And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of Jehovah; now Ehud was dead.
Judges 4 opens with a relapse, not a battle. Ehud the deliverer dies, and Israel goes straight back to the evil that once enslaved them.
Each judge brought relief, but nothing in the people themselves had changed. One writer follows the slide through the whole book. He finds the real problem in Israel, not in her enemies.
So they sank lower and lower, as each deliverer died. Tears cannot do the work of faith. The evil was within, and against Jehovah. Humiliation came from the nations outside, instead of self-judgment by the word.
The verse does not say what the evil was. One writer fills the gap from the pattern that runs through the book.
After his death Israel again turned from the Lord's ways, doing evil in His sight. It is not said what evil. But their lapses apparently always involved worshiping the idols of the nations.
The book turns the same cycle again and again: failure, then servitude, then a cry to God. Each turn leaves Israel weaker than the one before.
First we should notice the failure of the people, who begin to serve false gods, and then their servitude. In their distress they cry to Jehovah. This is always the way deliverance comes. In this last case Jehovah departs from His usual ways. The nation had lost its strength and energy, even in its internal affairs. This is the effect of repeated falls; the sense of God's power is lost.
The oppressor Israel now falls under bears the name of a king Joshua had already destroyed. One writer turns that repeat on the reader.
About a hundred and thirty years before, Joshua had overcome Jabin, king of Hazor... All were killed and Hazor was burned with fire. And now the Lord sold them into his hand. This Jabin is a successor of the one Joshua had killed. Hazor had been built again out of its ruins. We see, so to speak, a resurrection of an old enemy... Satan knows how to revive old errors and evils and use them to bring God's people into captivity. And is it not so in our own individual experience? The grace and strength of Christ and of His Spirit mastered some sin that overpowered us, and broke its power. But can that same sin not be revived?
There was a time when Israel knew that no deal with this enemy was possible.
In those days the Spirit of God worked in Israel with mighty energy. They understood that they could have nothing in common with Jabin. So they burned his chariots with fire, struck him down with the sword, and destroyed his capital. What could the people of God have in common with the political and military world? Its rule was to be wiped off the map of Canaan. Sadly, all is now changed, and unfaithful Israel falls under the government of the world... the people's inheritance becomes the kingdom of Jabin!
Samuel later told Israel to their faces who had sold them into their enemies' hands: God Himself. He also told them what always brought them back out.
Samuel does not let them overlook this. It was for their sins that Jehovah allowed them to be sold captive into the hands of their enemies. "They forgot the LORD their God, and He sold them into the hand of Sisera." They confessed their backslidings and the particular sin that had brought them into trouble. And whenever they cried to God like that, He always heard them.
- Again. Israel sins again the moment the deliverer dies. The trouble was never the oppressor. It was the unchanged heart inside.
- Unnamed. The verse does not spell out the evil; the pattern of the book points to the idols of the surrounding nations.
- Weakened. Repeated falls do not leave a people where they were; strength, energy, and the sense of God's power drain away.
- Revived. The buried enemy rebuilds his city. A mastered sin can rise from its ashes, and the inheritance becomes the enemy's kingdom.
- Heard. The bondage is God's own dealing for sin, yet a sincere cry that names the sin has never once gone unanswered.
And Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the captain of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth-Goim.
After eighty years of quiet under Ehud, Israel slid back into evil. Two things in this verse stand out: the oppressor is God's own doing, and Joshua had already wiped out both Jabin and Hazor generations before.
The verse opens by dating the collapse from a funeral. One writer ties the collapse to Ehud's death, and explains what the king's name reveals about the Canaanites:
It seems Ehud judged Israel during eighty years of peace. After his death, Israel again turned from the Lord's ways, doing evil in His sight. We are not told what that evil was, but their falls seem always to have involved worshipping the idols of the nations. On this occasion the Lord delivered Israel into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan (v. 2). Jabin's name means "he will understand." Canaanites ("traders") are keen to spot where they can make material gain, and religion is one of the most convenient ways for them. This enemy has too often troubled the Church of God as well.
The word "sold" matters. Israel was not just overrun. What they suffered answered to what they had chosen:
If the children of Israel chose to abandon the LORD to serve idols, the LORD in turn gave them up to serve idolaters. It is the same with us. If we sin, that sin measures and defines the discipline we receive; and so grace works repentance when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
A Jabin reigning in Hazor should have been impossible. Joshua had destroyed that city and killed that king. Now the name, the capital and the war chariots are all standing again, inside Israel's own inheritance:
Jabin, king of Canaan, reigning in Hazor, with nine hundred chariots of iron, a terrible adversary, conquered Israel and oppressed them. In Joshua 11 we find an ancestor of this very Jabin, with chariots of war and the same capital. In those days Israel understood, under the mighty energy of the Spirit of God, that there could be nothing in common between them and Jabin. They struck him with the edge of the sword, after having burned his chariots with fire, and they destroyed his capital. What link could there be between the people of God and the political and military world? Its rule was to vanish from the map of Canaan. Sadly, all is now changed, and Israel, unfaithful, falls under the government of the world. Hazor, their ancient enemy, rises from its ashes and comes back to life. It is rebuilt inside the borders of Canaan, and the people's inheritance becomes the kingdom of Jabin!
The same danger faces the individual. One writer warns that Satan knows how to revive old errors and old sins, and so bring God's people back into captivity.
Some commentators start from what the two names mean:
Jabin means "discerning"; Hazor, "enclosure." The enemy of God's people here is the wisdom of the world. That wisdom reigns inside its own "enclosure." As always, it shuts itself up in cliques and parties and philosophies, and by them it lifts itself above whatever lies outside its boundary. Its spirit is plain to see — the spirit of self: self-interest, self-assertion, self-satisfaction, the true "trader" or Canaanite spirit, that of gain.
Commentators differ on what Sisera's name means. One takes it as "battle-array," and reads it alongside the craftsmen's town he lived in:
The commander of Jabin's army is Sisera. According to Gesenius, his name means "battle-array," and he lives in Harosheth ("carving, cutting, craftsmen's work") of the nations. Such names are not hard to read in a setting like this. The strife of sects, the bitter hatred between religious parties, is notorious; and no one needs to be told that this strife is what keeps the sects going.
A second writer reads the name differently, and sees Satan pictured in the commander:
Sisera was the great leader, and his name means "he that binds with chains," and we are well aware that the great captive-maker is Satan himself. In the end something very weak destroyed him — a woman and a tent peg crushed his head and killed him.
- Sin. The bondage starts at Ehud's death. With the deliverer gone, Israel went back to the idols of the nations.
- Sold. God did not just allow the oppression; He sold them. They chose the gods of idolaters, so they wore the chains of idolaters.
- Resurrected. Joshua had destroyed Jabin and Hazor. The old enemy rose from its ashes, and Israel's inheritance became his kingdom.
- Enclosure. Jabin means "discerning" and Hazor means "enclosure" — the world's wisdom, walled in by self-interest and breeding cliques and parties.
- Array. Sisera at Harosheth completes the picture. Commentators read his name as "battle-array," the strife that keeps parties alive, or as the one who binds with chains — and the weakest of weapons crushed his head.
And the children of Israel cried to Jehovah; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel twenty years.
Israel turns from God again, and a powerful Canaanite king with nine hundred iron chariots holds the nation for twenty years. Why did an enemy Joshua had already destroyed come back with such force, and why did God let it last so long?
The king's name and his people's name both carry meaning.
On this occasion the Lord delivered Israel into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan (v. 2). Jabin's name means "he will understand." Canaanites ("traders") are quick to spot where they can make material gain, and religion is one of the easiest ways for them to do it. This enemy has too often afflicted the Church of God too. The commander of his army was Sisera. Israel was in bondage to them for 20 years (v. 3), until they could no longer bear the cruel bondage they suffered. Material gain may attract us at first. But it soon draws us into things that trouble a believer's conscience until he cries out for deliverance.
This is not a new foe. Israel had faced a Jabin of Hazor before, and won.
He was a powerful oppressor. This king had nine hundred chariots of iron and oppressed Israel for twenty years. About one hundred and thirty years before, Joshua had overcome Jabin, King of Hazor... Joshua killed them all and burned Hazor with fire. And now the Lord sold them into his hand. This Jabin is a successor of the one whom Joshua had killed. People had rebuilt Hazor out of its ruins. We see, so to speak, a resurrection of an old enemy... Satan knows how to revive old errors and evils and use them to bring God's people into captivity. And is it not so in our individual experience? The grace and strength of Christ and of His Spirit mastered some sin that once overpowered us, and broke its power. But can that same sin not be revived?
An earlier generation burned those war chariots. Now the chariots are back, and their owner runs the land God gave Israel.
In Joshua 11 we find an ancestor of this very Jabin, with chariots of war and the same capital. Back then, by the mighty energy of the Spirit of God, Israel understood that they could have nothing in common with Jabin. They killed him with the sword, burned his chariots, and destroyed his capital. What could the people of God have in common with the political and military world? Its rule was to be wiped off the map of Canaan. Now all is changed. Israel is unfaithful and falls under the government of the world. Hazor, their old enemy, rises from its ashes and lives again. It is rebuilt inside the borders of Canaan, and the people's inheritance becomes the kingdom of Jabin! The same thing has happened in the history of the church. At the beginning it stood completely separate from the world... In reality, it is the world that governs the church.
Israel cries out at every fall. This time the cry comes from a people with nothing else left.
First we should note the failure of the people, who begin to serve false gods. Then comes their slavery. In their distress they cry to Jehovah. This is always the way in which deliverance comes (Judges 3:9, 15; 4:3). In this last instance Jehovah departs from His usual ways. The nation had lost its strength and energy, even as to its internal affairs. This is the effect of repeated falls; the sense of God's power is lost.
The answer did not depend on their record.
Under the oppression of Jabin, the children of Israel cried to Jehovah, and despite all their repeated failures, He heard their cry.
These twenty years were part of ninety-three that Israel spent serving its enemies.
He had redeemed them so that they might live entirely for Him and prepare a dwelling place for Him (Ex. 15:2). But during the ninety-three years in which they served His enemies and theirs, they were not living to Him. This was not His purpose for them — and, as a consequence, He could not count these sad years in His calendar.
- Sold. This oppression was no accident. The Lord handed Israel over to Jabin, and their twenty years of bondage grew out of turning from Him.
- Revived. Joshua had destroyed Jabin and Hazor about a hundred and thirty years earlier. An old, buried enemy rose again — as old sins and old errors can revive in a believer's life.
- Surrendered. The generation that burned those chariots shared nothing with Canaan. This generation lets the world govern the inheritance God gave them.
- Crying. Their strength and their sense of God's power were gone. One resource was left: distress turned into a cry — and that is always how deliverance comes.
- Uncounted. God heard them despite all their repeated failures. Yet He could not enter in His calendar the years they spent serving His enemies. Bondage is time not lived to Him.
And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel at that time.
Israel had lived twenty years under the iron chariots of Jabin. When the people cried to the Lord, help came through a woman already judging among them — named here as prophetess, wife, and judge.
The deliverer here is a woman, not a man. That says one thing about the men of Israel, and another about God.
We cannot doubt that there must be instruction in this, that the deliverer is a woman, not a man. The man comes in later, but everything begins with the woman. What a witness of complete failure, that apparently not a man could be found to do the Lord's work. It shows how thoroughly and universally the people had failed. But on the other hand, it shows how graciously God comes in, even using the humblest instrument. Wherever He can find faith that will trust Him in weakness, there He finds a chosen instrument for His work.
Another writer measures how alone she stood.
This is the kind of spirit that was holding the nation of Israel in bondage, and nobody seemed to care. Forty thousand spears in Israel, and not one lifted up in defence of God and His interests until this woman arose, Deborah, the prophetess.
Her authority did not come from herself. The title given her marks her as the channel through which God spoke.
Here there is no doubt that God worked sovereignly. She was a prophetess. She was the one who made God's mind known at that time, more than anyone else.
The names in this verse carry meaning of their own.
Deborah and Debir are practically the same word, and both mean "the word." What a fitting instrument for the overthrow of mere human reasoning! If God's word is the instrument, you may be sure of the outcome. Human reason will be brought down, as far as it lifts itself up against God. More than that, she was a prophetess. This is not just the letter of God's word, and not just the written word. It is the living word — God's word applied by the Holy Spirit. Then she is the wife of Lapidoth, that is, the wife of "a flaming torch." This reminds us of the passage in Philippians, where believers shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. That is what gives the victory over human understanding.
How she used that authority matters as much as the fact that she had it.
Deborah used real authority for God, and this shamed a people made soft by sin. Yet she kept the place that God's word gives to woman. Her circumstances could easily have become a great snare to her. Otherwise she would not have been a woman of faith… Did she go on circuit through the land of Israel like the other judges? Did she put herself at the head of the armies? Nothing of the kind. Instead of going to Barak, she sent and called him to her, where she lived.
The order of events in the chapter is itself a lesson. She was judging Israel before she ever summoned Barak to war.
God always raised up the one who was to deliver. So that person is first found alone with Him, in communion about the condition of His people. This is true separation. Othniel "judged Israel" before he "went out to war" (Judges 3:10). Deborah likewise "judged Israel" before she called Barak to deliver them. … Anyone who would help his brothers must himself be in fellowship with God.
She held a judge's office, but she chose a different word for herself in her later song.
Sad conditions in Israel continued until "I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel" (Judges 5:7). How beautiful to read this! She does not say "a leader in Israel," but "a mother." Her mother's heart was what moved her. She cared for the people as though they had been her children.
- Vacuum. No man could be found to do the Lord's work — forty thousand in Israel and not one spear lifted for God's interests.
- Instrument. Where men fail, God does not; He looks for faith that will trust Him in weakness, and finds His instrument there.
- Word. Her name means "the word." As prophetess she carried God's living word, applied by the Spirit — and it topples human reasoning.
- Place. She sent for Barak instead of going to him. She used real authority and kept the place God assigns to her.
- Order. She judged Israel before she called anyone to war. Fellowship with God comes first, deliverance second.