The Song of Deborah

Though he had been commanded to go and defeat King Jabin in battle, Barak refused to go unless Deborah went with him. As it turned out, the battle ended without difficulty, and the credit for killing the enemy commander fell to Jael, a frail woman.

Barak obeyed at once when the word promised blessing, yet faced with a command he had no confidence in, he tried to hide behind Deborah’s faith. Deborah, by contrast, led the way though she carried her own fear. When war broke out, she marked out, tribe by tribe, those who came to help and those who turned away to protect what was theirs, and preserved it all in her song.

Victory and defeat alike are God’s doing, but whether to obey or to draw back before him is each person’s own part. The portion of those who gave up what was their own to stand with the others is not the same as the portion of those who merely looked on.