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But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.”

^50-51 Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.”

The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”

^52-53 He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, “The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o’clock.” The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”

^53-54 That settled it. Not only he but his entire household believed. This was now the second sign Jesus gave after having come from Judea into Galilee. (The Message)

This was a miracle of/over both space and time. Jesus did not have to ”come down and heal” his son, as the man had requested. He just had to speak ”the bare word” and the healing happened – at that very moment (as he discovered when he got home).

What a picture of faith we have in verse 54. If you believe Jesus has clearly spoken a word to your heart, what will it mean for you to believe it and ‘head home’? What will that look like in your situation? What will be its equivalent for you?

“The voice you believe will determine the future you experience” Steven Furtick

 Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king’s court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that he come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: “Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.”

⁴⁹ But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.” (The Message)

Desperation can add tenacity, fervency and persistence to your prayers. Unless you know that you are asking outside God’s will, pray on. This nobleman and the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30/Matt.15:21-28) had a lot in common. They would not let Him go.

Pray through to breakthrough!

‘Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Genesis 32:26 (NIV)

‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.’ James 5:16 (NIV)

‘To strive in prayer means to struggle through those hindrances which would restrain or even prevent us entirely from continuing in persevering prayer. It means to be so watchful at all times that we can notice when we become slothful in prayer and that we go to the Spirit of prayer to have this remedied. In this struggle, too, the decisive factor is the Spirit of prayer.’ Ole Hallesby

After the two days he left for Galilee. Now, Jesus knew well from experience that a prophet is not respected in the place where he grew up. So when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, but only because they were impressed with what he had done in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast, not that they really had a clue about who he was or what he was up to. (The Message)

‘”Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. This means that to be a follower of Jesus, you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life.” John Ortberg

There can be an interest in/fascination with/even excitement about Jesus. But this is not to be confused with genuine discipleship.

Kyle Idleman wrote a book entitled ‘Not a fan’. This is a summary of his book from Tyler Devries:

‘Fans are enthusiastic admirers, but never in the game.

My concern is that many of our churches in America have gone from being sanctuaries to becoming stadiums.

The biggest threat to the church today is fans who call themselves Christians but aren’t actually interested in following Christ. They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything from them.

Fans are happy to follow Jesus as long as that doesn’t require any significant changes or have negative implications.

Fans want Jesus to inspire them, but Jesus wants to interfere with their lives.

Fans often confuse their admiration for devotion. They mistake their knowledge of Jesus for intimacy with Jesus. Fans assume their good intentions make up for their apathetic faith.’

“Discipleship is a daily discipline; we follow Jesus a step at a time, a day at a time” ~ Warren W. Wiersbe

PRAYER: Lord help me to do just that, to follow you a step at a time, a day at a time – to orientate my whole life around you. Jesus be the centre.

Nothing I have written about Deborah in recent days is the final word about her. So much more could be said. This will always be the case, wherever we are in the Bible. But I do want to share some final thoughts (for now) about her, before we move on. They are not mine, but they come from John Maxwell’s ‘Great Leaders of the Bible.’ I regularly find that, when God wants to show me something, the necessary ‘bits and pieces’ come together at the right time. As I was about to write about Deborah, I found, in my inbox, this excerpt from Maxwell’s latest book. I’ve already quoted one or two extracts, but here are some others that I think you will find helpful:

‘The account of God’s interaction with people is one story after another of him doing the unexpected. Time after time God showed his people that he doesn’t think the way they think and he doesn’t work the way they work.

Person after person in Scripture was surprised by God: Noah was surprised when God told him it would rain when it never had before. Abraham was surprised when God said he would be father of a nation when he had no child. Joseph’s brothers were surprised when the brother they sold as a slave ended up the leader of Egypt. Moses was surprised when God wanted a meek stutterer to lead the Israelites. Samuel was surprised when God told him David would be the next king. David surprised everyone when God gave him Goliath’s head in personal combat. Naaman was surprised when he was asked to bathe in the Jordan River and God healed him. And the list goes on. God likes to surprise us.

Deborah’s story is a fantastic illustration of how God does the unexpected. At a time when women had no rights and the rulers, warriors, and decision-makers of the world were men, Deborah was the judge of Israel. She held court, and Israelites from all over the country came to her so she could settle disputes, similar to how the children of Israel sought out Moses when they were in the desert.

Furthermore, Deborah was more than a judge. She was a prophet—unlike all the other judges of the Old Testament. Most of the other judges were warriors, and when God spoke to them, he did so through angels. But God delivered his messages directly to Deborah, which was very uncommon. The Bible has a record of only eight prophets before Deborah.

After the Israelites experienced 20 years of oppression, Deborah received a message from God that he wanted to help them. And God was very specific. He wanted Barak to command ten companies of soldiers and make them ready to do battle in the Kishon River Valley, while Deborah had responsibility for getting the Canaanite king’s army and Sisera, the commander, there. The question was how the Israelites would respond. After all, their expectations for themselves were low. They had been oppressed for a generation and had done nothing to free themselves.

The expectations of the Canaanites toward them were also low. On their own, the Israelites would have had no chance to win a battle. The Canaanites who ruled over them were well armed and equipped with 900 iron chariots—the equivalent of tanks against poorly trained foot soldiers today.

But God had different expectations for them. With his help, he knew they would win.

Deborah shared God’s confidence, so she may have been surprised when she delivered the message from God to Barak and he refused to go on his mission without her. Maybe he believed that they could not win without her presence, that she needed to watch the battle the way Moses had watched and prayed as Joshua fought the Amalekites. Maybe he wanted her to die along with him if their forces were defeated. Who knows? But she agreed to go. So we can add military commander to her list of unexpected titles, along with judge and prophet.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “If you can explain what is going on, then God isn’t doing it!” God wants us to wait and depend on him.’

“Then the people of the Lord
    went down to the city gates.
¹² ‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah!
    Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Arise, Barak!
    Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’

¹³ “The remnant of the nobles came down;
    the people of the Lord came down to me against the mighty.
¹⁴ Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek;
    Benjamin was with the people who followed you.
From Makir captains came down,
    from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s staff.
¹⁵ The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
    yes, Issachar was with Barak,
    sent under his command into the valley.
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
¹⁶ Why did you stay among the sheep pens
    to hear the whistling for the flocks?
In the districts of Reuben
    there was much searching of heart.
¹⁷ Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
    And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast
    and stayed in his coves.
¹⁸ The people of Zebulun risked their very lives;
    so did Naphtali on the terraced fields.

¹⁹ “Kings came, they fought,
    the kings of Canaan fought.
At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo,
    they took no plunder of silver.
²⁰ From the heavens the stars fought,
    from their courses they fought against Sisera.
²¹ The river Kishon swept them away,
    the age-old river, the river Kishon.
    March on, my soul; be strong!
²² Then thundered the horses’ hooves—
    galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.
²³ ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord.
    ‘Curse its people bitterly,
because they did not come to help the Lord,
    to help the Lord against the mighty.’

²⁴ “Most blessed of women be Jael,
    the wife of Heber the Kenite,
    most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
²⁵ He asked for water, and she gave him milk;
    in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
²⁶ Her hand reached for the tent peg,
    her right hand for the workman’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
    she shattered and pierced his temple.
²⁷ At her feet he sank,
    he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
    where he sank, there he fell—dead.

²⁸ “Through the window peered Sisera’s mother;
    behind the lattice she cried out,
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
    Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’
²⁹ The wisest of her ladies answer her;
    indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
³⁰ ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:
    a woman or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
    colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments for my neck—
    all this as plunder?’

³¹ “So may all your enemies perish, Lord!
    But may all who love you be like the sun
    when it rises in its strength.”

Then the land had peace forty years. (NIV)

Someone observed that the problem many Christians have is that they listen to themselves rather than talking to themselves. We need to learn to preach to ourselves. Never more so than when we feel the heat of battle, and there are discouragements.

The more this wonderful song goes on, the more obvious it becomes that not all the people were ”willingly” offering themselves (2). There was, in fact, some holding back. Tom Hale writes: ‘Reuben thought about coming, but in the end didn’t (verse 16). Gilead (Gad), Dan and Asher also did not come to help (verse 17). No doubt the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Asher believed it was in their best interest not to join the battle against Sisera; they didn’t want to get involved, they didn’t want to take the risk, they had their own affairs to attend to, But in the end they were the losers; they incurred Deborah’s (and God’s) displeasure. Those who do not step forward and volunteer their services to God will always miss the blessings God gives to those who serve Him with all their heart and soul (Deuteronomy 10:12; 11:13-15).’

There are moments when you really do have exhort your inner man (or woman) and say, ”March on, my soul; be strong!” Yes there are very real discouragements, but you know that God has called you, and will cause you to triumph.

‘Pastor Jack Hayford observed, “Nothing is more limiting than the self-​imposed boundaries we clap around our own lives when we require God to fit our expectations.” Deborah certainly did not do that. She was open to what God wanted to do. Her story makes it clear that God wants to connect with us by coming down to where we are, but his desire is to raise us up to where we could be.’ John Maxwell

 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

² “When the princes in Israel take the lead,
    when the people willingly offer themselves—
    praise the Lord!

³ “Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
    I, even I, will sing to the Lord;
    I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song.

⁴ “When you, Lord, went out from Seir,
    when you marched from the land of Edom,
the earth shook, the heavens poured,
    the clouds poured down water.
⁵ The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai,
    before the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁶ “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
    in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned;
    travelers took to winding paths.
⁷ Villagers in Israel would not fight;
    they held back until I, Deborah, arose,
    until I arose, a mother in Israel.
⁸ God chose new leaders
    when war came to the city gates,
but not a shield or spear was seen
    among forty thousand in Israel.
⁹ My heart is with Israel’s princes,
    with the willing volunteers among the people.
    Praise the Lord!

¹⁰ “You who ride on white donkeys,
    sitting on your saddle blankets,
    and you who walk along the road,
consider ¹¹ the voice of the singers at the watering places.
    They recite the victories of the Lord,
    the victories of his villagers in Israel. (NIV)

What a difference one person can make in the purposes of God (7). It could be either a man or a woman (or a child or young person), but there comes a point where, with a vision burning in the heart, they ‘arise’. It won’t happen while they remain seated. God has given them something to do, and taking the first step, they experience God in the doing.

But good leadership always requires good ‘followership’! (2,9), and the best leaders give recognition and affirmation to their ‘troops’.

Furthermore, godly leadership ascribes all the glory to God (3,11). Such leaders recognise that their ”victories” – the church’s ”victories” – are the Lord’s. They could not achieve anything apart from Him.

‘If you are a leader and you want your people to be blessed, be an example to them and obey God’s call on your life. Follow him wherever he leads. And don’t be afraid to let others get the credit. God is mighty, and there is plenty of his blessing to go around for everyone.’ John Maxwell

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. (NIV)

‘The pages of church history record the names of godly women like Deborah who knew God’s will, rallied God’s people, and won God’s victories; and we are grateful for them.

In Hebrews 11:32, Barak is named as a man of faith, but Deborah enlisted him and saved the day. What a strange victory! God used two women, a jug of milk, a hammer, a tent peg, and a storm (Judg.5:4-5, 20-21) to defeat the enemy (See 1 Cor.1:26-29.)

One person’s faith and obedience can make a difference in history. Whether you are a leader like Deborah or a follower like Barak, be sure to be a believer; because faith makes the difference between defeat and victory.’ Warren Wiersbe

It has been said, ‘Without Him we cannot; without us He will not.’

Reading verse 15, the above came to mind. How many times do we find we have to take a step of faith, and God’s power meets us there? We step into the sea, and the waters part!

‘What a moment that was when Deborah summoned Barak to arise, because the Lord had already gone forth! who of us need fear and who need hesitate in the face of difficulty, if we are simply called upon to go in the wake of our Lord?’ F.B. Meyer

For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.

¹ Be merciful to me, my God,
    for my enemies are in hot pursuit;
    all day long they press their attack.
² My adversaries pursue me all day long;
    in their pride many are attacking me.

³ When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
⁴     In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?

⁵ All day long they twist my words;
    all their schemes are for my ruin.
⁶ They conspire, they lurk,
    they watch my steps,
    hoping to take my life.
⁷ Because of their wickedness do not let them escape;
    in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

⁸ Record my misery;
    list my tears on your scroll —
    are they not in your record?
⁹ Then my enemies will turn back
    when I call for help.
    By this I will know that God is for me.

¹⁰ In God, whose word I praise,
    in the Lord, whose word I praise—
¹¹ in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can man do to me?

¹² I am under vows to you, my God;
    I will present my thank offerings to you.
¹³ For you have delivered me from death
    and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God
    in the light of life. (NIV)

In the past I have quoted something I heard years ago, ‘Fear knocked at the door; faith answered, and there was nobody there.’ It has a nice ring to it, and there is, of course, a real truth to it. Winston Churchill said, ‘When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.’

But sometimes, when fear knocks at the door, there really is someone there – armed and dangerous and out to get you! David regularly found himself in tight corners, as when he wrote this psalm, and whereas trust in God did not always remove the threat from his door, it drove the fear from his heart.

”When I am afraid (3)…I will not be afraid (4). This paradox expresses the heart of the psalm.” Alec Motyer.

 Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!” (The Message)

”And they went to see for themselves.” (30)

We hope that people will look at Jesus for themselves, but how wonderful if God uses our words to move them in His direction!

It was the woman’s testimony that spurred many of her fellow Samaritans to cross those fields to see Jesus. But once they’d met Him, once they’d heard and encountered Him, they knew. There is no substitute for personal experience. Now they would have their own testimonies to share.

‘There are many ways of coming to know Christ. In some cases he comes to us, as to the woman by the well, and reveals himself in a direct and illuminating manner, so that the soul can never afterward entertain a doubt as to his reality or its own experience. In other cases, the report of some associate or friend is the arresting and converting factor.’ F.B.Meyer

PRAYER: Lord, please will you use even me, to tell the story of what you have done in my life.