I've asked you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Judges chapter 3 and verse 31. Judges chapter 3 and verse 31. Let us bow in a word of prayer. Our Holy Father, we thank You this day Bringing us to this place, we thank you for your continuing mercies that have kept us alive and have provided our temporal needs and continue to see to our spiritual needs. Our father, we are encouraged in you, though often discouraged in ourselves. Our father, it seems that we so often see Such imperceptible change in us. It seems so often that your word has so little effect upon us. But our Lord, we are confident of this one thing, that the work you have started, you will finish. And despite our perception, you are the God who saves and who will complete our salvation. Our Father, we pray that you would see to our needs this day. Our Lord, if it is the rod that is needed, spare not the rod. If it is encouragement that we need, spare that not. Do what needs to be done for us that we might, in the end, glorify you and praise and worship and serve you in the way that you ought so to be served and worshiped. We ask that you would be with each and every heart here this day and profit each soul. And we do pray, Father, for those of our number who are hindered from being here due to health concerns or other providential hindrances. Lord, meet with them where they are and minister to their needs, we pray. Be with us this day. Help us to lay aside the worldly concerns that that weigh us down and just focus upon You in Your Word and worship and fellowship. Let us rejoice in this day and be glad in it and profit from it. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're going to do the little cleanup we need to do in chapter three. Before we delve into chapter four, we left verse 31 hanging last week, and so we're going to deal with this man in this one verse named Shamgar. Verse 31 and after him that is after. The previous judge. After him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines 600 men with an ox goad, and he also delivered Israel. What we know of Shamgar, in fact, his entire biography is right here in this verse. We're given some of the description of the days in which he lived in chapter five and verses six through eight, we might want to read those. Chapter five, verses six through eight, it says in the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath in the days of jail. And this tells us that this this time frame spans into the time of Deborah and Beric in the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath in the days of jail, the highways were unoccupied and the travelers walked through byways. The inhabitants of the villages ceased. They ceased in Israel until that I, Deborah, arose, that I arose, a mother in Israel. They chose new gods. Then was war in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel? So Shamgar did live in desperate days. But what we glean from verse 31 is that he came after Ehud in point of time. Again, chapter five and verse six points out that time of oppression that was apparently not seen until after Ehud was dead. We learn his father's name, Anath, but what tribe he belonged to, we're not told, we do not know. And we see that he may have been a husbandman or a plowman or what we call today a farmer. which we conclude from his use of an ox goad. An ox goad, we're told by the historians, was a long rod of a sort that had a point on one end for goading an ox, and on the other end it was broad and flat for the, an implement for cleaning off plowshares. I suppose they found some of those somewhere, so that's how they know what they look like. I don't know. But anyway, this points to the fact that He had a ox go at least handy and points to the fact that he might have been a plowman or husband. Then we see that he was a man that was enabled and moved to act as described here against the oppressors in verse thirty one. He slew six hundred men with an ox goad and delivered Israel. Now, one conclusion that we might draw concerning him is that he was not a judge in the sense of the other judges. Now, that might be a little bit of a surprising statement, but this is concluded by some due to the fact that he did not secure any sort of permanent deliverance from the Philistines. This deliverance was at best partial and probably very local. did not affect all of the land of Canaan. And also from the fact that he is not called a judge, and there is no distinct period of time assigned to him judging Israel. And from the fact that the next apostasy of Israel is dated not from him, but from the death of Ehud. So it's kind of like he dwelt in the in the middle of maybe a transition from Ehud into the bad times or in the bad times, into the transition of the time of Deborah and Barak. Perhaps we see in Shamgar that in the worst of times there remain those that see the evil and cannot be quieted and they cannot be intimidated by the times. God can and does use and raise up men, though they may not be earth movers. Shamgar was not an earth mover, as some men are, so to speak. But they at least refuse to allow the spirit or the conscience of men to sink beyond recovery. You know, greater deliverance and more renowned deliverers would come. But who can estimate the value of the little known Shamgar who refused to be stymied by evil and error and in so doing help bridge the gap to better times that would that would come. Shamgar used what he had even an ox goat and he did what he could do and he was successful in the realm in which he operated. I believe that we need to see here also that there was a dark cloud forming in the West. Israel's most troublesome and formidable enemy, the Philistines, was beginning to make inroads into Israel. Aside from the future enemies of Assyria and Babylon, the Philistines were the most troublesome and formidable foes that Israel would have and even at this point in time they're starting to make those inroads into Israel. And so it probably was that as Ehud had been focused on the eastern front against Moab and Ammon and Amalekites that Shamgar was useful in impeding more quick progress of the Philistines in the West. I would encourage us, then, in this way. Few of us will be Gideons. Few of us will be Gideons. But let us at least be Shamgars and make a difference where we live and walk. Every one of us can be a Shamgar and make a difference where we live and walk. And that's what we ought to do. Let us resist evil where and how we can. even in where we live. We do not know what cumulative effect there will be, but let us at least try in these times to bridge the gap to better days if we cannot be used to actually bring in those better days. So we give tribute to Shamgar, of course, by the grace of God for what he did. And now let's move on in to chapter four. The chapter of Deborah and Barak. And I'm going to read for you verbatim Gil's overview of this chapter in case you have not recently read it, because we do not have time to read the chapter in its entirety here this morning. This chapter shows how the Israel sinning was delivered into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, by whom they were oppressed 20 years. and that Deborah and Barak consulted together about their deliverance and that Barak, encouraged by Deborah, gathered some forces and fought to Sarah, the captain of Jabin's army, whom he met and obtained a victory over, who fleeing on foot to the tent of jail, the wife of Heber, was received into it and slain by her while asleep in it, which issued in a complete deliverance of the children of Israel. Well, then, Gil's account gives us the storyline of this chapter. This is what happened. This is what the chapter narrative is all about. But to me of deeper and greater interest are the circumstances and means that the Lord used in this particular deliverance of Israel. And I'm going to attempt to give at least some analysis of these things in this lesson. I will not be as complete and in-depth as more able teachers might be, but I do want to give some consideration to the issues that this chapter presents. And of course, we realize that chapter five is the companion chapter to this chapter, for it records in song things that are relative to what we see in chapter four. Well, it's first of all, then look at Israel's third declension and oppression versus one through three. And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord when he was dead and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor, the captain of whose host was the Sarah, which dwelt in Herosheth of the Gentiles. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. The proverbial statement regarding Israel confronts us at the beginning, and the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. We see that over and over, don't we? And yet, no matter how proverbial and common it becomes, it is a statement that makes us cringe or it ought to make us cringe. Israel had been shown great favor by the Lord. He had already delivered them previous to this, but the power of sin in them and their natural inclination to worship false God continued on and remained a mirror even to us of what we are like outside of the grace of God. And every time we see this word again, Israel's sin is multiplied. That's a that's a multiplication sign there when it says again, there's their their aggravation to God was multiplied. And as a result of that, each oppression gets just a little more severe and a little bit worse. Now, this declension here is marked by the death of Ehud. Apparently, while he was alive, he made continuing and effective efforts to reform Israel and to keep them on the right track. And of course, we see over and over that God can use men and does use men, even one man at times, to restrain evil and to promote righteousness in their day. But we also see that if there is no lasting work in the hearts of the people and no preparation is made for faithfulness to continue, the reform never last. If reformation is dependent, if continuing reformation is dependent upon the presence of a man, it at least is going to be temporary. It's going to be temporary. The oppression that the Lord sent this time was under the hand of a Canaanite king. This is one from within their borders. This man, Jabin, he was a king and he had a fierce and a formidable military leader named Sisera. Now, Jabin was possibly a title that the Canaanite kings used, similar to pharaohs of Egypt and and other nations had their titles that were used over and over again. It was probably a title. Joshua had defeated a Jabin a hundred years before this in Canaan. But as that may be, this Jabin had been allowed to gather his forces and come to power even before Ehud died. We have to recognize that. He was amassing his strength and power Even while he was alive, he was reigning in Hazor, a direct result of Israel neglecting to drive out the Canaanites. And this is evident because when it was time, he was ready and willing, as it were, for the Lord to sell Israel into his hand, as it tells us in verse two. But he could not move until God was ready. But when God was ready, he moved. You know, God always has his arrows trimmed and ready. Ready for flight at his command. And once again, we need to remember this in our own lives, there are untold things out there that can be used in the hand of God for correction, for judgment. And they're there, they're only restrained by his sovereign hand and ready When he gives them the command, we see that all through scripture. So we need to remember that. Then we notice this to Sarah, the leader of Jabin's army, was a very able and aggressive military man. He was effective. He had built up his military capabilities with 900 chariots of iron. This would be in our day like a division of armored tanks. In that day, it was a force that was to be feared and to be reckoned with, especially if you had no chariots of your own. And it says he mightily or the word means forcefully oppressed the children of Israel. And these words describe a severe and painful oppression. The idea here is that he painfully pressed him. He squeezed them. He was hard on their persons. He was hard on their possessions. And it lasted for 20 years. This was severe. Just pause and think about that. Go back 20 years in your life and think back from that point back to the present to be under severe oppression against your person, against your possessions, to where you have to conduct yourself as is described there in chapter five. In fact, we read that and we get a view of this aggression and Israel's desperation in those verses, we see that the Israelites could not go about their normal activities. They could not get up and brush their teeth and eat their breakfast and go out into the field and do their work that day. They just couldn't do that. They had to go secretly and stealthily to get anything done. If they were going to go to town, if they were going to go down the road to see the neighbor, they had to sneak around through the brush and the ravines to get there. They couldn't just walk down the road. This was serious business. So Sarah drove them from their villages and pursued them to the gates of wall cities. Their villages could just be taken over. There was no defense. And they were in such a state as they did not take up arms to fight. They had no heart. They had no heart to fight. They had hearts of fear. So this is where they were. Now, we ought to just pause here and make the obvious spiritual application. Here is an enemy running rampant over Israel that, in fact, ought to have never been in Israel. They had not to not even been a factor. If Israel had attended to business in the first place, Caesarea and his army would not have existed to trouble Israel. And likewise, when we are remiss in mortifying sin, when we come to dwell with our sin and let it dwell with us and become complacent in our sin, we've only allowed it to gather force. And when it does, the oppression becomes fierce. Which is better, to mortify sin when it first raises its ugly head? Or to wait until it has amassed some strength, strength enough to make us totally miserable and helpless. So can we not learn from this situation in judges? Obviously, we ought to be about. The business of mortifying sin at the first, that's what we're told we need to do if we are to live, that's what Paul tells us. I suppose that we should acknowledge that there was one good thing about this oppression. It got Israel's attention, didn't it? That's what God was intending to do to get their attention, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. Now, was it after 20 years of this that they cried out or had they just kind of started out with with a little groaning and Finally, it reached a high pitch. I don't know. I do know that if it took 20 years to cry out as they did. That it took them too long. As we pointed out in the last lesson, how long did it take them to figure out that the false gods they had gone whoring after were not going to help them? To take them 20 years to figure out the gods they were worshiping were helpless gods. You know, their parents have had to learn the same lesson under Eglon, the king of Moab. And I think we can certainly question the concern they had over their sin. They were certainly concerned about their oppression, the results of their sin. And I guess it's good in that that turned their attention back to the Lord, that once again, at least wrought and a partial or an outward repentance. But here again, we must remark, as we have many times before, there's more to repentance than being sorry over the pickle your sin gets you into. Repentance involves sorrow over our sin and the exceeding sinfulness of our sin and a change of mind concerning it and a turning away from it and a turning to God in heart. That is true repentance. Well, in these first three verses lay out for us the circumstances in the background of this deliverance, they were sorely oppressed, they were stymied. There was no spirit in them to fight. They had to cower and hide and they just could not live a normal life. So that's where they were. when deliverance came, which we read about in the remainder of this chapter. Now, probably everyone from the young children on up can recite this story. No doubt it's a favorite Sunday school story. It's one of those Bible stories like David and Goliath that is so often told. And we know the storyline here. But verse 4 opens with a statement that If we did not already know the story, it would be a rather surprising statement. And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. Now, to me, there are two things that are surprising about this. Again, if you had never read this before and you're reading along and you come upon this, it ought to stop and get your attention. The first thing that's surprising to me about it is that a woman was judging Israel. To my recollection, she is the first woman that we read of to exercise authority over Israel. Even from the times of the patriarchs. The order that had been established under Moses at the advice of his father-in-law and with the Lord's approval was this. Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men. Able men. Such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. Men from the bottom to the top or the top to the bottom. And let them judge the people at all seasons, and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. That's pretty clear, I think. Now, it is true that Miriam, Moses' sister, had some influence in Israel. Cannot deny that. It tells us in Micah 6, 4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants. And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam." But there are two things that I would briefly note about Miriam. And the first is, her influence seemed to be confined to other women. That's what I gather from Exodus chapter 15 and verse 20. Miriam was under the authority of Moses. And second, when she and Aaron did sinfully challenge Moses authority and leadership in the wilderness, the Lord smoked her with leprosy. Now, I think that was a resounding message that's in Numbers 12. It seems that the Lord was especially displeased with Miriam at that time. So although that's a brief explanation, I think it's sufficient to say that it can hardly be said that Miriam set a precedent for a woman taking leadership as we find Deborah exercising here. But back to Deborah. I find the second surprising thing is that this surprising statement of her judging Israel seems to be stated in such a matter of fact way. Without any explanation at all. Now, this seems kind of surprising to me. There's there's no information given about how she came to this position. And moreover, it doesn't seem like anyone in Israel questioned it. It simply says in verse five that the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And this had been going on for some time. It had been going on a while. Now, the closest thing to an explanation is that she is called a prophetess. But even this is a rare and extraordinary thing in Scripture in the Old Testament, I think there the feminine form for the word prophet is found only six times. Whereas the male form is found one hundred and one hundred and twenty some, I think. So at the very best, you could say that this is even a prophetess was an extraordinary or unusual thing in scripture and not a norm. She is apparently called a prophetess, not so much as a seer, as as for telling the future, but as one who delivered the message from the Lord to Barak, as in verse six. She sent and called Barak, the son of Abinoam, out of Kadesh and said, hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded? And so forth. She was telling forth what the Lord had said. I guess in all fairness, we do note that she prophesied what Caesarea's end would be, but for the most part, it seems like her role as prophetess was what she told Barak. was the Lord's will for him to do. Now, to Deborah's credit, we need to notice these things about her, and there may be more, and you may notice them, and I hope you do, but these are some things that I find to her credit. She was a wife. She was the wife of Lappidoth. Now, there's some varying opinion about this word Lappidoth, but Most writers conclude that this was indeed Deborah's husband. And assuming that to be so, we see that her identity was tied to her husband and not the other way around. She did not even have a hyphenated name. Her identity was tied to her husband, Deborah. What Deborah? That wife of Lapidov. And we see also that she had a concern, and I believe a true concern. For Israel and for the glory of the Lord, a concern that probably put most of the men in Israel to shame. She desired some order in Israel. She would have God's law follow. That's what being a judge was all about. We got a problem and go to the judge. What does the law of God say about this? This is apparently what motivated her to judge Israel. I do not say the motivation was pure, but whose motivation is pure. And we see that she called for praise and adoration to the Lord in the midst of an adulterous nation, praise the Lord, she says, worship the Lord, worship Jehovah. Forget these other gods. Now, I say that's to her credit. We notice also that she was a mother in Israel, which seems to point to her her maternal care for Israel and also may seem may point to her personally as a personal mother. She had a motherly concern, let's put it that way, whether it was in the home or for her nation and also to her credit. She encouraged Barak to take the lead in delivering Israel. Now, I say those things are to her credit. We're not saying that Deborah was a bad woman. I expect to see Deborah in heaven. But I do think that things are out of kilter here. We need to consider how such a situation as this was to be found in Israel. Why was a woman ruling in Israel in the capacity of a judge? And let me preface this by saying that there is mostly praise and very little condemnation of Deborah by most godly writers, very little. The most negative thing that you will hear said is that this was an extraordinary situation. First, let me point out that it's very easy to look backward through scripture and arrive at right conclusions, isn't it? When we take the very clear New Testament teaching that women are not to be in positions of authority and look back into the Old Testament, it's much easier to see the problem, isn't it? That's not to say that there was no direction on this in the Old Testament. I've already pointed out that what was instituted by Moses as one proof that Deborah was in a place designated for godly men. The headship of the man is everywhere found in the Old Testament. But second. We still have to say that Deborah's situation. was a manifestation of the sad state of Israel. According to the language of the text in verses four and five, she had been sitting as a civil magistrate for some time. Before she became involved in the deliverance of Israel from Javan, she'd been there for a while. I don't say that on my own authority, I I look to such men as understand the original and what the original is saying, and those that have that capability say, yes, Deborah had been there for a while. Perhaps the declension and sorry state of Israel, even before Jabin's conquest, moved her to do what no one else was doing. You know, Israel was not doing what they should should be doing. And this sad state probably had some moved her to do what she did. And that's always a temptation, isn't it? When when nobody else is doing anything, whether it's your job to do it or not, you want to do it. You want to jump in there and get it done. But it's still a commentary on the sad state of Israel. For one, both religious and civil disorder prevailed in Israel at this time. It was a time that the writer of the Book of Judges characterizes as a time in which every man did that which was right in his own eyes. There are all sorts of things that were wrong that were going on in Israel throughout the days of the judges, and some of the judges themselves reflected The sad state of Israel, think of Samson. There's an example. So in this light of the sad state of Israel, it should not surprise us, I guess, after all, that a woman is judging Israel. People were doing and following that which they themselves thought was best. And again, for another thing. There was an absence of male leadership. Where were the men that were responsible for exercising judgment in Israel? Where were they? More specifically, where were the judge and the priest that the people were to bring the hard matters to, as it's spelled out in Deuteronomy 17, verses 8 to 12. In fact, let's read that. Deuteronomy 17, because apparently this is what Deborah was attempting to do. Chapter 17, start reading in verse 8. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within my gates or locally where you ever happen to live. Then now shall arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. And thou shalt come unto the priest, the Levites, and unto the judge, the judge that shall be in those days and inquire. And they that is the priest and the judge shall show thee the sentence of judgment. And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee, and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee, according to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do. Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand or to the left. I guess we can well, let's go and reverse 12. And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken under the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord by God or under the judge, even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. This was what was instituted, and it involved Apparently a judge, a Supreme Judge or a head judge or chief judge and a priest for the hard matters. And it appears that this is the role that Deborah was was striving to fulfill here as she. Set under the palm, dwelt under the palm tree between Raymond and Bethel. She was judging the hard matters. Where were the men? Where were the men local judges? Where was the priests? They weren't to be found, apparently. So this is this is in the background, the very, very sad state of Israel. And the lack of responsible men to fulfill their positions. Led to this. And that's a very brief analysis, and I'm sure that there's There's more to be said and more to be expanded upon. But I think this is sufficient to show us and tell us that the case of Deborah should not set a precedent or be used as a proof that women should sit in places of authority and rule. And this has nothing at all to do with inequality or inferiority of women. That is not the Christian teaching. Women are not unequal in person and they're not inferior to men at all. The Bible doesn't teach that and Christians ought not to believe that. It has to do with the order that God has established. And it does not say that in the providence of God, women will never rule. This is a case in point. God was on his throne when Deborah was ruling. And history proves that both biblical history and secular history proves it in the providence of God, women have ruled. And it's not to say even that the Lord has not wrought some good. By the rule of some women magistrates, I can't bring myself to say that he's wrought some good, but Women ruling in the church, I just can't bring myself to say that, but I think we would be. Very blind if we said that there were not some relative good wrought by some women that God has put in as civil magistrates, but that still does not qualify. Or justify a woman to rule. We see in the book of Judges that the Lord used all sorts of unlikely people. To accomplish his ends and dealings in his dealings with Israel, and this is one of them. And also, it is not to say that there have been times that women have been. Very instrumental. I say very instrumental in promoting the cause of God and truth. And we could cite many examples, both biblical and secular. God forbid that we did not have women. Exercising themselves in their proper sphere, I shudder to think. What it would be like to maintain a Christian home. Without a godly wife. Husband, you want to try that? I don't recommend it. No. In their place, women are. Absolutely essential. And a man cannot do what he needs to do without them. But again, they must be in the order that God has set them in. So as we proceed with chapter four, I just believe we need to keep these things in mind because again, people will use this example as a precedent. To prove or justify women being in positions of. Of family, ecclesiastical or civil leadership. And we just we need to we need to be careful That we keep a biblical perspective. And not to confuse what is out of the ordinary here from that which is God revealed order in the home and in the church and in the country. If due to times and circumstances, God sees fit to providentially raise up a woman leader, what ought to be our reaction? I think it ought to cause us to cry out to God over the state of things. You know, we can aim all of our bullets the woman that might be in such a place. But the real crux of the matter is the sorry state of things that we need to be crying out over. And if he does use a woman to deliver or sustain a cause. Thank him. Thank him. And just pray that he bring things back to their proper order. That's all I know to say. So with those things said now will Next time, proceed through the narrative of chapter four and I'd hope to finish the chapter next week and then we'll have to deal with Deborah's song in the next lesson. Dismissed.