A matter of degrees

God says to Moses in Deuteronomy 31, “Now you teach them this song because it’s going to outline their history and why all these curses are going to come on them.”

In chapter 32, the first 42 verses give the reviews of the indictment against Israel and why they’re going to go through all these courses of judgment.

Verse 43 says, “Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.”

Jordan explains, “The Song of Moses brings Israel all the way through its history to the very point where God’s going to pour out His wrath and avenge His enemies. That’s where you are in Revelation 15. The wrath is fixin’ to be poured out and the last thing that Song of Moses calls for is what’s fixin’ to happen in Revelation 15-19. The vials of the wrath of God are going to be poured out!

“But He’s going to be merciful to the Believing Remnant and to the land of Israel and He’s going to establish His kingdom. He’s going to wipe out the planet. The Song of the Lamb in Rev. 15 is about that. The Song of Moses is the judgment and, in the Song of the Lamb, it’s as the lamb in Rev. 5 that He prevails and goes and takes the book.

“He goes before the Father and they look for a man who can take the book. The earth has been given to man. Here’s the title deed for the earth but they need a man who can go take the book, and there was not one found, and then they had found one who had prevailed to take the book and He was the lamb as He were slain. Because of the Crosswork, the Lord Jesus Christ has won the right to possess the earth and then He comes back as a lion to put into effect what He won and owns as the lamb.

“You’re fixin’ to see Him come back in Rev. 15 and following as the lion and destroy His enemies and set up His kingdom, and when He starts putting His power into effect, and functioning as their Avenger, up there in heaven they sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. Psalms 96-100 are exactly the issues that are identified in Rev. 15 as the issues in the Song of the Lamb.

“And so there’s a correlation there and, just as that new Song of the Lamb is sung in heaven, when these Believers go into their kingdom this is what they’re singing.

“Now you know how wonderful a song is to get you through a bad spot. You know, if you got a song in your heart, it just tends to help you get through the day. That’s why music is such a solace and such a wonderful thing.

“It also makes it easy for you to remember things, and that Believing Remnant looking for their Deliverer sings about their king and in that fourth book of the Psalms, the focus of the heart of the Believer is going to be on their king and the beauty of His holiness in His kingdom so they’d stay faithful to Him.

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“In the last section of the Psalms, Psalms 120-134, the issue is the Redeemer has come, He’s delivered His people, destroyed His enemies and set up His kingdom and now the blessings of His kingdom are going to be spread to all the earth.

“There are 15 of what are called ‘song of degrees’. One of them, 127, is a song of degrees for Solomon. Four of them are identified as being written by David. So five of them have their author attached, which leaves 10 of them as unidentified or anonymous. There’s a reason for that because the songs of degree are very important in relationship to the history of Israel.

“Anytime a Bible student, or especially a believing Jew, would read about degrees, there’s something he would think about in his Bible. And what he would think about is what happened to Hezekiah in Isaiah 38 and, of course, in the record in Kings.

“Hezekiah was a good king in Israel and he got sick. Isaiah is told in verse 5 to go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.’

“There’s two things you got to remember about this. Hezekiah didn’t have any kids at this time. He’s the royal lineage of David. Had Hezekiah died childless the seed line would have ended. Because God extended his life fifteen years, it was during that fifteen-year extension that he had a son. Manasseh was his name and he turned out to be a dud as far as a son is concerned, or a king in Israel is concerned, but at least Hezekiah had the kid and the line went on and you go to Matthew 1 and you’ll see him in the royal lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“So God is extending mercy and carrying on His purpose in Israel by extending Hezekiah’s life. He also delivers them from the Assyrian and defends the city. This is a type of the Antichrist, a type of the defense that Jesus Christ will make against Israel’s enemy in the last day.

“Now, in connection with that defense against the Assyrian, and that extension of Hezekiah’s life in order to preserve the seed line, there’s a sign given in the coming of the Messiah. Verse 7-8 says, And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
[8] Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

“So the son returned 10 degrees by which degrees it was gone down. Anybody in the Bible that was studying the Bible and read about degrees would have immediately remembered that miracle when God caused the sun dial to go back 10 degrees.

“Verse 9 says, ‘The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.’ You notice Hezekiah was a writer. In Proverbs 25:1 you have a record of the Proverbs of Solomon that the men of King Hezekiah caused to be copied out.

“Hezekiah, during this time period, became a chronicler and an editor of many of the books in your Old Testament. He also became an author of portions of the Old Testament.

“Verse 20 says, ‘The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.’ Notice that Hezekiah wrote some songs. So when you go to the Book of Psalms and you begin to see songs of degrees, you go, ‘Oh, I can figure out what that affects!’

“A degree is an incremental progression where you calculate progression; it’s a stage of advance where you go beyond something a little bit and a little bit. And what the songs of degree do, ten of them written by Hezekiah, four by David and one by Solomon.

“David and Solomon represent the two aspects of Christ: the bloody man, the man of war, and the man of peace. Here He is the avenger and the Deliverer and then He’s the King and the Blesser in David and Solomon and then Hezekiah adds the other 10.

“These songs of degrees have to do with the aspect of the blessing of the kingdom that is there in Israel, not simply staying in Israel, but spreading itself out over the whole earth. Isaiah 9:7 talks about, ‘Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.’ ”