Judges 4: 1 – 24
You Get The Point?
1 When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim. 3 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel. 4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6 Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; 7 and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?” 8 And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!” 9 So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; he went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him. 11 Now Heber the Kenite, of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zaanaim, which is beside Kedesh. 12 And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. 13 So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon. 14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. 15 And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left. 17 However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.” And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket. 19 Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’” 21 Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. 22 And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple. 23 So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel. 24 And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
Here is something to write down for future reference. One of the major thing’s for us to learn from this book is that of our human sinfulness. Having been blessed by our Holy God, we all have the tendency to take Him for granted. We then slip away from our relationship with Him and fall into all kinds of sin, the principal one being idolatry. After facing the consequences of sin, like we do today, the people that we read about here in the book of Judges, cry out to our Merciful King for help. He would respond to their pleas and rise up a deliver who is listed as a ‘Judge’. After deliverance there would be a period of peace, usually during the lifetime of the particular deliver, and then the people would again turn away from the Lord and the process would repeat itself.
Our Holy Majestic Sovereign allowed His people to settle into the land that He had promised Abraham. As you will see they were not obedient in fulfilling His orders to take all the land assigned to them. In the book of Exodus chapter 23 we read of our Lord’s Promise to help the people drive out the inhabitants of the land, “And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
They allowed the people of Canaan to live alongside of them instead of obeying the orders to destroy everyone. Because they failed in this requirement, these same people who should have been destroyed, multiplied until they were strong enough to rise up and cause all kind of havoc. Our Lord had warned them how this would happen in the book of Numbers chapter 33, “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.
Although every tribe was independent. Their instructions was that if any other tribe needed military assistance then they were to respond. To refuse this call to arms was considered a grave breach in their mutual pact.
The conquest of Canaan was not to be an easy chore. Have you ever considered why our Holy God did not just wipe all the Canaanite out Himself and allow the Israelites to take over their land and homes. In the book of Exodus chapter 23 we learn why, “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. 22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. 24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars. 25 “So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. 26 No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 “I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. 31 And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. 32 You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
In our last study we read about the lefty who delivered the Israelites from the Eglon, king of the Moabites. However, in the course of life he died.
1 When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.
During Ehud’s lifetime the citizens of Israel were obedient. They sinned of course, but they were obedient to offer the appropriate sacrifices and offerings. For the words that are listed in verse one describes how they stopped doing what was right - ‘1 When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.’ They fell back into their natural sinful natures.
The fulfilling of sinful pleasures always comes with a cost that will have to be paid. Our sins not only will do us harm but they will cause harm to others. Our Holy Maker has given us all ‘consciences’ that helps us understand what things are right or wrong. When we ignore the warnings and sin against our Holy Father whether it be by our thoughts, words, or actions, then we will be disciplined. He doesn’t let us get away with anything. He doesn’t just say that He will just overlook this one sin. No, each one is noticed and dealt with. Why can’t we learn this truth and save ourselves a lot of pain?
2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim. 3 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel.
We like to sin but we do not like the consequences. Usually, we forget that we are selling ourselves to slavery. Do you know anyone who has an addiction problem? Well, if you have ever walked in their shoes, you would know that the deceitfulness of the addiction causes a person to forget all the problems that the addiction caused. They have a tendency to remember the ‘good times’ and forget the times they called out to Earl over the porcelain thrones. [Think about this one for a moment].
If you go back and look at the book of Joshua chapter 11 you will find out that the Israelites destroyed the city of Hazor and its king who also was called Jabin. Apparently, some of the escapees came back and rebuilt the city and repopulated it also. Their military general was a guy named Sisera.
Now please notice that we read about the significance of Sisera having chariots. This caused the Israelites to fear these people. They had gotten too soft and forgot their history. Let us take a look at chapter 11 of Josuha to see why they should not have been afraid, “1 And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor heard these things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, 2 and to the kings who were from the north, in the mountains, in the plain south of Chinneroth, in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor on the west, 3 to the Canaanites in the east and in the west, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite in the mountains, and the Hivite below Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 4 So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. 5 And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.6 But the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.” 7 So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and they attacked them. 8 And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who defeated them and chased them to Greater Sidon, to the Brook Misrephoth, and to the Valley of Mizpah eastward; they attacked them until they left none of them remaining. 9 So Joshua did to them as the LORD had told him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire. 10 Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor, and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms. 11 And they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was none left breathing. Then he burned Hazor with fire. 12 So all the cities of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua took and struck with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. 13 But as for the cities that stood on their mounds, Israel burned none of them, except Hazor only, which Joshua burned. 14 And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the children of Israel took as booty for themselves; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they left none breathing. 15 As the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses.”
Joshua faced a whole confederacy of city states come against him and the Jewish people. They had chariots that could not even be numbered. Yet, Joshua who was an obedient warrior of the Lord wiped them all out.
So, we see now that because of the Israelites sins they were sold into the hand of Jabin and became his servants. Please notice the mention in verse 3 – ‘and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel.’ For 20 years the people underwent heavy task work and ridiculous taxes.
Why did this involve 20 years? I believe the answer to this question lies in verse 3 – ‘3 And the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.’ I think because of their stubborn refusal to repent and seek God’s Mercy, they held out for 20 years of this oppression. Finally being sick and tired of being sick and tired they humbled themselves and cried out to the Only One Who could rescue them. Is any of this information convicting you. If so, then quit fighting a winless battle, repent, and cry out to the Sovereign Lord God. He will not refuse your petition.
After 20 years of oppressive lives the Israelites finally had enough pain and turned to the One True God for help. When we are facing our own battles let us learn from this biblical truth. We need to turn to God first and quickly in order to be delivered from our wrong choices. We need to see from this lesson that the Israelites choose to go their own paths and plans to deal with the slavery that they got themselves into. We do the same thing as they did. We try to control our own lives without God’s help. Let this truth also sink in. You will never scheme you way out of a mess. You will only get yourself into deeper trouble.
Now, we find a unique situation here. Our Holy Master now raises up a woman to be the judge of the Israelites. Please notice that she will not be the ‘deliverer’ but serves as a ‘Judge’.
4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
This lady was anointed by the Lord to give proper counsel. The people recognized this God given gift and came to her for judgments in local disputes. You can see her power and influence in the next verse because she calls to her the leading military man – Barak.
6 Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; 7 and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?”
Barak’s name means ‘lighting’. Our Great God Is at work in this matter for if you do a little research you find that the god whom the people of Hazor worship is Baal, the god of lighting. Barak came from the land of Naphtali, which just so happens that Hazor was one of the cities that was allotted to this tribe. Barak would be our Jehovah Elyon’s – The Lord Most High’s Lighting bolt to wipe out Hazor again.
There is more information listed in which we can draw out some great facts relative to the war plan - 6 Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; 7 and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?”
Mount Tabor is a mountain rising from the plain of Jezreel to a height of 1900 feet. . It is a steep slope rise where the Israelites would be safe from the chariots.
Barak was hesitant in going. He recognized that Deborah was God’s anointed yet being a warrior he was not comfortable with the military plans. He felt that if Deborah went along with him that other Israeli fighters would recognize that this military campaign was not his call but came from the nation’s leader Deborah.
8 And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!” 9 So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; he went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him.
Please notice the important statement in verse 9 – Yahweh will sell Sisera.’ Our Father God Is in complete control of the situation. He would do to Sisera what this man had done to the children of God. Sisera would be sold off in this case to a woman not a warrior.
11 Now Heber the Kenite, of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zaanaim, which is beside Kedesh.
Our Precious Holy Spirit now gives us a little hint of things to come by informing us of Heber. These nomadic people moved about different areas and to a large degree were ignored by all the encamped residents of areas. They didn’t cause anyone one nation to be concerned of warlike trouble from Heber’s company.
12 And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. 13 So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon.
Word got out that the Jews were ready to rebel so Sisera gathered his whole military force in order to wipe out these upstarts.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.
Sisera thought that they were the attacking force of great military might. They never expected an attack. They thought the Israelites were hiding out in the mountains being afraid to face off with such a military threat.
Please notice the statement of Deborah’s - Has not the LORD gone out before you?” You might be thinking to yourself, ‘so what is your point?’
We read in the next verse this;
15 And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot.
You see if we just opened our bibles and just read this chapter, we would be missing out some important information. Deborah informed Barak that the Lord has gone out before him and his fighting men? In what way did our Heavenly Commander go out before the Jewish army? You see He helped the Israelites by causing torrential rain to fall which would cause the Kishon river to overflow and the chariots would be stuck in the mud. This is why Sisera has to get off his chariot and flee. We read this information in chapter 5 of the book of Judges when Deborah puts together a worship song of the Lord’s battle.
“ 1 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying: 2 “When leaders lead in Israel, when the people willingly offer themselves, bless the LORD! 3 “Hear, O kings! Give ear, O princes! I, even I, will sing to the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel. 4 “ LORD, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens poured, the clouds also poured water; 5 The mountains gushed before the LORD, this Sinai, before the LORD God of Israel.
20 They fought from the heavens; The stars from their courses fought against Sisera. 21 The torrent of Kishon swept them away, that ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon. O my soul, march on in strength!
16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.
Bogged down by the mud and their heavy armament the soldiers stripped themselves of all weight and fled. They Israelites not encumbered by any heavy baggage caught up to these fleeing soldiers and killed them.
Now we come to an interesting part of the story that needs to be listed and then we will see possibly why this went down like this.
17 However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.” And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket. 19 Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’” 21 Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. 22 And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple. 23 So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel. 24 And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
A point to take into serious consideration is that women in this time of existence did not freely interact with men. So, with this thought in mind then why did the wife of Heber come out and invite another man into her husbands tent? In all reality she could have been killed by her husband for doing such an act.
Notice how she goes out to specifically seek Sisera. She knew the man. Was she an adulteress?
I believe that this man Sisera had done something improper to Jael. As a General and big man in that area he could have just taken her and lay with her. I think the reason she took such drastic actions against him leans toward this assumption. After all she could have just given him some milk and called the pursuing Israelites to come and get him sleeping in her tent. No, she wanted revenge on this guy. I think he got the point.
