The tools of deliverance

Jael invited a killer into her home and delivered a nation from his terror. The story is an odd one. Take a look at Judges 4 for the complete text.

Sisnera was a powerful army commander, ruthless in his attacks on the nation of Israel and equally brutal in his misuse of women. He was fleeing from a battle gone bad (which speaks of his courage in battle, by the way), when Jael invites him into her home. He eagerly responds.

Although Sisnera generally used women for his own pleasure, this time he intends to use this woman for his own rest. He asks for water to drink and a place to sleep. She gives him milk, covers him with a blanket, comforts him like a mother might tuck in her child.

While he sleeps like a baby, Jael takes up the tools of the home – a hammer and tent peg – and drives the peg through his temple, killing him instantly. The image is horribly jarring. The Judges text lulls us with the nurturing images and then turns it into a shocking death. Jael is praised by Israel as blessed, honored as one of the mothers of the nation for her courageous act.

Who would think the tools of the home and the care of a mother would destroy the oppression of a nation?

And yet…. Perhaps it is so yet today. We watch the breakdown of the traditional family today. We know something of the statistics. Broken families are the norm. Divorce is common. Unmarried parents are familiar. Where once children were raised by their family – parents, grandparents, aunt and uncles – today they are raised by their peers.

We know the consequences: depression, drug use, anger, alcoholism.

The women of Jael’s day were responsible for their tent-homes. It was the women who tore down the tent and put it back up. They used the hammer and tent pegs all the time. Jael didn’t use anything unfamiliar in defeating Sisnera.

She identified Sisnera as the oppressor of her nation and she used what she knew to defeat him. Her home and her bravery were the keys to freeing a nation.

What is the Sisnera of our day, dominating our people? How can we show the courage of Jael to spring our people free? The pieces are in place. We must be on the alert. A simple mother delivered a nation. Hope springs from tyranny.

Most blessed of women be Jael,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.

Judges 5:24