Lost Chances

Many years ago and idea came into my head. I was a big reader then and I loved a good story, I still do. As I was reading through the bible it occured to me that there was so much more that I wanted to know about some of the bible stories and the bible people. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if someone were to write a book about the lives of the bible characters. Some of the most interesting characters in the bible are found in the book of judges and we know very little about many of them.

How about a book telling the story of how Deborah became a female judge, or maybe a new testament book about what happened to Zacheus after Jesus had dinner at his house about how he was picked on all his life for being so small and it made him angry and bitter and how an encounter with Jesus changed all that. I know we don’t really know these details and it would be a work of fiction but it would be fun to speculate, to see how close to the bible times and stories we could get. I thought about writing such stories several times, and then I saw a few in a book store one day where someone else had done it. I believe that God was giving me an opportunity and I let it go by. Have you ever let a chance go by that you should have taken. This bible story is about one such chance.

Judges 4:1–9 NASB95

Then the sons of Israel again did 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; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. The sons of Israel cried to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment. Now she sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, “Behold, the Lord, the God of Israel, has commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. ‘I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand.’ ” Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

There is a fascinating story here about Deborah being a judge, was she the only female judge, how did she become a judge, why her. We don’t know the answers to these questions, in fact the story was not even supposed to be about her, but about Barak, If he had done what he was supposed to do her only role would have been to act as God’s messenger, which is impressive enough, but because Barak did not do what he should have done Deborah took on a greater role. I wonder if that is why she was a judge in the first place, did someone else miss their opportunity and Deborah stepped up to the plate, so God used her instead.

Let’s see what happened.

Judges 4:10–16 NASB95

Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up with him; Deborah also went up with him. Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh. Then they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. Sisera called together all his chariots, nine hundred iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hands; behold, the Lord has gone out before you.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 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. 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 even one was left.

Here are Deborah and Barak, interestingly enough the bible says that Deborah went with Barak but we usually say it the other way around Deborah and Barak not Barak and Deborah, but here they are with an army of 10,000 men. On the other side are 900 chariots and the army that is with them. Now chariots were the tanks of the day, so an army with 900 chariots would probably have had several thousand foot soldiers and other support troops. Who knows how badly they were outnumbered, but God makes all the difference.

It was not just a victory but total defeat for the enemy, outnumbered, outclassed, and outgunned the Israelites lined up against the enemy and by all rights they had no chance of victory, until God showed up. Without God Israel didn’t stand a chance, but with God not even one enemy soldier was left alive. It was a massacre. Deborah had prophesied that because Barak did not do what God said that he would not be given the honor of killing the enemy king, that honor would go to a woman since Barak said he would not go unless a Deborah went with him, it would be logical to assume that Deborah would be the one to kill the enemy king, she was there.......she was part of the army, she was a leader, but that was not God’s plan.

Judges 4:17–24 NASB95

Now 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. Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him. He said to her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there anyone here?’ that you shall say, ‘No.’ ” But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” And he entered with her, and behold Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple. So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel. The hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan.

A woman lured the king into a tent, gave him a drink since he was thirsty after the battle, covered him up as if to hide him from his enemies and then drove a tent peg through his temple. He was assassinated by someone who pretended to be his friend. Someone who was not part of the battle or part of the story until then, someone we know nothing else about. We don’t have any idea who Jael was except that she was the wife of Heber and she was of the Kenite people, we don’t have any idea who Heber was either. An unknown person who the bible tells us almost nothing about. I think God wanted it that way.

This was a job that was given to Barak. He could have had glory and honor and fame, he could have been the deliverer and saviour of his people, he could have been a hero. In fact he was a hero, he did deliver his people, but it was not a great as it could have been. God offered him everything and he blew it. He missed his opportunity. He could have had it all, God offered it all to him, God did all the work performed all the setup and all Barak had to do was show up, but he hesitated and he backpedaled and he missed his opportunity. Barak missed out on getting everything that God had for him because he didn’t do everything God told him to do. You know I think that I have missed out on everything that God had for me because I did not do everything God told me to do, what about you?

I think that God wants all his children to lead spectacular lives. I think he loves us, he says he does, he suffered for us and died for us, doesn't that prove his love. If he loves us and wants the best for us why wouldn’t he give it to us? It’s not because he is not able, God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we ask of him. It is not because he doesn’t care, God loves us enough to suffer and die for us. It is not because he doesn’t know what we need, God knows us better than we know ourselves. So what is holding us back? What prevents us from having the life God has planned for us? Is it not our lack of obedience?

I am not talking about sin in the sense that we do something illegal or immoral. I am not talking about a blatant sin where we set out to do something we know we should not do, although, If you are like me you have done that too. I am talking about something that seems much milder, something that seems like its just not that bad, maybe not even bad at all. What if we just don’t take advantage of what God offers us, what if we just bow out, refuse the dance, what if we just sit this one out. Is that not sin?

Barak was a servant of God, God said go and conquer, Barak said I will go, but only if Deborah goes with me.

Now I did not have a little brother, but I want you to take trip with me into my imagination. I know some of you are scared, and you should be, just stay on the beaten path and you should be OK, the really scary stuff is in another part of my head. Suppose I had a little brother and one day my dad had done something that he did from time to time. He would announce that on the way home he noticed there was a lot of trash on the side of the highway and it was time we did something about it. Normally we would divide this task up into two parts, his part was to grab some bags and drive me a couple of miles down to where our highway ran into a bigger highway and drop me off and my part was to pick up trash on the side of the road until I got back to our house.

Now imagine that I had had a little brother and dad had said it was time to pick up trash and I had said, Dad, I will go but only if you send my little brother too, otherwise I will not go. How do you see that turning out. I see myself limping down the road with my trash bag picking up trash and occasionally rubbing my sore behind without a little brother to help and complaining the whole way about how I now had to do my little brothers chores for a month.

How do you think God feels when he speaks to his servants, gives them a task to do, and they say no, or they say I will do it but only if we do it my way. If you are a servant how can you say no, how can a servant tell his master how it will be or not be. Shouldn’t the servant just say yes sir and get on with it? Especially if the master is kind and gentle, if the task is easy and master is doing most of the work himself. In Barak’s case God did the work and made sure he could not lose, gave him a huge victory, God didn’t ask much from Barak except his trust, his faith, God did everything else himself. But Barak refused.

Are you refusing God today, are you putting conditions on your obedience to God, are you trying to take God’s place in the relationship by making your own rules and trying to make God your servant by telling God how it will be. Are you missing out on all God has for you by not trusting and obeying God. Or are you willing to do whatever God says whenever he says it, are you a Barak or Deborah. God honors those who honor him, you get to choose, what choice will you make, what choices have you made, is it time for a change?