Sermon for November 15, 2020 ?? Minutes
Notes
Transcript
Sermon for November 15, 2020 ?? Minutes
This morning I'll be reading Judges chapter 4 verses 1 through 7.
And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
Judges 4:1-7
Judges is a book that isn’t used very much in sermon preparation because,,, 1 - it doesn’t show up very many times in the lectionary,,, and 2 - a lot of people associate the Old Testament as showing a God that is different,,, than the New Testament. But,,, the book of Judges can be useful in showing that the God of the Old Testament is continuously showing mercy and grace to the Israelites even though they also go through terrible punishments,,, that they have earned.
1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud had died. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera who lived in Harosheth of the Nations. 3 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, because Jabin had 900 iron chariots, and he harshly oppressed them 20 years.
4 Deborah, a woman who was a prophetess and the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 It was her custom to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her for judgment.
6 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 10,000 men from the Naphtalites and Zebulunites? 7 Then I will lure Sisera commander of Jabin’s forces, his chariots, and his army at the Wadi Kishon to fight against you, and I will hand him over to you.’ ”
God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.
Let us pray:
Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.
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As we continue to watch the drama unfolding in our presidential election,,, I can’t help but remind everyone that God is still in control.
Whichever way this process goes,,, either for or against whoever you think needs to be our next president,,, that will not change,,, and His plan won’t be changed either!
In the scriptures that we have this morning,,, the Israelites are in trouble after doing evil in the sight of the Lord,,, and are in need of being saved again.
We as a nation,,, are like the Israelite nation,,, because we can’t stay out of trouble either.
And when it comes to this corona-virus pandemic,,, we are definitely in need of being rescued,,, so hopefully we can look at these verses this morning and see how they can help us in our walk with God this week.
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Verse 1 says: 1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud had died.
The Israelites are going to be punished for the evil things that they are doing.
This was a recurring theme all throughout the Old Testament.
God would hear the pleas of the Israelites and He would send someone to rescue them from whichever country had oppressed them.
While their leader was alive,,, they usually lived in a way that was pleasing to the Lord,,, but,,, after the one that rose up to save them has died,,, usually the Israelites would revert back to their sinful ways.
This would start the process over again,,, and it just kept happening,,, over and over.
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Verse 2 says: 2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera who lived in Harosheth of the Nations.
My Bible Knowledge Commentary says that,,, about 200 years earlier,,, God had freed Israel from slavery in Egypt.
Now,,, because of the evil that they had done,,, He sold them into the hands of the Canaanites as punishment for their sins.
Jabin was possibly a hereditary title,,, since there is a different Jabin mentioned in Joshua 11:1–13,,, or,,, it was a case of there being labels given to what we would call governors today,,, where they would be serving different regions and they were serving at the same time,,, with the same name.
Hazor,,, was the most important northern Canaanite stronghold in northern Galilee,,, about 8 1/2 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.
Neither Hazor nor its king Jabin play an active role in the narrative in Judges 4–5, for attention is centered on Sisera,,, the Canaanite commander from Harosheth.
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Verse 3 says: 3 Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had 900 iron chariots, and he harshly oppressed them 20 years.
The Canaanite oppression was severe because of their superior military force,,, the Israelites didn't think that they could defeat them because of the 900 iron chariots.
These chariots probably had scythes attached to the wheels and these would mow down the Israelite forces as they passed by.
The oppression lasted for 20 years,,, and made the Israelites cry to the LORD for help.
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Verse 4 says: 4 Deborah, a woman who was a prophetess and the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.
Deborah (whose name means “honeybee”) was both a prophetess and a judge,,, since she was leading Israel.
She first functioned as a judge in deciding disputes at her court, located about 8 or 10 miles north of Jerusalem between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim.
Nothing else is known about her husband Lappidoth,,, which means “torch,”.
Some of my commentaries say,,, there are others that argue that the word "Lappidoth" which in their translation means “woman of torches,” are suggesting that Deborah is presented as a charismatic leader—not a “domesticated version of the woman warrior”.
The designation “woman of torches” would then mean something like “fiery woman”,,, which she undoubtedly must have been since that she was judging Israel at that time.
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Verse 5 says: 5 It was her custom to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her for judgment.
In Adam Clark's Commentary,,, he says that Deborah was "one on whom the instrument of God had descended and was responsible for giving the news of God to the people.
The palm tree of Deborah was possibly a tree that was designated or named in recognition of her judgments to the Israelites.
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Verse 6 says: 6 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 10,000 men from the Naphtalites and Zebulunites?
Deborah was in tune with God enough that she was able to know that God had commanded Barak to deploy the troops and fight.
In the verses after this he doesn't dispute her words at all.
At the bottom of Mount Tabor,,, is the brook Kishon.
During the rainy season,,, all of the water that falls on the eastern side of the mountain,,, or upon the rising ground to the southern end of the top of Mount Tabor,,, empties into it,,, in a number of places where it cascades down,,, where it overflows its banks,,, the waters become real swift and treacherous,,, from the flood waters.
It might have been during this time that God lured the forces into this area to fight since it would have been harder for them to maneuver their chariots in this valley,,, as we see in the next verse.
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Verse 7 says: 7 Then I will lure Sisera commander of Jabin’s forces, his chariots, and his army at the Wadi Kishon to fight against you, and I will hand him over to you.’ ”
My Bible Knowledge Commentary says,,, that Mount Tabor was a place of relative safety from the Canaanite chariots,,, and a launching ground that they could use,,, to attack the enemy below.
The message from God,,, delivered by Deborah,,, but apparently Barak already knew about it,,, informed Barak that He would be in sovereign control of the battle,,, where it says,,, (I will lure Sisera … and hand him over to you).
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These verses don't go far enough into the scriptures to let you know that God does help them defeat the Canaanites that were oppressing them.
You need to spend some time reading Judges if you haven't.
There you will see that the Israelites continued with their constant struggles of doing evil in the sight of the Lord,,, God punishing them,,, and then they repent,,, and God would rescue them again.
This continues over and over again.
All of these events show that God extended mercy to them over and over again,,, even though they deserved their punishment because of disobedience.
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But,,, going back to the scripture for this morning,,, what was the biggest reason that the Israelites were afraid?
You could say they were afraid because the Canaanites had the iron chariots,,, an army that in their eyes was undefeatable.
What they failed to understand,,, is that the battle would be won by God's strength,,, not their own!
So many times today,,, we do the same thing!
We start to do something,,, and think that we can't,,, because we rely on "our strength" instead of God's!
Like the Israelites,,, we need to remember that as Christians,,, we should rely on God's strength and not our own.
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We also struggle with the same two things that the Israelites struggled with,,, which are key points in solving our fear problem,,, just like it did for them.
That's sin and faith.
You see,,, they were afraid because they had lost touch with God because of sin,,, and this led to their lack of faith.
When you have the relationship with God that you should have,,, you have nothing to fear.
The Israelites would always realize this and repent,,, but it was always after they had fallen into punishment for their sins.
It would have been much better for them if they had realized it quicker,,, and it's much better for us as well.
Hopefully after looking at these verses,,, we can see how the Israelites struggled,,, and knowing the reason why,,, we can stop the cycle of sin,,, leading to lack of faith,,, which then leads to punishment.
I don't know if the problems that we are going through today are punishment for sins,,, but I know that we won't be delivered from these problems that we are going through without our relationship with God.
And that starts,,, with each one of us each and every day,,, that we are around others.
As Christians,,, we must show others that we have our faith in God and we aren't worried about anything,,, because we know that God is in control and no matter what,,, He will bring us out of it!
The ones that don't have their faith in God are searching for something that they can rely on,,, and we need to show them that God is the answer!
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That's why that when we leave from here,,, we remember these verses and the reasons that the Israelites struggled,,, and we don't repeat their mistakes.
The answer to all of our problems are in the churches today,,, and we need to do our part to get the "good news" out into the communities where we live,,, work,,, and play.
We need our faith in God to be visible to others,,, so that they can see what is needed.
Then,,, with God on our side,,, all of our problems can be met,,, and fixed!
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