 So, yes, the week before last we finished the first five books that would be the Torah. So the first five books the Torah we have briefly looked at. Today we will begin with what are called the historical books that would be Joshua onwards. So the aim is to at least look at three of the historical books today. So hopefully we will be able to cover Joshua, Judges and also Ruth. So very briefly we will look at these three books. So let's begin. If you can all keep your Bibles open at the Book of Joshua so that when I request you to read out any verses, your Bible will already be open. It will make it easier for you to read out any verses that need to be covered. So the Book of Joshua as we know is mainly emphasizing the conquest of the promised land. The new generation is now going to enter the promised land and as long as they are faithful to the Lord, as long as they have his backing they will be able to gain victory over all the territories that the Lord is giving them. So the Book of Joshua is mainly about conquering the promised land and once the land is conquered we have some details given about which tribe was placed in which portion of the land. So the distribution of the territory among the twelve tribes that also is given. So Joshua is mainly about conquest and also the distribution of the inheritance which is now coming to them. So we'll very briefly look at the structure of Joshua and then maybe we can look at some one or two main aspects because we will not be able to cover more details due to lack of time. So coming to the structure of Joshua, the first four chapters we can say is one section. In the first four chapters we see them crossing the Jordan River to enter into the promised land. So that is explained and once they enter into the promised land basically they enter at the place where Jericho is situated. So the conquest of Jericho is also described in these first four chapters. The second section we could say is chapters 5 to 12. In chapters 5 to 12 we see the great victory which they have at Jericho. We also see the defeat which takes place at AI due to the sin of Akan and we also see in these chapters the blessings and curses which were supposed to be declared publicly. If you remember it was in Deuteronomy that Moses says when you enter the land I want six of the tribes to stand on one mountain and I want the other six tribes to stand on the other mountain and loudly the curses and the blessings will be called out and all the people will say yes we accept these covenant conditions which the Lord has laid down. So Moses had requested that once they enter the land they should do that. So we see that happening in chapter 8 of Joshua where we see the tribes standing on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and the blessings and the curses are publicly declared and all the people say yes we shall follow the covenant and as long as we follow the Lord may all these blessings come upon us but we know that if we fail to keep the covenant conditions which have been placed then yes the judgment of God would come upon us. The curses which have been called out would come upon us. So we see that in chapter 8 and just an interesting fact regarding these two mountains even today tourists go there and anyone who goes to the top of these two mountains can still hear what is being said down in the valley. I mean of course they would not be able to hear the actual words of people speaking but they can hear the voices. So something about the acoustics of these two mountains even when you are on the mountain you can hear what is being spoken or what is being done down in the valley and I just read somewhere that I mean I am not sure whether the school is there now but there was supposed to be some school in the valley and you can hear the children playing and calling out to each other from the top of these two mountains. So when six of the tribes would have stood on one mountain and the other six on the other mountain and these blessings and the curses are being loudly proclaimed by the leaders everyone would have heard very clearly what is being told and then the people agree and say yes we shall keep the covenant of the Lord. So the Lord chooses these two mountains to have this declaration done. In chapter 10 you will have details about the conquests in the southern region. In chapter 11 you have the conquests which were done in the northern region. So this entire chunk chapter 5 up to chapter 12 will deal with all the different conquests. In the southern campaign of chapter 10 is where you see the Gibeonites they trick Joshua into thinking that they are from another place. We covered this in one of the previous classes we saw how in Deuteronomy chapter 7 God very clearly says that there are seven nations that he wants to bring judgment upon. So these seven nations are the ones that the Israelite people must defeat, they must destroy them completely and take over their lands because God says the time has now come for these seven nations to be judged. So the Gibeonites were part of these seven. The seven nations that are mentioned in Deuteronomy 7 which deserve judgment. Among them you have the Amorites. So the Gibeonite people were one of the clans in the Amorite nation group. So the Gibeonites they decide to trick Joshua so they pretend that they have come from a far off land and they say we want to make a treaty with you. If you have any trouble we will come to you and help you and if you are in trouble you must come and help us. So they enter into a treaty Joshua fails to consult the Lord without consulting the Lord he assumes that what they are saying is true and he enters into a peace treaty with them. So which means now they cannot destroy the Gibeonites even though they are among the seven nation groups that have been mentioned and God holds them to their word. Once they have given their word that they will maintain peace with them now they are forced to they cannot back out of this. So we see that happening in chapter 10 and we also see the negative results of that. We will talk about it a little bit later so that would be chapter 10. Chapter 11 is where it talks about the conquests in the northern region. So this is the second section chapters 5 to 12. Chapter 13 to 24 is where you have all the details about how the land was divided among these 12 tribes and it also gives us details about the six cities of refuge which God selected in these territories. So we learn that two and a half tribes choose to stay on the east side of the Jordan river and then the rest of the tribes they settle down on the western side of the Jordan river. So the two and a half tribes which you have on the eastern side of the Jordan would be your Reuben, Gad and Manasseh the half tribe of Manasseh. So these settle on the eastern side of the Jordan and so three cities of refuge are selected on the eastern side and then you have another three cities of refuge on the western side. If we have time at all maybe we can look at a few details regarding what exactly are the cities of refuge and all of that. And then you have finally chapter 24 the last chapter where you have Joshua's speech. You have his declaration where he says, you know as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Now all of you have to personally decide what you are going to do. We all have declared on Mount Gerizin and Mount Ebal. We have declared and said that yes we will follow the Lord. Now it's a choice that you all have to make with your families on a day to day basis. So he gives his concluding speech in chapter 24. That is your basic brief structure of the book of Joshua. Coming to some of the incidents which take place we don't have much time. So we will just cover whatever little bit that we can. Maybe we can turn in our, yeah there's a question here go ahead yes. Chapter one to two, chapters one to four would be the first section. Chapters one to four basically has two incidents the crossing of the Jordan River and the Rahab story how she helps the spies. So five to twelve is basically where we have the falling of the walls of Jericho, the defeat which they have at AI because Akan has sinned. I have said these things so and we have the declaration on the two mountains and you have chapters 10 where you have the southern campaign, chapter 11 the northern campaign. So that would be the second section chapters five to twelve. So the last section was 13 to 24 which I have just mentioned. So maybe we can very briefly look at chapter three where you have the people crossing the Jordan River. So this is a test of faith which God places before them. You have the Jordan River kind of dividing the land and so if you want to go into the promised land you would have to cross the Jordan River. There are certain portions of the river where the waters are more shallow and that's basically where the people generally cross but God tells them very specifically that he wants them to cross in the area which is directly opposite Jericho and over there the waters are much higher. The waters are much deeper in that place and not only that in that particular area there is also greater chances of flooding of the waters. So when we look at Joshua chapter three verses 15 and 16 we get to know exactly when these people try to enter the land. So if maybe we can have someone read out Joshua chapter three verses 15 and 16 and then we will look at some details regarding this Joshua chapter three verses 15 and 16 please. Now the Jordan is at third stage all during harvest yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge the water from upstream stopped flowing it powered up in a heat a great distance away at a town called Adam in the biggest city of Zerothan while the water flowing flowing down to the sea of arabeth that is the Dead Sea was completely cut off so the people crossed over opposite Jericho. It says in the very first sentence in verse 15 now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest so God selects the time God selects the place he does not choose an easy time he does not choose an easy place he asks them to cross in that place which is directly opposite Jericho where generally people do not cross over that's the place that he chooses moreover at that point of time during the harvest season is when the Jordan is in full flood the waters are moving very fast the waters are very deep and it is at this point of in this particular position that God says I want you to cross over so it would not be something easy they would have to actually you know exercise their faith and we see the priests doing that the priests who are carrying the arc it says that they confidently go up to the water and they put their feet into the water and because they have taken this step of faith once they feet get into the water the water stops flowing so even though the Jordan River at that point of time is in flood stage the waters stop and so we have people you know considering what were the factors involved how did this happen in verse 16 it explains to us that all the waters continue to pile up at a town called Adam okay in the vicinity of Zaritan it says so most probably there would have been some kind of a mudslide now what we need to understand about this entire region is that it's a very it's a it's a it's an earthquake prone region so you have frequent earthquakes in this entire region and when you have earthquake activity taking place sometimes the river banks you know the the the ground the land the mud which is there on either side of the river bank could get shaken and it can and you could have a mudslide so if that happens and you have all the you know mud sliding into the river at that particular point it leads to a temporary blockage so the water will not be able to flow further so which is probably what happened at this place called Adam where God causes the probably God causes a mudslide to build up and so all the waters get stopped over there and the waters are no longer flowing forward and this happens only when the priests step into the water you know down below at this other place where they're entering near Jericho where they are entering the minute their feet touch over here God causes a water pile up to take place at a higher location you know because the water is flowing downward so it's not just something which happened due to natural causes it is something which happened directly in response to their act of faith so what do we learn from this our God has control over nature he has control over the weather he has control over all the elements you know so he is completely in charge and how all of these things move and affect and operate depends on our faith if we are living in obedience if we are doing whatever God is asking us to do God responds to our faith and he can control these natural elements and make them do whatever they are supposed to do according to his purposes so even though he tells them to enter the waters when the waters are in flood stage something that nobody would do I mean it would be a very dangerous thing to do but the people choose to believe the priests step into the waters in faith and the minute they do that the river waters start piling up at another place higher up in a place called Adam and so the rest of the water which is there from the point of Adam all that water gets drained away and at this place at Jericho you have now got dry ground and the people are able to cross over and based on the historical records that we have we see that this kind of a thing happened even on certain other occasions no according to historical records we see that there was a piling up of water in 1267 in 1906 and also in 1927 and the historical records say that in 1927 the mudslide which took place was so severe that the waters got stuck for 21 hours you know which means that lower down in the valley all the water would have just got drained down and people would probably have actually seen the riverbed you know because for 21 hours the waters get stopped at a higher level so this was something which used to happen geographically in that region but in this particular chapter it happens not just due to natural reasons but directly because of an act of faith which these people choose to you know perform so that's regarding the buildup of the waters at a place called Adam and because of which the people are able to cross over at Jericho and enter the promised land maybe we can also look at another incident which would be the you know the sun standing still and that would be in Joshua chapter 10 maybe we can have someone first read out you know some of the earlier verses okay we we don't have any question here you know in the chat when you guys paste the verses if there are any questions about that which I have missed out you know if you can just tell me so that I you know in case some student online wants to post a question and I'm unable to see that if you can just tell me if there is a question I you know I will be able to answer that here in the class you just have to put up your hand if you have any question and we can address that all right so Joshua chapter 10 if we can have someone read out verses 9 and 9 10 and 11 yeah Joshua 10 9 10 and 11 so Joshua came upon them so suddenly having mass of all the night for Gideon and the Lord throwed them to a Spanish before Israel who stroke them with a great royal Gideon and chosen them by the way of the oceans of with with all and stroke them as for us as you can and Michael and Michael and as they failed before Israel when they were going down the and so and Bethlehem the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as a stone from heaven on them as far as and they died there were more who died because of the health stones that the son of Israel killed his soul all right just a little background regarding these verses if you remember we saw how the gibbonite people who are part of the Amorite nation group they trick Joshua into making a peace treaty with them even though God's original plan was that they should be destroyed so now once the treaty has been done Joshua and his people cannot go back on the treaty they must keep their word so what happens is that the five kings decide to come and fight against gibbon and gibbon immediately makes a demand and says we have entered into a treaty with you Israelites now it is your duty to come and help us to defend us against these five kings who are attacking us so Joshua and his people cannot say you I mean you people are not Israelites we have no obligation towards you they cannot take that stand because they have signed a treaty in the presence of God without consulting him which was the mistake which they did so now they are bound to help and so now Joshua and his people have to come and defend the gibbonites against these five kings who have come to attack them so from Gilgal the entire night Joshua and his people they march and they finally reach gibbon so they must have reached gibbon sometime in the morning early morning is when they have reached this gibbon and there's a huge army waiting for them there are five kings and five kings armies waiting for them and the Israelite people are not exactly experienced warriors but here they are you know they have brought themselves into the situation where they now have to defend the gibbonites and so now they are looking to the Lord for help and it says in verse 10 the Lord threw them into confusion before Israel so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at gibbon it says that the Lord threw the five armies into complete confusion so that they were not able to fight against these Israelite forces you can imagine the Israelite forces would have been smaller in number on the opposite side you have five kings and their armies and yet God throws them into confusion to such an extent that the Israelites are able to defeat them how did he throw them into confusion what did the Lord do we have some suggestions which are made by certain scholars based on some manuscripts which they have you know come across so there are these Mesopotamian religious manuscripts which have been discovered which talk about the sun standing still the sun and the moon standing still in the sky so those have got nothing to do with our Joshua incident but it's basically a superstition which the people of the land had what was the superstition the superstition was basically this 14 days after the full moon if the sun and the moon appear in the sky at the same time then according to their belief system it's a very auspicious day and on that day great battles can be won on the other hand if the sun and the moon are seen in the sky on the 15th day after the full moon then there can be great disaster and in fact this is the wording which they have in the you know in one of those Mesopotamian manuscripts it says so 14th day since the last full moon you know if the sun and moon are standing still in the sky the land will be satisfied good things will happen on the other hand when the moon and sun are seen with each other on the 15th day a powerful enemy will raise his weapons against the land that was their superstition so the suggestion the theory which some scholars have made is that maybe that's the reason why Joshua you know requests the Lord to give these pagan you know kings these five kings a sign and show them who is the living God so sometime around morning is when they would have you know after traveling the entire night they would have reached gibbian sometime in the morning and then probably Joshua cries out to the Lord and says Lord could you slow down the progress of the sun so that the moon will still be visible in the sky and probably that was the in auspicious day for those five kings you know so when they see this sign in the sky it must have thrown them into confusion it must have caused them to panic because you know they believed in those superstitions and those omens so this again is just a theory but you know it's based on manuscripts which they have found which talk about the superstitions which these people had in those days so we see this happening sometimes you know the sun comes out daylight comes but you can still see a little bit of the moon in the sky I mean you must have seen that we've all seen that right so this is what has occurred over here Joshua but for us in our case the moon disappears you know by the time the the sunlight starts brightening more and more we don't see the moon anymore but on this particular occasion god responds to Joshua and slows down the progress of the daylight to such an extent that the moon continues being seen for many many hours this is what it says in verse 17 10 17 so the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies so in our case we see it for happening for maybe at the most half an hour 15 20 minutes you know where we can still see the moon in the sky and the daylight has already come but here for many many hours the people continue to see the sun and the moon both together in the sky and that would have been a very very bad superstition for these you know pagan kings so maybe the lord threw them into confusion using this kind of a strategy is what some it's a theory which some scholars put forward so whatever may be the reason you know we do know that god hears Joshua's cry and god allows the daylight to slow down so that the moon will continue being you know visible in the sky for many many hours so that's just some details regarding that we can maybe also no that's all right yeah so maybe we can quickly move into the book of judges so in the book of judges we see that now the people have settled in the land they have failed to conquer all the territories which god asked them to conquer just basically due to lack of faith you know they did not have the courage to conquer all the places that god had asked them to take over and because of that the locals are still living in many of the territories and so they begin to you know fight with the Israelites so in the book of judges we see that whenever the people are living in sin god allows these local nations to conquer them to make them captive you know to to attack them and defeat them on the other hand whenever the people choose to be faithful to the lord the lord makes sure that they have victory so in the book of judges every time the people fall into sin and you have the local nations coming and controlling them then the people cry out to god and say lord please deliver us and god raises a judge for them um why is the term judge being used over there these judges did not sit in a law court and give out justice they were not judges in that sense they were judges in the sense that they brought god's judgment upon those local nations which were you know controlling the Israelites at that particular point of time so each of the judges which god raised up these were people who brought god's judgment upon the local nations which were holding the israelite people in bondage so um let's just look very briefly at the structure of the book of judges so chapter one chapter two and in chapter three up to verse six is basically where you have the introduction so chapter one up to chapter three verse six is where you could say that's the introductory section where it talks about how you know they had failed to conquer all the places that they were supposed to so as a result of that every time they sinned the local people would take over take control of them and they would be brought into subjugation so this was happening to them repeatedly so we have the uh introduction in in these uh two and a half chapters then chapter three verse seven onwards we have the judges one after another being mentioned so the second section will be chapter three versus seven to sixteen um where you have you know the judges being introduced totally in the book of judges there are 14 judges mentioned it's not necessary that only after one judge died the next judge would have risen to power at certain points of time it's possible that two judges would have been helping the Israelites in two different locations okay so because otherwise the timeline doesn't work out so there were probably some times during which you would have two judges you know operating under the Lord in two different locations in that entire land of Israel so totally there were 14 judges so um so the second section can be can be judges chapter three versus seven all the way up to chapter 16 so three seven up to chapter 16 can be the second section because you have all these 14 judges being described and what they did how they helped and then the last section would be chapter 17 to 21 where some examples are given about how terribly the people backslid uh the the terrible immoral condition of the people is described how they went so far away from the Lord that um you know um there was no there was there was no no moral control over them any longer so some some terrible examples of the things which they did are given in chapters 17 to 21 and we especially see the tribes of Dan and Benjamin which are probably the most simple the worst among all the tribes so some of their terrible stories are mentioned in chapter 17 to 21 so these could be the three main sections of the book of Judges let's look at something interesting that's mentioned over here not interesting in the sense of you know it being a story but something important that we can learn a learning which we maybe can take away Judges chapter two versus seven to 11 what does it say about the people and why does it say that these people had become so sinful Judges chapter two versus seven to 11 if someone can read out we will understand how the nation you know which was supposed to be which stood on the two mountains of Ebal and Gerizim and declared and said yes we will follow the Lord what happened to them how did they end up in such a horrible condition that they do the terrible things which are described in chapters 17 to 21 how did they come to this terrible condition um so if someone can read out for us Judges chapter two versus seven to 11 please so the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who how cleaved Joshua who had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel now Joshua the son of noon the servant of the Lord died when he was 110 years old and they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gash when all the generation had been gathered to their fathers another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and serve the Baal when we were covering the book of Deuteronomy and the law was repeated again for this new generation for a second time repeatedly again and again in the book of Deuteronomy it was told teach your children these things let them know what the laws of the Lord are and we see that these people were deaf they did not bother to listen to or to the advice which had been given to them they did not bother to educate their children about Yahweh and his ways which is why it says over here it's shocking it says in Judges chapter two verse 10 it says another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel what was wrong with these people I mean they had that generation that second generation which saw the older generation die in the wilderness and you know God wiped out every single one of them except of course for Joshua and Caleb and so they had seen the judgment of God the wrath of God and now God was giving this new generation a chance to enter into the land and the one piece of advice given to them was kindly start educating your children so that they will continue to walk in the ways of God and they had not bothered doing that it says here in verse 10 of Judges chapter two another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done why didn't they not even why did they not even bother training their children in the things of God and we see the same thing happen in this current generation today people are so interested in the studies of their children in their careers in their future and making money in earning power they're not educating their children in the things of God priorities being given to everything else except the things of God if this continues a generation which which will grow up which will neither know the Lord nor his ways you know it's dangerous ground studies educating our children is important you know joining them in a hundred different courses in the evening that is also fine but let there be time for them to learn the things of God to love the things of God to to to get passionate about the things of God and that will not happen by just sending them you know to children's church for one hour that's a training that has to be done in the home by the father and the mother or otherwise judges to 10 can happen to this generation this younger generation which is growing up so it's a very serious thing so the reason that in the book of judges we see the people falling into such terrible sin and doing the horrible things which they did you know in chapters 17 to 21 those terrible stories that we see over there all that happened because their parents did not bother to educate them you know spiritually they were not nurtured spiritually and the book of judges is the result of that recklessness of the parents in not bringing up their children in the so priorities matter it is very important for us to you know um um educate our children and join them in a hundred extracurricular courses but leave them enough time to dwell on the things of God start enjoying the things of God developing a love for the Lord those things take time are we leaving them enough time to you know grow in those things or do they have no spare time left at all so finally when they get a little bit of spare time all they want to do sit with their phone and entertain themselves are we creating enough space and time for them to learn the things of God and start enjoying those things that is so vital so important so that's one very important learning that comes across to us from this book of Judges um let's look at one uh sinful thing which the tribe of Dan does in Judges chapter 18 and the Lord does not approve of this like we have already talked about you know again and again in Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 and 2 very clearly the Lord says there are seven nations against whom I want to bring judgment so you are going to defeat those seven nations you're going to occupy their territories and settle down in their areas only God did not grant them permission to attack the other nation groups which may be you know in that area very clearly the Lord says whom they should attack because this is not just um um war this is divine judgment that God is bringing upon certain people and only those people should be attacked and wiped out not the others but this is what happens with Dan Dan you know uh the tribe of Dan has been living in sin so um they do not bother to follow the ways of the Lord as a result of which you know they are unable to conquer the territory given to them uh this is what we see about them in Judges chapter 1 verses 34 to 35 um it says in Judges chapter 1 34 to 35 that yeah maybe you can read out that if someone if you can have someone read out for us Judges chapter 1 34 to 35 and the emerities force the children of Dan into the mountains for they would not allow them to come down to the velo and the emerities were determined to dwell in mount haze in a Jalon and Selvim yet when the strength of the house of Joshae became greater they were put under revolt it says over here that the these people um of the tribe of Dan were not able to defeat the amorites who were in that region the region which God had promised them and given to them they were unable to conquer the territory given to them why because they were living in sin we see that explained in Judges chapter 13 verse 1 where it says that God gave them into the hands of the you know enemy because they were not following his ways so so the reason the tribe of Dan was unable to take over the territory the inheritance which was given to them is because of their own sinfulness because of their sinfulness God's powerful backing was not there his strength was not there because they were living in sin they had chosen to separate themselves from the living God through their conduct as a result of that they found themselves in a very difficult position you know they are a large tribe so many families each family has got so many members and they will have their you know servants and their slaves they will have their cattle but they don't have a territory to live in they don't have a territory to live in because they have been living in sin and they have been unable to defeat the enemy so what has happened to them is that on one side you have the amorites and the Philistines fully in control and on the other side you have the tribe of Judah and they are stuck in between in one small piece of territory and they're unable to survive because there are so many of them and there's not enough place so now what would be the simple reason I mean what would what would be the simple solution to this problem get down on your knees repent and say Lord we have been foolish but now Lord we want to come back to you and so if we repent and come back to you then you will fight for us Lord and we will be able to defeat these amorites and the Philistines that would have been the right attitude but no Dan has become so hardened in their hearts that they come up with another scheme they'll say let's look around for other territories there must be some group of people somewhere whom we can you know defeat and we can take over their land without God's permission God's permission has been given only against the seven nation groups and their territory so we in Judges chapter 18 we see that they send out spice to look out to you know to go through the entire land and find areas which are unprotected which they can take over without God's permission and so the people go around their spice go around they come to a place called Laish and the people of Laish are living in peace and that area is very prosperous and God's judgment has not been declared against them these people have no right to go and touch them or conquer them but you know we see Dan doing that they go to these people who are in Laish and Laish is basically under the control of the Sidonians who stay very far away so by the time the Sidonians are able to come and provide help to the to the people in Laish it's too late so you have the tribe of Dan going over there taking over that region and renaming it after themselves as the land of Dan that's the name which they give to that place and they take over that place and they have done it without the Lord's permission or covering what they have done is detestable in the eyes of God they killed a people group whom God had not yet considered ripe for judgment so this was just human war this was not divine judgment this was just human war being fought for selfish reasons so in you know they were no different from the nations that we have today you know who take up war against other nations just for the sake of selfish political reasons and so we see Dan doing that in the book of Judges chapter 18 and this is not something that the Lord was pleased with maybe we can very briefly look at also chapter 4 which talks about the story of Deborah and Barak now as we don't have time you know just to very briefly outline it Barak is the judge who is supposed to deliver the people from the hands of the king of Kenan and he does not have the courage to do that Deborah the prophetess goes to him and says the Lord has promised that you know he is going to you know attack these Kenanites near the Kishon river so all you need to do is take your army go up to the Kishon river there God will take care of the enemy I know and bring them into your hand and you all you have to do is kill them that's all you have to do but Barak does not have the guts to do that because he finds out that there's going to be an army of 900 chariots waiting for him over there near the river Kishon okay so these are chariots which have been fitted with iron which means they are faster they are stronger the soldiers who will be shooting arrows from the chariots will be you know more in a safer position so he is not he doesn't have the guts to go over there and face those 900 chariots even though God has promised and said that he will hand over the enemy to them at the river Kishon and so you know Deborah says because you're hesitating and you're saying come with me if you come with me then I'll go otherwise I don't have the guts to go like as if Deborah is you know God Almighty she's just a prophetess but he chooses to place his faith in Deborah rather than in the Almighty God and so Deborah says to him yes God will give you the victory but you know honor will come to you from that because you're putting your faith in me not in the Almighty one who has made a promise that he will deliver the enemy into your hands and so they actually go over there well I think your break time is going to kind of your bell is going to ring any minute now but anyway they go up to the Kishon river and there is a flood which takes place we see that in chapter 5 in Judges chapter 5 as if God makes a flood happen you know at that river again the same story which happened with the Jordan River incident you have water spiling up at some earlier you know at a higher location so that mudslide must have suddenly released and so you have the entire water's flooding and coming down to this Kishon into this area where Barak is supposed to come and because of the flash flood which takes place over there those iron chariots get stuck in the mud and the enemy is defeated so Barak is able to defeat the enemy but God does not honor his name because he did not trust the Lord that the Lord would do that for them so those things are mentioned in your chapters 4 and 5 so yeah you can go ahead for your break and then when we come back we will look at a few more details