“MRS. LAPPIDOTH GOES TO WAR”

JUDGES 4:1-7

4:1 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died.

2 And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.

3 Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.

4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

5 She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.

6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun.

7 And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?”

8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

9 And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Have you been in any good fights lately?  Now I’m not talking about the physical battles where you throw a few punches and try to knock the other person down.  I’m also not talking about the verbal battles where you engage in a war of words so you can prove that you’re right and the other person is wrong. 

Some people, of course, actually like a good argument.  Take Winston Churchill for example.  One day he and Lady Astor got into a heated debate during a session of Parliament. As the debate wore on Lady Astor became more and more frustrated.  Eventually the frustration got the best of her and she let Churchill know that she did not like him at all.  “Winston,” she snapped, “if you were my husband I would feed you poison for breakfast.”  “Madame,” Churchill replied.  “If you were my wife I would take it.”

Some people like to fight and argue.  There’s another battle though that we all face from time to time. It’s a battle where you don’t have to throw any punches or engage in a war of words.  It’s the battle to do what’s right; the battle to tackle a problem or face a challenge or succeed when everyone says you’re going to fail. 

Let me be a little more specific.  There’s the battle to loose weight.  The battle to raise your kids the right way in a world where they’re bombarded every day with a lot of bad influences.  There’s the battle to forgive when you really want to let someone have it. As you get older there’s the battle not to give in to all the aches and pains. In just a few weeks all of us will once again fight the battle to keep Christ in Christmas.  For some people another battle that’s really important is the battle for justice; the battle to end racism and poverty or the battle to save the environment. Let’s also not forget the battle that our student minister fought just a few minutes ago when he had to pronounce all those weird sounding names and places. Harosheth-hagoyim and Kedesh-naphtali.  Try saying that three times fast!  Life is full of battles.

So, I’ll ask the question again.  Have you been in any good fights lately? 

Mrs. Lappidoth wasn’t one to back down from a fight.  Mrs. Lappidoth, of course, was Deborah.  She was a prophet and a judge in ancient Israel.  Essentially that means she was a charismatic person who had been called by God lead the Israelites.  It was her job to settle disputes. It was her job to proclaim God’s Will to the people.  It was also her job, when necessary, to call the people to war.

Mrs. Lappidoth was a very important person. Because she was a woman though she didn’t always get the respect that she deserved. You can see that by looking at the way she is referred to in the Book of Judges.  The person who wrote the Book of Judges doesn’t just refer to her as Deborah.  He refers to her as Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth.  Mrs. Lappidoth was a prophet and a judge who had been called by God to lead the Israelites.  Despite those lofty credentials though her identity still had to be grounded in the fact that she was the wife of a totally obscure and unknown guy named Lappidoth.

Barak also didn’t give Mrs. Lappidoth the respect that she deserved. You can see that by looking at what Mrs. Lappidoth said to Barak.  She said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun.”

When you read between the lines you realize that this wasn’t the first time that Mrs. Lappidoth had given Barak his marching orders.  This wasn’t the first time she had to summon him and tell him what God wanted him to do. It’s clear that Barak was doing his best to ignore Mrs. Lappidoth.  Could it be that Barak didn’t like the idea of taking orders from a woman?  William Thatcher had to deal with that attitude after his wife was elected prime minister of England.  Shortly after Margaret Thatcher took office a reporter jokingly asked him who wore the pants in his family.  William Thatcher smiled and with out any hesitation at all said, “I do. And I also wash and iron them.”

Barak didn’t seem to have the same respect for Mrs. Lappidoth.  Why should he go and fight the Canaanite general Sisera?  After all Mrs. Lappidoth was only a woman.  What did she know about waging a war.  Besides Sisera had 900 chariots of iron at his disposal.  Now that’s something that would have struck fear in the heart of even the most courageous soldier.  You see most people back then, including the Israelites didn’t know how to make weapons out of iron.

Barak didn’t want to go fight Sisera and his 900 iron chariots.  So, what did he do?  He came up with a scheme that he thought would get him off the hook.   He turns to Mrs. Lappidoth and says to her, “I’ll go if you go with me.”  Barak was probably thinking, “Ha!  Mrs. Lappidoth is a woman.  She’ll never agree to go into battle with me.  She’d much rather sit under her palm tree, sip her iced tea and settle the petty little squabbles that all the other little people bring to her.”

If that’s what Barak was thinking he quickly discovered that he had seriously misjudged Mrs. Lappidoth. 

Instead of quivering and quaking at the thought of going into battle Mrs. Lappiodth looks at Barak and says to me him, “I will surely go with you.” Barak then gets another surprise when she says to him, “Nevertheless the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of…a woman.”  That woman was Jael but that’s another story for another sermon.

The focus for us is Mrs. Lappidoth and as you can see she wasn’t one to back down from a fight.  She was a woman with a lot of drive and determination; a woman who was dedicated to doing what God wanted her to do.  So, as you look at Mrs. Lappidoth it begs the question.  Is there a battle that God wants you to fight; a problem that God wants you to tackle, a challenge that God wants you to face? Maybe it’s a battle that needs to be fought at work or at home; a battle that needs to be fought with a friend or someone in your family.

Before you go into that battle it’s important to remember two things.  The first thing to remember is that it might not be easy.  Mrs. Lappidoth knew that.  Think about it for a second.  She knew that they were going to win the battle, but she didn’t know if either she or Barak were going to live to celebrate the victory.  That didn’t stop her from doing what she knew God wanted her to do.

Simply put there are always risks involved when you take on a battle.  That’s why it’s always easier to sit under that palm tree, sip your iced tea and hope that someone else will fight the battle for you.  If you do that you will dodge a lot of stress but you will also miss out on a lot of joy.

Adrian Thomas could tell you a little something about battles and joy.  His family has owned a drugstore in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania for over 100 years.  Several years ago Adrian Thomas made an important decision.  He decided that he had seen too many of his friend die from lung cancer and heart disease.  So, on a cold winter morning Adrain Thomas gathered his family, his employees and his friends in his drug store’s parking lot.  He then got all of the cigarettes, cigars, snuff and tobacco products in the store and put them in a big pile in the middle of the parking lot.  He then struck a match and used his state tobacco license to start the fire.  He later told the local media that he could no longer put profits ahead of the health of his patrons.  Did his act of defiance win the war against smoking?  Of course not, but I’ll bet you that he felt good about what he did. 

You see that’s what happens when you fight a battle that God wants you to fight.  After everything is said and done you feel the same way the Apostle Paul felt when he wrote those famous words not long before he died…“the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

November 16, 2008