Bible History |
Deborah (Cont.) |
She
may have thought about how her neighbors, the
Israelite people would praise her for her bravery, and inevitably spare
her
family. It could go either way, fame or death.
During these days as well, all things connected with setting up the tent were considered the woman’s job. Jael would have been responsible for making, pitching and staking the tents. For this reason, Jael knew how to handle a hammer and as Sisera lay sleeping, she took the hammer in one hand and a tent stake in the other and crept over to him.
“Then
Jael
Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand,
and went
softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it
into the
ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died." (v.
21)
Barak was frantically pursuing Sisera and came upon
Jael’s tent. She came out to meet him and said, “Come, and I
will shew thee
the man whom thou seekest.” (v. 22) It
seems from this verse that
Jael was quite calm when she went out to meet Barak. The Bible doesn't
always
give us the full picture of what's going on in a scene. Was she shaking
and
crying, or cold and uncaring?
We
may never know, but she is a woman, and most
likely fearing for the safety of her family, and I'm sure there was
some
emotion taking place there. When Barak saw the body of Sisera he
remembered the
prophetic words of Deborah, “for the Lord shall sell Sisera
into the hand of
a woman.” (v. 9) Thus, Jael received the
honor that Barak forfeited.
There is one more woman mentioned in Deborah’s song—Sisera’s mother. As the mother of the captain of the host, Sisera’s mother would have been very well off. There is no mention of a wife, so undoubtedly his mother was “the woman in his life.”
She
would have been accustomed to the finest
things life could offer and was surely a luxury-loving and material
minded
woman. She was anticipating all the lovely things her son would be
bringing her
as he defeated his enemy in battle and took freely of the best of the
spoils of
war.
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From
the book, Her Story - A Study on Biblical Women, by Susanna L. Jordan |
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