If you want to read through the Bible, on your own, with others, or even your own family, please heed this advice: Do not start with our passage from this morning. Don’t start with Judges period. It’s a violent book full of betrayal, war, murder (as we just read), and so much more.
So why is a book like Judges in the Bible? Well, like everything else in scripture, we learn about God’s character. We learn about what God values. What weighs on God’s heart. How God is at work even when God’s people prove themselves unfaithful. We learn about God through the stories and events in Judges and all other books of the Bible because we see how God chooses to show up during a specific time in history. This then informs how we look for God at work today.
If I could summarize the pattern of Judges it would be this: Israel turns their backs on God and as a result, ends up being oppressed by the surrounding Cannanites for a few decades. Then God hears Israel’s cry for deliverance and God does just that. Israel lives in peace for a few decades but then they turn away from God again. And the vicious cycle continues. In the midst of it all a lot of people die. Israelites and non-Israelites alike.
During the time in which Judges is set, there wasn’t one group or person who led and unified all of Israel. But they did have judges.
A judge from the book of Judges is different from what a judge does today. Judges today decide if someone has broken a law and ultimately decides the consequences for those who did. However, the Israelite judges were more like tribal leaders who looked to resolve conflicts within the Israelite community or between the Israelites and other nations, namely the Canaanites. When the latter happened, the Judges became more like military leaders when it came to conflict between Israel and other nations.
Deborah is remembered as the most noble of judges. She meets with individuals under a palm tree that is named after her. This is so she can meet with men who sought her wisdom in public rather than in private as women back then could not be alone with another man unless they were married or related. Speaking of husbands, while our translation this morning describes Deborah as the wife of Lappidoth, others make a compelling argument that this should instead be translated as “Deborah of Lappidoth” instead of “wife of Lappidoth.” Lappidoth translates to “of flame” or “of torches.” Furthermore, Lappidoth is not found as a name in other ancient writings, which is why many scholars read this verse as “Deborah of fire or of flame.” In addition to being a wise and trustworthy leader, Deborah is also described as a prophetess.
So valued is Deborah as a leader and vessel for God’s wisdom that Barak will not go into battle without her by his side. Even though Deborah tells him he’s been called by God to lead an army to defeat the Canaanites who have oppressed the Israelites for 20 years. This Canaanite army is led by the general Sisera, who is a bad dude. We learn later in chapter 5 that he has terrorized, conquered, and plundered many Israelite communities. More on that later.
Because Barak will only go into battle if Deborah accompanies him, Deborah predicts that a woman, not Barak, will ultimately defeat General Sisera. Assured of his masculinity this doesn’t deter Barak from wanting Deborah at his side during combat. This shows how well respected and valued Deborah is by her people if a general like Barak wants her with him in battle.
God then throws Sisera and his army into a panic before Barak, Deborah, and their soldiers even reach them. When it’s clear he has lost, Sisera flees his chariot to what he thinks is safety at the tent of Jael. Jael is a Kenite. While she is married to someone who comes from the line of Moses’ father-in-law one can’t really call her a true Israelite. She’s an outsider, which makes her like Rahab. Once again God uses an outsider to save his people.
Sisera violates all sorts of social norms with Jael. He should not have entered her tent without her husband present. Remember this is why Deborah advised men in public. Sisera also puts Jael in danger by asking her to lie on his behalf, making her a target for the Israelites who are currently hunting him. Jael is in danger. She is asked to lie and there’s a good argument that Sisera will do to Jael what he has done to other women of nations he’s conquered. In chapter 5, in a song written by Deborah, Sisera’s own mother wonders where he is and wonders when he will bring home spoils from his latest conquest, including young women and girls, “perhaps even two girls for every man.” See what I mean when I say that Sisera was not a good Dude?
Jael shows wisdom and courage by doing what she can within her power to take down Sisera, who in this story personifies evil as he has oppressed God’s people for so long. She goes to meet him outside her tent and welcomes him inside. She tells him not to worry and feigns hospitality. He asks for water, but she kindly gives him something better: milk. He then starts ordering her around as if she was one of his servants. While she cleverly agrees to do his bidding she also puts a nail through his temple when he falls asleep and he dies.
What can we learn from this story about how God is at work today? Before we answer that question, we need to first ask: Do we learn from the story of Deborah and Jael that God condones violence? Does God condone the murder of our enemies? Is God okay with women putting themselves in harm’s way to achieve God’s justice?
I found this quote from a video about Judges made by the Bible Project, extremely helpful in answering such tough questions:
The empowerment of God’s Holy Spirit does not always endorse Human action.
To bring about good, God works through who and what is available. Let’s start with the “who.” The people God uses are faithful to God even if they don’t fit the picture of faithfulness. God worked through one of the most noble judges of Israel, who was a woman in a world where men held all of the power. When one thinks of strong leaders in the Old Testament a man tends to come to mind because it was usually a man. Yet Deborah is the most faithful and noble of all the Judges Israel ever had. The men who served as Judges after Deborah turned out to be disastrous. Rahab and Jael also fit this description. They were not Israelites. They were outsiders. Yet God used them because they were willing to follow God’s call.
Now to the “what.” God works through cultures to bring about God’s goodness even if that culture does not reflect God’s goodness. In this case, God worked in a culture of war and violence. It was also a culture where women had no power, but it’s at the hands of a woman that the oppressor was stopped. For good.
The next lesson we can draw from our passage about how God is at work in the world is that God is always on the side of the oppressed, the weak, and the suffering. God stands with those who are poor, lacking resources, and who are treated unfairly. Oppression exists wherever people are denied fair treatment and the ability to live with dignity. God is for those who can’t truly be themselves because they struggle to meet even their most basic needs – needs they may feel unworthy of due to a lifetime of injustice. God doesn’t want this for anyone.
This is why Deborah later describes Jael as “blessed among women.” Not exactly a title you’d expect for someone who just killed someone. But Jael is called blessed because she is in line with God’s will to stop the oppressors. Even though she wasn’t an Israelite herself and she could’ve aligned herself with Sisera as he already saw her as an ally, she knew his true intentions and wanted him stopped.
Can you think of another woman in scripture who is called “blessed among women?” I’ll give you a hint. She’s the mother of Jesus. Mary is called by Elizabeth “blessed among women” no doubt referencing Jael. Just as Jael laid the final blow to free Israel from oppression, Jesus would be the final deliverer of the oppressed.
Our call to worship is from the Magnificat, the song Mary sings after Elizabeth calls her “blessed among women.” Her words describe what God has already done and will continue to do through Jesus:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their
thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
God lifts up the lowly and feeds the hungry. While this passage from Judges shows God is for the oppressed does is also show that God is for violence?
Let’s take a look at the quote from your bulletin:
“The book of Judges is not a commendation of violence but rather a condemnation of it.
It reminds its readers that when God’s righteousness, justice, and peace are not established for all,
then violence is the natural result.” – J. Clinton McCann
Again, the oppressed are the poor, those lacking resources and those who are not treated fairly. When this happens people get angry. People rise up for themselves. This is where the violence comes in. Violence isn’t a part of God’s plan, but this is what people do when they are tired of the oppression.
God doesn’t want anyone to be oppressed because of what oppression does to one’s psyche. They resort to fighting for their lives. God doesn’t want anyone to have to fight for the right to live.
God wants all people to live full, whole, and free lives. To live without the threat of death, starvation, or under the idea that you’re seen as “less than” because of your gender, race, sexual identity so on and so forth. God wants us all to live whole lives. This is why those who oppress others are never in line with God even if they profess to follow God.
In Jesus’ ministry, he heavily criticized those who were Israel’s spiritual leaders because they weren’t living into their call. They were supposed to care and advocate for those who God entrusted into their care. Instead, the Pharisees and others were more interested in siding with the Roman Empire to ensure their power and status were protected. Even if it came at the expense of the well-being of the very people for whom God called them to be advocates. They professed to follow God, but their lack of care for those God put in their care says otherwise.
It’s easy to become a Pharisee. Just as the Pharisees were more concerned about themselves than anyone else, we too, can fall into that trap. The focus on self can also infiltrate our walk with God. We become so concerned with how Jesus loves us that we forget Jesus also loves others. And what breaks God’s heart is when anyone, not just us, is suffering.
There’s a great scene from the Sound of Music. If you haven’t seen one of the best movies ever made, it’s set during WW2 in Austria. It’s about the Von Trapp family and how music brings them together and gives them hope during a dark time in history. In one scene the Baron Von Trapp and his close friend, Max, discuss their thoughts on the growing power and tyranny of the Nazis over all of Europe. At one point, Max says flippantly, “Who cares what’s happening to other people as long as it’s not happening to you?” To which the Baron VonTrapp shoots back: “You should care. We all should.”
As Christians, it’s easy to fall into that same line of thinking. “As long as Jesus provides for me and my family that’s all that matters. The pain and suffering of others…that’s Jesus’ problem – not mine.” This is the opposite of what Jesus said and did and what Jesus calls us to do now. Jesus says in Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you do for the least of these you have also done to me.”
Jesus wants each one of us to serve and advocate on behalf of the “least of these.”
What are we doing within our power, like Jael, to bring about God’s justice in our own little corner of the world?
Perhaps you have the financial power to help agencies whose funding has been cut off or limited and can no longer help those in need among us. Perhaps you have the power of time and energy to do more volunteer work with local mission partners like Love in Action who do what they do because they take Jesus’ call to care for the widow, the poor, and the orphan. Are we willing to risk a hard conversation by opening the bible and pointing out what Jesus really said rather than how his words are twisted on social media, and by pundits, and politicians?
As Christ’s dearly loved children, we have a responsibility because we are called – called by God to care for and serve the least of these. God’s love for God’s people never wavers, a truth we see throughout the Bible. Likewise, His call for us to serve and care for the least among us remains steadfast, echoed throughout Scripture.
