Strong Women of the Bible: Jael (5/6) - H

Hello beautiful people and welcome to my series, Strong Women of the Bible! In reading through the Bible, have you ever thought, "Okay, but where are the women??" Well, my friends, over the next few weeks I will be bringing to your attention six underappreciated women of the Old Testament! This week's focus is Jael. Weeks of research and many resources have gone into this series, with remarkable results. I can't wait to share them with you! So let's begin, shall we? 😁

Jael: The Unsung Heroine

Judges 4

As soon as God gave me the idea for this series, I knew Jael was going to be a part of it. I remember learning about her in high school, and I was just flabbergasted by her story! Talk about a strong woman! However, when I revisited her story to prepare for this post, I discovered that there was a whole lot more to Jael's story than I first thought! Hold tight, and we'll get into it!

Jael's story is in close conjunction with Deborah's, who I talked about in my last post. I'd definitely recommend checking out that post--some really powerful stuff! But just to recap: the Israelites are in the process of claiming the Promised Land, Canaan. However, the original inhabitants of Canaan aren't too happy about that, so for a long time things have been tense between the two sides. Jabin, the king of Canaan, sent his army led by a pretty scary dude, Sisera, to go pick a fight with the Israelites. Through Deborah, a woman judge, God called Barak to gather an army of Israelites to fight back against Sisera's army. When we last left our heroes, they were conquering Sisera's army.

When Sisera realized he was losing, he actually got scared and ran away! (I think this story is riddled with irony, one example being the role reversal of the male-female stereotypes: Sisera was the scaredy-cat, while Jael is the brave one! But I'm getting ahead of myself. 😜) Sisera ran up into the nearby hills because he knew Barak would hunt him down and kill him for sure. So Sissy Sisera figured he could try his luck hiding with the Kenites.

Wait a second. Who the heck are the Kenites? I asked myself the same question, my friends, and not to worry!--I have the answer. The Kenites were a nomadic tribe of people that lived all around the Levant, which is basically the combined area of Israel, Palestine, and Syria. (For those Bible trivia people, Moses's wife Zipporah was a Kenite, and he stayed with them when he ran away from Egypt the first time.) The Canaanite king Jabin didn't bother the Kenites much because they mostly kept to themselves; for this reason, Sisera figured he could seek refuge among their camp. He assumed they would be friendly to him. Little did he know . . .

A little backstory on Jael: the Bible doesn't tell us too much, but we do know she was the wife of Heber, the leader of the Kenites. The Kenites did believe in God (though they called Him Yahweh), and much of their spiritual philosophy is believed to be closely related to the Hebrews'. Historians aren't exactly sure who influenced who, but suffice it to say the Kenites were definitely a God-fearing people.

I'd just like to take a moment to point out once again that God does not discriminate. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Within this series, there have been Hebrew women (Leah, Deborah), but there have also been plenty of "Gentiles" (Hagar, Rahab, and now Jael). People, this just goes to show that, along with gender, God don't care where you come from!! He doesn't care what your skin color is or what your background is--He just cares about what's in your heart. That is so important to remember when interpreting His Word!!! (And when interacting with the people in your life!)

Okay, now let's get back to the story. So Sisera has entered the sleeping camp of the Kenites. It's not really clear why Sisera picked Jael's tent to hide in. Personally I doubt he realized it was Jael's tent at the time. He was probably pretty freaked out and just picked the most convenient place to hide. Clearly it was a God-thing, because we will soon see Jael played a vital role in the claiming of the Promised Land.

Jael is welcoming to Sisera at first. I don't doubt she knew who he was; they were not camped far from the battlefield, most likely to keep tabs on which side came out on top, and Sisera's iron-clad chariot army were infamous all across the land. If nothing else, she could probably tell he was from the Canaanite army because of his armor. Despite this fact, she still welcomed him into her tent and gave him milk and a blanket. Her exact motivations in doing so are not explicitly stated, but I choose to believe that she realized the Israelite army had won, and Sisera was fleeing the defeat. She probably hoped to delay Sisera long enough for Barak to catch up to deal him justice. If she had known about Deborah's prediction in verse 9, she may have thought differently . . .

"But because of the course you [Barak] are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman." Judges 4:9 NIV

However, I think Jael's mindset started to change when Sisera asked her to lie for him. He said, "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone in there?' say 'No.'" (v. 20). Certainly Jael was aware that lying was wrong. At this point I imagine she's putting the puzzle pieces together. She must have realized who this man was, as well as his motivations in fleeing the fight and the evil he had done as the commander of the Canaanite army under King Jabin. Though it's not strictly mentioned, I believe God gave Jael a sort of divine warrant for what needed to be done.

Sisera falls asleep, and time goes by. Still no Israelites are coming to deal justice to the Canaanite general. At this point Jael must be getting nervous. She can feel God encouraging her to act, but surely it must have taken courage to do what she did. Finally Jael musters her nerve, takes an iron tent peg, and drives it through Sisera's temple, nailing his head to the ground!!

WOOOOOO!!!! You go, girl!! And people say there's no strong women in the Bible! Well, lookie here, sister!! Our girl Jael literally nailed a man's head to the ground! She followed God's prompting and did what needed to be done. Matthew Henry's commentary has a very interesting comment on this part of the story: "His ear [was] fastened close to the earth, as if his body were listening to what had become of his soul." 😂😂 Because honey, he didn't go to heaven if you know what I'm saying.

Naturally shortly thereafter along comes Barak in pursuit of Sisera. Jael comes out of her tent and is like, "I will show you the man you're looking for" (v. 22). This is one amazing chica, lemme tell you! Sisera was the terror of Canaan at that time, infamous across the land for his nine-hundred iron chariots; yet he was done in by a single iron tent peg. Now that's IRONic!! 😂😂

Thus Sisera was delivered into the hands of a woman, just like Deborah said. The reign of King Jabin was ended shortly afterwards at the hand of the Israelites, and the land saw peace for forty years. And guess what? Throughout the whole Bible, no more mention is made of any oppressive Canaanite kings. Because of Jael's actions that night, God's plan for Israel to finally claim the Promised Land was put into motion. And it was all because Jael mustered just a few seconds of insane courage. I'm reminded of a quote from that movie, We Bought a Zoo:

"Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage . . . and I promise you something great will come of it."

This quote has great applications to the Christian walk. When we feel God nudging us to do something, sometimes all we need to do is muster up our courage for just a few measly seconds to do what must be done, and the results can be earth-shattering. Ground-breaking. Mountain-moving. That's the power of faith, my friends. If you ever need to be reminded of it, just turn to Judges 4 and take a look at Jael's story. That right there is a testimony for the ages if ever I saw one.

I'm so grateful I got to discover more about Jael! She truly is an unsung heroine; not many people are familiar with her story. I hope that regardless of how much you knew previously, maybe you learned something new from Jael's story. Something I learned was that this woman had a whole lot of faith. I mean, I barely have faith the size of a mustard seed; Jael had enough faith to nail a man's head to the ground!! I'm still so in awe at her faith and courage. As far as I'm concerned, Jael is one of the strongest women in the Bible. I'm so glad I got to raise awareness about this underappreciated Bible character. She definitely had a lot to share with me, and I hope with you too. 💕

Until next time,
much love and God bless!
H ✨💗

*Resources used for this blog post include The Bible Reader's Companion by Lawrence O. Richards, Young's Literal Translation by Robert Young, Matthew Henry's Unabridged Commentary on the Bible, and the New International and King James Versions of the Bible. Great insight, would definitely recommend checking them out!