The Great Divide: The Sun at Full Strength Text: Judges 5:31
Introduction: A Song at the Center of History
The book of Judges is a bloody and chaotic spiral. It is the story of a people who did what was right in their own eyes, which is a surefire recipe for disaster. The cycle is grimly predictable: Israel sins, God sends an oppressor, the people cry out, God raises up a deliverer, and there is peace for a time. And then the whole sorry business starts over again. But right in the middle of this recurring mess, we find this magnificent song, the song of Deborah and Barak. It is a song of victory, a song of God's intervention in history, and it ends with a crescendo that is not just a summary of the battle, but a summary of all of history itself.
This final verse of the song is a prayer, a benediction, and a prophecy all rolled into one. It draws a line in the sand as stark and as bright as the sun itself. It divides all of humanity, all of history, into two and only two camps: the enemies of God and the lovers of God. There is no third way, no neutral ground, no demilitarized zone. You are either for Him or against Him. You are either perishing in the dark or rising with the sun.
Our modern sensibilities, which are frequently nothing more than well-educated cowardice, recoil from such language. We want a God who is a celestial guidance counselor, not a conquering king. We want a faith that is a mild preference, not a consuming love. We want a world where everyone gets a participation trophy. But the Bible will not have it. The song of Deborah is not politically correct. It is a war song. And it concludes by asking God to do to all His enemies what He just did to Sisera and his armies. It is a prayer that the God of the Kishon River would be the God of the whole earth. And the promise attached to it is one of glorious, ever-increasing strength for those who love Him. This is not just about an ancient battle; it is about the great war that spans all of time, and it tells us plainly how it will end.
The Text
Thus let all Your enemies perish, O Yahweh; But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might. And the land was quiet for forty years.
(Judges 5:31 LSB)
The Great Imprecation (v. 31a)
The song concludes with a prayer, and it is what we call an imprecatory prayer. It calls down judgment.
"Thus let all Your enemies perish, O Yahweh..." (Judges 5:31a)
Deborah looks at the battlefield, strewn with the enemies of God, their chariots washed away by the flash flood God sent down the Kishon, and she says, in effect, "Do it again." Not just here, not just now, but everywhere and always. "Thus." In this manner. Let all who set themselves against You, O Lord, come to the same ruin. This is not a petty, personal vendetta. Notice the pronoun: "Your enemies." This is not about Deborah's enemies or Barak's enemies. It is about God's enemies. An enemy of God is anyone who hates His law, despises His grace, mocks His people, and seeks to build a world without Him. The enemies of God are those who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
To pray this way is to align our desires with God's revealed justice. It is to agree with God that evil is evil and that it must be judged. We live in a sentimental age that thinks it is more spiritual to be more merciful than God. But true love for God necessitates a hatred for that which He hates. To love righteousness is to hate lawlessness (Heb. 1:9). To love the lambs is to hate the wolves. A shepherd who does not hate wolves is no true shepherd. A Christian who has no capacity to pray for the downfall of God's enemies, whether they be abortionists, tyrants, or false teachers, has a deficient love for God.
This is not a prayer for the damnation of any particular individual's soul. We are commanded to love our personal enemies and pray for those who persecute us, offering them the gospel. But this is a prayer for the ruin of all anti-Christian systems, all rebellious movements, all ideologies that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. It is a prayer that God would throw down every idol and every throne that is established in defiance of Christ's throne. It is a prayer for the victory of God's kingdom, and such a victory necessarily means the defeat of all rival kingdoms. To pray "Your kingdom come, Your will be done" is to pray "Thus let all Your enemies perish."
The Great Benediction (v. 31b)
But the prayer is not merely negative. It is balanced by a glorious positive declaration for the people of God.
"But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might." (Judges 5:31b LSB)
Here is the other side of the coin. The enemies of God perish in darkness and chaos, washed away by the torrent. But those who love God are not just spared this fate; they are made to be like the sun coming out in its full, blazing, noontime strength. This is a picture of ever-increasing glory, strength, and victory.
The sun does not rise timidly. It does not apologize for its brightness. It does not negotiate with the darkness; it banishes it. It rises, and the shadows flee. It keeps rising, getting stronger and brighter, until it reaches its zenith. This is the biblical picture of the righteous. "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day" (Proverbs 4:18). This is a portrait of postmillennial optimism, grounded in the promises of God.
This is not a promise of a life free from trouble. The sun rises into a sky that may have clouds. But the sun is mightier than the clouds, and it burns them away. This is a promise that the cause of God's people, the Church of Jesus Christ, will not be extinguished. It will not fade away. It will not cower in the catacombs of history, waiting for a secret rapture. No, the Church, those who love God through His Son, will be like the sun going forth in its power. The gospel will advance, nations will be discipled, and the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is the destiny of those who love God.
Who are "those who love Him?" This is the fundamental definition of a Christian. It is not someone who merely gives intellectual assent to a set of doctrines. It is someone whose affections have been captured by the living God. And we love Him, why? Because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). This love is the fruit of regeneration, the evidence of a heart made new. And the destiny of these lovers of God is not retreat and defeat, but a triumphant, sun-like advance in history.
The Great Peace (v. 31c)
The song ends, and the historical narrative provides the result of this great victory and this great prayer.
"And the land was quiet for forty years." (Judges 5:31c LSB)
When God's enemies are routed, and God's people are walking in the light, the result is peace. Not the world's peace, which is merely the absence of conflict, a tense ceasefire. This is biblical peace, shalom. It is wholeness, order, prosperity, and security. When righteousness is established, peace is the fruit.
The number forty is significant in Scripture. It is the number of testing, trial, and completion. Israel wandered for forty years. Jesus was tempted for forty days. Here, forty years represents a full generation of God-given rest. This is a foretaste of the ultimate rest that God has promised His people. It is a type of the peace that Christ's kingdom brings. When a people honor God, when they love Him and obey His law, He grants them rest from their enemies round about.
This is the pattern. First comes the confrontation with evil ("let Your enemies perish"). Then comes the growth and strengthening of the righteous ("like the rising of the sun"). And the result is a culture of peace and rest ("the land was quiet"). We have this backwards today. We want peace without confrontation. We want quiet without righteousness. We want the result without the process. But it does not work that way. True peace is a conquered peace. It is the peace that comes on the other side of a righteous war against evil, whether that is the evil in our own hearts or the evil embodied in the systems of the world.
Conclusion: The Son in His Might
This verse is more than just the conclusion to Deborah's song. It is a prophecy that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who has crushed the head of the serpent, the ultimate enemy. On the cross, He made a public spectacle of all the principalities and powers, triumphing over them. The prayer "let all Your enemies perish" was answered definitively at Calvary and in the empty tomb.
And who are those who love God? They are those who have been united by faith to the Son. And what is their destiny? To be like the rising sun. But this is only because we are united to the one who is the true Sun of Righteousness who has risen with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2). In the book of Revelation, the apostle John sees the glorified Christ, and His face was "like the sun shining in its might" (Revelation 1:16). This is the very same language. Our destiny is to be conformed to His image. We shine because He shines in us.
The history of the Church is the story of this sun rising. There are cloudy days, to be sure. There are seasons when the light seems obscured. But the sun has not been put out. The trajectory is upward and onward. Christ has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and He is putting all His enemies under His feet. And He will reign until the very last enemy, death itself, is destroyed.
Therefore, we should take this verse and make it our prayer. We should pray for the confusion and downfall of all that sets itself against our King. And we should live as children of the light, with a robust and cheerful confidence. The darkness has been beaten. The sun is rising. And the land will have its rest. The kingdom of our God will come, and it will bring a peace that will have no end.