“D’vorah said to Barak: ‘Get going! This is the day when Adonai will hand Sisra over to you! Adonai has gone out ahead of you!’ So Barak went down from Mount Tavor with 10,000 men following him.”-Judges 4:14
Devorah sounds the battle cry and tells Barak to get a move on!!!
Because God has handed Sisera and his army over to him!!!
Devorah must have been standing shoulder to shoulder with Barak when she made the announcement.
Because the very next sentence tells us Barak and his men IMMEDIATELY descended from the plateau of Mount Tavor to attack Sisera and his men.
Once things got started at the western area of the Jezreel Valley, we’re told the Lord threw the Canaanite men into such a panic they abandoned their chariots and began running off.
The battle had ended before it ever really got started.
You may be wondering why in the heck would the Canaanite soldiers leave their chariots given they were the most feared weapons of their time in this era?
The quick and simple answer is that yes, the chariots were indeed powerful weapons but they were huge and unwieldy.
They also had a team of horses attached to them.
So it takes time to get them moving.
I’m sure some lucky soldiers were able to take control of their chariots and head back to their home base in the “Forest of the Gentiles” or Harosheth-HaGoyim.
However, the vast majority who were unable to escape were slaughtered by the Israelite soldiers.
But the battle wasn’t done.
There was still one man left who they had to kill to make the victory complete.
And that man was Sisera.
That’s right, the leader of Israel’s enemy forces had successfully escaped and was making a ferocious bee line to the city of Hatzor.
Why did Sisera decide to flee to the royal city of Hatzor instead of joining his men who had escaped to the Forest of the Gentiles?
Well he knew the military campsite of Hever the Kenite was nearby.
And this was the group who had allied themselves with the Canaanites.
So he figured it would be the perfect place to hide and rest up before deciding what to do next.
As soon as he entered the tent village, he ran into Hever’s wife whose name was Yael.
Literally, Yael means “mountain goat”.
Also, the fact this was a tent village lets us know these Kenites were living a nomadic or Bedouin lifestyle
Their whole lifestyle was about wandering around with their animals to find pasture and then pitching their tents in varying locations at different times.
At this point, I need to remind you the culture of the ancient Middle East greatly valued hospitality.
Recall the story from the book of Genesis when a gang of rapists started banging on Lot’s door demanding they hand over the 2 men who were his house guests one evening so they could have sex with them.
Do you remember what Lot did?
Rather than hand over his house guests, Lot instead offered up his two daughters to be raped by the gang of men.
I know this sounds unbelievable but that was all about hospitality.
And here’s the thing, for nomads, hospitality was considered even more sacred.
Bedouins wouldn’t think twice about giving up their lives to protect guests or strangers who had entered into their territory.
Their friendliness and generosity was well known in those days.
So Sisera assumed he would be protected when he entered the neighborhood of Hever the Kenite.
What he didn’t know was that he was playing into God’s trap.
And that the stage had been set for Devorah’s prophecy that the glory for the victory over Sisera would go to a woman.
We’ll continue with this the next time we meet.
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