Male Dereliction (Part B)

I still see that I'm not crushed, that the mercy of God took these men and still said they're heroes of faith. What an encouragement if you failed serving God, man or female. What an encouragement if you have come up short and God still puts your name in this list with David and Samuel.

Wow, that's encouraging. Because if you're going to do anything for the Lord, you're going to fail. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Male Dereliction is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he's teaching in Judges Chapter 4. God is saying this is not how I planned it. This is not going to work for you or for them. This is going to be bad for both of you, male and female, for the family.

It's going to be bad. He says, oh, my people, those who lead you, cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths. That's profound for us living in an age where, again, emasculation of masculinity, which sounds like a redundancy but it's not, has gone wild. For God, again, to give his people a woman judge was to treat them like children. They had behaved spiritually like children and they needed a mother. Men can be too hard on young boys, and it's good for boys to have a good mother, a buffer.

Come on, boy, why can't you do it? We're expecting them to be men long before it's time. It is exactly where they were when it came to spiritual things in need of a mother, not ready for meat, not ready for spiritual manhood. It is said here, the wife of Lapidoth, Deborah, a wife and a mother, she responds to the cry of the children of Israel. She considered her role in life to be that of a mother and a wife. She considers her role as a judge and prophetess as an honor, but she retains, I am a mother in Israel.

Judges chapter 5 verse 7, in Deborah's song she writes, village life ceased, it ceased in Israel until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel. You see the rebuke there for the men? Why?

Where were you? Why is the wife having to go out and do it when you're supposed to be doing it? Fine. If you won't do it, God will get someone else. Well, that's true for male and female alike. It's true in ministry. It holds us to ministry.

Fine, you want to quit? Go ahead, I'll just raise somebody else up, God will say. For a woman, there is no higher calling. There is no higher calling than being one of three things, a mother, or a wife, or a handmaiden of the Lord.

Who would argue? What Christian would say, I object, there's got to be something more for me, that's not enough. You would unveil your folly, and your ignorance, and your lack of understanding were you to object. There is, again, not a more honorable role or to fulfill. If I am any use as a man to this day, or in my life, it is largely because of what my mother instilled in me.

I'm not going to take the time to itemize the things. I have a Bible, a little pocket Bible at home, and it says in the beginning, as soon as you open it, my mother gave it to me in her writing, turn to page so and so. And you turn there and there's a scripture verse highlighted.

And then there it says, turn to page, and it just keeps leading you to the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel. And I consider it hate speech and an insult to the role of the wife, or the mother, or the handmaiden of the Lord to suggest that those positions are not dignified. That there's more for her. That there's a corporate ladder to top out at, never mind being a mother, or a wife, or a handmaiden of the Lord. And I pity the full man who has a wife, or a mother, or treats the handmaidens of the Lord as though they were something less. Yes, we all struggle with sin.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how we perceive, what we, how we think as they started, when the character is shaped, it is shaped by thought and action, not one without the other. If you just think about it and you don't do anything, you're derelict in duty. If you act but you don't think, you're a brute. They have told our women, you can be like men, and they're telling our men, you should be like women. These are devils. These are advocates of Satan's doctrine. God designed the role of a woman, and it is slandered by Satan and his advocates. And the world is spiritually blind to this, and we should expect that.

We don't hate them for it. We, we full out stand against it and disagree. And so again, the women, be they with or without husband, be they with or without child, they are equally eligible for the nobility that God has granted. He grants a status of nobility to men when they do their duty, and he grants the same status of nobility to women when they do theirs. And Satan is always trying to push them off that, push them off, be something else. Don't miss out on life.

Cut your own road. Isaiah chapter 54 verse 5, for your Maker is your husband. Yahweh of Host is His name, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He is called the God of the whole earth. See, God said that to Isaiah to say it to the nation when the nation was failing, when God was rebuilding them and encouraging them, saying, you are my bride.

Because it is a worthy calling, and it comes, the calling is initiated by the Lord. And it continues here in verse 4, that she was judging Israel at the time. Again, the reason she was judging Israel, overseeing the laws, settling disputes, is because the men weren't. This was an exception.

It was not the ideal. This is Israel, this is not the church, but the church too. The men fail, the women will step up, and that's a rebuke to the men, a strong rebuke. There's no rebuke to the women. It's not a rebuke to the women to say, you're the helpmate, I need you in the executive position, not the command position. There's no rebuke in that. There is a rebuke when the man is told, why aren't you in the command position? Why are you in the support position?

That's not how I arranged it. You're not the helpmate, it's the other way around. There's no better helpmates, under the circumstances, situations given to us in scripture, than what we find coming from the Word of God. The Bible does not preach that women are to spiritually lead the men, and neither do I. Abigail, Abigail managed male servants.

There's nothing wrong with management in that context. That's not the same as being a spiritual leader, or official, an official spiritual leader. Interestingly enough, when we come to the New Testament, Deborah is not the one remembered from this story.

Barak is in Hebrews 11 32, which I'll quote later. Deborah would have approved of what I'm saying. If she were sitting in the congregation, she would say, Amen, I've lived it. I had to go through that, where there were no men coming up, we were calling out, where are the men? Why wasn't her husband doing it? Maybe he wasn't alive.

I don't know. But it was not what it should have been. And Deborah would say, I don't care what the world thinks. I know what Yahweh says. We're going to find her issue a prophecy to validate her office that she genuinely was a prophet of God, and it will be fulfilled in this chapter. The world again does not like the idea of women being helpmates, and so we have this emasculation movement that we have to face.

Let me ask you, do you want your sons subject to that? Femininity is dead, it's gone. It would be really hard to find it, as it used to be, as though it were some sort of a curse. Now you may say, that's just you speaking. Well it is. It has been for the last 25 minutes. But I know I'm right. You know, and you can look at an advertisement when they want to sell you something?

They have the man dressed up and the woman dressed up, and they go back usually to the 40s and the 50s in their imagery because they've captured something with that. I think that means something. Anyway, I'll stay back to this. As I mentioned, God wanted Barak to lead, but he refused. So, rather than discarding Barak, she uses the two together. God does, pardon me. God uses Deborah and Barak together. Masterful stroke of the Lord.

Because though he was rebuking the men, he was not looking to beat them down to the point where they could not get back up. Verse 5, And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel, and the mountains of Ephraim and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. I wonder how many people would have, or maybe already have, clicked me off if they're watching online because I'm not preaching the world's message.

Because I'm not letting this infectious disease from the world corrupt the clear teachings of God under the guise of culture. Deborah is one of five women called a prophetess in the Old Testament, listed, said to be a prophetess. And again, the prophetess has a broader meaning to it than just one that is in an office of authority and foretells or predicts the future. The prophetess or prophet has much more of a meaning to it, but I'll just stay close to the four that are listed. The five. Deborah, of course, Miriam in Exodus 15, the sister of Moses, Huldah in 2 Kings.

Again, 2 Kings will be a time where the men are not stepping up as they ought to be. Isaiah's wife, who is an excellent helpmate. And then there's Noah-Diah, a false prophetess mentioned in Nehemiah chapter 6. And so yes, she is a prophetess, Deborah, and a judge in Israel, but don't forget, she saw herself as a mother of her people. And the wayward Jews were her children, and she welcomed them, and she counseled them, and she helped them. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. It says here at the bottom of verse 5, again, not the ideal, but thank God for it. Thank God he could find Deborah. Verse 6, of course, God knew this was going to happen before the world began.

He was on top of this. Verse 6, then she sent and called for Barak, the son of Abinoham, from Kadesh in Naphtali, and said to him, Has not Yahweh, God of Israel, commanded? Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor. Take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and the sons of Zebulun. Verse 7, And against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon, and I will deliver him into your hand. This is the first of two profound prophecies that Deborah issues in this chapter, and this is a detailed prophecy.

She's giving numbers, she's giving names, she's giving locations, and she's giving the conclusion of these events. Barak, his name means lightning, but it's not lightly, that's his given name. Bidan we get from 1 Samuel 12, meaning son of judgment.

Just a passing note. These Canaanites, of course, they hated the people of God and the God of the people. God was not disturbed by any of that. But Barak was to lead the Israelites, their army, toward Mount Tabor. And then God would draw Sisera and his troops to the Kishon River and give Barak the victory through a miracle. Well, there'd be also sword fighting, but there would be a miracle to deal with those 900 chariots.

Rain would be what God would, the weapon of choice. We'll come to that. Verse 8, And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go. You're kidding me. You're kidding me. You want me to steal your thunder. I'm telling you, God says to go.

He's got this. Why would you want me to? Are you superstitious, Barak? Have I become a rabbit's foot for you? Where's your courage? You certainly have combat courage. Where's your spiritual courage?

You can have that. You can be an amazing tackle or running back in football, strong and brave, but a spiritual weakling at the same time. Now, I don't want to be too hard on Barak, but I don't want to be too easy on him either. The story tells itself. To his credit, he did not go against his own fears. This bothered him, and I'm not going. We look at it years later and we say, This is a lesson. There will be no other reason to have this here to humiliate Barak.

No, it's bigger than that, though that is in the story. But he's not pretending to have faith that he does not have. But he misses a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show himself a champion in Israel. God said to the men, I want you to get your act together now.

I'm going to give you a chance. And they choked on it. Deborah going with Barak was sort of like the policeman putting out the fire for the firefighters. It's not the design. That's not what we expect. Dismissed opportunity to redeem male leadership, not to display reluctance.

That's what he did. Pretty strong. I believe you. I believe God is telling you this to me. But you have to come with me. Verse 9, I'm tempted to make jokes. There's no one here to laugh, and the fake laughs might not work well.

That's why we don't have a laugh machine. Anyway, that's my break. Verse 9, so she said, I will surely go with you.

Nevertheless, there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking. Stop right there. She got it.

She understood. This is a chance for glory. No guts, no glory, Barak. You've got this chance. Don't throw it away, lad.

He throws it away, nonetheless. She says, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh. Fine. I'll go, because the people, I'm the mother. The people got to win, if that's what it takes.

But you blew it. And, by the way, Sisera is really bad guy. A woman's going to take him out, Barak.

Not you. That's, again, not an insult, but it's a male-dominated society. The roles are clearly defined. They're clear. And if you move to the left or right of them, so is the violation of the clear assignment. And so she rebukes him.

That's what this is. She doesn't, you know, crush him. She lets the events do that for her, because they will. And forever, that will be in the back of his mind.

He was told that the victory over Sisera would be given. He would not share in the fullness of it that God wanted him to. That scares me. God has a plan for your life. Oh, yeah, well, I don't know what it is all the time.

Not all, not the details, but I want every much of it as I don't want to be negligent. I think, I think Deborah was a little irked. I do.

I mean, I think she's a little disturbed by this. Hebrews chapter 11, where I mentioned it will remember Barak and not her, says, And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets. So when it says, For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak, every man's man would stop there in his thinking in reading that verse and say, I don't want to be like Samson. I don't want to be like Barak.

Of those names listed, those two men, I don't want to be like. But, but if I fail, for whatever reasons, I still see that I'm not crushed. That the mercy of God took these men and still said, they're heroes of faith. What an encouragement if you failed serving God, men or female. What an encouragement if you have come up short and God still puts your name in this list with David and Samuel.

Wow, that's encouraging. Because if you're going to do anything for the Lord, you're going to fail. Barak would have assumed that Deborah was talking about herself when she said the victory will go to a woman. Those aren't the exact words. I will just read it again. She said, For the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Now the thought we would get, well that's Deborah.

She's going to get the credit, but that's not how it's going to play out. Catching us all by surprise when we get down to verses 18 through 22. Oswald Chambers has something to say about how God fashions us.

I think it's pretty insightful. He says, We are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not and what God wants us to be.

We are not willing to have the vision battered into shape and use by God. The batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people. This is going to come through Jael.

She's a commonplace person. Verse 10, And Barak called Zebulun and Neftali to Kadesh, and he went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him. There's another zinger. For the men, for the women, you've got to be saying yeah go Deborah. But that's not what the story is about. It's not a competition. We get sucked into that. You want to make a marriage struggle? Compete with each other. That's friction. Rubbing against each other the wrong way.

Opposite directions. Not so much of yourselves but opposite of God. God did not say to Adam, You need a competitor.

Barak enlists ten thousand men from his own tribe and Zebulun. That's significant. That means he had some pull. Of course God was doing this. We never can count God out but God's not going to work if he has no one to work with. And that's why people cry out for his savior, for a deliverer.

In Israel they were doing it of course and judges all the time. Later the other tribes will join in. Benjamin and Ephraim, Manasseh East, Ishakar. They will knock the numbers up to 40,000. Four tribes will refuse to show up.

Again the men being negligent, failing. Ruben, Dan Asher, and Manasseh. Manasseh West will go to battle. Manasseh East will not.

East on the Jordan side, the east side of the Jordan. They will not show up. And Deborah will rebuke them. When she writes her chapter five, when we get to chapter five, she doesn't forget this. She puts it into Sonya. This is going into writing, into history.

Verse 11, Now Heber the Canaanite, the son of, Heber the Canaanite, of the children of Hodbad, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Canaanites, or the Kenites that is, and pitched his tent near the Tiramith tree of Zeonaim, which is beside Kadesh. Yeah, these names, they break the flow. I mean the mines going and you get these names like speed bumps all over the place. Speed bumps at Indy.

Oh man, I don't know what the flag is they wave when there's a wreck. Don't shoot me for that. Anyway, that's what it does to me. Well this is a big part of the story, actually. This Heber, you know, if you just casually read it, you say, why is he even putting his name in there? Well, it is his wife that ultimately brings down Sisera, the woman whom Deborah prophesied would get the victory over Sisera. But these are the Kenites. They go back to the days of Moses with his father-in-law. And they stayed with the Jews when the Jews traveled through the wilderness. The Kenites were right there with them. But Heber decides, you know, I don't like my clan anymore. I'm going to leave them. And he packs up his clan and he moves away and he lines up with the enemies of God's people, which in this case is of Jabin, with Sisera his general. And that's how they get into the story. He has an alliance, a friendship there that should not be. He's on the wrong team. What Israel was doing to God by abandoning God and going gravitating to idols.

So did Heber the Kenite. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges right here on Cross Reference Radio.