Judges 4:1-10 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Judges 4:1-10. Let’s go!
Judges 4:1-10 (NIV)
1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.
3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.
5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.
6 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.
7 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.'”
8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
9 “Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh,
10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.
On verses 1-10: Deborah was the courageous woman who not only led Israel politically, but also served Israel as a prophetess . Yet when Deborah told Barak that the LORD was commanding him to take ten thousand men to fight the Canaanite army, Barak said he would only go if Deborah went with him. In other words, for Barak it wasn’t enough to hear his leader and a prophet personally telling him God’s Word to go. It wasn’t enough that Deborah even gave Barak a specific strategy and told him how God was going to use Barak to defeat Sisera the Canaanite commander (v7). Barak still made his obedience to God’s word conditional upon Deborah going with him. Though Deborah graciously acquiesced and went with Barak, Barak forfeited any honour he would gain from going.
What can we learn from this? Don’t put conditions on your obedience to God’s Word. Don’t say, “God, I will only obey you if…”. When we put conditions on our obedience to God, we not only dishonour God and test God’s patience, even more we forfeit the honour that we could have enjoyed had we obeyed God quickly and unconditionally the first time.
When we sing songs lyrics like “God, my life is yours. I surrender to you. I’ll go where you want me to go”, let’s mean what we sing and let’s do what we say we will do, lest we test God’s patience and show ourselves to be hypocrites.
Father, I am amazed at the grace You showed Barak, but it’s not too different from the grace You have showed me in times when I’ve been slow to obey You or put conditions on my obedience to You. You deserve better than that. Please give me courage like Deborah to go where You want me to go and do what You want me to do without condition. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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