Deborah & Barak

This is my least favorite story so far in Judges. We've been talking about the major flaws the judges have and how God uses them in spite of this. God is their strength and He works through them and their weaknesses. As Priscilla Shirer says, "God handpicked people for the job who were terribly flawed, then empowered them to fulfill these roles in spite of their shortcomings."
Well, in chapters 4-5 the judges are Deborah and Barak. Her major flaw: she's a woman. It seriously pains me to say that... He's got his own flaws too, which we'll get to as well!

Read 4:1: Israel sins.

Read 4:2: Israel is enslaved. I'm sure these are not names your familiar with, so keep in mind: Jabin is the foreign king, Sisera is the commander of his army.
Read 4:3: Israel cries out to the Lord. Another thing to note is the iron chariots. They were an impressive/advanced technology in this day. Israel was scared of them.
Read 4:4-5: God raises up a judge? Now there is some debate over whether Deborah is a delivering, spiritual judge like the others in this chapter, or just a political judge. She is the first (and only) of the judges that is actually seen making judgments.
Read 4:6-7: God raises up a judge? Now there is also some debate over whether Barak is a judge. All of the judges are raised up by God to deliver the people. However, Deborah is the one who appoints Barak, not God.
Read 4:8-9: Barak's major flaw: he's a pansy. He is not portrayed as a strong, confident guy like the other judges have been. And because of this, he doubts Deborah and so he's told it will be a woman who actually takes down Sisera, not him.
Read 4:10: So even if he's a pansy, he still goes.
Read 4:11: Random little tidbit that will come into play later: evidently Heber the Kenite was a bit like Switzerland. Separated from the rest of Israel.
Read 4:12-24: Israel is delivered. In verses 12-16 we see there's a battle going on, that God plays a heavy hand in. As the battle is drawing to a close, with the Israelites winning, Sisera flees to the Kenites for safety, which Jael (Heber's wife) offers him. She even gives him extra provisions when he just asks for water. And then craziness ensues... Sisera falls asleep and so Jael hammers a tent peg through his head! And in verse 22, Barak finds out that as he was foretold, Sisera dies at the hand of a woman.


Now chapter 5 gives another account of this same story, just in a poetic form. It says in verse one it was sung by Deborah and Barak. Feel free to read through the chapter, and I'm just going to point out a few details that this chapter adds to the story.
Verses 4, 19-22 all indicate that there was rain and flooding. Remember the impressive iron chariots Sisera's army used? They would get stuck in the mud and rendered useless by the muddied ground. Clearly, God is more powerful than impressive human weapons.  But also, this is why Sisera fled on foot in 4:15, 17. he may have never ended up in Jael's tent otherwise.
In verses 6-8, we see the severity of the oppression Jabin held over the Israelites. Things got bad, which is why Israel eventually cried out to the Lord.
The nation of Israel includes multitudes of people broken down into twelve tribes. Some passages tell us what specific tribes are doing and others are more specific as to which tribes are involved. Chapter 4 only refers to Israel as a whole, not to any specific tribes. However, we learn in verses 14-18 that not all of the tribes participated in this battle. Some fought while others sat and did nothing, completely ignoring what was going on! Because of this passage, some commentators feel that this song may have been a political message (propaganda?) towards these tribes that did nothing.
The Bible has some crazy stories. I love that verses 25-27 give a few more gory details about Sisera's death... fed him some yogurt then shattered his skull!
Verses 28-30 are sad. Sisera's mom looking out the window hoping he'll come home.
Those last two sections of verses give quite the contrast between these two women. It's much easier to relate to how Sisera's mom feels, yet Jael is the one who is praised.


Read 5:31: Israel serves the Lord. This concludes this story's cycle of the judges.



So moral of the story, besides that the Lord can use you even if you're a woman? The thing that stands out the most to me is the tribes that sit twiddling their thumbs while the others are off fighting. Don't sit idly by when you can help! Like when a kid gets bullied, if you stand there and watch but don't do anything, you've allied with the bully. Ignoring things happening around you doesn't make them go away or any less of an issue. Reminds me of this quote from German pastor Martin Niemöller in the 1950s:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

 When you know that God has called you to do something, or that there's a need you can meet to help out someone else, do it! Don't sit by and be like the tribes sitting at home!

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I love when teens offer insight to a story that I didn't see myself. Remember the part about Barak being a pansy and not wanting to lead the fight and hearing Deborah prophesy a woman will take care of Sisera? After reading that, a teen made this observation, "It's kinda like the book of Esther, ya know? I mean even if she didn't step up, God would've made another way to save the Israelites. That's what happened here. Barak didn't want to do it, so instead, God is going to use some woman to get the job done."

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I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. These are my lessons and some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.