a contrast! It should be so much easier for women to achieve full leadership within the Adventist Church today in a time of legal equality—at least in most developed countries—and extensive social equanimity. Yet, for some indefensible reasons we Adventists continue neither to learn from this biblical example nor to take advantage of the contemporary egalitarian social and political climate. Let us change that here and now.

(Old Testament Text for November 12, 2011, Liturgical Worship Service, La Sierra University Church)