Word of Salvation – Vol.39 No.19 – May 1994
Two Mothers, Two Seeds
Sermon by Rev. B. Hoyt on Judges 5
Scripture: Judges 5
Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,
The Song of Deborah is an inspired evaluation of the events surrounding God’s deliverance through Barak over the enemy Sisera, commander of the army of the Canaanite king Jabin. It cannot be called a sweet song. In fact we are not very comfortable with the sentiments expressed. But let us not be mistaken – this is God’s evaluation. Where we have difficulties with the vigour, the coarseness of language, the exaltation over the enemy, our ideas must change – God’s will not!
There are many themes in this Song that might be developed, but we shall focus on the theme of the TWO MOTHERS AND TWO SEEDS. Plainly in view is Deborah, a mother in Israel (read vs.7), but also in view is the mother of Sisera, the enemy commander (read vs.28).
Deborah stands in the ancient line of Eve as the mother of a godly seed. The Lord has blessed her work. For twenty years she has been raising up a new generation of men who are faithful to the Lord. I do not mean she was the literal mother of this new generation. But as a prophet of God she was spiritual mother to a whole generation of men who learned the things of God in her school ‘under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim’ (cf.4:4,5). Through her spiritual nurture God also raised up Barak, whose name means lightning bolt, that is, swift destruction from heaven, to deliver His people from the enemy.
The mother of Sisera is of the line of Cain, a Canaanite. She is wicked. She serves wicked gods. And produces a godless seed. She is the mother of Sisera who oppresses the righteous severely. But her line does not and cannot endure. Her gods, the Baals, cannot deliver her son. He comes to an end when he rises up against the people of Jehovah. Jehovah controls all that the Baals lay claim to. So Jehovah overcomes Baal and delivers His people.
It is this deliverance which Deborah recounts in her victory song – her inspired appraisal of God’s deliverance. There is much that is instructive here for mothers in Israel and mothers to be! And much comfort for all the people of God.
- The mother of Israel exhorts God’s people to recount the righteous deeds of Jehovah.
In verses 9-11 Deborah expresses her concern for the commanders and the volunteer soldiers. She encourages them to SING – to sing of the righteous deeds of Jehovah. At every watering hole where the people gather the minstrel singers are to lead. And what are they to sing? They are to praise Jehovah by remembering His righteous deeds on behalf of the poor farmers of Israel – deeds He had done in the past and deeds He will do again. They are to hope in Him and to look to Him for salvation even though humanly speaking the situation looked hopeless.
A whole generation must be trained to fear Jehovah, have confidence in Him, and serve Him rather than the Baals of the Canaanites. Even after twenty years of godly instruction to a new generation of young men the situation looked hopeless. Yes, there was Barak with 10,000 young volunteers but no shields and no spears. What were they against 900 iron chariots and a multitude of troops (cf.4:7,13)?
Yes, what were they? Nothing in themselves. But they did not go in the strength of man. Their hope was in Jehovah who made heaven and earth. As Jehovah had delivered His people in the past, so He would again. This was the confidence which Deborah taught to the sons of Israel, to hope in God and not to put their trust in man, to fear God and not to fear man.
O, that mothers of Israel would inspire their sons in such a way today! O, that older women today would inspire their spiritual children to have confidence in God and not to fear man. God has given us a Leader greater than the ‘lightning bolt’ Barak. Christ, who has conquered even death, is our leader, and all the modern-day Baal worshippers will be overthrown by His power. Christ shall have dominion over land and sea. Did He not say, ‘All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth. Therefore as you are going, disciple the nations”? Should we have less confidence today than Deborah? Is not Jehovah, the faithful God, the same yesterday, today, and forever?
- The mother of Israel encourages her sons to faithfulness and rebukes them for apathy.
In verses 12-18 Deborah calls for faithfulness and commitment to the battle of the Lord. She praises Ephraim and Benjamin and especially Zebulun and Naphtali for their courage and willingness to follow Barak into what looked like certain defeat. They took their covenant duty seriously. They knew that God expected them not to compromise and thus allow a portion of God’s people to be destroyed.
On the other hand Deborah was hard on those who refused to come out to battle. She mocks the great resolves of heart of Reuben which kept them faithfully at the work of tending the sheep! After all, the sheep must be cared for. Gilead, she said, never even came across the river. They stayed in their comfortable tents. The people of Dan also kept faithfully at their work plying the high seas for their living. Business must go on, you know! And Asher, well after all, they had to unload the ships.
But Zebulun and Naphtali despised their lives. They went out to give their lives fighting the Lord’s battle.
In the actions of Reuben, Gilead, Dan and Asher we see serious compromise with the world. Yes, they are God’s people. But they are unwilling to fight His battle against His enemies to save His people, their covenant brothers and sisters. Deborah rightly rebukes such compromise. It ought always to be rebuked by the mothers of Israel! But the men of Meroz acted even more treacherously. They totally deserted Jehovah and His people and sided with the enemy. Such action placed them under the curse of God. The enemy is cursed! So was Meroz.
Mothers who fear the Lord and seek to serve Him, rebuke your sons when they refuse the call of service in God’s church! Rebuke them for putting their comfort and what is secondary before the primary call of God. Rebuke them especially in these days of compromise and apathy. When they begin to get soft on sin and soft on destructive error, when they show plenty of interest in making a comfortable living in this cursed world, rebuke them for the sake of Christ and His kingdom. Christ said ‘seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness.’ Mothers, call your sons to sacrifice themselves for the kingdom of God.
- The mother of Israel gives high praise for Jael’s bold deed of covenant faithfulness.
Deborah does not stop at praise for the soldiers who gave themselves in battle. In verses 24-27 we read of what many commentators have called ‘the deceitful treachery of Jael’. She deceptively called the exhausted Sisera to hide in her tent. Since her husband had made a treaty with King Jabin, Sisera thought he was safe in her tent. Jael fed him and covered him and agreed to hide him. Then when he was fast asleep, she drove a tent peg all the way through his head into the ground.
How should we evaluate this deed? Didn’t she lie? Didn’t she go against her husband who was at peace with King Jabin? We must always evaluate men’s deeds in the light of Scripture. It is true that Scripture requires truthfulness and submission to those in authority over us. But there is an even higher principle in Scripture as noted by Peter in Acts 5:29, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’ This Jael did. For this obedience to God she is blessed by Deborah.
The commentators have gone quite wrong when they call this a deceitful treachery. It was not Jael who was treacherous but her husband, Heber. He had forsaken the covenant of God in making peace with the enemy. It was because of him and others like him that God had ‘sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan’ (4:2) who ‘oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years’ (4:3). While her husband had broken covenant with God, Jael had remained faithful.
God was at war with the Canaanites and He had called His people to be at war with them also. They were not to allow any Canaanites to remain in the land. So when the opportunity arose to strike the enemy, Jael seized it. What a blow! And how she was praised by God for it. Let us not be led astray by sentimental or humanistic commentators. God says, ‘Most blessed of women is Jael.’ And for what is she blessed? ‘She reached out her hand for the tent peg, and her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. And she struck Sisera, she smashed his head.’ Jael had remained faithful in spite of her husband. She stood on God’s side of the battle. She made no peace with the enemy. She stood on God’s side with the mother of Israel and thus served her God. Certainly this was no easy thing for Jael to do. In this deed she exposed her husband’s compromised life and put him to shame, something no woman can do easily. It is significant that the same words of blessing are spoken centuries later of Mary the mother of the Great Deliverer, Christ our Lord, ‘Blessed are you among women’.
- The mother of Israel mocks the mother of Sisera and rejoices in the destruction of the seed of the enemy.
We are a soft people and we live in a sentimental age; a day in which the criminal is given more consideration than his victims; a day in which the men who refuse to do a day’s work and refuse to provide for their children or the mothers of their children are given a welfare benefit. Justice and righteousness is not much thought of except as ‘my right to the dole cheque’ and ‘the world owes me a living’.
It is no wonder then that we have a hard time stomaching the language of verses 28-31. Not only does Deborah rejoice in victory, she rejoices over the destruction of the enemy. Let us not pity the mother of Sisera, the wicked seed. She is pictured as looking out the window waiting to hear the hoof beats which will signal her son’s return in victory. She waits and waits. What is detaining him? Of course, the soldiers are dividing the spoil. It is coarse, immoral soldier talk, the kind she taught her son. A womb, two wombs for every warrior. Sisera’s mother had taught him to rape the land of God’s people and she fully approves his raping of the women of God’s people. Now she is eagerly awaiting the spoil her son will bring her. Some fine dyed and doubly embroidered garments hung around his neck just for her!
And Deborah has no difficulty in mocking the hopes of Sisera’s mother. Yes, she will receive some spoil, the garments of her son dyed red in his own blood – and at the hand of a woman!
Mothers of Israel, do not be afraid to stand with Deborah and Jael – they were blessed by God for serving Him in a day when men had defected from their duty. Do not hesitate to call your sons to battle against our enemy the Devil. And do not sympathise with those who raise up seed to the enemy. Christ has called us to holiness. The mothers of Israel are to raise up a godly seed. So we must be ever ready to sing with Deborah: ‘Thus let all Thine enemies perish, O Lord; But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might.’
So let us sing with the Psalmist from Psalm 68:
Let God arise, and by His might
Let all His foes be put to flight;
But O ye righteous, gladly sing,
Exult before your God and King.
AMEN