Judges 4a
Notes
Transcript
Prequel to Saviors that fail: When: Israel was in slavery for
400 years. Then Moses led the Exodus into the desert. His
successor, Joshua, let them into the promised land. The 12
tribes of Israel came from Jacob’s (aka Israel) 12 sons. Judah is
the star of the show, mostly. Or is God? The “Judges” didn’t
judge in a courtroom. They were “deliverers” or “saviors”.
The Canaanites were the people living in the promised land when
the 12 tribes of Israel got there. The various “-ites” (like
Perizzites) can be thought of as sub-tribes of Canaanites.
Last week on Saviors that fail: Ehud killed a fat king and the
Lord gave Israel peace for 80 years.
This week on Saviors that fail:
Application →The Lord is gracious. The Lord is
worthy of praise. God uses good and bad women.
God uses weak men. Glory is God’s alone. .... And will
someone finally tell Spain about the Light of the world???
Judges 4-5 Christian Standard
Bible (CSB)
Deborah and Barak
4 The Israelites again did
The evil
The author has defined “the
evil” several times: following
other gods. In Deuteronomy,
“the evil” always meant
following other gods and doing
the terrible things that result.
“Evil” is murder/theft/adultery
but “the evil” is violating the
first commandment—"I am
the Lord your God, who
brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the place of
slavery. Do not have other
gods besides me.”
what was evil in the sight
of the LORD after Ehud had
died. 2 So the LORD sold
them to King Jabin of
Canaan, who reigned in
Hazor. The commander of
his army was Sisera who
lived in Harosheth of the
Nations. 3 Then the
Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin
had nine hundred iron chariots, and he harshly
oppressed them twenty years.
Deborah, a prophetess and the wife of
Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that
time. 5 She would sit under the palm tree of
Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill
country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up
to her to settle disputes.
4
I don’t want any prophets
Prophets usually show up when things are bad, or about to become bad.
Moses and Daniel came during slavery, Elijah during King Ahab and Jezebel,
Ezekiel and Jeremiah at the destruction of Jerusalem. Nathan to scold
David. Even in the NT, Agabus came to prophesy about the famine.
God appointed the priests and the Levites to be his messengers. They
preached the Law to the people, and could inquire of the Lord using the
Urim and the Thummim. Deborah came when the priesthood failed.
She summoned Barak son of Abinoam from
Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Hasn’t
the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you:
‘Go, deploy the troops on Mount Tabor, and
take with you ten thousand men from the
Naphtalites and Zebulunites? 7 Then I will lure
Sisera commander of Jabin’s army, his
chariots, and his infantry at the Wadi Kishon to
fight against you, and I will hand
him over to you.’”
6
Barak said to her, “If you will go
with me, I will go. But if you will not
go with me, I will not go.”
8
Coward or Saint?
Why does Barak want Deborah to go with him? Where is
the Spirit of the Lord?
“I will gladly go with you,” she
said, “but you will receive no honor on the road
you are about to take, because the LORD will
sell Sisera to a woman.” So Deborah got up
and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak
summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh;
ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah
also went with him.
9
Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from
the Kenites, the sons of Hobab, Moses’s father11
in-law, and pitched his tent beside the oak tree
of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.
It was reported to Sisera that Barak son of
Abinoam had gone up Mount Tabor. 13 Sisera
summoned all his nine hundred iron chariots
and all the troops who were with him from
Harosheth of the Nations to the Wadi
Kishon. 14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go!
This is the day the LORD has handed Sisera
over to you. Hasn’t the LORD gone before you?”
So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with
ten thousand men following him.
12
The LORD threw Sisera, all his charioteers,
and all his army into a panic before Barak’s
assault. Sisera left his chariot and fled on
foot. 16 Barak pursued the chariots and the
army as far as Harosheth of the Nations, and
the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not
a single man was left.
15
Will the real general please stand up?
Meanwhile, Sisera
Who is in command of the army?
had fled on foot to the
tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,
because there was peace between King Jabin of
Hazor and the family of Heber the
Kenite. 18 Jael went out to greet Sisera
and said to him, “Come in, my lord.
Come in with me. Don’t be afraid.” So
he went into her tent, and she covered
him with a blanket. 19 He said to her,
17
“Please give me a little water to drink for I am
thirsty.” She opened a container of milk, gave
him a drink, and covered him again. 20 Then he
said to her, “Stand at the entrance to the tent.
If a man comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man
here?’ say, ‘No.’” 21 While he was sleeping from
exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg,
grabbed a hammer,
Who is the real coward?
and went silently to
Can anyone escape from the Lord? How
Sisera. She
does God use bad people for God things?
hammered the peg
into his temple and
drove it into the ground, and he died.
When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael
went out to greet him and said to him, “Come
and I will show you the man you are looking
for.” So he went in with her, and there was
Sisera lying dead with a tent peg through his
temple!
22
That day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan
before the Israelites. 24 The power of the
Israelites continued to increase against King
Jabin of Canaan until they destroyed him.
23
Deborah’s Song
5 On that day Deborah and Barak son of
Abinoam sang:
2
When the leaders lead in
Israel,
when the people volunteer,
blessed be the LORD.
3
Listen, kings! Pay attention,
Not a shield or spear was
princes!
seen
I will sing to the LORD;
among forty thousand in
I will sing praise to
Israel.
the LORD God of Israel.
9
4
LORD, when you came from
My heart is with the leaders
of Israel,
Seir,
with the volunteers of the
when you marched from the
people.
fields of Edom,
Blessed be the LORD!
the earth trembled,
10
the skies poured rain,
white donkeys,
You who ride on
and the clouds poured water. who sit on saddle blankets,
5
The mountains melted
and who travel on the road,
before the LORD,
give praise!
even Sinai, before the LORD,
11
the God of Israel.
acts of the LORD,
6
In the days of Shamgar son
Let them tell the righteous
the righteous deeds of his
of Anath,
warriors in Israel,
in the days of Jael,
with the voices of the singers
the main roads were
at the watering places.
deserted
Then the LORD’s people went
because travelers kept to the down to the city gates.
side roads.
7
Villages were deserted,
12
“Awake! Awake, Deborah!
Awake! Awake, sing a song!
they were deserted in Israel,
Arise, Barak,
until I, Deborah, arose,
and take your prisoners,
a mother in Israel.
son of Abinoam!”
8
Israel chose new gods,
13
Then the survivors came
then there was war in the
down to the nobles;
city gates.
the LORD’s people came down
to me with the warriors.
14
Those with their roots in
seashore
and stayed in his harbors.
Amalek came from Ephraim;
18
Benjamin came with your
defied death,
people after you.
Naphtali also, on the heights
The leaders came down from
of the battlefield.
Machir,
19
and those who carry a
Then the kings of Canaan
marshal’s staff came from
fought
Zebulun.
at Taanach by the Waters of
15
The princes of Issachar
The people of Zebulun
Kings came and fought.
Megiddo,
were with Deborah;
but they did not plunder the
Issachar was with Barak;
silver.
they were under his
20
leadership in the valley.
heavens;
There was great searching of
the stars fought with Sisera
heart
from their paths.
among the clans of Reuben.
21
16
Why did you sit among the
The stars fought from the
The river Kishon swept
them away,
sheep pens
the ancient river, the river
listening to the playing of
Kishon.
pipes for the flocks?
March on, my soul, in
There was great searching of
strength!
heart
22
among the clans of Reuben.
hammered—
17
Gilead remained beyond
The horses’ hooves then
the galloping, galloping of
the Jordan.
his stallions.
Dan, why did you linger at
23
the ships?
angel of the LORD,
Asher remained at the
“Bitterly curse her
“Curse Meroz,” says the
inhabitants,
where he collapsed, there he
for they did not come to help
fell—dead.
the LORD,
28
to help the LORD with the
through the window;
warriors.”
she peered through the
24
Jael is most blessed of
Sisera’s mother looked
lattice, crying out:
women,
“Why is his chariot so long in
the wife of Heber the Kenite;
coming?
she is most blessed among
Why don’t I hear the
tent-dwelling women.
hoofbeats of his horses?”
25
He asked for water; she
29
Her wisest princesses
gave him milk.
answer her;
She brought him cream in a
she even answers herself:
majestic bowl.
30
26
“Are they not finding and
She reached for a tent peg, dividing the spoil—
her right hand, for a
a girl or two for each warrior,
workman’s hammer.
the spoil of colored garments
Then she hammered Sisera— for Sisera,
she crushed his head;
the spoil of an embroidered
she shattered and pierced his garment or two for my
temple.
27
He collapsed, he fell, he lay
neck?”
31
LORD, may all your enemies
down between her feet;
perish as Sisera did.
he collapsed, he fell between
But may those who love him
her feet;
be like the rising of the sun
in its strength.
And the land had peace for forty years.