Judg 5

Devotion 1 of 1: Judg 5

Deborah was the only woman judge of Israel, and under her courageous leadership another woman, Jael, bravely stepped forward and played a strategic role in helping to defeat the enemy. When Sisera, the enemy commander, was trying to escape, she welcomed him into her tent! When he fell asleep from exhaustion, she fearlessly hammered a peg through his temple and killed him (4:17-21)!
In Deborah’s song of victory in this chapter, she points out a cruel fate that many women have suffered in history—becoming slaves to the enemy if the enemy wins, as v.30a says, “‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil: To every man a girl or two…” What a horrible fate that perhaps millions of women have suffered around the world down through history!
Let’s do what we can to encourage, love, respect, and lift up the women around us! Let’s pray that God will raise up many thousands of Deborahs in Japan in the last days and use them mightily to lead many people out of bondage to sin into salvation in Jesus! Let’s pray for the precious sisters we have in SI and pray the Deborahs in them will be released and do the mighty works of Jesus!

JUDG 6: Free sharing!
Gideon, the 5th judge of Israel, appears in this chapter (v.11). He is the picture of the small, weak hero (v.15), facing a big, strong enemy, the Midianites (v.2). In that sense, Gideon serves as a good model of the church in Japan or other nations where the church is small and faces a formidable enemy of strong religious traditions or oppressive politics, etc.
The Midianites were vicious. They destroyed Israel’s crops and stole their livestock, leaving them impoverished (v.3-6). The Jews had to escape to the mountains and live in caves to survive (v.2). We can apply this to the endtime, when AC will be the vicious enemy, persecuting and imprisoning Christians.
But the reason Israel was being oppressed was because of their own evil and disobedience (v.1, 10). In v.7-10, God sent a prophet who reprimanded Israel for their sins. The Scriptures don’t record Israel’s response, but I believe they repented and returned to God. This opened the way for God to raise up a judge, Gideon, who would lead them to victory over the enemy!
Like Israel, let us cry out to God, repent of our sins and seek Him for revival. And, like Gideon, even though the church in Japan looks small and weak, God will transform us into endtime harvesters and warriors to win millions of souls to Him in this nation!