Clough Judges Lesson 6

Judges 4

 

Turn to Judges 4.  You may have noticed that some of the patriotic hymns, one would call them in 20th century terminology, the savage spirit of celebration of victory.  This spirit is shown in Judges 5 and Exodus 16, and many other of the great hymns of the Old Testament.  Perhaps the reason why this appears to be so savage to the 20th century mind and ears is not because we are more sophisticated; it is simply because people in the Old Testament and people in the generation that produced those hymns were people who knew what it meant to hate evil and so therefore in our generation when the absolutes are washing out and the separation between that which is good and that which is evil it tends to become blurred.  And you no longer have a love for truths and the corollary, you no longer have a hatred for falsehood. 

 

In Exodus 15, the so-called Song of Moses, and Judges 5, and both of these you get almost a savage celebration over the fact that God’s enemies have been defeated.  This is a testimony to the absolutes of the Word of God and the fact that people love that which God loves and hates that which God hates.  I’ve often said it from the pulpit and this is truly a Biblical position, that you cannot have love for something unless you have hatred for its opposite.  This is where the 20th century man is all mixed up; he thinks in terms of sentimentalism in terms of a love that has no opposite.  If a love has no opposite it can’t be love. 

 

In Judges 4 and Judges 5 we are immediately introduced to one of the great battles of the Old Testament.  In Judges 4 we have the so-called prose version of this and in Judges 5 we have the poetry; if you have a modern translation you’ll see it’s rearranged in the 5th chapter in the form of a poetic piece.  Actually chapter 5 is a hymn that was sung in commemoration of this great victory of God over the Canaanites. 

 

Last week we ended with Judges 3:30 and there’s one verse we have to discuss, that’s Judges 3:31, “And after him,” Ehud, “was Shamgar the son of Anath, [which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.]” for whom there was no chronology given, and therefore we can only come to the conclusion that chronologically speaking the period of the Judges is computed from Ehud’s reign to the end of it, and you remember where it says in verse 30 “the land had rest fourscore years,” and 80 years after the assassination of Eglon the land rested this period of time.  After this time and somewhere in here you have the rise of Shamgar.  He could have been in Ehud’s day, he might have been after but somewhere in this time was this one lone man.  But he’s not evidently considered a judge in the sense that he is an anchor for the chronology of the book, so he’s passed over with one verse, and the next king actually is a woman, Deborah and the general Barak.  This introduces us to the second generation in the book of Judges. 

 

But Shamgar was a man who, incidentally, like Ehud, had to manufacture his own weapons.  You’ll see this from now until about 1 Samuel 8, until actually David assumes the monarchy.  As soon as David takes over the throne, then David and Solomon are the ones that introduce weapons into the nation.  Up until that time evidently, scholars think it’s through the Philistines and their disarmament policy.  The Philistines had an enclave along the coast.  And some people believe that the later Philistines, the so-called sea peoples came down here, if they weren’t identical they were somehow related, these were the men who escaped from the Trojan wars and after the Trojan Wars and so on these men scattered throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and there’s a strong Greek influence here, as well as the people from what we call Turkey, what they called Asia Minor.  So these forces landed along the coast and began to build up this enclave.  This Philistine enclave was quite strong and they apparently had as one of their systems a full scale program of disarming the citizens because they knew if they could disarm the citizens, take their weapons away, then the citizens could never assert their right to freedom.  And such is the history all down through the ages, that men who are smart will always disarm the citizens because as long as the citizens have weapons at their disposal you have at least the potential for freedom.  But if the citizens do not have weapons then you have absolutely no chance for freedom.  This is why movements in our own day toward gun legislation is very ill-founded if you know history.  If you understand the records of history there’s no justification for gun legislation whatever for the simple reason that people who use guns in crime are never going to register their guns so you do not reduce crime; it can be shown statistically, you do not reduce crimes by gun legislation. 

 

Therefore gun legislation in our own time is very much akin to what led to these kind of situations such as Judges 3:31.  You have Shamgar, the son of Anath,” now whether this Anath is actually a place, or whether the entire phrase, “the son of Anath,” is actually a title of a warrior, for Anath was a goddess, actually; we know a lot about her from the Ugaritic script.  Anath is described in very gory language; if you want to read this, Pritchard’s Ancient Near Eastern Text, look under Ugaritic texts, and you look up the Baal-Anath cycle, and you’ll read the description of this goddess, and she is a very bloodthirsty goddess.  One picture in this narrative is she begins to kill her enemies, she wades through their blood up to her waists, and this is one of the great things in the hymns of the Ugaritic poetry is how Anath wades in the blood of those whom she has killed.  So it came to be known as a proverb, that a great warrior would be called “the son of Anath.”  Now whether this is the same title or not we can’t be sure.  It could also be a literal son of a person or a man by the name of Anath, or a place. 

 

But “after his was Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.”  An ox goad was a post, a rather formidable weapon, it was eight feet long, it was made of wood, about six inches in diameter, pointing down at the end and had a metal tip.  Of course for goading the oxen it was blunt but when they wanted to turn this into a weapon they sharpened the tip on the end and you can imagine somebody charging at you with an eight foot long pole with a metal tip; you either get out of the way or something happens.  Well, 600 Philistines failed to get out of the way and Shamgar took care of them.  And that’s all that’s ever said of Shamgar, he’s mentioned again in the hymn of chapter 5, but that’s all, we just do not know much about the man.  Evidently he was not considered a major judge; he’s second, or we might classify if you’re going hold Shamgar to be a judge then the third judge is Deborah.

 

Now we go to Judges 4:1, “And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.  [2] And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor;” now here you want to notice something that we’ve begun to notice.  Remember in the book of Joshua we noticed a way the histories had of presenting the narrative, we said there were three things about the book of Joshua, every story has these same recurrent characteristics.  This is something in your Bible study you want to look for when you’re looking at the text.  Look for a way of writing, look for the style that these men used.  In the book of Joshua it was: the Lord said, Joshua responded, the people did.  And this was the same three-fold pattern to the story.  Here you have a similar pattern in the book of Judges.  You have three steps, apostasy, chastening and deliverance.  But the thing to notice and here’s something where you can benefit from studying this; you take these three elements in this story, apostasy, chastening and deliverance, and look at the proportion of verses that are devoted to each one of these. 

 

For example, turn back to Judges 3:7, where it was the start of the cycle of Othniel, the first judge.  “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baalim and the groves [idols]” or the Ashtaroth.  So one verse, 3:7 is devoted to apostasy.  Then verses 8-9, “Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim…” and then verse 9 again describes this chastening ministry.  So we have two verses associated with this.  Then verses 10-11 is the deliverance, so so far we seem to have, at least if we analyze just that story, a fairly even breakdown.  But watch what happens when we come to the next story.

 

Judges 3:12, “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD,” and you have one verse devoted to the apostasy.  Then in verses 13-14 you have the chastening sent by God, and so you have two verses devoted to that.  Then in Judges 3:15-30 you have the emphasis on the deliverance of the Lord.  Now watch how this works.  As we go to the story tonight you see the same kind of pattern.  In Judges 4 we have verse 1 dealing with the apostasy; verses 2-3 deal with the chastisement and the rest of the chapter deals with deliverance. 

 

Now we can make a conclusion: what is this historian’s real point.  He’s not giving us all the details; don’t look to the Bible for an exhaustive set of historical details.  These are details that have been lifted out of history to teach something.  So when you look at this you begin to see obviously the emphasis in the book of Judges is on deliverance in spite of the fact that the overall argument is futile in the end.  It is to show that God in His grace provided an upper class of leadership in every generation and that this upper class was provided by God in response to the people’s cry for deliverance and freedom.  God answered that cry and He answered that cry as He always has answered the cry down through the ages.  God’s answer for the people who cry for freedom is to provide them with leaders, and upper class who can lead them.  And you’ll always see this; there appears upon the scene a man or a woman of destiny that is the right man for the right hour at the right place at the right time.  We can see God’s working in this.  So the emphasis over and over again is that God is still faithful in His grace to bless these disobedient people. 

 

So in Judges 4:1-3 we’ll deal in this story with the apostasy and chastening, but once again go to the geographical areas of the nation to see how this Canaanite enclave got started.  You remember when we left the land in Joshua’s day we had three basic enclaves: one, the Philistine pentapolis, another one was dominated by the city of Sidon, Tyre was built later on so you have at this time Sidon and it dominates the coast; and then we have a third massive area that starts here and moves northeastward all the way to Damascus.  And that is the third great enclave. 

 

Now there were certain pockets of Canaanites all down through here; remember the Jebusites in the city of Jerusalem and so on, and you have a valley that comes out here, called the valley of Esdraelon, and the valley of Esdraelon is going to provide the source and the location for a great catastrophe in this day, it’s a very important thing.  The valley of Esdraelon allowed the Canaanite coastal enclave to move up into these hills.  Remember the Jews held the hills but they couldn’t get down into the valleys because the Canaanites had a superior weapon of that day, the chariot.  And so they had to stay in the hills and they were cut off, because if you look at a map the valley of Esdraelon comes to about here and then another valley, moving east from that, the valley of Jezreel, almost connects with the eastern tip of the valley of Esdraelon.  So you’ve got almost a geographical cutting through this land, so that the tribes up in this area, Naphtali, Zebulon and so on, are geographically separated from the tribes to the south.  It’s a geographical weakness given the weapons that the Israelites have at this time. 

 

The Canaanites at this point are taking advantage of this and they are sending chariot patrols up and down these valleys and they are able to maintain total control.  At this point they have completely severed the nation.  So they have a force of 900 chariots located at a city under the command by the name of Sisera, “the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.”  He’s located here, although the king that’s responsible actually is from Hazor.  Hazor was a fortress located at this point.  Apparently there was a conglomeration of kings, Hazor was the fortress that covered at least probably some 200 acres and probably housed about 40,000 people.  So it was a sizeable city and the king here entered into league with the various kings in this area, so together they actually dominated the northern part of the nation Israel.  So the interpretation of the historian as to why this dominance occurred is given in Judges 4:1.  He says they’re trying to deal with the political issue, why has the northern end of this nation gone into captivity?  The reason is because they have done that which is evil, and that’s just a formula in this book for religious apostasy. 

 

To get the most out of this text you want to begin to apply it to the Christian life and when we apply this to the Christian life where does it apply?  It applies to what we have called the bottom circle, the area of the known will of God for your life.  God, through the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit lets you know God’s will, and any believer has at least some knowledge of the will of God for his life.  It starts out very small, it starts out with the morals, perhaps, it starts out with a basic knowledge of the gospel, who Jesus Christ is, and as you grow in the Christian life this circle expands.  But along comes the problem.  Also as it expands you are responsible for more and more accomplishments, so maturity in the Christian life is not something to brag about.  All maturity does, really, is give you greater and greater responsibility.  True, you have greater and greater opportunity to enjoy the blessings of God as a result of knowing Him this much better, but it involves more responsibility.  The believer, when he is out of fellowship, is always out of fellowship by the rejection of the known will of God in his life at some point. 

 

But notice I said “at some point,” because what usually happens is that the believer will go on negative volition toward one little aspect of the will of God.  It may be one tiny issue in your life and so you rebel against God in this one area, but this is sufficient to knock you out of the bottom circle, knock you out of fellowship with the Lord, and then along comes a big test.  So now look what’s happened, watch the sequence.  You’ve gotten out of fellowship, you have the test and you flunk it.  Now do you understand why sometimes people, and believers, oftentimes come in for counseling, almost in shock because they have felt tests like this before and they never had a problem?  What made them trip?  Why did they fall?  Why did they fail now?  They never failed in this area before.  The reason is because prior to the test they were out of fellowship to begin with, over some, probably inconsequential thing, so they thought.  But God had quietly been prodding them to move in a certain direction and they have refused His direction and guidance, they became carnal, they were out of fellowship, they had no power from the Holy Spirit and as a result of the lack of power of the Holy Spirit in their life they failed the big test.

 

Now the big test now can be turned around.  Let’s look at it another way.  Let’s look at this as the believer out of fellowship again; the believer is out of fellowship through rebellion against a declared area of the will of God.  Now what happens, we can turn the big test around as though it is actually an attack from Satan, which it is.  God uses, and it will be evident throughout this passage and the next chapter, God uses physical and moral evil, both to discipline His children and to judge the world.  So when the Christian is judged and he suffers, oftentimes the suffering, practically all the time it is said to be through the explicit instrumentality of Satan.  This is why I showed you how Paul said “turn such a believer over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.”  What is that saying?  It’s obvious, that Satan has a ministry of physical death through disease, through secondary causes and some other ways, but this is satanic.  So we can look at the big test again in another way, almost like Job, though Job was tested for another reason. 

 

But if we want to apply the book of Judges to our life let’s just forget all the reasons for suffering except one; there are many others, I’m not trying to exclude those, but to make it simple let’s just think of one reason for suffering, and that is chastening.  God chastens because we are in violation of His will at some point.  So we’re out of fellowship; that would be analogous to the nation Israel being out of fellowship by apostasy; that would be verse 1, Israel “did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.”  The believer, the Christian, goes on negative volition toward the known will of God in some area, as a result, again, read verses 2-3, “And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan,” and I say that if you want to make an analogy with the Christian life in this real history, the proper way of making the analogy is to think of these teams as demonic agencies through Satan.  And so if you want to read this in New Testament terms, verse 1 would be the believer, he gets out of fellowship, verses 2-3 is where God essentially turns him over to Satan for spanking.  And you have a demonic attack against the believer, and this demonic attack is always in union with the flesh, a demonic attack plus the old sin nature.  Remember the analogy here, the old sin nature is Amalek; Amalek is always involved and we’ll see how in Judges 5.  But Satan works through our own flesh and he also works through other agencies.  But you have this as the means of disciplining the Christian. 

 

Now God disciplines us not because He just loves to watch us suffer but because He is a loving Father and He is training us toward a certain goal.  So therefore God uses Satan, the demons and the sin nature to discipline the believer and if you want to read this as “Jabin, the king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, the captain” or the general “of whose army was Sisera,” think of those as demonic beings.  Please remember you’re reading real history so be careful when you’re doing this.  We’re not allegorizing.  What we’re doing is handling this as a grammatical historical exegesis of real space/time history.  But that space/time history because it did involve the interplay between God and the forces of evil provides us with a framework for analyzing and illustrating the Christian life.  That is the reason why this is in the Bible.  It’s not just to learn history; it is to learn lessons from history that will be useful in the Christian’s daily life.  So Judges 4:2-3 would have the believer in a situation where he’s subject to satanic pressure. 

 

Now Judges 4:4, the author here, as normal literary works go, he’s not a slave, total slave to the form.  Usually it is said that Israel cried out, in verse 3 it says “Israel cried out” but verse 4 doesn’t really connect Deborah to the crying out.  Evidently Deborah was a judge in the south.  Remember the map, again this is a situation where you have the land of Israel and you have Deborah actually ruling at a point north of Jerusalem.  So she is ruling in the southern area whereas the Canaanites dominate this northern area.  So apparently Deborah had been judging for many years in the south as the Canaanites began to slowly choke and take over in the north.  So as the Canaanite forces moved down from Hazor and move in from the coast along the valley of Esdraelon, they begin to choke off the northern part of the country. 

 

And so in verse 3 we read, “And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.”  This would be analogous to the believer today using 1 John 1:9.  In 1 John 1:9, if you use it correctly, what are you really doing?  You’re saying in effect I am out of fellowship, there’s nothing I can to about it, therefore the solution is going to have to be by grace, therefore I appropriate the grace God offers me in 1 John 1:9, the cleansing that he gives.  So in verse 3 is a call for grace; the people at this point realize their error, they realize that this political defeat in the north is due somehow to their sin, and they cry to God for deliverance and He gives them Deborah. 

 

Deborah had already been ruling in Jerusalem and Judges 4:4-5 are some of the background of this woman.  “And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.

[5] And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.”  So evidently this woman had a ministry that involved all the tribes; she is a spokesman for God in the situation.  Now an interesting question comes up, why is a woman considered in a position of leadership over men.  This is not usually the case in the Bible.  Over and over again Paul warns us, in 1 Timothy 2 and other places, that it is abnormal for women to exercise authority over men.  But why is this here, then, doesn’t this violate God’s form for the role of the man and the woman.  Apparently this gives precedence to something we have seen in Christian evangelistic circles.  If you go to the missionary force, the task force that’s on the mission field today sadly, I believe the last statistic I saw said that 60-70% of the missionaries on the field are women.  And this only testifies to the fact that the men are not doing the job, and therefore when the men do not do the job God calls the women to do the job. 

 

And women have been called down through history to do a job.  Now there are different areas of the role of women.  For example, the greatest woman in history is Mary; Mary epitomizes the true role of the woman because she does what no man could do by the laws of Genesis 3:15 and other passages.  Mary acts as the instrument.  Remember when Arnold was here and he went through the format of the Passover, and he said in the Jewish home during the Passover feast what the Jewish mother will do before anything could happen in the feast, it required the woman of the house to take the lighter and to light the candle.  Until that lighting of the candle is done the men cannot do a thing.  So the woman, through whom sin entered into humanity, actually becomes the instrument through whom life enters into humanity.  That is a legitimate function for the woman.  It is a function given to her in the New Testament epistles and this is her proper role. 

 

But when it comes to spiritual leadership we find a definite insistence over and over in the Word of God that men are to exercise authority over women in this area.  Why, then, Deborah?  We do not know; we can only surmise in some of the hints given to us in this chapter, that at this particular point many of the men of the upper class, that were potentially of the upper class, were on negative volition.  At this time, partially probably as a rebuke to those men, and also because the men themselves were in absolute disobedience, God called forth the woman Deborah.  And she is going to show herself as much of a prophet or greater than most of the men of the three centuries that intervened from the time of Joshua down to the time of David.  This woman is probably one of the greatest ministers for God in the early history of Israel.

 

Judges 4:5, “Deborah dwelt under the palm tree,” now what is the palm tree?  The palm tree was used along with oak trees as places for oracles in the ancient world and it would suggest that this woman had a home and it was involved in a grove.  At that time there were a lot of trees and they used to have these groves.  Now the Baalists had their groves, but the genuine prophets of God seemed to have locations where they ministered and people came to them for judgment.  Notice in verse 5 that Deborah is conducting her ministry of judging, not in a military foreign policy sense, but in a domestic sense; they came to her over civil matters.  But included, one day, after the children of Israel cried to the Lord, they came to Deborah and asked for freedom.  They asked her to petition the Lord, or ask for insight; Deborah, how can we get our freedom. 

 

So in Judges 4:6, “And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali,” Kedesh-naphtali is one of the cities in this northern area; she deliberately selects a man to head the forces of Israel who has intimate knowledge of the geography of this area.  Now this shows you that God’s direction and God’s leading is not something abstruse, it’s not something utterly in contradiction always to what you would call common sense.  She calls a man forth, obviously led by the Lord, but notice who she calls forth—a man who is intimately acquainted and equipped to handle a military campaign in this area.  He knows the land, it’s his native area.  And so sends for Barak, and she addresses him as the prophets often addressed the people.  The prophets had a peculiar way of addressing the people in that day.  Instead of saying “God says” thus and such, now sometimes they did this, “Thus saith the Lord” is a formula.  That is one way they had, but another formula that the prophets often used, particularly when they were in individual counseling, you’ll see Jeremiah do this, you’ll see Ezekiel do it, when they’re talking in a one to one basis they’ll say, “has not God said,” and they put the statement of God’s leading to their counselee in a question format.  Why do you suppose they do this, particularly when they’re working with individuals?  The reason, apparently is that if you phrase it as a question you force the person who hears you to think, is it really true or isn’t it.  It provokes thought. 

 

So she says to Barak, “Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying,” she’s announcing this, but she’s phrasing it as a question so that Barak will think, is this really the Word of God, because remember if Barak is going to lead the forces of Israel, how must he lead them?  By faith.  How does a Christian walk?  By faith.  Isn’t it only after you’re first convinced that God promises a truth?  How do you become a Christian?  Isn’t it only after you’re convinced that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross?  You have to be convinced of it first before you believe and if you’re not convinced there’s no sense going through all the ritual and all the rigmarole.   So this is pitched to Barak so he will think about it and come to a personal conviction that this is God’s Word.  “…Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?”  Mount Tabor is a height of land that’s located southeast of the Sea of Galilee, it’s a height of land and it’s an area where they are going to mass their armies.  Go into this area; notice, by the way, why they picked a high land.  Why do they pick a high land?  Because the Canaanites have total control of the lowland, they’re patrolling with their chariots back and forth; you’re not going to have an assembly, all the soldiers lined up and bang, along comes 900 chariots and wipes them out.  So the soldiers are going to have to amass up in the heights of land where this Sisera and his chariots will be looking for him and won’t be able to find him.  So the prophecy or the oracle that Deborah gives, this is the form of a promise. 

 

Now again, if you’re trying to think how this applies to your Christian life I suggest that you look at verse 7 from the standpoint of the promises of the New Testament when God says “cast your care upon Me, for I care for you.”  This is an address, this is a promise that God has given you as a Christian.  Now think of verse 7 as a similar situation, it is a promise that God is giving the believer this time, in the face of struggle, in the face of pressure. 

 

Judges 4:7, “And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.” Now the river Kishon flows northwestward down the valley of Esdraelon into the sea; they call it actually the wadi, it’s a river that is seasonal.  I think some of the Bibles have it translated a creek, but that is varied dependent on the season of the year.  A wadi is a streambed that dries up in the dry season and is usually in torrent and flood stage most of the rainy season.  It’s important that you see something because the liberals always love to chew up Christians in Judges 4-5 here because they say look at chapter 4-5, there are conflicts between them.  Then they have some little rain storm that comes and supposedly is the thing that God used. 

 

Now the problem is that if you understand that Sisera is an accomplished military man he’s not going to be leading his chariot forces down a wadi in the rainy season.  And the only way that God can draw these Canaanite forces down into the wadi is to draw them down into the wadi not during the rainy season but during the dry season.  The chariot wheels of that day would never make it in the muddy situation.  So obviously the setting of this story is not in the rainy season.  And what you’re going to see later on and I’ll take you on a word study of this word, this has nothing to do with a little rain storm that came and he got wet out in the middle of the war.  This has nothing to do with that, yet this is what the liberals say is the story.  God promises that He is going to draw all of the enemy force into this wadi, and they will be eliminated. 

 

Judges 5:8, “And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.”  After receiving this promise Barak says fine, I’ll just go alone… no, he says, Oh Deborah, if you will go with me then I will go, but if you will not go, then I will not go…a real man of faith.  You want to notice this because these humorous aspects of the book of Judges are there for a reason.  They’re there to encourage you as a believer that God works always through imperfect means.  And you can get a very pious expression on your face and say oh, my, isn’t this man terrible here.  And yet, isn’t it interesting, God’s going to use him and God is going to use him to eliminate the Canaanite force so that from this point forward in God’s Word the Canaanites never make one concerted battle again. They are wiped out as far as a major force is concerned from here on out; accomplished through God’s grace operating in the life of a man who doesn’t even believe the promise in the first place.  This is something very encourag­ing because it means that success in the Christian life is often quite accidental and it’s very humiliating.  It’s very humiliating; if you can stop and think back to places where God has blessed you, and if you’re really honest with yourself you have to admit that really you were not trusting in that situation like you know is the Biblical norm and yet isn’t it interesting—God blesses. 

Now there’s a danger here and Christians can get very sloppy at this point.  They take the wrong lesson out of the situation.  Suppose, for example, you’re in disobedience; suppose for example you do something and you goof off or something and God blesses anyway.  Oftentimes the believer comes out of that and says oh, obedience doesn’t matter because God will bless me anyway.  And it induces a sloppy attitude.  So therefore I want you to see how the historian relates these events; there’s going to be a balance between God’s sovereign grace and the responsibility of Barak.  And so Barak says if you will go, then I will go.  That’s an expression of his lack of faith in the promise of verse 7.

 

Now in Judges 4:9 Deborah replies with a condemnation, and the condemnation of verse 9 gives balance to the whole narrative so believers cannot draw out of here the wrong application.  “And she said, I will surely go with thee,” and this is in the infinite absolute in the Hebrew and when you take a verb and you repeat the verb in the infinitive form it always intensifies the mood.  So this is a mood of exasperation and Deborah says all right, Barak, I’ll go with you.  That’s the way it should be translated, she’s fed up with this guy and so she says I’m down here in Jerusalem, I’ve got a ministry down here, my job is not to be leading an army out there, that’s your job.  In fact, the background for why Deborah was a prophet in the first place was because the men obviously were not taking their roles, like men are not taking their roles; look around tonight and check the number of men versus the number of women here tonight.  You can tell who’s taking their rolls and it’s right here in Lubbock Bible Church.  So here you have a situation very much like that. 

 

You have Deborah and Barak, and Deborah is fed up with Barak at this time, she says all right sissy, I’ll go with you if that will make you happy but when she says this, notice what she adds, “notwithstanding the journey that thou take shall not be for thine honor;” and if you can understand the age of the heroes, particularly at this time of history, the hero was a hero because of what he did in battle.  And so what this woman tells Barak is, Barak, you truly will lead the army but you just blew it as far as getting credit out of this because the main enemy is going to be killed by a woman, she says, “for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman,” and she does not mean herself.  This is one of the most humiliating things, because a little woman in a tent is going to wipe out some main enemies.  And here is Barak worried about whether the promise of God is going to come true or not, so he has to have his good luck charm called Deborah to come trotting along into battle to make sure he’s okay.  But when he does this, just like many believers, when we fail to trust the Word of God, God’s program is going to go forward.

 

Let me give you an illustration of this.  Suppose you have a neighbor; that neighbor is on positive volition toward the gospel.  All right, God is going to get the gospel to that neighbor.  You may be the kind of a person that says well, I can talk to that person about Christ, today, tomorrow, next month, next year, it doesn’t make any difference; to you something else becomes more important than the salvation of that individual, you never invite them over, don’t even know what their name is, leave alone who they are.  So you just ignore them.  But nevertheless, God has been prodding you to do it.  So what happens?  It turns out that, perhaps, that God calls another believer and the other believer comes and witnesses to that individual, they do not lead them to Christ but provides all of the basis for the belief that eventually come.  And then maybe later on you finally do talk to the about Christ and they believe, but is that your credit?  No, because in the meantime God had used another believer and that believer gets credit, not you, because that believer did all the spade work; all you did, you came along and happened to be the last one on the line, that’s all.  But you missed out.  You see, God’s program toward that person has not been affected by your disobedience.  That person will wind up in the kingdom still, regardless of your behavior, but the thing of it is that you missed out on the blessing that comes from operating in the will of God.

 

So in verse 9 Deborah recognizes this, it is God’s will that this Canaanite enclave to the north be destroyed, just as it is God’s will to free the believer.  However, in the course of accomplishing God’s will, since the believer has some negative volition toward God’s promise, who is going to get the credit.  Later on we’ll deal with a hymn and you’ll see how the hymn commemorates the victory of the woman Jael.  So Jael actually obtains the credit, another woman; so this is not the age of women’s liberation but it was definitely an age when the woman assumed the leadership, and notice they did a tremendous job. 

 

Judges 4:9b “And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.  [10] And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh,” this is the assembly point, “and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.”  He called out ten thousand men and Deborah trotted along to make sure he was okay.  Verse 11, “Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses,” this is a little notation that you often read in history books of the Old Testament, it’s a notation flipped into the text so that when you get down later on you will see why certain things are going to happen.  This is important that you understand the background of the woman that’s going to do this.  “Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses,” this was Moses’ first wife, Zipporah, remember that he met her father in the desert, married this man’s daughter and later divorced her, he “had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh.  [12] And they showed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor.”  “They” in verse 12 is obviously some sort of spy system, in the Hebrew it’s just the impersonal, Sisera was showed.  Sisera was showed that Barak was mounting his forces together; this is what God is going to use.

 

Judges 4:13, “And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river of Kishon.”  Harosheth is this citadel that Sisera operates from, at the mouth of the valley of Esdraelon.  He gathers all the forces, now this is critical because it’s these forces that keep patrolling back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, the valley of Esdraelon, over and over and over again.  And it’s this force that must be eliminated to reestablish the two parts of the nation.  So he calls out all of his nine hundred chariots of iron and all the people that were with him.  Now quite obviously he’s thinking, rightly so, it’s in the dry season, he can run his chariots and have total control over this wadi.  Since he has total control over this wadi this means that he has an opportunity at long last to drive the Canaanite enclave southward.  Do you see his strategy?  He thinks right now he’s got them because he’s got all of this area to the north, he controls the north side of the valley of Esdraelon; now what he wants is to draw the forces from the south into a position where he can encircle them.  And this is why in verse 13 he calls out everything he has because he thinks this is the way of totally eliminating the main strike force from the south. 

 

 Judges 4:14, “And Deborah said unto Barak, Up,” get up old boy, see, she has to tell him to get up, “for this is the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand,” now what’s going to happen here is something very fantastic, it happened about sis times in history, “is not the LORD gone out before thee?  So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.  [15] And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet.”  Now the trick to verse 15 is the verb “discomfort.”  Wrapped up in that verb is one of the great miracles of history.  This miracle of history is going to be celebrated in the hymn in Judges 5.  In Judges 5:19 you’ll notice how she describes this victory.  “The kings came and fought; then fought the kings of Canaan in Ta-anach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.  [10] They fought from heaven; the stars did in their courses fought against Sisera.  [21] The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon.  O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.”  What is she celebrating there in verse 20-21?  She is saying that the natural forces of the creation, the stars in some way, as they did in Joshua’s day, as well as a supernatural flood, came at this point. 

 

Now it’s all eliminated in chapter 4.  Why is this passed over in Judges 4?  I think to just simply show the spiritual principle and not get buried in the details, but in Judges 5 the details come out and there was a supernatural work of God that totally eliminated this chariot force and this was a tremendous picture of how faithful God is to always come to the believer’s aid just at the right moment. 

 

I want to study this word “discomfort.”  Let’s start in Exodus 14:24; I want to show you this because I want to show you the ways and the means that God has at His disposal to come to your aid as a believer; no matter what your trial is God gives you promises and this shows you the tools, the devices that God has to make those promises valid in your life.  Exodus 14:24, this is the use of the word “discomfort.”  I want you to see the context of how this word is always used.  “And it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of the fire and of the cloud and troubled,” there’s the verb, He “troubled the army of the Egyptians, [25] And took off their chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily….” 

 

We do not know what happened here, there’s a lot of extra-Biblical tradition from sources as to what this was, but some way, through an earthquake or through some system He just simply wiped all the chariot wheels off the chariots.  He evidently loosened them.  The history is that during the night there was a tremendous earthquake and it operated only in a small area and loosened the pinions on the end of the chariot wheels of the Egyptians.  So when they started out all of a sudden guys started loosing their wheels right and left.  It must have been a hilarious sight, but of course, again it shows how God supernaturally…notice how accurately too, this is not some killing a fly with a sledge hammer type operation, it’s simply using the forces that are already in creation to bring this about. 

 

Look at Exodus 23:27, the next use of this verb.  This speaks of the holy war that Israel will wage against her enemies, “I will send My fear before thee, and I will discomfort all the people to whom thou shalt come….”  And this fear is described again in Deuteronomy 7, though not with the same verb, as some sort of a supernatural fear, a tremendous psychological spirit of fear that would sweep through cities, sweep through armies, sweep through mass populations.  And when people are scared and in panic they cannot fight.

 

Deuteronomy 2:15, another use of this verb to discomfort.  This is a rather unfortunate use of the word; this is how God disciplines believers.  It speaks in verse 14, “And the period in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were perished from among the host, as the LORD swore unto them.  [15] For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to discomfort [destroy] them from among the host, until they were consumed.”  So again you have God removing, very narrowly, very accurately, probably through (quote) “natural means,” through disease, through accidents and so on.  It always appears to the non-Christian looking at it that it’s just some sort of act of God, an act of nature kind of thing, but not an act of God as the believer would see it.

 

Joshua 10:10, remember that famous time when the sun stood still, “The LORD discomforted them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter in Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goes up to Beth-horon,” and that was the time when he used supernatural agencies given in verse 11.  So again this verb has the idea of God working perfectly in and through natural cause and effect to accomplish His purpose.

 

1 Samuel 7:10, I want you to see that this was not just a unique thing in the days of the judges.  Everywhere Israel was faithful God always rewarded this way.  “And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomforted them, and they were smitten before Israel.”  Again, we do not know the details of what happened in verse 10 but there was some supernatural thing by which the Philistines were defeated. 

 

A very graphic illustration of this is found in 2 Samuel 22:15, in the times of David.  By the way, 2 Samuel 22 is Psalm 18; this is one case in the Word of God where we have the Word of God verbatim in two places.  This is a very crucial place for Hebrew students to study the prose and the poetry type operation of the Hebrew verbs; it’s a very critical area, chapter 22.  2 Samuel 22:15, it’s speaking of something in the time of David, when there was a great battle.  And David says in verse 12, God “made darkness pavilions around him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies, [13] Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.  [14] The LORD thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice.  [15] And He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomforted them.”  And this refers to the enemy; this is not just a simple thunderstorm.  By the way, this is where the liberals say Yahweh of the Old Testament is a God of the storm, the storm God.  However, you can find normal weather phenomena described in the Old Testament.  This is an abnormal phenomena, this is not describing one simple thunderstorm.  They knew what thunderstorms were; this is something that’s very unusual. 

 

Psalm 144:5, “Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.  [6] Cast forth lightning, and scatter them; shoot out thine arrows, and discomfort [destroy] them.”  And again you have the calling upon God for supernatural weapons to meet the enemy.

 

Finally, let’s go to one other place future to our day when exactly the same thing happens; that graphic picture given to us in Revelation 6:1.  This chapter has been known down through history as the chapter of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals,” by the way, notice the juxtaposition, it’s ironic that John pictures Jesus Christ as the Lamb, but notice His function, He is not the Lamb, He’s acting as the Lion.  “And I saw the Lamb open one of the seals, and I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder,” see, it’s the same theme, the noise of thunder, and one of the four animals [living creatures] saying, Come and see.  [2] And I saw and, behold, a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.  [3] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast [living creature] say, Come and see.  [4] And there went out another horse that was red; and power was given to him that sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another; and there was given unto him a great sword.  [5] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see.  And I beheld and, lo, a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.  [6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, and see that thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”  It’s a prophecy of absolute destruction of the world’s food supply except the wine.  In other words, the source of the food that would be the dessert, that which man likes but has no nutrients will be bountiful, but the food that provides the protein, the food that provides the staples of the human race will be wiped out.

 

Revelation 6:7, “And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.  [[8] And I looked and, behold, a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell [Hades] followed with him.  And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”  So here again you have God calling upon the forces of physical evil to discipline and to judge.  This is the theme of holy war.

 

Now we go back to Judges 4 to finish the story.  Evidently, had we not seen Judges 5, the reason I took you on this extensive survey of this verb is to prove to you that just looking at the verb in Judges 4:15, just looking at the verb you could tell there’s something that’s supernatural and unusual about this chapter.  You don’t need chapter 5.  This is important because the liberal says oh, the supernatural element’s are all in chapter 5 and not in chapter 4, they are two contradictory accounts of the same event.  I have just shown you from a study of the verb that that is not so.  This verb itself implies something great and supernatural that’s going on, even though the details are passed over. 

 

[Judges 4:16, “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; and there was not a man left.”]  And finally in Judges 4:17, “Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.”  Now I want you to notice the instrument that God uses.  What is one of the instruments that I just said He uses?  Physical evil.  Now I want you to see the kind of instrument God is going to use to eliminate Sisera—moral evil.  The first thing in verse 17, the family in which this woman lived, the family has already compromised; the family is in league with the Canaanites.  It is a family who has violated the Mosaic Covenant; it would be under the wrath of God.  It was a family in disobedience and this is the family from which this woman comes; a family who is in league with Jabin, the king of Hazor. 

 

Judges 4:18, “And Jael went out to meet Sisera,” so the first thing we know about this woman is she comes from a disobedient family, “And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not.”  And of course she’s using deception, she’s a liar.  “And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.  [19] And 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,” this was an Arab concoction, probably the nearest thing in our diet that would correspond to this thing would be yogurt, but it was used in the ancient world for reviving people that were physically wiped out.  Isn’t it ironic, in both cases here the man on both sides have to rely on a woman. 

 

Judges 4:20, “Again 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.”  And she says that sounds good, so she sits there until he sacks out.  And then Jael has a nice little operation, notice the weapon.  [21] “Then Jael Heber's 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.”  She tiptoed into where he was sleeping and she put the nail down on his temple and tap, tap, tap, tap, right through his head and down to the ground it says.  Now obviously she didn’t drive it all the way through, the point is that…by the way, I often wondered when I read this how this woman would be so accurate with the tent thing and so on, until I read background, and it was the women who used to set up the tents in the ancient world.  So it’s very obvious that this woman had probably taken her tent up and down a couple thousand times in her day and she knew how to tap tent pegs, so she decided this was a good place and she just let him have it.  So thus endeth Sisera. 

 

Judges 4:22, Barak comes trotting up, “And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou seek. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples.”  So you see, poor Barak gets stuck with a woman at both ends.  The first time he goes out he’s disobedient, he’s under the authority of a woman, he won’t even take the initiative when she offers it to him; he turns it down so he is warned by Deborah, and then he goes and he gets wiped out because the hero in these stories, the heroic epic…to understand heroic saga it is always the hero that must annihilate the other hero.  And you probably can’t feel the force of this story until you’ve read a lot of these heroic tales, where the hero must get the opposite number, and here the most humiliating thing happens, the man has already been killed, not by another soldier but by a woman.  And this is terrible humiliation for him. 

 

Judges 4:23, “So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.

 [24] And the hand of the children of Israel constantly prospered,” the Hebrew says, “and constantly prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.”  Verse 24 indicates this battle was the beginning of a series of offenses against the Canaanite enclave, eventually culminating in the Israelite victory, but this was just the major decisive battle.


Now I want to be sure that you see the connection with the Christian life, so I want to conclude by coming over to the New Testament to Ephesians 6.  We see two categories of weapons that God uses.  In this story we have seen that God uses on behalf of His sovereign purpose physical evil, and He uses moral evil, these would be people on negative volition and so on.  So He uses these two things.  Now that’s a hint for your life, because it means something; it means that in your life God may use physical catastrophes to build you into the person that He wants you to be.  In Romans 8:29 we are said to be brought into conformity with the image of Jesus Christ.  God will use, oftentimes in the chastening process, physical evil.  Now remember why we gave you that background in Romans 8, how God can use this without becoming a bad God.  That’s important.  But once you see that you can see why God uses physical evil and he can use people that will gyp you right and left, people that will treat you worse than you ever thought you could be treated.  Nevertheless, all this God says works together for good.

 

Now look at some of the other instruments and the weapons that the Christian has.  What did we see in the Old Testament?  We saw the Jewish army was without chariots; the Jewish army was without, probably a large number of weapons.  But notice what happened, they won the war.  How?  By God’s miraculous intervention with His weapons.  Now the Christian is also in a war and it begins in Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.  [11] Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  Now often when Christians read verse 11 they often read it as though you have to put on each piece of the armor.  Unfortunately that’s not the thrust of the verse because each piece of the armor is being listed here.  The thrust of verse 11 is “put on the of God armor,” in other words, the issue is there are two kinds of armor you can be using.  You can be using the armor of the flesh or the armor of God and the contrast that Paul’s saying here is use God’s armor, the whole armor of God.  If you want to put an underline it should be under the word “God,” not under the word “whole.”  It should be under “God.”  God is the emphasis in the original here, not whole.  So it is the whole armor of God that is to be put on, “that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  Just as in the Old Testament they had to stand against the Canaanites. 

 

Ephesians 6:12, “Because,” and this should be retranslated “because for us it is not a wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”  All four categories in verse 12 refer to demons and these are just fallen angels that are united in a confederacy under Satan and they have kind of a hierarchy.  You have Satan at the top, you have the whole organization labeled in Ephesians 2 as “the spirit of the age,” that’s the name for the whole organization but within the organization they have various offices and so on, and it starts with “principalities;” these are the highest ones.  These are the ones that are in rank above the powers; underneath them you have “powers” or lesser demons, with lesser authority.  “Against the rulers of the darkness of this world,” this is one of those up-down verses, in other words he starts down the line of the chain of command giving you the titles of the offices, now he’s going to come back up the chain of command giving you the duties of the officers.  So he starts at the bottom, “the powers,” and here’s the role of the powers, “the rulers of the darkness of this world.” 

 

I met someone at the conference that came out of a family where the father was a minister and the father never could get straight the existence of angels, and I asked the person, if angels do not exist, how can the Christian life be lived.  And she never saw the connection until bringing her over to Ephesians 6 where this is the whole object in the Christian life, who do you really lock horns with in the Christian life?  It is actually demonic powers that are operating and the powers, the lesser demons are called the ones who rule the darkness of this world, and you notice the word world, these are the ones in the cosmos.  Then going back up to the next level, the “spiritual wicked ones in high places,” or in the heavenlies.  So these are the principalities that rule from heaven.  Evil is still permitted in heaven; not until the middle of the Tribulation will they be thrown out.  So you have the angelic powers operating in a confederacy structure under Satan, operating in heaven with the higher principalities, operating on earth through these powers. 

Now Paul says this is your battle as a believer, so never, never lose sight of the fact that the church is the church militant, not the church triumphant, the church militant, as the old-fashioned theologians used to say.  This is what they meant.  Ephesians 6:13, “Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”  Now let’s take that apart a minute.  The armor is there for a purpose, “that you may be able to withstand,” or resist.  The word there is actually the word for rebel, and here is where you have the concept of the Christian as the greatest rebel in civilization.  Can you see why?  I was talking to a lot of young people at the conference and I tried to get over the point that basically the young person, or the older person, whoever he may be, if he’s a Christian following the loyalty to the Word of God is the most profound rebel in society, because he rebels not just at the superficial and the trivial, the trivial is the base of social issues; he rebels at the most profound levels that a man can ever get to, the basic questions of life.  The rebellion of the Christian starts at the very foundations and topples the house above.  This is why the Christian is probably most the dangerous person in any group, if he’s operating consistently in the Word of God.  In a sense he is a dangerous person because he insists on overthrowing and toppling the entire structure from the bottom up. 

 

This is the doctrine of the Christian rebel, “be able to rebel in the evil day,” what is the evil day?  It means the time when the principalities and powers bring into your life human viewpoint and pressure, getting you to absorb the presuppositions of your culture, the idea of naturalism that flow to you out of the TV, out of the novels, out of the general culture surrounding, “the evil day, that you may rebel against it, and having done all, to hold your ground,” literally.  “having done all” is explained in verses 14-16.  In other words, “having done all” participle, infinitive, “that you may hold your ground.”  Now holding your ground as a Christian against satanic attack is analogous to what the Israelites are doing in the Old Testament, holding their ground against these Canaanite intrusions into the land of Canaan.  Remember it was the Jew’s land; it had been given to them.  Sisera had taken over the valley of Esdraelon after Joshua had liberated it, and so Christ has liberated us but even after we have become believers Satan can dislodge part of the redemption that Christ gives you at the point of new birth.  I don’t say you can lose your salvation, but Satan can really mess you up, loading your brain with human viewpoint, giving pressure points in your life at just the critical moment to make those ideas sink deeper and deeper into your heart. 

 

And so how do you stand against this, Ephesians 6:14-16 are the weapons; first the defensive weapons, “Stand, therefore,” Paul says, now all of what he lists from the word “having” forward are the weapons, “having your loins gird about with truth,” now all of these weapons that are listed here are listed from the subjective standpoint.  In the Greek you have two ways of looking at words.  Truth can be subjective or objective; objective truth was Jesus Christ died on the cross, that’s an objective truth because it’s independent of you.  Jesus Christ died on the cross whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not He still did; it’s objective.  But, if I use the word “truth” in a subjective sense what do I mean?  I mean that the word “truth” is actually the word steadfast and immovable, and it means…staying subjectively in the truth means that you become like a rock, you cannot be moved.  It means you as an individual appropriating the Word of God in your life, you become a rock that can’t be moved.  That’s the use of the word “truth,” it’s not referring to the objective truth, it presupposes that.  This is subjective truth, the objective truth appropriated in your life and so he says this is the first tool, so that you become a rock, the truth gives you that absolute [can’t understand word] and nothing can dislodge it. 

What’s the second one, “having the breastplate of righteousness?”  Again this is subjective righteousness; this is not the object of righteousness that Christ credits to your account.  This is the subjective righteousness that you gain through the filling of the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit’s work in your life, the growth in conformity with the known will of God. 

 

Ephesians 6:15, “And having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace,” this is an idiom expression and it means aggressiveness because they’re convinced of the imminent victory.  “The preparation of the gospel of peace” means the anticipation of the victory.  So you therefore begin to move, already anticipating victory.  [16] “And above all, taking the shield of faith,” and that’s trust in God’s promises, “wherein you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one,” that’s Satan; the fiery darts are the attack of Satan upon you personally as a believer.

 

Now notice verses 14-16 gives you the defensive weapons.  We want to conclude with verses 17-18, these are the offensive weapons.  “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  [18] Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”  The verb, “take the helmet” is parallel to the verb of verse 14, “stand.”  One verb, verse 14, “stand,” that’s the defense, now verse 17, “take the helmet,” this begins the offense.  What is the helmet?  The helmet of salvation—what does the helmet protect?  Think of the body—the mind.  “And the helmet of deliverance,” actually, is the helmet of a delivered mind.  A helmet of a mind and a mentality and a way of thinking, remember the theme of this is subjective, the fact that your pattern of thought has been redeemed from the tyranny of human viewpoint, you no longer, like the person next door and down the street are a victim of the presuppositions that control all thought of society, your mind is free because you no longer bow the knee to naturalism and all these great things.

 

The helmet of salvation is a way of thinking and it is caused by the grace of God and that’s where we begin the offense as believers; believers who have the helmet of salvation will be believers who operate in the area of the arts, the music, philosophy, science and all these areas, moving divine viewpoint into these fields because they have the helmet of deliverance; their mentality has been freed from the domination of darkness. 

 

The second thing, the second weapon is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  Why is the sword of the Spirit said to be this?  You trace the word “sword of the Spirit” down in the concordance you see the word of God is called the sword of the Spirit because who inspired the Scripture?  Who spoke it first?  Wasn’t it the Holy Spirit operating in men who spoke out this word, therefore this becomes the sword of the Spirit, and so you must know the Word of God and use it.  This doesn’t mean just quote Bible verses, this means to bring the truths of the Word into every area of your life. 

 

Now verse 18 gives you two participles that give you the concurrent action.  While you’re on the offense, while you’re taking the helmet of salvation, while you’re taking the sword of the Spirit, these two actions are crucial.  “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”  What is the primary weapon, then, of the Christian?  The primary supernatural weapon given in God’s Word is prayer.  That is the primary tool, and to prove it, notice the next verse, application of what he’s just taught. 

Ephesians 6:19, “And for me, that utterance may be given unto me.”  Paul says while you’re praying, don’t forget me, and notice what the prayer request is for, Paul, the great apostle prays and asks other, you might say new believers, maybe there are new believers in Ephesus, they’ve just been won to Christ yesterday and they begin to read through here and they say what, the great Apostle Paul needs my prayers so that he can be successful in his ministry.  Yes, that’s what this is saying because all believers operate spiritually as a team.  And if one part is not praying for the other part they are not operating efficiently. 

 

“And for me,” he says, while you’re praying, pray “that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,” this is the weapons the believer has.  Read through that passage about 20 times and think about these weapons and how they operate in your life and where they are being manifested, and perhaps where they are not being manifested.