Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." So often, God is working behind the scenes in ways that we fail to recognize.

After falling away from God yet again, the children of Israel found themselves in bondage once more. We read of the king of Canaan and his commander, Sisera, who oppressed the Israelites, as we read in Judges 5:3, And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel." This army seemed invincible, chariots being the ancient equivalents to modern day tanks. Deborah faithfully followed God, while Barak continued to mistakenly see with his eyes. Reluctantly following Deborah's battle plan, we read in 4:14-15, "Then Deborah said to Barak, "Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the Lord gone out before you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot." So mismatched it may be difficult to realize how God worked behind the scene to give His children the victory. We get an understanding from Judges 5:4-5 in the Song of Deborah, "Lord, when You went out from Seir, When You marched from the field of Edom, The earth trembled and the heavens poured, The clouds also poured water; The mountains gushed before the Lord, This Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel." History verifies what happened on the battlefield that day. God sent a tremendous rainstorm and all of Sisera's nine hundred chariots were rendered useless being stuck in mud. Barak was probably thinking to himself before the battle began, how unfortunate events were, being out-manned and out-machined and now being stuck in the middle of a torrential downpour, not seeing God's hand in it all.

Before being too harsh on Barak, aren't we all guilty of the same thing. Unable to see God's sovereign hand on our lives, we get angered by life's circumstances which seem to interfere with our own plans. We drive to work and get rerouted due to an accident. Angry and delayed we proceed down an alternate route. How do we know if God is redirecting our path either away from some danger or towards a possible opportunity for His glory? We all have a choice how to view life. We can see things only horizontally as Barak did, or we can see things vertically as Deborah did. Proverbs 16:9 says, "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”