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Deborah and Barak
1After the death of Ehud, the Israelites again started disobeying the Lord. 2So the Lord let the Canaanite King Jabin of Hazor conquer Israel. Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, lived in Harosheth-Ha-Goiim. 3Jabin's army had 900 iron chariots, and for 20 years he made life miserable for the Israelites, until finally they begged the Lord for help.
4Deborah the wife of Lappidoth was a prophet and a leader of Israel during those days. 5She would sit under Deborah's Palm Tree between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, where Israelites would come and ask her to settle their legal cases.
6One day, Barak the son of Abinoam was in Kedesh in Naphtali, and Deborah sent word for him to come and talk with her. When he arrived, she said:
I have a message for you from the Lord God of Israel! You are to get together an army of 10,000 men from the Naphtali and Zebulun tribes and lead them to Mount Tabor. 7The Lord will trick Sisera into coming out to fight you at the Kishon River. Sisera will be leading King Jabin's army as usual, and they will have their chariots, but the Lord has promised to help you defeat them.
8“I'm not going unless you go!” Barak told her.
9“All right, I'll go!” she replied. “But I'm warning you that the Lord is going to let a woman defeat Sisera, and no one will honor you for winning the battle.”
Deborah and Barak left for Kedesh, 10where Barak called together the troops from Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand soldiers gathered there, and Barak led them out from Kedesh. Deborah went too.
11At this time, Heber of the Kenite clan was living near the village of Oak in Zaanannim, not far from Kedesh. The Kenites were descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, but Heber had moved and had set up his tents away from the rest of the clan.
12When Sisera learned that Barak had led an army to Mount Tabor, 13he called his troops together and got all 900 iron chariots ready. Then he led his army away from Harosheth-Ha-Goiim to the Kishon River.
14Deborah shouted, “Barak, it's time to attack Sisera! Because today the Lord is going to help you defeat him. In fact, the Lord has already gone on ahead to fight for you.”
Barak led his 10,000 troops down from Mount Tabor. 15And during the battle, the Lord confused Sisera, his chariot drivers, and his whole army. Everyone was so afraid of Barak and his army, that even Sisera jumped down from his chariot and tried to escape. 16Barak's forces went after Sisera's chariots and army as far as Harosheth-Ha-Goiim.
Sisera's entire army was wiped out. 17Only Sisera escaped. He ran to Heber's camp, because Heber and his family had a peace treaty with the king of Hazor. Sisera went to the tent that belonged to Jael, Heber's wife. 18She came out to greet him and said, “Come in, sir! Please come on in. Don't be afraid.”
After they had gone inside, Sisera lay down, and Jael covered him with a blanket. 19“Could I have a little water?” he asked. “I'm thirsty.”
Jael opened a leather bottle and poured him some milk, then she covered him back up.
20“Stand at the entrance to the tent,” Sisera told her. “If someone comes by and asks if anyone is inside, tell them ‘No.’ ”
21Sisera was exhausted and soon fell fast asleep. Jael took a hammer and drove a tent-peg through his head into the ground, and he died.
22Meanwhile, Barak had been following Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “The man you're looking for is inside,” she said. “Come in and I'll show him to you.”
They went inside, and there was Sisera—dead and stretched out with a tent-peg through his skull.
23That same day God defeated the Canaanite King Jabin while the Israelites looked on, and his army was no longer powerful enough to attack the Israelites. 24Jabin grew weaker while the Israelites kept growing stronger, until at last the Israelites destroyed him.
Reflect
Have you ever known someone like Deborah, who seemingly had no office or credentials but everyone went to her for her godly wisdom? She sat under a palm tree, which, like other trees in Israel before the time of the tabernacle, was associated with revelation from God. When she spoke, it was with the authority of God. Given that women did not usually have leadership positions in that society, both Deborah and Jael must have been very strong women.
Israel was under the oppression of the Canaanites at the time, who had superior weaponry. When Deborah calls on Barak to fulfill what God has called him to do, he has more faith in Deborah than he has in God. When we are not yet mature Christians, we often rely more on Christian leaders than on our own relationship with God. This is very much what was going on with the nation of Israel. And when their leaders died, the people turned against God or forgot about him. In our lives, when Christian leaders turn out to be human and make mistakes or disappoint us, it challenges our faith as well.
In this story, Barak turns out to be a disappointing leader. God clearly had his plan all worked out but it took people like Deborah and Jael, and their faith in him, to carry out the plan.
Respond
Dear Lord God,
Please help me to trust you and not rely on other rely on other people to keep me faithful to you. When I am in leadership, help me to lean on you and follow your plans. Through Jesus Christ, who is my leader and guide. Amen.
Janet Epp Buckingham
Janet lives in Ottawa, Canada and has served as the Director of Global Advocacy for the World Evangelical Alliance since July 2021. She is also the Executive Editor of the International Journal for Religious Freedom, the flagship publication of the International Institute for Religious Freedom. Books: Donald E. Buckingham, Carolyn Marcotte, Janet L. Epp Buckingham, Bonnie Manning, and Lee Thompson, Learning About Law, (McGraw-Hill Ryerson: Toronto, 1997); Janet Epp Buckingham, Withering Rights: Religious Freedom in Canada, (The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada: 2004