Jael: She Who Understood the Assignment

Devotionals
April 30, 2022
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Judges 4:21
21But 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.

As the young people say: Jael “understood the assignment”.

Sometime last year I was listening to this word from Christy Johnston where she was talking about the Deborah anointing, but also covered on Jael. It really stayed with me and this past week I was led to read Deborah’s story again in Judges 4. This time Jael’s part of the story really stood out. Christy said that Jael means mountain goat in Hebrew. So I looked it up and it sure did! I also looked up a few fun facts about the mountain goat:

-belong to the animal family Bovidae that includes antelopes, gazelles, and cattle (which explains their agility and athleticism)
-sure-footed climber
-can jump far distances
-have slender bodies and strong necks and shoulders (helpful for climbing)
-cute but hostile when their territory is invaded -they have never been domesticated

Their ability to jump far and scale up high in the mountains allows them to evade predators and find the sustenance they need at different seasons in their lives. The ones who do fall are competing males and very young kids who haven’t quite gotten the hang of it! I was amazed by pictures I’ve seen of them standing on what looks like a near perpendicular cliff – without falling! (source 1) (source 2)

Sisera thought he’d found a domesticated goat who would blindly execute his orders. She was supposed to be an ally, after all. But instead, he ran up on a wild, untamable mountain goat and met his death. What if the Lord is looking for women to bestow a Jael anointing on? Women who will scale the rough terrains to “go up high” where their enemy will call off the pursuit or fall and die. Women who will trust the sure footedness and agility of their anointing and Gods word in their hearts and jump, leap and scale the mountains! Women who keep their cool when staring the adversary in the face because they know that enemy’s end. Women who near defy gravity while standing on the steep cliffs of life. Women who will take the skills they’ve learned and apply them any way the Lord directs…and ultimately assassinate the enemy and his works. Women who understand the assignment God has tasked them with.