After taking a look at Deborah and whether or not her role argues for men and women being interchangeable in ministry, we’re back to the story. Deborah tells Barak that because he won’t go without her, the honor of killing Sisera will be given to a woman. Enter Jael and her deadly nails.

Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my Lord , come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.

“I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

“Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say ‘No.’ ”

But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died. (4:18-21)

Lovely. Now let’s think about this…

Sisera is exhausted and thirsty. She meets him and comforts him, offering him a place to rest. He asks for water, but she gives him milk and covers him up.

What is she doing? She’s using her feminine capacity for nurturing and giving life, but she’s doing it in order to kill him. And this is no quick easy murder!

Notice that she doesn’t just kill him – she drives the tent peg (not some little roofing nail. A TENT PEG.) all the way through his head into the ground.

Now, if you flip to chapter five, you’ll find a little song that Deborah and Barak sang about this battle. I’m sure you’ll want to sing it to your children at bedtime tonight.

“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.
At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell-dead.
Through the window peered Sisera’s mother; behind the lattice she cried out,
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’
The wisest of her ladies answer her; indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils: a girl or two for each man,
colorful garments as plunder for Sisera, colorful garments embroidered,
highly embroidered garments for my neck— all this as plunder?’” (5:24-30)

Obviously, this is a glorification of Jael’s violent victory over Sisera. There is another more coarse element to this song, as well. Toward the end of that passage quoted, they begin to mock Sisera’s mother. She’s looking through the window, wondering where her son is. They say that the wisest of her ladies (note the sarcasm there) assures her that they’re just out enjoying the plunder – “boys will be boys.”

Dr. Miller, my OT survey professor from Cedarville, pointed out when teaching this text that the Hebrew text is so coarse that it is not literally translated here in English – the text actually uses body parts to describe the “girl or two for every man.” In other words, ”You think your son is raping and pillaging our women? Guess what – he’ in a woman’s tent, all right… nailed to the ground.” This is not a pretty look at Israel’s culture.

Now, remember our questions to consider as we go through Judges:

*Progress from one story to the next, or what changes take place
We’ve moved from the gross story of Ehud to something much worse. This is a glorification of brutality. And it’s not men inflicting it. It’s the women.

*How does each story make you feel? This book is supposed to evoke an affective response.
It’s not a good take away feeling on my end, that’s for sure!

*How does the treatment of women and the roles they take in each story relate to the main theme?
Deborah is put in a difficult position and pushed to fill a male role. Jael uses her feminine abilities to nurture and give life in order to savagely take life. Bad guy or not, it wasn’t a pretty picture.

I won’t go in depth with personal application on this (again, we’ll fill in the blanks more as we get the picture of Judges put together more), but I do want to point out the applications in the story of Jael.

Women were designed by God with a powerful capacity and ability to give life. Biologically, socially, emotionally… we were intended to be nurturers and caretakers. The more coarse and ungodly a culture becomes, the more women turn into destroyers.

Obviously abortion in my view is a literal murder of our children. In a more subtle and insidious way, we become destroyers as we use our life-giving abilities to control and destroy others. In the study “Five Aspects of Woman,” Barbara Mouser comments on two disturbing accounts: the first is the famous story where two prostitutes come before Solomon disputing whose baby is alive and whose is dead, and Solomon determines the mother by ordering that the live baby be cut in two and divided between the women. While the false mother concedes to this plan, the actual mother steps in and says that she will allow the other woman to have the baby rather than see her child killed. In 2 Kings 6:28 there’s a more shocking story of two women who were fighting over whose children they were going to eat during a famine. She remarks:

“The point is, as people apostatize, their women become increasingly brutalized and brutal. Both of these lawsuits are shocking, but at least in the first case the women are suing to keep the baby. In the second case, the woman is suing toeat the baby. As any people turn away from God, there is a loss of the goodness of human nature; women are treated more and more harshly, and they become more and more harsh. We should note that these women are starving to death; they are in dire straits. We also have heard of women in history who starve themselves to feed their children, not eat their children to feed themselves.” (5A, 156).

A cursory glance at our culture will tell you where we are with this. Women becoming increasingly brutalized and brutal? Turn on the news. We have wandered far from the Leader, and it is taking its toll.