Deborah the Prophetess
Passage: Judges 4:1-10
If you have been paying attention over the past thirty or forty years you have noticed a trend in how women are depicted in movies and TV and video games.
From animated and Disney movies to drama and crime mysteries to superhero themes, women are cast less frequently as the damsel in distress, and more often as the physically powerful rescuer come to save the day with guns blazing.
Ex. Terminator, Mad Max, Wonder Woman, Black Widow, Mulan, She-Ra, Captain Marvel.
It is harder and harder to find a good show where men are men and women are women, where there is an honest reflection of the realistic differences between men and women, where the feminist agenda of men and women as totally interchangeable isn’t being promoted.
Think about what models and examples are being portrayed in movies today and how much better it would be for young women to see less empowered warrior women acting like men, who could kill a dozen bad guys and jujitsu their way out of any danger, and didn’t need any man to protect them.
Movies today mostly lie to us about how God has created women and who He has created them to be, life-givers, nurturers, helpers, wives and mothers. They reverse the roles of men created with bodies and minds crafted for war, to be peacekeepers, protectors and if necessary bloodshedders, faithful husbands and father.
Movies today deaden our spiritual and Biblical sensitivities and sensibilities about the differences between men and women. “Feminism is the new normal, which is to say abnormal is the new normal” (Nathan Alberson).
Colossians 2:8-9 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Stories from the Bible give us a far truer picture of women in real life. Some are godly, some are not. There are women worthy to be imitated, like Abraham’s wife, Sarah, Ruth, Esther, Abigail, and Mary. And there are women not to be imitated, like Ahab’s wife, Jezebel.
Of all the judges God gave to Israel, he gave one who was a woman, and she wasn’t only a judge, but also a prophetess. Her name was Deborah.