A, Pentecost 27 Proper 28 - Judges 4:1-24 "The Queen Bee"

Joshua led the people of Israel out of the Sinai wilderness across the Jordan into the land of Milk and Honey. He finished what God had commanded Moses to do and led the Israelites into Canaan.

However, once the land was conquered and Joshua sent the tribes off to possess the land, Joshua died and he was not replaced. So there was no single leader to direct the twelve tribes in the ways of the Lord as they went about their business in the land they had acquired.

It was during this time that God raised up judges. These judges didn’t hand down sentences in the way a judge might today. They were called by God to put right what had gone wrong. Therefore, these judges were more like a sheriff from a wild-west town, who was given authority to right wrongs between individuals for the sake of the community.

Just like a wild-west society lawlessness was also at a premium in the days of Israel’s inhabitation as God’s people became an authority to themselves. A phrase in the Book of Judges is repeated over and over again, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” The authority of God, which had earlier come from God in his word, spoken by Moses and Joshua, was now being forgotten.

Why was God’s Word, and his statutes, being forgotten? It was basically a failure of vocation! People were no longer doing what they were supposed to be doing. The roles in society needed for orderliness were crumbling. Those stationed in positions of authority were avoiding their responsibilities and those called to remain under the authority of others were not doing so.

God had commanded the Israelites to teach, speak, bear, and live all his decrees and statutes before their children. His command was that they made his word alive by speaking it to the following generations, but this wasn’t happening. Therefore, people were deliberately sinning against God’s law, and there were also those who sinned in ignorance because they had not been taught.

In this time God raised up judges. However, one he raised up was a judge different from all others. God raised up a woman to sheriff the community of Israel, and her name was Deborah. This is peculiar and it shows just how bad things had become. Disobedience of vocational responsibilities had become so great God had to work outside the box to bring orderliness back to Israel.

We do well to hear the whole story, and as we listen take note of Deborah and Jael, the other woman in the story, and see how they act in relation to the men around them.

1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.

4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” 9 “Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honour will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.

12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.

17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.

18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.

19 “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

20 “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say ‘No.’”

21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.

23 On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him. (Judges 4:1-24)

Notice it is Deborah who was taking court under the palm tree. This woman was settling the disputes of the Israelites. One has to wonder, where were the elders and the leading men of the villages? It was custom for the men to sit at the town gates and take court, to settle matters people had with each other.

But it is Deborah who was bringing order when it should have been the leading tribesmen. In fact, Deborah is the Hebrew name for a bee, and comes from a word which means to subdue, command, speak, or arrange. And so we can see the orderliness of a bee hive and see how the bees work as one under the queen bee for the benefit of the hive. Similarly God used Deborah to bring order once again to the hive in the land of honey, the land of Canaan.

Where it might be normal for the commanding bee to be a queen, it is not customary for a woman to lead in Israel. So what might seem to us today as a sign of equality and political correctness is, in fact, a marker that something was completely out of wack with the orderly society of Israel, as God had originally intended for them in the land of milk and honey!

The evil done in the sight of the Lord, had reached a new depth. The dominion and subduing was left to Deborah while those entrusted with God’s leadership — within individual families, groups of families, and the twelve tribes — did evil in the eyes of the Lord, appearing more as drones in the hive than leaders leading the nation out of sin.

Deborah was the wife to Lappidoth, and his name means wormwood, with connotations of being cursed or poisonous. Not surprisingly due to the evil of the Israelites, they had become cursed and poisonous to God. So God called Deborah to lead Israel, and she called Barak to go in the name of the Lord and take on Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army.

The Israelites in their evil brought continual oppression on themselves as Jabin reigned down terror on them, but Jabin was no slouch. His name gives testimony to this, as Jabin means to be cunning, to be a perceiver, and one who is intelligent. He must have thought, “If a woman was leading the Israelite, then there has to be problems on the home front!”

Added to this was Barak’s whimpish response when Deborah commanded him to rally men to fight. He wouldn’t go unless Deborah went. Barak wasn’t even bold enough to fulfil his vocation of leading God’s army into battle, even though the attack had been commanded by God. The ways of the Lord had surely been forgotten as they placed their fear in a force other than God. Therefore, Deborah promised Barak, on behalf of God that Sisera would be handed over to a woman and honour would not fall to him.

God clearly worked through Deborah, Jabin’s army was defeated and slain. Jabin’s general, Sisera, fled to the home of Heber the Kentite. Heber welcomed him and Sisera commands Heber’s wife, Jael, to hide him. He tells her to stand at the door and lie for him, telling Sisera’s pursuers that he is not there.

Ironically we’ve heard how Deborah took the place of men in court, which was usually done at the gate of the town, and now another woman is called to stand at the entrance of her home protecting a man cowering from his enemy. But Jael whose name means to do good, or ascend (like that of a wild goat up a mountain), rises to the occasion and kills Sisera as he hides. Just as Deborah had forecast, the honour went to a woman, when Sisera was handed over to Jael.

At this time of rebellion, God restored stability through Deborah. The queen bee had ordered the hive, and it remained that way for another forty years.

We do well to reflect and meditate on this piece of Israel’s history in these days as God is forgotten more and more, as fathers fail to foster the faith in their families, as family authority is undermined time and time again. Isn’t it time men in our society stood up once again in the vocations into which God has called them? That women be encouraged to take hold of the extraordinary vocations God has created for them! That men and woman be subject to one and other out of reverence to Jesus Christ, while fulfilling the necessary and critical functions that benefit our whole society!

Shouldn’t we once again encourage those in authority to be students of God’s word, so we might fulfil our vocations to teach, speak, bear, and live the word of God, in our homes, in our communities, and in our country?

Even greater than the statutes and laws of Deborah’s time is the greater gift of the Gospel we bear today.

Surely our vocation as Christians is to teach, speak, bear, and live the daily forgiveness that comes to us from Jesus’ death on the cross. If we as pastors and parents don’t teach, speak, bear, and live Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins, who will?

Let every one of us stand under the authority God places over us, so he can put us right. So we might be judged right in his sight! And in doing so may he use us in his kingdom, to work through us, to teach and lead others to where true forgiveness and eternal peace can be found. Amen.