W. Robert Godfrey

Now, we should never say that about anything in the Bible.

Nothing is just a filler.

But we're really only told a verse or two about six of the judges.

So the first judge is Othniel, the son-in-law of Caleb.

We have a fair bit of information about Othniel, and then we have Ehud, who's always all children's favorite judge because he, you know, buries the sword in the flesh of the king, who is so fat that the sword disappears.

What a great story.

So we know something about Othniel, and then we have Ehud, and then we have one of the minor judges, Shamgar.

We know very little about Shamgar.

And then we move to Deborah.

And Deborah is, yeah, a judge about whom we know a great deal.

And years and years ago, I first got to thinking about the book of Judges and reading Hebrews because in the book of Hebrews, Barak is commended and Deborah is not mentioned.

Now, is this male chauvinism, leaving the women out?

Why is Barak mentioned and not Deborah?

Well, I think the answer is that on that list, which includes Barak and Jephthah and Samson, they're all losers.

They're all sinners, very obviously sinners saved by grace.

Deborah is not so obviously a sinner.

We know she is a sinner because we have good theology.

We know the big picture.

But she's presented very positively in the book of Judges.

And I think Hebrews' point is God saves the weak.