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Judges
4:1-24 “And
the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD,
when Ehud was dead. 2 And
the LORD
sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the
captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the
Gentiles. 3 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. 4
And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of
Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. 5
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. 6 And
she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-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? 7 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. 8
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. 9
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 Sisera into the hand of a woman.
And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10
And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to
Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him. 11
Now Heber the Kenite, which was of
the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the
Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by
Kedesh. 12 And
they shewed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor. 13
And Sisera gathered together all his
chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were
with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river Kishon. 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, and ten thousand men after him. 15
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. 16 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. 17
Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to
the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite:
for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house
of Heber the Kenite. 18 And
Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to
me; fear not. And when he had turned in
unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. 19
And he said unto her, Give me, I pray
thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him
drink, and covered him. 20 Again
he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man
doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt
say No. 21 Then
Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and
went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. 22
And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera,
Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will shew thee the
man whom thou seekest. And when he came
into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his
temples. 23 So
God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
24 And
the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the
king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.” Introduction:
Deborah & Barak [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED631 ] “Judges
chapter 4, we come this evening to Deborah and Barak, and Jael, interesting,
interesting portion of Scripture. Our
focus is switching from Othniel and Ehud and Shamgar in the south (and Midwest)
to the northern part of Israel, where-again
the Israelites have turned away to worship Baal and Ashtaroth, to
worship other gods, and the LORD
is dealing with them. They have
experienced their longest rest, it was 80 years long, in verse 30 of chapter
3 it says “So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.” for
80 years, that is the longest period of rest that they have. Chapter 4 begins by saying “And the
children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD,
when Ehud was dead.” (verse 1) Remember,
all of this is every man doing what is right in his own eyes, not what’s wrong
in his own eyes, what’s right in his own eyes, but it’s evil before the LORD. It says ‘The children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the LORD
when Ehud was dead.’ “And the LORD
sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the
captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the
Gentiles.” (verse 2) Now,
this is sad, because this is the first captivity by a Canaanite king, it had
been the Edomites, the Moabites, those coming across the border into Israel. Now Jabin, and that’s not his name, he’s the
king of the Canaanite tribe, the name “Jabin” is like “Pharaoh,” that’s his
title, and his captain of arms [commanding general] is Sisera. The sad thing is, that we are only less than
a 100 years, or right about there from Joshua chapter 11, you don’t have to
turn there, it says “It came to pass when Jabin” and this is an
earlier Jabin, like a Pharaoh, again, “king of Hazor,” and Hazor
was about 200 acres within the walls, you figure Jericho where the walls fell
down was only 8 to 11 acres inside the walls, it wasn’t huge, it was about as
big as our property inside the walls.
But you have Hazor, 200 acres, it’s a huge complex in the north. It says ‘It came to pass when Jabin
king of Hazor had heard the things about Joshua,’ what’s going on with
the success of the Israelites, ‘he gathered himself the kings that were
in the north, in the mountains and plains of Kinnereth and in the valley and
borders of Dorn and so forth, and to the Canaanites on the east and on the
west, and to the Amorite and the Hittite, the Perizzites and Jebusites, in the
mountains the Hivites, mount Hermon and Mizpah, they went out and all their
host with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the seashore in
multitude, with horses and chariots,’ Josephus tells us there were
300,000 infantry, 10,000 calvary and 20,000 chariots. Now our confrontation tonight is going to be
with 900 chariots, and Israel’s terrorized, and it’s less than 100 years later. Here it’s a 100 years before this, and Joshua
moving forward with the Captain of the LORD
of hosts, he’s facing 300,000 infantry, 10,000 calvary and 20,000
chariots. It says ‘they went out,
their host, as much people as the sand that’s upon the seashore in multitude
with horses and chariots very many, and when all these kings were met together
they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom [lake Hulah, just north
of lake Galilee] to fight against Israel.
And the LORD
said to Joshua, Be not afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time
will I deliver them up all slain before Israel, thou shalt hue their horses and
burn their chariots with fire,’ and
so forth. And of course Joshua has a
tremendous victory. Now here we are, the
new generation is settled into the land, and there’s a new Jabin that’s arisen,
and evidently they have rebuilt Hazor enough for it to be a fortress again, and
he has a captain [commanding general] named Sisera of 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.” (verse 3) [that
would be from the end of Ehud/Shamgar, around 1346BC – 20 = 1326BC] for 20 years Sisera oppressed Israel, we’re
told in the Song of Deborah that we’re going to come to, that no one would
travel on the roads where there had been much trade, that people walked in the
pathways and the byways in the mountains to stay away from Sisera, that travel
wasn’t safe, the people weren’t living in villages, they were living in walled
fortresses, that he was terrorizing the whole northern, at least, part of the
country. So 20 years they’re in bondage
to Jabin king of Hazor with Sisera, and they were oppressing the children of
Israel. And we come now to this woman,
Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that
time. Now, we’re not told of her
lineage, she shows up on the scene, and then passes off. We’re given the information the LORD
wants us to have. Her name is Deborah,
which means “bee,” like bzzzz, and I don’t particularly like bees, I do like
honey, so I tolerate bees. Wasps I think
are completely useless, but a bee can produce something sweet or painful, and
certainly this Deborah is able to do that.
She’s the wife of a man named Lapidoth which means “torches” or
“fires.” And 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.” (verse 5)
And she called Barak, his name means “lightning,” so her husband’s
name means “torches,” the guy she calls for help means “lightning,” she like
fiery men evidently. She is a very
peculiar person, ladies listen up, and guys, she’s an example to us. She is a prophetess, we’re told, which means
that God is speaking to this woman. She
is a judge, the only woman that was a prophetess before this was Meriam and
Meriam failed, Meriam ended up being smitten with leprosy and Moses prayed for
her and she was cleansed. This woman,
we’re going to find out is a prophetess, it means she has the Word of the LORD
for Israel, she is a judge, and the only other person that we find that was both
a judge and a prophet is Samuel, he’s the last of the judges, the first of the
Prophets. She is a prophetess, she’s a
judge, we’re going to find out she’s a military commander, and she’s a
Psalmist, she is unique in Scripture, this woman, Deborah. It just tells us, she’s married to a man
named Lapidoth, from other verses in the Song we’re going to assume she has
children, we assume that. And she is the
one whose judged Israel at that time.
Ehud is gone, Shamgar is gone, Othniel is gone and God has raised up
this woman, evidently no one else is listening.
He’s raised up this woman to be a judge in Israel, “And she dwelt
under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim:” now
that’s an interesting location, we’re going to talk about that later, she sits
under this tree, “and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.”
(verse 5) Now it just seems to be
the north, the whole nation comes to her, they know about her. Listen, no radio, no television, no
periodicals, no internet, no cell phones, this woman has a reputation because
this woman hears from God. And evidently
she supersedes the Urim and the Thummim during this time, no one’s going to
Shiloh, no one’s going to the priests, the nation comes to this woman, Deborah,
what a woman she was. All of Israel come
up to her for judgment, and at this time is the indication, “And she sent
and called for Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto
him, Hath not the LORD
God of Israel commanded, saying, Go draw toward mount Tabor, and take
with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of
Zebulun?” (verse 6) now that’s over a
hundred miles north of where she is, he has to make a several day journey to
come down, he hears that Deborah wants him, and it tells us what esteem she
must be held in for this man whose a warrior then to head south to come to
her. “and said unto him, Hath not the
LORD
God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and take with thee ten thousand men
of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?”
now she’s heard from God. So those of
you who’ve just been to Israel, those of you who have been with us before, when
you’re at Megiddo and you look across the Valley of Armageddon, the Valley of
Jezreel, Isralden, you can see mount Tabor, it’s a very interesting and
peculiar shaped dome-shaped hill on the other side of the Valley of
Jezreel. It ascends 1300 feet above the
floor of the valley. And of course
because this man Sisera has 900 chariots of iron, the best vantage point to
face him would be from a mountainside where chariots are pretty much
non-functional. So the LORD
begins to speak to Deborah, Deborah knows the man to call, I’m not sure if she
knew him before this or if the LORD
said ‘there’s a man named Barak, get him down
here,’ she sends for him, Barak
comes down and she says “Hath not the LORD
said,” she said the LORD
is speaking, “Go and draw toward mount Tabor,” now
he’s gotta go all the way back up to where he just came down from, “and take
with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of
Zebulun--and I” this is the LORD
speaking “will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of
Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude;” and notice, “and I” the
LORD “will deliver him
into thine hand.” (verses 6b-7) Now
the river Kishon, today is basically just a stream, a brook in Israel. A hundred years ago though, sailboats would
come up the Kishon into the Valley of Jezreel from the Mediterranean, and
evidently back in this time it was even more a notable river, because we’re
going to find out here in this situation it’s going to overflow its banks. The LORD
says “I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera,” and the Kishon
is the river that goes down in front of mount Tabor, “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,” she
just said this to him prophetically, “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.” (verses 7b-8) Now here’s a military commander telling
Deborah ‘I’ll go fight if you go with me, if you ain’t going then I ain’t
going.’ Now some immediately try
to characterize Barak as being a coward or cowering before Sisera, but you have
to understand, in Israel before this as they came into the land, the Ark of the
Covenant went to battle before them. We’re
not hearing anything about a priest really in the Book of Judges, we’re not
hearing about the Urim and Thummim, you know, the presence of the LORD
is upon Deborah, and he says ‘I will go to battle because the whole
nation knows her,’ he’s fighting at a great disadvantage, he’s gotta
collect warriors from what’s left from some tribes, any of the nation that
dwelt on the plains in the valley are gone, the only place where there’s still
Israeli strongholds are in the mountains where they’re able to fight against
Jabin and his chariots. And he’s
wondering ‘Where am I going to collect 10,000 soldiers?’ and it says in
the Song of Deborah when we come to it in chapter 5, which sheds light on all
this, it says “was there a shield or a sword amongst forty thousand in
Israel?” because the Hittites, the Canaanites were forging metal weapons
and metal shields, and they had chariots of iron, and they would only allow the
Israelites to have a metal plow or something, they had stripped them of their
weaponry. So Barak is saying, ‘How
am I supposed to do this? I’ll do this
if you’ll go with me, we understand the LORD
is speaking through you, if you go I’ll go, if you’re not gonna go, then I’m
not going to 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 Sisera into the hand of a woman.
And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.” (verse 9) Now it doesn’t say if she asked Lapidoth her
husband, he must just be sitting there listening, and she said ‘Oh you
want me to go up north and face the Hittites with you into battle? No problem.’
Now I can’t imagine my wife doing that without asking permission
first, ‘Hey, do you mind if I go to war with the troops? Ah, stay right here, I’m gonna get Jeff Black,
you can talk to him for awhile…’ She
says “I will surely go with thee:
notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine
honour; for the LORD
shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.” (verse 9) So there will be honour attached to
this. Now, Jael, we’re going to come to
her, and she gets a lot of criticism, I mean, I’ve read a lot of stuff. And so many will criticize her and say she
extended this Bedouin type hospitality to this guy, she gets him in the tent,
she kills him, she betrayed him, what she did is wrong and so forth. Well it says here that the honour of slaying
Sisera is not going to go to Barak, so there’s honour from the LORD
attached to it, but the honour’s going to go to Jael, because the LORD’s
going to give Sisera into Jael’s hand.
So it’s the LORD
who is doing this. And Jael, what a
woman she is, sleep in a separate room if you’re married to her, we’ll come to
that. So he says ‘the honour’s not
going to be to you because the LORD’s
going to sell Sisera into the hand of a woman,’ “And
Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.
And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten
thousand men at his feet: and Deborah
went up with him.” (verse 10) Now Barak never read chapter 5, if he had
read chapter 5, he never read the Book of Judges, he’d have been a little more
self-assured. He’s living this out, and
he never read it, just like you’re living out your chapters and haven’t read
them ahead of time, he’s living out his.
Deborah comes on the scene, no pedigree, no lineage after her, she steps
onto the scene, she changes the nation.
All of us pass through, in this life, and we either build or we tear
down, we either encourage or we discourage, we either change for the good or
change for the worse. I remember years
ago a study was done, and it was by one of the major corporations in America,
and they decided after several years of study, that every human being
dramatically effects in their life up to 300 people, from the time you’re a
child to the time you die. You have a
dramatic effect on that many people, to build up, to tear down, to encourage,
to discourage, to challenge, not to challenge.
This woman Deborah comes on the scene and she changes the nation,
without pedigree, there’s no official training here, she’s a prophetess because
her heart resonates with the LORD. She doesn’t have a promotion, she’s not in
the newspaper, she doesn’t have the Deborah TV show every week. People are drawn to her because of the depth
of her spiritual person, her spiritual commitment to the LORD,
so much so that Barak doesn’t want to go into battle without this woman,
Deborah. Heber
The Kenite Snitches, ‘Drops A Dime’ On Barak--Which Lures Sisera & Jabin’s
Army Into God’s Trap Now,
it says in verse 11, “Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children
of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and
pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is Kedesh.” What it’s saying here is, Moses’
father-in-law, Jethro, Hobab, came with the children of Israel in their
wanderings in the Wilderness and entered into the land. We’re told in chapter 1, verse 16 that they
were given a place in the Araba, in the south, which they love, of the
desert. This particular man and his
family split off from the rest of the Kenites and moved up north, and had made
some type of league with Jabin the king of Hazor. He’s friendly with him, he’s not an
Israelite, he’s a Kenite. So he had some
type of dealings with the king of Jabin, which is the enemy of Israel. So it says he moved up north to Kedesh where
this battle is going to take place. And
it says “And they” these Kenites that had turned against their own
family it seems, “shewed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to
mount Tabor.” (verse 12) So, this
guy drops a dime on Barak. You know,
sometimes you and I are really bugged when somebody says something to somebody
else about us, or seems to get us in trouble.
Now look, this is exactly what was on the menu, this is exactly what the
LORD used. God uses dime-droppers. We know, we wish he wouldn’t use them around
us, I understand, but he does. And
sometimes when that happens, instead of just getting mad, sit back and pray,
and see if the Lord might be doing something.
Because he uses this traitor to draw Sisera into the battle, where this
incredible victory for the children of Israel is going to take place. “And Sisera gathered together all of his
chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron,” they were tanks, you
know, “and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the
Gentiles unto the river Kishon. 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?” ” (verses 13-14) So Barak’s out there with 10,000 troops, he’s
on the side of mount Tabor thinking ‘They’re gonna have to come get us,
we’ll fight them on the mountain, I’m not going down there,’ and Deborah
says ‘No, up! On your way, get
down there, go out there and get them, God’s delivered them.’ You know, this takes quite a bit of
faith for Barak to listen to Deborah in this situation, ‘the LORD’s
delivered them into your hands, Sisera is given into your hand,’ “is
not the LORD gone
out before thee? So Barak went down from
mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.” I
love this word, “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.” (verses 14b-15) You see that a lot in the Coyote verses the
Roadrunner, he discomfited a lot smokin’, falling off cliffs. Now what we’re going to find out is in
Deborah’s Song, which is one of the oldest songs anywhere in the world, by the
way, we’re going to find out in her song that the LORD
moved from heaven, there was a supernatural moving
of the elements and so forth, and it says the chariots and the horses were
sloshing around in the mud, and that the Kishon river swelled up and carried
them away. Josephus tells us that a wind
came up, and the rain and the hail were so strong that they were blowing in the
face of Sisera’s men and his chariots, that the hail stones where hitting them
so that they couldn’t use a bow and arrow, they couldn’t use a sling, they
couldn’t hold onto their swords, they couldn’t steer their chariots, that this
tempest came up and it just floored them.
There are things like that that have happened in history by the way
[there was a strong soaking rain that took place in the area of the battlefield
of Waterloo the evening before Napoleon confronted the Duke of Wellington so
Napoleon’s cavalry were having a hard time of it in the mud]. Deborah says ‘Get up, and go down
there, the LORD
has given them into your hand,’ and
it says ‘and the LORD
discomfited them,’ and they took the host
by the edge of the sword, and Sisera lighted down, he jumped off his chariot,
and he began to run away on foot, a miraculous victory here. “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.” (verse 16) what a great victory God had
given. Jael,
A Very Special Woman--Sisera’s Worst Nightmare Now,
“Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber
the Kenite: for there was peace
between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.” (verse 17) Now Sisera’s problem is going to be this,
that there was peace between Jabin and her husband, but there wasn’t peace
between Jabin and Jael, the wife, that’s gonna be Sisera’s problem as he gets
into this circumstance. So we have this
interesting picture given to us now.
Listen, there is a woman, she is a Bedouin woman. Ah, if you’ve been to Israel and you could
see, some of them look pretty rugged, and she is, her name in Hebrew can be
combination of Ja and El, Jehovah is God, but Jael, the root of it in her own
language, it has the idea of a gazelle, but all these words have a verb root,
and it means “to ascend,” it means “to be valuable,” it means “to do
good.” And because the root word means
“ascending,” it would use it to describe a gazelle. She, this particular person, Jael, reflects
something of value, something that ascends above what’s around her. We’re going to find out that her husband and
the tribe are friends with Sisera and Jabin, but she can’t stand it. This is a woman who watched Pop Eye when she
grew up, and in this scene she said ‘That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands
no more!’ and her pipe spun around and she got a can of spinach and just
leveled this guy. So she’s a very
interesting character. “And Jael went
out to meet Sisera,” Sisera is of an uncertain root, and if you have the
old Scofield with the names in the back and have another book which is just on
names, and in there it says the root of it means “to bind with chains.” So you have these two personalities, names
are important in the Bible, and it’s not happenstance or coickidink here, this
is Jael, which means to ascend, to be valuable, and she’s in a conflict, going
to be, with Sisera, his name means to bind with chains. And he flees there to where he knows this
settlement of tents are. In Israel
today, the Bedouins are in different places, you see these black tents, they
look just like they did 3,000 years ago, 4,000 years ago when Abraham lived in
tents. They bring their sheep into the
tent at night. Israelis bought these,
built these condominiums south of Jerusalem, in the southern part of Judah for
the Bedouins, the Bedouins are good citizens, they enter the Israeli military,
they’re some of the best trackers in the world, they can track over a rock,
they’re amazing. So the Israelis built
these condominiums for them, and when they let the Bedouins settle in, the
Bedouins put their tents next to the condominiums and put the sheep in the
condos and they stayed in their tents. I
mean, it’s just an ancient culture. The
funny thing is, you go by now, you’ll see a TV antenna on top of the tent and a
Honda generator sitting next to it, and they’re in there watching American Idol
or something. But it’s a very
interesting culture. When you come in
there’s a whole series of drinks they’ll offer you, a very bitter cup of coffee
when you get there, and that is you bring to mind all of your bitter memories,
once you’re in their hospitality, and then they give you an extremely sweet cup
after that, which means we don’t need to remember all of that while you’re here,
we want this to be a sweet experience, and so forth. When they bring forth the dinner, and it can
be a whole roasted goat or lamb, they won’t eat until you can’t eat anymore…and
it’s of their delight, and of course you’re supposed to belch, and they’re all
happy, and then they’ll all dig in. But
they’ll wait, you’re the guest, you eat until you can’t eat anymore, and then
again, after dinner there’s a very sweet cup of coffee. And all of it very symbolic, it’s a culture
that’s thousands of years old. Much of
that is akin to what is happening here.
So he flees to this Bedouin community, these Kenites, Sisera, he knows
that they’re there. “And Jael went
out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear
not. And when he had turned in unto her
into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.” (verse 18) Now, she evidently knows there’s been a
defeat, obviously he’s running alone, she can tell by the look on his face, she
says ‘don’t be afraid,’ she knows they’ve been defeated, and she
takes him into her tent. Now the women’s
tent was the Harem’s tent, and at the sake of your life you didn’t go in that
tent without an invitation, she says to Sisera ‘You can come into here in
my tent,’ and he’s thinking ‘Great, nobody will look for me there,’ and
she covers him up. He’s completely
exhausted no doubt. “And he said unto
her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him
drink, and covered him.” (verse 19) now the milk is not from the fridge, it
is “leben,” the Bedouins, the Arabs drink it in the Middle East today, it is a
curdled milk, she probably had it in a wineskin, and she gave him that to
drink, it was creamy but was sour, and it was a delicacy, it’s not a bottle of
milk from the fridge, it’s not cold, nothings cold over there. And she gives that to him, “and gave him
to drink, and covered him.” he’s exhausted, and lays down. “And he said unto her, Stand in the door
of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and enquire of thee, and
say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No.” (verse 20) ‘I want you to keep me hidden, I want
you to lie,’ and like anything that binds us, any sin, he’s saying ‘deny
my existence, say I’m not here, I’m not in your home, I’m not in your house.’ So evidently, he lays down now and he zonks
out, he’s gone. And it says “Then
Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and
went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into
the ground: for he was fast asleep and
weary. So he died.” (verse 21) Now this is a 12 inch to 18 inch nail, this
is a tent stake, a tent peg. Look, it
says it right there if you don’t believe me.
Took a nail of the tent. It was
the woman’s job, and still is in this culture, to set up the tent and take down
the tent. In fact the Bedouins in Israel
today, sorry for those of you who have heard and are bored, but somebody new
might enjoy this, they take four wives over a lifetime, and they buy them all,
by the way. And the first wife they get,
they look for somebody strong, good biceps, because the wife sets up the tent
and takes down the tent, takes care of the flocks, so you get a strong one and they’re
productive. And when you can afford it
because you’re making more money, because you got a strong wife, then you buy
your second one, and then when you’re making more money you buy your third one,
and they save for their old age, they save the fourth wife which is a pretty
one, which they buy for pleasure, she doesn’t work like the rest. So, you know, and they have a saying there,
that’s for us ‘That for us four is not enough, in America one is too much.’ They have a sense of humour, ‘we pay once,
you pay for the rest of your life,’ they have these jokes, I don’t
understand them, I don’t know why they say these things [loud laughter], but,
you’re in trouble. So he lays down, he’s
asleep, and it says “Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent,” one
of these big 15-inch things, “and took an hammer, and went softly unto him,
and smote the nail into his temples,” gives a whole new meaning to Pagan
Temples, “and fastened it into the ground:
for he was fast asleep and weary.
So he died.” (verse 21) Well
that’s a foregone conclusion, you know, he’s sleeping, she’s probably humming
him to sleep, ‘If I had a hammer, I’ll hammer him in the morning,’ and,
this is probably ‘Walk softly and carry a big stake,’ from here. It’s hard to just walk by this, you know, you
look at it and think ‘Well, at least we know the last thing that went
through his mind.’ [very loud laughter and clapping] And she’s got, when I lived on the West Coast
before I moved back, I was framing and joucing, I still have my worm-drive,
skill-saw, still have my rigging ax, and they used to have these posters where
you have this guy with this great big right arm, great big biceps, holding a
rigging ax, and in his little withered left arm he’s holding a nail, so you can
imagine her, she did this all the time, she took that tent stake and in one
swing she drove that baby right through his head right into the ground. She’s quite a woman [laughter]. “And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera,
Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will shew thee the
man whom thou seekest. And when he came
into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his
temples. So God subdued on that day
Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel
prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had
destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.” (verses 22-24)
So, there’s a picture here, look, obviously we’re to learn something
from it. And it isn’t, we’re Christians,
so somebody whose evil, somebody that would hurt us [I know a few of those,
women mostly], we can’t invite them in and give them a big dinner and tell them
to take a nap and drive a tent stake through their head, that’s not the lesson
before us 😊. But there is a lesson here, what things do we
allow in our tent that would bind us, as it were, with chains? What things do we have in our tent, in our
homes, that say to us ‘Don’t let anyone else know’? You know, go to church, do the Christian
thing, but don’t let anybody know there’s pornography here, don’t let anybody
know there’s alcohol here [Calvary Chapels, having started out as a healing
ministry, ministering to the drug and alcohol-crazed Hippies of the late 1960s,
teach total abstinence from alcohol consumption, whereas the pastors do know
the Bible allows the consumption of alcohol in “extreme moderation.”], don’t
let anybody know there’s substance [drugs] here, these things are here that
bind us with chains. And the thing is,
you know, for you and I, that’s the question, what defeated an oppressor that’s
in our tent, that would still bind us?
This Sisera, this binder with chains, was defeated, and she knew that. And she had to stand, she had to stand up in
her home, in her family, no doubt against her husband’s wishes who wanted to be
friends with Jabin and thought ‘This is the smartest thing for us to do,
we’ll never be safer than being friends with this guy,’ she couldn’t stand
it anymore. Jael had watched, Jael resonated
with the True and Living God, we’re going to find as we come to the end of the
Song of Deborah, it says it was typical for Jabin and his army to take the
young girls in Israel for themselves, one or two for every man, grabbing the
daughters of Israel. And Jael no doubt
had watched the abuse, watched the slaughter, and there was something in her
that despised, and there needs to be something in us that has had enough, that
despises those things that would bind us.
They’re defeated, Christ is more than a conqueror. Greater is he that is in you than is in the
world. What do we allow in our tent and
what tells us in our tent ‘Don’t tell anybody I’m here’? The truth is, when we let those things go on,
it’s never static, it’s never neutral, it has an effect. There are some things in our tents that we
need to be nailed down--aren’t there? There are some things in our tents that need
to be nailed down, certainly that’s the lesson.
And sometimes when a man won’t stand up to do it, ladies. I don’t want to hear anything on the news
tomorrow, but sometimes there needs to be a Deborah, when the guys are not
standing up, that’s hearing the Spirit of the Lord, that’s respected, and
hearkened to. I think Deborah sat under
that tree there by Shechem, I think her kids came with their friends, I bet
they said ‘Your mom is really cool, she is really cool, we like to go
because she talks to us about God, she is really cool.’ Because they didn’t have, you know, MTV,
or they didn’t have videos, they didn’t have the internet, they didn’t have
MySpace or Facebook or anything, so they went to hang out with Deborah, their
friend’s mom, ‘She’s really cool.’
Jael, what a woman she must have been, nailing these things down. Now, here’s the Song. Judges
5:1-31 “Then
sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying, 2
Praises ye the LORD
for the avenging of Israel, when the
people willingly offered themselves. 3
Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye
princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD
God of Israel. 4 LORD,
when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. 5
The mountains melted from before the LORD,
even that Sinai from before the LORD
God of Israel. 6 In
the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were
unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. 7
The inhabitants of
the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I
arose a mother in Israel. 8 They
chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty
thousand in Israel? 9 My
heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves
willingly among the people. Bless ye the
LORD.
10 Speak,
ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way. 11.
They that are delivered from
the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse
the righteous acts of the LORD,
even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in
Israel: then shall the people of the LORD
go down to the gates. 12 Awake,
awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a
song: arise, Barak, and lead
captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. 13
Then he made him that remaineth have
dominion over the nobles among the people:
the LORD
made me have dominion over the mighty. 14
Out of Ephraim was there a root
of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir
came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
15 And
the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also
Barak: he was sent on foot into the
valley. For the divisions of Reuben there
were great thoughts of heart. 16
Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds,
to hear the bleatings of the flock? For
the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 17
Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did
Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on
the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.
18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a
people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of
the field. 19 The
kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the
waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money. 20
They fought from heaven; the stars in
their courses fought against Sisera. 21
The river of Kishon swept them away,
that ancient river, the river Kishon. O
my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
22 Then were the horsehoofs broken by the
means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones. 23
Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD,
curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of
the LORD,
to the help of the LORD
against the mighty. 24 Blessed
above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be
above women in the tent. 25 He
asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a
lordly dish. 26 She
put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workman’s hammer; and with
the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and
stricken through his temples. 27 At
her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down:
at her feet he bowed, he fell:
where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 28
The mother of Sisera looked out at a
window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in
coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots? 29
Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she
returned to answer herself, 30 Have
they not sped? Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or
two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of
needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the
spoil? 31 So
let all thine enemies perish, O LORD:
but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in
his might. And the land had rest forty
years.” The
Song of Deborah “Now,
here’s the song that this woman who is a prophetess, a judge, a military
commander, a Psalmist, here’s this song that the Spirit of the LORD
puts in her heart, it says, “Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam
on that day, saying, Praise ye the LORD
for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.”
(verses 1-2) the avenging of Israel took place
when people willingly offered themselves.
That’s New Testament, “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the
mercies of God” Romans 12, “that you present yourself a living sacrifice, be
not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove” it means “prove out to completion,” “what
is the good, perfect, acceptable will of God for you.” It says that there was victory when ‘they
willingly offered themselves to the LORD.’ And it was against great odds, and they
hadn’t read the chapter, and they had to do it in faith. [a thought just came to my mind, ‘Miracles
don’t produce faith, they come after faith.’] You haven’t read your chapters and I haven’t
read mine, what might happen? “Hear,
O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD;
I will sing praise to the LORD
God of Israel. LORD,
when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the LORD,
even that Sinai from before the LORD
God of Israel.” (verses 3-5) tracking the 40-year
wanderings and how God went before them, and so forth. Then she says “In the days of Shamgar the
son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the
travellers walked through byways.” (verse 6) it was so dangerous it was
anarchy, you couldn’t travel on the streets, and the travellers walked through
the byways, on the mountain paths where they could hide as they travelled. “The inhabitants of the villages
ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a
mother in Israel.” (verse 7) that is phenomenal, we need to rise up
sometimes. She arose. Now it reminds me of David, as he’s signing
off at the end of 2nd Samuel, he doesn’t say ‘This is the end of
my life, David, the King of Israel, and it will be after my throne that the
Messiah will come,’ he doesn’t say ‘David, the giant-killer of Israel,’ he
says ‘David, the sweet psalmist of Israel.’ What was closest to his heart, this is a man
that always wished he could have been a priest, to stand in the temples of the
LORD and worship, the sweet
Psalmist of Israel. ‘He shall be
like the light of the morning when the sun rises, even the morning without
clouds, the clear shining after the rain,’ he describes the Kingdom of
the Messiah, that was his heart, to be the sweet Psalmist of Israel. And this woman says, ‘a mother.’ Now look, it is “a mother in Israel.” It doesn’t say a mother of what,
certainly she was a mother to Israel as it were. But she also was a mother, it seems, of her
own children in Israel, and was fed up with what she was seeing going on. Mother’s need to be fed up, with what they
see going on that would destroy their children and take them away. And the interesting thing here, I dig these
things up, I have this great commentary from several hundred years ago. And he goes to Jacob and his family when they
return from Padam Aram, and they come, and after the slaughtering at Shechem,
and God told Jacob ‘Arise and go up to Bethel, and dwell there,’ and so
forth. And Jacob says to his family, his
household, ‘Put away your strange gods from among you, be clean, change your
garments, arise, let’s go to Bethel and I’ll make there an altar unto the LORD
God,’ and Jacob comes there and it tells us
that he’s there between Bethel and the area of Ramah, Jacob came there to
Bethel, and he built an altar and called it El Bethel because God appeared unto
him there when he fled from the face of his brother (Genesis 35:1-7), and just
it throws in there, very strange, “But, Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died,
and she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak, and the name of it was called
Ellon-bachuth.” (Genesis 35:8) another Deborah. This Deborah was from Padam-Aram, Eleazar
goes there on behalf of Abraham to get a bride for Isaac, and when Rebekah is
sent back, her handmaid, Deborah, her nurse, her servant is sent with her to
come back. And Deborah watches all the
children of Israel born, all of the tribes, she knew all the heads of the
tribes. And by this time, it seems
Rebekah is gone, Jacob, his children are grown, she has to be 80, 90 years old,
and she has been endeared to the family, she’s not treated like a servant, they
honour her in her death, and she was in many ways “a mother to Israel.” She was a mother and she watched each of
those men, Reuben and Gad, Simeon, Naphtali, Joseph, Judah, she watched them
grow up, and they were all adults now, and she had cared for them and they
loved her. And now these many centuries
later her namesake Deborah, not under a
terabinth, but under a palm in the same valley by Bethel, she takes her
station. You see, I can say to you
tonight, ‘Hey, look at Deborah, look at Jael, now here’s an example for us.’ ‘Now, ok Joe, we just thought he was kind of
weird tonight, wish I hadn’t brought my aunt, I brought her tonight, told her
about church, he was talking about driving nails through people’s heads,’ no,
no, no, no, calm down. I’m saying, what
we’re seeing here can be an example for us.
And maybe you don’t think so.
Here’s a Deborah, hundreds of years later (maybe 500, 600 years later),
who parks herself in the same valley under a tree. The palm is swinging above her head, the
terabinth over her namesake. And she’s
thinking about Reuben, and Gad, and Simeon and Naphtali and Zebulun, and she is
both a mother in Israel and a mother of Israel.
And she has taken the lesson from another woman hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of years before that and applied it to her own heart, and it
resonated there, and God watered it, and he brought it to fruition. And the lives of the men and women that were
recorded in the Bible and preserved for thousands of years and held before us
are there for you and I to take hold of.
For you and I to see them rise off the page, our lives. And this woman, who could have said, ‘And
I arose, Deborah, even a prophetess in Israel, even a judge in Israel, even a
military commander in Israel, even a psalmist in Israel,’ there was no one
like her before or after, she said ‘And then I, Deborah,’ and I
believe she’s saying this astounded, ‘I, Deborah, arose, that I arose a
mother in Israel,’ I bet Golda Meir loved this one, she was a mother in
Israel, and how important her life was to the nation. And God cared about her, by the way, she had
an enlightening spiritual experience before she passed on, Golda Meir. ‘Even I, Deborah, sitting in the same
valley under a tree, a mother in Israel.’
“Was
There A Shield Or Spear Seen Among Forty Thousand In Israel?” She
says, “They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty
thousand in Israel? My heart is toward
the governors of Israel, that offered
themselves willingly among the people.
Bless ye the LORD. Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that
sit in judgment, and walk by the way.” “white
asses” that was a sign that they were dignitaries, they would come, the
governors in Israel, “They that are delivered from the noise of the
archers in the places of drawing water,” they were being ambushed where
they had wells and so forth, “there shall they rehearse the righteous acts
of the LORD,
even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in
Israel: then shall the people of the LORD
go down to the gates. Awake, awake,
Deborah: awake, awake, utter a
song: arise, Barak, and lead captivity
captive, thou son of Abinoam. Then he
made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD
made me have dominion over the mighty.
Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after
thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of
Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.” there
were those who came that wanted to fight, that handled the pen, that wanted to
put their hand to the sword even though they didn’t have weapons, “And the
princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also
Barak: he was sent on foot into the
valley. For the divisions of Reuben there
were great searchings of heart. Why
abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were
great searchings of heart.” it says Reuben had great thoughts, resonated
with things, Reuben heard, but they didn’t move, they stayed there, they abode
among the flocks, “Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? [Dan,
the Danites, some of them would later become the Sword Danes, Danish Vikings,
some of these descriptions are also prophetic about the type of nations they
would become] “Asher continued on the
sea shore, and abode in his breaches.” (verses 8-17) not everybody
responded, not everybody is going to respond, not everybody is going to say ‘Lord,
here I am, Lord I can’t take it anymore,’ not everybody is going to say ‘You
know, I’m ready.’ ‘I see some of these
characters that you put before us in Scripture Lord, I resonate here Lord, let
me stand up, show me what to do, how can I serve you today? I’m just a mother in Israel, show me what I
can do?’ And it says they didn’t all
respond. A
Supernatural Victory “Zebulun
and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in
the high places of the field. The kings
came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the
waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.” (verses 18-19) Now it tells us why, here’s how the battle
went. “They fought from heaven; the
stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river
Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden
down strength. Then were the horsehoofs
broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.”
(verses 18-22) King James “of the pransings,” it’s “of their plungings,” is
the Hebrew word, their plunging, “the plunging of their mighty ones,” the idea
is they got stuck in the mud, they got bogged down. Again, Josephus told us that the hail and the
rain came so hard in their faces that they couldn’t see to shoot a bow, and of
course it would be at the back of the children of Israel, who also had the
mountain behind them. That God delivered
them, as he said he would. Then this, “Curse
ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD,
curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of
the LORD,
to the help of the LORD
against the mighty.” (verse 23) now
I don’t know who that is “Meroz” or exactly what it is, I’m just glad I’m not
that. Meroz, whatever you want. How important the cause of Christ is in the
day that we live, how the troops seem to be sometimes, what strange ideas are
replacing the Truth of the Cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what
politically correct nonsensical, powerless, friendly, nice ideas are being
driven into the center of the Church instead of sin and blood and the cross and
the resurrection. [Comment: right now, 12 years after Pastor Joe preached
this, political tribalism has crept into
many if not most Christian churches, especially the evangelical ones, where
political preferences and stances are more important than getting the Gospel of
Jesus Christ out to the world, our central job, as Pastor Joe says here. This tribalism is dividing very churches and
longtime Christian friendships asunder.
This is the latest and greatest attack of Satan against the Body of
Christ, where it’s of greater importance about who you supported in the last
presidential election than promoting the Gospel to all people of all political
persuasions. And those within the
greater Body of Christ have been very slow to wake up to this attack.] “Blessed
Above Women Shall Jael The Wife Of Heber The Kenite Be” Now,
“Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed
shall she be above women in the tent.” you don’t want to argue with that
point, if you get my drift. “He asked” Sisera “water, and she
gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right
hand to the workman’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote
off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.” (verses
24-26) Now King James, I don’t know, it says here “she smote off his head,”
it literally, the Hebrew says “she crushed his head, when she had pierced
and” literally “shattered
through his temples.” So, man
this woman could swing that hammer, I’m telling you, just. She shouldn’t have lived in a tent, she
should have gotten some timber and let her frame up a house. It literally says that “she crushed his
head when she had pierced and shattered through his temples.” I think the hammer went in there too. “At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay
down: at her feet he bowed, he
fell: where he bowed, there he fell down
dead.” (verse 27) “dead” Hebrew “destroyed” he was devastated by this woman
who stood up to him. The end of the song
from Deborah, now, “The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried
through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the
wheels of his chariots?” you know what goes around comes around, here’s
Deborah singing this song, a mother in Israel, a mother of Israel, and she
knows well now the languishing of Sisera’s mother. But Sisera had been so cruel and so unjust,
and now it’s her turn, now to cry, where it’s her son. “Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned
to answer herself, Have they not sped? Have they not divided the prey;” notice,
“to every man a damsel” a young girl, or two;” they would
take the young daughters of Israeli mothers, kill the families and take these
young girls to themselves, and now it’s come back, they considered these young
teenage girls of Israel prey, spoil, “to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a
prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both
sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?” (verses
29-30) and she ends the song with this, “So let all thine enemies
perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be
as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.
And the land had rest forty years.” (verse 31) and by the way,
that edict has not changed, that will take place in the not distant
future. “but let them that
love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.” Let them
bring light, to another day, bringing in a new day, certainly that will happen. [I think of how we who love him, Jesus, we’ll
be like Jesus as John said in 1st John 3:1-2, and what does Jesus
look like now? Revelation 1:13-18, he
shineth as the sun in its strength, as John said we who love him will shine at
his appearing.] “and the land had
rest forty years.” We’ve been from
Othniel to Deborah, through 206 years of the history of these judges [1406BC –
206 = 1200BC is where we’re at right now].
Read ahead, we come now to Gideon.
Gideon gets more print than anyone in the Book of Judges, Samson gets
the next largest amount of print after that.
Gideon, no doubt, if the Lord tarries, we’ll be there for several
weeks. Ah, tonight, we’ll have the
musicians come, we’ll sing a last song.
I would just say, hey, are there things in your tent that need to be
nailed down? And moms, maybe it’s time
for you to stand up and do it, and make a decision. Maybe there’s some hero or heroin in
Scripture that you have resonated with, looked to, and you think ‘What can I
ever do? Here was a Deborah hundreds
of years later in the same valley under her tree, listening to the voice of the
LORD, and God spoke to her,
and she changed the course of the nation. Who knows?
I’m telling you, some of the things we hear, here are just incredible,
some of the people from our church, individuals that have access to people of
great influence, and God has put them in their lives, and you think ‘you
just never know, you never know what the Lord might do, never know.’ Now we’re praying that we have a Deborah, a
Jael, in the White House, the President’s step-mother we’re hearing is a godly
woman [that would have been Barak Obama’s step-mother, this sermon being given
in 2009], we’re hoping that we have someone there that’s gonna nail down some
things on behalf of her granddaughters, have a standard there and a testimony
and a light, how wonderful, it would be wonderful. Let’s stand, let’s pray, let’s sing a last
song together, if you’re here tonight and you don’t know Christ, I never know,
sometimes we have a great study about the cross, the new birth, and nobody
responds, sometimes we spend a whole night talking about dietary laws and
people come forward to get saved, so I don’t know if somebody drove a nail into
your head when you were younger, and you’re thinking ‘This study’s for me,’
or you spend your life under a tree, but look, if God is ministering to your
heart tonight, and you’re thinking ‘I don’t know this guy, but I know that I
need to be saved, I know that I need to be forgiven, there’s things in my life
that need to be nailed down, they’ve got me bound with chains, and I’m empty
and helpless and powerless against them, and I need this God that worked in
these chapters to set me free,’ then you come…[transcript of a connective
expository sermon on Judges 4:1-24 and Judges 5:1-31, given by Pastor Joe
Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia,
PA 19116] related
links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED631 |