Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / September 9, 2026 - Judges 5 & Proverbs 14:17-20

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September 9, 2026 - Judges 5 & Proverbs 14:17-20 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Listen intently to God's written word, Judges 5.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Then sang Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, on that day, that the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Bless the Lord.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Hear, O kings, give ear, O princes, to the Lord I will sing, I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, and earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: The mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: The villagers ceased in Israel.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: They ceased to be until I arose.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel, who offer themselves willingly among the people.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Bless the Lord.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way, to the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Then down to the gates march the people of the Lord.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, break out in a song.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Then down marched the remnant of the noble.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: The people of the Lord marched down for me against the mighty.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: From Ephraim, their route they marched down into the valley, following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: From Makir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun, those who bear the lieutenant staff.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: The princes of Issachar came down with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Into the valley they rushed at his heels.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Among the clans of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And Dan, why did he stay with the ships?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: The kings came, they fought, then fought the kings of Canaan at Anak by the waters of Megiddo.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: They got no spoils of silver.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: From heaven the stars fought.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: From their courses they fought against Sisera.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: The torrent Kishon swept them away.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon, march on, my soul, with might.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Then loud beat the horses' hoofs with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Curse Miraz, says the angel of the Lord.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Curse its inhabitants thoroughly, because they did not come to help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite, of tent dwelling women most blessed.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: He asked for water, and she gave him milk.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: She brought him curds in a noble's bowl.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: She sent her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workman's mallet.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: She struck Sisera.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: She crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Between her feet he sank.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: He fell, he lay still.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Between her feet he sank, he fell.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Where he sank, there he fell, dead.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Why is his chariot so long in coming?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Her wisest princess's answer, indeed, she answers herself.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Have they not found and divided the spoil?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: A womb or two for every man, spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the knack of spoil.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So may all your enemies perish, O Lord, but your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might, and the land had rest for forty years.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs fourteen, verses seventeen through twenty.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: The evil bow down before the good, the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Judges five, of course, comes on the heels of Judges four, where we see Deborah, in a lot of ways, take center stage.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, she is armed with a hammer and a tent spike, and she goes to work doing something that ultimately ends up helping Israel, of course, in their continued opposition and their fighting and their battling against the lands and the nations that they ultimately refuse to drive out.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so this continues to be really one of the consequences of their sin and disobedience because God commanded them early on to drive out all the nations to not adopt their foreign gods or to take their wives as their own.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, they do all of those things, as we saw even beginning in Judges chapter one.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: So here in Judges five, we have a very poetic version of essentially the prose of Judges chapter four.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: So Judges four is the story of how all this happened, and Judges five is the poetic expression of those things.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all about war.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Deborah, of course, has even a much more prominent role throughout this song.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it's called the Song of Deborah and Barak.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just a very poetic way to describe, again, just the events that happened in chapter four, but also just the faithfulness of the Lord in and through just a really kind of weird circumstance.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, it highlights Deborah's role in that, even there at the end, kind of focusing on uh the results of what she ended up doing.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 27 between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Between her feet he sank, he fell.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Where he sank, there he fell dead.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh it just reiterates the events again of what she did, and even some of the aftermath that happened.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in verse 31, so may all your enemies perish, O Lord, but your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the land had rest for 40 years.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So there's this victory that's followed by rest, and of course, that Judges 5 is the really poetic song version of those events that highlights Deborah's role uh in her key role and bringing about the rest for 40 years that we see here in Judges 5.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: As we continue to learn more uh about how to how to live, uh, as you've expressed it a handful of times in this podcast, Pastor Josiah, skilled living in God's created order.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: The proverbs are full uh of how to do exactly that, how to live out a life that is uh in accordance with God, in his order.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we see more of that here today, uh, starting in verse 17 of Proverbs chapter 14.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the thoughts of um impulsivity, things that that would come up um in in my past, and in even the thoughts that come into my mind from time to time, we we should not always act out on them, we should assess them and evaluate them.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the man of of quick temper um is not doing that, is not um evaluating and assessing his thoughts and is is acting out.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um his his anger is is is being released.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and for that um there's there's foolish outcomes.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's things there's things that come into a person's life that um that that are not good for them, not well for them.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're living out, um, I guess in a sense, they're sleeping in the bed that they made.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um they're they're living out a life that is um self-centered, and and when you don't get your way, sometimes if you if you think about um children or people uh people out there in the workplace, if they're not getting their way, sometimes they could act and and snap back, uh clap back, if you will, and uh a man of evil devices is hated these the people that are crafting um plans um uh that are evil, these people naturally um are not liked.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're hated by those who are uh striving to do good, striving to please the Lord.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And even in a world that is fallen, um we we can see people that are evil, seeing other people's evil and and being offended by it, being perturbed by it.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the our opening verse today um draws our attention to um what we say, what we think, and and how we act on it.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's followed up with verse 18, which is kind of a continuation of that thought from 17, but it says the simple inherit folly.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the simple in Hebrew, really that word, has the image associated with it an open door.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: So think of it as your mind and your mind being a door, the simple have the door of their mind always open.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's undiscerning, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: There are things coming and going that perhaps shouldn't be.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so the simple, of course, in that sense, when there's no discretion, when there's no sifting out of what is good and right and true from that which is evil and and wicked, you're gonna inherit folly.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: But the prudent, those who stand at the door, so to speak, and open it and close it when they should, are crowned with knowledge.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: What they receive is that which is good, and of course, that which is uh rooted in the fear of the Lord.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: So the simple inherent folly.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: If we're undiscerning about what we're letting in, if we're undiscerning about what we consume, about what we consider truth that is contrary to God's word, that of course that's gonna lead us to foolishness, that's gonna lead us away from the Lord and away from what he has said and what he has instructed in his word.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: But the prudent, again, those that have the skill to know when to keep the door shut are crowned with knowledge, true knowledge.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and so of course, that's gonna come from uh worshiping the Lord and uh being rooted in his word.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Our next verse 19 the evil bow down before the good, the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Pastor Josiah, I'm thinking this doesn't always happen.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: This in our world today, it's it seems like the reverse is true.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um so what as we look at this verse here, how how can we make sense?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is this pointing forward?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is this is this a um is this looking forward into God's judgment?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And how can we how can we make sense of of verse 19 when it was written, but also how what is the application as we look to this verse today?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's uh kind of a dual meaning.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: There is an eschatological reality to this meaning in the end times or at the end of things, that's eschatology, the study of last of things.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, that uh the wicked will bow to that which is good.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, in the ultimate sense, that's Christ.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we can look forward to that day, and even Hebrews puts it this way at the end of chapter one, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a literal image of bowing before the throne of Christ, even the enemies of Christ.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I think there's also a sense in which uh in this world you do see at times evil bowing, so to speak, to good, even in a military kind of way.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Good uh can defeat, has defeated evil in the past.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it doesn't happen all the time, of course, but we have many examples throughout history of evil being defeated by that which is good, those who are promoting good, and there's a sense in which that evil is bowing, is succumbing to uh what is good and right and just.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so God ultimately, of course, holds that in his hands.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And one day every wrong will be righted, and every knee is going to bow.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, the wicked are going to be humbled.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: There is no choice in the matter when it comes to the last things.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, of course, I think we've seen this both in a temporal sense.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you could even think of uh police officers or uh perhaps someone who's um taken a life or or murdered someone, and then the tech, the detectives and the police officers and law enforcement work together, they band together uh to find them and catch them and hold them to account, uh, to throw them in jail or in prison, to see them prosecuted.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's a sense in which, even in that, uh, that the wicked is bowing to the good because they have been caught, they've been found out.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so I think there's multiple things going on here in this proverb that describe things just as they are, where good does uh win the day at times.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and of course, we can also believe in the future where when Christ returns, uh, that that there is gonna be no more evil.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: He's gonna wipe away every tear from our eyes.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as we transition to verse 20, it's an interesting proverb.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It says, the poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, again, the proverbs sometimes they just they kind of call it like it is.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this isn't, of course, always the case, and it's not the Proverbs recommending this kind of thinking or this um, you know, you thinking of others or perhaps even treating others in a poor way because they are poor or they're rich or something like that.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just describing things as they are.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's real in that sense.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes in humanity's sinfulness, we can think less of people just by virtue of our perception of their material things, of their wealth.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's been even so many proverbs that talk about people that that want that kind of treatment, so much so that they're gonna clothe themselves in in wealth, they're gonna costume themselves in wealth, even if they don't have it, because they want the kind of uh reverence, even if it's false reverence, which I think is what's really being talked about here, uh they want the kind of reverence that comes with material possessions and status and things like that.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the proverbs don't hold back from from even talking about things as they are.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and of course, you've hopefully uh you've seen this in the world.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when I say hopefully, I don't mean that you are thinking this way or that you're treating people poorly.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: I just mean that you can see that this proverb is the way that the world is.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so there are times when uh the proverbs, of course, are making recommendations, telling us how we ought to live, but then there are times when the proverbs are just saying this is how things are and this is what people do.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not an endorsement, that's just a reality that uh the Proverbs is speaking to.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: That at times, though sinful, the poor is disliked just by virtue of them being poor.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the wealthy are liked just by virtue of being wealthy.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you see this in celebrity culture, people, you know, who is it that gets the most free stuff in the world?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's the people that have the most stuff, right?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: The wealthiest people that are they're getting free dinners and free this and that, just for the exposure, for the connection, for the relationship.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's it's you know, you see that working itself out all the time.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So again, the Bible is not recommending that we treat poor people poorly, it's just saying that at times a sinful humanity, this is exactly what happens, and it is sinful and it's wrong.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the proverbs are pointing that out.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I was thinking too the way that people uh are drawn to those who who have abundance, um, and uh thinking specifically about um athletes, professionals that have been their whole lives training to become um on TV to compete at the highest level, and the friends, the the friends are are not lacking.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when uh you see someone spoil uh all of their their earnings and their their money is dried up, where do the friends go?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're gone.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that that can be just kind of a a telltale sign of um just the the warning of of being uh being cautious about the true friends, friends that are gonna be there, not for what you have, not for for what you can offer them maybe materially, but uh what they're gonna be to you spiritually as an encourager, as someone who's going to build you up, someone's gonna come to your side when you're um when you're mourning, when you when you need when you need help.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so the the rich has has many friends and and may we have rich friendships.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there's there's a quantity versus quality kind of aspect that I see in this as well is we want we want not to have just numerous friends, just stack and stack and stack.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: We want to have um an inner circle.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: We want to have friends that that really are investing well.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it can't be hard to do that uh as we seek to have just multiple, multiple friendships.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why I think even life groups, like the friendships that we get to to build within life groups, those those relationships can can tend to run deeper because of the quality time that we're spending together, the quality time that we're praying with each other, for each other, and the time that we're we're spending with each other assessing what the word of God says.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and as a result, naturally, I think I've seen God as has grown rich friendships as a result of that.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bob Bridging Podcast.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbible sv.org.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.