The 4th judge we are introduced to, Deborah, was a woman. She was a prophetess, judge, wife, and mother. The general of Israel’s forces, Barak, was timid and didn\u2019t trust the Lord. So God said he wouldn’t be the one to personally defeat the foreign commander Sisera. Deborah prophesied that a woman would kill the invading general. One would assume it would be Deborah herself, but this prophecy was fulfilled in an unexpected way.<\/p>\n
Notice that Deborah was careful not to grab for leadership because she understood God’s ways. Self-promotion always fails to bring lasting fruit in the Kingdom of God. The lesson here is that God and God alone promotes His servants in His kingdom. President Lincoln once said, \u201cWhat kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.\u201d Self-promotion always has a bad smell to it. Male leadership was conspicuously absent in Israel, which can be seen in Barak’s conditional obedience to God’s command. God was going to embarrass him and the men of the nation by using a physically weaker woman, Jael, to kill the foreign commander.<\/p>\n
People who desire to know God better must be willing to be used by God in any way He directs them. Availability is much more important to God than strength, talent, or intellect. Are you available? God is still looking for men and women who are yielded to him. As a young man, D. L. Moody once heard a pastor say, \u201cThe world has yet to see what God can do with a person who is fully yielded to Him.\u201d So Moody resolved in his heart, \u201cBy the grace of God, I will be that person.\u201d May all of us step up and be that today.<\/p>\n
“LORD, we desire to be useful to You in Your kingdom this day. Use us please we ask in Jesus’ name.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judges 4 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the\u00a0LORD, when Ehud was dead.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel cried unto the\u00a0LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. 4<\/sup>\u00a0And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of Israel commanded,\u00a0saying\u00a0<\/em>, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin\u2019s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me,\u00a0then\u00a0<\/em>I will not go.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the\u00a0LORD\u00a0shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10<\/sup>\u00a0And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0Now Heber the Kenite,\u00a0which was\u00a0<\/em>of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>by Kedesh.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And they shewed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And Sisera gathered together all his chariots,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river of Kishon.\u00a0\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>the day in which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the\u00a0LORD\u00a0gone out before thee? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.\u00a015<\/sup>And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0discomfited Sisera, and all\u00a0his\u00a0<\/em>chariots, and all\u00a0his\u00a0<\/em>host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off\u00a0his\u00a0<\/em>chariot, and fled away on his feet.\u00a016<\/sup>But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword;\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>there was not a man left.\u00a0 17<\/sup>\u00a0Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for\u00a0there was\u00a0<\/em>peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18<\/sup>\u00a0And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and enquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jael Heber\u2019s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.\u00a022<\/sup>And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will shew thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her\u00a0tent\u00a0<\/em>, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>in his temples.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 4th judge we are introduced to, Deborah, was a woman. She was a prophetess, judge, wife, and mother. The general of Israel’s forces, Barak, was timid and didn\u2019t trust the Lord. So God said he wouldn’t be the one to personally defeat the foreign commander Sisera. Deborah prophesied that a woman would kill the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6274"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16081,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274\/revisions\/16081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}