Verses 1-10: After Ehud’s death, the children of Israel return to sin. The cycle continues. In this chapter, we have a singular story of faith and conquest. There are six main players. On one side we have Deborah, Barak, Heber and Jael. On the other side there is Jabin king of Canaan and Sisera. 

Deborah is the current judge and a prophetess and she sits under the palm tree of Deborah, named after her. She is a prominent female leader in Israel at a time when other meaningful leadership was lacking. She sends for Barak and, speaking for the Lord, she tells him to prepare an army to go against Jabin’s army. Jabin had 900 iron chariots and had been oppressing Israel for 20 years. 

Barak hesitates, showing a lack of faith. His apprehension can be best understood when one considers both the state of sinful Israel at the time and the strength of Jabin’s army. However, he does commit to the task once he has assurance from Deborah that she will join him in battle. Deborah also prophesies here that Sisera, the leader of Jabin’s army, will find his demise at the hand of a woman. 

Verses 11-24: Enter Heber and Jael. Heber was distantly related to the Israelites, while also maintaining peace with Jabin. Once Heber’s people see Barak’s army, they inform Sisera and the battle begins.

Barak and his army push back and defeat the army handily, forcing Sisera to flee. He fled to Jael’s tent. Jael was Heber’s wife, so Sisera thinks he is safe to trust her. 

Jael makes Sisera feel comfortable in her tent, covers him to hide him, and gives him milk to drink. He feels safe enough to fall asleep. But this is when Jael (and, more likely than not, the house of Heber), reveal loyalty. Jael drives a tent peg through Sisera’s temple with a hammer. This is how Deborah’s prophecy from verse 9 comes true. Israel grew ever stronger until they eventually destroyed Jabin.

This chapter is attractive because it is dramatic, but there is also strong themes of teamwork and united faith. Neither Deborah nor Barak were suited to defeat Sisera and Jabin alone, but together they succeeded mightily. Many parallels exist in God’s kingdom today. One by one, the members of the body of Christ may not add up to anything amazing, but together, we have strength. Together, Christians in God’s kingdom unite to glorify Him daily, each according to his or her part.

Some days we might feel like Deborah: confident and powerful. And some days we might feel like Barak: unsure and hesitant. Yet what we can take from Judges 4 is that it is the actions we take that matter most, regardless of how we feel about it. If we start from that place of faith, God can and will provide.

“that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:14-16‬

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-6: God had commanded Israel to rid the land of all the inhabitants, but here it is confirmed that God knew that they would fail to drive them all out. Indeed, God left these idol-worshippers in the land as a test. If Israel is able to withstand the influence and temptations of the indigenous people, they would be obeying the commandment of the Lord. Verse 6 leaves no doubt to the omniscience of God: “And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.”

Verses 7-31: Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar are listed in sequence as judges that God designated to save the people. Israel turned from God and served idols. Eventually this denial of the true God resulted in slavery or captivity for Israel and they would seek Him again. Once they cried out to Him, God designated and blessed a judge to lead them out of the mess and to defeat their enemies. It was the beginning of a cycle that we will see competed many times. 

Ehud’s removal of Eglon in this chapter is particularly interesting, if not gory. Notice that Ehud was not dishonest throughout and that the will of God in this case was carried out. 

In this chapter, let us consider: God subjecting Israel to this temptation and subsequent punishment leaves us with some engaging questions.

– Does God test those that love Him?

– Does God seek to improve our dedication to Him?

– If God knew Israel would fail, why would he allow them to be corrupted?

– Why did God tell the Israelites to rid the land of all the inhabitants if He knew they ultimately wouldn’t?

We have tentative answers to most of these questions. God does test the righteous: “The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.” Psalms‬ ‭11:5‬ ‭

Also, we know that God puts paths before us to strengthen our will and desire to serve: “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”‭‭ I Peter‬ ‭5:10‬

The last two questions posed are more difficult to definitively answer. If God knew Israel would fail, He may have wanted to test the amount of their dedication to Him, to see how far they would go before their shame compelled them to return to Him. Trying to answer those questions is like trying to find a grain of sand in a dark ballroom with no lights while blind. We can’t see what God sees; we can’t know what God knows. He created us and our limits of comprehension. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”‭‭ Isaiah‬ ‭55:9‬

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-10: Since our study in Joshua, we have seen how the Israelites failed to drive all the inhabitants out of Canaan time and again. It has been a recurring theme and one that has not brought consequences until now. The Angel of the Lord came while Joshua was still alive and told the people the consequence: God would no longer drive the people out and they would be a downfall and a hindrance to their lives. At this time, Israel was not so corrupt as they would eventually become. They decided to remain faithful to God and that generation did so. Until the people of Joshua’s generation were alive, they did not forsake God. 

What do you think it was like for Joshua, so strong in faith, to hear this decree from the Angel of the Lord?

Verses 11-23: Here we see the corruption of God’s children and it is pitiful. One would think that having been so close in time to the deliverance from Egypt, the acquisition of (most of) Canaan and the godly leadership of Joshua, that they would not descend so deeply into sin. Joshua also had stones in sight to remind the people of God’s blessings. But they decided to serve false gods. God subjected them to the will of the oppressors, giving them up to defeat and slavery. Once He detected a theme of disobedience in Israel, God subjected them to punishment. Israel’s decisions affected God’s decision.
Over time, this corruption developed and snowballed. Israel allowed the sin into their lives with innocent-seeming guises at first, surely. Their inability to wholly finish God’s plan for Canaan caused them so much pain and consequence. 

Let’s try to remember Israel when we get close to the pleasing temptations of sin. Let us deny ourselves and look deeper into the future and the home for our infinite souls.

“This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.” ‭‭II Timothy‬ ‭2:11-12‬ 

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-26: After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel are unsure of who will lead them. The Lord declares that the children of Judah will go against the Canaanites. Judah enlists the help of Simeon to defeat the Canaanites and the Perizzites. A just but unusual punishment was meted out to Adoni-Bezek from God through the actions of the tribes. Judah also took Jerusalem at this time.

In an effort to expel the Canaanites, etc., Judah was wise to enlist the help of a friend in Simeon. We too can benefit from the help of our Christian brothers and sisters, and ought to seek and offer this help when we realize the need is there: 

“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.” Romans‬ ‭12:10-13‬ Next there is a recounting of the story of Caleb giving his daughter in marriage for the conquest of Kirjath Sepher. We read of this originally in Joshua 15. 

Judah continues to try to rid the land of the indigenous people, but is not entirely successful. Based on the previous theme that strength of faith supports the totality of conquest, it is safe to assume that their faith was lacking. We know that the Israelites had defeated armies with iron chariots previously and their failure in this chapter can be attributed to a lack of confidence in God’s ability to overcome such disadvantages.

Verses 27-36: The deficiency of faith and conquest continues as numerous tribes fail to totally drive out all of the Canaanites. The Israelites put many of them under tribute, taking taxes from them and trying to benefit from the relationship instead of driving them out of the land as God commanded. They did not totally follow God’s commandment and instead thought for themselves. As we will see later, this independent thinking will come back to haunt them. The influence of these pagan peoples will prove too much to resist in the future.

Does this mode of the Israelites’ thinking sound familiar? How often do I think for myself instead of relying on God’s pure and clear Word? Only He knows what is best for me. Only the Lord has the answers. Take heart from this example of the Israelites’ failure, for “. . . the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”‭‭ Jeremiah‬ ‭10:23‬

So we should then be about our father’s business. Jesus knew this as a child when He asked His parents why they did not know where to find him: “And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”” Luke‬ ‭2:49‬

So should we.

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.