Rev. David Holwick R Women of the Bible
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 15, 2016
Judges 4:1-9
DEBORAH AND JAEL: A WOMAN'S PLACE
I. Helpless women.
A. It is a staple of Hollywood.
In a movie a woman is attacked, then a brave man jumps in to
rescue her.
Guns and knives are laying all over the place, but she watches
helplessly as the bad guy pounds on her hero.
Some of the weapons even bounce off her feet but she just
stares at it and holds her face in her hands, hysterical.
Of course, bloodied as he is, the good guy finally grabs one of
the weapons and comes out on top.
In the back of my mind I always think, Why doesn't that woman
pick up the Uzi and blow the bad guy to little pieces?
B. Stereotypes are often fiction.
1) I know my wife Celeste would grab that Uzi.
a) She may not know which end the bullets come out of,
but she would use it to beat the guy to death.
2) Many women in the Bible are just like Celeste.
a) They take bold action when all the men around them are
wimps.
b) A prime example is Deborah.
1> She is the only woman in the Old Testament who was
chosen by God to lead the nation of Israel.
2> A queen by the name of Athalia also led the nation,
but she did it by killing off her entire family
rather than being chosen by God, so she
doesn't count.
C. Are you helpless, or empowered by God?
1) Too many people are content to sit in their narrow little
niche and do what is expect of them, and nothing more.
2) God wants more. He wants you to be a Deborah.
II. Deborah lived in a time of great turmoil.
A. In the period of the judges there was no central authority.
1) The people had a common faith but stuck with their own
tribes.
2) There was no king, but every once in a while God would
raise up a dynamic person to lead them.
a) At least we would expect them to be dynamic.
b) Some of them were actually wall-flowers and not the
kind of person you would expect to lead a nation.
B. The period of the judges has a cyclical spiritual pattern.
1) They would be living at peace, and start living loosely.
a) Usually, the people turned to worship other gods.
b) The local gods could be more appealing than the moral
God of the Hebrews. They were easier.
2) As punishment for their sin, God would allow an invasion.
a) Judges 5:8 says, "When they chose new gods, war came to
the city gates..."
b) The bad times could last for years.
In Judges 5, the poetic counterpart to Deborah's story,
verses 5 and 6 mention roads being abandoned and
villages being deserted.
c) It was a dangerous time to be alive.
C. When the people had had enough, they would cry out to God.
1) God's answer was a person called a Judge.
2) Judges put things back in order.
a) Some of them were generals, others were prophets or
even standard legal judges.
1> They were able to galvanize the nation so the enemy
was booted out and peace could come again.
2> The people enjoyed the peace, and then would start
sinning again...
b) The first cycle had 8 years of oppression, the second
had 18 years, and the third had 20 years.
1> Each time it took Israel longer to repent.
2> For particularly bad cycles, God resorted to unique
leaders - in this unique case, a woman.
III. Deborah was an exceptional woman.
A. She had three roles in her life.
1) She was a wife.
a) Her husband's name is given, but no other details of
her family life are known.
b) Like most women of her period, marriage was a given.
2) She was a prophetess.
a) Only three women had this role in the Old Testament:
Moses' sister Miriam, Huldah, and Deborah.
1> There are also a few examples in the New Testament.
b) Speaking the Word of the Lord to the people was her
greatest privilege.
3) She was a judge. 4:5
a) Deborah is the only woman to be given this title.
b) Normally she was a community arbiter, settling local
disputes.
1> It was a humble job - she sat under a palm tree.
2> Her wisdom about God would have been valuable.
c) Later, they turned to her to be a national leader.
1> However, only a section of the nation was involved.
2> Deborah was in the area near the Sea of Galilee.
B. People turned to her because she was a natural leader.
1) President Harry Truman's definition: "Leadership is the
ability to get men to do what they don't want to do
and to like it.
a) Deborah fulfilled this in an amazing way.
2) She was also an "unnatural" leader.
a) Her abilities were God-given, not intrinsic to her
personality.
b) This can be true of anyone.
1> God has supernatural abilities available to you
that have nothing to do with your intelligence,
strength or good looks.
2> You are not limited to what you have always been!
IV. She was surrounded by weak men.
A. Sisera was humanly strong but spiritually wrong.
1) He put his faith in his large army and iron chariots.
a) Iron chariots were the super-weapons of the ancient
world. Israel did not have any.
b) They had great shock value in battle.
2) His faith was also in Baal, the Philistine god of storms.
B. Barak was humanly weak and spiritually timid.
1) He knew Israel did not have much of an army.
a) They could muster 10,000 troops but few had weapons.
b) Judges 5:8 says not a shield or spear was seen among
them.
1> This is probably poetic exaggeration but they
certainly were poorly equipped.
2) In 4:6, Deborah tells Barak that God commands him to attack.
a) In effect, she is telling him to be a judge/general.
b) His response? I will only go if a woman holds my hand.
1> That is either supreme confidence in a woman, or
the hope that she will wimp out and he won't
have to fight. 4:8
2> I think it is confidence in her spiritual strength.
A> Often we associate spiritual power with others.
B> Maybe your grandmother was a strong Christian,
or your spouse.
C> This is wonderful, but God wants YOU to be
spiritually strong.
C. Deborah puts them all in their place. 4:9
1) She keeps the focus on God's power.
2) She will go with Barak, but the glory will go to a woman.
3) It would have been natural to think she was talking about
herself, but we know it went to another woman.
V. The victory had unexpected help.
A. Deborah's tactics were suicidal.
1) She ordered Barak to take his unequipped army and make a
frontal assault on Sisera's mega-army. 4:6
2) Jews did this again in AD 67 - and were annihilated.
3) But this time they were victorious.
a) The Philistine army was completely routed.
B. What turned the battle around?
1) Judges 4 doesn't directly say, but the Song in Judges 5 has
the answer - God sent a massive thunderstorm.
a) Judges 5:4
"O LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched
from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens
poured, the clouds poured down water."
b) Judges 5:21
"The river Kishon swept them away...."
c) The victory was God's doing, not Jewish bravery.
2) The iron chariots bogged down, and the army broke and ran.
3) General Sisera also bugged out. 4:15
C. Another woman played the final act.
1) Jael was a Bedouin, a pagan desert-dweller.
a) When Moses fled to the area of Mount Sinai, this is
the tribe he married into.
b) The term "friendly relations" probably means her tribe
had a covenant or treaty with the Philistines. 4:17
2) She extended Bedouin hospitality to the general. 4:18
a) She invited him into her tent.
b) She gave him a covering, and nourishment (milk). 4:19
c) She agreed to protect him.
d) Then she grabbed a tent-peg and quietly nailed him
into the ground.
VI. The episode confronts us with two controversies.
A. The violence seems gratuitous.
1) The tent peg doesn't just kill him, it goes all the way
into the ground.
2) Many are offended the Bible would include this detail.
It is similar to Hollywood action movies that men like.
The Matt Damon movie "Elysium" shows a bad guy getting
his head blown to pieces by a shotgun.
But it is not gratuitous because a special healing
machine fixes him.
Sisera didn't have one of those healing machines...
3) The oppressed Israelites would have appreciated the detail.
a) Their pain was visceral and they wanted their victory
to be the same way.
4) It shows that women can not only lead, but be ruthless.
B. Jael is violating a time-honored social obligation.
1) Hospitality was sacred to the Bedouin, and still is.
a) The recent movie "Lone Survivor" tells of an American
soldier whose unit is ambushed in Afghanistan.
He is able to flee to an Afghan village.
The Taliban knows he is there, but the village protects
him at great cost. [1]
b) What this village did, Jael did NOT do.
2) Israelites probably justified it because of how cruel
their oppressors had been.
VII. What is your place in life?
A. Like Deborah, focus on what God wants you to do.
1) Your family, your culture may want you in a very specific
box.
2) God may want you to break out of that box.
3) Your only limitations should be doing what he wants.
B. Like Jael, do what needs to be done.
1) This doesn't mean you can throw your values to the wind.
2) It does mean you have to take decisive action.
a) Don't be timid, but seek God's will and strike out
boldly.
b) Our VBS - the women will come through in the end.
C. Victories may not come overnight.
1) Israel had to wait 20 years to overcome their oppression.
2) It was mostly because of their own spiritual stubbornness.
a) What defeats continue in your life because you don't
turn to God?
D. The ultimate victory always belongs to God.
1) Your biggest struggle will not be against other people,
but against your own sinfulness and rebellion.
2) Only Jesus can sweep away our sins.
a) His blood is better than the river Kishon.
b) Have you asked him to be in charge of your life?
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. “The Afghan Village That Saved Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell,” by Sami
Yousafzai and Ron Moreau, The Daily Beast, November 8, 2013;
<link>.
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