In the rainy season the Kishon becomes a veritable torrent, overflowing its banks, but it is often dry in the summertime. It was along this dry riverbed that Captain Sisera and his army marched against Barak and his men on Mount Tabor. How confident Sisera must have felt with his superior forces and equipment, no doubt much like Hitler’s panzer divisions felt as they overran Poland and the Low Countries!

THE BATTLE

Barak and his forces, however, were not to wait until Sisera and his men attacked them. As these approached, Jehovah, by Deborah, gave the command to Barak: “Get up, for this is the day that Jehovah will certainly give Sisera into your hand. Is it not Jehovah that has gone out before you?” So “Barak went descending from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him.” This was indeed a test of faith, for an army with little more than homemade weapons to proceed against a fully armored enemy.—Judg. 4:14.

But before Barak and his men could establish contact with the enemy, Jehovah himself had already weighted the battle in their favor. How so? By means of a sudden thunderstorm and cloudburst that changed the dry riverbed of Kishon to a raging torrent that overflowed its banks, wholly immobilizing Sisera’s nine hundred chariots with their iron scythes. As Deborah recounts it in her victory song: “From heaven did the stars fight, from their orbits they fought against Sisera. The torrent of Kishon washed them away, the torrent of ancient days, the torrent of Kishon. You went treading down strength, O my soul. It was then that the hoofs of horses pawed because of dashings upon dashings of his stallions.”—Judg. 5:20-22.

What a turn of events! What dismay must have struck the hearts of Sisera and his men! Not that there was no fighting to do. Not at all. It was still a case of Barak and his men facing a fully armored foe with only homemade weapons, and this took courage: “Zebulun was a people that scorned their souls to the point of death; Naphtali also, on the heights of the field.” What was the outcome of the battle? “Jehovah began to throw Sisera and all his war chariots and all the camp into confusion by the edge of the sword before Barak. . . . And Barak chased after the war chariots and the camp as far as Harosheth of the nations, so that all the camp of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword.” None remained, except General Sisera who got down off the chariot and “fled on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the household of Heber the Kenite.” The rout was complete!—Judg. 5:18; 4:15-17.

What a reversal for proud General Sisera! Instead of returning in triumph at the head of his nine hundred chariots, here he was on foot, soaked and smeared with mud. Exhausted and looking for a place to hide, he was only too glad to have Jael welcome him, as well as to accept her hospitality of curdled milk. Feeling secure because of Heber’s peace with his king, Jabin, Sisera asked Jael to deny his presence and then went sound asleep.—Judg. 4:18-20.

But Jael had other ideas. True, her husband had found it expedient to enter into a covenant of peace with King Jabin, but her sympathies were with the Israelites. Why, had not Moses taken a wife from them? Were not these Israelites being oppressed by King Jabin? Now was the time to show where she stood, and so she made use of what might well be termed war strategy. She led her foe into a sense of security so that she could execute him, which she did by driving a tent pin through his temples. When Barak came along looking for General Sisera, she showed him the man he was looking for, but dead. True to Deborah’s words, Jehovah did sell proud Sisera into the hand of a woman.—Judg. 4:9, 21, 20.

This may have aroused in Barak a certain admiration for Jael, for thereby did she not show just where her sympathies lay in the struggle between the Canaanites and the Israelites? What about her resourcefulness in finding the means with which to kill General Sisera? Barak’s own men were largely dependent upon homemade weapons, and Jael showed how effective these could be! Yes, for, after all, with Barak the main thing was victory for Jehovah’s forces over the pagan Canaanites. He proved this by pressing the war to its limit, as we read: “The hand of the sons of Israel went on getting harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin the king of Canaan. And the land had no further disturbance for forty years.”—Judg. 4:23, 24; 5:31.

“FOR OUR INSTRUCTION”

At Romans 15:4 we are told that “all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction.” This would, therefore, include the account of Israel’s victory under Captain Barak. Fittingly, he is called to our attention as an example of faith, for he, together with those with him, was willing to risk his life in Jehovah’s cause, and Jehovah gave him the victory against tremendous odds. Christians are likened to soldiers and might also be said to be facing tremendous odds, Satan and his demons, and all their visible agents and those under their control. But with strong faith Christians can overcome the world and successfully resist the Devil.—John 16:33; Eph. 6:12; 2 Tim. 2:3; Jas. 4:7; 1 John 5:4.

There is more to this inspired account; it is also of prophetic import. How can we be certain of this? Because the discomfiture and defeat of Sisera and his forces took place on the plains of Megiddo, the first of the battles to make that place famous and which battles have served as symbols of the battle of the great day of God the Almighty, Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14, 16) This is further borne out by the prophetic prayer of the psalmist: “Do to them as to . . . Sisera, as to Jabin at the torrent valley of Kishon. They were annihilated at Endor; they became manure for the ground.”—Ps. 83:9, 10, 18; Jer. 25:33.

Since the one successfully fighting the battle at Armageddon for Jehovah and his name will be Jesus Christ, together with his heavenly hosts, it follows that Barak pictures Jesus Christ. (Rev. 2:27; 19:11-21) King Jabin of Canaan, chief oppressor of Israel, would well picture Satan the Devil, the chief oppressor of God’s people, while his agents on earth that do his bidding would well be pictured by General Sisera. What about Jael? Whom does she picture?

Not being of the nation of Israel, she would picture someone else than the spiritual Israelites. Logically she would picture the “great crowd” that the apostle John saw after he had seen the 144,000 of spiritual Israel, and which crowd came out of all nations, peoples and languages. These share in praising Jehovah God and show their loyalty to the greater Barak, Jesus Christ, and to spiritual Israel by treating Satan’s agents as dead.—Rev. 7:9-17.b

Truly, what was written aforetime does serve to strengthen our faith, encouraging us and throwing light on our pathway!—Ps. 119:105.

“Abba, Father”

● The Gospel writer Mark records that Jesus Christ used the term “Abba” when praying to Jehovah God in Gethsemane shortly before his death, saying: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want.” (Mark 14:36) Here is the fervent appeal of a son to a beloved Father, followed quickly by an assurance that, in any event, he would remain obedient. The word abba in Aramaic means “father” and corresponds to the Hebrew ab (father) but is the emphatic form of Ab. It was the intimate name used by children for their fathers and combines some of the intimacy of the English word “papa” while retaining the dignity of the word “father,” being both informal and yet respectful. It was therefore a more endearing form of address than a title and was among the first words a child learned to speak. Two other occurrences of the use of the word are in the apostle Paul’s letters, at Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. In both places the word is used in connection with Christians called to be spirit-begotten sons of God and indicates the intimacy of their relationship with their Father. While they are “slaves to God,” yet they are also sons in the house of a loving Father, and they are made positively aware of this status by holy spirit through their Lord Jesus.—Rom. 6:22; 8:15; Gal. 4:6.

A Portent

● In the Holy Scriptures, at 2 Kings 20:8-11 and Isaiah 38:4-8, there is related the account of the portent God gave sick King Hezekiah in answer to Isaiah’s prayer. It consisted of causing a shadow that had gradually fallen to reverse its direction and to go back up ten steps. Some say this refers to the steps or degrees of a dial for measuring time, and it is not impossible that Hezekiah’s father had obtained such a sundial from Babylon. since the use of sundials extends back beyond the eighth century B.C.E. in both Babylon and Egypt. However, the Jewish historian Josephus in discussing the account speaks of these steps of Ahaz as being “in his house,” apparently indicating that they formed part of a stairway. There may have been a column placed alongside the stairs to receive the sun’s rays and cause a shadow to extend gradually along the steps and serve as a measurement of time. The miracle performed evidently had far-reaching effects, inasmuch as 2 Chronicles 32:24, 31 shows that messengers were sent from Babylon to Jerusalem to inquire “about the portent that had happened in the land.” That portent was a guarantee to Hezekiah that he would revive from his sickness and that Jehovah would add fifteen years to his life, also that Jerusalem would be delivered out of the hand of the king of Assyria. It came to pass as it had been foretold.