The Prophetess and the Reluctant Soldier 1 by John L. O'Dell When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. —Judges 4:1 For two generations God’s children lived quietly in their land. The great left-handed warrior Ehud had dealt the fatal blow to the Moabite king. But peace brings comfort and comfort brings laziness. The children of Israel fell back into their old patterns of wickedness. They chose to follow their own ways instead of God’s. The seductive gods of their neighbors proved alluring and the people gave worship and honor to them. These actions so displeased God that he brought punishment on Israel, giving them over to Jabin, the king of Canaan. Gone were the days of peace after the defeat of the Moabites. For twenty years now the people of Israel suffered under the heavy hand of the Canaanites. Like Israel, God calls us to worship Him alone; and just like the Israelites, we find the many gods of the twenty-first century more compelling. Money, power, sex and social status—all call us to erect their statues in the temple of our hearts. God tells us that this spiritual infidelity is evil in His sight. Jabin was the king of Canaan and he remembered what the Israelites had done to his ancestors. He remembered the stories of his childhood about Joshua cutting down the great king of Canaan he was named after. He was told how the Israelites killed all the people of his hometown, Hazor, and then burned the city to the ground. Now was his chance to avenge his people’s loss. He controlled Israel with a fist of iron—or more literally, with his iron chariots. Jabin gave the job of dealing with Israel to Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite armies. Sisera was a hardened soldier. Everyone knew by his name that he was not a Canaanite by birth, but his martial skills and loyalty to Jabin made him a great defender of the land of Canaan. Sisera lived in Harosheth Hagoyim, “the blacksmith of the nations.” This gritty city was 1 Editor's note: The author of the following article thoroughly researched the historical, archaeological, exegetical, and theological aspects of the Judges 4 account. However, rather than writing a technical article, he has used his artistic and storytelling skills to render the passage as a story with applications in the way a preacher might recount a biblical narrative in a sermon. While this type of article is out of the ordinary for the CTS Journal, we find it to be a worthy exposition in the tradition of Moses (Deuteronomy 6), Stephen (Acts 7), and Paul (Acts 13). We trust that you will enjoy it as we have. The Prophetess and the Reluctant Soldier 41 the foundry where Jabin’s iron-rimmed chariots, the most formidable weapons of the day, were born. With their metal axels and iron-covered wheels, they were swift and steady in battle. The Israelite army was no match for these powerful monsters that raided their cities and controlled the roads. Under Sisera’s orders nine hundred of these chariots kept the Israelites prisoners in their own land. Too many had died at the hands of the Canaanites. For Israel this was too much to bear. They were tired of the raids and pillaging. They could not even be safe in their own cities. They cried out to God for deliverance. And God, as he had many times before, was ready to come to their aid. The people whose customs had earlier seemed so appealing to Israel were the same people who now oppressed them. For us it is much the same. At first our desires seem so interesting and worthy of attention. Soon, though, the pursuit of satisfaction turns to obligation and then to addiction. When we are faithful to God, His burden is easy. But when we follow our own path, we are made slaves to our desires. At some point it becomes too much for us and we cry out to God for reconciliation. Fortunately for us, God is always faithful. As we cry out, he hears and answers. In Israel at the time there was a woman named Deborah who was a prophetess of the Lord. Her husband, Lapidoth, watched her as she went about doing God’s work. He saw the power of her prophecies and judgments and knew that his wife was truly a woman set apart by God. She would sit in the hill country of Ephraim, between the towns of Ramah and Bethel, and the people would come to her for judgment and guidance. In fact, she was so prominent that the palm tree she sat under was called “Deborah’s palm.” Deborah had seen the great oppression from the Canaanites and their commander Sisera. The people had told her terrible stories of killings and destruction. She knew of the pain of Israel’s torment. And now as a prophetess she had received a message from God. She called for Israel’s great military leader Barak to come to her because God was going to use him to deliver the children of Israel. 42 CTS Journal 11 (Spring 2005) Barak, the son of Abinoam, was a tough, pragmatic man. His name meant “lightning,” and as a soldier he had seen many battles. While a faithful worshiper of the true God, he also knew the hearts of men. He lived in Kedesh, “the fortified city,” in Naphtali. It was a rough-and- tumble place befitting a resident like Barak. Kedesh was where men with troubled pasts came to hide out. God had decreed that those who took a life would pay for it with their own. In His wisdom He also knew that sometimes a killing was not a murder and set up certain places as cities of refuge. Those who had killed someone accidentally could flee to one of these places, so that others could not exact their revenge on them. Kedesh was one of those cities. It was there that Barak lived and where the message of the prophetess found him. When Barak met Deborah, she told him of the Lord’s plan. Barak was to gather an army of ten thousand men and go to Mount Tabor. There God would deliver Sisera and his chariots to them. Barak was a faithful Jew, but he was also a man who understood war. He had met Sisera’s chariots before and he knew that his men would be no match for the powerful Canaanites. Barak was torn. What should he do? He knew it was certain defeat to oppose Sisera, but a prophetess of God was telling him to go. Barak agreed but told Deborah that she must accompany him to the battle. For Barak, Deborah would be a talisman, a good luck charm, so that even if he lost the battle he might escape with his own life. Though Barak knew that God could give him victory, he still chose to rely on his own strength. We are much the same. We read God’s Word and know that He delivers us from the things that we struggle with. God destroys the things that turn us from Him so that we may live more closely to Him. The problem is that we only see the battle from our point of view. When we cry out for deliverance and God answers, we start talking instead of listening. We let our pride and fear direct us instead of God. We fail to see that the same things that caused our trouble cannot end it. Only God can deliver us. Deborah, like Barak, knew the heart of men. She heard the fear in Barak’s voice, so she agreed to go with him. Deborah saw his weakness in not trusting the God who had saved Israel so many times before. As God spoke through her, she told Barak that because of his lack of faith there would be no glory for him in the journey. God would defeat Sisera, but the victory would not be for Barak. God would deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman. Despite this prediction, Barak took Deborah, along with his fellow commanders Zebulun and Naphtali, and headed to The Prophetess and the Reluctant Soldier 43 44 CTS Journal 11 (Spring 2005) Kedesh to raise an army. God does not ignore our pleas for help. Nor does he ignore our fear and ignorance. Over and over again the Bible tells us not to be afraid. Fear is just another form of selfishness. It is our overwhelming concern for our own good coupled with a lack of faith in God. In Barak’s case, fear was going to impede God’s deliverance of Israel. So God chose another person to be the deliverer. This is also true in our own lives. When we stand as an obstacle in God’s way, He either wears us down or goes around us. Ultimately God accomplishes His will, no matter what. In a small oasis near Kedesh, a Kenite man had set up camp with his wife and family. Unaware of the army being amassed nearby, Heber was looking for a place to rest from his nomadic life. He knew of the Israelites. He had coexisted in this land with them for many years. In fact, he was actually related to one of their great heroes. Heber was one of the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses.