All right, y'all turn with me to Judges, Chapter 4. You guys aren't there, okay. I don't have to explain where it is. All right, Judges, Chapter 4. Deborah, if y'all read this week and know a little bit about her, she's not kind of a normal woman in Scripture. She's not a normal woman in this study. The reason we're studying her is, one, I find this story fascinating. to the one in the book is Hannah, right? I think that was the next chapter. We studied Hannah at the last Bible study. So, we are here with Deborah this morning. She is a judge. She prophesies. She goes to war. So, she is not one of our normal fit in a certain mold woman, but she has a lot to teach us. So, we have two full chapters. I'm not going to read it all to start with. We're going to pray, and as we go through the story, I'm going to read bits and pieces as we go. So let me open us in prayer. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for your word, every word of it which is inspired and is good for us, to instruct us in Christlikeness, to teach us about you and your world and your ways, and to grow us in our faith. And so I pray in Deborah, in this violent and somewhat puzzling story, we would indeed be blessed and nourished and we would grow in our understanding of you. We ask all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Let me start off with a bit of a odd story or a funny story. In college, in the bottom of our dorm room in the basement, there was a ping pong table. And so we played a lot of ping pong, you know, table tennis. Probably should have been studying more, but there was a lot of ping pong going on. And there was a guy on my hall and he was a amazing ping pong player, right? He would play all the time and no one could beat him. And so we started joking around with him one day to see if he could play with other objects, right, besides his paddle. And so he would play left-handed and he'd beat us all and he'd play with a piece of cardboard and he'd beat us all and he'd play with a book instead of a paddle and he'd beat us and finally he picked up his flip-flop and he played with his flip-flop and no one could beat him. He was an amazing ping pong player I tell that silly story because at the end of the day, when we gathered around him, we didn't sit and marvel over these weird objects he used to beat us. We really got praised and even worshipped him. It was so amazing what he could do with these odd and weird objects. I think that's a little bit what we see in this text. Deborah is not your normal judge. She's not your normal deliverer, nor are the other characters. in this story and this story is all designed to point us to God and to point us to what he has done, how he works. And so I think the central point of Judges 4 and 5 is that God delivers his chosen people through his chosen people. He delivers his chosen people through his chosen people. So Deborah is one of kind of three major characters in this story. So what I want to do is walk through the story first see God at work and then we will see four lessons from Deborah because the story really is about God working on behalf of his people. So, we've got the narrative in chapter four and then the poem or the song or the psalm in chapter five. You know, that's David's life. We can match up a lot of his psalms with what happens and you can learn a lot about the narrative based on the psalm about it or even with the Exodus, right, after they come through the Red Sea and Exodus 15, there's this great song of Moses. And so, here we have the narrative and the song that follows. So, I'm just going to piece those two together as we go through the story. So, we're going to see God at work. Let me just show you our three points before we begin. Look at verse 2 of chapter 4. We're going to see these three verbs that the Lord is doing. Verse 2, the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin. Verse 15, the Lord routed Sisera Look at the bottom of chapter 4, verse 23, God subdued Jabin. So, you see, there's a lot of weird stuff going on, right, in this story, but here is God, beginning, middle, and end. He is working throughout this story. So, those are the three things, the three hooks we're going to hang this story on. First, God sold Israel to Jabin. Judges is a dark book. Alright, so you know where it is in Scripture, where it is in the storyline. It's after the people have entered the land in Joshua, but even in that great book of Joshua, the people still failed to conquer the whole land. So they're living in the land that God promised them, but Judges comes before Samuel, right? When Saul and David and Solomon and the kingly line. So we're in between kind of crossing over the river and entering the land and the period of the kings. So in Judges, we have judges that are judging the people, that are ruling over the people. But really the theme of Judges is that everyone does what is right in their own eyes. And commentators have seen this pattern of a spiraling downward. If you've ever read Judges in your Bible reading time and you get to the end and you think, what in the world are these stories? It really gets bad at the end of Judges. And we see inevitably what happens when people continue to do what is right in their own eyes. of saying people did what is right in their own eyes is to say that it was evil in the sight of the Lord. And that's how chapter, that's how verse 1 begins. People of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. There are these cycles, there are these patterns in Israel and there are 12 judges and their stories are long like Deborah's or Samson's and then there are short stories that are just a verse or so but there are these 12 judges. So we're on our Our third judge has a story. She's really our fourth judge here. And the people, again, did what was evil. So, cyclists, people do what's evil. God, it works for them. People kind of repent and they come and they walk in obedience for a little while and then they do evil again. Can you relate to that? That's the life of the people and judges. So, we see again here, they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Yehud died, verse 2, and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor. So, God is disciplining his people here. And the way he disciplines them is he sells them into the hand of Jabin the king. Now, Jabin didn't pay money to God, but something, it doesn't tell exactly what happened here, Something happened here and we know in the sovereignty of God we can say that the Lord sold them, right? The people were passed into slavery under this pagan king. Scripture is full of this language of God purchased or God bought or God owns his people. So, it's interesting to see here that he sold them. Yeah, we'll get to follow up on that in a second. Who did he sell them to? Jabin, the king of Canaan. Jabin is described that he reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera who lived in Herosheth, Haggaim. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for 20 years." So, Jabin is the king of Canaan. Sisera is his chief general. He's the one in charge of his army. He has a pretty significant army, right? 900 chariots of iron. They oppressed the people for 20 years. It doesn't sound at all familiar echoes of the Exodus story here. The people of God live under a foreign king. We see they are treated cruelly. Here it's only 20 years. That foreign king has great military power. The people are greatly oppressed. Let's look at the psalm real quick and see how Deborah describes this. Turn to chapter 5, I'm just going to read verse 6 and 7. This describes this period of time, these 20 years when they're living in this slavery. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anak, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned. The travelers kept to the byways. The villagers ceased in Israel. They ceased to be until I rose. I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. So, the highways are abandoned. The villagers cease to be. This sounds like a It sounds like a Western ghost town almost, right? There's kind of outlaws running the streets and everyone's inside, the windows are barred. I mean, they've got this foreign king ruling over them. So, Israel is in a desperate place right now. Look how they respond in verse 4. I'm sorry, verse 3. Then the people of Israel cried out. Judges chapter 4, verse 3. The people of Israel cried out to the Lord. Does that sound familiar? That happens in Exodus, right? People cry out to God and God responds. So, we see that God sold Israel to Jabin. That's his first work in disciplining them. Secondly, God routed Jabin's army. It's fascinating that God sells and then God is also the one who comes and redeems his people. It's the same God caring for his people, both discipline and redemption or deliverance. Verse 4 begins, now Deborah. Exodus 1 and 2 is this story of slavery to a foreign powerful king. People cry out to God. Exodus chapter 3 verse 1 begins, now Moses. So, it's interesting to see God, how he works in and through his chosen instruments. Now, Deborah. Here's a very short description. A prophetess, the wife of Lappidon, who judged Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim and the people of Israel came to her for judgment. So who is she? She's a prophetess. She's a wife. She is judging Israel. That's interesting. She's, like I told you, she's our fourth judge. She's really our third major judge that has any sort of story. The other two judges, after the people are disciplined, when they are called, the word says that God raised up for the people a deliverer. So, chapter 3, verse 9, God raised up a deliverer and chapter 3, verse 15, the Lord raised up for them a deliverer. It's interesting, there's a different language used here with Deborah. This is a bit of a unique situation with her and yet we see immediately she has been sent by the Lord, the Lord speaks through her, she's a prophetess of the Lord, she is seeking deliverance for God's people. So, Deborah is set aside as one of the tools that God will use to redeem his people. Let me, without reading, just highlight quickly the rest of the story. You probably know it. Deborah calls Barak, or as we would say today, Barak. Deborah calls him. He hesitates. He wants her to come with him. She affirms him. seven, and I will draw out Sisera." She's speaking in the word of the Lord here. This is God. I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops and I will give him into your hand. But 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. There's a little intimidation here. He hears the word of the Lord. He hesitates. She encourages him. in verse 9 to go forward, and he does. He goes and he calls the tribes of Israel. Now, we're in Judges, so there's still all of the 12 tribes, right, that haven't been divided yet. He calls the tribes of Israel, and it's interesting to see who responds. Turn back chapter 5 to the Psalms. Look, let's see, beginning at verse 14 of chapter 5. There's a list here of who came and helped fight off the bad guy and he didn't. Who responded to the call and who didn't? He named the tribes beginning in verse 14. There's Ephraim, there's Benjamin, there's Maker, there's Zebulun, verse 15, Issachar, and then down at the bottom of verse 18, Naphtali. Those six tribes respond and they come and they ride out to war. But Reuben, Gilead, Dan, Asher, they don't respond at all. silence from them and actually two of the tribes, I'm not sure why, Judah and Simeon, they're not even mentioned here. And so, there's this list and if we were studying more of just chapter 5, we'd make more of this, right? It's interesting. There's a list of the faithful and there's a list of the unfaithful tribes. So, some ride out to war. Barak leads the tribes to meet Sisera on the field of battle. There, Sisera rides out, he hears his dairy, he brings his 900 chariots of iron They clash in battle. Look at verse 15 of chapter 4. Sorry, back to chapter 4. They meet there near Mount Tabor 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. Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Haroseth, Agoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left. God routed Jabin's army, this powerful army is routed. One, Sisera does flee for a little while. He goes, verse 17 out of 22, he thinks he finds a place to hide and rest in the tent of Jael. It's not really a safe place for him after all. She gets a tent peg and she drives it through his head all the way to the ground. And if you think, if you think that's, you know, last week we had the debate or the debate, the discussion over what Rahab did, right? Was it right or wrong in letting in those, in lying about the spies? We'll look at, back to the psalm in chapter five. Let's see, verse 24. Most blessed of women be jail. the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women, most blessed." This is the word of the Lord. He asked for water, she gave him milk, she brought him curds in a noble's bowl. She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workman's mallet. She struck Cicero, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still. Between her feet he sank, he fell, or he sank, there he fell, dead. She is praised here for defeating God's enemies. Well, she never lied. She didn't lie. That's exactly right. She continued to fight the battle and she is praised for it. I am glad I'm not teaching this lesson on JL. I'm not sure how to apply that. Work on your hammering skills. But she does. I mean, she does. She fights the Lord's battle. So, we see that God sold Israel and then God routed Jabin's army And then thirdly, the third verb we see that God does in this text is God subdued Jabin. Look at the end of chapter 4. So, on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. So, the powerful army is defeated, the general is chased down, Barak doesn't get the glory, Jael gets the glory for destroying him, And then the people turn against the king, they press and press on him, and he is defeated. It's a wonderful story of God's redemption. It's a violent story, but it's God's fighting on behalf of his people. Look back at chapter 5, start flipping back and forth, how the story ends, how the psalm ends. Judges chapter 5, verse 31. So may all your enemies perish, O Lord, but your friends be like the sun, as he rises in his might, and the land had rest for forty years." So, the people, or to be like the sun, rising in its might, rising from darkness, rising to light. Picture that deliverance, right? That exodus, almost, from darkness into the light. And then there's rest in the land for forty years. for who? For the friends of the Lord, right? Those who fear God and those who obey him are his friends. There's unrest in the land for 20 years brought on by God as a result of Israel's unfaithfulness. Now because of the faithfulness of the Lord, the land had rest for 40 years. If you want to skip ahead, look at chapter 6, verse 1. People of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. There we go again. God's faithfulness, the people's unfaithfulness, their idolatry, their doing what's right in their own eyes. So, the story, we have Deborah, we have Barack, we have JL. Here are our characters. Here are our different paddles, right, from the ping-pong story that the Lord uses to defeat his enemies, to accomplish his purposes. Deborah is in the spotlight. So, let me spend the rest of our time, take four lessons from Deborah. We've seen God at work. Now, I want to see four lessons from Deborah. Number one, God uses his weak servants. God uses his weak servants. Look back to chapter 4, verse 4 and 5, as Deborah is introduced. I don't know if you caught the contrast between verse 3 and verse 4. But who's in verse 4? There's the king, there's the general, there's the chariots, there's the iron, there's this great military force. Now we're going to see, how's God going to respond to this? Oh, Deborah, a woman, right? A woman in that time, right, would not have been exalted, would not have been very well respected. Not only is she a woman, she's a prophetess, right? So she just speaks the word of the Lord. Is she trained for war? No, she's sitting under a tree, right? Judging, right? She's doing what the Lord's called her to do, but here's this contrast, right? You can imagine If Jabin and Sisera could see what God was doing, they would just be chuckling, right? They would put their feet... Are you kidding here? This is what we have to fight against? A woman who's a prophetess? And that's who God has chosen to use against this mighty force. So, you see the contrast. That it's not an equal army versus an equal army. It's these grand male generals with all of this worldly force. And then there's Deborah and what does she have? She has the Word. It's interesting to note that this weak servant is a willing servant. Deborah must have known this contrast, right? I mean, she would have known at this point the might of her oppressors, of the king, and yet she is willing. Following the story, we have her introduction, and then in verse 6, immediately she acts. She sent and summoned Barak. tells who he is, and then she said to him, has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you? So there's something happened, right? We are not privy to the rest of the story, but something's going on between verses 5 and verse 6 where God has spoken, Deborah has heard it, Deborah is now retelling it almost to Barak. And it's interesting, let's continue our contrast here between the Exodus and Moses and this story. What does Moses do when he's confronted with a powerful, dominant king and he's told to go in his own strength and do something so foolish. No way. We could do lessons on the excuses that Moses uses. We don't know if Deborah had an excuse that looked like it. It looks like she heard and she responds. See her willingness in the face of this mighty army. We are so quick to judge that person's not going to hear, or they're too powerful, I'm too weak. I think Deborah is a great example here in this kind of shortened, condensed story to responding, and she would know she's weak. She's under no delusions of grandeur here. How do we act when we're called by God's word to do something foolish in the eyes of this world? Do we react? Do we list off excuses? list off more and more and more excuses. Are we willing to be weak because He is strong? Are we willing to act to step out of faith? And so I think Deborah is a wonderful lesson in that. The reason she does, and this leads me to my second point, is because of what she has with her. So we see the second lesson from Deborah is that God speaks His Word. Deborah's not confident in herself. She's confident because she has the Word of the Lord and she's putting a bit of a contrast here with Barack who is doubtful of this word and she is, I mean, she is a rock in this passage of believing the word of the Lord when Barak doesn't. I've never studied Deborah before so I don't know what maybe some other interpretations of her might be. I don't think Deborah is this example of a powerful woman in a man's world, right, who's just bold and she rises up above these weak men or she's kind of the, she's that girl on the boys team who shows up all the boys, you know, I don't think she's an example of that. Although in this story the women all are shining brighter than the men, rather she's an ordinary woman who faithfully believes, obeys, and speaks the word of the Lord. She is There's nothing in here about her own power or her own strength. She believes the word of the Lord. She obeys it and she speaks it. A little bit more detail about the couple of times she speaks. She tells Barak what the Lord has said. He questions in verse 8. Let's look again at verse 9. 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. So, this is interesting. Barak is faltering, right, it would seem at this point. Deborah is speaking the word to him, and yet that's not really that encouraging, is it? He doesn't want to go to war. She says, well, you should go anyway, but you're not going to get any of the glory, right? I mean, that seems kind of counterintuitive, right? If you're trying to encourage someone to go do something they don't want to do, you want to kind of build them up. I think it's insightful for us because she speaks truth to him. She speaks the word of the Lord to him, right? She doesn't water it down. She doesn't kind of leave this part out. It's interesting, at this point, you think the woman's going to be her, right? He says, Deborah, I'm sorry, lost my place. Right, sits her into the hand of a woman. That would be Deborah. But no, that's a tent peg woman. A woman with a hammer. So she speaks the truth to him. Notice again what she does in verse 12. When Cicero was told that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor, Cicero called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him from Herosheph, Haggaim, to the river Kishon, and Deborah said to Barak, so here we go again. Here come the troops. Here come those chariots. Deborah is again speaking to Barak. She's not going out in battle and leading the troops, but she is speaking truth and speaking the word to Barak. This is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you? I love what she uses. We don't know exactly what Barak's doing. We know there's always a situation where she has to speak something to him. The text doesn't tell exactly what the context is. But as she speaks encouragement, she cites the truth. And what is that? That the Lord goes out before him. Look, the next line says, Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men. So, he's got a pretty good fighting force with him. Sisera would have had the 900 chariots and, of course, foot soldiers. So, this is a pretty significant clash. What Deborah does not say is, Barak, you can go out. Look at those soldiers behind you. Barak, you've been training for this your whole life. Go do it. Or, Barak, don't worry. Sisera's weak. You'll be fine. No, what does she say? The Lord. goes out before you. When she speaks, she speaks truth. When she encourages him, it is with the truth. She is pointing to the Lord, what he has done and what he will do. I think that is a fascinating lesson for us as we seek to learn how to encourage biblically. In my Sunday school class last week, we talked about this. we are in discipleship with one another, we're to spur one another up, we're to build one another up, and we're to use the word of truth to do it, right? I mean, it's easy to say to someone, that's a nice dress, or, you know, that great haircut, you know, that was a wonderful casserole, right, or something like that. In times of true need, right, those platitudes don't help, and they do not hold up. And so we must encourage one another with the word of truth. We must offer something of substance, right? We must point to Christ and continually point to the Lord when our sisters or our friends are struggling or in need or doubting and are in desperate need of encouragement. We must speak the word to them. And that's challenging, that can be awkward at times, those conversations never quite... Trust me, I'm a pastor and I feel like I mess it up every time. And so that's a challenge, but that's How would Barak have responded if she said, you'll be fine, it'll all work out. Those 500 chariots, they're not really that strong. So I think it's a wonderful lesson in Deborah encouraging Barak with the word of the Lord. And really it's God speaking to Barak through the lips of his prophetess. So God uses his weak servants, God speaks his word. Thirdly in this text, the third lesson from the life of Deborah, God displays His wrath. You can't avoid that in this passage. You can't avoid the wrath. This victory is not pretty. It would be rated R. This story would be after 10 o'clock on TV. It is total destruction. It is bloody. But don't miss, it's justice. This is divine justice. The victory here all belongs to the Lord. among her many traits, she's also a theologian and in her psalm, she's pointing to God continually. She is constantly showing what he has done. Back to the psalm, look with me at the beginning of verse 19 of chapter 5. The kings came, they fought, then fought the kings of Canaan, at Tanakh, by the waters of Megiddo, they got no spoils of silver. So, here's the battle, here's the kings out on the battlefield. Verse 20, from heaven the stars fought, and their horses they fought against Sisera. The torrents of Kishon, that's the river, swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent. Kishon, march on my soul with might. Verse 22, then loud beat the horses' hooves with galloping of his steeds. So, the stars fought, the water fought, and the horses fought all on behalf of the Lord. So, he controls not only the armies, he controls all of his creation. People of Israel would have seen in Joshua often when the hail fought for them or when the sun stood still on their behalf or for the Lord to win his victory. So, we see all of creation, right? God delivers the righteous, he destroys the wicked. It looks like kings are battling one another, but really Jesus is the king. The Lord is a king over all his creation. And I think, thinking about this wrath poured out on behalf of God's people, we are all involved in spiritual warfare on a daily basis. And the deck, at times, or often, seems to be stacked against us, or stacked against the church, right? I mean, the church is kind of like Deborah, the prophetess, up against the chariots of iron and the powers of this world, and yet in that spiritual warfare we serve the Lord, we know that all of creation bends to his will, right? We will get there, I don't know when we will, in our Revelation sermon series, but see that Satan's time is limited. He will be cast down, he's on a leash, and he will soon be cast and have no power ever again over the church, over God's children. And so, God displays his wrath. He uses Deborah and Barak and Jael to do it. Ultimately, he is shown to be just. He is shown to rule over all his world. But that wrath is not alone. That's not the end. The final lesson is that when we see the wrath of God, when we see this bloody, just, vicious war, Oftentimes, as Christians, we're ashamed of this. We're ashamed of this side of our God. But what this text tells us is that this should lead to worship. This should lead to worship. The fourth lesson is that God receives His worship. God receives His worship. So, He uses His weak servants. He speaks His word. He displays His wrath. He receives His worship. Again, here comes Deborah, the theologian. Look at the Psalm, again, verse chapter 5. Verse 10 and 11. Here's a call to worship. Tel Aviv. You who ride on white donkeys. You who sit on rich carpets. You who walk by the way. To the sound of the musicians at the watering places. There they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord. The righteous triumphs of His villagers in Israel. Those same villagers who had ceased to exist in verse 7. Right in the destitute time. Now the righteous triumphs. of his villagers. What does this mean, this donkeys, carpets, and such? Verse 10 tells us that all different classes, the rich and the poor, praise the Lord. They all rejoice. Those who have white donkeys to ride on, those have rich carpets to sit on, and those have to walk to get places. All classes of the Lord worship Him. And it's interesting, it says to repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, and the next verse, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. The triumph of the people is the triumph of the Lord. Right? That's what Deborah, our theologian, tells us. And it leads to worship. God delivers his chosen people through his chosen people. And it leads to worship. And Deborah shows us that. So the triumph, the salvation, the deliverance that we have in Christ, it is enough for a lifetime. It is enough for an eternity. of worship to look back on and remember and reflect. So, as we look to Deborah, like I say this every week, take your eyes off of Deborah and look to the Lord. See how he uses his weak servants, see how he uses his word, see how he shows his wrath, and see how he indeed calls worshippers to himself. Let me close us in prayer. Lord, our God, we thank you for this story. We thank you for this retelling of your power of your might over your creation. We thank you, Lord, that you are sovereign over all, that you sell your people and you redeem your people and call them back to you. Oh, we see Deborah as a weak servant, but yet a willing servant, and would that challenge us in our service to you and our obedience to you? Would it lead us, indeed, to being filled with your word, your word often on our lips, using your word as a word of encouragement in monishing and building one another up? Indeed, as we see your wrath, would we not be ashamed of it, but would we turn and worship that you are a just and mighty God? Indeed, your wrath comes from your very throne, but we know, Lord, that in your Son, Christ, that wrath is turned away from us. In Him, we have hope. In Him, we have deliverance and redemption. In Him, we have reason enough to worship forever and ever. So, Lord, we thank you for your Word so that it builds us up and encourages us this day. Amen.