Bible Women: Deborah, the Palm Tree Prophetess and Poetess

And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.  And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. Jdg 4:4-5 

Names Have a History

It is very hard to sit under a palm tree all day long and not be a poet. A palm tree shade is for lovers, poets, prophets – and, revolutionaries.

I love Bible names. Do you?

Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Lear and Rachel. And now Deborah. Beautiful names. Like a palm tree their scent hangs in the air, calling out memories.

What is your daughter’s (or granddaughter’s) name?

I have seen grandmothers try (in broad daylight) to pronounce their granddaughters’ names. And it is a sad event to see them struggle to ‘eat’ them without teeth.

‘What’s in a name?’ scoffed Juliet.

I think everything.

A Christian name comes with territory as familiar as the Bible. It is a name embedded in a story as old as mankind, and I don’t think any grandmother would stammer at something like that.

Names have a history. Do you know yours?

Deborah means ‘bee’.

A Brief background to Deborah’s Story

God was at work (as he still is) to establish a distinctly peculiar people to himself, using the Israel people for our example.

We, the believers, are the children of Abraham by faith, and heirs with Christ, of the promises God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was a covenant relationship. And it is still a covenant relationship today.

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. Deu 7:6  

Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Deu 9:5  

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1Pe 2:9  

The pendulum of belief kept swinging among the children of Israel, from belief to unbelief, from anger of God, to their cry for help, and to their deliverance. But they always went back again to apostasy. ‘In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes’ (Jdg 17:6).  

And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Jdg 2:1-2 

And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Jdg 2:14  

Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so. 

And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. 

And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. Jdg 2:16-19 

And this is where and how the judge and prophetess Deborah comes in. 

Israel faces Sisera and 900 Chariots of Iron

The children of Israel cried to God. In his anger God had ‘sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan’ who oppressed them for twenty years. The king rained terror on them, using his captain Sisera, with his ‘nine hundred chariots of iron’.

But God heard them, and he spoke. And Deborah acted. She called Barak to the war against Sisera at river Kishon, but Barak, with ten thousand only men, halted. He said he could only go with Deborah beside him. And Deborah agreed, but she warned him that his glory would go to a woman (not Deborah). But Barak didn’t mind. ‘And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.’

The Deliverance and the Song of Deborah

‘Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day…’

So how many ‘chariots of iron’ are ranged against you today? Have you tried God?

If you believe in him please do. He delivers. And then we break into a song like Deborah. God is able to give one even in the night. Don’t fear. Just believe.

It almost looks natural that a prophet should transform into a poet. It happened with David, it happened with Moses, and it happened with Solomon too, and many others. And so the beauty of Deborah stays. She does not make herself so but God does. She glorifies his name, and in turn, we are lifted by her obedience and trust. She comforts, she encourages, she adjures, she sings and she laughs though she stings like a bee. That’s Deborah. It is a pleasant name, isn’t it?