Failing to Believe the Promise - Judges 4:1-24

Sermon Series: In Need of a Greater Rescue

Many of you are familiar with the classic Christmas tale, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. It’s a great story that throughout the years has been transformed from a novel into movies, live performances, and even animated Disney cartoons. The reason the story has been converted into so many different medium types is because it is a story that teaches such an important lesson. The story is about a grumpy and greedy old man named Ebenezer Scrooge who doesn’t have any desire to be a part of anyone’s life and seems content to simply build his own personal wealth – even at the cost of hurting others. Scrooge’s life however takes a dramatic turn one particular Christmas Eve night. Scrooge is visited on this particular night by three ghosts – the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas future. The ghost of Christmas past causes Scrooge to look back on a time in his life when he was younger, when he cared for others, and when he experienced joy in life. It was a reminder of a past that Scrooge had long forgotten and which he remembered fondly for a moment. But the reminder of his past wasn’t enough to change the present state of his heart. So next Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Christmas present who causes Scrooge to see the present condition of others who are not as fortunate as him. This ghost causes Scrooge to see what Christmas is like for his co-worker, Bob Cratchit, and his family. When Scrooge is given the ability to look on their Christmas dinner he discovers that there isn’t nearly enough for Bob’s children, much less his wife or himself. Yet even in their great need, the youngest child – a crippled boy named Tiny Tim – still reminds the family that they ought to have a grateful heart for the things that they do have. The glimpse into this family’s present condition is a heart-breaking one for the reader and yet still Scrooge’s heart appears to remain unmoved. So finally Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Christmas future who causes Scrooge to look on a funeral service – a very dark and depressing one. No one other than the priest is present at the funeral which reveals to Scrooge that whoever this particular individual was, he or she had not made a positive impact upon anyone and he or she was being laid to rest in the same isolation which he or she had lived. Then the shocking surprise comes – Scrooge sees his own name engraved in the tombstone. This was his funeral! This glimpse into his future ends up radically changing Scrooge’s life. He realizes that his greed and bitterness is causing him to amass a fortune that he can’t take with him and to lead a life that isn’t positively impacting anyone. So with time left to change the outcome Scrooge determines to lead a new life of generous giving and gracious loving.

Now here is what I can assure you of - you and I won’t ever be receiving any visits from the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, or the ghost of Christmas future. Dickens’ story is a fictional one and none of the characters or circumstances are real. So don’t get your hopes up that perhaps one night while you are sleeping you might receive a visit from a ghost who allows you to see clearly what your future is going to look like. It just isn’t going to happen. But what if I told you there are some things pertaining to the future that you can know – things that are so certain and sure that you can take them to the bank? That’s the reality when it comes to the promises of God. Because God is sovereign over all creation, time, and history; because He is unmatched in power; and because He is never changing; the promises that He makes are always certain and sure. There is nothing that can alter or change a promise of God. So when we receive a promise from God we ought to both believe the promise and act faithfully upon the promise. If God makes a promise and we choose not to believe and not to act in faith then we communicate that God isn’t worthy of being trusted because He is lacking in wisdom, power, or sovereignty. And this is something we see clearly in our text this week.

As usual, as the narrator begins to give an account of a new and different deliverer for Israel, we begin to see a very similar pattern unfold. The pattern typically begins with a statement of the Israelites’ return to evil practices after the death of the previous deliverer. “And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died” (4:1). Then following the declaration of Israel’s evil practices we find God taking His hand off of the Israelites’ enemies and placing it squarely on the Israelites themselves. “And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim” (4:2). And in the book of Judges, whenever the Israelites come under great distress as a result of the oppression of their enemies they cry out to God - not in remorse or repentance, but for help. “Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he [Jabin] had 900 chariots of iron and he [Jabin] oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years” (4:3). So there aren’t any surprises in the first three verses of chapter 4, the pattern established by the author and narrator of the book continues to be in place. As a result the expectation of the readers moving further into the account is that the rest of the pattern will continue to remain in place as we look to discover a deliverer whom God will appoint and raise up, so that He might work through him to bring His people out from under the hand of their oppressors.

Before we are introduced to the next deliverer though we are introduced to a prophetess named Deborah. The temptation for many of us is going to be to see Deborah as the next deliverer and judge raised up by God. However, while Deborah plays an incredibly important role in this narrative the description of her role doesn’t fit the role of a judge as we have seen and understood the role carried out by Othniel and Ehud. This means that we have to look carefully at what the author and narrator says about Deborah in these first few verses so that we can rightly understand what her role is and what exactly is transpiring. “Now Deborah, a prophetess . . . 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” (4:4-5). Deborah holds the position of a prophetess which means that her job description is to serve as a spokesperson for God and to declare His messages to the Israelites and those with whom God wants to communicate. The narrator does say that she was “judging Israel at that time” but it is best for us to understand this in a broader and more generalized sense when we examine the entire context of the narrative. Nowhere in the narrative do we see Deborah introduced as the one God raised up, nowhere in the narrative is there any mention of her being empowered by God’s Spirit, and nowhere in the narrative is she credited with the deliverance of Israel from Jabin’s oppression. On the other hand we see declarations that a man named Barak is the one called out and raised up by God, and we will also see Deborah later declare that “This is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your [Barak’s] hand” (4:14). So Deborah will not carry out the role of deliverer in this narrative. In this narrative the narrator uses the prophetess Deborah to signify the presence of God and to declare His words and plans (this is the significance of verse 5). The author and narrator notes for the reader that Deborah was sitting “between Ramah and Bethel.” Her positioning is key for us because it tells us two important things. First, she was centrally located in the Promised Land, which made her accessible to all of Israel. Second, she was outside the city of Bethel. Bethel was where the Ark of the Covenant was and where many of the priests resided. Our expectation as readers should be that if the Israelites wanted to inquire about God’s will that they would do so with the priests in Bethel. But Deborah, sitting outside of Bethel, shows that the priests had lost their effectiveness as those serving as mediators between God and man, and that Deborah had become the better alternative when looking to discern the pronouncements of God. Verse 5 concludes, “and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.” What is taking place here isn’t anything similar to court. The people aren’t coming to Deborah to settle their civil issues or legal disputes, or to find mediation between two differing parties. The narrator is using the end of verse 5 to explain how the content of verse 3 was being worked out. In verse 3 the people of Israel “cried out to the Lord for help.” They did this collectively as a people going up before Deborah to discover what God’s answer to their cries would be and to discover who God would appoint to deliver them.

The pattern established by the author of the book of Judges picks back up here in verse 6 (albeit in a slightly different form). We expect to have the narrator reveal to us who God has raised up to deliver Israel from their oppressors after they cry out for help. In this narrative account it isn’t the author (who possess a divine perspective) that declares who it is that God has raised up as the next deliverer, it is Deborah (the prophetess who also possess a divine perspective) who declares who it is that God has raised up. “She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-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 Zebulon. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troop, and I will give him into your hand’?’” (4:6-7). In these two verses we see a couple of incredibly important pieces for this narrative. We see that God, speaking through Deborah, has declared that He has raised up and appointed Barak as the next deliverer for Israel (one of the requirements that we have noted for ‘deliverers’). We also see God’s plan communicated – take 10,000 men and then I’m going to draw out Sisera with his mighty chariots and give him and his army into your hands. We noted last week that waiting on and carrying out God’s plan (regardless of how crazy it sounds) is another important requirement for God-appointed deliverers. This must have been one of those crazy sounding plans. Verse 3 tells us that one of the reasons the people remained oppressed under the cruel hand of Jabin was the strength of his 900 iron chariots. So as Deborah declares that God has appointed Barak she also makes known the plan which is going to involve going to battle with Sisera and all of his chariots and troops. This isn’t a plan that sounds very promising – but then, how promising did God’s plan to march around Jericho a few generations earlier sound?

While being called and appointed by God as a deliverer for Israel should have been a great and honorable call, one that we would imagine would be embraced with excitement, that isn’t Barak’s initial reaction. Barak’s initial reaction appears to include some fear and reluctance (a response we did not see earlier with either Othniel or Ehud). Barak responds to Deborah’s declaration by saying, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go” (4:8). Deborah had just gotten done saying that God’s plan was to give Sisera, his chariots, and his troops into Barak’s hand, but apparently Barak was looking for more than just a promise from God – Barak wanted the promise of God to be strengthened by the symbolic presence of God in the prophetess Deborah. Deborah agrees to go with Barak in verse 9, but while agreeing she also makes clear that when Israel has been delivered from their enemy that it won’t be Barak who is credited with defeating him – it will be a woman. (This statement adds to the misconception of many that Deborah is the ‘real’ deliverer in this passage. In the context of the narrative it sounds like Deborah is referring to herself. But make sure that you note that Deborah is not talking about herself – she’s talking about another woman that we have not yet been introduced to.) With Deborah’s assurance to go with him, Barak goes and calls out an army to himself and the text tells us that 10,000 men go up for battle with him and Deborah.

As the narrative continues the narrator tells us that Sisera, having heard that the Israelites had assembled an army under the leadership of Barak, called together his troops and his chariots to go to battle. Then Deborah (the voice of God in this narrative) says 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?” (4:14). Surprisingly this is the last time that we see or hear from Deborah in this passage. And in her last appearance she proclaims the time has come for God’s deliverance. He has done what He had earlier proclaimed through Deborah – he had drawn out Sisera and his army to battle. And just as He had been faithful in initiating His plan God would be faithful to bring it to completion. This was the time that God was going to give Sisera and his army into Barak’s hand. And the text continues with the awesome news of verse 15, “And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword.” The powerful army with the mighty chariots which had held the Israelites in cruel oppression for twenty years was completely routed and destroyed by God, Himself. God showed up to fight on behalf of the Israelites and the enemy that had reigned over them was completely destroyed. The text goes on to tell us that Sisera fled on foot, escaping certain death (for a time), but that Barak and the Israelites continued in pursuit of his army until all of Sisera’s army was destroyed and not even one of Sisera’s soldiers was left alive.

The narrator shifts his focus beginning in verse 17. In verses 17-22 the central figure of the text is neither God nor Barak – the focus shifts to a new individual, a woman named Jael. Jael is the wife of a man named Heber, who is a Kenite that we are first introduced to in verse 11. Heber (her husband) was, according to the text, an ally to king Jabin. So when Sisera shows up, having escaped the initial battle, he (and the reader) expects this to be a safe place to hide and seek refuge. The narrative tells us that Jael comes out to meet him and encourages Sisera to turn to her for refuge. Sisera takes Jael up on her offer, enters her tent and allows her to hide him underneath a rug. Then he gives her a command to stand watch at the entrance of her tent and tells her that if anyone comes along and asks if anyone is inside she is to tell them ‘no.’ However, what follows comes as a shocking surprise. In verse 21 the narrator says, “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 from weariness. So he died.” The supposed safe place of refuge had in fact become the place of his assassination, and we discover that Deborah’s prophecy (that God would sell Sisera into the hand of a woman) has indeed come true. Barak’s reluctance and fear to, in faith, respond to God’s call to be Israel’s deliverer and to believe the promise of God, kept him from defeating the head of the opposition’s army. Instead the leader of the opposition’s army was defeated by a woman who wasn't even an Israelite. Verse 22 says, “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 in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.” God had not used the deliverer which He had raised up and empowered to defeat the enemy’s greatest military commander, he had used a woman from outside of God’s chosen people to free them. It is almost as if God is saying to Barak, “Do you see?!?! Do you see what you could have done if you had trusted Me; if you had believed my promise? I told you that I would give Sisera into your hands as the deliverer of my people, but you hesitated to believe my command and were reluctant to follow without further assurance. So here’s the evidence of my great power - the mighty and strong enemy of my people, who helped to cruelly oppress them for twenty years, was no match for a gentile woman. Seeing that I gave him into her hands, now you must certainly know that I could have done the same for you.”

The narrative portion of this account concludes with verses 23-24, “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 . . . And the land had rest for forty years (5:31b).”

Once again, the Israelites greatest need wasn’t a need to be delivered from their physical enemies – their greatest need was to be delivered from their growing sin, rebellion, and idolatry. The deliverers that God sent were gracious gifts to the Israelites, but they should have been causing the Israelites to long for an even greater deliverance and an even greater deliverer. These OT judges were men who were shedding light on what we should expect and look for in the greater, coming deliverer that God had promised back in Genesis 3.

Believers in Christ, let me encourage and challenge you today. Christ isn’t going to call you to deliver anyone from sin – Jesus has already completely accomplished that! But there will be times that God will call you to serve Him, and sometimes the things God calls you to will not sound easy – in fact some of the things God calls you to may sound down right crazy. But be encouraged, because every time God calls you to serve Him – LISTEN – He provides both His power and His presence to accomplish the call! So here’s the challenge – believe Him and faithfully obey! Don’t fear like Barak did! Don’t be reluctant like Barak was! And by all means DON’T ABDICATE from the role that God has called you to! Sadly though, this is exactly what most believers of Christ have done when it comes to one of the roles that God has called each and every one of us to! God has called us all – every believer in Christ – to be on mission with Him. Listen to Jesus’ words that Luke recorded in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power (there’s the promise of God to provide you with power – the omnipotent God promising to give you and me the power we need) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you (there’s the promise of God’s presence – the third person of the Trinity is going to reside within us when we trust in Christ as Lord and Savior) . . .” To do what? What are we getting power for and the presence of God for? “. . . and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” God has called each and every one of us to be on mission with Him and to share the love of Christ with others in both words and deeds. Is that a little scary? Absolutley! Do many of us feel unqualified? You bet! So what have most of us done? Abandoned God’s call! And not only have we abandoned the call – but we are completely comfortable with abandoning it! We are more than content to let someone else do the work that God has called us to. And the sad thing is, Escalate Church, if we don’t believe God’s promises and faithfully obey Him then God is going to find another church that will be faithful and they are going to be the ones through whom God works mightily.  We can't be like Barak, whose legacy is one of fear and reluctance - one of failing to believe the promise of God.  When fear and reluctance defines who we are God isn't glorified and we will be forced to watch God do great and mighty things through others.