DEBORAH

COMMUNITY TIME

Announcements

  • Senior Lunch today!
  • Middle School Retreat is in two weeks! Make sure you register online!
  • Tonight’s Youth Group is “Walking Dead” and will be Zombie Themed! See how likely or unlikely you would be to survive a zombie apocalypse! Also, dinner, games, a lesson, and small groups.
  • Wear your costumes to WNL this week!
  • Ski trip is almost full! Sign up soon! Friends can now register as well.

Community Game

Have students get into groups of 8-10. Choose a word from the list below and give it to the teams. The teams have to take turns coming up with (and singing!) songs that contain that word. You can go with one word until a team gets out, or go around each group and then change words, whatever works.

  • Love
  • Time
  • Friend
  • Baby
  • Up
  • Run
  • Music
  • Jesus
  • Heart

Intro

Today we finish our VBS 2.0 series with the story of Deborah. Her story comes from the book of Judges, which tells us about heroes and heroines who were called by God to provide leadership in times of crisis and uncertainty. At the time, Israel was a loose collection of tribes who were just starting to get a sense of who they were as a people and a nation. They had no kings or organized government, and these judges held religious, political, judicial and militaristic authority over the people of Israel.

She was a pretty big deal, is what I’m saying. And she was the only woman to hold the position.

Video

TRANSITION
Today in classes you will discuss the boxes we are put in (and put ourselves in) and what it could look like if we break out of them.

PRAY

WELCOME AND GREETING
Invite youth to share a High-Low or Happies-Crappies from their week. They may also share something they are looking forward to or are dreading this week.

OPENING DISCUSSION

Ask students to share their thoughts and questions on the story of Deborah.

  1. Was anyone familiar with this story before today?
  2. What did you think of Deborah?
  3. What made her different from the men around her?
  4. Do you have any questions about the story as you know it so far?

ACTIVITY
Have students get into groups of 3-4 and discuss what life would have been like for a woman in the 12th century BCE. What roles were they expected to play? How were they supposed to behave? What were they allowed to do or not do? Descriptions may include mother, wife (or one of many wives), preparing food, gathering water, hammering tent pegs, leading armies, lounging under palm trees.

Have the groups write their answers onto the provided labels and stick them on the cardboard box.

SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES

Split the class into two groups (or more if necessary and have multiple groups do the same sections) to read and discuss the following passages.

Judges 4:1-16

  1. Do you think Deborah wanted to go into battle? Why?
  2. What were society’s expectations on Barak as a male military leader?
  3. Why do people find it difficult to ask for help?
  4. Did Deborah need Barak? How might things have been easier without him?
  5. How did God use Deborah to bring victory to Israel?
  6. What other thoughts or questions do you have about this section?

Judges 4:17-23

  1. What do we learn about Sisera’s character in verse 17?
  2. Why did Sisera choose to run to Jael’s tent?
  3. What do you think of Jael’s actions?
  4. How do you feel about these actions being celebrated, even when they happen to someone who was oppressing the Israelites?
  5. How did God use Jael to bring victory to Israel?
  6. What other thoughts or questions do you have about this section?

HIGH SCHOOL OPTION

What is a status symbol? Often we define ourselves by what we have (or don’t have) – the newest phone, the right brand of clothing, living in a nice neighborhood, driving a fancy car.

Divide into three groups and give each a time period – when their grandparents were teenagers, when their parents were teenagers, and today. Ask them to come up with a list of the status symbols of those times. Draw a timeline on the board and have groups come up and draw or write the status symbols they came up with.

  1. How have things changed over the past few generations?
  2. Why do we value these things so much? What do they do for us?
  3. Ask for (or share) an example of wanting something more for the status than for the actual thing itself.

Now ask students to think about the story of Deborah. Sisera shows up to battle with 900 chariots filled with iron and Deborah doesn’t bat an eye.

  1. Why didn’t Sisera and all his stuff impress or intimidate Deborah?
  2. Where did Deborah put her faith and trust?
  3. Which is more difficult – having all the status symbols or none? Why?
  4. What do status symbols say about who you are? What do they say about who you aren’t?
  5. Bling. Yes or no?

MIDDLE SCHOOL OPTION

Have a few volunteers come up front and try to balance a Bible on their heads. You can do a variety of things here: have different students try when one falls off, have them try to stand on one foot, sing a song, squat down, or walk around all while balancing the Bible.

Deborah had to balance the many hats she wore as a military leader, a prophet and a judge. And trying to be a lot of things to a lot of people can be extremely difficult and cause a lot of tension in our lives and relationships.

  1. What are the different roles you have to balance in your life?
  2. When does it become difficult?
  3. Do you feel like one particular role outweighs the others?
  4. Where do you turn for help when things get hard?

BIG GROUP DISCUSSION

Deborah was someone who stood out – a female leader in a world that prized men above women. But she was unafraid to embrace the things that set her apart and even used them to become a capable and inspiring leader.

At the beginning of class we discussed the labels that 12th century women wore and lived with. What about us? What labels and boxes may be holding us back?

  1. What boxes define teens at your school? Here at church?
  2. What kind of power do the labels we use to define people have? Where does that power come from?
  3. Do you think there are different expectations on guys and girls? Why? What are they? Do you think they are fair?
  4. How can you get out from under the labels you wear?
  5. Have you ever broken out of a box you were in? Ask for examples.
  6. How can we work to see people as more than their labels and boxes? How could that change the way we treat people?
  7. Does God define us using those labels? What labels would God put on us?

Hand out the sheets of labels again and ask students to write down what comes to mind when they think of how God sees them. Cover the labels from the earlier activity with the new ones and discuss how learning to see ourselves and others the way God sees us can help us break out of the boxes we let ourselves live in.

CLOSING

Deborah doesn’t follow the usual pattern of the male judges who lead by demonstrating physical strength and prowess in battle. Instead, she’s brave and clever and faithful enough that God delivers an initial victory without a single sword being unsheathed – just a tent peg.

As a woman in a male-dominated culture, Debora challenged society’s conceptions of whom and/or how a woman was supposed to be and what she could or could not do. But Deborah didn’t allow herself to be defined by stereotypes, and we don’t have to either.

PRAY