Day 20 - The Faithful Judge, Deborah

Read: Judges 4:1-16

Reflect: Judges is a book about… you guessed it… the judges of Israel. Why did Israel need judges? Well throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites were in a cycle of God helping them, then they would do well for a bit, then they would fall away from God and worship idols such as Baal. At this point in history, God decides to help the Israelites by appointing judges to help lead them into the right path. Whenever they did not follow the judges, God allowed their enemies to defeat them in battle. In Judges 3, we see three different judges try to help the nations but spoiler alert… the cycle continues. In Judges 4 we are introduced to Deborah, Israel’s fourth and only female judge. Deborah was a prophet (or someone with the gift of prophecy), song writer, mediator in conflict, but most of all, she was faithful to the Lord. One day God told her to summon one of her associates named Barak and ask him to lead an army to battle Sisera, who was the commander of the Canaanite Army. God told Deborah that if Barak does this then he will give the Israelites victory. Deborah went with Barak, showing that she trusted God because women were not the ones who usually went to battle in these times. Deborah knew that God would use her to defeat Sisera’s army. Not a single one of Sisera’s warriors were left alive after Deborah and Barak led their army to victory. Sisera also ended up being killed later on in the chapter by Barak, who was sent to do the job by Deborah because she trusted God’s plan for her people. Deborah’s faithfulness shows us that if we trust in the Lord, he will defeat our toughest enemies.

Respond: What is your enemy that you need to trust God to defeat? How can you do better at trusting God as Deborah did? Take time to pray about trusting God’s way of defeating your enemies.