Welcome back to the Jesse Tree on the Catholic Sprouts podcast. Today is Wednesday of the second week of Advent.

The Israelites were finally in the land that God had promised them, but that wasn't the end of the story.

In the peaceful years that followed, God's people strayed from God's law and began to worship pagan

gods that their neighbors worshipped. As a result, God no longer could protect to the Israelites

and other nations invaded and oppressed them. When they repented of their sins,

God raised up a judge or leader

to help Israel defeat their enemy

and bring them back into God's law.

This cycle of sin, judgment, repentance,

and deliverance repeated itself over many times. One of the great judges God called to

lead the Israelite nation was a woman named Deborah. Listen now to the story of Deborah found in the

book of judges. Judges chapter four, four through 10. At that time, Deborah, a prophetess,

wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Rama

and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.

She sent and summoned Beric, son of Abidnaum, from Kadesh and Naftali, and said to him,

The Lord, the God of Israel, command you, go.

Take position at Mount Tabor, bringing 10,000 from the tribe of Naftali and the tribe of Zebulin.

I will draw out Cicero, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the

Wadai Kachishan with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand. Barak said to her,

If you will go with me, I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go. And she said,

I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are you will not go with me, I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with you.

Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory,

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