ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Pulelulu Sune 21, 2023

מקבת Hammer Time

ALA KI HE HAMALA 

JUDGES 4:21

JAEL THE WIFE OF HEBER TOOK A TENT PEG, AND TOOK A HAMMER IN HER HAND. THEN SHE WENT SOFTLY TO [SISERA] AND DROVE THE PEG INTO HIS TEMPLE UNTIL IT WENT DOWN INTO THE GROUND WHILE HE WAS LYING FAST ASLEEP FROM WEARINESS. SO HE DIED. 

FAKAMAAU 4:21

Pea hanga ai ‘a Siaili ko e uaifi ‘o Hepa, ‘o ne to‘o ha fa‘o ‘o e tēniti, ‘o ne ala ki he hāmala, ‘o ne faka‘ete‘ete atu, ‘o ne tuki ‘a e fa‘o ki hono manifinifihanga, pea na‘e ‘asi atu ia ki he kelekele; he na‘e ma‘u pē ‘ene mohe he‘ene ongosia. Ko ia na‘a ne pekia.

When Sisera, the enemy of Israel, was on the run, Jael tricked him into entering her tent to some shut-eye. He never woke up. Having quenched his thirst with milk and covered him with a blanket, Jael waited till he was fast asleep, then this housewife became a warrior. Tent peg and maqqevet ("hammer") in hand, she stole upon this general and staked his head to the ground. "Most blessed of women be Jael," Deborah sings, for she shattered the skull of the foe (5:24-27). In the second century BC, when the Jews rebelled against their Seleucid overlords, the leading family was called the Maccabees or "The Hammers." But Jael beat them to the punch. This maqqevet-wielding woman deserves the title Matriarch of the Maccabees.

Once more, through a woman, God crushed the skull of an enemy. Once more, we have a preview of the ultimate crushing of the ultimate enemy by the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). Jael's short story sits squarely within the long story of the Gospel of the skull-crushing Messiah. 

"O LORD, my Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle" (Ps. 140:7).