Deborah and Barak Lead Their People to Freedom (Judges 4)

God saved the Israelites from the hands of their slaveowners and oppressors, the Egyptians, so they promised to worship only God. The Israelites wandered through the wilderness for forty years before they reached the Promised Land, Canaan.

However, when they reached Canaan, the Israelites began to marry the people they met there. This caused them to worship and serve the other people’s gods (the Baals and the Asherahs) and forget the promise they had made to God.

When the Israelites would do this, God would get angry and allow different nations and kings to have power over them. The Israelites, in their suffering, would cry out to God and beg Him to deliver them. God would have mercy on them and give power to one of them and make this person a Judge (or military leader) to help deliver the Israelites.

After the Judge appointed by God died and time passed, the Israelites would go back to worshipping other gods, and God would have to punish them again.

Deborah and Barak were two deliverers (or Judges) appointed by God to help free the Israelites from Jabin the King.

Deborah and Barak (Judges 4):

After Ehud (a Judge appointed by God) died, the Israelites began to worship other gods again. So God allowed Jabin, the King of Canaan have power over them. He oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, so they began to cry out to God for help.

Deborah was the wife of Lappidoth, a prophetess, and was leading the Israelites at this time. God told Deborah to tell Barak, the son of Abinoam, to take ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor (verse 6).

He (God) would deliver Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, and his men to be defeated by him (Barak). But Barak told Deborah he would only fight if she went with him. Deborah assured him that she would, however, since he was taking this route, God would not deliver Sisera to him, and the honour would not be his. Instead, Sisera, the commander, would be delivered to a woman (verse 9).

When Sisera heard Barak had gone up to Mount Tabor, he went after him with all his men. Then Deborah instructed Barak to go with his men to Mount Tabor. On Mount Tabor, Sisera and his men were losing the battle, so Sisera ran away and all his men were killed (Judges 4:16).

Sisera went to Jael’s tent because she was the wife of Heber the Kenite, and he believed there was an alliance between Jabin and the family of Heber. Jael welcomed him into her tent, gave him milk and a drink, then covered him with a blanket. When Sisera fell asleep, she killed him, and the glory was hers just as Deborah had prophesied.

At that moment, Barak came by looking for Sisera, so she went to meet him and brought him back to her tent to see that Sisera was dead. That day, Jabin, the King of the Canaanites, lost a lot of power, and over time, the Israelites were able to destroy the King.

Deborah’s faithfulness and courageous service to God’s people led her to be called “a mother in Israel” Judges 5:7. Deborah’s success was due to her faith in God. She served God by utilising her values and Spiritual gifts. Due to her faith, God called her, a woman, to lead His people to victory.