The Lord Goes Out Before You
The Barack Obama Presidential Center will have its Grand Opening during the Juneteenth holiday in a couple of weeks. It is an eagerly anticipated event that is expected to draw a significant number of visitors. The Center is a great honor, recognizing the first Black President of the United States and the legacy of those who trusted in God to hear our cry and lead us to better places. In Judges 4:4–10, 14, 21–22 a different Barak has his honor muted because of his lack of faith in God and his hesitancy to be obedient to Him. Instead God honors 2 women (Deborah and Jael) forever in biblical history. I pray that you will be obedient to God’s calling on your life and have the faith to go where He leads you to. Amen
See the link to information on the Barack Obama Presidential Center and its Grand Opening https://www.obama.org/visit/
Now Deborah, a prophet, 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 went up 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 them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead 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.”
“Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him. (Judges 4:4–10)
Deborah was both a prophet and a judge in Israel. God called her to deliver His people from the oppression they were suffering at the hands of the Canaanite king. She called on Barak to lead Israel into battle against the Canaanite army. Barak demanded that she go with them into battle. This attitude showed his lack of obedience to God’s command and his lack of faith in God to deliver Israel. Deborah agreed to go with them but prophesied that because of his refusal to go into battle unless she also went, Barak would not get the honor for the defeat of Sisera and Canaan’s army. That honor would go to a woman.
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?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. (Judges 4:14)
Once again, Deborah prophesied and encouraged Barak that God would give Sisera and Canaan’s army, into his hands. Furthermore, she said that God would lead Israel in the battle (“…gone ahead of you…”). In this way, God was assuring Israel’s victory.
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 peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
Just then 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. (Judges 4:21–22)
As Deborah prophesied, it was a woman (Jael) who got the honor for Sisera’s death. Sisera was killed by Jael, who drove a tent peg through his temple with such force that it went through and into the ground. This is an unexpected turn of events, as this mighty warrior and feared general, suffered the disgrace of being killed in hiding and by a woman. When Barak finally arrived on the scene in pursuit of Sisera, Jael took him to see Sisera’s corpse. Therefore Barak was deprived of the honor that would come with killing the commander of the Canaanite army.
Conclusion
Israel suffered 20 years of oppression at the hands of the Canaanites because of their disobedience to God. God heard their cry of despair and called Deborah to lead them out from under the Canaanite oppression. When she prophetically called Barak to lead Israel into battle against the Canaanites, Barak’s disobedience to God’s command mirrors Israel’s disobedience toward God. So, Deborah’s prophetic response to Barak served as both a foretelling of God’s planned deliverance of Israel and a forth telling of the consequences of his lack of obedience and faith in God. Barak trusted in Deborah and her relationship with God more than he trusted his own relationship with the Lord. Because of that, Barak didn’t get the honor for killing the Canaanite army General (Sisera)…that honor went to Jael. And as a result, history records two women (Deborah and Jael) as the heroes God used in His deliverance of Israel from Canaanite oppression.
We miss out on the blessings God wants to give us when we are disobedient and lack faith in Him. Despite our acts of disobedience and times when our faith in Him is weak, God’s plans are never thwarted. When God calls you, He will go out before you and give you the victory…. Will you follow?
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
“God doesn’t call the equipped… He equips the called!”
