Juízes 4

Juízes 4

Morris comments "The so-called "Merneptah Stele" found in Egypt and referring to the campaigns of Pharaoh Mernepta in Canaan, is believed to date from about the time of Deborah and Barak. While Merneptah's boasts of victory are somewhat hollow, the stela does indicate Israel as the strongest nation in Canaan at that time. It is believed to be the oldest archaeological monument containing the actual name of Israel." Again note the combination in Verse 23 of God's sovereignty (subdued Jabin) and Verse 24 of Israel's responsibility (pressed heavy upon Jabin). This pattern of God's sovereignty and Man's responsiblity is repeatedly seen in the Scriptures. They had won the battle of "Kishon" but there were still Canaanite enemies that must be destroyed… utterly destroyed. Moses records… and when the LORD your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. (Dt 7:2) Let us not become complacent when God gives us a clear victory over His enemies which are also our enemies… but press on the battle until every last enemy is rooted out and destroyed. There can be no perfect peace until we obey God's command to utterly drive out and destroy whatever the Canaanites are in our life, such as "immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these". (Galatians 5:19-21+) Until they had destroyed (karath; Lxx = exolothreuo) Jabin the king of Canaan - Note the time phrase until (see importance of expressions of time in inductive Bible study) indicating that it was not an immediate defeat for Hazor and the Canaanites but this time they destroyed the enemy. It is notable that The Canaanites never oppressed Israel again militarily, as far as Scripture records. Their detestable false idolatrous religion, however, continued to ensnare God’s people and in one sense this warfare is an even more dangerous war for it is a spiritual struggle for our souls and purity of our hearts! Remember Paul's words… Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved… Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction (admonition = nouthesia), upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1Co 10:6, 11+, cf 1Co 10:12-14) Jesus' words of admonition call for continual vigilance "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Mt 26:41+) Peter rightly warned us "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers (cf Php 3:20, 21+) to abstain (Lk 21:34+ Acts 15:20, 29+ Ro 8:13+, Ro 13:13,14+ 2Co 7:1+ Gal 5:16+, Ga 5:17-21+ 2Ti 2:22+ 1Jn 2:15-17+) from fleshly (see flesh) lusts (epithumia), which wage war (strateuomai = continually [present tense] carry on a military campaign) against the soul. (1Pe 2:11+) This world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through, My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. D L Moody recognized this spiritual struggle especially that which comes from our old flesh nature. He once said ""I have more trouble with D. L. Moody than with any man I know." I like what John Piper said "We must cultivate the mindset of exiles. What this does mainly is sober us up and wake us up so that we don't drift with the world and take for granted that the way the world thinks and acts is the best way. We don't assume that what is on TV is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the priorities of advertisers is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the strategies and values of business and industry are helpful to the soul. We don't assume that any of this glorifies God. We stop and we think and we consult the Wisdom of our own country, heaven, and we don't assume that the conventional wisdom of this age is God's wisdom. We get our bearings from God in his word. When you see yourself as an alien and an exile with your citizenship in heaven, and God as your only Sovereign, you stop drifting with the current of the day. You ponder what is good for the soul and what honors God in everything: food, cars, videos, bathing suits, birth control, driving speeds, bed times, financial savings, education for the children, unreached peoples, famine, refugee camps, sports, death, and everything else. Aliens get their cue from God and not the world." (The War Against the Soul and the Glory of God Desiring God Christian Resource Library) Heavier (07186) qasheh means hard, harsh, cruel, severe, strong, violent, fierce. This term's basic function is to describe something as hard. In Judges it is used in Judges 2:19 and Judges 4:24. Destroyed (03772) karath literally means to cut, to cut off or to sever an object from its source or cut into parts and implies a violent action. For example, Zipporah "cut off her son’s foreskin." (Ex 4:25) or the Jews "cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes." (Nu 13:2-24, cf Dt 19:5, 20:19-20, Jdg 9:48-49, 1Sa 5:4, 17:51, 24:4-5,11, 31:9, 2Sa 10:4, 2Sa 20:22) In another literal use as punishment to Israel for breaking the Mosaic covenant (cf Dt 29:25, 31:16), God says He will "cut down (karath) your incense altars" (Lev 26:30, cf Jdg 6:25-26, cf 1Sa 28:9). A sacrificial animal was not to be offered if it was "cut" (karath) (Lev 22:24). Karath means "chewed" (cutting food with teeth) in Nu 11:3 Barry Webb has an interesting summary statement on Barak - We haven’t finished with Barak yet. Judges 5 will revisit his story and elaborate on some of the details we have passed over here. But even then we won’t have heard all that Scripture has to say about him. A further reference to him occurs in Samuel’s farewell address to Israel in 1 Samuel 12:11ESV: “And the LORD sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah … and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side.” And the final comment on Barak comes, as we have seen, in Hebrews 11:32–34+: And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Which brings us back to the question we posed at the beginning of this chapter: was Barak a superhero? Now, looking back, we can see that the whole way Barak’s story is told in Judges 4 tends to downplay his hero status. He equivocated. He refused to go with nothing but the promise of God. By insisting that Deborah go with him he forfeited the glory that could have been his. He arrived too late at Jael’s tent and found that Jael had already done what he should have had the honor of doing. God sold Sisera into the hand of a woman. However, the references in 1 Samuel and Hebrews highlight three important things about Barak that we would do well to note: First, the LORD “sent” Barak, and used him to “deliver” Israel (1 Samuel 12:11). In other words, Barak was God’s man—called and commissioned by him and used mightily by him for Israel’s good. That’s no small honor! He may have forfeited the lesser honor of being the one to kill Sisera, but not the far greater honor of being God’s agent to rescue his people. That places Barak despite his shortcomings in an elite category of servants of God, from Moses through Joshua and the judges to David and beyond. Second, he won a major battle. The next chapter of Judges has much more to say about this, but even here in chapter 4 the few details that are given are impressive. This was no minor skirmish. A militia force of ten thousand footmen fought against a professional army equipped with nine hundred war chariots reinforced with iron. And the result was not just a decisive win, with the enemy left to fight another day, but a rout, all the way back to Harosheth-hagoyim. Every enemy soldier was slain, including their general. Jabin’s hold over Israel was broken, and he himself was eventually destroyed. It’s the only battle in Judges celebrated with a victory song (Judges 5). Barak certainly ranks with those who “put foreign armies to flight” (Hebrews 11:34). Third, and most important of all, he did what he did “through faith” (Hebrews 11:33). Barak’s faith was a cautious, qualified one at first, but when the command to “go” came a second time he did not hesitate. Down from Tabor he went, with ten thousand men following him. That is true, manly leadership, the kind of leadership that inspires others and rouses them to action. The biggest challenge faced them, though, when they reached the valley floor. At that point they had to break cover and advance twelve miles or more across open country to the river Kishon to confront Sisera’s seemingly invincible chariotry in open battle. That took nerves of steel, a leader who would not falter, and men who would follow him into the very jaws of death. But most of all it took faith—an unwavering trust in God who had promised them victory. This is where we see Barak at his very best, a man of faith indeed, faith that acts, faith that stakes everything on God and gives a man tremendous courage, and faith that God honored by giving Barak a victory he could not have achieved without God’s help. That is why Barak deserves the honorable mention he gets in Hebrews 11. Barak was certainly a hero, but a hero with a difference. He was not a professional soldier or mighty warrior in the traditional sense. He did not prevail by raw strength or prowess in battle. His victory was a gift rather than a personal achievement. Nor was he naturally a man of great faith. His faith was faltering at first, but matured under testing to become the kind of faith that God honors. Barak is by no means the greatest of Biblical heroes. Much, much more space is given in the Old Testament to Abraham, for example, or Moses, Joshua, or David. And the passing reference to him in Hebrews 11:32 does not begin to compare with the eight whole verses in that chapter devoted to Abraham or the six to Moses. Like us, Barak was no superhero. That title, if it is appropriate to use it at all in this context, belongs to God alone. Judges 5 will make this very clear. And among human beings there is only One whose faith was perfect (Hebrews 12:2, 3). Nevertheless, Barak is among a great “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) whose courageous faith can and should inspire us to trust in God too, whatever our misgivings and whatever challenges obedience to him requires us to face. (See Judges and Ruth: God in Chaos) F B Meyer…JUDGES 4 JABIN AND SISERA These chapters of the Judges are full of encouragement to such as are discouraged by repeated failures; those whose experience has been one long series of endeavors after a better life, interrupted and darkened by transgression and relapse. They have gone back to God so often with the same tale that they are almost ashamed to go any more. Let these take heart; His mercy endureth for ever. Their remorse, and yearning to be different, are a clear proof that He has not withdrawn His favor from them. Let them look again towards His holy temple (Jonah 2:4). Judges 4:1-3 Jabin's oppression. -- In this chapter Israel had again rebelled against God; and this time Jabin, King of Hazor, was the oppressor permitted to bring them to repentance. His city had been razed once (Josh. 11:1-14); but, through the inactivity of Israel, had been built again, and his kingdom partially re-established. He must have been a very formidable foe, and his tyranny was very bitter (Judges 4:3). Mighty oppression like that of Jabin and Sisera, is a type of vehement hatred of our spiritual foes, but it is the foil on which God displays the might of His deliverance. Judges 4:4-9 Deborah and Barak. -- Deborah, the heroine of her time, was the prime mover in their deliverance. She was a prophetess, living in communion with God, possessed of remarkable insight into His will, and able to communicate it in glowing words. She was full of patriotic ardor, which she infused into others. Barak, the soldier. How lamentable that Barak should have pinned his faith to a woman, instead of to the eternal God! If only he had said these words (Judges 4:8) to God, he might have achieved a more wonderful deliverance, and his rule established on a more settled basis. We must beware lest we imitate his fault, and trust more in those who are around us than in the living God. There cannot be failure in our faith without our suffering in some way the results. Judges 4:10-16 The defeat of Sisera's host. -- The tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali chiefly bore the brunt of this conflict, which set them free from the tyranny which had lain especially heavily upon the luxuriant plain of Esdraelon. How sweet it is to know when the Lord is going before us; though this does not make our best efforts superfluous (Judges 4:14). The Lord will ever defeat the foes of those who follow Him. Judges 4:17-24 Jael was the heroine of the day. At first she doubtless intended to show true Eastern hospitality, and then was seized by the impulse of ridding the land of her adoption of the instrument of Jabin's authority. A tent-peg sufficed for the grim deed of vengeance. Those were wild days, matched by the Border wars of Scottish and British history; and through all a Divine purpose ran, which, though not condoning these deeds of violence, wrought through all for the people, beloved for their fathers' sakes. (F. B. Meyer. CHOICE NOTES ON JOSHUA THROUGH 2 KINGS)