Judges 4 – Study
For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Passage: Jud 4:1-24
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, ‘The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: “Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the River Kishon and give him into your hands.”’
8 Barak said to her, ‘If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.’
9 ‘Certainly I will go with you,’ said Deborah. ‘But because of the course you are taking, the honour will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.’ So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the River Kishon all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, ‘Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?’ So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. 15 At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. 17 Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, ‘Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.’ So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 ‘I’m thirsty,’ he said. ‘Please give me some water.’ She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 ‘Stand in the doorway of the tent,’ he told her. ‘If someone comes and asks you, “Is anyone in there?” say “No.”’
21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
22 Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. ‘Come,’ she said, ‘I will show you the man you’re looking for.’ So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple – dead.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.
A. Find Out:
- How did the cycle start again? v.1-3
- Who was Deborah and what did she do? v.4-7
- How did Barak not fully rise to this? v.8-10
- What subsequently happened? v.12-18
- Why did Sisera go to Jael? v.11,17
- What happened? v.18-24
B. Think:
- What was Deborah’s role? How well did she fulfil it?
- What was Barak’s role? How well did he fulfil it?
- What was Jael’s role? How well did she fulfil it?
C. Comment:
The cycle has started again. A judge dies, Israel fall away, enemy oppression occurs, Israel cry out to the Lord, the Lord provides a solution. This time however the judge is a woman, but she is also a prophetess. She hears from the Lord and calls Barak to lead the people against Sisera, a Canaanite commander who had been oppressing Israel for twenty years! Time moves slowly!
Barak is rather unsure of this. He wants Deborah to go with him to battle but she indicates that this is not the right way in God’s kingdom – the man should take the lead in battle. Nevertheless she agrees to go. The outcome is victory over the enemy. Yet, Sisera manages to escape.
Now we come to an interesting if not gruesome episode. Sisera goes to Jael, who is an Israelite who, although being under the oppression of king Jabin, the Canaanite, had with her husband, managed to diplomatically remain on good terms with the king. Thus Sisera goes to her for rest. This she grants him, but kills him in his sleep.
There is a lesson here. We can be on good terms with our non-Christian neighbours and be caring and friendly but we know that if God’s salvation is to come, they have to die to their old selves. As friendly as we may be, we know that death is essential. Ponder this for it is a vital truth. (Rom 1:16 / Jn 12:24,25 / Rom 6:3-7)
D. Application:
- Are we open and caring to all, without reservation?
- Yet are we aware there can be no new life without death to the old?