Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 02 Oct. 2011
by Captain Michael Ramsay
We looked at the salvation God provided to the Israelite spies penultimately through Rahab the redeemed prostitute (Joshua 2&6, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25 and ultimately to the whole world via Rahab’s descendent Jesus Christ the redeemer[1] last week; so I thought that we would look at a couple of other prominent women of the faith this week: Deborah, one of the early leaders of Israel and Jael who assassinated a leading general of one of their oppressors (Judges 4-5). In doing so, I was especially drawn to Deborah’s conversation with one of her generals, Judges 4:6-9:
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.’”
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 honour will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh,
The honour was there for Barak: he could take it or leave it. He could act in faith or in fear.[2] As I meditated on these verses, I was drawn more and more to Numbers Chapter 14, especially 14:3,4 and 30-33, where the Israelites refuse to invade the Promised Land saying:
Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? …We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt…
[Therefore God Replies, Verse 30:] …Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.
But you—your bodies will fall in this desert.
Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert.
Salvation was there for the Israelites. They could take it or leave it. They could act in faith or they could act in fear. Today we are going to do a comparison of sorts between the leaders of Israel in Judges 4 and the children of Israel in Numbers 14. The main things I want us to concentrate on is the fact that with God no matter what the situation facing us, we don’t need to be afraid for God is faithful even when we are faithless (Romans 3:3,4, 2 Timothy 2:13; cf. Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5)– but, we only experience His provided salvation if we actually take Him up on His offer of salvation (John 3:16; cf. TSA docs. 6&8). His salvation is waiting for all of us: we can take it or leave it.
We will look at Judge Deborah, Jael and General Barak in a bit here. But first, a little background information: The activity in the book of Judges takes place in the time after Joshua dies. Joshua was the leader of Israel after Moses and he was the one through whom most of the land of Canaan was conquered and its inhabitants put to the sword (Deuteronomy 31:1-8, 34:9; Joshua 1; Judges 2). When Joshua died, there was no clear successor as God’s leader of the Israelites (Joshua 1; Judges 2). What happened then is that the people –without clear leadership- would drift away from the Lord time and time again, just doing what they saw as fit in their own eyes; the Lord in His mercy would then sell them into the hands of their rivals so that they would eagerly seek to return to the joys of serving Him. At which time God would then by raise up various regional generals, despots, kings, or rulers from the various clans in order to save them, to liberate and to then rule over them (cf. Judges 2:16ff.). These primarily military leaders were called ‘judges’. Deborah, she is one of the judges of Israel here at a time when many of the tribes of Israel are struggling against the Canaanites under Jabin of Hazor and General Sisera (cf. Judges 4:1-2). This was Israel in Palestine at the time of Deborah in the book of Judges.
We read from Judges Chapter 4 earlier where Israel’s leader, Deborah instructs General Barak, in the name of the LORD, to lead the troops into battle against their oppressors.[3] Instead of simply saying ‘Yes ma’am’ to Deborah and ‘Yes’ to the Lord, Barak sounds a little like a scared elementary school student and he says instead to Deborah, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go” (Judges 4:8; cf. Exodus 4:13, Judges 6:15, Jeremiah 1:6). It reminds me of a summer or two ago when my daughters were younger and one of them accidentally threw a ball or something in the neighbours’ yard. I told her to just go ring their doorbell and ask if you can go into the yard and get it back. She looked scared stiff. She -in a moment of shear panic- said, ‘No, only if you go with me!’ General Barak when God through the Prophetess Deborah, Israel’s judge, tells him to run an errand for God, he says, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” Now I told my daughter when she attempted to give me this ultimatum that she could take her sister with her to ask our neighbours for the ball and the two of them went hugging and grasping each other for support, with me watching, to our next door neighbours’ house to retrieve their ball. Judge Deborah similarly has mercy on this timid general, Barak, and says that she will go with him.[4] She doesn’t have quite as much mercy as I did with my 7 or 8 year-old daughter at the time though; nor should she. Barak, in his fear to go into battle without Deborah holding his hand, wasn’t just questioning Deborah’s order; he was questioning God.[5] In response: “‘Very well,’ Deborah said, ‘I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honour will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.’ Then Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh” (Judges 4:9).
This is important. Glory was there for Barak: he could take it or leave it. But regardless of Barak, God still delivered the people of Israel from their oppressors, just like He said he would do. Even though Barak did not show faith and faithfulness, God was still faithful and He delivered His people unto salvation. But because Barak was more afraid of men than of God, he did not receive the full reward that he otherwise would have received (cf. Deuteronomy 31:6; Numbers 14; Joshua 1:5; Romans 3:3,4; Hebrews 13:5-6; 2 Timothy 2:13).
This brings us to our parallel passage in Numbers 14. The events in Numbers 14 happen a few generations before the events of Judges 4. In Numbers 14, Moses is still the leader of the Israelites. Moses, on God’s command, has just sent spies to spy out the land that the Lord had promised to them (Numbers 13). Two of the spies – Joshua, who would be their next leader and Caleb - come back and report that ‘yes we should take this land as God and Moses have commanded’. The other 10 spies however out-vote them (cf. Numbers 12, Exodus 5:15-21, Deuteronomy 9:7-29; Praise the Lord the Kingdom of God isn’t a democracy!). They are afraid and say, Numbers 14:4, “We should choose a new leader and go back to Egypt.” The people are about to execute Moses and his brother Aaron when the Lord intervenes (Numbers 14:10-12). God is understandably a little bit upset and says to them. If you’re going to be that way then I don’t want you here either. Go away (Number 14:20-25). I’ll invite Caleb and Joshua and another generation of people back to the promised salvation from the desert. Your kids can come without you to this Promised Land, after the rest of you have died (Numbers 26:65, Numbers 32:12, Joshua 14; Hebrews 4:3).
God prepared this promised rest for the Hebrews who had been wandering around the desert: it was there for the taking. They said ‘no’ to the rest so God withdrew the offer until after they had all died. Hebrews 4:3: God says, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
Now this is significant: because the people are afraid and in their fear they rebel against God and Moses and Aaron, God says that they may not enter His promised salvation from their wanderings in the desert (Numbers 14:1-4,9). God says that He will still offer His salvation to His people but those who reject it will not get to experience it; they will die outside of His promise (cf. TSA doc. 9). God provided for the salvation of all of them but they decided not to take it. A whole generation of God’s chosen people rejected His promised rest and – save Joshua and Caleb- they all died outside of His promise (Number 14:24, Hebrews 4:3). God’s salvation: They had the opportunity to take it or leave it. They chose to leave it.
There is more to this part of the story too. After the people reject God’s deliverance into the promise, they then attempt to obtain their salvation from their desert wanderings without God. They attempt to secure the salvation on their own. This is what happens, Numbers 14:41-45:
But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.”
Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.
Numbers 14 records the tragic consequences of people out of fear first rejecting God’s salvation that He had already provided for them and then rejecting His deliverance by trying to obtain this salvation on their own. God did still provided His salvation to a future generation as He promised but as far as this generation was concerned, deliverance was available to them: they could take it or leave it. They chose to leave it so this whole disobedient generation, through their lack of faith, died outside of the promise. It is a sad story indeed.
Back to Barak and Deborah, Jael and Judges 4. Because Barak rejected the glory offered to him, the glory went to someone who would take it: Jael -who is a foreigner (Kenite) and a woman- she experienced that glory instead of Barak (Judges 4:9, 21-22). It is important to note that Barak’s lack of faith could not and would not prevent God’s salvation from coming to His people – God still delivered them unto salvation - but Barak’s fear did prevent him from experiencing the full glory of that.[6]
As it is with Barak in Judges 4 and the children of Israel in Numbers 14, so it is with us. We cannot thwart the salvation of God but we can decline to be a part of it. Now God is a merciful God and He still used Barak to do His will and Barak, as Barak was faithful in battle he is now and forever remembered as a hero of the faith in Hebrews 11:32, even though because of his fear, he did not experience the honour that was otherwise available. And we know that God did save the children of that Numbers 14 generation of Israelites from the desert even though their parents chose to die in the wilderness and did indeed die outside of God’s rest. God is gracious. He is faithful even when we are faithless. His salvation is offered for us all but we need to take Him up on His offer to experience it for ourselves. John 3:16-18:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
This is important. This is the same choice we have today. Jesus’ death and resurrection provided salvation for the whole world. It is there for us. God is speaking to us all as he spoke to Barak through Deborah all those many years ago. He is telling us that victory is assured. We can take it or we can leave it. We are standing on the precipice of the Promised Land of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We can take it or leave it. I encourage us today. If there are any who have not yet said that yes they will follow God into His promised salvation, it is not too late. As long as well have breath in our body, the opportunity is there for the taking. Just like with Barak and the children of Israel, God’s Salvation is still available for us all: we can take it or leave it. Today, I want to encourage us that if there are any of us here today who have not yet taken God up on this that indeed, today will be the day of our salvation.
Let us pray.
[1] Captain Michael Ramsay, Rahab the Redeemed (Joshua 2&6, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25) Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 25 Sept. 2011, Weekend of Prayer to Stop Human Trafficking. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/09/rahab-redeemed-joshua-2-hebrews-1131.html
[2] cf. John J. Davis and Hebert Wolf, Judges in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 336.
[3] But cf. Dennis T. Olsen, The Book of Judges (NIB II; Nashville: Abingdon, 1998), 778-783.
[4] Cf. Robert Jamieson, ‘CHAPTER 4: Judges 4:1-17. Deborah and Barak Deliver Israel from Jabin and Sisera’. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. Available on-line: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/jamieson/jfb.x.vii.iv.html?scrBook=Judg&scrCh=4-4&scrV=0-0#x.vii.iv-p0.1
[5] John Wesley, “Explanatory Notes on Judges 4”. Cited from Christ’s Notes Bible Commentary (Cited 26 September, 2011). Available on-line: http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?b=7&c=4&com=wes
[6] Herbert Wolf, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Judges/Exposition of Judges/II. The Rule of the Judges (2:6-16:31)/E. The Victory of Deborah and Barak Over Jabin and Sisera (4:1-5:31)/1. The prose account (4:1-24)/b. Deborah's challenge to Barak (4:4-10), Book Version: 4.0.2
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