Sometimes It Doesn't Make Sense

Have you ever had something come up in your life that just doesn’t make sense? Sometimes these are the things and the decision that give us the hardest time because we are not ready and do not have time to process. We always, always, always want things to make sense! When we grow in knowledge of God we will understand certain things and certain things will make sense but not all things. As our knowledge of God translates into our lives, some things that God will call us to will make sense and others will not! God calls Barak by using Deborah to do something that definitely did not make sense!
 
The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord allowed them to be in captivity and cruelly oppressed by Jabin, who was the king of Canaan, for 20 years. After the 20 years of oppression the Israelites finally cried out to the Lord for help. God raised up a prophet and a judge that would save Israel; her name was Deborah. Deborah knew that she was not going to deliver Israel on her own. She needed help and she needed the Lord so she sent for a man named Barak. Deborah knew that Barak was the man for the job because she says to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you?” (Judges 4:6b ESV) She was confirming what God had already spoken Barak. 
 
Barak does not want to go and fight for Israel by himself, so he demands that Deborah go with him. She agrees to go with him but because of his lack of faith she tells him that he will not be the one to personally defeat Sisera. Once Deborah and Barak got on the same page they assembled an army of 10,000 men! Then it was reported to Sisera that Barak had gone up Mount Tabor and once he heard this he gathered all his chariots of iron and the rest of his army to go and defeat Deborah and Barak.
 
The 900 iron chariots Sisera had were a great advantage to anyone that he would face in battle. No one else had this type of military technology at this time. On paper Sisera should undoubtedly defeat and completely destroy Deborah and Barak. From a military stand point it makes no sense that Sisera would take his army and 900 chariots up a mountain because then the chariots do not have the advantage. For Deborah and Barak being on the mountain leved the playing field, and they were hopeful they would win this battle that seemed insurmountable! This was not God’s plan.
 
Do not forget that Deborah was a gifted prophet! When she discerned that Sisera and his army was coming up the mountain she immediately told Barak, “’Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Does not the LORD go out before you?’ So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him.” (Judges 4:14 ESV) Do not miss it! Barak and his army went down the mountain. They left the mountain where they had a great advantage to a place where they were promise victory! 
 
It just doesn’t make sense that Deborah prophesied and Barak acted on taking 10,000 men down the mountain to fight an army and 900 iron chariots. It just doesn’t make sense!  They were at a strong disadvantage wherever they fought this battle, but up on a mountain gave them the best chance to win. Yet God wanted them to fight where they were at the greatest disadvantage. The reason God wanted this is because when the battle was over and Deborah and Barak were victorious, God did not want good military strategy, Deborah and Barak themselves, or anything else get the glory of victory. He wanted it! He desired it! Their victory could only be explained by His power!
 
In the lives that we live, sometimes things just do not make sense. Well, I want to give us a challenge: When something does not make sense do not write it off and take the safe and easy way out. Look and see what God could want you to do so that when it is over He may get the glory! God wants to grow us through the “it just doesn’t make sense” situations and use them to bring Himself glory!