Dress rehearsals

The five titles in Scripture--Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace--are not just written for Christmas cards. They describe how the Davidic Covenant is going to be put into effect.

“Wonderful means He’s the Redeemer; counselor means He’s going to be the Deliverer and give them counsel as to how to be delivered from the enemy,” explains Jordan. “The reference to Mighty God, over and over in Scripture, is to God coming and destroying His enemy and the word used in the Psalms for that is ‘vengeance’ and ‘avenging.’

“When you read about the ‘avenging of Israel,’ that’s what takes place at the Cross. But He’s also going to be Israel’s deliverer in the tribulation. When you deliver someone, if you leave their enemy intact, they’re still vulnerable.    

“To deliver them is to rescue them, but you don’t really fully deliver somebody until you completely wipe out their enemies, and what He’s going to do in the tribulation and at the Second Advent is He’s going to deliver redeemed Israel into the kingdom and then He’s going to completely destroy all of their enemies.

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“If you want to understand the covenant God made with David, Psalm 89, in one long 52-verse explanation, lays out the essence of that covenant.

“You notice it’s called a ‘mishal of Ethan.’ You probably don’t remember Ethan. He’s not a guy that we think about every day.

“But if you go back to I Kings 4:30, when you read about Solomon being the wisest man in the earth, and God gave Solomon all this wisdom, it tells you in the next verse that he was ‘wiser than Ethan.’

“Ethan was recognized in Israel as a scholar. He was a wise man. When you look at Solomon and his wisdom, and they would say he’s ‘smarter than Ethan,’ that tells you Ethan was a smart guy. He understood what God was doing and he was associated with King David and with his son Solomon.

“When you see that term ‘mishal’ over the heading of a psalm, it means it’s a song of instruction, a song of teaching. It’s designed to bring understanding and doctrine and teaching and edification for Israel. Most of the times we think of the Psalms as just devotional books and ditties.

“The Davidic covenant focuses on the Messiah who’s going to redeem the nation Israel and establish the throne; the government in Israel. So when you think about the Abrahamic Covenant, that’s the underlying covenant that gives the nation and the land and the blessing of God to Israel and through Israel to the nations.

“But the Davidic covenant focuses on the kingdom issue in Israel. Verse 22 says, ‘The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.’

“He’s going to extend David’s reign from the Mediterranean all the way over to the Euphrates River. The whole land mass that God promised Abraham; David is the one who’s going to rule the whole thing.

“Verse 26 goes on, ‘He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
[27] Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.’

“Now that’s the great promise, but here comes the problem: ‘If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
[31] If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
[32] Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.’

“That’s where you are in Hosea. That’s what they’ve done. God’s going to chasten them and send them out among the Gentiles and treat them the way they desire to be treated—that is, like any other nation.

“When He restores them it’s not going to be because of them; it’s going to be because of the covenant that He made. He gave His Word. God is not through with Israel.

“What these Minor Prophets are detailing is, ‘Here are the issues and these things look especially to the Last Days.’

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“We studied how that fifth course of judgment is laid out in Daniel through those 70 weeks. And he tells you there’s a beginning phase of it and there are several other phases that come along, and then there’s that final 70^th week. And that 70^th week is going to be sort of like a parallel to the first installment; the first beginning of the thing. The ‘day of the Lord’s wrath’ begins with the captivity.

“Then the ‘great and notable day of the Lord’ is over there at the end. So the whole period of the captivity is His wrath, His rod, His indignation on them. But that Last Day is when the thing comes to a fulfillment.

“The fury at the beginning is a picture of how the fury at the end looks, so when Hosea talks about this stuff, he’ll be talking about what the Syrians and the Babylonians are going to do to the northern kingdom and to Judah, but when you begin to read that you begin to see that the Assyrian that comes in and takes the northern kingdom is really a type of the Antichrist that attacks Israel in the Last Days.

“So there’s a parallel going on here and that’s why these things are so important for Israel in the Last Days, because they’re not simply explaining WHY these things are happening, they’re explaining WHAT’s going to happen to them.

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“Hosea 5:8 says, ‘Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin.’ Now that’s really a strange reference to Benjamin. Hosea is basically talking to the northern kingdom, but Benjamin and Judah are the two tribes in the southern kingdom.

“What he’s doing here is he’s calling them to, ‘Fight! There’s a battle coming! The enemy’s coming in!’ But then he says, ‘Cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee.’ In other words, they’re literally crying for Benjamin to lead them!

“I tell you, if you read what the preachers say about this passage, they have no idea what he’s talking about. Commentaries aren’t much help for you in it either. What they wind up doing is just changing it to make it say something else.

“The cross reference is back in Judges 5, where you have the issue of Deborah being the judge in Israel.

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“Israel had gotten to the position where in the Book of Judges you have some very strange people come and deliver Israel. When I say strange, I mean unusual. Out of the ordinary. In one place there’s a left-handed man. In scripture, you think of the right hand as the hand of power.

“What you see in Judges is God, again and again and again, use people you don’t expect. It’s a great illustration of what Paul says that He ‘uses the weak things to confound the mighty.’

“One of the people he uses is a lady named Deborah and she’s a great leader in Israel. She goes and helps Israel be delivered from Sisera and the Gentile bondage.

“Judges 5 is one of these interesting passages, where you see something happening back here and then you begin to realize, ‘That’s really a dress rehearsal for what’s going to happen over there in the future!’

“I’ve said to you many times, when you get over into the Minor Prophets, or even the major prophets  in Isaiah to Malachi, it will say, ‘When the Lord comes back in judgment over here against the Antichrist, it’s going to be LIKE this stuff back over here,’ and it will point back to Numbers, Judges, Exodus and Joshua.

“In other words, this stuff back there is really dress rehearsals for what’s going to take place in the future. And you’ll see that in Judges 5: ‘Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,
[2] Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.’

“Judges 5:11 says, ‘They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.’

“You see that word ‘rehearse’ in there? This stuff going back here is a rehearsal of what’s going to happen in the future. So there’s a connection here.

“Verses 12-14 says, ‘Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.
[13] Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.
[14] Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.’

“You see that phrase ‘lead thy captivity captive’? That verse is picked up in Psalm 68 and then Paul quotes it in Ephesians 4 about ‘when Christ ascended on high he led captivity captive.’

“What that’s talking about is going out and taking the people who once held you captive--you go out and whip them, take them captive and lead them off! Israel’s going to be delivered.

“When it says, ‘he made him that remaineth have dominion over the nobles among the people,’ that’s what leading thy captivity captive means. You now have dominion over them.

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“You see where he says, ‘after thee, Benjamin’? God roots out Amalek, Israel’s enemy and a type of the flesh.

“What he’s saying is Benjamin is going to lead them in delivering Israel. You know the tribe of Benjamin is the toughest tribe in Israel when you come to fighting.

“You remember Benjamin back in Genesis. Joseph’s in Egypt and his brothers come and they want food and eventually he says, ‘When you come back, you can’t have anything unless you bring Benjamin.’ Without Benjamin there was no hope for Israel.

“When you come over to Hosea 5, this little oddball kind of unexpected reference to Benjamin is reminding you that what’s going on here isn’t just the Assyrian captivity; this is something that’s a rehearsal for something out there in the future that’s coming when the battle cry is going to be that Benjamin is going to lead the way for Israel.”