Much of what I write about on this blog concerns the distinctions God has established between men and women, particularly as those distinctions are expressed through head covering, modesty, and our respective roles. But I sometimes wonder whether, in our efforts to understand biblical femininity, we have allowed the world to define what strength and courage are supposed to look like.
There seems to be an assumption that a woman who embraces her femininity, values her role as a wife and homemaker, and is comfortable with the distinctions God has established must somehow be timid, passive, or less capable than a woman who rejects those distinctions. As though courage is inherently masculine, and a woman must become more like a man in order to accomplish something important.
I don't believe Scripture presents femininity that way. And one of my favorite examples is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Her story has nothing directly to do with head covering or modest dress, but it has a great deal to do with how we understand womanhood. Jael was unmistakably a woman, identified as a wife and pictured in the domestic setting of her tent. Yet she became the unlikely heroine of one of Israel's great victories.
And she didn't have to become androgynous to do it.
The story of Jael, found in Judges 4 and 5, is a wonderful example of a woman who demonstrated extraordinary courage without having to become masculine or androgynous. Jael was not a soldier, a military commander, or a woman seeking a man's position. She was the wife of Heber the Kenite, living in a tent, carrying out the ordinary responsibilities associated with keeping a household. And it was right there, in her own home, that God used her to accomplish something extraordinary.
Israel had been oppressed for twenty years by Jabin, king of Canaan, whose military commander, Sisera, led an army equipped with nine hundred iron chariots. God raised up Deborah, a prophetess and judge, who summoned Barak to lead Israel into battle. The Lord gave Israel victory, but Sisera escaped on foot and fled to the tents of Heber the Kenite, whose household had been at peace with the Canaanite king.
Jael came out to greet the exhausted commander and invited him into her tent. She covered him with a blanket, and when he asked for water, she gave him milk, served in what Deborah's later song describes as a lordly dish. These were ordinary acts of feminine hospitality. She welcomed a guest, provided refreshment, and saw to his comfort. Sisera felt so secure in her care that he instructed her to deny his presence if anyone came looking for him. Then he fell asleep.
And this is where the story takes a rather unexpected turn.
Jael took a tent peg and hammer, approached the sleeping commander, and drove the peg through his temple into the ground. When Barak arrived in pursuit, Jael invited him inside and showed him the man he had been seeking. The commander of nine hundred iron chariots had been defeated by a woman with a household tool!
Notice that Jael did not put on armor, take up a sword, or attempt to become a female version of a soldier. She used the implements of her own household. In a culture where tents served as homes, tent pegs and hammers were familiar, practical tools. Her victory did not require her to abandon her domestic setting or assume a masculine identity. She acted courageously as the woman she already was.
Deborah's song of victory celebrates Jael with these words:
"Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent." (Judges 5:24, KJV)
I find that description particularly interesting. Scripture identifies Jael as a wife and associates her blessing with women in the tent. Her femininity is not something she had to overcome in order to become the heroine of the story. Nor is her courage presented as evidence that she needed to become more like a man.
We should be careful not to make the passage say more than it does. Judges is primarily an account of God's deliverance of Israel, not a treatise on femininity or homemaking. Nevertheless, the details are there. God used a married woman, in her own home, employing the ordinary implements of domestic life, to accomplish His purpose.
I think we sometimes confuse femininity with weakness, as though a woman who embraces her role as wife and homemaker must necessarily be timid, passive, or incapable of decisive action. But strength, courage, resourcefulness, and determination are not exclusively masculine characteristics. A woman does not have to blur the distinctions between male and female in order to possess them.
Jael did not have to become androgynous to become a heroine. She did not have to reject her identity as a woman, abandon her household, or imitate a man. She was a wife in her tent, and when the moment came, she acted with extraordinary courage.
Scripture calls her blessed above women in the tent. Not because she became less womanly, but because God used her, exactly where she was, to accomplish His purpose.
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