A sermon based upon Judges 4: 1-24
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, Pastor
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Disciple Series # 8 of 17, October 14,
2012
Eleven people were being recused from a
flood. They were all hanging on a rope
under a helicopter, 10 men and one woman. The rope was not strong enough to carry them
all, so they decided that one had to leave, because otherwise they were all
going to fall. They weren’t able to name that person, until the woman gave a
very touching speech. She said that she
would voluntarily let go of the rope, because, as a woman, she was used to
giving up everything for her husband and kids, or for men in general, and was
used to always making sacrifices with little in return. As soon as she finished
her speech, all the men started clapping ....
The woman was still holding on.
“A brave dame,” according to Susan
Issacs’ book, Brave Dames and Wimpettes,
“is a dignified, three-dimensional hero who may care about men, home and hearth,
but also cares---and acts passionately about something in the world
beyond.” Open your Bible at random and
you will notice something striking: Female characters abound. And it’s not
simply a lot of women, it’s a lot of strong
women. These women of the Bible are the
antithesis of what we might expect from a patriarchal society. They are not passive, timid, and submissive,
but they are active, bold, fearless, assertive and brave. They are also not
what we would expect in Near Eastern culture, where women generally are not
known to play leading roles.
But look how different the Bible
is. In the Bible, the pattern of strong
women begins with the first female character named Eve, who is much more active
than her male counterpart. In Genesis 3,
we read that Eve is one who “said,”
“saw,” “took,” “ate” and “gave” (Genesis 3:2-6) — whereas Adam is the subject
of only one verb: “he ate.” (Genesis 3:6, As
quoted from Gary A. Rendsburg in, “Unlikely heroes: Women as
Israel,” Bible Review, bib-arch.org).
When we move over to the story of
Abraham, it is Abraham who does a lot lying to save his own neck and Sarai who takes
all the risks has eventually has Abraham listening to “voice” of his wife (Gen 16.2) for further instructions. Soon thereafter, God changes her name to Sarah,
because she has proven to be a vital partner in both the blessing and the
promise (17:15). In the next generation it is the wife of
Isaac, named Rebekah who is the first woman to hear God speak directly to
her. God tells her the plan (Gen. 25.23)
and she takes the initiative to make sure it works out (Gen. 27.8) when her
husband has chosen the wrong son (Gen. 27.4).
Finally, when we move over to Moses, it is women who save him when he is
a baby, and it is wife who stands up to God and saves him again by taking
charge to circumcise their son (Ex. 4: 24ff). Besides this it is Moses and Aaron’s sister
Miriam who was the first prophet to give the benediction of freedom on the
other side of Egypt. The Bible’s women
were anything thing but wimpettes, they were brave, involved partners of faith.
In today’s text we come to another
moment is Israel’s story of growth and faith.
Here again, when we least expect it, we find one of the very first
leaders in Israel’s history to be a strong, brave, and determined woman. Her name, Deborah, in Hebrew even means
something like a busy “bee” or might it have even implied “a woman with a sting?” However you size her up, Deborah was rare
woman in the ancient Hebrew culture. She
was a strong, able and successful leader of God’s people even before there was
a Gideon or a Samson. In fact, the text itself
appears to claim that she might seem stronger than either of them because she
never had to “put out a fleece” nor did she “lose her strength” during any of her
rule of over 40 years. She also had a
“hit” record, the first one since Moses.
Her song of victory is the first platinum of all great military
victories.
So what made Deborah such a strong, able
leader? What are the qualities of leadership
found in her that we need in leaders today, both men and women?
NAVIGATING
FROM A MORAL COMPASS
The story of Deborah begins in tough, difficult,
immoral times. Our text opens with the
description that this was a time when “Israel
did what was evil” (4.1). Thus, here
we already get an angle on what makes great leaders. Great leaders are able to rise above the
status quo, especially when times are hard and days are evil. As the saying goes, “when times are tough, the tough get going”.
More than clichés, however, Deborah was
a real wife and homemaker who became part of God’s answer to the cry of many people. The book of Judges reveals cycles of wrong
choices, great difficulty, overwhelming stress and exhausting anxiety. We read how the people would fall into sin. God would then allow their enemies to take
over their territories as punishment. Then,
after a period of sustained pain that would bring the people to their knees,
God would finally hear the cry of the people and lift up Judges to deliver them. Deborah was one of the very first Judges God raised
up to rescue God’s people. Her story
opens with the most graphic image of an enemy Canaanite general named Sisera, continually
coming into Israel with “900 iron
chariots” to do battle and keep them in subjection. Who would have thought that God would raise up
a woman to face such an enemy army head on?
But this is how the text begins, saying “At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging
Israel” (Judges 4.4).
Her story of leadership begins with a
picture of how she had been leading. “She used to sit under the palm…and the
Israelites came up to her for judgment” (4.5). Now, however, her approach is about to
change. Our text tells us how she moved
from being a maintenance leader, doing the ordinary things a leader does, to
taking charge to accomplish something extra-ordinary. The
real story starts when she “sent and
summoned Barak” (4.6), Israel’s general, to take a whole new approach. Here already, we can already look into the
moral foundation and courage of a great leader. The true nature of leadership is not to give
up or give in, but face up, stand up and be strong. Great leaders do not go down winning and
wimping, but they stand up, face reality and prepare to take on the struggle or
to do battle. They are the kind of leaders,
whether male or female, who don’t give in nor give up until the call is
answered and job is accomplished. They
have a keen moral sense of what is right and what is wrong. Because they carry within them an internal moral
compass that already guides them in the mundane, small, and ordinary challenges
of life, they are most prepared to lead from that same moral core when they
face the extraordinary, unexpected or great moments.
One of the most powerful depictions of a
“strong woman” is Sally Fields in the movie made back in the 80’s entitled, “Not Without My Daughter”. This was a story of an American woman who
married an Arab man, who took her to live with his family in Iran and then begin
to force her to conform to his culture and lose all her freedom without any
consideration of her at all. But this
woman would not give into the abuse and exploitation, so instead of submitting
to a forced-life of personal terror, and she kidnapped her own daughter and went
through “hell and high-water” to make her way to the safety, and eventually
return home. She was a woman who knew
what was right and what was wrong, and this inner moral sense would guide her
so that nothing would deter her, no matter how bad things became. That’s leadership---the kind of leadership that
would enable a woman to speak up, stand up, and do what is right, even in a
man’s world.
In this world that still loses its moral
compass and sense of direction, we need leaders who can tap into the moral
center of their lives and assume more leadership. If we are going to be church in a world that
has lost its moral bearings, we have to do work harder than ever to come to a positive
consensus on what we believe, what we share, what we know is true, and what we
believe must be done to make a difference in this world. We must first life out our values in the
small matters of life, before we can stand up to the bigger issues. Developing and affirming our moral core is more
important than any other trait for leaders today. A leader’s honesty, sincerity, and integrity for
doing what is right is a leaders most foundational asset. This does not have to mean that a leader is
perfect. Leaders may not always get it
right, and they may fall down at times, but when a leader stands up, they must
know, and others must know they are doing their best to follow and live the
truth as they can see it in that moment.
Like Deborah, great leaders always lead from their sense of what is
right. The image of Deborah is most
powerful here. You can “summon” your
general to stand up and do the right thing, until you are already doing the
right thing while you “sit” under the palm tree.
LISTENING
WITH THE EARS AND HEART
Another great trait of leadership of
Deborah was how she spoke with authority. “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you… (4.6a). This is where the power commands begin, but
they didn’t start there. Deborah’s
words of command were not spoken to be heard, to impress, or to see what she
could accomplish. No, Deborah spoke with
great authority because she also had a quiet, obedient heart. Deborah leads with authority because she was
already listening to voice of God in her own heart. In
this text, we are not most impressed that Deborah is speaking, but it is God who
is speaking through this woman who listens before she commands.
Listening is another trait of a great leadership. Before great leaders give commands, orders,
or instructions, they have done their homework, they have taken time to study, to
meditate, to pray, even to consider other options, and then and only then, they
begin to call for action to do what must be done. In this way, great leaders don’t just lead
from the head, they lead from the heart.
This is exactly how our text portrays Deborah. She does not say, “I Deborah command you”,
but she says, “The LORD, the God of
Israel commands you…” (4.6). Before
she approached her general Barak with any kind of call to action, she had taken
time to listen to God’s voice. She had
searched for the answer from within her heart before she uttered any word. Like Joan of Arc, she heard the voice from above
before she took any action down below.
Until that voice was clear, confirmed and unmistakable in her mind and
heart, and she made no move.
I realize that today, in our modern
world, to claim to have a clear “command” from God could get you into the psych
ward at Baptist hospital. I also know
that we don’t want our political leaders and especially not our military
leaders, asserting that God has told them who to kill and how to do it. One of the most troubling aspects of 911 was
that it claimed to kill innocent people for “religious” reasons. In our world, if any political or religious
leader asserts commands in religious terms as Deborah did, we would and should
be more than a little suspicious. We all
know how dangerous and ridiculous it sounds when a middle-eastern leader
approves and even calls for protests against America in the name of their own political
and religious viewpoints?
So how do we grasp Deborah’s certainty
of heart as a leader? We can say that
she listened. She didn’t only listen to
the voice of her God from within her own heart, but she listened the God who
spoke through the people, who spoke in to real world, in real life situations,
and to the common sense of justice what was right and wrong. The claims of any special knowledge from God
should be suspect, but claims to listen to most ultimate concerns for justice,
righteousness, mercy and life is God’s greatest gift and his voice main plain
through compassionate Word of Jesus and through the most reasonable, rational
humans words we know. Today, we don’t
want a leader asserting themselves in the name of their own country, with a nationalism
like Hitler’s, nor do we want a leader asserting the domination pledges of
their own religion, like a Khomeini, but we still want people to listen to the
voice of God from within that leads them beyond their own feelings, their own
personal or political agendas, or their own cultural biases. If there is any room for “God-language” in
our personal, public and political speech, it must be the God big enough to
love all of us, or he can’t be the true God of any of us. When leaders lead from the heart, they hear
the voice of the God that must be that big.
In the same way, we don’t want a leader
who leadsFor a leader, good listening skills are even more important than good
speaking skills. People don’t follow a
leader who shoots from the hip, acts irrationally, does not hear other opinions,
has not considered other options, or has not listened for the “word” of truth
from within. Leaders have done their
“homework” and already have their “heart” in what they are doing. Because they have first listened and heard,
makes people want to follow their lead. Great
leaders “listen” and lead from the heart.
DECISIVE
AT THE RIGHT MOMENT
Along with “heart” and a “moral compass”
comes the ability to be decisive and convincing. The difference between skill and success
often comes in how a leader approaches an issue or problem, not whether or not
they have all the answers in that moment.
When Deborah knew the time had come to move, act and respond to the
challenge, she sounded the command loud and clear. There was no uncertain trumpet in the sound
of her voice. This created the
atmosphere of seriousness and urgency which motivated others to follow.
Recently, Jane Pauley interviewed
Michael Allen, who after many years of golf finally won the Senior Tour Golf Tournament. After many years of underachieving, and even
backing away from golf for several years, with the support of friends and
family, Allen finally got his game back and accomplished more than ever before.
Talking about his decision to get
back into the game, his wife advised him that if he was going to try once more,
he needed to do something radically different.
He decided to consult a sport psychologist, who gave him one word of
advice that he believes has made all the difference. Since golf is as much a mental game as any
other sport, the psychologist told him that it would be far better for him to
be decisive than to always be right.
His decision to be deliberate has given him the edge he needed.
Decisiveness, when the time is right, is
one of the most important leadership qualities. Leaders must be risk takers who put
themselves into situations that demand their very best efforts when they have
to move ahead, even without the ability to look back. This is how it was for Deborah. When the time was right, she made her move she
acted, she commanded, and did not look back.
Such decisive action was part of what enabled her to succeed.
WORKING
WITH OTHERS AS A TEAM
When Deborah did take the risk and make
the move, she did not act alone. She was
no lone ranger leader. Though she was powerful,
capable, and very gifted, she not only knew who she was, she also knew who she
wasn’t. She recognized her role as a
woman along with both her strengths and her weaknesses as a person. She was no military leader. She gathered those around her whom she could
delegate to be her team to face the challenges and carry out the mission. We do not see anywhere in this heroic story,
where Deborah herself went on the battlefield.
She supported her general, Barak. At his request she stayed close by. But she trusted and allowed others to claim
“ownership” and “partnership” in the battle, sharing both the work and the
glory. She was what all great leaders
are; team players and team leaders. Teamwork
enabled her to have resources beyond her own mind and skill. It was the kind of leadership which
encouraged cooperation and gave mutual support so that the task would have the
best chance of success.
Wayne Cordeiro, a pastor in Hawaii has a
friend named Tom, who says, “If I have one good idea, and you have one good
idea, how many ideas does each of us have?
The answer is “one”. But if I
share my idea with you and you share your idea with me, how many does each of
us now have? The answer is TWO. “You see”, Tom says, if we share out ideas
with each other, we have doubled our knowledge immediately! We haven’t even lost our idea either, because
by sharing it, we have increased our knowledge by 100 percent.” Cordeiro goes on to comment on how Jesus once
prayed that all of us in the church could be one, as he and the father were one
(John 17:21), then he remarks, “We are always asking Jesus to answer our
prayers, wouldn’t it be nice if once, we could answer one of Jesus’ prayers”. That what teamwork does (As
told by Wayne Cordeiro, in Doing Church
as a Team, p. 10).
ESTABLISHING STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS
Perhaps the most interesting of all Deborah’s
leadership qualities is that the people on Deborah’s team were not only
“insiders”, but she also included “outsiders”---people who shared similar
goals, similar interests and similar needs.
Deborah formed strategic relationship with others and this paid off in
the heart of the battle.
In this final part of the story, it wasn’t
an Israelite, but a Kenite woman from the clain of Heber, another woman named
Jael, whose name means ‘mountain goat’.
She is the stranger, the outsider, and the ‘foreigner who finally brought
Israel’s enemy general to his end. Thus, the story of Deborah’s leadership does
not end with her by herself, but concludes with another who helped her
accomplish her goal. Who would have thought
that Israel would have been saved by two women, one called a bee and the other,
called a mountain goat? The opposing general
Sisera thought he found safety in a woman’s tent, but when he stopped to rest,
she is the one who drove a tent peg into his temple and nailed him, literally.
When you are a leader, you will need a
lot of friends. Some of the most
important friends will not be the people you are leading, but it will often be
others, outsiders, even new friends you challenge you and help you get to where
you need to go. An old story, about a rabbi
in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century makes this point. Disappointed by a lack of direction and
purpose, the Rabbi wandered out into the chilly evening. With his hands thrust deep into his pockets,
he aimlessly walked through the empty streets questioning his faith and
calling. The only thing colder than the
Russian air was the chill within his soul.
He walked, and walked, and mistakenly walked into a Russian military
compound, which was off limits to civilians.
Just then, the silence of evening was shattered by the bark of a Russian
soldier.
“Halt! “Who are you?
What are you doing here?” the guard yelled out.
“Excuse
me,” replied the rabbi.
“I
said, “Who are you and what are you doing here?
After
a brief moment, the rabbi in a gracious tone, so not to evoke the anger of the soldier
responded with a question, “How much do you get paid every day?”
“What
does this have to do with you?” the soldier retorted.
“It
has everything to do with me,” the rabbi answered. Like a man who just made a new discovery, the
rabbi told the solider, “I will pay you the equal sum of your worker’s wage, if
you will ask me those same to questions every day: “Who are you? And “What are you doing here?” (Also From
Doing Church as a Team, by Wayne
Cordeiro, p. 33).
The ability to lead comes from knowing
daily, who we are and what we are doing?
To navigate the world we live in,
will take a moral compass, listening skills, being decisive, teamwork, and it
will take forming strategic relationships with people, even strangers, who help
us keep our focus. Deborah’s leadership story
is the story of one “brave dame”. We
need more Deborah’s today, more honey bees and mountain goats, and we need whole
lot less wimps and wimpetts. Amen.
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