Obedience Over Fear: A Study of Judges 4

In this episode, we continue our study through Judges 4 and examine the battle between Israel and Sisera. We explore Barak’s struggle with fear, Deborah’s confidence in God’s promises, and Jael’s unexpected role in God’s deliverance. Along the way, we discuss why genuine faith always produces obedience, how God works through unlikely people, and what it means to trust Him when the odds seem impossible.

Transcript

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That's a good one too, isn't it? You know, it's funny how songs remind you of certain times and places, and you know, you think about through your life, you hear a song, and it just automatically takes you back somewhere. You know, there are songs that I hear on the radio, and I and I can tell you that clearly uh stores and and places know that my generation is a generation that's starting to spend the money because whenever I go into a store now, it's songs from when I was growing up. And so I don't know what that says or what that means, but you know, I can remember as a kid being in stores and it was playing what I would call oldies, and it was stuff that my parents had listened to and things, and now everywhere I go, I'm listening, I'm like, wait a minute, that's a song from when I was growing up. And you know, it's funny how those songs can take you back to places. You know, I can remember hearing songs as I was dry dragging Main Street in a little town that I grew up in, or you know, it might remind me of a basketball game or the summer. You know, it's just kind of funny how those different songs affect you. And uh that song right there, for whatever reason, our church growing up always sung it on Sunday nights. And I don't know why, but it was just a Sunday night staple that it seemed like during our time of worship. And I can remember even as a kid enjoying that song and liking that song. And you know, you you want that to be true when you gather as the church. There's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place. I've been in church long enough to know there's some people that show up and it's not such a sweet, sweet spirit, but you want it to be true. And I don't always know if we sang that song because uh it was true or if we wanted it to be true, but nonetheless, it is a good thing when there is a sweet, sweet spirit in the life of a church. It's a good thing whenever you can feel the Holy Spirit moving and working. And it's not because he's not always working, but sometimes we don't see it, we don't feel it. And there are moments and seasons and and hopefully long seasons in the life of the church where you get to experience and feel a sweet spirit that exists among the people of God uh because you know the Spirit of God is working and moving. It was encouraging this last week. We had a visitor that was with us from Texas, and uh she was visiting some family, and anyway, she just expressed uh when Sunday morning was over, just you know, positive things about our church. And she said, you know, there's just uh a strong sense of community amongst the the body, and she was just encouraged to be a part of that. And as a pastor, it's always good to hear those things because you you think that they're true, but when someone comes from the outside and says, Man, it was encouraging to be here, uh, that really is a blessing. And that's one of the things that I enjoy on Sunday mornings, anytime we gather for that matter, but just the the opportunity to experience the Spirit of God moving in the spirit of people, and that's always a blessing. Well, Judges chapter four. So last week we picked up with the story of Deborah and Barak, and we took a look at how, again, things are so dire and bad in the life of Israel that God has had to raise up a prophetess to speak, uh, to speak on his behalf, and part of what she is doing is calling Barak, who is going to be the leader of the military, to action. God has spoken to him and said, All right, I've got a plan for you and I've got a mission for you, and it's not simple that you're gonna raise up an army and you're gonna go against a more superior army, one with greater technology, one with uh with greater assets, but you need to remember that I'm gonna be with you. And so Deborah goes to Barak and says, hasn't the Lord commanded you? Hasn't he called you out to go and to do these things? And and in a not so positive way, he responds and says in verse 8, if you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go. And so we see a timidness, we see a fear that exists inside of him, and and there's this part of him that's not willing to be obedient unless someone else is willing to go along beside him. And we talked last week from several angles about this. We looked at the fact that one of the signs of how dire things were in Israel is that the men were not stepping up and fulfilling their roles and responsibilities. And we see it in the fact that Deborah is operating outside of town and settling and speaking on behalf of the Lord, and clearly the priesthood is not fulfilling their obligations or the people have lost faith and trust in them. We see the fact that Barack, who's called to lead this military, to lead this army, is timid and fearful, and he's not willing to go apart from the fact without Deborah Prophetess going with him. And so in verse 9, which is where we stopped last week, she replied and said, I will gladly go with you, but you will receive no honor on the road that you're about to take, because the Lord will sell Sisera to a woman. And so she looked and said, I'll go. I'm not afraid to go. I'll gladly go. I'm I'm I'm I trust the Lord. I know what he's going to do. I know that he's promised these things into your hand, but here's what you need to understand. You're not going to receive honor from this. So here is the military leader of Israel who's about to go into battle, but's told beforehand, you're not going to receive the honor, the glory from this, because actually God's going to deliver it into the hand of a woman. Now, again, with our 21st century feministic mindset, we would say, well, how dare anyone think that it's a bad thing for it to be delivered into the hand of a woman? But we need to go back and understand exactly the time and place in history. And so for Amanda here in this time, God's going to deliver, but it's not, you're not going to receive honor as the leader for this. It's actually going to go to the hand of a woman, was a bit of a slap in the face and a reminder in some ways of his lack of stepping up and taking the lead. And so what happens then is so Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kadesh. Verse 10, he's going to be obedient. Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh. 10,000 men followed him, and Deborah also went with him. Now I said last week, somehow this guy winds up in the Hebrews chapter 11 being spoken of in a positive way as a man who operated by faith. And even though we're seeing some signs of fear and all of these other things in him, here's one thing we do have to acknowledge. At the end of the day, he gathers up an army and goes and does what the Lord has told him to do. And I think one of the reminders for us always is this, as a believer, we're called to be faithful and obedient. And at the end of the day, we don't always respond the way that we should. We don't always instantly go in the way that we should go. Our attitudes are not always the way that they should be, but there is something to be said about being obedient to the Lord. And one of the simple lessons that you and I need to learn in life is that of obedience. Interestingly enough, this Sunday morning, we're going to be looking at the command in Ephesians: children obey your parents in the Lord. What a simple but profound statement that is. And one of the things that we're seeing culturally is that children have not been taught and expected to be obedient. And that goes back to the home. I mean, the reality is much of the onslaught of problems that we're experiencing culturally, I believe, are directly connected to the devastating effect of the degradation of the home. And so we see schools with kids who refuse to be obedient. We want to know why? Because they're not obedient at home. We see a bunch of kids who run around and are unruly, and even into young adulthoods. And unfortunately, most of that stems from parents whose lifestyles look the exact same way. There's a little girl in our neighborhood that is really just a little bit of a brat. And, you know, you know me, I don't know how else to say things, but how I think they are. And so, you know, it creates a lot of tension, especially even with Adeline playing with her. And Adeline's not a saint, nor is she innocent in every regard, but uh I've been present when this young lady talks hatefully to plenty of the kids in the neighborhood. And there's even been times that I've had to correct her, you know, and say, hey, we're not gonna we're not gonna talk to people like that, like it's not okay. Well, one day I watched as her parents came, she stays with her grandmother a lot, and then I watched as her parents came over. And it took me about five seconds then to understand why she acted the way that she did. And just, you know, and and you got to be careful about just making judgments and things of that nature, but in every way that they carried themselves and the way that they acted, and essentially they were adult children, you could tell just by the way that they carried themselves, and you're like, this makes a lot of sense. And part of the reason that it's so imperative and important, and I don't want to preach Sunday's message today, but to teach children to obey is because parents are the front line and the first layer of a child learning authority and how to respond to it. And if they won't be respectful and obedient at home, the chances of them ever being respectful and obedient anywhere else simply goes by the wayside. And what's interesting about that passage is he's talking to children and he's saying, here's what you need to do, obey. But you want to know what the implication of that is? Parents need to expect and demand obedience from their children. Because a child by nature is not going to be obedient. Why? Because they're just like you and me. They have a sinful will that in its heart wants to be the boss of its own life and its own destiny and wants to control itself. And so the natural thing for a sinful person to do is not to submit to authority and be obedient, but instead do what they want to do when they want to do it. Now, what is the Bible compelling God's people to do and to be? Submit ourselves to the Lord. And that involves obedience. You, you and I, neither one, and this is one of the most frustrating things for me as a pastor, and I see it in my own heart. So this isn't just a judgment about other people, but it's our unwillingness to submit to the words of Scripture. And for the life of me, again, not that by any means I'm perfect, because there are plenty of sinful issues in my own art and life, but I'll tell you as a pastor, one of the most frustrating things can be people who just want to play church. And by that, you know, they just want to go through the motions and they'll show up. But but when it comes down to it, submission to the authority of God seems to be very far down the list, if even on it at all. And I'll tell you why I don't understand that. The cost is far too high to play this game. And really, I mean, what a terrible game to play. I mean, either God is worthy of our surrender and obedience, our following after Him, or He's not, which means don't waste your time doing it, playing it, right? I mean, at the end of the day, either we need to be committed to the Lord and say, God, I'm gonna strive to be obedient. Not that we're always perfectly obedient, but there should be a heart in us that when we read through the pages of the Bible and we see God speak, we say, I need to do that. That's what I'm supposed to do. And a lack of a desire for obedience to God, I think speaks to a greater issue that maybe even there's a heart that hasn't been regenerated. Because as a believer, again, not that we walk in this perfectly, and I by no means want to sit up here and paint a picture that I do everything the Lord asked me to do, because that is not the truth. But there should be a desire, and here is the thing that I can say about Barack at the end of all of this. He went and gathered men and he went to battle. And the battle is again not one statistically speaking that he should come out a winner in. But what is he doing? He's operating by faith. He's saying, God, you said you're gonna provide. God, you say you're gonna deliver us, and so therefore, I'm gonna gather up and I'm gonna step out there and I'm gonna put myself out in the middle. And that really is how we know our faith is at work. Faith produces obedience. Faith and obedience, biblically speaking, are connected together. And so if we have faith, obedience comes from it. Now, how do I know that again? Well, let's think about Hebrews chapter 11. There's these great men and women who are talked about being people of faith. And how does it tell us that they were faithful? They were obedient. The entire passage is about by faith Noah built an ark. By faith, it doesn't say that Noah believed that God would flood the earth. That's part of the equation. That's why he built the ark. But in order that we the way that we know that Noah was convinced that God was going to do something and this was what he was supposed to do, is he got some gopher wood and he got some hammer and he built a big floating box. I mean, that's essentially what he did in the middle of a desert. I mean, that's either craziness or it's faith. And sometimes there's a fine line between the two, right? But how do we know he had faith? He obeyed. How do we know that Abraham and Sarah had faith? They got up and they moved. We know that Abraham, even after God had blessed him with a son, took that son up to a mountain and was willing to sacrifice him there because he believed that God even would raise him back from the dead. And so faith results in obedience. That's how we know it's genuine faith. So verse 11, now Heber, the Kenite, had moved away from the Kenites, the sons of Hoabab, Moses' father-in-law, and pitched his tent beside the oak tree of Zenonim, which was near Kadesh. It was reported to Sisera that Barak, son of Abinem, had gone up Mount Tabor. Sisera summoned all his nine hundred iron chariots and all the troops who were with him from Herasheth of the nations to the Wadi Kishon. Then Deborah said to Barak, Go, this is the day the Lord has handed Sisera over to you. Hasn't the Lord gone before you? So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. Now I don't know exactly what all of this looks like, but here's what I do know: that for the last part of a century, the United States has been one of the most formidable fighting nation in the world. And part of that is due to technology. It's due to training, it's due to a lot of things. But if you think back to Operation Desert Storm when we went in there with tanks and things of that nature, you took a look, take a look at what's gone on with Iran and our superior uh air superiority with our Navy, with our ships, all of these different things leads us to have an advantage. There's a reason why, if you even look at things that like went on in Afghanistan and Iraq, that most of our soldiers and special operations did it at night. Why? Because of night vision capabilities and technology that allowed us to go and operate in a space and in a way that was superior to that of any other nation and things on the planet. And so you think about the picture here. Here you've got Barack with 10,000 men. This is not a small army, but he's about to go to war as he looks down in a valley with their version of army tanks. Chariots with horses, men on them. I mean, you know, iron. So I mean, you think about the physical superiority of this and what's capable, but here they are and they're getting ready to go. And so Deborah gives these last words. Go, this is the day. Now here's the key. The Lord has handed Sisera over to you. You don't go engage in this battle unless you have confidence in your God. Because from a military standpoint, this is not a recipe for success. Yet there's this confidence that they have because the Lord has gone before you. And one of the things that we see all throughout the nation of Israel during their time is God does raise up a fighting force and they do have a time and place where they're strong militarily. But if you notice as you read through the stories, the victory always comes for Israel when God hands it over to them. When God says it's time to go, I'm going to go before you. You think about some of the battles that took place in the day of Moses, and he would stand up there with his hands, and if his hands began to fall, they would lose. And you know, he was symbolic of the fact that if God is for us and God's working, then we have victory. But if we're relying on ourselves, we're going to be in trouble. And so all of these were symbolic moments. One of the biggest mistakes of why the people of Israel are in the condition they're in is because God told him, Go in and root out all of these people. And he said, I'm going to be with you when you do it. But they didn't listen, they didn't heed, they didn't obey, and now they're suffering from it. So look at verse 15. The Lord threw Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army into a panic before Barak's assault. So God is confusing them. God's throwing them into a panic. There's something supernatural going on. Now, this isn't the only time that God has done this. If you think about times where God sends spies into different places, and we're going to see this again later in the book of Judges, but when they just gather around, and God says, All right, I'm going to confuse them. I'm going to let them kill each other for a moment before you guys have to go in and clean up the mess and finish it all off. And this is all God's supernatural work. So Sisera, the leader, he sees that things aren't going well, and he runs, left his chariot, and fled on foot. Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Heresheth of the nations, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword, not a single man was left. What a picture! What an amazing work of God to work on behalf of Israel. Meanwhile, verse 17, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between King Jabon of Hazar and the family of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, Come in, my Lord, come in with me, don't be afraid. Now, what's about to unfold in this story is very interesting, and there's a couple of ways that we can read it. And we don't really know what all the intent or what's going on in Jael's mindset is here. We do know that there had been peace as far as between the armies of Sisera's leader and uh Jael's husband, the Hebrew the Kenite. So there's a sense of an alignment or an ally here. Her approach seems to be very methodical. Her approach seems to be almost that of I know exactly what I'm what I'm gonna do here. Nonetheless, she goes out and she greets him and she welcomes him in and says, Don't be afraid. Now we're gonna find out that this is almost like the famous words of a black widow right here. A snake looking at a mouse and saying, Hey, come on in. Don't be afraid. I'm gonna take good care of you. So he comes in. She's almost uh, and I and I don't want to read too much in the story, but but some say she's almost seductive in this. And again, not to make it too sexual, but I mean she is playing this up and and luring him in. So she said, Come in, my lord, come with me, don't be afraid. So he went into her tent and she covered him with a blanket. He said to her, Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. She opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and then covered him again. And so she's given him even more. Now remember, he's been in battle. He's fatigued, he's tired. And again, I've never been in battle, but for sure never been in the type of battle that this is. I mean, this is physical, hand-to-hand combat. And then he's got off his chariot and he's ran. So, so I don't care how fit you are, this guy is physically going to be exhausted. And so she's even giving him milk to drink and covering him. Then he said to her, Stand at the entrance of the tent. If a man comes and asks, Is there a man here? Say no. Now he's he's kind of cowardly at this moment. All right, he's run, he's head on foot, and now he's ran into a woman's tent and said, All right, you protect me, you lie for me. But nonetheless, he gives her instructions. Now look at what happens in verse 21. While he was sleeping from exhaustion, Hebrew's wife, Jael, took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She hammered the peg into his temple and drove it into the ground, and he died. I mean I'm not just content to whop him on the head with a hammer. I'm going to make sure that I do the deed and do it thoroughly. Now, I've never driven a tent peg into someone's head. That should give you some comfort. I have to imagine, though, that it's not an easy process. And she doesn't just stop with a good blow, she drives it all the way down through to the other side of the ground. Now, men, let this be a little reminder to you. If you've been doing some things you shouldn't do, and you come home and your wife's first response to you is, come on in here. Don't be afraid. And you're like, hey, I need a little water to drink. And she said, you know what? Let me get you more than water. You just lay down and rest. Be careful. Again, I've watched way too much Dateline. If things seem way too good to be true, then they very well might be too good to be true. You know, there's the show, Tyler and I talk about it. It's on like investigative discovery or something. Maybe you've seen it. It's called Evil Lives Here. Now, essentially, what it is, it's stories about people who lived with crazy people. I mean, like murderers and all these terrible things. And essentially, it's like a lot of these stories are like the person who lives there with them is like, I had no idea. Now, one of the things of the show is like there were signs. And from the outside looking in, you're like, of course there were signs. I mean, he was coming home at night with a gun in his pocket. Like, what other sign did you want? And he left in the middle of the night multiple times. Like, what did you think that he was doing? You know? But I guess when you're in the middle of it, like there were signs. And I'm looking at this and being like, sister, there were signs, brother. I mean, she just welcomed you on in and she's treating you real well. And again, she's she's being kind and you know, and showing respect to another man. But I just think about this, like she sneaks up to him while he's asleep and she drives it all the way into the ground. I mean, it's interesting how the Bible's given us very specific accounts. Remember, Ehud sticks him with the sword, the dagger, all the way to the fact that the fat covered it all up. I mean, these are very graphic pictures of what's going on. Now look at verse 22, and this is what I'm telling you. Like, this is a cold woman right here. When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him. Like he doesn't even have to go look to find out which hut it's at. He pulls up into town and she's like, hey, come here. I'll show you the man you're looking for. No warning? Nobody, like, all right, just gonna you know, get your stomach together, what you're about to see. Come here, I'll show you the guy you're looking for. So he went in with her, and there was Sisera lying dead with a tent pegged through his temple. That day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites. The power of the Israelites continued to increase against King Jabin of Canaan until they destroyed him. Now, here's one of the things to think about, though. And I think Barak got a good reminder of when God says something is gonna happen, something's gonna happen. Happened in two different ways. One, God said, Go out and fight against this army, you're gonna prevail. But he also said to him, Don't forget. Because of your refusal to go and just be obedient and needing someone else to go with you, God's gonna hand this enemy over into someone else's hand, the hand of a woman. And here he sees this woman who says, Come here, I've got something to show you. And she's the one who slaughtered and destroyed the leader of the enemy that he was fighting, as far as militarily speaking. Now let's look at you don't have this. I should I should have had them print this for you. I'm gonna read this to you. Chapter 5, verse 24. So next week we're gonna be looking at Deborah's song, and it's this song of praise, of, of worship, because God's delivered them. But in verse 24 through 27, in the midst of Deborah's song, we've we've got this again, Gentile pagan woman who who makes her way in there. Most blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. She is the most blessed among tent dwelling women. So if you don't know the story, you're like, ooh, ooh, what what's going on? Well, here you go. He asked for water, she gave him milk, she brought him cream and a majestic bowl, she reached for a tent peg, right her right hand, for a workman's hammer. Then she hammered Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. He collapsed, he fell, he lay down between her feet. He collapsed, he fell between her feet. Where he collapsed, there he fell dead. That's a nice little ring to it, doesn't it? You know what song I thought about? And some of you might remember this. Bang Bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer by the Beatles. Does anybody remember that song? Joan was quizzical, study metaphysical, and then it goes on the chorus. Bang bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer came down on her head. And while I'm listening to this song and I'm reading it, I'm like, that's where they got this from. Like, like, this isn't an original to the Beatles. Like it was here all along. I mean, just in the middle of a song. And so I think about, you know, this song of praise and worship. God, you delivered us, and Tyler's going to teach on it next week because I'm not going to be here. Uh, but uh, you know, there's the song of praising God, and there's people mixed into it, but then you get to this very graphic little song, and and I just look at the Bible sometimes and like it's all here for a reason, right? I mean, God's just describing, he's teaching, he's saying, and and this is something to be thankful for. That God worked and delivered the hands of someone evil. If you remember when bin Laden was killed uh, you know, years ago, I had some church members that are like, should we really be happy about this? You know, as far as like the death of someone, right? Should we really celebrate the death of somebody? And I think when when the person's evil, the answer is yes, because that's how God works through the hands of governments and things. And it's not that we go around just wishing people dead, but but God, the Bible does tell us, has given authority to governments and to kings, and while none of us are just called to be people of vengeance, God works. And when evil is dealt with, there's a part of us that's not just thankful that someone's dead, there's far more to it than that. But but you know, we're not just sitting around celebrating the death of people because human beings are made in the image of God, and there's a part of us that should be cautious about, you know, not exalting in death too much. But at the same time, when evil is dealt with, there's part of us right here that gives an example of there's a proper response of praise to God when evil is stopped because he uses people to do it. So, all of that being said, we're gonna stop there for today. We're not gonna jump into chapter five. Tyler's gonna be there next week. There's no need for me just to continue to ramble on about things for the sake of time. So we'll we'll call it call it good there. But again, just seeing God work, just seeing God deliver, and and the ultimate end of it is that they overthrow King Jabin, and God delivered him into their hands. And and God is faithful. And I think we just need to remember that that when we cry out to him as his people, he provides for us, he does it through through diff diff different means at times, not the way that we think the story would go. Let's pray, and then Raymond, you can wrap us up. Father, we thank you so much again for just the way you move and work, and Father, just the means by which you do it. And Father, it tells us that that nothing will get in the way of accomplishing your ultimate will. That God, you'll use who you're gonna use, you'll do what you're gonna do. And Father, as your people, that gives us great comfort and hope. God, it gives us confidence regardless of what we're gonna go through, Lord, to know that you are faithful. Father, I pray that you would raise up in us uh obedience. Father, that we would strive, desire to do the things that you've called us to do. Even the hard things, the difficult things, the things that sometimes don't don't always seem to add up and make sense, but God, that we would trust you. Father, we just continue to pray for our church. Lord, would you help us to grow in grace and knowledge? Father, would would we continue to love one another, serve one another, Lord? Uh be a place where uh there's a sweet, sweet spirit among us. And and Father, that sweet spirit is from you. Father, we just pray for many needs going on in this room. Uh Father, we know across the landscape of our church, there are always those who are sick, those who are uh going through tests, going through treatments. Father, we know that there are those who have lost loved ones and are just walking through through a new and difficult season. Father, I pray for the group in Oaxaca, Mexico today. Father, I pray that you would use them to help build your church down there. Father, I pray that you would be with all the kids who are about to go to kids' camp. Father, just asking that you would move and work in their little hearts and lives, and Father, that you would help help them to see who you are, and Father, renew their little hearts. Father, would you again just lead us as we go throughout the rest of this week, looking forward to gathering back here together on Sunday. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.