And they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to mount Tabor.
One report reaches the enemy camp, and the armies begin to move. It reads like military intelligence, but commentators see a trap closing on the man who thinks he is setting it.
Sisera answers a small threat with his whole army. One writer traces the meaning hidden in the name of the river he picked for the fight:
Sisera, in his pride, hears of this gathering, and collects his mighty army to crush the feeble effort. The place of the conflict is the river Kishon, where Elijah later killed the false prophets (1 Kings 18:40). Its name comes from a root meaning "to bend," and people have usually taken it as "winding." Other words from the same root stand close to it — "a bow" and "to lay a snare." So the name suggests the weapon of war, and the ambush into which the schemer himself falls. Kishon seems to be the place of his own choice for the battle. He falls into the pit he had dug for others. Yet all had been foreseen and provided by God.
The report carries one detail: where Barak went. The same writer draws out what that mountain, and the two tribes who climbed it, stand for:
Barak, with Deborah, leads his little army from Zebulun and Naphtali up to Mount Tabor. This was the territory where Jabin mainly held power. Zebulun suggests abiding communion, and Naphtali the spirit of true conflict. So the two belong together. The mountain suggests that lifting up of soul which comes from communion. It lets a man take a wide and calm view of the whole conflict… Some have given its meaning as "purpose," and that would fit its spiritual sense well. The "mount of purpose" is a fitting place to begin such a conflict, for God cannot use one who wavers.
Sisera thinks he is the one reacting. Another writer turns that around: it was God who drew him down to the water, and Sisera's end was already assigned:
Here God draws Sisera to the stream Kishon which is to sweep his army away. Sisera himself is reserved to fall by the hand of the woman.
On paper the report gives Sisera every advantage. One writer weighs those chariots against the God of Israel:
Sisera heard that Barak and his men were on the move. He was well prepared, with an army that included 900 chariots of iron (vv. 12-13). But this was nothing to the God of Israel, and Deborah's faith did not flinch. Her words to Barak were firm and clear. She told him to act at once, for this was the day the Lord had given Sisera into Barak's hand. "Does not the Lord go out before you?" — these words gave Barak strong encouragement (v. 14).
The report names the man: "Barak the son of Abinoam." Scripture is kind to that name:
Barak's faith is like that of many who can follow if someone else will lead, though they cannot take first place. God is very gracious to name Barak in Hebrews 11:32. He stands there in the cloud of witnesses who won their victory by faith.
The report set a huge army marching. One writer describes what met it, and who took the credit:
A woman gave the direction, and Barak and his ten thousand men faced Jabin's mighty army and completely defeated it, though it had nine hundred chariots of iron… To crown the defeat, the great Sisera, the hero of so many victories, fell before a woman and a tent pin! Barak had been told in advance that this task, which he took up so unwillingly and fearfully, would not be for his honour. And so it turned out. The means God used were weak and small, and that made it plain that all the honour and glory was God's.
- Told — one report about Tabor set Sisera's whole force moving. He thought he was the hunter: "He falls into the pit he had dug for others."
- Drawn — the march to Kishon was God's, not Sisera's: "Here God draws Sisera to the stream Kishon which is to sweep his army away."
- Elevated — commentators read Tabor as "the mount of purpose," a place of calm view over the battlefield, "for God cannot use one who wavers."
- Outnumbered — nine hundred iron chariots "was nothing to the God of Israel." Deborah's question steadied Barak: "Does not the Lord go out before you?"
- Outshone — Barak could follow but not lead. God named him among the faithful anyway, and won the battle by means so slight that "all the honour and glory was God's."
Then Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth-Goim to the torrent Kishon.
Sisera hears that Barak is on the move. His answer is to empty Harosheth-hagoyim of every fighting man and every chariot he owns, and march them down to the Kishon. The verse raises two questions the rest of the chapter answers. What can ten thousand men with no weapons do against nine hundred iron chariots? And who really chose the battlefield?
Sisera moves fast and holds nothing back. One writer sets that muster beside the answer Deborah gave it.
Sisera heard of the movement of Barak and his men. He was well prepared, with an army that included 900 chariots of iron (vv. 12-13). But this was nothing to the God of Israel, and Deborah's faith was undaunted. Her words to Barak were firm and decided. She told him to act at once, for this was the day the Lord had delivered Sisera into Barak's hand.
The contrast is sharper than a headcount suggests. On one side, chariots of iron; on the other, a nation stripped of arms and leadership.
It was a day of great weakness. The song of Deborah shows it, when she said, "Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?" Besides, a woman judged Israel — "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth." When rule is in a woman's hand, it is evidence that the man has failed.
The name of Sisera's base carries a meaning of its own.
Barak comes from Kedesh, the sanctuary. In sharp contrast stands the home of the warlike Sisera — Harosheth of the Gentiles, "Artifice of the Gentiles." The word may still hold the thought of cutting out, or doing a craftsman's work. But it also seems to carry the suggestion of deceit, so common in the building of human systems of thought — "by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph. 4:14). Anyone outside the sanctuary lies open to all this artifice.
Sisera picked the battlefield himself. The name of the river tells what came of it.
Sisera, in his pride, hears of Barak's gathering, and collects his mighty host to crush the feeble effort. The place of the battle is the river Kishon. Its name comes from a root meaning to bend, and most render it "winding." Other words from the same root are closely connected with it: "a bow" and "to lay a snare." So the name suggests a weapon of war, and the ambush into which the man of cunning himself falls. Kishon seems to be the place of his own choice for the battle. He falls into the pit he had dug for others. Yet all had been foreseen and provided by God.
One writer reads the whole scene as a picture of a greater captor broken. Sisera's name and the way he died both carry the point.
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, even to death. And JESUS, the woman's Seed, has bruised the serpent's head.
The mismatch was not an accident of history. It was the point.
A woman directed them. Barak and his ten thousand men faced Jabin's mighty host and defeated it completely, though nine hundred chariots of iron strengthened that host. "All the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left" is the brief record of Scripture. To crown the defeat, the great Sisera, the hero of so many victories, fell before a woman and a tent pin! Barak had been told beforehand: the task he began so reluctantly and timidly would not bring him honour. And so it turned out. The very weakness and smallness of the means used made it clear that all the honour and glory was God's.
- Drawn out. Sisera gathers all nine hundred chariots and all his people, yet the move only brings him to the battlefield God had foreseen and provided.
- Drawn down. He chose the Kishon himself. Its name is tied to bending and to laying a snare, and he fell into the pit he dug for others.
- Drawn from Harosheth. His base, "Artifice of the Gentiles," marks him as a power of craft and deceit, and anyone outside the sanctuary lies open to it.
- Drawn against nothing. Israel had no shield or spear among forty thousand. So the contest was never army against army. It was iron against the God of Israel.
- Drawn to one conclusion. The smallness of the means — ten thousand men, a woman, a tent peg — left all the honour and glory God's.