Deborah
From Neoredemptive
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A Judge in Israel. Her story is found in Judges 4:4-5:31 (see sidebar).
Deborah is an oft-referenced character in the Gender roles debate, because egalitarians see her as a clear example of a woman in a role of authority and leadership within God's covenant people while complementarians see her as an example of a wise and Godly woman trying to fulfill her ministry and calling without violating principles of male ecclesiastic headship. Much of the argument hinges on the way in which we understand Deborah's roles in the civil (pertaining to the state), liturgical (pertaining to the church), and familiar (pertaining to the home) realms.
A Cursory Outline
Deborah's ministry was exercised primarily under "the Palm of Deborah", where "the people of Israel came up to her for judgement".
Deborah summons Barak and prophetically commands him to lead an army to destroy Sisera (a Canaanite general) and his army. Barak responds with an ultimatum, "if you will not go with me, I will not go", which Deborah answers with a concession and a curse: she will go with him, but a woman will receive the glory for killing Sisera.
Barak's army puts Sisera's army to rout; Sisera flees on foot.
Sisera flees to a camp of Heber an ally, where Heber's wife, Jael, lures him into her tent under pretense of hiding and protecting him (and perhaps more). Once there, she covers him, feeds him, lulls him into security (and sleep), and kills him by driving a tent peg all the way through his head, from his temple through to the ground.
The head of the head of the enemy's army now being literally crushed, the military campaign continues until Jabin (the Canaanite king over Sisera) is destroyed.
Deborah sings a song, a poetic and celebratory retelling.
Notes on the Song of Deborah
We have become too accustomed to reading this song through a lens that sees early Israel as primitive, barbaric, and (frankly) wicked in its dealings with God's enemies. We must resist this urge by replacing it with a keen awareness that this is indeed Scripture, and that the Holy Spirit has directed that it be included for our edification, reproof, and correction. It is we, and not the text, who are called to be transformed and renewed in conformance to His thoughts. It is one thing to be squeamish about war in general and to admit to this weakness; it is something quite different to presume to rebuke God because you do not like the way He commends just and righteous war being waged.
Jael's assassination of Sisera with a common tent peg is part of two recurring motifs in Judges: first, of the implements of agrarian productivity (tent peg, millstone, etc) bringing down a militarist opponent; second, of the woman crushing the head of the wicked in anticipation of her seed eventually crushing the head of the serpent, Satan (Genesis 3:15).
Deborah's recounting of the assassination is punctuated with sexual imagery -- "between her feet" being a euphemism that we might more readily comprehend as "between her thighs". Taking a longer view, Deborah is calling out the irony that a man who wanted to dominate Israel by forcing himself "between the feet" of all of her women, instead dies with a woman literally astride him, hammer in one hand, tent peg in the other.
The idea that Sisera and his army saw sexual domination as part and parcel of their task is emphasized in 5:30 blunted by the gentility of most English translations. In short, the Canaanite mother is hoping the reason her son hasn't gotten home yet is that he and his army are busy literally despoiling (i.e., raping) the young women of Israel (two girls for every boy). That the mother and her "wisest" princesses would speak of such an atrocity with anything short of horror is a mark of a deeply depraved (damnable) culture.
