Today we hear the story of Deborah and Barak. (Say, that name sounds familiar!) Barak doesn't get the glory for his notable defeat of Israel's enemy, Sisera. Instead the crowning glory goes to a woman named Jael, who happened to see a new use for a tent peg. The poem in chapter 5 includes taunts to Israel's tribes who 'sat on their hands' and didn't get involved in the war.
Psalm 80 is another poem that is appropriate in comparison to the book of Judges, since it is a prayer for God to again take compassion on and rescue Israel. The writer Asaph pictures the Lord as a shepherd and Israel like a vine. It is no accident that both of these are also pictures of Jesus in the New Testament. This psalm is marked by the repetition of these words, “Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies.
Half of the reading today is from the Plain English Translation, the English counterpart of the Plain Indonesian Translation. This is because this passage of Galatians includes difficult implicit information. You can compare the PET and the NLT in the PDF file attached to this podcast. Note how PET makes clear the repeated idea of 'sinners'. Paul is using a play on words in this passage. Here we see that it is not religion that will save us. It is only by being joined to Christ that we receive the benefits of salvation that have been purchased for us by Christ.
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