A SONG FROM A MOTHER IN ISRAEL – Judges 4-5
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 10, 2015 under 2015 |
Message preached Mother’s Day Sunday, May 10, 2015 from Judges 4-5
Theme: Deborah’s song is a lesson to us in how God helps His people do the hard things of life.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This Mothers’ Day message is about a woman that you may not have heard much from in the past. But we should hear about her more often—and especially today. Her name is Deborah; and she is distinguished in the Bible by the fact that—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—she called herself “a mother in Israel”.
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Deborah was a remarkable woman. For one thing, she was a prophetess. But she was also raised up by God to serve as a leader of her people. She was one of the judges that we’re told about in the Old Testament book of Judges. And the portion of Scripture that I ask that we consider today is found in Judges 5. That’s were we find a song that Deborah wrote after she had inspired her people, during a very dark time, to trust God for a great deliverance. I like to think of this song that she wrote as a little bit like when a mom takes one of her kid’s school projects and tapes them up on to the refrigerator. Every time the child walks by the refrigerator, they see the project, and think about their mother’s love and enthusiasm for them, see how proud she is of them, and perhaps even learn some lessons from it all. That’s how I feel about this song in Judges 5 from ‘a mother in Israel’.
But I have to tell you—the circumstances that inspired this song were not pretty. In fact, it’s one of the harshest stories in the Bible. It’s not something that they’re ever likely to make flannel graphs for in Vacation Bible School. It’s a safe bet that it’ll never be adapted into an episode of Veggie Tales. In fact—to tell you the truth—I even wrestled with whether or not it’s an appropriate story to tell on such a lovely day as Mothers’ Day.
I talked to my wise wife about it, though. She’s a resident ‘mother’ that I can go to for advice. She reminded me that motherhood doesn’t always involve carnations and lovely music and sweet things. Life isn’t always pretty. It’s tough and ugly and demanding; and real mothers rise up in tough times and call those under their charge do the hard things that need to be done. This song from Deborah reflects on what needed to be done during one of those very hard times; and it teaches us to learn some hard but valuable lessons about what God is able to do for us in them. It isn’t a pretty story; but it shows us some things about God that we need to know–that He is good, and strong, and sovereign, and is able to work marvelous things through humble instruments that yield themselves to Him.
And so—encouraged on by my good wife’s advice—I am going to ask that we look today at the song that Deborah wrote for her people; and, I pray, learn from it some of the lessons that this great woman of faith taught us about our great God.
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Now; before we begin to explore the song, we need to understand the circumstances that inspired it. And for that, we need to turn to Judges 4.
The Book of Judges—as you may know—tells a series of stories that exhibit a repeated pattern. It describes the times before God had established a king over Israel. It was a time that came about in Israel’s history because God’s chosen people had failed to drive the ungodly people groups from the land that God had given them. As a result of their disobedience, they began to follow the sinful patterns and life-style practices of those ungodly nations. They would habitually turn away from the one true God; and would soon fall into worshiping the false gods around them. It wasn’t long before they were behaving just like the immoral people groups that were around them. And because of this, God would withdraw His good hand from them and allow them to suffer oppression from hostile enemy nations.
During their time of oppression, when things got very bad for them, the people of Israel would turn back to God and cry out to Him for mercy. Then, in mercy—because He never ceased loving His disobedient people—God would raise up a ‘deliverer’ for His them; a ‘judge’, who would lead them back to God and deliver them from the oppression of their enemies. Often, that whole generation would follow God faithfully from then on; but after that generation died out, another generation would arise that forgot about God, and that fell again into the same unfaithfulness as the generation before them. It’s a sad pattern—repeated over and over. But, I’m sorry to say, it’s also a very familiar one to us today.
Well; that was the nature of the time in which Deborah’s story occurs. The people of God had once again forgotten the God who had mercy on them, and they again began to do evil in His sight. And so, the Lord allowed the Jewish people to fall into the hands of a merciless king of the Canaanite peoples—a king named Jabin. This king was an ungodly man who did much of his dirty work of oppression through his general Sisera.
Sisera was a man who, we’re told in Scripture, was from Harosheth Hagoyim. That’s an interesting name. It means “Worskmanship of The Gentiles”; and it rather vividly describes the nature of the oppression God’s people felt. Their suffering was ‘the workmanship’ of the ungodly people of the Gentile nations that they had failed to drive out of the land as God had commanded them to do. And the suffering of God’s people was truly great. We’re told that King Jabin had 900 chariots of iron. (In terms of ancient warfare, just think of 900 ‘armored tanks’!) We’re told that for twenty years he had “harshly oppressed the children of Israel”—all through the superior military might that was placed under the disposal of his ruthless general Sisera.
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But that’s when we’re introduced to ‘a mother in Israel’–Deborah. Judges 4:4-5 tells us;
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment (Judges 4:4-5).
We don’t know anything at all about the man Lapidoth; except that he married a really remarkable woman. She was a true ‘mother’ to her people. Everyone came to her—as she held court under her own, special, select palm tree—and sought her godly advice and counsel.
Now; because she was a prophetess, we can take it that a time came when God told her that she needed to give a commission to man named Barak. He was a man from the region of Kedesh in the tribe of Naphtali. She called him to herself and told him;
“Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?” (vv. 6-7).
And please notice very carefully how God spoke of this plan. He said He would ‘deploy’ Sisera! The God of Israel—who causes all things to work in accordance with His own good will—was saying something like this: “You, Barak, are to take your troops—10,000 in number—and go to Mount Tabor and wait. I will sovereignly ‘deploy’ Sisera—with his army and his chariots—to the River Kishon. He may think that he is in charge of what he does; but he is not. I am. I steer the hearts of kings, and ordain the paths of generals. And I will deploy your enemy Sisera there at the River Kishon; and it is there that I will deliver him into your hand.” What a fantastic promise from the Almighty! It meant that God was raising Barak up to be the deliverer of his people, was sovereignly guiding Sisera into his hand, and that the victory was sure and certain.
But then comes the remarkable statement that we find from Barak in verse 8. He told Deborah, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!” Barak has gotten a lot of criticism for this over the years from a whole lot of preachers. He’s been called a coward—a ‘momma’s boy’. Maybe he was. But to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I can blame him too much. After all, he knew that Deborah was God’s representative to the people; and perhaps he felt inadequate for this enormous, humanly-impossible task without God’s clearly appointed spokeswoman coming along. I remember lots of times when I needed to grow up and stand on my own—and yet, even so, I felt much more confident about things if my mom came along.
That’s when Deborah—the prophetess—makes this promise to Barak:
“I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (v. 9).
And I need to let you in on something in advance. After hearing her say that, you might think that you know how the story is now going to end. But get ready. There’s a real surprising twist coming before the story is over.
So; Barak called his 10,000 troops together; and away they went to the place God commanded them to go—with Deborah going alongside.
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Now; I love how God tells His stories in the Bible. Somewhere along the way, the Holy Spirit interrupts the flow of the story to insert something. You’re not exactly sure why it’s there at first; but if you pay attention, you find out later that it was something very important to the story. We find just such an interruption in verse 11. It says;
Now Heber the Kenite, of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zaanaim, which is beside Kedesh (v. 11).
And for the moment, that’s all you get. You read it; and you think to yourself, “Okay . . . eh . . . so what?” But hang on to that little piece of information—this little insertion about how a non-Jewish man, from the family of the father-in-law of Moses, just happened to have separated himself from his people some time in the past, and moved to some remote place in Naphtali. You’ll find out that this is very important. God is sovereign—even over where it may be that some seemingly insignificant person decides to move!
So; with that in mind, the spotlight turns again onto King Jabin’s wicked general Sisera. We’re told in verses 12;
And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon (v. 12).
Can you see it? Sisera went, as an act of his own will, to the River Kishon–exactly where God said that He would ‘deploy’ him! And that’s when Deborah gave a great victory call to Barak:
“Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the Lord gone out before you?” (v. 14a).
When Mom says go, you go!
So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot (vv. 14b-15).
Why did Sisera have to flee on foot? As you read later on in Deborah’s song, I believe it’s because God had allowed a sudden rainstorm to come from the east and cause a flash flood to sweep across the dry river bed of the River Kishon. Many great military strategist of the past have written about how the outcome of an entire battle can be changed just by a simple rainstorm. The mighty iron chariot of the fearsome general Sisera became stuck in the mud!
But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left (v. 16).
A complete victory!
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Now, I told you before that there was a surprise at the end. You might have thought that when Deborah—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—told Barak that God would sell Sisera into the hand of a woman, that the woman would be Deborah herself. But here comes the surprise.
Remember that man Heber from verse 11?—that Gentile man who had separated himself from his people and had moved to Kedesh? Well; it turns out that there had been good relations between King Jabin and the family of that man. And when General Sisera had run away from his terrible defeat at the River Kishon, guess where he ran to! Right to the home of the tent of that man’s wife, Jael.
And that’s when . . . well; maybe it would be better if I just let the Bible tell the gruesome story for itself:
And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.” And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket. Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’” Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple (vv. 18-22).
The mighty, fearsome general Sisera was sold into the hand of a woman alright—but it was a woman that no one would have expected. She was just a simple Gentile housewife of the tents—but a housewife with a point to make! Only God could have done that!
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As a result of it all, we’re told that God Himself completely subdued King Jabin in the presence of His people. The people grew stronger and utterly destroyed King Jabin and his oppressive kingdom. And the land of Israel had rest from its oppressors for forty years.
And it was this mighty victory that was the occasion for Deborah to offer up the song we find in Chapter 5. It’s a song that we’re told that she sang with Barak—a duet. But it was as raw and earthy as any tune you’ve ever heard on the country charts. And in it, she teaches us three lessons about how God works in the lives of His people.
First, this song highlights to us that . . .
1. IT IS GOD WHO AWAKENS HIS PEOPLE TO ACTION (vv. 1-12).
Look at how the song develops this idea. After the events of this shocking story—when God had called His people to rise up in hard times and do a difficult thing, we read:
Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:
“When leaders lead in Israel,
When the people willingly offer themselves,
Bless the Lord!” (Judges 5:1-2).
What a great way to begin! When the leaders lead and the people offer themselves—all under the Lord Himself—what great things happen! But let’s be clear—it was God Himself that was to be thanked. The song goes on to say;
“Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes!
I, even I, will sing to the Lord;
I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.
“Lord, when You went out from Seir,
When You marched from the field of Edom,
The earth trembled and the heavens poured,
The clouds also poured water;
The mountains gushed before the Lord,
This Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel (vv. 3-5).
Do you remember how I suggested to you that God had allowed a rain storm to fall upon the land, so that Sisera became stuck in the mud? It seems that that’s exactly what God did. I love it that the place was called “this Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel”. The same God that appeared before the people on Mount Sinai—and thundered His mighty law to them—is the same God that came to help His people at the River Kishon.
The times in which this mighty God came to His people were bad. The song says;
“In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,
In the days of Jael,
The highways were deserted,
And the travelers walked along the byways.
Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel . . .” (vv. 6-7a).
The roads were deserted because they were dangerous to travel upon. The people of God were under constant threat from their enemies. Village life ceased, because people feared to go out of their homes.
“Until I, Deborah, arose,
Arose a mother in Israel” (v. 7b).
She arose as God’s instrument by which the people—in such difficult and frightening times—would be stirred to action. And they truly needed to be stirred! They had turned from God; and as a result, were defenseless—the helpless victims of their enemies.
“They chose new gods;
Then there was war in the gates;
Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel” (v. 8).
Imagine! 40,000 soldiers in Israel; and not a spear or shield among them! The situation was humanly impossible! But Deborah—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—stirred her people to action.
“My heart is with the rulers of Israel
Who offered themselves willingly with the people.
Bless the Lord!
“Speak, you who ride on white donkeys,
Who sit in judges’ attire,
And who walk along the road.
Far from the noise of the archers, among the watering places,
There they shall recount the righteous acts of the Lord,
The righteous acts for His villagers in Israel;
Then the people of the Lord shall go down to the gates.
“Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, sing a song!
Arise, Barak, and lead your captives away,
O son of Abinoam!” (vv. 9-12).
I believe, then, that one of the lessons to be learned from this song is that in hard times—when difficult things need to be done—it is God who awakens His people to action. Sometimes, He does so by raising up a great woman like Deborah to encourage her people for the times.
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Another thing we learn from this song is that . . .
2. GOD WORKS ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHO YIELD THEMSELVES TO HIM (vv. 13-23).
There weren’t many courageous people in those times. Only a few rose up to say yes to the call—just a handful of ‘survivors’ from just a few of the tribes. But God used them and enabled them. We’re told;
“Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles;
The Lord came down for me against the mighty.
From Ephraim were those whose roots were in Amalek.
After you, Benjamin, with your peoples,
From Machir rulers came down,
And from Zebulun those who bear the recruiter’s staff.
And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
As Issachar, so was Barak
Sent into the valley under his command . . .” (v. 13-15a).
Not everyone, however, rose to the occasion that should have. Some wrestled with whether or not they should go. Should they rise up for the times, trust God, and fight? Or should they stay home instead and take care of things on the farm and at their businesses?
“Among the divisions of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart.
Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,
To hear the pipings for the flocks?
The divisions of Reuben have great searchings of heart.
Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan,
And why did Dan remain on ships?
Asher continued at the seashore,
And stayed by his inlets” (v. 15b-17).
But for those who rose up in courage—who even fought when it seemed as if there was no material gain in it for them—there were words of praise.
Zebulun is a people who jeopardized their lives to the point of death,
Naphtali also, on the heights of the battlefield.
“The kings came and fought,
Then the kings of Canaan fought
In Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
They took no spoils of silver” (vv. 18-19).
Up on to ‘the refrigerator’ their faithful works go—taped there, and displayed for all to see! And with it is the reminder that God Himself fought on their behalf. It was as if He moved heaven and earth for them. He even turned the weather to their favor.
They fought from the heavens;
The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.
The torrent of Kishon swept them away,
That ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon.
O my soul, march on in strength!
Then the horses’ hooves pounded,
The galloping, galloping of his steeds (vv. 20-21).
Some received severe condemnation for not rising to the times—and from the highest possible authority!
“‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord,
‘Curse its inhabitants bitterly,
Because they did not come to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty’” (vv. 22-23).
But the point is that, when His people willingly yield themselves to Him—when they say ‘no’ to their own comfort and personal concerns in order to do what God calls them to do—He rises mightily to their aid. We can always have confidence that when God calls us to do something hard, He helps us to do it!
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Finally, this song shows us that we should never fear that we’re not strong enough, or wise enough, or influential enough for Him to use. We should yield ourselves to His confidently—with whatever we have; because . . .
3. GOD USES EVEN THE HUMBLEST OF INSTRUMENTS (vv. 24-31).
The song closes by showing us this truth by contrasting two women. The first is the humble Gentile woman Jael—the woman with the hammer. We may cringe at what she did; but she received great praise from God in His word for the fact that she yielded herself to Him. We’re told;
“Most blessed among women is Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
Blessed is she among women in tents.
He asked for water, she gave milk;
She brought out cream in a lordly bowl.
She stretched her hand to the tent peg,
Her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;
She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head,
She split and struck through his temple.
At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he sank, he fell;
Where he sank, there he fell dead” (vv. 24-27).
Think of it! The mighty general Sisera—defeated first by a rainstorm, and then finished off by a housewife! Contrast that with another woman mentioned in this song:
The mother of Sisera looked through the window,
And cried out through the lattice,
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?’
Her wisest ladies answered her,
Yes, she answered herself,
‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil:
To every man a girl or two;
For Sisera, plunder of dyed garments,
Plunder of garments embroidered and dyed,
Two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter?’” (vv. 28-30).
She looked out the window and wondered where her precious baby boy was. Well; we know, don’t we?
“Thus let all Your enemies perish, O Lord!
But let those who love Him be like the sun
When it comes out in full strength”
So the land had rest for forty years (v. 31).
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So; we owe a debt of thanks to this ‘mother in Israel’ named Deborah. She was used by God to encourage her people to rise up and obey His call in a difficult time. The sovereign God of Israel proved Himself by going with them and working for them. And then—when the remarkable victory was over—she wrote a song about it, so that her people would continue to learn the lesson.
Now obviously, our situation is different. We don’t do battle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forced in high places. We don’t slay with weapons, but rather save with the gospel. But our call is just as serious and just as humanly impossible as the challenge that Deborah’s people faced. So let’s remember those lessons we learn from her: that (1) it is, in the end, God Himself that rises His people to action; that (2) when His people hear the call and willingly yield themselves to Him, He rises wonderfully to their aid; and that (3) God is able to use the humblest of instruments—even a humble wife of the tents.
