Jael: The Resourceful Church

Jael: The Resourceful Church
By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

    Continuing the series on Old Testament women who picture the Church, the Bride of Christ, we come to one of my favorites, Jael.  The story of Jael completes the story of Deborah.  When Barak and Deborah had defeated his army, Sisera fled on foot.  He was the only Canaanite soldier to survive the onslaught of the army of Israel.  Because her husband had made an alliance with the Canaanites, Sisera ran to the tent of Jael.

          “However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear." And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket.
    “Then he said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.  And he said to her, "Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, 'Is there any man here?' you shall say, 'No.' "
    “Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.”  Judges 4:17-21 (NKJV

    Jael’s name means “mountain goat”.  She represents those Christians who have not been “tamed” by the religious system.  She knows who she is and what she has in the Lord.  She understands the power in the gifts that God has given her.  She knows that He has more than adequately equipped her for the ministry to which He has called her.  She ignores the taunts of those who say, “You can’t do that” or “but we’ve always done it this way.”

    Jael may not have been skilled in the strategies of warfare nor the nuances of sword fighting, but she knew how to drive a tent peg.  Her husband had made an alliance with the enemy, but she had not.  Using what the Lord had given her, she struck a blow for truth and justice.

    Years later, David did the same thing when he eschewed the ill-fitting armor of Saul, picked up his sling-shot and went after Goliath.  We too often forget that God’s ways are not our ways. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NKJV). Both Jael and David went after the enemy with the weapons that the Lord had given them, not the weapons the most people would expect to use. They both fought God’s battle God’s way.

    God has equipped His saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.  (Ephesians 4:12).  We are all gifted. We do not all have the same gifts, but the gifts all have the same purpose, to advance the Kingdom of God.  As individuals, we must develop the gifts with which the Lord has blessed us. 

    We are experiencing changes in the way we have done Church in the past.  We need to be Christians with the spirit of Jael who are willing to step out of tradition and into the power of the Holy Spirit, Christians who are willing to use the gifts of the Spirit to advance the Kingdom of God by creatively using what God has given us. 

    Are you so “tamed” by the religious system that you are afraid to be a Jael, afraid to pick up your tent peg and go to battle for the Kingdom of God?  It is time to step out of fear, to step into faith and do what God has called us to do.