Introduction: Although the Bible consistently refers to the wives of
prominent men of the Old Testament, it does not focus on women in
leadership roles. This week we will study two leading women of the
Bible. Deborah of the Old Testament, and Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Let’s jump into our study!
- Deborah
- Read Judges 4:1-2. Why did the Israelites fall into the
hands of Jabin and Sisera? (Because they did not obey God.) - Is this a practical principle that applies to us
today? (We learned last week from our study of John
the Baptist and Stephen that the righteous sometimes
suffer and die for their faith. But, I believe this
principle in Judges still operates as a practical
principle today. The greater number suffer (here on
earth) and die for their lack of obedience to God.
God’s rules are for our benefit, they are not
arbitrary commands.) - Read Judges 4:3. Why does the Bible mention the Canaanites
had “900 iron chariots?” (Chariots and iron were a new level
of sophistication in military weapons. It was like the
advance of guns over bows and arrows. The idea of using a
horse (a large animal) to pull a fast wheeled vehicle made
of iron (thus not easily pierced or burned) containing at
least one soldier was frightening to foot soldiers. Can you
imagine being a foot soldier and for the first time seeing
horses with metal “wagons” speeding towards your position?
What if you weren’t acquainted with horses and thought they
might be large meat-eaters? What if your weapons were only
made of wood? Very scary.) - Evil doing got the people into trouble. What got them
back on the road to help? (Turning (crying) to God for
help.) - Read Judges 4:4-5. How do you explain that Deborah is
looked at in a positive light, yet she is leading Israel
during a time when it is doing evil? - Read Judges 4:6-7. The people ask God for help and the next
thing we read is that Deborah sends for Barak. What is
Deborah’s message from God to Barak? - What do you think about the number of men Deborah
specifies? - What significance is there that only two of the tribes
(Naphtali and Zebulun) are to be the source of these
10,000 troops? (If the enemy has about 1,000 chariots
this does not seem to be a very large number of men
for Barak. When you add to this the fact that they
could get 10,000 men from only two of the twelve
tribes, it seems logical that they could have gotten a
lot more men if all of the tribes had been involved.
This makes me conclude that Deborah was telling Barak
to use a relatively small number of troops.) - What other details of the battle does God reveal to
Barak through Deborah? (God tells where the battle
will take place, He tells the general strategy (I will
“lure” the enemy into this low (river) area) and give
you the victory.) - Why does God repeat that the famous general, Sisera,
will be leading the opposition troops, that he will
have not only troops but his chariots as well? (God is
saying that He knows the difficulty of the task. He
is also testing the faith of Barak when He puts the
problem in such stark terms.) - Does this message answer my prior question about why
we look at Deborah in a good light even though she is
leading a sinning Israel? (It shows that while she was
leading, the people turned to God and God gave her a
plan of action to relieve their suffering.) - Read Judges 4:8. Does Barak believe this is a message from
God? What does this say about his trust of women? - Is Barak a smart man? Or, is Barak a wimp? (The
argument for him being smart is that he tests the
honesty of the prophet by essentially saying that if
we go to battle and the Lord is not with us, you are
going to be killed too. The argument for him being a
wimp is that he thought they needed the presence of
the woman prophet to keep the troops’ morale and
courage high. The word of God was not sufficient for
him.) - Read Judges 4:9-10. Is Deborah unhappy with the way Barak is
obeying? (Yes. The problem is that God told Barak what to do
and he refused unless his conditions were met. How much
better just to obey God!) - How about you? Do you obey God, but place conditions
on your obedience? - Is this an important matter? Or, is whether we obey –
not how we obey – the only issue? - What do you think God’s attitude is towards our
conditional obedience? - Is there some sort of sexist “payback” to Deborah’s
warning that Sisera will fall to a woman? (Assuming
that Barak was worried about trusting Deborah, a
woman, this might be some sort of payback in kind.) - What do you think Barak believes will happen when
Deborah says “the Lord will hand Sisera over to a
woman?” (It would be logical to think Deborah will get
the credit for the win.) - Is this bad – to say that Barak will not get the
credit? I thought God wanted the honor and not
us? Is Deborah promoting vanity? - Read Judges 7:2. What is God saying to Gideon
about the credit for this upcoming battle with
the Midianites? (I think there are some strong
similarities to these two battles. God seems to
limit the number of His warriors in each case. In
Gideon’s battle God clearly says He wants the
people to understand that He gave them the
victory.) - Read Judges 4:11-13. What causes Sisera to bring his
chariots to the Mount Tabor region? (Elwell’s “Evangelical
Commentary on the Bible” explains that the Canaanites were
intermingled with the Israelites in their normal living. The
Canaanites generally controlled the valleys and the
Israelites the hills. When Sisera heard that 10,000
Israelites had assembled in an area that was accessible to
chariots, Elwell suggests this was the “lure” that brought
him forward with his chariots.) - Why do you think the Israelites controlled the hills?
(Chariots were not very good on hills!) - Read Judges 4:14-16. From where does Barak attack? (Verse
14 tells us that he “went down” Mount Tabor. The Israelites,
as usual, were in the hills. The chariots were (as expected)
were in the valley.) - Why would Sisera’s men abandon their chariots and
horses and run away on foot? (This text does not give
any details. However, Judges 5 is the song of victory
of Deborah and Barak. Judges 5:4&20-21 suggests that
it rained, the Kishon river overflowed its banks, and
this defeated the iron chariots.) - How complete was the victory? ( Judges 4:16 says that
“not a man was left” of the enemy.) - Read Judges 4:17-22. “‘Come into my house,’ said the spider
to the fly.” What do you think about the morality of what
Jael did to Sisera? - Read Judges 5:24-27. In the song of Deborah and Barak they
call Jael “most blessed of women.” Is that how you look at
this? (It looks like dishonesty and betrayal to me. However,
Sisera was a man of war who intended to kill Barak and his
soldiers. If Barak had just obeyed he might have killed
Sisera on the field of battle ( Judges 4:9). In the end I
guess it did not matter to Sisera how he died.) - Read Judges 5:31. What is the result of the righteous
leadership of Deborah? (The land had peace for 40 years. The
cries of the people to God had been answered.) - What do you conclude from this story?
- Mary
- Read Luke 1:8,11-13. Did the angel give Zechariah good news
or bad news? Did he want a son or not? (Verse 13 says,
“your prayer has been heard.” He had been praying for a
son!)
- Read Luke 1:14, 17-19. Put Zechariah’s words into today’s
language. (“How do I know you are not lying to me?”) - Was Gabriel insulted? (It sure sounds like it in verse
19. Gabriel seems to say, “Do you know who you are
talking to? And, where I got this message?” - Why would Zechariah doubt the answer to his prayers?
- Do we do that sometimes?
- Was this an understandable reaction for a priest? (No.
He had been praying for this. He is a priest, someone
who is supposed to have a closer relationship with
God. And, he had the example of Abraham and Sarah who
had a son late in life. Yet Zechariah doubted.) - Just a few months later Gabriel has a similar mission. Read
Luke 1:26-29. When verse 26 says “the sixth month,” what is
it talking about? (The sixth month of the pregnancy of
Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth.) - Mary was troubled by Gabriel’s words. Why? (It would
be unusual for an ordinary person, especially a woman
in those days, to expect to be called “highly
favored.”) - Would this greeting make Mary more or less likely
to believe the rest of Gabriel’s message? - Read Luke 1:30-33. Is this a credible message? How did it
compare in credibility with the message Gabriel gave to
Zechariah a few months before? (It had never happened in the
history of the world!) - Read Luke 1:34. Did Mary doubt the words of Gabriel? (No.
She simply asked “how will this work?” That seems like a
reasonable question given the nature of the message.) - Read Luke 1:35-38. What is Mary’s response to this
incredible message? (Go ahead, God.) - What was the downside to having God do as Gabriel said
He would? (Joseph might refuse to marry her. Her
reputation would be ruined. There was even the danger
of stoning (see John 8:4-5).) - How would you compare Mary’s response to that of the
priest Zachariah? - Who is the one who reasonably could have said to
Gabriel, “How do I know you aren’t lying to me?”
(Zachariah was given a completely plausible
message that fit into his life (he was married)
and was in answer to his prayer. Mary was given a
completely implausible (up to then) story, that
could have serious negative consequences for her
life, and she said, “OK, Lord.”) - Does this give us an insight into why God chose
Mary to be the mother of Jesus? - Friend, are you willing to be like Mary? To be willing to
work with God’s program no matter how much it costs or is
contrary to your expectations? Are you, like Deborah,
willing to trust God and go into battle? These two women
show the courage that should come from our faith! - Next Week: Tiny Sins, Huge Results
- Read text (end of 5) on peace for 40 years.
