“Okay,” said Honeybee, “I’ll go with you. However, because you were chicken to follow God by yourself, the honor won’t be yours. The honor will go to a woman who is not chicken to trust God. God will let a woman win the war and be the hero.” Barak probably thought the hero would be Honeybee, but he was wrong!
Who is your favorite make-believe hero? Maybe it’s Superman, Underdog [okay, that dates me], or Larry-Boy. Who is your real-life hero? Why is that person a hero to you?
Barak called his warriors together. Sisera heard about it and went with his nine hundred chariots to kill Barak and his army. Honeybee and Barak and his army ran to Mount Tabor. Sisera and all his chariots went to Mount Tabor to meet them.
When Honeybee saw the chariots, she said to Barak, “Hurry up! Let’s go! Today God is going to wipe out those chariots. God’s answering our prayers!”
So Barak went to fight Sisera and his chariot army and it was a total blowout. The Israelites wasted them. The mountain was so rough Sisera’s men had to get out of their chariots to fight. Sisera’s whole army was defeated, but not Sisera. He decided he’d better run before someone saw him and killed him.
Sisera’s only chance was to run to the closest city of refuge, so that’s probably where he was headed. He needed to get to safety; he wanted to kill the Israelites, but he didn’t want them to kill him! Sisera ran as far as he could, but he couldn’t make it to the city in one day. Mount Tabor was too far away from the closest city of refuge. He needed to find a place to spend the night, but where could he go? Where could he be safe?
Sisera saw a city made of tents down in the valley. These were nomadic people; they lived in tents instead of houses so they could move around and raise their animals. They had many sheep and goats that had to keep moving to find pasture. These nomadic people didn’t care for politics and war. They kept to themselves. The women would put up the tents and take care of the city while the men were out caring for the animals. “That’s where I’ll go,” thought Sisera. “The men are probably off somewhere with the animals. The women can’t hurt me. They will protect me, even if I am evil. I’ll spend the night with them and then run to safety.”
Jael lived in the tent city with her family. She was inside her tent when Sisera, the Canaanite general, ran up. Jael was home alone, but she knew she had to let him in. He could kill her in an instant. She invited him into her tent, covered him with a blanket, and gave him something to drink.
Jael knew who Sisera was. She knew he was the Canaanite general of the nine-hundred-chariot army. She knew he was at war with Israel. She knew she was hiding the most important man in the enemy’s army. That night, with her husband gone watching the animals and Sisera asleep in her tent, she did what Barak didn’t do. She did what Honeybee didn’t do. She did what nobody should want to do but what had to be done. Jael killed Sisera while he was sleeping! [Depending on the age of your children, you can give them the full biblical story. She used a tent stake and nailed him to the ground through his forehead! Sisera went to bed and woke up dead.] For him it was a painless death. For the armies of Israel and Canaan, it was the end of the war. For Israel, it was the beginning of following God again.
Why did God pick Honeybee to rule in Israel? What made Jael the hero? Why was Barak not a hero? How did he live differently from the two women?
On the day of the battle, women ruled. They ruled because they followed God when no one else did. Honeybee was ready to go to war against nine hundred chariots. Barak was also willing, but only if Honeybee went with him. He was afraid to go alone. He didn’t trust God like Honeybee did. Jael trusted God when no one was with her. Her husband was gone, and she was alone with the evil general of the Canaanites. She could have let him stay in her tent overnight and leave the next day. No one would have said bad things about her. After all, what can one woman do against a general? However, Jael knew what she could and should do, and she did it. She followed God when she was all alone.
The hardest time to follow Jesus is when you feel alone. Others may want you to do what is wrong, and no one will support you. Still, you must follow Jesus. Sometimes it’s easy to follow Jesus when you’re with a group of Christian friends or family, but sometimes you feel alone. Remember, you can never be alone when you are following Christ; he is right there with you! And when you follow Jesus, you are his hero!
Remember: You’ve Got His Word on It
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. . . . None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:35–39 MESSAGE
Scripture Passage: 1 Samuel 5
So What? Only one God deserves our worship!
For Parents: [Anything in brackets]
Have you ever lost something that you really loved? What was it? How did you feel? Did you ever get it back again?
During the time when Samuel was a prophet, God’s people stopped following him. They were getting selfish and lazy and they forgot about God. This time the Israelites’ sin caused the loss of their most important treasure. You see, by forgetting God and going their own way, God’s people lost a battle with the Philistines. During the battle they lost, the Philistines took the Israelites’ most important treasure—“the Ark.” That same Ark may still be on our planet, hidden somewhere. It would be wonderful to find.
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live in heaven? Wouldn’t it be great if someone went up there with a camera and brought you back the pictures? That’s impossible, of course, but God wants us to know what his home is like, so he gave us another kind of picture. He had Moses build the Ark.
The Ark, which God told Moses to build, was a box about four feet long, two feet high, and two feet deep [use hands to illustrate the size, not much different than a toy box]. It was made of wood and covered with gold. The lid was made of solid gold and was called “the mercy seat.” Mercy means “kindness” and “forgiveness.” Seat means “place.” On top of the gold lid were two large angels called cherubim. The Ark was a picture of Jesus’ home, heaven. It’s a place of kindness, forgiveness, and powerful angels. Inside the Ark Moses placed the Israelites’ most special treasure—the Ten Commandments, which were written on two stones by God himself. Where do you keep your special treasures?
Now, the battle was lost, and the Ark was gone. The gold was gone. The gifts that were inside the Ark were gone.
What are some things people love more than God? What did people in Old Testament