Reluctant Obedience - Judges 4

There’s an old adage that says, “You can do things the easy way or the hard way.” The easy way is to do what’s right the first time. The hard way is to resist, pay the price for your resistance, and then end up doing what’s right anyway. In our passage this morning we see the Israelites once again choosing the hard way of doing things, and even the judge God raises up to save them ultimately chooses to do things the hard way as well.

Today we are looking at a somewhat puzzling account. It is the story of Deborah and Barak. It is notable because it is one of the few stories in Judges in which a woman has a very central role in the action. And it is even more notable because two of the central characters are women! The account, however, raises a lot of questions as well, so we will unpack it and see how the lessons we learn can apply to us today.

Background

As we’ve stated before, the book of Judges is a series of cycles. In each cycle we see the nation of Israel rebelling against God, God allowing them to be oppressed by a foreign nation, and then the people finally crying out to God for deliverance again, at which point God sends a judge to deliver them.

We see the same cycle play out here in chapter 4.

After Ehud’s death, the Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. 2So the Lord turned them over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-haggoyim. 3Sisera, who had 900 iron chariots, ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. (Judges 4:1-3, NLT)

After Ehud died, the Israelites turned away from the Lord, so God allowed them to be oppressed by the Canaanite king, Jabin of Hazor. They were under his rule for 20 years before they cried out to God for help. In chapter 5, which we’ll look at next week, we see just how bad things were during this time.

6“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, and in the days of Jael, people avoided the main roads, and travelers stayed on winding pathways. (Judges 5:6, NLT)

Things had gotten so bad that you didn’t dare to travel the main roads, for fear of being attacked or robbed. It was better to travel through the wilderness roads and take your chances with wild beasts or small bands of robbers than it was to travel on the main roads, where you would almost certainly be attacked. It is at this point that the people finally cry out to God for help.

We are then introduced to Deborah, who was a prophetess. Prophets were people to whom God had given special insight and through whom He spoke. Deborah had apparently become a well-known and respected leader and even regularly met with people under the Palm of Deborah (which may or may not have been named for her). The people would bring all manner of questions to her and ask for her wisdom and insight (which came from the Lord).

One day God apparently directed her to call in Barak, a man from a town called Kedesh to give him a special command. Speaking on behalf of God she tells him of the special task ahead of him.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: Call out 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor. 7And I will call out Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, along with his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River. There I will give you victory over him.” (Judges 4:6-7, NLT)

Notice what the message from the Lord is—it is that He is going to give Barak victory. It is not that God is asking Barak to secure victory, but rather that He is telling Barak to raise an army and go to Mount Tabor, where God would grant him victory over Sisera, the commander of King Jabin’s army.

As you might expect, Barak was more than a little nervous about this endeavor, so he told Deborah he would only do as God commanded him if she went with him. She said she would, but that as a result of this, Barak would not receive the honor for the victory, but rather Sisera would be delivered into the hands of a woman. Barak agreed to the terms and set out to do as God commanded.

Barak

There is a great deal of debate on how we are supposed to view Barak’s response here. Was Barak a coward? Did he not trust God? Did he lack the confidence to do what God had called him to do? I think there are probably some elements of each of those things in Barak’s response.

Certainly Barak was afraid of Sisera’s army. We are told that Sisera had 900 iron chariots at his disposal. Iron chariots were a relatively new invention, and the Israelites had not yet learned how to make them for themselves. Chariots were an excellent platform for mowing down huge numbers of soldiers at once. They were often used to attack an army that was in retreat, as one man in a chariot could quickly kill many soldiers. Needless to say, the Israelites were fearful of going up against such an army. So it makes sense that Barak would have been afraid.

Sometimes people have mocked Barak for asking a woman to come with him into battle. They view this act as something almost like asking your mom to come with you into battle. But let me suggest another theory that gives Barak the benefit of the doubt.

Deborah was a prophet, which means she represented God. I think it is possible that Barak knew this task was something he could not accomplish in his own strength and so he was asking Deborah to go with him to ensure that the Lord was with him. In a sense, Barak was seeking the Lord’s presence when he went into battle.

Regardless of the reasons for asking Deborah to accompany him, Barak’s actions resulted in a rebuke from Deborah. By putting conditions on his obedience to God, he was really showing a lack of faith. In essence Barak was saying that he would do what God asks of him as long as God met a few conditions of Barak’s.

The truth is, many of us do the same things. We know what God has told us to do, but we are unwilling to do it until we get some assurances from him.

I’ll give of my income as long as I’ll still be able to afford the things I want.

I’ll talk to my friends about faith as long as they don’t make fun of me.

I’ll extend forgiveness to that person as long as they will apologize for what they’ve done.

I’ll break off that relationship that isn’t honoring to God as long as I can be sure there will be someone else I can be with.

I’ll try to love my spouse selflessly as long as they will do the same for me (which of course isn’t selfless at all!).

The truth is, we make these kinds of deals with God (often unconsciously) all the time. We like to think that we are showing great faith, when in reality we are showing a lack of faith. I remember praying to God several months ago when things were really tough and telling him that I trusted Him, but I just wanted to know what the outcome of my situation was going to be. I felt like God’s response back to me was that if I really trusted Him then I wouldn’t need to know the end result. We are all like Barak at times.

The Battle

In Barak’s defense, however, he ends up doing exactly what God told him to do. He raised an army of 10,000 warriors and assembled them at Mt. Tabor. He brought Deborah with him. Then the time for the battle came.

14Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get ready! This is the day the Lord will give you victory over Sisera, for the Lord is marching ahead of you.” So Barak led his 10,000 warriors down the slopes of Mount Tabor into battle. 15When Barak attacked, the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots and warriors into a panic. Sisera leaped down from his chariot and escaped on foot. 16Then Barak chased the chariots and the enemy army all the way to Harosheth-haggoyim, killing all of Sisera’s warriors. Not a single one was left alive. (Judges 4:14-16, NLT)

To Barak’s credit, when Deborah said it was time to attack, he led his army into battle. One commentator said that he likely had to travel several miles to arrive at the place where Sisera’s army was assembled, so through that long march, Barak showed great faith. He didn’t retreat, he continued forward to carry out the task God had called him to, even though he saw no earthly way they could win the battle.

As a result of Barak’s faith, the Israelites routed Sisera’s army. We are told that the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots and warriors into a panic, and Sisera leapt from his chariot and escaped on foot. We may find ourselves asking, if you have an iron chariot, what would prompt you to flee on foot? If we add in some of the information from the song of Deborah in chapter 5, we can begin to get an idea of what might have happened.

The battle took place near the Kishon River. Apparently there was a torrential rain that resulted in the waters of the Kishon rising rapidly and overwhelming Sisera’s iron chariots. Whether the chariots got swept away in a flash flood or whether they simply got stuck in the mud (making the charioteers easy targets), they were rendered ineffective, and the Israelites managed to completely destroy Sisera’s army.

It is interesting that God chose to destroy them in this way (with rain and flooding), because the Canaanite god Baal was thought to control the weather. Surely Sisera and his army were not expecting this downpour and flooding, or else they would not have prepared for battle near a river. So even in God’s method of delivering the Israelites, He showed his power over the false gods of Canaan.

We are told that Barak pursued the enemy all the way to Harosheth-Haggoyim, which was Sisera’s hometown. It is possible that Barak was hoping he might be able to capture Sisera after all by capturing him when he ran back to the supposed safety of his home, but God had other plans.

We also read about another woman named Jael, whose husband was a Jew, but had basically deserted the nation of Israel and instead allied himself with King Jabin. Apparently Jael and her husband were known to Sisera, so Sisera viewed her as an ally and her tent as a safe place to rest. Jael, however, was not loyal to the foreign king and had a plan to get rid of Sisera once and for all.

When Sisera came to her tent Jael offered him safe harbor. She gave him some milk (or yogurt, or something of that nature), which would have refreshed him, but also probably made him sleepy. She told him he could lie down in her tent and rest. He asked her to keep him safe from the invading army and to lie if anyone asked if he was there. So she covered him up and waited until he fell asleep. After he was sound asleep she took a tent peg and a hammer and drove it through his head (or possibly his neck) killing him instantly. When Barak and his army came to Jael’s tent looking for Sisera, she took them in to see the general’s dead body lying there. God’s word through Deborah had been fulfilled: Barak would have victory over the army, but the honor of defeating the general would go to a woman instead of him.

The result of this battle was that Israel eventually defeated King Jabin, and the people once again enjoyed peace.

Application

This is a dramatic story with several interesting plot twists, but it is more than just good literature or even just good history. This account is recorded to teach us about the character of God and about how we are supposed to live. So what can we learn from this story?

First, we learn that genuine faith doesn’t put conditions on God. Barak’s attempt to get God to play by his rules is a picture of what faith is not. Faith does not try to get God to bend to our will, rather faith bends our wills toward His because we trust Him.

Genuine faith results in obedience to God even when (especially when) we don’t understand what He is doing. It leads us to follow Him even when it seems like doing so will result in hardship or ridicule for us. It means we trust God’s wisdom more than we trust our own. Genuine faith results in absolute obedience to God.

Second, we learn that reluctant obedience is still obedience. Though Barak hesitated to follow God’s commands, eventually he did. He went rushing down the mountain into battle with no understanding of how God was going to win the battle for him. He simply went because He believed that’s what God was telling him to do.

Barak showed great faith by doing what God had told him, even though he didn’t do it right away. For us this is an important reminder: it’s never too late to start doing what God has told you to do. Sometimes when we have fallen and we see that we have done the opposite of what God wanted we lose hope, we conclude that all is lost and so we may as well just keep going the way we are because the obedience ship has sailed. Nothing could be further from the truth! God can still use us when we choose to follow Him, even if it takes us a lot longer to do so than we would like. So let me ask you today, is there some area of your life where you have been resisting God? Maybe you’ve felt Him pulling on you for years to go in a certain direction, but you have resisted. Maybe it’s because you’re scared, maybe it’s because you think it’s too late and there’s too much water under the bridge, maybe it’s because you’re ashamed it’s taken you this long to change course. Whatever it is, I challenge you today to start moving toward God instead of away from him. I promise you that God will ultimately honor your obedience.

Third, victory ultimately rests in God, not our own strength or plans. One of the questions people ask in Judges is who is the hero of these stories? Many of the judges we see are flawed at best and it’s hard for us to think of them as the true heroes of the story. And that’s because they aren’t! The true hero is God! Think about it—no one in this story can claim that they were the great deliverer of Israel. The whole battle hinged on a series of supernatural events and divine providence to bring about exactly what God had said would happen. Neither Barak, nor Deborah, nor Jael, nor anyone else can claim the victory. Victory rests with God alone.

This is something we must remember as well. When we face the battles of life, whether it’s a simple disagreement with another person, or a legal proceeding, or a situation with your job or with money or anything else, the outcome does not ultimately rest on your craftiness or prudence. It rests with God. This is not to say that we should be lazy, but rather that our confidence should not be in our own devices. We should spend more time seeking God’s help and less time trying to make things work in our own power.

Finally, sometimes our job is to help others do their job. I find Deborah’s role in all of this very interesting. Here she was, a woman in a position of leadership in Israel. She had great influence and respect amongst the people. But God didn’t tell Deborah to go into battle. He told Deborah to tell Barak to go into battle. When Barak hesitated, it surely would have been tempting for Deborah to just say, “Fine, if you’re too chicken to lead, then I’ll do it!” But that’s not what she did. Instead, she came alongside him to help him do what God had called him to do.

Though this would not be your typical Mother’s Day text, I do believe this point applies to us in our families. A good mother (or father) knows that they cannot fight all their children’s battles for them. If they always come to the rescue of their children they will never learn to stand firm on their own. A good parent stands behind their child and encourages them to do what God has called them to. They help them become the person God has called them to be. The same principle applies in our marriages and other relationships as well. Rather than getting frustrated that your spouse “doesn’t do it right”, and giving up on them, look for ways to encourage them and to help them become the person God wants them to be. It’s sometimes easier to do it all ourselves, but that doesn’t mean it’s better. Deborah knew this, and we should learn it as well.

Conclusion

Most of us will never be called to lead an army into battle, but that doesn’t mean our faith won’t be tested. We face different kinds of battles each day. We are constantly faced with the question of whose judgment we will trust more. Will we trust God’s? Or our own?

I hope you learn from the book of Judges and from the story of Deborah, Barak, and Jael, that God’s plan is perfect. God knows exactly what He is doing, and He asks us to trust Him. We aren’t going to be perfect at trusting Him. Sometimes we will be more like Barak than we’d like to admit. We might bargain with God or argue with Him. But it’s never to late to start following. And when we do, we will get to see how God works everything out exactly like He planned.