Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20061029.htm

THE PREINCARNATE MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST
Part XIII: Christ's Work With Meroz: God's Rewarding How We Use Our Opportunities To Serve Him
(Judges 5:23-27 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Christ's Luke 19:12-26 parable on ten servants who were each given a "pound" [of 100 denarii] to make gain with it in business reveals God will judge us according to what we do with the opportunities He gives us to serve Him, for the servants were rewarded according to the gain each acquired with his "pound".
    2. It teaches we are accountable to God to take advantage of the opportunities to serve Him that He grants us, a lesson seen in the contrast of the message of the Angel of the Lord to Meroz and the blessing of Jael:
  2. Christ's Work With Meroz: God's Rewarding How We Use Our Opportunities To Serve Him.
    1. In the victory Song of Deborah, the prophetess and judge of Israel reported that the "Angel of the Lord" had verbally spoken a curse upon the town of Meroz because it had not come to the help of the people of Israel when they put to flight her Canaanite enemy forces, Judges 5:23.
    2. We know from past lessons that this "Angel of the Lord" is the Preincarnate Lord Jesus Christ, "the Second Person of the Trinity," cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., footnote to Genesis 16:10.
    3. Accordingly, the Preincarnate Christ responded to the town of Meroz in striking contrast to how the woman Jael was rewarded for her response to the opportunities she was given of God to serve Him:
      1. For failing to take advantage of the opportunity to help Israel's forces destroy the fleeing army of Sisera, the Preincarnate Christ cursed the town of Meroz, Judges 5:23!
      2. In contrast, Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite was blessed of God for taking advantage of a unique opportunity that came her way to do the Lord's will in killing Sisera himself, Judges 5:24-27 et al.:
        1. Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, was given the opportunity to kill Sisera, captain of the Canaanite forces invading Israel since Israel's Barak had failed to use the opportunity he was given to trust the Lord as a man to lead Israel against Sisera's forces without the aid of the woman, Deborah, 4:1-9.
        2. Jael's opportunity to serve God came with a special set of events: (1) The Canaanite commander, Sisera, served his king, Jabin, the ruler in the Canaanite capitol city of Hazor, Judges 4:2. (2) Now, Hazor had made peace with Heber, the Kenite who was Jael's husband, Judges 4:17. (3) Heber was of the Kenite clan, a nomadic group who lived among other area nations "without having partisan loyalties," cf. Zond. Pict. Ency. Of the Bible, vol. Three, p. 783. Heber had lived separate from the other neutral Kenite nomads, and had thus made peace with the Canaanites of Hazor opposite the other Kenites who stayed neutral. (4) Now, when God turned the battle in favor of Israel to where even Sisera had to flee by foot for his life, he ran toward Heber's tent nearby, presuming he would find refuge from his people, Judges 4:17. (5) Heber's wife, Jael, had a choice to make: (a) she could either hide Sisera from Israel in accord with her husband's treaty with Sisera's city (cf. Judges 4:17) or (b) she could pretend to hide him and actually kill him to help Israel's cause in favor of God's will! (c) Now, the task of using a mallet and tent peg to pitch a tent was a woman's job among such nomads, so Jael had access to these tools and the expertise and strength to use them to kill Sisera, Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Judges 4:21. (d) Jael chose to use the opportunity to kill Sisera and help the people of God regardless of her husband's treaty with Sisera's city: she hid the fleeing Canaanite commander under a mantle, gave him milk to make him drowsy though he had asked her for water (Judges 4:19) so that when he fell asleep, she used a mallet and tent peg to pin Sisera's head through his temples to the ground with the tent peg, Judges 4:21!
        3. Accordingly, Deborah's Song blessed Jael for her decision to help God's cause this way, and Jael was blessed "above women in the tent," or above other nomadic Kenites of her era, Judges 5:24!
Lesson: Though the town of Meroz failed to use its opportunity to help Israel slay her foes and thus suffered a curse by the Preincarnate Christ, Jael the Kenite took advantage of her opportunity to help Israel regardless of her husband's godless loyalty to Israel's enemies, and that by slaying Sisera with her skill with a tent peg and hammer; accordingly, Jael was blessed by God above other Kenite women.

Application: May we use every opportunity God sends us to serve Him, for we will lose His blessings for failing to do so while gaining His blessings for taking initiative with them.