Judges (Part 5): Be Counted!
Pastor Rollan Fisher
As we move through this series in Judges, we will continually come back to a theme that runs the course of the book.
Judges was a time when “Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25).
What we’ll see played out in Judges and reflected in our own lives are the repercussions of living before God as if he were not king, and living by simply doing what is right in our own eyes.
Our goal will be to return to a life of faith and love for Jesus that ultimately leads to God’s glory and our good.
Judges (Part 5): Be Counted!
Focus: When God calls, make sure you answer to be counted in Christ.
Those Who Are Counted
Those Who Stay Behind
The One Who Died and Rose
Those Who Are Counted
When serving God, our aim is to know him, love him and be counted in his cause.
Judges 5:1-11 ESV
“Then sang Deborah and Barak 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 and 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 to be 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 forty thousand 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.”
What was Deborah’s commendation?
Deborah was commending those who heard the call of God and were counted as leaders in the fight against Jabir and his forces.
The Israeli leaders offered themselves willingly to help advance Yahweh’s Kingdom purposes.
The people who followed were also commended for offering themselves willingly.
This should be our attitude as a people as we know and respond to the Great Commission of Christ to go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching people to obey everything Jesus has taught.
What is your attitude when asked to join the cause of Christ with your time, talent and resources?
Is it begrudging or is it willing?
God moved in seemingly impossible circumstances for the Israelites to win their victory when the people decided to act.
“The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love.”
Noble faith is praised in the songs of Israel because it has been modeled and is to be emulated.
Deborah arose as a mother in Israel.
We need men and women to be counted as fathers and mothers in the faith for the gospel to advance in our city, this nation and the nations.
Those Who Stay Behind
Civilian affairs come to choke the life and purposes of God out of us.
Judges 5:12-23 ESV
“"Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, break out in a 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 risked their lives to the death; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field. "The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver. From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might! "Then loud beat the horses' hoofs with the galloping, galloping of his steeds. "Curse Meroz, says the angel of the Lord, curse its inhabitants thoroughly, because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”
What was Deborah’s rebuke?
Deborah rebuked the clans of Reuben, Gilead Dan and Asher for staying in their places of comfort - with great searchings of heart and amongst their normal business affairs while highlighting that Zebulun and Naphtali allowed themselves to be inconvenienced, risking their lives to the death for Israel’s deliverance.
“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 risked their lives to the death; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field. "The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver.”
Think about this:
How was this Israel doing what was right in their own eyes?
“Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now, we are witnessing a transformation, a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”
-Czesław Miłosz, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature
The challenge of this sentiment is that people around us every day still face the consequences of their sin.
God will judge both sins of commission and sins of omission.
2 Timothy 2:1-7 ESV
“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
What are the civilian affairs, the business and the ponderings of heart that come to suffocate your love for Jesus, your faith and your zeal for Christ’s Kingdom?
A persistent fruit of the flesh that we overlook is selfish ambition, which can also be recognized as living a life revolving around mere pleasure and self preservation.
Paul said it this way:
Romans 2:6-11 ESV
“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.”
The One Who Died and Rose
Jesus was the perfect leader who not only knew the will of the Father, but was sacrificially obedient unto death and ultimately ushered in eternal life through his resurrection.
Judges 5:24-31 ESV
“"Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl. She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead. "Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice: 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?' Her wisest princesses answer, indeed, she answers herself, 'Have they not found and divided the spoil?— A womb or two for every man; spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?' "So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might." And the land had rest for forty years.”
Here again, we see Jael’s actions highlighted.
It is evidence of the ever merciful eye of God and his desire to continually draw people from outside his camp, in, through his saving grace.
It is important to remember that though a relative of Moses, Jael was a Kenite, not an Israelite.
Her response to Deborah’s call to action was contrasted with the Israelites who stayed behind and did not engage in the battle of the Lord.
It is once again clear that the point is being made that being an Israelite does not guarantee blessing even as being a foreigner does not exclude one from being used as a servant as a part of God’s deliverance story.
Think of Rahab in Joshua who would align herself with Yahweh and the spies and would ultimately be included in the hall of faith and the earthly lineage of our Savior, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 11; Matthew 1:1-6).
Christ’s own recorded lineage includes men, women, adulterers, prostitutes; heroes and Gentiles of questionable character - and Jesus would be savior of them all.
This is good news as we embrace his gospel today to die to our old way of life at the cross, be forgiven because of Christ’s atonement and be made new to live in Jesus’ resurrection life.
The question is, are you thereafter doing the will of God?
Have you died to a life of self-preservation and selfish ambition so that you can now be counted in his eternal Kingdom cause?
Jesus said:
Matthew 7:21-23 ESV
“"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”
It is our faith in Jesus’ sinless life and substitutionary death at the cross alone that saves us from our sins.
Yet that reconciling work bringing us back to God also brings us into his loving service to live like Jesus who was counted, died for us and now truly and forever lives!
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher