Be Faithful Wherever You're Planted
Today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Judges. We’re calling this series Broken Saviors, and it’s about how everybody needs a savior at some point in life. Sometimes we face situations beyond our control, and we need a savior to save us. The problem is we often turn to things that aren’t a real savior; they’re a broken savior.
Now what we’re talking about specifically today is being faithful wherever you’re planted. We’re talking about being faithful wherever you’re planted, because sometimes we can start viewing having a different role as our savior. I’m talking about everything from the roles we have in our careers, to the roles we have in our homes as parents, homeschool parents, children, students, or athletes on a team. Sometimes we’re tired of the daily routines, or we’re overwhelmed by the daily stress that comes with the roles we have. So we start dreaming, fantasizing, thinking about the grass being greener doing something else somewhere else. But changing the roles we have is just another broken savior, because every role has its routines and stress. I’m not saying our roles can’t ever change, I’m saying changing our roles is another broken savior since every role has its routine and stress. So what we need more than changing our roles, is to change our hearts and attitudes toward our current roles. What we need is to focus on being faithful in our roles wherever we’re planted, and that’s what we’re talking about today. So let’s turn to Judges 4 and get into it. If you’re new to the bible, just open the bible to the middle and keep turning left until you find the book of Judges. We’ll be in Judges Ch.’s 4-5, and the title of the message for those of you taking notes is Be Faithful Wherever You’re Planted. The big idea of the message is this: Instead of viewing a different role as your savior, be faithful in your role wherever you’re planted...Instead of viewing a different role as your savior, be faithful in your role wherever you’re planted...
Here’s your context. The book of Judges records the historical events that took place after Moses freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, and after his apprentice Joshua led them into the Promised Land. They were supposed to live in the Promised Land and be faithful to God wherever they were planted. But instead they ended up being unfaithful to God, and they go through this continual cycle of sin, suffering, and crying out to God for salvation. So God raises up some judges, some leaders to save them, but they’re all broken saviors. They’re all just shadows of the real Savior they need, including the Judge we’re about to study today. Let’s check it out.
Judges 4:1 states, “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud had died. 2 So the Lord sold them to King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera who lived in Harosheth of the Nations. 3 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, because Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he harshly oppressed them for twenty years.” There’s the cycle of sin, suffering, and crying out to God for salvation. The text says they did what was evil again, so the Lord allowed them to suffer harsh oppression for 20 yrs under the Canaanite King Jabin. It’s the old saying “if you choose to sin, you choose to suffer...If you choose to sin, you choose to suffer the consequences of that sin...Israel chose to sin again, so they’re suffering the consequences of that sin, until they cried out to the Lord for help.
Vs. 4, “Deborah, a prophetess and the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 She would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went to her to settle disputes.” So the Israelites cried out to God for help, and God raised up a woman named Deborah to help them. The text says she was a prophetess and a judge. So this is the 4th Judge in the book of Judges, and she’s considered a good Judge who helped the Israelites settle disputes. She gave them wise counsel helping them to them settle all kinds of legal, relational, and societal disputes. This little detail makes her different than the other three judges we studied. The other three judges helped deliver Israel from their enemies by using their physical strength to fight as warriors. But Deborah helped deliver them by using her wisdom, by giving them wise counsel, and teaching them to follow the Lord, which she mentions next.
Vs. 6, “She summoned Barak...and said to him, ‘Hasn’t the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you: ‘Go, deploy the troops on Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the Naphtalites and Zebulunites? 7 Then I will lure Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, his chariots, and his infantry...and I will hand him over to you.’ 8 Barak said to her, ‘If you’ll go with me, I will go. But if you won’t go with me, I will not go.’” In vs. 6-7 Deborah is pointing Barak to follow the Lord, and Barak tells her he’ll go, if she goes with him. Now some people think Barak says this because he lacks faith in the Lord, but others think he wants Deborah’s godly leadership and wisdom close to the battlefield. I lean toward him wanting Deborah’s godly leadership and wisdom close to the battlefield, because he doesn’t hesitate when she agrees to go. This is a battle the Israelites can’t win without God, because the Canaanites had a significant military advantage which I’ll explain later. But Barak doesn’t hesitate in his faith when Deborah agrees to go.
Vs. 9, “‘I will gladly go with you,’ she said, ‘but you will receive no honor on the road you are about to take, because the Lord will sell Sisera to a woman.’ So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.” So Deborah agrees to go with him, and he takes 10,000 troops with him to fight against Commander Sisera and the Canaanites. When Deborah tells Barak he will receive no honor, many scholars think this isn’t a rebuke against Barak. It’s a prophetic claim of what’s about to happen, which is that God will help Barak defeat the Canaanites, but a woman is going to be the one who kills Commander Sisera. It takes Deborah, Barak, and this other woman being faithful in their individual roles, to defeat the Canaanites and kill Commander Sisera.
Vs. 12, “It was reported to Sisera that Barak had gone up Mount Tabor. 13 Sisera summoned all his nine hundred iron chariots and all the troops who were with him from Harosheth of the Nations to the Wadi Kishon. 14 Then Deborah said to Barak, ‘Go! This day the Lord has handed Sisera over to you. Hasn’t the Lord gone before you?' So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 15 The Lord threw Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army into a panic before Barak’s assault. Sisera left his chariot and fled on foot. 16 Barak pursued the chariots...and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword.” In vs. 15 it says God threw the Canaanites into a panic. It’s because God sent a storm to flood the Wadi Kishon where this battle took place. The keyword is wadi, which is a dried-up riverbed, and so the storm created a mud trap for Sisera’s horses and chariots. Ch. 5:21 states, “The Kishon river swept them away.” The storm caused Sisera’s horses and chariots to get stuck in the mud, giving Barak’s army the perfect chance to defeat the Cannanites. It also explains why Sisera abandoned his chariot to flee on foot. It’s because his horse and chariot got stuck in the mud, so he literally had to run for his life.
Vs. 17, “Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite...18 Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, ‘Come in, my lord. Don’t be afraid.’ So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket...” Vs. 21, “While he was sleeping from exhaustion, Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She hammered the peg into his temple, drove it into the ground, and he died.” So Jael kills Commander Sisera with a tent peg, which was a common household tool for women back then. Women were typically the ones who set up the tents, so a hammer and tent peg was like a typical household appliance. This is a humiliating death for Commander Sisera, not a glorious warrior’s death. He was killed by a woman using a household appliance. Many scholars believe the reason God allowed this is because Commander Sisera was raping women and using them as sex slaves. He also allowed his warriors to do the same thing. Ch. 5:28-30 states, “Sisera’s mother looked through the window; she peered through the lattice, crying out: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why don’t I hear the hoofbeats of his horses?...30 Are they not dividing the spoil—a girl or two for each warrior.” The implication here is that Sisera and his warriors would take a girl or twoand keep them as sex slaves. But God uses a woman to kill him in this humiliating way as an act of justice for all the women he harmed. It’s also a fulfillment of Deborah’s prophetic claim that a woman would kill Commander Sisera. But like I said, it takes all three being faithful in their individual roles to defeat the Canaanites and Sisera. Then in ch. 5 Deborah and Barak are quick to give God the glory for this victory. They start singing a song retelling the story of what happened, and they immediately start giving God the glory. In ch. 4 the Lord’s name is only mentioned four times, but in ch. 5 it’s mentioned numerous times.
Ch. 5:1-5, “On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang: 2 ‘When the leaders lead in Israel, when the people volunteer, blessed be the Lord. 3 Listen kings! Pay attention princes! I will sing to the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel. 4 Lord when you came from Seir, when you marched from the fields of Edom, the earth trembled, the skies poured rain, and the clouds poured water. 5 The mountains melted before the Lord...” Notice Deborah and Barak keep pointing to the Lord as the one who deserves the glory for their victory. They do this all throughout ch. 5, and in vs. 31 it says Israel experienced peace for forty years. So Deborah’s a good Judge who used her role to point them back to worshiping the Lord and giving the Lord glory. But what’s this mean for us?...What are some takeaways for us when it comes to our roles?...
#1 Women be faithful in your role. = Women be faithful in your role just like Deborah was faithful in her role. Deborah’s the only female Judge in Israel’s history, and she could have easily cracked under the pressure of being a female leader in a male dominant culture. But she remained faithful to the Lord in the role she was given, and you need to be faithful to the Lord in whatever role you’re given in and outside the home. But there are two false beliefs we have to address regarding women’s roles. The first is that some people believe women can do everything men can do, which isn’t true. Women can’t do everything men can do and men can’t do everything women can do. For example my wife can’t lift heavy things like me, and I can’t give birth like her...Praise God for that...But our different roles and abilities aren’t meant to devalue each other, they’re meant to complement each other. In fact in Genesis 2 it says women are to be helpers to the men. Maybe it’s because God knew men would need help, to which all the ladies said, “Yes they do...You men need a lot of help...” But the word helper is mostly used in the bible to describe God, which means the helper role is a highly valued role, not a devalued role. So our roles can be different, but they’re equally valued, and they’re to complement each other like Deborah and Barak did. Deborah doesn’t take over Barak’s role as a warrior and Commander of Israel’s army, and he doesn’t take over her role. They were both faithful in their different but complementary roles.
So the first false belief is some people believe women can do everything men can do, but that isn’t true. The second false belief is that some people believe a woman’s role primarily belongs in the home, but that isn’t true either. Deborah wasn’t a stay-at-home mom cooking breakfast for her family, she was a Judge who when with Barak close to the battlefield. Some of you might be called to roles that are outside the home like Deborah, and some of you might be called to be stay-at-home moms which is an incredibly undervalued, yet critically important role. But all of you have access to the same spiritual gifts as men, including the gifts of leading, teaching, and giving godly wisdom to people like Deborah did. The only exception that Christians debate over is when it comes to the role of pastor, priest, or elder. But outside of that, we learn in Judges 4 that God raised up Deborah to be a Judge, with the gifts of leading, teaching, and giving godly wisdom to people in Israel, including men like Barak. In Acts 18 we learn God uses Priscilla to help Apollos grow in his understanding of God. In 2nd Timothy we learn God uses Lois and Eunice to not only raise Timothy in the home, but also to raise him in the faith. So God gives women access to the same spiritual gifts as men, which can be used in and outside the home. This means God has a calling for your life, not just your husband’s life. God has a calling for every woman’s life, and we need more Deborahs faithfully serving the Lord in their careers, their homes, their schools, and the church. So whether your role is working in an office or folding laundry, be faithful in your role.
#2 Men be faithful in your role. = Men be faithful in your role, just like Barak was faithful in his role. Like I said before, the Canaanites had a major military advantage because they had 900 chariots! The Israelites didn’t have any iron chariots during this time, so these iron chariots meant the Canaanites were a military superpower over Israel. These iron chariots were strong, swift, and some had knives on their wheels that could easily cut through Israel’s foot soldiers. But Barak remained faithful in his role and led Israel to battle despite the odds. Barak knew his military was no match for the Canaanites, but he had faith that the Canaanites military was no match for God. We need to be faithful in our roles as men despite the odds or stress we’re facing, just like Barak and his 10,000 men were faithful in their roles despite the odds and stress they were facing.
But in Ch. 5 we learn there were some unfaithful passive men who didn’t join the fight. Ch. 5:17 states, “Gilead remained beyond the Jordan. Dan, why did you linger at the ships? Asher remained at the seashore and stayed in his harbors.” These are some of the unfaithful passive men who didn’t join the fight, and they’re cursed for their unfaithful passivity. Ch. 5:23 states, “Curse Meroz...for they didn’t come to help the Lord.” They’re being cursed not because they were doing something, but because they were doing nothing. God is cursing and withholding blessings from them because they’re being unfaithful sitting passively on the sidelines. The reason we end our Sunday gatherings the same way saying “You are sent!,” is to push against the passivity of both men and women. Each week we’re reminding each of you that Jesus wants you to live a sent life, not a sidelined life. He wants you to be active, not passive with your faith. We need more faithful women like Deborah, but we also need more faithful men like Barak who are willing to serve the Lord in their careers, their homes, their schools, and the church. What’s that look like for you as a man? What’s it look like for you to be a man who’s active with your faith like Barak and the other 10,000 men, instead of passively sitting on the sidelines doing little or nothing at all?...
#3 Bloom Whevever You’re Planted = Both men and women, young and old, bloom wherever you’re planted. Deborah, Barak, and Jael bloomed and were faithful in their roles wherever they were planted. In the words of Saint Francis de Sales, “The love of God has been poured into our hearts by his Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion, and inviting us to bloom in the garden where he’s planted.” Simply put, we’re to bloom and be faithful to God wherever he’s planted us. So where has God planted you at this stage in your life?... What are some specific ways you can bloom and be faithful to God in the roles he’s given you?... Both men and women, young and hold, how can you bloom and be faithful wherever you’re planted?
The big idea of the message is instead of viewing a different role as your savior, be faithful in your role wherever you’re planted...Like I said in the intro, sometimes we’re tired of the daily routines, or we’re overwhelmed by the daily stress that comes with the roles we have. So we start dreaming, fantasizing, thinking about the grass being greener doing something else somewhere else. But it’s all broken saviors, because every role has its routines and stress. So what we need more than changing our roles, is to change our hearts and attitudes toward our roles. What we need is to focus on being faithful to Jesus in our roles wherever we’re planted, in response to his great sacrificial love he planted in us through the cross. If you’re a skeptic, he planted you here in this church today, so you could bloom spiritually by putting your faith in him and planting your life in him. If you’re a believer, faithfully serve him in every role you have, because he faithfully served you even to the point of death on the cross. Instead of viewing a different role as your savior, be faithful in serving the Savior wherever you’re planted. In the words of C.T. Studd, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”...Let’s pray...