| � Why did God raise up D'vorah as a judge?
I'm not sure of the exact intent of your question; meaning, "Why
Deborah, as opposed to anyone else?", or "Why a woman?"?
Assuming the first is unanswerable (i.e., Why Othniel? Why Ehud?
Why Shamgar?), I'm interested in the second.
The purpose of the judges was to keep Israel "on the straight and
narrow", so to speak. They continued in their tendency to idol
worship, often falling back on Baal and the other pagan gods, in direct
repudiation of the first commandment give to Moses on Sinai.
("Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge
and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge
lived... But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more
corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving
and worshiping them." Judges 2:18,19)
Deborah was a prophetess (Judges 4:4), and a leader of the people.
I don't know of any particular criteria that a judge be a man. All
through Jewish history, there have been outstanding examples of female
leadership, character, and dedication -- including Esther, who saved
her people before King Xerxes I; Ruth, who became the great-grandmother
of King David; Hannah, who dedicated her long-awaited son Samuel to a
priesthood that outshines perhaps all others with the possible
exception of Aaron's; Miriam, who supported her brothers and helped
lead her people out of exile; and on, and on.
In fact, my own understanding of the situation you refer to is
precisely that: that God *had* appointed Deborah as judge, and when
Barak hesitated before her authority, the "honor" that he might have
received was passed on to a woman, Jael, as if to say "Hey, buddy;
I can use women, too, you know!"
F
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