Battlefield Records (Part C)

What stands out to me most in this chapter is the call to duty. That's what strikes me the most.

Over the years, I mean, there were other things, but now I'm at a place where I look at this chapter and it just stands out. Because I know what it looks like when Christians serve, and I know what it looks like when they stop serving or never serve. And I know what happens when they could go to their graves serving.

What will the battlefield records show about you and me? 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 as he teaches through Judges Chapter 5. Elijah and 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 it's 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. 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 sheepfolds 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. It never comes. And 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. Well, 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. Action 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.

You know, 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 into the, this is going on record.

This is a battlefield record. Who didn't show up? The Transjordan Gad remained there. Gilead, that's the east side of Jordan, the Transjordan 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, 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 him nicely. I try to catch him. 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.

Catchy little dinghy. You just, don't go out to sea Asher. Might get, 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 they just, and Asher is 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 the chili 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 and 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.

You can, God can convince us to do something very gently and sweetly. Sweet. It's Lord. Serving faith includes knowledge, and that knowledge leads to duty, 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, there's hills all around, and you look down at Megiddo and this vast valley. It's all, most of its farmland now.

It's beautiful and it's big. It is one of the ideal battlefields of the world. Barak again defeated, defeated Sisera there. Gideon will defeat the Midianites there. King Saul died.

Mount Gilboa is on the perimeter of Megiddo. King Josiah, that great king, the last good king of Israel among men. He was, he never should have been there, but he was, and he was killed there. And the battle of Armageddon. Antichrist's forces will be defeated there also, as told in the book of Revelation in chapter 16 and 17. Now verse 20, they fought from the heavens.

The stars from their courses fought against Sisera. Now the victory is described in vivid terms, or with metaphor, but it's nice. The heavens, the stars, they fought, and it is a reference to, now the stars don't cause rain, the heavens do, but it's creation. The divine intervention on the battlefield that day of how God neutralized the 900 chariots. It is the time when kings go out to war. It was not during the rain season or else they would not have taken their chariots. They would have just taken infantry. Well, it was likely sunny over these chariots the whole day when the water and rains in the mountains brought down, of course, these torrents of water, and it could have been rain there on the battlefield too.

That's just one option. You know, the water could have come from up in the mountains. When I was a kid there was a reservoir, a large reservoir in back of the high school, and you could walk down the path that came from this reservoir with no problems, dry most of the time. But when the rains were heavy that reservoir would overflow and that dry walk there turned into this raging river. It was serious.

It was quite impressive. So, you know, if you've never seen a, you know, how a dry wash can turn into this torrent of water, just believe that it can. California has a lot of problems with that. People get killed and they go down there and all of a sudden these flash floods come from nowhere and they're not ready for it. And they get even just by the debris in the water clunking you upside your head, for example. The riverbed, anyway, of Kishon turned into this torrent. God did it. It was out of season. No one expected it on the enemy side. No one expected it on Israel's side. And God, of course, brought these things to bear and that turned the battle in Israel's favor while the horses were bogged down trying to pull the chariots and the men were trying to get the horses marshaled for war.

The Jews were just picking them off. And that is the miracle that she is referring to. Again, the rains could have been upstream or they could have been overhead. Verse 21, the torrent of Kishon swept away, swept them away.

The ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon, oh my soul, march in strength. And so Deborah is there saying that their torrents of water were coming down and just doing them in. We saw Pharaoh's army wiped out by the sea and we saw the Amalekites wiped out by the hailstones and other elements of creation that God brought to bear on behalf of his people, annihilating the enemy's threat. Verse 22, then the horses' hooves pounded the galloping, gallopings of his steeds. The horses trying to get out of this. They came rushing in.

They just didn't make it out. Verse 23, curse Miraz, said the angel of Yahweh. Curse its inhabitants bitterly because they did not come to help Yahweh to the help of Yahweh against the mighty. Well, there's a heavy curse from the prophetess. That means God is speaking through her. That means it's God's curse and that's what it says. The curse is pronounced, but it's not pronounced by Deborah or Barak.

It is the Lord. Curse Miraz, said the angel of Yahweh. Curse its inhabitants bitterly because they did not come to the help of Yahweh, to the help of Yahweh against the mighty.

And so those tribes that were left out, they missed the blessing and they hear Miraz, who we would otherwise never hear of, they were singled out as being judged for their inaction. And so, you know, I don't know how a Christian who insists on not serving can justify it. Usually they say something like, well, those people over there are evil. That church doesn't know what they're talking about.

They get some lame excuse and they're the only ones that are right. The Tigger mentality. You know, I'm the wonderful thing about Tiggers and I don't remember how it all goes, but I know he ends up saying, I'm the only one. I could use Elijah, but I changed up. Because Elijah again thought he was the only one and God said that's not so. He says because they did not come to help Yahweh, their sin went beyond failing to assist their brethren.

It went to failing to help the causes of the Lord, verse 24. And now she changes, she gets to the end of the battle with the commander, Sisera's execution by Jael, verse 24. Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber, the Canaanite. Blessed is she among women in tents. Now, she's not a Jewish woman. Nothing anti-Semitic about that. She just simply wasn't. Neither was Zipporah, Moses' wife, or Rahab, or Ruth.

And that is an encouragement. Because you can come to the scripture in the Old Testament and you can just get the feeling that these blessings are only for the Jews. And God is saying these blessings are on the Jews, but I've expanded them.

And I wanted to use these blessings through my people. And when they did not receive Messiah, I used Gentiles. And the Gentiles are no better than the Jews and Jews are no better than the Gentiles. I heard one Jew say, why is there even a distinction?

And he's got a good point. Why does the world have it earth versus the Jews? I mean, no other people have that. You don't pick on the Eskimos like that. I'm a Gentile.

What are you, an Eskimo? I mean, it just doesn't. Why are the Jews singled out? Because there's something spiritual about their existence. And man does not have to see it or agree with it to participate in this fact from heaven. And so, verse five is this blessing pronounced upon Jael for her heroism.

And here we have some details. Verse 25, he asked for water. She gave milk. She brought out cream in a lordly bowl.

Now then, remember, this is the song. So she brings him this dairy product. I think it's to help him sleep so she can do him in. And he's oblivious to it. He thinks he's getting care. She covers him up with a blanket. He's exhausted from the battle and running from the battle.

He feels very safe. What's not clear is at what point did she decide, this is the enemy and I better kill him. Well, we don't need to know because we know how it came. But this part about, you know, Deborah, she's got this sarcasm. And this is what I believe it is when she says in a lordly bowl. I think there's sarcasm in that. It's like he's so full of himself. He thought, you know, this great commander. And yet he's going to his death in a shameful way. So much for this lordly bowl.

A lot of good that did you. You know, we have a saying, no hitches on a hearse. You can have whatever you want. You're not taking it with you when you die. And that's just, I love that in scripture that they tell it like it is. They say things that we're feeling and believing.

And sometimes, you know, we may be too reserved to call it like it is. She's not. Verse 26, speaking of Jael, Deborah writes, she stretched her hand to the tent peg, her right hand to the workman's handle. She pounded Sisera. She pierced his head. She split and struck through his temple.

Gory, right? She was serious. I like the fact that she says with her right hand, she reached for the hammer. I'm thinking that Deborah spoke with Jael.

Tell me how you did it. And she say, I grabbed my tent peg and I picked the hammer up like this. And Deborah's got that mental picture when she writes a song.

I don't know if it exactly turned out that way, but that, that's not far from how things turn out. Remember also, these people were used to killing their meals. I don't mean on the stove. I mean out back. They, goats, cutting throats of goats.

See how that rhymes? Rabbits or whatever else. Well, not rabbits, unclean, but other animal. They, so, you know, this may seem quite savage to us, but it's not so. You get the feeling through this that there was more than one blow administered to Sisera's noggin. The workman's hammer, she pounded Sisera. She pierced his temple. She split and struck through his temple. And she pierced his head, struck through his temple.

And I say that because verse 27, we talked about this last session in Judges. At her feet, he sank, he fell. He lay still at her feet. He sank, he fell. Where he sank, there he fell dead.

So she's driving us home. So I'm thinking what, what happened, it wasn't a single death blow. The first blow, you know, injured him and he, but it was severe. He was gone, but he rose up and he collapsed and fell at her feet. And then she finished him off. He wouldn't get up again. He scared me to death.

I thought he was still alive and things would go bad. This is war. And the rules of war strain everything. Decency and civility, that all begins to take a second seat. War is probably the most dramatic human experience on earth. Only on earth because death, the most dramatic experience, is that first moment. Where do you go?

What, up or down? Verse 28, the mother of Sisera looked through the window and cried out through the lattice, why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarries the clatter of his chariots? This is more so, this is Deborah saying, you know, you people tried to kill us.

You enslaved us. And so she's, she's projecting. She says, let me tell you what's happening in their side of the camp.

This hope where there is no hope. His mother's thinking he's going to come home. Where was taking him so long? Well, I'll tell you what's taking him so long, Jael's tent peg. He's not coming home. And so she's envisioning those, those hours that are ticking by. He's like, he's getting a little late, he should have been here by now. I mean 900 chariots to get the Jews?

What happened? And her sarcasm continues. Verse 29, her wisest ladies answered her.

Yes, she answered herself. Are they not, verse 20, verse 30, are they not finding and dividing the spoil to every man a girl or two? For Cicero, plunder of dyed garments, plunder of garments embroidered and dyed, two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter. So, now he wasn't a looter to them.

I mean, in our English, to them, he was the hero taking the spoils of war, but Deborah's saying, yeah, he's not a hero, and he's dead. And he's not getting any of this stuff. But this is what he came for. He came for the silver and the gold and the robes and the women and anything else he could lay his grubby fingers on.

He didn't get them. God put an end to it. And this is going into the song. And children of Israel, rejoice when God fights for you. Don't be apostates. And so they told themselves what they wanted to hear, filled with this calculated confidence that how could the invincibility of Cicero's 900 chariots be defeated by these rake-carrying, shovel-wielding Jews?

Yeah, well, their false encouragement turned out to be their worst nightmare. And Deborah records it because her people had gone through it. Verse 31, thus let all your enemies perish to Yahweh, but let those who love him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength, so the land had rest for forty years. So the song ends where she says, let them be like the sun in full strength and all of her brightness and intensity. Amalekai, of course, picks up on the brightness of the sun and amongst the righteous also. Each character played their part. Deborah had her role. Barak had his role. The tribes that came out, Jael had her role. The other tribes, they had their role, but they did not show up for duty. What stands out to me most in this chapter is the call to duty.

That's what strikes me the most. Well, over the years, I mean, there were other things, but now I'm at a place where I look at this chapter and it just stands out because I know what it looks like when Christians serve, and I know what it looks like when they stop serving or never serve. And I know what happens when they could go to their graves serving. What will the battlefield records show about you and me? Our participation in the Christian battlefield.

What will the record show? This is the record of Deborah at this time, but the records are still being kept. 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.