One of the stories I still remember from Sunday school when I was a teenager is the story of Deborah and a woman named Jael.
Deborah is a Judge. She is the leader of Israel and a prophet. Israel is being oppressed by the Canaanites and when the Israelites cry out to God to help them, God responds through Deborah.
Deborah is a Judge. She is the leader of Israel and a prophet. Israel is being oppressed by the Canaanites and when the Israelites cry out to God to help them, God responds through Deborah.
Deborah calls to Barak and tells him that God is commanding him to take ten thousand men and meet King Jabin’s army led by a man named Sisera. God then promises to deliver Sisera into Barak’s hand.
But for whatever reason, Barak isn't particularly anxious to rush into a battle, even one commanded to him by God, so he decides to test Deborah and God in Judges 4:8: “If you go with me, I will go: but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”
In other words, Barak is saying to Deborah to put her money where her mouth is. If she really believes Sisera’s army will be defeated, then she should have no problem coming with them.
In other words, Barak is saying to Deborah to put her money where her mouth is. If she really believes Sisera’s army will be defeated, then she should have no problem coming with them.
Deborah agrees to go with him but for his lack of faith, she tells him this in the very next verse: “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.”
That woman turns out to be Jael.
Jael is the wife of Heber the Kenite and since her clan has peace with King Jabin, when Sisera’s army is defeated, he seeks solace in Jael’s tent. She gives no indication that she is his enemy. She gives him milk to drink. She puts him to bed, covers him up and seems to soothe him.
And then she takes a tent peg and a hammer and drives the peg through Sisera’s skull while he sleeps. (Judges 4:17-21)
The Old Testament is filled with these sorts of stories. From the plagues of Egypt to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the fabled walls of Jericho, the world of the Old Testament is a savage, frightening place. It’s such a bloodbath, I have to wonder how anyone choosing sides, could have chosen anyone but God to stand behind.
Which is why the reading today from Isaiah surprised me in its tone. Isaiah 40:1-2 says, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term ….”
And then later these words in Isaiah 40:5: “Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Do those words sound familiar? They sing for me. I can’t hear those words without hearing them sung. Handel used them in his Messiah. We hear them every Christmas.
In the midst of stories filled with one horror after the next, we have Isaiah, a book of promises, that in the darkest times, our God is less a wrathful, vengeful God and more a God of redemption and salvation and restoration. He is both all-powerful—no enemy can stand against Him—and all-loving—there is none kinder, none gentler, none more forgiving.
It sometimes hard for me to see that the violent, wrathful God of the Old Testament is the same gentle, loving, forgiving God of the New Testament. But Isaiah, I think, acts as a bridge. God is all these things and more. He is an awesome God.
