The next name in our hall of fame of faith is Barak. Again, Barak seems to be an odd choice. It’s not that Barak isn’t a mighty warrior, but Barak is not the most important person in this story. That honor goes to a woman named Deborah.
Let’s look at the story.
Judge 4: 1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
Judges is a book that tells the same story over and over again. God’s people would forsake Him. Then God would allow them to be persecuted and punished by some other country. Then God would raise up some judge who would lead them and save them. This leader would rise up against Israel’s enemies. Then that leader would leave the scene, and the cycle would begin again.
Barak was a mighty warrior. But Barak was not a judge. Deborah was the judge. So why is Barak mentioned in the hall of fame of faith and not Deborah? It cannot that she was a woman, since Rahab has already been mentioned. So why Barak?s
There is an answer to this. But before we get into that, let’s look at the situation.
Jabin was no ordinary enemy. Jabin had ambition beyond just raiding his neighbors. Jabin wanted to retake the northern part of Canaan for his own, and drive the Hebrews out.. To do this, Jabin got some powerful allies. The first one was Sisera, the war chief. Sisera was not from Canaan. The most likely nationality for Sisera was Hittite or Hurrian, since it mentions that Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots. The only country that had iron chariots at this time were the Hittites. Other countries had weapons of bronze. Iron sliced bronze like butter. Sisera commanded nine hundred of these machines. They were an Eleventh Century BC. Weapon of mass destruction.
Ancient writings still echoe the fear people had towards Sisera. The Midrash--an ancient collection of Jewish writings outside the Bible--say that Sisera’s voice was so loud and powerful that it could shake walls and slay wild animals. He was a frightening and formidable foe.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading 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 came to her to have their disputes decided
On the other side was the prophetess Deborah—a holy woman against an unbeatable army. Deborah did not have any real authority except moral authority. Her judgeship probably did not even extend to all welve tribes, but just two or three.
Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots, but Deborah had the living God of Israel.
Here’s what Deborah did.
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 the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.'"
Barak was a strong man—the best that Israel had to offer. But even Barak did not want to stand up against Sisera.
Barak was a humble man—not in the sense that humility is misused today, but in its original sense. Humility is not self doubt, nor is it pretending to be less that we really are. Humility is an honest assessment of our abilities, when compared to the absolute strength of God.
When we pretend we can’t do what we can, that is not humility. Humility is when we do what we can, with the understanding that we cannot do everything. It is knowing our place in the universe, that we do not rule it. There is always something bigger than we are.
Barak knew he was strong, but he knew he could not defeat Sisera alone
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."
9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman."
Barak would not go unless Deborah went with him. He knew that he needed God on his side, and Deborah was his connection with God.
This is why Barak made it into the hall of fame of faith, and not Deborah. Of course the prophetess had faith. She was constantly in communion with God. But here was a strong man, a soldier, who understood that God was bigger than he was. He was willing to take a risk and go up against the greatest enemy of his time, provided he knew that God was going with him.
Pride is the enemy of faith. Pride is the presumptuous belief that we can handle things without God’s help.
We don’t like to admit we need help. We refuse to look at road maps because we do not want to admit we are lost. We insist on taking care of ourselves when we are too weak to do it. We don’t want anyone messing with our business. The think of this as virtuous self-reliance, but really it is is pride—one of the seven deadly sins. It is called that because our pride can kill us.
Pride destroys us in three ways. First it destroys us because it keeps us from facing the truth about our predicament. We don’t want to admit we have a problem. We avoid going to the doctor in the mistaken believe that we don’t know about it, it won’t hurt us. We don’t want anyone pointing out our faults.
Second, it kills us by making us unwilling to seek help. Pride isolates us from others. No man is strong enough to face the dangers of the world without God’s help and the help of other people.
Third, pride destroys us because it causes us to jealously insist on getting credit. In a prideful person’s heart, it is more important who gets the credit than that the job is done.
Deborah announced to Barak that he will not get the credit for destroying Sisera. Actually a little woman named Jael will be the one to kill Sisera, not the mighty warrior Barak. It is not Barak who is listed among the judges, it is Deborah. God wants to make sure that He, not Barak, gets the credit.
After Deborah agrees to go, then Barak lays his plan, using the skills he has.
So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him. . . .
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
Barak chosesthe location of the battle—Mount Tabor. This is a brilliant plan. Mt Tabor is a mountain that juts up out of the flat terrain of the Jezreel valley. Like Stone Mountain in Georgia, Mount Tabor is a horst, a slab or rock that is pushed up out of the ground by techtonic movements. It is a cone of solid rock, which is so high that today it requires a four-wheel drive vehicle to reach the top. It has thickly wooded, rocky sides on all sides. Furthermore, it is on the border of three different Israelite tribes. In order for Sisera to take it, he must fight three different battles at once with three different tribes. This make a prolonged siege out of the question.
Sisera cannot use his chariots. They will not go up the mountain. If the tries to drie them put the mountain, it is simple for the Israelites to rain down rocks and arrows on their heads. All they can do is abandon their chariots and attack on foot.
When Sisera’s troops abandon their chariots, then Deborah and Barak command theirs.
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, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
Barak is a hero of faith, because he understood the meaning of humility. He was a great warrior, not because he thought he was strong, but because he understood that there were limits to his strength. There was no limits to God’s strength, though. difference between faith and presumption. Presumption is thinking we know what God will do next, and acting upon it. Faith is learning to wait for God to show us the way, before we run out in our own direction.
There is a story later in the Bible of a king who acted on presumption. His name was Josiah. Josiah heard the Egyptians were passing through their territory to fight a battle with the Assyrians, far to the north. The Judeans had no love for the Assyrians, but they did not like a foreign army passing through their land. All Josiah’s spiritual advisors told him to let it go, and not attack the Egyptians. Josiah would not listen. He stubbornly held on to the belief the he knew what God wanted. As a result, he was killed, his army was slaughtered, and Judah was sacked by the Egyptians.
We must act, but only when God leads.
Our dog is in obedience school. Recently we learned how to keep a dog from pulling on the leash. The dog pulls on the leash because the dog thinks she knows where you are going, nad she is in a hurry to ge there. When we more in random directions first, then the dog learns not to assume she knows what the master wants, but to wait until the master commands.
We are like that. We go along thinking we know what God wants. But suddenly, God takes us in a random direction. We must follow closely behind Him, or we will get lost.
Are you following the Lord today, or are you thinking the Lord is following you? Are you doing what the Lord commands, or presuming upon your own knowledge. Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding. IN all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. Let He be your guide. Listen to what God says, and you can win over any enemy. Follow your own understanding, and sooner or later you will fall. Only through the mercy of Jesus Christ can we be saved, and find a way out of the problems we face.
Let’s look at the story.
Judge 4: 1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
Judges is a book that tells the same story over and over again. God’s people would forsake Him. Then God would allow them to be persecuted and punished by some other country. Then God would raise up some judge who would lead them and save them. This leader would rise up against Israel’s enemies. Then that leader would leave the scene, and the cycle would begin again.
Barak was a mighty warrior. But Barak was not a judge. Deborah was the judge. So why is Barak mentioned in the hall of fame of faith and not Deborah? It cannot that she was a woman, since Rahab has already been mentioned. So why Barak?s
There is an answer to this. But before we get into that, let’s look at the situation.
Jabin was no ordinary enemy. Jabin had ambition beyond just raiding his neighbors. Jabin wanted to retake the northern part of Canaan for his own, and drive the Hebrews out.. To do this, Jabin got some powerful allies. The first one was Sisera, the war chief. Sisera was not from Canaan. The most likely nationality for Sisera was Hittite or Hurrian, since it mentions that Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots. The only country that had iron chariots at this time were the Hittites. Other countries had weapons of bronze. Iron sliced bronze like butter. Sisera commanded nine hundred of these machines. They were an Eleventh Century BC. Weapon of mass destruction.
Ancient writings still echoe the fear people had towards Sisera. The Midrash--an ancient collection of Jewish writings outside the Bible--say that Sisera’s voice was so loud and powerful that it could shake walls and slay wild animals. He was a frightening and formidable foe.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading 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 came to her to have their disputes decided
On the other side was the prophetess Deborah—a holy woman against an unbeatable army. Deborah did not have any real authority except moral authority. Her judgeship probably did not even extend to all welve tribes, but just two or three.
Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots, but Deborah had the living God of Israel.
Here’s what Deborah did.
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 the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.'"
Barak was a strong man—the best that Israel had to offer. But even Barak did not want to stand up against Sisera.
Barak was a humble man—not in the sense that humility is misused today, but in its original sense. Humility is not self doubt, nor is it pretending to be less that we really are. Humility is an honest assessment of our abilities, when compared to the absolute strength of God.
When we pretend we can’t do what we can, that is not humility. Humility is when we do what we can, with the understanding that we cannot do everything. It is knowing our place in the universe, that we do not rule it. There is always something bigger than we are.
Barak knew he was strong, but he knew he could not defeat Sisera alone
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."
9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman."
Barak would not go unless Deborah went with him. He knew that he needed God on his side, and Deborah was his connection with God.
This is why Barak made it into the hall of fame of faith, and not Deborah. Of course the prophetess had faith. She was constantly in communion with God. But here was a strong man, a soldier, who understood that God was bigger than he was. He was willing to take a risk and go up against the greatest enemy of his time, provided he knew that God was going with him.
Pride is the enemy of faith. Pride is the presumptuous belief that we can handle things without God’s help.
We don’t like to admit we need help. We refuse to look at road maps because we do not want to admit we are lost. We insist on taking care of ourselves when we are too weak to do it. We don’t want anyone messing with our business. The think of this as virtuous self-reliance, but really it is is pride—one of the seven deadly sins. It is called that because our pride can kill us.
Pride destroys us in three ways. First it destroys us because it keeps us from facing the truth about our predicament. We don’t want to admit we have a problem. We avoid going to the doctor in the mistaken believe that we don’t know about it, it won’t hurt us. We don’t want anyone pointing out our faults.
Second, it kills us by making us unwilling to seek help. Pride isolates us from others. No man is strong enough to face the dangers of the world without God’s help and the help of other people.
Third, pride destroys us because it causes us to jealously insist on getting credit. In a prideful person’s heart, it is more important who gets the credit than that the job is done.
Deborah announced to Barak that he will not get the credit for destroying Sisera. Actually a little woman named Jael will be the one to kill Sisera, not the mighty warrior Barak. It is not Barak who is listed among the judges, it is Deborah. God wants to make sure that He, not Barak, gets the credit.
After Deborah agrees to go, then Barak lays his plan, using the skills he has.
So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him. . . .
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
Barak chosesthe location of the battle—Mount Tabor. This is a brilliant plan. Mt Tabor is a mountain that juts up out of the flat terrain of the Jezreel valley. Like Stone Mountain in Georgia, Mount Tabor is a horst, a slab or rock that is pushed up out of the ground by techtonic movements. It is a cone of solid rock, which is so high that today it requires a four-wheel drive vehicle to reach the top. It has thickly wooded, rocky sides on all sides. Furthermore, it is on the border of three different Israelite tribes. In order for Sisera to take it, he must fight three different battles at once with three different tribes. This make a prolonged siege out of the question.
Sisera cannot use his chariots. They will not go up the mountain. If the tries to drie them put the mountain, it is simple for the Israelites to rain down rocks and arrows on their heads. All they can do is abandon their chariots and attack on foot.
When Sisera’s troops abandon their chariots, then Deborah and Barak command theirs.
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, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
Barak is a hero of faith, because he understood the meaning of humility. He was a great warrior, not because he thought he was strong, but because he understood that there were limits to his strength. There was no limits to God’s strength, though. difference between faith and presumption. Presumption is thinking we know what God will do next, and acting upon it. Faith is learning to wait for God to show us the way, before we run out in our own direction.
There is a story later in the Bible of a king who acted on presumption. His name was Josiah. Josiah heard the Egyptians were passing through their territory to fight a battle with the Assyrians, far to the north. The Judeans had no love for the Assyrians, but they did not like a foreign army passing through their land. All Josiah’s spiritual advisors told him to let it go, and not attack the Egyptians. Josiah would not listen. He stubbornly held on to the belief the he knew what God wanted. As a result, he was killed, his army was slaughtered, and Judah was sacked by the Egyptians.
We must act, but only when God leads.
Our dog is in obedience school. Recently we learned how to keep a dog from pulling on the leash. The dog pulls on the leash because the dog thinks she knows where you are going, nad she is in a hurry to ge there. When we more in random directions first, then the dog learns not to assume she knows what the master wants, but to wait until the master commands.
We are like that. We go along thinking we know what God wants. But suddenly, God takes us in a random direction. We must follow closely behind Him, or we will get lost.
Are you following the Lord today, or are you thinking the Lord is following you? Are you doing what the Lord commands, or presuming upon your own knowledge. Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding. IN all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. Let He be your guide. Listen to what God says, and you can win over any enemy. Follow your own understanding, and sooner or later you will fall. Only through the mercy of Jesus Christ can we be saved, and find a way out of the problems we face.
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