By promoters of womens ordination often Deborah is mentioned. How do you comment on this?

Paul bases the principle of headship on God's original intention established at creation. Since God established this principle for his creation, it remains binding for us as long as the world stands.

Throughout history people have adopted various styles of clothing and adornment, some of which symbolize the wearer's attitude toward sexual roles, morality, or even "sexual preference." These styles do not remain constant in meaning. Short hair for women might not mean the same thing in 2004 as it did in 1920. Beards for men might not symbolize the same thing in 30 AD, the 1960's and the 1990's. Wearing a hat during worship means one thing for a Gentile man and something else for a Jew. Earrings for men may mean different things at different times. Christians should not follow styles or practices that are likely to be interpreted as a rejection of proper male and female roles. The specific customs having such a connotation vary with time and place.

In this passage how does Paul distinguish between changeable customs and unchangeable divine principles?

When he is talking about changeless principle he refers to God's act in creation. When he is talking about customs, he uses words that indicate this, such as, "is it proper," "we have no such custom," and "the nature of things teaches you." This passage helps us understand the distinction between timeless principle and timely application of the principle. Incidentally, this distinction is already dealt with in Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession.

Concerning Deborah: The first point to keep in mind is that we cannot derive our principles from descriptions of what some person did during biblical times. We must derive our principles from biblical prescriptions, that is, direct commands that are applicable to us. The Bible often describes something someone did without judging the propriety or motivation of the action. For example, we are not told if Joseph acted with good, bad, or mixed motivation when he reported his brothers to their father. The Bible does not judge the compromises of her faith that Esther had to make to become queen of Persia. It simply reports them. Even the example of Christ, does not apply to us, unless we have a scriptural command to follow his example. For example, Jesus' violent expulsion of the money changers from the Temple does not give us license to smash bingo games and bazaars in churches today. For this reason, we cannot use the description of what Deborah did to overule the prescriptions which are given to us in Paul's letters.

Furthermore, there are clear indications in the text of Judges that although there may have been nothing blameworthy in Deborah's conduct, the circumstances which compelled Deborah to act as she did were far from ideal or exemplary for us. During the dark days of the judges, the people of Israel by and large had lost their moral sense of direction. In the book of Judges we find Samson consorting with prostitutes, Gideon setting up an idolatrous shrine, and Jephthah rashly vowing to sacrifice his own daughter. It is highly dangerous to take the actions of the judges as exemplary for us without scriptural command to do so.

God did not tell Deborah to lead Israel into battle, but to tell Barak to do so. No other judge was urged to tell someone else to take command as Deborah did. It is perhaps also significant that Othniel, Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson are explicity said to have been raised to judgeship by the Lord. Of the prominent judges whose stories are featured in Judges only Deborah is introduced without such an explicit statement.

Deborah herself recognizes that all is not as it should be in this situation. She privately rebukes Barak for failing to exercise leadership and says that it will reflect negatively on him when the glory for victory goes to a woman and not to him. (Jdg 4:8,9) All of these factors make it clear that it is not sound interpretation to set the actions of Deborah against the explicit commands of Paul.