Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
These days, the U.S. Armed Forces give women a wider role in military operations. They must have heard of Deborah. She was a judge in Israel who masterminded the overthrow of an evil Canaanite oppressor. Today, the story of one woman who exercised great faith and great leadership. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, Israel asked for and got judges to rule over them. Today, you'll take us into Judges Chapter 4 to talk about a woman against the world.
Well Dave, not only was Deborah a very heroic woman, but I'm bringing to mind the fact that in Hebrews Chapter 11, she is listed there as a heroine of faith. What an opportunity it is for us to be reminded that God uses different people in different circumstances and situations. To all those who are listening today, I want to encourage you to be a light for Jesus Christ no matter where he has planted you. And we are here to encourage you. We want to not only encourage you, but give you instruction on that journey. And I want to thank you in advance for the many of you who support this ministry.
And as perhaps you've already heard me say, the month of August is very special. This is the month of our matching gift challenge. If you have never given to the ministry of Running to Win, would you pray and ask God for guidance? I know that we have many opportunities to give to many ministries. Would you consider Running to Win being one of those ministries? Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.
Thank you in advance for joining hands with us as we get the gospel around the world. When Charles Dickens began his book, The Tale of Two Cities, he said it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness, the epoch of belief, the epoch of incredulity. It was a season of light, a season of darkness, a spring of hope, a winter of despair.
Well, he was talking, I believe, about London and Paris, London, free and open, optimistic Paris, filled with cynicism and oppression. But I suppose that that could apply to America today. It is the best of times in some respects and it's also the worst of times. The other day, somebody asked me what I thought about the future of the United States and I said, well, if the last 20 years continue, if we continue on a moral and spiritual free fall, we can't be very optimistic. So that's the worst of times. But there's also the possibility of it being the best of times. Who knows what God might do if we get our priorities straight and if we begin to understand his will.
We don't know what God might have in mind. Now let's go back 1,200 years before the time of Christ. If you were to ask the Canaanites living in the land close to the Sea of Galilee, just north of the Sea of Galilee, as well as spreading south, they would say this is the best of times. This is the time when Israel is under our heel. This is the time when we can have high taxes. This is the time when we're in control. This is the time when we're beginning to rebuild the fortifications that Joshua tore down. This is, for us, the best of times.
But if you were to ask an Israelite, they'd give a different picture. They would say this is the worst of times. Perhaps if you went up to an Israelite in those days and asked them what they were thinking about their condition, they would say, well, things are a lot worse than they were yesterday, but a lot better than they're going to be about tomorrow. This is the worst of times.
High taxes plundered, slavery. And yet in the midst of that situation, God did something and it ended up being the best of times. The story is located in the Bible in the fourth chapter of the book of Judges. Judges chapter four. As you know, this is a series of messages on the book of Judges and this is number three in the series. And our goal today is to show how God uses darkness to bring about light.
That's our agenda. And to put this in context, there was a king by the name of Jabin. It says in chapter four, verse one, after he had died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord. So the Lord has 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 Harashath, Hagioin, as he had 900 iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years. And they cried onto the Lord for help. If you're doing some math here, it's interesting to see that the nation is really going downhill because earlier we read that in chapter three, verse eight, it says that they served a man by the name of Cushim and they served him eight years. The next man happened to be a king called Eglon. And the text says in chapter three, verse 14, they served him 18 years. Here we just read it in the last part of verse three, they served the king, Sisera, 20 years. Now you know, of course, that each generation has to learn the lessons of the previous generation.
We'd like to think that the new generation would learn more quickly and that they would see these cycles going before them and they'd say, you know what we should do? We should cry to the Lord. But it looks as if every cycle takes longer because they refuse to cry to the Lord until they are absolutely desperate, which is true of human nature. I've seen people who did not cry unto the Lord until they found out they had terminal cancer or they had a heart problem. Then they began to think about God.
We as human beings are just like that. And in the midst of this situation, God, though, begins to intervene and he raises up a woman by the name of Deborah. I'm told that the name Deborah means honey bee.
And you look at her and she was quite a woman who was like a queen bee because everybody came to her. Notice the text, verse four. Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidus, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the palm of Deborah between Rhema and Bethel.
That's about 12 miles north of Jerusalem in the country of Ephraim. And the Israelites came to her to have their disputes settled. First of all, we notice that the Lord raised up a woman who was a wise woman because she was a prophetess, first of all. Now, a prophet received messages from God. You'll notice in this text, she's going to give Barak a message from God that really has specificity.
She heard the word of the Lord. And in the Old Testament, there are only three women prophets. There is Miriam, the sister of Moses. There is Huldah, who during the time of Josiah was a prophet.
And then there's Deborah. But she received these revelations from God. Now, sometimes prophets did not receive revelation. They simply proclaimed the word that God had already revealed.
We sometimes use the expression that way, too. We speak about those who are prophets. We may say prophets not because they can predict the future, but they're prophets in the sense that they proclaim God's word that he has revealed. Now, I have to raise a question that I'm not going to answer this morning, and that is, does God continue to give some people special revelation so that they are prophets in the Old Testament sense of the word, where they receive direct revelation from God regarding matters? That dispute is going on in the Christian church. And I hope to preach a series of messages on discernment.
And we're going to tackle that question directly. I'm already excited about the series because I have come up with seven characteristics of a false prophet. And once you have these characteristics in mind, you can watch some of these folks on TV and you can say, yes, I see that this person is a false prophet. You may have questions about the other one.
It may not be clear. Some may be true prophets of God, in quotes, but the Bible is filled with chapter after chapter about warning about false prophets. We know that Deborah was a true prophet of God because her predictions came to pass, and obviously she was a very wise woman. She was a wise woman because she was a prophetess, also because she was a judge sitting under her palm tree.
Deborah sat under her palm tree and judged Israel. What did a judge do? A judge heard disputes. Her reputation spread, so from all over the country they said we're going to talk to Deborah because when you go before her, you have binding arbitration.
Whatever she decides, we agree ahead of time, we will accept. So Mr. Holstein says, I had a cow that was stolen by Mr. Butcher. And so what did they do? They go to Deborah and they say, Deborah, look, here are the facts, and you rule on it, and she ruled on it. Do you think of anything different between that and the terrible contrast in our court system today where lawsuits go on and on and on unendingly? Deborah just said, give me the facts and I'll rule on it.
She was a judge. Here's what I want you to notice, folks. Israel is in great slavery to the Canaanites. God has not yet miraculously intervened.
He's going to, but he hasn't yet. What's Deborah doing? Is she complaining?
No. What Deborah is doing is she's doing something where she is. I want you to know today that there are things that we can do even though we have not yet seen in America the intervention of God that we would like to see.
We can all represent God well. And that's what Deborah was doing. She was a wise woman.
But I like this lady because she was not only wise, she was highly motivated. And I want you to notice in the text that she recognized that she didn't have all the gifts but she had a vision as to what God might do. And so you'll notice it says in verse six, she sent for Barak a son of Abinohom from Kadesh in Naphtali and said to him, the Lord God of Israel commands you. Go take with you 10,000 men of Naphtali and Zebulun, those were the tribes that were around the Sea of Galilee, and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and his troops, to the Kaishan River and give him into your hands. Now those are God's words. Deborah says, I'm commanding you because God is saying, take 10,000 men, go to the Kaishan River, which is actually south of the Sea of Galilee, but that was the territory that was occupied by the king of Canaan. And because he had a coalition of people together up there north of the Sea of Galilee and they were moving south and they were occupying that part of the land. And he says, what I want you to do is to, God says, I want you to go there and take 10,000 men and go right to the River Kaishan. Kaishan basically is not a deep river.
It's like a creek unless it's a rainy season. And God says, I. Deborah is speaking here the words of the Lord when she says, I will lure Sisera into your hands. She's saying, God says he will do this. Now you'll notice that she gave him both a command and she also gave him a promise that if you obeyed the Lord, victory would be certain.
And so she was a woman who was able to motivate the troops. You see, Barak was a great military leader, but he was timid. He was scared. In fact, we can see how scared he was because Barak says to her in verse eight, if you go with me, I will go. But if you don't go with me, I won't go.
Hey, is that a man speaking or what? 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 a Sisera over to a woman. Now you would think, wouldn't you, if you just read this far that Sisera is going to be handed over to Deborah, but that's not true.
Sisera was handed over to the hands of a woman, but a different woman who's mentioned later in this chapter. My point is simply that Deborah was able to motivate people to action. She was able to encourage Barak and say that I will even go with you.
If you're too scared, I will go with you and we'll rally the troops together. Now that's the kind of leadership that gets results and our desire here at the church and throughout all of the evangelical community should be that we should have leaders that are so committed and so brave and so courageous and so wise that even the timid will be willing to follow them. She was a motivated woman, but she was a God-theoring woman. She was a believing woman.
She was a woman who trusted God. Now here's the point that you have to understand that Israel was totally outnumbered, out-financed, out-gunned. Israel had 10,000 troops with very little equipment, very few swords and shields. You remember the text says that Jabin the king and Sisera, his military commander, had 900 chariots of iron and archaeologists have shown that yes, there was iron in those days. In fact, later on you'll remember that it talks about Israel actually having to go to the Philistines in order to get their iron sharpened and to get what they needed to be able to build iron tools. And so you have an overwhelming superiority. You have 900 chariots and an undisclosed number of men.
We don't know how many, but certainly a lot more than 10,000. And here are the Israelites going to the Kaishan River in effect, putting themselves in harm's way, politically, militarily committing suicide because this would not be a wise military move except that God had said do this. And in the midst of that, Deborah had confidence that God would deliver the enemy into their hands.
What a remarkable woman. Remember that our greatest need always is to get a new fresh revelation from God. No matter what you're going through, no matter who your enemy may be, whether real or imagined, you always need to understand that our vision of God has to be expanded.
We have to be renewed in the spirit as to what God can do and the power of God and the love of God and the care of God and the long suffering of God. Actually, the military excursion turned out this way. It has three stages and I'll tell you them briefly and then you can read them in the rest of the text at your leisure. First of all, Israel does get together 10,000 men.
Barak does. He goes to the Kaishan River. That's stage number one. And stage number two, the king of the Canaanites says to himself, this is a marvelous opportunity.
I'm going to march in and I'm going to take over. It was not even close. But the scripture says something happened. And Deborah and Barak later on sang a song. You'll notice in chapter 5 verse 1, on that day, Deborah and Barak, son of Abinom, sang this song. Now, we don't know whether or not they sang a duet or whether they sang solos or whether they taught the choir. But this is the song of Deborah. And you'll notice that she says in verse 20, from the heavens the stars fought.
She's recounting what happened that day. From the heavens the stars fought. From their courses they fought against Sisera. The river Kaishan swept them away. The age old river, the river Kaishan, march on my soul, be strong. What happened is, at a dry time of year when nobody was expecting a rain, and when it says the stars fought, it doesn't mean that the stars caused the rain.
This is very poetic here. What she's saying is that the sky began to pour rain. The Kaishan River began to flood. The 900 chariots got stuck. And the Israelites were able to rout the enemy because the king's force and coalition fell apart and everybody was trying to scramble for his own life and everybody was running. And the Israelites were able to conquer that day.
And the Bible says that God gave the enemy, important words here, God gave the enemy into the hands of the Israelites. That's step two. Step three is that Jabin dies at the hands of a woman, but it is not at the hands of Deborah. He goes into a tent and he thinks that it's a tent of a friend by the name of Heber. You know, Heber and I, we used to hang out, he said to himself. And so he goes into the tent, but Heber has a wife by the name of Jael, J-A-E-L. And Sisera is sleeping there in the tent, the military commander of the pagan Canaanites. He was so zonked and she went over and she took a tent peg and put it through his temple and nailed him to the ground. That's what you call nailing somebody. And then the Bible with characteristic understatement says, that he died. I guess he did.
He died. And then she and Barak, they sing this marvelous song about God's deliverance and they talk about the wonder of his power. What a remarkable woman Deborah was. But we have to get this nailed in a different way.
We have to get this down to where we live. So let me give you three life transforming lessons that we can take with us today. Number one, the future of all nations ultimately is in God's hands, not ours.
Oh, I'd like to shout that from the house tops. You'll notice in the text, and I emphasize this in a previous message and you probably will hear me say it again, but please remember that it says the Lord sold Israel into the hands of Kashem. The Lord sold Israel into the hands of Eglon. And now we read it today again in another text chapter four, verse two. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, King of Canaan. And later on, when they won the victory, when Israel won the victory, it is said that God gave them a victory and delivered the enemy into Israel's hand. Who is in charge here anyway but God?
I do need to tell you that I don't know. You should maybe be careful what I say at this point, but could it be that theologically we could say that it is God who has sold us into the hands of liberal judges? It is God who is selling America into the hands of prenographers. It is God who is selling this nation into the hands of those who would want to destroy freedom of religion. Could it be that back behind all this is God and why was he doing it in Israel's time?
Because of their disobedience. Might it be that this is the price of our lukewarmness and disobedience as his people? I don't want to press the point, but theologically God is in charge.
And you know, that's a very important point to keep in mind during this election season, when you have so much back and forth, so much shouting. Let us as believers always remember that God is in charge. Now that doesn't mean that we aren't involved. Of course we are. But at the same time, we fight all of our battles with a sense of confidence and joy, knowing that in the end, God wins. We here at Running to Win rejoice in the fact that because of people just like you, Running to Win is in 50 different countries in seven different languages. The growth of this ministry is because of partners who have said to themselves, we believe in the gospel, we believe in the opportunity that is given to us through the ministry of Running to Win to get the gospel to so many different places. Would you consider helping us? And I have some very good news for you. The month of August is matching gift challenge month.
What that means is that every gift that you give is doubled. Now I hope that you have a pen or pencil in your hand, because in a moment I'm going to be giving you some very important contact info. But in advance, let me thank you so much for standing with us, for holding our hands as it were, as we continue to proclaim the gospel. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.
That's RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Pray about helping us. We look to people just like you to become a part of this ministry, and together we rejoice that souls are being saved, thanks to the good news of the gospel.
You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Erwin Lutzer with part one of A Woman Against the World, The Story of Deborah. It's the third of 12 messages on the topic we've been down this road before, taken from the book of Judges. Next time, the saga of Deborah concludes. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
