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"Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be. Blessed shall she
be above women in the tent. He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought forth
butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's
hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head when she had
pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down; at
her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead" (Judges 5: 24-27).
In the previous chapter, before Barak had started his campaign, we have Deborah's
prophecy:
"The Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman" (Judges 4: 9).
It appears that when Sisera was first received by Jael it was in perfectly good faith, for
her husband at that time was at peace with Jabin. After Sisera had entered, however, Jael
seems to have been moved by God to destroy this enemy of Israel, and Deborah's words
suggest a miraculous power above and beyond the strength of Jael's own arm. Ehud, too,
it will be remembered, first gave Eglon a present, and then turned back after he had got as
far as Gilgal. The league between Heber and Jabin was a wise move on the part of
Israel's foes, but no covenant made by man can thwart the purposes of the Most High. In
the very tent of Heber, Sisera dies.
Jabin, meaning "Wisdom", and Hazor, meaning "Power" represent the strength of our
spiritual foes, while the "stake" in the hand of Jael stands for the Cross of Christ, in
which true wisdom and power were manifested. Jael was but another type illustrating the
basic prophecy of Gen. 3: 15.
Deborah's song should be compared with the "Magnificat" of Mary in the Gospel of
Luke:
"Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be" (Judges 5: 24).
"Blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1: 28, 42).
"All generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1: 48).
Is it not also significant, when we think of Jael and Mary, that Heber is not mentioned
except as the husband of Jael? The tent is called "The tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the
Kenite".
It is not possible, in the space at our disposal, to complete our survey by dealing with
the exploits of Gideon, Jephthah and Samson, and we must therefore leave these for
another article. Meanwhile let us ponder these lessons that speak so eloquently of our
spiritual foes, the world, the flesh and the Devil: and let us glory in the Cross of Christ,
having no confidence in the flesh.