Everyone Has A Calling/Preaching Judges 4-5

Our default is evil.

While Ehud judged/led the nation, the people followed in righteousness. After enjoying 80 years of “rest” the people of Israel AGAIN did what was evil in the sight of the Lord AFTER Ehud died.

The word “rest” in Judges 3:30 literally means undisturbed, or to be restored and renewed. We’re talking about 80 years of peace!

1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Make sure you have some guardrails in your life!

God awaits our obedience.

Deborah is already in place as a judge. Her title and position indicate that she is a woman of great character and virtue.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Chapter 4

A woman of extraordinary knowledge, wisdom, and piety, instructed in divine knowledge by the Spirit and accustomed to interpret His will; who acquired an extensive influence, and was held in universal respect, insomuch that she became the animating spirit of the government

By virtue of her authority she summons Barak with a chilling question: has not the Lord commanded you? We can’t throw Barak too far under the bus, because in Hebrews 11 he is going to be listed under the heroes of faith, but clearly he needed a nudge to get up and get going! The necessity of that nudge can even be seen in his response to Deborah’s question about why he wasn’t obeying the Lord and attacking Sisera, the general of Jabin the king of Canaan‘s army. Barak’s response is found in Judges 4:8

Judges 4:8 ESV

Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

Sometimes we need to pray for the courage to obey.

Barak is not without faith - his mention in Hebrews 11 tells us that. He is without courage in that moment! But before you dismiss him as a coward, consider how many times you have hesitated when God told you to do something. How many times you have shrunk back from doing what you knew was right, because there were others who disagreed? Or because there was pressure for you to conform?

Barak is no coward - he’s human! And when faced with Deborah’s challenge to obey God and attack Sisera, he blinked. When you blink - or are tempted to blink - pray!

Acts 4:29 ESV

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,

The early church worshipped God in a time of stress and prayed for courage. And the result was that they house was shaken, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and multitudes came to know Jesus.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that we aren’t alone.

By ourselves … on our own … things look scarier than we care to admit. There was a reason Jesus sent out His disciples two-by-two. There is a reason why we know that Paul and Silas, and Paul and Barnabas as missionary trip leaders .... because sometimes we need the reminder that we are not alone.

In 1 Kings 19, after his astonishing and victorious defeat of the 400 prophets of Baal, Elijah became fearful in the face of Jezebel’s threats. The text says:

1 Kings 19:3 ESV

Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

1 Kings 19:14 ESV

He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

That’s amazing in and of itself … that basking in the glory of such a magnificent victory, Elijah was scared. but even more amazing is what God told him to calm his fears and give him courage:

1 Kings 19:18 ESV

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

God recognized that Elijah’s fear was rooted in his sense of aloneness, so God revealed to him that he wasn’t alone! Listen, when you are afraid … sometimes what you need most is a friend! Make sure that you are building relationships with friends that have your back. One of the difficulties of this year has been the separation and isolation that staying distanced has caused. We cannot give in to aloneness! We may have to stay physically distant for safety’s sake … but we cannot stay socially and spiritually distant!

God uses weakness to reveal His strength.

The very fact that the hero of this story is a heroine says something about what we need to be paying attention to. Women have been often called the fairer sex, or the weaker sex … and I certainly don’t mean mentally or emotionally. But few would argue that physically speaking, men are generally stronger than women. And in a military story, where a renowned war hero is killed … we would expect there to be a mighty warrior as the hero.

But God had other plans … and Deborah prophesied to that effect.

Judges 4:9 ESV

And she said, “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.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Deborah agrees to go with Barak, and apparently her presence fortifies his courage because he leads Israel in a rousing victory. Although I want to be clear here, that even in this section of the story, it’s not Barak’s strength that provides the victory … it’ is God’s.

Judges 4:15–16 ESV

And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot. And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.

What Deborah might have accomplished by going with Barak was stirring up his faith as well as his courage! He trusted her and he trusted God - we can draw that from Hebrews 11 - and in the end God routed the Canaanite army! But to be sure that we understand that God uses weakness to display His strength, the final blow - as it were - comes from a wife who stayed home in her tent. The account of the battle reveals that Sisera ran for his life as the Lord’s army destroyed the Canaanite army, and Sisera took refuge in the tent of Heber’s wife, Jael. Bad move!

Judges 4:21 ESV

But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died.

The great Canaanite general is killed by a woman in a tent. She used what she had, and God used her … to accomplish what He willed.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Takeaways:

Never underestimate the strength of those who appear weak.

We have made the mistake of assuming that the best person for the job is popular, wealthy, successful and hopefully good looking!

2 Corinthians 10:10 ESV

For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”

(ill) Mother Theresa on the platform to receive an award alongside the most powerful political figures on earth. But she could speak with authority and power because she held the moral high ground, she was the one confidently speaking on behalf of God.

God uses women every bit as powerfully as He uses men.

It has taken a strong of highly publicized atrocities for America to begin … hear me, I said begin … we have LONG way to go .. but we have begun to deal with the undeniable reality that woman have been mistreated, have been oppressed, have been abused, have been ignored, have been dismissed … and the sad fact is, the scandals in our own denomination prove … the church has been silently complicit. We have misused the Bible, misused tradition and misused power .... forgetting all the while that the gospel declares what the kingdom of God’s ideal truly is:

Galatians 3:28 ESV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

God equips those He calls.

Never assume that you are not called to a task just because you are unprepared for the task.

Ephesians 4:15–16 ESV

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

What is God calling you to do?