On the playground and in the classroom, teachers discover quickly the obvious cycle of disobedience in human behavior: 

1. Disobedience to authority because our way provides instant gratification
2. Denying the disobedience because, “everyone else is doing it”
3. Lying about the disobedience, “she did it first so I thought it was okay”
4. Rationalize and rank the disobedience, “what I did is not as bad as what he did”
5. Admitting the sin without regret, “okay, I did it, but it didn’t hurt anyone”
6. Giving up trying to defend the sin, “well, I suppose that is wrong”
7. Repenting of the sin when it can be no longer hidden “I give up, you’re right, it was wrong”, but without sincerity.
8. Offenders fall to their knees in humbled remorse for their disobedience, “I am so sorry. I do not want to do that again!”
9. Realize the full measure of sin that affects everyone.  “Beg for forgiveness. Ask for merciful punishment; “Please forgive me, for I have sinned against you. I deserve punishment. Please be merciful.”
10. Lead and teach me. “I’m ready to learn and grateful for your forgiveness.”

I am reminded of Jesus story of the Arrogant Pharisee and the Humbled Tax Collector. (See Luke 18-9-14) Bottom line; those who are honest before God; “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” will be justified before God. 

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul tells the world. (Romans 3:23” So, no one can boast of perfection!  God knows our hearts and gives us who we need.  God gave us a Perfect Savior to redeem us by taking the punishment we deserve but could not pay. Jesus who was without sin and died in our place for our punishment for sin.  Talk about mercy! —God is the definition of mercy demonstrated in his Son, Jesus!

This cycle of wrong doing called sin began with Adam and Eve. Sin, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord with defiance, continues as the children of God settle in the Promised Land. God gave the Land with a stipulation—remove all who do evil.  But they did not. 

God created a beautiful garden (no weed to pull) for his newly created man and woman to live.  Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, “in His image, they were created.” (Genesis 2)  Then sin with all practices to acquire to cover sin were introduced to them by God’s Enemy.  They fell for it, right in the middle of paradise.  They could live freely enjoying this beautiful, perfect place as long as they obeyed God’s one stipulation, “Don’t eat from this tree.”  But they ate.  Say what you will about how easily Adam and Eve fell; but we are tempted to do the same—and we do.  Since The Fall we are a hopeless lot of disobedient sinners until God sent Jesus to rescue all of us, once and for all.  He is our Hope!

Throughout the book of Judges, we will learn that the compassion of God cannot and does not fail.  God is faithful, even when His people are not faithful to Him.  In a culture where women are considered less than and certainly not equal to men by men; God tells us a story about Deborah, the Judge, who loved God. God gives this prophet of His, his wisdom to decide disputes. Deborah listened to God and told others what God said. She must have had committed heart for God, for committed hearts is what God looks for continuously to do His work with purpose and mission. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Deborah was a wise woman of God at a time when the Israelites “did evil in the eyes of God.” 

Ah, but wait, there’s another woman who bravely supported God’s mission…Jael!

Judges 4

Deborah

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. ² So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. ³ Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.

⁴ Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. ⁵ She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. ⁶ She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. ⁷ I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

⁸ Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

⁹ “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰ There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.

¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.

¹² When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, ¹³ Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.

¹⁴ Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. ¹⁵ At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. ¹⁷ Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸ Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

¹⁹ “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

²⁰ “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’”

²¹ But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

²² Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.

²³ On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. ²⁴ And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We are not perfect.  Since the Fall, we were born into sin.  We are not good, even though we attempt to obey all the commandments of God. “Only God is good,” teaches Jesus. Fortunately, God does not seek perfection from us as much as He seeks a committed humbled heart of honesty.  God’s desire is for us to listen to Him and seek His wisdom.  God knows all and is in all.  God’s wants us to realize the deeply profound love He has for us that has no limits.  God is faithful and His compassions they fail not, cries out the lamenter of God; “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness!” Lamentations 3:22-23)

God chooses Deborah, the person with the strongest character to lead His people to victory at crucial times. The key elements for such leadership are faith, trust, and worship. For such a time as this; it was Deborah—who knew the culture but obeyed God’s mission as a woman of God.

Our response is to humbly ask God for His wisdom daily to guide us in all the details of our lives.  Ask God to help us develop our own character by imitation the characteristics of Christ—our Supreme Example; then imitate the godly characteristics of Christ. God answers sincere prayers such as this.  Paul writes of Jesus;

“Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:1-14

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”—Jesus, Luke 18:9-14

Jesus taught and demonstrated humility—a character trait we all must acquire and hold onto as we live wholeheartedly in the Presence of our loving, merciful God.

Oh Lord,

I, too, am a sinner in need of a daily cleansing as I rely on your redemption for sin.  All my faith, trust, love, and hope are in You for You are Life to me. I’m humbled, once again, for all you did to save my soul and all the souls who have called on your Name for redemption to be set free.

In Jesus Name, Amen