Friday, August 1, 2014

Friday, August 1, 2014

Judges 5:1-18

If you have a strong stomach you might want to take a few minutes to read the chapter that precedes today’s reading. Judges 4 tells not only the story of the defeat of the army overseen by Sisera, but also of his brutal death at the hands of Jael, as gruesome as something out of a Lucio Fulci or Dario Argento movie. Sisera’s army is decimated, but he escapes and hides in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. She gives him a drink and tucks him in. Before going to sleep he asks her to keep watch at the door. Instead, Jael takes a tent peg and drives it right through his skull! [Yes, it’s troubling, but it’s what we’ve got.]

What follows is the Song of Deborah. Deborah, we’re told, was the Judge over Israel (before they had kings, Israel was overseen by a series of judges). Deborah and her military commander Barak are the ones who led the Israelites into battle against Sisera and his army. Chapter 4 tells us that Sisera’s people, ruled by Jabin of Canaan, had been persecuting the Israelites for twenty years. They had chariots made of iron, and so were a technologically advanced nation. 

This story, part of the settlement of Canaan, other than turning your stomach in knots, might make a huge impression on you. What is interesting, though, is that many scholars consider the Song of Deborah to be one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) pieces of writing contained in the Bible. Most civilizations begin to transmit their stories through song and verse. And don’t forget that writing materials were not always easy to come across, or transport. So when we come across songs or poems that are weaved into our narratives, it is very likely that they are, in a sense, time capsules from an earlier period. 

We read of “the triumphs of the LORD, the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel (5:11). Remember that Jabin and Sisera’s people had iron arms at their disposal. So it seems that there is a subtext here of not just God’s people versus their enemies, but of an oppressed peasant class against the rich, powerful, and tyrannical. 

We have three women in chapter 5: Deborah, who makes plans and, with Barak, leads the people into battle; Jael, who is engaged in a sort of covert, guerilla-style warfare; and the mother of Sisera (5:28-31), who looks out through the lattice (imagine a peaceful garden scene), assuming that Sisera is on his way back with “a girl or two for every man.” We may not be comfortable with the violence in the story, but we might have some fruitful reflections on the struggle between the oppressed against the powerful. 

Jesus came to preach good news to the poor. Confounding the expectations of the people, he came not in triumph, but in humility, serving others, riding not on a steed, but on a donkey. These days we hear awful news about civilians falling prey to acts of aggression and terror, and of protests against children fleeing unstable Central American countries, seeking refuge in safer places. Surely there is something to learn from passages like ours today, about offering ourselves willingly to God’s cause (5:2). Our understanding of what it means to speak of a ‘Chosen People’ can be enriched when we more fully realize the social conflicts at play in our Biblical stories. Tales that appear to be about ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ might more accurately be read as the powerful (sometimes ‘us,’ sometimes ‘them’) being brought low and humbled (cf. Isaiah 5:15).

- Matthew Kieswetter