June 29, 2019: Day 63 – Judges 5

What a beautiful song of triumph.  It reminds me a lot of a song about those who are champions.  Here is a clip of what I am thinking. 

But look at all the people who are represented in this song of conquest in Judges.  You have the every day Israelites who are depicted as prospering even in the midst of war.  I love in vs.7 where you see what would have been the lower class, there was no middle class, who prospered because of the plunder of the various conquests.  What a great image where you see all of society able to prosper and not just the wealthy, not just those who were present to gather the spoils.   What a great image.

Then Deborah is extolled as someone who is called to wake up.  Not sure what that is about.  Barak, the general who really called Deborah’s leadership into question, is definitely given a bit more credit than Deborah is here, as the battle is seen much more through his lens than anyone else.  Then you have at the end a somewhat poignant rendition of Sisera’s mom waiting for him to come home.  I think it is interesting that it isn’t his wife, but rather his mom.  His mom is wondering why he is so late in coming home.  I know, it must be because he is trying to discern what I would like best out of the spoils that he has gathered up.  It never enters his or her mind that they would lose.  It is just the lowly Israelites and we have chariots of iron.

There was peace for another 40 years.  Keep in mind that this number 40 means something.  For 40 years the people wandered in Israel and were weeded out.  It seems like that once a generation passes the new generation needs to relearn how God is faithful and what God is really able to do.  It seems like the same is true for us as well.  Once a generation passes, like the greatest generation, my generation forgets what it took to make us who we are today.  But in matters of faith I hope that we are able to pass down our faith in a way that the next generation knows who God is because of how we raised our children.  You can’t inherit faith, but you can place your children within a context that they are exposed to it in a positive way.