Read Judges 4-5
Mothers
can amaze us. Good mother’s make us
stand in awe. From Eve as the “mother of
all the living” (Genesis 3:20) and Sarah as “the mother of nations” (Gen 17:16)
to Eunice, the faith-filled mother of Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5) remarkable
mothers are represented throughout the Biblical text. While not all mothers
represent God’s best, the greatest mothers of the Bible are lauded and
praised. The Ten Commandments explicitly
require respect and protection for mothers and fathers. Proverbs repeatedly
warns young people to pay heed to, respect, care for and protect their mothers
and fathers (Proverbs 1:8, 20:30, 23:22, 28:24). Created mothers reflect particular maternal
aspects of our divine Parent. Isaiah
66:13 quotes God saying, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort
you.” The Apostle Paul likens his missionary
presence reflecting the presence of Christ as “gentle among you, like a mother
caring for her little children” (1Thessalonians 2:7).
Mothers
do and provide many things. They conceive,
bear, protect, nurture, feed, raise, confront, guide, discipline and comfort their
children. Proverbs 31 celebrates such women who provide constant attention to
their children, run households and are wives.
There should be wonder and amazement for what mothers can do. From the marvelous gift of being able to
conceive a child, grow that child within her and bear that child in such pain
and suffering, a mother should be lauded and praised all of her life. A good mother’s defensive measures are
extraordinary and have been compared to a lioness defending her offspring. From the story of the mother in Solomon’s
court who was willing to give up her child rather than have him sliced in two
to the mother of Jesus accepting the weighty and marvelous task of bearing the
Savior of the world, outstanding mother’s in Biblical history are models of
humanity, virtue, grace, determination and fantastic strength in the Lord.
While
in some regions women bearing and raising ten or more children is unusual, it can
be incredible to think of women with multiple children. What resources they
must have! Perhaps that is why I stop and gasp when my fingers run over the
phrase “a mother in Israel” in Judges 5:7.
Here indeed was a mother of extraordinary measure whose children were
many thousands, whose wisdom was relied upon, whose guidance was demanded and
whose faith in God was undaunted.
Deborah, a mother in Israel, stands as one of the great women in the
Bible.
Not
only is Deborah a woman of incredible character and strength, she is also an
anomaly. While we have reviewed the positive characteristics of mothers, women
in many times and places have been considered weaker than men. Indeed, many women of the Bible, like Hagar,
were at the will of their societies and not having the protective covering of a
husband or adult sons would have lead to destitution or even death (Genesis 16
and 25, 2 Kings 4, Ruth). But God will show himself strong and faithful to the
weak of any gender. The Apostle Paul
wrote, “But he [Jesus Christ] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the
more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Alex
Varughese wrote that in the story of Deborah and Barak “emphasis is upon God’s
victory through the weak and powerless in the world.”[1]
To
have a woman as a judge in Israel is something entirely anomalous. Indeed, Deborah is the only woman recorded in
Israelite history with such a role. She was a deviation or departure from the
normal or common order, form, or rule. Why
in all the patriarchal history of God’s people does this woman find such a
place in the canon of Scripture? Why was
she not struck from the record? Why was
she not ignored or erased? We may never
have solid answers to these questions.
One fact remains: Deborah was
judge over the house of Israel. Women who
allow themselves to be embraced by the Lord, lean into God’s great counsel and
draw strength from his strength are written into the great history of God
because they did just those things.
Deborah
comes without much personal context. We
know she was the wife of a man named Lappidoth. We do not know if they had
children together. We know where she
lived and worked. We do not know how she
came to live and work in that region. There
is little or no information as to how she became a judge—outside of God drawing
her into this role by his own hand as he had done with all the other judges.
But
Deborah does come with much national context.
We know that she, and all of Israel, lived in a land that was in great
upheaval. This upheaval came from
several different movements in history.
First, Joshua had lead the Israelites faithfully into the Land of
Promise—a land peopled with nations that either knew nothing of the One, True,
Living God or wanted to have little or nothing to do with him. Despite the command of the Lord to push out
and destroy all pagan nations and to tear down every idol, Israel had not done
so. (Judges 2:10-15) Indeed, some had
tried and half-tried to fulfill this command, but an ugly root was left in many
parts of the Promised Land. This root
was watered and nurtured by accommodation and assimilation of pagan religions. This root was the worship of other gods,
lesser gods and false gods and many of these practices had infiltrated
Israelite religion. Some of these religions
included temple prostitution and idol worship.
And the worst of them included sacrificing children in fire to the gods. Unless we are honest with ourselves, we can
be utterly disgusted with this kind of syncretism. But we must be careful to search out our own
lives to see where we have accommodated and assimilated beliefs and practices
that are contrary to the ways of God.
Then, and only then, can we shake our heads at such behavior.
The
second movement in history of this time was the violent movement of secular
nations against Israel. Leaving the old,
black root in this region not only brought on religious strife, it also brought
on military strife. Judges 2:20-3:3
describes very clearly why the Lord permitted this kind of military
strife. God intended to use these
warring, pagan nations to test Israel and see if Israel would keep the
covenant. In addition to this, God used
these nations to train a large band of former slaves to be warriors. These are some examples of how God redeems
our rebellious ways for his future. God
does not waste time or energy in preparing his people, nor does he give up on
them.
After
the death of Joshua civic leadership was a bit choppy. Yes, the priests and Levites functioned as
Moses had established them. But a more
sedentary lifestyle (since they no longer wandered in the desert) brought about
strife of all kinds known to those who dwell together in one place for any
amount of time. It takes no stretch of the imagination to see struggles over
boundary lines, long-running family disputes, inequalities in pay and all the
things that come into play in community and therefore requiring some civic
structure and guidance. While the priests and Levites provided much of this
service, here also is where some of the judges of Israel came in to play. Overall judges in Israel at this time were
not like the judges of today handling issues case by case—although Deborah was
a judge of such actions (see Judges 4:5).[2] Primarily God’s judges in Israel were
individuals filled with his courage to rise up and defend Israel after the
nation had cried out to the Lord for help.
The ways that the various judges displayed their courage ranged from
assassinations to raising up armies and going to battle. The judges of Israel were more God’s chosen
military leaders than they were presiding officials.[3]
And as such, they were chosen by God for a specific times and events, not by
heredity or succession over time. (Judges 2:16-19) They were individuals solely dedicated to God
and his purposes in the midst of military, civil and religious unrest.
In
addition to Deborah being a judge, she
was a prophetess in Israel. Like Samuel, the only other judge who was also a
prophet[4],
she was a spokesperson for God who broke out of the normal boundaries of
society and history to declare God’s truth for a dire situation.[5] She had one source for her wisdom and
strength and that was Jehovah God.
Israel was hanging between the time of slavery and wandering in the
desert and the time of monarchy when its civic and legal systems would be more
fully in place. Israel was a developing
nation full of disparate tribes held together by God’s covenant. They had been chosen and drawn out to become
a blessing to all other nations on earth.
But, they were not yet quite the blessing they were to become. Deborah
was a woman—the judge who was simultaneously leader, judge and prophetess—called
out by God to lead an entire nation to a victory sorely needed. She was called out by God to be part of his movement
to train them as warriors and to see if they would be faithful to him again. John Sawyer also identifies her role as one
to “raise the victory to a theological plane.” (See Judges 5:31)[6]
To
grasp as much as possible from Judges 4-5 it is important to recognize that the
story is told in two different ways.
The first way is through narrative—retelling the story in a typical way
(Chapter 4). The second way is through
poetry (Chapter 5). These two versions
complement one another and provide an usually deep view of the events in Israel
and in relation to three mothers:
Deborah, identified as the “mother in Israel” in the poetic version;
Jael, whose biological motherhood is not substantiated, but one who provides a
kind of maternal comfort and safety, albeit with ulterior motives; and the
mother of the Canaanite commander Sisera, portrayed as longing and looking for
her son while longing and looking for material wealth. These three women are an integral part of
understanding God’s victory for Israel.
All three of these women, in one way or another, reflect attributes of
motherhood and womanhood—one being the superlative example for all.
Sisera’s Mother
Starting
at the last woman first, we see that Sisera’s mother is portrayed in Judges
5:28-30 in this way.
“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?’” (5:28-30)
The
Israelites had crossed over to take the Promised Land. However, they had not completed the work of
eradicating the peoples whom God knew would divert them from his perfect
plan. Robert Alter describes their
situation graphically. “Biblical Israel
was compelled to win a purchase on life in the harshest historical circumstances,
first wresting its inheritance by conquest, then surrounded by hostile peoples,
at the geographical crossroads of great and often ruthless empires.”[7] Of those hostile peoples, the Canaanites were
as ruthless and deeply pagan as any. With
iron chariots as well they were the dominant military and cultural force in
that region.
Viewing
the situation from a Canaanite perspective might be helpful. Powerful countries and people groups can
believe after a time that they are invincible.
And thus did the Canaanites. They
had been established in the Syria-Palestine area since 2000 B.C. and the family
was the core function of society. Polytheism was the mode of religion with
separate gods over geographical regions as well as the foci of detestable
practices that emphasized “the bestial and material in human nature” including
fertility cults and child sacrifice.[8]
Imagine then a mother whose son has risen in the military ranks in such a
nation. The cruelty, resolve and power
of the Canaanite military surely required men of exceptional political and
military might to rise to such a position.
Sisera’s mother could have been held in high regard for bearing and
raising such a son. The imposing
Israelites, fueled by God’s mission to take this land, must have been troubling
to the Canaanites, if not maddening. A
mother of such a warrior might take delight in the downfall, rape and spoils of
an intruding nation.
The
poet of Judges 5 steps into the mind of such a mother. We see her concern. She is hovering at a window sill anxious to
see her son again. This is no different
than any mother in Israel would have done.
But she takes delight that her son’s army would maul these
immigrants. She daydreams about the new
cloth in which she can revel and the future victories of her powerful son. The ancient poet interprets the mother of a
heartless enemy as heartless for all except her own son, his soldiers and
herself. But this heartlessness is
countered by the poet’s unwritten and projected moaning grief she has felt
after hearing of her son’s death. Sisera’s
mother was not a mother in Israel and her suffering must have been greater
because she lost not only her son, but her prized position and wealth.
Then
with jubilant voice, the poet rejoices in the victory over God’s enemies.
“So may all your
enemies perish, O Lord!
But may they who
love you be like the sun
when it rises in
its strength.”
(v. 31)
Jael
"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."
(5:24-27)
Jael,
heroine of this archetypal story, is a fascinating person standing in the
middle. Like Deborah, we do not know if
Jael had any children. We do know she
was a wife to Heber the Kenite. The
Kenites were a tribe from the Midianites who had befriended Moses upon his
escape from Egypt and from whom the wife of Moses came as well as her
influential father, Jethro—also in Numbers 10:29 called Reuel. (See Exodus
2:16-22, 18, Number 24:21-22 and Judges 1:16.)
There was a long-standing relationship between the Kenites and Israel
because of this and Israel’s dominance over the Midianites. In the time of Deborah they dwelled together
in the same region.[9] At
the same time the Kenites had “friendly relations" with Jabin, the Canaanite
king (Judges 4:17). Jael stood at a crossroads because of these tribal relations. It is only through her actions that Jael betrayed
the same view of the Canaanite commander as did Deborah—an enemy to be
defeated.
Nomadic
hospitality, still in existence today, requires the acceptance of anyone as a
guest. So, it is not alarming that Jael
would invite a cruel military leader into her home. Outside of this basic act
of hospitality, we can see something maternal in Jael’s actions. Comparing the narrative and poetic version of
this part of the story brings incredible power and detail to this scene. Judges
4:18 quotes Jael saying, “Come, my lord,
come right in. Don’t be afraid.” There is a level of maternal comfort that
Jael provides in her reassuring him that everything would be alright. The battle had been fierce and final and it
could be easily imagined that news of God’s victory through flooding and
obedient Israelite soldiers (see 4:15-16 and 5:4-22) would have traveled
quickly up and down the region. Jael took advantage of the fact that her tribe
held hands with the Canaanites and the Israelites. This kind of advantage is one that a mother defending
her children might take. Stories of the
actions of mothers during the Holocaust come to mind.
Presuming
upon the principle of hospitality, the broken and beaten Sisera asked for
water. And yet Jael extended to him
other measures of comfort. Robert Alter states that Jael “at once assumes a
maternal role toward her battle-weary guest, tucking him in like a child,
giving him milk rather than the water he requested. In addition to this the poetic version
provides “the implicit ironic contrast between the lethal Jael and the
anxiously waiting mother of Sisera . . . she prudently knows how to soothe, how
to minister, how to kill.”[10]
After
a few moments of kindness Jael drops her defensive charade and seizes her
opportunity. In a swift blow, using
tools with which she was greatly familiar, she smashed the skull of their
oppressor. Beware the mother defending
her children! Like a lioness laying in
wait, she will get her prey.
Deborah
"In the
days of Shamgar son of Anath,
in the days of
Jael, the roads were abandoned;
travelers took
to winding paths.
Village life in
Israel ceased,
ceased until I,
Deborah, arose,
arose a mother
in Israel.
When they chose
new gods,
war came to the
city gates,
and not a shield
or spear was seen
among forty
thousand in Israel.
My heart is with
Israel’s princes,
with the willing
volunteers among the people.
Praise the
Lord!"
(5:6-9)
The
Canaanites had been oppressing Israel for twenty years and finally pressed them
to such a degree that the Israelites again recognized the need for their God to
rescue them. Despite their return to wickedness, the God of Israel heard their
cry. And because of that plea for help
and relief God did many things. He set
nature in motion to bring a flood onto a flood plain, he put an urgency into
the hearts of Israelite soldiers, and in the center of Israel he had already
planted a judge and a prophetess for such a time as this. Deborah arose a
mother in Israel—a mother who protected, nurtured, fed, confronted, guided,
disciplined and comforted God’s people.
We
have already discovered that this mother in Israel provided sound and prudent
judgment for the people. Many from Israel
would travel to the place of the Palm to seek her guidance. They trusted her
help. They recognized her wisdom. Even their military leaders submitted to
God’s command through her.
Deborah
called for Barak and he came. He
traveled fifty miles south of his dwelling to listen to what the Lord had to
say through a woman. She spoke the
Lord’s word to him. “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you:
‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to
Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his
chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”
(4:6-7) That was the word of the Lord, not Deborah’s. The God of all creation elected to speak
through the mouth of a woman, to work through the integrity and character of a
woman, to empower others through the work of a woman to such a degree that she
has been lauded and praised for centuries as a mother in God’s
nation, the nation that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were promised would bring
blessing to the rest of the world.
Barak
submitted to her, not because she was a woman, but because she was the Lord’s
woman—an anomaly, a blip on the map, a righteous person who faithfully
delivered the word of the Lord and guided God’s nation in times of great
duress, great turmoil, great self-imposed suffering. But unlike Sisera’s mother in her greed or
Jael’s maternal deceit, Deborah arose as a premiere mother in Israel. She rebuked Barak—no matter that he was the
commander of thousands. She corrected
Barak—God would have given him the victory, but now another way had to be
taken. She comforted Barak—yes, she
would accompany him. A mother in Israel
spoke the truth however painful it might be.
I
imagine Deborah walking out toward the soldiers, shoulder-to-shoulder with
Barak. I imagine his head lifted high
because a mother in Israel was willing to lead her people. I imagine every beating heart of every one of
the ten thousand soldiers beating stronger and as one because a mother in Israel
believed in their God and in them. Her
presence, the presence of a mother called by God, was representative of God’s
presence with them.
Because
of Deborah’s love for God, because of her obedience and submission to the Most
High, because of her ability to discern and provide leadership when a nation’s
food supplies and homes were threatened, a mother in Israel raised up an army
in the Lord’s Name.
Sisera’s
chariots had thundered onto the dry flood plain as ten thousand of God’s
soldiers massed on the lip of Mount Tabor.
They looked out over that valley teeming with iron chariots and swords
flashing in the sun. Their hearts were
alive with the words of the Lord that the prophetess has spoken. The Lord would give that vast and terrible
army into their hands this day. With horses stamping and muscles tensed and
white knuckles clenched around swords, with sweat covering their faces and
jugular veins popping, they heard these words:
“Go! This is the day the Lord has
given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” (4:14) What a glorious battle cry!
I
imagine Barak repeating those words like thunder down that mountainside and
across the plain. I imagine ten thousand
soldiers running beside raging rivers in the thunder and lightning toward the
enemy that had so oppressed them. I
imagine Deborah standing on the lip of Mount Tabor watching God’s work with her
heart beating with theirs. She could see
and feel the mighty power of God through the storm, she could see the rushing
waters, she could see the chariots mired in the mud and hear the Canaanite
horses screaming and the soldiers crying out as they clawed their
way out only to meet the Israelites at their best because they fought with the
Lord.
Like
any mother who had prepared her children, raised them, confronted them, guided
them Deborah knew that the Lord was their Protector and she sent them out with
the assurance of God’s victory, having every advantage that the Lord would
provide.
Can
you see the iron chariots sinking into the mud?
Can you hear the cries of Israelite warriors gaining the advantage? Can
you smell the water rushing into that valley from every stream, every rivulet,
every river?
“So may all your enemies perish, O Lord!
But may they who
love you be like the sun
when it rises in
its strength.”
(5:31)
This
is the conclusion to the song that Deborah and Barak wrote together. This is the song that Israel sang for another
forty years. Even in this song, a mother in Israel continued her maternal
work—confronting those who refused to fight, comforting those who had
sacrificed their lives, rejoicing with those who had gained the victory, pointing
to the God of all comfort who again provided for them as she knew he would.
Deborah,
an anomaly, a woman of incredible character and strength, a mother in Israel
still stands as one of the great women in the Bible. Her maternal instincts, her character and
integrity shaped by God’s voice working through her life, stands indeed as an
example of what women of the Lord can do when he calls.
Copyright
M.R. Hyde 2012
[1] Discovering the Old Testament, Alex
Varughese, Editor, Beacon Hill Press, 2003, p. 151.
[2] IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament,
Craig Keener, IVP Press, 2000, p.250.
[3]
Beacon Bible Commentary, p. 105 and A
History of Israel, 3rd Edition, Westminster Press, 1981, p. 178.
[4] Ibid.
p.
[5] Prophecy and the Prophets of the Old
Testament, John F. Sawyer, Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 62
[6]
Ibid. p. 66.
[7] The Art of Biblical Poetry, Robert
Alter, Basic Books, 1985.
[8]
The New Bible Dictionary, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 1962, p. 115, 184, 187.
[9] A History of Israel, 3rd
Edition, John Bright, Westminster Press, 1981, p. 127-128.
[10]
Alter, p. 48, 49.
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