Morning Light – March 20th, 2015: A Woman of a Fiery Temperament (Video)

Today: [Judges Chapter Four]: Deborah: A Woman of a Fiery Temperament. In this chapter God raises up the Prophet Deborah to deliver Israel with the assistance of Barak and another woman by the name of Jael. God is no respecter of person. Deborah is a forerunner of all powerful women of God who are not willing to accept the status quo in Christian culture. Jael was a wife who boldly acted in the privacy of her own home and brought deliverance to the entire nation of Israel. Are you this woman? Let’s study these powerful ladies in this chapter and let them be our example.

Today: [Judges Chapter Four]: Deborah: A Woman of a Fiery Temperment. In this chapter God raises up the Prophet Deborah to deliver Israel with the assistance of Barak and another woman by the name of Jael. God is no respecter of person. Deborah is a forerunner of all powerful women of God who are not willing to accept the status quo in Christian culture. Jael was a wife who boldly acted in the privacy of her own home and brought deliverance to the entire nation of Israel. Are you this woman? Let’s study these powerful ladies in this chapter and let them be our example.
[Jdg 4:1-24 KJV] 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; the captain of whose host [was] Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. 3 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.
In every generation at this time in Israel when a deliverer died the people returned to their pagan temptations. The people of Israel failed to establish a generational testimony of faithfulness to God. This is true in our day as well. We seldom build on the testimony of the men and women of God who have gone before us. Jesus warned of this problem in the gospel of John:
[Jhn 15:6 KJV] 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are burned.
We don’t want to find our security or identity in men – even godly men. In order to abide in the vine who is Christ we have to look to the kingdom of God on the inside of us and not any outward dependency.
The people did evil again and were brought into captivity to a king named Jabin who ruled in Hazor. Jabin’s name means “observer”. Jesus said in Luke 17:20,21 that the kingdom of God doesn’t come with observation. God’s people many times are captive to passivity – waiting on God to do something that requires THEIR action and THEIR obedience to bring about. To break this captivity God sent a unique woman by the name of Deborah.
4 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. 6 And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, [saying], Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? 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. 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. 9 And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.
There is an alternative rendering of verse 4 that reads “Deborah, a prophetess, a woman of a fiery temperament…” Deborah judged Israel under a palm tree. Palm trees are always connected with the prophets. Deborah’s name means “a bee” which denotes the prophetic word as honey which bees produce. Deborah dwelled between Ramah and Bethel. Ramah means “high place” and Bethel means “house of God”. As a woman there are many demands upon your attention and your focus but where is your dwelling place? Deborah disciplined herself to maintain the purity of her focus on the high places with God and put God’s house before her own. Because of her courage a man named Barak was raised up to assist her. She was Barak’s rock and without her he refused to go to battle. You may have a Barak in your life. Go out and be a “woman of a fiery temperament” to the Barak in your life. It may not seem appropriate and you will certainly get criticized and told to keep your place but unless Deborah obeyed the people would not be delivered. Ask yourself what deliverance is being denied the people in my life because I choose not to be who God called me to be?
10 And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him. 11 Now Heber the Kenite, [which was] 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 [is] by Kedesh. 12 And they shewed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor. 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. 14 And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this [is] the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: 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. 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. 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. 18 And 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. 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. 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. 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. 22 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 [tent], behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail [was] in his temples. 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 prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
Deborah, Barak and Jael were instrumental in defeating Jabin. Remember Jabin’s name means “observer”. He represents the passivity in life that produces stagnation and robs you of God’s blessing. Jabin’s general Sisera fled from Barak and took refuge in Jael’s tent. How many times do you see a man hide behind a woman. God wants a man to stand up and take charge and face the challenges of life and what often happens? The man hands the problem, the phone, the situation to the woman and says YOU handle it and goes off to take a nap… Jael was having NONE OF IT. Jael’s name means “wild goat”. There are women in the body of Christ that have a Sisera on their hands dozing in the recliner with the remote control in one hand and a beer in the other. You need to do what Jael did. Jael was anything if not unpredictable. She took the tent peg and drove it through Sisera’s temples. Temples are where idols are worshipped. The bible tells a wife to submit to her husband IN THE LORD … if the husband saved or not isn’t living his life out in the Lordship of Christ he isn’t worthy to be obeyed. What is the answer? If the husband won’t destroy his idols then do like Jael and take the tent stake of God’s word and drive it through for the sake of victory. This surely isn’t what you have been taught but if you want something different than what you’ve been experiencing you have to be willing to be the woman of a fiery temperament, the Jael with a wild goat heart for God to see change come!