“Kings came; they fought.
Yes, the kings of Kena‘an fought
at Ta‘anakh, by the waters of Megiddo;
but they took no spoil of silver.
They fought from heaven,
the stars in their courses;“
-Judges 5:19-20
Let’s go ahead and examine the next two stanzas of the Song of Devorah.
First, let’s take a look at verse 19.
We’re told…
…”the kings of Canaan fought at Ta’anakh, by the waters of Megiddo, but they took no spoil of silver“.
Technically speaking, these were not kings.
Nor were they special hit men hired to expel Israel for pay in silver.
Nope, these were loyal Canaanite nationalist troops hell bent on exterminating Israel no matter what the cost.
Israel has similar enemies today in the form of Hamas and other ultra-nationalist pro-Palestinian groups.
Verse 20 is a quite interesting and mysterious verse.
We’re told these ultra-nationalistic Canaanite soldiers…
…“fought from heaven, the stars in their courses“.
What in the world does this mean?
It’s hard to say for sure because in the Bible, stars can be both either spiritual or natural.
Consider that the stars in heaven are used metaphorically to refer to angelic spiritual beings.
Here’s a perfect case in point.
Who in Scripture before he fell was called the brightest and most beautiful star?
Of course, it was Lucifer, that fallen angel who is also called the god of this world.
Therefore, I believe what Devorah is saying is that while the battle is taking place here on earth, it’s also at the same time taking place in heaven.
Some folks will say this is simply referring to the weather which “coincidentally” worked in Israel’s favor allowing them to secure the victory.
I can’t necessarily disagree with that.
However, if we’re going to go by the established Biblical patterns and Hebrew thinking, I would say there is a kind of duality between heaven and earth being expressed here.
In the past, I’ve simply called this the “As-in-heaven-so-on-earth” principle.
And this idea would seem to make more sense here.
Because we see it all the time in Scripture.
“The LORD your God is going ahead of you.
He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt.”
-Deuteronomy 1:30
Even Yeshua alluded to this when he said…
“Do you think I cannot call on my Father,
and he will at once put at my disposal
more than twelve legions of angels?”
-Matthew 26:35
And that’s the takeaway for today and why we should not fret or worry when confronted with the challenges of life.
Because not only will the Lord go ahead and fight for us but we have many unseen allies in the heavens and even in the midst of us who protect us and keep us safe.
So be blessed and shalom!
Amen. Shalom
תודה