The story of Deborah and Barak. This is another one of my favorite stories because it is about GIRL POWER!
Unfortunately, this chapter starts off like most of all the other chapters, Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So Ehud is dead, 80 years of peace has passed, and Israel has been sold into the hand of Canaan. They were oppressed for 20 years (the number continues to increase, 8 to 18, now 20). Deborah is the judge of Israel at this time and she held court under a palm tree. She calls for Barak and tells him God wants him to go and gather 10,000 men and fight for Israel and God would free them. (Did I mention the enemy had 900 iron chariots?) Yeah that would be important to know because Barak is intimidated by them and refuses to go to battle unless Deborah joins him. She says fine, but that he would receive no honor and a woman would be the one to slay Sisera the leader of the enemy troops. Barak, totally goes along with that. Now, typically in the bible times we see women are subject to men, but this chapter pretty much just blows tradition out of the water. First we have a female prophet and judge, and now we learn a woman will take the victory in this battle. Awesome! I like this chapter because it is a testament that God wants to use women to bring Glory to him and God is not bound by the traditions of man. He has a whole different agenda.
So they go to battle and the bible says God throws the enemy army into chaos. I love when God does stuff like that. He just totally confuses the enemy they start running around and Barak leaves his chariot and flees on foot (not sure why you would do that, but he did) He comes to the tent of Jael (which is a pretty name in my opinion but it means wild goat) Well, being a woman she uses her nurturing comforting ways to invite Sisera into her tent, wraps him up and gives him some warm milk. He falls asleep and while he is sleeping, Jael takes a tent spike and drives it through his temple. Leave it to a woman to make sure the job gets done right. She doesn't just knock out the guy with a tent spike, the bible says she hammered the tent spike through his head to where his head was pinned to the ground with the spike. Just in case you had any doubt after that vivid description, the bible also records and he died. I find this line hilarious. Dude is pinned to the ground with a tent spike through his skull, but just in case I had any doubt, this is an effective way of killing someone because he did die.
Chapter 5 is a song Deborah and Barak sing after victory.
First they recognize God's greatness then they mention Shamgar (remember him from chapter 4, he had one verse dedicated to his deed but now they mention him in a song) Then Deborah mentions how Israel had turned from God then calls for people to testify about God's righteous acts. She talks about the different tribes but then it gets to the good part, in my opinion. The part where they sing an entire verse about Jael and how she crushed Sisera's head and shattered his temple. There he lay at her feet, dead. Then the song reflects what Sisera's mother is thinking and how she is waiting for the sound of chariots. The last few lines is a call for God to destroy His enemies and give strength to those who love Him. Now I am not an expert in biblical songs and poetry, but I would imagine there is much more to this song than I have conveyed in this post. One day I may just have to study biblical songs and poetry, I may gain a whole new understanding of the scriptures.
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