When the Men Won't Lead Text: Judges 4:4-10
Introduction: A Leadership Vacuum
The book of Judges is a grim and bloody catalog of Israel's covenant infidelity. It is a repeating, downward spiral: sin, oppression, crying out to God, deliverance, and then, after a brief season of peace, back to sin again, usually worse than before. The refrain of the book is that "in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). This is a book about what happens when a nation is unmoored from its covenant head, both in heaven and on earth. And what happens is chaos, confusion, and cowardice.
Our text today drops us right into the middle of one of these cycles. Israel has once again done evil in the sight of the Lord, and for twenty years they have been harshly oppressed by Jabin, king of Canaan, and his formidable general, Sisera, who had nine hundred chariots of iron. This was the ancient equivalent of an armored tank division. Israel was disarmed, demoralized, and hiding in the hills. The situation was bleak.
And it is in this context of national apostasy and masculine abdication that God raises up a most unusual instrument of deliverance. He raises up a woman. Now, our egalitarian age wants to seize upon this text as a banner for their cause, to flatten all distinctions and prove that women can and should do anything a man can do. But this is to read the text with modern, progressive lenses, and in so doing, to miss the point entirely. The story of Deborah is not a celebration of feminist strength; it is a divine rebuke of masculine weakness. God is shaming the men of Israel into action. He is using an extraordinary circumstance to highlight an ordinary failure. When the men God has appointed to lead refuse to do so, God will get His work done by other means, and He will often do it in a way that hangs a sign on the men that says, "Shame."
This passage is not a prescription for how the church should be ordered. It is a description of how God works when the men have failed to order themselves according to His Word. It is a story about a faithful woman, a faltering man, and a sovereign God who accomplishes His purposes despite, and even through, our weaknesses.
The Text
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment. Then she sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun? And I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand.’ ” Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. Then Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and 10,000 men went up with him; Deborah also went up with him.
(Judges 4:4-10 LSB)
A Mother in Israel (v. 4-5)
We begin with the introduction of our central character:
"Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment." (Judges 4:4-5)
The first thing we are told about Deborah is that she is a prophetess. This is a legitimate, God-ordained office. We see other prophetesses in Scripture, like Miriam and Huldah. God can and does speak through women. This is not the issue. The issue is authority. A prophet, male or female, has no authority in himself; his authority is entirely derived from the message he carries from God. He is a mailman. Deborah's authority here is charismatic, not institutional. She is not a priest or a king.
Notice also that the Holy Spirit is careful to identify her by her relation to a man: she is "the wife of Lappidoth." This is not an incidental detail. It grounds her in the created order. Her extraordinary calling did not negate her ordinary, God-given station as a wife. She is not a rebellious, self-appointed career woman. She is a wife whom God has given an extraordinary task in an extraordinary time. Her very identity is presented within the covenant of marriage, which is foundational.
She was "judging Israel." This does not mean she was a formal ruler in the same way as the male judges who followed, like Gideon or Samson, who were primarily military deliverers. The text says the people "came up to her for judgment." She was a respected arbiter, a sage, settling disputes and speaking God's wisdom into the life of the nation from under her palm tree. Her leadership was one of wisdom and prophetic insight, not military command. The fact that the men of Israel were coming to a woman to settle their affairs is the first sign that something is amiss. Where were the elders? Where were the heads of the tribes? Their absence creates the vacuum that Deborah is called to fill.
The Call to a Reluctant Commander (v. 6-7)
Deborah, acting as God's mouthpiece, now issues the call to battle. She does not take up the sword herself; she calls the man God has appointed to do so.
"Then she sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun? And I will draw out to you Sisera... and I will give him into your hand.’ ”" (Judges 4:6-7 LSB)
Notice the structure here. Deborah sends and summons Barak. She is the messenger, delivering the command. But the command itself is for Barak to take up his masculine duty. "Go and march... take with you 10,000 men." This is a man's job. Leading armies into battle is the responsibility of men. Deborah is not trying to be a man. She is trying to get a man to be a man.
Her message to Barak is a direct command from Yahweh. This is not her personal strategic plan. She frames it as a question: "Has not Yahweh... commanded?" This is a rhetorical device, a sharp poke. It implies that Barak already knew this. God had already spoken, but Barak had done nothing. He was sitting on his hands in Kedesh while Israel suffered. So God sends a woman to shame him into obedience.
The command comes with a glorious promise. God says, "I will draw out... Sisera... and I will give him into your hand." God is sovereign over the battlefield. He is the master strategist. He doesn't just promise Barak success; He promises to arrange the entire battle. He will lure the enemy into the perfect position for defeat. All Barak has to do is show up and obey. This is a test of faith. Does Barak believe the promise of God more than he fears the chariots of Sisera?
A Condition of Cowardice (v. 8)
Barak's response is the pivot point of this story. It is a sad and revealing reply.
"Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”" (Judges 4:8 LSB)
This is not, as some have suggested, a mark of Barak's respect for Deborah. This is a mark of his fear. His faith is not in the promise of God, but in the presence of the prophetess. He is treating Deborah like a good luck charm. He needs a security blanket. God had promised, "I will be with you," but Barak says, "That's not enough. I need you, Deborah, to be with me." He is looking for courage in a human vessel instead of in the unchanging Word of the Almighty.
He is abdicating his role as the leader and protector. He is essentially saying to a woman, "You go first. I will only fight if you stand in front of me." This is a profound reversal of the created order. The man is supposed to be the one to go into danger on behalf of the woman, to lay down his life for her. Barak wants her to come into danger on his behalf. This is the heart of the problem in Israel. The men had become weak, timid, and unwilling to take the risks that God called them to. And when men become weak, the whole nation suffers.
The Consequence of Cowardice (v. 9-10)
Deborah agrees to his condition, but she pronounces the consequence of his failure. His abdication will result in a loss of honor.
"So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh." (Judges 4:9 LSB)
Deborah's response is gracious but firm. "I will surely go." She accommodates his weakness in order to see God's will accomplished. But there is a cost. "Nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours." In the ancient world, honor and shame were the currency of public life. For a warrior, the greatest honor was to defeat the enemy commander in battle. Deborah tells Barak that because of his fear, this honor will be stripped from him. God will orchestrate the victory, but the final, glorious blow will not be struck by Barak. God will give the victory to a woman.
This is a divine judgment tailored perfectly to the sin. Barak refused to act like a man, so God will give the man's glory to a woman. This is not to glorify the woman, but to shame the man. God is holding up a mirror to Barak and to all of Israel. He is saying, "This is what you have become. Your men are so weak that I have to use women to do their jobs." The irony, of course, is that the woman who ultimately gets the honor is not Deborah, as Barak might have assumed, but another woman entirely, Jael. God's purposes are often surprising.
And so, the army is mustered:
"Then Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and 10,000 men went up with him; Deborah also went up with him." (Judges 4:10 LSB)
To his credit, Barak does obey. His faith is weak, but it is not entirely absent. He is listed in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. But his faith is a faltering, stumbling faith. He gets the job done, but not in a way that brings him the full honor. He calls the tribes, and the men follow. And true to her word, "Deborah also went up with him." The prophetess is on the battlefield because the general was afraid to go alone.
Conclusion: Where Are the Baraks?
This story is a potent word for our own time. We live in an age that is awash in abdication. Our culture actively attacks and undermines biblical masculinity, and the church has often been too cowardly to push back. We have raised generations of men who are soft, passive, and risk-averse. We have Baraks everywhere, men who know what God has commanded but who are waiting for a woman to give them permission, or to go with them, or to do it for them.
And so, God raises up Deborahs. He raises up strong, godly women to fill the vacuum. And we should thank God for them. We should thank God for the women who hold families together when the men have checked out, for the women who disciple their children when the fathers are spiritually absent, for the women who organize and serve and labor in the church because the men are too busy with their hobbies.
But we must not mistake this for God's ideal. It is an emergency measure. It is a sign of sickness. The lesson of this text is not "Yay, women can be generals!" The lesson is, "Men, where are you?" God's desire is not for women to lead the charge. His desire is for men to have the courage of their convictions, to trust the promises of God, and to lead their families, their churches, and their communities with sacrificial, loving, steel-in-the-spine headship.
The good news is that God is gracious to faltering men. He used Barak. He can use you. The call is to repent of our fear, our passivity, our abdication. It is to look not to a prophetess for courage, but to the Captain of our Salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not falter. He did not ask anyone to go with Him to the cross. He went alone, and there He crushed the head of our great enemy. He won the ultimate victory and secured all the honor for Himself. And now He calls us, as men, to follow Him. To take up our cross, to fight the good fight, and to lead in His strength, for His glory, and for the good of those He has entrusted to our care.