Always willing to forgive.Studying the Bible is one of the main sources of our spiritual growth but is also a difficult skill to learn. Always willing to rescue us when we call. Only then do we run to God for help.īut what an amazing God he is. We so easily move forward on our own, thinking we can handle it all, until we run up against something too hard for us. Sound like anyone you know? The story of the wavering of God's people continues even today. But as soon as times got tough, they went running to him for deliverance. When times were good, they easily forgot God and went their own way. The people of Israel during the time of the judges must have worn God to exasperation with their continual wavering. When hope seems dim and the prospect of victory seems close to impossible, God is at work, bringing about his plan. Her Promiseīehind the story of Jael and the death of Sisera is a God who promised never to forget his people and who holds to that promise. Both were decisive and courageous women who helped God's people at a critical moment in history. But by the standards of ancient warfare, both were heroes. Jael's treachery and Deborah's gloating strike us as bloodthirsty, all the more so because we don't usually attribute such behavior to women. In a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk. He asked for water, and she gave him milk Certainly Barak and Deborah approved of her, singing: Or perhaps she merely wanted to curry favor with the Israelites, the day's clear winners. But Jael may have believed in Israel's God. Perhaps ancient ties had no longer seemed expedient, considering the power of the Canaanite rulers. Her husband had made his peace with the Canaanites despite his descent from Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law. She and her husband, Heber, were Kenites, members of a nomadic tribe whose survival depended on its ability to stay clear of local disputes. Was Jael a hero, an opportunist, or merely a treacherous woman? It is difficult to know. Like a piece of canvas fixed in place, Sisera, the great general, lay dead, slain by a woman's hand, just as Deborah had prophesied to Barak. Hadn't she been in charge of the tents all these years? Quickly, she thrust the peg through his temple and into the ground. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' "Īs soon as Sisera fell into an exhausted asleep, Jael picked up a tent peg and hammer. "Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "Please give me some water." Instead Jael opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink. She went out to meet him, surprised to find that Sisera himself was approaching, dirty and bleeding. A soldier fleeing? Was he Israelite or Canaanite? His identity might reveal the way the winds of battle were blowing. The sight of a man running, then stumbling toward her interrupted her thoughts. Had their God, she wonderd, been asleep these many years? Still, she remembered the stories of Moses and the people he had led across the wilderness. Yet the Israelites were poorly armed, with little chance of prevailing. But what good were iron chariots in a flooded valley? she wondered. Jael watched uneasily through the flaps of her tent as clouds swept the blue from the sky and rain fell like a shroud across the horizon. Her sorrow: To be lauded by Deborah and Barak for her part in a decisive victory. Her character: Decisive and courageous, she seized the opportunity to slay an enemy of God's people. Her name means: "A Wild or Mountain Goat"
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