The Battles, the Bedouin, and Barak

(Hebrews 11:32/Judges 4-5)

              “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” (Rom. 15:4) Israel has made it to the Promised Land…they have reached the border of that land that flows with milk and honey…that land that had been promised to their fathers and their father’s fathers.  They are standing on the brink of the greatest conquering the world has ever seen…the conquering of the mighty giants of Canaan.  They are about to fill their stomachs with the largest fruits and the greatest vegetation they have ever known.  BUT…God gives the Israelites a condition in Deut. 7:2.  God demands that they “devote themselves to the TOTAL destruction of the people that dwell in this land.” 

              Now, if my parents had told me to TOTALLY clean my room…would that mean I could leave my XBOX controller layin in the middle of the floor?  Would that mean I could leave my clothes by the hamper instead of IN the hamper?  Husbands, if your wives tell you, “I want your COMPLETE AND TOTAL attention!” could you turn on the television and watch the game? NO.  God said to His children, “TOTALLY wipe out the inhabitants of this land…I want every one of them gone.  Make NO league or covenant with them!”  And God meant it!

              But they didn’t listen.  In Judges 2:1-3, the angel of the Lord appears to the people of Israel and says, “Excuse me…did you forget about what God told you to do?  God said He would never break His covenant with you….but you have disobeyed Him.  You have made leagues and covenants with these people!  You haven’t completely destroyed them.  Therefore, these people will be a thorn in your side, and their gods will lead you astray!”  The happiness of the milk and honey of Canaan was short lived….the victorious scene soon fades to the blackness of disobedience.  And after Joshua (the leader of Israel) dies…the honor and obedience of the Israelites die with him.

              A generation is then raised up in Israel that does not know Joshua…nor do they know the pains and sacrifice of war.  All they do is evil in the sight of the Lord (2:10).  They serve the god Baal and the goddess Ashteroth.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the Lord thinks too fondly of His children worshipping other gods.  So, the Lord raises His hand against them.  Whenever they go out and fight….whenever they go out to do ANYTHING, the Lord causes them harm.  And this causes the Israelites to be in terrible distress.  Well…hello…God’s trying to get their attention.  Stop sinning against the Lord, and maybe you won’t have so much distress! The Lord warned them not to do the things that they were doing…and He swore that if they disobeyed His laws, they would be punished, and the Lord ain’t no liar.

              But the longsuffering and merciful God, who we serve today, raised up judges to save the people of Israel from their distress.  “But they didn’t listen to the judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them.  They soon turned aside from the ways in which their fathers walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord…” (Judg. 2:17).  They didn’t listen to God’s messengers. So, God raises up several nations to test and try this new generation of disobedient Israelites.  This new generation of sinful men were soft, and they hadn’t experienced the hardness of war like their fathers did.  They hadn’t seen their own blood shed for the sins they committed against the one true God.   They hadn’t seen their families oppressed and sold into slavery for disobeying the covenant of the God of heaven and earth, but they soon would.  They would soon experience the wrath and punishment of a jealous God…of an angered God.

              So…God gives His people up (this new generation that were doing evil) into the hand of king Cushan-rishathaim (king of Mesopotamia say that 3 times fast).  For 8 years….for 8 years…they suffered as slaves under this king…the chosen people of God were forced to be salves of the outsiders.  For eight years they were allowed to be enslaved by a foreign, Gentile nation….until, UNTIL they cried out to Jehovah God for mercy.  And as soon as God heard their prayers for rescue…He raises up a deliverer in the form of Judge Othniel (3:9).  And the Spirit of the Lord was upon Othniel…and he went out to war against King Cushan-rishathaim…and Othniel (by the power of God) prevailed over the Mesopotamian army.  And for 40 years the people of God were at peace…they were obedient and faithful to serve the Lord.

              Then, Othniel died, and once again Israel CONTINUED to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord (3:12).  Once again, the people they should have TOTALLY destroyed…led them away into idolatry.  Are you sensing a pattern here in the generations of the Israelites?  Sin, then penitence, then sin, then penitence, then sin, then penitence.  Kind of like you and me. But darker and darker the clouds will become which gather around Israel…and stranger and stranger the mode of deliverance which God will use to rescue His people from their enemies.

              The first judging deliverer (Othniel) has died and now the Israelites are back to their old ways of sinning and rebelling against God.  SO, THE LORD (in order to teach the Israelites a lesson) raises up EGLON (the king of Moab) against the Israelites.  The Moabites conquer them, and AS ISRAEL’S NEW OPPRESSOR…Eglon oppresses them for 18 years.

              After 18 years of oppression the Israelites finally get WHY they are in bondage…they realize, “Hey, it may be because we haven’t gone to the Lord in penitence yet,” and they begin to cry out the Lord.  The Lord then raises up another deliverer named EHUD!  After these 18 years of oppression…the people send Ehud (with others) to present a gift to KING EGLON.  The left handed EHUD takes a little something with him, though. A HOMEMADE DOUBLE- EDGED SWORD about a foot and a half long under his garment hidden on his right thigh. 

              The gift is given to the king (who was a very FAT MAN)...and after this gift is given Ehud leaves, but as he gets to the outside skirts of the city (where the idol temples were) EHUD goes back to King EGLON and says, “I HAVE A MESSAGE FOR YOU.”  The king (no doubt you can hear it in His voice, “FOR LITTLE OL’ME?!!!”  QUIET EVERYBODY! (and all his attendants left his side). Ehud approaches the king while he’s sitting there in the upper room of his summer palace and said, “I have a message from God for you king!”  REALLY!  COME AND TELL ME!!! EGLON was actually excited about this message and he got up from his seat ---which would have been a feat within itself for this rather large king, and he comes toward EHUD).  And Ehud says, “Here’s the message.” (and he pulls out his double edged, homemade sword, and plunges it into the king’s stomach SO MUCH SO, that the handle of the sword got lost in all the king’s fat.  APPARENTLY, so STARTLED by this the king lost his ability to hold his dirt.

              EHUD calmly walks out of the upper room of the palace and locks the doors behind him.  The servants of King Eglon come by and see that the doors are locked and they think he’s using the bathroom…so they wait.  And when they waited so long that they were ashamed…they came in and found the king dead.

              Meanwhile, EHUD runs back to his Israelite people who are waiting for his trumpet call…EHUD blows the war horn and off the Israelites go and kill 10,000 strong, able bodied men of Moab.  Ehud, the judge, brings peace to Israel, and honor to God for 80 years after that.  But then, Ehud dies, and the people of Israel AGAIN do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord (4:1).  Pattern MUCH!  A righteous judge dies, Israel returns to their old ways of sin and idolatry, and God sells His children into the hands of a foreign leader…THIS TIME named Jabin (king of Canaan-4:2).  

To tell you a little background about this King Jabin…it’s been about a century since Joshua (the leader of Israel) had defeated him in Joshua 11:1-10. Since his defeat Jabin had obviously regained his power had grown in number.  He was ready to recover his ancient empire and restore it to the glory of the past.  And you can only imagine the intense desire that King Jabin had to take over the powerful Israelites and crush them to pay them back for what they had done to his kingdom a 100 years before. The time had come for payback in the eyes of King Jabin, and he got it.  He ruled over Israel for 20 years.

Jabin’s general, Sisera, made his head-quarters at Harosheth-hagoyim (meaning “the blacksmith city”-4:2).  It’s interesting that this city is called such because for twenty years, Sisera ruled over the Israelite nation with iron chariots of unstoppable force.  As described by historians and commentators…these chariots were covered with sharp shards of iron so when they ran into the enemies flanks…their bodies would be torn apart.  For 20 years, Sisera and Jabin ruled over the people of Israel with an iron fist…and relief for the people of God must have seemed hopeless.

The population of Israel had no spears, no shields….no weapons or arrows.  They were totally unarmed (Judges 5:8).  On the other hand, Sisera had no less than nine hundred iron war-chariots…a means of attack which Israel dreaded and feared. But just as we have seen before…Israel’s suffering led to them crying out to the Lord for deliverance…and it would soon arise.

            Far away in the hill country of Ephraim…God raises up a woman, on whom He had poured out the spirit of prophecy.  The text tells us that she exercised this gift in strict accordance with the Divine law of God: "She judged Israel at that time" between Ramah and Bethel, under a palm-tree (4:4).  As a prophetess during a distressing and oppressing time…as a messenger from God during a time when comfort seemed at best a fleeting dream…she sent for a man named Barak (the same Barak from Hebrews 11:32). So… what can we learn about Barak that would put him in such a famous chapter as Hebrews 11? 

BARAK

          At the request of Deborah…Barak had to travel over a hundred miles…over some of the roughest terrain from his home in Kadesh to the hill country of Ephraim (map). This journey would have been long and hard…not something anyone would wish to do...but he obeyed the command of the Lord (through Deborah) and proved himself as being ready. Now, after he had made a hundred mile journey he was probably tired and worn out…and then Deborah laid on him the Divine command to "go with an army of 10,000 men to Mount Tabor to face General Sisera and the army of the Canaanites,” Barak let his fear and dread of the 900 iron chariots be known.  He was afraid…he was scared…and he wouldn’t go unless Deborah went with him. 

This shows us the distrust that Barak had in the Divine message that Deborah gave to him from God.   Apparently, he saw this endeavor as a failure…he had little faith because he he looked at what God wanted him to do and thought, “How in the world can this happen? But how quickly he was going to learn that victory doesn’t lie in numbers or chariots or horses…victory is given by God.  Deborah told him to his face, that he wasn’t going to be the one that wins the war…but a woman (4:9).

          So, accompanied by Deborah…Barak makes the long, hundred mile journey back to Kadesh in Naphtali.  Once back in his hometown…Barak calls the leaders and people of Naphtali and Zebulun together, and he reveals the Divine plan of God, given through Deborah, and that they were going to war against Sisera and his army of chariots.  The armies of Israel assemble together…thousands march "on foot," towards the rendezvous point…thousands from Naphtali and Zebulun join forces and converge upon to Mt. Tabor (where God had told them to go-Judges 4:6). 

Deborah, Barak, and ten thousand foot soldiers of Israel begin to cross the rugged terrain toward the Mount of Tabor.  But a spy (by the name of Heber, a bedouine) tells Sisera where the Israelites are going (remember his name)…and Sisera takes this information, and he decides that he can trap the Israelites in the Jezreel valley. 

          So, here we have our battle map.  Deborah, Barak, and 10,000 soldiers of Israel (if you can even call them that) gather themselves on Mt. Tabor (with its sloping sides and thick covering of trees). The news of the army of Israel camping on Mt. Tabor reaches the head-quarters of Sisera, and Sisera begins to move his army and his chariots.  Now, these deadly chariots only have an advantage in the valley, NOT in the hills…so the Israelites would have to be forced out into open if Sisera’s attack was going to be successful.  His chariots couldn’t be pulled up the steep hills of Mt. Tabor….so he marched his army into the entrance to the plain of Jezreel (below Mt. Tabor), and blocks the Israelites in.

           Sisera chose this position with the skill of a true general. His army was posted at its entrance of the Valley at a village called Taanch (Judges 5:19). It was checkmate for Sisera and death for Israel strategically. Behind Israel and at their left were the mountains of Manasseh and Moreh…in front of them was the 12 mile wide valley they just marched through to get to Mt. Tabor (watered by the river Kishon). And to the right of Israel was Sisera and his chariots of death.  Sisera knew that Barak's army had nowhere else to go, but to descend "on foot," badly armed, without experienced officers, without cavalry or chariots into the open plain of Jezreel (and once there he would mercilessly slaughter the Israelites).

          ALL HOPE of victory for Deborah, Barak, and the Israelites seemed like it was lost.  Barak was running into a battle he knew he could never win. He didn’t have an army….he had men that could stand and be killed.  He didn’t have chariots or horses…he didn’t have spears or shields. But Barak had faith in the words of Deborah…he had faith in the words that God had spoken: “Sisera will be delivered into your hands.” (4:14)  So, with this in mind, Barak begins to march into the open plain of Jezreel…he leads the Israelites into the crosshairs of Sisera’s sword.  That would take faith. Outnumbered, outmanned, out trained…Barak knows this is a suicide mission. And Sisera, seeing this ill-advised move…pounces at his chance to destroy them. 

You can see in your mind how this would play out on a movie screen.  The Israelites emerge from the trees covering the slopes of Mt. Tabor.  First, Barak…then a few more…and then thousands begin to cover the open floor of the valley of Jezreel.  Then, the scene switches to General Sisera…surrounded by his vast army of trained killers, with a murderous smile on his face as he sees his prey walk strait into his line of fire.  Sisera blows his trumpet of charge…and He leads his chariots into battle.  They ride hard and fast, and their roar echoes off the walls of the mountains, striking fear in the hearts of the Israelites, but still the feeble and outnumbered Israelites press on…still they march...still they press on, with Barak at the lead.  Without a shield to defend…still they march toward the spinning blades of iron chariots.  Faster and faster the Canaanite horses drag their masters in their chariots toward the sitting ducks of the Israelite army….harder and harder their whips slash across their backs.  Dust fills the air as the wheels of the chariots spit fiery dust up at the sky.  The two armies come closer and closer and closer…hearts beat faster and faster…

          BOOM! The earth begins to shake…the heavens open…and the clouds release every bit of their water stored in them.  The waters of the little Kishon River (which usually isn’t half as wide as this room) swell and increases in speed as a wave of liquid soldiers heads toward the army of Sisera.  This wasn’t just a sprinkle…this wasn’t just a shower, it wasn’t a thunderstorm…it wasn’t anything like we have ever seen…for this was discomfiting rain from God (5:4-5).  A scene of wild confusion with the impossibility of retreat. The stars fought against Sisera and his armies….they altered their courses and fought against the armies of Canaan.  The waters of Kishon rose and rose and rose…the ancient torrent…the torrent…the waves of Kishon battled against iron and metal.  The waves took life after life of the enemies of the people of God.  Water filled lung after lung (5:20-21).  Men, horses, spears, arrows, and shields all swallowed by these Divine waters.  All Barak and the Israelite army had to do was pursue and kill those that escaped the waters.  AND they killed every man of Sisera’s army by the edge of their own swords, not one man was left (4:16)…save Sisera.

          To escape capture, Sisera jumps from his chariot, and runs on foot to the north towards Hazor (some 15 miles away). Here he finds Heber (the spy that told him of the Israelite march), and his wife, Jael.   They have set up camp.  Sisera must have been relived to find them here…because he knew that there was a peace agreement between Heber’s house and King Jabin, so Sisera felt an element of peace.  But this peace was anything but real! There is something wild and weird about the appearance of these Kenites on the pages of biblical history.  In short, these converts to Judaism are the most intense in their allegiance to Israel. 

At the door of her tent….Jael meets the fugitive Sisera. She makes him feel at ease…she invites him in to rest and relax and feel secure.  She even gives a dark kind of hospitality, but there is something terrible (and yet impressive) about this fierce woman.  Sisera obviously thought nothing of her…all she did to comfort him seems to point toward her mercy.  She has given the general warm milk and a place to sleep…she has given him the best that was in her tent.  Sisera is so relaxed…that he falls asleep in the care of this Bedouin woman.  As his eyes close… and he falls into unconsciousness…she stealthily removes one of the long…iron spikes which are driven into the ground to secure the tent, and with a heavy hammer once, twice, and yet a third time, she drives that stake into his temples (5:26). Sisera is dead….and it’s not long before Barak (like "lightning" as his name means) shows up at Jael’s door. Jael, the innocent, merciful, yet murderous woman…lifts up the tent-curtain and shows him the gory corpse of the general (head stuck to the ground with an iron spike through and through).

FAITH

          “And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness became mighty in war, and put foreign enemies to fight.” (Hb. 11:32-34)  

          Faith is made up of three things: knowledge, agreement with that knowledge, and trust in that knowledge.  1). The first thing (the foundational stone) of faith is KNOWLEDGE!  A person can never believe in something that they do not KNOW to be true (repeat). 

          Faith does not come by saying, “I am a believer,” and NOT KNOWING what you believe in! FAITH CANNOT be sure and solid unless that you KNOW what you believe in.  If a person says, “I believe,” and DOESN’T KNOW what they believe in…how can that be TRUE FAITH?  IT CAN’T.  The apostle Paul even states, “How can they believe on him whom they have not heard?...” (Rom. 10:14)  IT IS NECESSARY (in order to have a true faith) to KNOW about God and His Word.  WE HAVE TO KNOW what we believe in! By knowledge comes FAITH, and through faith we please God!

Look at Barak….he displays this throughout his life on the pages of Scripture.  He receives word to come to Deborah (the prophetess and judge of Israel).  What does he do based upon that knowledge? He travels 100 miles from his home in Kadesh-Napthili to Deborah’s home in the hill country of Ephraim.  Deborah speaks as the Lord would have her to speak.  Barak knows this, he agrees with this, he trusts that she will, SO HE HIGH TAILS IT FROM Kadesh to Ephraim.

          2). BUT a person can know something and still not have faith in it.  There has to be an agreement with that knowledge.  WE MUST KNOW the word of God and AGREE WITH it. In order to have faith, we have to do more than just read and study…we have to receive those words into our lives and souls.  WE HAVE TO LIVE THEM!  We aren’t allowed to take half of this Scripture and live it out, and half this Scripture…we aren’t allowed to BELIEVE what WE CHOOSE.  TRUE FAITH gives FULL AGREEMENT to what God says.  TRUE FAITH takes a verse and says, “NO MATTER what this verse says I BELIEVE IT and AGREE WITH IT because it is GOD’S WORD!”  Whatever topic or subject it speaks on whether it be marriage divorce and remarriage, not keeping company with worldly companions, baptism, drinking, women’s role, salvation… WHATEVER IT SAYS I WILL FOLLOW!  True faith agrees with GOD’S WORD. 

          And Barak gives us a negative example of this.  When Deborah dropped the bomb that Barak was going to have to lead an army of 10,000 men to take on Sisera and his army, what did Barak’s faith do?  It wavered….it was shaken.  He needed reinforcing.  He knew that Deborah was a messenger of God…he had that knowledge or else he wouldn’t have traveled 100 hundred miles at her bidding.  He had the knowledge that this was what the Lord wanted him to do in his head, but his heart was far from it.  Faith has to have knowledge, but we have to agree and trust in that knowledge.

          3). See…true faith is MORE than just KNOWLEDGE, more than agreement with that…true faith rests on God and His word for salvation.  We have to say, “THIS IS THE TRUTH, and I trust my SALVATION on it!”  THE ESSENCE of faith lies in this: RESTING on the PROMISES OF GOD that He has given to us and displayed to us in Scripture! 

         Look at Barak as he stands in that valley…look at him as he knows he is about to be torn apart by those iron chariots…and still he runs toward them!  Why?  What would make a man think that he can defeat an army of iron chariots with nothing?  What would make a man so strong that he is bold to run into the swords of thousands of trained killers?  A trusting and confident faith in God!  Knowledge told Barak of certain victory…he knew the victory was HIS!  Agreement with that knowledge led him to the Mount of Tabor, but only trust in that knowledge caused him to run into the hottest part of battle with true confidence.  It is only when he RELIED on that knowledge that his faith was commended…and will always be commended until time is now more.

It’s not just the lifeboat aboard the ship that saves a man when he’s drowning.  It’s not the just the belief that the lifeboat is a great thing to have when the ship is sinking.  IT’S GETTING IN THE BOAT THAT SAVES!  It’s taking that lifeboat, and falling into it WHOLE-HEARTEDLY that will save! 

It’s a PART of faith to know that God is there…it’s another PART of faith to know that God is strong…BUT THE ESSENCE of true faith lies in the trust you put in the God’s words.  If you KNOW that Christ died for your sins, if you KNOW that he is able to SAVE even the VILEST sinner…then that trusting faith will lead you to the watery grave of baptism.  That trust will PLUNGE YOU INTO HIS BLOOD! 

This is the kind of faith that will lead to your salvation!  However unholy you have been, however forgetful of the Lord and his blessings, this FAITH gives you the courage to THROW YOURSELF WHOLLY into Christ!  This is the faith that leads us to heaven!  With faith…knowledge filled, active, obedient, and trusting faith…souls are saved, but without it men are damned for eternity!  John Brookes once wrote: “He that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, be his sins ever so many; but he that believes not in the Lord Jesus Christ must be damned, be his sins ever few.”  Take the first step…trust in God…rely on His promises…and follow His word.  “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved….he that believeth not shall be damned.” Have the faith to do what’s right…