Explanation of a Name

A lot of people have said to me already, “Jaelle. I’ve never heard that name before.” And they probably haven’t because Nicole and I made it up – kind of. So this post is an attempt to answer why we named our daughter what we did.

The name is taken from a woman in the Old Testament in the Book of Judges, whose Hebrew name was Jael. The problem with that name is that if said too quickly, it sounds like “Jail.” And you don’t want your kid named something that phonetically sounds similar to prison. So Nicole, who lived in France her junior year of college, had the great idea to feminize the name by adding the French suffix “elle” - which means woman. So the name “Jaelle” was birthed.

Now, about the significance of the name. Last summer, FCC did a sermon series called “SuperHeroes” in which we looked at several people from the Bible who went down in history as heroes of the faith for various reasons. One of the featured heroes was Deborah, a woman from the Old Testament who settled legal disputes for the people of Israel and who became known for her fairness and wisdom.

In Judges 4, we see a scene unfold that has dramatic consequences for Israel. Israel was being severely oppressed under the reign of Jabin, the King of the Canaanites and Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s vast and powerful armies. The text says that the Canaanite army had 900 iron chariots, which seems like a petty detail, but which reveals that the Canaanites had iron technology, and we know from history that at this point, the Israelites didn’t. And fighting iron with wood is not usually a good idea. So the Israelites are being hopelessly oppressed by a nation with a military that is far superior.

So the people cry out to God, and in time, the Lord comes to Deborah and tells her to give Barak, the commander of Israel’s army, a message. So Deborah goes to Barak and tells him, “The Lord has the following message to you. Go fight the Canaanites to the Kishon River, and there, I will deliver their army into your hands.”

Barak is understandably hesitant. This is a suicide mission, and the chances of winning that kind of battle are miniscule. So Barak doesn’t want to take any chances. Instead of believing that God will do what He said, Barak decides to take along Deborah as an insurance policy. Surely, God wouldn’t let a prophetess get killed in battle, right? In fact, Barak says, “You go, I go. You don’t go, then neither will I.”

Deborah sighs and pronounces this message. “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.”

The idea here is that Barak could have gotten the honor, if only he had believed what God was promising. But because it looked impossible, Barak had a tough time mustering the courage. And who could blame him? Humanely speaking, it was an impossible feat. But what Barak forgot is that with God, all things really are possible. And impossible situations turn around when God gets in the mix.

Meanwhile, the story continues. The Israelite army marches out to the Kishon River to do battle with the Canaanite army. The site of the battle was close to some land occupied by a clan of people led by a man named Heber. Heber and his people were descendents of Moses’s brother-in-law. Though technically Jewish, and part of the nation of Israel, Heber knew that the Canaanites were far superior, so he had entered into an unholy alliance with King Jabin and the Canaanites. The armies marched forth toward this area of land occupied by Heber and his people.

Meanwhile, God is at work. He causes thick rains to fall, flooding the Kishon River. The ground is very damp, and Sisera attacks, but damp ground + heavy iron chariots = disaster. The chariot advantage is entirely eliminated and text says “All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.”

But Sisera escapes, and runs away, pursued by thousands of Israelite soldiers. Sisera runs into the tent of Heber, who he knew had formed an uneasy alliance with King Jabin, in an attempt to hide. This is what the text says:

Judges 4
18Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come, my Lord , come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.

19 "I'm thirsty," he said. "Please give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

20 "Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' "

21 But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple-dead.

I remember the first time I read that story. I thought to myself, “Man, that is hard-core.” And it is. Like Eowyn in “The Lord of the Rings.” Only this story actually happened. And I remember thinking, “If I have a daughter, that’s the kind of girl I want her to be!” Not in the blunt-force trauma kind of murderer kind of way – but the metaphorical power of this woman’s life. There were four things that really struck me about the life of Jael.

• If I Had a Hammer. Jael was a woman that must have possessed intense physical strength. You know how strong you have to be to drive a tent-peg through a man’s cranium? Hopefully, you don’t. But I imagine you have to be ripped. As in Linda Hamilton in T2 ripped.
  


• Holding Out for a Hero. There aren’t many female military heroes in any culture, let alone in Jewish history. Judges 5 records the Song of Deoborah, in which Deborah tells, in graphic, taunting detail, the actions of Jael. I can imagine little Jewish girls everywhere getting an education on what it means to really be a woman. Jael must have been like Wonder Woman – finally someone without a penis getting into the Halls of Justice.


• I Pledge Allegiance. Even though her husband had made an alliance with an evil King to protect his family, Jael knew where her allegiances lay. For her, there was no confusion. The fog of pragmatism didn’t set in, like it had for her husband. She had moral clarity and she acted.
  
  
• Isn’t it Ironic. I also love the fact that God used a woman to bring down the commander of the most powerful army in the region. 900 iron chariots vs. one iron tent peg. The lesson of the entire Book of Judges is clear – God uses the most unlikely and unimpressive characters to do great and fantastic things – if they’ll let Him.

So that’s why we chose “Jaelle.”

Her middle name is easier to explain. My mom’s name is Kay, and Nicole’s mom’s middle name is Kathryn. So we combined them, creating yet another fictitious name of “Kaythryn.”