[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 5:31 (NIV) “So may all your enemies perish, LORD! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.”

[Meditation]

Judges 5 is the great song of praise offered to God by Deborah and Barak after defeating Sisera. The conclusion of that song, today’s text, can at first sound like a self-centered petition. It seems like a wish for ‘our side to prosper and our enemies to perish.’ But surely, the message of the Bible cannot be so simple.

The ‘this side’ and ‘that side’ distinguished in Deborah’s song is not merely a national or ethnic distinction between Israel and Canaan. It is a covenantal distinction between ‘those who love the Lord’ and ‘the Lord’s enemies.’ Therefore, this song is a song of faith, sung while holding onto the faithful promise of God that ‘God’s people will ultimately triumph, and God’s enemies will ultimately perish.’

When we apply this prayer to ourselves, its meaning deepens even more. This is because the foremost battlefront is our own inner self. Deborah’s song is, in fact, a desperate prayer: a prayer that desires only for the new self—the self that belongs to His people, trusts in God alone, and delights in Him—to rise ‘like the sun when it rises in its strength,’ while asking for the defeat of the old self within me, the prideful heart that seeks to follow the world’s values.

That’s right. The life of a saint is a process of fighting against the enemy within and winning, day by day. Though there may be times when we seem to fall and fail, we are never ultimately defeated. This is because Christ Jesus, the true Judge and eternal Victor, has already fought and won on our behalf.

[Prayer]

Lord, I entrust to You the fierce war that rages within me. In this battle that I can never win by my own strength, let me look only to You, who have already won the victory. Let the old self, which is Your enemy within me, be silenced beneath the cross, and let the new life that loves You rise powerfully this morning, like the sun rising in its strength. Amen.
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(Daily Reading)

Judges 5:12-31