Scattered 'little' ditties

What you learn in Judges is how the judgment cycles work and Israel’s failure through compromise.

Jordan says, “There’s a lot of tremendous spiritual truth to learn in the Book of Judges. In chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2, there’s the lack of complete mastery of evil at the outset, which always means constant trouble from that evil afterwards, and often means defeat by it in the end. They don’t master the lands; they don’t master the nations. They don’t throw the Gentiles out. They don’t get rid of the Baal worship. They compromise with it and the result is they fail.

“Every time a cycle comes and they go down and recover, they never get back up as high as they were. It’s just a constant progression downward.

“Verse 10. God delivers Israel from the judgment they were in and there’s a restoration. In verse 11, ‘the land had rest’ and the rest is the rest God had promised them in Canaan. The Canaan rest is a type of the Millennial Kingdom rest and they experience rest for 40 years.

“You understand how that works. You learn the lesson, you live in the lesson, but you don’t pass the lesson on to the next generation. I mean, you’ve gone 40 years and there’s another generation, another group of people who have come on the scene, and you haven’t passed the lesson on to them.

“What do they do? You notice they don’t just naturally serve the Lord. They naturally go out and serve the flesh and the religious system. ‘And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.’ There’s this satanic policy of evil in the land that’s working to constantly corrupt Israel.

“Judges 3 says, [12] And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
[13] And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.
[14] So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
[15] But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
[16] But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.
[17] And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.

“Ehud is a left-handed man and he’s going to deliver Israel and God’s going to use him and his cunning and his wisdom, even in his weakness of being left-handed, to deliver Israel.

“The result of all this is there are many things in the Book of Judges that, doctrinally and dispensationally, are prophetic pictures. Eglon here is a type of the Antichrist. By the way, Eglon was a very fat man.

"Job 15:27, a reference to the Antichrist, talks about his being a fat fellow. The Antichrist is going to be about 40 pounds overweight when he shows up. That’s some of those little ditties you find scattered around in the Word of God.

“From Zechariah 11:17 the indication is when the Antichrist is hit with that sword over there it’s going to be a left-handed man that hits him. You’ve got a picture of it back here in Judges 3:
[20] And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.
[23] Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them.
[24] When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.
[25] And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.

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You’re in a pretty sad shape in Israel when you’ve got women running them. Deborah’s appointment demonstrates the spiritual condition they’d gotten into, because God had given them leadership positions but they weren’t taking them up.

“That verse over in Isaiah 3 about, ‘Woe unto you when women are your rulers,’ is not a put down of women; that’s saying the men aren’t doing their job and they aren’t being who they ought to be.

“God raises up this woman, what Peter calls the weaker vessel. And every one of these judges, as I Cor 1 says, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: ‘But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.’

“You’ll see these judges will be weak, insignificant, out of place kind of folks and repeatedly you’ll see that through the Book of Judges. It isn’t the people; it’s God using these guys and doing what He’s doing.

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“You see Sisera is one of the main types of the Antichrist in the Bible. Do you know where the battle’s going to take place in Megiddo? The Battle of Armageddon is where that’s at. The armies of heaven are going to come down and fight there.

“And Isaiah says the Lord flying is going to pass over like a bird flies. That stuff back there in Samuel where David here’s the goings on the top of the mulberry trees, all that stuff Isaiah 28 says, is what’s going to take place over there at that valley of Megiddo at the Battle of Armageddon.

“What happens over there in the tribulation is really just the culmination at one point, being brought to a head, of what the battle’s been from the beginning back there when God brings Israel into the land.

“In Judges 9 is a parable given by Jotham that’s about Abimelech and his winding up as a ruler over Israel. You’ll remember Gerizim from Deuteronomy 28 and the connection between Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26.

“There are four trees in this passage that are pictures of the nation Israel and they represent different aspects of the life of Israel. You’ll see the trees here fail to take up their responsibility of ruling over the other trees (other nations).

“All the nations of the earth in the parable here come and say to the nation Israel, ‘As an olive tree reign over us.’ It’s as if those the Gentiles come to Israel and said, ‘Come and reign over us like God created you to do.’ What does the olive tree say? ‘Shall I leave my fatness wherewith by me they honor God and man and go to be promoted over the trees?’

“The olive tree says, ‘No, I’m not going to go. I’ve got mine! Look how wonderful I am. I’m not going.’ The olive tree is a type of the spiritual life of the nation Israel. It’s a type of the covenant, the position of covenant blessing. It’s a type of being on the right side of the middle wall of partition and being the nation that is near to God.

“All of the other nations are separated. ‘What nation is it that hath God so near unto them?’ For example, when Solomon builds the temple, the door into the holy place, into the presence of God in there, you know what he made it out of? Olive wood.

“Because an olive tree to Israel represents access. The olive tree represents this special set apart access that Israel has. No other nation has it and they have it. Here’s this position of spiritual privilege and they fail with it. So then the trees go to the fig tree. . .”