Judges 5:24 - Meaning and Application

Deborah ends this victory song with praise for Jael, her fellow heroine, whose brave act completed and crowned the triumph. Deborah had already mentioned Jael earlier as someone who would have served her country if she had been able (Judges 5:6). Now she praises her as one who did serve admirably when the chance came. Her poetry is richest and most glowing here at the end of the song.

How honorably Deborah speaks of Jael (Judges 5:24), who chose peace with the God of Israel over peace with the king of Canaan. Even if she was not an Israelite by birth, so far as we can tell, she warmly took Israel’s side in this critical moment. She risked her life as surely as if she had been out on the battlefield, and she bravely fought for the people she saw God was fighting for. “Most blessed among women in tents” means that those whose place is very small and hidden, if they serve God faithfully there, will not lose their reward. Jael in her tent receives as rich a blessing as Barak in the field.

Nothing is more humiliating, painful, and shameful than being disappointed. Deborah beautifully describes two great disappointments, and their shame points ahead to the lasting shame of sinners. First, Sisera found a deadly enemy where he expected a loyal friend. Jael showed him the kindness of a friend, and perhaps at that moment meant no more than kindness, until God gave her an immediate impulse to act otherwise (Judges 5:25). In that period, such direct impulses were to be respected, because they carried their own clear proof. They cannot be claimed in the same way now.

Sisera asked only for water to quench his thirst, but Jael gave him milk and brought out butter. Some think this means milk with the butter taken out of it, what we would call buttermilk. Others think it was milk with the butter still in it, what we would call cream. Whatever it was, it was likely the best her house had. To honor him, she brought it in a lordly dish, the finest one she owned, better than what she usually used at her table. This made Sisera even more sure of her friendship, and so he slept more soundly and confidently.

But then she became his mortal enemy and gave him his death blow, described closely in Judges 5:26-27. Jael appears strong and bold, hammering Sisera down, striking the proud man who had long been the terror of the mighty, and sending him to the grave with his sin on him (Ezekiel 32:27). She seems to have done it without fear, as if she were only driving a tent peg into a board, so sure was she of God’s help and protection. The text says she struck off his head, probably with his own sword, which she may have dared to take only after his head was fixed in place, and not before, for fear of waking him. Yet since the history does not mention cutting off his head, many think the better reading is that she struck through his head.

That head, which had been lifted up proudly against God and Israel, and in which bloody plans were being formed against God’s people, Jael found a soft spot and drove the nail into it with determination. Sisera then looked very small, fallen at Jael’s feet (Judges 5:27). At the feet of this woman acting as executioner, he bowed and fell. His efforts to save himself did nothing. She kept striking until he lay dead. There he is, the abandoned body of that proud man, not on a bed of honor, not in the high places of battle, not with a glorious wound from a shining sword or a steel bow, but in the corner of a tent, at a woman’s feet, with a shameful wound from a plain nail through his head. That is the end of proud men.

This also pictures the ruin of sinners whose comfort destroys them. Their prosperity flatters them like milk and butter in a lordly dish, as if it would make them safe and happy. But it nails their minds and hearts to the ground in worldliness, and pierces them with many sorrows. Its flattery is deadly, and in the end it sinks them into ruin and destruction (1 Timothy 6:9-10).

Second, Sisera’s mother received the news of her son’s fall and ruin while she was eagerly expecting his glorious return (Judges 5:28-30). She longed to see his chariot come back in triumph. Her words show less concern for his safety than for his glory. She was not afraid he had failed, because she was certain of his success. She was impatient to see the honor of it, and in her weakness she chided the chariot for lingering, not realizing that her unhappy son had already been forced to leave the very chariot she was so proud of. The chariots of his glory had become the shame of his house (Isaiah 22:18).

We should be careful about wanting any temporary good too eagerly, especially when it feeds pride and vain glory, which is what she loved here. Eagerness and impatience in our desires often hurt us and make disappointment harder to bear. But toward the second coming of Jesus Christ and the glory of that day, we should feel like this: “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” There we will not be disappointed.

Her foolish hope was that he would arrive in even greater splendor. Her wise ladies answered her and thought they were giving a good reason for the delay. One of them, speaking with false confidence, said, “Have they not found and divided the spoil?” In their imaginations, the delay meant only that the soldiers were busy sharing the plunder. Their thoughts turned to the prizes they expected. They shamelessly boasted of the many young women the soldiers would have abused, a disgrace to their sex. They also delighted like children in the thought of Sisera wearing a richly colored mantle, with embroidery on both sides, taken from an Israelite woman’s wardrobe. That same hope is repeated because it pleased them most of all, a splendid piece of needlework they imagined Sisera would bring back for his mother and her ladies.

We are quick to fool ourselves with big hopes for honor, pleasure, and wealth in this world. Those hopes can end in shame and sorrow when they collapse. In the same way, God often brings down his enemies when they are at their highest and feel safest.

Deborah ends with a prayer to God. First, she asks for the ruin of all his enemies: “So, shamefully and miserably, let all your enemies perish, Lord. Let all who hope to triumph over Israel’s ruin be disappointed and brought low.” This is the same idea as the prayer in (Psalm 83:9). We should pray for our enemies, but God’s enemies, as such, are to be prayed against. When we see some of God’s enemies humbled in a striking way, that should encourage us to pray for the fall of the rest. Deborah was a prophetess, a woman who spoke for God, and her prayer also points ahead to what would happen in time to all God’s enemies (Psalm 92:9). No one ever set his heart against God and truly prospered.

Second, she prays for the lifting up and comfort of all who belong to God. “But let those who love him, and sincerely want good for his kingdom among people, be like the sun when it rises in full strength.” Let them shine clearly before the world, spread a good influence, and be beyond the reach of those who hate them. Their enemies curse the rising sun because it burns them, but God’s people should rejoice like a strong man running a race (Psalm 19:5). As lights that burn and shine in their places, they should drive away darkness and grow brighter and stronger until the perfect day comes (Proverbs 4:18). This is the honor and joy of all who truly love God, and they will shine forever like the sun in their Father’s sky.

The victory celebrated in this song had good results for Israel. For most of a whole generation, they enjoyed the peace it made possible. The land had rest forty years, from this victory until God raised up Gideon. It would have been much better if, when the churches and tribes had peace, they had also grown in strength and walked in the fear of the Lord.