Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Can God Use Someone Like Me? | Historical Books | Judges 4:1-10

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Is your faith overly dependent on leaders? How has sin made you miserable? Who does God use to accomplish his purposes? In today's episode, Keith shares how Judges 4:1-10 reminds us that God uses ordinary people like us to do extraordinary things. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Judges 4:1-10

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. You probably know by now that we are going through the history of books of the Old Testament this year on TMBT, and right now we're in the book of Judges. I love this book. It's full of interesting stories, and there's so much to learn about the human condition and my own heart. Judges is also one of the darker books of the Bible, meaning that it shows what happens

when people indulge in sin without restraint. It's not pretty. I know it's difficult for some of us to look at sin and its ugly consequences, but it's necessary to do that to appreciate the great salvation that we have in Jesus. Today we're only covering the first 10 verses of Judges Chapter 4, so let's read through them and see what they have to teach us. The chapter starts with, again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehood was dead.

If you listen to the previous episode by Jeff, you know that Ehood was one of God's judges that he raised up to deliver Israel. Now we learn in the first verse of chapter four that Ehood is dead and again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. That word again is really important. Proverbs 2611 says, as a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Israel is acting foolishly because they keep returning to the sin. that enslaves them, oppresses them, and makes them miserable. The sin they keep returning to is worshipping false idols that the nations around them worshipped. For them, it was bail. They were tempted to worship, but for us, it's the idols of our culture, the idols of sex or money

or pleasure, or consumerism, or family, or sports. Now, remember, that idols are always good things that we make ultimate things. Idolatory happens when we worship the creation instead of the creator. But the fact that the Israelites fall back into sin shows us that there's a certain monotony about sin. Most sin has been done before. It's just us returning to our vomit again and again and again. Sin is a boring routine. It's not fresh. It's not exciting. What starts out as driving the fast lane becomes an old rut. Evil never lends itself to originality. as Iha dies, the people display their true character. Now, this says something about the importance of a good leader, whether the leader is in a family or a business or a church or a non-profit or a school or a

government. A good leader can keep people on the right course, a godly course. But there's something wrong with our faith if we're always dependent on an outside leader, like outside pressures or outside influences in order to live the Christian life. Some people are Christians only because of the surroundings they're in, or because of the expectation of the people around them. They lack a genuine heart for God. Think of the kid who goes to church because his parents make him. That is appropriate for a child, but eventually a person needs to make their faith their own. Otherwise, they will leave home and forget God. Back to our story in verses two and three. So the Lord sold the Israelites into the hand of Jabin King of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, and to Cicera, the commander

of his army. Because Cicera had 900 chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years, they cried to the Lord for help. There is an unmistakable cycle in the book of judges. First, the people send, then God sells them into slavery to a foreign king. Then the people cry out asking for mercy and deliverance, and God raises up a judge to deliver them. For a while, the people follow Yahweh, but then they rebel against him, and the cycle starts all back over. In chapter four, Yahweh sells them into the hand of a foreign king named Jabin, and the commander of his army named Cisera. Cicera is the main antagonist in this story. And we're told that Cicera had 900 chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the

Israelites for 20 long years. Israel didn't possess chariots, and therefore Cicera and the Canaanites had a significant military and technological advantage. Now, chariots weren't used like modern tanks, breaking through enemy lines. Instead, chariots were used for pursuit and slaughter of the fleeing enemy. They were primarily a killing platform. Against a fleeing enemy on an open plane, a chariot was very effective. I think God wants us to see where sin leads us and leaves us. sin promises so much but delivers so little it promises happiness but it leads to misery it promises freedom but it leads to slavery it promises security but it leads to helplessness the israelites suffered for 20 long years sin will take you farther than you want to go it will keep you longer than you want to stay

and it will cost you more than you want to pay so at this point in the story we know that israel needs to be rescued they need both physical and spiritual deliverance The opening section begins with them crying out to God for mercy and help. We pick it up in verse four. Now Deborah was a prophet and a wife and was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel and the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barack and said to him,

The Lord the God of Israel commands you, Go take with you 10,000 men and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Cisra, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and his troop, to the Kishon River, and give him into your hands. So a few basic points are made here. First, Deborah is a prophetess. And by the way, her name just means honeybee. She's a prophetess and a wife, and she's leading and judging Israel at that time. Her dwelling is under a tree called the Palm of Deborah, and she sits there, and Israel goes,

goes up to her for legal judgments. Now, a prophet was primarily a spokesperson for God, a means of communication. As a prophetess or as a female prophet, Deborah stands in a long tradition, including Miriam and Holda. And you might remember Anna? We read about her in Luke chapter 2. She is the prophetess that Mary and Joseph presented baby Jesus to. The fact that we're told that Deborah holds court is a sign that she is respected for her wisdom. This isn't a queen's court she rules over, but instead a legal court, where people went to get all sorts of social, legal, and relational disputes decided. In this way, Deborah is very different from all the other judges before and after her.

She led from wisdom and character rather than sheer power. Where other judges went to war, Deborah counseled and guided the people. So she comes closest to being a godly leader of the people instead of simply a general. She was a judge who led beyond the battlefield. And all this were reminded that God's chosen leader doesn't simply just rescue his people, but he also rules over them. Deborah was in this sense a pointer to King David and even to the greater king, Jesus, the Messiah. The Old Testament says that God's anointed king would be called the wonderful counselor,

Prince of Peace, and he would establish and uphold his kingdom with justice and righteousness. So now in Judges 4, Deborah is the one who is taking the initiative, not Barack. This is just one of the plot twists or unexpected surprises in the story. Deborah is the one who's in the position of authority and initiates with Barack who you would think is going to be the male hero. She told Barack that God had commanded him to go fight against God's enemies. Now, that's not just her opinion, but it's God's will. We read Barack's response starting in verse 8. Barack said to Deborah, If you go with me, I will go. But if you don't go with me, I won't go.

Certainly I will go with you, said Deborah. But because of the course you're taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Ciceroet into the hands of a woman. So Deborah went with Barack. There Barack summoned Zebulin and Neftali, and 10,000 men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him. So the author doesn't tell us exactly why Brock says he will only go to battle if Deborah goes with him.

some see this as cowardice like Barack is afraid. Others suggest that he wanted Deborah to go with him because she is a sign of God's presence. But either way, Barack is resisting God's command to go to battle and is in the process denying that Deborah speaks for God. Now, Deborah's response that she'll go with Barack seems to give him the confidence he needs to rally the troops. But then Deborah says God has told her something else. She tells Barack the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Ciscer's. into the hands of a woman. Now, as we're reading along, we suspect that woman will be Deborah, but you'll see in the next chapter tomorrow, that's not how it turned out. There's another plot

twist coming. While Barack will win an important victory, his insistence that Deborah go with him instantly diminishes his accomplishment and reputation. With the assurance of Deborah's presence, Barack musters the troop. These troops come from two different tribes in Israel, the tribe of Natali and the tribe of Zebulin. They were the tribes that were most affected by the Kenanite oppression. And Barack must have had some clout with them. He must have had a good reputation for 10,000 men to come out and join him for battle. So one more lesson from Deborah, Barack, and then from God. What we learn from Deborah is that God loves to use things that the world considers weak to demonstrate his power and grace. God uses people, the world overlooks, to confound the wise and the mighty. God will bring down the arrogant and abusive Jabin and Cicera in his timing and in his way,

so there's no way to conclude anything other than their defeat was because of God's strength. What we learned from Barack's unwillingness to obey God and go fight Israel's enemy is that sin is serious. We miss out on God's blessings when we're unwilling to believe God's promises. In the case of Barack, he loses the opportunity to be truly used by God. Yes, he does end up winning the battle, and it is a testimony to his faith. That's why Barack is mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. But this is not completely what God wanted to give Barack. See, when we fail to trust God, will we demand assurance even though he's already spoken,

we lose out on the opportunity to be used by God to the fullest extent of his desires. And what we learn from God is that he is always the source of our salvation and victory. Yes, it's true that he often uses other human beings in our life. He uses other things as instruments to bring his help. But he is the one who is the author of our salvation. He's the one that we should always praise and thank for our deliverance. Deborah teaches us this in verse 9 when she tells Barack, it will not turn out for your glory on the road you are going,

for it will be into the hand of a woman that Yahweh will sell Sishra. God will use a woman to give Israel victory, he says. But he says this all up front so that when it happens, there can be no doubt that it was God's doing. See, the normal expectation would be that Barack or some other outstanding warrior would kill Sissera as his prize. But Sissera falls into the hand of a woman, and that shatters all of our human conventions. It breaks all the intuitions of the ancient Near East about the way, things should happen. This is one of those unexpected plot twists, and Yahweh leaves his mark on the occasion and testifies that we don't just have some run-of-the-mill human story about human salvation.

Instead, God is at work. He's doing something special. See, the final takeaway for today is that you are probably very ordinary. Like me, you are very average. You might be overlooked in the world's eyes, but God wants to use you to do remarkable things. Amen.