We often struggle to read and feel poetry. But it is important for us to understand and feel from this song because this is a part of God’s word. This is a song that is also meant to be sung and internalise.
(A) A song to the Lord (Judges 5:1-11)
This was a song of Deborah and Barak (Jdg 5:1). This song was given for them to remember this great victory of the Lord. Note that it was both Deborah and Barak singing — both men and women worship God in song! Thus, it is certainly not a feminine thing to sing or write songs. King David, a man of war, was also a man of words who composed so many psalms. After the people were led through the Red Sea, Moses led the people to sing (Ex 15:1).
What did the people do? Deborah and Barak sang of how the leaders led Israel and the people offered themselves (Jdg 4:2). They are singing because God is giving a unity of spirit to different parts of God’s people. We can infer what she was worried about. After all, she needed to persuade Barak to go (Jdg 4:8).
What did God do? We see a picture of God’s power that all creation quakes. And here, God is also part of the battle, a warrior moving through the earth. He leaves Seir and marched from Edom and even Sinai quaked (Jdg 4:4-5).
Sinai was many generations ago so why this mention? The Lord brought them from mount to mount. They are invoking the same kind of picture of God from the Exodus to their present circumstances.
Deborah and Barak recognised that it was hard to galvanise the people. And they understood their victory through the lens of history. They are interpreting their circumstances according to the Bible and they are teaching us how to read the Bible. We should see ourselves having experienced a similar victory. The God who delivered the people from the Red Sea and led them through the wilderness is our God who fights for us today.
In Judges 4:3, they sing of how they are going to sing. We might find it strange but it is similar to what is written in places like Psalm 57:5-9. These are ways of describing the commitment of the believer to be focused. The psalmist’s response to the struggle is to praise God. After all, it is very hard to listen to other things when one is singing. Singing is an act that brings together the head, flesh and emotions.
This is why we sing:
Come, thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it
Mount of God’s unchanging love!
In what ways are our worship deficient? Who are you focussing on? What are you focussing on as you sing? Deborah and Barak teaches us to focus on the Lord.
This song also refers to the civic, religious and military context of the day. For the civic context, we read of how in the days of Shamgar (c.f. Jdg 4:31), people did not travel on the highways but kept on the byways because it was safer (Jdg 5:6). What was going on in the promised land? People were afraid of being robbed or of violence.
We also learn about the religious state, for the people worshiped new gods, signifying how they abandoned the God of their fathers and turned to idolatry. The unfaithfulness of God’s people led to “war … in the gates” (Jdg 5:8).
We also read of how the people did not have shield of spear (Jdg 5:8). Such is the state of the military.
What is celebrated in the song? They sing of the righteous triumph of the Lord (Jdg 5:10-11). They also call all — both rich and poor — to sing about it (Jdg 5:10). All of Israel was to fix their eyes on God in song.
At the centre of this song is what God has done. We can be thankful for all that God has done for us but let us not forget that the greatest thing that God has done, the most important thing, is the great victory that He has won for us on the cross, This is the one thing that we can sing for all eternity!
(B) A song of battle (Judges 5:12-23)
Israel is marching down in their tribes, led by Barak and Deborah (Jdg 5:12-15a). This is the great battle scene of this account. Six tribes are named — Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar, Naphtali, Manasseh, though their contributions are also described poetically. God brought the people together and united them under the leadership of Deborah and Barak.
Yet, four tribes did not respond — Reuben, Gilead (or Gad), Dan and Asher (Jdg 5:15b-17). Deborah and Barak were calling them out for not fighting for Israel because they were secure.
The writer of Judges also records for us how the kings came and fought the kings of Canaan at Taanach, by the water of Megiddo, and the kings of Canaan lost (Jdg 5:19). The stars also fought (Jdg 5:20), i.e. heaven was fighting on behalf of God’s people. There is a correlation being drawn between the success of the battle and divine favour. God is fighting against the enemies of God’s people.
From Judges 5:21, we get a sense that the river Kishon also swept up and swallowed up the army, just like what happened at the Red Sea. We do not know if it really happened in this way but the key is that Deborah and Barak saw this deliverance as another Red Sea victory. God’s people continue to live in the Scriptures and never exit it.
God is the one who fights for His people. If we follow the logic of Judges 5:21, it is possible that there is no fight at all for the Lord fought throughout!
This idea of a spiritual battle where God fights for us is not a new one. This is the picture in Ephesians 6:10-12. What weapons do you have to fight this kind of fight? How are we going to defend ourselves against the spiritual onslaught that is going to come our way? We are told to fight the fight that God is fighting, using His weapons which have been given to us because He is the one at war. This chapter has little to do with our willpower but everything to do with our focus. If we are focused on the Lord, who is the one doing the battle, we will find strength. The more we look to our willpower, the more weakness we will find.
What are you fighting today? Look to the Lord! He is the one who fights our battles.
(C) A song of victory (Judges 5:24-31)
Jael appears in the text in Judges 5:24, late in the chapter. Her victory is recapped in these verses and they sing of how this serpent’s head is crushed (Jdg 5:25-27).
The mother of Sisera is introduced at the end of the song (Jdg 5:28-30). She is described as wondering why Sisera is delayed for his chariots and horses cannot be heard. Little did she know that he lay dead at the hands of a woman. This is not for empathy but to show how expectations were overturned. The pride, arrogance and barbarism of the Canaanites — displayed by Sisera’s mother — is being highlighted here.
This is a statement of how God’s enemies are unexpectedly brought to an end. This is a warning for us too. We are not to envy the world and to cling on to prestige and might as the world does. All who rests in the Lord will be safe. All who reject God and His offers of mercy and forgiveness will find themselves under judgement.
The text finally closes with comfort in Judges 5:31. While His enemies perish, His friends are like the sun that rises in his might. The sun begins rising with a warm glow but eventually reaches the position of the noonday sun and shines clearly.
As we read in Malachi 4:1-3, for those who know the Lord, they will enjoy victory. Remember that God has promised to raise a sun of righteousness to be at full peak for those who know Him!
What are you going through right now? Perhaps this is a word of comfort that you need. But don’t overimpose your circumstances on these verses.
Years later, in Luke 1:76-79, we read of how the arrival of Jesus is this light that has dawned upon a darkened world. We have a reason to sing to the Lord today! We sing to the Lord and we sing about His great victory because the gospel is at the centre of the universe. Are you friends with Jesus? Have you made peace with Him? If this is you, this sunrise is already shining on us.