Context No. 2945 of 4322 · Judges
Context · Reflection
Judges 4:19-24: in context
19He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” She opened a container of milk, and gave him a drink, and covered him. 20He said to her, “Stand in 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.’” 21Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground, for he was in a deep sleep; so he fainted and died. 22Behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek.” He came to her; and behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent peg was in his temples. 23So God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel on that day. 24The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
Sisera, the Canaanite commander, flees the lost battle and takes refuge in the tent of Jael, who gives him milk and covers him. Exhausted, he falls into a deep sleep, and Jael takes a tent peg and a hammer and drives the peg through his temple, killing him. Then she shows the pursuing Barak the dead enemy. So God subdued Jabin, king of Canaan.
This is a hard, bloody scene from a brutal war, and there is no glamour in the killing. What the text presses is that the fearsome Canaanite general, who had crushed Israel for years with nine hundred iron chariots, is brought down not by an army or a warrior but by a woman with a tent peg. The song of Deborah will call Jael blessed among women. The point the narrative drives home is that God overthrows the oppressor of his people through an unexpected hand, so that no human strength can claim the credit. The great general falls to a household implement.
When deliverance comes through weak and unlikely means, do I recognize that it is God overthrowing the oppressor, not human strength?
Sources
- Judges 4:23: "So God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel on that day."
- Judges 5:24: "Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the Kenite."
- 1 Corinthians 1:27: "God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong."