Last week we learned about Godly Leader/Judge Deborah, Israel’s Army Commander Barak, and a special woman Jael who decided to take the life of an evil person Sisera who was the commander of the Army who went against Israel.
Today we will read the praises to God of Deborah and Barak. Open your Bibles to Judges 5….
Read along with me the Praise Song of Deborah and Barak, Judges 5……
v1: look back to Judges 4:23-24…. Deborah and Barak led a praise song after the Lord delivered Israel from slavery
v2: reasons for praising God??
- when there are godly leaders actually leading!
- when people are willingly serving the Lord
What do you think v3 saying?? Hint – Israel had no kings yet at that time!
v3: a proclamation to the world about the reality of God and people who believe in this God!
v4-5: reveals the reality and power of God!
v6-9: Deborah was called by God to lead like a parent (mother) to Israel who went astray!
Was Deborah prideful with ego??
v9 indicates Deborah has a right heart for God and for God’s people!
v10-12: again, here’s a plea for the general public to note the reality of an almighty and loving God!
v13-23: God’s people responded to battle for the Lord, God battled with them, and those who went against God were destroyed!
v24-27: Why was Jael and praised and honored??
Look again at v20…. What did that mean?? Sisera was the military commander of the nation who enslaved God’s people, therefore was God’s enemy, who God had to bring to justice!
Jael was wise, courageous, observant, and knew that Sisera was ungodly and so she killed him.
Jael somehow knew the godly thing to do and she was capable of doing it and so she did it!
v28-30: Why was it stated there by God??
The opposite of Deborah and Jael is described as the ungodly women just desired physical happiness!
v31: Enemies of God will perish but those who truly love God will always rise with strength!
There are so many Biblical Principles from this chapter which we can apply to our lives today but let me just highlight a few.
1. Is God worthy of our praise and why??
Biblical Praise (from Hebrew and Greek) is to kneel, bless, sing to, commend, applaud, approve, speak well of….
Let us regularly think of what God has done for us and respond in “praise”!
2. We are to proclaim the reality of God to our world (the sphere of our influence)! Wherever God places us, speak the reality of God! We all need to be reminded of this; whether with relatives, friends, at work, at school, in a café…. we are to proclaim the reality of God!!
3. We are to always check if our hearts are right with God and when you are called to lead (and we are all leaders) LEAD with a godly heart!!
Always have a heart right with God because we all to lead and when we lead, many ties people will think we have an ego problem. Our final judge is always God not people. When we decide and make decisions, can we say our hearts were right for the Lord?
4. God is always victorious so fight the battles with Him and for Him, not for ourselves, not for organizations we’re in, not even for our family’s name but always for the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord!
Again, ask the Lord “is this the right battle you want me to fight?” “Am I truly fighting for you?”
5. Watch out for “physical” happiness which can pull us away from godly joy and blessings!
