Judges Chapter 5
Introduction
This is an excerpt from a much longer exposition of both Judges Chapters 4 & 5, entitled, “The Battle of Armageddon: The Earthly Version Already Happened!“. Given that most people will likely find it hard to wade through such a very long and involved Bible Study, I pray that this shorter excerpt will be a blessing to many.
Judges Chapter 5 is God’s Commentary on Judges Chapter 4
Let us move ahead to Chapter 5 to test the validity of this exposition and interpretation of Judges chapter 4. In Judges chapter 5, we read of the song of Deborah and Barak. In that song, giving praise to God for “the avenging of Israel,” it is possible to derive some very significant spiritual insights (and there is no doubt that every verse can yield such spiritual insights , but these are the ones developed thus far).
Some Selected Very Significant Verses In Judges, Chapter 5
#1… in Judges 5:12,
we read, “Awake, awake, (עוּר (ʿûr))H5782 Deborah: awake, awake, (עוּר (ʿûr))H5782 utter a song: arise, (קוּם (qûm)) H6965 Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.“ We need to take a close look a the underlined phrases in this verse.
#1A: “Awake, awake”
The repetition of the words Awake, awake (two times) is worthy of note. It reminds us of what we find three times in Isaiah (with the first having the word awake three times):
Isaiah 51:9, “Awake, awake,(עוּר (ʿûr))H5782 put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake,(עוּר (ʿûr))H5782 as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. [Art] thou not it that hath cut Rahab, [and] wounded the dragon?”
Isaiah 51:17, “Awake, awake,(עוּר (ʿûr))H5782 stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, [and] wrung [them] out.“
Isaiah 52:1, “Awake, awake;(עוּר (ʿûr))H5782 put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.“
Psalm 7:6 is particularly noteworthy as it involves the use of both “awake” and “arise” in the same verse, but, most importantly, the words are found within a verse that is entirely focusing on Judgment Day! ” Arise,קוּם (qûm) H6965 O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake (עוּר (ʿûr))H5782 for me [to] the judgment [that] thou hast commanded.”
Psalm 9:19&10, harmonize with the above, “Arise, קוּם (qûm) H6965 O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves [to be but] men. Selah.”
These awakenings are pointing to the resurrection of the saints (the holy city adorned in beautiful garments as a bride for her Husband, Jesus) because of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, but also clearly pointing to Judgment Day when Jesus will arise from His Throne in Heaven and come down from Heaven to destroy all of His, and the believers’, enemies. Jesus is the arm of the LORD Who destroyed Egypt (Rahab) wounded the dragon, the devil (Sisera in this historical account). In Isaiah 51:17, God is referring to the earthly Jerusalem, while in Isaiah 52:1, God is referring to the Jerusalem and Zion which are the true eternal Church (typified by Deborah in this historical account).
Regarding that Judgment, we read in Psalm 9:7-10, “But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment. And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.“
#1B: Leading “Captivity Captive”
The key phrase is “lead thy captivity captive.” This phraseology describes the action of Jesus, through His Atoning Sacrifice, plundering the devil’s prison house of hell and freeing the captives/prisoners and the restoring of God’s elect to their former estate. It refers to the action of God in bringing His people back, or delivering them, from the bondage and oppression into which He had earlier placed them for their transgressions of His law in Adam and through time (see Jeremiah 29:14, Jeremiah 30:3, Jeremiah 32:44, all of Jeremiah 33, Ezekiel 39:25, Amos 9:14, and Zephaniah 3:20). The phraseology describes the ultimate restoration of the fellowship mankind initially had with God in the Garden of Eden; the significant difference being that this restored fellowship is more intimate and can never be lost again.
The specific phraseology of “lead thy captivity captive” is found in only two other places in the whole Bible.
In Psalms 68:18, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, [for] the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell [among them].” and in
Ephesians 4:8, “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.“
In Psalm 68 it is a Messianic prophecy pointing to Jesus, and in Ephesians it is a specific statement about the Lord Jesus Christ referring back to Psalm 68! Jesus Is the Only means whereby the Elect of God are delivered from the bondage to sin and oppression of Satan and finally and fully restored into fellowship with God at the end of time!
There can therefore be absolutely no doubt that God, using this phraseology, specifically established Barak as a pre-figurement of Jesus Christ, and what Jesus will do to the oppressor (the devil) and his host (the unsaved) when Jesus returns on Judgment Day!
And looking back at Psalms 68:18, notice how the verse just before it reads in Psalm 68:17 “The chariots of God [are] twenty thousand, [even] thousands of angels: the Lord [is] among them, [as in] Sinai, in the holy [place].
Note how this is also consistent with what we read in Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;” In Psalm 146:7, we read of God, “Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:“
And to what prison is the Bible is referring? It is the prison house of the devil (“Lucifer” in Isaiah 14:12) due to the fall of Adam, as we read 14:17, “[That] made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; [that] opened not the house of his prisoners? And remember that Jesus made clear in Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and thegates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
#2… is Judges 5:19, The Valley of Meggido Represents Armageddon and Judgment Day
God makes it clear in Judges 5:19 that the battle in chapter 4 is to be linked with the valley of Megiddo, and therefore there is no question of its relationship to the Battle of Armageddon, “The kings came [and] fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.” if we compare this to what we find in Revelation 16:16, which describes Judgment Day, “¶And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.“
Another link between Armageddon and Judgment Day, when Jesus returns as Judge (but also with salvation for the believers), can be found in Zechariah 12:10-12 “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.” And these verses are referring back to 2 Kings 23:29, when King Josiah was slain by Pharaoh Nechoh in the valley of Megiddo and there was a great mourning for King Josiah in Jerusalem. (Hadadrimmon is a town in the valley of Megiddo named after two false gods of Syria (Haddad and Rimmon))
And we know from Judges 5:21 that the Valley of Megiddo is through which the river Kishon flows (1 Kings 18:40), “The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.”
#3… in Judges 5:20,
God shows that this whole event has been a perfectly crafted historical parable typifying Armageddon at Judgment Day, because He says, “They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.“ Clearly, this description has nothing to do with the earthly, historical and physical battle that we read about in Chapter 4. Rather God is telling us that Chapter 4 contained “allegorical” or “typological” representations, which form another “historical parable“. Chapter 4 portrayed Jesus Christ (typified by Barak in this historical account) coming down from Heaven (typified by mount Tabor in this historical account) accompanied by His multitudes of saints (typified first by the ten thousand men, and secondly, by the “stars” in Chapter 5), please see below regarding Genesis 22:17, Isaiah 14:13, Dan 12:1-3 on Judgment Day (typified by the battle in the valley of Megiddo, a.k.a. Armageddon) to slay Satan and all of his host, the fallen angels and the unsaved of the world (typified by the kings of Canaan and all their host).
The Stars Represent the Believers, the Elect of God, the Church
Genesis 22:17, “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;“
Job 38:7, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?“
Also, in Psalm 147:4, we read where God knows all the stars (the believers, the sons of God) and their names, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by [their] names.”
Daniel 12:3, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.“
From Isaiah 14:12-15, we clearly see that Satan, the chief prince of all the angels that became devils, in his great pride sought to “be like the most High,” and “above the stars of God“, but was subsequently consigned to Hell. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.“
Note that Satan wanted to exalt his throne above the “stars” of God; In the Bible the stars represent the believers as we read next in Daniel 12:3, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” And this verse is particularly salient to this exposition, given that it was written within the context of the end of the World and Judgment Day!
Please note that the two preceding verses, Daniel 12:1&2, read as follows: “¶And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame [and] everlasting contempt.“
#4…in Judges 5:21, The River Kishon
God tells us that, “The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.“ This appears to be further evidence of the finality of the death that is in view, i.e. when God casts Satan and all his dominion into the lake of fire (from Revelation Chapter 20) for all eternity! And it is also consistent with the last verse, Judges 5:31, “So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but [let] them that love him [be] as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.”
#5… In Judges 5:24-27, Jael is praised by Deborah and Barak
We read in the song of Deborah and Barak concerning the heroism of Jael, “Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, [and] she gave [him] milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.” As was mentioned above, in this account, Jael served as another “Type” of the eternal church bringing about the death of the devil’s captain through the bringing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the “Word” (Jeremiah 52:7, “[Is] not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?” Jael might therefore spiritually represent the true believers, at the end of time, who will play a role with Jesus in the Final Judgment in the defeating of the devil, the arch-enemy of God and man.
Judges 5:28-30, is a lamentation of Sisera’s mother who longingly waits for the return of her son with the spoils of war, but Sisera, like the devil and his minions, will never return. The devil and all those who are also enemies of God will be destroyed in the final battle on Judgment Day!
#6…Judges 5:31: “[Let] Them that Love Him [be] as the Sun“
Judges 5:31, ““So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but [let] them that love him [be] as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.”.
This verse is similar to Revelation 1:16, which describes Jesus as being like the sun, “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength.”
Malachi 4:2, “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
Matthew 13:43, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.“
Romans 8:28-30, “¶And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.“
Happily, for the believer, we are encouraged by the last verse, because the believers are the ones who love Jesus (1 John 4:19, “We love him, because he first loved us.“), and they will be like Him in Heaven, and there will the believers have their rest, in Jesus, for all eternity!
Conclusion
In this study we have seen yet another case where God has masterfully crafted history, and the recording of it, to prefigure the return of the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgment Day. From it we have learned that the battle of Armageddon is not some future earthly battle involving earthly political nations, i.e. Russia, etc., attacking the political state we now know as national Israel in the valley of Megiddo. That scenario has nothing to do with the Armageddon of the Bible, because Armageddon is actually Judgment Day itself!
Judgment Day will be the last event in history when the Lord Jesus Christ will come back on the clouds of Glory to destroy all wickedness, and send all of the unsaved to an eternity in Hell, and put an end to this entire creation, which is under the curse of sin. It will mark the end of time and the beginning of eternity wherein righteousness will dwell in new heavens and a new earth forever.
In 2 Peter 3:10 we read, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
But thankfully in 2 Peter 3:13 we read, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.“ And please also note that this is not something that is an isolated verse. Peter is reiterating what can be found in these three verses:
- Isaiah 66:22, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.”
- Isaiah 65:17, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
- Revelation 21:1, “¶And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.“
It should also be noted how prevalent judgment is in the word picture painted by God in Judges 4 & 5. It is safe to say that the whole account is dripping with judgment. First we found that Deborah, who typified the believers, is described as a judge who declared judgment during a time of judgment from God on National Israel. Then we found that Barak represents Jesus as the ultimate Judge at a battle that perfectly typifies the ultimate judgment that definitely will come on the Last Day, Judgment Day. We even saw how the geographic setting appears to be pointing to that judgment. It is therefore entirely appropriate that God has painted this so very vivid picture of judgment in the book entitled “Judges.”
In 2 Corinthians 5:11, we are admonished, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” Given that God has recorded such a clear and unequivocal prophetic warning of the final judgment that is so assuredly coming; it is incumbent on everyone to search his or her own conscience (and heart) and ask himself or herself the big question: Am I ready to meet God? It is my sincere prayer that whosoever reads this review will undergo that self-examination and be able to answer in the affirmative. If not, it is still possible to cry out to God for mercy, for it is still the day of salvation. (Please also remember that Barak was just a pre-figuring “shadow” of Jesus Christ, not the “substance.” Only through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ is there any hope of salvation. Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.“)
**Isaiah 9:2-6, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.“
Today’s Application: Are You Ready?
Jesus is the only Way of escape from the just penalty for our sins. All other ways that man can devise will lead only to Hell come Judgment Day. You are either with God or against God. Have you made peace with God through Jesus Christ? Please pray to God for mercy through Jesus Christ and He will show you mercy. Judgment Day is for any individual only a heart beat away, but for the world it is coming very soon, given all of the signs of the times that we are currently all living in.
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