Saturday, May 21, 2022

Deborah & Barak (Judge 4:1-24) message by Rev. Katherine Liu Bruce (M.Div.)

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 ed. Victoria BC: Trafford Publishing, 2005.

 

 Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

 

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV). Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986. 

 

 Strong, James. Strong’s: the expanded exhaustive concordance of the Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010. 


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