JUDGES 4
There are very interesting features from a spiritual point of view in this chapter and the next. We see quite new unfoldings and modes of divine activity. We have always to be prepared for that; God does not repeat Himself. This time it is the king of Canaan who oppresses the people. We have had Mesopotamia, Moab, and the Philistine; now it is Canaan.
Canaan means low-land; another interpretation is trader. It seems to suggest the minding of earthly things, seeking one’s own interests; that is a terrible oppression to fall under. To be minding earthly things and seeking our own things is a coming down altogether from the elevation proper to the calling of God, and it is a formidable power. Sisera had nine hundred chariots of iron. There is no greater snare or scourge among the people of God than that.
God meets this condition by the introduction of a new element — He introduces a prophetess. We see now prophetic light breaking in, and, if God gives prophetic light, it has a very far-reaching bearing. The song of Deborah goes right on to the finish of all fighting; it looks on to a time when all the enemies of Jehovah perish and when the way each has behaved in conflict can be reviewed. Some have been valiant, some slack and careless. The next chapter is like the judgment-seat. When prophetic light comes in, it always involves the finish of God’s ways — God having the last word. The idea of prophecy is God having the last word, evil and good being consigned to their places. We are in conflict today, with prophetic light that the way we behave is going to be reviewed. God will take account of all we do while the battle is going on.
Sisera represents the leader of the world power that is opposed to the pleasure of God in His people. All that power is going to be overthrown, but the battle is going on, and each one of us has a responsibility, and the question is, How are we behaving ourselves in the battle? Are we maintaining our heavenly character, our associations, and our spirits in the light of the prophetic word? Then we have Deborah. A woman in Scripture presents state, and we see in Deborah a state characterised and governed by the mind of God. She is an overcomer, because she dwelt under her palm tree, which means victory. She lived between Ramah and Bethel, the high places and the house of God. Ramah answers to Ephesians, and Bethel, the house of God, is the place on earth where we have access to what is heavenly — the gate of heaven.
If we accept the prophetic word, and are found in a state which is governed by the prophetic word, we shall be in superiority to the Canaanites. Canaan lives on low ground, and the conflict is always between low ground and high ground. We might be taken up with religious things on earth. Paul speaks of many who mind earthly things in contrast to those who have their citizenship in heaven. The Canaanite typifies those who mind earthly things, seeking their own advantage. Paul speaks, too, in the end of Romans, of those who cause division, and says a hard thing of them: “such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly”. There is some selfish object which governs them. If they were governed by the Lord Jesus Christ, they would never cause division among the brethren. If my god is my belly, I am on a very low ground — and Canaan is low ground. If people fall under that, it is a scourge.
The Spirit of God says that Deborah was the wife of Lapidoth, suggesting that she recognised headship. Any vessel raised up of God would recognise divine order. God could not raise up a prophetess to traverse His own order. If the Lord gives prominence to a woman, she will be prominent in a way suitable to the position, and will recognise headship.
There is such a thing as being governed by the influences of heaven. It is said, “From heaven was the fight”; that is a very remarkable word in the next chapter. If the fight is from heaven, everything connected with it must be of a heavenly character. “The stars from their courses fought with Sisera”. We must be governed by divine principles, and be in the power of what is heavenly, and live where Deborah lived. The mother is greater than the soldier. That is an important principle — the “mother in Israel” and leadership amongst the people of God is dependent on that. There was no leadership until Deborah arose, a “mother in Israel”. We see in Deborah a state governed by the mind of God, and maternal qualities along with it, signifying that she is able to foster and cherish that kind of thing in Israel. The mother is greater than the soldier; state is more important than action. It would not have been suitable for her to lead the battle, and she keeps her place.
Jerusalem above is our mother, and there is power to overcome the Canaanitish influence. The things of earth are morally base and low, but if we have a mother shedding the influences of heaven on our spirits, what an impulse it gives!
The next chapter is like the judgment seat of Christ. When all is over, the question is, How did you behave? Did you come back like Zebulon? Or hang back like Meroz? The next chapter is a grand review. The prophetic word carries to the finish of God’s ways. If you learn the spiritual state represented in Deborah, the state governed by the mind of God, there is room for God to move by whom He will. He selects Barak and Naphtali and Zebulon as the kind of instruments He will use. If we want to be delivered from what is of earth, we must be prepared for deliverance in God’s way. We have to recognise sovereignty. Barak is mentioned, because he is the one who led Israel to victory. It was weakness on his part that he would not go without Deborah, and so he lost some of the honour. The word of Jehovah should have been enough. There was an element of weakness, along with his faith which is mentioned in Hebrews. He lost some of his glory, some of the honour God would have put on him. Often in the battles of Jehovah we are made conscious of our weakness, and it is a very happy thing if we do not exhibit it publicly. If I was rightly exercised about my weakness, I should have a deep sense of it before God in secret, but should not exhibit it publicly.
[p. 134] The weapons of our warfare are spiritual, not carnal. God uses His own instruments, weak in the eyes of men, but strong to the pulling down of strongholds. This book is remarkable for that; an ox-goad, a tent-pin, a jawbone of an ass, show that God is pleased to use things that man would think of no adequacy at all, but would seem ridiculous and unsuitable. God can use anything and make anything effectual, if faithfulness is behind it. The iron chariots show the formidable character and strength of what is on a low level — Canaanitish. You find that Barak is told to go to Mount Tabor, and he goes to Kedesh. That is, there is the thought of elevation in connection with the position. Tabor means mountain height and Kedesh means holy. That is the position to take up. If we get there, the hostile power only comes up to be destroyed. Ten thousand men are not much before a great army, but Jehovah went out before them, and the army of Sisera fell. “Not one was left”. In verse 24 we read: “The hand of the children of Israel ever advanced, and prevailed against Jabin, king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin, king of Canaan”. It looks on prophetically to the complete destruction of every power hostile to the thoughts of Jehovah for His people. If we get a prophetic word from God and have the state governed by it, we are well assured of God’s ultimate victory. It is most important that there should be this state in correspondence with the prophetic word. That is the importance of God giving a prophetess, emphasising the importance of state. The vessel is to be in a state corresponding with the light that is from God, and there is no getting over a spiritual state governed by God.
Then there is this remarkable incident of Jael at the end of the chapter. Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, and her husband had made a move of separation. They had separated from those mentioned in chapter 1, verse 16, who “had gone up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad, and they went and dwelt with the people”. There seems to have been an exercise to be in definite separation. So Heber leaves those mixed up with the people, and takes a more definite place of separation, and is a tent-dweller. There was a spiritual history behind Jael’s act. There was a measure of separation; still, there is peace between Heber and Sisera. There is another link to be separated; Jael had another step to take. Souls often move in a measure of separation, and sometimes [p. 135] they settle down, and stop and think they have come into separation, and perhaps there are some other links; they are going on in a peaceful and friendly way with something hostile to God. Jael took up this exercise; the point came when she felt nothing would do but uncompromising fidelity to Jehovah. There must be unsparing destruction of anything hostile to Jehovah. Sisera was an enemy to Jehovah, and so he must be killed. Jael represents the unsparing faithfulness to God that even a woman can be characterised by in her own sphere. “Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed among women in the tent!” She is in the tent; she acts in fidelity. The elder, John, writes to the elect lady, and admonishes her to be faithful in the tent. She is not even to give a man a salutation if he is not bringing the doctrine of Christ. There is to be no compromise. Sisera represented to Jael the whole power hostile to the people of God, and she acts towards him with unsparing decision. One might think that it was not a womanly act but it is an act God recognised as one which caused her to be blessed among women.
Jael pierced Sisera’s temples, suggesting the destruction of the whole mind of man. We have to destroy it in ourselves; Sisera is in ourselves. There is the constant presence of the power that would lead us to take low ground, causing us to serve ourselves, our own bellies. If we get to bottom, it is self, and that has to be killed; drive the tent-pin into that and kill it. It would typify every act of faithfulness done by a sister; for example, a man comes to the door who does not bring the doctrine of Christ, and she will not let him in or say good-morning; thus she secures victory for all the people of God. It is possible for a sister to destroy morally within her own sphere all that will be destroyed from the presence of the Lord when He comes. She can destroy every influence, every power that will be destroyed at the coming of the Lord.