Over and over and over

Judges 3:7-9 says, “ And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
[8] Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years.
[9] And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.”

Jordan explains, “The cycle is they sin, they’re chastened, they cry to the Lord, they confess their problem and then God restores them just like Leviticus 26 says they could do. And they do it over and over and over.

“So He chastens them and puts them under servitude to this Gentile king of Mesopotamia. Then you get this deliverer. Verse 10 says, ‘And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim.’

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

“Verse 12 says, ‘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.’ So after 40 years what do they do? They raise up a generation. You understand how that works?

“You learn the lesson, you live in the lesson, but you don’t pass the lesson along to the next generation. You go another 40 years and a new generation comes on the scene and you haven’t passed the lesson on to them and what do they do? You notice they don’t naturally serve the Lord. They naturally go out and serve the flesh and the religious system.”

*****

Judges 3: 13-17 reads, “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.”

Jordan explains, “There is this satanic policy of evil in the land there that’s working to constantly corrupt Israel and the Lord strengthened Eglon.

“Ehud is a left-handed man and he’s going to deliver Israel and God is going to use him and his cunning and his wisdom, even in his weakness of being the left-handed man, to deliver the nation Israel and the process by which it’s done. God begins to restore them.

“Verse 16 reminds me to say that as you go through the Book of Judges, while God is teaching Israel these lessons, there’s conflict in Judges between the satanic policy of evil to corrupt Israel and God putting Israel through these lessons to teach them not to go after other gods.

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

"Job 27, another reference to the Antichrist, talks about him 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.

“You remember back in Zechariah 11 that the Antichrist is going to be wounded with a sword. Verse 11:17 says, ‘Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.’

“If you’re going to whack somebody and you’re going to get his right eye, a right-handed fellow would swing at you and come across this way, but a left-handed guy would swing at you this way. The indication is, and this is how you learn things in your Bible, that when the Antichrist is hit with that sword, it’s going to be a left-handed man that hits him and wounds him with that wound unto death.

*****

“During reign of Deborah, you see Cisera is one of the main types of the Antichrist in the bible. You notice as you go down through chapter 5 and the battle, verse 4-5 says, ‘LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water (that’s the route of the Second Advent in Isaiah 63). The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel (that didn’t happen in Exodus—that’s something that’s going to happen out in the future).’

Judges 9 is a parable given by Jotham about Abimelek and his winding up as a ruler over Israel. Verses 9:7-9 read, ‘And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.[8] The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.
[9] But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?’

“You’re going to see four trees in this passage that are pictures of the nation Israel. 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 (i.e., the other nations). All the nations of the earth, in the parable, come and say to the nation Israel, ‘As an olive tree, reign over us.’ It’s as though the Gentiles come to Israel and say, ‘Come and reign over us like God created you to do.’ What does the olive tree say? ‘Shall I leave my fatness?’

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

“All the other nations are separated. For example, when Solomon builds the temple, the door into the holy place, into the presence of God in there--you know what they made it out of? Olive wood. Because that olive tree to Israel represents access. It represents the special set apart access; no
other nation has it.

“Here’s this position of spiritual privilege and they fail with it. So then the trees go over to the fig tree. The fig tree represents the religious life of the nation Israel. The vine represents the Israel as a nation; the national life. The vine tree won’t go either.

“The bramble tree represents Israel in idolatry; Israel under the curse. It represents Israel under the reign of the Antichrist. What you’re seeing is a picture prophetically of the future; historically of the satanic policy of evil of seeking to corrupt them at every point.

"What Satan’s policy wanted to do is to take Israel and destroy her in every area that God had established the nation for. They were to be His prophets, His priests and His kings and Satan’s going to destroy them in every capacity.”