Judges 5:19-31.  Remember that Israel had no king at this time so verses 18-19 must be referring to the Canaanite armies and they took no plunder.  That is to say they were not winning.  Why?  Verses 20 and 21 tell us why.  Most references to stars in the Old Testament refer to stars.  And this could be some sort of meteor shower that hits only the Canaanite army.  That would fit with the other disaster of the river flooding.  In a couple of passages stars refer to either humans or angles.  In Joseph’s dream (Genesis 37:9-10) the stars represent his brothers.  In Job 38 God is talking to Job trying to get Job to understand just how powerful He is.   In Job 38:7 He is describing what was going on when He created the universe and talks about the “stars singing together, the sons of God shouting for joy”.  In Job chapters 1 and 2 the term “sons of God” is used for angles.  The verse in chapter 38 is probably a parallel (side by side comparison or contrast), something Hebrew authors liked to do a lot.  So “morning stars” would be parallel with “sons of God”.  Both would be a poetical reference to angles.  Daniel 8:10 may be a similar situation.  So the stars could be angles coming to the battle to fight for Israel.  On the other hand the flood of the river was just that.  In all of these cases though it is clearly God who is controlling the events.

In verses 23 and 24 we see another possible example of a parallel form.  This time the parallel is a contrast.  We do not know anything about Meroz but the writer sees to be drawing a comparison with Jael.  The comparison is of opposites though.  Meroz would have been an Israelite town  in the area of the battle.  It is clear that they were not on board with what God was doing.  It’s not that God needed their help it is more like they weren’t cheering as God did His thing.  These people were fans of the Canaanites, they had been infected with the Canaanite culture and religion.  In contrast to them is Jael.  Jael was the wife of a man named Heber.  He was related to Moses by marriage.  Heber’s ancestor (father, grandfather, or great-grandfather) would have been Moses’ brother in law.  Heber’s family were called Kenites.  It appears that the Kenites were allies of the Israelites.  Except for Heber who had gone his own way and made an alliance with one of the Canaanite kings.  When Sisera, the Canaanite general, began to lose he ran for friendly territory.  He thought he was safe in the tent of Heber’s wife.  Although she was not an Israelite, Jael, acted in faith and in opposition to her husband’s treaty and killed Sisera. Her actions were actions of faith in God.  She was a real contrast in the song to the unfaithful people of Meroz.  In contrast to the people of Meroz who were “utterly cursed”  Jael is called “most blessed” of women.

It doesn’t matter what family you are from, what town you live in, what your family’s political alliances have been, or what gender you are.  What matters is seeing God for who He is and joining His team by faith.  In this story two women are the heroes one an Israelite who was not afraid to speak out for God and the other a non-Israelite who was not afraid to act for God.  What united them was faith.

God help me have faith and act on it.  Thank you for making me a member of your team.  Help me act like it every day.