If you'd open your Bibles tonight to the fourth chapter of the book of Judges, as we continue on in this exposition of Judges, we'll be looking at the fourth chapter in its entirety tonight. So we'll be reading the text as we work our way through it. But before we begin our journey of looking at the text, let's bow and look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank you that you are God and you have certainly proved that in many ways today. We thank you for the power that we've seen displayed this afternoon physically. We pray that your power will be displayed here tonight spiritually. We thank you that you are God and there's none else like thee. We pray your blessing on this text and on the Spirit's work in each of our minds and hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. I heard of a story in which two bank robbers walked into a bank to rob it. And one of the bank robbers said, everybody put your hands up and nobody move. His partner started to move to get some of the money. The other partner saw the movement and shot the partner. Now how crazy is that? It's about as crazy as God's people. I read an interesting statement a while back that said it's amazing how many young fools survive to become old fools. In this book of Judges, God's people did one dumb thing after another. God's people would get themselves into a miserable situation by their own choices. They would find themselves enslaved to all kinds of things simply because they would not turn to the Lord and obey the Word of God. But then finally, they'd turn to God, they would come to their senses, they would call out to God, and God would come to their rescue. And then just as soon as they were rescued, they would turn right back around and do the same thing again. At some point, if we're going to enjoy the perpetual blessings of God, we must stop the cycle. And the cycle is going full force when you come to Judges 4. Because what you see in this fourth chapter of the book of Judges is that when God's people have made sinful and stupid choices that have put them in a miserable situation, God will graciously help His people and He'll turn things around for His people if they'll turn to Him and ask Him for help. That is the story of the book of Judges, and certainly it's the story you'll see tonight in Judges 4. That cycle comes right out of Judges 4. God is going to give Israel another thrashing. And then Israel is going to turn to the Lord again. And then God again is going to deliver Israel. What is one of the most mind-boggling realities in this book of Judges is that God will not ever give up on His people, no matter how sinful or stupid they are. They do ridiculous things. They do sinful things. And God says, I'm still here. If you'll call out to me, if you turn to me, I'll help you. Now there are six historical facts that I want to point out to you tonight from the fourth chapter of the book of Judges. Historical fact number one, Israel did evil and life became miserable and intimidating again. Notice verse one, then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord after he who had died and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor and the commander of his army was Sisera who lived in Herosheth Hagoyim the sons of Israel cried to the Lord for he had nine hundred iron chariots and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years Here we go again. After Ehud dies, Israel reverts back to doing evil once again. Can you believe that? I mean, this nation had enjoyed, as we saw last time, the peace and the tranquility and blessings of God for 80 years, and you would think, that's what we want. This is the longest time of tranquility and peace and blessing that Israel gets in the whole book of Judges. But there can be a danger when things are going good. There can be a danger to peace and tranquility and life and blessings. And the danger is we can begin to become more worldly. We can get a little sloppy in what we think and what we believe and what we're doing. You would certainly think that Israel would have learned her lesson by now. They should have learned that we are the happiest people. We are the healthiest people. We are the holiest people when we're obeying God. She had learned the lesson every time we fall into sin, we end up miserable. You would think that the little bulb would go off in her mind that would say, we don't want to do that again. Most people should have said, you know, every time we move away from God, every time we walk away from the word of God and get mixed up with things that aren't right, we end up in a disaster. You would think they would think that way. You would think they would want to live that way, but that's not what happened. Because as verse one opens of the fourth chapter we read, Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. Somebody was talking with me a long time ago and said, you know, every time I do something I shouldn't do, my whole house falls apart. What do you think? Stop doing what you shouldn't do. Pretty simple solution to that issue. He said, I've observed that in my life. That's what Israel observed. That's what we all observe. When we walk away from the right things of the Lord, we find we're in a mess. After Ehud died and Israel fell into sin, God said, all right, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to let a Canaanite king, his name is Jabin, he'll be aided by his brilliant military commander named Saseera. I'm going to let him sweep into northern Israel and take you captive. God said, okay, you don't want to obey me, then I'll let things dominate you that shouldn't be dominating you. You don't want to follow my word, I'll let you get yourself into a miserable state. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest lies of Satan that he presents to God's people all the time is that sin is liberating. That is a lie. The fact of the matter is sin is enslaving. Sin will never make God's people happy. It'll leave them hurting. It will leave them degraded. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll never walk away from sin and say, boy, I'm glad I did that. You'll never walk away from a sin episode and feel, man, this was the greatest decision I made in my life. You walk away from a sin episode, you'll walk away feeling empty, lonely, dirty, and used. because sin is enslaving now according to verse two there was a canaanite king his name was jayben now the name jayben is a kingly name that sticks with the family it's kind of like caesar in rome and jayben reigned in hazer which is located about nine miles north of the sea of galilee Now, at one time, Hazor was the largest city in Palestine. It was located on a main route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. What is so ironic about this is if you go back to the book of Joshua, and we don't have time to do that tonight, but Joshua chapter 11, you'll discover that this is the very place that Israel once conquered. This is the very place that once had the blessings of God. This was a place where Israel was dominating the Canaanites. And God says, here's what I'm going to do. Because you have not obeyed me, I'm going to punish my people, and I'm going to use this very place and this very people at one time that you had controlled. I have a pastor friend who had a good man in his church who started to drift away from the things of God, just got off track. He'd been saved out of a pretty rugged worldly background, but he'd grown in the Lord and become a strong spiritual leader. In fact, he was a leader in the church. But he started drifting away from his focus on God and from the word of God. And one night my pastor friend received a call from his wife. And she said to my pastor friend, he's back downtown in a bar. So my pastor friend, he got in his car, he drove down to the bar, he walked right in and walked right up to that man. And he said, what are you doing here? And he said, that man started to cry. He said, let's get out of here. And they both walked out together. The irony is, is this is the very place from which God had once delivered him. Now it was the same place being used to convict him. That is the story of Jabin and Hazer. Now the real emphasis of chapter four is on this guy named Saseera. Saseera takes front and center stage. He becomes the real Canaanite antagonist. And Jabin will kind of now blend into the background. According to verse 2, Caesarea's military headquarters was located in Harosheth Hagoyim, Hagoyim of the nations or of the Gentiles. It means it was located in Harosheth of the Gentiles or the nations. This city sat at the foot of Mount Carmel. It was located about 30 miles southwest of Hazor. It was located on the plain of Ezdralon in the valley of Megiddo. This is an excellent piece of ground. For all those who've seen it, it is a wonderful piece of ground. It's a great place to have your military headquartered. It has good farm ground. It has plenty of water. You have a lot of grazing ground for horses. And they needed horses, as you'll see a little later in just a few moments. And it was a good area to supply food and anything you needed. According to verse 3, Cicero had 900 chariots at his disposal and a very large military. And he oppressed Israel for 20 years. He intimidated Israel. As one writer said, he terrorized Israel with these chariots. And this would have represented the latest military technology of its day. Israel was no match for this intimidating enemy. As Gary Inrig said in his commentary, Israel was outmanned, outgunned, and outpositioned. Now here's the thing we want to remember in all of this. God had sovereignly provided this intimidating adversary against his own people because what he's trying to do is get his own people to turn to him. What he's using these people to do is back his own nation into a corner so hopefully the ball will go back on in their brain and they'll say, you know, we need to trust God and we need to turn to the Lord so that we can experience his delivering power. The real problem for Israel was not a military problem here. The real problem for Israel, as you'll see, is a spiritual problem. If Israel would just turn to God, God could and would deliver her from seemingly impossible odds. I am convinced, ladies and gentlemen, that God is sovereign over everything in our life. Everything. When He permits something hostile to come up against us, when He allows some hostile force or thing to raise its ugly head against us, He has a purpose in it. Perhaps his purpose is trying to just get us to snuggle up closer to him. He wants us in a scary, intimidating situation or circumstance, so that we can turn to him and we can learn to trust him, and we can see him do great things. That's what he was doing with all of this, with Saseera, with Israel. Which brings us to the second fact, Israel cries to God, and God raises up deliverers. Verse 3 says, the sons of Israel, cried to the Lord, for he had 900 iron chariots, and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for 20 years. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at the time. She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment. Now she sent and summoned Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh Naphtali and said to him behold the Lord the God of Israel has commanded go and march to Mount Tabor and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. Now God calls both men and women into his family and God can use both men and women in his family to get a job done for him and you're going to see that in a marvelous way tonight. One thing you certainly know about God, you never know who he's going to work with. You never know what he's going to do with somebody. You just don't know. You may look at somebody and say, I don't see much hope there. And God may have that person right in his sights, intending to mightily use him or her. That's what you discover here. In this instance, as we go through the remainder of this chapter, there are two key women who show up. One's name is Deborah. The other's name is Jael. And there's a man named Barak. By the way, Barak, unlike others with the same name, is pro-Israeli who actually fights Israel's enemies and actually fights to expand her land boundaries. If I were a political leader, I would make sure I'm supporting Israel and promoting the expansion of her land, not the taking away of her land. That'd make a good newspaper ad. You'll read it a week from Saturday. Now you'll notice carefully that there are a couple of deliverers that show up in this context. The first deliverer is Deborah. And Deborah shows up in verses 4 to 7. She's a good choice because she's God's choice. Now there are five observations I want to make about Deborah. First of all, we know nothing about her background. Nothing at all. We don't know much about her at all. We don't know what family she comes from. We don't know about her ancestry. We don't know about her tribe. I think that's an encouraged thing for you ladies to know. You don't have to come from some wonderful pedigree to be greatly used by God. You don't have to have a track record that says, man, I have all of it coming right to me from a family that was skilled deep in the things of God. You don't have to have that kind of background to be mightily used by God. You must love the word. You must love the Lord. Secondly, we do know Deborah was married. Notice verse 4, Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth. Now, she had a husband. His name was Lappidoth. We don't know much about him either. What we do know is the name Lappidoth means torches or lamps, so it's possible that her husband had a job of making lamps. It does appear that Deborah may have been a mother because if you go over to chapter 5 and verse 7, and this is the chapter we'll look at, Lord willing, next Sunday night, in chapter 5 and verse 7, until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose a mother in Israel. So it's very possible that not only was she married, but she had some children. The third observation that we make about her, she was a prophetess. You'll notice in verse 4, now Deborah a prophetess. Now women prophetesses are very, very rare. And a prophetess did receive direct revelatory information from God. And a prophetess did have the responsibility to communicate that revelatory data to the nation Israel. A prophet received revelatory data from God pertaining to the future. And a prophetess received revelatory data from God pertaining to the present. These are very rare women who become prophetesses. In the Old Testament you only have three good ones and one lousy one. The three good ones are Miriam, Moses' sister. You have Huldah, who was the wife of Shalom during the days of Josiah. And then, of course, you have Deborah here tonight. The lousy one is found in the book of Nehemiah. Her name was Nodiah. In the New Testament, there's Anna, who saw the baby Jesus in the temple. And there were the four virgin daughters of Philip. Now, this gift of prophecy has now ceased in the church age because Paul predicted this gift was going to cease. During the tribulation period, we know that this gift of prophecy will come back into play. The church will be gone. People will be living here who don't know a whole lot about theology or eschatology, and that gift of prophecy will come back in full force in the tribulation. Deborah was one who did receive direct revelation from God for Israel. Now Paul would later write on this subject to the church, giving us some pretty careful instruction. He said, in the New Testament grace age, it's very clear that a woman is not to publicly teach men. He emphasized the fact in the New Testament church age that a married woman was to keep silent in the church and not publicly speak. If she had any questions, what she was to do is ask her husband at home. So this idea of the prophetess was something very peculiar to this particular dispensation. Deborah was a prophetess and she will be greatly used by God. Which brings us to the fourth observation, she was also a judge. Verse 4 says, Now Deborah a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment. Being a woman prophetess was rare. Being a woman judge was even rarer. In fact, Dr. Gary Enrig observed there was never another time in the nation of Israel's history when God chose a woman to be their leader. Deborah was chosen by God, called by God, raised up by God, and empowered by God. She was God's leader. Deborah was the only woman ever called by God to be a national leader of His people. And one commentator said, when God has to do that, when God has to raise up a woman for His work rather than use a man, the men have become pathetic. Herbert Wolfe in his commentary said, Deborah's prominence implies a lack of qualified and willing men. Now I think it's more than just interesting that it is first brought out that she is a prophetess before it's brought out that she was a judge. And I think the reason why that is so important is because it is knowledge of the Word of God that does put a person in a position to make proper judgments. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, this Deborah was no shallow fraud. This was no person who went around like a Joyce Meyer who doesn't know a whole lot about the Word of God but she can hype women up. This was a woman who knew the Word of God to the point that she could actually counsel the nation Israel. She's not leading a ladies group here, giving them emotional hype. She's leading a nation into biblical war. And according to verse 5, she used to sit under a palm tree in the hill country of Ephraim and people would go out there and they would present their cases to her and they would hear her judgments and she would analyze what they were saying. She apparently had a judicial type of mind and she actually pronounced judgments on them. God had given her a very special gift at this time and she was very well known as a political and judicial and spiritual figure. A couple of years ago in Las Vegas, there was a woman judge that was involved in the old Jay Simpson trial. I'll tell you, I like that woman. That woman had more wits about her than some of the male judges I saw in that mess. The fact of the matter is, she knew the law, she knew how to set up justice, and that's what she did. That's exactly the way you must think when you look at Debra. This lady knew what she was doing when she was making decisions based on the word of God. Now the fifth observation is Deborah got a specific revelation from God to deliver Israel. Notice verse 6. Now she sent and she summoned Barak, the son of Abin-o-Am from Kadesh, Naphtali, and said to him, Behold, the Lord, the God of Israel has commanded, go and march to Mount Tabor and take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. I will draw out to you Cicera, the commander of Jaman's army with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand. Now Deborah gets direct revelatory information from God. You go get Barak. Because Barack is the guy I'm going to use to fight and win this battle. Now Barack was from Kadesh, and since Deborah was from the Ramah Bethel area, Barack has to go about 70 miles just to have this meeting with Deborah. So you're looking about a 70 mile trip here. If you average 20 miles a day, you're looking at about a three heavy day trip just to get here for this meeting. And at this meeting, Barak was informed that he was to take a military, get 10,000 men, go fight Sassera and his troops and chariots, and God was going to give him victory. In fact, we learn from verse 7 that the specific area where this was going to take place was Mount Tabor, and also in the River Kashon. That's where this was going to all happen. Now, Barak was the son of Abinoam from Kedesh Naphtali. In other words, he lived in a city named Kedesh, and it was in the tribe of Naphtali. He was apparently known to be a good warrior, a good, respected military leader, and most certainly, this has been revealed to Deborah by God, that's the guy you want to lead the campaign. What I see about Deborah is she is a humble, honest woman. She realizes I have a role to play in all of this, but I do know my limitations. It's a guy like this military commander, Barack, who can go get the job done. G. Campbell Morgan said Deborah without Barack would have kindled enthusiasm but would have accomplished nothing. What Barak was supposed to do was he was supposed to take his men to Mount Tabor. It's a cone-shaped mountain that rises about 2,000 feet, about 700 feet higher than the Jezreel Valley. The Kishon River was located about 10 miles west of Mount Tabor. This is a strategic place to carry out a battle because you can get up on a perch and you can look down in that valley and see where those enemies are, and then you can go after them. Which brings us to the next deliverer we meet. God sovereignly uses Barak. Now there are three observations I want to make about him. First of all, Barak wants Deborah to go with him. Notice what happens in verse 8. Then Barak said to her, if you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go. Barack was not overwhelmed by the military challenge. I mean, when Deborah says, you take 10,000 guys and go fight Cicero and all those chariots, that doesn't overwhelm him. But what he does request is that Deborah go with him. Now, Dr. J. Vernon McGee thinks that Barack is a little sissy here, hiding behind a woman's skirt. But I don't see it that way, and neither do some other commentators who have carefully analyzed this text. Deborah had just told Barack she received a direct message from God. And she just told him that the direct message from God is you're to go out there and fight Jabin's army. Barak must have had a lot of confidence in Deborah to even consider that. But here's a woman telling him, I just got a message from God, and he wants to make sure this is not some sentimental delusion of a lady who's religious and emotional. So he said, all right, I'm willing to tackle this assignment if you'll go with me. I want the one who says, you're getting messages from God right by my side. If you're willing to go with me, then I'll do it. You know, always in the work of God, there are some people that will tell others what to do, but they don't want to do it themselves. That's not the way Barack was, and that's not the way Deborah was. Which brings us to the second observation. Barak didn't care if he got credit for the victory. Notice verse 9. She said, I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take. For the Lord will tell us, sell Cicera into the hands of a woman. Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh. Deborah agreed to go, but she said, I want you to know this. You're not going to get all the honor for the victory you could have had. What I see here is a great thing about Barak. He's not some egotist. He didn't care. In other words, he's not out to do this because he thinks it's going to make his name great. He's not in this because he's going to end up being a hero for Israel. He wanted to know the one that knows God's word is right by my side. And I agree with some of those commentators who view this as Barak wanting the Word of God and the presence of God with him every step of the way. You see, what I see about this military commander is he was not interested in the limelight. What he was interested in doing is precisely following the Word of God. In fact, when we went through the book of Hebrews, it's that very point that gets him in the faith hero list of Hebrews chapter 11. Barack was not trusting in his military skill. He had a lot of military skill. He was not trusting in his military management abilities, and he had a lot of that. But what he was trusting in was the Word of God. Ladies and gentlemen, the biggest need that you and I have in our war with this world is knowledge of God's Word. And some women would have probably said, well, I'm not going to go out there with you. That's a man's job. I'm not going out to that battle with you. What are you talking about? I'm going to sit here on the side of a mountain and enjoy the palm trees. But not Deborah. She was a woman, too, who wanted to get the job done for God. Which brings us to the third observation. Barak and Deborah lead the men to Mount Tabor to fight Caesarea. Notice verse 10. Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together with Kadesh, and 10,000 men went up with him. Deborah also went up with him. Now, to do God's work and fight a good war, you need all kinds of people doing all kinds of jobs. You need soldiers that are working together in harmony with one another. It's true, we need precise knowledge of the Word of God, but also we need good warriors that are applying it. Now, Barak and Deborah travel 70 miles back to Kadesh. They round up 10,000 troops. He gets men from Naphtali, Zebulun, Benjamin, Ephraim, Meqir, and Ishakar, who we will see next Sunday night, Lord willing, in chapter five. Some of the tribes don't bother helping him, and you'll meet them also next Sunday night, Lord willing, in chapter five. He moves toward Mount Tabor, which is about 12 miles west and south of Kadesh and six miles southeast of Nazareth. One commentator said, when you get on top of this mountain, it offers you the finest view anywhere to be obtained and the whole compass of Palestine. Which brings us to the third fact, the enemy is alerted, impressive, and intimidating. Verse 11 says, Now Heber, the Kenite, had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaha-na-nim, which is near Kadesh. Then they told Saseera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor. Saseera called together all his chariots, 900 iron chariots, and all the people who were with him from Herosheth, Hagoim, to the river Kishon. When Barak and Deborah and the military get to the top of the mountain, they look out there and they see an intimidating enemy, and you have this weasel traitor. His name is Heber. He's a Kenite. He's introduced to us here. Now, he was related to Israel through Moses. And the Kenites had a wonderful relationship with Israel. I want you to notice what is said in verse 11 about him. He had separated himself from the Kenites. He moved. Let's go back to the first chapter for a moment and look at chapter 16. Let's track his movement here. in chapter six uh... one excuse me chapter one in verse sixteen we read the descendants of the kenite moses father-in-law went up from the city of palms that would be jericho with the sons of judah to the wilderness of judah which is in the south of iraq and they went and lived with the people now first move that they made was we go to jericho to iraq so they're moving from jericho and going straight south about forty miles to that iraq area But then we learn from this text in verse 11 that he had moved up north about 125 miles from Arad up to Kadesh. He's all over the map. This guy can't hunker down with people. This guy's got to be on the move. He goes here for a while, packs up his tent, goes over here for a while. And when you live your life like that, you never make stable relationships. It kind of reminds me of church hoppers. They're here and they're there and they're never stable and they're never really rallying with God's people because they're just all over the map. And that's exactly the way this guy was. And so he apparently, he spots or gets wind of the fact that Deborah and Barack and the military are on the move. So he goes with his big blabber mouth to Caesarea and he basically tells him, hey, they've come to Mount Tabor and they're out to fight you. Now what I find absolutely intriguing about all of this is every bit of this, including this guy being a traitor, is controlled by the sovereign hand of God. You're about to see something amazing. Every bit of this was controlled by the sovereign hand of God, and God was going to use every bit of this to deliver his people. This Judas-type traitor has a major role to play in the sovereign plan of God. His evil is a prelude to great victory that will actually come through his wife, who is nothing more than a housewife. So Cicera gathers a massive army and he gets all of his chariots and they go out in the valley to fight Barak and his forces. As Deborah and Barak stood on top of this mountain, they would have looked out into that valley and seen this scary, highly prepared military operation coming at them with their 900 chariots. Which brings us to the fourth fact, Deborah announces victory and Barak attacks. Notice verse 14, Deborah said to Barak, arise. For this is the day in which the Lord has given Caesarea into your hands. Behold, the Lord has gone out before you. So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. The Lord routed Caesarea and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak. And Caesarea alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Herosheth, Hagoyim, and all the army of Zasera fell by the edge of the sword. Not even one was left." It was Dr. Warren Wearsby who said, God's commandments will always be God's enablements. And I want you to notice this begins with an announcement of the Word of God. God has given you victory. Deborah said, I'm getting messages from God. God has given you victory. God will go before you and give you victory. And according to verse 14, Barak and his 10,000 men charged right into battle. They are up against an impressive enemy, but they realize we can go into this battle because God is on our side. Now I love the fact that I'm preaching this text tonight because this really corresponds with what happened just a couple hours ago. If you look over at chapter 5, you're going to see something amazing. I'm going to draw your attention to verses 21 and 22 because I want to show you what happens, and you'll see this in their praise song, Lord Willing, next Sunday night. In chapter 5, verse 21, the torrent of Gishon swept them away. The ancient torrent, the torrent of Gishon, O my soul, march on with strength. Then the horse's hooves beat from the dashing and the dashing of his valiant steeds. Apparently what God did as they come off that mountain, charging into battle, is He sent a ferocious rainstorm. He thundered forth His rain. He brought down torrents of rain that spooked the horses. And as it's spooking the horses, they're pulling the iron chariots. It's flooding the valley. Everybody's getting scared. The river Kishon is over flooding. And the men actually jump off of their chariots and start running away on foot. They broke ranks. This impressive military is running in every direction. You have these iron chariots getting stuck. They're getting bogged down in the mud. So Barak took his 10,000 men against Israel's oppressors and he completely annihilated the enemies to the point that not one enemy soldier was left. Do you realize what we're seeing here? God controls everything, even all forces of nature. I don't pretend to know the mysterious ways in the mind of God. But when thunderous storms come pounding into Kalamazoo or any other part of the world, your God is still sovereign. If some windstorm blows my house to bits, or your house to bits, or this church to bits, God is still sovereign. He's sovereign even when places and people are destroyed. That fact is true and clear from the scriptures. Which brings us to the fifth fact, Cicera temporarily escapes and is ultimately killed. Now this gets interesting, verse 17. Now Cicera fled away on foot to the tent of J.L. the wife of Heber the Kenite for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite J.L. went out to meet Cicera now J.L. is the wife of Heber J.L. went out to meet Cicera and said to him turn aside my master turn aside to me do not be afraid and he turned aside to her into the tent and she covered him with a rug He said to her, please give me a little water to drink for I'm thirsty. So she opened up a bottle of milk and gave him a drink and then covered him. and said to her, stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be, if anyone comes and inquires of you and says, is there anyone here, you shall say, no. But JL, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground, for he was sound asleep and exhausted, so he died. I've always believed you should marry a woman who knows how to use a hammer. And you can see one reason for that right here. What you have is a massive manhunt underway. And this manhunt is trying to track down Saseera. He got away. He ran like a scared dog with his tail between his legs. More than likely, Saseera felt he needed to make his way back to Jabin. He needed to give him a report. We just got blown away by Israel. And Cicera felt he had a strong ally in Heber the weasel. That was his traitor friend that came out and told him that Deborah and Barak had come against him. So he says, I'll go to his house. And when he gets to his house, he runs into his wife. Her name is JL. And he tells her, keep on the lookout for me. And if anybody comes here looking for her, tell them I'm not here. He asked her to lie for him. What Cicera did not know is that Heber's wife, JL, has some real spiritual wits about her. This woman is a remarkable woman of God, a brave woman of God. The fact of the matter is, she also was a Kenite, a relative of Moses, but she never forgot her roots, and she would not sell out her heritage like her husband. So she invited him into her tent, She's a housewife. She's working at home. She gave him some milk. The Hebrew here would indicate this would be like more of a Kurdish type of milk. I like to call it cottage cheese because that's what I like. This would be the last drink, the last meal he would have before his execution. He was tired, he's exhausted. I mean, he's been in battle, he's physically run a long way and he laid down to rest and he fell into a deep sleep. So J.L. covered him up, picked up a tent stake and drove it into his temple and killed him. Now the women, back in this culture, were the ones who were taking care of the homes. The homes were tents and, you know, Heber was the kind of guy who was moving all over the place. And it was a known fact that these women typically would take those tents up and they would take them down. So these women knew how to use a hammer. They knew how to take a tent stake and drive it into the ground. They knew that hard ground could get just as hard as a rock at times. And they knew how to hit that just right. And that's what you did. She picked up that tenth stake, she hit it so hard it drove it through his temple, it drove it right into the ground. What is amazing is that God is sovereignly directing all of these events, including that event of a traitor. You see, when Heber made that deal with Cicera and telling him they're coming to get you, he felt he had a real friend there. What he didn't know is his wife was there. And his wife, J.L., loved the Lord. And she took advantage of this opportunity to get rid of an enemy. Which brings us to the final fact, the destruction of Jabin. Notice verse 22, And behold, as Barak pursued Saseera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, Come, and I'll show you the man whom you are seeking. And he entered with her, and behold, Saseera was lying dead with a tent peg in his temple. So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel. The hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan. God subdued Jabin the Canaanite king and once again Israel has the blessings of God. She got herself into this mess because she made wrong decisions in life but she said you know what I need to turn this thing around. She turns back to God and God gets her out of that mess What a principle for those of us who are people of God to see What a principle for us to know when you're being dominated when you're being intimidated by big things in your life and You know the reason why you have these problems is because you've made wrong choices those choices got you into that mess God says I offer you my grace and You turn right back to me. You turn to me and I'll deliver you. And look at the kinds of people God uses here. He uses a woman who's a serious student of the Word of God, a woman who had some real political and judicial wits about her. He uses a man who is a fearless warrior who loved the Word of God, and he uses a housewife, a housewife, who's at home minding her own business, but she loved God's Word and she loved God's people. If you're going to be greatly used by God, You go to work on knowing the word and standing for the word. Love it and defend it. May we pray. If you're here tonight and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, there was one who came through this Israeli line who went to the cross so that we could have a relationship with a holy God. See, we're all sinners. We've all fallen far short of the glory of God, but he, He never missed the mark. And if you will place all of your faith in Jesus Christ, you will forever be saved from all of your sin. Right where you sit, you just acknowledge to God that you're doing that right now. Our Father, what we see in this book of Judges is, in many ways, a glimpse of ourselves, and we also see a glimpse of thy greatness and thy grace. We are thankful that you reveal in your word that you just don't give up on your people, even when they have made a mess of things. We pray, God, that we will learn lessons that, as of this hour, Israel still hasn't learned. And that is, if we will turn to the Lord and trust the Lord and obey the Lord, we will have the blessings of God. For anything that you've accomplished here tonight, we thank you and praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.