God's Power to Defeat His Enemies and Deliver His People

Well, open your Bibles, please, to Judges chapter 4. I'm actually going to read all of chapter 4
and all of chapter 5. It'll take almost 10 minutes, so please remain in your seats and follow along
in your Bible. It's a big portion of Scripture, and it's going to take a while, and I'm asking in
advance for a little latitude for a somewhat maybe a little bit longer sermon, and so I hope you'll
forgive me on the back end as I ask forgiveness on the front end. you're going to notice that while
I read, there will be sections that are highlighted on the screen, and I'm going to try to give
voice and fluctuations for certain portions that I want you to hear more carefully. And as I do
that, you will understand where we're going. Judges chapter 4,
and I'll start reading from verse 1.
And the people of Israel, again, did what was evil, in the sight of the Lord,
after Ehud died. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin,
king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera,
who lived in Hereshith-Hagim. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help,
for he had 900 chariots of iron, and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for 20 years.
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at this time.
She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim,
and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. She sentenced someone, Barak, the son of
Abinoam, from Kadesh Naphtali, and said to him, Has not the Lord,
the God of Israel, commanded you? Go gather your men at Mount Tabor. taking 10,000 from the people
of Nathalia and the people of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army,
to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops. I,
God, will give him into your hand. Borek said to her,
If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go. And she said,
I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, The road on which you're going will not lead to your
glory. For the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah rose and went with Barak
to Kaddish. And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kaddish. And 10,000 men went up at his
heels. And Deborah went with him.
Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law
of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak. in Zanimim, which is near Kiddish.
When Sisera was told that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor,
Sisera called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him from
Heresheth Hagium to the river Kishon. And Deborah said to Barak,
Up, for this is a day in which... The Lord has given Sisera into your hand.
Does not the Lord go out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following
him. And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of
the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot. And Barak pursued the
chariots and the army to Heresheth Hagium, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the
sword. Not a man was left. But Sisera fled away on foot 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. And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, Turn aside,
my lord, turn aside to me. Do not be afraid. So he turned aside to her into the tent,
and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, Please give me a little water.
to drink, for I am thirsty. So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.
And he said to her, Stand by.
Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, Is anyone here?
Say no. But Jael, the wife of Heber, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand.
Then she went softly to him. and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground
while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold,
as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, Come,
and I will show you the man whom you are seeking. So he went into her tent, and there lay Sisera
dead with a tent peg in his temple. So on that day, God subdued Jabin,
the king of Canaan. before the people of Israel. And the hand of the people of Israel pressed
harder and harder against Jabin, the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin, king of Canaan.
Then sang Deborah and Barak, the son of Babinoam, on that day, that the leaders took the lead in
Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly. Bless the Lord.
Hear, O kings, give ear, O princes. To the Lord I will sing. I will make melody to the Lord,
the God of Israel. Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom,
the earth trembled and the heavens dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water.
The mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel. In the days
of Shamgar, the son of Anoth, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned and travelers kept
to the byways. The villagers ceased in Israel. They ceased to be until I arose.
I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. When new gods were chosen, the war was in the gates.
Was shield or spear to be seen among 40,000 in Israel? My heart goes out to the commanders of
Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord. Tell it,
you who ride on the white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way.
to the sound of musicians at the watering places. There they repeat the righteous triumphs of the
Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. Then down to the gates march the people of
the Lord. Awake, awake, Deborah. Awake, awake, break out in song. Arise,
Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam. Then down march the remnant of the noble.
The people of the Lord march down for me against the mighty. From Ephraim,
their route, they marched down into the valley. Following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen,
from Makir, marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun, those who bear the lieutenant's staff.
The princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar, faithful to Barak. Into the valley they
rushed at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Why did you
sit still among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for their flocks? Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart. Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan, and Dan,
why did he stay with ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landing.
Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death. Naphtali too, on the heights of the field.
The kings came, they fought, they fought. The kings of Canaan at Tenek, by the waters of Megiddo.
They got no spoils of silver. From the heaven, the stars fought. From their courses,
they fought against Sisera. The torrent Kishon swept them away. The ancient torrent, the torrent
Kishon, march on, my soul with might. Then loud beat the horse's hoofs with the galloping,
galloping of his steeds. Curse morose, says the angel of the Lord. Curse its inhabitants
thoroughly, because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
mighty. Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked for water, and she gave him milk. She brought him
curds in a noble's bowl. She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workman's
mallet. She struck Sisera. She crushed his head. She shattered and pierced his temple.
Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still. Between her feet he sank,
he fell. Where he sank, there he fell, dead. Out of the window she peered.
The mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice. Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots? Her wisest princesses answer.
Indeed, she answers herself. Have they not found and divided the spoil?
A womb or two for every man. Spoil of dyed materials for Sisera. Spoil of dyed materials
embroidered. Two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil. So may all your enemies
perish, O Lord. But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might and the land had rest for
40 years. May God bless the reading of his word this morning.
What an amazing story. What an amazing God.
What did God do? In this story. Well, he sees the sin.
He sells the people. He conquers the Canaanites. He sells sister into the hand of a woman.
He routes the chariots and he subdues Jabin. God is clearly the main character in this story from
the very beginning to the very end. And what the writer's doing for us is really moving us to
marvel and to ponder at God's power and his greatness. Like the hymn writer says,
we should ponder anew what the Almighty can do. Just by reading these highlighted verses
demonstrates how active and involved God is in the narrative. He's constantly at work among the
nations, among his people, and among individuals. It's hard to narrow down just one point for this
sermon because there's just a lot of... lot to read, but if I had one point,
I'd say that you will marvel at God's supernatural and providential power to conquer his enemy and
deliver his people. Chapter 4, obviously, is a narrative. Chapter 5, as you notice,
is a song of praise and victory and celebration. And with God as the main character,
I'm just going to demonstrate to you just five things I want you to notice. Number one, their sin.
was restrained by outward pressure, not inward conviction from God.
Secondly, God's chastisement accomplished its work. Thirdly,
God's power was displayed supernaturally. And then fourth,
God's plan was working providentially. And then fifth,
God's victory and judgment will force us to ask a question. Now,
last week, Cole helpfully pointed out that there are seven cycles in the book of Judges, and we are
now on the third cycle of misery. As the narrative begins in chapter 4, verse 1,
I just want you to notice first that their sin was restrained by outward pressure,
but not by inward conviction from God. Verse 1 states,
Again, do what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. We learn about Ehud's victory
last week in chapter 3. And of course, we see the pattern or cycle here that's emphasized by the
word again. And sadly, like many professing Christians, like many professing people in the church,
it seems that they obey when their restraints are with them. But they disobey as soon as the
restraints are off. They're not obeying from the heart. They don't obey because God sees.
They obey because Ehud sees. Do you see that in verse 1? The only thing that restrained their evil
actions was the fact that Ehud was alive. It's really a testimony to Ehud's life that the people
around him sinned less while he was alive. I think many of you have had that experience that when
you're with certain groups, with some co-workers, that sometimes their language cleans up around
you. Sometimes the conversation, their jokes clean up around you. And by God's grace,
you're living as salt and light in this world. But there's a real problem with anybody who claims
to be a believer, who acts one way around one person or some people,
And when he or she is not around that person or those people, they act evil. We saw the same thing
in chapter 2 when the writer tells us that the people obeyed as long as Joshua was alive,
but when Joshua died and the elders died, they no longer obeyed. This is a reminder,
isn't it, that when your sin is restrained by outside forces,
instead of restrained from within, from the inward work of the Holy Spirit,
then there really is a serious spiritual problem. What I mean by that is the real you is when
you're all alone. The real you is who you are when you have no restraints.
See, when your behavior changes and your language changes and your websites that you look at change
because you no longer have the outside influences around you, then the real you is the way you act
when no one's watching. And this reference here to after Ehud died is telling us that they weren't
concerned about what's going on in God's sight because obviously God's eyes are still on them.
We're never out of his sight whether Ehud is alive or not. So Ehud and his memory are gone and the
true rebellious Israel is back. And if you have major behavioral changes when you're not monitored,
It's a good time to examine yourself, quite honestly, to see if you're in the faith. If any man's
in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
And as new creations, we have new desires. We have a new heart, and the Holy Spirit lives in and
through us, convicting us of our sin. and conforming us into his image.
When Jesus told the woman at the well, not the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, to
go and sin no more, he didn't mean go and sin no more around certain people.
He was calling her to repentance for a complete change of mind and heart.
Now, this doesn't mean that you're never going to sin. But it does mean that in general,
you'll be the same husband or your wife that's sitting next to you or not, whether your parents are
with you or not. And by the grace of God, we need a change of heart that only comes through genuine
salvation in Christ so that what restrains us, what restrains our behavior is the spirit of the
living God living in and through us. The text.
is at least asking, are you faithful to God without restraints?
Are you faithful when no one's watching? Because he is.
So the story begins with the restraints off, and God's seen the evil, and he brings judgment in the
form of the Canaanites because of the evil that he sees. So now notice, secondly,
God's chastisement accomplishes its work. In chapter 4, verses 2 and 3,
we're given these wonderful details. We're told the Lord sold Israel into the hand of Jabin,
king of Canaan. He's a commanding officer with Sisera. He's virtually invincible because he has 900
chariots of iron and he oppressed the people cruelly for 20 years.
And it was these both promised and difficult circumstances that moved the people to cry out to the
Lord for help. You see, the chastisement accomplished its work. God did promise that difficulty
would come if they rejected him, disobeyed him, and stopped worshiping him. And this is the pattern
that we see throughout Judges, isn't it? Peace, do evil, suffer, cry out to God for help.
God brings difficulty so that we'll seek him. Now, we don't have to guess how bad the circumstances
were because during the victory song in chapter 5, verses 6 through 8, Deborah and Barak,
who are credited by writing the song, they gave us a more full view of the oppression that
Israelites were under. Look at chapter 5, verse 6 for a moment. The writer writes,
The villagers ceased in Israel. They ceased to be until I arose. I, Deborah,
arose as a mother in Israel. When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates.
Was shield or spear to be seen among 40,000 in Israel? Now, remember,
Shamgar was the judge at the end of chapter 3. And during the 20 years from Shamgar to Jael,
the text says the highways were abandoned. So it's too dangerous to travel.
And those who did travel, verse 6 says, traveled by the byways, or they traveled in secret.
Being in the open was not safe. And according to verse 7, nobody lived in the villages.
There was such oppression, there was such violence, such cruelty, there was no safe place in Israel
outside the city walls. And chapter 5, verse 8 tells us why it got so bad,
doesn't it? When new gods were chosen, War was in the gates.
The nation was at war because they rejected the one true and only God.
They're at war because of their disobedience. They're at war because after Ehud died,
they went back to their evil, sinful ways. And even though there was war,
they had no way to defend themselves because it states very clearly they had no shields and they
had no spears. Among 40,000 men. So clearly, they were helpless.
The times in Israel were miserable. But do you see that everything they experienced was self
-induced? They chose new gods. And their rejection of Jehovah and their choosing of new gods
brought the punishment upon themselves.
We have been doing this for three weeks now. This is the fourth week. We don't have to rehash it.
We know from the earlier chapters of Judges, this is exactly what God said would happen. Israel was
under his judgment and chastisement because they didn't believe him, they didn't trust him,
and they didn't obey his word. And God brought difficulty and suffering and slavery and even war to
bring them to a place where they would cry out to him, a place where they would seek him.
Beloved, let me remind you. that God is the same today, yesterday,
and forever. Let me remind you that He still judges sin,
and He still disciplines and chastises disobedient children. Now,
according to Romans 8, we're so thankful that there is no condemnation for those of us who are in
Christ Jesus, no eternal condemnation. But much like the Israelites in the book of Judges,
There are consequences that accompany our sinful behavior as believers.
Hebrews 12, 5 makes it very clear. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every
son whom he receives.
The moment you became a believing Christian, God promised and he purposed to conform you into the
image of his son until the day that he brings you into heaven.
And part of that conforming you is to discipline and to chastise you when you disobey or go your
own way. So the discipline and the chastisement of the Lord in the life of a believer is actually a
proof. It's a proof that you belong to him. Because it's from the hand of a loving father who's
molding you and who's shaping you and who's conforming you. It's a proof that he loves you and that
you're a part of his family. Because God doesn't have spoiled children.
Maybe you're experiencing that right now. Maybe you're under his discipline. Maybe you're under his
chastisement. Maybe you've walked away from your profession and you're finally tired of the sin.
And the guilt and the shame that it brings. Like the father of the prodigal son.
And as we say every Sunday when we open our service, the arms of the Lord Jesus are welcoming arms,
aren't they? Thank God for his discipline. Thank God for his chastisement.
Thank God that he preserves us and keeps us to the very end.
Do not be like the Israelites, sorrowful yet unrepentant. May today be the day, if indeed that's
you, that you turn and God frees you from your own self-induced bondage.
So by the end of verse 3, the people are oppressed. They're at war because they chose new gods. And
Jabin's commander Sisera... of the Canaanite army, and his 900 chariots of iron are invincible.
And the people cry out to the Lord for help. And this goes on for 20 long years. Now the stage is
set for a deliverance. Now notice, thirdly, how God's power was displayed supernaturally.
To understand this point, we need to take a moment and examine God's servants here, Deborah and
Barak. Now, there's a great debate in greater evangelicalism about Deborah and Barak,
and paints a very poor picture, actually, of both of these individuals.
It goes like this. Deborah is viewed as a woman who's in her role, and she's in a role that she
should never be in. And the only reason she's in her role is because of the weak...
willy-nilly men like Barak who can't make a decision and can't do anything unless a girl goes with
them. Part of the consequences of everyone doing what's right in their own eyes,
which is a theme in the book of Judges. Now, if I decided right now to go down that path and give
you biblical support of why that's a very poor interpretation, you're going to miss lunch. And you
might even miss dinner. I'm going to spare you mostly because it's not the main idea.
It's an off-ramp we're not going to go on. You'll hear some allusions to it, but not too many.
It's a great conversation. Love to have it with you if you're interested. But for now, we're going
to stick to what the text actually says. We're introduced to Deborah in verse 4.
And you have to admit, the introduction is surprising. Verse 4 states, Now Deborah,
a prophetess, The wife of Lapidoth was judging Israel at that time.
Now she's not introduced as a deliverer. She's introduced as a prophetess,
as a wife, and as a person who would judge between individuals who had grievances with one another.
The word used here for judging means to adjudicate a matter between two parties in a court or a
less formal setting. This would mean several things about Deborah.
I'm going to give you eight things. I'm just going to say them really fast and list them. Number
one, God appointed her to this role. Number two,
she was wise, discerning, godly, and faithful. Number three,
she had opinions that mattered. Number four, she knew God and spoke the word of God to the people.
Number five, she had a measure of civil authority.
Number six, she's Lapidoth's wife. Number seven, as God's spokesperson,
all her words were true and they all came to pass. And number eight,
by all accounts, quite honestly, she is absolutely amazing. Deborah being introduced as a wife and
a prophetess who's judging Israel adds to the intrigue. It adds to the uniqueness and adds to the
total surprise of the book of Judges. We saw last week, we saw the nephew of Caleb.
We saw a left-handed Benjamite. We saw a guy with an ox goad.
And now we're introduced to a married prophetess. Nobody in this time period would expect a woman
to be in this role. But what is undeniable is that she was raised up by God and called to be in the
role that she was in. And Deborah proved she was God's ordained prophetess by speaking the word of
God with total accuracy. What she said came to pass. She was God's spokesperson at this particular
point in history. Had God been interested in having a male prophet in Judges chapter 4,
God would have had a male prophet in Judges chapter 4. She was his sovereign choice.
Now this passage, like most narratives in Scripture, is what we say is descriptive and not
prescriptive. It's describing what took place in Israel at this time,
but it's not prescribing something that we would advocate for all of history. This has no bearing
on the New Testament instruction and commands for male leadership in the church or in the home.
That's another sermon for another time. This is a description of what took place in Israel at this
time. Now, I'm going to take a sidebar that's a little away from the text just for a minute.
This is a description, but it does demonstrate the importance and the significance of how God uses
women among his people. Just because there is to be loving male servant leadership in the home and
the church does not mean that women have no voice, that women have no opinion,
that women have no spiritual value, or that they're not good and capable leaders. Beloved,
though the office of elder or pastor is specific to men, the spiritual gifts God gives to believers
in the church They're not gender specific. Women do have teaching and preaching gifts.
Women do have gifts of administration. Women have leadership gifts and gifts of wisdom and
discernment and understanding and so much more. And we need to foster,
we need the thoughts and the perceptions and opinions of our sisters in Christ.
And we need to promote and foster opportunities for them to use their gifts to build this church.
You may be surprised. Maybe you know this, maybe you don't. I didn't know it until I became an
elder. But our elders' wives come to our elder retreats.
At our elder retreats, our wives are there. And some of you may be thinking, of course they're
there. They have to cook for you. Of course they're there. They have to clean up after you. And
after they clean up after you, they sit in the corner and they wait until you're done talking,
right? No! They're as involved in everything as we are,
in the conversations, and in the thought process, in the reports, and in the opinions. They have
thoughts about past ministries. They have thoughts about present ministries. They have thoughts
about the future ministries. And they have total freedom to express their thoughts and opinions.
And it may surprise you. Our elders' wives are opinionated. The one that just laughed in the back,
she's mine.
Thank God. Thank God for that. And thank God for a leadership that values the wisdom and the
discernment and the gifting of our sisters in Christ. And thank God that he sovereignly and
strategically placed Deborah right here, not just to create interest and intrigue,
even though it does, but to speak on his behalf. Now let's move to the other servant in the
narrative, and that's Barak. Barak received some incredible promises directly from God, didn't he?
Verse 7 states, I'll draw out sister to meet you. I'll give him into your hand. God promised to be
actively involved in the battle. He even tells what's going to happen,
where it's going to take place, and God promised. God promised, Barak, you will win. That certainly
should have been enough for him to move forward in battle. Yet he clearly...
It's apprehensive, and he's looking for assurances. Now let's remember when he's up.
We have seen chariots before. These might be the same chariots that Judah was up against in chapter
1. There's precedent for questioning whether or not they could really defeat them.
If you recall, back in chapter 1, verse 1, all the way through verse 18, Judah and Simeon were on
an indestructible terror, conquering the Canaanites, conquering the parasites,
conquering all the cities that they went up against. As a side note, Numbers 26 tells us,
that when they entered the land, Judah had 72,500 armed men for war,
and Simeon had 22,700 armed men prepared for battle.
So nearly 100,000 armed soldiers between them. As Judah continues to fight,
if you look at chapter 1, verse 19, clearly, the writer says, the Lord is with Judah.
That's all you need to know. God's with Judah, working through Judah, winning through Judah.
Romans 8 tells us what? If God is for us, who can be against us?
No one. But look at the middle of verse 19. It has the big word, but. And the verse goes on to say,
but he, the tribe of Judah, could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain.
Why? Because they had chariots of iron. Beloved,
God was with Judah. God had been with Judah when he's winning up through verse 18. Chariots of iron
are not a problem for God if he's with you. You're not fighting. God's fighting for you.
You just have to obey his word and believe his promises. There's no reason for the but.
Instead of believing there's no possibility of defeating iron chariots, the tribe of Judah should
have said to themselves, God promises with us. God promised he'll protect us.
God made a promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to give him the land.
He promised he'd drive out the Canaanites. We saw him do it at Jericho. We saw when we crossed the
Jordan. We saw him as we took Jerusalem and Gaza. If he can do that, he can help us.
In resting in those truths, then they can pray, God, we're scared. God,
we're frightened. You have promised you're with us. Help us with these iron chariots. But they
didn't. Instead of living by faith and trusting in God and obeying God, they did things their way.
So they didn't take the land. And they didn't drive out and destroy the people. And they put them
to forced labor. They accepted their practices and began marrying their families. They assimilated
with the culture. And the downward spiral began. They concluded that God was not capable of
destroying an army that possesses iron chariots. And here we are a few chapters later,
not with 100,000 soldiers who are trained for battle, but with 10,000 from Naphtali and Zebulun,
apparently we know without spears or shields. And Barak receives the same promise of victory that
Judah was given. I will draw sister out. I will give sister into your hand.
The promise is real.
But this is frightening.
And unlike Judah, Barak does not give God a hard no. Unlike Judah,
he goes into the battle. Unlike Judah, he trusts God. Unlike Judah, he obeyed.
Not immediately, but he obeyed.
Beloved, aren't you thankful that reluctant and apprehensive faith is still faith?
Aren't you thankful that fear and trembling faith is still faith?
A faith. that needs assurance, is still faith.
All he said to God's spokesperson, God's prophetess, the one who represented speaking for God,
he said, I'll go with you if you go with me. He's not a sissy asking a girl to take the lead.
He was you.
He was me.
Do you understand? He's an apprehensive servant desiring to be faithful.
Asking God's prophet for the assurance of both God's presence and God's victory.
And God, in his loving kindness, gave him both. Do you understand how kind God is?
Far more kind than we are toward one another. Psalm 103.
Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
He himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are only dust.
And dust needs words of affirmation and encouragement. And God knows our frame.
He knows what we need. He gives what's needed in this case through Deborah.
The entire tribes of Judah and Simeon, almost 100,000 shoulders, could not and would not even try.
And our text communicates that once Barak received the assurance there's no turning back.
He walked in complete obedience. He does what God commanded him to do. In verse 10,
he calls out Zebulun and Naphtali, and 10,000 men go with him. That's all Sisera needed to get his
own troops together. And then at a strategic moment in verse 14, God's prophetess tells Barak,
up, for this is the day in which the Lord had given Sisera into your hands.
Then verse 15, God gives his supernatural victory. And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots
and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. God worked.
God acted. God won the battle by using Barak's obedience. We don't get the details here,
but turn over to chapter 5 for a minute and listen to Barak and Deborah sing about what happened.
The supernatural victory in chapter 5, verse 20. They write, from heaven the stars fought.
From their courses they fought against Sisera. The torrent Kishon swept them away.
The ancient torrent, the torrent Tishon. March on, my soul, with might.
The almighty, all-powerful, sovereign God who rules over everyone and everything and who controls
all nature. As Barak steps out in faith, God fought for Barak and Israel.
Through a supernatural event, God brought a torrential storm and a river formed on the battlefield,
a torrent. The word torrent means it's a dry riverbed, a ravine, which in the rainy season becomes
a raging torrent. Nobody brings iron chariots to battle during the rainy season.
Nobody brings iron chariots to battle when there's a range of possibility. But when the Lord routed
Sisera during the dry season, He supernaturally brought a flash flood,
showing his power not only over the army of the Canaanites and their iron chariots,
but also his power over the gods they worshipped, because Baal was the god of rain.
and thunder and lightning and wind and Baal and Sisera and the chariots were powerless and they're
stranded and they're defeated and they're washed away and the armies routed and they sang march on
my soul with might. God supernaturally triumphs over his enemies with a female prophet and a
commander with a reluctant faith but a reluctant faith is still faith. Enough faith I mind you.
that he made it into Hebrews 11 in the faith chapter. And you can read that for yourself.
Now, shouldn't we take a short sidebar here and just ask ourselves the question,
how Judah-like has the church become in its thinking over the past many decades?
Similar to Judah, we've received the promise of God being with us.
We've received the promise of power. and the promise of presence of Christ when he proclaimed two
things. Matthew 16, he proclaimed, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. Matthew 28, he proclaimed, I will be with you until the end of the age.
With his promised power and his promised presence, we
can make disciples and build his kingdom. Through his commanded means,
through preaching, through praying, through evangelizing, through fellowship, the apostles modeled
this for us throughout the book of Acts. However, like Judah,
in many evangelical circles today, instead of believing in Christ and trusting in his promises and
obeying God's word and using his means, we have adopted other methods.
Instead of being armed with the simple truth of the gospel, That simply declares that you're dead
in your sin.
The only hope of salvation or rescue, as Carlos pointed out today, is for salvation and for genuine
change, is to be rescued or reconciled to God through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Instead of proclaiming that message clearly, the church, much of the church,
has resorted to what we heard in the catechism today, human ingenuity.
Human ingenuity of...
some forms of entertainment, and a watered-down version of the gospel or of what some are using to
build a church. And in the process, a church is much like the nation of Israel,
assimilating into the culture, taking on the likeness of the culture, and adopting the practices of
the culture. Now, I realize that is a massive shotgun blast,
yet worthy of extended conversations. There are far more individuals than me that are sounding that
alarm bell of a Judah-like church that needs to be addressed. But judges in general,
and Barak in particular, reminds us not to be like Judah, not to rely on human ingenuity,
and that God will work supernaturally through those servants who trust him and believe his promises
and obey his word. The scripture declares, and Bob reminds us about twice a year,
that my God is so big. so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do.
Amen?
Well, the army is supernaturally routed, and the evil sister seems to have escaped, and one other
prophecy of Deborah has yet to come to pass. Barak's hesitancy to obey immediately prevented him
from getting his name in the newspaper. Deborah declares in verse 9 that because of his reluctancy
to obey immediately, he would not receive the glory. Instead, God would sell Sisera into the hand
of a woman.
Now, when she first declared this, we probably thought the woman would be Deborah. But notice the
secret workings of God. And this is our fourth point, that God's plan working providentially.
The term providence or providential means divine foresight. It implies God knowing in advance,
planning in advance, preparing details in advance to fulfill his purposes. Now,
how far in advance does God plan things to accomplish his will? He plans things from eternity past.
And he works through history to fulfill his purposes to nations and individuals. And his purposes
are never thwarted. Look for a moment at chapter 4, verse 11. The writer gives us little detail of
how Heber the Kenite rented a U-Haul and was moving. He writes in verse 11.
Now, Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites and the descendants of Hobab,
the father-in-law of Moses, and he pitched his tent as far away as the oak Zanimim,
which is near Kiddish. Now, what an odd statement. Right in the middle of the battle between Barak
and Sisera, but if God did not direct Heber to separate from the Kenites and move his family near
Kiddish, then Jael would not... in the right place at the right time when Sisera came by and asked
for a drink. And going back a couple hundred years, had Moses not married a Kenite,
Hebrew wouldn't even be in the story. So how did God providentially put Jael in the right place at
the right time to kill Sisera? Well, I can go back to eternity past,
but I'll just go back to when an evil Pharaoh arose in Egypt. who persecuted the Israelites,
ordered all the male babies killed. Moses is hidden by his mom. Pharaoh's daughter finds him,
raises him. And when he turned 40, he saw the oppression of the people. He kills an Egyptian.
He's afraid that Pharaoh would kill him. So he flees to Midian. He spends 40 years there.
And while in Midian, he notices a cute girl, Jethro's daughter Zipporah, who's a Kenite.
And they get married.
When Moses led the nation out of Egypt, his Kenite father-in-law, Jethro, and all the Kenites
came with him. They're not Israelites, but they're friendly to Israel. And when they crossed the
Jordan with Joshua, Heber, in our story, was with them. And God directs Deborah to declare that
Sisera would fall by the hand of a woman. And God directed Heber to move at the right time so his
wife could be there at the right time. So at the exact time, sister walked by and asked Yale for a
drink so she could lull him to sleep and nail a tent peg through his head into the ground.
Do you understand that God's working the same way in your life?
That things may have happened generations ago by divine purposes before you were ever born,
and God continues to work today in your life. There are no random events. No lessons,
no hardships, no blessings out of place. You're not forgotten. You're not forsaken. He works
supernaturally, and he works providentially in all of the details of your life for your good and
his glory. You can trust him with your most difficult circumstances.
Deborah's prophecy was so precise. Listen how it's reported in chapter 5. Most blessed of women be
Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Of tent-dwelling women, most blessed. He asked for help.
and she gave him milk. She brought him curds and a noble's bowl. She set her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workman's mallet. She struck Sisera. She crushed his head. She shattered
and pierced his temple. Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still. Between her feet he sank,
he fell. Where he sank, there he fell, dead. Part of me wants to read that with solemnity.
But when the Israelites around the camp first, they sang this with glee. They sang with joy.
They sang this like the munchkins in the Wizard of Oz. Ding, dong, the witch is dead. Witch, oh,
witch, Sisera is dead. They knew who they were delivered from. They knew how evil Sisera was and
how truly oppressed they were. And they knew that Sisera fell to his death by the hand of a woman,
by the hand of Jael. Deborah's prophecy was so precise that Jael's hands are mentioned twice in the
song. They knew that God provided the victory. And what's so ironic is that as much as some
commentators try to paint a picture that Barak, that he's a nilly-willy sissy whose faith actually
lands him in the faith chapter in Hebrews 11, they miss the whole point of who the real sissy is.
The real sissy is Sisera for the rest of recorded history. The great,
the mighty, the arrogant enemy of God, the powerful general Sisera with 900 iron chariots.
Every time we talk about him, one thing is clear. Sisera was beat up by a girl.
God loves to mock his enemies.
Now, I've already gone too long. I'm going to land the plane very quickly. Notice God's victory.
and judgment, forced to ask a question. The last verse of Celebration and Victory Song in chapter 5
states this, May all your enemies perish, O Lord, but your friends be like the sun as he rises in
his might, and the land had rest for 40 years. Biblical poetry oftentimes leaves the punchline at
the end of the poem. This is no different. We're to walk away from this remembering In this world,
from God's viewpoint, there are two groups and two possible outcomes of those groups. The two
groups are God's friends and enemies. The outcomes are eternal perishing and eternal life.
And the author of the book of Judges is making you keenly aware that if you are not God's friend,
you will perish.
God's enemies will perish. He's referring to the tent peg through Sisera's skull and the total
destruction of the chariots and the army of the Canaanites pointing to the eternal destruction of
all who have not been reconciled to God through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only through Christ
are you reconciled to God. Only through Christ are you accepted by God. Only through Christ can you
be called his friend. Only through Christ will you not perish. And only through Christ will you be
like the sun as he rises in his might, a metaphor for possessing eternal life.
Two categories of people, friend or foe. Two outcomes, eternal life,
eternal death. Will you choose life? Will you choose Christ?
What an amazing story. What an amazing God. Let's pray that we at Redeemer,
that we'll live faithfully even when no one's around, that we will respond here at Redeemer to his
loving chastisement and discipline with genuine repentance. And may we at Redeemer really believe
the commands and promises of Christ as he supernaturally builds his church and that we'll trust his
providential work to put us in the right place at the right time to be used for his glory.
Let's pray.
Father, what an amazing record of your activity among your creation. What power you demonstrate,
what love you demonstrate, and what judgment you demonstrate. God, help us by your grace and mercy
to hear and obey your word. Help us be less juda-like and more Christ-like.
Help us walk in faith when things seem insurmountable.
And Father, please, anyone here who cannot call you friend,
God, please, Father, convict them of their sins. Lord, cry out to you for mercy and escape your
coming judgment. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.