Ps. 83: Enemies of God

Psalm 83:17 "May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace."

Asaph isn't some seer, he knows that there are people plotting against Israel. When you plot against Israel, he says, you plot against the LORD himself. Which has proven itself never to be all that great of an idea. Their goals, wipe Israel off the map, and remove them from the memory of history. We've heard this recently, actually.

But Asaph is eager to see God's power of deliverance. He remembers. He was taught about Judges 4, when Deborah defeated Sisera. He recounts Judges 7, when Gideon crushed the Midianites who plotted against Israel.

Asaph knows God is forever, and those who seek to stand against him are temporary, like tumbleweed in the wind, or a forest consumed by fire.

Which side will you be on?

Jg. 5: Deborah's Song

Judges 5:31 "'So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.' Then the land had peace forty years."

With victory is singing. This is another example. Moses had a couple. Israel had a couple. Music is important to worshiping God. Music is a way to express appreciation to God. It would be easy to read this as a song, just an artistic rendering of what God has done, and how man appreciates him. But I think there are many insights about the nature of man and the nature of creation in Deborah's song.

First of all, Deborah describes how the earth trembles, the clouds pour down water, and the mountains quake in God's mere presence. Next, and more wondrous and mystifying is the section in verse 20:

From the heavens the stars fought,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.

Is this some sort of endorsement of astrology? Hardly. The stars are a part of creation. My presumption here is that even then, travelers (including Sisera) navigated using the stars. Could God have nudged the stars around to confuse Sisera? The river is credited as sweeping enemies away. Each corner of the earth, and each section of creation seems to take part in this advancing of Israel. This will of God. Creation has consistently obeyed.

There is reward and blessing for those who take part in the battle...curses (or at the very least denigration) for those who do not.

There is a retelling of Sisera's slaying by Jael. The song makes it appear as though Sisera struggled or was conscious when he died, but the point is, he died. And Jael was the killer.

The song takes a particularly dark turn in verse 28, when it portray's Sisera's mother as watching and waiting for her son...the commander to return, and he never does, nor would she stop waiting, and she and her ladies perpetuate the false hope that he is busy dividing plunder.

I love the challenge at the end..."May those who love you be like the sun, when it rises in its strength." Would creation be something to model one's character after?

Then at the end, it doesn't say "peace happily ever after," it says "peace for forty years." The cycle. 40 years appears to be some sort of a cycle...a stage...

Jg. 4: Debbie Does Harosheth Haggoyim

Judges 4:21 "But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died."

After Ehud, the next leader is Deborah. A woman. Was God anti-chick? I guess not.

Anyway, she sends for this guy Barak from Naphtali, and told him to go and take 10,000 men from Naphtali and Zebulun and go to Mount Tabor. Deborah, meanwhile, will lure the army of Jabin, Israel's current oppressor to the river, because God has delivered them into Israel's hands.

Barak, who I have no idea who he is, as this is my first introduction to him, does not appear to be the fittest military commander. He says he will not go if Deborah doesn't go with him. I assume he is some tribal leader, since you probably had to be somebody to be picked by the judge. But why wouldn't he go by himself? Was he afraid of his own shortcomings? Did he recognize the power of God with Deborah, as she was chosen? Did he have just a little crush? What about the plan that Deborah would lure Sisera's army to the place where Barak could slaughter them? At any rate, Deborah's like, "Fine, I'll go with you." Which had to be emasculating for Barak...he couldn't do it without a woman helping him, especially in those phallocentric times.

Deborah knew it was bad for him, so she told Barak that he would share none of the honor, since he couldn't do it without a woman by his side.

Then we have an interjection here about Heber, a Kenite, leaving his people and moving to Kedesh, a Naphtalite town in Galilee (Jos. 20:7). What's this guy's deal? What's he going to do? We'll have to read on, I guess.

So Sisera finds out about Barak moving his troops to Tabor, and he readies for battle and goes to meet Barak. And Deborah. Deborah takes charge, and tells Barak to get his rear in gear and kick some hiney. And the LORD routed Sisera, and all his men died. Except Sisera, who fled on foot to Heber's tent. They were friendly, Jabin the king (Sisera was Jabin's military commander) and Heber, so Sisera figured he was safe there. The thirsty Sisera asks for a drink of water, as he was thirsty, but Jael (Heber's wife) gives him milk instead. I'm no doctor, but does milk make one sleepy? And did Jael know that? Anyway, dude falls asleep and Jael nails Sisera's head to the earth with a tent peg. Did she realize that Jabin and Israel had beef? Because (seemingly coincidentally) Barak happens by, and she knows exactly who he's looking for.

I don't know how messages traveled back then, but they didn't have IM, so I see God's hand in this. Interesting portion of scripture. Milk, meant to sustain life, lead to death. Where water could have been saving.