W. Robert Godfrey

One of the things I think the Old Testament over and over and over again says to the people of God is, you need a prophet.

but you need a perfect prophet.

You need a priest, but you need a perfect priest.

You need a king, but you need a perfect king.

And a lot of the Old Testament is all about prophets who were pretty good, and some kings who were pretty good, and some priests who were pretty good, but none of them were perfect.

But all of them pointed to that perfect prophet, priest, and king who was to come.

And the book of Judges says you need a judge, but you really need a perfect judge.

And there aren't any perfect judges.

Now, for your encouragement, the closest to a perfect judge in the book of Judges is Deborah.

Now, all of you women should read the book of Judges because I think there are more women of importance in the book of Judges than any other book of the Bible.

And numbers of them are really very positive.

There are a few negative ones.

We tend to remember Delilah.

She's not a role model.

We'll come back to her.

But it intrigued me as I got into studying the book of Judges that there are fascinating women who are largely neglected, like Aksa.

You know, I've never met an Aksa.

may not be the most mellifluous name to give a daughter, but she's a really fine role model of service to the Lord, the wife of Othniel, the daughter of Caleb.

And then there's Deborah, who really is terrific.

And of course, when I was in high school, I always wanted to hear over and over again the story of jail and her nail.