Nailed It
Is not My word…like a hammer? Jeremiah 23:29 We’ll get back to King David’s female cast members in a minute, but I want to take a quick detour into the book of Judges--which, for my money, contends with the Book of Joshua for pure blood-per-verse mayhem. We meet quite a few women in this book under jaw-droppingly awful circumstances, but let’s get acquainted with two of its more formidable females: Judge Deborah and a little-known and ostracized Bedouin named Jael. The Backstory Their combined saga kicks off as Judge Deborah gives Barak, her right-hand man, a chance for major glory in a do-or-die battle against Canaanite King Jabin and his famous 900 iron chariots. Surprisingly, Barak won’t budge unless Deborah goes with him. Now, bear in mind, this is a culture where men will BEG the handiest male in sword-swinging range to kill them rather than die by the hand of a woman, so Barak's reaction is pretty off-brand for standard OT heroes here. However, Judge Deborah s...