Thursday 4 Sep 2014

September 4: Judges 4:4-10

Key Verse: Judges 4:8
And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”

Devotion:
When Deborah called Barak to take a large army to fight against Sisera it was not something that Barak should have taken lightly. Deborah was a prophetess and was currently judging Israel; she was getting told by God what should and should not be happening. Barak should not have doubted God’s command in any way, but he did. He asked Deborah to accompany him to the fight as if to say “if you are so sure that it is safe for us to go fight Sisera, then you come along as well and back me up when I tell the forces!”

It was not as if he was being told to take a small army like Gideon, but rather a huge army of ten thousand men. He was to take them to Mount Tabor where he would probably have had to exercise them to ensure they were fit for fighting and all knew what was required of them. Barak was to give these men the command from God and encourage them to fight for God as He had commanded. Barak was lacking in confidence or faith and required that Deborah come along as well. The men would definitely listen to Deborah who was the recognised judge at that time.

If we are told that we have a task to do from God then we should be willing to get on and do it knowing that if God has commanded it we are going to succeed. It may not be a prophetess or a prophet that gives us God’s Command, it may be someone we know; but if we know this is coming from God then we need to take notice of what is being said.

When we get given word from God that we are to go forward with His blessing, we should not have any doubts that we are to succeed; we are human and many of us will doubt because we have not had a direct instruction from God written down on a tablet of stone. Sad but true! Why should we require such hard evidence that God wants us to do things when we accept other forms of God’s Word without the same hard evidence? Faith is believing in what we cannot see for ourselves. Believing that God is able and will do things through us is one thing. Going forward and acting on that word seems to be hard for us to accept! Have faith. Trust God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you require hard evidence for everything?

Where is your faith?