Judges 4:8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
Unprecedented times warrants unprecedented solutions. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein. Unprecedented times call for radical and revolutionary actions to combat the unexpected crisis. The challenges of the present day are different to the struggles afew decades ago. Eradication of poverty has now morphed itself into overcoming obesity! We are now focusing on gender conflict rather than racism. Unforeseen pitfalls do not have textbook answers. Our faith must surge above religiosity and traditionalism into radical and revolutionary motions. We must learn to think outside the box and apply the text(The Word of God) radically to overcome the crucible crisis.
Israel disobeyed and wandered outside the protective boundaries of the Lord, and hence were overcome by the tyranny of the king of Canaan. Sisera the commander in chief of the Canaan army had nine hundred iron chariots that cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years! Deborah, (the only female judge of Israel) commissioned Barak to fight against the Canaanites. However, Israel had no armory, artillery or army. It was an unusual challenge that Israel faced to fight iron chariots with no cavalry. Barak pressed on for an unusual solution. He refused to move until Deborah agreed to go to battle with him. It was unheard of in those days for women warriors to accompany the men to the battlefield. Women in ancient Eastern culture were just cooks, maids and baby making machines. However, the unprecedented move unlocked extraordinary anointing and unprecedented victories.
Unprecedented solutions for unprecedented times:
- Radical:Unprecedented times call for radical faith. The Lord God had vowed by an oath that He will fight the battles of the Israelites. Deuteronomy 3:22 Do not be afraid of the nations there, for the LORD your God will fight for you. Deborah exercised radical faith on the Word and commissioned Barak to fight the battle. Crying, cringing and complaining doesn’t help during a crisis – only radical faith does. Apply the word of God radically and wait for a drastic and dramatic change to your unexpected problems. Unprecedented solutions ride on radical faith.
- Revolutionary:Unprecedented challenges call for revolutionary resilience. For twenty years Barak witnessed Sisera running over their crops, cattle and corpses with his iron chariots. This young man,born into slavery would have only witnessed fear, fatigue and frenzy from his countrymen. They lived in the nightmare every day of the iron chariots undulating their fields and mutilating their dreams. Yet, the encouragement of Deborah, surged revolutionary resilience in Barak. Unprecedented solutions stand on revolutionary resilience.
- Ricochet: Unprecedented solutions have a ricochet effect. The unconventional army with the anointed woman commander had a rippling effect on the stars, stormclouds and the streams. From the Heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera (Judges 5:20). The rudimentary principle of unleashing divine help is our ground-breaking faith. Sing, praise and worship through the storm clouds and stormy gale. The ricochet effect of success lasted twice as long as the years of oppression. The victory lasted for 40 years in Israel. Unprecedented motions have ricochet effects towards unprecedented solutions.
Be radical in your faith, revolutionary in your resilience and expect a ricochet effect on the unprecedented solutions.
Judges 5:31 Then the land had peace forty years.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, I will not allow myself to drown in fear during unprecedented times but will rise up like Deborah and exercise radical faith and revolutionary resilience. Amen.
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