Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5

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1 June 4, 2017 ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON MINISTRY INVOCATION O God: We give thanks to You for the manifold blessings to us. You did not have to bless us but You did. We shall remain eternally grateful. Amen. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THE APPLIED FULL GOSPEL DISTINCTIVE We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost for all believers and that the Holy Ghost verifies and validates the Believer as part of the Body of Christ. The Book of Judges shows how the Israelites repeatedly turned to false gods and evil practices so the LORD had to punish them by making them slaves of their enemies. Some of these enemies were those they had not driven out of the Promised Land (such as the Canaanites) and others were their foreign neighbors. Background Scripture Judges 4:1-10 Key Verse Lesson Scripture Judges 4:1 10 (NKJV) Deborah 4 When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim. 3 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel. 4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6 Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; 7 and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand? 8 And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go! 1

2 9 So she said, I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; he went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him. COMMENTARY THE MARKS OF ISRAEL S CANAANIZATION (4:1) 4:1 This beginning highlights the fundamentally unresolved spiritual issue in Israel. The divine victory had not altered their deeply rooted bent toward paganism, expressed in actions found evil in the eyes of Yahweh. This comment suggests the Deborah-Barak story originally followed immediately after the account of Ehud s life and that the Shamgar note represents a later, though intentional insertion. GOD S AGENT OF PUNISHMENT (4:2) 4:2 Yahweh s response to Israel s apostasy is expressed in the stronger version of the divine committal formula. The benefactor/oppressor is identified as Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. This city, appropriately referred to in Josh 11:10 as the head of all these kingdoms, dominated the valley north of the Sea of Galilee for five centuries until its utter destruction under Joshua. It was not to be rebuilt until the time of Solomon, for whom it represented the major northern fortification. It is conceivable that elements of the Hazor dynasty escaped the destruction of Joshua and that, with the Israelite failure to consolidate control over all the conquered territory in the wake of the Conquest, a member of the royal house returned to the ruins and reasserted his rule. Because of his connections as the head of the Canaanite city states, within decades he may have managed to rearm and reassert his authority over the Israelites. The absence of Jabin from the events reflects the author s primary interest in his general, whose defeat was decisive in the Israelites salvation from the Canaanites. The loss of Jabin s army at Kishon marked the decline of Hazor s power in the region. In fact, the main character is Jabin. The brunt of the Israelite challenge to Jabin s authority will be felt by his surrogate, Sisera, unknown as a Canaanite name. This need not mean that the Canaanites and Sea Peoples (Philistines) were allied against Israel. Mercenaries were opportunists, offering their services to anyone who would hire them. This identification offers further evidence for the power and 2

3 influence of Jabin, who apparently was able to attract an enemy general to lead his own forces. However, the fact that Sisera s forces included nine hundred chariots, which could be deployed only in coastal and alluvial plains (1:19), renders this interpretation problematic. ISRAEL S RESPONSE TO THE OPPRESSION (4:3) 4:3 As in the previous episodes, the pain of oppression causes the Israelites to cry out to Yahweh for help. First, they felt the pressure of a military force that included nine hundred chariots of iron. Second, Jabin is said to have oppressed Israel severely for twenty years. While the pressure was undoubtedly felt most by the northern tribes, the author generalizes the problem and the response with the inclusive reference to the descendants of Israel. GOD S AGENT OF DELIVERANCE (4:4 10) In contrast to the preceding episodes, the present narrative places great emphasis on the manner in which a deliverer is raised up for Israel. This is also his response to their cry in verse 3, a response communicated from start to finish through his spokesperson, Deborah. The Prophetic Agent of the Call (4:4 5) 4:4 The account of the call of the deliverer opens formally with the identification of the principal character, Deborah, and a description of her activity by means of two circumstantial clauses. The name Deborah, means bee. A prophet serves as a spokesperson for deity to the people. The designation deliberately places Deborah in the succession of Moses and in the company of other female bearers of this title. Whatever else the narrative will say about Deborah, the reader must remember that she is first and foremost, if not exclusively, a prophet. In keeping with the patricentric nature of ancient Israelite society and the pattern of biblical narrative generally, Deborah is identified further with reference to the significant man in her life. The association of the wife of Lappidoth with Barak, which means lightning, makes it tempting to identify the two, especially since the name does not appear again. However, not only is this an Ephraimite family, against Barak, who comes from Kadesh in Naphtali, but the parallels with the way other female prophets are introduced also eliminates the need for him to play a role in the story. These same parallels also show how equally misguided are more recent attempts to 3

4 rob Deborah of a husband. If any significance is to be attached to the name, it probably points to Deborah as a brilliant light in the dark days of the governors. 4:5 After identifying Deborah as a professional prophet, the description of her professional activity as judging Israel catches the reader off guard. Deborah s appearance in Israel is associated with the return of security in the countryside. Indeed, despite their difficulty, the verses that follow create the impression that Deborah was involved in marshalling the troops. Furthermore, the placement of her name ahead of Barak s suggests primary credit for the victory is hers. Finally, the presentation of Deborah as a savior of her people is more apparent than real. If the author looked upon Deborah as one of the deliverers of Israel: 1. Why is she not introduced as one whom Yahweh had raised up? 2. Why is there no reference to her inspiration and empowerment by Yahweh s Spirit? 3. Why does she need Barak to accomplish the deliverance? 4. Why is the verb to save, never applied to her? 5. Why does she say, The LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman instead of into my hands? 6. Why does the author observe that she went up with Barak (4:10) but avoid placing her at the head of the troops? 7. Why does Deborah announce to Barak, This day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands rather than my hands (4:14)? 8. Why is she absent from the description of the actual battle (4:15 17), and why does she never meet Jabin or Sisera? 9. Why did the poet prefer the title mother in Israel over savior of Israel? 10. Why does the poet avoid the root to rise, let alone referring to Yahweh as the causative subject, when he speaks of Deborah s rise? 11. What is this woman doing in what everyone acknowledges traditionally as a man s world leading soldiers into battle? 12. Why does the narrator portray her character so different qualitatively from most of the other deliverers? The moral and spiritual characters of the governors who follow Deborah display a rapid downward spiral. Far from being solutions to the Canaanization of Israelite thought and ethic, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson were themselves all parts of the problem. These are not noblemen; they are antiheroes. But as the only unequivocally positive major personality and as the only one involved in the service of God prior to her engagement in deliverance activities, she stands out as a lonely figure indeed. 4

5 Significantly, in later lists of the deliverers, Barak s name may appear, but never Deborah s, presumably because this was not her role. She communicates Yahweh s response to the people s cry, but she is not the answer. Verse 5 describes the manner in which Deborah performed her professional duties and sets the stage in the reader s mind for the call of the deliverer. Her posture is described as sitting under the Palm Tree of Deborah. More significant than the tree itself is its location between Ramah and Bethel in the hills of Ephraim. Accordingly, she sits not at Bethel or at Shiloh, where the ark is, but outside the town. But there is more. With her seat centrally located in the hill country of Ephraim, Deborah was accessible to the entire nation of Israel, and so they came up to her for judgment. By stationing herself near Bethel, Deborah represents an alternative to the priesthood which had lost its effectiveness as mediator of divine revelation, and her pronouncements function as a substitute for the Urim and Thummim. The forty years of rest (5:31) is attributed to God and the Israelite s collective power (4:23 24). By this time, Deborah is long out of the picture. In fact, the author seems to have had no interest in any judicial activity at all. Nowhere is Deborah (or Samuel for that matter) portrayed as actually holding court and settling disputes among the citizens. The case for Deborah as a legal functionary rests entirely upon the presence of the in she was judging Israel at that time (4:4), and The sons of Israel came to her for the judgment (4:5). Nowhere else in the book does the term require a judicial interpretation. Where their roles are defined, the judges are presented primarily as deliverers. Even in the formulaic notes that an individual judged Israel so many years, the word carries a more general meaning, to govern. In the present context, the issue that concerns the Israelites is their oppression at the hands of Jabin and the Canaanites. In the Book of Judges, such cries for deliverance are always directed to Yahweh by the sons of Israel. Accordingly, when the sons of Israel come to Deborah for the judgment, they are not asking her to solve their legal disputes but to give them the divine answer to their cries, which is described in the following verses. The fact that the Israelites come to her instead of the priest reflects the failure of the established priestly institution to maintain contact with God. The Commissioning of Barak (4:6 7) 4:6 7 In vv. 6 7 the focus shifts from Deborah, the medium through whom the divine response to the Israelite distress is sought and received, to Barak, whom 5

6 God calls to solve the crisis. Deborah answered the Israelites inquiry by dispatching her own representative(s) to call Barak to divine service. The deliverer is identified by name, patronymic, and home. Barak, lightning, was the son of Abinoam ( Father is pleasant ) of Kedesh in Naphtali. Because Kedesh ( sanctuary ) was a common place name, several candidates for this site appear. The distance of this city from the sight of the battle with Sisera is no obstacle to this interpretation; the text says only that Barak the son of Abinoam was from Kedesh of Naphtali. Why Barak was chosen we may only speculate, but the proximity of his home in Kadesh to Hazor, the seat of Jabin the oppressor, adds a special dimension to his appointment. Although no details of Deborah s initial meeting with Barak are given, significantly she enters the picture at precisely the same point as does the ( envoy ) of Yahweh. The text does not mention that she received any explicit orders from God, but the form of her commissioning speech reflects a clear prophetic self-consciousness. She introduces her speech with a variation of the prophetic citation formula which in context signifies a firm declaration: Surely the LORD God of Israel has commanded, Go! In addition, as an authorized representative of Yahweh, she communicates his charge in the first person. The commissioning speech itself consists of two parts. First, by means of a series of imperatives, Barak is charged to go and deploy ten thousand troops from Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor. Mount Tabor rises steeply 1,843 feet above sea level at the northeast corner of the Jezreel Valley, controlling one of the most important crossroads in the region. This command signals that God is not only calling the general; he also determines the strategy. Second, Barak is promised Yahweh s personal support in the anticipated battle. The divine Commander will deploy Sisera and all his forces (identified as chariots and infantry) against Barak, but he will deliver them over into his hand. The enemy is portrayed as a puppet controlled by the hands of God. The One who had sold Israel into the hands of Jabin will also engineer the oppressors defeat. The Hesitation of Barak (4:8) 4:8 The narrative should have moved directly from verse 7 to v. 10, but Barak s response provides one of the keys to the rest of the chapter. Despite Yahweh s assurance of victory, Barak resists the call. On the surface, his reaction, If you go with me, I will go; but if you don t go with me, I won t go, appears cowardly. He will not enter the fray unless he has this woman beside him holding his hand. And this impression is reinforced by Deborah s response. 6

7 But at a deeper level, the objection reflects a recognition of Deborah s status. The request to be accompanied by the prophet is a plea for the presence of God. The Promise of Divine Presence (4:9a) 4:9a At this point in other call narratives, Yahweh responds with reassuring promises of his presence and/or authenticating signs. Both elements are found here, albeit in veiled form. The first is evident in Deborah s firm promise of her own presence. It is easy to trivialize the significance of this declaration by interpreting them simply as the words of a strong woman to a weak-willed man. The timing of Deborah s words is critical, for it occurs precisely at the point where, in other call narratives, Yahweh promises His personal presence to a reluctant agent. The prophet obviously functions as Yahweh s alter ego. Her presence alone is enough to guarantee victory over Sisera. To reinforce Yahweh s commitment to Barak, Deborah also offers him an authenticating, if ironic, sign. Barak will need to step out in faith in the divine promise, for the sign she presents is proleptic in nature: Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman, to whom the glory would go. When this happens, Barak will know that he has been called by God and that God has intervened on Israel s behalf. But the sign raises the question whether or not she expected to be that woman. In the end, the answer to the question catches Barak and the reader off guard. The Summons to Arms (4:9b 10) 4:9b 10 The final scene in the call of Barak demonstrates the success of Deborah s mission. True to her words, she rises from her prophetic chair and accompanies Barak to Kedesh. From his home, he summons the men of Zebulun and Naphtali to assemble, and they come by the thousands. The narrative offers no explanation for the troops response, but one may surmise that Deborah s presence in Kedesh was a critical factor. Since all Israel recognized her as a prophet, her presence alongside Barak symbolized the divine imprimatur on his leadership. The ten thousand men who answered Barak s call testify to her standing in Israel and the newfound credibility of Barak as a savior of the nation. Deborah s mission on Yahweh s behalf has been a complete success. The reluctant general has been commissioned, and his troops have gathered. To clarify the preceding sequence of scenes, we may summarize the movements of the primary participants as follows: (1) The Israelites come to Deborah under her palm to seek an answer from Yahweh regarding their oppression at the hands of King Jabin of Hazor. (2) Having received a response 7

8 from God, Deborah sends messengers to Kadesh-Naphtali, north of Hazor, to fetch Barak. (3) Barak answers their call and comes to Deborah under her palm. (4) Pursuant to their conversation in vv. 6 9a, Barak returns to his home in Naphtali, accompanied by Deborah. (5) When he summons the men of Zebulun and Naphtali, a huge force of ten thousand troops assembles to him in Kedesh. RELATED DISCUSSION TOPICS CLOSING PRAYER My God: I am grateful to have found You and kept You in the forefront of my being. Bless us continually with Your grace and mercy. They represent bountiful blessings for all of us. Amen. 8