FBC Daily Devotional – August 18, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning. Good Wednesday to you. Hope your week is going well. And here we are in the middle of it already and And trust that God's blessing you in your work your responsibilities, whatever

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Wherever you are in your stage of life. Well In our reading today judges chapters four and five reading about the judge judges

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Deborah and Barak and Struck me, you know, it's one thing to go to your pastor for Advice It's another thing altogether for him to tell you to do something to do some engage in some kind of activity or You know choice of action that could indeed

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Threaten your life. I mean not not just say, you know, this might be something to consider But for him to tell you you know what you need to do this.

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You need to do this you need to go down to the To the recruiting office and you need to sign on the dotted line and join the army and you need to you need to be sure

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That you get on the front lines of any battle that You know Well, again, it's one thing to say pastor.

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What do you think I should do based on God's Word? It's another thing altogether for the pastor to say this is what

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God's telling you to do You need to go risk your life and maybe lose your life for some cause or whatever

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Now you say well that that's a really kind of silly what's this got to do with Deborah and Barak well just simply this

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Deborah calls Barak to her and she's a prophetess in Old Testament Israel.

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She's a prophetess and we're respected for her counsel and her judgments and so forth and Barak call

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Deborah calls Barak to herself and she tells Barak You are going to go lead our military forces

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Against these these enemies of ours and you are going to deliver them Well now hold on just a minute.

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I Appreciate your counsel. I appreciate your advice. But no she says this is what

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God's telling you to do. Well How how do I know this is what?

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This is a word from God You see, how do I know that this is a word from God And there's no

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I mean he can't he doesn't have a Bible you say he doesn't have a Bible He doesn't have the full revelation of Scripture like you and I have where he can

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Get get guidance from biblical principles and all the rest of that kind of thing so here's this woman

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Deborah who's Reliable, but I mean he she's telling him to do something to risk his life and the lives of other men

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To go up against a formidable foe How can he know that this is actually

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God's word? How can he know that? well

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Barak's reluctance in other words is it's understandable. It's understandable and I notice

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I want you to notice how God doesn't disqualify him and say well, you know what since you don't believe you don't believe what

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Deborah says then you're done I'm not I'm gonna choose somebody else who will just simply believe God doesn't do that.

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In fact God doesn't even criticize Barak Deborah doesn't criticize

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Barak for that reluctance instead He's given He's given a word of indication

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That this is a valid word from God. He's given a couple of them. Actually one of them is that Deborah agrees to go with him and I mean in Barak asked her to do that said

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I'll go if you'll go with me and and again I think that's understandable. It's kind of like kind of like when you were a kid and Somebody dared you to do something and it was a risky thing could hurt you and you said you said well

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I will if you will Right, and this is what this is what Barak saying and and and why did you say that?

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Why did you say I will if you will you go first? Because you wanted to make sure it was actually safe that this this thing this guy's trying to tell you to do same thing here

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Barak has has concerns and they're understandable concerns and one of the ways that God confirms that this is his word is

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Deborah says okay. I will go with you. But another way that he confirms this word is he gives a like a an indicator of validation and that indicator is

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You're gonna get the victory here. The victory is gonna come to Israel But it's gonna come at the hand of a woman and not at your hand

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Barak says, okay, that's fine that's the word of the Lord, then I will go and he goes and he goes and exactly what

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God said was going to happen it happened and And Victory was secured and it came at the hand of a woman

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Barak's gotten a lot of bad press because he seems like he's a weakling and his lack of faith and so on and so forth

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But I think it's fascinating that God doesn't paint him in that way instead. We see

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God being very patient and Understandable with the weaknesses of his people and you know, this is how

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God is He is Understandable. He does understand our weaknesses.

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He knows that we are but dust and we are but flesh and Sometimes we just need the extra reassurance of his word and in his grace he sends it

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Thank God for his patience with us and our father in our God. We do.

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Thank you Thank you that you are a patient God and you are you are gracious and in dealing with us you remember our frame you remember that we are dust you remember how weak we are and You deal with us accordingly

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Thank you so much for your patience with us Plus these thoughts to our hearts today.

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We pray in Jesus name All right. Well, have a good rest of your

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Wednesday And I hope the hope your week will go go well for you And God will bless you in your hands at whatever your hands find to do and you do it with all your might