lessons from judges 4

This was the severest oppression to which Israel had been subjected. This added to the shame of his death before men and had he but known it, as Abimelech (Judges 9:54), we may well imagine how much it would have added to the vexation of his own heart. Israel returning to their God: They cried unto the Lord, when distress drove them to him, and they saw no other way of relief. 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. The minute the Judge dies, Israel falls back into idolatry. By God's direction, she orders Barak to raise an army, and engage Jabin's forces, that were under Sisera's command, Judges 4:6,7. These two counties should furnish him with an army sufficient he need not stay to go further. Jabin did them no harm, did not oppress them as he did the Israelites, their plain, quiet, harmless way of living making them not suspected nor feared, and perhaps God so ordering it as a recompence for their constant adherence to the true religion. You can listen to it here. They often removing their tents, she had been used to drive these nails, and therefore knew how to do it the more dexterously on this great occasion. Here is, I. Israel backsliding from God: They again did evil in his sight, forsook his service, and worshipped idols for this was the sin which now most easily beset them, Judges 4:1. . By the hand of a woman. The Judges 4:11, concerning the removal of Heber, one of the families of the Kenites, out of the wilderness of Judah, in the south, where those families had fixed themselves (Judges 1:16), into the northern country, comes in for the sake of what was to follow concerning the exploit of Jael, a wife of that family. It was well for Barak that he had Deborah with him for she made up what was defective, 1. 19 And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink for I am thirsty. To be oppressed by those whom their fathers had conquered, and whom they themselves had foolishly spared, could not but be very grievous. The great loss which a people sustains by the death of good governors. It is accomplished by their joint-agency. Proud member II. 14. Yet some think it refers to the Kenites, mentioned immediately before, Judges 4:11. Lastly, We must suppose she kept her tent as quiet as she could, and free from noise, that he might sleep the sooner and the faster. Also note that Deborah’s leadership of Barak is of a motherly variety. 2. The year of the redeemed at length came, when Israel was to be delivered out of the hands of Jabin, and restored again to their liberty, which we may suppose the northern tribes, that lay nearest to the oppressors and felt most the effects of his fury, did in a particular manner cry to God for. [1.] Either she had her house under that tree, a mean habitation which would couch under a tree, or she had her judgment-seat in the open air, under the shadow of that tree, which was an emblem of the justice she sat there to administer, which will thrive and grow against opposition, as palms under pressures. So it may be read. Was he cold, or afraid of catching cold? No, her womanhood was even the point: by selecting this woman not only as His judge but as His mouthpiece, God was showing again that He loves to use the things the world perceives as weak as His means of shaming the strong. She realizes that her womanhood is actually a strength to be leveraged in her leadership, not a weakness to be discarded. Throughout scripture and history, God has placed women into positions of leadership and used their intellect, force of will, and uniquely feminine traits to achieve His perfect will. 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. God was pleased to raise up these women, and in light of this, we daren’t take the position of being more “complementarian” than God. Barak their leader finds his enemy dead, (Judges 4:22), and no doubt, he was very well pleased to find his work done so well to his hand, and so much to the glory of God and the confusion of his enemies. Copyright StatementThese files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that is available on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library Website. Israel oppressed by Jabin, Judges 4:2,3. All rights reserved. III. Assemble yourselves, and you shall be broken to pieces, Isaiah 8:9. the wife of Lapidoth--rendered by some, "a woman of splendors.". In every undertaking it is good to be satisfied that God goes before us, that we are in the way of our duty and under his direction. It seems rather to arise from a conviction of the necessity of God's presence and continual direction, a pledge and earnest of which he would reckon Deborah's presence to be, and therefore begged thus earnestly for it. In fixing the very place to which Sisera would draw his army, she gave him a sign, which might help to confirm his faith when he came to engage. 24And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. Some make this to be the language of a weak faith he could not take her word unless he had her with him in pawn, as it were, for performance. With his head nailed to the ground, an emblem of his earthly-mindedness. (2.) And God gives him a complete victory. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. had he stood too nicely upon a point of honour, he would have resented it as an affront to have the general slain by any hand but his but now he remembered that this diminution of his honour he was sentenced to undergo, for insisting upon Deborah's going with him (the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman), though then it was little thought that the prediction would be fulfilled in such a way as this. Judges 4:1-17.DEBORAH AND BARAK DELIVER ISRAEL FROM JABIN AND SISERA. The defeat of Sisera and his army was a humiliating defeat for Jabin. The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead--The removal of the zealous judge Ehud again left his infatuated countrymen without the restraint of religion.. 2, 3. Barak takes the field, Judges 4:10. What’s in view is actually Jael’s work in killing Sisera: God uses this unlikely figure and her unlikely methods to save His people, as is His wont. Now Heber the Kenite . As I stated in my sermon, Deborah’s gender isn’t actually the point of this text. . I think it behooves Christians to look at the example of Deborah and recognize that while the Bible gives clear, cogent answers on leadership roles in the home and the church, it does not speak as clearly to the issue of women in leadership politically or economically. 17, 18. If so, the spirit of prophesy in Deborah confirms the spirit of a soldier in Barak: Go and draw towards Mount Tabor. Go and draw toward mount Tabor--an isolated mountain of Galilee, northeast corner of the plain of Esdraelon. The children of Israel came up to her from all parts for judgment, not so much for the deciding of controversies between man and man as for advice in the reformation of what was amiss in things pertaining to God.