Monday, December 10

JAEL

Judges 4

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin. Jabin was a king in Canaan, and he reigned in Hazor. Sisera was the commander of Jabin’s army, and Deborah was leading Israel at this time. Deborah sent for Barak and told him to take 10,000 men to Mount Tabor. The Lord told her that He would lure Sisera and his army, and give them over to Jabin’s army. But, the Lord also said that the honor would not be Jabin’s, for the Lord would hand Sisera over to a woman. Jabin then convinced Deborah to go with him. They surrounded Sisera’s army and destroyed everyone. Sisera, however, managed to escape. He fled to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, hoping to find safety. Jael met him, welcomed him in, and gave him a place to sleep. He asked for water, but she gave him milk. He told her to stand in the doorway and keep watch while he slept. Instead, she took a tent stake and a hammer, and drove the stake into his head. When Barak came in, Jael showed him Sisera’s body lying on the ground.

At this time, women weren’t educated and didn’t have any social status. They stayed at home and took care of the tents, so Jael knew where the stakes and the hammer were. Sisera probably figured that she was harmless because she was just a woman, but she had God on her side. She didn’t rely on her own strength; she relied on Christ. Her husband, Heber, was a Kenite. We find in verse 11 of chapter 4 that he left the other Kenites and pitched his tent near Kadesh, and in verse 17, we see there were friendly relations between the clan of Heber and Jabin. Obviously, Heber was becoming “soft on sin,” but Jael wasn’t. She knew what was right and wrong, and she knew that Sisera was an evil person. She was humble and let the Lord guide her to nail down the evil. Earlier, I mentioned that Jael gave Sisera milk when he asked for water. This was probably to calm him down, but it also shows that she wasn’t going to let him tell her what to do—she would only do what God said.

Like Jael, we need to be humble and do what God says. Acts 5:29 says, “Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than men!’” Jael wasn’t worried about herself; she wanted to follow God’s will. Before this happened, she was just a housewife that nobody knew. Then, in Judges 5:24-27, Deborah sang about Jael in her song. Deborah said, “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite.” Jael wasn’t afraid of man when she took action against Sisera; she just did what God told her to do. We also have to follow God no matter what others think of us or what the consequences are. We have to rely on God’s leading in every situation and not on our own strength.

~ Kimberly Frantz