If you watch movies of battles, there is always the battle cry, given by the commander to instill courage and provide motivation to the soldiers before they go into battle. Deborah, not Barak, gives the battle cry. Notice that it is short, and yet full of confidence, telling them that God had already gone ahead!
“Up!” for this is the day that the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the Lord gone out before you?”
So Barak went down from Mt. Tabor with his ten thousand men and the Bible tells us that God routed Sisera, his chariots, and his army. Sisera got out of his chariot and ran away. He doesn’t sound so brave either does he? His men were totally defeated. He, however, runs to the tent of his friend’s wife, thinking that she was an ally. He couldn’t have been more wrong. The woman Jael, gave him milk for his thirst and covered him to rest. She then took his life.
Barak, in pursuit of Sisera, sees Jael as she comes out to meet him. She then takes him to the dead body of Sisera. On that day, we are told that God subdued Jabin, King of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel, We are told that after that battle, they grew stronger and stronger until he was destroyed. For forty years after that, they rested.
In our day, our enemy is not flesh and blood but very real. God needs mothers in our world. Women who know the presence of God, women who have learned to hear his voice and who trust him, women who are ready to go to battle for our children in the day in which we live, women who will fight in prayer and live courageously above the spiritual enslavement which is all around us.
