Battlefield Records (Part B)

You're hiding on the other side with your sheep. These warriors showed up, action servants. Faith in God leads to courage, leads to action. That's the conviction and presence of the Holy Spirit. Conviction does not always have to be in the form of rebuke. Conviction means convinced. God can convince us to do something very gently and sweetly.

Sweet. Yes, Lord. Serving, faith includes knowledge, and that knowledge leads to duty, leads to action. 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. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his message called Battlefield Records in Judges Chapter 5. I love those Old Testament prophets because they got to the point, they got to the truth, they got to it right away, and their opponents knew it, tried to silence them for it. They even told Amos, go preach somewhere else. We don't want to hear it anymore. Just go preach somewhere else. As they said to Micah, this prattling's got to stop. Well, he writes, he says, if a man should walk in a false spirit and speak a lie, saying, I will prophesy to you of wine and drink, even he would be the prattler of these people.

Sarcasm packed into that. A drunk could come along and you follow him, but a true prophet comes along, backs up what he's saying, oh no, we can't have him. Paul had that same problem in that region of Galatia.

He marched into that Galatian region. He gave birth to churches everywhere. He said, look at what you're following and look at, listen what I have.

Look at, listen. They did, and they said, we follow Christ. Paul went back, did more things, went back to Jerusalem, reported these things, went back to Antioch, and in his absence, they began to mingle what Paul said with falsities and other religions, or they began to turn from it all together. We find it still going on in the book of Revelation in the first two chapters, the churches that were infested with the Balaams and the Jezebels. Paul says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in grace, the grace of Christ, to a different gospel. Now, we have our youth, they go off again to the world, to the universities, they start mingling with the maybe watered down Christians or abject atheists or whatever is out there that's not following the scripture. And the next thing you know, they're turning away to a different gospel. And so we say to them, I'm amazed you're turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different good news, and then Paul adds, which is not another. There are some who trouble you and want to pervert the good news of Christ.

There are people that want to trouble you. It irritates them that you are impressed by God's word, and that impression has left the image of Christ on you. They want the image of Caesar on you, of anybody but Christ.

There's got to surely be room for something else to impress you. When Jesus said, give to God the things that belong to God and give the things that belong to Caesar to Caesar, that's when they gave him a coin and he said, whose image is on it? Whose impression is on it? We watch our youth and our children and our loved ones gobble up this junk and the fight is on.

And you better be fighting and not giving up or listening to them come back from the universities and pollute your mind, because they'll do it. When someone learns something new, they can't wait to share it. That's fine if it's good. As it's been said, bad news has wings, while good news is still trying to find its shoes. Good news travels very slowly, it seems.

But the bad news, oh boy, everybody knows the bad news right away. It says in verse 8, then there was war in the gates. Because that's what apostasy brings. They chose new gods, then there was war in the gates. That's how it reads in verse 8. And Deborah knew it.

She was a prophet, the Spirit of God was operating in her and through her and to her. Everybody that followed the Lord understood this, as we do today. Apostasy brings conflict. Conflict that you're not prepared for.

That's the next clause. Not a shield or spear was seen among 40,000 in Israel. They were weaponless.

That's why Shamgar had to use an ox goad. They couldn't have the blacksmith. The apostasy cut off the blessings from God. They weren't prepared for conflict with God, and they weren't prepared for conflict with men. Such was the condition of the people who had chosen new gods. Such is the condition to those who go out and say, you know what, I'm tired of Christianity, it's hard. Jesus promised it would be hard. That's the whole thing about take up your cross.

But he also promised it would be fruitful. My heart, verse 9, is with the rulers of Israel who offered themselves willingly with the people. Bless Yahweh. So Deborah says, I love those men that stepped up.

Thank you, Lord. That's what she's saying in the song. She was blessed to see the leaders join the struggle. When she spoke, they could have said, you know what, so what.

Five tribes at least, and part of another tribe did just that. Yeah, we're not interested. And so the singer of the song, Deborah's song, we today, we would apply this to our heart. We would say the same thing. My heart is with the rulers of Israel who offered themselves willingly.

My heart is with the leaders who got in the fight instead of against them. Why are you doing that? That doesn't make any sense. How about doing that? Man, it can't function.

It can't breathe. That doesn't mean that they're doing their own thing and different to everybody else. They're God's people.

Let them lead. Verse 10, she says in her song, speak, you who ride on white donkeys, who sit in judge's attire, who walk along the road. A lot of these Hebrew phrases are idioms. They're difficult to translate. They don't work if you translate them literally. And so that's why you have different translations. You have different translators trying to get at the heart of it.

And they may use different words, but most of the time they come up with the same meaning, just in a phrase in a different way. Here, the overall meaning is those with the speak to you who ride on white donkeys. Well, that was rare. I mean, it was a prized possession like having, you know, you who ride in limousines or something, you know, it was the people who were well-to-do, the upper class generally, and the leaders would often be part of that. He says, and who walk along the road. So you have a contrast. You have those riding white donkeys in style. And these white, these donkeys, they weren't very big donkeys. It's kind of goofy looking to us in some ways, their feet almost dragging on the ground as they rode. But those who walk on the road, these were the commoners and the middle-class people. So you had those riding white donkeys and you had those walking on the road without the white donkeys.

It would have sort of, if you think about it, it's one of the first, she'll be riding a white donkey when she comes. All right, verse 11. Thanks, those of you who are here of the stream team, thanks for helping out. Still quiet. All right, verse 11. Far from the noise, far from the noise of the archers among the watering places, there they shall recount the righteous acts of Yahweh, the righteous acts for his villagers in Israel, when the people of Yahweh shall go down to the gates. This far from the noise of the archers, that's relatively, you know, in the safe zone.

You're away from the combat. And among the watering places, they shall recount the righteous acts of Yahweh, the righteous acts of his villagers in Israel. Well, that's village life and around the watering hole where the people gather and mingle and talk and the word would spread. And then he says, then the people of the Lord or of Yahweh shall go down to the gates.

That's the hub of the cities or even a village, the hub where leaders of the city would gather. And so the mighty acts of God would be discussed and would spread. And it is all part of the song of victory. Verse 12. Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, sing a song, arise, Barak, and lead your captives away, son of Abinom. It's just electric, electricity in the song.

Awake, awake, as you know, so you get to that part. You know, every song has got a part with not every song. There's some songs you just don't like through and through. But then there are songs you like. And in many songs, there's that part that you really like.

And this would be one of them, I would think, if you were singing this because of the repetition. Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, sing a song, and you could just throw some energy into the song as you were at the same time enjoying the meaning. Verse 13. Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles, the Yahweh came down for me against the mighty. Well, survivors here, and here's again, you know, it would be nice, survivors is not an incorrect translation of the Hebrew word, but remnant is the idea.

When you think of survivors, you think of, you know, a crash and the people who didn't die in the crash. But it's sort of descriptive of what was taking place in Israel. There was a crash of the culture, but because of the apostasy. Anyway, the remnant would prevail over the Canaanite nobility.

Now, she's singing the song after the victory. That's fine, but that's what it means in verse 5. Verse 14, from Ephraim were those whose roots were in Amalek after you Benjamin with your peoples. From Makar, rulers came down, and from Zebulun, those who bear the recruiter's staff. So here are those engaging in the battle against the Canaanites that are the remnant that is dealing with the nobles of the Canaanites in verse 13.

She now names some of the tribes. Ephraim, Ephraim had to deal with the Amalekites. They were a heavy concentration of them in their territory, so if they wanted their inheritance, they had to get rid of the Amalekites, and that's what that means in verse, the first part of verse 14, the first sentence. From Makar, the rulers came down. That's Manasseh West. Remember Joseph's son? Manasseh had a son, Makar. He was a warrior, and he was known as a warrior while in Egypt, and his descendants are those from Manasseh, and that tribe was split. One half of the tribe lived on the west side of the Jordan, and the other half of the tribe lived on the east side of the Jordan, and so here, those on the east side, they came down for battle, but, pardon me, those on the west side. Those in the east did not, and we'll get to them later, those, they're in that group of Gilead who did not go to battle, and it's a poetic way of her mentioning and making a distinction between that warrior element in Manasseh and that other element of the tribe to the east of Jordan that did not show up for battle.

So it's a very clever move on her part to bring up their descendant Makar and attach that name, that gallant name, to that part of the tribe that showed up for duty, and it's going to intensify a bit as we move on as far as application goes. So we're looking at this story that took place in Israel's history, and of course we're not just saying, well, we're here to just get a history lesson on Israel. No, we're here to hear from God, what he has to say through his scripture, using his history to do it, and he is going to have in it cheers and corrections. Cheers and chastenings come from the word of God, no way around it.

Our flesh needs the chastening, the spirit needs the cheers, and we are supposed to be responsible and honest enough to sort it out once we are exposed to it. And this, those who, still in verse 14, the bottom, the end of it, those who bear the recruiter's staff, these were likely the leaders who had the ability to muster the troops, to get them, literally it's the staff of the scribe, but it is getting the men up for war, and she is applauding that in those tribes, and so there the call to arms was made by this element of the people in the promised land of the Jews in contrast to those that we'll be coming to shortly. In verse 15, and the princes of Ishikar were with Deborah as Ishikar, so was Barak sent into the valley under his command among the divisions of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart. Now it begins. So here's Ishikar, they rally with Barak, who is from Naphtali incidentally, we get that from chapter 4, but Reuben, Reuben is hmm, should we go, I don't know, what do you want to do?

Great resolves of heart, well we think this is a good hit, but they never moved, and that's going to be made very clear. Reuben, Gad, Asher, Dan, and Manasseh East, and that element of Naphtali opted out of the battle. You listen to that and you say to yourself as a Christian, do I do this? Do I serve? Or do I choose not to serve? For whatever reasons. Maybe you have great resolve, I'm going to serve, but you just don't.

Getting a little ahead of myself because the story's going to tell it better than I can. He says among the divisions of Reuben were great resolves of heart. They chose to talk about it, to analyze it, but no action.

Discussing without, discussion without doing inactive intentions. Yeah there is, there's a tragedy in all of that. Elijah on Mount Carmel, who incidentally will take the false prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth down to Kishon, the valley of Kishon, and execute them. Well that's where much of this battle is going to take place for Deborah on this day, but anyway that's a side note. First Kings, Elijah came to all the people and said how long will you falter between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow him.

If Baal is, follow him. But the people answered him, not a word. No because they wanted proof. Because see truth wasn't enough. They wanted something that they could see and God tolerated that. We are living in the age of truth, where thus says the Lord. We have the Gospel record and the Old Testament and her prophecies, New Testament prophecies too.

We are appealing through reason, not so much through the miraculous. James chapter 1, we know this one, be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourself. Well that's what Reuben was doing. They were just hearing and talking and then yeah we really want to do, but they never did anything. Paul says always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Again, analyzing without action, discussing without doing, inactive intentions. The troops of Reuben, they saw no action because of inaction amongst the leaders and so there's bad leadership for you.

They just would not make a decision. Verse 16, why did you sit among the sheep foals to hear the pipings of the flocks? The divisions of Reuben have great searchings of heart. What a rebuke if you're from the tribe of Reuben. If you're one of the soldiers you are ready for action but you aren't getting the call. You're waiting for your leaders to give you the command and it never comes. By the time you decide I'm going to go on my own, the war is over.

And so she has this sarcasm in the song Forever against the tribe of Reuben. What did you do? You're just enjoying the sheep?

I mean what was happening with you? You're missing for action. They sincerely debated the pros and cons of entering the battle but that's all they did. They just debated, debated, oh that's a good point. What about this one? Oh that's a good one. I object.

Oh that is the answer to that objection. Somebody should have said enough. This is what we're doing.

Let's go. In this case action did not speak louder than words. Inaction spoke louder than action. Verse 17, Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain on ships?

Asher continued at the seashore and stayed by his inlets. What sarcasm. Deborah's letting it out.

Before the song came up she's probably pretty hot. What? Messenger would come. Reuben's not coming. Gad's not sending the forces.

We need these troops. Barak is saying fine I'm going to go without them. Deborah when she eventually after the battle she gets her pen out and she, I'm not forgetting this is going in to the, this is going on record.

This is a battlefield record. Who didn't show up? The trans-Jordan Gad remained there.

Gilead, that's the east side of Jordan, the trans-Jordan tribes. The hand that is withered won't help. That hand was withered because it lost its identity. It forgot how it got into the land. Why it was there. It forgot who the brethren were. The god of the brethren, their own god.

The high joy of serving was missed. We see this. We see Christians have this resolve. I'm going to. I'm going to. When people pledge I'm going to give this to, I don't want to, you know, if you say you're going to do it then you better do it.

But I don't want to hear it. I tell them nicely. I try to catch them. You start making these promises to God he's going to look for you to fulfill them.

You'd be better off not making the promise if you're not going to fulfill it. Why did Dan remain on ships? They're out at sea. They're fishing for fish. Well you say we know better as Christians. You can fish for more things than fish.

Jesus said I'll make you a fisher of men. But it was safer. It was convenient. This was the season.

The fish are biting or they're following, jumping into the net. No surprise that Dan never subdued the larger part of her territory but even shamefully migrated north, conquered weaker people just so that they could promote their own idolatry. Asher continued at the seashore and stayed in his inlets. What an insult. Got you little dingy. You just don't go out to sea Asher.

Might get damaged. I don't know if you see that in there but I see that because of sarcasm. They preferred dishonorable peace over duty. That's one of the lessons. Half of Manasseh and all of Gad along with Reuben stayed out of the fight. Dan and Asher's mentioned, scripture carefully notes those who showed up for battle and those who opted out. Unwilling to risk, unwilling to be disturbed, willing to let others do the struggling, willing to let others haul to Chile just so that they could stay comfortable. Verse 18, Zebulun is a people who jeopardized their lives to the point of death. Neftali also on the heights of the battlefield. There it is. That's the point you're making. You're saying listen to the other tribes. These Zebulun Neftali, they showed up for battle.

They put their lives at risk. You didn't. You stayed by your inlets. You're out on your little boats.

You're hiding on the other side with your sheep. These warriors showed up. Action servants. Faith in God leads to courage, leads to action. That's the conviction and presence of the Holy Spirit. Conviction does not always have to be in the form of rebuke. Conviction means convinced. God can convince us to do something very gently and sweetly. Sweet.

Yes, Lord. Serving faith includes knowledge, and that knowledge leads to duty. It leads to action. And I am fortunate enough to pastor a church.

We have a lot of people from Zebulun and Neftali. They come out and they serve. They do so much, you can't even keep track of it. Few people know how much everybody is doing. The pastors know. They know how many people, and few people know how much the pastors do.

I'm not talking about myself. I mean the other pastors. They do quite a bit, and God knows that's what's important.

So you've got to walk with God to develop the faith. Neftali also on the heights of the battlefield. So she singles out these two nobody tribes. I mean, it's not like Judah showed up. In fact, Judah and Simeon aren't even mentioned.

Why is that? Likely because they were busy fighting the Canaanites in their own territories under other circumstances. That's probably why they're not mentioned, because they're not rebuked.

So you've got to give them the benefit of the doubt, because the doubt is removed by no rebuke turned their way. And so in contrast to the battlefield absentees, these two tribes are singled out along with the others that showed up to the glory of God. And may the world not out serve us.

May they not be more courageous than us. Verse 19, the kings came and fought. Then the kings of Canaan fought in Tanak by the waters of Megiddo. They took no spoils of the silver. So the kings came and they fought, and the kings of Canaanite, but they were defeated of course.

They did not, they would, they did not get the spoils that they wanted. Now this of course, what part do I want to come? Megiddo, the ideal battlefield. A lot to say about Megiddo, the valley of Megiddo. You go to Israel and you get up on those hills all around and you look down at Megiddo and this vast valley. It's all, most of its farmland now. It's beautiful, it's big.

It is one of the ideal battlefields of the world. 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.