OK,
Scripture Reading: Judges 4
we're going to look at Judges chapters 4 and 5 this evening. They go together. We probably won't do a whole lot in chapter 5. Basically, what you have in Judges chapter 4 is narrative or prose recording the particular deliverance under the judgeship of Barak.
And then in chapter 5, you have the Song of Deborah. You see a very similar convention used in the book of Exodus. And Exodus chapter 14 records the children of Israel coming out of Egypt. And then in chapter 15 is the Song of Moses to praise God for that act of deliverance.
So I'll just pick up reading in Judges chapter 4 at verse 1 and read to the end of the chapter. When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Herashef, Hagoyim.
And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, for Jabin had 900 chariots of iron. And for 20 years, he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim.
And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. Then she sent and called for Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, 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. And Beric said to her, if you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go. So she said, I will surely go with you.
Nevertheless, there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking. For the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with Beric to Kadesh. And Beric called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh.
He went up with 10,000 men under his command, and Deborah went up with him. Now Heber, the Kenite of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Za'anem, which is beside Kadesh. And they reported to Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor. So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Herashef, Hagoyim, to the river Tishon.
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 10,000 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. But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Heresheth Hagoyim. And all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left.
However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin, king of Hazor, and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me, do not fear. And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket.
Then he said to her, please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. And he said to her, stand at the door of the tent. And if any man comes and inquires of you and says, is there any man here, you shall say no.
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. And then as Beric pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, come, I will show you the man whom you seek.
And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple. So on that day, God subdued Jabin, king of Canaan, in the presence of the children of Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin, king of Canaan. If you look at the very end of chapter 5, you'll see at the end of verse 31, so the land had rest for 40 years. typical of these deliverance cycles.
At the end, it indicates how long Israel enjoyed rest. Well, inserted between verses 23 and 531 is this song of praise by Deborah to extol the virtue and the goodness and the glory of the God of Israel who had brought deliverance to his people through these particular means.
Introduction and Outline
So tonight, we're going to look at first the sin of Israel, verses 1 to 3. Secondly, the deliverer raised up by God in verses 4 to 11. And then the victory of Israel described in verses 12 to 24. And as I said, we'll probably not to reduce the importance of it, but chapter 5 does basically recite or rehearse all that has been done here. in Chapter 4.
And along the way in our study in Chapter 4, we'll pull a few things out of Chapter 5 that help us to understand some things a little bit better.
The Sin of Israel
But note first the sin of Israel in verses 1 to 3. When Ehud was dead, the change wrought on the people was only external. While Ehud was in control or in charge, the people towed the line. It would be similar to your child.
You send him or her to a room, to clean up and they go in there and they basically just sit there and they don't do anything until they hear mom or dad walking down the hallway. Then they get very busy. It's certainly only an external compliance and that is what was true of Israel in this particular instance. We already saw this announced in the thematic statement in chapter 2 specifically in verse 19.
And it came to pass when the judge was dead that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. So that continued cycle of sin, oppression, and deliverance is going on in this particular section. So Ehud is dead.
The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. No doubt this means they forsook God. they sought the Baals, they sought the Ashtoreths. In Deborah's song in chapter 5, I believe this is a reference to Israel concerning the days in which she lived, and prior to that, verse 8, they chose new gods, then there was war in the gates, not a shield or spear was seen among 40,000. in Israel, just preceding that in verses 6 and 7. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, and the travelers walked along the byways.
Village life ceased. It ceased in Israel until I, Deborah, arose a mother in Israel. So again, the conditions revert back to that time when Ehud wasn't ruling, or wasn't having this judgeship over Israel. And so then it indicates the fact that God raises up an oppressor.
Verse 2, so the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan. who reigned in Hazor. Now if you're remembering in Joshua chapter 11 the children of Israel take Hazor and they kill Jabin. Probably Jabin is more of a title, probably not a personal name of a particular individual but rather it's a title like Caesar or like Pharaoh or something to that effect. So the idea is not that this, some have said that chapter 4 simply duplicates what we see in Joshua chapter 11.
It is not out of the ordinary for these people of Azor to regroup, a man to rise up in the interim and to become a threat to Israel. But note the language that is used here. So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan. Note in verse 9, so Deborah said, I will surely go with you.
Nevertheless, there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. So you see, God raises up the oppressor, Jabin and Sisera, and then God announces through the prophetess Deborah that he's going to sell Sisera into the hand of what we think at this particular point might be Deborah, but it actually is Jael. So you see, God is sovereign. He raises up the oppressor and then he puts the oppressor down.
This is what we see throughout these cycles. This is what we see when we go on in the future of Israel's history. That seems like an odd way to say something. in the future of Israel's history, we see that God raises up Assyria, they get proud and arrogant, so God puts them down. Same thing with His servant Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians.
They are used by God to bring judgment to bear upon the southern tribes, and then God raises up whom He calls His Christ. His Messiah, Cyrus, king of Persia, he raises him up to use Persia to bring down the Babylonian Empire. So when we move through the Old Testament, we move through the New Testament, it is absolutely undeniable that God is sovereign. You cannot escape the reality that everything is decreed and everything is controlled by God Most High.
The biblical authors have no problem with this. They don't try to figure it all out by saying, well, if this is the case and this is the case, they understand what our confession teaches about first causes and about second causes, about God who has decreed all things and about the reality that man is responsible to God in every situation that he or she faces. So God sells them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Herashef, Hagoyim.
And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. This is that cry again, not of repentance, not forsaking their sin, not casting themselves upon the mercy of God, but it's a cry of distress, it's a cry of oppression, it's a cry of pain, and it's underscored here at the end of verse 3, 4, Jabin had 900 chariots of iron and for 20 years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel. So for 20 years the children of Israel were under harsh oppression oppressing from this particular gang. No doubt they saw these chariots.
They saw these chariots of iron. It would be similar to or akin to Nazi occupation of a particular city or a country. You would see the swastikas. You'd see the SS.
You'd see the troops all over your city. And probably that's what's going on here in Israel under the oppressing hand of Sisera and Jabin.
The Deliverer Raised Up by God
Now note, the deliverer raised up by God. I must confess, as I approached this chapter this morning, I always thought that Deborah was the judge and Barak was her helper, or that they were sort of a team. a team of deliverers. We've got Debra, we've got Beric, and then we've got JL coming up the third leg being a co-deliverer as well. Well,
Barak as the True Judge
it is clear to me now that it's Beric that's the deliverer. Debra's a prophetess. That's what's indicated here. for us in the Scripture. Deborah is identified as a prophetess.
Several others in the Scriptures are called prophetess. Miriam, Huldah, Noadiah, Isaiah's wife, Anna in the New Testament, and then also Philip's daughters prophesy. So that's not an uncommon thing. Deborah is also a woman, okay?
That's inductive, isn't it? That's some biblical exegesis there. Deborah's a she, and so is JL. Now, again, I read good commentaries, but good commentaries often deal with bad commentaries and odd gut commentaries.
There's a lot of ink that has gone into a promotion of Deborah and JL as sort of these heroines or champions of women's rights like they were the early feminists and they were the early pioneers that challenged a patriarchal society and what we see here is God raising up women to do these miraculous things and God does raise up these women to do some miraculous things. It's absolutely incredible. But what Bloch says, I think, is closer to the truth. He says the biblical author was obviously interested in women's affairs and achievements.
I mean, he tells us, Deborah and Jaya. In fact, Deborah cautions Barak, you're not going to get the glory for the death of Sisera. It's going to come by a woman, OK? Bloch says, but in the final analysis, Deborah and JL are not heroic figures because of their revisionist challenges to prevailing social structures.
They are heroines because of what they accomplish as agents of the divine agenda, which in this instance has less to do with overthrowing oppressive patriarchy than the role they play in Yahweh's overthrowing oppressive Canaanites. That's the problem. It isn't that now we've got Deborah and Jael rising up to establish a feministic revisionism of Israel's history. It's that we see our powerful and glorious God raise these vessels up to bring these Canaanites under subjection to Israel.
So Deborah, notice, she is a prophetess and she would judge, verse 4. We read that language, we think of the book, it's called judges, therefore she must be one of those deliverer-type judges like Samson and Jephthah and Othniel and Ehud and Barak. But probably judging here has more the idea of rendering to the people specific things in terms of her prophetic office. It tells us where she set up shop.
She would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. Now, probably because Israel was in such a spiritually destitute state, the people went right to the prophet. They didn't go to the priest. They didn't seek the Yoram and the Thummim, much like in Samuel's day.
Remember? Eli was a priest. Eli's sons were priests, but they were wicked. And so the people sought refuge and sought judgment and sought help and assistance from Samuel.
When you look at verse 4 and it says, the children of Israel came up to her for judgment, probably this is an explanation or an exposition of verse 3. In verse 3 it says, the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. How did they cry out to the Lord? They cried out to the Lord's prophetess.
They said to Deborah, please bring us the judgment. And now notice, the prophetess, I argue, is not the deliverer raised up by God, but is the voice of God to the deliverer, Barak. It's Barak that's the judge. Beric gets the deliverer.
It's not Deborah and Beric. It's not a tag team. It's not a pair. But rather, Deborah has a particular function.
She is a prophetess. And she being used by God deals specifically with Beric. Bloch offers several lines of evidence to indicate that it's not Deborah who's the prophetess. And again, I'm not. camping on this because God can't use a woman to be a prophetess, but we need to understand what's going on, or to be a judge, we need to understand what's going on in the text.
She is not introduced as the one whom the Lord raised up. There is no reference to the Spirit of the Lord coming on her to deliver Israel. This is pretty common in these cycles. When the judge is raised up, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon her. or comes upon them.
You say, well, it doesn't mention that about Barak. It doesn't need to. See, what some take as cowardice on Barak's part in verse 8 underscores his faith. He doesn't want to go where God isn't.
That's why he wants Deborah to go with him. So if Deborah goes with him as the prophet of God, he doesn't need the Spirit of the Lord to come upon him because the Spirit of the Lord is with him. He's got God's presence. So there's no reference to the Spirit of the Lord coming on her to deliver Israel.
She needs Barak to accomplish the deliverance. The verb to save is not applied to her. She says the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman, but not my hands. Now when we read that, verse 9, we probably assume she's going to get the victory.
Imagine if you'd never read Judges, and you got to verse 9, and she says, Beric, God is going to give this enemy, this Sisera, into the hands of a woman. Well, if you didn't know Jael was in the latter part of this chapter, you'd probably assume it was going to be Deborah that brought the hammer to fall on Sisera. Actually, you wouldn't know that either, because you wouldn't have the Jael story. She went up with Barak, but she was not at the head of the troops.
She tells Barak that the Lord was giving Sisera into your hand, not my hand, in verse 14. She is absent in the description of the battle. And then in chapter 5, verse 7, in her song, she's referred to as a mother in Israel, not a savior, not a deliverer. And then finally, she is not mentioned in Hebrews 11.32.
It is Barak. If Deborah had been included in Hebrews 11, it would have been with the prophets. It wouldn't have been with the judges. She is not the judge.
She is a prophetess. she hears the complaint from Israel, she then gets her marching orders from the living God, and she calls upon Barak to be the deliverer for Israel. And that brings us to verse 6. Notice his call.
Barak's Call and the Promise of Victory
Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kadesh and Naphtali and said to him, 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. So we don't know why he's called. We don't know what is in his resume.
We don't know how she knew him. The author here pens it together in a way that doesn't necessarily answer every question that we might have. But the chapter is magnificent. The way that it's structured, the way that it works, the way the author writes this, it is absolutely brilliant literature.
The way that he has put this narrative together to convey to us the glory of God in the salvation of his people. So Beric is called and then there is a promise given to Beric. Notice in verse 7. And against you, God the Lord says, 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." So you see, the prophetess has the scheme, she knows the program, and so she calls Barak, she calls him to this particular office of deliverer, or judge, or the one that's going to break the back of the oppressing Canaanites, and then she makes this statement to him that God says, I will deliver him into your hand.
It's actually not a team at all. It's not Deborah, it's not Barak, and it's not J.L. working sort of in concert. The theme of the book, or the theme of the chapter, is God bringing deliverance to the people of Israel. It's very clear, it's very conspicuous.
It's here in verse 7. It's in verses 14 and 15 played out. And then in the summary, verses 22 and 23, it's all about God. He uses these human instruments to be sure.
He is the first cause. He raises up these second causes. But the point of the story is that God uses these men, these women, to exercise his sovereignty in delivering his people from their oppression. Again, the emphasis is upon amazing grace.
The emphasis is upon God's intervention. The emphasis is upon God's rescuing his erring people, his sinful people. Remember, they cried out, not in repentance, not to forsake their sin, but they cried out because they don't like Jabin. They don't like these iron chariots.
They don't like being under harsh oppression for 20 years. So in the midst of that, God orchestrates this plan to deliver Israel from her oppression. Now, notice in verse 8. Barak's dependence.
Barak said to her, if you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go.
Barak's Dependence as Faith, Not Cowardice
Now if we just read that without any thought whatsoever, he would sound like a bit of a coward. He would sound almost like a bit of a Nancy boy. He doesn't want to go into the fray unless his big protector, Deborah, is right there with him. This is common in call narratives.
What happens when Moses is called? Does Moses just say, absolutely, God send me, here am I? No, he doesn't do that at all. He says, here am I, send Aaron, because I can't do it.
This is very typical in call narratives. When we get to Gideon in Judges chapter 6, the Lord God wants to use this particular man. What does he do? He says, here am I, Lord, I'm going to go.
No. He has to test the Lord. He has to present these things. He has to make sure that God is going to go with him.
What appears to be Barak's cowardice is actually Barak's faith. When Barak says, if you will go with me, then I will go, he is saying what Moses said to the Lord God Almighty. If you don't go with us into the promised land, I don't want to go. We don't want to go.
I need your presence. I need your power. I need every divine resource that there is, because I can't go break the back of Jabin. I cannot destroy 900 chariots of iron.
I can't face Sisera, this wretched man. I cannot do this in my own strength. What we find here is not cowardice, but faith. If you will go with me, then I will go.
But if you will not go with me, I will not go." Bloch says the request to be accompanied by the prophetess is a plea for the presence of God. This is a good thing. This is what we want from our leaders. This is what Israel needed in terms of a barrack is that he would call upon the prophetess to go alongside of him because that meant that God was in the mix.
Notice verse 9, the assurance of victory is given. Now verse 9 says, Derek, you're not going to get the glory, the glory, or God's going to deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman. But what's she saying? God's going to deliver Sisera.
You're not going to lose. Barrett, the mission that you are being tasked with is win-win. There is no failure involved. Sure, you're not going to get to carry Cicera's head around.
That glory is going to go to someone else. Actually, she doesn't carry it around. She nails it to the ground. But nevertheless, verse 9 is a promise that God is going to bring victory.
I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Just the way the Lord sold Israel into oppression to begin with is the same way He's going to sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. It is the means by which Deborah encourages Barak that there will in fact be victory. Notice in verse 10, Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh.
He went up with 10,000 men under his command and Deborah went up with him. Now feasibly you could just read from verse 11 to verse, I'm sorry, verse 10 to verse 12. You could do that without any break in the narrative whatsoever. You could go from verse 10 under his command, and Deborah went up with him to verse 12, and they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinuam had gone up to Mount Tabor.
But for verse 11, we interrupt this program for this little bit of information here. What difference does it make where Heber the Kenite lives? Because Jael's married to Heber the Kenite, right? We need Jael to be in this narrative.
We need her to be in a place of advantage so that she can dispose of Sisera, the enemy of the Lord and the enemy of his people. So Heber, the Kenite of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the Terebinth tree at Za'aneim which is beside Kedesh. 1.16 in the book of Judges already indicated this particular tidbit concerning Heber. So you see the author here puts this in there so that when we get down to jail we know why she's there We know what she's doing there and we know her place in the narrative. It is a beautiful way to foreshadow and a beautiful way to bring together all of the elements of this particular discourse.
So the reference in Judges 1.16 and the significance of this note, Davis calls verse 11, The minutia of salvation. The minutia of salvation. Something that seems so ordinary. Something that seems so minute.
Something that seems so unimportant. I mean, who cares where Heber, the son of Hobab, lives? Right? I mean, does that really affect you?
Do you ever do your devotions in Judges 4.11 and tell your wife or your husband, wow, Heber moved because he wanted to be in a better place? No, that's not something that Spurgeon usually writes devotionals about. That's not the stuff that sermons are usually preached on. It is a minute detail, but as you follow through the narrative, you go, oh yeah, I can see why the author includes it there. so that Jael has a tent for Sisera to come and seek refuge in.
I mean, isn't that ironic? He seeks refuge in that particular tent. He wants to get a little sleep. This turns out to be a great nightmare for him.
So notice,
The Victory of Israel
verses to the third large section, the victory of Israel described, verses 12 to 24, and this is in two parts. The defeat of the army, and the defeat of the commander. The defeat of the army, the troops are assembled in verses 12 and 13. They, we don't know who they are, but they reported to Sisera that Beric, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor.
So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him from Herosheth, Hagoyim, to the river Kishon."
The Defeat of the Army
Now note the river Kishon there and note the river Kishon in verse 7. This is important. Probably what happened, just going to give you the rub here, probably what happened is that God sent a storm and that the river overflowed. So what was a weapon became a liability.
Chariots are good when the ground is dry. Chariots are helpful when you've got solid pavement. But when you're in an iron chariot and the river overflows and you're in mud, a chariot is probably the last place that you want to be. Now you ask, how do we know that this is probably what's going on?
Notice in verse 14. The troops have assembled, verses 12 and 13. Verse 14, 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 you see again, the emphasis is upon God. It's God's victory. God uses Deborah. God uses Barak.
God uses Jael. God uses hammers. God uses tent pegs. God uses rain.
God uses the River Tishon. but ultimately the victory is of the Lord, right? He doesn't just snap his fingers and everything's that way. This is what makes life very interesting. This is what makes life very intriguing.
It's because God does these things for His glory and for the good of His people. Verse 14, so Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him, and the Lord routed Sisera. Literally, the Lord threw them into a panic. Go back to Joshua for just a moment.
Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter 10. at verse 9. Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly having marched all night from Gilgal so the Lord routed them. Same verb.
The Lord threw them into a panic, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makedah. And it happened as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword. You go back to Judges chapter 5, and in the song of Deborah she seems to indicate something of God's power coming through nature.
And it probably is the case that this is what happened when the Lord routed Sisera. The rivers swell. The chariots start to stick. In fact, Sisera has to jump off of his chariot to run on foot.
What was their battle or what was their weapons of strength became their weakness. Notice in 5.4, I'm sorry, 5.5, the mountains gushed before the Lord, this Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel. Verse 20, they fought from the heavens, the stars, from their courses fought against Cicero. Now some of the people say that in other societies or peoples around them, they attributed stars with this sort of a thing.
If that's what the author is doing, then it makes perfect sense. But then the torrent, verse 21, of Kishon swept them away. That ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon, oh my soul, march on in strength. So you see, going back to chapter 4, verse 14, 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 10,000 men following him. The rivers swelled, the chariots staked, and what happened? They're sitting ducks at this point. So the Lord threw them into a panic 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. Now Davis comments on verse 14 with reference to the Lord being the warrior. The Lord, verse 15, routed Sisera Just like we saw in Joshua 10, the Lord is the subject of each of the verbs there. God routes, God chases, God fights, God destroys these enemies.
Davis says there is almost an unwritten cultural law that religion and theology and God should always be gentle, soft, and nice. Strange then that the God of the Bible is the warrior. The strength of Israel is not the soft, wimpy, graven image of current Western imagination. The only real hope of God's afflicted people is in a strong Lord who in righteousness judges and makes war.
This is what you get in the God of Joshua and Judges and throughout the New Testament. I think Davis is right. There is this concept, and you've met these people as well. When they hear things like this, they say, well, that's not, that doesn't sound right.
I mean, the thought that jail took a tent peg and hammered Cicero's head to the ground offends people. They think that's vicious and barbaric. They think that unkind, because God's supposed to be nice. God's supposed to be gentle.
God's supposed to be sappy. That's the kind of stuff we face, not in the world, but in the church. We have this idea that God has one default select, and that is niceness. God is not nice, nice, nice, according to the scripture.
He's holy, holy, holy. He's righteous, and he's just, and he does all that he does for his own glory and for the good of his people. The warrior of Israel is fighting Sisera. He causes the River Kishon to overflow.
He brings these 10,000 troops down from Mount Tabor. They take the edge of the sword, and they utterly decimate the Canaanite army, except for Sisera. Sisera escapes. Sisera bails.
Sisera leaves. Notice what we find in verse 16. Barak pursued the chariots, and the army, as far as Harasheth Haggoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left.
So we've got the defeat of the army.
The Defeat of the Commander
Now we come to the defeat of the commander. Verses 17 to 22. However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Verse 11, you see that?
Verse 11 puts her in the narrative. Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. This peace treaty or covenant that Jabin and Heber had together.
Sisera thought, I'm safe. This is my safe haven. I've escaped Yahweh. I've escaped the army.
I've escaped everybody. I'm a free man. Take the guy who thinks he committed the perfect crime. You know, he's driving out of town, he sees the police in his rearview mirror, I'm heading to Mexico, I'm heading to Canada if he's in the States, I'm heading to the States if he's in Canada, I'm heading to Argentina, I'm heading somewhere, but I'm in the free.
I get to my safe house, I see this person, she says, why don't you come in and I'll arrest you. Isn't that great? Everything is going well for Sisera. As far as Sisera is concerned, this is a done deal.
He may have got our chariots, he may have got our armies, but he didn't get me. This is what's going on in the mind of Sisera. So the relocation of Heber indicated in verse 11 would serve the purposes of God and of Israel. Now notice the plan of jail in verses 18 to 21.
She offered safety to Sisera. She offered nourishment to Sisera. She offered protection to Sisera. And she secured deliverance for Israel by hammering his head into the ground with a tent peg.
Now Bedouin women would be the ones responsible for putting up and taking down the tents. She would have facility and competence with wielding a hammer and a tent peg. This would be second nature to this particular woman. The narrative is structured very similar to the Ehud narrative as well.
You've got the one with the sharp object having dialogue with the person they're going to terminate. And interestingly enough, Beric then comes and is similar. He's not the bumbling buffoon that the guards in Eglon's palace was, but nevertheless he serves the same function. When those guards open the door and they see fat Eglon lying in his guts, They are surprised at what has taken place.
What do you think Barak thought when he walks in, perhaps thinking that Sisera is going to be tied up or handcuffed to the bed, and he's lying there with a tent peg driven through his head? I mean, this is an amazing deliverance that is wrought in this particular instance. So Jael went out to meet Sisera, verse 18, and it is so descriptive. And when Deborah praises God in her song in 524 to 527, it's so descriptive.
And in a moment, we're going to deal with, was what JL did right? Because as you can assume, there are people that say, this was vicious. This was horrific. One man that we all know and love says that it was murder that JL did this.
I don't understand that. In a time of war, how could it be murder? I mean, if somebody sniped him with a high-power rifle, would that be murder? No.
If SEAL Team 6 got Osama bin Laden or someone took a tent peg through his head, what difference does it make? It's war. This is an enemy combatant. This is a terrorist who has harshly oppressed your people.
You take him out. It's not murder for J.L. any more than it is murder for an army man to take his sword and to hack Cicero's head off. I guess you can see what side I fall out on. I don't believe it was wrong.
I believe it was right, and I believe that the Scriptures affirm that and confirm that. Notice verse 18, J.L. went out to meet Cicero and said to him, turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me. Do not fear. Do not fear." Wow.
And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket. Then he said to her, please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, covered him. And he said to her, stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you and says, is there any man here, you shall say no.
Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand and went softly to him. She didn't want to wake him up. Went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple. Literally hammered it into his temple.
And it went down into the ground. Why? For he was fast asleep and weary, so he died. And then notice, Beric comes along.
You know, some speculate, was Barak seeking the glory? Right? He was told that it would be a woman that would get the deliverance. I don't think so.
Barak was doing his job. Sisera fled. I don't know that Barak's disappointed because she got, I'm sure he was probably surprised to see a tent peg through this man's head and this woman standing there having delivered the death blow. But notice in verse 22, and then as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, come, I will show you the man whom you seek.
And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera dead with the peg in his temple. That's a powerful description of the disposal of God's enemy and Israel's enemy.
God Alone Credited for Victory
Now note the summary of the victory in verses 23 and 24. So on that day, Deborah, Barak, and Jael subdued Jabin. It doesn't say that, does it? There's not one word about Deborah.
There's not one word about Barak. There's not one word about jail in verses 23 and 24. What's the author want us to get? It's about God, right?
So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel and the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. Block says, the conclusion reminds the reader that the conflict in the book of Judges is not between patriarchy and egalitarianism. We're not supposed to approach this and say, well, Deborah and Jael, they are the early pioneers of the feminist movement. That's not the point.
He says it's not the conflict in the book of Judges is not between men and women or even between Israelite leaders and the rulers of the nations. The conflict is between the divine king and the kingdom of light on the one hand and the forces of the kingdom of darkness on the other. That's the point of Judges chapter 4. So when we get to the very end, verse 22, it affirms, confirms, and underscores everything that Deborah had prophesied. you will have victory, and Sisera will be delivered into the hands of a woman.
So Barak sees with his own eyes the efficacy of God's holy word in play. So with reference to Jael, was she a bad person or a good person? I guess it depends on whose side you're on. If you're an Israelite or a Canaanite.
If you're a Canaanite, she's probably one of the top three notorious people that you just don't like. But if you're an Israelite, hopefully she's a hero. But again, throughout this whole chapter, the deliverance belongs to the Lord. It's highlighted in 7, 14, here in the conclusion, 23 and 24, no mention. of the human agents whatsoever.
It is God's sovereignty. It is God the Lord who raises people up. And again, I'll remind us, we're not in the theocracy, we're not in the period of Holy War, we're not in a time where somebody could validate doing something like this and saying, well, I was functioning as an agent for God. I whacked that abortionist with my .30-06 for God.
That is absolutely unrighteous behavior. There is no new covenant warrant for any individual Christian to take up physical arms to destroy the enemies of God as Christians. Now, if a man is a Christian, and he also serves in the military, and he's functioning in a civil capacity, well, by all means, he's able to engage in just warfare. But Christians as Christians and churches as churches are not to go out and cut the heads off of Ciceras in our particular generation.
We cannot do that in the name of Jesus Christ. So please, that's not what I'm advocating. But this is a different scenario in Judges 4 and 5. This is a time of holy war.
This is a time where God is communicating to his people through his prophets. This is a time where they are engaged in dealing with the oppressive enemies that are going against them. So God's sovereignty.
Deborah's Benediction over Jael
But secondly, notice the benediction pronounced by Deborah in chapter 5 verses 24 to 27. Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Canaanite. Blessed is she among women in tents. This language, by the way, is applied to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Most blessed among women is this one. It goes on to say, 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 workman's hammer. She pounded Sisera. She hammered 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. Wherever he sank, there he fell dead. It doesn't sound like the prophetess of Israel had any problem whatsoever with JL's conduct.
In fact, she gives a benediction and says that it's a wonderful thing that she did. Now,
The Wickedness of Sisera Considered
a third thing to consider here is the wickedness of Cicero. This wasn't a guy minding his own business. This wasn't a guy just chilling out. Chapter 4, verse 3, he harshly oppressed Israel.
Not for 20 minutes, not for 20 days, but for 20 years. And then notice in chapter 5, verse 30. There's an interesting contrast. 24 to 27, Deborah praises God for jail. And then in verses 28 to 30, Sisera's mother is waiting for him to return.
Sisera's mother is looking out of the window saying, when is my young man going to come home? She's being encouraged by her friends. Verse 28, the mother of Sisera looked through the window, cried out through the lattice, why is his chariot so long and coming? Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?
Her wisest ladies answered her. Yes, she answered herself, are they not finding and dividing the spoil? To every man a girl or two? It takes time to divvy up the property and to rape those Israelite girls.
It takes time to engage in this sort of profligacy. You just calm down, Mrs. Sisera. You just relax.
Your baby boy will come home after he's done savaging these Israelite girls. That's the text. This wasn't some guy sitting around minding his own business, wanders into Jael's tent, and she just takes a tent peg and a hammer and lets him have it. He is an enemy of God.
He is an enemy of Israel. And he is brought down by God's servant. He was a wretch of a man to every man and girl or two. For Sisera, plunder of dyed garments, plunder of garments embroidered and dyed, two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter.
It's going to take time, Sisera's mom, for him to return home. That's how they're comforting this woman. You know when they go out to battle, it takes time for the men to do all that they do. This man was wicked.
I mentioned somebody earlier who said this concerning Tamar, I'm sorry, Jea, specifically with reference to Deborah's statement in chapter 5, 24 to 27. This particular man said, though this act was murder and a breach of honor. No, it wasn't. How do you get that from the text?
How do you tell Deborah, you are praising God for a murderer? That's just not what's happening. He says, though this act was murder and a breach of honor, likely motivated by her desire for favor with the conquering Israelites, There's not one whit of evidence in the text to suggest that. Could it not be the case that Jael loved the God of Israel?
She loved the Israelites? She saw her particular opportunity when Sisera says, can I lie down in your tent? It wasn't that she was courting favor with the Israelites. It's that she was glorifying God.
He goes on to say, and though it was without regard for God on her part, again, how do we know that? I trust Deborah more than I trust this man, at least in this. God's overruling providence caused great blessing to flow from it, which is good. Great blessing did flow from it.
But now listen what our dear brother John Gill, particular Baptist brother says. When she perceived he was fast asleep, and it being now put into her heart to kill him, having an impulse upon her spirit, which she was persuaded was of God, not filling her with malice and revenge, notice, but a concern for the glory of God, the interest of religion and the good of Israel, She took this method to affect the death of this enemy of God and his people. I think Gill gets it on this particular passage most wonderfully.
Overview of the Song of Deborah
So that's chapter 4. As I said, chapter 5 is a song of praise. The purpose of the song verses 1 to 3, to praise the Lord. When leaders lead in Israel, when the people willingly offer themselves, bless the Lord.
Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes! I, even I, will sing to the Lord. I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.
Verses 4 and 5 speak of the coming of the Lord. She uses imagery from the Lord God coming to Mount Sinai to bless His people. And then what then follows in this particular section does seem to indicate some contrast within Israel itself. There were certain tribes that didn't jump into the fray.
They didn't participate in seeking to destroy the enemies. We see in verse 18 specifically, Zebulun is a people who jeopardized their lives to the point of death. Naphtali also on the heights of the battlefield. These were the tribes that sided with and partnered with Barak in order to defeat Jabin and Sisera.
So the Lord or Deborah is praising God for their participation. Meroz, according to verse 23, curse Meroz, said the angel of the Lord. Curse its inhabitants bitterly, because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Don't know a whole lot about that.
Didn't have time to look into it a whole lot. But apparently, Meroz should have helped, and they didn't. And so the angel of the Lord says, curse them. I've already mentioned this contrast. 24 to 27, we have jail. 28 to 30, we have the mother. of Sisera.
And then in verse 31, we have something of a petition and then we have a call. Thus let all your enemies perish, O Lord. Let them all perish, O Lord, but let those who love him, this is a call, a challenge to Israel, let those who love him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength. You may have gotten an email, probably you did from Pastor Cam, about the Orthodox Catechism by Hercules Collins.
It's another great name, Hercules. Basically, what Hercules Collins did was take the Heidelberg Catechism and baptize it. So any reference to infant baptism is no longer in this Orthodox catechism. Well, the wording with reference to the second petition, I think, gets at what Deborah says here in verse 31, when she says, let all your enemies perish, O Lord.
The Orthodox catechism, Heidelberg catechism number 123, talking about the second petition in the Lord's Prayer. Thy kingdom come. That is, rule us so by thy word and spirit that we may humble and submit ourselves more and more unto thee. Also preserve and increase thy church, destroy the works of the devil and all power that lifts up itself against thy majesty. make all those counsels frustrate and void which are taken against thy word until at length thou reign fully and perfectly when thou shalt be all in all." So, thus let all your enemies perish, O Lord, is similar to that petition wherein the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray, thy kingdom come.
That's what Deborah's saying. That's what Deborah's praising God for. is that his judgments bring the advancement of his kingdom on earth. And then she calls upon Israel, let those who love him be like the sun. When it comes out in full strength.
So the land had rest for 40 years. And I realized I just wrote a note here back to the jail thing. The people that are against jail and the people that say, wow, that was vicious, I wonder if they would take that to act if it was their daughters that had been raped by Cicero. If their daughters had been savaged by a man like Cicero, would they say, Oh, that's terrible, the way JL dispatched him.
Probably not. They would probably love to read with glee and joy the description found in verses 24 to 27. If your little girl, your daughters, your friend's daughters had been raped by these men, certainly you would praise God for JL, for her hammer, and for her tempeh. Because God the Lord used that to bring judgment upon a man who did such wickedness.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us close in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the Book of Judges, and we know ultimately, even in Chapters 4 and 5, The message is the same, that you are a God of great and amazing grace, that you deliver your people under oppression, that you are the one who raises men up, you raise up women to do your will. And God, may we be encouraged in studies like these and may we realize with what Davis said, What afflicted souls need is the warrior of Israel.
We need the God described to us in the book of Revelation. We need the Christ of Revelation 19, that one who wages war. We just pray now that you would go with us and that you'd watch over us. And we pray with Deborah that your kingdom would come, that your kingdom would increase, that you would indeed be glorified throughout this earth as more and more people submit to your rule and your reign.
And we ask these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.