A Peg & Providence (Judges 4:11-5:31)
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INTRO
INTRO
How do you preach this one??!! This is one of those crazy accounts in the Bible that just kind of make you wonder. This is why if a movie was made that actually showed what happened in the Bible, you would never let your children watch it!
Let me make some general comments about this passage and then we’ll get into our main focus.
First, let me say that not everything in the Bible is prescriptive. You need to know the difference between prescriptive and descriptive. The Bible describes many things that are not commanded to be followed today. Polygamy, sacrificial system, and if you’re a woman who is mad at a man, you cannot use this passage to say that it’s okay to drive a tent peg through his skull!
Second, it’s easy to read historical narratives of the Bible and just come away with a history lesson. If that’s the case, we’re not looking at why God put those details in there. We’re not looking at the larger picture of redemption. And so, I want us to look at this account not just for the details in it, but also for what it teaches us about God.
So let’s recap the account of the battle between Barak and Sisera, Israel versus Canaan, and the death of Sisera at the hands of a woman named Jael. This really would make a good movie!
v.11 almost seems like an out-of-place detail that we don’t need. But it actually connects to v.17. We’re introduced to Heber, who we learn is the husband of Jael, the one who murders Sisera. Heber is a Kenite. This group moved with Judah (1:16), so they were associated with the Israelites. V.11 tells us that he separated from the Kenites and set up camp near Kadesh.
tells us that The Oak at Zaanannim was the boundary of Naphtali, which was near Kedesh.
Kadesh happens to be where Barak and his soldiers came together (v.9-10).
So Heber left the Israelites for whatever reason and is living near where the Israelites gather for battle. When Barak put out the call for the Nephtalites in particular, there might have been something visible that Heber saw. In fact, Heber might have been the one who told Sisera what was happening (v.12- “Sisera was told...”)
Maybe Jael hadn’t completely switched allegiance away from the Israelites, and so when the golden opportunity came to destroy the Caananite military leader, she took it.
V.12-16. Sisera and Barak’s armies meet and the Lord routes Sisera’s men. We’ll talk more about how he did that soon.
V.17-24. Sisera flees on foot. The job isn’t done and Barak goes after him but is well behind him.
Jael comes out to meet Sisera—a bold move!
She lures him into a perfect spot to sleep. She brings him in the tent, covers him with a rug, and gives him some milk. It seems that she clearly understands what she’s doing!
He plays right into her plan by commanding her to stand guard at the entrance to the ten and tell anyone who approaches that no one was there.
V.21— she finishes Barak’s work.
V.23-24. Notice how it switches back to King Jabin of Canaan, no longer about Sisera. The real opponent to the Lord was Canaan, and this act was sovereignly in God’s plan to execute judgment on the Canaanites.
Now, let’s keep that intact with what comes next—chapter 5 is the most unique chapter in Judges because it is a song. The only song in Judges.
Why singing? Well, its not the first time we’ve seen singing from the Israelites before. Miriam and Moses led a song () after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt with the parting of the Red Sea.
Singing is a natural and proper response to experiencing the goodness of the Lord. Sometimes you just need to sing!
For Deborah and Barak, 5:1 tells us they sang on “that day.” That day when God subdued the king of Canaan before the Israelites. That day when 20 years of oppression stopped. That day when an army with advanced weaponry went up against the Israelites, who had not a shield or spear even (5:8).
So, yes—on that day, Israel is going to sing praises to the Lord!
The song in was reflecting on God’s work and praising Him for His faithfulness.
I want to share 3 major themes in the song of Deborah and Barak:
I want to share 3 major themes in the song of Deborah and Barak:
Leaders and Volunteers
God the Warrior
God of Creation
If you need a simple way to remember these three themes, you can remember RESPONSE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, RAIN.
Let’s look at what this praise song teaches us about the character of God.
Leaders and Volunteers (THE RESPONSE)
Leaders and Volunteers (THE RESPONSE)
God sovereignly works through people.
The first thing mentioned in this song is the leaders and people of Israel. V.2, and they are mentioned twice in the song (2,9).
The leaders were commanded by God, but they had to respond.
Barak had to be reminded to obey what the Lord had told him.
And throughout this whole account, the focus is easily on Deborah, Barak, and Sisera. But 4:6 tells us that 10K men from Naphtali and Zebulun rose up for battle. We don’t often think about them.
So you had leaders who needed to be faithful to the Lord, and you had soldiers who followed their leadership in unity to bring about God’s result.
The same goes today in the church. We are here to carry out the Great Commission of the Lord, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe everything Jesus has commanded.
For some reason, God chose to use us! He still works through people and he needs faithful people who will be obedient to respond when he calls.
Don’t think that this means we sit around and wait until some Herculean task to come our way in which we hear some audible voice of God in the sky – and then we respond. No, the Lord has commanded us now through his word; the fully revealed word of God is right in our hands, and the Lord needs leaders and volunteers. The Lord needs faithful servants.
The Lord desires righteousness and obedience– All of which he instructs in his word. Maybe the first step you need to take today is to recognize ways in which your life is out of sync with God‘s commands, repent, and come back in line with what he has commanded so that you can be faithful to his work.
God the Warrior
God the Warrior
We need to realize that even though the Lord chooses to use leaders and volunteers, these are fallible people still. Leaders and volunteers have limitations and it would be foolish to think that people alone could accomplish gods work.
We need to realize that even though the Lord chooses to use leaders and volunteers, these are fallible people still. Leaders and volunteers have limitations and it would be foolish to think that people alone could accomplish gods work.
It is the work of the Lord! And God is a mighty warrior, battling before his people. In 4:14 Deborah says, “does not the Lord go out before you?“
You see that it is the Lord who was fighting the battle. He is the one empowering the people he is using to accomplish the work. In the song in chapter 5, verse four and five show this same theme: you came; you marched; the mountains quaked before the Lord.
God is the mighty warrior who is executing judgment upon unrighteous, unrepentant people – the nation of Canaan here. This is not the first time that we see the theme of the Lord being a warrior. And we will just turn back to the song of Miriam and Moses to see this.
: “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. He threw Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea; the elite of his officers were drowned in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. Lord, your right hand is glorious in power. Lord, your right hand shattered the enemy.” (, CSB)
As He did with the Egyptians, he did with the Canaanites. The Lord is a Warrior! Though he uses faithful people to carry out his work, he is the one leading the battle.
Barry web, a commentator, wrote about how today’s generation of Christians feel some kind of embarrassment about this phrase of God being a mighty warrior. He recounted several examples of how Christians of a former generation felt no embarrassment at all. One of the most popular hymns that was song was “onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war.”
Billy Graham called his evangelistic meetings “crusades,“ realizing that there was nothing really Graham was doing to incite violence, but rather to recognize the spiritual battle we are in.
But then he says something powerful I want to share with you: “Why is it important that God is a man of war? It is important because there are some battles that you and I can’t win. When we step forward to follow Jesus, we step into a battle zone.“
Let me make a couple points of application here:
Hope and the Holy Spirit. You are empowered by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus left this earth, he told the disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. We have enough evidence from the old testament and even the knew that God is the mighty warrior, leading his people into the battle and empowering them for the fight. Reading about God is a mighty warrior ought to give you some of the greatest hope because you were not in spiritual battle by yourself on your own strength. The Lord, the mighty warrior, is with you and before you.
Prayer. With all of this being true, how in the world can we try to accomplish anything for the Lord without the pending fully on him? I think this reminds us how important prayer is. We need to go to the Lord, the one who is already where we are going and the one who will work through us to carry out his purposes.
Let there be some conviction here – how much do you try to do on your own strength, without prayer? Or maybe the reason you’re not doing anything of importance for the Lord is because you’re stuck trying to rely on your own strength.
We have seen that God uses leaders and volunteers, and that God is a mighty warrior, leading us in the battle, now...
God of Creation
God of Creation
He is Lord of nature. Can I just remind you that there is no such thing as Mother Earth if that is intended to be some kind of mystical presence over the earth maintaining it? God is the Creator and Sustainer. He is sovereign still over His creation:
Don’t forget , after the Flood occured: “And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”” (, ESV)
God is in control of His Creation.
We see this here in Judges as well. In 4:15, we read that THE LORD routed Sisera’s army. I’d like to know how that happened. It’s in the song.
Look at 5:4-5; 19-21:
v.4-5. when the Lord went to battle, the earth trembled, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked.
So it would appear that the Lord used rain/flooding to wash them away. Clouds dropped water. V.21 says the River Kishon washed them away.
Think about this: that amount of rain rendered those 900 iron chariots completely useless!
v.19—Certainly, Sisera and his army would have thought that they would destroy Israel and earn the spoils of war. But they got nothing.
V.20—instead, there is some kind of divine work here. The “stars fought” is a debated phrase, possibly meaning a comet, some say brightness, some say it is a reference to angels, and there could possibly be other explanations. The bottom line is that whatever it is, it definitely is some divine work of God, the Lord of Creation.
So God worked through a RESPONSE from his people, for RIGHTEOUSNESS as he executed judgment, and through RAIN, as Lord of His Creation. All of this to continue carrying out His plan of redemption.
Let me remind you that the account doesn’t stop here. God continued to used leaders and volunteers, and still does as we carry out His work.
But His ultimate work of imparting righteousness was done years after Deborah and Barak. God sent His Son, Jesus, to the cross to bear the sins of the world and stand in the place of sinners. Because He died on the cross and rose three days later, repentant sinners can put their faith in Jesus Christ and be made righteous to be able to stand before the Lord one day. There is no other way to have purpose on this earth and to live eternally in heaven except to repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus.
This is where your response comes in. The invitation has been given—now you must choose Jesus. You must choose against your sin and worldly ways and put your faith in Christ instead.