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[0:00] As we look at the fourth judge raised up by God, raised up of course to be a judge, to be a deliverer, to deliver Israel from the oppression of their enemies and of course the enemies that they faced.

[0:30] And we're pressed by, we're part of God's judgment, judgment upon Israel. Alright, so we're looking at the fourth one. First, Othniel, we have considered Othniel.

[0:43] Second, Ehud. And third, Shamgar. And now, who? Deborah. Deborah. Now, I'm not going to read those two chapters here at the beginning.

[0:56] We'll kind of read it as we go along. I think it's probably best to do it that way this time. And I haven't quite decided if we're going to read all of chapter 5.

[1:07] But anyway, we'll see how things go. Now, our last judge, Shamgar, received a total of one verse.

[1:20] One verse. Remember? And now Deborah, she receives two chapters. Two chapters. You see, the ladies just get preference.

[1:31] It's just the way it is. Actually, the ladies don't really get it preference in the Bible very much, do they? But two whole chapters. But we need to understand something.

[1:42] And that is that chapter 4 and chapter 5 are really two separate accounts of the same event.

[1:53] Or same time period. The same judge. And the events surrounding the judge. Chapter 4, you should understand it this way.

[2:03] Chapter 4 is an account of Deborah and Barak and Jael and, you know, all that goes on in the story. It's an account of Deborah the judge using prose as the literary form.

[2:19] And prose is just simply the ordinary form of language. Whether it's speaking or whether it's written. Just simple prose. All right, so chapter 4 is that form.

[2:32] It's the account put down in that form. Chapter 5 is the same account. Same account. Same details. Although chapter 5 highlights some different aspects of the story.

[2:48] And we'll bring out some of those as we go along. But not using prose but using poetry. Using poetry. It's a song. And it's in the form of poetry as its literary form.

[3:03] And, of course, poetry is rhythmical, metrical form of composition. All right, so that's how we ought to understand.

[3:14] Chapter 4, chapter 5, same account. Just repetition, same account. But in different forms, different literary forms. And so let's look at Deborah, the fourth judge raised up by God.

[3:32] And the first thing that we see here is sin. The first thing that we see, the sin of the people. If you take notes, then that's point number one.

[3:44] And, you know, it seems like as we have been looking at the judges going along, I've had to come up with different ways to say the same thing in point number one.

[3:58] Because it's always the same. The sin of the people. And so with the introduction of a new deliverer or judge, you know, this time Deborah, we always have a description of the reason for the judge.

[4:15] The need for a judge, a deliverer. And it is the same, again, the same old story every single time. But I would note here that verse 1 begins this way.

[4:26] And this is not, you know, there's not a lot of application to be made here. It's just simply information. But it begins this way, when Ehud was dead. That's how we begin or how the author of Judges begins this account of Deborah.

[4:43] This section on Deborah. When Ehud was dead. Now, you remember Ehud. All right, but what happened to Shamgar? Who was the last judge mentioned in the chronicling of the judges throughout the book?

[4:59] Well, not Ehud, but Shamgar. All right, so what happened to Shamgar? Did the author forget about Shamgar? The reason I bring that up is because the pattern has been and will continue to be that when one judge, the judge, the current judge, eventually dies, there's peace as long as that judge lives.

[5:18] And then when that judge dies, then what happens? Israel sins again. They go back to their old ways. And God raises up the next judge. That's kind of the formula, the pattern.

[5:30] But the text here skips any word about Shamgar, skips that, and goes back to Ehud rather than Shamgar.

[5:43] Now, why is that? You say, I don't care. Right? That's what you're saying. You say, well, so what? No big deal.

[5:54] Well, I just want to explain this. You need to understand that the ministries of some of the judges, the various judges, they overlapped with other judges, with one another.

[6:05] There was some overlapping. And also their regions where they judged, where they delivered, were different. Various regions within the land of Israel.

[6:17] And their enemies were different. I mean, we had Othniel. The enemy was the Mesopotamians. And then we'd go to Ehud, and the enemy was the Moabites. And then Shamgar, apparently the enemy was the Philistines.

[6:32] And then now here, Deborah, we're going to discover, the enemy is the Canaanites. So we have different regions where these judges performed their work, their delivering work, and different enemies, and so forth.

[6:47] And so while Shamgar then, this is what we should understand, while Shamgar was still dealing with the Philistines in one particular region of the land of Israel, while that was going on, Deborah began to judge in another part of the land.

[7:04] All right, so they overlap one another. And Deborah's ministry as a judge began shortly after Ehud had died.

[7:15] Just exactly what the Bible says. So it's meant to be chronological in terms of time, but not necessarily in terms of order or the order of the judges.

[7:28] All right, that's a blessing to know that. Right? All right. Thank you. All right, so what happened? What happened?

[7:39] Well, again, the same repetition of history, of Israel's history. Israel's history is like a broken record. And for you young people, you know, you don't know anything about records.

[7:51] Sometimes they'll be broken and makes it skip, and so it plays it over and over and over and over. And that pretty much describes Israel's history.

[8:05] Same thing over and over and over and over. All right? So we see then, if we're thinking about the sin of the people, we see, first of all, their corruption.

[8:20] Israel's corruption. It's a sub-point under point number one, okay? Israel's corruption. And that's what we have in verse 1. The children of Israel again, again, did evil in the sight of the Lord.

[8:34] And so here we go again and again and again and again and again. Now, what was their sin? Well, the prose account, chapter 4, doesn't really tell us.

[8:49] It doesn't tell us at all. But, and here's the benefit of having a parallel account, albeit in a different form. The poetic account does tell us.

[9:00] In chapter 5, verse 8, it says they chose new gods. New gods. Now, get that. They abandon the God of their fathers.

[9:14] They abandon the old one, I guess. The opposite of the new one. The old one, though he certainly is older than the old.

[9:26] He's the one and only God. But they abandon the true God and they chose a new one. Or new gods. The gods of the Canaanites. We're to understand.

[9:37] All right, so, how stupid. And once again, the children of Israel, God's chosen people. And God had demonstrated his love for them and his choosing of them and his preference toward them over and over again.

[9:56] Delivering them, favoring them. And now they turn their backs on God, the God of their salvation. And then they begin following and worshiping the gods of the Canaanites.

[10:07] Which involved, of course, as we've explained before, I've said before, involves gross immorality. Perversion of a magnitude that, well, you know, I started to say that we've never heard anything about.

[10:24] But really, they're similar to what people are into these days. But they did it in the name of their religion. In the name of worshiping their god.

[10:34] Or gods. The Canaanite gods. And this is what Israel turned to. They abandoned Yahweh God and they then chose new gods.

[10:46] New gods. That's really, I guess, all you need to say about it. It's the same old story. It's the same old stupidity. You know, you know the definition of stupidity or insanity.

[11:00] And the definition of insanity is to keep on making the same decision expecting a different result. It's insane. Well, what are they thinking? Well, they're not really thinking.

[11:11] And two, we should understand that this is taking place over a pretty good span of time. All right? And so we need to notice then something very important. It's not enough to just do right and live right before God.

[11:27] Now, that's our personal, each one of us, our personal responsibility. To do right and live right and live according to God's word. And follow Him and obey Him and honor Him and worship Him.

[11:37] But that's not enough. That's not our only duty. Because it is extremely important that we pass that on to the next generation. And that's part of the problem with this Christian country.

[11:55] You need to notice at the close of the account of Ehud. Remember? Back there in chapter 3. The Bible says in chapter 3, verse 30, that the land had rest for 80 years.

[12:10] 80 years. I remember. Israel sinned just like they're doing again. But they sinned. God sent judgment. Oppression of some enemy. Then they cried out for mercy.

[12:21] And God raised up a deliverer. And God delivered them. And they had peace for 80 years. That's a long time. The equivalent of two generations.

[12:37] Right? And so what happened in those 80 years? Well, I don't know what happened. But I do know what did not happen. What did not happen?

[12:49] God's people did not teach their children. Did not teach the next generation. Their children and their children's children. Just as they had been instructed back there in Deuteronomy chapter 6. They had failed God's command to teach His Word to their children.

[13:05] And so they did not do that. And didn't teach them to follow the Lord. And so guess what? 80 years later, you know, they're back to where they were before.

[13:18] Following other gods. All right. So what happens? In God's corrective, corrective happens. His correction happens. God, in a sense, hits the reset button for them.

[13:32] And so next we see then Israel's chastisement. All right. We're talking about the sin of the people. Their corruption and now their chastisement.

[13:43] Israel's chastisement. Verse 2. So the Lord sold them. Now we've seen that before also, haven't we, in the book of Judges. It's a very serious term, concept.

[13:59] Serious act of God. Very serious. He sold them. Means He let them go. Abandoned them. He sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.

[14:16] And then we have a reference, a point of reference that we'll figure into the story later. He says that the commander of his army, Jabin's army, is Sisera. Sisera, Jabin's right-hand man, we're to assume, who dwelt in Herosheth Hagolim.

[14:35] All right. That's just a reference to Sisera. He's going to come into the story a little bit later. All right. Then verse 3 says that Jabin had 900 chariots of iron.

[14:48] That's a formidable army. Now, he didn't just have the chariots. He had others as well. Because later, he's going to marshal not only the chariots of iron, 900 of them, but also his troops, his host, to do battle, to do war against Israel.

[15:07] All right. All right. But 900 chariots of iron. And it says that for 20 years, he harshly oppressed the children of Israel.

[15:19] And again, we can turn to the poetic account, the parallel account in the poetic form. And we have a more detailed, even to some extent, graphic, although it's the imagery that is used to describe the life of the Israelites during this time.

[15:39] In chapter 5, verses 6 and 7, it says, In the days of Shamgar, so Shamgar is still alive during this time, though the focus is not Shamgar, but it's just a reference to the time period.

[15:51] The son of Anath, in the days of Jael, Jael will come into the story later, the highways were deserted. Speaking of how things were, the condition of Israel during this time of great oppression at the hand of the Canaanites under Jabin and Sisera.

[16:14] The highways were deserted. People afraid to be out on the streets. The travelers walked along the byways.

[16:29] Village life ceased. What does that mean? Village is a reference to the rural areas. People were afraid to live, you know, where they were isolated or where they were alone or where they, you know, they were just small pockets of people because of the oppression of the Canaanites.

[16:51] And so I think we're to understand that they had to move into the walled cities just for protection. Serious time. All right, so we're talking about the sin of the people, Israel's corruption and Israel's chastisement at the hand of God.

[17:08] He sold them, turned them over, abandoned them. And then, of course, according to the typical formula, happens every time we see Israel's cry.

[17:20] Cry out to God. Verse 3, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. And the implication is that they cried for mercy, cried for deliverance, for help. They finally came to the end of themselves and cried out to the Lord.

[17:34] What else could they do? Jabin had 900 chariots of iron. And Israel, according, again, looking at the parallel account, the poetic account, Israel, according to chapter 5, verse 8, didn't have any weapons.

[17:51] In fact, it's interesting how it's described there in verse 8 of chapter 5. They had not a shield or spear among 40,000.

[18:03] That means between 40,000, they might have had, they didn't even have one spear and shield to share with 40,000. I mean, they didn't have any weapons. But I would tell you, and I have made this point, I guess, every time so far, with every judge, that this is a good thing.

[18:27] This is a good thing for Israel. Because they were completely stripped of their own strength. They had nothing to hold on to in regard to themselves and their resources and their abilities and their armies.

[18:45] And so they were humbled, completely humbled, and brought to a place of no hope. No hope that is within themselves.

[18:56] And why would God bring them to that place? So that they might look again to their only hope. And that would be their God, Yahweh God.

[19:08] And God operates that way still today with His people. Individual people, of course. I mean, God does allow us to suffer so that we would come to a place of hopelessness.

[19:21] Because we've been putting our hope in self and man and our own resources and the things this world has to offer. And God wants to bring us, He's gracious to bring us to the end of ourselves.

[19:36] So that we would suddenly see, once again, that our only hope is Him. And God is very gracious to do that. And this is the oft-repeated lesson throughout the book of Judges, among other lessons.

[19:50] And we better not miss it. I would say that there are a couple of other lessons here to learn about sin, since we're on the subject of the sin of the people. And we can see this in the life of Israel, that sin, first of all, robs us of God's purpose.

[20:06] What was their purpose? To be His people? To worship Him? To be God's instrument of judgment as well?

[20:18] To fulfill His purpose? And so sin robbed them of that. Because God turned them over. Let them go. Abandoned them.

[20:30] Sin does that. Sin will take you out of usefulness to God. Now, maybe not indefinitely.

[20:43] It wasn't indefinite for Israel. And the way back to purposeful, useful living for God is through repentance.

[20:56] And His gracious restoration. I would add, though, that a person can sin in such a way that that person removes himself or herself from ever being used by God according to his original purpose.

[21:17] We see that especially with God's preachers and others whom God has called to serve Him, deacons and elders.

[21:28] An elder, a pastor, a pastor can sin. And though, if we repent, God will forgive. But that sin takes us out permanently from a particular use and purpose of God.

[21:46] But sin has this effect upon us. It robs us of God's purpose. And it did Israel. So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin. I would say also that sin restricts us from God's power.

[22:02] It restricts His power operating in our lives. Here's Israel, prime example. They had sinned. They had turned their backs on God.

[22:12] And they had chosen other gods. And so God abandoned them. And Jabin harshly opposed the children of Israel that it wasn't a thing they could do about it.

[22:24] They had no power. You know, symbolized by the fact they had no weapons. They had no way to fight back. No way to protect themselves. No way to conquer their enemies.

[22:35] You have to have the power of God to conquer your enemies. And sin restricts that. It even removes that. So that we just seem powerless to the temptations of life.

[22:48] And to Satan's lies and so forth. Alright, so that leads then to the second point. Better move along here. The second point of this passage is, first of all, the sin of the people.

[23:00] The second one is the selection of a prophetess. And this is what makes this particular judge and the account of this judge unique. Someone has described, and I guess you have to know something about the passage.

[23:16] Maybe this will make more sense after we read it. But someone has described the next several verses in these terms. From the shade tree prophetess to the sidekick soldier. You don't know the story, you might chuckle a little bit.

[23:32] Who's the shade tree prophetess? Deborah. And who's the sidekick soldier? Barak. Barak. Alright, I'm not going to use that anymore.

[23:43] Alright, so Israel's sin. God abandons them. Israel cries out for God's mercy and for His help, His deliverance.

[23:53] And God raises up a deliverer. And this time it is a woman. In fact, this is the only time it is a woman. It's a woman and her name is Deborah.

[24:04] Matthew Henry is rather comical. I saw several references to this and looked it up. Matthew Henry's commentary. Maybe you have a copy of that. It's really a pretty good commentary.

[24:15] Old, old English. But it still, I think, has some very rich parts to it. And Matthew Henry brings out the fact that the name Deborah means bee.

[24:27] That is in B-E-E. Like a honeybee. And he said that Deborah shared some of the same qualities as a bee. She was industrious.

[24:38] Bees are, aren't they? She was sharp in her perceptions. Let's go from Matthew Henry, all right? And that is, she could, you know, she could think well.

[24:55] And she was very perceptive. And she was great in her usefulness. She was sweet to her friends. And she was sharp to her enemies.

[25:06] Pretty good. Just like a bee. I don't really think that was God's plan when he named her. But Matthew Henry apparently thinks so. But it's kind of an interesting comparison.

[25:17] All right. So Deborah is unique. As I said, she's unique among all the judges of Israel. And she's unique in a number of ways that I'd like to point out. She's unique in her position as a woman.

[25:33] Very unique. Though she's not the only prophetess that is mentioned in Scripture, Deborah was a prophetess. Prophetess. That is in the official sense.

[25:45] She was granted by God the ministry of a professional prophet. Prophetess. That is an official prophet. You know what I'm saying. Being able to foretell and to speak for God.

[25:59] That is, she received direct revelation from God. That's what the board means. But not only did she receive direct revelation from God, like all prophets did in that period.

[26:14] But she also shared that revelation with the people of God. That made her quite a leader among Israel. She was a prophetess. And known to be a prophetess. But she was also a judge.

[26:28] And this time I'm not talking about judge in the sense of deliverer. Though she was that as well. God called her to that as well. But judge in the official sense.

[26:40] You know, as a civil judge. That is, before God raised her up to be a deliverer. He was already apparently using her as a judge in the official capacity.

[26:53] Judicial sense of the word. To settle cases. Disputes and so forth. Verse 4 says, Now Deborah, prophetess, the wife of Lepidoth, Lepidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

[27:09] Not judge in the sense of Ophniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Samson, all the others. Though she will be that as well. But judge in this other sense. And it describes it.

[27:20] And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah. That was her place. I mean, they even called it by her name. The palm tree of Deborah.

[27:33] Where between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came to her for judgment. She would then settle disputes. And she would judge disputes between people.

[27:47] The same language is used to describe Moses. What Moses did in Exodus 18. And then later the 70 that he chose under him to take care of these matters.

[27:59] And that's described in Numbers 11. So she judged in the same way Moses judged the people. And so she was a pretty important lady among the people.

[28:13] At least in this region of Israel. Alright, so Deborah was already a leader in Israel. I mean, even before we get to the part about her actually being one of God's deliverers.

[28:25] And that kind of happened by default. We'll get to that here in a minute. But she was already, apparently already, a very notable leader in Israel.

[28:38] Before God used her as a deliverer of his people. Alright, so I'm saying that Deborah was unique. Unique among all the other judges that are listed here in the book of Judges.

[28:48] Now, ladies, aren't you glad? I mean, doesn't this just make you happy? She's unique among all the others. She's set apart. Okay, well, maybe it's just not important to you.

[29:00] I don't know. Alright, but she's also unique in her person. Her position, but also her person. Now, I don't have to say a lot about this. She was a woman.

[29:10] She was a woman. She was the only female judge out of all the other judges. The only one. And that made her very unique.

[29:22] And really unique when you take the Bible as a whole. Which is, you know, pretty much the history of... Wrapped around the history of one particular culture of people.

[29:36] The Jews. And you surely have some sense of the place women held. You know, in the culture of the Jews.

[29:47] I mean, she was way down there. I'm sorry. That's just the way it is. And so this made her very unique. And she's unique also in the problem that she faced.

[30:00] Her problem. She faced a problem. That she dealt with. Took head on. But she faced a problem. So it's kind of unique among the accounts of all the other judges. Deborah, you see, she has a word from the Lord.

[30:14] She's a prophetess. And God has spoken to her. Revealed His will to her. And also that she is now supposed to share that word with Barak.

[30:24] The man. Alright? Who's supposed to get out there and be the leader. And what she is supposed to share with Barak. Pertains to something Barak, the man.

[30:37] Is supposed to do. What God commands him to do. In fact, the word command is even found in the text. And yet he doesn't want to do it.

[30:48] Or at the very least, he's afraid to do it. We'll talk about that here in just a minute. But look at verse 6. Then she sent and called for Barak, the son of Benoam. Benoam.

[31:00] From Kadesh in Naphtali. And said to him. Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded. Alright. That is. Here's what God commands. God.

[31:11] Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor. Take with you 10,000 men of the sons of Naphtali. And of the sons of Zebulun. And against you I will deploy Sisera.

[31:24] Sisera. The commander of Jabin's Ark. By the way. Who will deploy them? God will. Okay. With his chariots.

[31:34] That's his 900 chariots of iron. And his multitude. Generic word that just describes a whole bunch of people. His army.

[31:46] At the river of Kishon. And I will deliver him into your hands. So this is a word from God given directly to Deborah the prophetess. And she is to go and tell Barak.

[31:58] This is what God commands of you. This is what's going to happen. This is what you're supposed to do. And this is what God is going to do. And what did Barak say? He said.

[32:08] I don't know about this. Verse 8. And Barak said to her. If you will go with me. Then I will go.

[32:20] But if you will not go with me. I will not go. There's been a lot of talk about just what. What does he mean by that? What's going on?

[32:31] I heard the word chicken back there. And that possibly could be it. Perhaps though. Barak. Doesn't really believe her. Doesn't believe this is a word from God.

[32:46] And so perhaps. Doubting that it really came from God. He's just kind of sort of saying. Oh really? Well I'll tell you what.

[32:58] If this is from God. Then prove it by coming with me. You know. And if. You know. I guess he could be thinking that.

[33:09] You know. If she's not real sure about it herself. Then he's going to find out here. By how she reacts. It could be. Perhaps. Barak is just afraid.

[33:21] He's afraid. I mean. Jabin has how many chariots of iron? 900. That's a bunch. How many chariots does Israel have?

[33:34] Zero. How many swords and spears and shields? Well maybe one to go around 41,000. They don't have enough for one for 40,000. So maybe there's one for every 41,000.

[33:46] Or 40,001. I mean. Yeah. I think I might be a little bit. A little bit nervous about that.

[33:57] Anxious. And perhaps he worries. And this is probably getting closer to what it is. He's probably concerned that the people will not follow him. And why would he be concerned about that?

[34:11] Because he's not Deborah. You know. Deborah is the one the people know. And the people have come to for judgments. And respect her judgments.

[34:23] And so forth. And they know that she is a prophetess. It's common knowledge. That God speaks to her. And so maybe he thinks that they will follow Deborah if she comes along.

[34:34] But if she doesn't come. That they won't follow him. So he can't go out there by himself. Against these 900 chariots of iron. A multitude of soldiers.

[34:47] And so if she goes. He will go. That's just. You know. That's just the best we can do. To understand what's going on in his mind. But no matter how you cut it.

[34:58] It does not really look all that great for Deborah. I mean really. And yet. We have to say. You know. We can't be too judgmental of him.

[35:09] Because. By the way. He appears in the New Testament. Specifically in the book of Hebrews. Chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews.

[35:22] He's mentioned there. Along with all the others of faith. And it says there. See if I've still got my mark in it. Yeah. In chapter 11.

[35:32] Hebrews 11. In verse 32. And what more shall I say. He's already been describing. Of course. You know. Some of the greats. Of the.

[35:43] Of the faith. You know. Abraham. Of course. And Moses. And so forth. And he says. What shall I say. For the time would fail me. To tell of Gideon.

[35:53] And Barak. And Samson. And Jephthah. Also of David. And Samuel. And the prophets. Who through faith.

[36:05] Subdued kingdoms. That's. What God used Barak to do. When he finally obeyed. So we can't be too hard on him. And yet. It clearly from the passage.

[36:17] He's concerned. He's either fearful. Excuse me. Either unbelieving. Or fearful. Or. Not fearing. If not fearing the armies. And fearing death himself.

[36:27] Fearing that the people. Will not support him. And go with him. And so forth. And so if she goes. He will go. So it's kind of unique thing. Among all the other accounts.

[36:38] Of the other prophets. And so. Her. The problem that she faced. And dealt with. And that leads to. A fourth thing. What I would call her prowess.

[36:48] As a. As a. Woman. And as a leader. Verse 9 says. I will surely go with you. No. No cowardice. No fear.

[37:00] No indecision. On the part of Deborah. I will go with you. Nevertheless. And I can just hear her saying this. I can hear my wife saying this.

[37:13] She's not here. So I can say that. And you won't tell. Nevertheless. There will be. No glory for you. In the journey.

[37:24] You are taking. For the Lord. Will sell. Sisera. Into the hand. Of a woman. Boy. She's. She's pretty tough.

[37:39] And. She's pretty smart. All right. So how did things go? Well we have. A rather lengthy description. Of how things went. And I guess. Really the best thing to do. Is to read it.

[37:49] Starting with verse 10. Of chapter 4. And. Barak. Barak. Called Zebulun. And Naphtali. To Kadesh. That is. This is what God told him to do.

[38:00] And so he's going to do it. He went up. With 10,000 men. Under the command. Under his command. And Deborah. Went up with him. Now.

[38:10] Heber. The. The. The. The children of. Hobab. The father-in-law. Of Moses. Had separated himself. From the. Kenites. And pitched his tent.

[38:21] Near the. Terebinth tree. Of. Zeanahim. Which is beside. Kadesh. Now. We're going to get back to him. A little bit later. And they reported to.

[38:31] Caesara. That Barak. The son of. Benoam. And. Had gone up. To the Mount. Tabor. So. Caesara. Gathered together. All his chariots. 900 chariots.

[38:42] Of iron. And all the people. Who were with him. From. Heresheth. Hagoyim. To the river. Kishon. Then Deborah. Said to Barak. Up. For this is the day.

[38:53] In which the Lord. Has delivered. Caesara. Into your hand. So. Who's leading. This army. Deborah is. And.

[39:06] Has not the Lord. Gone out. Before you. So. Barak. Went down. From Mount. Tabor. With ten thousand. Men. Following him. And the Lord. Routed. Caesara. And all his chariots.

[39:16] And all his army. With the edge. Of the sword. I don't know where he got the swords. But. We can work that out. Some of the time. Before Barak. And Caesara. Alighted. From his chariot. And fled away on foot.

[39:29] But Barak. Pursued the chariots. And the army. As far as. Herasheth. Hagoyim. And all the army. Of Caesara. Fell by the edge. Of the sword. Not a man. Was left.

[39:39] So. Victory. Incredible. Victory. Just. Like. God said. As he revealed that to Deborah.

[39:51] The prophetess. And judge. And now also military leader. Think. Think about this. This. This. This incredible woman.

[40:03] You know. When you. Think about. How unique it is. That she could be a prophetess. And a judge. In the sense of a civil leader. And also a military leader.

[40:15] And also a deliverer of Israel. What. What a. What qualifications. This woman had. What accomplishments. She had. But the story's not over.

[40:27] Is it. Now. You know. The battle's been won. But. There's still. Caesara out there. We've got to deal with him. And so we have the heroics. Of another woman. Yet another woman.

[40:37] In the story. I mean. What's the deal here? Pretty incredible. Isn't it? We've got two. Women. I mean. In the Bible. It barely mentions women.

[40:48] And we've got two. Incredible deeds. And accomplishments. And courage. Of women. And. And this particular woman. Is named. Jael. Jael.

[40:59] And she's not a Jew. She's a Gentile. And. And we have. The story. There in verse 17. It gets a little bit gross. But. However. Caesara had fled away. On foot.

[41:10] To the tent of Jael. The wife of. Heber. The Kenite. For there was. Peace. Between Jabin. King of Hazor. Hazor. And the house of.

[41:20] Heber. The Kenite. All right. So. He. He. He. He. They were in cahoots together. I mean. He. He was sympathetic. Of Jabin. But what about his wife?

[41:31] Well. Not so much. And. And so. Jael. Went out. To meet Caesara. And said to him. Turn aside.

[41:41] My lord. Turn aside. To me. Do not fear. And when he had turned aside. With her. Into the tent. She covered him. With a blanket. Hide him.

[41:52] Inside the tent. Great idea. Then he said to her. Please give me a little water to drink. For I am thirsty. And so she opened a jug of milk. Gave him a drink. And covered him.

[42:03] Now. It's interesting that the word. For milk there. Though it's. There's some debate about it. Some question. But it. Seems to suggest.

[42:16] That we're talking about fermented milk. Milk. And. And so the milk. What effect. Would that have upon. Upon Caesara.

[42:29] Well. Some of you think. It'd make him sick. Well actually. Get him drunk. Make him drowsy. Probably. Probably fell asleep. And. That. That was her plan.

[42:39] I think. Apparently. If. If. If. If. Any man comes. And inquires of you.

[42:52] Inquires of you. And says. Is there any man here? You shall say no. Then JL. Heber's wife. Took a tent peg. And took a hammer.

[43:03] In her hand. And went softly. To him. And drove the peg. Into his tent. And it went down. Into the ground. For he was fast asleep.

[43:15] And weary. So he died. Wow. Then JL. Heber's wife. Took a. Or said that.

[43:25] And then. As Barak. Pursued. Caesara. JL. Came out. To meet him. And said to him. Come. I will show you. The man. Whom you seek. And when he went. Into her tent. There lay. Caesara. Dead.

[43:35] With the peg. In his temple. So on that day. God subdued. Jabin. King of Canaan. In the presence. Of the children. Of Israel. And the hand. Of the children. Of Israel.

[43:46] Grew stronger. And stronger. Against Jabin. King of Canaan. Until they had destroyed. Jabin. King of Canaan. And there's the story.

[43:58] Incredible story. So we have the sins of the people. That's how it all got started. We have the selection of a prophetess.

[44:09] A prophetess who would become the deliverer. For God's people. And then finally. And I'll just name this. And you can read chapter 5 yourself. We have the shouting of praises.

[44:22] I guess really. I would rather name that the singing of praises. Okay. On second thought. And that still works with my alliteration. The singing of praises.

[44:35] And this. Of course. It seems is the purpose of the poetic account. The parallel account. What was the purpose of this? I think the purpose of it. Because the flavor of it.

[44:45] Is more in the. Kind of in the sense of praising. Praising what God has done. And so that's what we have. In chapter 5.

[44:56]  In fact chapter 5 begins. Then Deborah and Barak. The son of Abinoam. Sang on that day. And then they sang this song.