Judges 4-5

[0:00] He then relieved them from captivity by military means. He raised up judges who led armies, and not only led armies but led armies in miraculous circumstances.

[0:13] ! Many of the things we go through in Judges you can actually find in history books extra biblically. It's not just a biblical account but I would without hesitation say the Bible is the most accurate account of those events.

[0:27] So what we're getting to today is, well we're going to finish off last week, which I ended last week with, there was a guy called Shamgar.

[0:40] And we said that this week we would talk about Shamgar. And the reason I wanted to not just leave it out is because I think it unearthed something about the way God does things.

[0:50] If you remember, Shamgar was reported to have killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad. An ox goad is that thing in his right hand that he used to pull the ox with to make it pull the plough.

[1:03] And we said, you know, this doesn't necessarily mean that he met face to face 600 guys in a field and slew a lot of them on his own. It's a bit of a sort of ninja theme to that.

[1:19] But it could have been any number of ways. He could have snuck up on them in camp and killed them while they were asleep or it might be that he met them in twos and threes or you just don't know. All it says is that by killing 600 Philistines who had wrong designs on Israel, he saved Israel.

[1:37] And so he's numbered among the judges, even though in the Bible there are literally two lines of script about him. He killed the Philistines and he therefore saved Israel. But the bit that I thought I would add is in archaeology there is something called the Maneptus Steli.

[2:01] It's a tablet with writing on that's been discovered. And it actually reports exactly the conditions.

[2:13] It dates to the same time as these events in the Bible. And it reports the same conditions that Israel was in poor condition at that time. And archaeological DNA evidence from Ashkelon confirms strongly that at the same time as this, the Philistines came from Crete.

[2:33] And if I just click forward to this slide, Crete is here. And they travelled across to here, the Philistines did, and then tried to make inroads into Israel and other places.

[2:49] So that's just to kind of put it on the map for you. And archaeologists have now discovered a Canaanite fort dating to around 1200 BC, which is the same time that these judges' events took place.

[3:10] And this fort, which, when I send you the notes, if you click on the link, you've got, there's an article about the fort they discovered. But this is right on the border of the Philistine territory thought to have been constructed after Shamgar's attack.

[3:26] So Shamgar dealt with 600 Philistines and subsequent to that, this fort was built for ongoing protection of Israel. 600 men was a common military unit for Philistines and also for others.

[3:41] I think the Romans quite often also had units of 600. So it's probable that when he slew the Philistines, he slew 600 men, which was a unit, which kind of lends support to the fact that he might have snuck in in the night and done it.

[3:58] I don't know. But what was interesting is he was a foreigner. He wasn't a Jew. So the first point is that God didn't just use Jews to save Jews, but he used whatever was at his disposal.

[4:11] And in this case, Shamgar was not a Jew. But more than that, it seems likely, and I can't, this is not proven, but it seems likely, Shamgar was, he was, he's described in the Bible as the son of Anath.

[4:28] You may recall that, went from that verse. Shamgar, the son of Anath. Well, Anath is a female name. And it's very odd for men in the Bible to be named son of their mother.

[4:42] They're always called the son of their father. It's almost an insult to call a man the son of his mother, apart from when the mother referred to is a female deity, a pagan deity.

[4:57] And Anath was a female deity. So a son of Anath was someone who was of the army of Anath, who was, a son of Anath was a warrior of Anath, the female deity.

[5:12] So, if that's true, and it seems very likely, but as I say, unproven. But if that's true, then God not only used a non-Jew, but he used a pagan to deliver Israel.

[5:27] And it's important for us to grasp the fact that God uses whatever he has available to use. And the fact that you don't believe in God doesn't mean that God won't use you.

[5:37] As we discover when we go through the book of Judges, he quite often uses you to achieve his will and then puts you under his judgment to follow. But in this case, it seems very likely that he used Shamgar to protect Israel from these.

[5:55] He used a pagan to protect Israel from the Philistines. Keep in mind as well, because when we get on to read this, it carries on from the death of Ehud.

[6:09] Ehud and Shamgar were contemporaries. They operated at the same time. It's just that Shamgar was used to deal with a particular influx of Philistines, whereas Ehud was used to deliver them from, I think it was the Moabites from memory.

[6:23] But that is last week, and my memory is a bit questionable. So, that finishes off last week. And when you study this, the word Levant comes up a lot.

[6:38] And I did that map and put it in the notes just to show you what the Levant means. It's kind of that area there. And the Philistines were well known in the Levant for their viciousness and their military campaigns.

[6:52] And the particular area we are speaking of would have been, I believe, I don't think it was just the coast of Israel.

[7:06] It was either landing here and coming in this way or landing above and dropping down into Israel. But in any event, that's what Israel had to be protected from when the Philistines decided to take a pop shot at them.

[7:22] Right, let's deal with today's stuff. I just want to get those off the screen because they just provide for confusion.

[7:35] If not for you, then for me. Why can't I not? It's not doing as it's told.

[7:55] Well, normally, normally if you right click it. Oh. Oh, well, that serves the purpose for now. I was just trying to blank that screen out, which I did successfully last week.

[8:10] Anyway, judges. Would you like a Bible? It was a Bible, wasn't it? Yeah, of course. There's one. It's a slightly different translation from the one we were using, guys.

[8:27] I'll get the gist. It's not so different. It's the seventh bit of the Bible, judges.

[8:42] Right, judges chapter four. Now, what I've got to do today, if I can achieve it, and if I don't get there, we will just do it next week. We'll finish it next week.

[8:52] But judges chapter four, you can't understand it all unless you read judges chapter five. And judges chapter five, you can't get all that unless you've read judges chapter four.

[9:03] So, we're going to try to do them in parallel. And so, it might be brilliant, or it'll be chaotic.

[9:14] So, we'll keep chapter four as our main text. And we'll cross-refer to chapter five. Having said that, I'd like to take a look at the first few verses of chapter five, because it says, chapter five is called The Song of Deborah and Barak.

[9:33] And it's a song or a poem that was written following the victory that they achieved on behalf of Israel. And once again, these are part of historical narrative for Israel.

[9:46] When you read things like The Wars of the Jews by Josephus, you'll find that an awful lot of the detail that we're reading now is recorded in Jewish history.

[9:58] But it starts off, Then Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang on that day, saying that the leaders led in Israel.

[10:09] This is chapter five, then? This is chapter five. I did say the first few verses of chapter five. I'll start again. Then Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang in that day, saying that the leaders led in Israel, that the people volunteered, bless the Lord.

[10:25] Hear, O kings, give here, O rulers. I, to the Lord I will sing. I will sing praises to the Lord, the God of Israel. So, that kind of sets context for chapter four, which is that those who were engaged in the warfare, now we'll read later that not all of them were engaged, but those who were engaged in the warfare were really willing and up for it and they were wanting to take this victory that they felt God was going to give them.

[10:57] So, they were very much people of faith. So, chapter four. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. So, we've got this, the sin cycle going on again, haven't we?

[11:11] Mm-hmm. All right? They had 40 good years under Ehud. Was it 40? Or was it 80? It was 80 good years under Ehud. Yeah. They had 80 good years under Ehud.

[11:22] As soon as he died, they went back to their old ways. And remember that their old ways included idolatry, which included child sacrifice and temple prostitution.

[11:34] So, it wasn't clever stuff. It was about as far from God as the modern governments are getting with the sort of gender ideology and the supporting stuff that is absolutely awful and somehow pretending it's good.

[11:55] So, verse two. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.

[12:06] And the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harashef Hagoyim. And I'm going to take these verses as we go because otherwise it will just take too long if I read it right the way through.

[12:19] So, this guy, Hazor, this guy, Jabin, it seems that Jabin was not a name but was a title. I wasn't able to find out any more than that.

[12:30] It was a title a bit like Pharaoh was a title. So, he's king of Canaan. And he reigned in Hazor. And Hazor is a place of shelter or a place of refuge.

[12:43] It was, in other words, he reigned securely. And the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harashef Hagoyim. Harashef Hagoyim is the woods or the forests of the Gentiles.

[12:57] So, this guy, Sisera, is a military commander who is kind of controlling Gentile territory. The sons of Israel cried to the Lord for he had 900 iron chariots and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for 20 years.

[13:17] So, as a result of their pagan ways that they'd dumped the Lord and walked away from the Lord, they finished up being severely oppressed for 20 years.

[13:32] And some versions don't use the word severely. Some say cruelly. There was obviously a high degree of cruelty involved in this. So, the 900 chariots, incidentally, Josephus tells us that Jabin had about 3,000 of these iron chariots.

[13:54] But what we're reading here is that 900 of them were deployed just here. And, of course, an iron chariot, as we read on, we'll find that the Israelis had been virtually disarmed.

[14:05] They didn't have swords to play with. They were very, very low on weapons. And if you drive iron chariots through the middle of people with blades on the wheels and things like that, you don't need swords.

[14:16] You just... It's like... Yeah. I'm like tanks against guns. It is, yeah. Tanks against water pistols. Yeah. So, now we come to Deborah.

[14:30] Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And remember, judging doesn't mean as we...

[14:41] It doesn't mean as we understand judging, which, you know, the man that sits in the court and passes sentence. The judges of Israel were ones who... Yes, they did judge. They judged Israel's situation.

[14:53] And they told Israel to repent and to get back to the ways of God. And when it came to these acts of deliverance, they became military leaders. And Deborah was not only one of these military leaders, but was a prophetess.

[15:08] And I'm just going to try to... Bear with me while I... Get some notes. If we...

[15:23] Before we go on to talk about Deborah, if we just go over to chapter 5 again and read on from where we stopped. What you have in verse 4, 5, and 6, you've got Deborah and Barak singing that this was very much like the time when God...

[15:46] Right, Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth quaked and the heavens also dripped, even the clouds dripped water, the mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord.

[15:58] This Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anaph, in the days of Jael, or it should be Jael, where the highways were deserted and travellers went by roundabout ways.

[16:15] So, I'll read on a bit. The peasantry ceased. They ceased in Israel until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.

[16:26] New gods were chosen. Then war was in the gate. Not a shield nor a spear was seen among 40,000 Israel. So, it paints a picture of what Israel was like to live in.

[16:37] They couldn't use the main roads because the chances are they'd get duffed up or chased by chariots of iron or whatever. So, they were using the highways and byways, places where you probably couldn't go with a chariot, the mountain tracks.

[16:52] We're talking about an area where the geography was. You had Mount Tabor or Tabor. It was a mountainous region, but down in the valley, you had this river or stream called Kishon.

[17:06] And it was basically, at this time of year, it was a rivulet. It was just a tiny stream, but the riverbed was wide where in the wet season, it would get flooded.

[17:19] And so, the riverbed was wide and it was absolutely ideal as a track and as a main path, but it was also ideal for driving chariots up and down. So, and what you've got in verse 8 is an identification of their sin.

[17:39] New gods were chosen. Then wars were in the gates. So, they'd walked away from the one true God and chosen gods that were not true. And remember from our previous readings that the motivation of God for putting them into captivity when they did this was to cause them to return to him.

[18:03] It wasn't spite. People often talk about how spiteful God can be. This was God's only means of getting them to eventually get so sick of being oppressed they would cry out to him.

[18:15] Then he could answer them and show them that he was their God. And this happened repeatedly. There's a scripture and I might get the verse in a minute but there's a scripture that says that the children of Israel were like dogs returning to their own vomit.

[18:33] As soon as they got into good times but then their leaders died they immediately reverted to the temple prostitution, the child sacrifice, the worshipping of the false gods.

[18:45] So, God would cause oppression to come on them and they eventually got sick of that and would cry out to the one true God and he would rescue them. So, this is what we're witnessing here.

[18:56] They had chosen other gods and had been disarmed. There wasn't a spear or a sword among 40,000 of them. So, back to chapter 4.

[19:12] Deborah the prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment.

[19:27] Now, first of all, I'm really impressed that she had her own palm tree. But, what's interesting is if she had been a man, she is one of a select club, is Deborah.

[19:44] I mean, you had Deborah the prophetess, you had, who else did we have? I wrote their names down because I'm... You had Miriam who preceded her. You had...

[19:56] Holder. Holder, who was a prophetess. In the New Testament, you've got the four prophetic daughters of... Philip. Philip.

[20:06] Sorry, yeah, Philip. Anna. Yeah. So... Just reading your notes. Yeah. Yeah. I know all this. Totally lodged it there.

[20:19] Yeah. I may well have not put Hannah's name up there for some reason, but the point I was making was it was a select club. Women were not that often used in this kind of role and usually they were only used because the men had no spine.

[20:36] Which is an unfortunate fact, but it actually still remains true a lot in the church today. You go into most churches, it's the women that lead the charge. Most churches you go into, the congregation is about 70% or more women because they're the ones who are concerned for the spiritual welfare of the family while...

[20:55] It's probably over-stereotyping to say, well, the guy's down the pub. But... But... But... But I think... I think the point is God would prefer men to be men and take responsibility for caring for and looking after women and giving them security.

[21:15] Not oppressing them, but to elevate them and make them everything they could possibly be. It is what the scripture teaches. But quite often the men weren't there to do it.

[21:27] And in this case, Deborah seems to, if we read on in chapter 4, verse 6, she sentenced someone, Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kadesh Naphtali.

[21:39] Kadesh Naphtali was one of the Levite cities that you may recall back in the days when the law was given and the land was apportioned.

[21:50] each of these tribes had to set aside cities for the Levites, the priests. And Kadesh Naphtali was a Levite city and therefore it's probable that Barak was a Levite, one of the priest clan.

[22:07] But she said to him, Behold, the Lord, the God of Israel has commanded, go and march to Mount Tabor. Now, this little sentence, Behold, the Lord, the God of Israel has commanded, in Hebrew it's actually ambiguous as to whether it says the Lord has commanded or has not the Lord commanded and it's voiced as a question.

[22:34] And there are quite a lot of people who preach on this passage who say that Deborah was basically kicking them up the backside and saying, come on, you know the Lord has said this, so get on with it.

[22:48] Now, it's kind of tenuous. It may be true or it may be that she brought the word of the Lord to him. Either could be true. In any event, his response is interesting.

[23:01] take with you 10,000 men from the sons of Naphtali and the sons of Zebulun, two of the Jewish tribes. I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon and I will give him into your hand.

[23:20] Now, on the face of it, that isn't particularly helpful because Kishon is a bit of a dribble of a river at this time of year. So, I'm going to draw this man with his 900 chariots right to where they will be the best functioning and God will give them into your hand.

[23:37] It seems kind of, yeah, okay, I'm not sure I'm madly in love with this idea. As a military leader, I'd have probably chosen a different route. But it did say God will give them into your hands, right?

[23:52] Deborah said that God had said he would give them into your hands. Now, if God gives them into your hands in this wide riverbed, that means it's God and not you and God gets the glory for that and not man.

[24:08] Making sense? Right. Then Barak said to her, if you will go with me, then I will go.

[24:18] But if you will not go with me, I will not go. Now, people, people make different things of this. The most common thing is Barak was obviously a right coward and he wanted a woman to hold his hand in a society where women were not renowned for winning battles or even being sent to war in the first place.

[24:42] And that's one way you could view it and it might be right. Personally, I think it was something else, something that to an extent I have been confronted with in my own life quite a few times and that is when God speaks, are you sure this is God?

[25:00] Now, the only one that knew that this was God was Deborah. So, it's kind of fair for him to say if you will go with me, that means you actually do believe it is God because if you believe God is with you, you also believe you cannot possibly lose.

[25:21] So, it could simply have been his way of testing the word of the Lord and we're going to come across more of that next week when we look at Gideon. it could have been his way of testing the word of the Lord.

[25:32] If this is really God then you'll be ready to come because you'll know what the outcome will be. So, I wonder if he wasn't just saying I'm happy to go as long as I know that it's the word of the Lord and if she will go with me, this woman who was judging Israel who was known as a prophetess and known to hear the word of God from God then I'm happy to go.

[25:53] So, it might not have been the act of cowardice that it's often portrayed as on the other hand it might have been but I like to give these men who were as carriers me the benefit of the doubt. So, verse 9 she said I will surely go with you nevertheless the honour shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.

[26:20] Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh. Kadesh. Now, the honour shall not be yours because the Lord will sell him into the hands of a woman.

[26:36] Was she prophesied she would get the honour because he wouldn't go without her or was it something else? Now, if you read Hebrews chapter 11 you will find at the end of Hebrews chapter 11 we don't need to turn there but it's the hall of faith and the one who's spoken of in the book of Hebrews as the man of faith was Barak not Deborah.

[27:04] So, he did get the glory in a sense because in the book of Hebrews when the writer to the Hebrews is saying using all these examples of men of mighty faith he numbers Barak among them.

[27:17] So, what's this woman that's going to take hold of Sisera? Well, it's this woman Jael which we will come to in the chapter who killed Sisera.

[27:30] So, he was killed by a woman. But I think personally that this was the prophetic at work where Deborah said you're not going to get the glory for this because it's a woman that's going to get the glory.

[27:42] She was prophesying of what was to come with Jael being the one to kill him. So, Barak verse 10 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali when I read that I heard pictures of them on their mobile phones but they didn't have mobile phones.

[27:59] Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh and 10,000 men went up with him with Deborah also with him Deborah also went up with him.

[28:12] Now, Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites and from the sons of Hoab the father-in-law of Moses and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zananim which is near Kedesh.

[28:25] So, this chap Heber is somewhere in the vicinity where we'll return to Heber in a moment. Heber is at well, I'll give you a bit of information now. He is the father of Jael who we're going to meet in a moment.

[28:36] Then they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinom had gone up to Mount Tabor.

[28:48] Now, why would he go up to the mountain? First of all, because that was the word of the Lord, but if you've got to do business with chariots, the best thing for you to do is come down to them from the mountains, not take them on in the plain.

[29:02] So, that's an advantage to be in the mountains. Verse 13, Sisera called together all his chariots, 900 iron chariots, and all the people who were with him from Harasheth Hagoyim to the river Kishon.

[29:18] So, they've all gathered at the river Kishon. Turn to Judges 5. And we'll just read the section from, I think we might as well read from verse 12, but what we read previously was, this is going to be like the days when you came from Seir, when the heavens dripped their water, right?

[29:47] As we then read down, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, sing, a song, arise, and take away your captives, O son of Abinoam. Then survivors came down to the nobles, the people of the Lord came down to me as warriors.

[30:02] So this is the 10,000 that we're talking about. From Ephraim, those whose route is in Amalek, following you, Benjamin, with your peoples, from Machir, commanders came down, and from Zebulun, those who wield the staff of office.

[30:20] And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah. It was Issachar, as was Issachar, so was Barak, into the valley they rushed at his heels. Among the divisions of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart.

[30:33] So you've got this picture of people with great resolve of heart making their way down with Deborah to do battle. Verse 16.

[30:48] Why did you sit among the sheepfolds to hear the piping of the flocks among the divisions of Reuben? There were great searchings of heart. Gilead remained across the Jordan.

[31:00] And why did Dan stay in ships? Asher sat at the seashore and remained by its landings. Zebulun was a people who despised their lives even to death.

[31:12] And Naphtali also on the high places of the field. So this is saying that there were more disobedient than obedient. There were lots of tribes who didn't respond to the call to battle, but Zebulun and Naphtali did, and they didn't even count their own lives as worth anything because they wanted to serve the Lord.

[31:33] The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan at Tanakh near the waters of Megiddo. Interesting, we've talked a lot about the typology that's in this book.

[31:49] The brook Kishon flowed into the valley of Megiddo which we know as the valley of Armageddon, Har Megiddo. So this battle, as a type of what's going to happen in the end times, is happening in the valley of Armageddon.

[32:05] So if you like, it's a type or a precursor or a shadow of the battle that will yet come. They took no plunder in silver.

[32:20] The stars fought from heaven. From their courses they fought against Cicero. The torrent of Kishon swept them away.

[32:31] The ancient torrent of Kishon. Oh my soul, march on with strength. Then the horse's hoof beats from the dashing, the dashing of his valiant steams.

[32:44] So what you've got here is they're coming down from the mountain to do battle and the Lord introduces weather. And it's an interesting thing to note that the one way in which God could sort out all threats of nuclear war and everything to this very day is that he can mess with the weather.

[33:06] And if he chose to he could divert missiles, cause them to misfire. God's command over the weather still rules all other weaponry that we can use.

[33:18] But in this particular instance you see Cicero is trusting in his iron chariots and God sends so much rain that the Kishon becomes a taunt and therefore the ground becomes sludge and suddenly these iron chariots which were an ideal weapon become an encumbrance.

[33:37] Not only are they no good as a weapon but they're actually defeating you, they're self-defeating. You can't, your horses are stuck in the mud and the chariots are stuck in the mud and you are kind of anchored to the spot and therefore the army of people who are not very well armed can come and dispatch you at will.

[33:56] There is a, it's, it would have demonstrated to the men on the ground and Deborah that it was God that did this. They couldn't possibly have won this battle without that deluge and without the brook Kishon becoming a toland.

[34:12] So this was an act of God, it was a supernatural deliverance. Can anybody remember which verse I read in? 14, no in chapter 4.

[34:26] In chapter 4. I think. Right. So verse 15, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot.

[34:42] So last man standing turned out to be the last man running and Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Haguin and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword and not even one was left.

[34:58] Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heba. Now what Jael is about to do is an act of incredible courage because several things.

[35:10] Number one, it says that if we just read on, she was the wife of Heba the Kenite for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of Heba the Kenite.

[35:26] So he's gone to the house of his mate and she is the wife of his mate and she takes him in and then kills him.

[35:40] Now that could have involved the wrath of her husband and husbands in these particular, you know, it would be quite okay for a husband to put his wife to death for disobedience in that particular society.

[35:53] So it was a courageous thing for her to do. But he rocks up at the door of Haber's house and in verse 18, Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, turn aside my master, turn aside to me, do not be afraid, and turned aside to her into the tent and he turned aside to her into the tent and she covered him with a mug.

[36:19] And you know, poor chap's tired and he's, I suppose he must have been wet as well, what happened in the flood. And he said to her, please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.

[36:31] So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink and then she covered him. Now he asked for water, which would have been refreshing, milk would have been more soporific, particularly if it was straight from the goat, you know, it would have been warm and he's already shattered and he's got cold and he's wrapped in a rug and he's feeling all, ah, and he goes off to sleep.

[36:56] But he says to her, stand in the doorway of the tent and it shall be if anyone, if anyone comes and inquires of you and says, is there anyone here, you shall say no.

[37:10] Cicero, not surprisingly, doesn't follow the protocols of hospitality. Number one, he asks her for a drink. Now that, first of all, a man's not supposed to go into another man's house when there's only his wife there in these conditions.

[37:30] It would be an insult to pay for himself for him to do that. Secondly, once you have accepted someone's hospitality, you are, according to their etiquette, you are supposed to assume that your needs will be met.

[37:43] You don't start asking for things and you certainly don't tell her to stand in the doorway and lie for you. So this is all contrary to the etiquette of the day, but she plays along.

[37:58] And then verse 21, but Jael, sorry, verse 20, you shall say you shall say no. But Jael, Sheba's wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple and it went through into the ground.

[38:17] For he was sound asleep and exhausted and so he died. This raises an interesting question. I heard somebody preaching on this and were saying things like that he was not in favour of the fact that she snuck up on him and that she lied that he was getting hospitality.

[38:36] Didn't even mention the fact that what she's actually doing is committing murder. We sometimes get our priorities a bit askew. But if you go back to chapter five, what you then read about Jael is, verse 24, Most blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heba the Kenite.

[39:01] Most blessed is she of women in the tent. He asked her for water and she gave him milk. In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds. She reached out her hand for the tent peg and her right hand for the workman's hammer and she struck Sisera and smashed his head.

[39:18] And she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet, this gets very poetic now, between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay.

[39:29] Between her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell, dead. Note that that is spoken of as if it was a good thing.

[39:41] And people get carried away with the fact that I'm a Christian, there are no circumstances under which I can lie. No, no, no. If the reason is just, then God will allow it.

[39:54] God himself has promised that in the end times he will send on those who don't believe a deluding influence. Right? Romans 1, verse 18 onwards tells us that if we continue to rebel against God, him having removed all our excuses, he will give us over to all of that deceit and nonsense and allow us to suffer it.

[40:19] which is in fact what he's doing to the people and judges. When they reject him, he goes, okay, have it your way for a while and we'll see how you like it. And when they finally cry out to be released from it, he then steps in.

[40:33] Because with the book of Revelation, no matter how much he allows them to suffer the consequences of their own stupidity, they don't repent. so in the end there is the final judgment.

[40:47] It's one of the hallmarks when we study Revelation, if we haven't done it in this church yet, but if we do, one of the hallmarks of it is, it's the one time in history where no one repents.

[40:58] They know they're dealing with the almighty God and they kind of go anyway. You know, it's bad stuff. So, most blessed of woman.

[41:14] The only other woman in scripture spoken of in those terms is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Which I thought was interesting. Right. Last few verses.

[41:29] Yeah. We tried to limit it to 45 minutes for the sake of the kids. It's for the sake of my house.

[41:43] Verse 22. And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, come and I will show you the man whom you are seeking. And he entered with her and behold, Sisera was lying dead with the tent cake in his temple.

[41:59] So God subdued on that day, Jael being the king of Canaan before the sons of Israel and the hand of the sons of Israel pressed heavier and heavier upon Jabin, the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin, the king of Canaan.

[42:13] And if you look near the end of chapter 5, we go from verse 28. This is talking of what Sisera's mother would have, who's waiting at home for his chariot to turn up.

[42:32] Out of the window she looked and lamented the mother of Sisera through the lattice. Why does his chariot delay in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry? It's what a mother would do, isn't it?

[42:46] Where's that flipping chariot? He's not here yet. What's he doing? Her wise princesses would answer her indeed. She repeats her words to herself.

[42:59] Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoil, a maiden warrior, to Sisera, a spoil of dyed work, in other words, garments and cloths, a spoil of dyed work embroidered, dyed work of double embroidery on the neck of the spoiler.

[43:14] In other words, they say, don't worry love, he's on his way and he's probably hanging around to take a maiden or two for himself. Again, J.L.

[43:26] was very courageous because had this man been allowed to come round and carry on to his day, the first thing he may well have done is raped her. Because that was the, that's what you did.

[43:38] You're a warrior. Once you took a land, you took the women you wanted and did what you wanted with them. Verse 31, Thus let all your enemies perish, O Lord, but let those who love him be like the rising of the sun in its might, and the land was undisturbed for forty years.

[43:57] So this was a huge and major battle. I was looking for points of application for us, and I have to say it didn't come to many, but the one I did come to was we have to trust God to use whatever is there to build his kingdom.

[44:16] And sometimes he uses the most surprising things to build his kingdom. And in this case, number one, he used a woman, which is not surprising to us, but it would have been to that society. And he used a pagan, as we started off with Shanga, and he used the weather.

[44:40] And he, I think the other bit of application for us that I had is you can always expect God to put his stamp on something. And in this case, his stamp was, he didn't say, you know, be Gurkha warriors and hide in the bushes and get them.

[44:55] He said, come down onto the plain and take them there, where iron chariots should have been the most functional. And then he dealt with the iron chariots by introducing this completely unseasonal weather that made the chariots completely useless.

[45:12] God will always find a way to show you that it isn't you being so clever, it's him. And we come across that theme again and again in scripture. So, Father, thank you for this word thank you.

[45:27] That we can take courage from the fact that as your children you will fight our battles for us. And even in such times as we might face death, you've got eternity covered.

[45:43] And therefore, in that sense, we're never going to lose. I pray, Lord, that you fill our hearts with courage, especially in these times when there is so much being thrown at us that is so ungodly, that we've quite often had to take our children out of school to protect them from the complete garbage that schools are throwing at them at the moment in so many areas of life.

[46:10] Non-academic things that are just morally wrong to expose children to and to teach to children. Lord, I just, I pray that you will continue to strengthen us to stay focused on the truth and to not be deterred into the modern politically correct thinking where everything seems to get turned upside down and people tend to accept that what is utterly evil is good and it's baffling.

[46:47] But, Lord, allow us to continue to fight, especially for our own children's sake, but also to help others in the fight in Jesus' name. Amen. Did anybody have any points to answer that?

[47:06] Well, shall say, the church I've been to before, before.