How often do we feel unprepared and ill-equipped for the journey ahead? How many times in our illnesses have we wondered how we will make it through? Life has the ability to make us feel vulnerable and unskilled. But as children of God, we are granted access to tools and means of getting through whatever we’re facing. So, welcome to my October blog series: “You Already Have What You Need.” Let’s build confidence and strength in God’s mighty power. He will supply us with everything we need for the battle, our jobs are to use the weapons He gives us. So let’s go!

At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up. “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’” But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

Judges 4:15-21 NIV

Quick fun fact: Jael is one of my favorite people in the Bible. She only gets five verses in this chapter (and only a few more in Deborah’s song in chapter six), but those verses are essential; her actions were instrumental in the Israelites’ defeat of the Caananites. She has no backstory except for that which could be inferred from history. She was neither an Israelite nor a Caananite but was a Kenite, which could be considered a sort of pacifist for the time. She was not a strong warrior or a skilled fighter - her people were skilled trade workers. For all intents and purposes, she was what we would consider an “average” person.  One day, Sisera shows up at her tent. Sisera was not an average person. He was the commander of the Canaanite army, leader of 900 chariots and a force that had oppressed the Israelites for over twenty years. The Israelites were advancing, the battle was continuing on, and here she was, a neutral party, standing face to face with the person who could decide the fate of God’s people. It was in that moment that Jael had to decide which position to take. 

And so, isn’t that the way life can be? Caught up in our day-to-day schedules, considering ourselves fairly average people who are moving and acting the way we were taught to. But most of us have experienced a not-so-average day when we come face to face with something that seems much bigger, much stronger, and way more complex than we are. For some of us, it was a diagnosis, for others it was a sudden loss or a traumatic event. It stops us in our tracks, and at times, it feels like our hearts stop (I would imagine that’s how Jael felt). It feels surreal. Time stops, and we are looking eye-to-eye with something or someone we never thought we’d be in a situation with. And at that point, we too, have to decide which position we will take. 

Jael decided to invite Sisera in. She made him comfortable, gave him a blanket, and some milk. She obviously had a nurturing touch, as he fell asleep without any worry or hesitation. Then she killed him, horror-movie style, with a tent-peg through the head. That was it, no-frills. Even as gruesome as I’m sure it was, for Jael, it was almost instinctive and logical. She used what she already had. From the moment she decided she had to kill Sisera, she only used the tools she had access to; no racing around trying to find different methods or tools, no breakdowns, no calling around to see what she should do. She used her peaceful demeanor and sense of nurturing to make Sisera comfortable, then she used her knowledge of tent-pitching and tools to kill him. 

We’re called to use the same sense and confidence that Jael used. Now, I’m sure a lot of different scenarios and feelings went through her mind between inviting Sisera in and killing him, and, in my opinion, I think that we are all allotted a grace period to get ourselves together. But we have to make a decision on what our position will be against what is standing in front of us. If we decide to back down and not fight, let’s be sure we understand the consequences, not just for us, but for generations down the line. And if we decide to fight, we have to stand in confidence that we have what we need to be victorious. Most of the time, like Jael, we have previously used our tools, we just need to repurpose them. Maybe you have prayed for someone else and saw significant moves of God - now it’s time to pray for yourself (or even ask that person to join you in prayer). Maybe you send encouraging scriptures or messages to others - it’s time to apply those to your life and encourage yourself through the Word. You have been courageous through other trials - stand back in that same position. You have overcome previous battles - draw in the same confidence you used before. 

God sent forth a word that guaranteed Jael’s victory: “the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” (Judges 4:9b) He has sent a word of victory for us as well “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35, 37)

Let’s glorify Him by confidently using what He has already given us to fight our battles!