So maybe you’ve heard it said, ‘read your bible’ so you tried and failed. Our hope as leaders is that all of us will pick up God’s word and come to understand the true nature of God. After all, the bible is God’s Word curated over centuries detailing His nature, His will, the meaning of life and humanity’s historical interactions with Him. Seriously, the Bible details the hidden keys to the Kingdom. Hence, the reason we are reviewing a new book each week.
This week we move to the book of Judges. The authorship of the book is attributed to Samuel but we don’t know for sure. We do know the book was written to show us of how Israel fell into a terrible cycle of disobedience, repentance, oppression so decadent that it would need a deliver. In the end, the book of judges shows us that to break the cycle of sin, requires more than any man or woman leader can provide. Human leadership is often corrupt because we, as humans, are imperfect. Hence, the only solution is for our God, perfect in all things, to be invited to enter into every area of our lives.
The book of judges is about what happens when people begin to live in their own power versus God’s. It shouldn’t be a surprise to us that this has happened and continues. After all, Moses prophesied it would happen in Deuteronomy 31:29 - “ For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord and arouse his anger by what your hands have made.”
Now that statement is repeated seven times in the book of Judges. Now I am not a big numerology guy but the number ‘seven’ in the scriptures signifies perfection. So when something is repeated seven times, we need to pay attention. In this case the phrase is: “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” (Judges 2:11,3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, 13:1). They were perfectly contaminated by the world in which they lived. So much so they turned away from the Lord to the point of apostasy. A churchy word that means: to refuse to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith or an abandonment of a previous loyalty: DEFECTION (Merriam Webster Online). As a good friend used to say, they went native. They did and acted like everyone else.
One of my favorite stories in Judges 4 is actually a small glimmer of hope in the middle of this time in which the nation of Israel has gone native. There was a prophetess leading Israel by the name of Deborah.
She was a divinely inspired female leader in a male dominated society. I love the thought that God uses a person who normally would have less rights than a family goat to lead a nation.
She was more than a prophet.
She was the accepted leader, priest and prophet. So respected, she could order Barak, a subject of the kingdom, to bring together an army of 10,000 men and go fight and possibly die to free the nation from their 20 year oppressors.
Now, that’s respect for her as well as her relationship with God.
In the song Deborah composed after the victorious battle of 10,000 men, she gives us an incredible insight as to what happened when God moved her from her comfortable existence. She writes of hearing the Lord, “Wake up, Deborah, wake up! Wake up, wake up, and sing a song!” (see Judges 5:12).
With all of the turmoil in the world, we can relate to Deborah as a role model who lived in troubled times. As Deborah awoke, she arose as a leader to awaken others to stand up and fight.
When leaders lead, others will follow.
The great preacher D.L. Moody was an ordinary man whose zeal was awakened when he heard the British revivalist Henry Varley say, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him.”
Think of it, on an ordinary day The Lord awakened Deborah to take action that would require courage and faith.
Could today be the ordinary day that God is waking you from your own slumber to do through you more than you ever dreamed or imagined for His Kingdom and His glory?
The good news is God doesn’t expect you to come up with what you’d like to do for Him. Instead, He puts within you an irresistible desire to do what He wills and that He’s set ahead of time for you. If you pay attention, you’ll see God giving you opportunities to do those things.
Don’t shrink back and think that God uses other people. Be inspired to realize that God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. He wants to awaken you to all that He has planned for you.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
Are you living in a way that you can say like Paul, “I urge you, imitate me” (1 Corinthians 4:16)?
Now, please understand I know it is hard to imitate Christ everyday. Some days it's laziness, some days fear overtakes us and other days we just don’t want to stand apart in the bubble of suburbia.
But imagine if we don’t even try? We have to try! We were created to try! We are created to share His love and power by offering a small foretaste of heaven to everyone, everyday and in every way so your God would be honored.
Creative: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/judges/ (7:35)
References: Quest Bible Overviews, https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/who-was-deborah-and-why-was-she-so-important.html, Warren Wiersbe Commentary pg. 108-112
