Judges 5:24-27 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.… I. THE DIFFICULTY IS NOT TO BE SURMOUNTED BY DENYING THE INSPIRATION OF DEBORAH'S UTTERANCE. If this were so — if it might be maintained that Deborah is wrong when she pronounces Jael blessed — how are we to know that she is right in her other statements? Upon what principle are we to draw the exact line of demarcation? II. IN WHAT SENSE ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND DEBORAH'S LANGUAGE, AND HOW ARE WE TO RECONCILE IT WITH WHAT WOULD SEEM, AT FIRST SIGHT, TO BE THE TRUE CHARACTER OF JAEL'S ACTION? 1. Sisera's life was, in Deborah's judgment, rightly forfeited. He was the Lord's enemy. He represented, in Deborah's eye — (1) An impure and cruel system of idolatry, which had been sentenced to extermination by God; (2) a long career of plunder and murder, which had brought untold miseries upon the poor peasants of Naphtali and Zebulun. 2. Deborah's language about Jael is relative language. (1) Relative to the conduct of other persons than Jael. The contrast is really between the motive and the absence of motive; between the will to do what is right and the absence of will. (2) Relative to the time and circumstances in which Jael lived, and to the opportunities at her command; or, rather, to the absence of such opportunities. Jael's loyalty to Israel, and to the one ray of truth she knew, is admirable; the method she chose for expressing her loyalty, though for her quite a matter of course and custom, is deplorable. For acting fully up to all the light she possessed she deserved the meed of praise awarded her by Deborah. III. CONCLUDING LESSONS. 1. Note the equitableness of Deborah's estimate of Jael. How often do we, in our judgment of others, measure their failures by some standard of which they have never heard, and refuse them credit for excellences which in them are even consummate! Their standard is a very poor and low one, it may be, but if they have had no chance of learning something better, it is the standard by which they will be judged. We do not risk loyalty to higher truth than any of which they know if in judging them we are strong enough to be equitable. 2. This history would be sorely misapplied if we were to gather from it that a good motive justifies any action that is known to be bad. Jael could not have been pronounced "blessed" had she been a Jewess, much less had she been a Christian. The blessings which the ignorant may inherit are forfeited when those who know, or might know, more act as do the ignorant. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent. |
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