Judges 4-5. Deborah, and Barak, part 7: Why God's opponents get confused.

Title: Judges 4-5. Deborah, and Barak, part 7: Why God's opponents get confused.        

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

Sisera and his large and fortified Canaanite army are confounded or confused by the Lord, which led to all of them falling by the edge of the sword, which is a phrase that means that they were all killed at the hands of Israel (except for Sisera himself) and by all means of weapons.

 

For the last two nights we have looked into the confusion that always overtakes the souls of those who oppose God. God's enemies are always confident that their way will bring fulfillment, but when its failure is apparent and the foundation of their lives seems to crack, then confusion overtakes them.

 

The believer will find himself perplexed at times, not knowing which direction to go in, but he always should know that God will inevitably show him the way and so his perplexity is just another application of faith to life. He waits patiently and so he doesn't despair.

 

2CO 4:8 perplexed, but not despairing
 
Perplexed - not yet knowing the proper direction.
 
Not despairing - God will show the way in His good timing.

 

The believer has hope and confidence in God, so that even when things go differently than expected, he knows that God has willed it, and so he can trust and remain sober and at peace.

 

The believer's hope is always in the immoveable, immutable God who is for him and not against him. The believer relies on the promise that all things work together for good to those who love God. Though the believer may not know what is going to happen tomorrow, he knows that God is going to show him what eye cannot see, and speak to him what ear cannot hear, and reveal to him what has not yet entered his mind. Hence he has joy and hope no matter what. 

 

JOH 14:27

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful."

 

2CO 13:11

Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

 

Php 4:6-7

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

Php 4:9

The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.

 

COL 3:14-16

And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you

 

2TH 3:16

Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!

 

1PE 1:2

May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.

 

2PE 1:2-3

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

 

2PE 3:14-15

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation

 

Unfortunately, for so much of their history, Israel is also a people in confusion due to their apostasy.

 

Given directly after the prophecy of Christ coming to break the yoke upon Israel:

 

ISA 9:8 The Lord sends a message against Jacob, And it falls on Israel.

 

"message" - dabar = the messenger of the Lord which comes to either destroy or to heal.

 

The messenger of the Lord runs quickly through the earth:

 

PSA 147:15-18

He sends forth His command to the earth;

His word [dabar] runs very swiftly.

He gives snow like wool;

He scatters the frost like ashes.

He casts forth His ice as fragments;

Who can stand before His cold?

He sends forth His word and melts them;

He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow.

 

It comes to men to destroy or to heal.

 

PSA 107:20

He sent His word and healed them,

And delivered them from their destructions.

 

It never returns to Him void.

 

ISA 55:10-11

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return there without watering the earth,

And making it bear and sprout,

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth;

It shall not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

 

Thus does the Lord now send a word against the house of Jacob and this heavenly messenger descends into Israel to communicate divine revelation taking shelter, as it were, in the soul of the prophet.

 

ISA 9:9 And all the people know it, That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:

 

So many calamities have fallen upon Ephraim, but they are little humbled. They simply boast that they will replace what was lost with better things.

 

This is the mindset of the person who sees his foundation crumble but won't admit it was a bad foundation. He stands on the rubble and boasts of rebuilding on the same pile. How many times must the house be built and rebuilt upon the sand before one admits to himself that he has been wrong and that he must build upon the rock?

 

What does it take for an apostate to admit he has been wrong?

 

ISA 44:18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.

 

There are many passages that say just this. God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but only after Pharaoh had hardened his own.

 

ISA 6:10

Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Lest they see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.

 

So does God just choose some people to make blind and dumb towards Him? That would be a great contradiction to the revelation of His person.

 

PSA 81:12

So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart,

To walk in their own devices.

 

In this passage we see that their hearts are already stubborn. Naturally, we choose what to believe in. What makes for a stubborn person in the eyes of God? He refuses to believe God's word or promises. He rejects God as Sovereign and believes something else rules him or that he rules himself. If God makes doesn't make Himself available to a creatures awareness and that creature chooses something to worship other than God, that is not defined as stubborn, but blind. The people spoken to in both Isaiah passages are Jews. Could we say that God hid Himself from them? So why are they blind? They choose to be. So how does God smear over their eyes so that they cannot see?

 

God justly creates circumstances that increases blindness or stubbornness. These same circumstances that exasperate a person are also the fastest way of shaking foundations so that the blind person may see.

 

So in fact, when God moves in a stubborn persons life in order to create situations that will only make him more stubborn, which God alone knows for sure, He is also graciously forging the best circumstances for the stubborn person to awaken from his slumber in order to see the error in his ways. But, the stubborn so often entrench themselves even more in the lie that they live.

 

ISA 44:18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.

 

ISA 44:19 And no one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire, and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. [I make the wood serve me] Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!"

 

ISA 44:20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"