'Village life in Israel ceased, ceased until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel'
(Judges 5:7)
Here is the triumphant
ballad of Deborah, Israel’s Iron Lady, 1,200 BC. She’d bossed King Barak into
line with his troops; the Canaanites were smashed – their General Sisera with a
tent-peg through his head. Ah, it’s not a story for the squeamish – though I
was told it when I was five.
If the
politically-correct in our hothouse civilisation can’t cope with the Bible’s
earthy moments, those flamboyant women of history can educate them – the German
prophetess Velleda! The British Queen Boudicca! The French peasant girl Joan of
Arc! The Salvation Army evangelist Kate Booth, who signed her letters, “Yours
ever in blood and fire…!”
Stage one – Aspiration. The oppressed Israelites cried out for
relief from the Canaanites (4:3). Nothing can happen until there is such a
desire; it was Deborah’s arrival that gave them hope.
Stage two – Inspiration. Beliefs
are always more powerful than tanks. Enter Deborah – a rude instrument for a
rude age. She gets King Barak on his mobile: “Come on; mobilise the troops;
leave the rest to me!” Barak responds with a piteous bleat (4. 8) “Oh, very
well; but I’ll only go if you go!”
Stage three – Perspiration. Yes,
someone had to get up and do
something! The River Kishon and the muddy plain of Megiddo were the undoing of
the Canaanites’ 900 chariots of iron - and a woman called Jael was the undoing
of General Sisera. Peace held for the next forty years.
Ultimately it’s kill or
cure, life or death, heaven or hell. Deborah’s prayer-ballad says it all – in
blood and fire.
