Life Between The Trees: Palm - Judges 4:4-10
As we have been exploring
“Life Between The Trees,” I’ve been hoping we’ve been learning to be a tree-hugger. It has been pointed out to me that my
disappointment with the response to my weekly question about tree-hugging may
be because I’ve been asking it wrong. So
rather than ask if we have any new tree-huggers, let me ask it this way: how
many of you, because of God’s call to care for His Creation and the importance
that we find throughout God’s Word from Eden to New Jerusalem, are ready at
this point to be proudly called a tree-hugger?
The Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life found in Eden remind us of the precious
gift of Free Will that God has lovingly given us, and our tendency to misuse
that gift by choosing the path of death over the path of life.
The dove returning to
Noah with the branch of the Olive Tree reminds us of God’s faithfulness when we
feel overwhelmed by the floodwaters of all that we are experiencing, just as
Jesus saved us from the overwhelming flood of sin in our lives.
Ezekiel’s image of the
mighty cedar God plants reminded us that God’s promises are never voided, even
by our sin…and that God will restore us from our fallenness, not simply for our
own sake, but in order that all the world may come to know that God is God.
Last week we looked to the
oak tree. The oak called us to practice
the radical hospitality of putting others before ourselves—reflective of
Abraham’s offering to the strangers under the oak tree and Jesus’ offering of
himself, not just to strangers, but to those who would be considered enemies of
God. Remembering that as we offer
hospitality to the stranger, we are offering it to none other than God Himself.
We continue to travel
through the trees today…coming to the Palm Tree.
It may not be fair to
Barak, but as I thought about this passage, I thought about some of the trips
that Joshua and I have taken to BJ’s. Now
most kids don’t like to go shopping, and Joshua is one of those kids, unless we
are going to BJ’s when we know they are going to have samples. It used to be part of our Friday routine: I’d
pick him up from school and then head over to BJ’s. I’d shop, he’d snack, sometimes trying food
I’d never get him to try at home. It has
gotten to the point that many of folks at those sample carts recognize us when
we come through—enough to the point that a week or so ago when we were there,
one of them who was getting ready to close up her stand brought Joshua a snack
on the aisle that we were on. That’s not
what reminds me of Barak. What brought
our trips to mind are the times that we have gone through all of the samples
and Joshua wants another cup of something he liked. Sometimes I would stand at the end of one
aisle and tell him, “I’ll watch you, you go on back up there and ask.” He would
look up at me and say, “I can’t, unless you go with me.”
Deborah, prophetess,
judge of Israel—pretty much both Israel’s High Priest and Commander-in-Chief,
calls for Barak, leader of Israel’s army and delivers a message from God to
Barak. Deborah tells Barak, “God has
said for you to go and take up position at Mount Tabor. God has further said that He will bring out
Sisera, head of Jabin’s army, out by the river bed with all of his men, and
that he will give you victory over Sisera and the Canaanite army. Barak looked up to Deborah and said, sounding
very much like Joshua, “I can’t, unless you go with me.” Actually Barak said, “If you’ll go with me, I
will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” Deborah’s response, “Wrong answer. Of course I am going with you, but since you
responded in the way you have, you will not get credit for this victory. The claim of defeating Sisera will be given
to a woman.” We read later on, that while
Barak was able to command the Israelite army to take out Sisera’s army, Sisera
got away, fleeing to one of Jabin’s allies.
There he sought refuge in the tent of Jael, a Kenite woman, and while in
her care, he died of a massive headache.
So what did Barak do that
was so wrong? All he did was say that he
would only go if the leader of Israel’s people would go with him. The problem is that Barak was not taking God
at His Word. God has promised that if
Barak would go, God would give Barak the victory. Barak’s halting response was that he was not
trusting that God would bring the victory, but instead wanted to rely on the
presence of Deborah to bring the victory.
I mean if we consider who
Deborah was, we can understand why.
Deborah had to be a woman of great courage and exhibited great
confidence in God, amazing confidence in God, considering where she was. She lived in a male dominated world, a world
in which men ruled and women were nothing but pieces of property to be handed
from father to husband so they could bear children and produce little boys that
would grow up to be men who were fit to be rulers. Yet here is Deborah (and to emphasize how
male-oriented the society was, despite Deborah’s position, her identity in many
translations is still tied up in her husband, identified as “wife of Lappidoth,”
though she could just as easily have been identified as “woman of fire” in the
Hebrew). Deborah was the premier leader
of Israel. She was the one whose role it
was to convey the words and will of God to the people of God (a role
traditionally held by men). She was the
one who was there to settle any disputes between the people of God (again a
role traditionally held by men). And, as
I said before, she was the Commander-in-Chief of the Hebrew Army, relaying the
directions of God, to the unit and division commanders. Imagine the courage and trust in God that she
had to have to accept the role God had given her to lead God’s people in this
way—knowing the ridicule and judgment she probably faced every day not only
from those outside of Israel, but those inside as well, because she was not a
man.
Contrast that courage and
confidence in God with Barak, “I know that God has said go, but I’ll only do it
if you’ll go with me. I know that God
has promised me the victory, but if you won’t go with me, I’m not going.” His confidence was more about the presence of
Deborah than the promise and direction of God.
That’s the problem. God wants Barak
to trust in Him, to understand that God Himself is the source of security and
victory. Barak’s sin is that he
considers Deborah’s presence the source of strength and security, rather than
trusting in God for the already promised victory.
The contrast of Deborah
and Barak under the Palm tree calls us to consider whether or not we place our
trust and confidence in God when God sends us out to battle the enemies of His
people found in the world. As we commit ourselves to God in professing or
confirming our faith, God calls us to confront evil and injustice in whatever
forms they present themselves, or as we continue the ministry to which Jesus
felt Himself called, we are “to proclaim good news to the poor…to proclaim
liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind… to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[1]
God calls us to confront
the injustice of poverty—to take on the task of making sure that those whose
economic resources leave them without the necessities of food, shelter, and
health care have what they need not only survive, but to thrive.
God calls us to take on
the evil of racism, sexism, or any other means of holding a person captive
because of who they are, treating them differently or holding them back from
opportunities offered to others.
God calls us to bring
sight those blinded by the darkness of depression and despair or by the bright
lights of fame and fortune, helping the former to see a future filled with hope
and the latter the call to a life of humility.
God calls us to free
those oppressed by the evil of addictions, whether that addiction is to
alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, shopping, sweets, or anything else.
God comes to us under the
Palm tree and sends us to face the mighty army of evil, injustice, and
oppression in this world. We might feel
outnumbered and outgunned, much in the same way that Barak did, we might want
to put our trust and security in something or someone tangible, (now God
doesn’t want us to do it alone, remember, Barak was leading a whole army), but
God calls us to trust that he will bring the victory…and though this is the
first Sunday in Lent, we live on the other side of the tomb, and we know that God
has already won the ultimate victory and we can trust that He will bring
victory wherever we go in His Name. May
we faithfully, confidently, and readily go and do battle wherever God sends us,
as we live life between the trees.
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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