Deborah
Judges 4:4 “And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
The book of Judges is one of the saddest books in the Old Testament. In it, we see great heroes of the faith….but only because Israel has the tendency to idolatry.
Only the generation which came into Canaan and took it, ….was faithful to God. (Though they gave a great occasion to sin for their children, when they did not utterly destroy the Canaanites…but allowed some to remain in the land, under tribute.)
After that generation passed away….their children looked at…and then, took after the heathen that were still in the land…..in idol worship.
God then would bring trouble, usually by way of a conquering nation, which would make them feel the pains of forsaking God.
Then they would cry unto the Lord, and He would deliver them….through various individuals….in various tribes.
(What God wanted, was each man, woman and child to know the Lord. He had given them the land….He had given them a place to worship… and feasts to come together and celebrate together….with Him.
Each was to know the Law of God, and pass it on to their children.)
But time after time, soon after the deliverance was obtained….the children of Israel would turn to some form of idolatry again.
Under Deborah, who judged Israel in the tribe of Ephraim….an unusual deliverance was given.
For twenty years the king Jabin of Canaan ruled over them, for their sin. “And he mightily oppressed” them.
Sisera was the captain of the army…and a vicious and brutal fighter he was.
But when “the children of Israel cried unto the Lord”….it was time for another deliverance.
Barak was of the tribe of Naphtali….and had evidently been called of God to go and fight with the Canaanite’s army.
But Barak had not heeded the call….until…
Judges 4:6-7 “And she (Deborah) sent and called Barak….and said unto him, Hath not the Lord 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
And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.”
Look at this amazing promise! Yet Barak had not gone…..he had not even called for an army.
But when he is awakened to his responsibility by Deborah, again….he says he will go…
…if she goes with him.
(This is certainly praise for Deborah’s godliness.
But it is bad way to begin a work, when Barak can not personally trust the Lord and His Word.)
Therefore, Deborah agrees….but warns that he is forfeiting the blessing, by this distrust.
(God can use us, if we obey,….even when we do not trust.
But true blessing comes to us through our trusting the Lord, in our obedience. Trust is the hanging onto His Word….and seeing it performed in us…and through us, to HIs praise and honor. )
So Barak goes and calls to the men of Naphtali to come to the river Kishon.
Sisera was told by the Kenites that Israel was arming and gathering to fight…and he comes with a vengeance….nine hundred chariots and a huge army….to the river.
Now you would think that such an army was undefeatable….but the Lord had gone out before Barak. The Lord was working….but Barak remained at the top of mount Tabor….just watching the huge army of the enemy come up.
Deborah again awakens Barak (and how like us, he is! We need awakening often….and especially when we are not trusting!)
But Deborah is courageous….because her trust is in the Word of the Lord. She knows HIm….and is willing to go into battle herself, to prove He is faithful.
“Up; for this is the day in which the Lord hath (not will, or maybe might…but hath already in HIs Word) delivered then into thine hand! Is not the Lord gone out before thee?” (Judges 4:14)
So Barak and ten thousand men all run down the mount…swords in hand…
……with Sisera in his chariots trying to cross the river….and then…
…”the Lord discomforted Sisera, and all his chariots and all his host with the edge of the sword before Barak.” (Judges 4:15)
It was the river clogging the wheels of the chariots, it was the sudden shout and seeing men and swords coming….because…”the Lord discomforted” them.
The Lord put terror in their hearts, and their chariots got stuck…or struggled with the force of the river. “The river of Kishon swept them away…” (Judges 5:21)
Sisera, got out of his chariot and ran.
Barak stayed with his men and fought bravely….chasing the chariots who had turned around and fled….till they slew them all. And he went on to fight and overthrow the king of Canaan, as well….ending his oppression on Israel!
At least you can say this about Barak….he was diligent…after the Lord intervened.
(And are we asking the Lord to prove Himself, before we diligently do what we have been called to do?)
Now for the honor of slaying Sisera, the vicious leader of the army (Judges 5:30 speaks of the terrible things he did)..
….it went to a simple woman…
……not a soldier,….and not to Barak.
For Sisera, having run away, comes to the tent of a Kenite…and sought to hide there. Telling the woman of the house to watch…and tell any who came, that there was no one there.
What Sisera doesn’t know is that this Kenite had separated himself from his people (remember they are the people who tell Sisera that Israel is arming at the river). But this Kenite had moved to the river Kishon….in alliance with Israel.
Jael, the Kenite’s wife, gives Sisera something to drink, when he asks for it….and he goes to sleep. She then killed him.
A great captain of a great army….dead, at the hands of a woman….
….not at the hands of Barak, who should have killed him….by trusting the Lord.
And in the song about this battle:
God is praised….and the people who came to fight are honored…”when the people willingly offered themselves.”
And then Jael is honored…
Judges 5:24 “Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.”
All through this, it is seen again and again…that it is not by might, nor by power, but by the Lord doing what He said He would do.
It is certainly our obedience to the Lord that matters most….
….but it is in trusting in the Lord that brings great blessing….of courage, and peace to us.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 