Victory Through God's Leading

Judges 5:1-5,31: "On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song: 'When the princes in Israel take the lead, and when the people willingly offer themselves-praise the LORD! Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers. I will sing to the LORD, I will sing; I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel. O LORD . . . . You marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water. The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel . . . . So may your enemies perish, O LORD! But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.' "

The Song of Deborah is a triumphal story of God's victory for his chosen people over those enemies who desired to use and eventually destroy them. In chapter 4 of Judges, Deborah and Barak engaged Sisera, the commander of the pagan Canaanite army, in battle. Sisera and his king, Jabin, had defeated the Jewish people 20 years earlier, and had subjected them to harsh, oppressive slavery. This enslavement was the result of God's judgment upon the Israelites for their prior wicked rebellion against the LORD, after Ehud's reign as judge (Judges 4:1). This judgment brought the Jews to the realization that they had sinned against the Lord; and as a result, they cried to the Lord for help. God raised up Deborah and Barak for the purpose of leading His people in deliverance from their enemies.

Sisera had an impressive 900 iron chariot army with him; by all observations, this army should have been impenetrable. Still, the leaders of the Israelite army knew that God was on their side, and He would bring victory despite the circumstances at hand. Thus, they stepped out onto the battlefield with the ultimate assurance that Divine victory was imminent.

When God brought a landslide victory for the Jewish people, resulting in the complete annihilation of the Canaanite warriors, Deborah sang a song of praise to the LORD. In this tribute, Deborah acknowledged that God had gone before them, marching into the Promised Land before the Israelites to assure victory for His people; she praised the LORD for His Providential guidance. She also acknowledged that the leaders had to be willing to lead the people and the people had to surrender themselves to this Divine calling. God expected His people to respond with faith; otherwise, the opportunity for deliverance could have passed.

When God's people are ready and willing to respond to His leading, they will rise up in His strength to attain victory over their enemies. No one has chosen to be obedient to the calling of the LORD only to regret it later.

The Apostle Paul appropriately shared this concept of ultimate victory through Christ in Romans 8:31,38, "if God be for us, who can be against us . . . . Neither death nor life, angels nor demons, the present nor the future, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus or Lord."

Choose this day to be obedient to the LORD. Follow His leading through the battlefields of life. Engage your enemies with the assurance that God is going before you to give you victory. And praise the LORD for your deliverance from those people and things that would desire to enslave you and use you.