What you will need: A Bible or your Bible app, a notebook, pen, and highlighter. The verses highlighted below are linked so that you can easily access them during your study time.
Jump Start
1. Name one decisive leader in your life. Or did you have a hesitant leader who was still very effective?
2. Read Judges 4:1-3 and Lamentations 3:22-23. How do you feel about verse 2? How do you reconcile it with the Lamentations passage? Discuss the message concept of “the umbrella of God’s protection.” God wants us to awaken from our sinfulness and complacency. What will it take to turn you back to Him?
3. Read Judges 4:4-7. List adjectives and your impressions of both Deborah and Barak. Which personality type, characteristics, or behaviors do you see in yourself from either or both of them? In which areas are you strong or weaker?
4. Read Judges 4:8-9. Where do you see compromise and sinfulness on the part of Barak? What is the immediate consequence? What consequences have you seen in your own life for partial obedience to God? What about blessings for complete obedience? What do you think about the idea that negotiations, delays, and procrastination are also disobedience?
5. Final Point: What do you consider the evidence of your “good Christian” life? What is the evidence of your love for God? Read John 14:15 and 15:14. God’s ultimate call upon our lives is obedience. What did God speak to you as you listened to the message? Where is God asking you to change? What actions do you need to take to be a “doer of the Word” and not just a listener?
Deeper
6. Read Judges 4:6-9. How did Deborah lead? What principles can you see in this passage?
7. In this same passage, where did both Deborah and Barak place their trust? Read Psalm 20:7 for the exact opposite reaction and a prescription for right thinking.
8. Read Judges 4:9, 23-24. What do you learn from these verses? How do they apply to your life?