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thenewdeadseascrolls · 1 month

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Judges 5: 24-27. "The Sink."

The Song of Deborah continues with a hint at what happens after one acquires Ha Shem. The experience is inextinguishable so after all the meditation and study of the Torah and agonizing over everything, the Rab says it will all be driven from the mind and the past self will die:

24 “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women. 25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk. 26 Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. 27 At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.

The Values in Gematria are:

v. 24: The goal of Deborah "the Establishment" is Heber of Kenite, "an association with people who understand the power of Constitution." I've said in previous frames it makes no sense to meditate and study the Torah and attempt to be a part of an ungodly planet. This makes God look like a hypocrite. This is a big problem on this planet, how the printed words "thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself" and "it is illegal to force a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy" but nowhere no how do these things ever seem to make a damn bit of difference.

The Shoftim says he or she who aspires to do so, a person called a Jael, "a very good goat" is like a resident in a tent; a temporary shelter that shields one from the elements but is not at all home sweet home. Every Jew on this planet is a goat in a tent, waiting for the world to Constitute itself within the law.

The Value in Gematria is 6488, ודחח‎‎‎ ‎ "rejected and pushed."

v. 25: A bowl is the depression inside one's heart. It is where one hopes one's fondest wish will one day be found. The Shoftim says our good goat expected the water of freedom while he was waiting in his tent, but the Establishment gave him rotten milk instead.

The Value in Gematria is 3413, ג‎דאג‎, doug, "worried."

To worry is to be able to predict all the ways an unscrupulous people and their Democracy will not successfully avoid corruption just as ours has not. It would have been so easy to arrest Donald Trump after the election fraud bullshit in 2016, close the Republican Party down then and get onto the business of government in this town, but we did not do that. This is indeed worrisome:

"And Moshe grew up and he went out to his brethren.... He saw an Egyptian man beating an Israelite... and he smote the Egyptian…. And he went out on the next day... and he said to the wicked man: “Why are you striking…?”

And [that person] replied: “Do you intend to kill me...?”

Moshe became frightened and said: “The matter has indeed become known....” And Pharaoh heard... and he sought to kill Moshe. And Moshe fled....2

On the phrase,3 “And Moshe became frightened,” Rashi comments:

[The verse should be understood] according to its simple meaning. [Alternatively,] according to the Midrash,4 he was worried because he saw wicked informers among the Jewish people. He thought, “So perhaps they will not deserve to be redeemed.”

The question arises: Why does the simple meaning (that Moshe feared for his life because it had become public knowledge that he killed the Egyptian) not suffice?5 Why must Rashi also cite the interpretation of the Midrash6 — his fear that his brethren would not deserve to be redeemed — which is not at all alluded to in the verse?7

It is possible to offer a simple resolution to the above questions. Rashi was seeking to address a general difficulty raised by the verse: “And Moshe became frightened and said, ‘The matter has indeed become known.’ ” Why does the Torah mention this point?8 After all, Moshe’s fear did not lead to any action, for he did not flee to Midian until after Pharaoh heard about the matter and sought to kill him.9

To resolve this question, Rashi cites the interpretation of the Midrash which explains that Moshe’s fear was not motivated by concern for his own future, but rather came as a result of his worry that the Jewish people were not worthy of redemption.10"

v. 26: I have stated above a contemplative and law abiding culture need worry about its religion very much at all. Except we are living in Godless times and need to worry about it quite a lot. The inverse form of seeking Ha Shem, finding Him and leaving religion behind is to kill all thoughts found within the former faiths and start over with a fresh look at the Torah.

The Value in Gematria is 5285, הבחח, "sneeze." A sneeze, which resets the central nervous system also resets one from all incorrect concepts associated with Ha Shem.

Ha Shem means "The Knower of All." We give Him zero credit for all He knows and does. To sneeze is to stop giving onself too much credit and become humble before the manifest reality one is a part of. None of us knows everything about God, that is a ridiculous thing to say or think. This is not possible. But we can know Ha Shem. To make His Acquaintance is the goal of all spiritists, and this does not require a foolish self-fellated middle man who knows nothing at all about anything.

v. 27: To sink is to use the mind not one's circumstances to realize one is Jael, a good goat, but even still one is not particularly good at being human.

The Value in Gematria is 3116, גא‎או‎, "to bleat, to be brought low, to have arrived at the lowest point." The Rab says to be brought low is liberating:

From Ecclesiastes 3:

18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

There are signs we are going down into the earth like animals digging for a place to wallow. Ours is not the holy work that will lead to happiness.

We know this is not what we are doing, and we know we are not going to last very long if we do not stop. So why have we not stopped? We are being lazy and spoiled. We think the cause of our future happiness includes the belief someone else will clean up the mess.

This sloppiness towards the law and the laws of nature is costing us time, money, our health, and all of our future prosperity. What is happening all around the world is coming to your house in the not too distant future this is already obvious.

The desire to be just a goat in a tent praying and crying out in a language no one grasps is not going to fix anything. As Solomon states above, "as the effort, so the result."

Is it fate or is it destiny? Fate happens one way or the other, a destiny is earned. In order to understand how to change the nature of the effort, to stop sinking and change our destiny we will need to conclude this Midrash on the Song of Deborah. This happens next.

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graceandpeacejoanne · 7 months

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HER STORY: Exodus Pioneers, Deborah

She was a prophet, a poet, a powerful judge, and she was called of God to lead her nation in victory, in prosperity, and in peace. #Judges4 #Judges5 #Deborah #Jael #JudgeDeborah #DeborahinJudges #DeborahofJudges #DeborahtheJudge #Sisera #Barak

#Judges4 #Judges5 #Deborah #Jael #JudgeDeborah #DeborahinJudges #DeborahofJudges #DeborahtheJudge #Sisera #Barak Deborah is maybe the most famous woman depicted in the Book of Judges, besides Delilah. And what sets Deborah apart from perhaps every woman in the entirety of the scriptures—both the Hebrew and Christian Testaments, is the astonishing position she held in Israel. As Judge, Deborah…

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#Barak #biblical woman #biblical women #Book of Judges #Deborah #Deborah in Judges #Deborah of Judges #Deborah the Judge #egal #Egalitarian #Jael #Judge Deborah #Judges 4 #judges 5 #Sisera #women in Scripture #Women in the Bible #women of the Bible

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eternally--mortal · 2 years

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Imagine a catholic demigod running loose in Camp Halfblood

Oh, look! An excuse to talk about one of my favorite things: Guilt and Shame Societies.

Wow have you got my brain churning.

(It’s another long one. I apologize for nothing.)

Obviously there are a billion scenarios of how this could play out, because every person is an individual, and I know plenty of Catholics with varied levels of adherence to the Bible and Tradition, so this will have to be a limited example of one scenario.

But for the sake of our story . . .

Imagine a Priest—Micah. He has a particular enthusiasm for the original languages of the Bible and of traditional religious texts. During his studies, he meets a startlingly brilliant woman—dark hair, gray eyes, sharp and beautiful mind—and they engage together over the Greek and Latin translations of ancient poetry and a few key philosophical texts.

Not long after, he finds a little blond haired baby at the entrance of his church.

Micah doesn’t think much of this little baby. He sees her, and he loves her as he would any of his congregation. He loves her as he would a stranger on the other side of the globe, or an unknown neighbor down the street, or a poem that he hasn’t begun to translate and understand, but he looks at her and loves her without realizing that he should love her like a daughter.

No one’s sure where she came from, and a search for family connections comes up blank, so the little girl is given over to CPS.

But something strikes Micah about her. His parents happen to be trained as Foster Parents, and now that he and his siblings are grown and moved out, they’re empty nesters. He mentions the baby to them, and one thing leads to another.

They name her Jaela, after the Biblical figure Jael—a woman who fulfilled Deborah’s prophecy and helped bring down an army by cleverly luring the enemy commander, Sisera, into her tent where she stabbed him through the temple with a tent stake.

Jaela grows up in the Catholic faith and sees Micah regularly. She spends her life calling him “Father” as a title of respect—neither of them knowing how accurate the name is.

But Jaela keeps seeing things. She’s afraid they might be demons, but she’s smart enough to know that whatever they are, they are manifesting as figures from Greek mythology.

She finds her way to Camp Half-blood. Where she is claimed.

Jaela is upset. Her mother is Athena. But Athena is a maiden goddess, so it doesn’t make sense.

Her siblings explain to her how Athena doesn’t have children in the usual way. They describe how they were left on the doorsteps of their parents. Jaela considers how Micah found her at the entrance of the church —how he has been a staple figure in her life —how she was raised by two people who may have been her grandparents.

Jaela laughs hysterically when she asks Malcolm whether this counts as an immaculate conception.

She breaks down when she confides in Annabeth that she thinks she knows who her father is. But how do you explain to your father—your Father—that he has a daughter. Who was immaculately conceived. By a pagan goddess that he will not and cannot believe exists.

She is so afraid of what this means for her faith. She is afraid of what this means for her life with her family, who apparently are her actual, blood-related family.

Most of all, Jaela feels angry.

Jaela has grown up with the belief that her true family did not want her. She has grown up believing in a God who is supposed to be a figure of love and protection and, most or all, Justice.

Well, now her mother is apparently a goddess.

But this feels like anything but justice.

Jaela wonders how Athena gets consent to imagine up children and dump them on the doorsteps of their parents. Especially when one such parent has made a pledge of celibacy that he actually seems determined to keep.

Micah is not a perfect man, but he is a good man, and Jaela is angry to think that he would have made a great father. But it wasn’t what he chose.

It’s such a clash of culture.

Ancient Greeks lived in a society run by Shame Culture. It’s the main reason that Odysseus was so desperate to reach home after the Trojan war: because a hero who dies at sea is forgotten. Because, in Ancient Greek culture, if no one sees it, it did not happen. It was imperative to heroes that there be songs about them to pass on to the next generation —that the praise and glory they had won would live on after death. For the Greeks, evil and good alike existed only when the proof was there, right in front of them.

But Christians, for the most part, and especially devout Catholics, live in Guilt Culture. Christianity focuses a great deal on the internal life; it emphasizes motive and self-awareness. It doesn’t matter whether your neighbor sees you stealing their mail or your parents know that you lied about sneaking out to a party. God sees it. You see it. So it’s there and it’s real.

But now there are Greek gods.

Who watches them?

Jaela is upset because an injustice has been done to her. She’s been robbed of a father, and she can’t confront him because he’s done nothing wrong, and she fears that, when faced with the difficult truth, he will reject her or pity her on the grounds that she has formed a delusion. She can’t even express her frustrations and insecurities during confession because he will know. He will know it is her. Jaela has been confessing the deepest truths of her life to her Father—her father—since she was a little girl and she can’t even tell him the most important truth. She’s not sure she’ll be able to cope with it.

Jaela is angry that she has a goddess for a mother, and that she cannot confront her because Athena is never there.

She lives in agony over the fact that she has been taught about the importance of the internal life and an awareness of guilt and of motive and of actions and their consequences—of the importance of justice—but when she is faced with a situation where all of these things come to their peak, she has no real outlet. Her siblings don’t really understand, the gods don’t care, but Jaela feels the need to make someone care —to make someone do something.

This is the part where we talk about Athena.

Athena is such a particular goddess. She doesn’t just choose her partners and have her children. She makes her children—whether they’re born from deep intelligence or from the unmitigated love of a studious hyperfixation.

Frankly, I believe that this is why Athena is so upset about Percy and so disappointed—and, for a goddess, unusually involved and controlling—about Annabeth’s behavior in the books.

Here we see a goddess who carefully forms her children. She no doubt sees in them a great deal of herself because they are, in a sense, a piece of herself. Athena loves Annabeth as a favorite child. But Annabeth loves Percy, and Percy is a child of Poseidon. More than that, he’s powerful and dangerous and unpredictable. And he’s beginning to make Annabeth unpredictable. Annabeth is already deeply emotional. And now that passion is tied to a destructive force of nature.

Athena hates it.

But it’s easiest to hate in other people what we already hate in ourselves.

Athena knows that she doesn’t have to disdain Poseidon. She knows that parts of herself could be free and unpredictable. She rejects it in herself, so she must also reject it in her daughter.

Jaela sees this dynamic with Athena in her siblings, and she sees a mother who treats her children like possessions instead of like people. She sees a goddess who is unbearably human. Athena may be a maiden goddess, but she is nothing like the Virgin Mary that Jaela grew up believing in.

She can’t pray on her rosary anymore because all she can think about is her mother.

No. Not her mother. Athena. Just a goddess. (Ha. ‘Just’. When did deity become something she could consider ‘just’?) Even Micah was more of a parent to her without even knowing she was his daughter.

Jaela throws herself into camp activities as a form of escapism and she keeps her mouth shut because she does not see a solution.

She begins to dissociate.

She can’t recognize herself in the mirror.

Her past feels as though it belongs to somebody else.

Her morals begin to shift with every conversation. She can’t decide what she believes anymore. She researches and she panics and she fights to find her way out of her own head. But Religion and belief feel selfish and insignificant in comparison to the wars and the death and the carnage. People here have been to the underworld and come back alive, so what is the afterlife? What does Jaela really know about the point of her existence?

She thinks: it’s fine that no one notices. Her world is shattering, but the earth itself is rising to Kill All of Them and the Romans are coming and there’s no point in distracting everyone else with her problems.

Until Drew pulls her aside and drags her into the Aphrodite cabin for a bonding session and a makeover.

Jaela breaks down.

She feels like she’s beginning to recognize herself for the first time. —like she has permission to make herself anew. To set her own boundaries. To make her own decisions.

Jaela decides that there is a world outside her absent-but-controlling mother and her unknowing father. Here, in the midst of the end of the world, there manages to be warmth and community and sassy comments and a family to be found.

She had wondered once or twice whether she should ask Drew to charmspeak her into forgetting—forgetting what, she isn’t sure.

Now, Jaela wonders, maybe she won’t have to.

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dwellordream · 3 years

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“…At the same time, however, until the mid-eleventh century, the question of whether women were suited for militant activity had simply not been of any real concern to medieval scholars. To be sure, there were historical examples within Western Europe of women who were significantly involved in military activity, but they had not stimulated major debate on this issue. The legendary Boudicca, for instance, led a military revolt against the Romans in early Britain, yet her existence remained unknown throughout the High and Late Middle Ages and was only rediscovered in the sixteenth century.

Much later, another more well-known female military leader, Æthelflæd, the so-called ‘Lady of the Mercians’, led an army that won several battles within England and even invaded Wales in the early-tenth century, but her actions also aroused little comment in the contemporary sources. Though unusual, the activities of these women were not sufficiently contentious for contemporaries to use them as a basis for an argument in favour of female militancy.

Thus, it was not until the military career of Countess Matilda of Tuscany in the late-eleventh and early-twelfth century that we find the first clear evidence of works written in support of female militancy. Matilda, whose military career is examined in more detail in chapter two, inherited a large territory in northern Italy and became the chief means of military support and main defender of the Gregorian reform papacy in its struggle against the Western Roman Emperor Henry IV (1050- 1106).

Her continued military success raised fresh questions concerning women’s place in war, and forced many intellectuals who were dependant on Matilda to come up with new and inventive ways of defending and justifying her military actions. They were, in particular, driven by a desire to appease Matilda’s apparent reluctance to wage war against other Christians, as indeed she was doing by fighting the imperial German army. To this end, a range of innovative arguments were offered in support of Matilda’s cause and female military leadership in general.

Amongst the first to do so was a grammarian in her entourage, John of Mantua, known only for a biblical commentary he wrote on the Song of Songs in c.1081. In this tract he attempted to convince Matilda that an ‘active’ life fighting heresy and schismatics in the Church was just as noble as and indeed more useful in God’s eyes than leading a more ‘contemplative’ life as a cloistered nun. John also applied an allegorical form of biblical exegesis to argue that Matilda’s efforts in fact represented legitimate use of the ‘secular sword’ in defence of the Church, which itself wielded the ‘spiritual sword’ – an idea that was to later gain much currency amongst Church scholars.

Similarly Donizo, the author of a life of Matilda, employed biblical imagery to frame and contextualise Matilda’s accomplishments – military or otherwise – as the continuation of a long tradition in strong biblical female leaders, such as Deborah, Jael, Esther (an Old Testament queen), and Judith (another Old Testament heroine). Although the use of these biblical figures cannot necessarily be said to have legitimised Matilda’s leadership (none of the figures were actually rulers), they nevertheless still illustrated, to medieval eyes, how certain women throughout history had divine support for their actions, and in Matilda’s case, how her use of military force must have been approved by God.

A further attempt at explaining her success was that of Rangerius, bishop of Lucca, who defended Matilda’s actions by lauding her masculine qualities in ‘overcoming her sex and not fearing the brave deeds of men’. In thus construing Matilda as a sort of ‘honourable man’ as it were, Rangerius was able to avoid questions as to how the supposedly weaker female sex could defeat the other in a militarily battle, especially as women were thought to be ‘inherently...unfit for [military and political] command’.

Two others to defend the Church’s use of secular armies and Matilda’s participation by way of canon law were Bishop Anselm of Lucca and Cardinal Duesdedit. Both men wrote early, yet independent and influential collections of canons in the 1080s, each of which were identically titled the Collectio canonum. Anselm’s Collectio, especially book 13, is particularly notable because it represented the first canonical collection of its kind, in that it was the first canonical collection designed specifically to justify the Church’s armed struggle against heretics and other perceived enemies of the faith.

More importantly however, at least in terms of legitimating female military command, both Anselm and Duesdedit were the first to employ a little known, and previously ignored, letter by Pope St. Gregory I (590-604) to the Frankish queen Brunhild, in which the pope permitted the queen to use military means in order to defeat any aggressive or evil threats. In Anselm’s collection the letter is discussed under the heading ‘That the power to correct evildoers is granted to the queen’. When placed in the context of Anselm’s support for Matilda and considering the significance and importance of his collection as the ‘the first major systematic justification of warfare in the Christian tradition’, this statement constituted a strong endorsement of female military leadership.

Lest we assume that efforts by intellectuals such as John of Mantua or canonists like Anselm to sanction Matilda’s military activities meant that they actually believed all women might be suited for military leadership, one must remember the context in which their works were written. As Hay has suggested, it is important to realise that Matilda’s very support for the papacy and various persecuted clerics is what predisposed polemicists in the first place to find excuses for her military involvement and justify to both themselves and each other why they were supporting one woman’s military activity.

Indeed, were it not for the need to explain and defend Matilda’s continued wartime victories and political savvy, her supporters may never have gone to the extent they did to justify her actions. Although their efforts to go against the centuries of anti-feminine thought in political and religious circles could not hope to change, in the space of one generation, long- standing beliefs about the legitimacy of female military involvement, their efforts indicate, if nothing else, that ‘medieval conceptions of gender [allowed for] the occasional female combatant’, without contradicting the established belief in male superiority.

Some of the more explicit arguments offered against the idea of women in war in the Middle Ages were also promulgated during Matilda’s life by Bishop Bonizo de Sutri (c.1045-c.1094). Interestingly, although his earlier work, the Liber ad amicum, written in 1085 or 1086, represented an endorsement of her military struggle and the others fighting on her side for the Church, his later canonical law collection, the Liber de vita Christiana, completed 1089-1090, offers a decidedly negative assessment of Matilda and her illegitimate usurpation of masculine power. The reasons for this shift in opinion have to do with Bonizo’s career.

Initially bishop of Sutri, he had been expelled and captured by the Emperor Henry in 1082, then forced to find sanctuary in Matilda’s court where he composed the Liber ad amicum. In it he spoke glowingly of Matilda, calling her a soldier of God and a true daughter of St Peter, who must fight to defend the church against the anti-pope Clement III and his supporters, using ‘every means, as long as her resources last’. His circumstances changed however when, after controversially being elected to the see of Piacenza with only weak support from Matilda and the papacy, he proved unable to maintain his position in the face of opposition, and in 1089 was cruelly mutilated and ousted by his opponents from his seat.

The Liber de vita Christiana therefore, reflects Bonizo’s disillusionment with Matilda, an attitude that is evident in its argument that women must always be under male command; moreover, although he concedes that historically some women have held military or political leadership, he contends they have only ever brought destruction or misfortune to their subjects. Invoking various biblical and historical examples of women who he felt had gone against this divine order and suffered for it, Bonizo concludes by exhorting that a woman’s place is at home, performing domestic tasks, not leading armies on the battlefield, the obvious implication being that Matilda’s struggle could only bring harm to those involved and that she ought to desist in her military activities.”

- James Michael Illston, ‘An Entirely Masculine Activity’? Women and War in the High and Late Middle Ages Reconsidered

#matilda of tuscany #james michael illston #history #high middle ages #late middle ages #warfare #gender #religion #medieval

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mostlydeadlanguages · 4 years

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The Triumphs of Deborah and Jael (Judges 4 & 5)

Image: "Jael & Sisera," by Conterfeyter

I love these two chapters of the Bible.

The first chapter is a straightforward story about how two women help Israel triumph over their oppressors: Deborah, a prophetess and judge, and Jael, a courageous nomadic woman. It's a sorely needed counterpoint to the treatment of women elsewhere in the book of Judges — and a reminder that even in the ancient world, women could be snarky badasses.

The second chapter is a gorgeous and very difficult poem which roughly retells the same events. There's still some debate over which chapter was written first, but most scholars view this chapter (the “Song of Deborah”) as a very ancient text, the predecessor of the prose version. If I were to footnote every grammatical difficulty or obscure vocabulary in this chapter, I would be writing until next year; I've merely highlighted a few of the most challenging cruxes. Despite its difficulties, though, it's a raw, powerful epic that intertwines cosmic theophany, military adventure, and personal intimacy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Judges 4

Once again, the Israelites acted wickedly in YHWH's sight. (Ehud had died.) So YHWH delivered them up to Jabin, the king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his troops was Sisera, who lived in Forest-of-the-Gentiles. Then the Israelites cried out to YHWH, because he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he had been brutally oppressing the Israelites for twenty years.

Now, Deborah was a female prophetess, a "woman of torches" [1]; she was judging Israel at that time. She would sit beneath the Palm of Deborah — between Ramah and Bethel, in the hills of Ephraim — and the Israelites went up to her for judgment.

She summoned Barak ben Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and she said to him, "Hasn't YHWH, the God of Israel, given a command? Go and muster at Mount Tabor, and take ten thousand men with you from Naphtali and Zebulun. Then, at the river Kishon, I will muster for you Sisera, commander of Jabin's troops, with his chariotry and his horde — and I will give him into your hand."

Barak said to her, "If you go with me, then I'll go. But if you don't go with me, I won't go."

So she said, "I will most certainly go with you! Nevertheless, there will be no honor for you on the path you are traveling — for YHWH will deliver up Sisera by the hand of a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, so that ten thousand men marched at his heels. And Deborah went up with him.

Meanwhile, Heber the Smith had split off from the Smiths — the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses — and pitched his tent at Oak-in-Zaanannim, which is at Kedesh. They told Sisera that Barak ben Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, so Sisera summoned all his chariotry, nine hundred iron chariots, along with all the people with him, from Forest-of-the-Gentiles to the river Kishon.

Then Deborah said to Barak, "Get up! This is the day when YHWH will surely give Sisera into your hand. Doesn't YHWH himself go out before you?"

Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. And YHWH threw Sisera and all his chariotry and all his horde into chaos before the blade of Barak. Sisera got off his chariot and fled on foot, while Barak chased after the chariotry and the horde as far as Forest-of-the-Gentiles. The entire horde of Sisera fell before the sword; not one remained.

Meanwhile, Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Smith — for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the kin of Heber the Smith. Jael came out to greet Sisera, and she told him, "Tarry, my lord; tarry with me, and don't be afraid." So he tarried with her and entered the tent, and she hid him under a covering.

He said to her, "Please, give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a leather bottle of milk and gave him a drink, then hid him again. "Stand at the tent's entrance," he told her, "and if someone comes and asks, 'Is there a man here?', say 'No.'"

But Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and held a hammer in her hand. She came to him stealthily, and she drove the peg into his temple until it penetrated the ground, while he was unconscious. He breathed his last and died.

Just then, Barak appeared, chasing Sisera. Jael came out to greet him, and she told him, "Come — I will show you the man you seek." So he came in to her — and Sisera was there, lying dead, with the peg in his temple.

Thus God humiliated Jabin, king of Canaan, on that day, in front of the Israelites. Then the hand of the Israelites pushed harder and harder against Jabin, king of Canaan, until they exterminated Jabin, king of Canaan.

Judges 5

Deborah sang this with Barak ben Abinoam on that day: When caliphs are in chaos [2] in Israel, when the people volunteer — bless YHWH! Listen, you kings! Hear, you dignitaries! I myself, to YHWH — I myself, I will sing — I will belt out to YHWH, God of Israel. YHWH, when you came forth from Seir, when you strode from the land of Edom, Earth quaked — yes, and Heaven sprinkled, yes, and clouds sprinkled water. Mountains rippled before YHWH, the One of Sinai, before YHWH, God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar ben Anat, in the days of Jael, routes vanished, and travelers on pathways traveled circuitous routes. Heroism vanished, [3] in Israel it vanished, until you arose, Deborah, until you arose, a mother in Israel. God chose a new people — [4] then war was at the gates! Could a shield be seen, or a spear, among forty thousand in Israel? My heart belongs to Israel's officers, the volunteers of the people. Bless YHWH! You riders of tawny donkeys, you who sit on tapestries, and you who walk the road: proclaim it! Louder than pebbles between the water-currents, [5] there they recount YHWH's loving-loyalties, the loving-loyalties of his heroism in Israel. Then the people of YHWH came down to the gates. "Awake, awake, O Deborah! Awake, awake, declare a song! Get up, Barak, and capture your captives, you son of Abinoam." Then the remnant of the nobles came down, the people of YHWH came down to me with the warriors. From Ephraim were those with roots in Amalek, after you, Benjamin, with your peoples. From Machir, the officers came down, and from Zebulun, those who wield generals' rods. The commanders of Issachar were with Deborah; Issachar was true to Barak. In the valley, they chased after his strides. In the clan of Reuben were great rations of heart. Why did you sit down with your saddlebags to listen to the piping of the flocks? In the clan of Reuben were great rationales of heart. [6] Gilead stayed across the Jordan, and Dan — why did he sojourn with the ships? Asher sat on the seashore, staying at his harbors. Zebulun: a people that defied death, and Naphtali, upon the heights of the land. The kings came; they warred. Then the kings of Canaan warred at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo. They took no plunder of silver. From Heaven, the stars warred; from their courses, they warred against Sisera. The river Kishon washed them away; the primordial river, the river Kishon. Tread firmly, my soul! Then the horse hooves hammered with the galloping, galloping of his stallions. "Curse Meroz," said YHWH's messenger; "Curse bitterly its inhabitants. For they did not come to help YHWH, to help YHWH with the warriors." Most blessed of women be Jael, wife of Heber the Smith — of women in tents, most blessed. "Water," he asked; milk, she gave. In a noble bowl, she brought him cream. She reached her hand for the peg, her right hand for the worker's mallet; she hammered Sisera, she crushed his head, she smashed and stabbed his temple. Between her legs, he sank, he fell, he lay; between her legs, he sank, he fell. Where he sank, there he fell — ruined. Through the window, she gazed down; Sisera's mother lamented through the lattice. "Why is his chariot delayed in coming? Why is the clatter of his war-chariots tardy?" The wisest of her noblewomen responds; even she can answer the words herself. "Aren't they retrieving and dividing the spoils? One cunt — two cunts! — for every man; [7] dyed cloth as spoil for Sisera, dyed embroidered cloth as spoil, two dyed embroidered clothes on every neck as spoil." Thus may all your enemies perish, YHWH! But your loved ones are like the rising of the sun in its strength. Then the land was quiet for forty years.

[1] "Woman of torches" — or "woman of Lappidoth," or "wife of Lappidoth." Since "lappidoth" (torches) is neither a personal nor a place name elsewhere, I choose to translate it here as a metaphorical epithet.

[2] "When caliphs are in chaos" — this line is most often translated as "when locks grow long"; it relies on some very obscure vocabulary. I read it as a wordplay that connects two homophones: the noun for a powerful leader, and the verb for running amuck.

[3] "Heroism vanished" — This whole verse is very difficult and complicated by the fact that the word I translate as "vanished" is a near auto-antonym (it can mean either "to cease" or "to grow fat"), and it's not clear whether the same meaning is intended throughout. The word I translate as "heroism" is sometimes translated as "peasantry."

[4] "God chose new people" — This is the straightforward translation of this line, but because of its theological difficulty (how could God turn against Israel?), it usually gets reversed as "[people] chose new gods." As I understand it, "new people" means "a new set of enemies for Israel."

[5] "Louder than pebbles between the water-currents" — Another set of very obscure vocabulary. I imagine this image as the roaring of water splashing over pebbles.

[6] "In the clan of Reuben were great rations of heart / great rationales of heart." This is either a wordplay or a scribal error; the lines are identical except for two similar words. Some translators emend the first line, so that the two lines are an exact repetition, decrying Reuben's equivocation. I view it as a pun: Reuben supposedly has a big portion of courage, but in the end, he dilly-dallied.

[7] "One cunt — two cunts" — This Hebrew word literally means "womb," but here it clearly refers to female war-captives for sexual slavery. "Cunt" is the most common English word that conveys both meanings, although it is more crude than the Hebrew word would have seemed.

#deborah #song of deborah #judges #hebrew bible #Biblical Hebrew #poetry #jael

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dailychapel · 3 years

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Holy Lord, Thank You for grace. Please help me move beyond the hurdles that trip me up and give me the strength and wisdom to look up and see the hope I run toward in Christ. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

[Pro 5:1-12 ESV] 1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, 2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. 3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; 6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. 7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, 9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, 10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, 11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, 12 and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

[Jdg 5:1-31 ESV] 1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day: 2 "That the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the LORD! 3 "Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the LORD I will sing; I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel. 4 "LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water. 5 The mountains quaked before the LORD, even Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel. 6 "In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. 7 The villagers ceased in Israel; they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. 8 When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? 9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the LORD. 10 "Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way. 11 To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the LORD, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. "Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD. 12 "Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, break out in a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam. 13 Then down marched the remnant of the noble; the people of the LORD marched down for me against the mighty. 14 From Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley, following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen; from Machir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant's staff; 15 the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 16 Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. 18 Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field. 19 "The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver. 20 From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. 21 The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might! 22 "Then loud beat the horses' hoofs with the galloping, galloping of his steeds. 23 "Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD, curse its inhabitants thoroughly, because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty. 24 "Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. 25 He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl. 26 She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. 27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell--dead. 28 "Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice: 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?' 29 Her wisest princesses answer, indeed, she answers herself, 30 'Have they not found and divided the spoil?-- A womb or two for every man; spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?' 31 "So may all your enemies perish, O LORD! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might." And the land had rest for forty years.

[1Pe 1:13-25 ESV] 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

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dmwelch77 · 4 years

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Hooray for the Matriarchy! Forgotten Voices

Hooray for the Matriarchy!

Week one: Forgotten voices

Matthew 1: 1-6, 12-16

You always know it’s going to be a fun Sunday morning when the sermon starts with a reading of a genealogy. More on that a little bit later.

A couple of years ago I did some work at the Museum of the Bible, in Washington DC. [Yes really, there’s an entire – and pretty large – museum dedicated to the Bible. If you’re ever lucky enough to be in DC, it’s worth a visit for reasons shall we say both good and bad.]

There is a whole floor in the museum describing the ‘global impact’ of the Bible. The exhibit begins with a series of displays about the Bible in American history. It’s a complicated picture. In one cabinet is a volume of ‘The Woman’s Bible’ published by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1895. Stanton was an influential advocate for women’s suffrage and blamed the teachings of the church for much of the problem of denying women their rights. Her Bible included commentary interpreting what she saw as the Bible’s real message about women.

In another cabinet is one of the so-called ‘Slave Bibles’ of the early 1800s – part of a large display outlining how the Bible was used both in justifying slavery, and in fighting for its abolition. ‘Slave Bibles’ radically edited the Bible text – missing out stories and sometimes whole books – to downplay themes of freedom and liberation and emphasise themes of obedience and submission. Verses like this one from Titus “teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything” definitely made the cut, used to perpetuate the idea that slavery and ownership was the natural – even God-ordained – order of the world.

In a roundabout way, that’s why we’re beginning a new series this week: Hooray for the Matriarchy! How we read the Bible matters, and for the next four weeks we are going to be exploring the stories of some women from the Bible.

We can’t possibly do that justice in just four weeks – neither incidentally should it be the only time in the year when we talk about women’s stories. In the next three weeks, we’re going to hear the stories of Deborah, Miriam, and Hagar. This week, we’re beginning with the title ‘forgotten voices’ – women whose stories are minimised and marginalised; women who (along with men) are often unnamed in the Bible, yet whose inclusion in the text – I think - tells us something about our own calling in the world. How have women’s voices been forgotten – and why does it matter?

Pop quiz: does anyone know how many women are named in the Hebrew Bible – the Old Testament? I wonder if we started shouting out names, how many we could muster. [Maybe we shouldn’t – we’ll be here all morning]

There are 111 women named – and very many more unnamed. Some we know – Ruth maybe, or Esther – both have books of the Bible named after them which helps. Many we may have never noticed or heard. But the women’s stories are there.

All about the patriarchy

We started with that reading from Matthew 1, listing the ancestors of Jesus – beginning with the patriarchs. Time and again in the Bible we’re told that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Right from Sunday school, we teach stories about the male heroes of faith [or so-called heroes – many of them are pretty violent, interesting that these are the stories we teach children!]. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Samson, Gideon – the list goes on. But listen to that reading from Matthew 1 carefully and you’ll notice that – in an absolute break with how genealogies of the time were put together – four women are named. Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Mary. Their inclusion is intriguing – but it’s not an utter surprise. The Bible is a remarkable history. Most histories are written by those who conquered, those who won, these are the ones who control the narrative. Yet the Bible – the Hebrew Bible – tells the story of the Jewish people who are constantly conquered, occupied, and exiled. In that context the Bible is often subversive, often disruptive. It is written in a time and culture completely formed by patriarchy (a system where men hold power and women are largely excluded from power) – so the Bible is this weird mix. It is rich with stories of women who are oppressed, but who sometimes have agency. Women who are silenced, but who sometimes make their voices heard. Many of the women in the Hebrew Bible whose stories we know are foreigners, outsiders in Israel. Their stories aren’t the centre of the text, they appear and disappear. We get a little bit about them, then we never know what happens to them after that. Their feelings and actions are unexplored, their story arcs don’t get completed. In a text that is often about power and nation-building, the men’s stories are the point. But the women’s stories are there.

Because God is the God of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah. Without these matriarchs we have no more patriarchs.

Without Shiphra and Puah – the Israelite midwives who subvert Pharoah’s orders [to kill every Hebrew baby boy, and instead tell him that Hebrew women just give birth really fast before they can get there – they’ve already pushed them out and hidden them somewhere!]

Without Jochabed who hides her baby in the reeds

Without Miriam who watches over her baby brother and saves his life

Without the Egyptian Princess who raises him

We have no Moses.

And while Moses parts the waters of the red sea – Miriam leads the people of Israel across with dancing.

When Israel sends spies into Canaan, looking for their promised land – it’s Rahab who saves them. Deborah leads the people of Israel in peacetime, as well as in war – a war that’s won when Jael (another woman) puts a tent peg through Sisera’s skull. Tamar, Dinah, the daughters of Zelophehad, Hannah, Esther, Abigail – we don’t have time for their stories, but even to say their names is important, because we don’t. Time and again the fate of the people of Israel pivots on the actions of women. The women’s stories are there.

If we don’t think the Bible celebrates women – as leaders, prophets, a source of wisdom and courage, as leaders of the resistance, subverters, champions of justice – then we’re not reading the Bible very well. Patriarchy is not just a problem in the writing of the text – it’s a problem in our reading of it as well. We continue to emphasise the stories of men, missing out the essential stories of women.

Why is this important? Well – aside from the fact that 50% of the population can’t find themselves in this story if women’s voices are forgotten – when we read the Bible through our own bias, we compound the problem. We weaponise the Bible. We fail to challenge interpretations that justify and lead to injustice.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton wasn’t wrong when she argued that the teaching of the church over the centuries – based on this Biblical text which is steeped in patriarchy – has played a huge role in denying women their rights. From Eve to Mary, women have been cast as either sinners (whores) or saints (virgins). It begins with Augustine in the fourth century – but it carries on and it gathers pace. Here are some of my favourite quotes for you [I actually have a document on my computer called ‘quotes about women’, so I picked out a couple of my favourites]:

(This is from the fifteenth-century manual of the Dominican Inquisitors against witches): “When a woman thinks alone she thinks evil, for the woman was made from the crooked rib which is bent in the contrary direction from the man. Woman conspired constantly against spiritual good. Her very name, fe-mina means ‘absence of faith’. She is insatiable lust by nature. Because of this lust she consorts even with Devils. It is for this reason that women are especially prone to the crime of witchcraft, from which men have been preserved by the maleness of Christ.”

One more? Here’s Martin Luther the great reformer, on the subject of marriage: “Eve originally was more equally a partner with Adam, but because of sin the present woman is a far inferior creature. Because she is responsible for the Fall, woman is in a state of subjugation. The man rules the home and the world, wages war and tills the soil. The woman is like a nail driven into the wall, she sits at home.”

Those are rather extreme examples – but if you go into a Christian bookshop today, or step inside some churches, and you won’t have to look hard to find ideas that are rooted in patriarchy, and that still deny the place, the voice, and the role of women – in church and in society. And ideas like the purity culture that have heaped shame on women for their sexuality and their identity.

This (weaponising Scripture) is all a problem not just for how we read the Bible in relation to women – but to everyone whose voice is minimalised or marginalised. To every group of people who find themselves pushed to the outside or ignored. I think we all know ways in which the Bible has been used against people because of their race, their gender, their sexuality, or their social status.

The Bible is problematic. Referring to the Hebrew Scriptures, Professor Wil Gafney – a brilliant womanist theologian [if you don’t know her work it’s worth reading – she’s written a brilliant book called Womanist Midrash] – says this about the Bible:

“The reprehensible gender and sexual mores of the Stone and Iron Ages are still in effect for some of the women, men, boys, and girls living in our Digital Age. Our sacred texts do not proclaim or even envision a world without slavery and the subordination of women, but they lay a foundation for us to transcend them and their limitations: ‘Remember that you were slaves in Egypt.’ ‘Do to others what you would have them do to you.’ ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to another.’ ‘In the Messiah there is no longer slave or free, male or female.’”

In celebration of women

The women’s stories are there in the Bible – we need to make sure we tell them well – that means we have to untangle them from their limitations, and from those that we’ve placed on them.

Some of you may know John Bell – if you are a Greenbelt regular. He’s a teacher from the Iona Community, and just a brilliant storyteller around the Bible. He tells a story about leading a retreat with a group of church leaders, where he sets them off into groups. Half of the groups – he asks to write down the names of the twelve male disciples, and also to write down three things that they know about each of them.

To the other half of the group, he says think about all the women who are followers of Jesus in the gospels, and write down what you know about them.

So off they go, when they come back again the men’s groups start and put their sheets on the wall. Most groups have named most of the twelve of the disciples – a few are a bit tricky to remember. What about when it comes to what we know about them? Peter – we know quite a lot about Peter, people could find three things to say about him. Matthew? He’s a tax collector … he collected taxes … James the Less? Lesser than … another James? Andrew? Andrew brought a small boy with loaves and fishes, and some Greeks, and his brother to Jesus.

What about the groups that thought about the women? John Bell says that when they came back with their pieces of paper, there was a whole wall full of information. The women at the well �� we don’t know her name, but she gets a whole chapter in John’s Gospel, which she shares with Jesus. No other character in the gospel gets a whole chapter of their own. She’s the first evangelist. She brings a whole village to follow Jesus. [John Bell jokes that Andrew brings a small boy, some greeks, and his brother – for which he becomes the patron saint of Scotland. This woman brings a whole village and we don’t know her name.]

Not all are named

“We know more about the woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears, than we do about five of the disciples after whom cathedrals are named. There has been an imbalance.”

There are 22 women in the gospels whose interactions with Jesus are recorded. We don’t know many of their names – but we know their faith and we do know how Jesus responds to them. The woman who was bleeding, and who touched Jesus. The Syro-Phoenician woman who calls Jesus out on his use of racist language. The woman caught in adultery who walks away, uncondemned. The woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears. The woman who gives away her last coin in the temple offering. The woman who pours expensive oil on Jesus’ head – which Judas thinks is a waste and Jesus chastises him. The women who wait at the cross, while Jesus’ male disciples flee. The women who watch his burial, who visit the tomb, who are the first witnesses of the resurrection.

They are not named – but they are bearers of the most important news in human history.

I want to say clearly: for those of us who have felt excluded or marginalised or unheard by a version of Christianity that has lifted up the powerful, and silenced those on the edges, the place of these women in the text reminds us that we are all equally made in the image of God. We are all included. We are all in. Against the odds, (yes) from the margins, unnamed, imperfect, nonetheless … the women’s stories are there.

Says John Bell:

“Jesus eats with women, is offered hospitality with women, argues with women, and takes their experience seriously. He engages with, eats with, enjoys the company of, and allows himself to be touched by those who are equally made in the image of God.”

Texts of terror

Women’ stories are there in the Bible – and we need to tell them well. But we also need to tell them honestly. And if we’re going to be honest about the story of women in the Bible, then we need to talk about what Rachel Held Evans called the ‘dark stories’ – or as Phyllis Trible calls them, the texts of terror.

I believe the Bible absolutely celebrates women, and we see that most in Jesus’ life and interactions. But the Bible also contains some horrific stories – women suffer beyond all others, and often God is silent about their suffering. Throughout the text, women are the victims of terror and violence and injustice. Even in metaphor – when Israel is in trouble, she is depicted as a woman. A daughter, destitute on the streets. A mother weeping. A harlot cast out. It’s impossible to read the Bible without encountering the voices of women who suffer.

And as a woman, approaching those stories is hard.

Rachel Held Evans says that as she read these stories as a young woman: “I kept anticipating some sort of postscript or epilogue chastising the major players for their sins, a sort of Arrested Development–style “lesson” to wrap it all up—“And that’s why you should always challenge the patriarchy!” But no such epilogue exists. While women are assaulted, killed, and divided as plunder, God stands by, mute as clay.”

She goes on:

“Those who seek to glorify biblical womanhood have forgotten the dark stories. They have forgotten that the concubine of Bethlehem, the daughter of Jephthah, and the countless unnamed women who lived and died between the lines of Scripture exploited, neglected, ravaged and crushed at the hand of patriarchy are as much a part of our shared narrative as Deborah, Esther, Rebekah, and Ruth.”

The story of the unnamed concubine in Judges 19 strikes me as one of the most terrible stories the Bible offers us. It comes at the end of the days of judges ‘when Israel had no king (and) the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes’. These are dangerous days, violence is everywhere, and those in charge abuse their power. In a gruesome string of events, when the Levite and ‘his concubine’ (or as Wil Gafney translates it, womb-slave [ask me later for Gafney’s translation of Bilhah’s story]) are travelling, they end up in the house of an old man, in a town in the hill country of Benjamin. [In a parallel to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah] a group of men surround the house, demanding that the Levite come outside. Instead, the two men offer up the women to the mob – both the daughter of the old man, and the Levite’s concubine. We don’t know what happens to the daughter, she’s not mentioned again, but the Levite pushes his concubine out, and the woman is sexually assaulted by a group of men and left for dead.

In the morning the Levite gets up to go on his way, seemingly undisturbed about what’s happened to his concubine, opens the door, and finds her on the ground with her hands on the threshold. So he takes her home – it’s not clear whether she’s alive or not – he cuts her body into twelve pieces, and sends one to each tribe of Israel. The story is an indictment (told at the end of the story arc of Judges) of what king-less and law-less Israel has become. Violence begets violence, begets violence, and war ensues between the tribes. [All the men of Benjamin except 600 are killed. All the women are killed, all the children are killed. 400 women are snatched to be wives for the remaining men … etc]

It is a terrible, terrible story. There is no justice for the woman. She is abandoned and used in every way. She is not even named – only the story of the violence done to her lives on. Phyllis Trible says that of all the characters in Scripture she is the least. The least. But her story is there. This nameless woman demands our attention. She doesn’t speak in the text, only her father and her husband speak. And yet she is not silenced. Her suffering speaks for her, calls out for our outrage.

Lest we need reminding, misogyny, violence, and abuse of power are not confined to the distant past. Violence still disproportionately affects women and girls around the globe. Worldwide, one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence because she is a woman. Women are more at risk of domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, forced marriage, sex trafficking, and genital mutilation.

Although people of all genders experience violence and abuse online, the abuse experienced by women is specifically sexist or misogynistic in nature. Online threats of violence against women are often sexualised or target a specific aspect of a woman’s identity (involving racism or transphobia for example). 21% of women in the UK have experienced online abuse or harassment.

Time and again, in the Bible, the suffering of women points to the need and the fight for justice. To the failure of Israel to live up to its calling to care for the poor, the orphaned, the widow, the stranger. And when you read the story of the Levite’s concubine, or the story of Tamar, or the story of Rizpah … [Rizpah’s story we probably don’t know. She was Saul’s concubine. She sits in the desert with the corpses of her sons for six months after David has had them killed, fending off wild animals and birds, demanding justice for their deaths and burial for their bodies, and she wins – David has them buried along with the bones of Saul and Jonathan …] When we read these stories it’s impossible to not to think about contemporary stories [the mothers of the disappeared in Argentina parallel Rizpah’s story].

I think the Bible teaches us that these terrible stories … [do you know, I’m not ‘glad’ that they’re there – I don’t think ‘oh it’s good that women’s stories are included in the Bible even the violent ones’ … we wish they weren’t there because they’re awful stories.] But they are there and what they point us to is the need and the fight for justice for women and girls and men and boys around the world, and our part in that.

In her book, Texts of terror, Phyllis Trible concludes:

“The story is alive, and all is not well. Beyond confession we must say ‘never again’ … speaking the word not to others but to ourselves: Repent. Repent.”

Here – I think – is the challenge and the invitation to us, as we read the stories of women in the Bible. Yes – to be inspired by their leadership, their courage, their flaws, and their faith. Yes – to be encouraged that their stories are told, even against the odds, from the margins, subverting power, leading the resistance. But most of all to be reminded of our own calling as the people of God always to bring good news that is freedom for the poor, and justice for the oppressed.

Let’s pray

May we – each one of us – find ourselves in this story of faith.

May we know our value, our worth, and our identity – formed, each one of us, in the image of God.

May we learn to listen for the stories from the margins and amplify their voice.

May we be compelled to act for justice, to resolve oppression and exploitation wherever we find it.

May these stories not trouble us in vain – may we use them for some good.

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dailyaudiobible · 5 years

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04/25/2019 DAB Transcript

Judges 4:1-5:31, Luke 22:35-53, Psalms 94:1-23, Proverbs 14:3-4

Today is the 25th day of April. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is always, always, always a joy to walk in here around the global campfire. And here we are together, stepping outside of all of the responsibilities and obligations and even chaos that's going on around us, and just let God's word wash into our lives and in over us and into us and then we leave this time rejuvenated. It's pretty amazing what can happen in just a few minutes with the Scriptures. So, let's get to it. We've begun the book of Judges and we’re beginning to meet the judges. We met 3 of the 13 judges yesterday. Some of these judges, you know, there’s just a paragraph of mention, others have the full, you know, kind of story and what we’re ultimately learning is what happened after Moses and Joshua, what happened after the children of Israel moved into the promised land. So today we’re reading from the English Standard Version and we’ll read Judges chapters 4 and 5.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the Old Testament we’re learning of the judge Deborah, a valiant woman leader of Israel and of Jael who did away with the enemy lieutenant general in a way that would've at bare minimum taken some bravery, right? You’re sneaking up on a man of war as he sleeps with a tent peg and a hammer and…and yeah you drive the tent peg with the hammer into the head of Sisera, the general and, of course, he dies doing away with the military leader who has been oppressing the children of Israel in their land for a couple of decades, which is powerful imagery. I mean going back into that time, it is an entirely patriarchal world. So, seeing Deborah and Jael once again shows God pulling people forward, pulling...pulling them forward even as they're doing everything they can to fight against Him and His will and ways for them.

We move into the gospel of Luke and we’re moving back into the passion narrative and we find Jesus in intense agony of prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. And even though we have just passed through Easter and have just kinda lived out this story it comes at a good time. It's easy for us to get through Easter and just kind of move on. We've focused our energy and efforts on the passion narrative and then we just kinda move on. It's nice to encounter it again and let it sink more deeply into our souls, what it cost, what it cost for us to take for granted, our freedom's.

Then we get into the book of Proverbs and we hear these words, “where there are no oxen the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” So, if the manger weren't clean because the ox was there, how would the ox have made the manger dirty. It would've made manger dirty by just being itself right and just doing whatever it did, including pooping and peeing all over the place. It has to be cleaned up to keep the barn clean. So, the barn will stay clean without the animals, but the abundant crops won't come without the strength of the animals. So, you have to maintain the animals in the barn in order to have the strength to have the abundant crops. And this, like most of the Proverbs, simply imitates our lives. The proverb wasn't written to give us an agricultural lesson. We can kind of deduce that if you’ve got an ox in a barn and you’re not to clean up the barn then the barn's gonna be disgusting, but in our lives in community things can indeed get messy at times and they need to be maintained and cleaned up, but the strength that we have together is vastly superior than the strength that we have isolated and alone. And if we want an abundant harvest for the kingdom, then we’re going to have to learn to clean up after ourselves and even clean up each other's messes. It's gonna get messy. And I think that we can probably even as the body of Christ to deal with the mess if we could get over who we’re going to blame for the mess. And the best possible way that we can do that is to realize that we are all a mess, but together we are strong.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. We work so hard to not look messy. We work so hard to disguise the truth of the fact that we’re all going through the same life at the same time on planet Earth with all of the same challenges and some of us are more challenged than others in certain areas, but we’re all challenged and we’re all struggling and we’re all learning that we are utterly dependent upon You and the faster that we can learn the faster that we can just deal with the mass and we can just clean the barn and we can maintain it and then we can have an abundant harvest for Your kingdom once we get out of our own way and out of Your way. So, come Holy Spirit. Help us to be patient. Help us to offer grace today. Help us to reveal Your kingdom today and be mindful of the fact that's what we’re doing with every thought, word and deed in our lives. Come Jesus we pray. In Your mighty name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello everyone, this is Kiki in Arizona, it’s a beautiful night out here. And what I’d like to say is that I have a praise. My husband is doing better with his broken hip. He’s in his second rehab. Hopefully he’ll be home in two weeks, we’re not sure. But I really wanted to call in and say is that Brian, I just love this Daily Audio Bible. I’m in my fourth month of listening to you and I have never heard a pastor as good as what you have told us. I’ve never heard the it read the way you read it. I’m learning so much. All the years I went to Sunday school and church I have never been so intrigued with the Bible. I can’t believe how much I’m listening and learning and remembering every day and I want to say thank you so, so much for all that you have done in this four short months for me. A Gentlemen the other night said, “your commentary”. And I was trying to figure out what was the word to use about what you say after the readings and commentary I think was the right word. Your commentary on Good Friday after the readings was spot on for me. I thought of how you said it’s such a solemn day on Good Friday and how would we have felt the day that Jesus was crucified and how we have taken that ourselves. It would’ve been terrible. It still is terrible to think about it. And I saw the movie of the crucifixion on __ and I watched that. And tomorrow will be a great day. Tomorrow will be Easter Sunday and He has risen and I thank you, thank you, thank you. Everybody out there, thank you for all the prayers. So, I just want to end it before it ends me. So, thank everybody and happy Easter.

Hello, my DAB family this is Mark Street from Sydney Australia. Today is Resurrection day, Sunday the 21st of April. Family, I’m just ringing in because unfortunately the devil has got to me today and I’m really, really, really angry with myself. My exes new husband pushed my buttons about things that I was not doing. Just to cut a long…I’m not gonna say he said, she said, but at the end of the day I did the wrong thing. I lost my temper totally and just screamed at him and I’m so angry with myself. Of all the days when Christ told us to __ through words I can’t __ words and...ahhhh…just so angry with myself. This Lenten season I’ve been so good and this last day…ahh…please pray for me that God will turn this evil situation where I lost it into something good and I can come out the other end a better person. I’m just so disappointed in myself as well. Thank you, family. Bye.

Hi all this is the Misfit Man from Cincinnati. Just calling in today to give some encouragement to Johnny from Colorado. I just wanted to let you know that we are definitely lifting up Nick in prayer and I just wanted to encourage you to never stop reaching out to this community and never stop praying, lifting your friends up in prayer, and lifting everything up in prayer to God and that this, this is the church. And my pastor has a saying. He says, “there’s nothing like the church when it’s working right.” And this Daily Audio Bible community is the church working right because the church is not one, two, three buildings in your town or however many, you know, brick and mortar things there are with the name “church” on it. The church is all of us, every believer in Christ in the entire universe coming together, lifting each other up, holding each other accountable, being there for each other when we’re down and praising with us and rejoicing with us when we’re having great times. So, just never forget that. No matter what happens in your life, reach out to the people around you, be in community weather it’s over the phone calls here or face-to-face just, never lose that. There’s going to be discouraging times in your life when things don’t make sense but just remember in those times that there is one thing that makes sense and that’s Jesus. And to reach out to him and to all of us who are also trying to follow him. So, love you brother. Keep up the good work man. All right. Bye.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Julie calling for Lisa. Lisa I am virtually holding my hand out to you right now in response to your call. I am praying to our Father to heal your husband’s cancer and give him strength and you as well. And I’m praying so very hard for you right now, that the Lord heal your illness, your problems and let you breathe well. I’m praying this very hard. And Lisa I want you to take your hand and put it in your heart and say, “keep the faith” and then reach it out into the sky and make a fist and pull it in and say, “grab the grace.” And I want to keep the faith and want you to grab that grace because it’s yours and I want to breathe easy. Lord, please watch over Lisa and help her. Lord please dry her tears and make her smile and give her strength. For this I pray. Amen. Have a good day.

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kjvpsalms · 4 years

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Judges 5

Context: The Israelites are under the oppression of the Canaanites. At this time, Deborah the prophetess is judge over Israel. She receives a message from the LORD commanding Barak to fight the Canaanites at Kedesh, but warns that he will not be the one to kill Sisera, the captain of the Canaanite army, but rather a woman will. The prophesy comes true, and Jabin the king of Canaan is destroyed and Israel freed. They sing this song in celebration.

1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,

2 “Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.

3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, swill sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

4 LORD, when Thou wentest out of Seir, when Thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.

5 The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.

7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the LORD.

10 Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.

11 They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of His villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

12 Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.

13 Then He made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.

14 Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.

15 And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart.

16 Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.

18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.

19 The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.

20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

21 The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.

22 Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the prancings, the prancings of their mighty ones.

23 ‘Curse ye Meroz,’ said the angel of the LORD, ‘curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.’

24 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

25 He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.

26 She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

28 The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?’

29 Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,

30 ‘Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colors, a prey of divers colors of needlework, of divers colors of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?’

31 So let all Thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.” And the land had rest forty years.

#Bible #God #Scripture #Judges 5 #Deborah #Barak #Bible Song #Jael #Sisera

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sarakellar · 7 years

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wrestle.

I wrestle with my femininity like Jacob wrestled with God.

It sneaks up on me in the darkness and jumps my back and wrestles me to the ground. Sometimes it swings a sucker punch at me, and I keel before swinging one back, panting from the blow to my solar plexus. The light dawns, and I have it in a stranglehold, and it says, “Let me go.”

I say, “Bless me.”

Bless me, please, you supposed gift from God.

Where God blessed Jacob, however, femininity smiles at me with bloody teeth, slips from my hold, and attacks me again.

I was raised in the church, but not in church culture.

I didn’t wear dresses to church every Sunday—I have a vague memory of doing it when I was much younger, maybe six, maybe even younger, but not again in my childhood after I denounced them at eight and only wore them once a year for camp.

Pants were the name of the game, and shortly after I cut all associations with the colour pink I shopped in the boy’s clothing section exclusively for clothes for a few years. It’s not as bad now—I bought a pastel pink dress for a wedding the other day. I love that dress, but not enough to wear it 24/7. I took it off as soon as I got back to my cousin’s house, and I’m back in jeans and flannel today.

My mother told me once, as we waited at a restaurant during another out of town gymnastics excursion, that nobody would’ve been able to guess that I was a gymnast. She was referring to how I slouch, I know she was (my high school music teacher made the same claim a few years later), but as I look back on those years it wouldn’t have been just the slouch that had people stumped. The androgynous clothing would’ve done it, too.

I am a girl. I know I am.

My mother has been more patient than I could ever ask her to be, especially when she was still the one paying for my clothing.

Somebody I met at Bible camp told me that if I wanted to be a boy so bad, I should just get a sex change and get it over with.

I wrestle.

I wasn’t raised in church culture, but I know it’s caricature of femininity well. I know it, because I’ve long known that I would never be able to fit into it. A perfect Christian woman is a “Proverbs 31” woman, yet she’s also a “1 Timothy 2:11-12” and “Ephesians 5:22-24” woman. She’s useful and serves her husband but she doesn’t say anything while she does it. There is strength in that servitude, apparently. Strength to be found in that bending, in the obviously feminine spiritual gifts of hospitality and serving and encouragement and minding of children (you mean that’s not a spiritual gift?).

There are women who do it well, with more grace than I could ever accomplish, and I admire them for it.

I, however, am loud. I have that gentle quietness within me, but it doesn’t underscore all that I do. I run around. I do sports with the boys. I can keep up in theological conversations, and want to participate in them. I want to be a wife and a mother, but I won’t be shoved to the sidelines like being a girl somehow makes me less.

After I got my hair cut short, more than one person asked me if I liked girls. Like that, tied with all the other things, is a failsafe sign.

I have wondered, more than once, if I would be allowed to teach from the pulpit if I simply got a sex change—as “simple” as that can be.

I will not go quietly into that good night, where any sense of femininity I have will trip me to the ground once again.

I never tried to fit in to the caricature—too much effort for me, would force me into a mould unlike myself—but that doesn’t mean I haven’t agonized over it. Over what being me means for my life, my future.

Mainly in the realm of relationships. How many guys strike me off their list because I’m not their perfect picture view of femininity? The surprise I see on their faces when I tell them that I want to be a wife or a mom isn’t fake, that split-second reaction immediately after before it can be molded into something more.

I look to Jesus, and I say, “You knit me together, so what the hell is this?”

A youth leader speaks back to me: “You’re not a flowery type of girl. You were never meant to be. You’re exactly how he made you to be.”

I stop clinging to the caricature of the Perfect Christian Woman. Start looking past the cultural definition and look to the Bible.

Look to Sarah, who laughed, because as much as she wanted a child she knew what her body couldn’t do.

Look to Hagar, who wept in the wilderness before God spoke to her pain.

Look to Zipporah, who single-handedly saved Moses’ life after he didn’t circumcise their son, a pagan woman doing what the Israelite God decreed.

Look to Rahab, who had more guts than I’ll ever have and hid a couple of foreign spies in her roof.

Look to Deborah, who was a judge, a spiritual and political leader of Israel, who was married and, therefore, probably also had children. She also had time to accompany Barak to war when he refused to go without her.

(Look to Jael, the unsung hero we don’t talk about in that story, who lured Sisera into her tent and drove a tent peg through his skull while he slept. “Jael” means “the LORD is God”, and he definitely showed that through her.)

Look to Abigail, who intercepted David before he could murder everyone that belonged to Nabal’s house.

Look to Jehosheba, who took away Joash when he was still very young and hid him away before he could be killed. Joash, who became king, who repaired the temple.

Look to Mary, who was no weak thing to take the burden of a scandalous pregnancy and everything that it could mean (destitution, death) on her shoulders.

Look to Mary Magedalene, who followed, and was the first person to declare the Gospel to a group of disciples who didn’t believe her. To declare that Jesus is alive.

It squeezes at my heart, my femininity—or, perhaps, the ever-there awareness that I’m not as everyone thinks I should be.

I’m never going to fit into that box.

And so I wrestle on.

#God #Jesus #Christian #Christianity #androgynous #faith #religion #bible #femininity #church #church culture #biblical womanhood #WHAT IS BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD

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kgriffin37 · 5 years

Text

On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

“Israel’s leaders took charge, and the people gladly followed.

Praise the Lord!

“Listen, you kings!

Pay attention, you mighty rulers!

For I will sing to the Lord

I will make music to the Lord, the God of Israel.

"Lord, when you set out from Seir and marched across the fields of Edom, the earth trembled, and the cloudy skies poured down rain.

The mountains quaked in the presence of the Lord, the God of Mount Sinai— in the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel.

“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, and in the days of Jael, people avoided the main roads, and travelers stayed on winding pathways.

There were few people left in the villages of Israel — until Deborah arose as a mother for Israel.

When Israel chose new gods, war erupted at the city gates.

Yet not a shield or spear could be seen among forty thousand warriors in Israel!

My heart is with the commanders of Israel, with those who volunteered for war.

Praise the Lord!

"Consider this, you who ride on fine donkeys, you who sit on fancy saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road.

Listen to the village musicians gathered at the watering holes.

They recount the righteous victories of the Lord and the victories of his villagers in Israel.

Then the people of the Lord marched down to the city gates.

“Wake up, Deborah, wake up!

Wake up, wake up, and sing a song!

Arise, Barak!

Lead your captives away, son of Abinoam!

“Down from Tabor marched the few against the nobles.

The people of the Lord marched down against mighty warriors.

They came down from Ephraim— a land that once belonged to the Amalekites; they followed you, Benjamin, with your troops. From Makir the commanders marched down; from Zebulun came those who carry a commander’s staff.

The princes of Issachar were with Deborah and Barak.

They followed Barak, rushing into the valley.

But in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision.

Why did you sit at home among the sheepfolds— to hear the shepherds whistle for their flocks?

Yes, in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision.

Gilead remained east of the Jordan.

And why did Dan stay home?

Asher sat unmoved at the seashore, remaining in his harbors.

But Zebulun risked his life, as did Naphtali, on the heights of the battlefield.

"The kings of Canaan came and fought, at Taanach near Megiddo’s springs, but they carried off no silver treasures.

The stars fought from heaven.

The stars in their orbits fought against Sisera.

The Kishon River swept them away— that ancient torrent, the Kishon.

March on with courage, my soul!

Then the horses’ hooves hammered the ground, the galloping, galloping of Sisera’s mighty steeds.

‘Let the people of Meroz be cursed,’ said the angel of the Lord

'Let them be utterly cursed, because they did not come to help the Lord — to help the Lord against the mighty warriors.’

“Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite.

May she be blessed above all women who live in tents.

Sisera asked for water, and she gave him milk.

In a bowl fit for nobles, she brought him yogurt.

Then with her left hand she reached for a tent peg, and with her right hand for the workman’s hammer.

She struck Sisera with the hammer, crushing his head.

With a shattering blow, she pierced his temples.

He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet.

And where he sank, there he died.

“From the window Sisera’s mother looked out.

Through the window she watched for his return, saying, ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why don’t we hear the sound of chariot wheels?’

“Her wise women answer, and she repeats these words to herself:

‘They must be dividing the captured plunder— with a woman or two for every man.

There will be colorful robes for Sisera, and colorful, embroidered robes for me.

Yes, the plunder will include colorful robes embroidered on both sides.’ “

Lord, may all your enemies die like Sisera!

But may those who love you rise like the sun in all its power!”

Then there was peace in the land for forty years.

Judges 5:1‭-‬31 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jdg.5.1-31.NLT

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graceandpeacejoanne · 3 years

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Deborah

Deborah What does it mean to be a godly woman? For Deborah, it meant to have spiritual and civic authority of a nation. #Judges4 #Judges5 #Deborah #Sisera #Barak #Jael

Deborah is maybe the most famous woman depicted in the Book of Judges, besides Delilah. And what sets Deborah apart from perhaps every woman in the entirety of the scriptures—both the Hebrew and Christian Testaments, is the astonishing position she held in Israel. As Judge, Deborah held civic authority over all who came to her for justice, men and women, village elders and all other…

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#Barak #Book of Judges #Deborah #Egalitarian #Jael #Judge Deborah #Judges 4 #judges 4-5 #judges 5 #prophets #Sisera #woman prophet #women in authority #women in ministry

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englishchinesetranslations · 4 years

Link

In his classic Holocaust text, The Sunflower, Simon Wiesenthal recounts the following experience. As a concentration camp prisoner, the monotony of his work detail is suddenly broken when he is brought to the bedside of a dying Nazi. The German delineates the gruesome details of his career, describing how he participated in the murder and torture of hundreds of Jews. Exhibiting, or perhaps feigning, regret and remorse, he explains that he sought a Jew—any Jew—to whom to confess, and from whom to beseech forgiveness. Wiesenthal silently contemplates the wretched creature lying before him, and then, unable to comply but unable to condemn, walks out of the room. Tortured by his experience, wondering whether he did the right thing, Wiesenthal submitted this story as the subject of a symposium, including respondents of every religious stripe. An examination of the respective replies of Christians and Jews reveals a remarkable contrast. “When the first edition of The Sunflower was published,” writes Dennis Prager, “I was intrigued by the fact that all the Jewish respondents thought Simon Wiesenthal was right in not forgiving the repentant Nazi mass murderer, and that the Christians thought he was wrong.”Indeed, the Christian symposiasts did sound a more sympathetic note. “I can well understand Simon’s refusal [to forgive],” reflects Fr. Edward Flannery, “but I find it impossible to defend it.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu cites the crucifixion as his source. Arguing that the newly empowered South African blacks readily forgave their white tormentors, Tutu explains that they followed “the Jewish rabbi who, when he was crucified, said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If we look only to retributive justice, argues Tutu, “then we could just as well close up shop. Forgiveness is not some nebulous thing. It is practical politics. Without forgiveness, there is no future.”And yet, many Jews would respond to Tutu’s scriptural source by citing another verse, one that also describes a Jew strung up by his enemies, yet who responds to his enemies in a very different, perhaps less Christian, way:So the Philistines seized [Samson] and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. . . . They made him stand between the pillars. . . . Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “Lord God, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.” And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, . . . [and] then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He strained with all his might; and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.The symposiasts’ varying theological responses, Prager suggests, reflect “the nature of the Jewish and Christian responses to evil, which are related to their differing understandings of forgiveness.” Indeed, the contrast between the two Testaments indicates that this is the case: Jesus’ words could not be more different than Samson’s.Some might respond that the raging, vengeful Samson is the Bible’s sinful exception, rather than its rule; or, perhaps, that Samson acted in self-defense. Yet a further perusal indicates that the Hebrew prophets not only hated their enemies, but rather reveled in their suffering, finding in it a fitting justice. The great Samuel, having come upon the Amalekite king Agag, after Agag was already captured and the Amalekites exterminated, responds in righteous anger:Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” And Agag came to him haltingly. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother shall be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.And lest one dismiss Samuel’s and Samson’s anger as exhibitions of male machismo, it bears mentioning that the prophetess Deborah appears to relish the gruesome death of her enemy, the Philistine Sisera, who had, fittingly, been executed by another woman. Every bloody detail is recounted in Deborah’s ebullient song:Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the KeniteOf tent-dwelling women most blessed.She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet.She struck Sisera a blow, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet; At her feet he sank, he fell; there he sank, there he fell dead. . . . So perish all your enemies, O Lord!In his At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden , journalist Yossi Klein Halevi speaks with Johanna, a Catholic nun who is struck by the hatred Israelis bear for their enemies. Johanna tells of an Israeli Hebrew teacher “who was very close to us. She told us how her young son hates Saddam. . . . She said it with such enthusiasm. She was so proud of her son.” “I realized,” Johanna concluded, “that hatred is in the Jewish religion.” She was right. The Hebrew prophets spoke in the name of a God who, in Exodus’ articulation, may “forgive iniquity and transgression and sin,” but Who also “by no means exonerates [the guilty].” Likewise, in refusing to forgive their enemies, Jewish leaders sought not merely their defeat, but their disgrace. When Queen Esther had already visited defeat upon Haman—the Hitler of his time, attempted exterminator of the Jewish people—and had killed Haman’s supporters and sons, King Ahasuerus asks what more she could possible want:The king said to Queen Esther, “In the capital of Susa the Jews have killed also the ten sons of Haman. . . . Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.” Esther said, “If it pleases the king . . . let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.”Interestingly, the most vivid response in Wiesenthal’s symposium was also written by a woman. The Jewish writer Cynthia Ozick, reflecting on how Wiesenthal, in a moment of mercy, brushed a fly away from the Nazi’s broken body, concludes her essay in Deborah’s blunt but poetic manner:Let the SS man die unshriven. Let him go to hell. Sooner the fly to God than he.During my regular weekly coffees with my friend Fr. Jim White, an Episcopal priest, there was one issue to which our conversation would incessantly turn, and one on which we could never agree: Is an utterly evil man—Hitler, Stalin, Osama bin Laden—deserving of a theist’s love? I could never stomach such a notion, while Fr. Jim would argue passionately in favor of the proposition. Judaism, I would argue, does demand love for our fellow human beings, but only to an extent. “Hate” is not always synonymous with the terribly sinful. While Moses commanded us “not to hate our brother in our hearts,” a man’s immoral actions can serve to sever the bonds of brotherhood between himself and humanity. Regarding a rasha, a Hebrew term for the hopelessly wicked, the Talmud clearly states: mitzvah lisnoso—one is obligated to hate him.Some would seek to minimize this difference between our faiths. Eva Fleischner, a Catholic interfaith specialist and another Sunflower symposiast, argues that “Christians—and non-Christians in their wake—have misread, and continue to misread, [Christian texts] interpreting Jesus’ teaching to mean that we are to forgive anyone and everyone. . . . The element that is lost sight of is that Jesus challenges me to forgive evil done to me. . . . Nowhere does he tell us to forgive the wrong done to another.” Perhaps. But even so, a theological chasm remains between the Jewish and Christian viewpoints on the matter. As we can see from Samson’s rage, Judaism believes that while forgiveness is often a virtue, hate can be virtuous when one is dealing with the frightfully wicked. Rather than forgive, we can wish ill; rather than hope for repentance, we can instead hope that our enemies experience the wrath of God.There is, in fact, no minimizing the difference between Judaism and Christianity on whether hate can be virtuous. Indeed, Christianity’s founder acknowledged his break with Jewish tradition on this matter from the very outset: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. . . . Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” God, Jesus argues, loves the wicked, and so must we. In disagreeing, Judaism does not deny the importance of imitating God; Jews hate the wicked because they believe that God despises the wicked as well.Among Orthodox Jews, there is an oft-used Hebrew phrase whose equivalent I have not found among Christians. The phrase is yemach shemo, which means, may his name be erased. It is used whenever a great enemy of the Jewish nation, of the past or present, is mentioned. For instance, one might very well say casually, in the course of conversation, “Thank God, my grandparents left Germany before Hitler, yemach shemo, came to power.” Or: “My parents were murdered by the Nazis, yemach shemam.” Can one imagine a Christian version of such a statement? Would anyone speak of the massacres wrought by “Pol Pot, may his name be erased”? Do any Christians speak in such a way? Has any seminary student ever attached a Latin equivalent of yemach shemo to the names “Pontius Pilate” or “Judas”? Surely not. Christians, I sense, would find the very notion repugnant, just as many Jews would gag upon reading the Catholic rosary: “O my Jesus . . . lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy.”Why, then, this remarkable disagreement between faiths? Why do Jews and Christians respond so differently to wickedness? Why do Jews refuse at times to forgive? And if the Hebrew prophets and judges believed ardently in the “virtue of hate,” what about Christianity caused it to break with its Old Testament roots?“More than a decade of weekly dialogue with Christians and intimate conversation with Christian friends,” writes Prager, “has convinced me that, aside from the divinity of Jesus, the greatest—and even more important—difference between Judaism and Christianity, or perhaps only between most Christians and Jews, is their different understanding of forgiveness and, ultimately, how to react to evil.” Here Prager takes one theological step too many and commits, in this single statement, two errors. The first is to deem the issue of forgiveness more important than that of Jesus’s identity. Such a statement, to my mind, sullies the memory of thousands of Jews who died rather than proclaim Jesus Lord. Yet Prager also misses the fact that these two issues, that of approaching Jesus and that of approaching our enemies, are essentially one and the same: that the very question of how to approach our enemies depends on whether one believes that Jesus was merely a misguided mortal, or the Son of God. Let us examine how each faith’s outlook on Jesus provides the theological underpinnings for its respective approach to hate.The essence of a religion can be discovered by asking its adherents one question: What, to your mind, was the seminal moment in the history of the world? For Christians, the answer is easy: the passion of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world. Or: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son” so that through his death the world would find salvation. Jews, on the other hand, see history’s focal moment as the Sinai revelation, the day the Decalogue was delivered. On this day, we believe, God formed an eternal covenant with the Jewish people and began to communicate to them His Torah, the Almighty’s moral and religious commandments. The most fascinating element of this event is that before forming this Covenant with the Hebrews, God first asked their permission to do so. England’s Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, describes the episode:Before stating the terms of the covenant, God told Moses to speak to the people and determine whether or not they agreed to become a nation under the sovereignty of God. Only when “all the people responded together, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said’” did the revelation proceed. . . . The first-ever democratic mandate takes place, the idea that there can be no valid rule without the agreement of all those who are affected by it.There is a wonderful bit of Jewish lore concerning the giving of God’s Torah, in which God is depicted as a merchant, proffering His Law to every nation on the planet. Each one considers God’s wares, and each then finds a flaw. One refuses to refrain from theft; another, from murder. Finally, God chances upon the Jewish people, who gravely agree to shoulder the responsibility of a moral life. The message of this midrash is that God’s covenant is one that anyone can join; God leaves it up to us.Consider for a moment the extraordinary contrast. For Christians, God acted on humanity’s behalf, without its knowledge and without its consent. The crucifixion is a story of a loving God seeking humanity’s salvation, though it never requested it, though it scarcely deserved it. Jews, on the other hand, believe that God’s covenant was formed by the free consent of His people. The giving of the Torah is a story of God seeking to provide humanity with the opportunity to make moral decisions. To my knowledge, not a single Jewish source asserts that God deeply desires to save all humanity, nor that He loves every member of the human race. Rather, many a Jewish source maintains that God affords every human being the opportunity to choose his or her moral fate, and will then judge him or her, and choose whether to love him or her, on the basis of that decision. Christianity’s focus is on love and salvation; Judaism’s on decision and action.The difference runs deeper. Both the Talmud and the New Testament have a great deal to say about the afterlife. Both ardently assert that it exists, and both assure the righteous that they will receive eternal reward and warn the wicked of the reality of damnation. Yet one striking distinction exists between these two affirmations of eternal life: only the Christian Testament deliberately and constantly links the promise of heaven with ethical exhortation, appealing to the hope of eternity as the incentive for righteous action. For Christians, every believer’s ultimate desire and goal must be to experience eternal salvation. Leading a righteous earthly existence is understood as a means towards attaining this goal. Jews, on the other hand, insist that performing sacred acts while alive on earth is our ultimate objective; heaven is merely where we receive our reward after our goal has been attained. The Talmud, in this regard, makes a statement that any Christian would find mind-boggling: “One hour obeying God’s commandments in this world is more glorious than an eternity in the World to Come.”This difference in emphasis can be seen most clearly by contrasting the central New Testament statement on ethics, the Sermon on the Mount, with Rabbinic writings. Here are some of Jesus’s ethical exhortations:Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.A traditional Jew studying Jesus’s style in delivering the Sermon on the Mount is instantly reminded of the Mishnaic tractate Ethics of the Fathers, a collection of rabbinical sayings that Jesus’s words appear to echo. Consider these parallel passages from the tractate:Fortunate is man, for he was created in the image of God. Fortunate are the Israelites, for they are called the children of God. Be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion in pursuit of the will of your Father in heaven.While the common phrases used by Jesus—“fortunate are,” “Father in heaven”—are standard rabbinic utterances, Jesus’s repeated support for his statements—“for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven”—is his own. Such a phrase appears nowhere in the rabbinic ethical writings. Their focus is more on action than on salvation.The contrast extends to differing ways of celebrating holidays. In speaking to Fr. Jim about our respective faiths, I told him about the phenomenon of “Yom Kippur Jews.” Many of my nonobservant coreligionists, I said, show up in synagogue only on the Day of Atonement and so experience a Judaism that focuses only on judgment and repentance. They never experience Judaism at its most joyous moments: Passover, Hanukkah, Purim. “I have the opposite problem,” said Jim. “Some people show up in church for Easter only—Christianity at its most joyous. And so they never think about judgment and repentance.”Both rabbis and priests would appreciate regularly packed houses of worship; but the contrast between the central days of the Jewish and Christian calendars is instructive. Christians celebrate a day when, they believe, Jesus was given his place in heaven and so, at least potentially, was every member of humanity. Yom Kippur, in contrast, is not a day for celebration but for solemnity, a day for focusing not on salvation but on action. Jews recite, again and again, a long litany of sins that they might have committed; they pray for forgiveness, and conclude, time and again, with the sentence: “May it be Thy will, Lord our God, that I not sin again.” While the entire day is devoted to prayer, and to evaluation of past deeds, the concept of reward and punishment in the afterlife is not mentioned once. The only question of concern is whether, at the end of the day, God will consider us sufficiently repentant. Yom Kippur’s climax comes at sunset, during the neilah, or “closing” prayer. After begging once again for forgiveness, Jews the world over end the day with the recitation of “Our Father, Our King,” named thusly because of the first phrase in every sentence:Our Father, our King, we have sinned before You. Our Father, our King, we have no king but You. Our Father, our King, return us in wholehearted repentance before You.We ask God for mercy and for forgiveness, attributes of God that Judaism holds dear. But then our thoughts turn to the utterly evil and unrepentant. Towards the end of this prayer, one anguished, pain-filled sentence stands out: “Our Father, our King, avenge, before our eyes, the spilled blood of your servants.” After a day devoted to prayer, synagogues everywhere are filled with the cry of fasting, weary, exhausted Jews. They have spent the past twenty-five hours meditating upon their sins and asking for forgiveness. Now, they suddenly turn their attention to those who gave no thought to forgiveness, no thought to God, no thought to the dignity of the Jewish people. After focusing on their own actions, Jews turn to those of others, and their parched throats mouth this message: “Father, do not forgive them, for they know well what they do.”The essence of each religion is reflected in its attitude toward the sinner. The existence of hell should be a painful proposition for Christians, who profess to believe that Christ died to redeem the world. C. S. Lewis, in his The Problem of Pain, mournfully admits as much. Yet the doctrines of free will and divine justice compel him to admit that some will not be redeemed.There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specifically, of Our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.The notion that someone may be eternally damned, Lewis writes, is one that he “detests” with all his heart; yet anyone who refuses to submit to salvation cannot ultimately be saved. Despite this, Lewis adds that even these wretches must be in our prayers. “Christian charity,” he stresses, “counsels us to make every effort for the conversion of such a man: to prefer his conversion, at the peril of our own lives, perhaps of our own souls, to his punishment; to prefer it infinitely.”Here Judaism strongly disagrees. For Jews deny that there ever was a “divine labor” to redeem the world; rather, God gave humanity the means for its own redemption, and its members will be judged by the choices they make. Christians may maintain that no human being is unloved by the God who died on his or her behalf, but Jews insist that while no human being is denied the chance to become worthy of God’s love, not every human being engages in actions so as to be worthy of that love, and those unworthy of divine love do not deserve our love either.This distinction between salvation and decision is evident in the fact that some Christians hold out hope for something that traditional Jews never even consider: that every human being will ultimately be saved. As Fr. Richard John Neuhaus notes, some verses in the New Testament have been said to assert this explicitly (“Will All Be Saved?” FT, Public Square, August/September 2001). Take, for example, 1 Corinthians: “For as all die in Adam, so will all be made alive in Jesus Christ.” Romans states it even more strongly: “For just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” Pope John Paul II has suggested that we cannot say with certainty that even Judas is in hell.Forget Judas, a Jew might respond. What about Hitler? Even here, Fr. Neuhaus refuses to relent: “Hitler may have repented, turning to the mercy of God, even as his finger pressed the trigger.” Maybe, Neuhaus suggests, Hitler and Mao spend thousands of years in purgatory. Or perhaps, he whimsically says, “Hitler in heaven will be forever a little dog to whom we will benignly condescend. But he will be grateful for being there, and for not having received what he deserved,” just as “we will all be grateful for being there and for not having received what we deserve.”The Mishnah’s view, set down approximately at the time Paul wrote his Letter to the Romans, could not be more different, explicitly singling out specific wicked men in biblical history who will never by saved. And unlike Lewis, the rabbis seem utterly unperturbed that some are eternally damned; for, unlike Neuhaus, the rabbis quite strongly believed that we go to heaven precisely because we deserve to be there. One of the most fascinating differences between Judaism and Christianity is that while both faiths believe in heaven, only Judaism speaks of one’s eternal reward as a chelek, a portion. For instance: “Jeroboam has no portion in the World to Come.” The rabbis saw the afterlife as a function of one’s spiritual savings account, in which the extent of one’s experience of the divine presence is determined by the value of the good deeds that he or she has accumulated in life.This does not mean that the rabbis believed that those with few virtues were eternally damned. The sages believed in a form of purgatory, where those with more sins than good deeds were sent. Damnation was reserved for the frightfully wicked.Jewish intolerance for the wicked is made most manifest in Maimonides’ interpretation of damnation. In his view souls are never eternally punished in hell: the presence of the truly wicked is so intolerable to the Almighty that they never even experience an afterlife. Rather, they are, in the words of the Bible, “cut off”: after death, they just . . . disappear.The Protestant theologian Harvey Cox, who is married to a Jew, wrote a book on his impressions of Jewish ritual. Cox describes the Jewish holiday of Purim, on which the defeat of Haman is celebrated by the reading of the book of Esther. Enamored with the biblical story, Cox enjoys the tale until the end, where, as noted above, Esther wreaks vengeance upon her enemies. Like Sr. Johanna, he is disturbed by Jewish hatred. It cannot be a coincidence, he argues, that precisely on Purim a Jew by the name of Baruch Goldstein murdered twenty innocent Muslims engaged in prayer in Hebron.There is something to Cox’s remarks. The danger inherent in hatred is that it must be very limited, directed only at the most evil and unrepentant. According to the Talmud, the angels began singing a song of triumph upon the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt until God interrupted them: “My creatures are drowning, and you wish to sing a song?” Yet the rabbis also state that God wreaked further vengeance upon Pharoah himself, ordering the sea to spit him out, so that he could return to Egypt alone, without his army. Apparently one must cross some terrible moral boundary in order to be a justified target of God’s hatred—and of ours. An Israeli mother is right to raise her child to hate Saddam Hussein, but she would fail as a parent if she taught him to despise every Arab. We who hate must be wary lest we, like Goldstein, become like those we are taught to despise.Another danger inherent in hate is that we may misdirect our odium at institutions in the present because of their past misdeeds. For instance, some of my coreligionists reserve special abhorrence for anything German, even though Germany is currently one of the most pro-Israel countries in Europe. Similarly, after centuries of suffering, many Jews have, in my own experience, continued to despise religious Christians, even though it is secularists and Islamists who threaten them today, and Christians should really be seen as their natural allies. Many Jewish intellectuals and others of influence still take every assertion of the truth of Christianity as an anti-Semitic attack. After the Catholic Church beatified Edith Stein, a Jewish convert to Christianity, some prominent Jews asserted that the Church was attempting to cover up its role in causing the Holocaust. And then there is the historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, who essentially has asserted that any attempt by the Catholic Church to maintain that Christianity is the one true faith marks a continuation of the crimes of the Church in the past.Burning hatred, once kindled, is difficult to extinguish; but that is precisely what Jews must do when reassessing our relationship with contemporary Christianity. The crimes of popes of the past do not negate the fact that John Paul II is one of the righteous men of our generation. If Christians no longer hold us accountable for the crime of deicide, we cannot remain indifferent to such changes. Christians have every right to assert the truth of their beliefs. Modern anti-Christianity is no more excusable than ancient anti-Semitism.Yet neither does this mean that hate is always wrong, nor that Esther’s actions were unnecessary. The rabbis of the Talmud were bothered by a contradiction: the book of Kings describes Saul as killing every Amalekite, and yet Haman, according to his pedigree in the book of Esther, was an Agagite, a descendant of the Amalekite king. The Talmud offers an instructive solution: after Saul had killed every Amalekite, he experienced a moment of mercy, and wrongly refrained from killing King Agag. This allowed Agag a window of opportunity; he had several minutes before he was killed by the angry Samuel. In those precious moments, Agag engaged in relations with a random woman, and his progeny lived on to threaten the Jews in the future. The message is that hate allows us to keep our guard up, to protect us. When we are facing those who seek nothing but our destruction, our hate reminds us who we are dealing with. When hate is appropriate, then it is not only virtuous, but essential for Jewish well-being.Archbishop Tutu, who, as indicated above, preaches the importance of forgiveness towards Nazis, has, of late, become one of Israel’s most vocal critics, demanding that other countries enact sanctions against the Jewish state. Perhaps he would have Israelis adopt an attitude of forgiveness towards those who have sworn to destroy the only democracy in the Middle East. Yet forgiveness is precisely what the Israeli government attempted ten years ago, when it argued that the time had come to forget the unspeakable actions of a particular individual, and to recognize him as the future leader of a Palestinian state. Many Jews, however, seething with hatred for this man, felt that it was the Israeli leaders who “knew not what they were doing.”At the time, my grandfather, a rabbi, joined those on the Israeli right in condemning the Oslo process, arguing that it would produce a terrorist state responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths. As a rabbinical student, I could not understand my grandfather’s unremitting opposition. He was, I thought, so blinded by his hate that he was unable to comprehend the powerful potential of the peace process. Now, many hundreds of Jewish victims of suicide bombings later, and fifty years after the Holocaust, the importance and the necessity of Jewish hate has once again been demonstrated. Perhaps there will soon be peace in the Middle East, perhaps not. But one thing is certain: we will not soon forgive the actions of a man who, as he sent children to kill children, knew—all too well—just what he was doing. We will not—we cannot—ask God to have mercy upon him. Those Israeli parents whose boys and girls did not come home will pray for the destiny of his soul at the conclusion of their holiest day, but their prayer will be rather different from the rosary:Let the terrorist die unshriven. Let him go to hell. Sooner a fly to God than he.Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik is Resident Scholar at the Jewish Center in Manhattan and a Beren Fellow at Yeshiva University. He is currently studying philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School.

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Tuesday: Reflection on Easter Sunday

Hebrew Scripture Lesson from the Former Prophets: Judges 4:17-23; 5:24-31a

Now Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite. Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anybody comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’” But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, until it went down into the ground—he was lying fast asleep from weariness—and he died. Then, as Barak came in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went into her tent; and there was Sisera lying dead, with the tent peg in his temple.

So on that day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites.

[{5:1} Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that say saying:]

“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked water and she gave him milk, she brought him curds in a lordly bowl. She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera a blow, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet; at her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell dead.

“Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera gazed through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’ Her wisest ladies make answer, indeed, she answers the question herself: ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?— A girl or two for every man; spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera, spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?’

“So perish all your enemies, O Lord! But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might.”

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!

Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”

The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly; the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.” I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.

This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.¹ This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.² This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

¹Christ is described as the chief cornerstone in these verses: Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter:7 ²Christ is described as cornerstone and marvelous in these verses: Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10-11

New Testament Lesson: Revelation 12:1-12

A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world–he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming,

“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death. Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Year C Easter 1 Tuesday

Selections from Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings copyright © 1995 by the Consultation on Common Texts. Unless otherwise indicated, Bible text is from Holy Bible New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All right reserved. Image Credit: Michael casts out rebel angels, illustration by Gustave Doré for John Milton's Paradise Lost, via Wikimedia Commons. This is a public domain image.

#C Easter 1 Tuesday #Jael #Sisera #devil on earth #cornerstone #portents in heaven.

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