Turn with me please to our text for this morning. We continue our study in the book of Judges. This morning we turn to Judges chapters 4 and 5. Obviously I'm not going to be able to read all of that, but they are tied together, rather intimately tied together as we shall see. Part of our passage is printed on the front of a bulletin if you don't if you don't have a Bible with you. I want to remind you, I don't expect you to remember all the time everything that I say, although of course that would be useful to you and profitable. But one of the things that I said as we began this study is there are three questions we need to be asking ourselves as we come particularly into Old Testament narrative writings. Those questions are, What does this tell me? What does this passage tell me about God? What does it tell me about me or about us? And how is it that I am being pointed to Christ? How is the work of Christ being revealed in that passage? And so the bulletin went to print pretty early this week because of the Thanksgiving celebrations. And I continued to ponder those very questions and realized that my theme, the theme of this sermon can be stated very succinctly. I've changed the title. I've changed the title to The Battle is the Lord's. And the theme can be stated as God is a warrior who fights for his people. Follow as I read chapter 4. I'll read through verse 16 from Judges chapter 4. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Heresheth Hagoyim. 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. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Rama and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kadesh Naphtali, and said to him, has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun, and I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jeben's army, to meet you by the river Kishan with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand. 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. 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 Kadesh. And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels. And Deborah went up with him. Now Heber, the Kenite, had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. And he pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zananim, which is near Kadesh. When Sisera was told that Barak, the son of Abinuim, had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him from Heresheth Hagoyim to the river Kishan. And Deborah said to Barak, up. For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. 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 Heresheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left. Let us pray. Father, lead us, open our ears to hear your word, to see your glory and power, to learn of you, of your ways and of your work, of your grace and your glory. Hear us, we ask and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Speakers, preachers, teachers, when they want to make sure their audience understands something, what are they trying to say? Oftentimes, they will try and say it in more than one way. They will give the facts. They will give an illustration. They'll tell a story. In scripture and in other places, often there's a song that is brought out. I was reminded again this week that many of the pastors of the Reformation era and beyond oftentimes wrote hymns to cement the truths that they were teaching and setting forth in their sermons. So John Newton, for instance, wrote some 600 hymns. Well, most of them were written for the congregation to make sure they understood what he was preaching on. And so this morning we have that. We have the story that's laid out before us, facts carefully, and as we'll see, artfully delivered. And it's followed by this song of praise, this poem of victory, a victory celebration and proclamation. And that will bring us so often to maybe the heart of the story, which I think is the case this time. I can tell you the facts of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Or you begin to feel what it was like for those who lost their loved ones, what it was like to be on that ship by listening to that poem, that song, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I can tell you about the life, the weight, and the burden, and the hopelessness of the mill worker of the 20th century. Or I can tell you to listen to James Taylor's Mill Worker to feel what that hopelessness is like. And that's what happens with our text this morning. The facts are laid out, and then we're led to understand what this is really all about and who it's really all about. So, the art of the story. We have it in Chapter 4. There's a very careful structure to this passage laid out in a form, A, B, C, D, C, B, A. Okay? It's in parallels. And so it begins and ends. It begins with the sons of Israel. There's our A. the sons of Israel, the people of Israel who are oppressed. They're in need of salvation and deliverance. It's bracketed at the very end by King Jabin, king of Canaan, who is overthrown and salvation and deliverance is accomplished. Three times the sons of Israel or the people of Israel are called out. Three times Jabin, the oppressor, is shown to be overthrown. Then the next bracket, comes these two women, Deborah, the prophetess, and Jael, the Kenite. And these turn out to be the longest portion of the passage before us. Then bracketed inside that, Barak and Sisera, first they are called out, they bring out their armies, and then Barak and Sisera go down into battle. Barak will go down to the victory, Sisera will have to, literally the word is, go down from his chariot in defeat. And right at the very center, verse 14, right at the center of this whole structure is Yahweh, the Lord, the warrior who goes forth, who goes before his people. Does not the Lord go out before you? There's that that structure. And in that structure we find, you know, many places are named, important places. Hazar, the city of Jabin, to the northwest of, if you can picture Jerusalem, Galilee at all, and Palestine, to the northwest of Jerusalem, that is toward the Mediterranean, is Hazar. Sisera is up somewhere near there, Haggai, Haggath, I've got to read it. That's not one I remember with ease, I got to tell you that. So we'll come back to it. So he's up there. There's Kadesh, where Barak is from. There's Mount Tabor, which is on the east side of this plain, the plains where this battle is going to be fought. There's the plain itself. Well, that's the plain of Eshkelon. I'm sorry, Estrelon. The plains where, do you remember Judah? Couldn't stop, couldn't take on the chariots. And so the plains were never captured, they were never taken in. We're back to the same place. Only now someone else is going to go down there. And from and flowing through the plains is the Kishon, the River Kishon. flowing to the west, flowing to the Mediterranean, through those plains. So enough geography. The passage begins, the story begins. The cycle is repeating. Ehud died. They fell away. They did evil in the sight of the Lord. They didn't have that external pressure on them anymore. They didn't have that external guidance, the one who was saying, stop, no, get back here. We're worshiping the Lord. And as soon as he died, off they went. And so the hand of the Lord was against them. The situation reminds me, think of a preschool class, you know, 25 little preschoolers with all their little teachers, only all the teachers leave for 20 minutes. Chaos, don't you think, without the oversight? I was on 66 the other day and I'm thinking, what would this be like if no one thought there would ever be a policeman sitting on the side of the road. It'd be one terrifying place. And of course, that's what happens. They did evil again. They are sold to Jabin. 20 years of oppression under that cruel hand, and then under the hand of Sisera. 20 years, and finally they cry out. Now, the pattern doesn't play out in any of the situations following Othniel. Othniel is, again, the model. Joshua dies. They fall into disobedience. They're sold into captivity. Othniel rises up, calls the people together, conquers the enemy, and rules. Ehud wasn't exactly the same. He's not raised up, gathers the people together. No, he goes and knocks the king off himself through pretty devious methods there, and then goes out and calls the people. It's going to change again. Deborah certainly alters the pattern because Deborah is not going to be the deliverer. We can hear, however, Deborah's declaration. The passage, as I said, highlights two women in God's deliverance of Israel. First is the prophetess. So she's like Miriam in Exodus 15 or Noah-Diah. There's a name for your children and grandchildren. prophetess during Nehemiah's time. Or we think of Anna, the prophetess Anna in Luke 2. Miriam was a prophetess. She may have been a judge who heard the individual cases of conflict and things among the people. I don't think that's really what she was because The language that's used here is, again, the sons of Israel or the people of Israel. It's repeated. As I said in the opening, three times God speaks of the suffering, of the actions and the suffering of the people of Israel. Deborah sits as a prophetess over the people of Israel. Throughout the Book of Judges, that phrase is going to be used of the nation, of the community, not of the individuals. And so I think that given where she was situated, Apart from the priests, who are now like they were in the days of Samuel and Eli, untrustworthy, she is there inquiring of the Lord. And so the people of Israel are asking her not to solve those legal cases, but to give her God's answers to their cries. So she judges. And so the prophet hears the word of the Lord. And she calls for Barak. Barak, it sounds as if he has had that inward call. Barak, come, rise up. Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you? This isn't a new thing. You've heard it. Stand up here. Go, gather the men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. So she calls for Barak. Has not the Lord commanded you? Draw out is the word that's used there. Gather your men. Draw them out at Mount Tabor. Meet me at the Kishon River. And he says, I will draw out. You draw out your men. I, the Lord, will draw out Sisera with his chariots and troops. In other words, God's absolutely in control. He always is. You and I get very busy doing our work. We go about our business. It would be good for us to give thought to the reality that we are even then about his business. He's working out his plans. He's accomplishing his goals his desires his purposes even through that work. It would be good if we were conscious of his word and his calling so that we needn't fear what the Lord was doing in the midst of that, in ruling over our circumstances and situations. So Barak makes this, such he is called. The Lord is going to go before you. I will draw out, says Sarah. Barak makes a request of Deborah. If you will go with me, I will go. If you will not go with me, I will not go. And Barak has been slammed for this, folks. As if he is a faithless man. He's got to have a woman there. This woman has to come and fight with him. As if Deborah's going to come and take up a sword and enter into the battle. I don't think that's fair. I don't think he's afraid. He's not afraid to go without Deborah. What he is asking is God's presence to be with him, which she represents. And she says, yes, I will go with you. But as the Lord had called you to stand up and go, understand now, you're not going to get the glory out of this. It will go to a woman. And this suspense enters into the story. Deborah? Is Deborah going to be the one who now gets the glory from this as she goes with Barak to the battle? Glory will go to the woman, to a woman. And then we hit this verse 11. Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zananim, which is near Kadesh. Okay, I will call that a footnote, a divine footnote, an important footnote, we'll see in a bit, but right now it's just like It appears so random. What is this all about? What's this for? We're going to have to wait to see the significance of it. I just pondered that a little bit. Why is that thrown in there, this seemingly insignificant and unrelated little fact or incident? How many times does the Lord do that in our lives? What was that all about? Comments made that leave you kind of scratching your head. And yet the Lord has a purpose in those things. He may use it much later. Something that enters in our lives seemingly unconnected to what's going on, it doesn't fit in the narrative that we're working on. I've just begun to wonder how many times have I been a footnote. like that in somebody's life. Some comment I made, some chance meeting I have and they, you know, I met this guy once that, you know, and how many times has that happened in my life? Situations where I didn't know what the Lord was doing at the time and it didn't seem right or related to anything and yet now I look back and I see the Lord really was preparing me for something as he draws me back to those things. We may never see how it may pave the way for the Lord's work in our lives. But God's in control of even the minute issues, the concerns, the details of our lives, assuring us that his perfect plan is going to be brought to completion. Even in these little, you know, in my paper, this would have been a footnote. It wouldn't have been in the main body. And yet God places it there for us. So to the heart of the story, verses 10 through 16. Barak is going to meet Sisera. Barak calls out his troops. Sisera calls out his troops and his chariots. Barak is told, arise, or up, or rise up, Barak. Follow the Lord. He is leading you. He leads in battle. It is the Lord who went down to victory. over these 900 chariots of iron because the Lord fights for his people. Does not the Lord go out before you? And so Barak did go down from Mount Tabor. He didn't stand back. He didn't decide chariots of iron are too strong and too much for us because he understood the Lord was before him. Now the song tells us, gives us a little more detail of what happened there. If you look over at chapter 5, we are told that the Lord went out from Seir when you marched from the region of Edom. The earth trembled and the heavens dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. Go on to verses 20 and 21. And again, it speaks of the deluge that came. And so those chariots, thinking we're safe, it's not the rainy season, we can go down to the kitchen, we're in control here, the Lord decides to maybe actually shake the earth and terrify the horses and then dumps enough rain to flood that river and turn the plain into nothing but mud and the chariots became useless. I'm sorry, just useless. And Barak and his army take the day because the Lord went before them. Sisera falls in total defeat. He has to get down out of his chariot and run for his life, which is exactly what he does. Which brings us to jail. This is a PG portion, moms and dads. So I'm just warning you. I thought about not reading it at all, because pretty much everyone knows the story. I think we need to read it. But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of Heber the Kenite. There's our footnote. Heber, who has gotten as far away from his tribe as he can, makes an alliance with the Canaanites, with Jabin, and so Sisera thinks, I can't get to my home. It looks like they're headed there anyway, and they're going to destroy it. I can get to this area where I've got safe haven. And so he heads to that territory. And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, turn aside, my lord. Turn aside to me. Do not be afraid. So he turned aside to her into the tent. And she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, stand at the opening of the tent. And if any man comes and asks, is anyone here, literally it says, is there a man inside? Say, no. A little irony there, isn't there? Because as far as Jael was concerned there wasn't any man inside there. But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand and she went softly to him and drove the tent peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, come, I will show you the man whom you are seeking. So he went into her tent and there lay Sisera dead with the tent peg through his temple. 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. Sisera heads to that territory because he thought if he'd have safe haven. Jael comes to him. She takes control of the situation. That's what's being pointed out to us here. She calls out to Sisera, come to this tent. Now, he and she are breaking every custom of the people imaginable. Her husband is not there whom obviously Sisera would be looking for. She goes and calls to him, brings her into the tent. When her husband is not there, he's got no business doing that, and he probably knows it, but he trusts her. And in he goes, he enters the tent. He's given these assurances by JL. All this goes on because she's initiating it. And to add then the insult to injury, that little comment, no, there's no man here. Whatever this worm is, he's not a man, fleeing, running away even from his army. And once again, we see the Lord in complete control. Jael, once he's resting, gives him not water, gives him milk, comforts him, makes him comfortable. He takes his rest and she pounds it through his temple. It's not a pretty picture. And now, Barak, in hot pursuit, Yes, he wants that prize, he wants Sisera, he comes too. Well, J.L. calls him. Barak, here, the man you're looking for, he's in my tent. And I can imagine Barak running in, you know, sword drawn, ready to take this guy on, only to find him pinned to the floor. Or the dirt. The word of the Lord is fulfilled. A woman receives the glory. takes the prize. I don't want us recoiling from this story. Do we have what I think is being pointed out here, a holy hatred of sin? Here is a man who has defied the living God in his life and in his ways. When we read the poem, we find out what kind of man he was, what kind of horrid man he was. And JL is used of God as an instrument of judgment against him, a man who would oppress the people of God, a man who would defy the living God, and probably sing curses of his name as he worshipped his own God and would seem more worshipping himself. Is there in us that holy hatred of sin? Do we read Colossians 3 when it says, put to death that which is ungodly, which is earthly, which is worldly? Do we think in those terms that it needs to be put to death? pushed over to the side so we don't get in it quite so often, but put those things to death that deny an obedience, a submission to, a love for the living God that brings real life? Do we fear accepting God's hatred of sin, His just judgment against sinners? Her methods and tools are not the things we would use today, certainly. This passage is descriptive. It tells us what happened. It is not telling us that's what we do. We will put sin to death in our lives, and we will see it. We will strive to see it put to death, but not by driving a peg into the skull, but by driving the gospel into people's hearts and lives. JL is separated. I'm sorry, she is celebrated. She is considered an absolute heroine in this story. Most blessed of women be JL, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked her for water and she gave him milk. She brought him curds in a noble's bowl. Verse 26, 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. Are they rejoicing, are they delighting in the brutality here? No, in God's judgment, in God's deliverance of a wicked oppressor now removed. My kids used to, they just got such a kick out of this, they would end up quoting it. Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still. Between her feet he sank, he fell, where he sank, there he fell, dead. And they would go around kind of, you know, quoting that for us from time to time. This chapter 5, as we come to it, is a celebration to God be the glory. There at the center of chapter 4 at verse 14, God goes out, championing his people, going before them to deliver them. When we come to the poem, when we come to the song of celebration, think of Miriam and the Exodus, chapters 14 and 15 of the book of Exodus. We have the record of what took place as they were carried through the Red Sea. And it fell down upon the Egyptians, and they danced. They celebrated the hand of God and the power of God. And so the people are rejoicing. They remember in song that the Lord fights for his people. That is central and carried through the whole poem. From verses 2 through 11, from 19 through 22, it's the Lord who is being lifted up as the deliverer. He is bound to the sons of Israel, to the people of Israel. And he comes and he acts on behalf of his people. Verses 12 through 15, 15a, is praise for those who fought. And it's Zebulun and Issachar and Naphtali. But where was everybody else? So it continues on, scorn for those who refused to fight. And then the blessing of JL as God's instrument for judgment that she would be honored. And then to Cicero's mother, who would know the grief and the loss of her wicked son. And finally, again, in verse 31, celebrating the Lord's justice. So may all the enemies, so may all your enemies perish, O Lord, but your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might. And so the land had rest for 40 years. We ought not to recoil. You know, we read this passage, oh, it's so violent. I would kind of ask you, what are the movies you watch? I won't ask you to put your hands up, but how many people here have decided that Braveheart is a great movie? Or who knows what else? So we recoil from it when the Lord sets out his judgment and his power, and yet swallow what's going on around us all the time. Do we rejoice? in the one who goes before us. Is there a song in our hearts? Our God goes against our enemies. And our enemies aren't always before us as a foreign army invading us. Now, there are many places in the world right now where Christians are facing that very kind of threat. But you'll notice we have not called together a Christian army to go and stand against them. But make no mistake. There is a battle going on for the life, the viability, the survivability of the church in this country and around the world. And as we are engaged in that world, as we are confronted intellectually, physically, morally, ethically, financially, politically, spiritually, wherever that pressure or threat comes from, we know, at least I pray we know, that our great Savior and King goes before us. And we will not face any challenge or trial that Jesus himself has not faced. As he walked this earth in our flesh, we do not go forth on our own. He goes before us to fight for his people. Give thanks, rejoice, celebrate it, sing a hymn of praise. We proclaim his power at work for us. And so we, like Barak, can rise up to stand against that onslaught. We celebrate, we rejoice in the justice of the Lord. We rejoice in this life because we know that he will settle all accounts perfectly when he comes to judge the earth and everything in it. Our enemies will be destroyed. Not just our enemies, but God's enemies. And it will be just and full, and righteousness will prevail. And so we rejoice in God before us and in God who judges, not gloating over their destruction, but recognizing wrongs and injustice that seem to go unpunished in this world. So those who think that they've gotten away with it, with their rebellion or wickedness, they will face the wrath of God against sin. and they will stand in eternal judgment. Again, we aren't going to take a tent peg and put it through the temple, but we will, I pray, in that knowledge that God will judge and justly seek to drive the gospel into the heart. of his enemies and of ours. You've heard it said, God of the Old Testament, oh, a vengeful God, a God of justice and anger, the God of the New Testament, a God of love. Just look at Jesus. Yes, just look at Jesus. We rejoice that God is a God of love, and it is seen that holy love is revealed in his deliverance of his people in Israel, and that love is obvious and necessary. It's as obvious and necessary in the Old Testament as it is in the New. His justice and wrath is revealed most powerfully. His judgment and wrath against sin and rebellion poured out most fully in infinite measure upon his Son, as He hung on the cross, going before us in death to deliver us. So we will sing a song of salvation, brothers and sisters, those who come to Christ, trusting, resting in Him, that the judgment that we deserved falls upon the Lord Jesus who goes before us to deliver us from that judgment. Christ goes before us to death to take away the sting of death and to take away the penalty of death. And then he goes and we rejoice that he goes before the throne of God there to plead for us as we face those trials and sorrows and temptations and attacks that will come in this life. And he is before that throne on our behalf even now. Sing of it. Rejoice in that hope and promise. Sing that song of celebration that God goes before us to break the cycle of death, to take away those hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh, writing on our very hearts the law of life, the law of Christ, that we might live so that it's no longer just something outside of us. exterior to us so that we need others always to tell us, to call us to account, to stand before us, to turn us around. No, those words are written on our hearts. And through them, the love of God is poured into us. Celebrate. Celebrate God's action. Celebrate his power. Celebrate his deliverance. Celebrate his justice. And so with the Lord going before us, we can trust God, our God, in any and every circumstance. We can trust him with all the details of our lives, right down to the minutia. We can't see what it will lead to, how God will use it, and yet it is his to use. With the Lord going before us, we can rest in peace, for the Lord will fight for those who trust him. who rise up in faith and walk with Him, following Him, following their Savior and Deliverer. And finally, we can rejoice. With the Lord going before us, we call upon Him always, who has gone before us to open the gates of heaven, so that we might come to God. Not crying in terror, as we draw near, but in holy reverence of our mighty Lord, we cry, Abba, Father. The Lord, your God, is a mighty warrior to save, to redeem, to keep, and to hold. Rise up. Father, stir our hearts. Let us, Lord, be a people who does give you thanks and praise, who remembers your mighty works of deliverance. But also, Lord, those who remember the means that you have given us, that has been poured into our hearts to bring us from death to life, from judgment to grace, And may, Lord, we be used of you to drive that same gospel into the hearts of those in the world around us. Hear us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.