Let me turn in your Bibles to Judges chapter 4. Judges chapter 4, we stopped at a particular break in 1 Timothy. At the end of chapter 4, it starts a new section, new theme in chapter 5. It'll be a few weeks before we're back in 1 Timothy.
So instead of introducing that section now and then coming back to it in several weeks, I thought we'd just get to it when we get to it tonight we're gonna look at the deliverance of Israel by Barak particular judge in view in Judges chapter 4. My apologies to the Wednesday night crew. You will certainly hear it again. Hopefully it will be a helpful reminder of just what a glorious and gracious God we serve.
Because that ultimately is the theme of the book of Judges. I fear at times people are afraid to read Judges because there's a lot of warfare, there's a lot of bloodshed. In fact, in this very chapter there's an interesting way by which an enemy is dispatched. However, the constant and recurring theme is the amazing grace of God.
The Lord raises up deliverers to free his people from oppression. Certainly a New Covenant concept and theme as well. Each of these earthly judges serve at least in a sense to typify the coming judge, the coming deliverer, the coming redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to begin reading in Judges chapter 4 at verse 1.
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 ten thousand 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 Barak to Kedesh, and Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh.
He went up with ten thousand 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'aneim, which is beside Kedesh. And they reported to Sisera that Beric, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor. So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Herasheth, Hagoyim, to the river Kishon.
Then Deborah said to Beric, 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 Beric pursued the chariot and the army as far as Eresheth, 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 Azor, 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 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. 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. Just skip to chapter 5, we'll pick up at verse 24. 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 workman'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.
The mother of Sisera looked through the window and cried out through the lattice, why is his chariot so long in 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? For Sisera, plunder of dyed garments, plunder of garments embroidered and dyed, two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter. 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. So the land at rest for forty years.
Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word and we pray now for the ministry of Your Spirit. We pray that You would guide us and lead us and illumine our minds and our hearts. We thank You that You have established Your Kingdom and we pray that it would come in power and in strength, that more and more people would be subdued under your reign, under your feet. And we pray that the gospel would be proclaimed throughout the earth, that multitudes would come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and that He would, in fact, have dominion from sea to sea.
How we thank you for your amazing grace, how we thank you for your power and your justice, how we thank you for those things the Bible tells us concerning who you are, concerning what you do. Fill our hearts now, we pray, in Jesus' holy name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, as we look at this particular chapter in Judges, we'll see that it fits a recurring cycle or theme in the book of Judges as a whole. Basically, what happens is that the people sin against God, God then raises up an oppressor to bring judgment to bear upon the sinning Israelites, they then cry out to Him, not in repentance, but rather because of distress, And God, in His grace and in His mercy, then sends deliverance to them via a human agent. In this case, specifically Barak, though he does have a little help from Jael. As well, what we find in this book of Judges is not only amazing grace of God, but the increasing canonization of the people of Israel.
Remember that they were to go into the land of Canaan. They were to dispossess the land of Canaan. They were to drive out all the inhabitants. Instead, what happens, they go into the land of Canaan and they then take on the characteristics of Canaanites.
They worship Baal. They worship Ashtoreth. We see a continuing declension in the life and history of Israel. So while it is, in a sense, cyclical, there is a downward spiral and a downward tendency within the nation as well.
And so that then necessitates of course the promise of the Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the covenant community of Israel. We'll look at this section under three considerations. First, the sin of Israel. Secondly, the Deliverer raised up by God.
And then thirdly, the victory of Israel described.
The Sin of Israel
Note first the sin, verse 1 of chapter 4. Has it ever been the case, children, when you, because your parents are close by, have been especially obedient. And as soon as your parents are out of sight and out of mind, I don't want to suppose this, I don't want to assume this, but has your obedience fallen away a little bit? In other words, when mom or dad are there, you toe the line.
When mom or dad is present, you really shape up. But as soon as mom or dad leave, well then I can just be the lazy slob that I want to be. Or hopefully it's not this way in your workplace. When the boss is around, you look busy.
When the boss is around, you're shuffling papers. hammering nails. But as soon as the boss goes away, you sip coffee and talk with your friends. Well, note that Israel had this sort of a thing. Ehud was a mighty deliverer who brought rest to the children of Israel.
Verse 1 tells us when Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So whatever positive emphasis Ehud had upon the nation of Israel, it was short-lived. Because when Ehud was dead, the children of Israel reverted back to that sinful propensity that they had. In Judges 2, it tells us that they did more wickedly.
So if they started here, when the judge died, then they went down to here. Again, there's a cycle going on of declension and spiritual decline. So Ehud dies, there's sin again, there's evil again in the sight of the Lord. When we compare this with Judges 2, evil in the sight of the Lord usually looks like Baal worship, Ashtar worship, it looks like a forsaking of Yahweh, it looks like all manner of wickedness and vileness.
Notice the oppression that then comes upon them, verse 2. So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. This Jabin, king of Canaan, is mentioned in the book of Joshua. Jabin is probably a title, probably not the same man, but rather it is a title like Caesar.
It's a title like Emperor, Lord, or something to that effect. But the oppression comes specifically from the Canaanites. Notice the agent of this, I'm sorry, the agent of oppression is Canaan and then it identifies the commander of his army in verse 2, Sisera who dwelt in Heresheth Haggoyim. So what we find then is that the children of Israel cry out.
They're in bondage. They're in oppression. It's 20 years. Keep that in mind. 20 years of oppression.
It's very easy for us in our tidy, comfortable, cozy little environments to be a Monday morning quarterback and look down our proud noses at the activity of a jail. We say, well, how dare that woman take that tent peg and drive it through the head of Sisera? Well, how dare Sisera command an army that kept Israel under oppression for 20 long years? I often times wonder if we had been the subject of oppression for 20 years, and we had a go at Sisera, what we would do?
I like to think, in the name of God Most High, for the advancement of His Kingdom, we would do likewise. Now, do not go from here tonight and say we're going to kill people with tent pegs. That's not what I'm saying. This is the way the Kingdom of God advances in this particular situation.
But it was a 20-year period of oppression. And then notice what happens in verse 3. The children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Again, it's not a cry of repentance.
It's not a cry of, please forgive us. It's not a cry of, God, we have sinned against you. Please wash us in the blood of Jesus. It's a cry of distress.
It's a cry because of the oppression. It's a cry because of the penalty and the punishment. And what is truly amazing in this, and we've seen this throughout the cycle in judges, is that God hears. and that God does deliver. Even though they're not crying out in repentance, they're crying out because of pain, the Lord their God nevertheless comes to their aid, comes to their rescue, and He delivers them from their oppression.
The Deliverer Raised Up by God
And that brings us to consider, secondly, the deliverer raised up by God.
Deborah the Prophetess
There's three things we need to notice in this section, verses 4 to 11. The first is the prophetess Deborah. Deborah is not the judge that God raised up to deliver Israel from Canaanite oppression. I realize and I understand that it says in verse 4 that she was judging Israel at that time.
That type of judgment was probably what we see with the likes of Samuel. People would come to him for judgments in civil matters or in smaller affairs. The judges that God raised up, like Shamgar, like Ehud, like Othniel, like Beric, like Samson, like Gideon, like Jephthah. Those were judges on a macro level.
They delivered Israel from the oppression of these invading forces. So this reference to Deborah under this tree in verses 4 and 5 simply highlights the reality that she is a prophetess. Notice as well that Deborah and Jael are women. How do you like those apples?
That's some cutting-edge exegesis there, right? Deborah and J.L. are ladies. I got to imagine that J.L. specifically was a pretty sturdy lady. It was common in that situation for the women to be adept at hammering tent pegs, putting up and taking down tents.
She was probably a sturdy girl. But nevertheless, both J.L. and Deborah are women. They are in this particular chapter in a very favorable light. There's a lot of literature written upon this particular chapter.
The Mountain Goat and the Bee is a particular name of a study. Mountain Goat is what Deborah translates into and Bee is what JL translates into. What a great title for a scholarly article. The Mountain Goat and the Bee.
There's a lot of people that see in this particular chapter, however, women's rights. Women fighting against oppressive tyranny from men. That's not what's going on in this particular situation. Daniel Bloch says the biblical author was obviously interested in women's affairs and achievements.
He's got two women in this particular chapter. He says, but in the final analysis, Deborah and J.L. 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 focus, that's the priority.
But as I've said, what we have here with Deborah is that she was a prophetess. The statement in verse 5 is probably an explanation of verse 3. Verse 3, the children of Israel cry out to the Lord. Notice in verse 5, 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.
They cried out for deliverance. They cried out that the backs of their oppressors would be broken. They cried out that this 20 years of long, tedious suffering under these Canaanites would stop. They cry out to the prophetess of God Most High, and then she answers for God Most High.
As I said, she is not the Deliverer raised up by God, but is the voice of God to the Deliverer bearing. She is not introduced as the one upon whom the Lord raised up for this particular task. There is no reference to the Spirit of the Lord coming on her to deliver Israel. She needs Beric 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 into my hands. She went up with Beric, 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.
She is absent in the description of the battle. She is called the mother of Israel in the song of Deborah in chapter 5, and she is not the savior or deliverer of Israel. Finally, at the outset of worship, I read from Hebrews chapter 11, verses 30 to 40. It is Barak that is lumped together with Samson, with Jephthah, and with Gideon.
It is Barak that's the judge. She is not a co-judge. She is not a helper-judge. She is not an associate-judge.
She is a prophetess of the Living God. to whom the children of Israel cried out, and she, on behalf of the living God, gives orders to Barak to be the one to deliver Israel from this particular oppression." It is important that we understand our categories. It is important that we understand what's going on in the biblical revelation.
Barak's Call and God's Promise
Now notice the deliverer, Barak, his call, verses 6 and 7. 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 ten thousand 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 Kishat, and I will deliver him into your hand." He's called and the promise is made.
Isn't this like our God? Isn't this how God functions? I'm calling you to this particular task and I'm assuring you victory. That's what he tells Barak.
You're going to win. What better way to go in battle? What better way to go up against the Canaanites? What better way to go into a Monday with the conscious reality that God is on our side and He has promised for us victory.
Not victory over all our difficulties, not victory over all our trials, but victory over those things that oppress the souls of His people. The Lord God has promised His presence with His church. The Lord God has promised victory to His church. We have the sound of the Son of God Himself saying, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Again, I've emphasized this many times over the last little while. Our task is to hear the voice of Christ, to obey the voice of Christ, to be faithful in execution, and let Him build it! Let Him do what He's promised to do! Let Him bring the victory that is surely His! understanding that the Great Commission is His to fulfill.
The Church is a helpmate to Him to accomplish this particular activity. This is something I think that at times we are faulty in. We see the conquering of the nations for the Lord Jesus Christ as our job. It is Christ's job, it is Christ's task, it is Christ's duty, and He employs the agency of the church.
You can liken it to the cultural mandate back in Genesis chapter 1. Adam is given the task to subdue creation. Adam is given that particular calling, and Eve is his helper to assist him in that function. Well, when we jump to New Covenant reality, it's the second Adam who is tasked with subduing the nations.
It is the second Adam who calls upon His bride to execute faithfully His will, to do His bidding in the advancement of His kingdom. Our job is to be faithful. Our job is to hear the voice of Christ. Our job is to realize that He has underscored that victory is His and His alone.
Our task is to do what He calls us to do. And this is what we find with reference to Barak. The Lord not only calls him as the deliverer, but He determines the strategy to be employed and gives the assurance that I will deliver him into your hand."
Barak's Response: Faith, Not Cowardice
Now, notice Barak's response in verse 8. And 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 gets an unfair shake in verse 8.
Oftentimes, we understand Barak as evidencing something of his cowardice. Oftentimes we approach this and we say, well, Barak, you sound like a Nancy boy. If the girl doesn't go with you up against the Canaanites, you're not going to go into battle? This is very common in call narratives.
For the person called to ask God to be present with him. When Moses is called to divine service, he doesn't immediately say, here am I, send me, Lord. No, he says, here am I, send Aaron, Lord. And the Lord confirms that he's going to deliver.
When we get to the Gideon narratives, Gideon asks for sign after sign, is given another sign, and I think one more sign. This is not an expression of cowardice. He is saying to the prophetess of God, I want you to go with me. He is in essence saying, I want you, God, to go with me.
If you don't go with me, then I don't want to go into battle. It is not an expression of cowardice. It is not an expression of an antsy boy. It is the expression of a man acknowledging his dependence upon God Most High, and in that, Beric is a model for us to follow.
Let's not underwrite what he is doing in this particular instance. And it's very interesting as well. Upon the other deliverers, the other judges that God raises up, it says the spirit of Yahweh came upon him. It doesn't say that concerning Beric, because it doesn't have to.
When the prophetess of God comes with him, God is with him. So it is Barak that is the deliverer of Israel. The prophetess accompanies him in certain aspects, but ultimately it is him requesting God to be present with him. And then 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, verse 11 seems a bit interesting, doesn't it? It's kind of like a real estate ad. Or a notification that somebody bought property and moved.
Isn't it? Look at verse 11. Now Heber the Kenite, he's mentioned in chapter 1 verse 16, Heber the Kenite of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent from the terebinth tree at Za'aneim, which is beside Kedesh. God calls pastors to read Hebrew names to keep them humble.
Hobab. How many times do we ever say hobab? It's almost hard to say hobab without a smile. It's not your typical John or Bill or, as is common in our church, Mike.
We don't have any hobabs. Some of you expectant mothers might consider a hobab. Come here, baby hobab. Kind of has a nice ring and a flow to it.
I'm a firm believer we ought to go back to the book of Judges as a baby name book. When one of you dear sisters call a little child Othniel, I will be glad. When we have a Shandar running around here, when we have a little Jael, I'll be the first to buy her a hammer and a tent peg. I will gladly do that for these children.
Shamgar has a little ox code. But notice, 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. The significance of this note is simple. It sets the stage for the jail portion of the narrative.
There's a peace treaty between Jabin and Heber. And so it is the case when Sisera's on the run, he sees a safe haven with Heber's household. And it's there that he meets with Jael. That's why verse 11 is talked into the narrative.
The author knows what he's doing. He's a very excellent writer. He's very effective at crafting his narrative to answer everything that might come up along the way. Davis says this speaks to the minutia of salvation.
It's going to tell us a particular little geographical detail so that when we get to the end of the narrative and we see JL bringing her tent peg down, We're not scratching our heads saying, well, how did this all happen? How did they get from point A to point B? It's all right there. It is spelled out.
The minutia of salvation is taken care of by our God. When God needs a Sisera dispatched, He has Heber, or Hobab rather, I'm sorry, Heber, sell his house and move to a different place so that his wife, Jea, will be present there with the tent peg and with her hammer to dispatch Sisera. to send him into the depths of hell itself. God deals with His people minutely.
The Victory of Israel
Now notice, thirdly, the victory of Israel, verses 12 to 24. Two broad categories, the defeat of the army and the defeat of the commander.
Defeat of the Army
Notice the defeat of the army. The troops are assembled at verses 12 and 13. Verse 14, there is engagement. 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 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.
This is very significant. Remember, this is one of the problems with this particular army. They have 900 chariots. 900 chariots to Israel's zero. It'd be like going up against a force that has 900 F-15s or F-16s, and we don't.
Or going up against a force that had 900 Bradley tanks, and we don't. The verb that's employed in verse 15, the Lord routed, can also have the significance of the Lord threw them into a panic. The same verb is employed in Joshua chapter 10 where the hailstones come out from heaven and destroy the enemies of God Most High. There are two references to the river Kishon in this particular narrative.
There are some references in the Song of Deborah in Judges chapter 5 that seem to indicate that there was a storm. that God the Lord worked through these 10,000 men, and one of the means that he employed was throwing into a panic Sisera and his army by sending a storm. When the river Kishan swells, when the river Kishan rises, not only are those 900 chariots not assets, but they've become a liability. You see, for a chariot to operate effectively, you need dry ground. I remember a time in the US Air Force, we were driving a 10K forklift, and we were supposed to pick up a safe.
It was at the NCO Club. We drove the forklift up to the front doors of this particular building, and the forklift sank right in the grass. A little bit of hindsight should have told us, don't drive a big forklift onto wet, soggy grass. But you live and you learn.
This is what happened. God throws them into a panic. They're in their chariots. They're poised for battle.
They think it's a win. The Canaanites are going to destroy. We've got 10,000 meager troops from Israel, but they're not strapped. They're not armed.
They're not laden with weaponry. So what happens? The River Kishon floods, and those chariots become a liability. They start to sink, perhaps.
They get stuck in the ground. Sisera has to abandon his chariot and escape on foot. And then what happens under Barak is but a clean-up operation. Verse 16, But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Heresheth Agoyim, and the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword.
Not a man was left. You see, God brought victory to them on that day through the 10,000 troops, through the created order. Our God is sovereign. He is the first cause, but that does not diminish the second causes.
There is no inconsistency for saying that the Lord delivered, the Lord routed. It is the Lord who is sovereign over every aspect of this created order, so that when the victory comes, the glory is to be given unto Him.
Defeat of the Commander Sisera
And then notice the defeat of the commander. Verses 17 to 22. Commentators say, well, this doesn't seem right. It almost sounds like there was a peace treaty, a covenant of sorts.
Was J.L. unfaithful to that particular pact? Was J.L. disregarding that particular pact? That's not the interest of the narrative. The narrative is not giving us the ethical position of jail.
It's not a lesson in ethics. It is a lesson in the advancement of the kingdom of God and how the Lord crushes his enemies. And quite frankly, the narrative does not set jail in a negative light whatsoever, but only sets her in a positive light, as we shall see as we proceed. So Sisera flees here, verse 18, 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. We know the story. She offered safety to Sisera. She offered nourishment to Sisera.
She offered protection to Sisera. And she offered a tent peg to Sisera. I hope you hear Genesis 3.15 here. I hope you see a down payment of the deliverer crushing the head of the devil himself.
I hope that Garden of Eden promise sticks with you as you move through the book of Judges. As we get to, God willing, chapter 9, we'll see that a woman throws a rock, a stone, off of a tower, and it crushes the head of Abimelech. You see a recurring pattern in the book of Judges, the way that God dispatches with His enemies. It points to the deliverer who would crush the skull of the devil himself, who would subdue him completely.
This is what Jael does. Verse 21, it's described in detail. 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 see. I suspect, it doesn't say this in the narrative, but I suspect that Barak was expecting to find Sisera bound, maybe tied up. This big girl was able to subdue him long enough and maybe when he fell asleep got his hands and tied him up.
I wonder if Barak was a bit taken aback when he walked in and he saw him pinned to the ground with a tent peg through his head. This indicates the fulfillment of two things in this particular narrative. God said that he would deliver, and God said that he would deliver through a woman. See, when we read verse 9 and Deborah says to Barak, But the glory will not go to you, because the Lord will deliver him into the hand of a woman.
I think that as readers we expect it to be Deborah. We expect it to be the prophetess that delivers the death blow to this man Cicero. But it's jail. We know nothing about her.
She's the wife of Heber. She lives in this particular place. She's only mentioned again in Judges 5. She's not mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11.
But she was the means by which God dealt the death blow to this man, Sisera, once and for all.
Summary: Glory Belongs to God
And then notice the summary of the victory in verses 23 and 24. 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 drop down to the last verse in chapter 5, You'll see, so the land had rest for 40 years.
That's the common cycle. The statement is given of the sin, the oppression, the deliverance, and then a statement concerning rest given in the land. There is this long song in chapter 5, however, celebrating the glory of God, the power of God, and the deliverance of His people, similar to Exodus chapter 15, the song of Moses. But you see here, conspicuously, who gets glory?
It's not Jehovah, it's not Barak, it's not Deborah. It's God. Who delivered Israel? God.
Who always delivers Israel? God. Who delivers His people from their sins? God.
Who keeps His people by the power of His grace? God. Who gets the glory when you resist temptation? God.
Who gets the glory when you do those things that are pleasing to God? God. Who gets the glory when you fall into heaven? God.
You see, from first to last, the Bible is about God. From first to last, the Scriptures testify concerning the glory of God. When we get to the Gideon narrative, this is why the Lord says, you have way too many troops. Whittle them down to about 300.
Because I do not want Israel trying to take the glory when I give them victory over 135,000 Midianites. Do you understand the numbers and the disparity in the Gideon narratives? 135,000 Midianites, Amalekites, and peoples from the East are thwarted by 300 men. And these 300 men didn't have high-powered weaponry. These 300 men didn't have Bradley tanks.
These 300 men didn't have F-15s or F-16s. These 300 men didn't have B-2 stealth bombers where they were able to pick off the Midianites in their enclaves. These 300 men had a pot, they had a torch, they had horns, and they had their God. You see, what the Lord is communicating throughout the book of Judges is amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
That's what the book is about. Don't be afraid. I share sometimes on Wednesday night, because I go to the Cascade on Wednesday afternoon, one of the old dolls there, whenever I mention the book of Revelation or the book of Judges, she looks scared. Oh no, don't teach about that.
There's wrath, and there's fury, and there's blood, and there's guts, and there's judgment, and there's all these sorts of things. And I think that Christians, unfortunately, imbibe that attitude. Some Christians don't read the Old Testament. It's so depressing.
What's depressing about God saving His people? I think you're depressing, if that's your view. What's depressing about revelation that sets forth the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in blazing glory? What's depressing is the terrible interpretation and the hermeneutic that's been foisted upon that particular book to take it from being an encouragement to the church to a depiction of everything bleak, dark, bad, and gloomy that we have to go through.
So the conclusion is, God brings deliverance. Again, Daniel Bloch. The conclusion reminds the reader that the conflict in the book of Judges is not between patriarchy and egalitarianism, 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.
Vindicating Jael
Well, before we close, I want to vindicate JL. I want to make sure that we don't have any negative views of this particular sister. She may not be in Hebrews 11. She may not be anywhere else save Judges 5 and 6, though I think there is a reference in the Psalter to her also.
She's a hero. She is a hero for the kingdom of God Most High. She illustrates first and foremost the sovereignty of God. Remember verse 9.
So Deborah said to Barak, 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. It is the sovereignty of God that uses this lady Jael to dispatch Ciceron. Secondly, I read through chapter 5.
Did you note the benediction pronounced by Deborah upon Jael? Look at what Deborah says concerning Jael in chapter 5, verses 24 to 27. Most blessed among women. If you had your new covenant ears on, what does this sound like?
I hope it sounds like Luke chapter 1, where Mary, the mother of our Lord, is called the most blessed among women. Doesn't sound like Deborah thought J.L. was a bad actor. Doesn't sound like Deborah thought that J.L. was out of line. Doesn't sound like Deborah thought that J.L. was less than a noble player in God's kingdom.
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 workman'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. Deborah's celebrating, Deborah's rejoicing, Deborah's praising God for giving us the gift of jail. Thirdly, I've already alluded to this, the wickedness of Sisera.
He is the commander of an army that has held the people of Israel under oppression for 20 long years. After Deborah's rehearsal about how wonderful J.L. is, she then muses upon Sisera's mother. Look at verse 28. The mother of Sisera looked through the window and cried out through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarries the clatter of his chariot? You see the picture. her baby boy, her little son. He's gone out to battle with the armies of the Canaanites. He has gone about his task.
He is to meet Barak. He is to meet the 10,000 of Israel. He is to bring destruction to bear upon them. Certainly he is to return to his mother, and she's standing at the window waiting to hear his chariot.
Why does he tarry? What's taking him so long? How come he's not home yet? See, there's no cell phone.
She can't text him to find out if he's going to be there for supper. She is simply waiting. So then the wise ladies begin to rehearse what's probably going on. She herself knows this to be the case.
Verse 29. Her wisest ladies answered her. Yes, she answered herself. Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?
You know what that means? When they've killed Israelite soldiers, they take their stuff. When they decimate Israelite cities and enclaves, they take their stuff. Aren't they dividing the spoil?
Doesn't that take some time? You ought not to be surprised that the chariot with your baby boy Sisera hasn't come back. But it doesn't stop there. Are they not finding and dividing the spoil, verse 30, to every man a girl or two?
Now, without being overly crude, this speaks of rape. Sisera and his companions were guilty of raping Israelite girls. So before you judge jail, bringing that tent peg of destruction upon the head of Sisera, think about the mothers and the fathers in Israel who had to find out and learn that their little girls had been raped by this monster. You see, we live in a situation wherein we are protected, wherein we are compartmentalized, and wherein, by and large, we've lost our sense of justice.
Jail and her tent peg bring the judgment of God to bear. Two views on jail. The first is represented in a study Bible where the author says this, concerning jail and the tent peg in Sisera. Though this act was murder and a breach of honor..." It just bugs me.
It was not murder. And it certainly wasn't a breach of honor. "...though this act was murder and a breach of honor, likely motivated by her desire for favor with the conquering Israelites." Are you kidding me? How do you know that?
Maybe because she's an obedient bondservant to the God of heaven and earth. She's not trying to court the favor of Israelites. She's rather trying to rid the world of an enemy of God Most High. This man goes on to say, and though it was without regard for God on her part, God's overruling providence caused great blessing to flow from it.
I submit that that is nonsense and it is false. I submit that Professor, who'd you call him? Voluminous? Professor Dr.
John Gill was a better interpreter of the jail narrative. 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 filled her with malice and reverence, but a concern for the glory of God, the interest of religion and the good of Israel, she took this method to effect the death of this enemy of God and His people. That is what Jael did. She is not an enemy.
She is a friend, and we ought to praise God, from whom all Jaels flow. She was the means by which the Lord took care of Sisera, this rapist, this bloodthirsty man who made a mockery out of the children of Israel for 20 long years. Well, God brought heat to bear upon him via J.L.' 's tent peg. I was wondering, as I considered this passage earlier, if the local Walmarts sold clay tent pegs and hammers You know, for the heroes of our day, you can go to Walmart and buy the toys to be like, you know, Billy the Kid, or you can be like, I don't think they sell those toys anymore.
I can't have a gun and imitate anybody that is a hero. You know, you have those little toys, kids get dressed up and they do their little thing. I wonder if there were little tent pegs, little hammers, little plastic ones that kids played JL when they were young. I get to be JL.
No, I don't want to be Cicero. No, you're going to be Cicero this time. When I was a kid, we played cops and robbers. In those days, they played Israelites and Canaanites.
And the popular, happy kid got to be Chael. She's a hero for the kingdom of God. What is summarized in Deborah's song is a good place to end for us tonight as we consider the advancement of the kingdom of God Most High. Verse 31, 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.
May God cause his kingdom to come, may he cause his rule and his reign to advance, and may he subdue his enemies through the preaching of the gospel, and may he enable his church to be faithful and to serve.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for your word and we give you thanks for your grace and your mercy so evidently on display in a passage like this. God, we know that through the blood and through the gore and through the war and the chariots and the battles and the tent pegs, we see the hand of a merciful God bringing deliverance to his people. Father, help us with the eyes of faith to read our Bibles in a proper way.
Help us to see that you are the one who vindicates your own elect. You are the one who judges his enemies, and you are the one who causes all things to work for your glory and for the good of your people in this world. I pray that you would go with us now. I pray that you would watch over each of the saints in this assembly.
I pray, God, that you would bless Pastor Cam and I as we travel. Bless this assembly of churches in Arizona. God, may the spirit of unity and peace be upon us. May we have genuine times of conference and fellowship and encouragement, and we pray that all that would be done would be done for the glory and for the honor of God Most High and for the strengthening of the churches.
May each of these churches that participate in ARBCA be faithful to the Word of God. May each of these churches be faithful to the very end. As we look around us, God, we see so much compromise. We see men employing other means, doing other things.
Help the churches that you've called together in this association to be faithful to preaching and to praying and to seeking to be obedient to the Word of God. Go with us now, we pray, and we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.