Judges chapter 4 and reading
from verse 1. And the children of Israel again
did evil in the sight of the Lord when Ehud was dead. And the Lord sold them into the
hand of Jeben, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor the captain
of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. And the children of Israel cried
unto the Lord, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and
twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. And Deborah,
a prophetess and wife of Lapidus, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelled 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 Abinuam out of Kadesh Naphtali,
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. And Barak said unto her, If thou
wilt go with me, then I will go, but if thou wilt not go with
me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go
with thee, Notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall
not be for thine honour, for the Lord shall sell Cicera into
the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with
Barak to Kadesh. And Barak called Zebulun and
Naphtali to Kadesh. And he went up with ten thousand
men at his feet, and Deborah went up with him. And then verse
14. And Deborah said unto Barak,
Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera
into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before
thee? So Barak went down from Mount
Tabor with ten thousand men after him. And the Lord discomfited
Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge
of the sword before Barak. so that Sisera lighted down off
his chariot and fled away on his feet. But Barak pursued after
the chariots and after the host unto Harosheth of the Gentiles
and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword and
there was not a man left. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Two things at once spring to
our attention in these opening verses of Judges chapter four. First, the hearts of men and
women are always prone to evil. When tempted, and we've seen
it time and time again, when tempted, the children of Israel
quickly fell into the idolatry of their neighbours. The second thing that is quickly
seen is that God brings judgement on sin. And the lesson here for
all of us, it doesn't matter whether this is in the days of
the judges so long, long ago, or the time of Isaiah that we're
thinking about at the moment, or the time of Christ, or in
today's age. All men and women, boys and girls,
will be judged because God in his holiness must judge sin and
he always will. For 20 years God caused Jabin
king of Canaan to mightily oppress the children of Israel. And I
think from our past reading concerning the times of Joshua, so Joshua
came after Moses, but before the time of the judges. And if
we think back to the studies that we had in Joshua, how he
crossed into the land of Canaan, and how he was a general of God's
armies, or the armies of Israel, and God led them, we discovered
during those studies that actually this king and his city probably
had been attacked and destroyed by Joshua. So here, over the
years, there had been a change of fortunes and Israel, because
of their sin, was now delivered into a resurgent king of Canaan,
or at least one part of Canaan. And Jabin's cruelty was doubtless
very severe on Israel for the defeat that his own father or
grandfather, whoever it might have been, had suffered at the
hand of Joshua. Israel, we learn, was dominated
by the military strength of Jabin, who had 900 chariots. And these were chariots of iron,
which perhaps means that they were built with swords attached
to the framework of the chariot so that they could scythe through
the infantry of the opposing enemy. were fearsome constructions
and it meant that no one in the Children of Israel, amongst the
tribes of the Children of Israel, was prepared to go against Jabin
in battle. The spirit of the people, the
spirit of the Children of Israel, both because of the awesomeness,
the fearsomeness of their enemy, and also because of the sin in
their own consciences, the spirit of the people were crushed. And
it seems that for a long time they failed to ask the Lord for
help. 20 years this lasted until they
remembered and cried to the Lord. and then we meet Deborah. Deborah was an extraordinary
woman. She served the people of Israel
as a judge and as a prophetess. She was revered amongst the people,
to whom the people came, to where she lived, to where she held,
as it were, her council and her sessions and she spoke and judged
the people who visited her in that place where she was. And she is called a mother in
Israel. because she cared for the people
in a motherly way. She provided for their care. She taught them and instructed
them in the mind and will of God. She was honest, she was
faithful when many had turned their back against the Lord.
and she administered judgment and justice to protect and to
defend the people of Israel. And as the nation's need grew,
the Lord revealed to Deborah how he would intervene to throw
off Jabin and the Canaanite rule over Israel, at least this part
of Israel. And acting on that revelation,
that information that the Lord had given to Deborah, she summoned
Barak. Now we don't really know anything
about Barak again, except that he came from Kaddish, and he
came to take command at Deborah's request of 10,000 men of Zebulun
and Naphtali, two tribes of Israel, and to lead them to Mount Tabor
where the army of Jabin, under the command of a man called Sisera,
would be delivered into the hand of Balak and Israel. And Balak,
we learn, was also a man of faith. He trusted the Lord and he trusted
Deborah, the Lord's servant. He was eager to hear and he waited
to hear the things that Deborah had to say from the Lord. And with Barak's help, Deborah
organised the army. She gave the signal to attack
when it was time for the Lord to deliver Sisera into Barak's
hand and the Hebrew army gained a great and decisive victory
against their enemies. The Canaanite army was totally
destroyed with all of their chariots. and in Judges chapter 5 we've
been reading in Judges chapter 4 but in Judges chapter 5 we
can read there the song of Deborah and it is recorded there as a
poem perhaps or as a song that would be remembered and repeated
by the children of Israel of how the Lord had delivered this
Canaanite king into their hands and given them a great victory.
There aren't too many songs in these early chapters of the Bible. Perhaps you remember Miriam's
song as well when the children of Israel were delivered from
the Egyptian army. Well here was Deborah performing
the same kind of role as a prophetess Israel. So she was both judge
and prophetess and she was a leader of the people and she wrote down
this song which you can read at your leisure in Judges chapter
5. that song she gives an account
of Israel's victory, she speaks of God's help and she praises
those tribes that took part and also she criticises those who
did not come to the assistance of the army. The story of Deborah
includes also the story of a lady called Jiel, a Kenite woman who
slew Cicero with a tent peg as he slept in her tent after fleeing
on foot from the battle. But that's a story for another
day. That's what was in the verses
that we skipped out in this chapter. It's Deborah really that I wanted
to think about today and it's her that we have in view. Her
story shows how the Lord in mercy helps his people even when they
do not deserve his love and his care and support. I think it's notable that Deborah
was able to attain such an influential position in Israel without incurring
attention or suspicion from Jabin the Canaanite king. And I did
wonder if perhaps it was because she was a woman that she was
underestimated by this brutal king, despite her being highly
respected by the children of Israel who came up to her for
judgment. And if there's a little bit of
a lesson there, it's perhaps never underestimate a woman used
of God. But it's always interesting to
me to observe how the Lord uses means to accomplish his purpose. It seems very clear that there
was supernatural, a supernatural element to the victory of Barak
over the army of Sisera. The relative strengths seemed
to be a real David and Goliath kind of contest. Deborah's song tells us in chapter
5, verse 20, they fought from heaven. The stars in their courses
fought against Sisera. And some people have suggested,
some writers have suggested that that might mean that there was
a great storm of hail or wind before the battle took place,
or that angels fought for Israel. or perhaps that the superstitious
Canaanites were afraid because they saw strange omens in the
night sky before the battle. Whatever that little phrase means,
the Lord stirred up Deborah and Barak and the courage of the
tribes that fought Zebulun and Naphtali in order to throw off
the shackles of the repressor. And my point is simply this,
God could have destroyed Sisera and his army by himself. He could have sent a plague,
he could have sent a storm, he could have caused them to have
been defeated by another army in another part of the country
altogether and there would have been no involvement of Deborah
or Barak or the tribes of Israel. God could do any of those things. but God nevertheless uses his
people to accomplish his will. He uses the circumstances and
other means to bring about his purpose. Deborah and Barak, even
Jael, this woman who killed Sisera, the lady with the tent peg, they
all did their part and by it the Lord obtained peace in Israel
for 40 years. And maybe we don't think that
the Lord could ever use us. Maybe our gift is also underestimated
by those who seem strong and influential. But the ways of
God are to use those who trust him to do work far beyond what
they might first imagine they can do. The Lord told His disciples
that by faith they would do great things. And I think that that
is something that we should all remember. As we trust in the
Lord, as we depend upon Him, the Lord is pleased to use our
testimony, use our witness, use the little that we have, the
little that we bring to Him. to accomplish great things. This message that we preach,
this saviour that we honour, this Jesus whom we follow is
able to do great things with people like us. Gebre's gift
was to listen to the word of the Lord and to trust what he
said. She did what she could, and she
enlisted the help of others to assist her, and she encouraged
them in their task. And because it was the will of
God, she succeeded. And in her song, she attributes
all the glory to God. When the Lord does a job to be
done, He raises up people to do that work. Sometimes it's
a person of status. Sometimes it's a very humble
person. Sometimes it's a strong leader.
Sometimes it's a small child. Sometimes it's a man and sometimes
it's a woman. But when the Lord is in it, his
cause will succeed. All of these judges were raised
up by the Lord at a time when Israel needed help because of
the terrible conditions due to their sin. Israel failed to remove
the Canaanites from the land and their toleration of these
idolatrous people led to Israel's own downfall. Year after year,
decade after decade, the people wandered far from God and God's
anger was against them. We noted right at the beginning
of our reading that it was the Lord who sold Israel into the
hand of Jabin as punishment for doing evil. Yet even when his
people forgot God, God did not forget them. In this we see the
patience and mercy of God. Let us always thank the Lord
for his patience and his mercy. When we are wayward, when we
are negligent, when we don't think about the Lord, by his
grace and mercy he thinks about us. He raised up Deborah as a
deliverer. and he fought for the people
that he loved. Yes, there was discipline. Yes,
there was correction. But he never forsook and he never
failed. And ultimately, all the types
and pictures these judges represent give way to the anti-type or
the fulfilment of the symbol when we see the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we see him coming into the
world to succeed where all others failed. he came to deliver his
people finally and everlastingly from their sins. Othniel, Ehud,
Shamgar and now Deborah all served the Lord in their day, but the
greatest deliverer And the most important lesson is that the
Lord Jesus Christ is saviour for sinners like us. He is the
way of salvation. He brings reconciliation and
he brings peace with God. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not
simply win peace for 10 or 20 years. He gained for his people
eternal life eternal joy and eternal peace in heaven. And
this is what we receive when we trust him. Paul says of the
Lord Jesus Christ in Galatians chapter one, verse four, who
gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this
present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Deborah's story and Deborah's
song is a story and a song of deliverance by God and of praise
for God. And by God's grace, we too shall
have such a story to tell and such a song to sing. May the
Lord deliver us from our sin and place in our hearts a new
soul of gratitude and praise for salvation by Jesus Christ. Amen.