6. CONCLUSION FOR OUR DAY Should we encourage our daughters to aspire to the sort of position that comes up in our mind when we hear that Deborah was a judge? Should we encourage our sons to be "the Baraks, Lapidoths, and 10,000 men who will allow God to use His Deborahs"? The answer is distinctly No! Instead, women need to encourage in themselves and in their daughters a spirit of being the helper, recognising that God has given authority and responsibility to the man. Equally, it is for the women to encourage their men and their sons to be leaders in marriage and family, in church, and in society. This is not to say that women or their daughters may never end up with a position of leadership; sovereign God may give it as He did in Judges 4:1-24. But to find yourself having such a position is rather different than aspiring to, or setting your sights on, that position. At bottom, it is a question of faith. God’s revelation is clear on the place He has given to the woman in relation to the man. Important is not whether this revelation sits well with us, sinful as we are. Important is what the Lord says. Faith prompts humble acceptance of God’s revelation. That there is an unhappiness with the positions received for man and for woman has been prophesied (cf Genesis 3:16 b [Genesis 3:16]). It’s for us, though, humbly to accept the position that God gives. Is Deborah then an example for women? Yes, she is, but not as advocated by the feminists. Deborah is an example for women, for she was a woman of faith. In her circumstances Deborah sought to help the men to be the leaders they were meant to be. Is Deborah (and Barak) an embarrassment for men? Yes, for the men of those days weren’t the leaders they were supposed to be, and so God shamed the men by giving a Deborah. May men and women of the Lord encourage each other humbly to accept the respective places that God has given to men and women in His world, "that the word of God may not be blasphemed."
