17. The Person of Barak

The Person of Barak

"And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand. And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh." (Judges 4:6-9) And so Deborah sat under her palm tree, a spirit of victory in her heart. "And she sent and called Barak, the son of Abinoam, out of Kadesh-naphtali", and she said a very significant thing to Barak: "Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto thee, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand" (vv.6-7). Now there is not a single evidence of doubt, uncertainty, or hesitancy in this message from Deborah, it is as clear and distinct as it is possible to be. She said, ’The Lord has commanded you Barak to go with those two tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali. He has even indicated the precise number who are to be called out of those tribes, and you are to go and fight, and the battle is won. The Lord will deliver him into thine hand’. Now that is a very wonderful message for anyone to receive, she was a prophetess, she had received it from the Lord, and now she was directing a man, and he had the right to be there, this is where the man should have been, in the leadership, directing affairs, and it really was an indictment against the manhood of Israel that a woman was giving this message.

Well, what kind of man was he? Well, he said, "If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go" (v.8). What a pathetic kind of man! How he failed to appreciate the message that had been delivered to him. The message was one of certainty, of power, it had nothing to do with Deborah, it was all about the Lord, what the Lord would do, and if only Barak had received the message in the way in which it was delivered what an opportunity he had to shine in his leadership. Instead of that, God’s government came in, and the prophetess gave another word, ’All right, Barak,’ she said, ’I will go, but you have missed your opportunity. Now God will deliver the captain of Jabin’s army into the hands of a woman.’ That is the story as we take it down to the end of the chapter. Deborah gave the message of the Lord. It came to pass as she said it would. The army was defeated, the captain of the army was killed by a woman, and the Lord subdued Jabin, the king of Canaan, at that time.