Pay Attention
📖Daily Reading
Judges 4-5
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Judges 5: 31 (from the song of Deborah):
Lord may all your enemies die like Sisera! But may those who love you rise like the sun in al its power!”
Then there was peace in the land for forty years.
Chapter 4 and 5 of Judges are titled Deborah Becomes Israel’s Judge and The Song of Deborah (NLT). That caught my attention immediately. It is not that often that women are the main characters in stories of the Bible, especially to the extent of their names in the titles of chapters. We first learn that Deborah was a prophet and the Judge of Israel at this time. Something worth paying attention to! Then the story kicks off with Deborah summoning Barak and instructing him via the Lord that he was to gather 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. She gives a few more important instructions and details and then ends with “.. you will receive no honor in this venture, for the Lord’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman.”
So we are introduced to not just one important woman in the story but also another, Jael. Jael was presented with an opportunity to invite Sisera who was on the run into her tent to hide and rest. When he fell asleep, she drove a tent peg through his temple! Whoah! This is exactly what Deborah predicted! Then in the song that is recounting of the battle and victory they celebrate Deborah, Barak, Jael and the warriors of the tribes that participated and had victory. I love so many verses in these chapters it was hard to pick - but you know I have to go with ‘rise like the sun..”! Another beautiful and captivating verse is “Wake up, Deborah, wake up! Wake up, wake up, and sing a song! Arise Barak..” ( Judges 5:12) It could also read - pay attention, pay attention, pay attention…! The song of victory and celebration were an ode to those who paid attention and an omen to those who didn’t!
In this song they also mention the tribes of Reuben and Gilead, Dan and Asher and outlines that they had indecision, stayed at home and stayed unmoved. When reading the Bible you have to pay attention and you have to read at what was said and then ‘read between the lines’ to know what must have also happened. We can infer that maybe these tribes where given the same information or opportunity and they didn’t pay attention! Now their names and this sin of omission is recorded for us all to learn from! Did they dismiss Deborah because she was a woman? Maybe…
Another significant woman and part of the story to pay attention to is Jael. She was presented with an opportunity, she was in the right place at the right time and she was paying attention. Sisera’s armies had been defeated but he escaped and was on the run. He came to Jael’s tent for refuge. (I am totally paraphrasing..) She was paying attention and realized the opportunity to serve the Lord and invited him in and pretended to care for him and give him a place to hide. She gave him nourishment and a place to hide under a blanket and assured him that she would not tell anyone that he was there, should they come looking. Trusting her he fell asleep. She did not have any weapons at hand, but she was a woman who was paying attention. She looked at what she did have and utilized it! She had a hammer and a tent peg and she drove that tent peg through his temple! Courageous and paying attention!
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
I en-courage you to read these chapters yourself and see what the Lord might speak directly into your heart! For me it was ‘wake up and pay attention’! Don’t miss an opportunity, think outside of the box, listen, use what you have available and act when you are called to! Don’t fall asleep to your life!
📖Tomorrows Reading
Judges 6-16
Coaching Opportunity
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