Read Judges 5, Jeremiah 51, and Romans 11.
This devotional is about Judges 5.
Judges 4 and 5 are about the deliverance God gave to Israel through the prophetic leadership of Deborah and the military leadership of Barak. Judges 4 tells the story in regular prose; Judges 5 repeats the story but in the form of a song, written by Deborah (v. 7) and sung by Deborah and Barak (v. 1a).
God is the hero of the song, as he is everywhere in scripture and he gets credit for Israel’s win over the Canaanite king Jabin. You can see that in verses 2-3, 20, and 31.
But an important theme in this song is the need for God’s people to act. Verse 2 says, “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves—
praise the Lord!” The implication of this verse, as we will see, is that Israel’s princes were not leading and Israel’s people were not participating. Verses 4-5 describe how victorious Israel was when God led them through the desert from Egypt into the Promised Land. But, by verse 6 Israel was in submission to God’s enemies. Verse 6 says they had to take the backroads to travel any where because their enemies controlled the main roads. Verse 7 says, “Villagers in Israel would not fight…” and verse 8c-d says that there were no weapons to be found in Israel to fight with. So God’s people–once so mighty and victorious–became demilitarized, defenseless, and victimized by God’s enemies. Verse 7 says that this was the situation until “Deborah arose.” But, according to verse 12, even Deborah had to be roused from merely judging Israel to taking on her enemies. Verse 12 says that God’s people had to wake her and Barak up. “‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song! Arise, Barak! Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’”
Once Deborah challenged Barak to fight, there was a mixed reaction from others in Israel. Verses 14-15c and verse 18 describe some of Israel’s tribes who were willing to fight. But verses 16 and 17 talk about others who were unwilling to fight. Listen to these words that are almost scornful: “Why did you stay among the sheep pens to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart. 17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. And Dan, why did he linger by the ships? Asher remained on the coast
and stayed in his coves” (vv. 16-17, NIV).
Some people are willing to believe God and act when evil is on the march. Some people do the “much searching of heart” that verse 16d describes, which is a spiritual-sounding way of saying, “I just don’t want to get involved.”
Fighting for what God has commanded is scary and it is hard. It is easy to blame Israel for their failures at the end of the book of Joshua and in the book of Judges. But it takes faith in God to step up and contend for what is right according to God’s commands.
We do not live in a theocracy and so I am not talking about military fighting or physical combat of any kind. The New Testament says that our warfare and weapons are spiritual. Nevertheless, truth is worth fighting for and God promises to be with those who stand for what is true, biblical and right.
The question is: Do we trust God enough to believe that he is with us when we stand against lies and unrighteousness? Or, will we–like Israel in this passage–shrink back, keep our heads down, and avoid confronting what is wrong.
Where are you avoiding conflict over what is right? Are you declining to speak up for righteousness in your home and family and even discipline your children when they disobey? Are you allowing truth decay in your workplace or your kids’ school? Do you trust God enough to stand against the march of unrighteousness?