Judges 4-5: Deborah, Barak and Jael

At this particular point in Israel's history, the oppression of the covenant people came from the north. Jabin, king of Canaan, along with Sisera, the captain of his army, was responsible for a cruel, 20-year long reign of terror and oppression against God's people.

The main character in this scene is Deborah, who is described in three ways in 4:4. She was a prophetess, a vehicle of revelation for God's people; she was the wife of Lappidoth, of whom we know nothing, and here, therefore, is case of a woman outshining her husband in her contribution to the welfare of Israel; and she was judging Israel at the time. The description of Deborah is further advanced in 4:5 where we are told that the people would go to her under her palm-tree in the hilly, north country of Ephraim.

Before going any further, it does seem to me that this three-fold description, all of which emphasises Deborah's feminity, is itself a kind of judgement on Israel. God, she says to Barak in 4:9, will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman; and we have the distinct impression that there was not only no king in Israel, but no man suitable to be judge either. The fact that it is through a woman that Israel is to be saved from the northern threat itself indicates how far from God, and how deeply into sin, the people had come.

Yet once again, God raises up a deliverer, a woman of faith named Deborah. And it's in terms of her faith that I want us to look at these two chapters.

* The basis of her faith

* The evidence of her faith

* The consequences of her faith

* The expression of her faith

The Basis of Deborah's Faith -- God's Word

It is interesting to note that the initiative for the offensive came from Deborah. 4:6 says that she sent and summoned Barak. The force of 10,000 men which he took against Jabin was taken at her command. But the Bible seems to emphasise two things about this advice.

First, it was God's will and command that this army should assemble and go against Jabin. This was not the battle strategy of the prophetess, or of any of Israel's military leaders; this was simply a direct statement from God, communicated through Deborah the prophetess: 'has not the Lord, the God of Israel commanded you....?' (4:6).

Deborah, therefore, in giving this command, is only communicating the divine message which Israel needs to hear. Israel has drifted away from God and into sin. And one of the tell-tale signs of backsliding and of waywardness is when you stop hearing and cease listening to what God says to you. Deborah had to trumpet the message into the ears of Israel's soldiers: 'God commands you to go'.

There is no progress in the Christian life except through obedience to the will of God. The only way in which we can meet the enemy and face the difficulty is in the strength of what God says to us in his own word. If we listen to that, all will be well.

Secondly, there is the confidence of Deborah's faith. She has no difficulty in summoning Barak and communicating the message to him. She believes in God's command, and she trusts to God's promise that he will deliver his people. Just as he had sold them into the hand of Sisera (4:2) so he would give Sisera into the hand of Barak (4:7).

What confidence she has! What trust! She simply believes that God will be true to his word. Although Israel will be vastly outnumbered and although the battle will not be an easy one, Deborah is a shining example of the faith that commits everything to God. At that basic level of our discipleship, she has much to teach us.

The Evidence of Deborah's Faith -- Her Works

James 2:26 tells us that 'faith apart from works is dead'. It is a notoriously controversial phrase, which some people have interpreted to mean that we are justified through the works of faith. But James' point is much simpler than that. He is simply saying that where there is a living faith, it evidences itself in action.

And that is what we have here. Barak hears the word from God, but I think his faith is much weaker than that of Deborah. 'if you will go with me,' he says to her, 'I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go'.

Weak faith is conditional faith -- it is prepared to act only on certain conditions. We will obey if we have this person with us, or that sign given to us; we will do God's bidding on our terms.

But that is not how Deborah operates. She is prepared to translate her trust into action, and to go, unreservedly. Barak will pay a price for his reticence: he will have no glory in the venture, because 'the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman' (4:9).

Faith shows itself by the way it acts, by the way it acts unreservedly and unconditionally. The question is whether we are prepared to do what God wants us to do, not when certain conditions have been met, but simply because he asks us to do it? Living faith shows itself by its actions.

The Consequences of Her Faith

So Deborah goes with the 10,000 men of Barak, and her presence has a powerful effect on them. Sisera calls all his chariots, and they prepare to attack Israel. It is Deborah who rouses the troops, saying 'Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you?'

She continues believing in the strength of God's promise, in the success of God's people, and in the certainty of God's presence. He cannot fail, so they cannot fail if He is with them. That is the great covenant encouragement to God's people in every age: 'if God is for us, who can be against us?'

But I think there are two consequences to this.

The first is that Barak himself has become strong in faith. In 4:14 we simply read 'So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him'. Deborah's faith has inspired him to believe all the more in the unfailing promise and presence of God with his people.

So much is this the case that in Hebrews 11, it is the faith of Barak, rather than of Deborah, which is mentioned. The writer says: 'what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets -- who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises ... became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight' (Hebrews 11:32-4).

In listing the judges, the writer of Hebrews simply refers to the faith of Barak, without mentioning that it was through the influence and inspiration of Deborah that he recovered a sense of confidence in God's plan, purpose and promise. If we act in faith, we shall encourage others to do so too.

The second consequence of Deborah's action is that Jael, the wife of Heber, is strengthened to deliver the final death-blow to Sisera, who runs for assylum to the tent of her husband, Heber the Kenite, where she puts him to death by hammering a nail through his head.

This is one of the Old Testament passages which does raise some moral questions. We cannot spiritualise Jael's hammer, nor argue that God did not approve of the action. The whole tenor of the passage is that he did approve the action. Indeed, the passage demonstrates the unique and remarkable providence which placed Jael in the position which allowed her to carry out this attack. What else is the significance of 4:11, which tells us that 'Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites'? We are not told the reason for the separation; all we can infer is that because he removed from the south where, according to 1:16, the descendants of the Kenite (Moses' father-in-law), dwelt, Jael was in the right place at the right time.

Although we may squirm at the detail of the death of Sisera, it must be seen in the context of the oppression against Israel for the best part of a generation. Sisera was no innocent bystander; he was the leader of a ruthless and tyrannical army, which killed, raped and oppressed the people of God. Had he lived he would have continued to do so. But God has Jael in place.

Like Deborah, she is ready to face God's enemy, and to exact the justice and the retribution which is really God's judgement on his foes. And that is why chapter 4 ends with the statement that it was neither Deborah nor Jael who subdued the king of Canaan, but God himself (4:23).

The Expression of Her Faith -- Her Song

Once again God's deliverance is celebrated in song. The elements of Deborah's song are worth noting:

1. Another significant work of God in history (5:1-5)

Deborah's song is a song of praise of the covenant God of Israel. The fact that the armies of Israel defeated the marauding armies of Canaan is a reason to praise God (5:2), and the personal nature of the song reflects the unique relationship in which God stands to his covenant people (5:3). Running through all of this is a theologising of the events of chapter 4; the defeat of Sisera is God's doing, and it is wonderful in the eyes of his people.

But the language takes us further than merely recognising the hand of God in all of this. It links the defeat of Sisera and Jabin to the theophany of Sinai (5:5). The God who marched before his people then is the God who has marched with them now. There is an organic link, in other words, between all these great works of God in history; they are joined together like links in a chain of covenant salvation, through which God sets his people free.

And the chain that links Sinai to Canaan is the same chain that links the defeat of Sisera to the defeat of the Midianites and the Philistines, the defeat of the Amalekites and the Babylonians, and ultimately the defeat of Satan, sin and death at the cross of Calvary. That is why we can derive teaching, insight and comfort from passages like this in the heart of the OT, because they are organically related to the saving work of God in Jesus Christ.

2. Deborah's role as 'a mother in Israel' (5:6-12)

The second great theme is God's choice of Deborah, building, as we have already seen, on the work of Shamgar, completing and perfecting the transition from insecurity to safety, from instability to peace. She arose, because God's choice was on her. Through her, the people offered themselves willingly. She was God's person for this unique hour.

That is precisely what all the judges were: uniquely called, placed and raised to deliver the people of God. Ultimately, they pointed to the One who, from all eternity, was set aside to be the Deliverer of his people. What they could not do for themselves, God did for them, by sending his Son to be their Saviour.

3. The tribes -- those who went and those who stayed (5:13-23)

The song then analyses the support or otherwise from the tribes. While Barak led the remnant of the nobles against Jabin of Canaan, he had support from some tribes: Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar -- all of these tribes came to heed the call of God and to join with Barak in his offensive.

But other tribes were hesitant and reluctant to help. The Reubenites searched their hearts but remained with their sheep (5:16); Gilead, Dan, and Asher all stayed away from the battle front. So in her song, Deborah asks 'Why?' Why should it be that among some of God's people there was the division between those who were earnest and zealous for the cause of the covenant and those who were lukewarm and disengaged?

It has ever been thus in the church. Christ warns that in the last days, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12), while the great test will be endurance in the faith to the very end (Matthew 24:13). Kinship, as Spurgeon puts it in a comment on this passage, has its obligations; and we are all under obligation to our brothers in the church to come to their aid in the great crisis moments of the church's life.

Deborah's song is a rebuke to lukewarm Christianity. Let us be consumed with zeal for the Lord and for his cause! It was those who fought, who went out in the faith of Deborah and of Barak, who saw the wonders and the works of God on behalf of his own; those who did not help his people only experienced his curse (5:23).

4. A picture of two women (5:24-30)

The song then contrasts two women, heaping blessing and praise on Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite. Twice she is called 'most blessed' (5:24), because instead of affording him hospitality and refuge, she struck him down.

The contrast is drawn with Sisera's mother; in a sarcastic vein Deborah pictures her waiting at the window for her boy to come back. How can this be justified? The song answers the question: all that Sisera did by way of rape and pillage has now turned back on his head; he who rejoiced in the spoils of sin is now the spoil of the people of God (5:30).

5. The key to it all (5:31)

Which brings us to the essence of the whole piece in the concluding refrain:

So may all your enemies perish, O Lord,
But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might (5:31).

That is it: God curses his enemies, but he blesses his friends. Or, to use the great words of the song of another 'mother in Israel', as Mary sang of the Lord:

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away.

(Luke 1:51-53).

The message of Deborah is the message of Mary -- God has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy (Luke 1:54). And at last, the ultimate demonstration of that is that Christ, the Redeemer, is born.