Jesus’ victory over Satan has been foreshadowed since the beginning of time. When Christ comes again, Satan will be crushed once and for all, never to rise again.
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I’m Joni talking today about one of my favorite women in the Bible.
Okay, so there are many women in the Word of God who inspire me. I mean, who doesn’t love the story of Esther, right? And every year when Ken and I do our Through the Bible reading, we always look forward to the book of Ruth – now there’s a woman of faith, right? I think Esther and Ruth are remarkable in that they foreshadow the coming of Jesus Christ, just like Moses and King David did. But there is another woman in the Bible who is an amazement to Ken and me, and every year when we read through the Bible and we get to Judges 4, we just love going deeper into her story. It’s the story of Jael. That’s spelled J-A-E-L. Now let me give you some background on Jael. The story begins with a fierce battle between the Canaanites and the Israelites. The Canaanite army was led by a commander named Sisera.
Now, there was a downpour the night before the battle which made the ground muddy. This meant that the iron chariots of the Canaanites got stuck in the mud. So, now the Israelites had the chance to roundly defeat their enemy, but Sisera fled the scene. He escaped, hiding out on the plain among a group of nomads. But there, a woman named Jael welcomed Sisera into her tent. She had a good reason for doing so, because she hated the Canaanites; they had been harshly oppressing her people and for that, Jael sympathized with Israel. So, Jael knew all about this man in her tent! Here she had a ranking Canaanite commander right there under her canvas roof! Now, Sisera warned Jael not to divulge his presence, but when he fell asleep under a blanket – she had also given him some warm milk – Jael quietly sneaked up on Sisera with a spike and a mallet in her hand. She drove the tent peg through Sisera’s temple and deep into the ground while he was sleeping, killing him instantly.
Okay. That sounds pretty gruesome, right? Sure it does. But it has a powerful meaning. I mean, listen to this: Dr. Davy Ellison at Irish Baptist College shows how this particular act – the killing of an enemy by driving the stake through his head – explains how this is an amazing parallel of Genesis 3:15 where God promises that one day the serpent’s head would be crushed. Not injured; not simply harmed; no! Genesis foreshadows the day the devil will have his head crushed. Defeated. Instantly killed. Never to rise again, hallelujah! It’ll be gruesome, you know what, but it’ll be glorious – a glorious triumph over our enemy.
And so, can you see how Jael’s actions perfectly foreshadow Jesus Christ who crushed the head of Satan himself just like Sisera’s? And it happened on Mount Calvary, didn’t it?! The devil may have inspired a stake to be driven through the feet of Jesus, but Jesus drove a stake through Satan’s head. And friend, this is why I love reading through the Bible every year with Ken. We come across these stories, and they thrill us. So, please, join Ken and me in reading through the whole Bible next year. We’ll be doing it chronologically so you can get a flow for God’s amazing story of redemption. I’ve posted the reading schedule on my radio page today at joniradio.org, and I invite you to download it. I also printed the schedule in the back of this year’s Joni Planner, if you have your copy. So, start reading with my husband Ken Tada and me on January the first. Together, let’s learn more about Jael and all the other amazing people in the Word of God. Get your chronological reading schedule today at joniradio.org. That’s your good word today from Joni Eareckson Tada sharing hope.
© Joni and Friends