What does the Bible say about women leaders in government? Should a woman be President?

As to the question of “woman's rights,” etc., we have nothing whatever to do with politics. It is our desire to be taught exclusively by Scripture, and most certainly we cannot find anything in the New Testament about women having a place in the legislature. In the history of Israel, it was always a proof of the nation's low condition when the female was thrown into prominence. It was Barak's backwardness that threw Deborah forward. According to the normal, the divine idea, the man is the head. This is seen in perfection in Christ and the Church. Here is the true model on which our thoughts are to be formed. So far as this poor world is concerned, it is all in confusion. The foundations are out of course. God has said, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him” (Ezek. 21:27). There can be nothing right until “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.” Till then, the Christian must be content to be a pilgrim and a stranger on this earth, having his citizenship, his home, his portion, in heaven. May it be thus with all who belong to Christ!

It was a day of great weakness, as is disclosed in the song of Deborah, when she said, "Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?" Besides, Israel was judged by a woman, "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth." When rule is in the hand of a woman it is evidence of failure on the part of the man. Not only is the husband the head of the wife, but the man is the head of the woman in the divine order, and headship involves leadership.

At the period of which we speak, a woman judged Israel. It was a sign of God's omnipotency, for she was a prophetess. But it was contrary to God's ordinary dealings, and a disgrace to men. Deborah calls Barak (for where the Spirit of God acts, He discerns and directs); she communicates to him the command of God. He obeys; but he lacks faith to proceed as one who has had direct instruction from God and consequently needs no other. These direct communications give the consciousness of God's presence, and that He interposes on behalf of His people. Barak will not go without Deborah. But this want of faith is not to his credit. Men will keep the place which answers to the measure of their faith; and God will again be glorified through the instrumentality of a woman. Barak has faith enough to obey if he has some one near who can lean immediately on God, but not enough to do so himself. This is too often the case. God does not reject him, but He does not honour him. In fact, it is by no means the same faith in God. And it is by faith that God is honoured.

Now this was a day of great trial: "And the children of Israel cried to Jehovah: for he (Jabin) had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel." It was a long-continued and grievous affliction: "And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, Hath not Jehovah God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?" Here there is no doubt that God wrought sovereignly. She was a prophetess; she was the communicator of the mind of God at that time — pre-eminently so. But there is more to note.

Moreover, this was not the only symptom of Israel's low condition in these inauspicious days. For if outwardly they were ruled over by their enemy, what was the state of government within? Committed to the hands of a woman! At the outset, as the Word of God teaches us, the oversight of the church locally was committed to elders, appointed for this purpose by the apostles or their delegates, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The order of the assembly, in that which pertained to it locally, fell to their charge. Dropping for a moment man's imitation of this divine institution, would there be any exaggeration in saying that the tendency to entrust government, wholly or partially, into the hands of women is becoming increasingly marked amongst the sects of Christendom in the present day? It is even boasted of, and Christians go so far as to state and seek to prove that such a condition of things is of God, and shews the flourishing state of the church. They quote Deborah in favour of their opinion, but let us see what she was like.

Deborah was a remarkable woman, a woman of faith, one deeply impressed with the humiliating condition of the people of God. She sees that it would be to the shame of the leaders in Israel, that God should entrust a post of public activity to a woman in their midst. She says to Barak: "I will surely go with thee; notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour, forJehovah shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." (v. 9) But, in all her exercise of authority for God, to the confusion of this people rendered effeminate by sin, Deborah maintains, in circumstances which might have proved a great snare to her, the place assigned by God in His Word to woman. She would not, otherwise, have been a woman of faith. This chapter gives us the history of two women of faith, Deborah and Jael. Each maintains the character in keeping with the position assigned by God to woman. Where does Deborah exercise her authority? Is she seen, as other judges, going in circuit over the land of Israel, or placing herself at the head of the armies? Nothing of the kind; and it is not without reason, it seems to me, that the Word says: "She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah... and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment." (v. 5) Prophetess and judge though she was in Israel, she did not step out of the sphere God had assigned to her. Instead of going to Barak, she sent and called him to her where she dwelt.

Deborah

She was a prophetess, a married woman, and judged Israel in a day of declension (Judges 4). Israel was in a very low condition and Deborah was raised up, when the courage of man had utterly failed, to break the yoke of foreign oppression. It is in times of declension that woman comes forward and it is a sign of the low condition of things. However, we must notice that even Deborah sought to keep her proper place. She dwelt under the palm tree and Israel came up to her for judgment. She called Barak and told him to go forth against Sisera's armies as the Lord had commanded. When Barak would not go forth without Deborah she consented to go along with him, but told him the journey would not be for his honor for the Lord would sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Her words would indicate that if it was a matter of shame for Barak that a woman should slay Sisera, it was not less a matter of shame that a woman should be forced by the men's backwardness to judge Israel. Her faith and courage inspired and helped Barak who was evidently a timid man. Thus sisters can help timid brethren. Deborah did not lead Barak, but went with him and encouraged him on.

Once again we are confronted with something that is unusual. Previous to this record we found that the Lord raised up men to lead and to guide and to fight for Israel in their need, but here we find Deborah, a woman, a prophetess, sitting under her palm tree and judging the nation of Israel. This was a very, very unusual condition of things. It indicated that men were somewhat wanting in leadership, in courage and in direction from the Lord.

“Let every soul be subject to the higher powers” (Rom. 13:1). The New Testament tells us how to be subject, but not how to rule, either as king or magistrate. They tell us the ruler is “a minister of God to thee for good”; and as to the very tax-gatherer, he is “God’s minister.” As to the supreme ruler, we are told to “honour the king” (1 Peter 2:7).

God has left all these to run their course, as testing human responsibility in so many ways. And it is unquestionable that none of them is ended, as all must be when the Lord of all comes in judgment of the quick: a judgment practically forgotten in Christendom, though the creeds, so little heeded or even understood, testify to it. There will be seen in all solemnity the total failure of man, in all these respects; but most flagrantly in that the world, Jew and Gentile, rulers and people, crucified the Lord of glory. God will then call to account how men treated each of these institutions which He established and man violated. Take government on the earth. It never was till after the deluge; and it continues still. Hence in the N.T. we read, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and those that be are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment" — not "damnation" which is an execrable exaggeration, and blunder of translation as in Rom. 14:23, 1 Cor. 11:29, and in too many other passages that refer to temporal judgment only. The Christian is to be subject to the law, or, if God's truth be at stake, bear the consequences quietly. Yet not one word warrants the Christian to exercise civil authority: many scriptures call for his subjection to such authority, but never to exercise it. We are not of the world, as Christ is not. He declined even to arbitrate, and has set us an example that we should follow His steps. It is ours to obey God always, if not always man, and then to suffer, not to rebel. We are sanctified by the Spirit to the obedience of Christ, to obey as He obeyed. What a help it is to a Christian to be content to walk as nothing at all in this world but in the spirit of obedience as the Lord ever did. Further, he can afford to respect others, and can do so freely, learning of Him who was meek and humble in heart. Especially does he need grace when it is a duty to find fault with another. Then have we most reason to be lowly, and vigilant. We have to watch against ourselves lest, by a hasty word or way, we should only make bad worse. But to return, God has not yet called the world to account for misgovernment. He surely will, as we may read in Ps. 82; and the One who will be invested with the administration is the Lord Jesus. But quite another dealing of His began with the first of "the fathers" (Rom. 9:5, Rom. 11:28) Abraham. It was the separating to God from idolatry which came in after the deluge and overspread even the line of Shem, as we read in Joshua 24.

But there is more here. "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness." This clearly is not limited to the assembly; as the apostle traces the ground of it in the constitution and natural character of woman. "For Adam was first formed, then Eve." Her subsequent formation out of the man is never to be forgotten by such as fear God and believe His word. All other thoughts are presumptuous theory in forgetfulness of the truth which goes up to the beginning. An individual woman may be comparatively able and well-instructed; but under no circumstances is leave given for a woman to teach or to have dominion over a man; she is to be in quietness. Thus absolutely does the apostle guard against any reaction from the abject place of women in ancient times, specially among the heathen; or any imitation of the peculiar prominence given to her sometimes in oracular matters, as among the Greeks and especially the Germans of old.