Deborah the Judge

Well we are really reading bits that we don't normally look at in Church. It doesn't make amazingly comfortable reading and tent pegs into skulls is normally the province of rather nasty movies rather than Sunday services. I have to say these readings are very challenging to really see what God may be saying to us through them. If we truly believe as Paul wrote to Timothy "All scripture is God breathed" then this is too and we need to look to see what is behind it all. What is the context of this passage? Well we see the people of Israel yet again having rejected God and the consequence of this is loosing their identity as a nation and being captive to the Caananites. Again they have rejected God and there is a consequence of this. But God doesn't leave them there and the "Judge" Deborah who is faithful to God leads the people back out of the hands of the Caananite King and in turn they return to God, the result: Then the land had peace for forty years (Judges 5: 31)  We may not understand why things happened the way they did but despite this we see God's reaction to man's disobedience and then despite this his constant drawing them back to himself. The ultimate end to this disobedience and God's love is of course seen as we jounrney further on into the bible and read of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The result not just peace for forty years but the offer of peace for eternity.