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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.
The Battle Is The Lord's
| Sermon ID | 1126171745528 |
| Duration | 41:33 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Judges 4; Judges 5 |
| Language | English |