Wednesday Bible Study: Picking through Judges part 4

 

So now, we move on to the battle itself between Deborah and Barak and their forces- with God in charge- and the forces of Jabin the Canaanite high king, led by Sisera, the Hyksos(?) mercenary general.  And the story makes one thing perfectly clear- it wasn't just the army that did the fighting:

Jdg 4:6  She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, "Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, 'Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun.
Jdg 4:7  And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand'?" 

God plainly says He's setting this up, through Deborah, and more:

Jdg 4:15  And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot.

Now, before we get to HOW the Lord fought the battle, let me point out how He "drew out Sisera".  And that was one of those seemingly random occurrences...

Jdg 4:11  Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
Jdg 4:12  When Sisera was told that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
Jdg 4:13  Sisera called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon.

So this Heber, we find out a bit later, was supposedly buddy-buddy with Jabin....

Jdg 4:17b ...for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

...and God used Heber's big mouth to tell Jabin that Barak had an army, and thus Sisera was sent forth.  But Heber was also God's secret weapon in another way, which we'll hit later.  In fact, Heber's household held God's plan B, because Barak was a little difficult to deal with...

Jdg 4:8  Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go."
Jdg 4:9  And she said, "I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Jdg 4:10  And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

So now, we are ready for the battle- a battle that God himself fought.  And just how did that happen?  Let's go back to the song...

Jdg 5:20  From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.
Jdg 5:21  The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might!

The skies opened in a flood, turning the peaceful stream Kishon into a raging torrent, which swept away men and bogged down the iron-weighted chariots, and making the Canaanite army confused, easy pickings for the warriors of Barak, who had 20 years of oppression fueling them.  But it wasn't JUST rain; there was someone else there, and He wasn't happy....

Jdg 5:23  "Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD, curse its inhabitants thoroughly, because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

Taking this apart, we first see that the Angel of the Lord- the pre-incarnate Christ- was visibly at the battle, thus likely adding to the panic of the Canaanites.  The fact that nobody but nobody has been able to put a pin on this Meroz shows the effectiveness of this curse.  But what is this all about?  One of the commentators mentioned the similarities to the curses Christ brought down on the cities that rejected Him...

Mat 11:20  Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.
Mat 11:21  "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Mat 11:22  But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
Mat 11:23  And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
Mat 11:24  But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you."

Before I tie the bow on this part, let me just point out that the Jews believed "Meroz," because of the earlier references to the stars, was a planet that 'refused to join the stars in the fight'.  Typically adding stuff that just isn't there, but now place that up against what Jesus said about Capernaum...

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades..

 

And the awesome point, the point perhaps of the whole story, is that Meroz and Capernaum WITNESSED the Power of God- and STILL did nothing.  God's power is available to be witnessed in our world every day, and those that refuse to see it... well, where is Meroz now?

So Barak and his army cleans up what's left of the enemy, right back to Sisera's headquarters, wiping them all out.  Sisera, brave man that he was, tried a different tack...

Jdg 4:17  But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

That's why I left the front of the verse off earlier.  Jael, who we learned last time was a heroine of some standing ( a standing we never quite learn) in the past, just happens to be wife of Jabin's buddy, Heber!  So Sisera thinks he has a safe haven, but...

Jdg 4:18  And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid." So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
Jdg 4:19  And he said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.
Jdg 4:20  And he said to her, "Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say, 'No.'"
Jdg 4:21  But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died.

Here I will note that, in order to put women in their place apparently, the Jews go through some mental contortions to add a sexual aspect to this- even going so far to believe that Heber had Jael seduce and sleep with Sisera in order to get him to pass out.  Once again that part about "letting the text speak for itself" seems to escape them- a common trait, I've seen in my research, whenever they are forced to admit a woman was a heroine instead of a man (note what they said about Ruth and Boaz!)  But when you read the song, you find not only was Jael a hero of Israel, but also a fairly strong woman:

Jdg 5:24  "Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
Jdg 5:25  He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl.
Jdg 5:26  She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple.
Jdg 5:27  Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell--dead.

I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet a "workman's mallet" wasn't a dainty little thing with which to put up nails to hang pictures...

I mentioned the pent-up emotions of Israel being poured out in the battle; and Deborah can't resist letting a little bit of it out at the end of the song:

Jdg 5:28  "Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice: 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?'
Jdg 5:29  Her wisest princesses answer, indeed, she answers herself,
Jdg 5:30  'Have they not found and divided the spoil?-- A womb or two for every man; spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?'
Jdg 5:31  "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might." And the land had rest for forty years. 

 

Glory for the women who gave the glory to God; disappointment for the women who enjoyed the pain of others.  Next week, we begin what has to be the best example of God's humor in the Bible- the story of Gideon.