120. "She Covered Him With a Mantle"
"She Covered Him With a Mantle"
"AND Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him. Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle." This is very, very difficult for a Western mind to understand. In imagination let us make a visit to the camp of some Bedouins and learn of their strange manners and customs and something of their strange way of thinking and doing things. To these people nothing would be more natural than Jael’s action. We must remember two things. First, there is an unwritten law, yet one that even the most unprincipled would never dare violate, the duty of entertaining strangers. You could not possibly pass an encampment of Bedouins without their coming out and inviting you in to rest and using almost the same words, to you as used by Jael, "Come in, my lord, come in and rest."
Secondly, no strange man is ever permitted to enter the woman’s part of the tent. They have another unwritten law that such an offender is worthy of death, and any relative of the woman is obliged to carry this law into execution.
If a woman allowed a stranger to enter the woman’s part of the tent, she, too, would be worthy of death. In Judges 4:1-24, we are told that Sisera was escaping when he passed Jael’s tent. She, with true hospitality, invited him to come in and rest. She, of course, expected him to enter the men’s or public part of the tent only, as any man would do. Sisera wanted a good hiding place, and of course, no place could be safer than the woman’s part of the tent for no Israelite would intrude there. Jael was not a Jewess, but a Kenite.
He, no doubt, pushed his way into the woman’s section of the tent against Jael’s wishes, for entering here was the greatest insult and exposed her to dishonor and also death. She is placed in an exceedingly hard position. If she ordered him to leave, he would likely have killed her to save his own life, while to allow him to stay, would have exposed her to the anger of her husband, who would at once condemn her as unfaithful, and stone her to death as the common law provided.
She decided she must protect herself, and when he fell asleep, she pinned him to the ground with the tent pins. She knew well how to use tent pins, for the women take down and put up the tents.
We are told that she gave him milk to drink when he asked for water. Water is scarce in that dry country and they would have goat’s milk to drink, probably sour milk, leben, which is very refreshing.
Jael is called blessed in Judges 5:24, not because she committed murder, but because while defending her own character and her life too, she was ridding the Israelites of a very cruel tyrant.
Judges 4:3 says, "he mightily oppressed the children of Israel." The atrocities at which these words plainly hint are all known to Jael. Again and again she has been appalled by the tale. And here is the one man from whose planning brain and fearful will the whole have sprung. He is on the way to Hazor, Jabin’s capital, where fresh forces await him. After rest he will go on and renew the conflict.
We do not need to be Israelites to feel the gratitude that glows in the word, "Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent" (Judges 5:24).