Amen, Judges chapter 4, the Bible reads in verse number 1, and the children of Israel
again did evil in the sight of the Lord when Ehud was dead.
This is part of the cycle that we see throughout the book of Judges where when they have
a good leader, when they have someone who's filled with the Spirit of God, who's
guiding them and motivating them and preaching to them, then they do well.
But when they don't, things fall apart.
Everything rises and falls on leadership we see in the book of Judges.
When they have a poor leader, they get away from the Lord and they do evil in his sight
and they go through this cycle.
And if you back up just a little bit, it says in chapter 3 verse 40, so Moab was
subdued that day under the hand of Israel and the land had rest four score years.
So there were 80 years where things were going good, 80 years of peace, but then
after Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again do evil in the sight of the Lord.
Verse 2, and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan that reigned
in Hazor.
And that's an interesting choice of words, isn't it?
He sold them into the hand of Jabin.
Isn't that kind of an interesting way of putting that?
When I see that wording, it makes me just think that God is emphasizing just how upset
and how angry he is because that seems pretty insulting to be sold, to be sold out.
You know, he's just, I'm done with you, forget you, I'm selling you into the hand
of Jabin, the king of Canaan.
And the Bible says that the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in herosheth
of the Gentiles, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, for he had 900 chariots
of iron and 20 years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
So God isn't just going through the motions with discipline here.
I mean, he sells them into his hand and for 20 years they are mightily oppressed.
So they are having to work for him.
You know, what does it mean to be oppressed in the book of Judges or, you know, to be
under the Philistines or to be under the Midianites?
You know, what this looks like is basically they go and work hard and they produce wealth
and someone else takes all the wealth that they produce.
So they, you know, they grow a bunch of food and somebody comes in and takes away
a bunch of it and they're left to just try to scrape by on the leftovers, okay?
So they're just barely getting by, they're living in poverty, they're being abused
by this king of Canaan and he's oppressing them mightily.
And so they cry out to the Lord, you know, unfortunately often it takes bad times before
people will turn to the Lord.
And so now they're crying to the Lord as they're mightily oppressed.
Now in verse 4 we're introduced to one of the main characters of this story which
is Deborah.
The Bible says Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that
time and she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Rhema and Bethel and
Mount Ephraim and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
And again, this is a sign of the spiritual condition of their nation that a woman is
fulfilling this role.
That people are coming to a woman for judgment because there's not a great man
of God or a preacher or some kind of a leader like we've seen with the previous judges
of Othniel or Ehud, before that we had leaders like Moses and Joshua.
There's no strong male leadership and so when they want to figure out what the Bible
says or what's right and wrong, they're going to a woman to ask her.
They're going to Deborah to ask her.
And of course this is not the ideal situation.
You know, the Bible teaches that we should have strong male leadership in our homes and
in our country and in the local church.
In a perfect world, men are leading.
That's the way God has ordained and designed things.
And it's not anything against women.
It's just that men and women have different roles in society and God has clearly stated
that the husband is the head of the wife, the man is the head of the home, and
that women are to keep silence in the church and that I suffer not a woman to
teach nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence, the Bible says in 1 Timothy
chapter 2.
Some people will take the story of Deborah and try to say, well this is why we should
have female pastors because look at Deborah.
But again, they're taking the story out of context.
This is a bad situation.
This is when they're enslaved and they've done evil in the sight of the Lord and they're
in a bad case.
They go to her for judgment.
Now also, I want to point out that I do believe that Deborah was a godly woman.
I don't think she's doing anything wrong here.
I don't think that Deborah is out of bounds because I don't see Deborah traveling throughout
Israel on a preaching campaign, preaching crusades or anything like that.
I don't see her as some kind of a woman who's trying to take a man's role or something
or trying to be manly or a strong leader or usurp authority over men.
I don't see her doing that at all.
I see her sitting under a palm tree.
That's what it says.
I mean she's sitting under a tree.
She knows the Bible.
She's walking with God, God speaking to her, and people are coming to her for judgment,
meaning that if they need to resolve an issue between two people, they go to her and
she will, because she actually knows the Bible, she actually walks with God and hears
from God.
And so this is a situation where there's not a strong male leader, so this is who
they go to.
There's a similar situation in the book of 2 Kings when they go to Huldah, the prophetess,
because they had completely lost the Bible.
They hadn't even read the books of Moses because they couldn't even find a copy of
it that was even in print.
It was out of print, right?
And then when they're going through and cleaning up the temple, they find a copy of the book
of the law and they read it and they say, oh no, we're in big trouble because we're
breaking all these laws.
Who do we ask for advice about this?
Who do we go to to interpret this book for us?
And they go to a woman, you know, they go to Huldah the prophetess.
And throughout the Bible, there are a lot of examples of wise women or prophetesses
or just women who know God and can resolve disputes or explain things.
I don't think Deborah's doing anything wrong here.
It's just that she's the one they go to because they don't have anybody else to
go to.
Now it says in verse number 5,
So we see that Deborah, you know, she wants a man to step up and lead.
She's reaching out to Barak and saying, look, hasn't God told you to do this?
Now the way that she words that in verse number 6, about halfway through,
hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded saying?
That makes it sound like this isn't the first time that this command has been given.
It doesn't seem like she just got this new revelation and she's revealing this to
him for the first time.
It seems more like she's trying to light a fire under him for something that he already
knew that he was supposed to do because she's using the past tense and she's asking
as a negative question, didn't the Lord tell you to do this?
Now if this is new, he'd be like, I don't know, did he?
You know, this is the first time I'm hearing about it.
It's clear that it's already been commanded and Barak is slacking.
He's not doing it.
He's dragging his feet and she is trying to light a fire under him, motivate him.
She's not trying to take his place.
She's not trying to be the leader of the battle.
She is trying to light a fire under him, motivate him, and get him to do his job
because he's the man that God's calling.
You know, God's calling this man, Barak, to be a leader and he's not responding.
And then Deborah is reaching out to him, trying to get him to do it.
Now in verse, and God has already promised the victory because at the end of verse 7,
I will deliver him into thine hand.
This is the answer to the prayer of all the children of Israel who have been crying
out to God for help.
Barak is their answer to prayer.
He's going to win.
But in verse number 8, and Barak said unto her, if thou wilt go with me, then I will
go.
But if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.
Now this is a really interesting statement because it's really similar to what Moses
says to God about going in to the promised land.
He says, look, if you're not going to go with me, then I'm not going.
So I don't think that this is an altogether bad sentiment here.
It's not, you know, because we could take a really simplistic view and just look at
this as, well, he's scared.
He's a wimp.
He's hiding behind a woman.
But I think there's a little more going on here if you think about this because actually
Barak is right in a sense because what he really means, it's not that he just really
wants to have Deborah around.
What he really wants is he wants the Lord to go with him.
But the problem with what he's asking for here in verse number 8 is that he should
have his own walk with God and be able to go and just take the promise of God
himself, take the word of God himself, and just go do the job on his own.
But it's like he knows that he doesn't have the walk with God required.
He knows that he is weak spiritually and that's why he needs to lean on the spirituality
of Deborah.
So I don't think it's necessarily that he's just scared or a weakling.
I mean, obviously that's part of it.
But I think that there's another aspect here of just that he wants God to go with
him and he feels like, well, if Deborah doesn't go with me, I don't know if the Lord's
really with me if Deborah's not with me because he didn't have a good enough walk with
God on his own.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
It's like he needs this mediatrix, you know, to go with him and somehow, you know, bring
the power of God with him instead of just relying on his own faith, you know, having
his own faith, his own walk with God.
God's already told him, go and I'll deliver them.
He shouldn't need Deborah there.
But I think he wants to lean on her walk with God.
I think what he's saying is very similar to what Moses said.
Look, I don't want to go without the Lord going with me.
I want the angel of the Lord.
And I think he just sees Deborah as the angel of the Lord.
And that's the weakness of Barak here is a weakness of not having his own walk with
God.
And I think that there are men like this today, I don't know of any in our church,
but there are men like this in Christianity, and I've seen them in other churches, where
their wife is sort of the one that they lean on spiritually.
You know, where their wife is the one who knows more about the Bible, she prays more,
she's more involved in church, and he just kind of takes an approach of, well, you know,
that's kind of her department, you know, I let her deal with those things.
She picks the church, she kind of leads the family spiritually, and that's not the
way that it should be in a home, you know.
And if that's you tonight, and like I said, I don't think we have any guys like that,
but if there is a guy like that tonight, and you're thinking, you know, maybe that's
me a little bit, where my wife kind of is the more spiritual.
You know, what you need to do is you need to dig into the Word of God, and you
need to get on your knees, and you need to pass her up spiritually, amen, because
you need to be the leader in your home.
You know, you don't want to let your wife be the one to just lead spiritually, well,
she's more religious, well, you know, it's time for you to get more religious then.
You know, it's the same thing if my wife were stronger than me, physically, then I'd
go hit the gym.
It's kind of the same thing, right?
You know, it's just kind of an area where you're supposed to lead, then if she's
outperforming you, you know, you may want to just kind of step up to the plate, and
be able to lead spiritually, and know the Bible, and take an interest in the things
of God.
And obviously, it's not a competition.
When I say pass her up, I'm being a little bit facetious.
What I really mean is just to get more spiritual, take the lead.
Obviously it's not a contest or a competition.
If we compare ourselves amongst ourselves, we're not wise.
My wife and I aren't trying to see who's more spiritual or something like that.
The point is, though, that men need to be a spiritual leader, and not to have to
lean upon their wife as the spiritual anchor of the home.
And I'm telling you, I've seen it many times, where the wife is really into church,
reading the Bible, and the husband is just kind of like, nah, whatever.
You know, and he's more interested in watching a ball game.
Time to grow up, and get interested in something that really matters.
And so, Barak is leaning upon the spirituality of Deborah.
It's not like he wants Deborah to be a human shield.
It's not like he wants Deborah out in the battlefield, you know, watching his back
or something.
He wants Deborah to go with him for one reason, he wants the Lord to be with him.
And he doesn't feel confident in his own walk with God.
He doesn't have enough faith on his own, so he has to lean on her faith.
And you know, when you're a child, yeah, you grow up leaning on your parents' faith,
but you better develop your own faith at some point, and have your own walk with
God, not just the faith of your parents.
In verse 9, she said, I will surely go with thee.
That's the same thing that the Lord told Moses.
Notwithstanding the journey that thou takest, shall not be for thine honor.
For the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
And Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh.
Now this is an interesting plot twist that's coming up, because I guarantee you
that when she said that to him, he assumed that she's going to be the hero, right?
Because Deborah's saying, well I'll go with you, but the trip that you take is not
going to be for your own honor, because God is going to sell Sisera, and notice the
same wording, sell, just like he sold them.
Now he's going to sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
I think that the obvious woman is Deborah.
It's the only woman in the story so far, right?
But the plot twist is that the real hero of the story ends up being a housewife.
You know, a stay-at-home, cooking, cleaning kind of a housewife, she ends up being
the real hero, not Deborah.
The one that you might think of as the great hero of the story.
And so the moral of the story is, you know, you don't need to spend your life necessarily
trying to be a Deborah, but you can also just be used of God as a JL, alright?
By being a godly wife and staying at home, God can still use you.
Now look what the Bible says in verse number 10.
And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh, and he went up with ten thousand men
at his feet.
And Deborah went up with him.
Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses,
had severed himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent under the plain of Zayinam,
which is by Kadesh.
And they showed Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoham, was gone up to Mount Tabor.
Now this is one of those cases where you kind of struggle to figure out who the they
is.
In the Bible, it's not always crystal clear.
Who's the they?
You know, I think the they is probably the Kenites themselves, because it says that you've
got Moses' father-in-law, Hobab's descendants here, the Kenites, and one guy in particular
is called Heber the Kenite.
Because he's singular, Heber the Kenite is there, and then it mentions the Kenites, plural,
I would say the they is probably referring to the other Kenites, but he has actually
separated from them.
So he is geographically separate from them now, and the Kenites are the ones who give
Sisera the heads up and tell him, hey look, Barak's coming for you.
They're warning him.
They're giving him intelligence about his enemy.
So it says here in verse number 12, they showed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoham
was gone up to Mount Tabor.
So they're warning him.
So they're his friends.
They're his allies.
So Sisera's allies are the Kenites, right?
So because Sisera knows that Barak's coming for him, you know, now that he has the heads
up, he can get ready to defend.
And so it says, Sisera gathered together all his chariots, verse 13, because he might have
different chariots in different parts of the country defending different borders.
But now that he has the heads up from the Kenites, he gathers together all the chariots,
even 900 chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth
of the Gentiles under the river of Kaishon.
So he's ready for them.
They don't get to do the surprise attack.
He gets all the chariots, all the people, he sets them in a ray, and the chariots
back then gave a huge tactical advantage to just fighting people on foot.
And Deborah said unto Barak in verse 14, Up, for this is the day which the Lord hath
delivered Sisera into thine hand.
Now this is the way God likes to do things, because he wants to get the glory.
He doesn't want to make it too easy.
He doesn't want the children of Israel to think, well we won because Barak snuck up
on them, and we had the tactical advantage, and that's why we won.
So he likes to make things hard, where all 900 chariots are there, all the armies there,
so that it's a very difficult odds for the children of Israel, so that if they win,
they'll know it was the Lord that caused them to win.
It wasn't just that they had some tactical advantage or something like that.
Just like later when he's going to have just 300 men fight against a huge multitude
with the story of Gideon.
So she says that the Lord has delivered Sisera into thine hand.
This is the day.
You know, even though you're not getting the jump on him, this is the day.
Is not the Lord gone out before thee?
So Barak went down from Mount Tabor and 10,000 men after him, and the Lord discomfited
Sisera and all his chariots and all his hosts with the edge of the sword before
Barak.
Now that doesn't say discomforted.
He didn't discomfort them.
He discomfited them.
This is an old word.
Discomfort means to basically put them in disarray, put them in confusion.
In military terminology, this would be called a rout, where the enemy just gets confused
and they just retreat, but it's not an orderly retreat, it's a rout.
So they are discomfited before Barak.
So that Sisera lighted down off his chariot and fled away on his feet.
I mean the battle is going so bad that he abandons the chariot, which is a helpful item
in war.
He abandons it and just says, I gotta get out of here.
It's every man for himself at this point, right?
Because that's what a rout is.
That's what it is to be discomfited instead of working as a unit, as a team, instead
of even having an orderly retreat.
Even if you lose the battle, you could have an orderly retreat and live to fight
another day, but this has gotten to the point where it's just bad.
Every man for himself.
He goes running on foot by himself, just ah, just get me out of here.
He's not leading at all.
It's over.
And so he flees on foot and it says in verse 16, but Barak pursued after the chariots
and after the host unto Herosheth of the Gentiles.
So because Sisera runs away on foot, he's not Barak's target, you know, because Barak,
he's following, he's going after the chariots.
He's going after the army.
He doesn't see one guy run away on foot.
He's going after the chariots, Sisera abandoned his chariot, okay?
So Sisera is just trying to save his own skin and it works because he escapes because
Barak's too busy chasing after the chariots.
I mean, he would love to defeat the commander, Sisera, but he doesn't know that he's
not with the chariots.
He assumes he's with his men, with his army.
So Sisera escapes while Barak pursues the chariots.
And all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword and there was not a man
left.
I mean, it's just a blood.
They just end up just slaughtering everybody, just killing every man to the last man.
And Sisera knew this was going to happen.
That's why he got out of there.
He doesn't want to be a part of this.
So he escapes, alright?
And it's a close call for him.
Verse 17, howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael, the wife of
Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of
Heber the Kenite.
So when he gets to Jael's house, he thinks this is a friend.
He thinks this is an ally.
You know, all the Kenites, I mean, they're the ones who are helping us out and they're
the ones who even gave us the heads up that Barak was even coming to fight us.
And so, of course, I'm going to be safe with Heber the Kenite.
I'm going to find refuge here.
And so he goes to the tent of Heber the Kenite.
It says in verse 18, And Jael went out to meet Sisera and said unto him, Turn in my
lord!
Turn into me!
Fear not!
Now that's kind of a red flag there.
Hey, don't worry.
Don't be scared.
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.
Because you know, wouldn't she just say, wouldn't she just say, hey, come on, come
in, you know, man, I'm so glad you made it to us.
You know, come on in.
It's like, fear not.
Don't worry, I wouldn't do anything bad to you or anything.
I wouldn't hurt you or anything.
Fear not.
And when he turned in unto her, into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.
You know, he's outside, it's nighttime, it gets really cold fast in the desert.
And he's cold, he's tired, he came from this horrible battle that he lost.
So as soon as she comes, you know, she throws a mantle over him, over his shoulders, you
know, because he seems cold.
And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.
And she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink and covered him.
Now why the milk?
Well, you know, it's the proverbial glass of milk before bed to make you sleepy.
Right?
So she gives him a glass of milk so that he'll drink that.
She wants him to go to sleep and to sleep well.
And so she opens a bottle of milk, gave him to drink, and covered him.
Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be when any man
doth come and inquire of thee and say, Is there any man here?
And thou shalt say, No.
Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent and took a hammer in her hand
and went softly unto him and smote the nail into his temples and fastened it into the
ground.
And for you children, your, your temples are the side of your head here.
There's this kind of like little soft, vulnerable part right here on the side of your head.
Because obviously, you know, most of your brain is, is, is protected really well by
your skull.
And obviously our bodies are designed with all kinds of armor around important parts.
But there are certain little vulnerable areas on your body, and of course this is one of
them right here, your temples on the side here.
And so it says that she smote the nail into his temples.
So basically coming in the side right here and coming out the other side.
And she fastened it into the ground.
So you gotta imagine this.
You know, she puts this spike into one side, hammers it until it comes out the
other side, and she actually hammers it all the way into the ground and basically fastens
his head to the ground with this.
For he was fast asleep and weary, so he died.
So this guy, he, he's so tired, he's so exhausted that he doesn't hear her creep
up on him.
And before he knows it, the spike has already entered his head.
It's too late.
And he died.
Verse 22, and behold as Barak pursued Sisera, you know, after he's already defeated all
the chariots and killed everybody, now he's hunting for Sisera.
He's looking for him.
Jael came out to meet him and said unto him, Come, and I will show thee the man whom
thou seekest.
And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples.
So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel,
and the hand of the children of Israel prospered and prevailed against Jabin the king
of Canaan until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
Now we get a lot more detail and information about the story in the next chapter because
the next chapter is a retrospective where Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinulam, they
sing a song about it.
So they actually sing a song and, and, and obviously this is a great way to, to memorialize
a great victory to write a song because songs get stuck in your head and you can remember
historical events well if they're explained in song.
You know, we all know who Davy Crockett is, even though, you know, if we were just
learning in a history book we probably wouldn't really remember Davy Crockett as being, you
know, one of the most important historical figures of American history, but we all know
that he killed him a bar when he was only three, Davy, Davy Crockett, you know.
So songs like that can tend to really immortalize something, right?
So God will sometimes use songs in order to help God's people remember great events
where God delivered them and God helped them and, you know, obviously music's very
powerful and so that's why it's important that we sing to ourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs and we got to be careful not to fill our mind with all the world's
junk because, you know what, that music, that will be stuck in your head for a long time.
It has a very powerful way of just embedding itself in your mind and a lot of times when
people are memorizing something they'll turn it into a song.
I mean that's how most of us learn the alphabet, you know, by the alphabet song.
I remember learning the books of the Bible, you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts,
Epistle of the Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians, Philippians,
and you just will never forget that.
And I remember earlier in my Christian life sometimes I would fall back on that when I
was trying to remember where certain books were, you know, I'm like going through those
Titus and Philemon, Hebrews, okay there we go, because it's just easy to remember
things like that.
So there's this song that gives more details and so I'm going to preach on most of that
next week but there's so much in the song, you know, I just wanted to point out a couple
things here in chapter 5 quickly.
You know, it says in verse number 26 of chapter 5, she put her hand to the nail and
her right hand to the workman's hammer.
So you know, the picture is basically, you know, you hold the nail with one hand
and when the Bible says nailer it's talking about a long tent spike.
You know when you set up a tent, you drive spikes down into the ground to hold it
in place.
That's what we're talking about here.
And don't you hate it when they give you those little plastic tent spikes?
You know, whenever you buy a tent that has those plastic tent spikes, the first thing
you do is you just throw those in the trash.
And you got to provide your own tent spikes.
You know, it's the best investment you'll ever make to just buy a pack of actual tent
spikes that are made out of a good, strong, solid metal that don't just bend as soon
as you, you know, try to hammer them into the earth, because the last thing you want is to try
to kill somebody with a tent spike and then it just bends, you know, instead of going
all the way in, alright?
So these were quality, of course, I've never had that happen and probably never will.
But here she's got the nail in one hand and it says, you know, she's got in her
right hand the workman's hammer and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off
his head when she had pierced and stricken through his temples, okay?
So I mean, she is putting some force behind this blow, is what we see here.
I mean, and obviously I don't want to get graphic or gory or anything like that
beyond what the Bible's saying here, but I mean, she knew how to swing a hammer hard.
And I mean, to me, this shows her as a hard worker, you know?
And if you think about it, you know, women who take care of the house, take care of
their husband, take care of the children, you know, they have a difficult job, they
work hard.
And especially throughout history, think about before you had all the technology.
I mean, washing clothes, that's a workout.
You know, just cooking and preparing foods without all the machines and, you know,
there's a lot of firewood involved and lugging around water and just, it was a physically
taxing job and that's why it talks about the Proverbs 31 woman, that she girdeth
her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms.
Obviously she's not going to the gym or something in those days.
When it says she strengthens her arms, it's just talking about the fact that in the course
of her duties, in the course of her work, you know, she builds a lot of strength in
her arms by working hard.
And so what we see here is a picture of a woman who is the housewife, who's the
stay-at-home wife, stay-at-home mother.
She's actually the hero of the story.
So it's kind of ironic that people would take Judges chapter 4 and try to turn it into,
oh, this is why we need to have these personalities like Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore
and we need these female preachers going on tour, preaching in coliseums, preaching
to great crowds.
First of all, that's not what Deborah was like at all.
Deborah's just a wise, godly woman who hears from God that people come and ask
questions to and ask her to resolve disputes because she is someone that they can rely
on to mediate, where both sides will respect her judgment.
And she's one that hears from God and ministers to Barak, but you don't see her leading
the people.
You see her having a ministry one-on-one with people, who are coming to talk to her
and she's having a one-on-one ministry toward Barak, motivating him, guiding him spiritually.
And again, the hero of the story ends up just being the wife, Jael, who is just
staying at home, churning her own butter, milking the cows.
And so don't underestimate that because God ends up using her to defeat a great
warrior and she had the strength to do it because of just her normal job.
I mean, she had a strong enough hand from milking the animals or, you know, just dealing
with firewood and water and whatever, to where basically when she picked up that hammer
and that nail, she was not just this kind of dainty, delicate creature here.
I mean, that's got to take a lot of force.
She wasn't one of those guys that holds the hammer like right up by the claw, you
know.
She definitely had her hand all the way at the bottom.
You know, she understood the physics involved, that she's going to get the most force.
And I mean, she not only was able to hammer the spike all the way through his head
and into the earth, which obviously would take a lot of strength, and she has to do this
before he wakes up.
But I mean, it describes it as she smote off his head.
So this, I mean, she hits it hard repeatedly to the point where it was a mess.
This wasn't just a clean nail in one side, out the other, fastened to the ground.
I mean, she kept swinging and she smote off his head basically.
You know, I think that there's a splitting that took place.
So, you know, I won't say anything beyond that.
Because it says in verse 27, at her feet, he bowed, he fell, he lay down.
At her feet, he bowed, he fell.
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
And the reason it's repetitive like that is because it's a song.
So this is kind of like the chorus, okay?
So, and then it goes on to talk about, you know, and we'll cover the rest of that next week.
But it's interesting to compare that version in chapter five and then go back to chapter four.
It says in verse 21, then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent and took a hammer in her hand
and went softly on him and smote the nail into his temples and fastened it into the ground
for he was fast asleep and weary, so he died.
Now, if you read carefully there, you see, she didn't fasten his temples to the ground.
She didn't fasten his head to the ground.
She fastened the nail to the ground.
So what I'm saying is that she smote off his head.
Basically, maybe like the top of his head came off in the process.
And it says in chapter five that at her feet, he bowed, he fell, and lay down.
Now remember, he's already laying down.
Does everybody see where I'm going with this?
It seems like he popped up at some point without part of his head.
And then he fell down again.
Because in order to fall down, you've got to be up.
So if you compare the two, you see from chapter four and chapter five put together that,
I mean, this woman knew how to swing a hammer, okay?
And she was not squeamish about doing this at all.
Now, I want to make one last application about this story.
And again, this is going to be covered again next Wednesday.
So if you didn't like a sermon tonight, you might want to stay home next Wednesday
because it's going to be part two because we're going to go through chapter five verse
by verse next week, okay?
But anyway, here's one key point that I want to drive in that we can learn from the
story is that a lot of times people who seem like they're helping you are not really trying
to be your friend, but they're actually laying a trap for you.
You know, the Bible says, he that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net under his feet.
And so sometimes you'll have people that are really nice to you, they're helpful to you,
they give gifts unto you, and it's easy to be sucked in by that.
And I remember when I first started pastoring, I wasn't very good at identifying this.
You know, I just thought people were being nice to me.
Now I've gotten to where I'm starting to be able to identify the difference between
people who are truly trying to be nice to me and people who are flattering me because
they're spreading a net for my feet because they're trying to trap me.
And there's a difference.
And really just as you get older, you learn to discern between those two things.
Between people who are truly giving you a compliment, people who are giving you a gift
because they love you, versus people who are trying to gain your confidence so that
they can turn around and hurt you, attack you.
And folks, there are people out there whose goal is to hurt you if you're living for
God.
Because the Bible says the wicked, they bend their bow and they make ready their
arrows that they may privilege shoot at the upright in heart.
And so people are out there who maybe seem like they're your friend or they're helping
you or want to do good unto you.
You know, you need to be cautious not to just believe everything you hear and to just
think that everyone who's nice to you must be a great person.
You know, we need to be cautious about that.
And I'm not saying to go through life cynical or suspecting everyone.
But you know, you don't want to just trust people just because they are from church.
You know, I'm not saying you should suspect people or be on a witch hunt.
You know, I just say suspect no one, trust no one.
You know, at the end of the day, I'm not just going to drop my kids off for a sleepover
with people just because they're from church.
Like, oh, well, they're from church.
It's OK.
I'll let my kids go over there for a sleepover or whatever.
No.
Or a lot of people will think like, oh, I'm OK to loan this person money because they're
from church.
I'm sure I'll get paid back.
Look, I'm all for you loaning money to somebody at church as long as you're ready to kiss
a goodbye and never see it again.
Because you should never loan anyone money that you're not ready to kiss goodbye.
Now, the Bible says that the wicked borrow it and pay it not again.
So, you know, if you borrow money and don't pay it back, that's wicked.
I'm not excusing the person who does that.
But you shouldn't loan money out that you can't afford to lose because many times
you don't end up getting paid back.
Or, you know, you got to be cautious going into business with people from church.
You know, you better know who you're going into business with.
You better know or don't just assume that, oh, well, I can just date and marry anyone
at church.
And if they're from church, it's guaranteed to be a godly person because otherwise, why
would they be a faithful word if they're not a godly person who loves the Lord?
There are other reasons to be a faithful word like infiltrators.
OK, there are Judases.
The Bible tells us that they will be among us, you know.
And so you want to be careful to understand that everyone that you think is your friend
may not necessarily be a friend.
And here, Sisera commits the fatal flaw of letting his guard down around someone
that he thought was his friend but that he didn't know as well as he thought he
did.
Now, I've kind of wondered about this story, you know.
What does JL's husband think about what she did?
Because the Bible's not really clear on this, you know.
The Bible says that her husband had separated from the Kenites, you know.
Is that just a geographical separation or, you know, is he not with them anymore?
He's not their ally anymore.
So it's like, well, Sisera's allied with the Kenites, but I'm not anymore.
There's no, you know, there's no mention of him in the story.
So there's really two ways you could look at it.
Either she in her heart just says, well, I know this guy's bad, so I'm just going
to wipe him out, you know.
And I guess I'll just talk to my husband about it when he gets home.
And, you know, hopefully he agrees with what I did here.
Or, you know, she knew, hey, my husband feels the same way.
We both feel the same way about this guy.
You know, the Bible's not really clear.
So, you know, why is the husband absent from the story?
The reason why is because this is one of the great themes of the book of Judges,
is absent authority.
Because remember, in those days, there was no king in Israel.
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes is the theme verse of the book of
Judges.
And we have this theme throughout the book of Judges where there's an absence of
authority, especially male authority.
So you have a lot of women stepping up and doing a lot of things.
Like even in chapter one, you had, you know, Caleb's daughter stepping up and
speaking for her family.
And then we have, of course, Jael here doing this.
We have Deborah stepping up and being the judge.
It's like, where's the man, you know, to lead the nation?
They're going to a woman for judgment.
And then later, it's going to be a woman who kills Abimelech by throwing a millstone
on his head.
So I think that the absence of the husband here is symbolic of the fact that this is
an absence of leadership and women kind of stepping up to play and doing things
because there's an absence of male leadership in the home and in the nation in general.
So that's the reason there.
But either way, if you look at things from Cicero's perspective, he made the mistake
of falling asleep around the wrong person.
Right?
Going to sleep in the presence of someone that he thought was his friend that wasn't.
And you know what?
The Bible uses sleep as a picture of not being spiritually tuned in in the New Testament,
not knowing the Bible, not knowing what God wants.
The Bible says, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober, be sober,
be vigilant.
Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour.
We need to be careful not to let our guard down like Cicero did.
Literally and figuratively.
How about literally?
Don't go to sleep around people that you don't know.
And this is why I don't let my kids have sleepovers at other people's houses.
And you know, I know there are people in our church who've done that and who do
that and everything, but you know what?
It's a bad idea.
You know, I say it's a bad idea.
And you know what?
You might be one who just lets everybody babysit your kids and just somebody that
you barely know from church is babysitting your kids.
I don't let people from church babysit my kids and just assume, oh, well, they go
to church.
It must be fine.
You know, there's too many weirdos out there and too many horror stories.
And so I don't let people babysit my kids and I don't let my teenagers go for
sleepovers at other kids' houses because there's just too many pitfalls to that.
And I just don't want my children to be vulnerable around people.
You say, well, that's just horrible.
That's what a cynical way.
Well, you know what?
When you've been doing this as long as I have, you've seen the people that you
thought were great, awesome church members, good friends turn out to be sort of a
JL, you know, in that sense.
Obviously, I'm flipping things around because JL is the good guy in this sense because
Cicero is the bad guy.
But you know what?
There are also some good guys who fell asleep in the Bible, like Samson.
He fell asleep around the wrong woman, right?
And we have Delilah shearing him and delivering him over to his enemies.
So this thing cuts both ways.
So we do not want to be vulnerable around people that we don't know that we can
trust.
You know, and there are people in our lives that we know we can trust, right?
You know, we've got family and close friends that we do rely on.
And we know we can trust them.
But don't just assume that, oh, they're a Kenite.
Kenites are our friends, right?
That's kind of like, oh, they go to church.
Well, then, yeah, they're Christians.
Well, then, yeah, of course they're fine.
Hey, just because they're a Kenite doesn't mean that they're your ally, Cicero.
And just because they go to church doesn't necessarily mean that they're a godly
Christian, okay?
And so we need to be careful with that.
Also, you know, this is one of the big reasons why you should not drink.
You know, people go out and they drink and they make themselves vulnerable
unto strangers by drinking or taking drugs.
And then they pass out around whoever.
And there are all kinds of men and women alike who've been taken advantage of
because they were so drunk, they were so out of it that people can rob them.
People could molest them.
All kinds of bad things could happen when you just let your guard down and you're not
awake, you're not sober, you're not vigilant.
And so, you know, drugs and alcohol, sleeping around strangers, you know, it's
better to keep your guard up, be sober, be vigilant, watch, be careful.
And that's the literal interpretation.
But then also just figuratively speaking, you know, we need to be on the alert.
We need to pay attention and not just be gullible and stupid and just walk into every
trap.
You know, the Bible says a prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself.
But the wicked pass on and are punished.
You know, a wise person is going to foresee the evil and hide himself.
He's not just going to walk, you know, walk into every trap.
So we need to be awake today, both literally we need to be awake and on our guard around
strangers or people that are questionable.
And also, figuratively, we need to just be awake and understanding the enemies that
are out there, you know, the wiles of the devil.
You know, as a young man, you should be aware of the wiles of the strange woman who's
going to entice you.
And, you know, the Bible talks about in the book of Proverbs, you know, her house is the
way to hell and and her steps take hold on death.
You know, you could be like a Cicero in a sense where she's like, come on in, fear
not.
And basically, you know, get you into fornication or get you into worse, get you into adultery,
you know, and then, oh, she didn't tell me she was married or whatever, you know,
and both fornication and adultery are both super wicked and condemned in the New Testament
and the Old Testament alike.
And so you need to just be careful not to let your guard down and just assume that
everybody who's a Kenite is your friend.
Don't assume that everybody who calls themselves a Christian or goes to church is automatically
your friend.
You need to be aware that there are bad people out there who creep in.
And what do they do?
They flatter you, they give you gifts, they're super nice to you.
Be careful, be cautious, and eventually learn the difference between legitimate compliments,
legitimate kindness, and people that are trying to get at you like jail was doing.
Let's pray and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the story, Lord, that we could learn from.
Help us to be careful, to be sober, to be vigilant, Lord.
Help us have our own personal walk with you unlike Barak where he had to lean upon
Deborah's spirituality, Lord.
Help us to have our own walk with you, our own spirituality, and even though we might
have a pastor that we learn from or parents that we learn from or a spouse that we learn
from, Lord, help us ultimately to walk with you by ourselves and be able to stand
on our own two feet spiritually.
And Lord, also just help us to be cautious and understand that the wicked are out there
to attack the righteous, and we need to be on our guard and be vigilant.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Let's take our psalm books one last time tonight.
Turn number 471.
In number 471, cleanse me.
Search me, O God, and know my heart today.
Number 471, sing out that verse.
O Lord, know my thoughts I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me.
Cleanse me from every sin that set me free.
I praise the Lord for cleansing me from sin.
Fulfill my word and make me pure within.
Fill me with fire, where once I burn with shame.
Grant my desire to magnify thy name.
Lord, take my life and make it holy thine.
Fill my poor heart with thy great love divine.
Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride.
I now surrender, Lord, in thee abide.
O Holy Ghost, revival come from thee.
Send a revival, start the work in me.
Thy word declares, thou wilt supply our need.
For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly grieve.
O Holy Ghost, revival come from thee.