5. “A Word to Bring Courage” (Judges 4-5)

A Famine of Courage

As we begin, I’d like you to consider a question. As you look at your life, what is truer of you? Are you someone who focuses your life on striving for what is good? Or are you more focused on avoiding what is bad? Put more starkly, is your life more characterized by courage, or by fear? And which of these do you want your life to be about?

As we return to the book of Judges, we read of a time when the people of God were completely living by fear. Chapter 4 tells us that Israel has once again turned to idolatry and once again they are under the dominion of a foreign ruler, Jabin of Canaan. Chapter 5, which is really the second half of this section, containing a song written by Deborah and Barak, describes for us what it was like under Jabin’s misery. It was an atmosphere of ongoing, oppressive fear for God’s people.

Outside of the towns, villagers stopped travelling along the main roads and always chose to take the narrow and more difficult paths, because on the main roads were Canaanite soldiers who never refrained from asserting dominance through beating the travelers, stealing from them, and even worse. Perhaps more significantly, inside the towns, there were no pockets of resistance, no leaders who even attempted to take weapons and fight against this ongoing humiliating subjugation. They were living by fear.

And reading our passage, we can understand at one level why. While Jabin is the king in the background, the real villain of our passage is Sisera from the town of Harosheth of the Nations. He even sounds evil, right? Sinister Sisera. What makes him so frightening is his command of an army with the latest military technology: they have 900 iron chariots. With the speed of chariots, Sisera’s military could stay always just out of reach of the phalanx of Israelite soldiers as charioteers shot arrow after arrow at them, and then once Israel’s army was in disarray, the group of chariots could charge and mow down their enemy. It was devastating; impossible to beat. Who would even think of trying to take up a sword to resist them? Of course they’d be afraid.

But the song of Deborah suggests an even deeper reason that God’s people were paralyzed by fear. In the time of fear, we are told, Israel had chosen new gods. They had given themselves to the Baals and the Ashteroths of the people around them. These gods were impressive; the worship of these gods made sense and felt tangible. But what these gods didn’t do was to show faithfulness, or make promises, or bring salvation. In the worship of these gods, there was no hope, only fear.

And so again, 4:3 tells us that Israel cries out to God. And in response, God raises up a deliverer by way of a woman named Deborah.

God’s Courage-Giving Word

In an oasis outside of Bethel in the southern hills of Ephraim, we can imagine a crowd of people in line, perhaps gathered in the cool of the morning, chatting with each other as they wait. At the very front of this line is Deborah sitting down on a chair in the shade of a palm tree intently speaking with whomever is next. While her hair is gray and her face wrinkled, her eyes sparkle with energy and her voice is strong and confident, and everyone is listening to what she says.

See, at some point as Deborah was growing up, God began to speak directly to her, giving her words for the people of Israel. She came to realize she was a prophet of God. Over time, as news spread about her unique gift, people began coming to her in mass for counsel. Eventually, Deborah began coming every day to the same place, so that the tree she sat under was given the creative name “Deborah’s palm tree.” Every day she was able to deliver God’s instructions. Every day she oriented whoever came out to God’s promises.   

Interestingly, in Deborah’s song, the word she uses for herself is not prophetess or judge, although those are accurate—the word by which she identifies herself is “mother.” After singing of the courage famine throughout the land, she sings, “And then I, Deborah, arose, a mother in Israel.” This, she says, was her calling. A mother to an entire nation. If her people were paralyzed by fear so that nobody was willing to fight, she would raise up leaders of courage—she would raise up faithful and strong “children” in Israel. How? By speaking and instructing them in the Word of God. Because it’s there, in the hearing of the Word of God, that courage is to be found.   

God, in response to Israel’s cries, gives Mother Deborah a specific instruction. She asks one of the villagers to travel some 40 miles to the furthest northern tribe of Israel, to Naphtali, near where the villain Sisera’s headquarters were, to the Israelite town of Kadesh. There that villager is to summon a man by the name of Barak to come back south to meet with her.   

Now we know little about Barak, except for his name. But let me just say that “Barak” is a promising name if this guy is supposed to be the military leader who will organize the rebellion, because his name simply means “lightning.” Which means he quite literally will be “Captain Lightning.” This feels like the beginning of a superhero origin story!

And as Barak comes before her, Deborah the prophet speaks God’s Word; Deborah the mother seeks to raise up a strong leader. She says to him (v6): “Hasn’t the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, deploy the troops on Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the Naphtalites and Zebulunites? Then I will lure Sisera commander of Jabin’s army, his chariots, and his infantry at the Wadi Kishon to fight against you, and I will hand him over to you.’ ”

Notice that Deborah has given Barak two things. First, she has given him God’s instruction. He is to rally the troops and gather an army and bring them to Mt Tabor in the north, to camp above the valley of the Kishon, a small, quiet stream, surrounded on both sides by flatlands. And second, she has given him God’s promise: God will bring all of Sisera’s mighty army there to fight against him and, God says, “I will hand him over to you.” If Captain Lighting is a superhero, here’s where we find his superpower. See, when you have God’s instructions and God’s promise, that means you can have the confidence that God, with all of his infinite power, is with you. With God’s instruction, you know you are doing what you’re supposed to do. With God’s promise, you know it will turn out well, because nothing can thwart God. With God’s instruction and God’s promise, you can be fearless; you have everything there you need for courage. Because if God is with you, nothing can stand against you.   

What we have here is the setup for the kind of big battle that comes at the climax of every Marvel film. The underdog good guys at the top of the mountain, odds against them. Sinister Sisera and his army at the bottom. And Captain Lightning with an unstoppable power given by God ready to be revealed at the last moment. It’s going to be awesome.

The Response

Well, except for one thing. Did you notice when Deborah spoke to Barak that it wasn’t a statement, but a question? “Hasn’t the Lord, the God of Israel commanded you?”  Which suggests that Captain Lightning has already heard this from God beforehand. Presumably like Othniel and Ehud, the superheroes before him, Barak had already received a direct instruction and from God to fight for his people. He received a promise from God that God would go with him and ensure his victory. But so far, he has done nothing.

Because, you see, there’s one other part of what Deborah says that Barak hears louder than everything else. God says “Then I will lure Sisera—sinister, terrifying Sisera, and his chariots—900 invincible fighting machines, and all of his infantry, probably thousands of well-trained soldiers” I will lure them to fight against you.” You will lure them to do what? NO, you’re going to lure them to run away, right? Or maybe you’ll trick them into just running off a cliff. You’ll lure them to fight against me, and all the farmers I’ll gather together? How in the world can we win against that? That’s a suicide mission. Courage for Barak is hard to come by. The danger for him feels more present and powerful than the promises of the Word of God.  

We can understand that, can’t we? Yes, it may be true that with God’s Word—with his instruction and promise, we have everything we need to find courage. And yet the reality is that the thing that we fear often feels in the moment far more real and far more present than God. Because quite often obeying God involves finding ourselves in a situation of confusion, where we don’t see, where it’s not plain to us how God’s instruction and promise can help us in any way. Here is the essence of courage, the essence perhaps even of faith. In the moment, what will we choose to bet our lives on? What we feel? Or what God says?

This is the choice before Barak. And how does he respond? Verse 8: “If you will go with me, I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go.” To put things plainly, this is not the right answer. When God commands us and gives us a promise, the right response is not to place a condition: “I will only obey you if.” That’s a response not of faith, but of fear.

And it’s kind of an odd condition, right? It’s not like Barak envisions Mother Deborah fighting by his side wielding I don’t know, a palm branch? What I think is going on is that Barak feels the need for God’s words to feel more real. If Deborah goes with him, then he can be more confident that what God has said is true, that God is going with him. When the right response would simply be to recognize that if God has given him instructions and a promise; if God has said he is with him, that is enough.

But at the same time, while it’s the wrong response, it’s also, in some way, a right response. Not perfect, but notice what he is saying. “If you are with me, if you can reassure me, then I will go.” His faith is not perfect; we might even say it is as small as a mustard seed. But it is there.

And something I find encouraging here is how God responds through Deborah: “I will go with you,” Deborah says, “but you will receive no honor on the road you are about to take, because the LORD will sell Sisera to a woman.” Barak’s response, as flawed as it is does not disqualify Barak. Do you see the patience and kindness of God here? Yes, this is not the answer Barak should have offered. Yes Captain Lightning will need to experience an embarrassing lesson to help him understand the foolishness of his fearfulness. And yet God will send Deborah with Barak, like he asked. And even with Barak’s faltering faith, God will bring salvation through him. And way in the future, when Hebrews speaks of people of faith, Barak, Captain Lightning with his flawed faith, will be listed as an example. If you feel the fact that your faith has all sorts of flaws, this offers real hope.

The First Moment of Revelation

So if this were a movie, now is when there would be a montage with music in the background, as lots of things happen quickly. Barak travels from town to town with Deborah beside him, making inspiring speeches, calling people to arms. And in most of the towns, those of fighting age join up. They gather the weapons they had kept hidden, and the army marching behind Captain Lightning grows larger with each stop along the way. Until finally, having gathered all the army God called for, they all march together to the side of Mount Tabor, looking down to the river valley of Kedesh. Meanwhile, as this montage concludes, we imagine Canaanite scouts watching this troop progression, hurrying back to Sisera, and Sinister Sisera looking at the map of the battle and smiling. This Captain Lightning has done something foolish. He’s gathered all these fighting aged men into one spot with no obvious retreat. Now is the time that Sisera can take all of his chariots, all of his soldiers, and utterly eviscerate the people of army, weakening them in a way that they might never recover from. He gives the order, and the screen fades to black.

We can only imagine how encouraging all this would have been for Barak as person after person responds to his summons. How he would have felt the fact that God was with him, giving him this army. How hopeful he would have begun to feel. But the next morning, as he wakes up, gets out of his tent to stretch and greet the morning, as he looks down the mountainside I imagine all of his doubts would have suddenly flooded him. Because there, in the valley below was an enormous camp, of men too numerable to count, with hundreds upon hundreds of horses and chariots. There it is, Sisera’s invulnerable army. And God still hasn’t told him how all of these untrained men with him are supposed to somehow defeat that. How is this not going to be an absolute slaughter of the Israelites? What in the world was he thinking? What in the world was he doing? They’re no match for this.

But then he hears a voice behind him; Deborah looking over his shoulder at the same mass of people says, “Go. This is the day the Lord has handed Sisera over to you. Hasn’t the Lord gone before you?” There it is again: the instruction. “Go!” The promise “God has handed Sisera over to you.” Here is the word of power, a word that gives courage: “The Lord has gone before you.”

And to Barak’s great credit, in that moment, he hears this word. IN that moment, he allows God’s instruction, God’s promise, God’s presence to do its work, to give him courage. After sending word to all the commanders, after all the squads are organized, with a great yell Captain Lightning starts the charge: “So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.”   

Chapter 5 fills in the details of what happened next. As Captain Lightning and his army are charging down the mountain, and as Sinister Sisera and his soldiers step into their chariots and prepare to fight, suddenly the river Kidron right behind the Canaanite army surges, surges like it’s never done before; surges like a river tsunami, white water crashing all along its banks. For a moment maybe Barak and his army slow their charge down just a little as they watch this miraculous river surge completely carry away some of Sisera’s army. And then they see what remains: chariot after chariot stuck in the mud, absolutely useless. In that moment, maybe just 50 feet away from engaging with their previously seemingly invulnerable enemy,  Barak sees in dramatic fashion how true Deborah’s words were: “The Lord has gone before you.”

And so, verse 15 says, “the Lord threw Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army into a panic before Barak’s assault.” By the time the Israelites get to the bottom, they face, not a powerful military machine, but a confused, disordered, who are so terrified that they just start to flee, and the people of Israel just start mowing them down, it is a complete and utter rout.

When we have God’s instruction and God’s promise, we have all the reason in the world for courage. Because if God is with us, if he goes before us, then we are joining with a power that is beyond what we can possibly imagine.

The Second Moment of Revelation

So what has happened to Sinister Sisera? Is he heroically trying to regather his troops, making sure that if they surrender that as many of them as possible are saved? Um…no.. In the middle of the assault, Sisera gets out of his chariot and heroically, bravely, runs away to go hide. See, he has just encountered, for the first time in his life, a taste of the power of the Almighty God, and his confidence is shattered. Sinister Sisera is now spineless.

Sisera runs to a nearby camp, a camp he recognizes as belonging to Heber, someone generally friendly to the Canaanites. As he draws near, still frantically looking both ways for any threats, Heber’s wife Jael comes out of her tent, and begins to sooth him, almost as if he’s a frightened animal, “Come in, my lord, come in with me. Don’t be afraid. It’s okay.”   

He decides that this nice lady can protect him. He goes in, starts lying down, perhaps in the fetal position, and Jael covers him with a warm blanket. Sisera, beginning to feel better, says, “I’m a bit thirsty, could you give me some water.” Jael says, “Let me do better than that for you, here’s some nice, comforting milk.” And now he’s getting sleepy, and so Jael comes over and tucks him in under the blanket and as he begins to snuggle up and close his eyes, he tells her, “Stand at the entrance and if someone comes and asks you, “Is a man in the tent,” tell them, “No, there is no man in this tent,” which is kind of true, right?   

But then as he falls asleep, Jael quietly takes from the pile of tools a hammer and an unused tent peg; she softly draws near to sleeping Spineless Sisera, sets up the peg right above his temple, and with a strong swipe of the hammer drives it a couple of inches into his brain; and two more pound and the peg has come through to the other side; has gone through into the ground. And in case there’s any doubt, our text helpfully clarifies: “And he died.”

Some hours later, Captain Lightning comes to this camp looking for Sisera. And again, Jael comes out of her tent,  and she says to him, “Come, I will show you the man you are seeking.” And the word “show” signals that here we have a moment of revelation for Barak, the second moment of the day when God was showing him something. He steps into the tent, and it says, literally, “Behold, Sisera fallen, dead, tent peg in his head.” Barak stares for a moment and takes this in. This is what I was afraid of; this coward hiding in a woman’s tent is what caused me to resist God’s command because I thought he was impossible to defeat. On this day of God’s salvation of Israel and victory over the enemy, Barak learns deeply, profoundly, something that we’re also meant to see: that no matter what things feel like in the moment, no matter how counterintuitive and hard to believe it may seem, God’s Word can always be trusted. When you have God’s instruction and his promise, when you know God is with you, you have everything you need to find courage.

Let me ask again, is your life more characterized by courage, or by fear? Forgive me for drawing the obvious connection, but now I must. God hasn’t just spoken in this way to Barak. He has spoken to you and to me, in a manner even more powerful than Deborah the prophetess. He has spoken to you in his Son. Through Jesus, you have God’s instruction: Jesus says, “Follow me. Believe in me. Trust in me as your king.” Through Jesus, you also have God’s promise, “And your sins will be forgiven. And you will become children of God forever. And God will work all things for your good, until you are made whole and complete in every way. You will experience victory” Through Jesus, you have God’s presence, “I will be with you,” he says, “until the end of the age.” If you have these things, you can be fearless; you have everything there you need for courage. Because if God is with you, nothing can stand against you. Hasn’t the Lord your God gone before you?

Where in your life do you find yourself living by fear, rather than courageously? Where in your life where you have let what feels big and frightening at present have more influence over you than God’s trustworthy word? Here, in this moment, God invites us to turn again to him. To confess our sin to him. And to hear Jesus, hear this Word that is far more real than any of our fears and more powerful than anything we face.