As you read Judges 4-5, remember that God thinks you are AWESOME! Focus on what you can do and not on what you wish you could do. Then what seemed to be impossible will become possible. Take in the lessons learned and seek ways to apply these teachings in your life.

Within today’s passage, notice that the people revert back and forth between their own ways and then back to God’s Way when going through difficulty. There would be success when they followed God’s Way but extreme difficulty when they did not. For example: we note that the people had turned away from God and were sold into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan. They were cruelly oppressed and cried to the Lord for help (v. 3).

Deborah was leading Israel and Barak was her military leader. Deborah created a plan to attack Canaan and their army leader named Sisera. The army of Israel under the leadership of Barak routed the army of Sisera and Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael who was thought to be a friendly ally but she drove a tent peg through his temple while he was sleeping.

Barak continued to pursue Sisera and then found out from Jael that Sisera was dead. Since Canaan was without a military leader, Barak pressed harder and led the Israelites to victory over Jabin king of Canaan. For this reason, Deborah and Barak are considered to be co-deliverers of Israel.

One take away from today’s passage is that great things can be done with God’s help because He prepares the way.

Those against us don’t stand a chance because we know God is our strength and we work together to advance His cause.

Lord … You are our strength and we rely on You to help us carry the load of this world. You give us the strength to overcome the enemy when our total focus on You. The enemies we face are our concerns, our doubts, and the worries of today. Help us today as we face our challenges with confidence because You made everything and You made us so our worth is beyond measure. You gave Your Son to redeem us and we are of infinite worth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.