A Pointed Story and Song

Scripture: Judges 5

Sermon: A Pointed Story and Song

Topics: Deborah, horses, bees, goats

Preached: March 12, 2017

Rev. Mike Abma

Preamble:

Judges 4 and 5 belong together.

Judges 4 tells the story of Deborah the judge.

Judges 5 sings the Song of Deborah the judge.

It is hard to appreciate the Song without first knowing the Story.

So before we read the Song, in Judges 5, let me briefly recount the Story that is told in Judges 4.

As is the pattern in Judges,

Israel again does evil in the eyes of God.

And Israel is again oppressed by one of her neighbors — this time the Canaanites.

The Canaanites are ruled by King Jabin,

and King Jabin has a man named Sisera as his main military general.

The Canaanites have brutally oppressed the Israelites for 20 years.

Finally there is a Judge in Israel who is willing to take the Canaanites on.

And surprise of surprises, this judge is a woman named Deborah.

Deborah summons Barak to be her military general,

the one who will gather the troops together.

But Barak refuses, unless Deborah herself comes with him.

Deborah agrees, and adds that the enemy, Sisera, will be delivered into the hands of a woman.

So Israel marches against the Canaanites.

Not all Israel – as the Song will make clear – because some stay home.

But many in Israel march against the Canaanites.

10,000 strong.

They win the battle, but somehow General Sisera escapes.

He gets out of his chariots and runs away.

Sisera finds himself at the tent of a woman named Jael.

Jael is a Kenite and Sisera assumes the Kenites are allies of the Canaanites.

He hides in her tent.

She gives him milk.

He falls asleep.

She kills him while he is sleeping.

And Israel enjoys 40 years of peace.

Now here is the Song they sang to commemorate that great Victory.

Judges 5

The Song of Deborah

5Then Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying: 

² ‘When locks are long in Israel,

   when the people offer themselves willingly—

   bless the Lord! 

³ ‘Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;

   to the Lord I will sing,

   I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. 

⁴ ‘Lord, when you went out from Seir,

   when you marched from the region of Edom,

the earth trembled,

   and the heavens poured,

   the clouds indeed poured water. 

⁵ The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai,

   before the Lord, the God of Israel. 

⁶ ‘In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,

   in the days of Jael, caravans ceased

   and travellers kept to the byways. 

⁷ The peasantry prospered in Israel, (village life ceased in Israel

   they grew fat on plunder, (village life ceased)

because you arose, Deborah, (until I, Deborah, arose…

   arose as a mother in Israel. 

⁸ When new gods were chosen,

   then war was in the gates.

Was shield or spear to be seen

   among forty thousand in Israel? 

⁹ My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel

   who offered themselves willingly among the people.

   Bless the Lord. 

¹⁰ ‘Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys,

   you who sit on rich carpets,

   and you who walk by the way. 

¹¹ To the sound of musicians at the watering-places,

   there they repeat the triumphs of the Lord,

   the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel. 

‘Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord. 

¹² ‘Awake, awake, Deborah!

   Awake, awake, utter a song!

Arise, Barak, lead away your captives,

   O son of Abinoam. 

¹³ Then down marched the remnant of the noble;

   the people of the Lord marched down for him against the mighty. 

¹⁴ From Ephraim they set out into the valley,

   following you, Benjamin, with your kin;

from Machir marched down the commanders,

   and from Zebulun those who bear the marshal’s staff; 

¹⁵ the chiefs of Issachar came with Deborah,

   and Issachar faithful to Barak;

   into the valley they rushed out at his heels.

Among the clans of Reuben

   there were great searchings of heart. 

¹⁶ Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds,

   to hear the piping for the flocks?

Among the clans of Reuben

   there were great searchings of heart. 

¹⁷ Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan;

   and Dan, why did he abide with the ships?

Asher sat still at the coast of the sea,

   settling down by his landings. 

¹⁸ Zebulun is a people that scorned death;

   Naphtali too, on the heights of the field. 

¹⁹ ‘The kings came, they fought;

   then fought the kings of Canaan,

at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;

   they got no spoils of silver. 

²⁰ The stars fought from heaven,

   from their courses they fought against Sisera. 

²¹ The torrent Kishon swept them away,

   the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon.

   March on, my soul, with might! 

²² ‘Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs

   with the galloping, galloping of his steeds. 

²³ ‘Curse Meroz, says the angel of the Lord,

   curse bitterly its inhabitants,

because they did not come to the help of the Lord,

   to the help of the Lord against the mighty. 

²⁴ ‘Most blessed of women be Jael,

   the wife of Heber the Kenite,

   of tent-dwelling women most blessed. 

²⁵ He asked water and she gave him milk,

   she brought him curds in a lordly bowl. 

²⁶ She put her hand to the tent-peg

   and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;

she struck Sisera a blow,

   she crushed his head,

   she shattered and pierced his temple. 

²⁷ He sank, he fell,

   he lay still at her feet;

at her feet he sank, he fell;

   where he sank, there he fell dead. 

²⁸ ‘Out of the window she peered,

   the mother of Sisera gazed through the lattice:

“Why is his chariot so long in coming?

   Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?” 

²⁹ Her wisest ladies make answer,

   indeed, she answers the question herself: 

³⁰ “Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?—

   A girl or two for every man;

spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera,

   spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered,

   two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?” 

³¹ ‘So perish all your enemies, O Lord!

   But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.’ 

And the land had rest for forty years.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

So how are we going to approach this part of Judges?

How are we going to enter into this Story and this Song?

On the one hand, there is so much to admire:

courage and bravery standing against evil;

women taking a leadership role;

the liberation of God’s people.

And yet, on the other hand, there is so much to question:

the trickery and deception;

the rather grim violence and death;

even, at the end of the Song the rather dark shadow of vengeance.

This isn’t going to be easy.

Do you have your seat-belts fastened?

When you have challenging texts, you look for creative ways into that text.

Now this may sound odd, but there is a way into this text by way of animals.

Yes, you heard me correctly – animals.

I see some quizzical looks.

But let’s give it a try.

Let’s try get into this text by way of animals.

HORSES

The first animal we are going to start with are horses.

The story in Judges 4 makes it very clear that

the Canaanites were able to oppress Israel for 20 years

because they owned 900 iron chariots and the horses that went with them.

When Deborah and Barak are talking plans for confronting the Canaanites,

it is all about how to deal with those many chariots and horses.

And then when the battle is actually described,

it is all about clashing with those chariots and horses,

and those chariots and horses being thrown into a panic

so much so that General Sisera has to get out of his chariot

and flee the battle on foot.

Chariots and horses are mentioned

5 different times in the story version in Judges 4.

And in the Song of Judges 5 there is the ominous verse 22

“Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs

With the galloping, the galloping of his steeds.”

Why so much talk of the horses and chariots of the Canaanites?

In the book of Joshua, chapter 11,

the Israelites faced the Canaanites in battle.

And what did the Canaanites have that the Israelites did not?

They had horses and chariots.

And before that, when the Israelites were fleeing from Egypt,

what started chasing after them?

Pharaoh’s horses and chariots.

Horses and chariots – an old terror for Israel.

Here in Judges 4-5 there is a new twist.

They are iron chariots.

no longer Bronze, now iron, the latest technology.

What does God think of horses and chariots?

Well, what do the Psalms say?

Some boast in chariots,

Some boast in horses

But we boast in the name of the Lord. Psalm 20:7.

A king is not saved by his great army

A warrior is not delivered by his great strength;

A war horse is a vain hope for victory —

Its great strength cannot save. Psalm 37:16-17

So what does God think of horse and chariots?

No much at all.

Let me use the words of Psalm 147 to give the short answer:

God’s delight is not in the strength of the horse…

But God takes pleasure in those who fear him,

and those who hope in his steadfast love. Psalm 147:10

So the first animals I want you to consider are Horses – a symbol of oppressive military might that God abhors.

BEES

So, if the horse is the symbol of the Canaanites great oppressive military power,

what can stand up to a horse?

I would now like to introduce you to the second animal for tonight – the bee.

Yes, the humble bee.

I say bee because the name Deborah in Hebrew means “bee.”

In fact, the way this Song is written,

the picture we have of Deborah is not only as a bee

but as the Queen Bee.

When the peasants are threatened,

and the hives, so to speak, are in jeopardy,

who arises?

Deborah, the Bee,

The mother of Israel, the Queen Bee of the hive, arises.

With Deborah as the Queen Bee of Israel,

Barak can be seen more like a drone bee,

faithfully serving his Queen.

It also makes his reluctance to lead the battle without the Queen more plausible.

When do bees swarm?

Bees swarm when they are accompanying the Queen Bee.

A swarm, then, is the Queen Bee with thousands and thousands of her worker bees.

Isn’t this the picture we have?

Deborah, the Queen Bee, with Barak, the drone bee,

with 10,000 Israelites on the slopes of Mount Tabor.

But how is a Queen Bee, even a swarm of bees,

able to go against 900 horses and chariots?

Putting what we know from the Story and the Song together,

this is the picture we get of this battle.

Deborah, Barak, and the Israelite troops are above, on the slopes of Mount Tabor.

Sisera, and his horses and chariots are below.

It starts to rain.

It starts to pour.

The ground turns to mud.

The horses and chariots get stuck in the mud.

The Israelites swarm down the mountain and attack.

The Kishon River has a flash flood and sweeps the enemy away.

Amazing.

The Little Bee versus the Mighty Horse.

But clearly, the Bee has quite a sting.

WILD GOAT

I have another animal to introduce because we are not quite finished the story.

When Sisera, the Canaanite general leaves his horse and chariot,

he flees from the battle on foot

running as fast as he can.

He finally ends up at the tent of a Kenite woman.

Knowing that the Canaanites had some kind of peace treaty with the Kenites,

he goes into her tent to hide,

to rest, to sleep.

Here is the thing.

This woman’s name is Jael.

And Jael happens to mean Wild Goat.

So this is the third animal I would like to introduce.

The wild goat –

A goat not going the expected way.

A goat not doing the expected thing.

But a goat who delivers a blow to Sisera,

that was as unexpected as Ehud’s blow to Eglon.

Amazingly, this Wild Goat of a woman

Is called Most Blessed of women by Deborah in this Song.

Most Blessed of women — a title we will not hear again

until Elizabeth calls Mary Most Blessed of women.

Amazingly Mary’s Song of bringing down the powerful

and lifting up the lowly

is exactly what this earlier Most Blessed of Women actually did.

So Horses, Bees, and a Wild Goat.

What a story!

CONCLUSION

Now you may be thinking,

very interesting Mike,

using animals to explain this story.

But so what?

What does it mean?

What can we take away from this passage?

Let me point to one more thing in this Song.

Near the end, at verse 23, it has this odd interjection:

Curse Meroz, says the angel of the Lord,

Curse bitterly its inhabitants,

Because they did not come to the help of the Lord,

to the help of the Lord against the Mighty.

Then right after that it has

Most blessed of women be Jael.

A curse and then a blessing.

Meroz was a city in Israel.

It was a city they expected help from.

But they received no help.

Jael was a woman.

Jael was a Kenite.

Jael was supposed to be an ally of the Canaanites.

And yet She Helped! Boy, did she help.

Salvation, deliverance,

comes from the most unexpected places.

Salvation and deliverance

comes from that which looks weak.

Salvation and deliverance

comes from that which looks small.

Salvation and deliverance

comes from the last animal I will mention tonight —

Salvation and deliverance come

from a lamb

who is offered, slain,

for the sins

of all the horses,

and all the chariots

of the world. Amen