The Faithfulness of Deborah

Today's episode will explore the attributes of a fierce and faithful woman, Deborah. Deborah's faithfulness to God help to save her and her people. What is faith and how do we use it to impact our lives and others? Let's find out.

💖Highlights💖

-  Why is it important to be faithful?

-  What does it mean to be faithful?

- How to keep your faith in a hopeless situation?

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Transcript

The Faithfulness of Deborah

Betty 00:01

Hello Queens. Welcome to SheSpeaks Love women of the Bible series. We're so excited to share these incredible women of the Bible and highlight their personal story and their legacy. These podcasts will encourage, inspire and share wisdom from God's word, as it relates to women in our unique circumstances.

Let's get into their phenomenal story and the power of their voice today's woman of the Bible is Deborah presented by Queen Pastor Vernadine

Vernadine 00:45

My lady I'm speaking of today is Deborah from the book of Judges, chapters four and five.  I'm gonna just share who Deborah is in the Bible. Deborah, first and foremost,  she was a worshiper of the Most High God.

And because of her worship, her lifestyle of worship, God put her in charge of the lights in the temple. And because she was faithful with that, he moved her on to be a judge and a prophet of all of Israel. She was not only a judge for women. She was the judge for the men. She was the judge of the Torah of the laws of God.  And so I'm gonna tell a little bit about her story why she has a whole chapter. Judges four tells her story. Judges five is a song that she wrote and she sung in the Bible. You see King David and different prophets, Miriam, and Moses after victories, they always sung a song.

You know evidently God likes that. And I just encourage us when, when God answers your prayer, don't just say thank you Jesus, but make up a song. God loves worship. And He inhabits the praises of his people. So Judges four starts off by talking about the children of Israel, that their former judge, the third judge, his name was Ehud.

Ehud was a good judge. And when Ehud was alive, the people obeyed God. But as always,  I'm sure you've noticed a cycle in the Bible. God's people did good and they obeyed God, and he blessed them. For what reason, I don't know, their hearts fell away from God and they began to worship other fake gods.

They began to become idolaters so God would sell them into the hands of their enemies. And He'd turn His back on them and then they'd suffer in bondage and slavery for many, many years.  Then someone would get a good idea and maybe we should stop doing this. Then they would repent, and then God would have mercy and then He'd come and deliver them.

And He would always send a deliverer. He would send a deliverer. That's what God does. When he asks for his prayer, he uses people. He sends people. So in judges at this time, the people of Israel were doing wicked. They were idolaters and for 20 years, 20 years, God had sold the children of Israel. The apple of his eye.

He sold them into bondage under some Canaanites and the king of the Canaanites. His name was Jabin. He had a fierce commander of his army whose name was Sisera.  Sisera was,  somebody everybody was afraid of and he was a murderer. So he would torment the children of Israel, he would plunder their stuff.

Where, where the Israelites lived at that time, that area was a thoroughfare for like it was a village where they were marketplace. They were close to the sea and they would meet with other merchants and they'd buy things and sell things. But because of the tyranny of Jabin. And Sisera all of that ended.

So Israel was having, having a hard time to eat and to have business. They were just being tormented by Sisera. So they began to pray and ask for help. And God raised up a woman. A wise woman. She was already a prophetess already, a worshiper already a judge. And he spoke to her prophetically and he said, God said to Deborah, I'm gonna deliver these people.

And so God told Deborah, to get the commander of the Israeli army. His name was Barack. Like Barack Obama, his name was Barack and his name actually means thunder or lightning. And she, she called Barack and, and she prophesied to Barack and Deborah said, God is going to deliver us through your hands. So gather up the men and go fight Sisera and that scared 
Barack.  He's the commander of the army, but he was afraid to fight Sisera's army because for one thing, Israel didn't have any weapons. First of all, second of all, Sisera had over 900 iron chariots of war. They were like little tanks. They were like little army tanks. They were chariots, but they had these steel walls all around them with swords coming out of the chariot wheels to cut the legs off of the opposing army.

So I can understand why he was afraid. However, God was going to deliver His people one way or another. And take note, you know, I've heard this saying and I'm sure I've said it before, "what God has for me, it is for me." However, if you don't walk in it, don't think God won't continue his plan. He will raise up somebody else.

And that's exactly what he did when Barack was afraid to go and fight Sisera, even though the word of the Lord said that God was going to deliver them into the hand of Israel, he had the, backing of the Most High God, but that still wasn't good enough. That's a lesson right there, sisters. That's a lesson right there.

When we have the backing of the Lord and we are still fearful of people, that's a problem. So this is what God said to Barack. He said, okay, I'm gonna deliver Sisera into the hands of the Israelites, but you're not gonna get the glory. The glory is gonna go to a woman. It was intended for Barack to have a trophy.

But the trophy went to a woman because the woman wasn't afraid. So what happens? They called 10,000 of the warriors in Israel. They head on up, and Barack says, okay, you know, I'm not gonna go Deborah unless you go with me. So Deborah wasn't afraid cuz she was a worshiper and a warrior.

She said I'll go. And so she gets on her horse and she follows them out to war. So she's standing there with Barack and all of a sudden, as the fighting is going on, because sister comes out and they're fighting. Now, it doesn't say this. And Judge four. What I'm about to tell you, but if you read over in judges five, the song of Deborah explains in detail exactly what happened during the battle.

So when they came out to meet, they met, they met down by a river called Keshawn. And when they got down there, Deborah write, says the stars began to fight for Israel. The host of heaven began to fight for Israel because Israel didn't have any physical weapons. However, when you have the backing of God, he'll cause the elements he'll take whatever he needs to take to bring you victory when he says I'm for you. So the stars begin to fight the Bible says in judges five, that the clouds drop rain so heavily it overflowed the Keyshawn river. The chariots from Sisera's army got stuck in the mud and the water from the overflow washed them away. And the men that were running, it says that the Israelites killed every last one of them, except Sisera the commander of the army.

He ran on foot and to someone's house at the time they were tents and he went to the tent. He knew the man who lived at the tent. The man that lived in the tent had an Alliance or an allegiance with the king, so they were friends. So he thought Sisera thought, oh,  I'll find shelter here, this is my friend. But little did Sisera know that his friend wasn't there, but his wife was there and her name was Jael. 

Now, this is the woman we're talking about. That gets the trophy. Jael was there though. She was married to a man that was in allegiance with Sisera. Her heart was for God. Her heart was for the Israelites, but Sisera didn't know.

So he went into her camp and he asked for some water because he was tired because of the fierce battle. Very quietly and sweetly she said, no, my Lord I'll give you milk. You know, I read that milk in them days, the way they had it, it would make people sleepy. So kind of like warm milk, you know, when you give your kids warm milk, it helps them calm down and relax.

So this is what she did. She gave Sisera some warm milk. And he ate it and she covered him with a thick, heavy blanket. And he laid down to rest because he trusted that he was in the house of a friend. So as he laid down to sleep when he was going to sleep, he said listen Jael, if anybody comes here looking for a man, tell him there's no man here don't tell them I'm here.

So she said okay. Just go to sleep, you know, you remember that? You tell your man,  you know, you did me wrong all day, so just go to sleep like a threat. And so she says, okay, go to sleep. So he falls into a deep sleep. Now Jael, the Bible says that she took a tent pin and if you've ever seen those old tents, they had great big thick nails. You know, really long and thick.

And she, in those days, the women were the ones who built the house. So she was the one who take the mallet and beat that pen into the ground to set up her house. And I'm sure she did that many years. I'm sure she beat that and I'm sure she was strong. She was very fit. Those women back then worked really hard.

They had to go gather water. They had to cut down fruit. They worked hard. They had to grind meal. They didn't have flour and corn at the grocery store. They had to make everything and they were very strong. So she went and got a tent pin and a mallet. And while he was asleep, she put that pin to his temple. The Bible says in Judges four that with her left hand she held the pin and with her right it says she raised the mallet higher than her head. So she went way back with it and she came down with all of her might because she had one chance to get it right. That if she'd have messed up and he woke up that would've been it.

She had one chance to get it right. That's something right there if we pay attention, she had one chance to kill the enemy. So she took that mallet, she raised it back and she came down with everything that she had and she hit that pen and the Bible says it went through both of his temples and went into the ground and he was dead.

So then she gets up and here comes Barack looking for Sisera. So she says, you know, my Lord come in my tent, let me show you where he. Barack saw that he was dead. The Bible  said there was a great victory. So Jael was the one that God used. He wanted to use Barack, but he used a woman, Jael.

And, you know, we can take many things from that story. Number one, the Bible says that she sat under a Palm tree and she judged all of Israel. She did it out in the open square. She didn't do it in a building somewhere in the tent. She did it out in the open and because of that, people would just come from all over and listen to her wisdom.

Even if they didn't have a case for her to settle, they just wanted to hear her wisdom. She was so blessed of the Lord. And so the Bible says that she settled the dispute. Now, this is, I don't know if you all remember this, but this is a theme all  of the wise women settles disputes and that's a key factor in being a wise woman, a wise woman settles disputes.

She doesn't stay in them. She doesn't stay in on running her mouth. She settles disputes. That's what Deborah did. And the Bible also says that she prophesied and also that she worked in the temple and she was in charge of lighting the temple.  She was known for having thick wicks. When I studied that, that really amazed me.

She was known for having thick wicks, you know, a wick is that twisted piece of material or yarn or whatever you are using that you light that the oil goes up into the wick and then they light it. And the fact that her wicks were thick meant that her lights burned longer and brighter. They burned longer and brighter so that when people came into the house of God, they can see for a long time.

And so because of that, the bible says that God took notice of that. God took notice that she cared for the house of God. She took care of the house of God. She had one job in the house of God and she went overabundant and was faithful in it.

She made sure she had the best lights, the brightest, and the longest light. And because of her faithfulness to that one job, God made her a judge over all of Israel and a prophet. So now, what do we take away from there? I'm just thinking of just right now by the holy spirit, all kind of takeaways from this from Deborah's life. You know one thing is that because of these, these bright lights, it, it reminded me of Proverbs 20:27 talks about the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, the spirit of man or woman, right. Is the lamp of the Lord. 

And, how much do we take care of making sure that this lamp is burning bright and Long? We're not being weary. We're not allowing our fire to die down. You know, when people come in our presence, do they see the light of the Lord in us? Do they see that love? That patience, that wisdom, that thoughtfulness? Do they? Are they receiving an impartation of the light of God from us? Because that's what's very important to Deborah.

 For 20 years, the Bible says that Israel was in bondage and they tried to deliver themselves.  I believe this is the word of the Lord for us. Stop trying to deliver yourself. We need the grace of God. Stop trying to fix this, fix them, stop trying to do this, and do that without praying.

You know, sometimes I hear people say, well, we've done everything. The doctors have done everything. Then, you know, the bank has done everything. All we can do now is pray. Like that's a you know, the last resort. No, my sisters, that's the first resort. It's not all we can do. It's the most powerful thing that a child of God can do is pray and as God deliver us, fight for us, move mountains for us, equip us, pull up that what God has already given us sisters and just like Deborah, go out to battle. Stand on the Word of God, the Word of the Lord. You have the word of the Lord. You've had people or ministers prophesy to you, don't let those prophecies die.

Why be watched for over him, whatever you do in the house of God. I don't know if, if you're a minister, if you're an usher, if you are in the childcare, I don't know what you do in the house of God, but be faithful. If you're in the worship ministry, you be faithful. Do whatever you're doing  be faithful to the house of God. Be faithful in your giving. Don't let the enemy tell you, you don't need to give this time. The devil is a liar because I reap what I sow. And if I'm not sowing anything, I'm not gonna reap anything. So be faithful in your giving, be faithful in your prayer. Be faithful in the areas that you serve in so that God would have something to work with.

Be quick to settle disputes like Deborah be quick. Don't be quick. If something is not working with you or getting on your nerve, settle that thing really quick. Don't let it get up in the stronghold. I said that last time, settle disputes very quickly. So we are gonna take away Deborah being wise and settling disputes and being faithful in the house of God.

And when we do these things and she was very courageous, but she was courageous because she really believed in her God, sometimes, you know, the only thing that stops us from being courageous is fear, but we, we should not fear what God says because he has never. He has never broken a promise. He's never broken a promise to me that's why I fell in love with him.

I don't you know we all fall in love with God for different reasons, but , I remember this 30 years ago as if it is today, I had so many broken promises in my. I remember my mom died of cancer at 38 and, and the two years she was sick she promised me she was gonna make it through. And, and, and I should not have held onto that, but I was a kid. I was like 16 at the time and she promised me she wouldn't die, but she died. And I felt like she broke a promise. 
I remember my first marriage we fought like cats and dogs. He used to try to kill me every chance he got. And then after we'd have a fight, he promised he'd never hit me again. Well, he'd break that promise every week.

And I just remember promises that were, I just felt like I was constantly broken promises. And when I came to Jesus, When he said he, he would never leave me nor forsake me,  And he would never break his promises to me for 30 years. He ain't broke one 30 years. He has never broken a promise to me. And I'm not going anywhere.

I've found what I've been looking for my whole life. I'm telling you tonight you can trust him. He will keep every promise he gave you. It may look like it's been tarring, but hold on to the promise of God and be faithful in the house of God. Be faithful to your families. Be faithful, period. Be a faithful person.

That's what Deborah was. And that's all I'm gonna leave you guys with and I hope something encouraged you. Amen.

Betty 23:21

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