Hello, again, time travelers. It’s Part Three of our Quick Guide ot Armageddon. Next week we’ll finish up with a look at the horses of Armageddon, but this week, we’re back with Deborah and Barak. We’re rolling the scrolls back in time to Sinai and the time of Avraham. We’re putting together just how Deborah knew to assemble exactly 10,000 soldiers on Mt. Tabor.

Of course, she was a prophetess, and she heard from the Father, but typically He builds on our preparation to be His messengers. As with the disciples who were prepared and waiting in Acts Two, so Deborah, whose name comes from the Hebrew word for “bee” and dvar, “word,” was prepared to be a vessel of the Ruach HaKodesh. Her husband is named Lappidot, which means “torches,” but it is thought that perhaps it was another name for Barak, whose name means “lightning.” Many people in Scripture went by more than one name. Ol’ Jethro had a lot of them!

How do we know Deborah is hearing from the Spirit of Adonai? As they discuss the details of the battle, Barak says to her:

“If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.” (Judges 4:8-9)

I don’t think Deborah is just warning Barak he better not have a problem with being a macho man. He is acknowledging her spiritual gifts and anointing, and she is affirming his request. It is a request for the Word and Ruach HaKodesh, of which Deborah is a minister, to accompany him in battle. Barak knows that mere military might will not be enough against such a formidable enemy, and he is more than willing to give the credit for the victory to the “woman,” which sometimes is a symbol for the Ruach HaKodesh in Scripture (see CG Workbook Four):

• Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. (Zec 4:6)

So Deborah and Barak in their time machines had hovered over Mt. Sinai, then listened in as Moses spoke and sang his last song to the Israelite tribes about forty years later (that’s not long if you’re in a time machine):

• He said, “The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones; at His right hand there was flashing lightning [lit. “fiery law”] for them. (Dt 33:2)

What follows in Moses’ exhortation is a summary of each tribe’s courage and blessings. What does Deborah do in her victory song after the battle? Summarizes the tribes’ courage or lack of in the fight at Har Megiddo!

The Torah time machine works great, doesn’t it?

The fiery Word of God was in His right hand when He dawned on them with a myriad, ten thousand holy ones, an angelic host. As they hover over the scroll, Deborah and Barak know they are not going to need 10,000 soldiers to win the fight. This number tells them that the Holy One will come marching with His myriads of angels to fight for Israel, which is exactly how the Song of Deborah begins. Oustanding study in the Word! Truly a holy time machine of prophecy. Those 10,000 soldiers will merely be the mop-up crew and decoys to lure in the enemy.

In Moses’ blessings, the lightnings in the Torah fire hint again to this coming victory over Sisera’s iron chariots. Barak says, I am not going to go without you, Deborah, you’ve got to go, too. Her husband’s name is Lapiddot, which means torches.

Deborah is not just coming in the power of the Holy Spirit and prophecy, it mentions her husband’s name, so she also is a type of a torch, one flesh with him. Lappidot is “torches, flashes,” plural, yet they are one in this battle. As a judge of Torah, Deborah knows Israel’s past and its fiery law of covenant, which was lit by lightning torches at the right hand of Adonai:

• “All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.” (Ex 20:18)

The light of a torch is a lamp that walks. Want to see an example? Spool up your time machine to the 25th of Tevet, around 331 BCE, and watch the 8 elders and high priest who marched to meet Alexander’s army in the “first” Chanukkah about 150 years before the ”lamp” miracle one we celebrate. Because Adonai had gone before them, they averted a war; Alexander had already seen the high priest in the dream. He spared Jerusalem and instead killed those who planted lies and slanders against the Jews.

In those times, a righteous person was known as a lamp; in fact, even before! In the time of the Judges (Eli the High Priest) and the time of King David, anointed leaders were known as “lamps.” This is our calling, to be the walking lamps, torches of the the fiery law. A mosaic uncovered by archaeologist even depicts the high priest and eight elders with lamps over their heads! When it is time to “go out” (yatza) to war or on a Divine mission, lamps sitting on a table or lampstand won’t do; we have to become torches.

Let’s take another trip back in our time machine to the time of Avraham now. Got your tissues, something to drink, and some snacks? We’re about to see another torch, and it will be a sight to remember. Don’t let your time machine get too close. It might get singed. Power up to the past so you can see what Deborah saw as she made her battle plans!

The Covenant with Avraham:

It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.’” (Ge 15:17-19)

Deborah’s opponents, Yavin and Sisera, are Canaanites.

The covenant with Avraham also promises the land of the Kadmoni, which means “Easterners, past, ancients.”

Since no one knows who the Kadmoni actually were or where they lived, it may be a way guaranteeing eventual victory over the kings of the east without having to identify a specific person or nation. In the end, it will fit.

The way of victory is through the power of the Holy One’s Presence, which will go before Israel when she is righteous and holy. She is a lamp, a torch of myriads as well.

Deborah is fiery; she is not afraid to be visible. She is a righteous lamp preparing the way for Messiah’s march from a broken mountain. That is what tabor means, broken off, split. Just as Messiah Yeshua’s feet will split the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, so Deborah, wife of Lappidot, torches, sends Barak “Lightning” with 10,000 holy lamps to Mt. Tabor to lure in the kings of the east with their chariots to their death at Megiddo.

• “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation [Yeshua] like a torch that is burning.” (Is 62:1)

The “going out” (yatza) is the verb that describes the rising of the sun and the going forth of an army. When we hear and know the Father’s will, first we work. First we take steps. We prepare. We do what we can do, study the scrolls, stock up on oil, then we wait for the miracle of His Presence marching.

The kings of the east try to possess the east, kedem, the ancient origins, yet they cannot reign there forever, for with this language was tribal territory assigned to Zevulun in the deed. If Jeremiah was told to buy property before the fall of Jerusalem because it would be a sign that Judah would return after the exile and once again possess their inheritance, then Deborah in her generation seized the title deed given to the tribes and did not lose faith.

• “’Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD; but let those who love Him be like the rising (yatza, going forth) of the sun in its might.’ And the land was undisturbed for forty years.” (Ju 5:31)

You probably won’t need your time machines next week, but it never hurts to leave it parked in the garage. You never know. Between now and the resurrection though, keep those lamps burning and the torches lit. Next week, we’ll take a peek at the horses of Revelation and those fiery torches riding them.

If the blood is up to the horse’s bridles when the nations surround Jerusalem, one question might be: “Which horses?”

The horses of the human armies, or the horses of the holy myriads?

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