Go!

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

GO!

Judges 4:11-24

11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh. 12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River. 14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left. 17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite. 8 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come, my lord, come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him. 19 "I'm thirsty," he said. "Please give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up. 20 "Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.'" 21 But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died. 22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple — dead. 23 On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites.   24 And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.

NIV

We noticed something in this narrative that we can apply in our lives. The story is about the LORD giving the whole army of nine hundred chariots into the hand of Barak and his ten thousand men. We notice King Sisera fled and left his army to fight alone, which they lost and were all killed by the sword. But the story for us is the way that happened. Although Deborah told Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands”, it was not until Barak advanced that the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword. The LORD could have routed that whole army without Barak and his ten thousand men. The LORD could have simply opened the earth and swallowed up all the chariots and army of Sisera. The LORD could have reigned down great balls of fire or large hail stones on the army of Sisera, destroying every last one of them, but he waited until Barak and the army of Israel advanced, and he used them to route the whole army of chariots. We are people of faith and we do expect the Lord to do things in our lives. We ask for healing, provision, and protection along with whatever else we need. However, at the same time, we cannot sit back and just wait for God to do it all, although he could. Maybe the Lord is waiting for us to advance against that which is oppressing us, whether it is some illness, infirmity, financial, material, emotional, or spiritual need, or whatever else seems to be getting us down, or discontent with our situation in life. The question is, what does our advance look like? How do we advance against illness or infirmity? How do we advance against a material need? Is our faith enough to be considered an advance? Barak would not even go to battle unless Deborah went with him, as she represented the LORD as a judge of Israel. We believe it is right to first take counsel from the Lord before any advance. There are many ways in this world that mankind has made advancements that appear to be done by men who do not believe in God. We can take advantage of many avenues in this world to make our own advancement against what is against us, but without the Lord, we would not be doing his will. Yet, it seems we need to take a step forward, in accordance with his plan, and then watch the mighty hand of God routing those things before us. It is all about staying within the plan of the Lord. We cannot do that unless we first seek him, listening to his command, Go! This is the day the Lord has given that thing into your hands. When we take our stand, stand our ground, stand firm, being fully dressed in His armor, the victory is ours, when we hear the Lord tell us, “Go!”.