Читать книгу Beyond the Horizon - Harry A. Renfree - Страница 78

March 12

There is a great story in the book of Judges in the Old Testament, a story of a woman named Deborah.

Joshua, who had followed Moses as leader of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the border of the land promised by God, brought them into that land, where he died. Having reached their goal, the generation that had made it possible passed away as well. A new generation arose who, as the Bible puts it, “knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.” They began to worship the idols of their pagan neighbors. Troubles began to turn on them and make them a subject people. The people of Israel groaned under the bondage.

The story of the book of Judges is the story of twelve judges or leaders God raised up over many years to deliver His people from that bondage. However, each time after they had been freed, the Israelites would slip back into the same old ways, facing a similar situation time after time. This continued until after the death of Samson, the last of the twelve judges.

Deborah was the fourth of the twelve judges. She burned with anger at the oppression of her people. For twenty years, Jabin, King of Canaan, had oppressed the nation of Israel. Their vineyards had been destroyed, their women shamed, and their children killed. The chief of the Canaanite army, Sisera, had the military might of nine hundred iron chariots, whereas Israel had none.

Deborah had the wisdom—and courage—to summon one of Israel’s most capable military leaders, Barak, asking him to take ten thousand men and attack Sisera. Barak was reluctant to face nine hundred chariots with only foot soldiers. He would go only if Deborah accompanied him. “‘Very well,’ Deborah said, ‘I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman’” (Judges 4:9). God did. Barak’s army, empowered by God, decimated Sisera’s forces.

The fifth chapter of the book of Judges is Deborah’s song following the annihilation of Sisera and the Canaanite army. It is a song of praise to the Lord God. The chapter ends with, “Then the land had peace forty years.”