We'll be opening up the word to Judges chapter four. I figured I'd continue with the humor of Chapter 3 with the title of Chapter 4. Nailed it. And we will find out what exactly that means shortly, Lord willing. So if you are with me, Judges Chapter 4, let's read the account and then by God's grace we'll walk through it together. And hopefully the Lord will drive it home in our hearts. That's already, it's working. See, it's great, praise God. All righty, Judges chapter four. 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 hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Horesheth, Harosheth, Hagoyim. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years. Now Deborah, a prophetess, a wife of Lippidoth, was judging 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 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 Jabin'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 had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zananim, which is near Kadesh. When Sisera was told that Barak, the son of Abinuam, had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera called out his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Herosheth, Hagoyim, to the river Kishon. 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 Haggoyim. And all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left. 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. 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 and to 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 you, is anyone here, say no. But Jael, the wife of Heber, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep with weariness. And just to be clear, so he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, Come, and 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 in 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. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Thank you, Lord, again for your word. Lord, would you teach us Would you humble us that we would understand these things of old, understanding as Paul has mentioned, our apostle, that these are for us. So Lord, may we not repeat the same patterns by your grace, by your strength, for your glory, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. I hope you can forgive me, I'm a little parched. As you see there, I have a handout for you if you're able to follow along with that, feel free to. I did that mostly for the map because there's a lot of movement there, but it plays into how I'm seeing the story give us information. The structure I have there is an opening and conclusion, and in the middle of that is the whole story. You have your prophecy, you have the tool for drawing out to make that prophecy fulfilled, and then you have the fulfillment being the victory in the hand of Barak, and ultimately the victory and glory going to the hand of Jael with the conclusion of God giving all the glory. I did, as you know me, I tried to think, is this a chiastic structure? I didn't wanna force that on this one. I didn't see it that way. And no one else did either. So again, I'm not gonna force it where it's not there. It seems like the parts in the middle play together with the conclusions just giving you that bookend to show you God's work in the beginning of judgment, God's work at the end of getting the glory of saving his people through his own sovereign means. But, again, when we're in Judges, we need to gird ourselves. We need to face the fact that these are violent stories because these are violent times. And it's even violent even because of the very law of God given to the people and how they are supposed to be living in the land. We have to remember that. Or again, like I said last time, we're going to categorize this with terms that have nothing to do with the text. Whether it be murder, wrong, think of it in terms of the law. Or is it genocide? Never heard of the term back in the times of Scripture. Never was there. Was not there. We have to face it for what we're being given. So these are violent stories, but these violent stories are meant to teach us of the horridness of sin. That God is a jealous God, like we just sang. He truly is jealous, and He will not let the wicked go unpunished. So we see the wicked get punished in ways that make us squirm, because they're meant to make you squirm, to humble us before God, that we would serve Him, not ourselves. So where does the story start? They're in captivity. Incorrect. The rotation of all of this is showing they sin. They sin, they sin, they sin, they sin. The people, after the judge, the former judge, as you see there, as I told you last time, it kind of skips over. My mind just went totally blank there. I went into Shamgar. Skips over him, though it's showing you that Shamgar essentially was kind of brought in during the time of, I love when words leave my head. Ehud comes in with that time frame and now it's showing you, okay, after Ehud died, now the people go right back into their evil ways and what does the Lord do? In His anger, He sends his, he sells his people into the hand of Jabin. Now the Canaanites are playing a heavy piece into the plot, and they will be from here on out throughout Judges, more heavily than before, if you will. But they run back into there, they relapse right back into the vomit. The Lord is angry. He sends them, he sells them into the hand. They pass over Shamgar. They talk about Ehud's death and now they're back into it. And now we have the enemy again at the forefront of our minds because they rebelled. They are suffering because of it. The account that we're having here is going to be moving us northern now. Though Deborah is in the south, she's calling to Barak, who's in the northern parts of Israel. She is in the same place, essentially, where we left off with Ehud, calling the people to come. The Lord is giving the enemy into your hand. Now we switch to Deborah, who's calling up north to another person. The Lord is giving the enemy into your hand. King of Hazor. This may be, Jabin may be a royal title because Joshua defeats a Jabin King of Hazor earlier in Joshua chapter 11. There is a lot within the story that mirrors the structure of Joshua chapter 11 as well. There, in Joshua 11, they devote everyone, everything to destruction. They hamstring their horses and they burn their chariots. So there we see that they are able to defeat chariots. But when we get back into the beginning of Judges, we see that Judah, in chapter 1, is not able to fully take care of the enemy because they had chariots. So again, I told y'all earlier when we were in that chapter that that's not because they couldn't, it's because they wouldn't. OK, that's what the structure is wanting us to see is that sin cycle. That sin cycle, they have been enslaved now for 20 years. So that's why it starts with sin to give you that time frame of sin, but also slavery that comes because of the sin. But that's in Judges 1, verse 19, by the way, if you're keeping notes or you're trying to think through that in your own mind. But we see we're getting the context here that sin is at the forefront and God's gonna take action against that sin and he's gonna take action practically for the things that are going on around them. Now they're enslaved by the people they should have been driving out. Now these people are driving them into slavery again and again and again for a long period of time. That's our introductory. Sin is at the forefront. And if we don't see it in light of the sin, we won't be able to settle with whatever's gonna come next. All the time, think of that, especially throughout Judges, because that's the very structure it wants you to think it in. But we come to someone who's being faithful. In the midst of all the sin, we come to Deborah. Deborah is labeled, as you see there, as a prophetess. Her name means bee. Pretty interesting. Culturally, bees were producers of honey, and that was associated with sweetness. Just keep that in your mind for a moment. Just something to understand. I guess you could say this. A lot of times we just think of names. We're not thinking of meanings of names. And a lot of times meanings of names, especially within Hebrew culture, came with how you see the person. So you now see someone being risen up who's associated with things of sweetness. So they come to this woman who they think is someone who's sweet. So they come to her. She's being raised up by the Lord. It calls her here the wife of Lapidoth. Now, there's a few things to think about. Lapidoth could be a name, however, Lapidoth is also a place, and it also means literally, and a lot of old commentators, even Hebrew, they look at the meaning of this rather than that she's a wife of, is that she is a woman of torches. And a lot of them contribute that she was not married, and she actually served God all the time, within the temple. She was always serving God. Her life was given over to serving God. And you could almost say that though she was a sweet woman, she was also a fiery woman, possibly. Again, I'm taking a lot of things and a lot of ideas, and I'm trying to see a greater picture of what could be going on here. And there's a lot of people who agree with what these words are trying to portray here, because there's no mention of who her actual husband really is. But she, like we said, the location where she is, that's the map you have, that's further south in the map. That would be like we're in northern D.C., the map would be back down in Lynchburg where she is to give you some range of distance here. That's give or take a few miles. But she is in Ramah and Bethel and Ephraim. That's last where we left off with Ehud calling the people to come, the enemy's in your hands. The shift of the location goes northward and she calls upon Barak. And now that is on your map there by the Sea of Galilee. There you'll see kind of slanted there, Kadesh, Kadesh, Naphtali. That's where we're going to be moving. That's where Barak is in that Hazor area. You see Hazor above that, but that whole general area above north there is Hazor. Now, she is called a prophetess. Now, this is beautiful. She is not the first and only prophetess. We have Miriam, who's the mother, or excuse me, the sister of Moses and Aaron out of Exodus 15. We have Huldah out of 2 Kings 22. We have Noadiah out of Nehemiah 6. We have Isaiah 8, which is supposedly Aya's wife who bore a son. We go further even into Anna and to Luke chapter two. Many women that are listed out as being the mouthpiece of God through many different avenues, whether it be the prayer, counsel, song, and et cetera. So again, this is a positive look at a woman who's being faithful to God. She is now being raised up to be a mouthpiece of God And she's also called that she is the one judging Israel at that time. So you should immediately, which most people do, they get into the controversy here. So let's bring it up. Women as judges. With a huge question mark beside it. Well, let me give you a little background so we can work our way into the present context thinking of judges. Generally speaking, men were appointed to this role. Where do I get this from? Well, one, through action before the law, Exodus chapter 18, you have Moses listening to the voice of his father-in-law in chapter 18 of Exodus, and he tells him to choose able-bodied men who are able to help him with the judgments of Israel. Now, that's just practically, but then later we have Deuteronomy, In Deuteronomy chapter one, where we're called to take the heads of tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, et cetera, et cetera. They are to make judgments among the people. Then we go even clearly into Deuteronomy chapter 18, You shall appoint judges and officers in all your town that God has given you, taking all of what's come before and applying it into the law that normally this would have been assumed that they are appointing men as judges. As you can see in Judges chapter 4, it doesn't restrict it to only men because now we see Deborah being raised up to do that. However, this is meant to point to something. This is actually meant to point to the sin and the, if you will, laziness of the men. Not to Deborah. She's lifted up. She's singing praise to God. She's looked at as a woman who's being faithful to God. But now with the people who are in the land who are supposed to be reading the law, talking about the law, living according to the law, they should have known, I should be a man. I should be actively pursuing the things of God and being in the proper place I need to be. But guess what? They sin. They fall into slavery. What are their, some of their sins? Well, here we have one of them. Men are being men. They're not standing up. Given how Deborah is speaking from God is in agreement with God's will, it seems to me that this is more of a shame on men not stepping up. However, some take Deborah as an opening to the floodgates to women being unrestricted in whatever position they want to pursue. However, it seems to be that it is a shame against the men at that time that are not standing up and fulfilling the role of judge. When Barak is called, further in the text, when Barak is called, he's unwilling to fulfill his calling unless Deborah goes with him. He's acting weak, disobedient, and the glory because of these things is passed beyond him to another who's willing. You heard from his own mouth that when she calls him out, he will not do it unless she comes with him. And he's getting a direct command from God through her mouth that was already stated within the law. She's perfectly in line with the will of God. Has God not called you? But he's the one saying, I will not do it unless you come with me. So who's at fault here? The man is. The man is. Furthermore, to add to this, this is not a liberating women text in the sense of how the world uses it today. Hear me out now. This is a text that honors a faithful woman who is willing to serve God and by her title seem to be on fire for God. This has nothing to do with modern arguments on whether a woman can preach or not because we have clear and unambiguous commands for that to be given proper appointment to men and the restrictions of women. We also need to understand that a judicial aspect of Israel is not a one-to-one equation to now a preacher in the new covenant. We have a theocracy in one, and they're raised up to make judgments. As you see, as I read earlier in Deuteronomy chapter 16, they have officers who should be with them. Judge makes a judgment call, the officers work that out, whatever the judgment was, they make that happen. So this is more of a governing system for a people who are set apart from other governing systems. that we can't then just take this and run it into the New Testament and say, if I see this, then I can do this. There's no equation there. So I don't have to answer if people bring up the what about women preaching and what about Deborah? You've just confused categories so much that now I'm cross-eyed. It makes no sense. You've mixed wrong categories. You've enflossed us on the wrong syllable, you know, kind of thing. There's not an equation there. To utilize this as a text for rebellion would only bring shame to the faithful witness of Deborah. It would also show that your categories of titles and duties are messed up and therefore you shouldn't be teaching others. It is more of a social or political judicial role that they have, and officers come with them to execute those judgments. It is a structure within Israel's government that they ought to be following, that they had clear command for. Now, I want to make this clear. She is the one judging at this time, so she's a judge. That's okay. There's no shame in that for her. There's a shame on the men who weren't being risen up. But I do want to show you some things from the very text itself and from scripture to show that even scripture itself points back to Barak as the one who should have been doing this job. She points to him first and foremost in the text. Has God not called you? After she's called him, when it's time to go to fulfill this calling, she says, up, arise, you, the Lord's given the Sisera into your hand. Did not the Lord call you? She, in chapter five, calls herself the mother of Israel. Here's what it says in chapter five. The villagers ceased in Israel. They ceased to be until I arose. I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. So she's very precious. Also, further, in 1 Samuel 12, nine through 11, in Hebrews 11.32, Barak is listed as being someone, especially in 1 Samuel, going with the history of the movement out of Exodus into the land and the judges, he lists Barak as the one who was there, supposedly should have been doing the judging. And then we have judges, obviously you know Barak is listed as one who's being a man of faith. We'll talk about that a little bit more too. I'm going to emphasize more of this and draw it out a little bit more. But as you see, we're seeing now that this is exposing the sin of Israel. And she's doing all she can as a faithful woman to call out the men, a man, Barak specifically, get on it. God has called you to this. Go. The Lord has given the enemy into your hand. He's over in Kadesh, Naphtali, as you see there. They're going to be meeting closer to the west there, the Kishon River, for battle as the chariots are being gathered together at Hirosheth Agoyim, again on the west there, bringing these people together. So she's prophesied, the Lord is going to draw out Sisera. The Lord's going to do this. How is He going to do this? I see that a lot of times when we read through this section, it throws in verses 11. Sometimes it's 11, but I've combined 11 through 13. That does seem like out of left field. Like this seems totally out of left field. We had something going here, but then he switches over to this whole other family. And why in the world would he do that? Well, I titled this section a tool for drawing, and I'll explain what I mean by this. This section is an explanation for verse seven. Of. Who, how is God going to draw out these people while also connecting to us versus 17 through 22? Heber is a Kenite. He separates from the Kenites and sets up his tent north in Zananim, that's near Kadesh. And I believe Heber is perfectly placed to possibly be the one who tells Sisera of Barak's movement. He's right there in Zananim, right where Barak is getting the call to start gathering up the tribes. He would see this movement. And as the tribes start gathering on Mount Tabor, he sees this and he tells Sisera, and I combine that down with verse 17. You see that the wife of Heber, the Kenite, verse 17, for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of Heber, the Kenite. So we're getting some kind of, okay, they're buddy-buddy, they're in good with one another. He separated himself from his own tribe anyways, why wouldn't he want to gain peace with the area in which he's going, and who's the one ruling in that area at that time? And when she invites him into the house, she's using language of, come in, my Lord. She has knowledge of this man. She's using it for her own deeds, by the way, which is great. However, you see this commonality, this acquaintance. I know who this is. So again, this is my theory, if you want to. So take it or leave it. That's fine with me. There's it's not going to change the text. However, I believe that's partially why that's brought in there. Not just that's where it ends in that tent, but also he's part of the one who's helping helping inform the movement of the tribe of Israel, that these tribes coming together to fight against him, because that's where it goes. That's where exactly it goes in verses 14. After she this section 14 through 16, because you see that in the Lord routed sister, excuse me, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I gotta back up. 12, when Sisera was told, there's a lot of movement, forgive me. Verse 12, when Sisera was told that Barak, the son of Abinoah, had gone up to Mount Tabor. So again, someone told him. And I think it's giving us some insight that it very well may have been Heber, given that he was in good, they had peace amongst them. There was knowledge of even where his home was to run to, to flee to. He felt secure enough to hide in it. I believe this is very vital, at least in understanding the flow of it. Well, let's move on. We have the setting again, sin upon sin, but we have someone faithful being risen up, calling others to be faithful. The Lord is the one doing this work. He's the one who said he's going to do it. He will faithfully do it. So now it's time to put it to action. We have verse 14. Deborah said to Barack up for this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. This section mirrors a lot of Joshua chapter 11. However, I also want to show you something that came before that. I want to show you there's some connections here with the Exodus using very the exact same language to show again God's work for you in this situation, which is awesome. The call of Barak here in verse 14, the Lord has given Sisera into your hand mirrors very much in Exodus chapter 14 verse 13, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today. And in verse 15, the battle's happening now. And what are we told within this battle? The Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. This same terminology is used in Exodus chapter 14, verse 24. and in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and the cloud look down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic." The threw into a panic is the exact same term of routing Sisera. Somehow, sovereignly, which we'll learn about how in chapter five, But the Lord runs them into confusion in their chariots to fight for his people, just like he did with Pharaoh when he was crossing over the Red Sea. Judges, excuse me, verse 16. And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Hirosheth-Haggoyim. And all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left. Same language at the end of chapter 14 of Exodus, verse 28. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the host affair that had followed them into the sea. And here's the exact same phrase within the Hebrew. Not one of them remained. The same is not a man was left exactly the same. Showing God's work sovereignly, how he saved you In Egypt, I'm doing it again because he loves his people. He's doing it again, using the exact same language to give glory to God for what he's doing for his people, though he's still utilizing means through Barak and the army to do it, and even nature itself, where we'll learn about in chapter five. So victory's at hand, but there's someone who gets away. Sisera running away, moving into the next to final section. The victory in the hand of Jael. She stands at the opening of her tent. She comes out, she sees this man running and fleeing. She calls him in. She takes care of him. She treats him very, very well, honestly. She truly does. Obviously, there's deception behind that. And hear me out, not sin. Nowhere in the scripture can you see anything be applied of negativity or wrongdoing by the hand of JL. Nowhere. So I will not contribute any wrong words to her. But there's some kind of irony in what Sisera says to, I think you have it right there in your notes, there's some irony here in the Hebrew. He says, if any man, ish, which we've talked about that before, a man who, someone running up to you and you see his physical form, he looks like a man. If you see any man, he comes and asks you, is there any man here? Say no. That term that's used there means nonexistence or nothing. As in, you see a man, tell him there's no man here. Excuse me. I said that wrong. You see a man, and if they ask about a man, tell them there's nothing here. Well, that is irony because that's going to be very true. That's going to be very true. It comes out of his own mouth, and that's exactly what's going to happen. There's a man going to show up. He's going to ask if a man's there. He's going to find out that a man's no longer there. She is a blessed woman. She, I want to say it, this is awesome, we should be praising the Lord of God above because He has raised up people at particular times to do the work of His hands. She is a blessed woman. And they say it very clearly in Judges chapter 5, the song of Deborah and Barak, they're singing and we get into chapter 5 verse 24 through 27. Here's what they say of Jael. Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite. Of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked for water. She gave him milk. She treated him like royalty. That's what that's supposed to mean, because this is the land of flowing of milk and honey. So it's showing that she upped her game on this deception to take out the enemy. She treated him like royalty. She brought him curds in a noble's bowl. She sent her hen to the tent peg. and her right hand to the worker's mallet. She struck Cicera. 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, where he sank, there he fell, just to be clear, dead. Just as they want you to know, a tent peg through the temple works. They make it clear in both chapters that you'll die from that, so don't try it at home. And we should get a little bit of a laugh for the glory of Christ in this, not for our gain or even Israel's gain, but for the glory of Christ, who said he will take out his enemies. And it won't be pretty, but it will be to his glory. It will be. This woman is a blessed woman. As you saw, it started out there, I told you in chapter five, I read verse 24, most blessed of women, B.J.L. You know what's so awesome? It's the same formulation of how Elizabeth blesses Mary when she comes to her house and she exalts and proclaims loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed be the fruit of your womb. We look back and we think of the Proto-Evangelium, the first gospel in chapter 3, verse 15 of Genesis. We see that the offspring, whose offspring? Her offspring. So through this woman, the Lord is nailing the head of the serpent. We see later Jesus coming into the scene and we see through the woman, Jesus being born of a woman under the law, Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5. Through the woman comes the offspring where this evil serpent has his head taken out. So we're seeing a mirror of this, a type of this already in jail, who was a good worker of God, who took her hand faithfully to the enemy of God and drove it through to the point to where where he sank, he fell dead. So she is a blessed woman. She is a blessed woman because she was doing exactly what the men should have been doing, taking out the enemy, putting them to complete destruction according to God's law. Not murder, faithfulness. So we go to our conclusion. We have the Lord being glorified. So what does it say? Verse 23. Who subdued? God did. He did it for his people right before his people. The hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder, and they destroy this Jabin, king of Canaan, and all of the men, not a man, escaped. So the Lord gets the glory. So therefore, I can't back up and give wrong terminology to the people who brought about that glory, the means by which God brought that glory. There is major application to this if you haven't already sunk it in the brain, in the temple by now. Let me first apply it in the home. Sorry. Men, you've been called by God clearly without doubt. There is no doubt in your mind, men, that you should be leading your homes spiritually. Period. But you also should be encouraged that God would look at you and give you such a responsibility that that is meant to mirror the very Savior who we're pointing to. That is an honor. but it ought to be a rebuke if the woman is taking the lead. That should sting. Men, if you are not leading and washing your woman in the word, you are in sin against God and you should be taking that lead. Has God not called you to be leading the home? Has He not? This is not to the detriment of the woman. This is to her benefit because the application goes, look at these faithful women, Deborah, JL, you're called to still be faithful, spite what the man may be doing or not doing. And that's where I remind where our brother's been faithfully teaching through the text. We see even the wives. Even if a man doesn't obey the Word, how is he won? By the conduct of the wives. Just like the conduct of these faithful women, they were staying faithful to what God said they were called to be doing. telling the man, has God not called you? Through their very conduct it should be a call. Men, you should be living with your wives according to knowledge. So if you're watching her and she's doing the right things and you're not, you should be rebuked for not rising up to the occasion. Because Ephesians makes it very, very clear. Men, husbands, Love your wives as Christ has loved the church. And I state this so many times on repeat. For men and myself. What did Christ do and what should we be doing in light of what Christ did? Well, here's what he did. He gave himself up for her. Put yourself to the side, men. Your comforts. your earthly desires, and may God fashion you to desire to wash your wife in the word to present her holy and blameless before God, and also your children, if God provides children, that you might sanctify her, cleansing her with the washing of the water with the word, doing the duty that you've been called to so she doesn't have to do it for you. That's a rebuke. She shouldn't have to be doing it for you. You should be leading her to God constantly in every way that you can see fit to do that. Repentance in this, if you're failing, does not mean you take over every physical thing that's in your home now to lead. No, the application is, I'm not leading you to your Savior. I need to repent and draw you constantly, consistently to your God. The details of the house, how you formulate the bills, who takes care of this, who takes care of that, that's where you work as a team to figure that out. Because the Proverbs 31 woman does a lot more than some of the patriarchal men today want her to do. The answer isn't to pendulum swing to where you lord yourself over her, putting her under like a Samson's son is like, my finger is gonna be worse than my father was. Now you don't make it harder because you want to rule every aspect of her life. The idea is that you lay your life down. So therefore you need to be taking her to the one who loves her, her savior. And in that, you work those details out together in the home, empowering her. She may have better gifts than you in certain areas. That's okay. But you go, but you know one thing, I need to be taking her to the word of God consistently. I need to be doing my diligent duty that God has made clear in his word. If I love Christ, I'm gonna follow his word. If I love Christ, I'm not gonna sit back and say, well, if you don't do it, wife, I won't do it either. Incorrect, false, not the right application. And I say this all while saying, even in what Barak did, he's praised in chapter 11 of Hebrews as being a man of faith. So he did do something. So that's where we think of what is faith? It's not what you are doing, it's the one in whom you're placing your faith in that's the faithful one. It's not how much or how little, it's the idea that you have faith in the one who's able to hold you to the end. But this faithful one is also able to change you and mold you and to build you up to where you then start fulfilling your duties, even though you may have started off a little weak like him, just like Barak here. I won't do it, even though it's clear command in the Old Testament law and now through the mouth of a prophet. He still eventually got to work and did it. So there's praise that's there. Even in the smallest amount of faith, there's praise there. But there's also rebuke there. Time for men to gird their loins. Again, I breezed past it pretty quickly because I think it's not worthy of addressing in the way in which people want it to be addressed. There's not a correlation of since Deborah was raised up, therefore we can have women preachers. Your categories are off, okay? That's not what we're talking about. Again, because that would be in clear rebellion against what we clearly have in the New Testament saying that men ought to be the one doing that. So the equivalency is not there. However, in application in the church, God does raise up men, pastors, in the sense of you can come for help. in the sense of application of a judge. They're there to make help with the judgments of your lives. You need help in the Word of God. We should be there to help you and apply that. That's why God raises us up. But He also raises you up as well. Because I want to encourage a body of counselors. to where you're in the word so often that you can help one another while loving one another, building one another up in the holy faith. So we can kind of all be a judge in the sense of instructing one another, guiding one another in wisdom and sound doctrine. But just the application aspect of a judge, I can say there's help in that for us, that you've been given a gift from God that you have leaders who want to instruct you in the word of God, and you can come to us when you need help. And we don't have officers, though, who will execute judgments. I'm just saying there's wisdom there to be had. Go to it and take hold of it. I hope you understand the distinction of how I'm making that application. I'll trust that the Lord will give you help. I'll explain more if you have questions later. However, I want to encourage you As we come to the close of this, we have eschatological hope. Something we're close to reading in, which we'll read here in a couple weeks if I'm not mistaken, will be Psalm 83. Listen to the beauty of this psalm and how it even speaks back to the story we just read. A song, a psalm of Asaph. Oh God, do not keep silent. Do not hold your peace or be still, oh God. For behold, your enemies make an uproar. Those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people. They consult together against your treasured ones. They say, come, let us wipe them out as a nation. Let the nation of Israel be remembered no more. For they conspire with one accord against you, they make a covenant. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites, Gebel and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre, Asher also has joined them. They are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishan, who were destroyed at Endor. Little fun side note, it seems like Endor is the place where people go to die. Think of Saul, who became dung for the ground. Think of Eglon. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeab, all their princes like Zeba and Zalmunna, who said, let us take possession of ourselves of the pastures of God. Oh, my God, make them like whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind, as fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze. So may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane. Fill their faces with shame that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth. Who is the most high? The Lord Jesus Christ. Who is the one who will finally put that stake into the head of the serpent? And who has done that, but then we have hope of seeing the full conclusion of it, is Jesus Christ, who will put to shame all of his enemies. There is a judge in heaven, and he will judge all of his enemies, Jesus Christ the righteous. There's more connection of eschatological hope, but I wanna draw that out of chapter five next time we come back together. But I want to encourage you today that has God not commanded you and called you to serve Him faithfully? Guess what? He's already won for you. So you just have to live in that victory knowing that He's done that. Knowing that He's done that. Though Jesus is in the heavens, as we just read today, putting all of his enemies under his feet and he rules all things, though we don't see him fully doing that, we're called to live as though he's doing that because he is. And one day we will see it clearly. So has God not called you, brothers, to be men, to follow God according to his word because he loves you and you love him and you love your wife, so therefore you put yourself to death in order to love her and to wash her and your children in the word. Women, stay faithful to the word. Even if he is not obeying the word, you win him over by being faithful all the time. Church, be encouraged. We're not fighting from a place of, I have to gain this. The Lord has already won for you. He's made it very clear over and over and over again. And now out of his grace, he's attached you as again, all of scripture combines together. He's brought you in on this tree and saying, that's your history. This is my history. You hear me. This is my history of reading this. I should learn from this, not throw it to the side because it has nothing to do with me ethnically. It has everything to do with me because I'm one with Christ, who is the Israel of God, who is the Son of God. And now I and you can be sons and daughters of the Most High if you trust Him and hold fast to that faith of which you hold. I pray that we will learn from these things and we will put them to action and we will not continue to follow suit in the same failures. But know if you fall, you have a high priest who understands your weakness, who knows it well and calls you to his throne to get help in time of need. So those of you who know the Lord and you need to repent, turn from your wicked ways in love, follow Christ. For those who need to stay faithful, be encouraged. You're being faithful. Stay the course. Church, have hope that Christ will one day put all of his enemies so far under his feet that you'll see it and you'll praise him for it. You won't be disgusted by it. You'll tremble in fear knowing that he's sovereign over all, but you'll also praise his name knowing that God wins the war. God won for us so that we might stand, not fall. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. May we see, know, and understand, and apply, through the grace of your spirit, all that you teach us in your word. Lord, even for times where I'm not very clear, may your people hear the voice of their shepherd. May we, as shepherds, fall into the background, and may Christ be seen in all things. We, Lord, need you constantly. May we truly abide with you because you do faithfully abide with us. May we live as those who live in victory, not in shame. May we look at the enemy and say, Lord, put them to shame. May they call out on your name. And Lord, may you even save some. Would you be so gracious? But Lord, may we stand firm and faithful to you above all else. For Christ's name's sake I pray, amen.