Some fleshly enemies, like Eglon, must be slain through their bellies; others, through their brains.
“However,” continues the story from Judges 4:17, “Sisera had fled away on foot.” Heading northeast towards Hazor through the Galilean Hills, he came upon the tent of Heber the Kenite. It was, and still is, highly inappropriate to enter a family’s tent when the man of the house is not home, and such was the case that day. But Jael, wife and homemaker, met him with the words: “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear” (v 18). The general was exhausted. Receiving a blanket from her, he also requested some water to slake his thirst. Instead, she brought him a drink of milk. She wouldn’t know that milk contains the amino acid tryptophan, shown to improve sleep because it helps produce melatonin. But mothers for a very long time have understood the sleep-soothing properties of milk. Now comes the pivot point. “And he said to her, ‘Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, “Is there any man here?” you shall say, “No”’” (v 20). Telling such a lie would place a noose around her neck. Can you hear the testimony at the trial? “She told me there was no one there!” Wasn’t there only one reason a woman would hide the fact that a man was sleeping in her tent? So at this point we read, “Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple…So he died” (v 21). Nothing like that had ever entered his head before! Here is the secret of victory over temptation in the mind. Christ is pictured as a nail (Isa 22:22-23); the Word of God is like a hammer (Jer 23:29). By the repeated use of the Word, we must drive Christ into every situation, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).