{In Institute[1]
the past couple weeks, each of us had the assignment of preparing a Bible story
to present to part of the class, as though we were teaching it as a Sunday
school lesson to children. We could pick the story and what age range we were
targeting. I wrote this with 9-12 year olds in mind. As a challenge, our
presentation could only be 10 minutes.}
Today we are going to look at a
story that is an example of God’s faithfulness to His people, and how important
it is to trust God.
Who were God’s special people during the time of the Old
Testament, before Jesus came? That’s right! The Israelites.
Now, our story for today comes from the book of Judges in
the Old Testament. Does anyone know what the book of Judges is about?
God had brought Israel, His special people, into their own
land – performing many miracles to do so. But the people rebelled against God—they
wanted to go their own way rather than obeying God.
Do you ever do things your own way rather than how your
parents tell you to do them? That is exactly what the people of Israel were
doing toward God. So as a consequence, God grounded them: He turned them over
to be oppressed by their enemies.
And that is where today’s story comes in. While I tell the
story, I want you to listen for how God showed His faithfulness and how His
people needed to trust Him, okay?
Israel
had been oppressed by a king named Jabin for 20 years. Can you imagine that?
That is twice as long as some of you have been alive! Now, Jabin had a general
name Sisera, and he is the bad guy you’re going to want to remember for this
story.
The people of Israel were suffering, and in their suffering
they cried out to God for deliverance! Because even though they had gone their
own way rather than obeying God, they remembered what He had done for their
grandparents and great grandparents. And you know what? God heard their
prayers, because He is faithful!
During
this time, there was a special woman of God named Deborah. She was a
prophetess, which means God would speak to her and reveal what He had planned
for the future! Deborah was also one of the judges of Israel that this book is
named after.
One day, she called for a man named Barak, and she told him:
“God has commanded you to go defeat Sisera!” Now remember, Sisera was the
general of the evil king oppressing Israel. But Sisera had 900 chariots in his
army, along with all his soldiers!
At that time, time, having chariots was kind of like having
tanks today. Do you know what tanks are like? {Our teacher’s oldest son, age 7,
informed us that tanks were vehicles with missiles on them.} Israel didn’t have
any chariots, they just had men to fight, maybe with swords and spears. That
would be like marching to fight against tanks while only having ordinary guns! But
Deborah told Barak, “God is going to deliver Sisera’s army into your hand.” How
do you think Barak felt??
I think
he was kind of afraid, because Scripture says he told Deborah, “I’ll go fight,
but only if you’ll come with me!” Deborah said ok, but she also told him a
woman would get the honor from the battle instead of him.
Barak gathered 10,000 Israelites to go against Sisera’s
army, which included those 900 chariots. The Israelites were up on a mountain,
and Sisera’s army was in the valley at a river. You know what? I think Barak
was still afraid and not trusting God’s promise, because Deborah had to remind
him to lead his men into battle. She told him, “Has not the LORD gone out before you?”
So then Barak and his 10,000 men charged towards Sisera and
his army with their 900 chariots. And God was faithful to His promise! He
totally routed Sisera’s army! That means they became confused and disorganized,
to that Barak and his men were able to totally defeat them. The Bible says
Barak and his men killed every soldier in Sisera’s army. It was an amazing
victory!
Now,
Sisera had run away from the battle because he saw things weren’t going well.
He came to the tent of a man named Heber, who was an ally of Sisera’s king—so Sisera
thought it would be safe to hide there!
Heber’s wife was named Jael. Jael welcomed Sisera into her
tent, her home. She brought Sisera some milk to drink, and then he lay down on
the ground because he was so tired from running! Jael covered him with a
blanket.
Sisera thought he was safe there, so he fell asleep. But
Jael had other plans. She got a tent peg, and used a hammer to drive it
straight through Sisera’s head and into the ground; killing him in his sleep.
When
Barak came searching for Sisera, Jael called Barak into the tent and showed him
the enemy general, dead.
Even though Jael’s husband was an ally of Sisera’s king,
Jael had decided she would trust God’s deliverance of Israel and kill Sisera.
Then Deborah and Barak sang a song of victory, praising God
for how He had used them and the Israelite soldiers and Jael to deliver God’s
special people from the wicked king and Sisera, his general!
So that
is the story of Deborah and Barak and Jael, which you can read in Judges 4-5.
Did you see God’s faithfulness to His people Israel in that story? And who
displayed trust in God’s promises by their actions?
Barak was hesitant at first, but he did obey. Deborah and
Jael obeyed God too! And God proved His faithfulness by delivering His people
when they repented and obeyed Him!
So how
does this impact your life? Have you ever chosen to go your own way rather than
following God? We all do that often times, and that is called sin. Bug God
loves the people He created, and so did He prove His faithfulness to us? YES!
He sent a deliverer for us, just like He did for the people
of Israel! What is our deliverer’s name? Jesus! When Jesus came from heaven to
earth, died on the cross, and rose from the dead, He won total victory for us over our enemies of sin and death, forever!
Just like God promised Barak victory over Sisera, God
promises us victory through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus! And
like we saw in our story today, God is faithful to keep His promises, isn’t He?
But
just like Barak had to trust God’s promises and go out to battle, so we each
have to trust God’s promise that Jesus’ victory over sin and death applies to
my life and to your life!
A lot of times, I find myself like Barak: afraid to go and
fight the enemy of sin in my life because I am not sure whether I will win or
not. But would I really be fighting alone? No!
Remember what Deborah told Barak right before the battle? I’m
going to read it from the Bible, from Judges 4:14:
“Then Deborah said to Barak, ‘Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?’”
We all need to ask God to help us have faith, and to
remember that Jesus has promised us victory and goes to fight with us. Because
He has already won the war for us!
And God is faithful to His promises to us, just like He was
to Barak and Deborah and Jael, which means that we can trust His word to be
true.
[1] “Institute”
refers to the New Hope Institute of Childcare and Family, which is basically
New Hope Uganda’s ministry foundations and philosophy taught in 20 weeks.
