Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Deborah was the fifth judge of Israel, a prophetess and the only female judge. Deborah's home was in the hill country of Ephraim between Bethel and Ramah.  She also answered the call to become a female military leader, an unlikely commander of military forces.  This was a radical departure from standard biblical themes which rarely place women in roles as warriors and generals.

Deborah summoned Barak and told him it was God's will that he lead her forces against the mighty warrior, Sisera. Sisera was the commander of the army of Jabin, king of Canaan, who had terrorized Israel for 20 years. Barak accepted on one condition: Deborah must accompany him. Deborah and Barak's army consisted of only 10,000, while Sisera had a multitude of fighters and 900 chariots of iron.

When the battle ended, not a single man of Sisera's army survived, except Sisera himself, who fled on foot. When Sisera took refuge in the tent of Heber the Kenite, Jael (the wife of Heber) drove a tent peg through his temple killing him. Ouch!

Then the land had peace for forty years. Is that because of the obedience of Deborah leading the people into obedience?
A great responsibility our leaders have, isn't it?

We took a real journey on this verse.
Jdg 5:20
They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

We wondered if these "stars" were referring to angles involved in spiritual warfare. So we started looking at the Hebrew words referring to stars and courses. We found this comment from John Wesley on Jdg 5:20.
"From heaven - Or, they from heaven, or the heavenly host fought, by thunder, and lightning, and hail - stones, possibly mingled with fire. The stars - Raising these storms by their influences, which they do naturally. Courses - Or, from their paths, or stations. As soldiers fight in their ranks and places assigned them, so did these."

What Wesley is saying is that he believes this verse refers to angels involved in a spiritual battle in the heavenly realms. It seems as if these "stars" being referred to have certain "stations" or rank. We know there is a hierarchy in heaven, so this comment from Wesley really makes sense.
Fascinating thought, huh?

Makes us think about the Frank Peretti book, This Present Darkness. Here is a link to the book. We highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/This-Present-Darkness-Frank-Peretti/dp/1581345283/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299975013&sr=1-1

No comments:

Post a Comment