John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 10

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 10

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Jael and Sisera

Jdg_4:6-22

In the time of Joshua the most powerful of the Canaanitish sovereigns ruling in the northern part of the land had been Jabin, whose seat was in the strong city of Hazor, not far to the north of the lake Merom. This city had been taken and destroyed about one hundred and twenty years before by Joshua, after a most decisive victory over Jabin and the northern princes confederate with him. Jabin seems to have been a common name of the princes of Hazer, like Pharaoh in Egypt, and Abimelech among the Philistines; for we now find the city and the realm restored, and a mighty king called Jabin again reigning there. This Jabin was evidently the greatest of the princes known to the Israelites. The indications are, indeed, those of a very formidable and well-organized military power for that age. We are with marked emphasis informed that this king possessed “nine hundred chariots of iron,” that is, probably, chariots armed with iron hooks and scythes, which committed cruel execution upon the adverse army against which they were forcibly driven. Such means of assault would not now be regarded as very formidable, or inspire much alarm; and were eventually found to create so much confusion among those who used them, that they were discontinued among all nations in which war became a science. But they were much dreaded by those who were not acquainted with them, and were formidable against the ancient means of defence and mode of fighting. Especially were they dreadful to the Israelites, who were particularly apprehensive of chariot warfare of all kinds—and more than all of these “chariots of iron.” It is highly probable that the possession of these chariots, by the mere terror which they inspired, and the idea of formidable strength they conveyed, rendered the subjection of the Israelites an easy task to king Jabin, who held them in severe bondage for twenty years. To the same terror may also be ascribed the utter prostration and discouragement under which the tribes fell, so that it became exceedingly difficult to rouse them from their despondency and induce them to take the field against the oppressor. From the gratitude which Deborah evinces towards the people for the effort which they finally made, we are warranted in concluding that she had long endeavored to instigate them to this step in vain. At length she sent for Barak the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh, a city of Naphtali, on a mountain not far from Hazor, and made known to him the will of God, that he should undertake an enterprise for the deliverance of his country. But such was his disheartened state of feeling, and, at the same time, such his confidence in the superior authority and character of Deborah, that he assents to go only on condition that she shall accompany him. To this she at length consented, not without a gentle rebuke for the faintness of his faith. They then repaired together to Kedesh, and collected there, in the immediate vicinity of Hazor, ten thousand men. There was deep wisdom in thus first seeking support in the very quarter where the tyranny of Jabin was most strongly felt. Many would have supposed it better to have raised a revolt in a distant quarter of the land. But so judged not Deborah. Even here, this comparatively small force was got together not without difficulty, and with it Barak marched southward and encamped on Mount Tabor, being the first time that celebrated mountain is named in Scripture.

Hitherto we have seen the kings leading their armies in person, and owing, indeed, their power to their military skill. The Philistines, back in the time of Abraham, had “a captain of the host,” or commander-in-chief, separately from the king. But this is the only instance before the present of a custom which afterwards became very general. Jabin was not wont to lead his troops to the field in person—the command of the army being committed to a far-renowned general named Sisera, who was stationed at Harosheth, and who was obviously a person of high dignity and authority in the state. This great commander, on learning that the Israelites had taken to arms under Barak, gathered a formidable army, and with his nine hundred chariots of iron moved southward, encamping in the plain of Esdraelon. Then Deborah, who was with the Hebrew forces, said to Barak, in words stirring as a trumpet’s blast, “Up; for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thy hand. Is not the Lord gone out before thee?” Inspirited by these noble words, which conveyed to him the assurance of victory, Barak no longer thought—if he had ever thought—of maintaining the post which he had chosen, with all its advantages, upon a mountain inaccessible to the iron chariots of the enemy, but courageously went down with his far inferior force into the plain, thus giving every possible advantage to Sisera, and thereby enhancing the glory of that victory which, in the strength of the Lord’s might, he expected to win. The bold and unexpected charge of Barak seems to have been made instrumental in the Lord’s hand of inspiring the enemy with a supernatural panic, a dread of spirit, which soon threw men, horses, and chariots in wild disorder, so that they fell quickly under the keen edge of the Hebrew sword, and soon sought safety in flight. It was thus “the Lord that discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak.” In Deborah’s triumphal song we are told that “the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” This has probably been rightly explained in the description of the battle which Josephus has given. He says, that when they came to close action, there came down from heaven a great storm, with a vast quantity of rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain in the faces of the Canaanites, and so darkened their eyes that their slings and arrows were of no advantage to them; nor would the sharp coldness of the air permit the soldiers to use their swords while the storm did not so seriously incommode the Israelites as it came upon their backs. This account, as to the great rain, is confirmed by the further statement that numbers of the fugitives were drowned in the river Kishon—a stream of no consideration in ordinary weather, but liable to be swollen into a wide and deep flood by heavy rains.

The great Sisera himself, that invincible commander, was among the fugitives, and what is more, he lighted down from his chariot and fled on foot. He might, indeed, have fled more swiftly in his chariot; but the chariot would have been a marked and conspicuous object of pursuit or arrest, and would have exposed him to be recognized, and taken or slain; whereas on foot he might hope to get beyond danger undiscovered. It may remind one of Bonaparte’s quitting his chariot, on the escape from the field of Waterloo, to be taken by the pursuers, while he continued his flight on horseback. Sisera, in his flight, came to the encampment of Heber the Kenite, who was of the descendants of that portion of the family of Jethro which had accompanied the Israelites into Palestine. He had some time before quitted the main body of the tribe, and had settled his camp away northward in this part of the land, still leading the ancient nomad life of his people. Recollecting that there was no hostility between his sovereign and this tribe—but forgetting, as Matthew Henry remarks, “that although they did not themselves suffer from Jabin’s power, they sympathized with God’s Israel that did,”—Sisera bethought him of claiming from this tribe of Arabian habits, the dakheel or protection, which is rarely sought in vain, and which, when once granted, is never dishonored. The chief himself was absent; but his wife Jael, who seems to have known the person of the fugitive warrior, waited not to be asked—she went out to meet him, and invited him into her own tent, the sanctity of which he knew well that no pursuer would dare to violate; for the tent, or part of a tent or house occupied by the women, is, as its very name (harem, sacred) implies, so protected from all intrusion of men by public opinion, that to enter it forcibly or uninvited, would be to inflict such a disgrace and insult upon the whole tribe as to exact undying vengeance and bloodful hatred. Knowing this, Sisera entered with confidence; but to render assurance doubly sure, he asked for drink, not only because he was thirsty, but because he knew that among these people to give a person drink is to give a pledge of protection, even with life, against all danger and wrong. Jael readily granted this favor—she did more than he asked. He asked for water, she gave him sour milk, a drink much used in the East, and very wholesome and refreshing. Fully assured, he then desired to take some rest, which he so much needed, and she covered him up, and left him to sleep. He had desired her to stand by the door, and to answer in the negative in case any one passed by and asked if a man were in the tent. It does not appear that Jael promised to commit an offence held so venial in this “not at home” age; but she certainly left him to infer, that she would do as he desired.

We are strongly inclined to think that, up to this time, the woman had been sincere in her Arab faith, and intended to protect Sisera. But his quiet sleep gave her time to think. She saw the great oppressor of her kindred people lie helpless as a child before her. She began to reflect how easily that strong life might be struck out—even a woman’s arm might do it. Then, what safety to Israel lay in that deed; what glory to herself as the deliverer; what gratitude for so great a service from a people now triumphant, and who would, it might be feared, become full of anger if they even learned, as they were likely to do, that while they had been seeking their great enemy, he had all the while been safely sheltered in the tent of Jael. Strange thoughts wrought in her mind; until at last, to avert the anger of Israel, and to win their favor, became her only thought. The means were not wanting. She seized one of the long nails which fasten the tent cords to the ground, and with this in one hand, and a mallet in the other, she approached the sleeping chief. She applied the point of the nail to his temple—she smote; and, knowing the doom that lay in that stroke, she smote with such force, that the nail passed through, and pinioned his head to the ground.

The deed was done—a deed for ages to wonder at; and soon after, this woman had to invite another man into her tent. This man was Barak himself, who came that way, still in pursuit of Sisera. Without waiting to be asked questions, she said, “Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou seekest.” The conqueror accordingly entered, and there beheld the redoubted warrior, the scourge of Israel, dead, with the nail still in his temples, dishonored by death from a woman’s hand, and happy only in that he died ignorant of that deep disgrace.