{"id":27303,"date":"2023-07-26T22:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/judges-4_1-10-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-07-11T14:17:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T21:17:21","slug":"judges-4_11-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/judges-4_11-24\/","title":{"rendered":"God Goes Before You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judges 4:11-24 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Judges 4:11-24.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Judges 4:11 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 11:\u00a0 The author of Judges has been talking about Deborah and Barak of the Israelites going to war against the Canaanites, so what does Heber the Kenite have anything to do with this?\u00a0 We\u2019ll see starting at verse 17.<\/p>\n

Judges 4:12-14 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Sisera gathered together his nine hundred\u00a0iron chariots<\/strong>\u00a0and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the\u00a0LORD\u00a0has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the\u00a0LORD\u00a0gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 12-14:\u00a0 Previously in Judges 1:19, the tribe of Judah could not advance successfully in the plains because they were intimidated by their enemies\u2019 iron chariots.\u00a0 Now the Israelites are facing iron chariots again, but rather than being intimidated, Deborah tells Barak to move forward in faith.\u00a0 She reminds him that the LORD has already gone before him.<\/p>\n

Just as God went ahead of Barak, do you know that God goes before each of His children as well?\u00a0 In Psalm 139:5 David says, \u201cYou go before me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Because God goes before you, you don\u2019t need to live in fear and worry but with faith and confidence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judges 4:15 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At Barak’s advance, the\u00a0LORD\u00a0routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 15:\u00a0 Before the Israelites were intimidated by their enemies\u2019 iron chariots (Judges 1:19).\u00a0 Now, however, as Barak leads the Israelites in faith against their enemy, their enemy abandons their iron chariots, realizing that they are no match for whatever the Israelites were fighting with.\u00a0 As Psalm 20:7-8 says, \u201cSome trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God.\u00a0 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.\u201d\u00a0 How much better to trust in the LORD than in a chariot.<\/p>\n

Judges 4:16-24 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say ‘No.'”
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But 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.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Barak 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.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 16-24:\u00a0 Now we see why the author of Judges mentioned Heber the Kenite in verse 11, why Deborah said that God had gone before Barak in verse 14, and why Deborah had previously prophesied that the honour of defeating the Canaanites would go to a woman rather than to Barak who led Israel\u2019s armies (v9).\u00a0 It\u2019s all because God knew that Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, would be at the right place at the right time, to give the Canaanite commander Sisera a supposed place of solace, only to be assassinated by her (v21).\u00a0 God knows far better than we do.\u00a0 In ways that are far beyond our own ability to imagine and anticipate, He orchestrates matters to accomplish His purposes.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You for being the One who goes before me.\u00a0 Because You go before me, I can move forward with faith and confidence, knowing that wherever I go You\u2019re already there.\u00a0 Today I declare that my hope is not in man-made chariots but in You.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Judges 4:11-24.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Judges 4:11 (NIV)
\n11\u00a0\u00a0Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh. \u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nOn verse 11:\u00a0 The author of Judges has been talking about Deborah and Barak of the Israelites going to war against the Canaanites, so what does Heber the Kenite have anything to do with this?\u00a0 We\u2019ll see starting at verse 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judges 4:12-14 (NIV)
\n12\u00a0\u00a0When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
\n13\u00a0\u00a0Sisera gathered together his nine hundred\u00a0iron chariots\u00a0and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River. \u00a0
\n14\u00a0\u00a0Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the\u00a0LORD\u00a0has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the\u00a0LORD\u00a0gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 12-14:\u00a0 Previously in Judges 1:19, the tribe of Judah could not advance successfully in the plains because they were intimidated by their enemies\u2019 iron chariots.\u00a0 Now the Israelites are facing iron chariots again, but rather than being intimidated, Deborah tells Barak to move forward in faith.\u00a0 She reminds him that the LORD has already gone before him.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27306,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27303\/revisions\/27306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}