Intermediate Level, Block 5—Occupying the Land
Week 47
Deborah and Barak—Defeating Jabin King of Canaan
Point to Emphasize: We can be those who are willing to follow the proper leaders set before us.
Reference Reading: Judges 4
Memory Verse: The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, / But a wise man listens to counsel. (Proverbs 12:15)
Story Sample
Last week we learned that God established judges to help the children of Israel to keep the law and follow the rules and regulations. Did any of you this past week had a moment in which you realized there was a “judge” helping you in the same way? Were you thankful that this person was in your life? I hope so!
Well, the period in history called judges went on for many years, and during this time something extraordinary happened. When all the men of Israel failed Jehovah, He raised up a WOMAN to sit as a judge over His people. This is remarkable! The children of Israel had never had a female leader before. Does anyone know what this woman’s name was? (Deborah!) Deborah was very capable. Yet she did not act like a man or try to be in charge of the men. At that time, all the men were doing what was right in their own eyes, but Deborah did what was right in God’s eyes. She, as a leader, acknowledged God and obeyed Him, taking Him as her King.
Now, an interesting part of this story is that during this period, the Israelites were being mistreated by King Jabin. Why did they not fight or try to get out from under him? Well, none of the Israelites were willing to take the lead to fight against him. No one was willing to take the lead, and no one was willing to follow a leader. Everyone just did what was right in their own eyes. Because of that, they remained under Jabin’s rule. It was a miserable situation! God needed someone to take the lead to fight for Him. He also needed some to follow such a leader. Yet, there was no one to do it until Deborah rose up!
What was happening with the Israelites is similar to what happened to me one day. My teacher put us into groups to work on a small project. That day in our group, no one wanted to be the leader and no one was willing to follow a leader. We all wanted to do our own thing. Since it was a group project we couldn’t do it alone. We made no progress until the teacher came to our group and gave us instructions and that’s how we were able to complete the project. [Give a personal story of following a leader, perhaps a teacher as a leader versus acting according to your own idea without any one leading you.]
God commanded Deborah to send out 10,000 men from the children of Israel. But Deborah was not a man who could lead the army into battle. What could she do? Wow, Deborah was so extraordinary! She knew that she could not directly carry out this word as a woman. Deborah called Barak, a capable military man. He was the right one to lead the army of Israel. But Barak knew that none of the men were willing to follow. He told Deborah that if she would go with him, he would go. Deborah rose up and went with Barak along with the 10,000 men. WOW! What a change! All those men were now in an excellent order, no longer were they doing what was right in their own eyes.
When these 10,000 men went, the enemy did not sit still. Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, called all his 900 iron chariots, and took all the people who were with him to the river Kishon. The children of Israel did not have any chariots. But Jehovah fought for Israel. Jehovah threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his army into confusion with the edge of the sword before Barak. All the army of Sisera was destroyed; not even one was left. Isn’t that amazing?
On that day, God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel and they were able to destroy Jabin. Deborah and Barak led the people to sing praises to Jehovah for His mighty victory. The land had rest for 40 years. This all happened because Deborah was willing to follow God and be a leader of the children of Israel. She also sought a proper man to go to war with. It was then, with the proper leaders in place, that the children of Israel stopped doing whatever they thought was best and followed God as their King again.
In the same way, even when you are young you can be willing to follow the proper leaders set before you. To do things the way you think is best is not the right way; this might lead you to mistakes and often times to a miserable situation.