Judges 4:1-24 Deborah and Barak

Open your Bibles please to Judges 4. We are continuing our series in this book as we are seeing God’s faithfulness in the midst of Israel’s unfaithfulness. 

Last week we saw the first three Judges of this book, and the patterns that we will see through the whole of this book. We saw that in the times of the Judges they fell away time and again, and God Sent a deliverer, and we marveled at the truth that our redeemer lives. 

This week are are going to be reading the story of a very unique Judge. Her name is Deborah, and she is unique for a number of reasons. First of all, she is a woman. She is the only woman judges in this book. Also she was not only a judge in the sense that she was a deliverer, but she was also a judicial judge. Furthermore she was called a Prophetess, of which there are only five in the Old Testament. The most significant aspect of her character though is that she is by far the most Godly of the Judges in this book. 

Now, before we read, I just want to point something out to us. I have often heard the accusation that the Bible is a misogynistic book. That women are oppressed and often looked down on. That they are described as weak and play second fiddle to the men. I would guess that most of us don’t believe that, but if you ever hear that, this story os one of many where God uses strong and brave women, and makes them the focal point of the story. Even as heroines. This story portrays Deborah as a woman who knew God’s design for men and women and was used by God, not only to deliver His people, but also to shame the men who had abdicated their positions of leadership.

SO, what we are going to do is go through this story, and I will stop at various moments and explain things, then we will see a couple take aways at the end that we will actually go into in more detail next week as we look at the song of Deborah and Barak. It’s important for this text today that you have your bible out so you can follow along. We are not going to be putting the scripture on the screen so we don’t have to go back and fourth with the camera. 

 

So now we have seen this story, which again, is a crazy one. And as usual with these stories, they are descriptive texts, not prescriptive texts. they tall us what happened in the story, they don give us a blueprint for life necessarily. So what we need to do in these stories is look for  the truths that are communicated in these stories. Primarily truths about God that we can see that are unchanging no matter what the circumstances are. 

here are a few of the most prominent truths I see in this story:

1. God Creates each person with a specific role and purpose, and the purpose includes your sex. Men and women are equal in value to God, but they are created with differences that compliment one another. Leaders, and soldiers are equal to one another, but they have different roles to play. Bosses and workers are equal in worth, but they have different jobs to perform. Deborah Understood this, Barak did not. V. 8-9
2. God gave us those roles and purposes so that we may join with Him in the work he is doing on earth… One of the greatest Joys you will experience on this earth is the joy of submitting to God’s plan fo your life and seeing Him work through you as He does His work. Deborah experienced this, Barak did not. 
3. God will accomplish His plan and get the Glory whether we submit to his plan for us or not. 

The question we need to ask ourselves is are we willing to lay down our “independence” and join God in the work He is doing to bring salvation to His people. 

Jesus Had a role to play. He was created for a purpose. 

Jesus Joined with The Father in fulfilling that role, even though it was excruciatingly painful.

God’s plan was accomplished on the cross. We are delivered, and He is glorified