HEROES OF THE FAITH – BARAK
DR. JIM DIXON –
JUDGES 4:1 -24
JANUARY 29, 1984
The Lord God is King. This is the first of two messages that I feel led to share with you this morning from the life of a man whose name was Barak. Eleven hundred and fifty years before Jesus Christ there lived a wicked king; his name was Jabin. He was the king of the Canaanites and he ruled from his royal city of Hazor. The general of his armies was named Sisera and he too, was wicked and he dwelt in Harosheth Haggoyim. He had a great army with 900 chariots of iron and with this great army, the wicked Sisera and his king Jabin had cruelly oppressed the children of Israel for 20 years. Israel had no king. They had no earthly king, but they did have a heavenly king, the Lord Almighty. The King of Heaven and the King of Israel. In the course of time, the people of Israel began to cry out to heavenly king that He might deliver them from this wicked earthly king.
In those days, in the nation of Israel, there was a woman, and her name was Deborah. She was a prophetess, and she was a judge and she had been anointed by the Heavenly King. She had the Gift of Discernment. She used to sit under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim and all the people of Israel would come up to her for judgement. She would arbitrate in their disputes. And in Israel in those days, there was also a great man, and his name was Barak, and he was general of all the armies of Israel. He was from the tribe of Naphtali from the city of Kadesh, a great and powerful man. In the course of time, the King of Heaven summoned Barak by the prophetess Deborah and Barak obeyed. For even though he was a great and powerful man giving orders to men, he had one Sovereign, one Lord, one King and it was the God of Israel, the King of Heaven, and so came and Deborah said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you. Go. Gather your men to Mt. Tabor, taking 10,000 men from the tribe of Naphtali and from the tribe of Zebulun. And I will draw out Sisera to meet you by the river, Kishon, with all of his chariots and all of his troops, and I will deliver him into your hand.” And so, it was the Barak of obeyed. He obeyed. the King of Heaven and he took the armies and by Israel against the superior armies of Jabin and Sisera, and by the hand of God, he won a great victory.
It has been said that the story of Barak is a story of obedience. And so, it is. It’s a story of obedience to the king and the victory it brings. Barak was a great man, a great military leader, but in one respect he was like every other Jew. He had been born into the Kingdom of God and he had one sovereign in his life, and it was the King of Heaven. In that respect, Barak is like Christians today, because you see, God has now revealed himself fully through his son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
And the Bible tells us that everyone today who would Kingdom of Christ, could enter the Kingdom of God, must receive the Son of God as Lord, as Sovereign, as King. Christians are the Kingdom of God and have one those who have come into demands our Sovereign, one King and He is Jesus Christ and He obedience.
In 1972, Barb and I took a tour of Europe. We went with my mom and dad and with my brothers and their wives. When we arrived in London, England, we met our American Express tour bus. There we met all the people that were going to journey with us for the next 14 days as we visited 11 countries. We met our tour guide, a man named Ted, and he went with us on the bus. We immediately noticed one couple that looked like they didn’t want to be there. They were kind of grumpy and crabby and they didn’t speak to anyone. They hardly spoke to each other. They looked like someone had forced them to tour Europe. On that first day, they were sitting in the front seat of the bus. Ted, our tour guide, told us that every day when we came out to the bus, everyone on the right side of the bus had to move back one seat and everyone on the left side of the bus had to move forward one seat, and this way we would all get a chance to revolve around the bus and everyone gets to sit in different positions. Well, the second day we came out there and that grumpy couple was still sitting in the front seat of the bus. Nobody said anything to them. We moved and skipped over them and we just kind of ignored them. The third day we came out and again, they were sitting in the front seat of the bus. Nobody said anything, but the 4th day someone mentioned it to them, and they didn’t even respond. They just sat there firm. They weren’t going to move. So, our tour guide, Ted, went up to them and he said, “You know I’ve told the people that you’re supposed to move every day and for four days you haven’t moved.” And then the husband looked up at him and he said, “You know, my wife and I, from the first day we came here, we said to ourselves that we weren’t going to let you tell us what to do.” Have you ever met anyone like that? People who don’t want anybody to tell them what to do.
There’s a lot of people in the world like that, but you see, something has to change in your heart. Something has to change in your well if you’re going to come into the Kingdom of God. If you’re going to come into the Kingdom of heaven, you must decide that you’re going to let Jesus Christ tell you what to do. If you’re going to get on this bus that goes to heaven, you must decide that you’re going to let Jesus Christ be your king and you’re going to let him tell you what to do.
Now tragically, there are many people in this world who say they are Christians who take the name of Christ but have no regard or very little regard for the instructions of Christ. They have no regard for the word of God, the holy scriptures, and they think the instructions of God, the instructions of Christ has given in the scriptures are somehow outmoded and outdated and they are for generations past. I’m sure many of you have heard of a book called “Little known Laws.” It was published in 1976 and it’s kind of a funny little book. Some of you have probably read it. It tells of little-known laws that were made, that were legislated in the generations past in various towns and villages and states throughout America. And many of these laws, the meaning and purpose of them is now lost to us and they are kind of humorous. In Idaho, they passed a law making it illegal to fish for trout from the back of a giraffe. In Oklahoma, they passed the law that every restaurant in the state had to give at least one peanut with every glass of water. In the state of Oregon, they once passed the law making it illegal for dead people to serve on a jury. In Maine, they passed the law making it illegal to arrest dead people. In Kirkland, Kansas, they passed a law making it illegal for bees to fly over their cities. Now how would you govern a law like that? In Illinois, they passed the law making it illegal for a woman to undress in front of a photograph of a man in an Ohio, they passed the law making it illegal for any woman weighing more than 200 pounds to wear shorts while riding a horse. Now these laws, these laws of times past seem kind of humorous to most of us. They make very little sense. They had some meaning at some time in the past period some of them are still on the books, but people ignore them. Tragically some people view the laws of god like that period they view the instructions of Christ like that comma as though they were somehow given to generations in the past and they have no meaning for us today.
In the Scriptures, the Lord has told us that we are to avoid “pornea,” that we are to avoid fornication. We are not to participate in sexual relations prior to marriage. We live in a society that regards that as passe, outmoded, outdated. We live in a society that views that as almost a humorous taboo of the past, but you see, if you’ve come into the Kingdom of God, and you’ve taken Christ as your King and Lord, then you’d better take his instructions seriously. God is not mocked. His instructions are timeless, and they are binding for Christians in every generation.
We are told in the Bible that marriage is to be for a lifetime, and we’re told that divorce is wrong. We live in a society that mocks that. We live in a society that views that as outmoded and outdated, but again, if you’ve taken Christ as Lord, you better take seriously the instructions he has given. Now we all fall. We all sin and when we do as Christians, we know of God’s grace and God’s mercy. We know of his forgiveness that we receive through repentance, but if we’ve really taken Christ as Lord, it should be the desire of our heart in every situation to please him.
You know, when I was growing up I always had a longing to please my mom and dad. It was in me. I wanted to please them. I had this even in high school and college when I was no longer living with them. When I went to college at age 18, I still wanted to please them. There are many things I would have done, that I knew were wrong, I still would have done them, but I did not, simply because I wanted to please my mom and dad and I could not have please if I had done certain things. Jesus Christ has taken the place of my mom and dad in my life. I now long to please him. There are many things I maybe would do that I do not do because I want to please him. I want to honor him in my life. Now I sin as all do and when I sin, I repent, but it is the desire of my heart to please him, and what’s true of me is true of every true believer. If you’re really a Christian if you’ve really entered the Kingdom of God, you’ve made Jesus Christ your king and your Lord. And though you fall, it is the desire of your heart to please him and to honor him.
Garibaldi, the liberator of Italy, after the siege of Rome in 1849, issued this proclamation to his men. He said, “Soldiers all of our efforts against superior forces have proved unavailing and now I have nothing to offer you but hunger and thirst and suffering and death, and yet I call upon all of you who love this country to join with me in this hour.” History records that thousands of people joined with him, and Italy was liberated. Jesus Christ has infinitely more to offer his people than Garibaldi ever had to offer his. He offers eternal life itself, but he demands no less than Garibaldi did. He demands our total commitment. He demands our total sacrifice, and he said if anyone would come after me, let them deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me, for he who would save his life shall lose it but he who would lose his life for my sake for the sake of the gospel world surely find it.”
You know, a lot of Christians seem to think that suffering is something other Christians in other generations are meant to experience. They seemed to think that suffering is something that other Christians and other parts of the world are meant to experience but you see, every Christian in this world is meant to experience some degree of suffering. I’m not speaking of the suffering of tragedy. All people in this world are touched by tragedy but there is some suffering that is peculiar, unique to the Christian. If you really joined in Christ battle against sin, if you’ve truly joined in Christ battle against sin, you will experience the suffering of sanctification in your struggle for holiness. If you’ve really joined in Christ battle against poverty, you’ll experience the suffering of self-denial and self-sacrifice that you might be able to give to those less fortunate than you. If you’ve really joined in Christ battle for this world, you’ll experience the suffering of rejection, as when you share the gospel, and it is rejected, and you’ll feel as though you are being rejected along with the Lord. But you see, if you really made Christ King, you’re willing to experience that as part of your obedience.
The apostle Paul said, “Brethren, I consider that the suffering of this present time is not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us.”
Thirty-one hundred and fifty years ago, a man named Barack, the general of all Israel, had one Lord, one sovereign, and one king and the same is true of every Christian in the world today. Jesus Christ is King.
I have a second and final teaching from the life of Barack and it is this. The Lord God is the supreme judge. Even as he is King, so he is judge and all judgment has been given into his hands. He determines the destinies of men and nowhere is this more evident than in the history of Barak. You have two groups of people with two entirely different destinies by the hand of God. You have the people of the Canaanites, who followed Jabin, and the Bible tells us that they fell at the edge of the sword. Their destiny was death. And then you there was Sisera the great general of the Canaanite army. I mighty man with a mighty army, with 900 chariots of iron, and yet for all of his might, he, too, was slain, as Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite drove a tent peg through the temple of his head. And then there was Jabin, the king of the Canaanites himself, who had cruelly oppressed the children of Israel for 20 years, and the Bible tells us his destiny was destruction. But you see the Bible tells us that there’s an entirely different destiny for the people of God. For the children of Israel, for they’ve won a great victory, they’ve inherited the promised land. And Barack, the great general of Israel’s army, for his faithfulness and for his obedience, is listed among the Heroes of the Faith and he is honored by Jews and Christians alike. And he received not only an earthly promised land but a heavenly one. What’s true of him is true of Deborah, the great prophetess and the great judge who was numbered among the faithful. One day we who believe in Jesus Christ will go to heaven and we will see them even as we shall see all the saints.
You see, God is the judge, and he determines the destinies of men. Wickedness bears the fruit of destruction and righteousness bears the fruit of blessing, and sometimes this is not evidenced in this life, but one day it will be evidenced because there is one judge who is in heaven, and he is Lord of all.
The Bible describes three judgments. It speaks first of a judgment of the living when Jesus Christ comes back to this planet, he will judge all the people who are living on the earth at that time. It is called the Judgment of the Nations. It’s described in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and we are told that Jesus Christ shall come from heaven in power and great glory with all of his angels with him and he will sit on his glorious throne and before him shall be gathered all of the peoples and he shall separate them one from the other as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. To those on his right hand, he will say, “Come, oh blessed of my father. Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of this world.” But to those on his left hand, he will say, “Depart from me, you workers of inequity, into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Judgment. Different destinies for different people come. Jesus Christ is the judge, and he will judge the living.
In the same way, the Bible tells us that there will be a judgment of the dead. All the souls and spirits of all the history people who have lived through all the centuries of earth will one day be judged. At the consummation of the age, they will stand before the Throne of Christ. And the Apostle John, looking through the portals of time, prophetically, caught a glimpse of the consummation and the final judgement of the dead, and he said “I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it, and before His presence, earth and sky fled away and no room was found for them, and I saw the dead from all the generations past standing before the throne. And the books were opened. And another book which was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the book, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it and death in Hades gave up the dead in them and they were all judged by what was written in the books and then death in Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire, and if anyone’s name was not found in the Book of Like, then he, too, was thrown into the lake of fire.” A judgment of the dead. The Lord is Judge and He will judge the living and the dead.
The Bible also tells us that there is a third judgement for the Lord will judge Christians. This judgment is called the Bema, the judgment seat of Christ. It is not a judgment of heaven or hell for we have already passed out of death into life, but it is a judgment, nevertheless, and our lives will be evaluated, and much is at stake. The Apostle Paul said, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” He said, “Therefore, we make it our aim to please him, whether at home or away.” You see, God wants everyone in this world to know that judgment is coming. It’s not a very popular message today, but God wants everyone in this world to know that judgment is coming, and people will have to give an account.
Almost a hundred years ago, the United States Supreme Court made a Judgement concerning the tomato. According to the Tariff Act of 1883, fruit could be brought into the United States duty free, but vegetables could not be brought into the United States duty free. They would be charged duty. So, in 1886, when a man named John Nicks imported tomatoes from the West Indies to New York he was charged duty because they treated those tomatoes as vegetables, and he protested, and he was enraged. He said, “Any good botanist could tell you that the tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable.” And his case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1898. The Supreme Court justice gave a decision. They said, “the tomato, botanically, scientifically, biologically is indeed a fruit because it grows above the ground on a vine like the grape.” But they said, “Practically and experientially, the tomato is a vegetable because we do not eat it like fruit. We do not serve it as dessert. We eat it with our meals like a vegetable.” So, they said “By nature, the tomato is a fruit, but by law, it is a vegetable.”
Now we must all appear before the Supreme Court. Not an earthly one, but a heavenly Supreme Court and the Chief Justice is the Lord Himself, and He will make a determination, He will make a judgement, not as to whether or not you are a fruit or a vegetable, though that may be taken into consideration too. He will make a determination as to whether you are a Christian or a non-Christian, and if a Christian, what kind of Christian you might be. And you see, there are many people in that day who Christians might be theologically and doctrinally classified as Christians who practically and experientially do not function or live like Christians and that, too, will be taken into judgement. The Lord the Perfect Judge and only He has the power to heart of man.
In 1917, Isadore Zimmerman was born. He could not have known what destiny held for him in this life. Forty-two years later, in 1959, he was on trial for murder. He was accused of murdering a policeman. He swore he was innocent, but the judge did not believe him, and in that year 1959, the judge pronounced him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. But just last year, 1983, new evidence surfaced that proved that he had indeed, been innocent, and they released him after 24 years in prison. He was given $1,000,000 – $42,000 for every year he had been falsely imprisoned. And yet it’s not possible for us truly to atone for our false judgements. There’s only one judge who knows everything about you and about me.
It’s not possible for us to know the chemical makeup of a person at birth. It’s not possible for us to know the metabolic nature of a person and how their heredity and their chemistry affects their personality and their actions. We can’t filter through all that. It’s not possible for us to know any man’s history. We don’t know anybody’s wounds and emotional scars from their childhood. We don’t know. We can’t possibly understand the emotional baggage that a person brings to every action and decision, but God knows all that because before Him, no creature is hidden but all are open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. The Lord is the judge, and His judgement is this, “He who has the Son has life, and he who has not the Son has not life.”
You know there are many people in this world who do not believe in heaven or hell, and the way they live their life shows that they do not think they will over have to give an account. But the Bible tells us that heaven is real, and hell is real. Hell is exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. The Bible tells us that “God is not willing or wishing that any should experience hell” but He has made us free, and He will not force anyone into the kingdom of heaven. If you want to be your own king and if you want to be your own sovereign, if you want to be your own lord , God will give you that eternal privilege, but God wants you to know that exclusion from His presence is hell and that in His presence is “fullness of joy” and the Bible says, “at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.” God offers eternal life and an eternal inheritance to anyone who is willing to receive His Son as King. To anyone who is truly willing to make Him Lord, He offers the glory of heaven itself and it’s not a hollow sham. It is real. And he wants this hope to be constantly before us as Christians.
In 1955, and with this story we will close, the Quaker oat company decided they wanted to put very special surprises in every box of cereal. They didn’t want the normal toys in the boxes of their cereals. They wanted something the kids would really love, and the kids would really enjoy period now at that time, the Quaker Oat company sponsored a television program called Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. It was very popular with kids and so the Quaker Oat company bought a tract of land, 19 acres along the Yukon river, 12 miles north of Dawson city in the very heart of Sergeant Preston territory. They put this tract of land into the name of the Klondike Big Inch Land Company, and they divided these 19 acres into 21 million one-inch square plots of land. They printed up individually numbered deeds to every one of those 21 million square inch plots. They took those 21 million deeds and they put them in 21 million boxes of cereal. It was a great success.
Boys and girls all over this country wanted to have a legal title to one square into the land in Sergeant Preston territory. Now there’s no record of anyone ever going to the Yukon to inspect their holdings. They would have needed a microscope to do that, but one man wrote to the Quaker Oat company, and he told them that he had accumulated 10,000 deeds from 10,000 cereal boxes. He said that entitled him to a 75 square foot plot of land along the Yukon river. They wrote him back and they said, wrong! They were not adjacent to each other. They were scattered throughout the 19 acres and all of his deeds were useless. Of course, the whole thing was just a gimmick, and today the Canadian government has repossessed the land and those deeds have all become collectors’ items.
But you know, Jesus Christ has promised land to everyone who believes in Him, to everyone who partakes of Him. He’s promised that as Christians we will inherit the earth. He’s even promised us the new heavens and a new earth, and He is actually said that He has gone to prepare a place for us, and it’s not some kind of gimmick. It’s not some kind of meaningless toy at the end of a cereal box called life. It is real, and He wants us to take it seriously. He offers heaven itself to everyone who believes in his name. A place where death will be no more. Neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore and his judgment is this he who has the son has life. He who has not the son of God has not life. Shall we look to the Lord with the a of prayer?