I read a crazy story last night. It was about a guy who for 20 years helped to oppress a group of people. When the time finally arrived that the people rose up against the oppressors this guy first led his troops into the battle, thinking that there was no way the rebels could actually rise and defeat them. After all the oppressors had better equipment and probably more people (the story didn't say how many troops the oppressors had).
Once the battle got started though, the rebels made their stand and began to win the day. In fact once the battle started the oppressors were thrown into a panic and the rebels took advantage of that and began to wipe them out. By the end of the battle not a single soldier of the oppressors was left standing, except for the leader who had escaped on foot. When he escaped he went to the home of person that he thought was on good terms with the oppressors. The mans wife accepted him into their home and was very hospitable to him. He asked her for water, because he was thirsty from the battle and his escape, but she did better than that, she gave him milk. And she gave a place to lay and rest so he could then continue his escape later. He even asked to guard the door and not tell anyone that he was there.
Once he fell asleep however, she came in and killed him. That's right she killed the fugitive that she had been helping to escape. It seems that she knew who he was and what was going on and she wasn't really down with his side after all. So she came in as he slept and drove a tent peg through his temple with a hammer. Read that again if you need to. She put a TENT PEG THROUGH HIS TEMPLE WITH A HAMMER. Needless to say that put an end to this guy. When the rebel leader came to the home, she told him that she knew who he was looking for and took him in to the room where this guy lying with the tent peg through his noggin.
Pretty gruesome story isn't it? Hard to wrap your head around. I had to read it over a couple of times to really grasp the fullness of it. So from what source did I read this you ask? What newspaper ran this story of the tent peg and the hammer used to free people from oppression? I read all of this in Judges chapter 4. It is the story of Deborah, the first woman judge for the nation of Israel.
The Israelites had turned away from God and suffered oppression for 20 years because of it. It took them all those years to finally call out to God for help. Once they did, God gave them the means to get away from it. The same can be said for us in our lives. We turn away from God for whatever reason and we begin to be oppressed by sin that clings to us like we have just come out of the dryer and are full of static. Yet when we call out, God gives us a way to freedom. The thing is, there will be times when it seems that some sin has escaped us. That is why we have to do all we can to do away with the sin in our lives, even to the point of driving a tent peg (figuratively of course) through it's head to make sure we are free. Being free from sin is not easy work and it can be gruesome, but in the end it is worth it to experience a full life with God. Peace and Love y'all.
(For further reading on this you can check out Judges 4 for the story)
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