Jael: Courageous, Decisive, Fearless

What does real courage look like? It may not look the way you expect.

In this episode of the DoorWays® Ministry Podcast, Ric Shields is joined by his daughter, Tara Shields, to explore the remarkable story of Jael in Judges 4. Often overshadowed by Deborah, Jael was an ordinary woman who stepped into an extraordinary moment and changed history through courageous obedience.

Together, they discuss fear, risk, women's unique challenges today, and why God often works through those the world overlooks. If you've ever felt unseen, underestimated, or afraid to step into what God is asking of you, this conversation will encourage you to "do it scared."

Transcript

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TITLE: Jael: Courageous, Decisive, Fearless

GUEST: Tara Shields

SEASON: S5, E31

SERIES: Women in Scripture

DATE: August 4, 2026

Tara Shields (00:00):

There seems to be this misunderstanding that if someone is doing a courageous act or if someone appears to be fearless, that they're doing it and they're not scared. And I don't think that's true. I think that people can do those things and still be fearful and still worry, but they're choosing to go ahead and do it.

(00:17):

Just like the Nike slogan, "Just do it." It doesn’t matter if you're scared. It doesn't matter if you're fearful. It doesn't matter if you're confident, you've just got to keep doing it. So, I immediately think of the phrase, "Do it scared."

Ric Shields (00:38):

Some stories in scripture don't fit neatly into our categories. And Jael's story? Well, that's one of them. In a world dominated by violence, fear, and oppression, one woman stepped out from the shadows and changed the course of history with a tent peg and a terrifying amount of courage.

(00:58):

Judges 4 is not a soft story. It's raw, uncomfortable, unexpected, but maybe that's why it still matters because even today, many women feel overlooked, underestimated, silenced or trapped inside circumstances that they did not create. Jael reminds us that God often works through unlikely people in unlikely moments. And sometimes the most decisive battles are won by those nobody expected to fight.

(01:27):

Welcome to the DoorWays® Ministry Podcast. My name is Ric Shields, and today we're talking about courage, risk, oppression, and the surprising ways God uses ordinary women to confront extraordinary darkness.

(01:41):

My guest today is my daughter, Tara, who has served various positions and agencies within the state of Oklahoma for the past 19 years. If you know her, you realize she's a very caring and incredibly creative woman who, by the way, came up with the idea for this series of episodes on "Women in Scripture: Unseen, Unheard, and Unstoppable."

(02:05):

Thank you, Tara, for joining me today. I think this is really going to be a fun episode, Sis.

Tara Shields (02:09):

You know, you've asked me over the last couple of years to join in on the possibility of a podcast, and I've always said no. And then you dangled the carrot of Jael in front of me as a possibility, and I definitely snapped at that one.

Ric Shields (02:23):

For a long time now, you've really liked, and in a way, you've identified with the story of Jael in Judges 4. In fact, you led a Bible study with some other women for nearly nine years. The group was called Jael. What got you interested in her story?

Tara Shields (02:40):

Jael is not expected. She is not cookie-cutter. She is not the typical Proverbs 31 woman. And in a world of a lot of women's Bible studies that have very needed areas, there's also, I find, some outliers that don't ever fit neatly into some of those women's Bible studies. And so, I wanted to be able to offer one for the women who were outside of what the typical Christian woman looks like. And I'm not afraid of the unusual or the raw circumstances that bring people. And so that really intrigued me. And we were together for a long time, and I still count several of those people as very close friends, some of whom I still talk to on a weekly basis.

Ric Shields (03:27):

For listeners unfamiliar with the story, who was Jael? And what was happening historically in Judges 4 when she just suddenly appears in the narrative?

Tara Shields (03:37):

So, Judges 4 is really interesting, and we get a front row seat to seeing some dynamic shifts within Israel and what's going on. We're first introduced to Deborah, who is the first time that we've heard of a female judge that's coming along for Israel.

(03:55):

This is where we meet Barak. He is the warrior that Deborah told, "The Lord, the God of Israel commands you. Go and take 10,000 men and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots (which is important to remember) and will lead the troops of Kishon to give them into your hands." But Barak replied that he would not go if she didn't go with him. Deborah says, "I will go with you, but because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours. The Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman."

(04:27):

And this would've been such a massive embarrassment. Like we see further on in Judges 9 with Abimelech where he goes and he's laying siege and there's a tower and a woman, an unknown woman, an unnamed woman, drops a millstone down and cracks the top of his head. And he says to his armor bearer, "Kill me so they can't say of me that he was killed by a woman," because being killed by a woman was just, that's, that's a big no-no.

(04:55):

Then we're introduced to Jael. We don't know much about her. This is the first time that she comes in. We don't know if she saw the Israelites suffering. We don't know if she had her own run-ins with Sisera or Jabin. We don't know if her own family had suffered under their rule. All we know is that somehow the Spirit of God came upon her and caused her to act in this situation.

Ric Shields (05:21):

Deborah is often the central figure discussed in Judges 4, but it's Jael who becomes the one who ultimately ends Sisera's reign of terror. So why do you think her role matters so much?

Tara Shields (05:33):

Jael's role matters because she was not an Israelite. She was a Kenite. She was one of the nomadic people known as metal workers. And Judges 4 tells us that her husband, Heber, had left the other Kenite's, which were descendants of Hoab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his tent near Kadesh. In fact, Heber had an alliance with King Jabin. So there really was in no way Jael that was in the running to, by the end of the day, be seen as a heroine of the Israelites. She was not in the picture at all to be named as this heroine.

Ric Shields (06:09):

Jael's actions make many modern readers uncomfortable. How should we wrestle with the violence and the tension in this story without ignoring the larger spiritual and the historical context?

Tara Shields (06:22):

War is violent. War is incredibly one-on-one violent, especially in the Old Testament. Today, in modern warfare, it's removed a lot. You have drones, you have long-range missiles. It's not quite what it used to be back in the Old Testament.

(06:37):

So, when we're reading stories of a woman who welcomed this man into her home. She made him comfortable. He asked for water, she gives him cream in a lordly bowl. She tells him he can lay down and sleep. She gives him this offered comfort. And then when he's asleep, she picks up a hammer, she picks up a nail, a tent peg, she drives it through his head into the ground. And that is very uncomfortable because it's not something that we continue to see in modern warfare as much. There are times when it happens.

Ric Shields (07:08):

We don't see a lot of nails being pounded <laugh> in people's heads into the ground. Yeah, we don't...

Tara Shields (07:12):

We don't, but war is violent. And so having those reminders and that confrontation of what happens tends to make people uncomfortable today.

Ric Shields (07:21):

But there's a spiritual context to this too, though. And it's easy for us to forget about that and just talk about the story of Jael who "nailed it."

Tara Shields (07:31):

Yes. Jael nailed it. And the second part of that is we don't know the consequences of Jael's actions. So, we pretty much end her story of knowing that she went out of her tent as Barak comes by and she goes, "Oh, are you looking for this man? He just happens to be in my tent. He's dead. Here, come and take his body."

(07:52):

But there was a lot of risk in this for Jael, because her husband obviously had some kind of a pact, a friendly relation with Jabin and Sisera. He felt comfortable going there. So, what happens to Jael? Was she welcomed into the Israelites? I'm sure her husband was not thrilled. Did she die for her actions? Was she tortured for her actions? We don't know those things. So, she took a very strong step with a very unknown consequence of what that was going to mean.

(08:24):

And I think that's a lot of times what happens in today's world, that we feel like we need to do something, but we almost get scared by what the consequences could be instead of going, "I've been called to do it. This is where we go."

Ric Shields (08:37):

And another unknown consequence we spoke about earlier, we talked about this together. The possibility that Sisera was in her tent, but Barak was looking for him. In fact, Sisera says, "Hey, don't let anybody in." So, he's in there. If they had said, "No, we're coming and look anyway." They found him in there. Jael may likely have lost her life because of harboring this enemy that Barak was hunting down. So, she made a pretty good choice there.

(09:07):

And perhaps she was trying to just open up a friendly relation with Israel so that they would say, "Huh, this woman is a heroin. Look what she did." As opposed to, "Oh, look, she was a bad gal. She hid this guy in the tent, and that's not good."

(09:24):

Sisera represented some oppression, intimidation, and fear over God's people. What do you think are some Sisera-like forces that women face today emotionally, spiritually, culturally, relationally? What are some of those forces they face?

Tara Shields (09:39):

I find personally, as a woman in the workplace, I have to walk a very fine line. Because either I'm seen as a woman who can be administrative and can be somewhat helpful and get some coffee and clean up some things behind other people. Or if I'm more assertive within my position, I run the risk of looking like some other descriptions that are not positive.

(10:06):

And then there are other women that, if they're stay-at-home moms, they're seen as having an easy life. But if they go to work and they're a mother, you're sacrificing your family so that you can have your own career.

(10:17):

And then there's also, you can be a stay-at-home mom, you can work, you can have both, but you need to make sure you are spending time with your family, you're spending time at church, you're spending time at work. The laundry's done. Food needs to get made. Everyone's sports are handled. The house is clean. Don't forget to throw on some time to have friends because you need to be able to have that friend connection.

(10:37):

So not only do you have to do it, it all needs to be done well. And so, it feels like it doesn't matter which road you take, there's going to be people that none of them are happy and they're thinking you're doing it wrong.

Ric Shields (10:47):

You're listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Podcast. My name is Ric Shields, and I'm joined on this episode by my daughter, Tara Shields. For years, Tara has been intrigued by the story of Jael in Judges 4, so I asked her to join me so that we could discuss this lesser known woman in scripture.

(11:03):

So, Tara, this woman, Jael, she was not a soldier. She wasn't a prophet or a political leader. She was simply willing to act in a critical moment. So, what does her story teach women who feel ordinary or unseen or underestimated?

Tara Shields (11:18):

I feel like Jael was a woman who was aware of her surroundings. She knew what was going on in her home. She knew what was going on outside of her home. And we don't know if she had a personal relationship with God or not. But what I can encourage women to do today is to pray, to seek guidance, and be aware of what's going on around you. Spiritually, physically, mentally, environmentally, and even governmentally. Be aware of what's going on so that when someone comes knocking on your door, you will know what to do just like Jael did.

Ric Shields (11:50):

There's a striking contrast in this passage between passivity and courage. What do you think keeps many people, especially women, from stepping into the role God may be asking them to fulfill?

Tara Shields (12:03):

Fear. Fear of the unknown. Sometimes fear of the known is just as paralyzing. And so, we can be afraid of something but still got to act on it.

(12:14):

Years ago, I'm not going to quite say how many years ago, but several years ago, I was 19 years old and I was called for jury duty. I ended up being placed on a death penalty criminal case where a guy had murdered a convenience store clerk. There was a little over a week and a half of testimony. And then they say, "Okay, you're going to now deliberate."

(12:35):

The first thing you do when you go to deliberate, you need to choose a foreman. After you choose a foreman, you're going to go through all of the different elements. You're going to go through all the different evidence, and you're going to make a decision on whether this, on the punishment that this person deserves.

(12:50):

So, it was a Friday night. We go back into the deliberation room. The first thing you're supposed to do is choose a foreman. Every single person in that room was saying, "No, I won't do it. I won't do it." Every single person that was older than I was, had more life experience, had more wisdom. And so, I'm watching these grown men say, "No, no, I won't do it. I won't do it." And these grown women saying, "I won't do it." We can't move on until this is decided.

(13:22):

So, at 19, I said, "Okay. I'm not volunteering, but if someone asked me to do it, I'm not going to deny it. I'm not going to decline." And they said, "Okay, you're in." So, at 19 years old, I was the foreman for a death penalty case, which after reviewing all of the evidence, I still feel very firm in the fact that we chose that he deserved the death penalty.

(13:46):

And while I did not have a hammer or a nail in my hand like Jael, I had an order written in front of me, typed in front of me, I had a pencil. And to this day, my signature is the only one on that paper saying this man should be put to death for his actions.

(14:05):

I think it is still very prevalent today that there are people that are scared and don't want to have to step up, and they just won't. So, there are younger people or women or there are people that don't have the experience that maybe shouldn't have to step up that are stepping up because the elders aren't. And that's something that affected my lifelong trajectory after that. That experience completely changed the trajectory of my life after.

Ric Shields (14:37):

Tell me something funny that happened in that, that we talked about before, that you went back in the room, and they couldn't decide who the jury foreman was going to be. Once they decided, what'd you do next?

Tara Shields (14:48):

Okay, like I said, it was a Friday night. We had been in court all day. We go back, they say, "You have to pick a foreman." We go through everything. Finally pick a foreman. And the first thing I said was, "Okay, what are we ordering for dinner? Let's order dinner."

(15:02):

The other funny thing that happened was I was in Broken Arrow. I lived quite away from downtown. And one evening, the night before, I had spent the night with a friend who did live downtown so I would be closer to the courthouse.

(15:14):

She got up the next morning. She left for work. I got up, went to get dressed, and realized I had brought a shirt, my pajamas, but I had not brought in a change of pants. I had come over in those pajama pants. So, I had to actually call the judge in his chambers and explain that the trial was going to be held up because I had to drive back to Broken Arrow to get pants.

(15:39):

And they said, "Just come in what you're wearing." And I said, "They're Winnie the Pooh pajama pants." So trial was held for a little bit so that I could drive back to Broken Arrow and get a change of clothes. <laugh>

Ric Shields (15:52):

Jael used what she already had in her hand. She had some common household tools, or at least common tools for her because she likely made the tent that Sisera came into. She used these common tools to make an uncommon impact. How can women today use their own gifts or influence, voice, or experiences to confront the darkness around them?

Tara Shields (16:15):

Use whatever is in your world. Wherever you are, whatever you do, know it and be comfortable with it. Jael was likely a metal worker and as a Bedouin who moved around, she typically built the tent that she and her family lived in. She knew her tools. She knew where they were. She knew what they did. She knew how comfortable they were in her hands. So, know what is around you and use it to your advantage. We see many examples of women doing this in the Bible.

Ric Shields (16:42):

Delilah, for example, she knew what to do to help bring Sampson down. There was Salome and her mother, Herodius, that insisted on having the head of John the Baptist presented to her father. There was Tamar, we spoke about her just a couple of weeks ago when Barbie Odom spoke about Tamar. And she knew what she needed to do to get her former father-in-law to do what he needed to do. There's Zipporah. There's Abigail. There's Rachel. There are women, they knew what to do. They knew what they had available to them, how to do it, and they used it to their advantage. And <laugh> it worked well for them, that's for sure.

Tara Shields (17:24):

You don't have to be trained in something that someone else does because it worked for them. You have to know what you have available to you, what you understand, what you're comfortable with, and then pray that God helps you learn how to use the things that he's already provided you with.

Ric Shields (17:41):

[Judges] 4 highlights multiple strong women while many of the men in the story hesitate. What might this passage say to the church today about recognizing, encouraging, and valuing courageous women?

Tara Shields (17:56):

I would say that they probably shouldn't sleep on it.

Ric Shields (17:59):

<laugh>

Tara Shields (17:59):

You don't want to be the modern day Barak that is missing the honor that God is placing upon you whenever he tells you to do something. Whenever God's told you to do something and encourage other people and those around you and to see those around you, if you don't do it, you're missing out on what God is wanting to bless you and your ministry with.

(18:18):

I would say don't let hesitancy or fear or concern keep you from being aware of the giftings of women around you and what they can offer to your ministry in your church.

Ric Shields (18:33):

If a listener today feels trapped by fear or abuse, intimidation, shame, powerlessness, whatever. What encouragement do you think they can take from Jael's story about God's ability to work through them?

Tara Shields (18:45):

There seems to be this misunderstanding that if someone is doing a courageous act or if someone appears to be fearless, that they're doing it and they're not scared. And I don't think that's true. I think that people can do those things and still be fearful and still worry. But they're choosing to go ahead and do it.

(19:02):

Just like the Nike slogan, "Just do it." It doesn't matter if you're scared. It doesn't matter if you're fearful. It doesn't matter if you're confident, you got to keep doing it.

(19:13):

So, I immediately think of the phrase, "Do it scared," as well. We see actors, or stunt doubles, in scripted action movies doing heroic feats or hearing the news about adults who protected their children from being kidnapped or running to an accident to help pull people from the wreckage. Or maybe you just need to be aware of those around you who are struggling and need prayer.

(19:33):

Those who you see that may feel unseen themselves. It can be scary to approach someone in their time of need, but God might have placed you in that time and that place to see them.

Ric Shields (19:44):

Thank you for joining me, Sis. This has been fun. Would you please take 30 seconds, help us wrap up this story? Give us something to remember as the overall theme of the story.

Tara Shields (19:53):

Jael is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. I love that while this wasn't necessarily her fight that we're aware of, there was a problem that was brought to her doorstep, and she was able to take care of it. And I, for the majority of my life, have never felt like the typical "girly girl." I've never felt like the Proverbs 31 woman who was able to do all the things for the family and be the perfect wife. That's never been how I've seen myself. But I do identify with Jael, and I feel like being a good Christian woman does not mean that you have to be the Proverbs 31 woman. You can be a good Christian woman by recognizing what God has put in front of you and what he wants you to do and doing it.

Ric Shields (20:48):

Jael's story reminds us that courage does not always arrive wearing armor or carrying a title. Sometimes courage looks like an ordinary woman refusing to bow to fear. Sometimes it looks like someone who's been overlooked suddenly becoming the instrument God uses to change everything.

(21:06):

The world still has its Sisera moments. Intimidation, abuse, injustice, silence, and oppression. But Judges four reminds us that God is still able to raise up courageous voices and will use unlikely people in difficult times. And maybe that's the challenge for all of us today. Not simply asking what evil exists around us but asking whether we are willing to confront it with faith, wisdom, and courage.

(21:36):

As Judges 4:14 declares, "Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?" Sometimes the greatest victories begin the moment someone finally believes that he has.

(21:49):

I'm really enjoying this series on "Women in Scripture," and hope you are too. Sharing this episode with a friend, choosing to like, follow, or subscribe will help us to rise in the rankings, and it'll make the algorithm work in our favor. Would you take a moment right now and help us with that today? I'd really appreciate it.

(22:08):

And if you know Raymond or Dr. Aletha Oglesby, let them know how much you appreciate their sponsorship of this series. If you don't know them, drop me a note at info@doorways.cc, and I'll tell them for you.

(22:22):

Next week, I'll be speaking with our friend and coworker, Rachel Middleton, about Abigail. You may like to become familiar with her story. It's found in the book of 1 Samuel 25. It's a story of a woman who stood in the gap in order to stop bloodshed and preserve a heritage.

(22:40):

I'm so glad you joined me this week. Here's a special prayer from Zephaniah 3:17 for you to hold in your heart this week. "May you rest in the assurance that the Lord your God is with you and He is mighty to save."

(22:55):

I pray that His love will quiet your fears and His joy will surround you with songs of delight.

(23:03):

Thanks for listening.