Scripture reading: Psalm 90:1-12.

Sermon text: Judges 4.

“Patterns. People fall into patterns, and they pay all kinds of grief to break them. Some people never do.”

I include this advice in the introductory lecture of the history course I teach at our local university. Every semester, I tell the students this admonition; every semester, some student remembers some friend from high school or a family member that will never break a destructive pattern.

Today’s sermon text tells us that patterns can be broken, but not without serious help. The Hebrews may have conquered much of the Promised Land with God’s help, but they quickly fell into a pattern of disobedience to the covenant God had given them. As He promised in the covenant, God punished the Hebrews by using the Gentile nations around them to oppress them. This pattern of disobedience, oppression, and repentance will repeat itself throughout the history of Israel for the duration of their 800-year existence as a nation.

Deborah lived through such a pattern in her life. Although Deborah sought to guide Israel in godliness, most of the Hebrews “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” Jabin, a Canaanite king from the city of Hazor, oppressed the Israelites with the assistance of his army and its commander Sisera. Sisera’s army consisted of “900 chariots of iron.” These chariots would have served as the tanks of their time, especially iron chariots. Since the Hebrews fought as infantry, iron chariots would have terrified their soldiers.

After 20 years of oppression, the Hebrews finally repented of their sins and called on God for help. Deborah received a word from God and called for Barak, a man from the tribe of Naphtali. Apparently, God had already commanded Barak to gather an army, but Barak had dithered on obeying God’s command. Deborah told Barak, “Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?”

Again, notice that God had already called Barak. However, the thought of fighting 900 iron chariots and their accompanying army struck fear in the heart of Barak just as it did the hearts of Israel’s citizen soldiers. Barak surrendered to his fear and refused to realize that God could conquer Jabin, Hazor, and Sisera by his hand. Barak frankly refused to go fight Sisera without Deborah: “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

Deborah responded with another word from God: “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” I suspect Barak thought God would give Israel victory through Deborah, but as we all know, God works in mysterious ways.

Barak arrived at the battle site with 10,000 soldiers from the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali. Barak and Deborah chose their site with care. Mount Tabor towers 1400 feet over the Jezreel Valley, a major battlefield for millennia. A major highway the Via Maris, ran by the mountain, and numerous powers fought to control it. Sisera would have considered the Hebrew tactics a major mistake. No one in his right mind would take 10,000 soldiers on top of Mount Tabor, away from any water source. Sisera thought he could simply surround the hill and wait them out.

Sisera didn’t count on God’s intervention.

The chronicler recorded the battle: “And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot.” Most likely, the chariots bogged down in mud at the bottom of Mount Tabor due to an out-of-season storm. When I traveled to Israel this past June, we saw how the natives react to rain out of season. According to our Israeli guide, “rain here in June is like a snowstorm in Tuscaloosa.” If a storm struck the battlefield, the Hebrews simply overran the heavily armored Canaanites and slaughtered Sisera’s army.

Now comes the strange part of the story. Sisera ran to the tent of Heber the Kenite, a nominal ally of Jabin. Heber apparently tried to get away from the Israelite nation and live peaceably with the Canaanites. Sisera thought he had escaped Barak when he arrived at Heber’s tent, even to the point of napping in the tent. Unfortunately for Sisera, Jael, Heber’s wife, killed him with a tent peg. “So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel.”

As we read this story, we need to remember a basic truth of Deborah’s victory. Although God still raises nations and causes them to fall according to His mysterious will, no nation today excepting Israel exists in a covenant relationship with Him. We cannot extrapolate God’s punishment of Israel in this story to any other nation, including our own.

As we read of Deborah’s victory, the truth we remember involves a cross. We live in a new covenant, a covenant purchased for us by Jesus with His blood at His death. We live on the new covenant side of the crucifixion and resurrection, so we must look beyond the national implications to the new covenant implications of God’s victory through Deborah, Barak, and Jael.

First, although God doesn’t punish nations as He punished Israel, sin still brings consequences. Israel fell into the pattern of apostasy and repentance only 2 generations after Joshua, a pattern only broken only by the destruction of the nation.

However, God still has the power to break patterns. God’s work in Israel proves His ability to work in the lives of all who believe in Jesus, confessing Him as Lord of their lives and believing in His resurrection. In some cases, the pattern is broken instantly; in other cases, the pattern will take much prayer and time. Regardless, God can use even the worst patterns to accomplish His work in our lives.

Do you have patterns that need breaking? God broke the greatest pattern in history with the death, and resurrection of Jesus, His only begotten Son. For His crucifixion, Jesus ascended Calvary as Deborah and Barak ascended Mount Tabor. With His resurrection, Jesus broke the pattern of sin’s victory over humanity, destroying Satan’s power as Deborah and Barak broke Jabin’s power.

I also see that God will sometimes call us to accomplish what we see as impossible. Barak couldn’t see any way he could win against Sisera, but God knew how the battle would end. God knew He could defeat Jabin and Sisera, but He needed an obedient servant to accomplish the victory. Someone would receive the blessing of leading Israel; someone would receive the blessing of knowing they had delivered Israel from Jabin. When we obey God, we accomplish great things. The name “Barak” comes from the Hebrew word for “blessing.” We become a blessing to all those around us when we obey God’s call on our lives. I encourage you to obey God when He calls you to a task, regardless of its seeming impossibility.

Do you want to bless others? Obey the call of God. Do you want to break the pattern of death? Believe in Jesus’ resurrection, knowing His victory belongs to all who believe.