Chapter 84. Judges 4 and 5. Sisera.
WHEN Ehud was dead, the Israelites again rebelled against God; so soon they forgot all His mercies and their own promises to love and obey Him. God therefore punished them again. He cannot let His people sin, and take no notice, but, like a kind father, must, in love, and for the good of His children, punish and discipline them. Not because He hates them, but for their own good, and to bring them back to Himself.
God let Jabin, the king of Hazor, fight and conquer them. He was a descendant of that king of Hazor whom Joshua destroyed, along with all the Canaanite kings, when they united to fight Israel.
God had then given them a wonderful victory because they counted on Him, but this time, because of their disobedience, He allows Jabin to oppress them mightily for twenty years.
The captain of his army was Sisera, and he had nine hundred chariots of iron. The Israelites, groaning under this oppression, cried unto the Lord, and He, who has promised never in any wise to cast out those who come to Him, heard them and delivered them again.
At that time Israel had for judge, a woman named Deborah, a prophetess who dwelt under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim. There the children of Israel used to come to her for advice. This we know was not as it should be, for God has never put government in woman’s hand but, we remember, He created her for a fit help for man. But Deborah was truly a God-fearing woman, and was used of Him at that time of failure and ruin. When the Israelites cried to God, Deborah, at His command sent for a man, named Barak, who feared God, but had little courage to stand firm for Him, and said to him: Go now to Mount Tabor and take with thee ten thousand men from the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali and fight Sisera, captain of Jabin’s army, which God will draw to the river with his chariots and his multitude, and He will deliver them into thy hand. Then Barak said: If you will go with me, I will go, if you will not, then I will not go, which shows that his faith was in Deborah more than in God Himself. Deborah promised to go, but told him the journey would not be for his honor, for God would deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman. He lost the reward because he lacked faith. God tells us in 1St John 5:44For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. (John 5:4), “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” and again “According to your faith be it unto you.” Matt. 9:2929Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. (Matthew 9:29).
Barak and Deborah went, and soon the Israelites had victory, because God fought with them. Sisera’s army, with its chariots, were soon destroyed and the captain himself fled on foot, and came upon the tent of Jael, Heber’s wife, a descendant of Moses’ father-in-law. When Jael saw Sisera coming, she went out to meet him and said “Turn in, my lord, turn in, fear not.” Sisera came in and lay down and she covered him with a blanket. Then he asked her for a drink and she brought him a bottle of, milk. He drank and lay down again. Then he bade her stand by the door and if any one asked if he were here to say “No.”
Sisera was soon asleep, for he was weary with fighting and running so far, and then Jael went very softly, and took a hammer and a nail and hammered the nail through his temple down into the ground while he slept and killed him. Soon after Barak came, and Jael called him, and showed him his enemy lying dead upon the ground. That same day the rest of the army of Jabin was all destroyed, and the Lord prospered the children of Israel.
Barak and Deborah knew that it was the Lord alone, not themselves at all, nor their soldiers who had gained the victory, and they sang a beautiful song of praise unto Him, confessing also the state of ruin in which Israel was, and the idolatry which had brought the war upon them. Oh! like Deborah, let us give thanks unto the Lord for all He has done for us! For He has gained a greater victory for us than that of Barak. Has He not died “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”? Heb. 2:1414Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14). For this He left His home in heaven and came to this sin-stained earth, became a man and went willingly to the cross, to vanquish that great. enemy of our souls, Satan. And now that it is all done, it is for us to accept it and thank and praise Him for it.
ML 02/25/1912