The Times Of The Judges Part 3

Again, it's nice to be here together, and I'll just point out if you need a map that would accompany a sermon, it's on the back table. And also, if you should happen to listen to this message later and you're interested in a map, you can email me at paulunderscoremoody at ucg.org. And I'd be happy to forward you one through the email. So today's sermon is going to be a continuation of our study through the book of Judges.

This is the third in our series that we've walked through now. The past two sermons began looking not technically at the Judges themselves, but basically setting the groundwork for marching forward through this book. And through those sermons, we saw the effect of God's people compromising with the laws of God. As they came into the land, as they were established, they didn't do as God said to drive the nations out that were there, and they began to compromise then with those nations around them.

We saw the idolatry, we've seen the wars, and we've seen the hardships that occur when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. And this is what sets the stage for what much of this book is about and the cycles we walk through of the ups and downs in the nation of Israel. So today's sermon is going to focus on chapters 3 through 5 of the book of Judges, and we're going to explore some of the Judges themselves today.

And we're going to see the effect that they had on the nation as God raised them up as His chosen servants. So there's four Judges in this course of chapters 3 through 5 that we'll consider today. But before we launch into it, I want to remind us of, I would say, what the system was in Israel, the governmental system at the time of the Judges.

During the time of Israel's history that we're looking at today, there was no central government. You know, there came a time when there was a king and there was, we would say, central government and a capital city. But at this point, there is no central government. There is no capital city in the nation. There's no collection of taxes. There's no standing army in terms of a national army comprised of the twelve tribes.

And the system that existed was tribal, and it was judicial in nature. You had the twelve tribes, and the way they were governed and managed was judicial in nature. Each tribe had their tribal elders who presided over that tribe. And then at the local level, in the villages and in the towns, you had the elders at the gate. And the elders at the gate were ones who determined, answered questions about the law and determined certain matters.

You'll recall, for example, when, in the book of Ruth, when Boaz wants to be this kinsman redeemer and take Ruth as wife and take on the property of her family, there was a closer relative. So Boaz and this closer relative went to the gate before the elders at the gate, and the issue was settled, and Boaz would take that position. So the elders at the gate played an important role in the history of Israel and the functioning of that country. And it was a system that was important to the functioning of God's people.

But what we understand is that just because there wasn't a central government doesn't mean there wasn't a centralized governing authority that ruled the land. There was the law of God. There was the truth of God. Those were the things that governed life in Israel. And Israel's national constitution, if I could use that term, was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. As Mr. Rokes pointed out last week, they didn't need encyclopedias and dozens of books, hundreds of books to encapsulate their law. God had this law, and it was simple, and it worked if they lived by it.

And that was their constitution. And every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles, the constitution was read. In the hearing of every man, woman, and child in the nation. And so, humanly speaking, at this time, there was no government in Israel above the tribal leaders, except when God raised up a judge. You know, there were times where God would bring what we could call a champion onto the scene, who would come along and work in God's service to restore the people to a standing before God that was important, because they had slid away due to sin.

And so, the judge would be the one raised up by God to save Israel from their oppression, to bring them back into an understanding of God's way, and then there was peace. So, this is a system that we will see as we walk through Judges. And it wasn't intended to be a free-for-all, as we sometimes see it lived out. You know, everybody doing what is right in their own eyes. It was actually a system that God intended to work well.

It worked well because it was based on the law of God. The fault was the people. All right? And so, what we find in the book of Judges is when the people deviated from what it was that God desired, what they did was actually different than what God had established. And so, because of that, we see the cycle that we're going to walk through with these Judges.

You know, sin leading to servitude, leading to supplication, and ultimately, God raises up a judge now unto salvation, deliverance again. And we see that cycle play out over and over in the book of Judges.

So, today's message, as I said, we're going to walk through Judges chapters 3 through 5. The title today is The Times of the Judges, part 3, from Caleb's nephew until a mother in Israel. It's The Times of the Judges, part 3, from Caleb's nephew until a mother in Israel.

And as we look at these Judges today, I want to pull out at least one specific lesson that we can learn from each judge. So, let's go ahead and turn to Judges chapter 3. We'll pick up where we left off. Well, last time we covered the end of the book, as you'll remember chronologically, it should actually be tucked here near the beginning with those events. So, let's essentially pick off, at least in the time frame, we'll pick up and move from where we left off. Judges chapter 3 and verse 1. Judges 3 verse 1, it says, "'Now these are the nations which the Lord left, left them in the land, that he might test Israel by them, that is, all those who had not known the wars of Canaan.

This was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to no war, at least those who had not formerly known it.' And these are the people that are left. Verse 3, namely, "'The five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites, who dwell in Mount Lemadon, from Mount Baal-Herman to the entrance of Hamath, were forces, and they were left, that he might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he had commanded their fathers, by the hand of Moses.'" So, what we see is that there are certain things that God would allow Israel to experience by their interactions with these nations.

And God left them as a test. So, by their interactions, what would Israel do? Would they step forward in faith? Would they serve God and be faithful to God, or would they stumble? And that was the question. Frankly, that's what God needed to know about them. You know, will they stumble, or would they step forward in faith, putting God first? And depending on the response, then God used those other nations to either punish his people, or teach them.

They were instruments in God's hands either way, but they would either punish or teach his people to look more fully to God. And you know, this might seem odd to us. Why would God leave these people in the land? Now, if we go back, they wouldn't have been in the land if Israel drove them out by following God's direction, but they didn't. So God allowed them to stay, and he used them for a purpose, and for us that might seem odd.

But I would just submit to you that it's not much different today. In our calling before God today, God has called us out of this world as a holy nation, and yet we still live in this world, don't we?

We're still surrounded by the nations, if we want to use that term. Right? Spiritual Israel, and God allows us to be immersed in this world, in this life, in this atmosphere, is a proving ground. God wants to see from us. Will we step forward in faith and follow Him as we're confronted by the world and the challenges around us? Or will we falter? Something that God needed to know about ancient Israel is something He needs to know about spiritual Israel today as well.

So these nations surrounded them. Verse 5, it says, So it seemed Israel had a problem with not fully following God in their heart. And He had previously lamented out in the wilderness, Oh, that they had a heart within them, that they would obey Me. But this was their repetitive downfall. Verse 7, We say horrific worship practices that followed with those gods, involving sacrifices of their children and other things that followed through on that. Sexual immorality. Verse 8, So what we're seeing is now this cycle that is taking place. It's sin. Now they're led into servitude. They're under bondage. Followed by supplication and salvation. Verse 9, It says, And what we find through this cycle of judges is, as long as the judge lived following the restoration, there was peace. But the judge would die, ultimately, right? A physical being, and it didn't take long before the nation fell into backsliding once again. Now there aren't many details here about this man, Atheniel, but what it does tell us is, I think, important to take note of. What lesson might we learn from this judge? Well, first of all, let's remember this is very early in the cycle of the judges. This was actually the first judge following the death of Joshua. Alright. Atheniel, it says, is Caleb's nephew. And if you go back to chapter 1 and you read through some of the details, you're going to find that this man actually participated in the initial conquest of the Promised Land. He actually fought in some of the wars to take the territory of the Promised Land. So he saw God in God's hand. He was in the wilderness. It doesn't say when he was born. Did he walk out of Egypt? We don't know. Apparently, he was in the wilderness wanderings at a time and was part of that generation that then entered into the Promised Land. And he was there and he fought and he saw the works of God. And this made him one of the few remaining transitional figures in Israel that kind of bridged the gap between those who knew God. And then, as we saw earlier in the first sermon, the generation that arose who didn't know God. You had this transitional figure and this man, Atheniel, who was the first judge. And so transitional figures are important, brethren. I believe they're very important. I was kind of calculating in my mind and I would give a rough estimate that Atheniel was a judge within 50 years of Israel entering the Promised Land. Joshua was alive for about 25 years of that. Now, let's just say for conversation, 25 years after Joshua died, Israel's in this state, and you have this judge that arose that knew him, had interaction with him, and he was an important transitional figure. I was thinking this week about the ministry in the United Church of God and how important are transitional figures.

I was speaking a couple of weeks ago with a fellow pastor, someone who's probably just a few years away from retirement, and he said, you know, my wife and I are the last ministerial couple that were married by Mr. Armstrong.

This person's, again, probably a few years from retirement. And so when you look at the United Church of God in the ministry, I'm 47 years old. I was 11 when Mr. Armstrong died in 1986. There's a whole generation around my time frame, and I would say anyone 50 and below, that really doesn't have a connection back to, I would say, foundational father figure in the modern-day Church of God, someone that God used to raise up the church in our day.

There are very few transitional figures that are left who interacted, who were taught by, who remember why things were done, how they were done, and what was taught. I believe those transitional figures are important for the generations that carry forward. Certainly it was so in Israel.

And so we have this man, Atheniel, with ties to the past. And you know what? It was only eight years they were in captivity, or oppression. Oppression is the right word. And they were delivered. And this is a very short slice of time compared to other oppressions in the nation, but it may be that some of the first generation zeal in Atheniel enabled him to revive that repentant spirit in Israel. Because he had seen the works of God, he had participated in them, and he was able by his zeal to ignite the fire in the people and say, we must hold the line and carry this forward, the faith of our fathers. So that is a lesson I would bring to us from Atheniel that ties to the past are important. And transitional figures are important as well. And as a result, Israel was delivered. It says they had peace for 40 years. And for us, I would say, brethren, it's important to remember who we are as the people of God, and where it is we've come from, and where we are going. And I pull up the example of Mr. Armstrong. Not that we hold him up as someone to be worshipped, but I do believe he was someone that God used powerfully for a window of time to raise up the work in the modern era.

And like I said, he's been dead since 1986, and yet we carry on. We carry on with what we see of his teaching that is truth in Scripture. And we work to defend that and carry it forward with us. Winston Churchill said, those who failed to learn the lesson of history are doomed to repeat it. And that was Israel's problem time and time and time again. And maybe by remembering things that transitional leaders can bring us, we'll have ties to the past that will help us not have to walk through some of the same painful experiences that even our fathers may have had to go through.

If we carry on, Judges 3 and verse 12, let's move on to the next judge. Judges 3 and verse 12, it says, Notice it was God who strengthened the opposition against them. He was using this opposition now to bring his people back to repentance. Verse 13, So the children of Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, for 18 years. And when it says they served another king, it doesn't mean that the king took them and ripped them out of the land. But the king oppressed them. The king made their life miserable, and they were a defeated people during those times. The crops were plundered. Their daughters were abused.

The trade in commerce in the nation was impacted, and their security was gone. And as they were oppressed, they were put under heavy tribute and taxation. And the people would cry out to God. But what we need to understand about these times of oppression as well is that it was not only at the hand of some enemy king, it was also at the hand of God. Because God had made them promises, if you do these things, I will bless you in these ways. If you don't do these things, there are curses that lie at the door.

So their disobedience to God brought about things like the withholding of rain and dew season. And their crops would die. Their cattle would not reproduce and be plentiful as they should have been by God's blessing. And so the things that you would see earlier on listed out, that God says, I will bring this upon you for disobedience. Those things came upon the people of God. And even the enemies that oppressed them were instruments in God's hands for a purpose. Verse 15 says, And when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud, the son of Gerah, and the Benjamite.

He was a left-handed man. And by him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. So you have this Ehud who is now raised up, and he is a man of the same mold as the 700 expert slingers of Benjamin.

Remember, we read about them last time. The 700 from the tribe of Benjamin, left-handed, expert with the sling at a hair's breath without missing. And there was the civil war in Israel. And in that process, because of Benjamin's sin, then the other 11 tribes came against them, and the tribe of Benjamin was demolished until there was only 600 men left of the entire tribe.

Ehud was a left-handed man from Benjamin. And he may have even participated in that war. We don't really know. At the least, he was the offspring of one of the 600 men of the entire nation of Benjamin, the entire tribe of Benjamin that survived. And yet now God has raised them up as a deliverer in Israel. So it's rather ironic, I believe. Verse 16, it says, Now Ehud made himself a dagger. It was a double-edged and a cubit in length, just shy of 18 inches.

A rough measurement of a cubit was from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger. So this would be roughly a cubit. That would be the length of the dagger, double-edged. He fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. He was left-handed. Verse 17, So he brought tribute to Eglon, the king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal. And he said to the king, I have a secret message for you, O king.

And he said, Keep silence. And all who attended him went out. Verse 20, So Ehud came to him. Now he was setting upstairs in his cool private chamber. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And so he arose from his seat. The king wants to hear this message, and he rises to come closer to hear what this message from God is. Verse 21 says, Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, thrust it into his belly. And even the hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, and he did not draw the dagger out of his belly.

And his entrails came out. Sometimes the Bible is brutally honest and graphic, but this indeed is what occurred. And it was God's deliverance of his people taking place. Verse 23, Then Ehud went out through the porch. He shut the doors of the upper room behind him, and he locked them. And when he had gone out, Iglon's servants came to look. And to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. And they said he was probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber. So they waited until they were embarrassed. And still he had not opened the doors of the upper room.

Therefore they took the key, opened them, and there was their master, fallen dead on the floor. But Ehud had escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the stone images, and escaped to Sirah. Verse 27, And it happened when he arrived that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains, and he led them. We know, you know, Feast of Trumpets. We're reminded that the trumpet is the battle cry to war, at least one of the uses of the trumpets.

So the call went out, and at least here in the mountains of Ephraim, this army came together and went down. Verse 28, And he said to them, Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hands. So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan, leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over.

And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of Valor, not a man escaped. So clearly a decisive victory. Verse 30, So we see the cycle as it comes around again, another full circle, and it said they had rest for eighty years, which by the way is the longest period of time they ever had rest in the land in the period of the Book of Judges.

What's the lesson of Ehud?

Again, I'm trying to pull maybe one focus point out of each judge, and there's others that we could come up with, surely.

But the lesson I've pulled for Ehud is God can do something great through an individual that is considered among the least.

God can do something great through an individual that is considered among the least. I think it's safe to say that Benjamin was considered among the least of tribes in the nation of Israel at this time.

Again, the Civil War had occurred. They had been decimated to only 600 men remaining.

The other tribe says, we're not giving our daughters to them as wife. And you remember the whole elaborate system that had to be set up where they kind of came out and grabbed wives and ran off with them.

Yet, out of the tribes, Benjamin would have been the most despised of the tribes.

And from that tribe, God raised up a leader to deliver his people.

And I think it's an incredible story and an example again, reminding us that an amazing attribute of God is that he can do great things through those who are considered among the least.

And, brethren, isn't it the same with our calling as well?

What God can do among those who are considered among the least?

Keep your finger here in the book of Judges. We'll be back. But let's turn over briefly to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

As we consider the concept of what God can do with those that would be considered the least.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 26.

Here we have the writings of the Apostle Paul.

1 Corinthians 1 verse 26. Paul says, For you see your calling, brethren, this is you and me. This is the foundation of who we were and what God is doing in our life.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to put the shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world, to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised.

God has chosen. Notice who has chosen? It is God.

God has chosen. And the things which are naughty is chosen to bring to nothing the things that are. And notice why He's done this. Verse 29 says that no flesh should glory in His presence.

It's not about you, and it's not about me. At least in terms of our strength.

It is about our participation and our willingness to submit to God, but the fact is, in our calling before God, we must always remember who the might comes from, where the power comes from. And, you know, what's the source of the confounding of the wise? It's not our wisdom, it is the wisdom of God.

And so that's what we understand today in our calling as well, that God can do mighty things through those who would be considered the least in this world.

And in the case of this judge, the least in the tribes of Israel.

Let's go back to the book of Judges now, chapter 3, verse 31. We'll move on to the next judge.

And again, I've given you the map. Not that we're going to refer to it heavily, but as we go from judge to judge, or it's named out as a tribe or a region, you can at least maybe get your bearings a little bit by looking at that map with the tribes and the judges lined out.

Judges chapter 3, now in verse 31, says, That's all it says.

Pretty brief, but I would say pretty dramatic as well.

In terms of timing, Shamgar rose after the victory of E-Hud, but a number of sources actually believe because of the way it's worded as you go into chapter 4, verse 1, that Shamgar lived at the same time as E-Hud, and they were judges in different regions of Israel.

And if you look at their map, they are in different regions. There were times when there was one judge, and there were times when there were multiple judges, or more than one, I'll just say, in the land.

Either way, it's clear that God had used Shamgar in a powerful way to deliver his people. It says, You know, not by raising up tens of thousands of troops or hundreds of troops and going after the Philistines by himself and with an oxcoat, which is incredible to consider.

Whether he accomplished it all at once or in multiple engagements, it's not exactly spelled out for us, but clearly it was God who empowered him in his service to bring deliverance to his people.

It says, The type of oxcoat that's mentioned here was likely a stiff staff, you know, something probably maybe two, three inches thick. It was a solid wood staff, six to eight feet tall, and it would have had a bronze point on the end. Whether you would think of either a tapering point or something that was like a spike that stuck out, but it was a goat, and it was used to prod the animals. So if you're out plowing the field and you're behind the plow and the oxen won't move, you take this goat and you prod them and you keep them going. So this was a farming instrument by which he did that.

I thought of bringing my walking stick today because I was just visualizing how this might take place. You know, how would you kill 600 people with an oxcoat? But I thought, you know, I'm not going to display my great Jedi reflexes for you swinging that stick around. Somebody might get hurt. Probably me.

But the point is, he used this instrument and delivered God's people. This was a farming instrument, which is also remarkable. The fact that Shamgar didn't use a sword indicates that the Philistines were probably disarming the nations and the peoples around them. Because if you control the ironworking trade and the sharpening of instruments, you have that technological ability and your captors don't.

You can take that away from them pretty quick. So it's possible Shamgar was a farmer in Israel when God placed them into his service. And it's also very possible he was accustomed to using this instrument, just as David was accustomed to using the sling when he went up against Goliath. And then certainly God reinforced what it was that he did. Ultimately, he's God who gets the victory.

If we go over one chapter to chapter 5 of Judges for just a moment and look at the Song of Deborah, there's one more verse that mentions Shamgar, and it gives us a little bit of insight into what the circumstances were in Israel at the time that he was raised up. So Judges chapter 5 and verse 6, it says, It says, The mountains gushed before the LORD. Excuse me. Let me jump down to verse 6. Judges 5 verse 6, it says, In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, it says, The highways were deserted, and the travelers walked along the byways. So it's describing the level of oppression by the Philistines. The highways in Israel were deserted. You didn't travel the main roads. You didn't take your goods out along the main roads for fear of robbers, for fear of being even maybe beaten up and killed. So the highways were avoided, and the byways or the back roads are what they traveled. And it shows, again, just how desperate things had become in Israel. And so as the story goes, then God raised up one man, again, not an army, one man, to deliver his people. The name Shamgar in the Hebrew means sword. Sword. And even though he used an ox-goad, so we might say, why sword, we need to understand what he actually was, was God's instrument in the hand of God to deliver his people. Shamgar was the sword of God for the deliverance of the people of Israel. And so the lesson we can pull from this judge today, from Shamgar, I believe, is one person called of God can make a real difference. One person called of God can make a real difference. It wasn't an army. It wasn't even ten people. This was one person who stood up in response. If God has called someone to serve him, it doesn't matter who we are, what we were doing when he called us, and it doesn't even matter, really, if we are alone. If God empowers us by his spirit, gives us what it is he would have us to do, it will be done. And if we humbly yield ourselves as instruments in his hands, it will be a success because God is with us. One man, and even as we'll see shortly, or one woman, can make a difference in the outcome when God calls them to serve in his service.

Next judge, if we go back, Judges 4, verse 1, says, So you have this individual now who is raised up, Cicero, he's the commander of the army of King Jabin. Verse 3, You know, it doesn't seem to have dawned on the children of Israel yet that the more they rejected God and disobeyed him, the longer their periods of servitude became, and actually the more harsh they became as well.

We're seeing them build longer and deeper and harder with each backslide.

Something else they didn't seem to acknowledge was one way or the other they are going to serve someone.

They're either going to serve God or they're going to serve their Gentile oppressors.

You know, it's not a do-your-own-thing and it's without consequence. You're going to serve either God or you're going to serve someone or something else.

Here we're introduced to Sisera, again the commander of Jabin's army. He's bullying Israel. He's intimidating them with his military force that outmatches their own by a long stretch.

I mean, there's nothing Israel can possibly do to stand in his way, physically speaking.

The chariots of the day were pulled by horses and it was the battle tank of the day.

So you have Sisera here. He's terrorizing the northern tribes near the Valley of Jezreel.

He's running his chariots up and down the main highway that runs through Jezreel. It actually starts up in the north, up in Mesopotamia.

It comes down through Israel and down to Egypt. It was the main superhighway through the land that trade passed through and went out both directions of the nation.

Here, Sisera is running through there with his chariots, terrorizing the people, plundering, robbing, abusing the people of God, as I said, for 20 years.

Verse 4 says, Now Deborah, a prophetess and the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Rehma and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

So here you have something that's quite unique in all the history of Israel. You have God choosing a woman to sit as the standing judge in the nation.

It appears Deborah was the only judge in the nation at this time. And in addition to being a judge, she was also a prophetess.

So by holding these two positions, you had this woman who functioned as both the moral and the spiritual compass of God's people.

And again, that's quite unique in the time of Israel, but it seems to tell us something important as well, because the rule of women was not normal in Israel.

In Deborah's prominence in the land, and her position as a judge would seem that there is a lack of qualified and willing men to stand up in the land.

God would raise somebody up as his instrument. And it's not to put down Deborah as a woman, but the indication again with what the leadership system generally is, is there is no man to stand in this position, but this woman is a spiritual woman who is close to God, who is mature in a way that can judge.

And sit in a leadership position of his people when there is no man found to stand up in that way.

And again, it's a sad testimony to the state of affairs of the people of Israel at this time.

Now, as the story unfolds, what we see is that this woman was no weakling.

And Deborah was a woman of great faith, someone who trusted fully in God.

And the people would come to her, as it says, to receive judgments from her in various matters. She sat as the judge, and as the prophetess, she delivered messages from God.

Verse 6, Judges 4 says, Then she, Deborah, sent and called for Barak, the son of Abinom from Kadesh in Naftali.

And she said to him, Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded? Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naftali and the sons of Zebulun.

So she's received this message from God, and she calls for Barak in this case to go be the commander of this army.

That was God's instructions. Verse 7, So God's revealed this to Deborah.

She's given Barak, again, the instructions of commanding this army into battle against Cisra.

And you know what? That may seem like a suicide run.

People of Israel, you know, generally on foot, maybe a few hand implements against 900 chariots.

And if you had a standing army of 900 chariots, what it meant was you had footmen accompanying that as well.

So this was a great and a powerful military force. But also what Deborah conveyed was the fact that God was going to fight with them and for them.

So they would not be on their own.

Now there's also a strategic significance to the location of this battle plan. It's the River Kishon.

The Kishon River, generally in the summertime, was a nice quiet little trickling stream.

It wasn't even big enough to show up on our map here that I could see. If you zoom in on a map of ancient Israel, you'll find it.

Generally, most times a year, it was a quiet trickling stream.

But in the rainy seasons, what you would have happen is the flood of water coming down out of the highlands into the valley would swell the River Kishon over its banks.

You had a floodplain and it would flood out across the valley.

You would have flash floods and you would have at least a season in that time in which things were overflown.

The topography here is important. God has a plan to use it in the deliverance of His people.

Verse 8 says, and Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.

Maybe it can almost be read like this man was a coward.

But I would say perhaps not. He's listed as a hero of faith in Hebrews 11, but all the other examples of judges was they went out and fought.

The judges led the battle.

But of course, Deborah is a woman. She's not going to lead that battle in the physical sense.

But just as you had Moses or Joshua go out or the other judges or the Ark of the Covenant that went out before the army, they wanted a connection to God in that sense.

And so Deborah, as judge, was requested to go.

Verse 9 says, As we'll see, actually it will be another woman who also comes onto the scene.

Then Deborah rose and went with Barak to Kadesh.

And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh.

And he went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him.

Verse 11, So we seem to have just verse 11 sort of an insert now, that were being described on the scene.

This is a non-Israelite people that's being described. They're essentially nomadic Midianites, but they are related to Israelites by marriage because these are descendants of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law.

And they would have been connected through Moses married Zephora, you remember, daughter of Jethro, when he fled from Egypt. So you have this loose family relation in the land of Israel among these people.

And they were a nomadic group of people that traveled with their flocks.

But what we're going to find is there will be a woman from this family line that's going to play an important role in the defeat of Sisera himself.

Verse 12 carries on, it says, And they reported to Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinom, had gone up to Mount Tabor.

So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Haeroseth, Hagom, to the River Kishon.

Then Deborah said to Barak, Get up! Go! This is the time.

So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him, and the Lord routed Sisera in all his chariots, in all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak.

And Sisera alighted from his chariot, and he fled away on foot.

So if you can kind of visualize this in your mind, you have this army, this Israelite army of roughly ten thousand individuals swooping down out of the highlands, down into the valleys where the nine hundred chariots of Sisera are, and the army is.

And yet Deborah had said then, though, that God is going before you.

In fact, God has gone out before you, and we could say, essentially, leading the charge in this fight.

If we turn back to the Song of Deborah, we can glean a few details as to how God himself fought on behalf of Israel.

So let's go over to Judges 5 for a moment.

Judges 5, again, this is the Song of Deborah, verse 13.

It says, Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles, the Lord came down for me against the mighty.

So the Canaanite downfall came as God led the army, and God intervened.

If we go to verse 19, it says, The kings came and fought, the kings of Canaan fought in Tanakh by the waters of Megiddo.

It says, They took no spoils of silver, they fought from the heavens, the stars from their courses fought against Sisera.

So the torrent of Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon. Oh, my soul, march on in strength.

The reference here to the stars fighting could be a reference to angels.

That's a possibility.

I think likely, though, it is a reference to the cloud bursts sent by God, whether that was brought angelically or not.

The point is, God brought His power to bear upon the enemy, and there were cloud bursts that came forth. As verse 21 shows, the torrent of Kishon that swept them away.

And so this river came down through the rains in the flash flood that it created, and it flooded the low land, it overflowed into the valley, and the army that was standing against Israel, the 900 chariots, became bogged down in the mud, and a number of them became swept away in the currents.

Verse 22 says, Then the horses hooves pounded, the galloping, the galloping of the steeds.

So it appears that this action by God threw Sisera's army into disarray and into retreat, and you have Barak now then going out against them with the forces of Israel to finish the job.

We'll go back to Judges 4 and verse 16.

Judges 4 and verse 16 says, But Barak pursued the chariots in the army as far as Hasr of Seth, Hagoam, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword, not a man was left.

So again, he's going after them, and those who remain, they're scattered in disarray, and they destroy them by the edge of the sword.

Verse 17, However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

Again, Jael was from that line of people that we read earlier in verse 11, the descendants from Moses' father-in-law, and maybe Sisera doesn't even realize the connection when he turns into her tent.

The fact that, you know, maybe they're not close, close, but she sees the way the battle is turned. Maybe they had been friendly with this king at one point, but you know who's going to win this? I think she could see the God of Israel.

Verse 18, It says, In Jael went out to meet Sisera, and she said to him, Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me, do not fear.

And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket.

Verse 19, He said to her, Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.

And a jug of milk gave him a drink, and covered him.

I think we know there are certain sleep-inducing properties of milk, that in this case was probably a part of her deliberate plan.

She covers him now with this blanket. Verse 20, And he said to her, Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, Is there a man here, you shall say, No.

Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg, took a hammer in her hand, she went softly to him, and drove the tent peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary, so that he died.

A very brutal end to a brutal man.

And this wasn't a little Coleman, you know, throw on your backpack and go camp kind of tent peg.

This was likely a long stake that she took, and she drove through one end of his head out the other, pinning it to the ground.

I don't think I have to draw you a picture beyond that.

But the women of these nomadic tribes generally had the responsibility of taking the tents down and putting them back up as they moved place to place to place.

So Jael knew her instruments, and she had skill in her hand, and this is a way that God had delivered Sisera into the hands of Israel by this woman, as had been prophesied.

Verse 22, it says, Verse 23, And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin, king of Canaan.

So what happened was now the defeat of Sisera's army broke Jabin's power, and Israel was able to rise up against him ultimately in victory by the hand of God, by the leadership of Barak and Deborah the judge. And I really don't have time to go into it, but if you consider the area that was secured, it was the Valley of Jezreel and that region that the highway ran through.

And that was a strategic turning point for the nation of Israel, as they would eventually come together ultimately as the twelve tribes.

This region would be central to their ability to harmonize as a nation, to have travel between the tribes and to centralize in that way. So this was quite a big victory of the day.

Of course, God's hand was in all of this, and that's the point we need to remember, that in no matter who he raises up, the glory always goes to God.

Glory goes to God.

Now, as we move into chapter 5, this is commemorated, this victory, in a beautiful poem called The Song of Deborah.

And the writing praises God for leading his people to triumph.

It's a hymn of thanksgiving, and it is a song of victory, and nor doubt one that was sung among the children of Israel for generations.

Kind of like, you know, we have our own national type songs of victory in our own history.

This is something that they would have remembered and sung for generations.

I'm not necessarily going to read through most of chapter 5, but I do want to draw our attention to a final high point as we consider Deborah this judge in Israel.

So, let's look briefly at Judges chapter 5, beginning in verse 1.

It says, Then Deborah and Barak sung, the son of Abinuim, sang on that day this song, saying, When leaders lead in Israel, and when people willingly offer themselves, bless the Lord.

Hero kings, and give ear, O princes, I, even I, will sing to the Lord.

I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.

Verse 4, Lord, when you went out from Sier, when you marched from the field of Edom, says the earth trembled and the heavens poured, the clouds also poured water, the mountains gushed before the Lord.

It's describing God's part in fighting this battle. It says, This I and I, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

Verse 6, In the days of Shammegar, the son of Anath, the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, the travelers walked along the byways.

And she says, village life ceased.

It ceased in Israel.

The life in the village would have been kind of the farming community.

They had the crops, they had the work in the fields.

And because of the oppression, though, the village life ceased.

People withdrew into themselves, or they went into more of the fortified cities for protection.

They didn't go to the gates for judgment, as they had once done.

And so she said, village life ceased.

It ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose.

A rose! A mother in Israel.

I want to draw our attention here to the concept of a mother in Israel. Because, you see, that's what Deborah was.

That's who she was when God raised her up, and that is how she responded to God's calling.

She was a mother in Israel who arose and did incredible things on behalf of God's people.

I would ask us the question, what is important about a mother?

What does a mother do? What is the role of a mother in the family?

Well, a mother loves her children, doesn't she? Desperately loves her children, and as a result, she cares for them.

She watches out for them.

She nourishes them. She sees their clothes that they're provided for.

She offers them praise when they earned it, and she also offers correction where necessary.

That's what a mother does.

In addition to that, what does a mother do when her children are threatened?

What does a mother do when her children are threatened? Well, a mother bear, if I could draw that picture in your head, defends her children.

That is what Deborah certainly did as a prophetess and as a judge in Israel.

She did all of these things.

At a time when there was apparently no suitable man to stand up and take the lead in Israel, God raised up a mother in Israel to be a judge and a prophetess and to set his people straight again.

It's an incredible story and an example for us.

The lesson I take from the judge, Deborah, is that a mother in Israel is essential too.

A mother in Israel is essential too.

And we might ask the question, what about today? Is a mother in Israel essential today?

And I would say the answer is yes.

But then we could also ask, who is a mother in Israel today?

That might be a question we could ponder. Who is a mother in spiritual Israel today?

I want to give you a couple of scriptures. You can turn and look them up later if you like.

I'm hoping to answer this question. Hebrews 12, verses 22-24.

The author there, likely the Apostle Paul, equates the church with the heavenly Jerusalem.

The church with the heavenly Jerusalem. And when we go to Paul's writings in Galatians 4, verse 26, he states that the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The point is, the church of God is the mother of us all.

The church of God is the mother of us all.

The church is where we are taught. It is where we are trained. It is where we are loved and praised and even at times corrected as a mother would her own children.

The church nurtures us. The church cares for us.

The church is where we come together to be fed and spiritually nourished as we grow towards maturity.

Okay? And the church is not the pastor only. It is not the home office only.

The church is all of us.

The church is the collective nurturing that we all offer to the whole.

There is a mother in Israel today. It is the church of God.

God has raised her up for a blessing to his people.

Brethren, let us never forsake coming to her for care and support.

Let us never forsake the protection that this mother in our lives offer.

Let us never forsake the wisdom and the loving care and the protection of the mother in Israel, spiritual Israel, today.

It is the church of God and it is essential for God's people.

Judges 5, verse 31, we'll conclude here. It's the very last verse of the Song of Deborah.

I encourage you to read through the whole chapter in light of what we've covered today.

Judges 5, verse 31 says, Thus let all your enemies perish, O Lord, but let those who love him be like the Son when it comes out in full strength.

And then it concludes by saying, So the land had rest for forty years.

Brethren, let us remember the lessons we learned today from these four great judges in Israel.

Taking us from chapter 3 through chapter 5, let us remember the lessons.

Let us remember, number one, that ties to the past are important, and transitional figures and individuals are important.

Number two, let us remember God can do something great through an individual that is considered among the least.

And it is the reality of our calling today.

Number three, let us remember that one person called of God can make a difference. A man, a woman, whatever God calls you to do, stand up and do it.

You can make a difference among the people of God.

The fourth and final lesson, a mother in Israel is essential too.

Mother in Israel is essential too.

So, brethren, I thank you for your attention today.

Next time I speak, we will continue on in our study through the book of Judges.

I hope you are finding it enjoyable as well as educational. These things were written for our admonition, their instruction for life today.

And they are a blessing to us to know that the God we serve is true and faithful, and desires to always bring his people back to repentance and restoration again.