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1And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died. 2And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. 3Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.
4Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, 'Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. 7And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand'?" 8Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go." 9And she said, "I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.
11Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
12When Sisera was told that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13Sisera called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. 14And Deborah said to Barak, "Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the LORD go out before you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. 15And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot. 16And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.
17But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid." So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19And he said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. 20And he said to her, "Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say, 'No.'" 21But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. 22And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking." So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.
23So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. 24And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
God turns on the screws for a people who refuse to learn the lesson. Oppression by a foreign power is longer than ever before (20 years, 4:3), and a military power of 900 iron chariots seems overwhelming. But these details do not set this cycle apart from the others. The stress of this episode is on the manner in which a deliverer is raised up for Israel.
Deborah enters the stage at a point in the story when the reader expects the stereotypical phrase, "And Yahweh raised up X to deliver Israel…." Well then, is Deborah the next judge? Apparently not, for God, using the prophetess as his mouth-piece, commissions Barak to solve the national crisis. In 4:7 he is promised Yahweh's personal support in the anticipated battle. God will manipulate Sisera, Jabin's five-star general, and the Canaanite forces will be delivered into Israel's hands.
From here the narrative should have moved directly from 4:7 to 4:10, in other words, Barak receives the call from God and then goes to muster his troops. But Barak resists the divine call, and it is clear that he was not too impressed with Deborah's mission. His reaction has a cowardly ring to it: "If you go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go" (4:8). Barak will not enter the fray without his talisman Deborah holding his hand.
In all fairness, Barak's reluctance is understandable, for the disparity between the opposing forces was glaring, and to talk about Israel as an underdog in this conflict would have been an understatement. The judge is also in pretty good company. Both Moses and Jeremiah, when called by God to their respective tasks, responded with a faithless, "Find another one!" (Ex. 4:1-17; Jer. 1:6). But God's reply in either case was, "No more talk about this! Go, for I have sent you!"
So, if I may come to the defense of Barak, let me say that like these great men he realized his own inadequacy, and he correctly assessed the situation: He didn't have what it took to succeed against Sisera's war machine. But he made up his calculation without God. God's commission never comes alone, it is accompanied by the divine provision. Just as the Spirit accompanies the Word of God, so he accompanies his people when they go to war for him. God has never said, "Do this, and do it in your own strength!" He says, "I will be with you, I will help you."
The apostle Paul was a preacher of the gospel, and he had no illusions about his inadequacy for the task. No matter how he looked at it, he was not cut out for the job of speaking for God. The Germans would say, "Front and rear don't fit." But Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:5: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our sufficiency is from God, who has qualified us to be ministers of the New Covenant." If Paul could say this about his situation, then certainly you can say it about yours. Whatever life throws at you, and whatever God calls you to do, he will enable you for the work. Just as Barak, we are offered God's almighty hand in the confirmed "prophetic word" (2 Pet. 1:19). If God cannot handle the challenges and dangers of your life, what do you have? But he will carry you.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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