Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women. Sermons
I. ITS JUSTIFICATION. There are several grounds, upon any or all of which the deed may be defended. 1. That of a relative and imperfect morality. Morality in that age was not perfectly revealed or realised. With increasing light of revelation and spiritual experience come new moral levels and tests. A thing may be comparatively or relatively right which is not absolutely so. The fact that we condemn the action is not due to our superior natural light, but simply to the teachings of Christianity, the outgrowth and perfecting of the crude morality of the Old Testament. 2. On the principle that the obligation to tell the truth depends upon the existence of a normal and friendly relation between men; the permission to kill carrying with it that of dissimulation (Mozley). 3. Because Jael followed as a mere instrument the impulse of the Absolute. Is it not credible that persons may be moved by a superior reason to do things justifiable from the standpoint of that superior reason, but which, if they fully realised what they were doing, would be utterly unlawful for them to do? II. ITS BEARINGS UPON INSPIRATION, etc. OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. The inspiration of Scripture cannot be affected by the inspired sanction of such a deed. Inspiration does not necessarily involve a knowledge of the" whole counsel of God." It has its degrees, and is reliable so far as it goes. A merely human production would have avoided such apparent self-contradictions. That there are moral mysteries and difficulties in the Bible, which are nevertheless seen to have possible solutions beyond the immediate knowledge of man, is a strong presumption in favour of its being Divine. III. HOW FAR IS JAEL AN EXAMPLE TO BE IMITATED? In no wise. This is an exceptional case, all of whose circumstances must be taken into account She is, like many whom a special destiny seems to isolate from their fellows, almost to be pitied, save for the thought that she acted as the servant of God. The instincts by which we condemn her deed are evidently of God, and must therefore be followed. - M.
Blessed above women shall Jael... be And whose lips are they which pronounce this blessing? Indeed, it is Deborah the prophetess who sings this song; it is Deborah, by whom God spake, who gives utterance to this strain. It is clear that, revolting as her action appears at first view, there must be a way of looking at it in which it deserves all our sympathy and applause.I. First, we would observe THAT HUMAN ACTIONS ARE, IN GOD'S HOLY WORD, SPOKEN OF AS GOOD AND RIGHTEOUS, ALTHOUGH AT THE SAME TIME IT IS CERTAIN THAT THE BEST DEEDS OF THE BEST MEN ARE ALLOYED WITH EVIL. It would not, therefore, be out of harmony with the tenor of the inspired volume, that Jael should be called blessed for her deed, that her deed should meet with commendation from the prophetess, without it being thereby implied that she was quite undeserving blame. If her act contained some elements of good, amidst much of evil, it might, if the good preponderated, be esteemed and proclaimed as blessed. To this general observation we would add another, namely, that under the Jewish dispensation there was a lower standard of religious perfection than under the Christian. Hence it is that you find the most renowned characters of the Old Testament polluted with sins from which men of ordinary morality among ourselves would recoil. So that Jael's deed is to be judged, not by itself in the abstract, still less by the light of the gospel, but in reference to the code under which she lived, in reference to the knowledge of the Divine will then published among men; and so judged, it is not requisite that it should have been free from all blame in order to obtain praise. II. BUT WHAT WERE THE ELEMENTS OF GOOD IN THIS FAMOUS ACT OF THE KENITE WOMAN? Now we must here remind you of the real character of the Israelitish warfare. It is of course true that always the sword is God's weapon, as much as the famine or the pestilence. War is the scourge wherewith the Eternal lashes the nations when they wax proud against Him. But the difference between the case of the Israelites and every other conquering race is this, that the Israelites knew their mission, and went forth to execute it at God's bidding. And now, again, let us apply these principles to the case of Jael. The people of the Lord were in arms against the enemies of the Lord. We do not know whether Jael was a daughter of Israel; if not, her faith, as we shall see, is more remarkable. She had heard of the violence of the Canaanite for twenty years; she had heard that Deborah, in whom dwelt the spirit of prophecy, had aroused the men of Israel against Sisera. To her mind it was not a mere struggle of hostile nations for liberty and power. To her it was the battle of the Lord of hosts against the heathen who refused to worship Him; it was as the mustering of the armies of heaven against the armies of hell. We are aware that it is still open to you to object, that even if the killing Sisera can be justified, the craft which beguiled him must be reprehensible. In answer to this, we remind you of the observations wherewith we started, namely, that we need not prove Jael's act to be free from all defect, we are only concerned to show that it had in it many elements of good; and now we set it forth as an act evidencing strong faith in the God of Israel (faith still more marvellous if the Kenite's wife was not a daughter of Israel), as prompted by love for Him, and zeal for His cause. Such love and such zeal, even when evinced by an action not perfectly faultless, might well earn praise. But we go further. It may be doubted how far the treachery of the act, as it appears, was sinful. Is it wrong to use craft against Satan? May we resist the devil only by open force? May we not use prudence and tact and wiliness in avoiding temptation or in abating its force? III. THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES IS TYPICAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE REDEMPTION OF MANKIND BY JESUS CHRIST. The delivery of the Jews from their enemies, often as it occurs, is symbolical of the greater deliverance of all people from the thraldom of Satan. And whilst the general history is thus broadly significant, the distinct parts of that history lead us almost irresistibly to the remembrance of particular features in the history of Christ's salvation. (Bp. Woodford.) II. IN WHAT SENSE ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND DEBORAH'S LANGUAGE, AND HOW ARE WE TO RECONCILE IT WITH WHAT WOULD SEEM, AT FIRST SIGHT, TO BE THE TRUE CHARACTER OF JAEL'S ACTION? 1. Sisera's life was, in Deborah's judgment, rightly forfeited. He was the Lord's enemy. He represented, in Deborah's eye —(1) An impure and cruel system of idolatry, which had been sentenced to extermination by God;(2) a long career of plunder and murder, which had brought untold miseries upon the poor peasants of Naphtali and Zebulun. 2. Deborah's language about Jael is relative language.(1) Relative to the conduct of other persons than Jael. The contrast is really between the motive and the absence of motive; between the will to do what is right and the absence of will.(2) Relative to the time and circumstances in which Jael lived, and to the opportunities at her command; or, rather, to the absence of such opportunities. Jael's loyalty to Israel, and to the one ray of truth she knew, is admirable; the method she chose for expressing her loyalty, though for her quite a matter of course and custom, is deplorable. For acting fully up to all the light she possessed she deserved the meed of praise awarded her by Deborah. III. CONCLUDING LESSONS. 1. Note the equitableness of Deborah's estimate of Jael. How often do we, in our judgment of others, measure their failures by some standard of which they have never heard, and refuse them credit for excellences which in them are even consummate! Their standard is a very poor and low one, it may be, but if they have had no chance of learning something better, it is the standard by which they will be judged. We do not risk loyalty to higher truth than any of which they know if in judging them we are strong enough to be equitable. 2. This history would be sorely misapplied if we were to gather from it that a good motive justifies any action that is known to be bad. Jael could not have been pronounced "blessed" had she been a Jewess, much less had she been a Christian. The blessings which the ignorant may inherit are forfeited when those who know, or might know, more act as do the ignorant. (Canon Liddon.) (R. A. Watson, M. A.) People Abinoam, Amalek, Anath, Asher, Barak, Benjamin, Dan, Deborah, Heber, Issachar, Jael, Machir, Naphtali, Reuben, Seir, Shamgar, Sisera, ZebulunPlaces Canaan, Edom, Gilead, Jordan River, Kishon River, Megiddo, Meroz, Seir, Sinai, TaanachTopics Blessed, Blessings, Greater, Heber, Jael, Ja'el, Kenite, Ken'ite, Tent, Tent-dwelling, Tents, Wife, WomenOutline 1. The Song of Deborah and BarakDictionary of Bible Themes Judges 5:1-31Library Recreant ReubenWhy satest then among the sheepfolds, to hear the pipings for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.'--JUDGES v. 16 (R.V.). I. The fight. The warfare is ever repeated, though in new forms. In the highest form it is Christ versus the World, And that conflict must be fought out in our own souls first. Our religion should lead not only to accept and rely on what Christ does for us, but to do and dare for Christ. He has given Himself for us, and has thereby … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture 'All Things are Yours' Love Makes Suns Songs of Deliverance Whether the Orders Will Outlast the Day of Judgment? Why is it that Our Lord Has Tarried Till Now? Why Has not the Redeemer Returned Long Ere This? Hindrances to Revivals. The Publication of the Gospel Salvation Published from the Mountains The Sovereignty of God in Operation Appendix ix. List of Old Testament Passages Messianically Applied in Ancient Rabbinic Writings The Hebrews and the Philistines --Damascus Judges Links Judges 5:24 NIVJudges 5:24 NLT Judges 5:24 ESV Judges 5:24 NASB Judges 5:24 KJV Judges 5:24 Bible Apps Judges 5:24 Parallel Judges 5:24 Biblia Paralela Judges 5:24 Chinese Bible Judges 5:24 French Bible Judges 5:24 German Bible Judges 5:24 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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