In Judges 5 Deborah sings her victory song. At the center of the song she rejoices in the miraculous salvation of God and how the Lord delivered them from a fierce enemy. When we consider what she says, we learn just how futile man's might is.
Deborah says that the kings came on their horses (i.e. chariots), but the torrents of rain caused the Kishon River to overflow. Then she talks about the horses galloping, galloping, galloping and the loud pounding of their hooves. Chariots were the tanks of their day; and Sisera had 900 of them. It was an overpowering military force. But the one thing that chariots require is a good, hard surface to run on. Chariots won't move in mud. By flooding the area, the Lord disabled the chariot threat. What must they do if their chariots get bogged down in the muck? They must dismount and take the battle on foot. But imagine what would happen: Once the chariot lighten's its cargo, it becomes more mobile again. The horses begin to gallop; 900 of them (perhaps double that number if they had two horses per chariot) spook. When Deborah sings about the "Loud beating of the hoofs" and the "galloping, galloping" of the horses' hoofs, she's likely singing about how the whole army of Sisera got tromped down into the mud by their own mighty steeds. The great might of man became his undoing. This is the way God operates. He makes man's power his greatest weakness and the cause of his own downfall. We see this even today. Michael Jackson was propelled to greatness by the power of the media. He became the "King of Pop" because media trumped him up and put the spotlight on him. Jackson became a world phenom through the radio, his music videos, public appearances, and shows. Yet, years later, the media became his greatest enemy. The same outlets that rocketed him to star-dom, eventually made him a laughingstock. Jackson became a world wide freak show and disgrace to the pop culture. And it was mainly the media's doing. The English puritans experienced the Lord's deliverance in a way similar to Deborah and Barak's. The Spanish Armada was the dragon of the sea. This fleet of ships struck fear in the hearts of naval commanders world wide. And when the were commanded to sail to England, many thought the Reformation in England was all but finished. But the people turned to the Lord and prayed. They put their hope in their one source of victory, and God answered. A storm swept in and the Armada found themselves reeling. The threat was subdued and the reformation of God's church was protected in the British lands. Even the greatest deliverance of all time may attributed to this phenomena. Our salvation was ratified by the might of Rome and the sinister powers of the Jewish elite. We attribute His death and resurrection solely to the force of Pilate and the persuasive elocution of His Pharisaical enemies. God always shows Himself supreme, and He does so by confusing and confounding the might of man. The more powerful man may seem, the more dangerous his situation really becomes. Let us always remember that every rage of Satan is like a gavel landing upon his own head. Let us take comfort in the fact that God rules and overrules the threats posed by our enemies.
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