Not Following God's Will
Broken People Faithful God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsWhat we are learning and are going to continue to learn is that God will use whatever and whoever He wants to accomplish His will and His plan for His glory. Are we willing to be a part of it?
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Have you ever wondered what happens when you refuse to follow the will of God. Like do we miss out on something when we do not step out when the Lord tells us to step out? Maybe we will never know what we will miss out on, Maybe it will just be that the Lord will work through someone else. I have two stories of when I saw and heard of people that where to scared to step out in faith.
One day in My second year at Millar our whole hall went on a doughnut run after supper. They where looked upon a little more favorably at this point. We all went to Tim Hortins in Swift Current for coffee, which I didn't like at the time anyways. We where all hanging out for a bit before we had to head back to the college when our Hall leader left the building and went to sit on the sidewalk outside. I went out to talk to Him to see what was wrong and he told me something I dont know if I will ever forget. He said that He felt God telling Him to pray with and share the gospel with someone he saw in the line and he was to scared to do it. This was the leader of my hall, a third year that I looked up to. He was to scared to share the gospel with someone. He was in tears because he wasn't sure what would have happened if he had stepped out in faith.
One other time when working at a bible camp somewhere I was told a story about a camp speaker. This guy was working at a camp somewhere when a little girl broke her arm. The girl was being spirited off to the hospital by some of the staff. This camp speaker was a conservative Christian, similar upbringing to me. so when he felt the urge to pray for the girl for healing he did what some people do, He started to pray for the girl in his head. But then he felt the need to pray for her out loud, to stop and lay hands on her and pray fro her healing. He was to scared to step out in faith. and though the girl was fine, had a cast and healed well over time He always wondered what would have happened if he had prayed for her out loud.
what happens when we are either to scared or to lazy or to complacent to do what the Lord is caLLING US TO DO, OR TO EVEN STEP OUT IN FAITH AS WE SEEK TO FOLLOW THE WILL OF gOD. One caveat to this. We are not powerful enough to foil the plans and the will of God. We are not somehow so powerful that we can stop God from doing what He wants. But maybe if we are not willing to step out in faith in the will of God maybe, just maybe he will use someone else to do it. Maybe he will do something to try and get our attention.
What we are learning and are going to continue to learn is that God will use whatever and whoever He wants to accomplish His will and His plan for His glory. Are we willing to be a part of it?
The Narrative
The Narrative
We are on to chapter 4-5 of the book of Judges to learn that God is still in control, His plan and His will be done. Because what we see in the book of Judges is that sometimes God’s people get lazy, they turn away and they refuse to follow for some reason.
we start out in with
Shamgar and his Ox Goad Judges 3:31-4:1
Shamgar is not mentioned very much in the book of Judges. He seems to be alive around the same time as Ehud, the left handed man. We see this at the end of Judges 3. Shamgar killed a bunch of Philistines with an Ox Goad. This is essentially just a bronze tipped bow staff. It is meant to help get those stubborn oxen going when they do not want to move. That is really all we know about Him.
We think he may have been around the same time as Ehud because of ch 4:1. It is only after Shamgar is mentioned that we read that Ehud had died. Not conclusive evidence and not a big deal but interesting.
The Main Cast - 4:1-4
The two main Israeli characters in this chapter are Deborah and Barak. Barak is the military leader. Deborah is said to live in the hill country of Ephraim in the central section of Canaan, not far from Jerusalem. Barak lived in a place in the north called Kedesh-naphtali.
Their main protagonists are Jabin king of the Canaanites, and Sisera his military leader. The Canaanite army has 900 iron-clad chariots. His headquarters is in the northern city of Hazor, north of the Sea of Galilee, near Mount Carmel. Jabin’s coalition is made up of several city-states of the Canaanites in the north, including the valley of Jezreel. This is the same valley called Armageddon, or “mount Megiddo,” in Revelation 16:16, where a final end time “battle” will be fought. All of the major battles for control of Palestine had been fought in the valley of Jezreel where the river Kishon flowed
Because Israel again “did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord after Ehud died,” he sold them into the powerful hand of Jabin and his general, Sisera. Again, this was the result of Israel’s disobedience to God’s command to drive out the inhabitants of the Promised Land.
During the long time Ehud was around they did not do evil in the sight of the Lord. Some people say this is due to there fear of the guy, fear of punishment and not actual repentance. But we do not know that for sure. Though that would not be out of the realm of possibility as how often do we become just Sunday morning Christians. People that are just going through the motions.
Deborah Calls Barak to go - 4:5-10
This has all been kind of setting the stage for what is about to go down here.
Deborah lived much farther from Hazor than Barak. But from her place far from the Barak’s headquarters, Deborah calls him to her palm tree. She then commands him to gather an army of 10,000 at Mount Tabor, just north of the valley of Jezreel. She tells him that the Lord had promised to draw out Sisera and his 900 chariots to Mount Tabor and give Sisera into Barak’s hand.
But it is in Verse 6 that I want us to focus on. Barak’s unwillingness and lack of leadership is pointed out by Deborah’s question to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go!’?” This means that God had previously commanded Barak to lead his army against Sisera. And Deborah again says to him, “Has not the Lord told you that he would give Sisera into your hand? … Does not the Lord go out before you?” In other words, God had previously promised victory to Barak. The Lord himself will lead the charge against Sisera, but he still would not act. So the Lord gave the initiative to Deborah.. This is a phrase that I seem to say a lot some days. “Did I not just tell you to go do something or clean something”. If you can relate then you can probably understand the frustration of Deborah.
God had told Barak to go, to follow His will and for whatever reason he refused to go. But not only that we read in vs 8 that he wouldnt go without her!
But going back to the beginning of the battle. The Canaanites had oppressed Israel for 20 years before they again cried out to the Lord. It was then that Deborah came into the scene and called Barak to battle. Israel’s cycle of oppression was getting progressively worse. In the time of Othniel, it was eight years. During Ehud’s time, it was eighteen years. Now, for 20 years, no man in Israel took the initiative to rally the men to battle. It was Deborah who summoned Barak to battle. This was a story where the roles of men and women were reversed.
since Deborah is God’s mouthpiece, this is also a challenge to God. Why was Barak so fearful, unwilling and unsure of himself? Maybe he thinks his troops trust and respect Deborah more than him. Maybe he needed assurance that God, through the prophetess, will be with him in battle.
Deborah prophesies this in her additional response to Barak, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” The second part of the battle narrative involves another woman.
The Battle and the two women - 4:11-24
No one was left of the Canaanite army after their defeat. But Sisera was not captured, and found his way on foot into the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Heber was previously introduced in verse 11. He was one of those Gentile Kenites who settled with the tribe of Judah in the area near Jericho (Jgs 1:16). He then left his tribe and settled near Kedesh, where Barak also lived. Sisera fled to the area of Heber, since Heber had good relations, or “peace,” with Jabin the king of the Canaanites. He thought that he would be safe there.
When Sisera came to her tent, Jael invited him to go inside and rest from his exhaustion, having escaped on foot from the pursuing Barak. She asked him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So the general Sisera obeyed Jael the woman, much like Barak obeying Deborah. Jael made Sisera very comfortable by giving him milk and covering him with a blanket. Sisera then commands Jael to stand guard at the doorway so she could wave away anyone who would come. But when the general was sound asleep in his weariness, Jael took a tent peg and pounded it through his temple into the ground, killing him.
That “anyone” who came to Jael’s tent was Barak, in pursuit of Sisera. Jael meets him at the door of her tent, and invites him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” Just as she invited Sisera, the vanquished general of Jabin, she also invited Barak, the conquering general of Deborah. The irony here is that both generals were “conquered” by two women, Deborah and Jael. In fact, Jael “conquers” both of them. How frustrated could Barak have been, that the honor and glory of capturing or killing the enemy general was taken away from him by a woman! Deborah’s prophecy, that Barak will not get his glory, was fulfilled by another woman, not by a man.
So the two heroes of this story are both women, because men like Barak neglected their God-appointed roles.
When the battle is won, a song is sang to the Lord. I want to end off this narrative with the first 2 verses of it.
1 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.
According to people who are more skilled then me, this can also be translated as “When locks of hair grow long in Israel”. The reason why I bring this up is I thought it was kind of numerous. Like why would they say this?
One author I was reading describes it this way and why it was translated for us the way it is.
The Book of Judges c. Conclusions
an allusion to the practice (as in Samson) of allowing the hair to grow long as an outward sign of dedication to Yahweh. That is, what the second line expresses literally (the people offered themselves willingly) the first line expresses metaphorically (like Nazirites, the people voluntarily set aside their normal way of life and dedicated themselves to Yahweh to serve as warriors
The Lord is praised when His people give their lives completely to Him in all things that they do.
So What?
So What?
The Barak narrative is much less interested in who fought in the battle than it is in Barak’s hesitation and its results: “He who hesitates loses!” But the purpose of the Song of Deborah is to acknowledge and praise Yahweh and those who participated
This is an interesting account of the history of Israel. Again and again we are reminded throughout the bible that
God Is Sovereign
God Is Sovereign
The whole account that we have hear goes to prove again and again that God is in control and we are not. We try to run our own lives and we fail. Yahweh is the one that is in charge, dictating strategy that often does not make any sense to us, effecting the victory. It is when we dedicate our lives to Him that the victory is assured.
But also what we learn from this is that the Lord will not give up on His people. If you are a child of God the bible tells us that nothing can take us away from the father. God’s sovereignty also assures us that He will hold us till the end. We can rest in that promise as we liove our lives completely for God. And what this knowledge shall cause us to do is
Dedicate Our Lives to God’s will
Dedicate Our Lives to God’s will
Barak was called by God to do something, something that likely seemed crazy and counter intuitive. But knowing and having seen that God is sovereign it should have been know surprise to him.
We are even called to do things that are crazy to the outside world. Like a small church like ours running a bible camp for 3 weeks. I tell other churches this, (knowing we rely on volunteer support to do it) and people think it is crazy. But God has so far called us to do this so we go on following the will of God and He provides for us to do it.
What are we doing to follow the will of God? God’s people didnt so God did something counter cultural, he called two women to take the place that the men he called should have done. Deborah did not fight that we know of, But she was used to give Barak the nudge he needed. The result was that Barak missed out on the glory of it and that went to God and the two women.
This is not prescriptive for the roel of women but rather descriptive of the fact that God will use what He wants to accomplish His will and His plan. And for some reason He wants to use us in His plan for the world.
We may feel ungifted in what he is calling us to do. In one way or another, we feel inhibited to serve. When we as Christians do not trust God in these contexts, we lose out on the opportunity for God to work through us. And worse, we may find ourselves expending all kinds of time and energy hopelessly trying to make up the difference. We want to have the assurance up front that the risk will be worth it, that we will succeed. But God has often already given the assurance in his Word and wants us to be involved so that he may work to accomplish his plan
We want assurance that God will grant us what we need, that God will proved for us as we step out in faith. But the assurance is already there. God says come follow me, come dedicate your life to me, live your life for me in all you do.
Are you willing to miss out on what God is calling you to do and what He might want to do through you and this body of Christ? The going is not going to be easy and it will push us but the question remains, what are we doing to dedicate our lives completely to the will of God.