Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 4-6.

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The account of Deborah, Jael, and Barak shows us that women play often play key roles in how God works in this world.  The impression I have is that this account is often told as if Barak was a weak man who failed to put sufficient faith in the word of God which came to him through Deborah.  I am not convinced that the writer intended to convey this message.  I think the message the writer intends to convey is that if Barak had led his army out without Deborah, Barak would have been remembered as the judge, the ruler of Israel, at this time.  Instead we learn that Deborah, a woman, was the one who judged over Israel at that time.  I also want to note that there appears to be more to Jael’s story than we are told here.  First, the writer tells us that Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the rest of the Kenites, who were allies of the Israelites from the time of Moses.  Then after the battle, he tells us that Sisera came upon the tent of Jael the wife of Heber and the Heber was allied with Sisera’s boss, the king of Hazor.  It was Jael who invited him into her tent to hide from the pursuing Israelites, gave him milk instead of the water for which he asked, then killed him in a rather gruesome manner once he fell asleep.  As I read this it felt like Jael had some personal animosity towards Sisera, as if she held Sisera responsible for mistreatment either she or someone she loved had suffered in the past.

Now I want to look at the account of how God dealt with the oppression of Israel by the Midianites.  The people of Israel did evil in God’s sight and He turned them over to oppression by the Midianites.  When Israel cried out to God for help, he first sent them a prophet.  We don’t know the prophet’s name.  All we know about him is the message God gave him.  Through this unnamed prophet God told the people who were asking for His help, “I delivered you from Egypt and from all who oppressed you.  Then I told you that I am your God and that you should not fear or serve the gods of the Amorites.  But you did not obey me.”  This sets up what happens with Gideon.  When God appears to Gideon, Gideon asks “If God is with us, why are we being oppressed? What happened to all of the mighty deeds God did in the past?  Why isn’t He doing something like that now?”  To which God replied, “Go and save Israel. I am sending you.”  Gideon then asked for a sign that God was sending him, which God provided (this is before the fleece).  Gideon built an altar and worshiped God, but was not yet ready to take on Midian.  The first thing Gideon was called to do was to tear down his father’s altar to Baal, cut down the Asherah that was beside it, and build an altar to God in place of the altar to Baal.  It was only after Gideon had turned the people of his town back to worshiping God that God sent him to take on the Midianites and rescue all of Israel from them.

In the same way, we need to first turn ourselves from worshiping idols to worshiping God.  Then we need to turn the people closest to us from idol worship.  Only when we have made ourselves right with God, and gotten those closest to us to make themselves right with God, that we can take on the oppressors around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.