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For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” Of David. A miktam. When he had fled from Saul into the cave.

¹ Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
    for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
    until the disaster has passed.

² I cry out to God Most High,
    to God, who vindicates me.
³ He sends from heaven and saves me,
    rebuking those who hotly pursue me—
    God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.

⁴ I am in the midst of lions;
    I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
    whose tongues are sharp swords.

⁵ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
    let your glory be over all the earth.

⁶ They spread a net for my feet—
    I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path—
    but they have fallen into it themselves. (NIV)

It’s important to remember that many of these psalms were written in situations of real trouble, and even desperate danger. It is also instructive to note the atmosphere of confidence which they exude, even as the trial continues. The psalmists believed in a God who had brought them through, and who would do so again.

The title to Psalm 57 locates its moment in history – a tricky one for David, to say the least. Although he was sheltering in ”the cave”, David knew that God was his true and trustworthy shelter. He was hiding in Him. Faith gives you eyes to see spiritual reality: to see beyond the walls of your ”cave” to ”the shadow” of God’s ”wings.”

‘This psalm and Psalm 142 are ”cave” psalms that can give you great encouragement. Your own ”cave” may be a sick-room, a difficult place of ministry, or even a home where there is tension or trouble. If you do what David did, you will experience peace and victory even in the cave.

David’s faith transformed his cave into a Holy of Holies (v.1)! His confidence was not in the rocks but ”under His wings.” (See Ruth 2.12.) In spite of sharp teeth (v.4), nets and pits (v.6), David was sure of God’s help.’ Warren W. Wiersbe

 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”

^8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

^9-10 That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.”

¹¹ But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’”

^12-13 They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.

¹⁴ A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.”

^15-16 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath. (The Message)

It is worthy of note that this man’s healing was a ‘sovereign’ act on the part of Jesus. He took the initiative, coming to this man and healing him. There is no indication that he had any faith in Jesus. His expectation, if anywhere, seemed to be in the stirring of the waters. So, we have to say that there is nothing formulaic about the healings recorded in the New Testament. There is a mystery about God’s work. We can’t box Him in. Furthermore, out of the hundreds of sick who lay there, it appears our Lord came to just this one man.

We also need to recognise that although all sickness is related to sin, in that everything that is bad came into the world at ‘the fall’, not every single illness can be traceable to personal sin. But sometimes there is a definite link, and it may be that Jesus’ words in verse 14 intimate such a cause here. (Incidentally, this reminds me of Jesus saying to the woman caught an adultery, ”Go now and leave your life of sin” – John 8:11. But it feels like she had a more responsive heart).

Anyway, don’t expect that those you are kind to will always treat you well. Some won’t. The guy in our story seems to have shown little gratitude to Jesus, if any at all. Rather, he treated Him badly. Be prepared for this in our sin-soaked world. If Jesus could be so abused, we should not be surprised if similar treatment comes our way from time to time.

 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

^9-10 That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.”

¹¹ But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’”

^12-13 They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.

¹⁴ A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.”

^15-16 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath. (The Message)

I still smile when I remember the words of one commentator about this healed man. What he said was to the effect that he seemed to be ‘a nasty piece of goods.’ I understand the comment though, because it must have been obvious to him that ‘the Jews’ were hostile towards Jesus. Nevertheless, he ‘shopped’ Him.

Their problem was that the miracle took place on the Sabbath. Religious ‘rules’ can be so nit-picky and uncharitable, and religious people so unpleasant According to the law, it was illegal to carry a bed or a mat on the Sabbath. This was considered ”work” (Jeremiah 17:21-22) However, it was legal to carry a bed if someone was lying on it. Tom Hale explains:

‘The Pharisees and the teachers of the law had added many kinds of regulations concerning what was ”work” and what was not ”work.” Many of these regulations were not written in the Old Testament. The rules forbidding work were made in order to keep the Sabbath day holy; it was supposed to be a day set apart for worship and prayer and rest. But the Jewish leaders had added so many little rules that the original meaning of the Sabbath had been lost. Because of all these rules, it was no longer possible to do any healing or other good works on the Sabbath. But Jesus’ teaching was that it was always lawful to ”do good” on the Sabbath (see Mark 2:23-28; 3:1-5; Luke 13:10-17…)’

We would do well to consider what evangelical ‘rules’ we cherish and seek to lay on others.. Maybe we inherited them from our parents. Perhaps we inhaled them from within our church tradition. There are numerous ways we can pick these things up, and the problem is we often confuse them with what the Bible actually teaches. We can end up burdening people with our own stipulations and taboos. Of course we mean well. We are committed to godliness. We want to protect people from sin and all its insidiousness. But we need to search our hearts and ask, ‘Are we asking others to live the Bible, or do we just want them to conform to our ideas?’

Religion cripples people with man-made regulations, but Jesus sets people free to walk.

 Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”

^8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off. (The Message)

In the background to this passage, there lurks the belief, held by many at the time, that an angel would occasionally come down and stir up the waters in the pool of Bethesda, and the first one in following the stirring of the waters would be healed. (But note that not all ancient manuscripts of John contain verse 4)

We might wonder why Jesus asked the man ”Do you want to get well?” The fact that he had ben there for thirty-eight years would rather suggest he did! Furthermore, his explanation of why he wasn’t beter seemed highly plausible (7).

Nevertheless, I do think there are those who enjoy bad health. A malady can become your identity. You can become addicted to a lifestyle of dependence, unemployment, sickness benefit, and being the centre of attention and the object of sympathetic care. Yes, some people, I’m sure, do need the above challenge.

But your issue may not have to do with physical health, but spiritual. There is some other matter with which you are struggling: a problem, a sin, an addiction maybe? You too must face the challenge, ‘Do you really want to be free?’ Jesus is able to make you ”free indeed’ (Jn.8:36). Yet how much do you want such liberation?

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