The good kind of bad

This is the only section of the Book of Judges read in the entire cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary, readings of the bible that take us three years of Sundays to complete.

The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the second book in a section called the Nevi’im, known to some as the books of the prophets.

The Nevi’im follows the Torah which includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Those books are books of instruction and describe God’s law for all of us.

Within the Nevi’im, the Book of Judges follows Joshua which we have been reading these past weeks.

Joshua talks about, in part, the Hebrews settling in the land promised to them by God and the culmination of the forty-year journey that began after the exodus from Egypt.

So, in terms of a timeline, Moses has died after leading God’s people Israel through the wilderness; Joshua has died after leading God’s people into Israel and although they promised to continue to worship the God of Moses and Joshua, the Israelites start to stray.

They begin to cohabitate with the Canaanites who were on the land prior to the Israelites return.

They even begin to worship Canaanite Gods.

Eventually, though, the Israelites become vassals to or oppressed by neighboring states or even the very neighbors whose God’s the Israelites took on for themselves.

The Israelites then mend their ways and they call out to the God who led them out of Egypt; the God who promised Abraham a people as numerous as the stars.

And God forgives God’s people.

He frees them from the yoke of oppression and they are given leaders to see them through.

These leaders are known to some as chieftains or shoftim, but some experts disagree that such a role existed at this point in Israel’s history.

We know these leaders as Judges.

Now, you might have caught something here.

A plural.

This is not the Book of Judge; this is the Book of Judges.

Because a pattern develops.

The Israelites do evil.

They worship other gods or some such thing.

Then God’s people find themselves under the thumb of some foreign kingdom and they return to God, they ask God for help.

And God sends them a leader who is imbued with the spirit of God.

And that leader, that Judge, defeats the enemy.

Finally, after a struggle, peace is returned to the Israelites.

But again, remember that plural sense.

Because this happens over and over again.

God’s chosen people sin; they are overcome by conquering forces, God sends help, they are freed, they sin, they are conquered, they are freed, sin, conquered, freed.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Up to the point of this morning’s reading, Joshua has died and the Edomites have taken over the Israelites.

The Israelites then found freedom under the leadership of Othniel after eight years of Edomite control.

They were then free for forty years until the Israelites returned to sin.

After Othniel, they were vanquished by the Moabites and oppressed by them for almost twenty years.

Ehud was then lifted up by God to lead the Israelites away from Moabite control.

After a while though, well.

You get the story.

The Israelites once more fell into sin and they again asked for help.

And again, God helped.

And that is where we are in this morning’s story.

The Israelites have been overtaken by King Jabin of Caanan and they were ruled cruelly for twenty years.

They were unable to overcome this tyrant whose army included nine-hundred chariots, so they asked God for help and God sent them to Deborah.

Deborah!

Not Joshua.

Not Othniel.

Not Ehud.

Not a male at all.

But Deborah.

And what makes this stand out, to me at least, is the absolute non-event the bible makes this out to be.

Deborah is introduced as Othniel and Ehud were.

There is no exception made, no amazement that Deborah was of another gender, she was the Judge of Israel at the time she was called to lead God’s people from the yoke of oppression.

And that is to be celebrated and I do.

I hold Deborah in as high esteem as I do Ruth and Esther and the other great women of the bible for their stories should be told just as the stories of so many strong women of this day and age should be told and celebrated.

And today, we celebrate Deborah.

Now, I do try to stick to the readings as they appear in the lectionary, but this morning I’m going to go a bit further in the story we just listened to.

Because Deborah is pretty bad.

But the good kind of bad.

She’s bad like eighties bad, when everything good was bad.

She’s bad like bad in 1985 bad.

Good bad.

You get what I’m saying.

So, she summons her neighbor Barak to confront the Canaanite general Sisera once Deborah draws him out.

Deborah tells Barak that God has commanded this and Barak complies.

Barak then takes his ten thousand troops and awaits Sisera’s army.

Deborah is with the army helping to maintain command and she sees Sisera, and says to Barak, “Up! For this is the day on which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. The Lord is indeed going out before you.”

Barak and his army certainly got up, and they crushed Sisera’s army.

The last line of Judges chapter 4, verse 16 reads simply, no one was left.

Yes, Deborah was pretty bad.

Ultimately, her armies defeated all the Canaanites and Israel once more became free.

It is quite a story and I have condensed a lot of it.

And, in the words of Paul Harvey, here’s the rest of the story.

Because it doesn’t end there.

Deborah and Barak ruled for a number of years, but after them, the Israelites returned to sin and the Midianites invaded and once the Midianites were conquered, there was a time of peace under Gideon and Abimelech and Tola and Jar.

Yet, still, the Israelites sinned again, and the Ammonites invaded.

They then called on God for help and God freed them once more and there was a time of peace until they sinned again, and the Philistines invaded.

Only then does Samuel come on the scene and the Israelites enter into a new age.

And following Samuel begins the age of Kings.

The Book of Judges covers almost four hundred years of history.

And it’s kind of exhausting to read because it seems that almost every time they are saved from oppression and invasion, the Israelites fall into sin again.

Yet, while sin is a constant theme in this book, as is the return to sinful ways, so too is redemption.

Each and every time the Israelites call out to God, every time they ask God for help, to be saved from the Edomites and the Moabites and the Canaanites and the Midianites and the Ammonites and the Philistines, God answers yes and yes and yes and yes and yes and yes.

Yes, I will save you.

Yes, I will forgive you.

Yes, you shall be redeemed.

And you shall be rescued by the one I send, man or woman, you shall be saved.

That is our lesson.

That is the consequence of believing in God.

That no matter how many times you fall, God will lift you up.

And this is not just a promise for each of us as an individual.

No this is God responding to our pleas as a people.

Forgive us Lord, for we have sinned.

Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.

Ask for forgiveness and you shall receive it.

Change your ways and we shall experience years of peace and prosperity promised to us by God as attested to by this frustrating book.

So, after this, after this sermon, after the Creed and the Prayers of the People, I ask you this.

Take seriously the Confession and know you are being absolved of your sins.

Take seriously the passing of the peace and know you are making a right relationship with your neighbor, your friend, your family.

And after we have confessed and after we have shared in the peace we acn now visit the table where we will experience Christ’s presence in all of us.

Christ to give us peace, Christ to share in our hope.

And then we shall exit this place.

Some until next Sunday and others until, maybe later on, but let us leave this place and share the love of God in word and action.

And just like God, may we forgive.

And forgive.

And forgive.

And just like Deborah.

Let us enter into the world and be bad.

But bad in a good way.

You know what I’m saying.

Amen.