Judg 4:1-2 | KingComments | STEP | In this chapter God uses two women for the deliverance of His people. They are Deborah and Jael. He thereby shows that His power is accomplished in weakness ( ). Women represent weakness ( ). This fact also indicates that at that moment there is no suitable man in Israel who can be used by God. If God has to use women for such services, it is to the shame of man. At the same time, this history is a great encouragement for all women who fear God and want to be used by Him. They are taught here how God wants to use them as a blessing for His people. Again the truth is proved of what is said in Judges 2 ( ). The man who led the deliverance of the people has died. The good influence he had on the people has thus disappeared. If good leaders are lacking, the people become rudderless and give in to all kinds of evil. The eighty years of rest ( ) did not make the situation better, but worse. For the fourth time we read the expression that the Israelites “did evil in the sight of the LORD”.

‏ Judges 4:1-2

Introduction

In this chapter God uses two women for the deliverance of His people. They are Deborah and Jael. He thereby shows that His power is accomplished in weakness (2Cor 12:9a). Women represent weakness (1Pet 3:7). This fact also indicates that at that moment there is no suitable man in Israel who can be used by God. If God has to use women for such services, it is to the shame of man.

At the same time, this history is a great encouragement for all women who fear God and want to be used by Him. They are taught here how God wants to use them as a blessing for His people.

After the Death of Ehud

Again the truth is proved of what is said in Judges 2 (Jdg 2:19). The man who led the deliverance of the people has died. The good influence he had on the people has thus disappeared. If good leaders are lacking, the people become rudderless and give in to all kinds of evil. The eighty years of rest (Jdg 3:30) did not make the situation better, but worse. For the fourth time we read the expression that the Israelites “did evil in the sight of the LORD”.

Jabin and Sisera

The enemy now used by God is in the north of Israel. For twenty years, from 1257-1237 BC, the people were oppressed by this enemy. About 130 years earlier Joshua had to deal with the same enemy (Jos 11:10-11). Apparently this enemy was then completely destroyed. Here he appears to be alive again. An old enemy revives.

Therein lies an important lesson. Satan knows exactly how to revive old errors and evil, and he also knows how to use them to bring the people of God back into slavery. This is also true in our lives. We are dealing with a defeated enemy, but he is still alive and trying to subdue the people of God. He will only be definitively eliminated in the future. That’s how it will be with the devil.

In the names mentioned in this verse, we can find out more about this enemy. The meaning of the names is always about his character, his way of working. The enemy can take many forms. Each time he adapts to the situation. Fortunately, God always has an adequate answer to all these methods. Jabin means ‘insight’, ‘intellect’, ‘wisdom’. It is a wisdom that is contrary to God’s, a wisdom that is not from above, but that is “earthly, natural, demonic” (Jam 3:15). It is the wisdom of the world which is made foolishness by God (1Cor 1:20).

It seems that the name Jabin is a kind of title that indicates a position, like ‘pharaoh’ in Egypt and ‘Herod’ in Israel and ‘Abimelech’ with the Philistines. It is not the same man as in Joshua 11, but another person with the same name. Hazor means ‘enclosed’, ‘enclosed area’. Sisera means ‘battle-order’.

In connection with the names, we can see this enemy as the wisdom of the world, the human intellect, which rules in its own closed area and which rejects and excludes what is of God. As soon as the reason of the human intellect is given free rein in the things of God, God is shut out of the equation. Usefulness reasoning assert itself while there is no longer asking what God says about a particular matter in the Bible. An example of this we have in the meeting together of believers, to which different people give different interpretations. Many things have been arranged there by people who are not to be found in Scripture.

Whoever does ask for God’s standards will find ‘Sisera’ opposite him. They are people who act in ‘order of battle’ to silence the ‘obstructers’. This is a recognizable situation in large parts of professing Christianity. We can read in 2 Corinthians 10 how Paul, that is to say the Holy Spirit, deals with enemies like “Jabin” and “Sisera”, an example which can be imitated by us (2Cor 10:5).