She Was Standing Right There

We have spent two sessions on the two verses people use to say women cannot speak. If the strongest arguments are arguments, we owed them real attention — and we gave it. But we also set down a rule: Scripture does not contradict Scripture. And now we turn from the stop signs to the stories God actually wrote.

If you want to know what God thinks about women leading, do not go to one contested Greek word. Go to the places where God Himself opened the door — and watch who runs through it.

Open to Judges 4. Israel is in trouble — again. They have been oppressed by King Jabin of Canaan for twenty years. And leadership in Israel at that moment is a woman named Deborah. The text says she was a prophet — meaning God spoke through her with binding authority. She was judging Israel — meaning the nation brought their disputes to her, and she settled them with the weight of God. She was already holding the highest office in the land.

Then God gives her a military command. She summons Barak, the general, and tells him: "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you..." She is not asking Barak what he thinks. She is delivering a directive from God. And Barak — the general — does not tell her to go home. He says, "If you go with me, I will go." He wants her on the battlefield.

Her answer is magnificent: "I will certainly go with you. Nevertheless, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." And she is right. Jael drives the tent peg. The Song of Deborah in Judges 5 — one of the oldest poems in the Bible — celebrates all of it. No apology. No footnote. No asterisk.

God put His Spirit on a woman to judge His people, deliver His Word, command His army, and win His victory — and He wrote forty years of peace under her leadership into the record. You cannot read 1 Timothy 2 in a way that makes God sorry He did that.

Now turn to 2 Kings 22. This is one of the most important moments in Israel's history — and almost nobody knows the woman at the center of it. The Book of the Law has been found in the temple. The king — good King Josiah — rips his clothes when he hears it read. He knows the nation has been living in rebellion against God. And he needs to know: is this book real, and what does God want us to do about it?

So Josiah sends a delegation. Not to the prophet Jeremiah — and Jeremiah was alive at that moment, actively prophesying. He sends them to Huldah. A woman. Five men — the high priest, the secretary of state, the king's own attendants — walk across Jerusalem to consult a woman about whether the book they just found is actually the Word of God, and what God expects them to do about it.

And she answers with the prophetic formula: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel." She authenticates the Scripture. She delivers the verdict. The greatest king-led reform in Judah's history — the one celebrated in the whole biblical narrative — is launched on the word of a woman who spoke for God when Jeremiah was standing right there.

If God wanted to send a message that women should never speak with spiritual authority, He forgot to tell Himself. He sent a king's delegation to a woman to validate His Word.