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failure in headship. Barak’s is a passive forthrightness in speaking for God and
failure – a lack of courage leading to dis- the richness of her song make it clear that
obedience. Heber’s is active – in location there is much about this godly woman that
and allegiance he led his family away from is worthy of imitation, but her public roles
the people of God. One failure takes place are, by the general standards of Scripture,
in the leadership of God’s people, the other an aberration.
in the leadership of a home. Both create To acknowledge this is not to criticise
situations that result in women moving Deborah or Jael. But without censuring
beyond the normal scriptural roles for them or undervaluing their work for
women. God, we must recognise that the fact that
That is certainly true of Jael’s actions. they had to undertake that work in the
She is not the only woman in Scripture first place is symptomatic of a failure of
– or even in the book of Judges – to be headship, not on the part of these women,
responsible for the death of an oppres- but on the part of the men who failed to
sor. But the circumstances of her slaying discharge the responsibilities given them
of Sisera are more ambiguous than is the by God. This is an important lesson. We
case with the other female assassin in the are dismayed, and rightly so, when we
book (9:53). In the ancient eastern world, see sisters seeking a sphere that Scripture
hospitality brought obligations that were does not give them. But before jumping to
all but sacred, and Jael’s actions flout condemn their actions, we would do well
them comprehensively. Her willingness to examine whether the real root of the
to act independently of her husband, to problem is a failure on the part of broth-
the extent of breaking his pact with Jabin, ers to exercise headship. Such failures do
would also have seemed reprehensible not, of course, justify departure from the
by the standards of the time. Our view of Word of God, but it is vital that we address
her actions must be shaped by Deborah’s the causes, and not just the symptoms, of
enthusiastic endorsement of them in the departure.
following chapter, but those actions are None of this should lessen our admira-
clearly exceptional rather than exemplary. tion for Jael’s faithfulness, nor should it
Indeed, the whole point of Jael’s role in cause us to lose sight of a second important
these events is that it is extraordinary, as is lesson that her story presents to us. This
emphasised by Deborah’s words to Barak: is the way in which God, providentially,
“The journey that thou takest shall not be ordered her circumstances. The narrative
for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell draws our attention to this in 4:11: “Now
Sisera into the hand of a woman” (4:9). Heber the Kenite, which was of the chil-
Deborah, too, is a woman out of place. dren of Hobab the father in law of Moses,
In spite of numerous efforts to make her a had severed himself from the Kenites, and
model for the public ministry of women in pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim,
the present dispensation, honesty requires which is by Kedesh.” This information,
us to acknowledge that, even by Old Testa- which interrupts the description of Barak’s
ment standards, her role as a prophetess preparations for battle, is a non sequitur
is exceptional. Even more exceptional, in the narrative, and its unexpectedness
as the text makes plain, is her co-option, should draw our attention to it. It is only
by Barak, as a military leader. Deborah’s when we get to verse 17 that the point of
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