Judges 4
A SECOND Jabin, king of Hazor in the north country now rules with a heavy hand over the sinful Israelites. The former king and his capital city had been destroyed (Joshua 11:1-13), but the unfaithfulness of God’s people gave occasion to rebuild the city and re-establish the kingdom.
It will be noticed that the source of the trial, its exact form and its length vary in each of the cases we have been noticing, but God’s purpose is the same in every one, —to exercise the people, who had professed to serve Him in regard to their ways. The crying to God always brings an answer from Him in grace, though we may think rightly that there was a great deal more in the people’s prayers of complaint about their sufferings, than of confession of their departure from God and His Word.
Considering the deliverers in order, from Othniel to Deborah and Barak, we see a gradual increase in weakness; their names—for nothing is in vain in Scripture, —themselves indicating it as well as the circumstances in which each appears.
(Othniel—God is force; Ehud—strong; Shamgar—cup-bearer; Deborah —bee, or wasp; Barak—lightning; Jael—chamois or deer).
That a woman judged Israel was contrary to God’s ordinary dealings, and a disgrace to men. It was however a sign of God’s over-ruling power, for Deborah was a prophetess. She learned the mind of God and passed it on to Barak (verses 6, 7), here was safe ground for faith to tread: would Barak act, thus directed and assured from God Himself? He obeys, but sadly lacks faith for the undertaking, for he will not go without the presence of Deborah, who he rightly judges, is walking nearer to God than himself.
The case has a certain parallel in the experience of Moses who was directed of God to appear before the monarch of Egypt, and demand of him liberty for the people of Israel, but, unwilling to act on the hare word of God, has to share his appointment with his brother (Exodus 4:14-17). So the honor will not be Barak’s (verse 9) but a woman’s, and that one not of the children of Israel, but a stranger (verses 11, 17-22).
Following the slender faith of the feeble army under Barak and Deborah, the mighty God, ever interested in and acting, though often unrecognized, for those whom in grace He has picked up, proceeds on behalf of Israel, so that the enemy’s leader, Sisera, flies for his life, his army destroyed to the last man. The stranger, Jael, now takes his life using such a weapon as came to her hand, —the whole incident manifesting God’s power displayed in “earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of Him, and not of us”. (2 Corinthians 4:7).
ML 10/25/1925