Spike!

Your husband has made a treaty with the enemy of God's people. Perhaps, as your Jewish name implies, you are one of them, the people chosen by God. Be that as it may, you empathize with them. But in a world of male domination, what can you do to help them? You are a woman. In ancient times, this means you are nothing but a piece of property. You belong to your husband. You have no rights. No platform. No voice. But your heart beats with a love for the One True God, the God of Israel. And for His persecuted people, warred against by the mighty Canaanites. What to do? What to do?

Despite all odds, all cultural strictures, you follow hard after God. When He speaks, you listen. When He prompts you, you obey. Only six little verses in the Bible relate a powerful story, a story that rises above all cultural expectations, a story that portrays a mighty act leading to the victory of God's people. The story of Jael and Sisera. Judges 4:17-22.

Perhaps the leadership of Deborah the prophetess, she who judged and led Israel for forty years, inspired her. Perhaps it provoked the thought that even a "mere" woman could be used of God. Whatever her thought processes, when the mighty Sisera came running by her tent, Jael went out to meet him. She calmed him, reminding him of the peace between her husband and his people, and invited him into her tent to rest.

Soothed by her manner and words, Sisera entered. He asked for water, she gave him milk. He lay down to rest and she covered him with a mantle. All pointed to the belief that he had entered the tent of a friend, a place of safety, a sanctuary. So that is what he thought.

But on Jael's side? Just because your husband, your parents, or your friends make peace with the enemies of God, it does not follow that you, too, must be their friend.

It was against cultural mores to mistreat someone to whom you had offered hospitality. Much more so when your family, your husband, had made a treaty with them. But Jael heard the prompting of the Holy Spirit. And, like Mary after her who would open herself up to disparagement by agreeing to be with child even before being wed, she bucked every social expectation, risked the anger and wrath of her husband, and stood up for what was right. Taking a tent peg in hand, she drove it into Sisera's temple, drove it to the ground. And so she delivered Israel from their enemy.

In Judges five we read the honor given her in the song of Deborah: "Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples" (Judges 5:24-26).

Jael answered the call to rise up for God, the call to arms given to every woman, every man, every child of God. Surrounded as we are by the enemies of God, many times loved ones who are not in themselves the personification of evil but who, sadly, embrace the tenets of the world and the evil one, it takes courage to confront them, to defy them, to be different—to drive a spike into the evil bent on rising against God's people.

You go to eat at a restaurant with a pastor, of all things, and he belittles you for drinking weak tea instead of wine. "Get with the program," he says. But remembering Leviticus 10:8-11 you keep to your spirit-free beverage. You take to heart that Scripture where God tells Moses that the Levites were to eschew strong drink before entering the tabernacle of the congregation, the place where God dwelt. Today He lives in us. We are that temple. Spike.

(The denouement of this sad but true story: that denigrating pastor kept increasing his own spirit intake until he was, euphemistically speaking, "overindulging." Just like Leviticus warned, it warped his judgement. He allowed a family member to continue in a leadership role in his church despite being fully aware of the adultery in which they were participating. He broke God's heart, he lost the respect of fellow ministers, he lost his church. How much better for him, his family, and the ministry if he had only dared to spike the sin. )

You begin to watch a program with your family and the Lord's name is taken in vain. Do you keep watching or do you risk the wrath and denigration of your family for changing the channel? Do you valiantly spike the sin?

Your friend pulls at your sleeve and teases, "You should lighten up and wear something more revealing?" Why not? "Everybody" who is anybody on TV wears next to nothing. What could be more edgy? But do I want edgy, or to glorify God by honoring Him through modesty (1 Timothy 2:9)? Spike.

"You don't have to do every thing your Rents (slang term for parents) tell you. Be your own person!" So ... what about the Biblical injunction in Ephesians 6:2-3 to honor your parents? Will you satisfy your friends or risk their censure and belittlement by obeying curfews and parental rules? Spike.

The little voice inside your head says, "Don't talk to them. They did such-and-such to you." Will you obey that nudge towards retaliation—or will you follow the directive in God's Word that says to forgive others as He has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32)? To forgive is to hit the devil where it hurts—spike!

"Church? Bah! Humbug! That's for needy people who don't know how to think on their own. Churches are nothing but hotbeds of greedy hypocrites!" Yes, there are hypocrites at church. And at the bank. And in schools. And in business. They're everywhere. Does this keep us from using the banks, schools, and businesses? Sure, church attendees are not perfect. But that's why they're there. Because that's where God has ordained that His people touch base with Him and, through fellowship with Him and others of like beliefs, garner spiritual strength. There is a strength that comes only from following after God and spending time with Him where He likes to be. Will you fold to the world's warped wisdom? Or will you be strong and follow hard after God? Spike.

The Bible doesn't tell us what ensued in Jael's story. Was her husband cruel to her because of what she had done, dishonoring him by revoking the hospitality she had offered and breaking the treaty he had entered into? The Bible doesn't tell us. What matters is that she was valiant, she was true to her beliefs, and she stood up for God.

In a world of wishy-washy values, let's be a Jael.

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13).

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).