interesting
with emphasis on usurping authority over a man?
how can you usurp what someone does not have?...listen, if that is the main complaint you have, if a woman has authority and she did not usurp it, does that still put a bee in your bonnet?
let's look at the role of the judges...in the book of Judges...in the Bible and not through the prejudice of the filtration system of other verses...besides, the OT came first
life during the 'Judges' period, was difficult because the Israelites had not been able to drive out all the inhabitants during Joshua's time and even afterwards.
Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots. Judges 1:19
so we see an 'excuse' but not a valid one...as God delivering them from Egypt should have 'proven' that God was able to deliver from all things.
Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, 2 and as for you, you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me; what is this you have done? 3 Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. Judges 2:1
the reason for the continued failure to complete God's directions (re driving out the inhabitants) was THEIR failure to obey
condensing the details, the Israelites were left living AMONG their enemies and fraternizing with them and worshipping false gods with them
And the sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; 6 and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. 7 And the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Judges 3:5 - 7
Apparently, by the time Deborah became Judge over Israel...OVER Israel...OVER...things were desperate
Barak has to go into battle and he WILL NOT GO unless Deborah goes with him!
I think we can take the word usurp out of the history of the time of Judges in Israel
people should read the book...God was with Deborah...she usurped NOTHING from ANYONE
by the time we get to the end of the book of Judges, the Israelite women were in danger from their own men raping and hurting them whereas at the beginning of the book, it was the tribes they were supposed to have driven out but co-habited with instead, that were a danger
now shall we blame the women for this? did Deborah put a spell on Barak or usurp him or did she go with him at his insistence?
so many Christian men wanna be the boss...but just like the Israelites refusing to trust God and obey God, they want the end without the middle...and then complain when a woman becomes the hero of the story and does what her negligent husband refuses to do
that's the short of it...it's quite an interesting case study actually
I think men can pretty much blame themselves if they don't like what they have
the word usurp is tossed around like the key to the entire thing, but it is weak and ineffectual men that leave the gap that women fill in and then the men cry she usurped authority
not all men...not all women...but men are told to love their wives for a reason...and Christians are subject to each other...the man who ignores his wife and wants to make her shut up...in church or at home...becomes like the husband of Abigail and I'll let someone else tell that story.....
...just sayin