When I carefully read this section you quoted, here is what I observe:
1. "Those that spoiled them" (the enemies) were the punishment for Israel's serving the Baals.
2. "The Lord raised up judges, which delivered them..." is the relief from the punishment, since deliverance in this context means
saving from.
3. When the Israelites were under the oppression of their enemies, they groaned to God, and God had compassion on them, and therefore sent judges to save them from their enemies.
4. Your statement "to break their continued disobedience" was not a punishment, but a corrective measure. The judges, after delivering the people out of oppression, taught the people God's laws, but the result was temporary, since they went back to idols which incurred God's wrath through the hand of their enemies.
It just appears to me that the enemies were the punishment, and the judges were the saviors. Do you get something different than this?
TD
TD, I recognize your points but would go further. During the span of time that Judges records we also see "gross periods of sin. The people are depicted as unstable and easily led into idolatry. Extreme crimes are recorded in the book." RSB Notes Please, do not mistake my view of Judges being used to condemn sin as me viewing each Judge as wrong, that's not what I mean, Judges were given to remind sinning Israel of their covenant with God, enforce the Law during a time of intense oppression. What I am saying is simply this; Deborah was an except, not the rule.
There may be instances when the regular pattern of God’s order may have to be set aside due to unusual circumstances. When, for example, the husband and father is absent, the woman of the house assumes the headship of the family. So it would appear, there may be unusual circumstances when male leadership is unavailable for one reason or another. At such times God may use women to accomplish his purposes even as he used Deborah. (“The Negative Case Against the Ordination of Women,” in Kenneth S. Kantzer and Stanley N. Gundry, eds., Perspectives on Evangelical Theology [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979], 285)
To illustrate this point further John MacArthur wrote, "It is significant that Deborah declined to lead the military campaign against the Canaanites, deferring instead to a man, Barak. No women served as priests. None of the authors of the Old Testament were women. No woman had an on-going prophetic (speaking before people) ministry like that of Elijah, Elisha, or the other prophets. While Miriam (
Ex. 15:20), Deborah (
Judg. 4:4), Huldah (
2 Kings 22:14), and Isaiah’s wife (
Isa. 8:3) are called prophetesses, none had a permanent calling to that office. Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah gave only one recorded prophecy, and Isaiah’s wife none. She is called a prophetess because she gave birth to a child whose name had prophetic meaning. A fifth woman mentioned as a prophetess, Noadiah, was a false prophetess (
Neh. 6:14). While God spoke through women on a few limited occasions, no woman had an on-going role of preaching and teaching.
[end quote]
MacArthur's point reminded me of a comment made by Baptist John Gill, "This chapter shows how that Israel sinning was delivered into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, by whom they were oppressed twenty years, Jud 4:1-3; and that Deborah and Barak consulted together about their deliverance, Jud 4:4-9; and that Barak, encouraged by Deborah, gathered some forces and fought Sisera the captain of Jabin's army, whom he met, and obtained a victory over, Jud 4:10-15; who fleeing on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, was received into it, and slain by her while asleep in it, Jud 4:16-22; which issued in a complete deliverance of the children of Israel, Jud 4:23,24.[Gill's Commentaries]
(+Notice how closely Deborah's Judgeship was with the work of Barak? Just an interesting historical detail, her appointment was not without the, at times, co-leadership of a man.)
Matthew Henry outlines Judges 4 thusly:
I. Israel revolted from God (
v. 1).
II. Israel oppressed by Jabin (
v. 2,
v. 3).
III. Israel judged by Deborah (
v. 4,
v. 5).
IV. Israel rescued out of the hands of Jabin.
1.
Their deliverance is concerted between Deborah and Barak (
v. 6,
v. 9). It is accomplished
by their joint-agency. Barak takes the field (
v. 10). Sisera, Jabin’s general, meets him (
v. 12,
v. 13). Deborah encourages him (
v. 14). And God gives him a complete victory. The army routed (
v. 15,
v. 16). The general forced to flee (
v. 17). And where he expected shelter he had his life stolen from him by Jael while he was asleep (
v. 18-21), which completes Barak’s triumph (
v. 22). and Israel’s deliverance (
v. 23,
v. 24).[end quote]
Her leadership role was given directly by God during the theocratic Kingdom of Israel and therefore is an isolated historical event. The Judges were sent as saviours of
believing Israel (not all Israel were Israel according to the flesh) because they called them back to God and, like all examples of Law and Gospel found in God's holy word, Judges condemned unbelievers for their lack of faith. What we find in Judges cannot be used to justify women becoming Gospel ministers and that was the point I was trying to make.
Yours in the Lord,
jm
