And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-Naphtali, and said to him, Hath not Jehovah the God of Israel commanded? Go and draw towards mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun,
Jabin held the north of Israel, and Sisera's chariots made the odds look hopeless. The leader God used was a woman, and her message to Barak was not advice but a reminder: the order had already been given, down to the mountain, the tribes, and the number of men.
Deborah does not offer a plan. She asks a question Barak can only answer one way, and everything rests on who gave the order.
Deborah, true to her name, meets Barak with the Word: "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you?" How reassuring this is! It ties the battle to the strength of Almighty God. What are "10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun" compared with the huge armies and chariots of Sisera? Ah, if the LORD, the God of Israel, has commanded, the battle is already won.
Barak is not being asked to weigh a plan. He is handed orders, with the result already stated.
There is not a single sign of doubt, uncertainty, or hesitation in this message from Deborah. It is as clear and distinct as it can possibly be. She said, "The LORD has commanded you, Barak, to go with those two tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali. He has even named the exact number to call out of those tribes. You are to go and fight, and the battle is won. The LORD will deliver him into your hand."
Deborah sends; Barak goes. The verse also names his home town, Kedesh, and that name carries its own weight.
It is feeble Deborah who sends and calls for Barak. If the word is to be effective, it must find an instrument, and it is not Deborah but Barak who is to go to war. He comes from Kedesh — one of the cities of refuge, and its name points to where true shelter is found. It means "the sanctuary of the wrestler" — Kedesh-Naphtali — and no wrestler comes out to victory unless his home is in the sanctuary.
A woman was giving the orders. That fact says something about the men of Israel, and her name says something too.
No man in Israel was able to take the place of judge among them, so a woman, Deborah, had taken this responsibility. This was not a normal state of affairs. But if men fail in their responsibility, God does not fail, and He will use a woman to do what He intends. Deborah's name means "the word," reminding us that it is by the word of God that our true deliverance comes.
The meeting place and the two tribes are not chosen at random. The men called up come from the very ground Jabin controlled.
Barak, with Deborah beside him, leads his little army of men from Zebulun and Naphtali to Mount Tabor. This was the territory Jabin mostly controlled. Zebulun suggests the abiding communion, and Naphtali the spirit of true conflict. They are, therefore, fittingly united. The mountain suggests the lifting up of soul that comes from communion. It lets a man look over the whole conflict widely and calmly. The "mount of purpose" is a fitting place to start such a conflict from, for God cannot use someone who wavers.
An order from God brings something with it. Barak did not count on it.
In this light, Barak's unbelief comes out clearly. If the command of God has been given, it is a pledge of His presence. What need then of the feeble instrument through whom that command had been given?
The way this victory came left no man able to claim it.
Clearly, from every side, the victory was entirely to the praise of God. As for the shape it took, man — Israel, the general and all — should have received it as a humiliation.
- Commanded — Deborah's question points back to an order already given. The authority is not hers but God's, and that settles the result before anyone draws a sword.
- Clear — the message names the place, the tribes, the number, and the result. Not one word of it hesitates.
- Called — the word must find an instrument. Deborah sends, Barak goes, and he comes from Kedesh, a city of refuge — no fighter wins unless he lives in the sanctuary.
- Coupled — Zebulun and Naphtali meet at Tabor, communion feeding conflict. The mountain is no place for a man who wavers.
- Credited — a command from God is a pledge of His presence. So the small force and the weak instruments leave all the praise with Him.
and I will draw unto thee, to the torrent Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, and his chariots and his multitude, and I will give him into thy hand.
Deborah brings Barak a message from God, and it is more than an order. God names the enemy, the place, the chariots and the ending, all before a single Israelite moves. That raises a question: if God has already settled the outcome, what remains for the man He calls?
God sends Barak against a force far larger than his own. One writer notes that the numbers stop mattering once you know who gave the order.
Deborah, true to her name, meets Barak with the Word: "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded?" How reassuring this is! How it links with the strength of Almighty God. What are "ten thousand from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun" compared with Sisera's mighty armies and chariots? Ah, if the LORD God of Israel has commanded, the battle is already won.
In the next verse Barak asks for a companion before he will go. One writer weighs that request against the command.
In this light, Barak's unbelief comes out clearly. If God has given the command, it is a pledge of His presence. What need then of the feeble instrument through whom He gave that command?
God says He will draw Sisera out. Sisera will think he picked the battlefield himself, and the name of that place hints at what waits for him.
The scene of the conflict is at the river Kishon, where, at a later day, Elijah killed the false prophets (1 Kings 18:40). Its name comes from a root meaning to bend, and translators have usually given it as "winding." Other words from the same root are closely connected with it: "a bow" and "to lay a snare." So the name suggests a weapon of war, and the ambush that the trickster himself falls into. Kishon seems to be the place of his own choice for the battle. He falls into the pit he had dug for others. Yet God had foreseen and provided for all of it.
The river itself had a part in the victory. One writer links that back to this promise.
The river Kishon also has a part in this victory (Judges 5:21). God had said He would influence Sisera to come to Kishon (ch. 4:7). It may be that the torrent itself swept many of his army away, perhaps because Israel's army had trapped them.
Why would a man with that promise want company? One writer looks for the motive underneath.
What was Barak's motive at bottom? He was willing to depend on God, but not without a human and tangible prop as well. There are many such souls in Christendom. On their part there is so little sense of the presence of God, so slight a knowledge of His will, so little decision about the way they live. So, to go on in the path of God, they prefer leaning on another person to depending on Him alone.
God kept His word to give Sisera into Barak's hand — but not in the way Barak would have chosen. Every instrument He used was small and weak.
Again the people fell under the power of their enemies, and Jabin, king of Hazor, enslaved them. Scripture describes his oppression as "mighty."... God used an instrument, especially in the case of Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army: "a nail of the tent" — just an iron spike for holding the ropes. A woman directed Barak. With his ten thousand men he faced Jabin's mighty army and utterly defeated it, though nine hundred chariots of iron strengthened it. To crown the defeat, the great Sisera, the hero of so many victories, fell before a woman and a tent pin! Barak had heard beforehand that the venture he took up so unwillingly and fearfully would not be for his honour; and so it turned out. The very weakness and smallness of the means used made it clear that all the honour and glory was God's.
One writer reads Sisera as a picture of a greater enemy. His name says what that enemy does.
Sisera was the great leader, and his name means "he that binds with chains," and we are well aware that the great captive-maker is Satan himself. In the end something very weak destroyed him — a woman and a tent peg crushed his head and killed him, and Jesus, the woman's Seed, has crushed the serpent's head.
- Command. God's order carries His presence with it; once He has spoken, the battle is already decided.
- Draw. God moves the enemy as well as His own people — Sisera marches to Kishon thinking he picked the ground.
- Snare. Kishon's name suggests a bow and a trap; the schemer falls into the pit he dug, and God had foreseen all of it.
- Prop. Barak believed God, but he still wanted something he could see to lean on. One writer finds the same habit today.
- Glory. God kept His promise through a woman, a tent peg and a river, so no one could mistake whose victory it was.