Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, with nine hundred iron war chariots, and a multitude had assembled in the western extremity of the great plain of Jezreel, near the brook Kishon that flows along the northern base of Mount Carmel. Barak, the executive head, was either so timid or apprehensive that the campaign would fail, and thus fasten the tyrant’s chain yet more strongly, that the people looked to Deborah for judgment. She tried to arouse Barak’s courage. She even appealed to the prejudices that were strong in those times, namely, that the victory would be given to a woman if he refused to go. But in vain. He would not move without her. She knew, far better than he, that the battle was not theirs, but God’s. The Lord alone could give victory. Faith was easier to her than to Barak, for she had the spiritual insight that knows the utter nothingness of human help. For twenty years God’s people had been oppressed by their enemies. At last they had repented of the sins that made necessary their captivity, and the Lord had inspired Deborah to rally them to resist their oppressors. Perhaps Barak hesitated, because, viewed from a human standpoint, he may have felt the utter inadequacy of the Hebrew army to cope with the Syrians and their nine hundred iron war chariots. But just there lies the secret of all success. Only when we are weak, are we strong. This is the victory, even our faith. We have not that faith till we get to the end of our own resources and trusts. But while Deborah put Barak at the head of the army, she bravely stood by him with her counsels, her prayers, her faith, and her wholesome reproof, for Deborah was a practical and sensible woman. Her name signifies “the bee,” and she was well provided with the sting as well as the honey, and knew how to stir up Barak by wholesome severity as well as encourage him by holy inspiration. He is a very foolish man who refuses to be helped by the shrewd intuitive wisdom of a true woman, for while her head may not be so large, its quality is generally of the best; and her conclusions, though not reasoned out so elaborately, generally reach the right end by intuitions which are seldom wrong. Woman’s place is to counsel, to encourage, to pray, to believe, and pre-eminently to help. This was what Deborah did.