Women to the Rescue (Judges 4)

The Book of Judges has already described the contribution of surprising people as deliverers of God’s people. So far, we have seen how Ehud, the man with a useless right arm, was used by God and how Shamgar, the man from outside Israel became one of its heroes. By now we should be asking ourselves if God has more surprises in store, and he has, because the next deliverers are two women – Deborah the respected prophetess and Jael the unknown wife of a wanderer. And there is Gideon and Samson to come.

Monotonous cycle

Despite the efforts of Ehud and Shamgar, the children of Israel again departed from the Lord. The outcome was that they were punished by him and became captives to Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose city was Hazor in the north of the country. A good while before, Joshua had won a comprehensive victory over this group, even burning the city to the ground (Josh. 11). Obviously the failure of the Israelites to remain faithful to the Lord allowed former defeated enemies to recover their strength. We can see a spiritual lesson in that situation.

Jabin, which was probably a hereditary title, is described as the king of Canaan. This is an interesting title because we should ask, ‘Who was the real king of Canaan?’ The answer to that question is that God should have been the recognised king. Yet since the people of Israel did not obey him, which is how they should have responded to him, he ceased to protect them and did not act as their king. Instead he gave them into subjection to the king whose rules they were observing.

Of course, we should not be too surprised by this. After all, if we cease obeying God, it means that we are serving another ruler, and we know who that is – the devil. If we pursue a life of sin, God will let us endure the consequences. As Paul reminds us in Romans 6:16, ‘Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?’

Jabin had a very advanced army for the day – his troops had benefitted from the discoveries of the Iron Age and had 900 chariots of iron. I suppose trying to fend them off would be like a modern soldier trying to avoid an armoured car. None of the Israelites could do anything about it, although it seems that they spent twenty years trying to do so. The children of Israel were discovering that their skills were no match for the advanced abilities of the army of the King of Jabin. Is this not an illustration of what Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Without me you can do nothing’?

Then the children of Israel discovered a familiar remedy, which was earnest prayer. I suppose we can say three things about this prayer and each of them is very important. First, the prayer was united because it involved the people as a whole. Second, it was fresh and was not cumbered by years of mere nominalism – if there is anything beneficial about a time of departure from God it is that believers forget how to make meaningless prayers. So when they return to him, it is full of energy. Third, although they were praying earnestly, they had no idea how he would answer their prayers. There is nothing wrong with that kind of ignorance.

The manner of the prophetess

Deborah was not the first woman that God had raised up to serve him in a prominent role among his people. At the time that Israel was delivered from Egypt, Miriam the sister of Moses has an important role to perform among God’s people. A brief description of her style is given in verse 5 and it indicates that she was a woman of courage who was not afraid to fulfill her role in a public place where she could easily be found. Moreover, we can say that as a leader of the people she made it easy for them to find her and come for advice.

Message of the prophetess

The role of a prophet or prophetess was to convey the Lord’s will to his people. As we can see from the story her message from God was not concerned with the far future but with the immediate answer to the prayers of his people. After all, they should have been expecting an answer. What does her message from God say?

First, the message has to be obeyed. This is the point that she stresses to Barak. Second, the message contains clear instructions about what Barak should do. Third, the message contains definite promises of victory for Barak if he will do as he is commanded. We can see that the same three features often accompany the requirements that God gives to us in the Bible. Usually a call to obedience, clarity of instruction and confidence-creating promises accompany what God says about how we are to respond to him.

Missing out on a blessing

God in his wisdom gave to Barak the role of delivering his people, and the fact that God is wise should have been sufficient enough reason for Barak to accept the role. God in his mercy decided to give Barak the opportunity of really benefitting from the answer to prayer that he was about to send – in fact Barak was part of the answer. Moreover he had the opportunity of achieving glory and praise, and it was given to him by the God who answers prayer. What did Barak do? He added his own suggestion to the revealed will of God and it cost him dear.

Why did Barak do this? Maybe he was unknown and felt that the people would not follow him. So it would be good to have a famous name accompany him. Barak engaged in worldly wisdom and worldly wisdom is usually a sure way to achieve losing out on the fullness of God’s blessings. Or maybe he had a touch of superstition and assumed that if Deborah were present it would all go well. What he needed was not the presence of Deborah but the presence of God, and he had promised it. Reluctance takes many forms, and quite often it is expressed in pious language. Yet disobedience is disobedience, no matter how it is worded. Barak lost out because of his own choice.

True he did not lose out on all blessings. Instead he had a large number of minor ones, we could say, as his ten thousand men were enabled by the Lord to have a marvellous victory over the charioteers and soldiers of Sisera. Barak is mentioned in Hebrews 11 as a hero of the faith, but when we speak about him we are aware that he missed out on the big prize as far as the defeat of Jabin was concerned. Barak would be known as the deliverer of Israel, but not the defeater of Sisera. The big prize could never be offered again because the opportunity had gone.

We can lose opportunities because of our sins. An obvious example is Barnabas, an exemplary Christian, one highly thought of in the early church. His sin of insisting that Mark come along with Paul and him cost him a place in the journeys of Paul described in Acts. Barnabas did get other blessings, but he never again had the opportunity of serving with Paul.

Mysterious providence at work – Heber

In the middle of his account of the battle, the author suddenly veers away from the story to tell us about a wandering Kenite called Heber. Why does he do this? He wants his readers to keep in mind that God works in more than one place at a time. We are not told by the author why Heber left his fellow tribesmen, but we are informed that God was arranging Sisera’s fate. Sisera’s punishment required Heber to move to Zaanannim, but Heber was not aware of that when he decided to go and live there. We are asked by the author to contemplate the superintending aspects of the providence of God.

Moreover, we see the providence of God at work in the way that Jabin was led to be friendly to Heber (v. 17). After all, what danger could Heber and his family have been to the mighty king Jabin? Usually, no danger at all, unless God was working to bring something about, which he was doing. What he was working towards was answering the prayers of his people for deliverance from Sisera. And Heber was part of the answer without realising it.

There is a longterm aspect to the providence of God here as well. Many years before, perhaps two centuries before, Moses had invited his relative Hobab to go with him to the Promised Land. At that time, Moses had no idea that one of Hobab’s descendants would become instrumental in delivering his people in the future. We can say that a lot depended on his simple invitation that flowed from his heart of love and desired the well-being of his relation. Do we ever get the urge to give an invitation? When that happens, think that there may be developments far away in the future depending on it.

Mallet of Jael

This incident is repulsive to modern critics of the Bible despite the fact that we have managed to invent weapons that cause much more damage than a hammer and many enjoy watching movies that are far more violent than reading about the actions of Jael. Even Christians have a problem with it because it is gruesome, and because it was performed by a woman. So what can we say about it?

First, it is encouraging that the Bible tells the truth about those whose actions benefit God’s people. There is no attempt to whitewash out the incident. After all, the author could have said, ‘Sisera arrived at her tent, had a drink of milk, and died.’ Instead, we are told all the gory details. Jael obviously used the tools that she was familiar with. Apparently, it was the task of the women to set up the tents, which meant that she knew how to use a mallet and a tent peg, and Sisera discovered that was the case.

Second, the incident tells us that God is a God of justice. Sisera had been a very cruel man, using his chariots to mow people down. Countless people had been his victims. God has a way of ensuring that vicious people get what they deserve. Sisera deserved to be humiliated, and what more humiliation could a soldier get at that time than to be killed by a woman. His place in history would not be one of honour, but of humiliation. God is just.

Third, Jael was in a place of danger, and sometimes people do things in such moments that they might not do at other times. She had no idea what Sisera might do to her when he woke up. The description of Sisera in 5:30 is not very encouraging for a woman alone in his presence. We cannot condone her lies and killing of Sisera, but we can wonder about her possible fate.

Fourth, Jael was also in a place of decision as to who she was to be identified with. Her family had made a treaty with Jabin when they moved north. Now she realised that there was not much of a future there. So she had to identify herself with the children of Israel, which she did in as clear a way as was possible. The next chapter tells us that she was regarded as a deliverer to be sung about (vv. 6, 24). She tells us to identify with the winning side. An important detail to remember is that saving faith is not sinless faith.

Fifth, maybe the account of Jael’s hammer is meant to cause us to think when other hammers were used in the Bible. I suppose we could think about Noah making an ark, although that same hammer user later was drunk. But the hammer that should interest us, I would say, is the hammer that nailed Jesus to the cross. Because he endured being nailed to the cross, the sins of Jael could be forgiven, even the ones that she committed when she was attempting to serve the cause of God.