IN the book of Judges we have the story of Israel’s repeated failures and God’s marvelous intervention in grace, giving leader after leader to deliver His people from the deserved consequences of their own sins, when they turned to Him in repentance. He loved them too well to allow them to prosper in their rebellion against His word, but, on the other hand, He was ever ready to heed their cry when they humbled themselves before Him.
Ordinarily, it was some man of peculiar strength or ability who came to the front in the day of need and distress. But in chapters 4 and 5 we get the record of a woman-judge, Deborah, raised up in sovereign grace to do more than a man’s part in giving victory to the oppressed people of God.
When we consider the times in which she lived, the story of this devoted and God-fearing woman seems all the more remarkable. Hers was a peculiar spiritual energy, coupled with sound common sense, which together made her the outstanding leader of her day. And through all her varied experiences she remained a modest and self-effacing woman, a wife and mother in Israel, exercising her divinely-given prerogatives in a manner at once wise and blameless. No trace of vanity, no arrogance or imperiousness are manifested in her behavior.
“‘Lord, help me,’—so we pray,
‘Help me my work to do;
I am so ignorant and weak;
Make me more wise and true.’”
“‘Lord, help me do Thy work.’
We pray when wiser grown,
When on the upward way
Our feet have farther gone.”
“‘Lord, do Thy work through me.’
So when all self we lose;
His doing and His work, and we
The tools His hand can use.”