Sermon for February 4, 2007
Deborah And Hagar: Brave And Wise Women
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Scripture: Judges 4: 4-9 4 At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. 5 She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. 6 She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, "The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, "Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. 7 I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.' " 8 Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go." 9 And she said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. The culture of the Old Testament usually required women to be submissive and subordinate, but we are looking today at two women who broke out of that mold-one-more than the other. These two women of the Hebrew Bible join other women in the New Testament who become honored leaders in the community of faith. We will recognize the names of the New Testament characters more readily: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene whose strong leadership in the original church is just being discovered in the last thirty years, Priscilla of Corinth who with husband Aquila becomes a trusted leader of the church in Corinth and also joins Paul in Ephesus to help organize that church, and Junias whom Paul refers to in Romans with the Greek word diakonos-deacon or minister. The women we learn from this morning are less well known but very important also. We meet Hagar in the book of Genesis because she is the Egyptian slave to Sarah the wife of Abraham. This is about 1700 years before Jesus. Abraham has been told that he will be the father of a great nation whose descendants will number more that the stars. He believes this for a while—but he and Sarai are very old and they are becoming skeptical and impatient. Sarai does not believe God’s promise will come true. In fact, when the angels tell Abraham that Sarai will become pregnant, she just bursts out laughing—so the child she bears is named Isaac or “laughter”! It is Sarai who tells Abraham that perhaps they can hurry the process and bit, and Sarai offers for Abraham to impregnate her slave girl Hagar. Abraham thinks about that and then agrees. It works and Hagar, unfortunately becomes a little conceited about getting pregnant while Sarai cannot become pregnant, so there is jealousy and rivalry afoot. We can imagine why this might happen because slaves would not be respected or well treated, so it would be easy to see why this conceit would occur. Sarai becomes abusive of Hagar and Hagar runs away—and runs right into God, who tells her to go back to the old Hebrew couple and tells her that her son will be the ancestor of many people also. She does go back, she gives birth to Ishmael, and later after Sarai and Abraham give birth to Isaac, Hagar and her son are sent away into the wilderness. She is frightened and just knows that they will die there, but God hears her, God assures her again, guides her to water, and her son Ishmael grows up to be the ancestor of the Bedouins and the Arab people. In fact, in Islam, when Abraham takes his son to be sacrificed to God until God shows Abraham a lamb to sacrifice instead, the son Abraham takes is not Isaac in Islam, it is Ishmael. Hagar is the mother of a mighty and numerous people. We see the second story of female leadership and courage five hundred years later in the character of Deborah. This is around the year 1200 BC. The Israelites have left slavery in Egypt, they have settled in the Promised Land, and they do not yet have a king. They are ruled and guided by Judges who do more than today’s judges would do; they not only arbitrate disputes, they also rally and lead and unite the people when there is a military threat. Samson is considered one of the judges, Gideon is also, and so is left handed Ehud whom we read about right before the story of Deborah in a story that could have come out of a James Bond movie—you can read it on your own. It’s a little earthy. Deborah is one of the judges! She is considered to be a wise and discerning and charismatic leader whom they can come to for guidance and advice. In fact, one of the oldest pieces of the entire Bible is the song written about Deborah in Judges 5 which tells about her leadership in battle! That is what she is known for as well—her courage and boldness in a time when it was rare to see women leaders. Here is the story: the Israelites are being threatened again by the Canaanites, in particular a Canaanite general named Sisera. Deborah, has discerned from God that the Jewish general named Barak—it means blessed— is to rally ten thousand troops and go to meet the Canaanite at Mount Tabor where the Israelites will win the battle. Barak does something very interesting: he says to Deborah that he will go only if she will go with him!! Deborah agrees to accompany him into the battle, but she tells him that he will not get credit for winning the battle because the person who defeats the Canaanite general will be a woman! It is another woman whose name is Jael. The Israelites defeat the Canaanites but the Canaanite general runs away. He winds up at the house of another brave and shrewd Hebrew woman named Jael. She invites him in, offers deceptively to hide him, give him milk to drink, hides him under a blanket, and when he falls asleep she gets a mallet and a tent peg and drives the tent peg through his skull! She is not afraid and she becomes another hero for her people. We can find lots of examples of women who are feisty and wise and courageous today, and that might be a good exercise for you to do sometime today. One example that I offer to you is in a film I recommend to you based on the true story of a young woman whose first assignment as a high school teacher was in one of the most challenging classrooms in the nation. The title of that movie is The Freedom Writer. She began in a Long Beach high school where the gang activity was so intense that when she had her students tell her how many of them had friends killed by gangs almost every student stepped forward. The rivalries and prejudices among the kids in her class almost prevented them from learning anything. But Erin Gruwell is a wise and courageous woman and she persevered and figured out that each of her students had a story to tell. She gave them a chance to tell their story of loss and pain and grief, and every student began to write in a journal and wanted her to read and hear about their story. They learned that others had stories of pain and loss also when they read The Diary of Anne Frank even though the administrators had told Erin that her kids would not be able to do that book and they should not even be given that book to read. Erin went and bought copies of the book out of her own funds. The kids were entranced—so much so that they raised money to bring the woman who helped shelter Anne Frank—Miep Gies—to their school so they could experience living history and hear first hand that story of courage. There is even more inspiration in the film. We were so inspired after we saw it that we went right out and bought the book of the freedom writers and also the book by Erin Gruwell about what other teachers can do even in some of the most challenging and needy classrooms in our country. I commend the film to you enthusiastically. Hagar, Deborah, and Erin: wise and feisty and courageous women. Thank you God for these examples that help us form our character today! |
