Devotional—Devorah's Prayer, by Paula Rose

Today, I've posted a devotional I wrote in 2008 while attending the Shuvah Yisrael monthly writers group because back in the Biblical setting of the Book of Judges it seems leadership—Godly leadership—was  lacking for we are told that every man did what was right in his own sight, and that same statement might be true of many today! Therefore, now as then, each of us must be prepared to step into roles we might feel ill equipped to handle. My prayer is that within these scriptures,and the devotional, each of us sees that God equips Deborah, and will do the same for us so we can accomplish what he asks of us.

Scripture

"Barak said to her, “if you go with me, I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go.” Very well,” Devorah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Siser over to a woman” (Judges 4:8-9). In reply, Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3).

Devotional

What were you thinking my sister, my kinswoman? How did you become comfortable with the task laid before you? I know you were a woman of prayer, one called by God Most High. If I could have been there would I have heard your petition which is, I think, founded on the same questions all of us women pray when we are asked by God to step out of our normal roles and assume a mantel that is unique? If so I believe that your prayer might have sounded something like this:

“Oh God why have you chosen me for this work,

 I am as a seed of wheat,

 Not yet ripe for the harvest,

 Yet you call!

Oh God why have you asked me to lead men,

I am as one unprepared for war,

Not schooled in weapons and fighting,

Yet you call!

Oh God why have you asked me to bear the burdens of the nation Yisrael,

I am as one of the least of your people,

Not wise in my own understanding,

Yet you call!”

“Daughter, it is because you see yourself as nothing,

Saying, 'I am as a seed of wheat,

 Not yet ripe for the harvest,'

 That I call!

Daughter, it is because you see yourself as one unprepared for war,

That I ask you to equip my people with righteousness and send them out with prayer,

For there is no weapon fashioned against my righteous ones that will stand,

That I call!

Daughter, it is because you see yourself as a seeker of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

Because you have an undivided heart that yearns for and reaches up to me,

Saying 'What is God’s will in this matter,'

That I call.

Many are ready for leadership in the world’s sight,

Many are prepared to do things in their own way,

Many believe they have a burden to serve but will leave when the battle turns against them,

But few truly know how to seek after me with all their mind, all their heart and all their soul.

That is why I have chosen you,

For you have chosen to abide in me,

I have chosen you to be a standard to my people,

an example of selfless devotion to their God.

That in seeing your selfless devotion to me,

They may also come to know Adoni-Jireh,

The Lord that will provide today,

Then, they will learn to search for my provision tomorrow.

For just as I had my servant Moses lift up the serpent in the desert,

That all who looked upon it in faith would not die,

Even though they had been bitten by a deadly snake,

My people must learn to look at those I have lifted up and not judge them,

But see me!"

“This I understand Lord Most High,

This, I Devorah, pledge to do and this will I sing about,

And give glory to your name for you chose a servant not a warrior,

That your name would and will be forever proclaimed!”

“Yes, and in the future that is yet to be another comes that is greater that he,

Greater than Moses who I led through the red sea,

Greater then any who have walked the earth,

for this is the Messiah who will herald in the rebirth."

“My Lord, I do not understand for I am not wise,

However, if you will it,

 I will pray for those who will hear it,

 that you open up their eyes.”

Oh Devorah did you know, as I think all the righteous do, that life is fleeting and there is more to us than the here and now? If so, may I, and all who follow after be as wise as you were. Wise enough to know our wisdom is as nothing before the throne of God Most High. Yet, wise enough to know that what we say and do matters both here and now and ripples throughout eternity. May God grant us all a modicum of understanding and a heart melded to His, least we fall into Satan snare and become ineffectual for all who care to hear and heed the message of the Lord and His Messiah!