And when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
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March 20, 2008:Traditions | Just a few more weary days and then... I'll fly away... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. |
| December 29, 2007:New Year's 2008 | ||
| November 3, 2007:How To Be Successful in Christian Ministry | ||
| October 23, 2007:Salmon |
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| Deborah and Barak William H. Haller |
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This week's lesson continues in the book of Judges and takes up one of the more recognizable names of the judges - Deborah. She was one of the 16 judges between the period of Joshua and the kings of Israel, and in addition was one of the 14 prophetesses mentioned in the Bible. In fact, looking at the list that Dake prepared (p. 111), she would perhaps be the first and perhaps only name mentioned if one were to ask who the female prophets in the Bible were.
As we read the scripture lesson, (starting with 4:1 of Judges rather than later), we see that the people were in a backslidden condition once again. Ehud, the previous judge, had died. According to 2:18-19, the Israelites were able to stay with the Lord during the life of the judges, but when the judge died, they slid back into their evil ways. At this point in time, God had sold them into the hand of Jabin who was the king of Canaan. He had oppressed the people of Israel for a period of twenty years.
God had raised Deborah up to be both the prophetess and judge in his place. She spoke to the people under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel. The children of Israel came to her for judgment. It is clear from the scripture reading that Barak was the current military leader of the Israelites, and that God had commanded him to rise up with 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun and go against Sisera who was the captain of the host of the Canaanite army. He is said to have 900 iron chariots under his command, so it was a pretty big force. After twenty years of oppression, he didn't want to go.
Deborah called for him specifically, and questioned him about why he wasn't doing what God had required of him. He told her that if she would go with him, then he would go. She said she would accompany him, but that because he had not done as God had asked, but had only said he would go with her, that the honor of taking down Sisera would fall to a woman. He might have figured this would be Deborah, but it turns out that as God routed the enemy before Barak and his troops, Sisera escaped and hid in the tent of Jael and ordered her to lie and say that nobody was there. When he fell asleep, she drove a tent stake through his temple, killing him, fulfilling the prophecy of a few verses before, and robbing Barak of the glory of being the one to defeat the enemy.
There is a parallel to the lives of the Israelites, and their interaction with the judges, and Christianity today. People usually don't have problems when they are in church, listening to the Pastor, studying in Sunday School, or having fellowship in other ways. It is when we about our separate ways that we have problems.
Seek the Holy Spirit's presence to go with you and fill you up. That way you will never feel alone and away from God. You can never truly be alone and away from God. God has promised not to forsake us if we stay true to Him. Unfortunately, if you don't seek Him out, you can sometimes get to feeling forsaken at times. There is danger in letting those feelings fester. God wants to be with you all the time. Try not to do or be a part of activities that make that impossible. God is Holy.
There are a few other things that need to be noted about the judges. This is brought out particularly in the story that is presented here. God doesn't just talk to His judges. In the scripture lesson presented here, it is made clear that God had already talked to Barak as well and told him specifically what to do. He just didn't feel secure in doing it. He didn't trust God. According to Dake, the Septuagint adds the following to the end of verse 8 "for I do not know the day when the Lord would prosper the angel with me". In other words... I have heard what God wants me to do and I believe that His hand through the power of an angel could do what He has said, but I don't want to make a mistake and go out if He isn't around. I want to be sure that the timing is His.
All of us face moments like that. Sometimes they go on for a long time. The job or the risks involved with the job that God wants us to do seem overwhelming large. If we have been down in the dumps for a while, we tend to want to stay there in a pity party. If what we have going for us seems to be secure and is meeting our needs, it is hard to step out in faith to uncharted waters. When Christ says come and walk on the water, that first step out of the boat is very hard to take. We'll go when we are sure we are ready and the church is with us. Just don't ask us to step out there on our own. Finally, it can be hard to get back to trusting God for the big things if we haven't been trusting Him for the little things along the way.
Nonetheless, all leaders need to be listening to what God wants them to do and doing it the first time they hear His voice as long as it lines up with the Bible and not waiting for confirmation of the masses and their peers to say "Yes, this is a good thing to do." It may mean taking your church or group in a different and new path that you have not gone down before, but if it is what God is telling you to do, and you are sure you are hearing His voice, take the step of faith and do it. Other church leaders, like Deborah, make lend you their support and go with you, but if there isn't a Deborah along, it is still necessary to take those steps.
The next thing to note about this story is also very important. Although God can use an individual at times - David vs. Goliath springs immediately to mind - frequently God wants to use a large number of people at once. He could have sent an angel to smite the army of Sisera, but that wasn't what He wanted to do just then. He wanted to use 20,000 soldiers from two tribes of Israel to do the work. He did discomfit the enemy and thus delivered them into the hands of the Israeli soldiers such that not a single soldier (save the leader Sisera) was left of that particular Canaanite army (v. 16). If those Israeli soldiers hadn't answered the call, they would have remained in bondage as God's chosen warriors would not have been available to lead in the killing.
Another point to make is this. God would (and should) have gotten the lion's share of the glory for this victory anyway. But since Barak didn't do what God told him to do, the victory of the final killing of Sisera went to someone else. In this case, it wasn't even a soldier. It was the wife of Heber the Kenite who did Sisera in. Her family perhaps was not at war with Sisera - the scripture doesn't make this completely clear. At any rate, Sisera came into her tent and expected her to hide him from the Israelites. Entering her tent was, in itself, a death penalty offense in the custom of the times, but usually it wasn't the woman who carried out the execution. In this case, she did by driving a tent spike through his head. So what is the point of this? Even with all of the 20,000 member army of the people, God's plan wasn't complete. The leader had escaped from the hand of the army of Israel. But there was one single woman standing in his way. She finished him off and completed the work of God.
To come full circle, just because there is an army out there, it doesn't mean that God doesn't have some very important part in His plan just for you. First, he wants you to accept Jesus as your Savior. After that is done, there is always something that He wants you to do. It probably won't be something big like Jael, but it can be just as important. The one person He asks you to give the gospel message to today, might die tomorrow in an accident. If they don't hear of the Word today, they may spend eternity in hell.
Perhaps that one person you teach in Sunday School or that one person you lead to Christ will go on to be a mighty warrior for God. Perhaps that kind word you share will lessen the burden of someone whose spirit is down in the dumps and will be the first step of healing for a family. You will never know the full results of the work that you do for God. The results might even look bleak in the immediate time frame. Perhaps your words are completely rejected in a way that completely dispirits you. But five years from now, that person looks back and remembers what you said and turns their life around. You may be completely unaware of this fact till you stand before your Maker one day.
Galations 6:9 advises us to "... not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." The season for reaping is at hand. The word was planted 2,000 years ago and has been spreading ever sense. Today, there is much that Satan throws at us to make us weary in doing well. The evil around us seems insurmountable, just as it appeared to Barak. We are too often looking for leaders like Deborah - prophets or prophetesses who we know hear from God - to confirm what we think we should do before we step out to do something.
Some words from the Old Testament are just as true today as they were when they were penned. "Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God." (Jer. 42:6) "The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us: That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require: That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day. And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD." 1 Ki. 8:57-51
This wasn't the end of the battle. In the next chapter, we see that many other kings of the Canaanites came and attacked the Israeli forces, and they were all defeated, because the people had turned back to God. The people of Israel were to have peace for 40 years before they slid back into sin. There was one period of 80, and several periods of 40 years mentioned. Although this can mean just a long period or a very long period, there is also a generational aspect to it. They continued to fail in bringing up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. The children would backslide after the older generation died off, and the lesson would have to be repeated again.
No single person, working alone, will solve the problems of the Church. No single person, working with the help of God, will solve the problems of the Church. It takes all of us working together for a common goal to make any progress. The Bible clearly lays out that goal. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, low, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." How can we do this? As he just said, He is with us, and He said in the previous verse, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Put our faith in God and Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit have His way in our lives, and we can become a dynamic force to change the world for God.
