Week 17 Day 1 Working Woman

Judges 4 and 5

I am really not blowing off Bible Study. I was just getting back into the swing of things with school. Pretty much everything in life was at a standstill for a few days.

I do know that I want to be more consistent this year, reading the Word. I want that to be a first priority in my life, not a last. And that may mean (probably means) getting up much earlier than I usually do. I won't lie, that is a challenge for me. I like sleeping.

Anyway, on to today's passage.

Once again, those Israelites had fallen away from God.

They didn't even notice until it really started to hurt them.

Then once again, they called out to God.

And once again, He heard their cries. He answered them.

His answer?

Deborah.

Yes, a woman.

It is easy to read the Bible and think, "Were women second class? Did God think less of them?"

I will admit, I have had those doubts, those fears before.

And there were a lot of men mentioned in the Bible.

But there are women too.

And these women had BIG jobs.

Does the name Mary come to mind?

Anyway, Deborah. She was chosen to be the next judge.

By the way, she was married.

So she wasn't just a woman. She was a working woman.

I don't know if she had kids or not.

At the same time, though, I feel like this gives me a little validation for being a working woman.

As you can probably tell, I have felt criticism for that in the past.

Anyway, Deborah was a judge.

And she called out to God. And God heard. He told her to have Barak gather men to go up against Sisera, the bad guy of the story.

Know what Barak said?

"I will go if you will go..."

And Deborah did.

That says a lot to me about her faith. She had to have truly believed what God had told her. Otherwise she would have hung back and just told the men to fight the battles.

But wait, Deborah is not the ONLY woman listed here.

Jael.

Not a household, common name.

But she is mentioned too.

She stopped Sisera in his tracks in a sense.

Okay, I can't talk much about it. It kind of makes me sick to think about.

But we will say she was instrumental in stopping Sisera's reign.

And once again, peace in the land.

For 40 years anyway...

Tomorrow's reading:
Judges 6 and 7