The Transcript of A Sermon on Judges 5:1-18 has been lightly edited.
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I do ask now that if you have your Bibles, you would turn with me to the Book of Judges. We are going to continue looking at the account of Deborah and Barak, but we’re going to look at it in song form, in psalm form today. We have the psalm, the song of Deborah and Barak recorded for us here.
Just as a reminder, and we’ll cover this a little bit more, after 20 years under the hand of Jabin and Sisera, Israel cried out and God provided Barak as a source of rescue, and he told us how he called and raised up Barak by giving us the account of Deborah’s conversations with him.
And so after having been released from oppression under the hand of Jabin and Sisera, Israel sings by lifting their voices in praise to God. And so we read the first 18 verses of that song today as we consider Judges chapter 5, beginning in verse 1.
“Then sang Deborah and Barack, the son of Abinoam, on that day, that the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord. Hear, O kings, give ear, O princes. To the Lord I will sing, I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water, the mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned and travelers kept to the byways. The villagers ceased in Israel, they ceased until I arose, I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among 40,000 in Israel? My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people, bless the Lord. Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way. To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord, awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, break out in song, arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam. Then down marched the remnant of the noble, the people of the Lord marched down for me against the mighty. From Ephraim, their root, they marched down into the valley, following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen. From Machir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun, those who bear the lieutenant’s staff. The princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar, faithful to Barak, into the valley they rushed at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart. Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart. Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. And Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. Zebulun is a people who risk their lives to the death, Naphtali too, on the heights of the field.”
Let’s pray. To the great God above, make us teachable, make us correctable. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, may we be drawn closer to you so that we might worship and serve you in a way that brings you honor and brings you glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
So a couple years ago, when we were going through the book of Revelation, and we came to Revelation 4 and 5, and that great song to the Lamb who was slain, and yet was also the Lion of Judah, we were introduced to a song by Andrew Peterson called “Is He Worthy?” On that same album, Andrew has another song called “Remember and Proclaim.”
And I want to read the first couple of verses and the chorus for us today.
As we gather round this table, we remember and proclaim. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. There is nothing to fear and everything to gain. And so we gather here to remember, to remember and proclaim. Every footstep tells the story as the people join the feast.
We remember his blood and body broken for you and me. One step and we remember. The other we proclaim. His death until he comes. Oh, he’s coming back. He’s coming back again. And then the chorus.
Every time we break the bread, we drink the wine. I can hear the song in my heart, in my head, and I sing along. We remember, we proclaim his death until he comes again. We remember, we proclaim. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”
Why do we have songs in the life of the church? We should have songs in the life of the church, as we see here in Judges chapter five. There’s the song of praise to God.
In Exodus chapter 15, we have a very similar circumstance. After Israel has marched across or through the Red Sea, they gather on the safe side of the Red Sea and they compose a song that they sing and lift their voices in worship to God.
Moses at the end of Book of Deuteronomy teaches them a song that reminds them of God’s law and God’s call to holy living and God’s promises to bless that living.
God has given us music to teach us truth. And we have that here as we have the historical account in Judges chapter four of the truth that God secured victory for the nation of Israel in their fight against Jabin and against Sisera. Deborah and Barak composed for us a song that they sing to remind the nation as they go forth to help the nation remember and to proclaim the goodness and the truth of God.
And that is why we sing in the church. Yes, Andrew Peterson’s song Remember and Proclaim is specifically about approaching the Lord’s table at the Lord’s Supper that we celebrate on a monthly basis. But when we gather together to worship, whenever we sing the truth of God in our hearts, we are doing the process of remembering and proclaiming what it is that God has done.
And we can see this in this portion and in the next, which we’ll cover in a couple weeks. We see this truth in the song of Deborah and Barack that this truth, this song is given to them so that they can remember and proclaim what it is that God has done for them.
Today we will consider in verses 10 and 11, we will consider the heart of the matter. In verses two through nine, we will see this call that the song gives us to bless or to praise the Lord. And then we will go through the marching down that we see in the last half of verse 11 on through verse 18 and how God both praises and calls out, praises the tribes who answer the call and calls out those who sat around and did nothing.
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
So first, the heart of the matter, we see this in verse 10 and 11, the first three lines of verse 11.
“Tell of it you who ride white donkeys and you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way to the sounds of musicians at the watering places. There they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel.”
In verses six through eight, the author of the song, both Deborah and Barack are laying out the problem and what was going on at that time.
Things were so bad in the nation of Israel that people who wanted to travel from point A and point B would avoid the highways because bandits and oppressors were rampant upon the highways. They would hide themselves in their villages. They would not leave the confines of the village because it was so dangerous for them to be outside the village.
And it is in this context that Deborah said that she arose as a mother in Israel. She gave the work of a prophet. She was doing the work of judging Israel.
And she says that that work, she describes her work as being a mother in Israel. And the sense that we get here as Israel chases after new gods there in verse eight, and that there is no military force there at the end of verse eight. The sense we get here is almost that she is a mother looking for a father who will take up the lead in the nation of Israel.
And of course, we know that happens as God sends her to Barak to raise up Barak. But she says that she composes this song in verse 10 and 11. She uses two words, two imperatives. She says to tell of it and to repeat the righteous triumphs of God. These two words are somewhat related.
The word tell is related to the idea of meditation. Now, not meditation as the world teaches us meditation where you sit there in a really quiet room and you just try to empty yourself of all distractions, empty yourself of all thoughts and just become one with whatever they believe is out there.
This is a meditation like the meditation in Psalm 119, where you take the glorious truths of God, the glorious word that he has given to us, and you memorize it and you put it in your mind and you roll that word around in your mind to a point where it shapes you, it forms you according to that truth, that word of God.
But it adds this extra element of also proclaiming it. There is a sense in which people should almost be tired of us as Christians, always talking about the goodness and the glory and the grace and the gospel of God. We should hear people every now and then telling us, “You know what, you talk about this God an awful lot. You’re either going to have to tell me more about him or just quit because I’m getting kind of tired of it.”
And that’s the idea there as well around repeat, except repeat adds the idea of commemorating in order to worship. That’s why we repeat the Lord’s Supper once a month. That’s why some churches repeat it once a week is because they want to be reminded and praise and worship God and changed by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit in the Lord’s Supper.
We remember and we proclaim, but what is it that we remember and we proclaim? It is the righteous triumphs of the Lord. You know, as we covered chapter four last week, we saw that when Deborah came to Barak, she didn’t just tell Barak, go be a general, go be a leader. “She said, go gather an army, for the Lord has given the battle into your hands. The Lord is giving you the battle plan. The Lord is giving you the strategy and the Lord has secured the victory.”
And so Deborah says that we remember and we proclaim the righteous triumphs of the Lord. Yes, those righteous triumphs worked out through the acts of the villagers. And we’ll see this later that we are called to work on God’s behalf. And Deborah blesses, she praises the Lord because both the leaders and the people do their job. But ultimately, the triumph belongs to the Lord.
And that’s what we need to remember and proclaim as well. Whether we do so in song, whether we do so in conversation, however it is that we remember, however it is that we proclaim, we need to remember and to proclaim that the ultimate triumph of righteousness in this world happened at the cross.
There the forces of Satan and evil thought they had won the day and yet God’s justice was poured out upon Jesus. He was raised again three days later so that you and I might have salvation, forgiveness of sins, a right and reconciled relationship with God.
It’s why we gather every Sunday. It’s to worship God because he is reminding us and proclaiming to us that he has triumphed over everything. Sin and death have been defeated and the child of God who places their hope in Christ and in Christ alone reaps the benefit of God’s righteousness and his righteous triumphs.
And so the heart of the matter when we remember and proclaim is that the Lord has righteously been victorious on our behalf. We don’t have to fight to be holy enough to earn God’s favor. Jesus has done that for us. We don’t just get brought a little way over the line and have to work the rest of the way into heaven.
Jesus has won that victory for us and so we must always speak to ourselves, remembering and proclaiming the good news that God is triumphant.
BLESS THE LORD
And that brings us to the first nine verses there and Deborah’s call to bless the Lord twice. Once in verse two and once in verse nine Deborah says, “Bless the Lord.”
It’s a word, that word bless is a word that’s normally used for an action that God does to humans and it and it means that God gives us everything necessary for life, gives us everything necessary to please him, gives us everything necessary for prosperity and justice in the way that he describes it.
But that’s not what we do when we bless the Lord. What do we do when we bless the Lord? Well, it’s related to those last five Psalms, Psalm 146 through 150 that open and close with the phrase, “Hallelujah, praise the Lord.”
It’s another way to say lift your praises, lift your worship, lift your honor to the Lord above. Make sure you are keeping it in mind that he is the one who brings triumph and praise him and worship him. Now, why does she say that we are called to bless the Lord? Well, there’s two main reasons.
The first is in verse four and five. It says,
“Lord, when you went out from Seir, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel.”
Deborah and Barack’s song calls us to praise God because he is sovereign over nature. We’ll see this play out a little bit later in the next section that we’ll cover in a few weeks, that God used his power over the heavens, over the rain, over the clouds to flood the Kishon River, to make the plain around the river muddy so that Sisera’s 900 chariots were made ineffective.
And so Deborah praises the Lord because he is sovereign over the weather. We have an odd relationship with the weather in our life, don’t we? If it’s the dead of February and the temperature is not getting much out of, you know, the teens for a week or two weeks or three weeks, what seems like forever, we sit there and we go, “Oh, it is so cold. I wish summer was here.”
And then the dead of August gets here and it’s 90 degrees and it’s humid and, well, we’ll leave the Fair out of it for right now, but it’s 90 degrees and it’s humid. And what do we sit there and say, “Oh my goodness, I can’t wait till February gets here and it’s cool.”
Whether it’s in the teens or below zero, whether it’s in the 90s or above 100, God is sovereign over the weather. The rains fall at his command. They are held back at his command. The temperature rises and falls at his command. And when we see the marching of the seasons, we’re told in Genesis chapter eight and nine that that is a sign of God’s faithfulness.
You know what? If it’s cold in February, it means God is faithful. We would be in trouble if it was 100 degrees in February, would we not? You know what? If it’s 90 degrees or 100 degrees in August and September, it means God is faithful because he has set and ordered the seasons to move forward.
And so rather-and this is directed at me just as much as anybody else-but rather than complain when it’s cold, we should thank God that the seasons continue to march year after year, century after century, millennia after millennia, because it means that God is faithful not only to preserve, but also to save.
The prophet Jeremiah says that he should speak to the children of David and tell them that if they can break God’s covenant with the sun, what is God’s covenant with the sun? It will rise every morning and set every evening. If we as humans can break God’s covenant with the sun, then he will not save as he has promised to do. Can we stop the sun from rising? No. Can we stop it from setting? No.
Then that means that God is faithful to bring salvation to his people. And so Deborah and Barak call the people to praise the Lord because he is sovereign over the weather. And in this instance, he used the weather as his tool to bring freedom and victory to the people of God.
But the other thing that she calls on the people to praise the Lord for is found in chapter two or verse two and verse nine, that
“The leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly. Bless the Lord. In verse nine, my heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord.”
Now, just as an aside here in your study of the Bible, when you see this repetition of words, so we see offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord in verse two and also in verse nine, it means that those two things go together and that everything in the middle is a separate section that we should look at as a whole. We can divide that out because it is it opens and it ends with the same phrasing, the same words, the same vocabulary.
But notice she calls the people to praise the Lord, number one, because the leaders took the lead in Israel. What are leaders supposed to do? Lead. That’s what leaders are called to do. They are called to lead. And and this leading is not just to decide and delegate. The leading is not just a telling people what to do within the people of God.
The leaders are described as shepherds and shepherds feed the flock. They know their flock. They protect their flock. And yes, they lead their flock by being out in front in what they call them to do. The effective shepherd is in front of the flock. And she praises the Lord because the leaders in Israel finally led willingly.
Yes, we saw Barak lose glory because he said to Deborah, “If you go, I will go. If you don’t go, I won’t go.” But the second time Deborah calls to Barack, what does he do? He goes in the middle of the story in chapter four. They’re on Mount Tabor with their army of ten thousand. And Deborah looks at Barack and says, “Go for the Lord has given the battle into your hand.” And what does Barack do? He goes at that point.
He shows his faithfulness. He he shows his trust that God will do exactly what he promised to do. He offers himself willingly with an eager and enthusiastic volunteerism. He offers himself to go out and to lead the people of God in battle.
But what else does she bless God for? Because it’s not only the leaders who offer themselves willingly among the people. Verse two, she blesses the Lord because the people offer themselves willingly as well.
You know, Barack could have run down that mountain all by himself and he’d have been in trouble. But God had told him to gather an army of ten thousand men to storm down that mountain, to make that six mile run across the plain to the River Kishon to meet the chariots of Sisera.
If Barack had led all by himself. God still could have given the victory, but that’s not how God said the victory would come. The God said the victory would come through the leaders leading and through the people willingly following.
The church shouldn’t just grow because of a charismatic personality in their preacher. The church should grow because both leaders and people offer themselves willingly to what God has called them to do.
God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, whenever he converts you, the Holy Spirit gives you some gift that God can use for the growth and the advance of his kingdom in his church. It’s like the parable of the talents.
You know, some people get more gifts than others, but it’s how you use your gifts that God looks at you and says, “Well done or get out of here.” And if you are given these gifts and you just bury them and you just sit on them and you don’t grow them, you don’t use them for the service of God and for the growth of his kingdom, whether it’s a whether it’s a talent or whether it’s one of those spiritual gifts listed in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 or Ephesians 4. If you refuse to use those gifts, God will call you out on it.
He does that with the tribes.
The middle of verse 15, he says, “Among the clans of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart. Why did you still sit among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks among the clans of Reuben? There were great searchings of heart.”
What is he saying there? What are they saying there? Reuben heard the call and they referred the call to a committee and are still waiting for the committee to come back with their recommendations. The battle’s over. The victory is won, but Reuben’s still sitting there around the sheepfolds waiting to hear what the committee has to say.
Gilead, which is the tribe of Gad and Dan, what are they doing? Well, Gad decided to stay. It was too hard to cross the river Jordan from the east side to the west side, so they decided to stay home.
And Dan was too busy with his business concerns, so they decided to stay home. And Asher was helping Dan on the coastline with the ships and the other business concerns, so they decided to stay home. God calls them out for their lack of service.
Now, I get it. Life changes, and sometimes we find ourselves in a position in life where what we had energy and motivation and desire to do 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago just isn’t there. I get it. And sometimes because of things like that, our spiritual gifts and our call to work on behalf of the church changes.
Let me give you an example. As I mentioned earlier, we had 36 students registered for Creative Arts Camp this week. And I have to say, in thinking back on the three years that we have been doing this, I think this was probably one of the smoothest years that we’ve had. Why is that? Is that because we have a phenomenal director? Well, that’s part of it.
But I would say that the main reason for that is that last week, when I called for people that couldn’t be here because they weren’t able to get out and to help and to volunteer to take some time every night between 6 and 6:30 to just say a prayer that God would put his hand upon this week. You did. We could feel the prayers, those of us that were here, of those that couldn’t be here.
And so sometimes the call to work and to give of yourself in the church is simply a call to pray. Pray weekly, at least for the worship service. Pray weekly or more if you’d really like to know what I would like. Pray weekly or more for me and my ministry of preaching, teaching and pastoring this church.
Pray for the elders and the deacons that they would know what God has called them to do as leaders of this church and that they would willingly undertake that. And then pray for everybody else in the church that God would show them where he would have them serve within his church.
Now, the service in the church is not going to get you any extra points with God. God loves you perfectly, and he has from before the foundation of this world. God’s not going to save you more or love you more because you work more within the church.
But because God has saved you and because God has set his love upon you, he calls you as part of your work of sanctification, fueled by the cross and fueled by the Holy Spirit, to identify how it is that you are gifted to serve at this point in time within the church and to go about that with the whole heart.
Whether that’s staying at home and praying, which is we desperately need, or whether that’s being here for a week helping wrangle 36 students. God calls each of us to a specific service within the church.
He empowers that service, he gives victory to that service and he expects us to undertake it.
CONCLUSION
Now, just a couple of conclusions here, just a couple of applications as we wrap this passage up. First thing, what you listen to musically matters.
Arius was a man in the early history of the church in the late 200s, early 300s, in the history of the church and he was teaching a false doctrine that Jesus was a created being just like you and me. And he did it by writing hymns that the church sang and he swayed a large part of the church to his false teaching because he wrote hymns that his churches sang on a regular basis.
There is nothing new under the sun, brothers and sisters, and much of what we call Christian music today misses the mark of proclaiming truth.
And we need to know our Bible well enough to be able to discern whether truth is in those songs or not. That’s songs that we sing here in church that are hundreds of years old, that’s songs written by people today like Hillsong or Bethel that are only a decade old. You must be careful the music that you listen to, especially the Christian music that you listen to, to make sure that it is truly professing the truth that Jesus saves and that only God brings the victory.
City Alight is a great, it’s a group called City Alight, they’re a great group to listen to. Keith and Kristen Getty, Matt Papa, Matt Boswell, Sovereign Grace Music, there’s a whole list of them. If you’d like to know some more recommendations, let me know.
I can also, if you’re on Spotify or Apple Music or fun things like that, I can recommend a playlist or two that will keep you focused on the truth of God and who he is as the triune God.
The other thing I would encourage us to do is if you are a child of God, make sure you know how God is calling you to serve within the church. Identify that spiritual gift.
If you need help with that, we’re going to start a class on Sunday evenings on that after the Fair. How we learn our spiritual gifts, how we apply our spiritual gifts within our context and understand that something that might have been a spiritual gift for you 10, 15 years ago may not be your spiritual gift today and God might have changed it and be willing and be open to God’s leading in those areas.
But most importantly, always remember that it is the Lord who gives the righteous triumph both in your heart, in your family, and in your community.
Let’s pray. To the God and Father above, we do thank you for the truth that you are the one who gives victory. I thank you that you have conquered my soul and given me a heart that is in tune to you. That you have conquered my sins and that you have made me a glorious child of God and help each of us to serve you in a way that brings you honor, brings you glory, and brings growth to your church both here and around the world. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Not only does God proclaim to us his good news, he also sends us from this place with a blessing. And so as you leave, whether to fellowship over refreshments or to head out into your week, take this blessing with you.
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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