Tabor: When God says, “This is the day!”

The sun creates a golden haze over the Israeli desert, with the rounded peak of Mount Tabor rising above the rolling landscape. — Image © Deborah Brunt

A fiery sun hangs in the sky over Mount Tabor in Israel. I stand on shore at the Sea of Galilee, transfixed by a view that seems surreal. For a few minutes, I think about Deborah – the Deborah in Scripture whom God called to be a prophet and a judge, the Deborah who stood on Mount Tabor and told a man named Barak:

Arise! For this is the day when the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Has the Lord not gone out before you? (Judg. 4:14 AMP)

Sixteen years later, I sit – gazing at the photo of Tabor taken that day in Israel, reflecting on the story of Deborah and Barak in Judges 4-5.¹

The story in a nutshell?

God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong. (1 Cor. 1:27 CEB)

The Lord took Deborah and Barak to Tabor to face down what had oppressed them and their people for many years. Pondering the image of that barely visible mountaintop, I ask,

Lord what in my own life has been sitting there in front of me, out of focus and almost hidden? What oppressor are you giving into my hands?

This is what the Lord commands

Routinely, for years, the people of Israel had gone to Deborah, to the place where she held court, “to have their disputes settled” (4:5 NET). God did not reprimand her for that. Nor did he make do with a woman because he couldn’t find a suitable man. No, the Lord called and equipped who he had chosen.

One day, Deborah did something different. She sent for a man from the tribe of Naphtali who had not planned to consult her – and she urged him to accept what may have seemed a suicide mission. When Barak arrived, Deborah got right to the point:

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: Call out 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor. And I will call out Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, along with his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River. There I will give you victory over him. (4:6-7)

I will go, if you go with me

My guess? As Deborah spoke, Barak stared at her, stunned. Then, he blinked and cleared his throat.

The Canaanite king named Jabin and his general, Sisera, had 900 iron chariots and who-knows-how-large an army of cruel, marauding soldiers. They had “ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years” (4:2-3). And in all that time, no one had tried to challenge them.²

Now, at long last, the people of Israel had begun crying out to the Lord for help.

In answer, God was rising up. But how could 10,000 hastily assembled troops from only two of Israel’s 12 tribes defeat such a foe? And if Barak did try to call up an army, who would listen? Would 10,000 men even show?

When Barak found his voice, he said an interesting thing to the woman standing before him.

I will go, but only if you go with me. (4:8)

You’ve got to give the man this:

He didn’t scoff at her or refuse to try, against such impossible odds.
What’s more, he recognized that Deborah knew and heard the Lord in a way he had not yet learned. And he was willing for his ego to take a hit, to make sure he went out with God’s presence, at God’s word.

Get ready and go

“So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh” (4:9). There, he sounded a call to arms to his own tribe and one other. Without hesitation, 10,000 men showed up. Then, Barak, his troops and Deborah went up to Mount Tabor.

When Sisera heard what Barak was doing, the Canaanite commander summoned “ALL 900 of his iron chariots and ALL of his warriors, and they marched … to the Kishon River” (4:12-13).

Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get ready! [Arise! Spring into action! Go!] This is the day the Lord will give you victory over Sisera, for the Lord is marching ahead of you.” (4:14)

And indeed God did!

Down from Tabor marched the few [10,000] against the [Canaanite] nobles. The people of the Lord marched down against mighty warriors. (5:13)

The people of Zebulun and Naphtali risked their lives on the battlefield. (5:18 GNT)

When Barak attacked, the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots and warriors into a panic. (4:15)

News of Barak’s attack and the Canaanites’ panic spread quickly through all Israel. Volunteers from the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, Issachar and the half-tribe of Manasseh joined the fray.

And the mighty Sisera? He abandoned his chariot and his troops in a vain attempt to save himself. His entire army fled in disarray and, that day, was defeated and destroyed. Meanwhile, when Sisera stopped to ask a woman for water, she executed a war criminal. Her name? Jael.

The Lord went out before them

A verse comes to mind, that The Message paraphrases this way:

Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? (1 Cor. 1:28)

When people across the land cried out to the Lord for help, he came to deliver. To start, he sought those who would actively cooperate with him.

None of the people who stepped up may have been seen by their culture as Somebody worthy to lead out in this impossible mission.

Deborah? She was like everyone’s mom. Yes, people trusted her to help them with their little disputes. But she held court under a palm tree. And she certainly had no military training.
Barak? What was his tribe’s name? Would a commander over Israel’s troops hail from that tribe? Or show such insecurity about his own abilities? Or give up the chance to get the glory that was his due?
The 10,000? None of those unnamed men who joined Barak to spearhead the mission came from the leading tribes in Israel. They came from two often-overlooked ones.
Jael? The other woman in this story lived in the land, but was not an Israelite. Her husband’s family (whom he had left) had made peace with Israel’s oppressors.

God sees what we overlook. At Tabor, the Lord went out before men and women who refused to pop popcorn, find a comfy seat on the sidelines and sit back to see if God could really save.

As they faced down what had continually defeated them – in the strength God supplied – they ushered in the deliverance he himself would bring. They experienced firsthand the victory he gave. They experienced God.

Awake! Arise! (And don’t forget the song)

On that day, Deborah and Barak sang. Judges 5 records their song. In it, they:

Told of those years of oppression – and the wrongdoing by God’s people that had opened them all to hardship.
Described the miracle victory God had given.
Delighted in the courageous ones who believed God, rose up and answered his call.
Chastised tribes whose men chose to sit at home.

Together, Deborah and Barak declared for all to hear:

I, even I, will sing to the Lord;
I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song! (5:3 NIV)

Together, they affirmed God’s call to each of them, that had led to this day:

Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake, awake, sing a song!
Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, son of Abinoam. (5:12 NAS)

Interesting thing about that verse: In Hebrew, God did not call Deborah to “sing.” He called her to “speak.” Before the victory song, before the battle, before Tabor, God called to Deborah:

→ Awake! He said it four times. In so doing, he urged: Do not stay where your culture’s traditions, or others’ disapproval, or your own selfishness or fear, might keep you. Each new day, wake up to my will and my ways!

→ Speak! In Hebrew, dabar. Did you know? The name Deborah comes from the Hebrew word dabar. So God’s call in that crucial moment echoed and affirmed his call on her life, the call he had written into her name:

“Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, dabar!” Speak up, declare, pronounce what I have said. Echo my call to a hard obedience. Live it out yourself.³

And the result God promised – and produced? A song – a new song. A song of deliverance and joy.

My soul, march on with strength

God called Deborah to awake and speak. He called Barak to arise and act. As both obeyed the Lord, they encouraged others to hear and obey him too.

Not everyone did. Not even almost everyone. But God already knew that would happen. He knew exactly how many would wake up and rise up to go with him. Thank you, Lord! You delighted in each one of them. Deborah and Barak did too. Together, the duo sang:

My heart goes out to Israel’s leaders and to those among the people who volunteer. (5:9 CJB)

Thank you, Lord! When even a remnant followed you, you gave the victory you had promised. That day, you began to free your people from what had relentlessly and ruthlessly oppressed them.⁴

Deborah and Barak recognized the victory as a beginning. Thus, as they co-led their song of joy, they encouraged themselves, and everyone who heard:

My soul, march on with strength! (5:21 NAS)

They cried to the Lord:

May all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength. (5:31 NIV)

I have given your oppressors into your hands

Today, as you picture and ponder the hazy top of Tabor, can you see anything in your own life that’s been sitting there in front of you, out of focus and almost hidden?

Take your time. Let God speak to you in your inmost part. Let him identify any oppressor he is giving into your hands. You may think first of people. Ah, but the prime oppressors – the oppressors behind the oppressors – are not flesh and blood.

They’re spirit. They can cruelly oppress people. They can goad people to oppress other people and to do so without feeling any qualms at all. Perhaps most distressing of all, these oppressors know how to hide themselves – and to point the blame somewhere else.⁵

Whether they come at us directly or through others, we can often identify them based on the way they oppress. Their names include, but are not limited to, the following. (Each link leads to a post where you can begin to explore that oppressor further.)

I will sing to the Lord

A cruel oppressor may have tormented you for years. You may have thought that you have to live that way for the rest of your life. You do not.

The first step toward freedom is this: Cry out to the Lord! Cry for help to Jesus, whose name means, “the Lord saves.” Call on the one who speaks Spirit-to-spirit to all who are his. Let him identify the true culprits, human and otherwise, the abusers you may not have seen. Let him stir up in you wisdom, courage, strength.

The second step, and just as crucial: Take courage! Acknowledge each oppressor God identifies. Believe what he reveals. Deal with spirit first. When your Lord shakes your world, wake up. When he summons you, rise up. When he promises to deliver, step out in his name toward that thing that has robbed and shackled you for so long.

And the third step? Don’t forget the song! Don’t just go back to the daily grind without first standing in awe at what God did, what others did, what you did – that utterly amazes you.

Celebrate each victory, collective or personal, large or small. Recount the story. Thank the courageous. Praise the Lord. Experience the joy of living out God’s call – and knowing he has chosen you.

Oh dear one! May you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.

This post replaces a “mini-post,” published on this blog January 17, 2012, and simply titled “Tabor.”

Footnotes

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in this post are from Judges 4-5 in the New Living Translation. ↩︎
“The iron chariots of the Canaanites were objects of terror to the Israelites.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, commentary on Joshua 17:16, quoted on Biblehub.com) ↩︎
The song in Judges 5 includes two Hebrew words for “sing.” Neither word appears in Judges 5:12. There, the Lord deliberately uses a different word – dabar, “speak.” ↩︎
See Judges 4:23-24; 5:31. ↩︎
I deal with this subject at length in my book exploring the lives of King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the prophet Elijah. It’s just been updated, and it’s titled, The Elijah Blessing: An Undivided Heart. ↩︎

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