Weekly
Message: A woman Prophetess Deborah
& Barak (Judge 4:1-24) Date:5/22/2016
By Rev.
Katherine Liu Bruce Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical Precepts & Gospel
Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTzzVs8itco
Today in the United States of America, there are many people still
debate about leadership, can a woman take a leader position in the family,
church, community or country? In the conservative culture, or doctrines, it
demands that women are prohibited to lead, to preach or to teach. Some young college
students rise up the critical thinking that can woman lead man?
Today,
I will discuss this debatable topic and discover the historical event in Old
Testament Judges 4: 1-24 Canaanite oppression and deliverance by a woman Deborah
who led and prophesied that the Lord has given Sisera into a woman. Deborah
went together with Barak to win the battle, it resulted the land had peace
forty years.
The narrative described Judge 4:1-24 as
follows,
After
Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord. So the
Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaah, who reigned in
Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.
Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the
Israelites for twenty yours, they cried to the Lord for help.(vv.1-3)
Deborah
a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held
court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of
Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. She
sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “the Lord, the God of Israel, commands
you: go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the
way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his
chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands (vv.4-7).
Barak
said to her, “If
you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go”. “Very well” Deborah said, “I will go with you, but because of
the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.”
So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali.
The thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him. (Judges4:8-10).
Now
Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’
brother –in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near
Kedesh. When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount
Tabor, Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men
with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.(vv.11-13)
Then Deborah
said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your
hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?”(v.14).
So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. At Barak’s
advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and
Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots
and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the
sword, not a man was left. (v.16). Sisera, however,
fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there
were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the
Kenite. (vv17). Jael went out to meet
Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.”
So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.” “I’m thirsty” he said. “Please
give me some water,” she opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and
covered him up. He told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, “Is anyone here? Say ‘No’.(vv.18-20).
But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a
hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove
the through his temple into the ground, and he died. Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera and Jael
went out to meet him. “Come, she said, I will show you the man you’re looking
for.” So he went in with her, and there lay
Sisera with the tent peg through his temple-dead. (vv.21-23).
On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite
king, before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and
stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him. (v.24). Therefore,
on that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam Sang this song in Judges 5:1-31
When the
princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves
praise the Lord! Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I will sing to the
Lord, I will sing, I will make music to the Lord, the God of Israel …(Judges5:1-3).
Village life in Israel ceased, ceased until I,
Deborah, arose, arose, a mother in Israel…(5:7). Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up,
break out in song! Arise, O Barak! Take captive your captives, O son of
Abinoam… (5:12). Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite,
most blessed of ten-dwelling women.(5:24).
Then the land had peace forty years. (5:31).
What are the theological principles in this historical event? What is the implication that we can apply to our life?
1)
“The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he
thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm
forever, the purposes of his heart through all generation.” (Ps.33: 10-11)
2)
Blessed
is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance… (Ps.33:12)
3)
The Lord
who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved
by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a
vain hope for deliverance, despite all its great strength it cannot save. (Ps.33:15).
4)
The eyes
of the Lore are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing
love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.” (Ps.33:18-19).
Bibliography,
Bruce,
Katherine L. Weekly Message: A woman Prophetess
Deborah & Barak (Judge
4:1-24). Orlando, FL: Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel
music, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTzzVs8itco
Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd
Chicago: The University of Chicago press, 2000.
Brown, Robert, Philip W. Comfort and
J.D. Douglas, ed. The New Greek English Interlinear New Testament. Carol
Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.1990.
Friberg, Timothy, Barbara Friberg, and
Neva F. Miller et al., eds. Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.1st
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Lee, Witness. The New
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Moody Bible Institute, 1986.
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expanded exhaustive concordance of the Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 2010.
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