MAVERICKS (Judges 5:1-31)
INTRODUCTION:
We have already noted two differences in Judges 5 that set it apart from the rest of the book of Judges. The first difference in this chapter is that this is a song instead of narrative, poetry instead of prose. The second difference we noted last Sunday and that is the prominence this chapter gives to mothers, highlighting two mothers in its 31 verses. This morning we are going to come at this song from another angle, and that angle is the role of mavericks in this chapter. All of these mavericks are characters in this history that we have looked at before but this morning we will look at them from a little bit different angle. But before we dive into this subject, I must make sure that you understand what I am talking about. What is a maverick?
The term comes from the name of a man by the name of Samuel Augustus Maverick. He was born on July 23, 1803; and died on September 2, 1870. Samuel Augustus Maverick was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron, and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. His name became the source of the word maverick because Mr. Maverick annoyed his neighbors, the ranchers who lived near him, by refusing to brand his cattle. In time “maverick” became the term for unbranded cattle and eventually it came to refer to someone who refused to conform to others’ expectations. The Meriam-Webster online dictionary defines maverick as “a person who refuses to follow the customs or rules of a group.”[1] The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines it as “a person who thinks and acts in an independent way, often behaving differently from the expected or usual way.”[2] Mavericks tend to be irritating people, the level of their annoyance is what determines if they will be accepted or not. Rejecting mavericks can be a big mistake, because mavericks are sometimes the most creative, innovative thinkers in a group. They think outside the box and see possibilities to which others are blind. Mavericks are those in companies and businesses that keep them from becoming so set in their ways that they can’t adapt and change when that is exactly what is needed. This is true in the church as well, an inability to tolerate mavericks and appreciate the contributions they make can lead to disaster. They may be annoying, they may be irritating, but we need them. In Judges 5 there are at least three mavericks. The first is Deborah herself. We have already considered her as a mother, but we will look at her from this new angle this morning and then we will look at the two other mavericks in this chapter.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Let’s read this chapter one more time, turn in your Bibles to Judges 5. Please stand, if you are able, in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Judges 5:1-31,
“Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying, ‘That the leaders led in Israel, That the people volunteered, Bless the Lord! Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers! I—to the Lord, I will sing, I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel. Lord, when You went out from Seir, When You marched from the field of Edom, The earth quaked, the heavens also dripped, Even the clouds dripped water. The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord, This Sinai, at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, And travelers went by roundabout ways. The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel, Until I, Deborah, arose, Until I arose, a mother in Israel. New gods were chosen; Then war was in the gates. Not a shield or a spear was seen Among forty thousand in Israel. My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel, The volunteers among the people; Bless the Lord! You who ride on white donkeys, You who sit on rich carpets, And you who travel on the road—sing! At the sound of those who divide flocks among the watering places, There they shall recount the righteous deeds of the Lord, The righteous deeds for His peasantry in Israel. Then the people of the Lord went down to the gates. Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and take away your captives, O son of Abinoam. Then survivors came down to the nobles; The people of the Lord came down to me as warriors. From Ephraim those whose root is in Amalek came down, Following you, Benjamin, with your peoples; From Machir commanders came down, And from Zebulun those who wield the staff of office. And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; As was Issachar, so was Barak; Into the valley they rushed at his heels; Among the divisions of Reuben There were great resolves of heart. Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, To hear the piping for the flocks? Among the divisions of Reuben There were great searchings of heart. Gilead remained across the Jordan; And why did Dan stay in ships? Asher sat at the seashore, And remained by its landings. Zebulun was a people who despised their lives even to death, And Naphtali also, on the high places of the field. The kings came and fought; Then fought the kings of Canaan At Taanach near the waters of Megiddo; They took no plunder in silver. The stars fought from heaven, From their courses they fought against Sisera. The torrent of Kishon swept them away, The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. O my soul, march on with strength. Then the horses’ hoofs beat From the dashing, the dashing of his valiant steeds. “Curse Meroz,” said the angel of the Lord, “Utterly curse its inhabitants; Because they did not come to the help of the Lord, To the help of the Lord against the warriors.” Most blessed of women is Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite; Most blessed is she of women in the tent. He asked for water and she gave him milk; In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds. She reached out her hand for the tent peg, And her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. Then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head; And she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; Between her feet he bowed, he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell dead. Out of the window she looked and lamented, The mother of Sisera through the lattice, “Why does his chariot delay in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry?” Her wise princesses would answer her, Indeed she repeats her words to herself, “Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoil? A maiden, two maidens for every warrior; To Sisera a spoil of dyed work, A spoil of dyed work embroidered, Dyed work of double embroidery on the neck of the spoiler?” Thus let all Your enemies perish, O Lord; But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might.’ And the land was undisturbed for forty years.” (Judges 5:1–31, NASB95)[3]
DEBORAH (Judges 5:7)
Deborah could be called a maverick leader. We looked at her rise to prominence in chapter 4. Judges 5 describe the desperate times Israel was in when Deborah was judging the sons of Israel by deciding and settling internal disputes. As a prophetess of God, she summoned Barak and charged him by the word of the LORD to deliver Israel from her enemies. Both chapter 4 and chapter 5 make it clear to us that Deborah is on the side of God and His people, but she does this in a way that is not the normal way. Remember that Deborah lives in a patriarchal society, where everyone knows and understands that God has given the responsibility of headship of the home and the nation to men. But here we see Deborah judging the nation and giving orders to a man in the name of God. What are we to think of this? There are at least three things that come to mind that we must look at to understand this role of Deborah’s as a judge and prophetess.
First, Deborah is the only woman in the whole book of Judges to be employed in public leadership, and one of the few in the Bible to do so. This is what we would expect if we paid close attention to the way the Bible opens. Adam was created first and Eve was created to be his companion and helpmate. When Adam and Eve sinned, it is Adam that is first called to account, because as the leader in the relationship he is the one who bears ultimate responsibility. From that point on it is men who are seen in the role of leadership—Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar. Abraham is the first person to be called a prophet, then Moses and from this we get the expectation that for the future God will raise up more men to be prophets, like Moses. Miriam, the sister of Moses, is called a prophetess in Exodus 15:20 but only once and it is in her role of leading the women in a song of praise to God. There is simply no example for what Deborah does in Judges 4, nor does this bring about a change in Israel after her. No other judge or prophet in the book of Judges is a woman. In the rest of the Old Testament there are only three women in Israel mentioned, Athaliah, a wicked woman, briefly set herself up as queen and the reigning monarch in Judah. Huldah, a prophetess speaks a message from God in 2 Kings 22:14-20, this same event is recorded in 2 Chronicles 34:22-28. One other unknown prophetess, Noadiah is mentioned in a prayer in Nehemiah 6:14. These three like Deborah are the exception rather than the rule, and even among these Deborah stands alone in judging and prophesying. Deborah stands out as the exception in her position.
Second, Deborah arrives on the scene and leads Israel in a very difficult and chaotic time. As we have learned in this book, it is about the kind of chaos that occurs when Israel forsakes the LORD, abandoning covenant faithfulness and everyone does what is right in his own eyes. In these conditions it should not surprise us if extraordinary things occur, and that most of them are bad. Deborah’s leadership is one of those things that rose out of this chaos. Could her leadership simply be characteristic of the general chaotic conditions of the time? Perhaps, except for one final, very important consideration.
This third and final consideration must be understood in light of the way in which the history of Deborah is told in Judges 4 and 5, it clearly tells us that she was not an active part of the disorder of the times. In fact, it clearly shows that she was just the opposite, she is a healer of Israel’s brokenness. She is not part of the problem, on the contrary she is a key player in the solution to the problem. What’s more, she, herself, recognizes the limits to what is proper for her to do, even in these extraordinary circumstances. She summons and commissions Barack who is recognized elsewhere in Scripture as the one who delivered Israel from their oppressor. Leading Israel in battle was man’s work, and Deborah is satisfied to support Barak in his role as military leader rather than assume that role herself. In other words, Deborah has no issue with male headship and understands the difference between male and female roles. This song celebrates Deborah rather than judging or criticizing her and it makes it clear that if she is a maverick, she is God’s maverick, chosen and raised up for this time, and for this reason she is worthy of praise.
JAEL (Judges 5:24-27)
Jael is our next maverick and we could call her the maverick mother. She is more complex and harder to figure out than Deborah. We met her in chapter 4 and talked about her there. So, this morning we will look at her and the aspects that justify seeing her as a maverick.
First, we must admit that Jael has an obscure background. She is a Kenite, this clan is only related to Israel by marriage, they are descendants of Moses father-in-law Jethro. They fought with Judah to take over the southern part of Israel and they settled in the south, in the Negeb in the territory allotted to Judah. However, in chapter 4 we were told that Jael’s husband Heber had separated from his relatives and moved his clan north and settled on the border of the tribes of Naphtali and Issachar near the place where the men of Naphtali and Zebulun gathered to Barak for battle. While living in this place, Heber attached himself to Jabin, king of Hazor, who was Israel’s enemy and oppressor. It is because of the peace between Jabin and Heber that Sisera flees to the Kenite’s tents hoping to find refuge. In Israel’s eyes, Jael was an outsider, a member of a splinter group that deserted them and made peace with the oppressor.
Second, Jael is a rebel. She is an independent woman, and like Rahab the harlot she chooses to break with her own clan and side with Israel. Because of this Jael is either a traitor or she is returning to the people the Kenites came with into the land. Like Deborah, Jael lived in a patriarchal world and for her to defy her husband took tremendous courage. This is what Jael did, she refuses to follow Heber in his betrayal of Israel. To the singers of Judges 5, Jael is a hero.
Third, Jael is unconventional. What I mean is she like a good maverick did things differently. In a world where men exercised all the power, she outpowers them all. Think about it, she draws two powerful men into her tent, Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s military forces, and Barak, the commander of Israel’s resistance force. Once she has them in her tent, she single-handedly unmakes them both, Sisera by killing and Barak by denying him the honor of killing Sisera, his enemy, man-to-man. Judges 4 has a bit of a play on words to express this in the Hebrew. In Hebrew, the word man is ish and the word translated “no” is ayin which means “nothing.” Judges 4:20 says, “He [Barak] said to her [Jael], ‘Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone [ish, literally any man] comes and inquires of you, and says, “Is there anyone (ish, again any man] here?’ that you shall say, “No. [ayin]”’” (Judges 4:20, NASB95)[4] The ish who comes to the door of Jael’s tent is Barak, the ish who is inside her tent is Sisera, but they both become ayin (nothing) in Jael’s hands. There will be no man in Jael’s tent when she is done with her work. Both will be unmanned by this woman. Yet understand that she is not a usurper of male power and so she was no radical feminist. She takes only what is given to her, for it is the LORD who took the honor from Barak by selling Sisera into the hands of a woman. Since it is God who honors Jael in this way in chapter 4, it is fitting that Israel should honor her to in this song in chapter 5. She may be unconventional, but she is praiseworthy.
Fourth and finally, Jael is not nice. Remember last week we considered the prominence of mothers in Judges 5, Deborah, a mother in Israel and Sisera’s mother, a grieving mother. Jael, too, is a kind of mother, notice how she treats Sisera in Judges 5:24-27, “Most blessed of women is Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite; Most blessed is she of women in the tent. He asked for water and she gave him milk; In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds. She reached out her hand for the tent peg, And her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. Then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head; And she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; Between her feet he bowed, he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell dead.” (Judges 5:24–27, NASB95)[5]
Jael behaves like a mother—up to a point. She calms Sisera’s fears, she covers him up, she gives him milk, she hushes him to sleep. Then drives a tent peg through his skull and into the ground. That is not nice. Jael may be “most blessed of women,” but would you like to be married to her? I wonder if Heber was able to sleep at night. If you have this kind of wife, you work extremely hard to sleep with your eyes open and you hide all sharp objects, because Jael is not safe and respectable. She is a seriously dangerous woman. She is a maverick to be sure, even turning motherhood upside down. But she is most blessed because she chose to stand with God and His people. She took risks for them, even denying her own husband, and it was to her that God gave the honor of striking the blow that ended once for all Jabin and Sisera’s oppression of Israel. Let’s look at one more maverick in this chapter, we could easily miss him because he is only mentioned in passing.
SHAMGAR (Judge 5:6)
We could not close this message on mavericks without mentioning Shamgar the maverick savior. We have already considered Shamgar in a message devoted to him, so I will not have much to say about him. Not saying much fits in well with this song that just mentions him in passing. But we must notice when he is mentioned how he is linked to Jael. Listen to verse six, “In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the highways were deserted, And travelers went by roundabout ways.” (Judges 5:6, NASB95)[6] The author could have easily left Shamgar out of this song altogether but by mentioning him he is making clear that he wants us to remember him when we think of Jael. Shamgar and Jael are linked by time and circumstances; “…the days of Shamgar” and “the days of Jael” had circumstances that were very comparable: Israel was in desperate circumstances. The two of them, Shamgar and Jael, have a lot more in common than this. Both have obscure backgrounds, Jael because she belonged to a clan that betrayed Israel and sided with the enemy; Shamgar because he probably was not even an Israelite at all. We have already seen that his name Shamgar, the son of Anath, suggests that his family was Canaanite or at least tainted in some way with Canaanite religion. As far as their backgrounds are concerned, Jael and Shamgar are not respectable, they are not the sort of people you want your sons or daughters marrying.
They were similar as well in their choice of unconventional weapons: Jael used a tent peg and a hammer to do away with Sisera, Shamgar used an ox goad to kill the Philistines. Both of them take us by surprise. Neither seem to be the type to take violent action. Jael is a woman, Shamgar a farmer. We are at least given a little preparation with Jael, knowing that God was going to sell Sisera into the hands of a woman, but in the case of Shamgar there is no such preparation. Shamgar is just shocking, the background he comes from, the suddenness of his appearance, and the scale and violence of his actions. He is a maverick if ever there was one. But the author makes it clear that Shamgar also was part of God’s plan for the people of Israel, Shamgar was a man God used to save His people.
CONCLUSION:
If we were to look closely at the book of Judges, we would find that there are a lot of mavericks in it. Ehud was a left-handed assassin, Shamgar was probably a Canaanite, Deborah was a woman, Barak was reluctant, Jael was from a Kenite splinter group, Gideon was fearful, Jephthah was an outcast and gang leader, Samson was a womanizer. In fact, with the exception of Othniel all the judges were mavericks in one way or another. None of them were normal in terms of their backgrounds or social acceptability. But if the names of the judges mentioned in Hebrews 11:32 are representative of them all, then we can say, at their best, they accomplished great things for God by faith. None of them were too warped or tainted for God to use to save His people. And with that said, there are several lessons we can learn from this.
First, we can learn something about God. We learn from Judges that God can and does at times use people with whom we are not completely comfortable. This can be a struggle for us, it can be annoying or irritating, but we must be humble enough to accept and respond to such people as our brothers and sisters in Christ and be open to what God has to teach us through them. We must thank God for mavericks.
Second, Judges warns us not to become so set in our ways in our Christian culture, including our theology that what is generally true becomes the whole truth or the absolute truth. When we do this, we leave no room to grow and no room to deal with exceptions to what is normal. Deborah’s leadership as a prophetess and judge was an exception to what was expected but it was right in the circumstances. If we were to condemn her for exercising headship as a woman, we would be completely opposed to what Judges 4 and 5 are telling us. Exceptional circumstances require exceptional solutions, and God reserves to Himself the freedom to act in ways that are outside what we would consider the norm and confound our expectations. Church families that are not able to cope with God not fitting in their mold eventually become sects, and they will always reject mavericks as enemies. The Pharisees are a classic example. They believed they had figured it all out when it came to keeping the Law. So, when Jesus healed on the Sabbath and declared all food clean, they could not learn from that, it went against everything they practiced. The only response they were capable of was condemning Jesus as a lawbreaker. Another example is Job’s friends, they fell into the same error. Their theology of reward and punishment was right as far as it went, but they simply couldn’t see that Job was an exception. So, instead of being his comforters, they became his judges and tormentors.
This can be very hard for us who are committed to being faithful to what the Bible teaches. What we sometimes miss or fail to see is that the Bible itself allows for exceptions to what would ideally be the case and in this way, it refuses to let us put God in a box. We must always be ready to admit when we see a blind spot in our Christian culture or our theology. In other words, we must be able to sing, rather than mutter when God does something extraordinary.
Finally, there is a warning here about confusing godliness with respectability. Deborah may have been respectable even though she broke some cultural norms. Jael and Shamgar were not respectable. Respectability has never been a reliable source to point us to which side people are on, this is true for those in the Bible and those in the history of Christianity. The more respectable the church becomes, the less real, the less salty, the more it becomes like a country club and the less authentically Christian it will be. Jesus was not respectable, nor were His disciples. In the end a church that has no place for mavericks will have no place for Jesus and no place for the Gospel.
[1]Merriam-Webster, s.v. “maverick,” accessed November 4, 2021. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mavericks
[2]Cambridge Dictionary (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021. https://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/ us/dictionary/english/maverick
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.