I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 4-6.

    Deborah is the only woman listed as one of the judges. However, I do not believe that means that she was the only woman judge during this time. As I read the Book of Judges, there were more judges than just those it mentions. Today as I was reading I thought about the fact that Barak must have been a military leader of some note. How else would he have been able to raise an army of 10,000 men? We are given no information about how he gained that reputation. IF Barak had been willing to take on Sisera without Deborah there to advise him, we might not even know her name. Some might think it is unfair that Barak does not get more credit for the defeat of Sisera. However, Sisera was a good general and if he had survived the day he would have rebuilt his army, and, having learned from his mistake, overcome the Israelite army on another occasion . If not for Jael, Sisera would have gotten away from Barak.

    I always love reading the story of Gideon because there are so many lessons for those who have been called to serve God (which is all of us). For the purpose of today’s blog entry I am going to pretend that the angel mentioned in this passage is purely an allegory because it is easier to see how Gideon’s thoughts apply to us that way, not because I believe that to be the case. It seems likely that Gideon had heard the prophet who said that the Children of Israel had not listened to God. Nevertheless he also believed that God was with them, as God had promised He would be to Gideon’s ancestors. If these two things were true, what did he, Gideon, need to do in order to not be one of those who had not listened to God? The answer was to destroy the place where his own family worshiped idols, desecrating it as a place for such worship while consecrating it to the worship of God. Gideon’s first act when he received his call from God was to destroy the idols which he himself, and his family, worshiped. Dedicating himself to worship God alone.