Personal Empowerment
The Dominion of Deborah
by Betty Parker
I
just love stories about women of power.
And I especially love those stories when
they are highlighted in the most powerful book in the world—the Holy Bible. We’ve
all heard Deborah’s story at some point if we
are regular church goers, but I don’t think
she’s admired and spoken about in church as
much as she should be to encourage women
to emulate her. In a world where there are so
few virtuous women that get the spotlight, we
have to go in search of them. Fortunately, we
don’t have to hunt them down on the internet
or through social media. There is one we can
get energized by if we only open the Good
Book. Even strong and courageous women
alive today should be reminded of Deborah’s
domination over fear and indecisiveness as
found in the book of Judges. Let’s take a look.
In the fourth chapter we meet her.
She is a prophetess and the current leader of
Israel. As usual, Israel was in trouble with God
and had been handed over to their enemies.
They were suffering greatly as they had so
many times before because of their disobedience. And just as predictably, they cried out to
God for help. In this particular instance, God
sent a woman to rescue them.
Deborah called on Barak, a military
leader with a powerful army, to wage war on
Israel’s enemy, the Canaanites. When she
directed Barak on what to do, he said, “If you
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go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with
me, I won’t go.” What kind of leader was Deborah that a man with military might would not
go into battle without her even though he had
been assured victory by God?
The Bible tells us that Deborah settled
disputes between the people of Israel. She
was the only female judge to lead Israel; and
as a leader, she must have shown herself to
be decisive, fair, trustworthy, and courageous.
How else could she have commanded such
faith in her by the people? Deborah was an
influential leader—the most powerful kind of
leader. You might ask: Aren’t all leaders influential? No! There are people in leadership
positions who are weak and struggle with
getting people to do what they ask. They have
failed to learn how to build influence. Building
influence takes a long time because it requires
that one builds trust. Trust is something that
is gained over time through showing you are
a person of your word, you keep confidences,
and you know what you’re doing. She proved
this as she mediated issues for the people that
obviously ended with the majority’s satisfaction. Today, this would be considered “branding”. And the followers she gained would be
the equivalent of a popular person on Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook.
Great leaders gain followers even when
they’re not trying. They look up one day and