Sisera’s murder was a major act of treachery on Jael’s part. It went against everything she knew about hospitality, something hugely important to her culture at the time.
Still, she said yes to the prodding of God.
We need only to skip ahead in the Bible to the life of Jesus to read more stories of rules broken.
Don’t get me wrong—Jesus never broke rules to be rude or needlessly provoke people. He always did it for the sake of challenging relationally abusive behavior and freeing the oppressed.
He denounced religious rulers for heaping impossible burdens on the people listening to them. (Matthew 23)
He touched lepers even though the rules of his day said that doing so would make him unclean. (Matthew 8:3)
He healed on the Sabbath even though no work was supposed to be done. (Mark 3:1-6)
Let’s follow His (and Jael’s) example and not get so caught up in following religious and cultural rules that we miss the calling of God to challenge the evil and oppression in the world.
4. Our highest motive should be honoring God.
Jael did not kill Sisera out of personal anger or revenge. In fact, the Bible tells us that Jael’s people, the Kenites, were at peace with the Canaanites. That means that if anything, Jael should have been an ally to Sisera.
While the Bible doesn’t expressly tell us about Jael’s motives for killing Sisera, she must have had a motive that was more important to her than an earthly alliance, and that motive must have been honoring God.
Everything we do should be for the sake of honoring and bringing glory to God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us…
“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
And eating and drinking are pretty small, insignificant things. How much more should we glorify God with larger parts of our lives?
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