Sometimes it is hard for us to think of things that are ancient as relevant to us today. Why bother to study how people lived in the past? What can we learn from them? Besides the skills to survive without electricity or indoor plumbing, I think the people of the past, especially the people of Scripture have a lot to teach us. There are, of course, the spiritual lessons. In my current work-in-progress (Deborah’s story) I am discovering the dire consequences Israel faced when they abandoned their faith in God to worship false deities. Deborah claimed that was why “war was in the gates.”
In her lifetime, Deborah saw a vast change in culture, a shift away from true worship of Adonai, and the constant threat of terrorists around every corner.
People hid in their villages, afraid to travel the main highways or visit the market square for fear to the terrorist with the 900 iron chariots. Weddings were normally loud celebrations, but the people dared not allow such jubilation to ring in the streets lest the enemy hear.
Fear reigned. Every villager risked kidnapping, rape, pillaging, murder…
Deborah’s culture sounds very much like parts of our world today, does it not?
Though we can’t know exactly what went on during her years on earth, nor can we know her as a woman beyond what the few verses in Judges give us, I think those few verses tell us enough to know she was a woman whose times mirror our own. And I think in understanding the past, we can relate and even apply what they learned to our own lives today.
