She Did What?! (Part 2)

Thanks for meeting me back here for Part 2!!  If you missed Part 1 of our story, you can catch up right here: She Did What?! (Part 1)

So when we left "Bible Times" on Friday, Deborah and Barak had defeated the army that was on the verge of attacking them and the leader of the enemy army, Sisera, was on the RUN...

Sisera is in full on escape mode when he finds his way to the tent of Jael.  Sisera assumed that since Jael’s hubby was on peaceful terms with his boss, King Jabin, that this tent would be a safe place to hide out for a while.  Ummm.... Let’s just see...

Jael went out and greeted Sisera.  She invited him in to the tent, told him to make himself at home, and covered him with a cozy blanket (I envision a soft chenille and not some scratchy wooly thing, lol!) He asks for a drink of water and Jael does one better! She gives him some milk. So our girl Jael is really pulling out all the stops.  (Think Martha Stewart with a Pinterest worthy tent, lol!)

Sisera is feeling pretty comfy at this point. So much so that he orders Jael to stand at the entrance of her tent and instructs her to lie... 

“Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’” Judges 4:20 (NIV)

Now, I’m not too sure about you but I can just imagine our girl, Jael, screaming inside her own head at this point.  Like, “No, you did NOT just say that to me!!!”  Because while Sisera believed that tent was a safe place, that he had found a friend in a land of foes, he was dead wrong...

“But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.” Judges 4:21 (NIV)

Now’s the time to say – SHE DID WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Jael killed Sisera.  With a tent peg.  To the head!

Whew. Sounds crazy, right? But listen, there’s a big lesson to learn from Jael too just like we did with Deborah.  She recognized the enemy and did not hesitate to stop him in his tracks.  How about you? Have you determined the enemy in your tent?  Are you eliminating it?

Listen, I am not saying take a tent peg to your husband because he keeps snoring.  What I am saying is this, we all have an enemy we need to face.  The sooner you address it, the better.  And, I’m not going to sugar coat this, our enemy is Satan.  Often in our lives, we allow things to defeat us and they may have been things we welcomed into our lives, our households, our “tents” so to speak.  My encouragement to you is to be alert.  Be aware of when the enemy is trying to gain a foothold in your life.  And then address it.  Put a stop to it with the tools God has given you (His armor, Ephesians 6:10-19) because you can!

That’s what our heroine Jael did. She saw the enemy trying to make himself at home in her tent, where she lived.  She knew that she had the ability to remove whatever was not for God and/or from God from her home.  And she went to work.  She didn’t run away from it.  She didn’t sneak out behind her tent to talk to the other ladies and get their advice.  She recognized evil and immediately took a stand. 

My friends, we too, can take a stand.  Let’s look at Deborah and Jael as examples of strong, righteous women of God.  They positioned themselves to be used by Him and did not waiver.  They knew what God wanted them to do and were obedient to Him. And through their obedience, God used them for amazing things!

Post by: Marcy Gates