The fourth and fifth chapters of the book of Judges give a riveting account of a battle between the Israelites and Canaanites during a time when Jabin the king of Canaan had subjugated the Israelites. This was allowed because “the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord” (4:1).
A central character in the narrative was Sisera, who commanded Jabin’s army. The army was strong, with 900 chariots of iron. The Israelites had suffered under the rule of Jabin for 20 years.
After a period of chastisement, God would heed the cries of the people, and raise up judges to end the oppression. He brought peace and prosperity back to the people of Israel. On this occasion that judge was a woman, Deborah, who also was a prophetess of God.
God gave the command, and Deborah called upon a man named Barak to lead the army of the Lord. Her words to Barak, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you 10,000 men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand?’” (4:6-7).
A first important lesson for us to note is the assurance in the declaration: “I will deliver him into your hand.” With God on our side, and with the promises He makes to us, we always can be assured of victory. Our battle is spiritual in nature, but we are told, “What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?…Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:31,37).
With Deborah’s promise that she would go with him, Barak took 10,000 men to the river where a man named Heber saw, and announced his presence to King Jabin. We are told the two men were allies and at peace with one another. This is significant, as we will see. So Sisera, the commander of the Canaanites with his multitudes and 900 iron chariots met Barak and the 10,000 soldiers of Israel in battle at the river.
As God had promised, Jabin was delivered into their hands. The narrative states that the Lord “routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak” (4:15). Sisera himself fled away on foot as the Israelites pursued and destroyed the Canaanite army, “and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword: not a man was left” (4:16).
We mentioned that Heber and Jabin were allies. That is where the commander Sisera fled. The tent was occupied by the wife of Heber, a woman named Jael. When Sisera arrived there, Jael said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear” (4:18). She covered him with a blanket to hide him in the tent. When he asked some water from her, she supplied instead a drink of milk (it seems furthering his trust in her). He asked her to tell any who came by to say she was alone, and then being tired he fell asleep under the blanket.
However, Jael did not have the same respect for King Jabin. Unlike her husband and his loyalties, Jael secretly sought to assist the Israelites and the Lord. While Sisera was sleeping, “Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.” (4:21).
This shows how God’s will cannot be thwarted by men. It reminds us of Jonah, who sought to run away from God only to have a great fish swallow him up, as a message from God. Or perhaps Rahab the harlot, whose protection of the spies sent by Israel accomplished the destruction of Jerusalem. God’s will can’t be overcome!
Like Rahab, this action of Jael, who after killing Sisera directed the Israelites to his body (4:22), caused Jael’s name to be honored in history. We are told that as a result of this great victory, “So the land had rest for forty years” (5:31).
After the victory, Deborah proclaimed a song of victory. Hear what she had to say about Jael, the wife of Heber.
“Most blessed among women is Jael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
Blessed is she among women in tents.
He asked for water, she gave milk;
She brought out cream in a lordly bowl.
She stretched her hand to the tent peg,
Her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;
She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head,
She split and struck through his temple.
At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he sank, he fell;
Where he sank, there he fell dead”
Judges 5:24-27
Finally hear the conclusion to Deborah’s song, as it has the same implications for God’s people today. “Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But let those who love Him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength” (Judges 5:31). As Paul wrote, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
