Audio Recording Sermon manuscript: Just like last week I’d like to begin tonight by talking a little bit about geography, specifically topography, or the lay of the land. Canaan is very diverse in its topography. Generally speaking, there are a lot of low mountains. In the south the mountains are so close together that they form somewhat of a rocky plateau. There isn’t much for low and broad plains or valleys in the south. Toward the north there is a large valley, called the Jezreel valley, but there are a still a lot of hill and valleys around it. Toward the west is the Mediterranean Sea. There you have some flatter land along the sea coast. Toward the east was the Jordan river, but that valley is not very broad except in a couple places. So, to sum up, Canaan was a very hilly, mountainous place—very different from the plains of Iowa, but maybe somewhat like the river bluffs to our east along the Mississippi river, but larger. Geography plays a larger role than we might realize in what happens or doesn’t happen in certain locations. Hilly land makes several things more difficult to do than doing the same things on flat land. For example, if you were pulling wagon loads full of merchandise, would you rather pull those wagons up and over mountains, or would you rather pull them on a flat and level road? More wagon loads of merchandise means more business. More business means more opportunities for advancing one’s self. More opportunities means a larger population. A larger population means more resources for building things like walls or having armies. When the Israelites invaded and took over Canaan, they more quickly and easily took over the mountainous areas because they were weaker. They had a harder time with the flatter, leveler areas. Those places had more people and more resources, and the land was more coveted. The large open spaces were the areas that were hardest to conquer and the hardest to defend if you did manage to conquer them. In our reading tonight we heard about a conflict that took place in the Jezreel valley, which I mentioned at the start. This was that broad, flat area towards the north of Canaan. The king of Canaan was strong in this area and made no end of trouble for the Israelites. He had chariots, perhaps an especially strong type of chariot, for the writer of Judges calls them iron chariots. As you can imagine, chariots don’t work that well up in the mountains. However, on broad, flat land they were practically unbeatable at that time. Perhaps you can get an idea of the power difference by thinking of a fight between tanks and an infantry. People running around on foot have basically no chance in a fight against tanks. So also the Israelites had a devil of a time against the Canaanites with their 900 iron chariots. But when the Lord is on your side, that becomes a different matter altogether. This is one of the themes of the book of Judges. When the Lord is on your side, then you can prevail with an 18 inch dagger, strapped to your right thigh. With the Lord on your side you can defeat a huge enemy force with just 300 men like Gideon does in chapter 8. So also with Deborah, and her right hand man, Barak. Although the Israelites did not have chariots, they were able to rout the Canaanites and cut them down utterly. The rout is so bad that the Canaanites’ here-to-fore mighty commander, Sisera, is forced to flee on foot and hide like a hunted rabbit. His death is embarrassing. Instead of dying in battle at the hands of a worthy opponent, he has his temple smashed in by a woman with a tent peg. There is simply no defense against the Lord. You might escape the battlefield, but you have to sleep sometime. Then someone you thought was nice—someone who gave him milk instead of water he had asked for—becomes the arm of the Lord. So chapter 4 fits in with the rest of the book, indeed, with the rest of the Scriptures, in demonstrating that the Lord is God. When he is on your side, you are in a good spo