In reply to Deb Williamson.

Dear Deb, Please reconsider. Deborah did not lead an army. Barak raised and led the Army. After Barak's inglorious, even perhaps impudent start,(Ju.4:8) your Godly namesake acquiesced and went "with him" (Ju.4:9), while he called together the army of men (Ju.4:10); then she continued "with him" to the peak of Mt. Tabor where she reminded this son of Israel that the LORD had gone out before him, and called him again to action. Without evident hesitation, and without Deborah, "...Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following -- him." And God gave victory.

Deborah, "... a mother in Israel..." (Ju.5:7) had fulfilled her (maternal?) role toward Barak, who at first was (childishly?) "reluctant" , but with her help had indeed finally and boldly trusted in the LORD. This evidence of Deborah's critical influence is memorialized in Hebrews 11:32ff; Barak, along with David and others, had been "...out of weakness made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." --The noble Deborah did not (as some mistakenly say) become a warrior herself. I suggest that she exemplified a creatively-ordered vocation of woman, a "maternal" cultivation and motivation of honorable "manhood" in appropriate ways. An Orthodox Christian priest O.B.M., once averred that God created woman to be man's "helper" (Gen 2:18) -- to help him to be what he is. Thoughts? I'd be interested in your pastor's perspective.

BTW, notice late in Chapter 5, how God's grant of victory to Barak had protected women.