“Nailed It! | Sunday, February 25, 2024

When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he harshly oppressed the children of Israel. (Judges 4:1–3)

You already know the ship is going to sink—and so was Israel; but the same God who saw their evil sent an unlikely deliverer, and points us to the cross.

A Story You Already Know How It Ends

On a recent flight back to San Diego, I noticed the passenger ahead of me watching a movie from my youth—James Cameron's Titanic, the biggest film of 1997, that great love story about Jack and Rose that you knew from the very first scene was going to end in disaster. What's fascinating is that Cameron got tons of people to fork over money to watch a movie where you know exactly what's going to happen from the moment it starts.

He's even talked in interviews about how he hijacked our psychology. Resident in every one of us is the hope that things will turn out okay even when we know it's highly unlikely. "Hope springs eternal." So you enter a state of denial and bargaining—maybe they won't hit the iceberg, maybe they won't sink, maybe they'll reach a lifeboat and live happily ever after. They don't. And he got people to sit through one of the longest movies to that point knowing it was all going to end in disaster.

"Again Did Evil"

Judges chapter 4 is just like that. At the end of chapter 3, Israel, by the hand of Ehud the left-handed man, killed Eglon the obese king of Moab. Israel was liberated, and the land had rest for eighty years. Part of us looks at that and hopes—maybe just maybe Israel will keep walking in obedience and reap the blessings of it.

But we know what's coming: "When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord." Note that word again—underline it in your Bible. We slowly shake our heads in disgust: why, Israel, why? Moses had told them a century or more before that obedience brings blessing and disobedience brings the curse. Yet the hard fact for us to accept is that we are not all that different.

The Romans 7 Man

I'm reminded of a passage that has caused debate among Bible teachers for a long time—the "Romans 7 man." Some say Paul describes a hypothetical person, some an unbeliever, some himself, and some the experience of the Christian. Paul writes:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do... For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice... O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:14–24)

I think Paul is speaking about the experience every one of us has as Christians. The good things I want to do, I don't do; the bad things I don't want to do, I practice. I want to get up early and run; I don't. I don't want to eat that chocolate bar; I do. Israel wanted to do what was right—at Sinai they twice said, "Everything God has said we will do and be obedient." Within a month and a half they were dancing around a golden calf. They wanted to walk in obedience, but again they did evil.

In Myself I Am Always Weak

That is why it helps me to remember the first point: in and of myself I am and will always be weak. My flesh doesn't want to admit it, but the spirit is willing while the flesh is weak. When I approach life with this humble recognition, I'm actually more likely to find strength—because, as Paul said, "when I am weak, then I am strong."

When I live in that humble recognition, I rely on a source of strength other than my own. When I rely on my own strength, I fall and fail. There is a law in my flesh that rules me, until I cry out, "O wretched man that I am!" But there is deliverance—and it is fully realized only when we humbly acknowledge our weakness, for it is there that the power of Christ rests upon us. By God's grace and the enabling power of His Spirit, if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh; but if we walk in the flesh, like Israel we will succumb.

There Is a Category Called Evil

Those two words, "did evil," reveal that there is a category of things—actions, thoughts, activities—that are objectively evil. In 2024 we need to freshly acknowledge this, because we live in a culture that increasingly calls evil good and good evil. That's not new—in Isaiah's day, about 2,800 years ago, people put darkness for light and bitter for sweet.

What things are objectively evil? Paul gives indications in Galatians 5:

The works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand... that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19–21)

We hear "murder" and agree that's wicked. But our culture says fornication—sexual activity outside marriage—isn't evil, it's just the normal behavior of consenting adults. Scripture says no, that is outside the bounds of what God calls right, and those who practice such things inherit corruption and destruction, not eternal life. Look at the outcomes; by the fruit you shall know the tree.

An Objective Moral Law and Lawgiver

The phrase "did evil in the sight of the Lord"—in the eyes of the Lord—uses the same Hebrew word found later in Judges when "every man did what was right in his own eyes." Things are evil based on an authority declaring them out of bounds. There is an objective moral standard, a moral law. Our culture says morality is socially constructed.

If you ever talk with someone who insists there is no objective right and wrong, simply ask: was what happened in Auschwitz in the 1940s objectively wrong? I have yet to meet a person who won't agree. And if it was objectively wrong, then there is an objective moral law; and if there is a moral law, there is by necessity a moral Lawgiver, who is God. People may say, "I don't agree." Your agreement doesn't matter—try disagreeing with the law of gravity and see how that works out. As Isaiah said:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. (Isaiah 5:20)

That "woe" is elsewhere translated "sorrow awaits" or "judgment is certain."

Where Does Evil Come From?

The Bible's first use of the word evil is in its opening chapters, when God commands not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Through man's disobedience—sin—death entered the world and evil entered our hearts. Some philosophers say evil is merely the result of society oppressing people; but where did that oppression come from? Jesus answers in Mark 7:

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. (Mark 7:21–23)

Evil is the result of sin's effect in our hearts. That leads to point two: apart from God's intervening redemptive action, I am the subject of and slave to moral evil and sin. A heart broken by sin produces evil thoughts and evil actions, and there's no way to deal with that apart from God's intervention. That is why, for all their hopeful ambition, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.

In the Sight of the Lord

Note those words: "in the sight of the Lord." God sees and knows the full depths of our sinful hearts—even when we don't. Jeremiah says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" And the very next verse: "I, the Lord, search the heart."

We think our sins are private, personal, hidden, harming no one. But Jesus said, "Nothing is covered that will not be revealed" (Luke 12:2). Hebrews says all things are naked and open before Him to whom we must give account, and it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment. Isaiah said:

Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord... and they say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?" (Isaiah 29:15)

There were people doing immoral things behind closed doors, telling themselves no one knew. But God sees. So He sold Israel into the hand of Jabin, who had nine hundred chariots of iron and harshly oppressed them twenty years. If God does not intervene, we remain under sin and subject to His wrath revealed against all unrighteousness. Moved to anger, God stepped back in passive punishment and let Israel reap the consequences.

Any Sin Allowed to Remain Becomes a Snare

Here's something fascinating. Less than a century before this, when Israel entered the promised land under Joshua, they subdued this same Jabin king of Canaan at Hazor and utterly destroyed the city (Joshua 11). "Jabin" is likely a title, like Pharaoh. Some object that this language is genocidal, but I think it's hyperbolic—just as we say the Chiefs "destroyed" and "crushed" the 49ers without literally assaulting them. Still, how is Hazor rebuilt and a new Jabin on the throne less than a hundred years later?

It reminds us of point three: any sin allowed to remain will inevitably become a snare. I've made this point several times in recent weeks, and I'll make it many more. As 1 Corinthians 10 says, these things happened to Israel as examples for us. If we do not root out and destroy sin, it comes back—stronger and more powerful. Old enemies rise again if they are not continuously subdued. Decades after being freed from Jabin, Israel is under his thumb again, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

The Unlikely Judge

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time... And she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam... and said to him, "Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, 'Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men... And against you I will deploy Sisera... at the River Kishon, and I will deliver him into your hand'?" (Judges 4:4–7)

The cycle is happening again—but this judge is unique, unexpected, unlikely. In 2024 a leader named Deborah is no big deal, but 3,400 years ago God raised up the unlikely and unexpected to lead and deliver Israel. It reminds us that God frequently uses the unlikely and the unexpected. Just look around the room. Paul says:

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise... the weak things... the base things and the things which are despised... that no flesh should glory in His presence. (1 Corinthians 1:27–29)

We'll see this again with Gideon and his 300, with Jephthah and his many problems, and with Samson—if ever there was an unlikely judge, it was Samson, who gets the largest section of Judges because he was such a screw-up. If God can use him, He can use us. Why? So that no flesh would glory in His presence—so that it would forever be clear that God alone has the authority and power to deliver us from the snare of sin. That is point four.

Deborah's Wisdom and Barak's Bargain

Deborah understood her culture and its hierarchy. Rather than declaring "Thus says the Lord," she wisely puts it in Barak's hands with a question: "Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded...?"—has God been speaking to you what He's been speaking to me? That's not a bad way to approach someone of higher rank: sometimes it's better to offer an inquiry than to impose your idea. She is being wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.

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!" So she said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey... for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." (Judges 4:8–9)

She tells him, "You don't need me—you need God, and He's already with you. But fine, if you need me, I'll go. Just know the glory won't be written down for you." And interestingly, it won't be Deborah's either.

The Spy, the Battle, and the Tent

Now Heber the Kenite... had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near... Kedesh. And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. (Judges 4:11–12)

Heber was relationally connected to Israel, but he moved away and lived as an informant—a spy who tipped off Jabin and Sisera. So Sisera gathered all nine hundred chariots. Deborah said, "Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the Lord gone out before you?" Barak went down with ten thousand men, "and the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots... with the edge of the sword." Sisera got off his chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the army until not a man was left.

However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite... And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear." And... she covered him with a blanket. (Judges 4:17–18)

The informant's wife now hides the enemy commander. He asks for water; she opens a jug of milk. This is fourteenth-century-BC Israel—no refrigerators, and this is not a tall cold glass but curdled, sour milk. She gives him a drink, covers him, and he tells her to stand at the door and lie for him: "If any man comes and asks, 'Is there a man here?' say, 'No.'"

Nailed It

Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. (Judges 4:21)

Nailed it. That's what I call a splitting headache. That outcome had surely never popped into his head before—she drove it home, and he got the point. This brings us to point five: God frequently chooses unlikely sources and methods to accomplish His purposes and plans—here, a Jewish housewife around 1400 BC.

So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin... until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. (Judges 4:23–24)

Sisera Had to Die

For Israel to be free, Sisera had to die. Notice the picture: the Canaanite wants to be hidden—"hide me, feed me, lie for me." That's exactly what our flesh does. No one else has to know; it's private, hidden, bothering nobody. But for Israel to be free, Sisera had to die.

And for you and me to be free from the oppression of sin, Jesus had to be nailed to a tree. Through His death, burial, and resurrection we are set free. He frees us first from the punishment of sin, for He bore our punishment on the cross—that's justification; we no longer abide under His wrath. But He also wants to free us now from sin's power, so we are no longer under the oppressive hand of sin.

Confess, and Be Set Free

How does He do it? Through the work of the cross. When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That hidden sin nobody knows about—the Canaanite in your closet that keeps saying "lie for me"—God wants to remove it. The old man, the flesh, needs to be crucified. As Paul says:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

God accomplished that liberating work on the cross—a perfect segue to communion, where we remember His body broken and His blood shed so we could be freed from sin's power. He died in our place to liberate us from sin's punishment, from its power, and one day from its very presence when He glorifies us. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would cement these realities in our minds and hearts, and that You would begin to do a greater liberating work in us. As we trust in You, in the power of Your word and Your Spirit, and in the power You demonstrated on the cross, would You set us free that we could walk in liberty—for whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Help us to be those who are no longer under the bondage of sin, death, and the Canaanite hiding in the closet.

Lord, we owe all to You. We thank You for Your grace—that You who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive righteousness and be clothed in Yours, not our own. Apart from You we have no power, no strength; we are weak, slaves and subjects to sin. Jesus, You have the authority and power to deliver us. We thank You for the work You did for us to be delivered.

As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we remember Your body broken for us and Your blood, the cup of the New Covenant, shed for us. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, but You died for our sins according to the Scriptures, were buried, and rose again the third day, that we could be set free—from sin's punishment, its power, and one day its presence. There will be no more death; every tear will be wiped away.

I pray we would be those walking in the liberty You have given, rejoicing in Your freedom, and that it would be evident to the people we live next to, go to school with, and work with—many still slaves to sin whom You want to set free. And just as You used the unlikely and unexpected Deborah to bring deliverance, would You use us. We may feel we have nothing to offer, but that is exactly what You are looking for—people You can empower by Your grace and Your Spirit. Pour out Your Spirit and empower Your people. Help us this week to shine brightly as lights in a dark world. We praise You. Amen.