And Deborah Said
Judges 5:7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
So, I don’t have a doctoral degree in biblical studies. I haven’t been to seminary or even Christian college. I’m a semi-retired homeschool mom with a lot of experience but not any titles. But I love God and His Word, and I want others to know and love Him, too.
The judge, Deborah and I do have some things in common but I’ve never been tasked with going to physical war with a General to lead an army.
Yet this morning as I was sleeping this quote came to me from J.R.R. Tolkien, taken from The Fellowship of the Ring:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
There have been catastrophic things happen to us starting with the pandemic as it’s termed, which shut things down this last year. Except for the riots, of course, those continue even unto this day. And for those peaceful people who want to raise our children, sit on our porch surrounded by our friends and family, and live and let live we are constantly poked by radical rabble-rousers.
Where do we go from here? Well, I know that historically life is not ever really peaceful. In the book of Judges, the people of Israel had a history of falling away from God, and God would abandon them to their fate. Enemies would invade and make the people not just unhappy but downright miserable.
And when the people had been ground into the dust because of their iniquities they would cry to God and he would raise up Judges to liberate them. Hence we have Deborah, a mother in Israel. She is the only female Judge in this time period.
I don’t know what Deborah thought or felt. That she was fearless is probable. She calls Barak to raise an army and take on Israel’s enemies. In a surprising move, he tells her he will go but only if she goes with him. Yes, she says, she will go with him, but a woman will get the honor of killing Sisera.
Did Barak think Deborah meant she would get the honor? We don’t know what he thought but it was not her and it wasn’t Barak.
The point is what is next? We are looking at hard times. A picking up of where we were before the last four years. No jobs (Steve), no cash (Johnny), and no hope (Bob). As some have said ‘please don’t let us lose bacon…but I don’t remember who he was or where he came from.
In doing research one of the keys we miss so often is the one where we miss personal witness. Many of the older people of my life, my Grandfather and my father-in-law for example could tell me what happened in what year. Such as ‘in 1934 we had the worst winter, snow and it was bitterly cold’.
But I missed out on most of that. I didn’t begin doing research on those years, or I didn’t ask the right questions of the right people and now they are gone.
And don’t ask me about events in my life. I don’t remember what year anything happened or what the weather was in what year. I feel more like a bobblehead doll that just sits and grins and well, does whatever a bobblehead doll does.
Back to Frodo and Gandalf—here we are with the time we are given and now we must decide what to do with it…
I was doing research into WWII and the British organization SOE. It was the inspiration where the United States came up with our CIA. Except the Brits disbanded their SOE when the war finished and our CIA was just getting started.
The SOE’s main training camp was in Scotland and there was quite extensive training to the organization. One of their agents was a gay man. I don’t remember his name off the top of my head but his was a unique story as all stories are. He went through rigorous training and was sent on his first mission which began with him using a rubber raft and boating onto the coast of Spain.
In his own words, he said something like (and no, this isn’t a verbatim quote) I’m sitting in this boat about to go ashore and the gravity of what I’m about to do hits me. I’m scared and I’m thinking I can’t possibly do this…
I’m about to turn back when I tell myself to get ahold of myself. “And I thought, buck up ducky, you haven’t come all this way to give up now.”
Well, you know those are words of wisdom. And so that’s where I am today. Buck up Ducky you haven’t come all this way to give up now.
Colossians 4:
1 Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.
2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
4 That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
5 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
