Militant Women At War For Israel

Because of sin in the land, a turning away from Yehovah to the idols of Canaan, there was a call for militant women at war for Israel. Jabin, the king of Hazor, and his general Sissera had terrorized and kept Israel in bondage for twenty years. God awakened the woman Deborah to lead his people out of spiritual confusion and mount a militant rebellion and victorious campaign against the kings of Canaan.

Deborah the only woman judge of Israel

We discover Deborah under Deborah’s Palm Tree holding court, judging the people of Israel and calling them into their true covenantal relationship with Yehovah. God had given her a militant prophetic spirit and military skill which inspired to go to war for Israel. Deborah impressed upon Barak to assemble an army of ten thousand men for battle against the mighty forces and nine hundred iron chariots of Sisera. Although she declared that God had already given Barak the victory, he, filled with trepidation, retorted that he would go up to battle only if she went with him. And so she did. However, she warned him that another militant woman would get the honor of victory.

Deborah sets the stage for war

Deborah and Barak assembled their troops, mainly from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, at Kedesh; and from there, they marched up to mount Tabor. When Sisera heard that Barak and the modest Israelite were gone up to mount Tabor, he mobilized his army with all his nine hundred iron chariots and went out to set the battle in array by the river Kishon. Deborah shouted the battle cry saying, “arise, for this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand.”

The Lord routs Sisera for Deborah and Barak

As the battle ensued, Yehovah intervened on behalf of Barak and the Israelite army by moving the natural forces to pour down rain upon the mechanized elements of Sisera’s forces. The sudden change of rainry weather resulted in the clogging of chariot wheels which caused them to become bogged down in the mud of Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. Sisera’s apparent advantage swiftly turned into a detriment that enabled the Israelite army to rout the Canaanite forces, destroying them down to every man. Sisera alights from his chariot and beats a quick path into the hills while his remaining troops are being hunted down and killed.

Yehovah validates militant women at war for Israel

Sisera escaped from the scene and made his way to a Kenite off-shoot camp which had made a tenuous alliance with Jabin, king of the Canaanites. However, God had prepared another militant woman at war for Israel to meet him and entice him into a false sense of safety. Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, gave him comforting words, a comfortable blanket, milk for his thirst, and assurance that she would stand at the door for his security. Nevertheless, no sooner was he asleep than she took a tent pin and a hammer and nailed his head to the ground. When Barak came looking, Jael went out to welcome him and inform him that she had taken the honor of victory by being a militant woman at war for Israel.

Militant women at war for Israel may serve as a paradigm for women everywhere to employ their skills as well as their charms in the service of Yehovah to bring his people into a loving, covenantal, and safe relationship with him. It may possibly also serve as a cautionary tale to men who may demonstrate apathy in stepping up to the plate to assume spiritual and practical responsibility for leadership, while not discounting the power of militant women at war for God’s new Israel.