Jael’s Extraordinary Day
Judges 4:17-24
Jael’s life was nothing if not predictable. Living in the low mountains of Eastern Israel, bordering Canaan, among the scorpions and rocks and dust, Jael’s life was difficult at best, and monotonous at worst. Boredom and monotony were her worst enemies, and every day was a struggle to survive. Water had to be drawn; wood had to be gathered for cooking; children had to be cared for and fed; clothes had to be made or mended; cows had to be milked, the chickens fed. The list of chores was endless, and exhausting. Some of you can remember those days. In fact, in spite of technology, most women who raise children still feel this way at times. Going from the first rooster crow until long after the sun sets, there was little time for rest or relaxation. And the few festivals and holidays she did get just meant more work for her and her few neighbors.
And speaking of neighbors, there weren’t any, at least not close ones. It took an hour to get to most of them, and who had the time for that? Children had to be brought along, and that meant more work. No, being a wife of a nomadic tent dweller was no easy life. The days were hot, the nights were cold, and the dryness and dust were never-ending.
This particular day started out like so many others: up before dawn, stoking the fire, getting breakfast ready. Since Heber, her husband, was off with the sheep, it was up to her to do everything. It would be another exhausting, if not ordinary, day.
Ill. Ordinary days are not all bad. They can get mundane, but don’t we like the predictable? On ordinary days, the alarm goes off on time. On ordinary days, the car starts. On ordinary days, the bus is not late, the rain is not too hard, the boss in not too ornery and the phone doesn’t ring with some emergency. Ordinary days may be ordinary, but they are predictable and therefore we find great comfort in them. It’s often when a day becomes abnormal that we really appreciate normalcy.
Read Text – Judges 4:17-24
Jael’s day was going along in an ordinary way – and then in walked, or rather ran, Sisera – and everything changed. What would bring this mighty general to her humble camp? She recognized him instantly, though he was dirty and obviously exhausted. He’s been to her camp numerous times, for her husband had made peace with the Canaanites. For a general, he was practically naked, having shed everything that would hinder him in his running. He would never have come to her camp this way under normal circumstances – but these were obviously not normal circumstances. Sisera was running for his life. He had come to the right place.
Isn’t it interesting how you can be minding your own business on what you think is a typical day, a day like so many others, when it suddenly, through no fault or planning on your own, turns out to be anything but typical?
Ill. Rose Carter was going about her normal day when she stopped to get gas. Just as she hung up the nozzle, a man jumped into her car, started it, and drove off with her five-year-old son in the back seat. Rose sprang into action, leaping forward just as the car sped off. She managed to grab the steering wheel while the thief hit her several times, trying to make her let go. As her legs dragged along the street, she fought the man with such strength that he crashed her car into another store, where the fight continued. When the police arrived a short time later, they found her hitting the man with a low-jack club she kept behind the seat, refusing to let him out of the car. He was begging her to stop. Aside from her skinned knees and a bloody nose, she was unhurt. Rose’s day had become anything but normal – and she wanted her day back. By the way, never mess with a mother bear’s cubs.
Jael realizes that this day will be anything but ordinary. The arrival of Sisera will see to that. Just what does he want, and why has he been running? As he gasps out his story, she begins formulating a plan in her mind. He’s looking for a place to hide, so she offers him refuge in her tent. She motions for him to follow her, and they both go inside. As she is covering him up, he asks for a drink of water. Instead, she opens a skin of milk and, drinking a tumbler full, is soon sleeping soundly, exhausted from all the running. Could it really be this easy? Sisera had been a thorn in the side of Israel for far too long. Today would be the day that comes to an end.
Ill. Opportunity. Have you ever had an opportunity come along and you missed it? Maybe it was a business opportunity; perhaps the chance to do a good deed. Maybe it was to say something encouraging to another person, or to do something anonymously.
"The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because, when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers." Very often, we have to make our own opportunities. Sometimes they just show up.
Jael knows what she’s going to do. It didn’t really cross her mind not to. As soon as she hears that Sisera is sound asleep, she grabs the tent peg and hammer, goes swiftly over to the sleeping general, pulls back the cover, and drives the peg straight through his head. She’s never hit anything so hard in her life. Even if she’d have missed the peg, the hammer would probably have killed him. That wasn’t a problem. It was a clean shot and Sisera never knew what hit him, or that he’d been hit. He hardly even made a sound, just a deep sigh as the air escaped out of him for the last time. She covered him up and waited for the arrival of his pursuers, which she knew would not be too long in coming. She was right. In about ten minutes, Barak and his men showed up, also out of breath and sweaty. She gives them some cool water, allows them to catch their breath, and then to their shock, she tells them that the man they are pursing is in the tent, dead as a hammer. Going inside, the men find Sisera laying there, his eyes in a fixed position, still having a slightly sleepy look about them. Looking at each other, they grin, having been outfoxed not by the mighty general Sisera, but by a nomadic tent dweller, and a woman at that. This was no ordinary day for anyone, it seems.
When God breaks in on an ordinary day, it becomes anything but ordinary – it becomes extraordinary.
1. An ordinary day turns extraordinary when the apostles went fishing – and caught enough fish to sink the ship.
2. A usual day becomes unusual when a little boy’s momma packs his lunch – and it feeds thousands.
3. A typical day turns out to be anything but typical when a woman with a bleeding problem of twelve years touches the hem of a prophet’s robe – and she finds healing.
4. It’s an ordinary prayer meeting when the sound of a mighty rushing wind comes through, and tongues as of fire descend, and the church gets its start.
5. It was an ordinary day on the battlefield, like so many others Sisera had enjoyed, when the rains fell and he found himself running for his life.
6. Jael goes about her normal routine expecting nothing different, when Sisera shows up, and her life changes forever.
God often uses ordinary people going about ordinary days to do some of his greatest work. It may not involve anything as extreme as Jael’s act of revenge, in fact I hope it won’t, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. The key is to be prepared for what God may send your way. How do we do that?
1. We have to be available to be used. God always uses people who are willing to do something for His glory, and for other’s benefit.
2. We need to be watching for opportunities to do something for God.
Ill. A businessman landed in the Dallas Airport and had about an hour and a half before his next flight. He thought, “How can I use this time for the Lord?” He had a supply of gospel tracts with him, so he inserted one of his business cards into each tract and gave these to individual men who were waiting for their planes.
But he didn’t just hand them out and pass on. He said to each man, “Pardon me, I have a little booklet here that explains to a person what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. Inside is my business card. I would like you to read over this information and if you have any questions, I will be sitting over there. I have some time before my flight takes off, or if you would like to write, my mailing address is there and so is my e-mail address.”
At the end of the hour and twenty minutes, men were standing four deep to ask questions about what they had read. For weeks afterward, this businessman received correspondence because of the business cards in the tracts. Why? Because he saw and opportunity and acted upon it.
Jael saw the chance to do something for God and her people. She took decisive action, and it set Israel on the road to ridding themselves of the Canaanites (vs. 23-24).
3. Don’t be surprised when something unusual comes your way. It may just be the opportunity you’ve been looking for.
4. Don’t think it has to be something big. Many extraordinary things appear to be very ordinary. That little boy had eaten many lunches just like this one – but on this day it did much more. Those fishermen had cast many nets that caught fish – but none at the instruction of a carpenter from Nazareth. A tent peg and a hammer appear to be quite ordinary, but they became the tools that liberated a people.
God specializes in taking the ordinary and making something extraordinary happen.
On an ordinary day, an extraordinary carpenter form Nazareth was crucified on an ordinary cross, hanged between two ordinary thieves, and placed in an ordinary tomb. It was anything but ordinary. The Son of God had come down to earth to die on that ordinary cross, and three days later, He did something that was anything but ordinary – He came forth out of that tomb. And one day soon, He is going to come back for His church with a mighty shout, and the sound of the trumpet, and it will be an extraordinary day. He will take all of us ordinary people to that extraordinary place He has prepared for us, and we will be with Him forever.
Will you be ready for that extraordinary day?
