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 says “Okay. I’ll go, but it means God will win this battle through a woman.” This threat doesn’t faze Barak, so Deborah leads the charge and God summons an out-of-season flood that neutralizes the aforementioned iron chariots. Barak & Co perform a mop-up operation to wipe out the enemy.

As the routs winds down, King Jabin’s General Sisera runs off, leaving his defeated army to fend for themselves. (The whole fascinating battle story is found in Judges 4.) On his zigzag way back to his own hometown, he passes the campside of an old buddy, lHeber the Kenite, who just happens to have a treaty with Sisera's boss, King Jabin. We get the feeling this traitor's tent flap is always open to this enemy of Israel. And we get the feeling that the little woman doesn't care for that arrangement. 

Enter Jael

My oh, my....who’s that lurking outside the tent? Why it’s our heroine! Jael, Heber's wife, is one very smart, apparently very angry Kenite woman whose name translates to “Wild Goat,” which should tell you quite a bit about her personality.

The master of the house isn’t home, but Jael flags Sisera down and sweet-talks him into *her* tent for a snack and a snooze. When he asks for a drink of water--slaying Israelites can really work up a thirst--Jael gives him a fancy bowl of sleep-inducing, ultra-creamy milk and tucks him in.

Here’s how the Bible tells it:
Then the Lord threw the enemy into a panic, both the soldiers and the charioteers, and Sisera leaped from his chariot and escaped on foot. Barak and his men chased the enemy and the chariots as far as Harosheth-hagoiim, until all of Sisera’s army was destroyed; not one man was left alive. Meanwhile, Sisera had escaped to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was a mutual-assistance agreement between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber.

Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come into my tent, sir. You will be safe here in our protection. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

“Please give me some water,” he said, “for I am very thirsty.” So she gave him some milk and covered him again.

“Stand in the door of the tent,” he told her, “and if anyone comes by, looking for me, tell them that no one is here.”

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Once he’s snoring away, Jael briskly fetches a tent peg and a hammer and drives home her point—through his noggin, right into the ground.
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Then Jael took a sharp tent peg and a hammer and, quietly creeping up to him as he slept, she drove the peg through his temples and into the ground; and so he died, for he was fast asleep from weariness.

When Barak came by looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said, “Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” So he followed her into the tent and found Sisera lying there dead, with the tent peg through his temples. (Judges 4:18-22)
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It is at this point that Barak must have smacked his forehead and thought, ‘Dang it, Deborah was right! Again!”
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Scripture gives us another perspective on Jael’s triumph when Judge Deborah gives her quite the shout-out in one of Scripture’s oldest and most glorious victory songs:

“Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite;
Blessed is she among women in tents.
He asked for water, she gave milk; she brought out cream in a lordly bowl.
She stretched her hand to the tent peg, her right hand to the workmen’s hammer;
She pounded Sisera, she pierced his head,
She split and struck through his temple.
At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he sank, he fell;
Where he sank, there he fell dead.

(Judges 5: 24-27)

|| How does Jael teach us to fight like a girl? ||

Deborah celebrated her tent-dwelling sister for her courage and quick-wittedness in dispatching an enemy—a wonderful lesson on cheerleading for other women but that’s another topic for another day. Let’s look at Jael’s gruesome victory and see how it applies to our lives today.  You'll notice Jael had no hesitation in doing what she knew was right; this desperate, determined woman weaponized something she had at her fingertips. 

Here are a few “tips and hacks” we can learn from this wild-hearted woman.

*Know How to Wield Your Weapon* Jael reached for a tent peg and a hammer, tools that were part of her daily work and ones she knew how to use. Make sure you have a good working knowledge of key Scripture with which to dispatch any sins seeking refuge in your life. Those sweet little Sunday School verses can become lethal to the enemy of our souls when applied with zeal.    

*Show No Mercy* Jael didn’t flinch and she didn’t wait for Hubby to come home. Recent scholarship hints that Jael’s action might have been fueled by revenge; there is something suggestive and unsavory in Deborah’s song. Whatever Jael’s motive, she sprang into decisive, irreversible action.

*Just Do It.* Have you ever given lip-service to fighting temptation or engaging in spiritual warfare, only to keep it pretty much in the theory realm? Be a Jael…when sin comes knocking at your tent door, for your soul’s sake, cut to the chase and drive the two-edged spike of the Word through those evil thoughts and intentions that are looking for a resting place in your mind.

*It’s Hammer Time for Frenemies*

Sisera was a familiar man in Jael’s lonely life…perhaps too familiar. He represents the comfortable, we're-all-pals-here sin that makes itself to home in your life. Take a closer look at the things have you invited into your life. Reach for that tent peg, sister…it’s hammer time for those cozy, coddled sins you now realize are an embedded enemy. Nail it.

Scriptural Tent Pegs to Keep Handy

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10: 3-5

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12