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“Killed by a Woman”
Categories: men, wisdomWarriors harden themselves against the reality of their own imminent death as they take the battlefield. They intend victory, but they understand their own mortality, and if their life should be taken by another warrior, they submit to an honorable death.
But no warrior wants to be killed by someone weaker than he. Recall Abimelech, the bastard king during the time of the judges:
“And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, ‘Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, “A woman killed him.”’ And his young man thrust him through, and he died.” (Judges 9.52–54)
Abimelech the warrior didn’t want “A woman killed him” on his gravestone.
A few decades before Abimelech’s death, another warrior died at the hand of a woman:
“But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him 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.” (Judges 4.21)
Deborah wrote a beautiful song for Israel to sing about this event:
24 “Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
25 He asked for water and she gave him milk;
she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.
26 She sent her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera; she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
between her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell—dead.
Now isn’t that lovely? Not for Sisera! What a dishonorable, shameful epithet!
Many Warriors Have Fallen to Women
But many warriors have fallen to women—not so many physically killed, but many have fallen to the wiles and seductions of women.
Samson fell to the wiles of Delilah. Judah trotted along into the house of a prostitute (Tamar). Amnon succumbed to temptation and raped his half-sister.
The greatest warrior of all, King David, fell to a woman who wasn’t even trying to seduce him (as far as we know). He saw her bathing on his neighbor’s roof next door and fell to the temptation.
The wisest of all men fell into idolatry because he “loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love” (1 Kings 11.1–2).
Is it any wonder that Solomon wrote Proverbs 1–9 telling his son to flee from the “forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words” (2.16)? He explains, “for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life” (2.18–19). He heaps it on in Proverbs 5–9, especially.
What Is Man’s Defense?
What is a man to do to keep himself from being killed by a woman?
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life… Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil” (Proverbs 4.23–27).
- SET YOUR HEART towards righteousness before you begin your day. Intentionally decide what kind of person you are going to be today.
- DON’T GAZE AT A WOMAN. You will see her for sure, but do not let your eyes or your mind dwell on her. Rather, set your gaze straight ahead; don’t get distracted.
- GO WHERE YOU INTEND. When you find yourself stopping or swerving off your intended path to put yourself in a better place to view a woman, turn your foot away from evil, remind yourself of what you had set your heart to do, and get going.
But let us end on a good note. God created woman to be beautiful and attractive to men. It is no sin to notice that a woman is lovely, and it is no sin to find people attractive; this is a legitimate pleasure God has given mankind—beauty. Godly women are especially beautiful because they shine from the inside out with that gentle and quiet spirit God designed women to have (1 Peter 3.4). Godly women are strong of heart and spirit, and blessed is the man who finds a righteous woman!
“An excellent wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels” (Proverbs 31.10). A godly woman will not kill a man; rather, “the heart of her husband trusts in her, and she does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life” (Proverbs 31.11, 12).
Men, don’t give your strength to women (Proverbs 31.3). Don’t be killed by a woman.
