Women with a Story to Tell and a Song to Sing

 Read Judges Chapter 5. It is a psalm, that is, a song. The psalms were written to be sung or chanted back and forth by the worship leader and the congregation. This is a Hebrew custom, so there are songs/psalms scattered throughout the Bible. Moses sang a psalm (Exodus 15: 1-18), and his sister Miriam took up the tambourine and led the women in a dance around the camp singing the refrain: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea!” (Exodus 15: 20-22). 

At the end of the Bible, nine times John tells us that he heard singing in heaven; from Revelation 4: 8, “ “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come” to Revelation 5:12, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

 So, it is not unusual to read here that Deborah composed a song about God’s marvelous victory. In fact, the text presents the song as a duet: “Then Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day." This makes sense because it was the willingness of Barak, the war leader, to cooperate with the commands of Deborah, the judge and prophetess, that brought the northern tribes to the battlefield. However, the main theme of their song is not to portray themselves as the victors; they give the glory to God, and that is what makes this song worthy of having its own chapter in the Bible.  

 There are valuable lessons here. Deborah responded to God’s call and command. Barak responded to the leadership of Deborah trusting that God had spoken through her. The national guard of Zebulun and Naphtali acted on the promise that God had called them to battle the outsiders and that God would give them victory. No one in this quickly arranged offensive tried to usurp control from Deborah or Barak, and no one came out of it bragging, “I did it! I got this victory! Look at me!” Can the church work like that? Or must we put up with petty tyrants and obnoxious narcissists? 

 The song begins with acknowledgement of the Lord’s hand in this, ending with a shout: “Bless the LORD!” God’s will is expressed when leaders lead and troops volunteer, which is the meaning of the first lines. This is Hebrew poetry marked by parallel lines saying nearly the same thing. The leaders let their hair down (perhaps Jabin had restrained the leaders) and the troops came at the ready. 

 The second stanza shows obedience to the mission of God which is the reason Israel exists at all. God instructs them to spread the word about how Yahweh shows steadfast love to all who follow him.

 “Hear O kings; 

Give ear O princes; 

 To the LORD I will sing,

I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

 Note the beauty of the parallelism in this composition: line 2 echoes line 1 and line 4 echoes line 3. Some have suggested that Deborah sang the first line of each couplet and Barak answered with the second line. Call and response is common in Hebrew psalms.  

 So far the message is this: ‘Bless the LORD for the victory, now tell the world about how great Yahweh is’. It is the same in our lives. When God rescues us from our addictions, either drugs or alcohol, or everyday addictions like gossiping, bragging, and condemning others, when we are rescued, then we praise God and tell others how good God is. 

 The third couplet, verses 4 and 5, portrays the Lord as a warrior marching up from the south (Seir, Edom), causing the earth to tremble and the heavens to shake with a thunderstorm. This may be a veiled reference throwing shade on the gods of the Canaanites, particularly Ba’al who was thought to live in the north on Mt. Zaphon and to be the ruler of thunderstorms (see Craig Keener and John Walton, editors of The NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, 2019, page 420). God is; Ba’al isn’t!

 There is a curious title for God in this couplet: “the One of Sinai” which is parallel with “the God of Israel.” Again, poetic license permits looking at things from a different point of view. This title is used in only one other place, in Psalm 68 which seems to echo Deborah’s song (and is much later in composition). And, so, Deborah’s creative flair reinforces the first line of the Shema, the daily prayer still in use today: “Hear, O Israel, Adonai (YHWH) is our God, Adonai (YHWH) is one.”

 Give the glory to God, because Israel was helpless in their sin. Deborah sings, “When new gods were chosen, then was war at the gates.” And the next line tells of the weakness of the tribes: “Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?” The answer is ‘No’. The Israelites were without means of defense, and this makes the commanders’ willingness to lead the resistance an act of renewed faith in Yahweh.   

 The song laments that not all the tribes of Israel came to the aid of Zebulun and Naphtali, but that does not concern us here. The song reveals that, when Sisera’s chariots were lined up and ready, God made the first move and it was cosmic; that is, “The stars fought from heaven.” Then the rain began to fall, the wadi Kishon quickly filled, and the were stuck in the mud flats, and some were washed away by the flash flood. Thus did Deborah give God the glory for the victory. Deborah and Barak could only bask in the glow of God’s glory.

 Finally, the song recognizes the part Jael played: “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed.” Deborah imagines the deed in verse, Sisera “fell dead.”

  In a further flight of fancy, Deborah imagines Sisera’s mother waiting and watching for his return. He will never come back. Deborah concludes with praise for the God of Israel: “So perish all your enemies, O LORD! But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.”

 Perhaps it was Barak who added this line in the middle of the song: “...because you arose, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.” The text says that Israel had peace for 40 years after God’s great victory. Perhaps neither Deborah nor Jael, mothers both, had to endure the pain of seeing their sons march away to war. Such is the blessing of an activist mother who trusts God and brings peace.