Sermons - Cornerstone Christian Fellowship

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Thirty Three

Jul 24, 2022 by: John Herbert | Series: Passover to Tabernacles

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Ju 19:27 When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.

Today we will continue to look at the two women seen in this Chapter of Judges, the Harlot wife and the virgin daughter.

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Sunday July 24th 2022
Passover to Tabernacles
Part 33

1). Ju 19:27 When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.

We had seen last week a very graphic account in the Book of Judges concerning a Levite and his harlot wife. And we had come to see that this account forms a type for what awaits unfaithful, unrepentant Israel, who God calls the ‘great harlot’ in the Book of the Revelation.
	a). The final verse in the Book Judges characterizes the behavior of the Jewish people throughout the time that followed Joshua’s death – 
Ju 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And their behavior, following Joshua’s death, is clearly stated - 
Ju 2:9 And they buried him [Joshua] within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. 11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

And God’s response to their behavior is also clearly stated – Ju 2:14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

‘Their enemies all around’, into whose hands God placed the Jewish people, were the very nations that they should have driven out from the land of promise, as God had commanded them to do. And because of  the Jewish people’s distress at the hands of those who plundered them they cried out to the Lord – Ju 2:16 Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.

In response to His people’s cry to Him, in the midst of their distress, the Lord raised up a Judge to deliver them from the hands of their oppressors. However, once they had been delivered and the judge had died, as we see from v17, they reverted to their previous behavior. And as a result, the Lord did exactly what He had done previously and a continuing cycle of sin, persecution, repentance, deliverance, and sin again became established.
	b). If there is one important thing we are going to take away from this, it is that Israel’s spiritual harlotry will not be tolerated and that the nation will be placed in the hands of the Gentile nations with whom she has entered into illicit liaisons, who will then persecute her until…..
	c). …….Until the Jewish people, because of their extreme distress, cry out to the God of their fathers in repentance. When they do God will send a deliverer, to deliver them from the hands of their enemies. This is exactly what is pictured for us through the foundation in Exodus.
	d). What we also saw last time, introduced in Chapter 13 of Judges, was the Jewish people placed in the hands of their enemies because of their spiritual harlotry for a complete period of time - Ju 13:1 Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

Forty, as we saw, is one of the Biblical numbers that signifies completeness, and so the Jewish people were delivered into the hands of the Philistines for a complete period of time.
	e). Another complete period of time is seen again later in Israel’s history through the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity, with seventy [7 X 10] being another Biblical number signifying completeness.
	f). And what we see through the Assyrian, and then the Babylonian captivity, is not only persecution at the hands of a Gentile nation, the world power of its day, over a complete period of time, but the Jewish people uprooted from the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, taken away from the land of their inheritance, with that inheritance given over to the Gentile nations under the god of this world. A removal from their land into captivity which began what Scripture calls, ‘the times of the Gentiles’ in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
	g). Neither the forty years in the hands of the Philistines nor the seventy years in the hands of the Babylonians brought a cry of national repentance from the Jewish people, but God has spoken of another complete period of time, of four hundred and ninety years, Daniel’s seventy weeks, at the end of which, a cry of repentance to the God of their fathers is guaranteed. And really it is during the final three and one-half years of the final seven years of Daniel’s seventieth week, that which we know as the Great Tribulation, when this will be accomplished.
	h). But before the cry of repentance is made, first must come the persecution at the hands of the last king of Babylon, the Antichrist. A persecution that will see an attempted genocide so horrific that the years of the Holocaust will pale by comparison. An attempted genocide that will see two-thirds of all Jews on the face of the earth killed in that three- and one-half-year period within the total of one-quarter of the earth’s population being destroyed during this same time – Mt 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

Re 6:8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

And it is the horrific death of two-thirds of all Jews which is graphically portrayed in the account of the Levite’s harlot wife in Judges Chapter 19. Unlike the cycle we saw in Judges though, Israel’s sin of spiritual harlotry will be so severely and completely dealt with that it will never be seen again. This is why the harlot wife in Judges 19 is found dead at the entrance to the man’s house. Just as she, being dead, could never enter the house, so Israel as the harlot can never enter the Kingdom as God’s wife. The great harlot must die, allowing the resurrected, cleansed, and restored nation to return to their land in a position of regality. And it is this Israel, resurrected, cleansed, and restored, who is pictured in the man’s virgin daughter, inside the house, in Judges 19. 
i). This transformation through persecution we had seen some time back through the type of Jacob wrestling with ‘a Man’ – Ge 32:24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” 28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Jacob having ‘struggled with God and men’ pictures the Jewish people during the Great Tribulation. They will struggle with God as He is the One who will give them into the hands of their enemies, and they will struggle with men having been placed in their enemies’ hands. Jacob, the man of the flesh, pictures the unfaithful, unrepentant nation, who as a result of wrestling with God and men during a time seen as ‘night’, emerges when the new day breaks no longer as Jacob but Israel, the prince who rules with God.
	j). All this remains yet future, but the very near future nonetheless, and the remnant of unrepentant Jews in the land we call Israel today, who we find pictured in the Levite’s harlot wife and Jacob, will be removed by the Antichrist at the mid-point of the tribulation, allowing that pictured through the events seen in Judges 19 and Genesis 32 to be brought to pass Lk 21:24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

At this point in time, all Christians will have been gone from the earth for approximately three-and-one-half years. And as we consider our impending removal into the heavens to the Lord’s Judgment Seat, which is so close you can almost touch it, we should reflect on this, that just as harlot Israel cannot enter the land of her inheritance but must experience death, so our old man, our soulical nature cannot receive the inheritance in the Kingdom of the heavens either but must experience death. And we have the choice to put the old man, our sin nature, to death now by denying ourselves and walking in the Spirit, choosing to be faithfully obedient to the Scriptures. Should we not do this however and continue to live our lives out of our old man, our sin nature, not caring about the Scriptures then only death awaits us at the Judgment Seat. Being separated from the purpose for our eternal salvation thereby having no life for the age to come. Instead of having the experience of joy inexpressible and full of glory, we will have an experience that is described figuratively as being in the outer darkness, cast into the lake of fire, cast into the furnace of fire, thrown into Gehenna, being hurt by  the second death - Ro 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

This is a serious business over which God will not compromise. Let’s not discover the truth of this the hard way, rather let’s make the right choices today, while it is still called today, for in every Christian’s life there is coming a day when there won’t be another tomorrow.

2). We have seen then that the harlot wife and the virgin daughter in Judges 19 represent the same Jewish nation, picturing that nation both before and after the unprecedented persecution that leads to repentance and restoration. And the Lord used two women again in this same way in the Book of Esther - Est 1:10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, 11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown, in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold. 12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command brought by his eunuchs; therefore the king was furious, and his anger burned within him.

Vashti is Ahasuerus’s queen but a disobedient queen who refused her husband’s command and refused to appear in the regality she possessed.
	a). In this respect Vashti and the Levite’s harlot wife from Judges 19 both picture disobedient and unfaithful Israel, who in Esther is presented as the one in possession of regal authority but who refused to appear as such.
	b). This is a very brief description in Esther of Israel’s centuries of unfaithfulness and disobedience but nothing else really needs to be said in this Book as this subject is dealt with extensively elsewhere in the OT – 
Eze 16:10 I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. 14 Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord GOD. 15 “But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. 16 You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. 17 You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them…………… 28 You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. 29 Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied. 30 “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

We will note the connection here with the description we read of Vashti. Esther though, is not a Book that focuses on Israel’s harlotry but rather focuses on Israel’s deliverance and exaltation in the Millennial Kingdom. And it is the delivered, restored and regal Israel who is seen in the other woman from this Book, Esther herself – Est 1:13 Then the king said to the wise men who understood the times (for this was the king's manner toward all who knew law and justice, 14 those closest to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who had access to the king's presence, and who ranked highest in the kingdom): 15 “What shall we do to Queen Vashti, according to law, because she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus brought to her by the eunuchs?” 16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes: “Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king, but also all the princes, and all the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. 17 For the queen's behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes, when they report, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not come.’ 18 This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media will say to all the king's officials that they have heard of the behavior of the queen. Thus there will be excessive contempt and wrath. 19 If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it will not be altered, that Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

Vashti, representing unfaithful, unrepentant Israel, the Levite’s harlot wife from Judges 19 and the man of the flesh, Jacob from Genesis 32, is rejected, she shall come no more before the king [the Levite’s harlot wife dead on the threshold of the man’s house. No longer to be called Jacob]. Instead, her royal position will be given to another who is better than she. And who will be better than unfaithful, unrepentant Israel? Faithful, repentant Israel, cleansed in the fires of affliction – Est 2:16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king made a great feast, the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of a king.

Est 5:1 Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, across from the king's house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house.

The two women seen in Judges 19, the harlot wife, and the virgin daughter, and the two women seen in the Book of Esther, the rejected Vashti and Esther loved more than all the other women, all picture the same thing; unfaithful, unrepentant Israel on the one hand and cleansed, delivered and restored Israel on the other, with the Book of Esther showing the fulfillment of the regal position that restored Israel will occupy in the Kingdom Age.
	c). And as these accounts all form OT prophecy, we could only expect to find the same truth seen in its fulfillment in the Book of the Revelation, as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is revealed – Re 12:1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

The ’woman’ in the ‘great sign’ that ‘appeared in heaven’ is the nation of Israel. And the timing of that seen here takes us to the mid-point in the tribulation and that which immediately precedes it.
	d). Figurative language is used throughout the description here, providing imagery that will of necessity take us back to OT foundational types.
	e). Perhaps the first thing we will notice is reference to the sun moon and twelve stars seen in relation to the woman – Ge 1:16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

In the very beginning of the foundation in Genesis Chapter 1, God introduced the sun, ‘the greater light’, and the moon, ‘the lesser light’ and ‘the stars also’. And all are seen in connection with rulership. If we continue onwards in Genesis to the account of the life of Joseph, we find this – Ge 37:9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”

Joseph is a type of Christ and that which is figuratively pictured here is the coming of the Day of His greatest regal magnificence when not only will His brothers according to the flesh, the Jewish people, bow down to Him, but all rule and power will belong to Him. We might remember this description from  - Mt 17:1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

And remember how the Lord is described in the presence of all Christians at His Judgment Seat – Re 1:16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

And then in connection with the opening of the seventh seal on the seven sealed scroll, when ‘the mystery of God would be finished’, we see a mighty angel – Re 10:1 I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

All then has an inextricable connection with rulership and governmental powers. If we go back to the woman in Revelation Chapter 12, we see that she is described as, ‘clothed with the sun.’ This shows, that in relation to the earth, it is this woman, Israel, who is to exercise regal governmental authority over the nations of the earth during the Millennial Kingdom, regal authority just as we saw with Esther. It is Israel who will be the primary nation upon the earth, in fulfillment of that which God had proclaimed to Pharaoh – Ex 4:22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.

The moon, the lesser light, under the woman’s feet shows her regal position over all the other nations of the earth. And continuing the picture of regality, we see that the woman has on her head a crown of twelve stars.
	f). Twelve is the Biblical number for government, governmental authority, which the woman possesses. One thing to note though, the crown on her head is a translation of the Greek word ‘stephanos’, which we will remember is the name given to the crown worn by someone to whom regal authority belongs but who is not at the time exercising that authority. So, this is the woman in the position of a crowned ruler but not yet ruling.
	g). And given what else we see in the verses we read from Revelation Chapter 12, the birth of the ‘male child’ who is the one-hundred and forty-four-thousand Jewish evangelists, who are then caught up into heaven, and the woman fleeing into ‘the wilderness’, for three and one-half years, we will realize that this description of Israel’s regal authority is given before the events of the Great Tribulation take place.
	h). Israel is described in this way before her harlotry is destroyed, in anticipation of what is to come, and we have already seen this through the virgin daughter in the man’s house in Judges 19 being present at the same time as the Levite’s harlot wife is abused and killed. And again, through Esther who became queen before the time in which Haman tried to annihilate the Jewish people.
	i). And because of that recorded in Judges and Esther, another woman is inevitably found in – Re 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

She will have to wait until next time though, if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Thirty Three

Refresh A Recap from the Sermon

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Thirty Three

Jul 24, 2022

Speaker: John Herbert

Series: Passover to Tabernacles

Category: Sunday Morning

Refresh
A Recap from the Sermon