Judges in Israel

One of the books of the Old Testament is called the Book of Judges and is a history of fifteen people who were called judges in Israel. These judges were not at all like what we picture a judge to be. You and I hear the word judge and we think of someone in a black robe sitting at a bench listening to disputes or legal trials, determining who is right and who is wrong, and then giving out a punishment. But instead of sitting in judgment over the people, the Old Testament judges were more accurately people who brought about judgment by being vindicators of the people. They were special deliverers, sent by God to free the Israelites from oppression. They were champions.

One of these fifteen judges was the prophetess Deborah. Deborah, whose story is told in Judges 4-5, was the only one of the judges to be called a prophet and the only one that was a woman. The word Deborah means “bee” and anciently it was believed that, of all the animal kingdom, the bee ranked highest in intelligence. It has been said of Deborah that she “made honey but knew when and how to sting.”
Deborah lived when the Caananites oppressed Israel and as she says in the Psalm of Deborah, “I arose a mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7) to save Israel. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a mother is “A person, quality, institution, place, etc., that produces, protects, nurtures, or sustains people, ideas, etc.” We don’t know if Deborah had children or not, but she protected, nurtured, and sustained the house of Israel and was a mother.

In our modern world mothers are sometimes disparaged, but when we realize that a mother is not just someone who bears children, we realize that as women we have the responsibility to do all we can to protect the House of Israel against all that is evil. Like Deborah of old, we should nurture wherever we are and in whatever we do. We should promote the ways of righteousness and produce goodness in our daily endeavors. We are judges—champions—of Israel!

Mothers in Israel

One of the judges who reigned in Israel was a woman named Deborah. Besides being the judge she led the armies of Israel into a battle in which they succeeded in defeating their enemies. In the book of Judges chapter five we find Deborah’s song, a beautiful poem about her and the battle, but the line I like best is in verse seven when it says “I arose a mother in Israel.”

We are never told if Deborah had children or not. As a matter of fact some scholars debate whether she was married or not. In Judges 4:4 we are introduced to Deborah with these words, “And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at the time.” Since the words wife and woman in Hebrew are exactly the same and the word lapidoth means “shine or flame,” and is never again found in the Bible as a name, the phrase could have been translated as “a woman of flame” which could have been a metaphor for a sanctified or righteous or outstanding woman.

Which ever, it is interesting that while a judge and a general, Deborah identifies herself a mother in Israel, but what we see her mothering is not children—she mothers the house of Israel. I think there is a message in there for all women--that we are to mother (nurture and care for) God’s children whether we have children of our own or not. In God’s plan all righteous women are mothers. It is a title of respect and honor and as we reach out to nurture and care for others in whatever capacity we are in, we like Deborah, arise as mothers in Israel.