Unlikely Heroes
- Sermon By: Sam Cherian
- Categories: Broken Saviors; Faithful King
Bible Passage: Judges 4:1-24
I. Introduction: Parallel Accounts: Prose and Poetry: Chapters 4 and 5 offer a unique literary feature:
A. Chapter 4 (Prose/deliverer narrative)
B. Chapter 5 (Poetry/Song of Deborah)
C. Period of Rest lasted 80 Years (Jud 3: 30)
B. Chapter 5 (Poetry/Song of Deborah)
C. Period of Rest lasted 80 Years (Jud 3: 30)
II. The national crisis: Israel’s disobedience (4:1-3)
Judges 4:1-3 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, now that Ehud was dead. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim.3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
A. The Israelites had forsaken God and prostituted themselves to foreign deities. Judges 2:12-15.
B. The resistance against the Canaanites had crumbled, leaving them in desperate distress.
C. Ehud’s leadership had proven temporary as we see that he could not permanently free Israel from sin’s bondage.
D. Israel flourished under strong, faithful leadership but quickly lost their way in its absence.
E. Divine Consequences of Disobedience
B. The resistance against the Canaanites had crumbled, leaving them in desperate distress.
C. Ehud’s leadership had proven temporary as we see that he could not permanently free Israel from sin’s bondage.
D. Israel flourished under strong, faithful leadership but quickly lost their way in its absence.
E. Divine Consequences of Disobedience
Lesson: This teaches us that when Israel had faithful, committed leaders, it did well; but as soon as that leadership was gone, the nation quickly lost its way.
The crisis followed the familiar four-stage pattern: national disobedience, foreign oppression, the people’s cry for help, and God’s provision of an unlikely savior.
God steps in and uses 3 unlikely heroes: Deborah, Barak & Jael
III. Deborah’s exceptional leadership (vs 4-5)
Verses 4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading[a] Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.
A. A dual role of authority and a mother in all Israel
B. Deborah served as both prophetess – God’s mouthpiece or spokesperson
C. Deborah served as a judge who settles disputes while providing divine wisdom to the people.
D. Deborah, a wife and mother, was leading against cultural expectations Judges 5:2.
E. Deborah was a woman of faith
F. Deborah was a collaborative leader Jud 4:6
B. Deborah served as both prophetess – God’s mouthpiece or spokesperson
C. Deborah served as a judge who settles disputes while providing divine wisdom to the people.
D. Deborah, a wife and mother, was leading against cultural expectations Judges 5:2.
E. Deborah was a woman of faith
F. Deborah was a collaborative leader Jud 4:6
Lesson: Deborah’s example reminds us that we are all called to leadership in some capacity.
IV. Barak our unlikely hero (vs 6-9)
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead (draw out) Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’” Jud 5:21; Psalm 83:9
8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
Barak, like many of our other heroes of faith, needed a little more proof before he committed to go to battle 100 percent.
Barak as we see in the Septuagint “for I do not know the day on which the Lord prospers (guides well) the messenger of the LORD with me.”
1 Samuel 12:11, 11 Then the LORD sent Jerub-Baal,[a] Barak,[b] Jephthah and Samuel,[c] and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around you, so that you lived in safety.
Hebrews 11:32-34, Barak was honored along with David, Samson, and other great heroes.
9 “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.
Lesson: God honors obedience to His commands.
V. The Battle Narrative: (vs 10-17)
10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab,Moses’ brother-in-law,[b] and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,13 Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.
Lesson: Many of us may be facing insurmountable odds and enemies that we cannot overcome on our own.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. 15 At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
Deborah gives the signal to Barak “Go or Arise”
Barak God himself has gone ahead of you – The Lord will give Sisera into your hands
Lesson: God was truly the source of salvation but He uses people as human instruments to reveal His salvation.
Judges 5:20 From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. 21 The river Kishon swept them away, the age-old river, the river Kishon. March on, my soul; be strong!
16 Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. 17 Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
VI. Jael our unlikely hero (vs 18-22)
18 Jael 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 covered him with a blanket.
19 “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’”
21 But 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.
22 Just then Barak 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.
Lesson: If God can use a tent dweller that milked cows and took care of the home to do his work. Why not me?
God won the ultimate battle as he subdued the enemy. (vs 23-24)
23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.
VII. The Call to Leadership
Unlikely Heroes: Deborah and Jael: The inclusion of two women, Deborah (a prophetess and judge) and Jael (a tent-dwelling woman), as key figures in a time when women were generally not in leadership roles, is highly significant.
God as the Main Character: Despite the focus on human leaders and their struggles, the ultimate message of Judges is that Yahweh (Jehovah) is the true hero and orchestrator of events.
Ultimately we realise that our 3 unlikely heroes are broken saviours and like Ehud they would not be able to save Israel ultimately from the slavery of sin.
Col 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[d] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.[e]
We are called to leadership now as victors putting on the armor of God (Eph 6:10-20)
VIII. Faith Lessons for Applications
A. Sin cannot be rationalized or accommodated. Compromise in any form leads us to become comfortable with sin. Jud 2:11-15
B. Generational slippage syndrome -Generational slippage occurs when one generation believes God wholeheartedly, the next only knows about God, and the third forgets Him entirely. Jud 2:10
C. One must be committed to the call to build God’s Kingdom and His Church with full enthusiasm and cannot participate from the sidelines. Jud 5:15-18
D. Stepping up to serve God is not gender specific and God is looking to use all of us to serve Him and use us to fulfill His purposes.
E. Our strategy for the battle is based on God’s divine promise and not based on our human plans. 2 Cor 10:3-5
F. Even in our deepest failures God never stops being God. He loves us with steadfast covenantal love that will never fail. Rom 8:39
B. Generational slippage syndrome -Generational slippage occurs when one generation believes God wholeheartedly, the next only knows about God, and the third forgets Him entirely. Jud 2:10
C. One must be committed to the call to build God’s Kingdom and His Church with full enthusiasm and cannot participate from the sidelines. Jud 5:15-18
D. Stepping up to serve God is not gender specific and God is looking to use all of us to serve Him and use us to fulfill His purposes.
E. Our strategy for the battle is based on God’s divine promise and not based on our human plans. 2 Cor 10:3-5
F. Even in our deepest failures God never stops being God. He loves us with steadfast covenantal love that will never fail. Rom 8:39
Takeaway:
Step up to the call of leadership in obedience, thereby partnering with God in building His Kingdom.