John L. O’Dell received a B.A. in Religious Studies at C.S.U.L.B. He is currently perusing a Th.M. at Chafer Theological Seminary. John is an instructor of New Testament Greek at CTS and works as a graphic artist.
When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.
—Judges 4:1For two generations God’s children lived quietly in their land. The great left-handed warrior Ehud had dealt the fatal blow to the Moabite king. But peace brings comfort and comfort brings laziness. The children of Israel fell back into their old patterns of wickedness. They chose to follow their own ways instead of God’s. The seductive gods of their neighbors proved alluring and the people gave worship and honor to them. These actions so displeased God that he brought punishment on Israel, giving them over to Jabin, the king of Canaan. Gone were the days of peace after the defeat of the Moabites. For twenty years now the people of Israel suffered under the heavy hand of the Canaanites.
Like Israel, God calls us to worship Him alone; and just like the Israelites, we find the many gods of the twenty-first century more compelling. Money, power, sex and social status—all call us to erect their statues in the temple of our hearts. God tells us that this spiritual infidelity is evil in His sight.
Jabin was the king of Canaan and he remembered what the Israelites had done to his ancestors. He remembered the stories of his childhood about Joshua cutting down the great king of Canaan he was named after. He was told how the Israelites killed all the people of his hometown, Hazor, and then burned the city to the ground. Now was his chance to avenge his people’s loss. He controlled Israel with a fist of iron—or more literally, with his iron chariots. Jabin gave the job of dealing with Israel to Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite armies.
Sisera was a hardened soldier. Everyone knew by his name that he was not a Canaanite by birth, but his martial skills and loyalty to Jabin made him a great defender of the land of Canaan. Sisera lived in Harosheth Hagoyim, “the blacksmith of the nations.” This gritty city was the foundry where Jabin’s iron-rimmed chariots, the most formidable weapons of the day, were born. With their metal axels and iron-covered wheels, they were swift and steady in battle. The Israelite army was no match for these powerful monsters that raided their cities and controlled the roads. Under Sisera’s orders nine hundred of these chariots kept the Israelites prisoners in their own land.
Too many had died at the hands of the Canaanites. For Israel this was too much to bear. They were tired of the raids and pillaging. They could not even be safe in their own cities. They cried out to God for deliverance. And God, as he had many times before, was ready to come to their aid.
The people whose customs had earlier seemed so appealing to Israel were the same people who now oppressed them. For us it is much the same. At first our desires seem so interesting and worthy of attention. Soon, though, the pursuit of satisfaction turns to obligation and then to addiction. When we are faithful to God, His burden is easy. But when we follow our own path, we are made slaves to our desires. At some point it becomes too much for us and we cry out to God for reconciliation. Fortunately for us, God is always faithful. As we cry out, he hears and answers.
In Israel at the time there was a woman named Deborah who was a prophetess of the Lord. Her husband, Lapidoth, watched her as she went about doing God’s work. He saw the power of her prophecies and judgments and knew that his wife was truly a woman set apart by God. She would sit in the hill country of Ephraim, between the towns of Ramah and Bethel, and the people would come to her for judgment and guidance. In fact, she was so prominent that the palm tree she sat under was called “Deborah’s palm.” Deborah had seen the great oppression from the Canaanites and their commander Sisera. The people had told her terrible stories of killings and destruction. She knew of the pain of Israel’s torment. And now as a prophetess she had received a message from God. She called for Israel’s great military leader Barak to come to her because God was going to use him to deliver the children of Israel.
Barak, the son of Abinoam, was a tough, pragmatic man. His name meant “lightning,” and as a soldier he had seen many battles. While a faithful worshiper of the true God, he also knew the hearts of men. He lived in Kedesh, “the fortified city,” in Naphtali. It was a rough-and-tumble place befitting a resident like Barak. Kedesh was where men with troubled pasts came to hide out. God had decreed that those who took a life would pay for it with their own. In His wisdom He also knew that sometimes a killing was not a murder and set up certain places as cities of refuge. Those who had killed someone accidentally could flee to one of these places, so that others could not exact their revenge on them. Kedesh was one of those cities. It was there that Barak lived and where the message of the prophetess found him.
When Barak met Deborah, she told him of the Lord’s plan. Barak was to gather an army of ten thousand men and go to Mount Tabor. There God would deliver Sisera and his chariots to them. Barak was a faithful Jew, but he was also a man who understood war. He had met Sisera’s chariots before and he knew that his men would be no match for the powerful Canaanites. Barak was torn. What should he do? He knew it was certain defeat to oppose Sisera, but a prophetess of God was telling him to go. Barak agreed but told Deborah that she must accompany him to the battle. For Barak, Deborah would be a talisman, a good luck charm, so that even if he lost the battle he might escape with his own life.
Though Barak knew that God could give him victory, he still chose to rely on his own strength. We are much the same. We read God’s Word and know that He delivers us from the things that we struggle with. God destroys the things that turn us from Him so that we may live more closely to Him. The problem is that we only see the battle from our point of view. When we cry out for deliverance and God answers, we start talking instead of listening. We let our pride and fear direct us instead of God. We fail to see that the same things that caused our trouble cannot end it. Only God can deliver us.
Deborah, like Barak, knew the heart of men. She heard the fear in Barak’s voice, so she agreed to go with him. Deborah saw his weakness in not trusting the God who had saved Israel so many times before. As God spoke through her, she told Barak that because of his lack of faith there would be no glory for him in the journey. God would defeat Sisera, but the victory would not be for Barak. God would deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman. Despite this prediction, Barak took Deborah, along with his fellow commanders Zebulun and Naphtali, and headed to Kedesh to raise an army.
God does not ignore our pleas for help. Nor does he ignore our fear and ignorance. Over and over again the Bible tells us not to be afraid. Fear is just another form of selfishness. It is our overwhelming concern for our own good coupled with a lack of faith in God. In Barak’s case, fear was going to impede God’s deliverance of Israel. So God chose another person to be the deliverer. This is also true in our own lives. When we stand as an obstacle in God’s way, He either wears us down or goes around us. Ultimately God accomplishes His will, no matter what.
In a small oasis near Kedesh, a Kenite man had set up camp with his wife and family. Unaware of the army being amassed nearby, Heber was looking for a place to rest from his nomadic life. He knew of the Israelites. He had coexisted in this land with them for many years. In fact, he was actually related to one of their great heroes. Heber was one of the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. Heber had chosen Zaanaim as the perfect place to pitch his tent. There was a mighty oak tree that marked the boundary for the Jewish tribe of Naphtali.
Sometimes God uses situations or people that we never thought of to accomplish his work. We may look back and see that a helpful friend or even a difficult acquaintance made a huge change in our life. At the time, though, we failed to see God at work. Like Barak, we have our own agenda. It is not until things are over with that we recognize the hand of the Creator guiding our life through difficulties.
When Sisera’s men reported that Barak had taken an army up to Mount Tabor, he relished the thought of another Canaanite victory. He knew that if Barak went up to Tabor, the only way out would be through the flat riverbed land in front of the mountain. Here Sisera’s chariots would easily win the day. He knew the pleasure he would have reporting to king Jabin how he once again destroyed the Israelite army. Quickly, he gathered the nine hundred chariots and all the men with him and set out for the river Kishon. He would wait for Barak at the base of Mount Tabor.
Barak’s lookouts saw Sisera’s forces massing along the riverbed at the base of the mountain. They went back to inform Barak that the enemy had arrived ready to do battle. When Barak received this information, he knew it was time to fight. Even though he had heard the stories of Joshua’s great victories since he was a small boy, they did little to quiet the fear in his heart. He was facing a battle with such overwhelming odds that it seemed a certain defeat. As if sensing his anxiety, Deborah spoke saying, “Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone out before you?” Encouraged, Barak gathered his troops, giving them praise as mighty warriors of God. He told them of the Lord’s hand on the battle and with a shout charged down Mount Tabor. All ten thousand men followed him.
The Word of God is a powerful thing. When we cry out in panic to God, He wants to free us from our fears. His Word calls to us like Deborah’s words did to Barak. His Word encourages, convicts, and teaches us. His Word guides us into righteousness.
War is only romantic in poems. For the men of Israel and Canaan it was a brutal and bloody business. But this time the fighting was different. The Israelite soldiers were almost supernatural in their strength. To Sisera it felt as if he were fighting an unseen army of warriors who were side by side with the Jews. Suddenly, his undefeatable chariots were failing. Sisera’s army was being defeated. Hundreds of men were dead and countless chariots destroyed while the Israelite army kept getting stronger and more ferocious.
Sisera had been in many fights. He could read a battle and know the exact time to strike the final blow to crush his enemy. In this battle Sisera saw a different picture. He was losing. The battle had turned against him. He knew that this time the final blow was not his but Israel’s. Seeing his defeat, he jumped from his chariot and ran on foot from the battle. No longer the confident commander, he was just a fearful man trying to avoid the terrible fate of so many of his own soldiers.
Invigorated by the success of his men, Barak encouraged them to fight on. He saw Sisera’s army turning in retreat. He saw the bodies of the dead Canaanites soldiers and their mangled chariots. Deborah was right; God had given them the victory. Barak and his men routed the Canaanite army from the riverbed and pursued them all the way back to their stronghold at Harosheth Hagoyim. Not a man was left standing from the once powerful army of king Jabin.
Flush with victory, Barak had forgotten his fear and the admonition from Deborah. He looked around to find his ultimate trophy, Sisera. He could not find the enemy commander anywhere. He was not dead but his chariot was empty. Where was this prize that Barak wanted as reward for his victory? His men told him that Sisera had run like a coward. So Barak turned from the battle also—not in fear like his enemy but as a hunter pursuing his prey. God, though, had something different in mind.
Sisera was weary. The battle had pulled the life from him. Now he was running on the raw fuel of fear. He needed to rest, to sort out what had happened. He also needed to hide. He knew the Israelites would be trying to find him so they could kill him. As he fled from the battle he could see a large tree on the horizon. Maybe some nomads would give him shelter and refuge. As he got closer, he recognized the pattern of cloth in the tents. This was a Kenite camp and in this area king Jabin had a peace treaty with them. Certainly they would help him.
Out in front of one of the tents there was a woman calling to Sisera. It was Jael, the wife of Heber. “Come aside my lord, come aside and do not be afraid,” she said. Sisera, weary and thirsty from the chase, gladly ran to the tent for shelter. As his eyes adjusted to the dark interior, he let himself relax for the first time that day. The cushions on the floor comforted his tired body and he asked the woman for a drink of water to quench his thirst. Offering more hospitality than she had been asked for, the woman opened a fresh jug of milk and gave Sisera a drink. As he drank the soothing milk, Sisera realized he could go no further for now. Thinking that if he continued his flight after dark he could elude Barak, he chose to sleep for a while until after sundown. He commanded Jael, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man in here?’ You shall say, ‘No.’” Jael agreed and helped him lay on a mat in the back of the tent. She covered him with a blanket and went to keep watch at the door.
Jael held a secret that was hers alone. She knew what she had to do. The divine hand that guided all things was now leading her to perform an act of deliverance. God was calling on her to be the one who released His people from their oppression. He knew her strength and her righteous life and He was giving her the victory that He would deny His fearful commander.
Sisera could feel himself relax. The day that began as a certain victory had turned terrible and cruel. As he drifted into sleep, he thought of how far he had fallen in just a few hours. Once a great commander of the Canaanite army, he was now hiding in the tent of a shepherdess, afraid for his life.
Jael picked up a tent peg from the floor. It filled her hand completely. The wood was smooth from years of being driven into the earth and its head flattened by countless blows of the hammer. She pulled the tent door aside and peered out. There was no one around; she had to move quickly. With the tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other, she turned toward the sleeping man. Her heart raced as she moved softly to where Sisera was lying. She watched for a moment as his body gently rose and fell with the rhythmic breathing of deep sleep. She placed the tip of the tent peg at his temple and, raising the hammer high above her head, struck the fatal blow.
Barak had chased the Canaanites back to Haroseth Hagoyim but still there was no sign of Sisera. He retraced his route back to the river Kishon. There was a small shepherds' camp there by the great terebinth tree. Maybe they had seen the fleeing commander. He would stop there for refreshment and inquire. As he came into the camp, a woman came out to greet him. Jael shouted to the Israelite warrior, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” Barak was confused. Who was this woman and how did she know he was chasing Sisera? She took him to a tent in the camp and pulled back the door for him to enter. There in the dark lay a body. As Barak moved closer, the ghastly vision came fully into focus. Sisera lay dead on the floor, a tent peg driven through his temple, pinning him to the ground beneath. As he looked at the lifeless body of his enemy, Deborah’s words came back to him. There had been no glory for Barak in the battle. God had delivered Israel as He promised. Not by Barak’s sword but with a tent peg of a Kenite woman.
On that day God had fulfilled his word and subdued the army of king Jabin. Over the course of the next few months, buoyed by the victory over Sisera, Barak continued his assault on the Canaanites. Finally, after several more victories, the Israelites completely destroyed king Jabin and his harsh oppression came to an end.
Ultimately God will always prevail. His will is certain and is accomplished despite our failings. The greatest victory, though, is not in any single battle but in following the plan of God. When we fail, He is there. When we turn from Him, He never turns from us. Even though He may, for a season, discipline us, He will always be faithful and deliver us from our oppressors.
Notes
- Editor's note: The author of the following article thoroughly researched the historical, archaeological, exegetical, and theological aspects of the Judges 4 account. However, rather than writing a technical article, he has used his artistic and storytelling skills to render the passage as a story with applications in the way a preacher might recount a biblical narrative in a sermon. While this type of article is out of the ordinary for the CTS Journal, we find it to be a worthy exposition in the tradition of Moses (Deuteronomy 6), Stephen (Acts 7), and Paul (Acts 13). We trust that you will enjoy it as we have.
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