Girl Power and Judge Dredd, Debbie, Barak (not O'Bama) and what they have to do with Judges (It's crazy, I know)

The bible is often mislabeled as a chauvinist manual for how to subdue and rule over helpless, weak women- that is wrong. I have heard this kind of thing and much more, but I don't want to get into that today. I am just saying that sometimes the Bible gets a bad wrap and its "perceived" viewpoint toward the lady folk. It isn't overly skewed in favor of the man folk nor does it purpose to place all women solely under the crushing heel of their manish overlords. But again, that is another story for another day (why? you scream!).

Since Mother's day is sometime around the corner, and since everyone else is talking about Easter (and rightly so), I want to share with you something I thought was very interesting from my reading yesterday and completely random. It relates to the lady folk- it is about girl power, so to speak. Hence the tie-in with Mother's Day (I had to tie it into something).

If you have a bible or the internet (which you do since you are reading this). Find Judges 4 and read it.

Ok, not too bad right? Judges is a book that is often glazed over. Why? Because there are a lot of random incidences with various judges. Here is the short summary- Israel would sin and get captured by some other tribe, they would be oppressed, then they would cry out to God for deliverance and he would periodically send a "judge." A judge was kind of like Jewish Judge Dread (if you know the reference, good for you, a personal favorite movie of mine Judge Dredd ). A person who was both a military and civic leader. A judge would administer justice- either in the "civil courts," or at the "national level," through military skirmishes. Well, this was a vicious spiral of Sin, Slavery, Asking for help, God giving help, then silence, until is started all over again (see picture, thanks Bible Knowledge Commentary!).

Anyway, for those of you who think the Bible never has anything good to say about women, allow me to introduce to you Deborah and her hard-core buddy Jael- both tough ladies. Deborah was one of the judges that God sent to restore the people back to a right relationship with Him. She was both a prophetess and Judge (see, Jewish Judge Dredd). The story goes like this.

The setting is the Jezreel valley (see map). God told Deborah that she needed to get in touch with Barak (a dude, but not O'Bama) and get 10,000 troops from neighboring friendly Jewish tribes, (because Deb wasn't a ruler of a certain people group, she had no troops) Nephtali and Zebulun. The plan was to get a hold of Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army (Canaanite King), and beat the army and kill him, and then kill Jabin. This was a big undertaking. Sisera had lots of heavy iron chariots (think Abrams tanks) at his disposal, 900.

So, Barak (not O'Bama) got the troops gathered and they mustered (yum, mustard). This is a personal favorite verse in this saga, Judges 4:9. Barak is like, "You can come along Deb." You know he is thinking, this lady Deb is going, but I'm the man around here and I am going to get the credit. But Deb had other plans. Here is the verse, "She said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take. For the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman." See, I told you girl power.

I am sure Barak is thinking, "yeah right, all my troops are dudes, but ok, whatever." So they go out and get into a battle with Sisera. As the story goes, the Lord gave the Canaanite army into the hands of Barak- all the army is killed, less Sisera. So Sisera sees that it is hopeless and bails. He goes running for the hills. He finds a nice seemingly hospitable tent to hide in- the tent of one hard-core chick, Jael. Jael is the wife of a guy named Heber, who is Kenite. The Kenites were currently at peace with the Canaanites and King Jabin. So Sisera was thinking, "oh cool, I can hide out here."

Sisera asks Jael if he can hide in the tent and if she can cover for him. He doesn't want killed. And Jael says, "sure thing Sissy Sisera (ok, she probably didn't say that)." The next thing is the crazy thing. So what does Jael do? She picks up a mallet, a tent peg, and drives the peg through Sisera's skull, pinning him to the ground. Talk about a hard-core lady! Side Note: It was "women's work" to put up the tent. She would have been skilled with both the mallet and the peg, plus tough enough to drive it through Sisera's skull.

Then Barak (not O'Bama) comes to the tent and Jael says, "hey Barak, check this out, I killed Sissy Sisera for you. He is dead, I brained him with a peg." I am sure Barak was both flabbergasted (not Cesc) and impressed. He might have even thought, "I'm not even mad I didn't get the credit, I'm impressed!" Who knows?

Jael is one tough chick. God used her to give an unlikely victory to the Israelites and a "victory" to womankind everywhere. I bet never in a million years did Sisera believe that Jael would drive a tent peg through his skull. But she did.

So this is what we learn today through this awesome story:
1. Never Doubt God- He will do what He says, regardless
2. You can't run from God
3. God is there for you if you cry out for Him, He will provide, even in the most unlikeliest of ways
4. God doesn't hate women- He loves all men and women just the same. He uses each according to His will
5. Never Trust a Lady named Jael or one who puts up tents for a living- She will drive a peg through your skull (j/k)
6. Don't be Canaanite

I hope you enjoyed this story as much as me. As I am reading Judges, I am sure I will come across some more gems. There is more to this Deb story. Check out Judges 5 for a very beautiful song sung by Deb and Barak (not O'Bama) about the provision and sovereignty of God.




PJ

PS: For your edification: