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Text: Judges 4:1-5:31
Theme: Behind the “historical facts” of any event is the “theological truth” — God has providentially arranged the events.
In chapter four, we have the events of Deborah’s Judgeship described, but in chapter five, we are told of God’s hand being behind it all.
Date: 07/09/2017 File Name: Judges_06.wpd
ID Number:
I’m going to approach the story of Deborah as if it were multi-act play with five scenes.
The cast of characters in this drama is as follows:
Jabin: King of Hazor in Canaan; a tyrant
Deborah: a Prophetess, and a judge; a woman of faith and courage
Barak: a reluctant Jewish general
Sisera: captain of Jabin’s army
Heber: a Kenite neighbor, at peace with Jabin
Jael: wife of Heber; handy with a hammer
Jehovah God: in charge of wars and weather
Now let the drama unfold.
I. ACT ONE: A TRAGIC SITUATION (Judges 4:1–3)
“After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.
The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.
3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.”
(Judges 4:1–3, NIV84)
1. Jabin is the key person in act one
a. he is a Canaanite ruler God raised up to discipline the people of Israel
2. for eighty years, the Jews had enjoyed rest because of the leadership of Ehud, the longest period of peace recorded in the Book of Judges
a. but no sooner was this godly judge dead than the people lapsed back into idolatry
b. when Ehud removed the idols and commanded the people to worship only Jehovah, they obeyed him; but when that constraint was removed, the people obeyed their own desires
c. the result was oppression from the Canaanites
3. Canaan was made up of a number of city-states, each of which was ruled by a king
a. “Jabin” was the the King of Hazor, and he is also called “King of Canaan”
b. with his large army and his 900 chariots of iron, Jabin was securely in control of the coast and much of the are south and west of the Sea of Galilee
4. as you read the narrative, however, you get the impression that Sisera, captain of Jabin’s army, was the real power in the land
a. Jabin isn’t even mentioned in Deborah’s song in Judges 5!
5. once again, the people of Israel cried out to God, not to forgive their sins but to relieve their suffering
II.
ACT TWO: A DIVINE REVELATION (Judges 4:4–7)
“Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.
5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.”
(Judges 4:4–5, NIV84)
1. God had raised up a courageous woman named Deborah to be a Judge in the land
a. Deborah is unique in the history of Israel
1) she is the only woman in the Bible who was placed at the height of political power by the common consent of the people
2) some Bible historians have referred to her as the Joan of Arc of Israel
b. everything in the text reveals her to be a woman of great dignity, great authority, great wisdom, and great spiritual insight
2. she is both a Judge and a Prophetess which alludes to both her political and spiritual leadership among the Israelites
a. like many of the other Judges we are not told about Deborah’s background or how she rose to such an exalted position in Israel
b. a clue to her ministry is found in Deborah’s Song in Judges 5:7
“Village life in Israel ceased, ceased until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel.”
(Judges 5:7, NIV84)
1) the sense is that Deborah became known as a wise counselor — a mother to Israel — and her fame began to spread among the people
2) in time she becomes a respected community leader deciding disputes among the people because she trusted God implicitly
3. in time, when Israel needed a deliverer, God chose this woman to lead his people
a. Deborah summons Barak, one of Israel’s most capable military men to assemble and lead the Israelite army and draw Sisera’s troops into a trap near Mount Tabor
b. it was there the Lord would defeat them
1) Mount Tabor lies at the juncture of where the tribal territories of Zebulun, Naphtali, and Issachar, meet, and is not far from the Kishon River
2) if Barak would lead the Israelite army toward Mount Tabor, God would draw Sisera and his troops toward the Kishon River, where God would give Barak the victory
3) as we hear in Deborah’s Song, God chose the leader of His army, the place for the battle, and the plan for His army to follow, and God also guaranteed the victory
III.
ACT THREE: A RELUCTANT PARTICIPANT (Judges.
4:8–10)
“Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” 9 “Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you.
But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.”
So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali.
Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.”
(Judges 4:8–10, NIV84)
1. Barak is not a Judge over Israel, but he evidently has the reputation of being a skilled military leader
a.
since she is not a military leader, Deborah turns to him to lead the fight against Jabin, and his Canaanite confederacy
b. like Moses before him, and Gideon, and Jeremiah after him, Barak hesitated when told what God wanted him to do
2. it is at this moment that Barak’s faith falters
a. he places his confidence in Deborah, and not the Lord, God
b. but Deborah encourages Barak in his faith
3. Barak enlisted 10,000 men from his own tribe of Naphtali and the neighboring tribe of Zebulun (Jdg.
4:6, 10; 5:14, 18)
a. later, volunteers from the tribes of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh (v.
14), and Issachar (v.
15), joined these men, and the army grew to 40,000 men (v.
8)
4. it is a small and ill-equipped force compared to Jaban’s army of armored chariots, but God had promised to give them victory, and they were depending on His promise
IV.
ACT FOUR: A VICTORIOUS CONFRONTATION (Judges 4:11–23)
“Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go!
This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands.
Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?”
So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men.
15 At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.
16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim.
All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in.
Don’t be afraid.”
So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.
19 “I’m thirsty,” he said.
“Please give me some water.”
She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’
say ‘No.’ ” 21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted.
She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him.
“Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.”
So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites.”
(Judges 4:11–23, NIV84)
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