Clough Judges Lesson 11

The Kingdom of God - Judges 10:1-5

 

Tonight we’re only going to cover Judges 10:1-5 but we’re going to go back and deal with this whole problem of kingship.  I’m going to be in the process of showing you some pictures.  In the first five judges we have several judges mentioned.  This continues the theme of this book, and it’s the theme of this book that I want to illustrate tonight with some Egyptian art.  The reason I want to do this is because to understand the problem of kingship, the rise of what was known in history as the Pharaoh’s dynasties, and to understand how this applies to the believer today.  Plus the fact that the whole problem of kingship and judgeship will last to the end of this book as we speed up and go through the rest of Judges, Samuel and Kings.  So now is a good time to get firm in your mind just what is going on in history, particularly with respect to Egypt and as the chapters go on and we get into it more and more I will give you more background on Baalism and this religion and what this was so you can see what the issues were.  Up to now you may have thought because of the way I’ve selected the illustrations that the problem of Judges is just one of centralized power as we understand centralized power. 

 

The problem throughout history and politics is whether you have individualism or collectivism and treated from a non-Christian position those are the only two options.  So the pendulum of power oscillates between the individual and between the group, so you have collectivism and you have individualism.  But that’s not quite the way to put this book in its proper perspective because a lot more was involved than just simply a power swing from individualism to collectivism.  The book of Judges deals with the first historical analysis ever done in recorded history.  The book of Judges records in two levels the problem of society.  The first section of this book in which we are working deals with the analysis of society from the standpoint of the aristocracy.  Every society, I don’t care what kind of an idealist you have been talking to, there’s no such thing as a society were everyone is equal.  There is always a society where you have people who excel and then you have people, a certain percent, who are naturally clods.  This has always been and always will be. 

 

This is a fallacy, for example, of socialism.  This is why, for example, when the government wants to nationalize the schools as they will some day because they don’t like it when one district is better than another one.  And obviously the solution is going to be make them all lousy.  This is always how socialism works, reduce everything so that everything is in common; you never can bring a group up to a higher level but you can lower those who excel down to a lower level.  And so a socialistic regime will always destroy initiative, they will always destroy the intelligent people and they will always suppress the right and the freedom of the individual to excel.  And so today we operate under that kind of a situation.  It’s a theme that runs throughout this book. 

 

The judges were the aristocracy; they were people who were leaders in this society.  An interesting thing about the book of Judges, it’s has very profound doctrine in it, too bad that a lot of it seems to be mundane as you read through it verse by verse.  But you can read this through and I would advise you as you get to the point where it seems dull, to take a new translation and just use it to read through this book quickly and then meditate upon the wholeness of the book rather than the details of the book so that you see the overall argument of the book.  The book of Judges is very, very critical to develop a Christian concept of politics, state and law.  And for that reason I think you’ll be highly benefited by a study of this book.

We have said over and over that the interesting thing about Israel is that they did not have a king.  This book’s argument is that if you have a decrepit society, spiritually speaking, you must always lose freedom.  Freedom is inversely proportional to spirituality.  You can write this down and if you’re mathematically minded and want to write it in an equation you can put freedom in the enumerator and put spirituality in the denominator or the fraction and make it equality to a K, a constant.  This is one way of saying that it’s inversely proportional.  If you increase freedom, the only way to increase freedom, if you write that as a fraction, since you’ve got a constant on the right side of the equation is to increase your denominator.  That’s the only way to do it.  And if you’re going to decrease your spirituality the only thing that that will result in is decreased freedom. 

 

This is why of the conservative political concerns today are off base because it never gets to the root of the problem, which is spirituality.  So we have a lot of people spending thousands of dollars, many man hours, trying to take care of the problem of decreased freedom in our society when the only thing that is going to solve it is evangelism on a person to person basis, plus follow-up with Bible doctrine.  That’s the only solution and until that solution is used the American freedom will continue to erode and be destroyed.  So this is a formula of just normal politics that you derive from this book.

 

In Judges 10:1-5 we have two more judges.  “And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah,” now Abimelech was the person who was the pseudo king.  He tried to take over as king of Israel before God’s ordained time.  There will be no king over Israel until 1 Samuel 8, that’s the changeover.  But until we get there no king is authorized.  So under this economy it is strictly up to God-given leaders out of the upper class.  By the way, less you get the wrong idea of what I mean upper class, I don’t mean wealthy people necessarily.  You can have a person with a lot of wealth, particularly a person that’s newly wealthy and they are low class all the way because they don’t have any culture, they don’t have any concepts, they don’t have any kind of framework to use the wealth with. 

 

So I’m not talking about economic upper and lower class, I’m just talking about genuine culture.  You can have an upper class in a nation like we did in 1776 and don’t fool yourself, the revolution of 1776 in this country was not a revolution of the common man.  It was a revolution conducted from start to finish by the aristocracy all the way, and these people knew what they were doing and they had political doctrines and they ideas and they were well thought out.  Today we do not have a large upper class.  We have gradually become all low class thanks to the boob tube and a few other things.  So basically today we are a nation without an upper class and it’s too bad, even though we may have individuals who are wealthy.

 

So these men, including Abimelech, was actually of upper class breed, and Abimelech was a man who came out of the family of Gideon and he had some good cultural background, he had some good Bible doctrine and yet he took advantage of the situation and was later killed.  And after him it says, “Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo,” now that doesn’t mean he’s a dud, Dodo was just a popular name in Hebrew and this was the man’s name, and Tola was his son.  Now we are not informed to what Tola did, it’s simply summarized in verse 2, he “judged Israel twenty-two years.”  The only principle we get out of this passage is that “Tola arose,” notice the verb in verse 1, he arose to defend Israel.  Notice he wasn’t drafted, like Abimelech, to defend Israel.  Notice he was not picked to defend Israel, he arose, and that is a testimony to a Biblical principle, that the moving of the Holy Spirit can be spotted by the fact He always produces a spontaneous thing.  In other words, you have people wanting to do various things.  This is why it’s been quite a battle here at Lubbock Bible Church for me to resist the trend to handpick people for jobs; I refuse to do it because my judgment is very, very fallible, and we’re just going to trust the Lord to raise up people in His own time and when he does, fine; if He doesn’t fine.  This is the principle right here, the people rushed and panicked and they wanted Abimelech to fill the slot and Abimelech was the wrong person and they wound up in deep trouble. 

 

So by waiting on the Lord, finally another man comes along, Tola, and he judges Israel 23 years, Judges 10:3, “and after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and he judges Isarel twenty two years.  [4] And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities,” now it’s not saying his sons were thirty asses, it says they rode thirty asses, and “they had thirty cities which are called Havothjair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.”  Now the point of making the remark about the asses is that the ass was kind of the jeep of the ancient world and it means that they had a certain minimum amount of wealth and they were able to express this wealth by the sign of possessions.  See, it simply means again this is upper class stock, these are not Johnny-come-lately’s, they are people, members of the upper class of Israel, and they were the ones that God used to lead the nation.  Judges 10:5, “And Jair died, and was buried in Kamon.” 

 

Now before we move any further in this book we’re going to go back and review kingship.  There are three ways of viewing history.  One is dispensationally.  Now these are things to get down because if you want an overview of the Bible this is how to get it.  There are various ways of getting an overview of Scripture; basically there are categories from Genesis to Revelation.  It doesn’t mean you have to memorize the whole Bible or anything else.  The Bible has a pattern to it and once you master the pattern you don’t have to be dependent on every little detail because the Bible has a well-defined pattern to it because history has a well-defined pattern to it. Dispensations are a way of looking at history from the standpoint of ages which are distinct from one another in the way God works.  So one way of looking at the Bible is to look at it as recording history in a series of ages and these ages are characterized by a different mode of operation.  God works differently in different ages.  And it will help you immensely if you will get under your belt the basic categories of time so when you read the Bible, a certain passage, and you see a promise there you can mentally place it in one of these categories in which it is supposed to be operating so you won’t misapply promises. 

 

The dispensations classically are seven.  We start with the dispensation of innocence.  This is Adam and Eve.  After the age of innocence we have the age of conscience; this begins with the fall and moves down to the next one, human government.  That moves down to the area where you have the tower of Babel and so on.  So you have three dispensations to start off, the dispensation is very short, that’s Genesis 2-3.  The dispensation of conscience begins in Genesis 3 and goes on down to the establishment of human government which is in Genesis 9.  Human government starts in Genesis 9 and then we have to make a qualification. 

 

These are the first three ages of history: the age of innocence, the age of conscience, the age of human government.  The age of innocence meaning there was no sin, there was perfect environ­ment; the age of conscience means that during that period of time God ruled through men’s conscience, He did not have a policeman on the corner.  The evidence of this is in Genesis 4 when Cain commits murder.  Notice what happens: God says no man is going to avenge this murder, so Cain received the mark, whatever the mark is he received the mark and he’s branded by God and that’s it but there is no policeman that comes around and executes capital punishment.  So during this era you had no government. 

 

Now this is a very practical application right here, we could stop and spend 2 or 3 hours on why this is such an important age to understand our society today.  Do you realize what the application of this dispensation of conscience means to a thinking Christian today?  It means that any movement of anarchy, of destruction of the government is trying to go back to the age of conscience and the age of conscience failed.  It failed on a global worldwide scale and resulted in the flood.  Why did it fail?  Because it had been historically shown that without government you have immediate, total and utter corruption of the human race.  You may think government is wrong; you haven’t seen anything until you see a situation where there is no government.  People act like animals where there is no government.  Watch what happens after a disaster; why does the National Guard have to be called in to a disaster scene.  Do you know why?  Have you ever been in a disaster scene?  You watch normally well-behaved people suddenly turn into wild animals, ignoring the wounded, ignoring the injured, just going after anything, stealing, looting, raping, and all the rest of it.  People turn into animals in this kind of a situation and this is why you have to declare martial law and bring in the National Guard because this is what happens.  So don’t think the government is bad as such; now there are bad governments but the principle is good.

 

So you have innocence, you have conscience, and then you have human government and human government was instituted with capital punishment, with all due apologies to all the bleeding hearts.  The basis of all human government is capital punishment.  Without capital punishment you have no basis whatever for government because the right to take life is the highest.  Now these three dispensations are Gentile dispensations.  In other words, during this time period, from Genesis to the end of human government the thing that is characterized is that you have the Gentiles doing it all; it’s a one-world operation.  There’s no emphasis on an elect nation or anything else, this is a whole framework of Gentile administration.  That’s the first three dispensations.

 

Then we have two more dispensations; the dispensation of promise and the dispensation of law.  The dispensation of promise begins in Genesis 12 and extends through Exodus 19.  The dispensation of law begins in Exodus 19 and extends down to Jesus Christ.  So you have two more dispensations, the dispensations of promise and law.  The promise and law dispensations have to do with the Jews.  So during this era of history you have the Jew as the center of focus of God’s Word.  By the way, if you understand this you’ll see why the Law does not apply to the Christian today.  This is why we do not tithe, we do not observe the Sabbath, we don’t do anything that is commanded by the Mosaic Law in that sense.  Now some of the commands of the Mosaic Law are later taken over into the New Testament, and we do obey those.  But the Law as a system we do not obey, simply because we do not live in that dispensation.

 

Then we have the so-called dispensation of grace.  It doesn’t mean that this is the only age where grace has existed but that’s just the label for it.  And this is the Church.  So we have these three dispensations grouped: innocence, conscience, human government under the Gentiles.  We have these two dispensations grouped: the age of promise and the age of the law and that is grouped with the label, Jews.  Then we have a sixth dispensation, the dispensation of grace, in which the key actor is the Church.  And then finally the last dispensation is the dispensation of the kingdom and that’s the millennial kingdom and that is established when Christ returns and lasts one thousand years; one thousand years of perfect environment. 

 

That’s the dispensational way of looking at history but there’s another way of looking at history and it’s that way that I want to specialize in tonight.  Another way of tracing the Bible and putting it all together, so to speak, in a framework, is to trace a theme called the kingdom of God.  Now this is a theme that you will encounter in the Bible.  What can we say about the kingdom of God theme?  This, unlike dispensations, dispensations looks at the different administrations.  That’s bona fide.  But I’m going to switch around a little bit and I’m going to take one theme and I’m going to chase that through history.  And the means of doing this will be to define what we mean by the “kingdom of God.” 

 

The kingdom of God has to do with human society and the social order.  Those are two ways or expressions that are very contemporary, very much 20th century, that you can use and recall if the kingdom of God seems abstruse to you, then fine, use the social order or human society.  So that is the concern with the kingdom of God.  Now let’s go back to the origin of the kingdom, the kingdom of God and let’s study the word for a moment because there re two concepts of kingdom in God’s Word. 

 

First turn to 1 Chronicles 29:11, this is Solomon’s great prayer and I’m going to give you two sets of verses that appear to conflict because when we deal with the kingdom of God we’ve got to come to a definition.  So that’s what I’m working toward; I’m working toward a definition but I’m going to have to take you through a few verses to get the definition.  So let’s look at and work with this problem of kingdom for a moment. 

 

In 1 Chronicles 29:11 it says, “This, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory,” by the way, that verse should seem familiar to you.  Do you know where else that occurs?  The Lord’s Prayer, and you realize that in the original New Testament that was never there.  That was an addition made in some of the poorer texts and when you have recited the Lord’s Prayer and you’ve concluded it you’ve just recited a textual tradition but in the original it didn’t have that, that has been brought over from 1 Chronicles 29:11, “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty;” notice this, “for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine.  Thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and Thou art exalted as head above all.”  So we pick up the concept that the kingdom of God is universal, or put another way, this is the kingdom of God as God is the Creator.  That’s one way the word “kingdom” is used in the Bible.  It’s simply an expression for the sovereignty of God.  “Thine is the kingdom,” all things are Thine and Thine is the kingdom.”  And this kingdom is kingdom without end, kingdom without beginning in the sense that it always was there from the moment of creation.  That’s one way it was used.

 

Another reference, Psalm 145:13, please be attentive to these points that I’m bringing out in this word “kingdom” tonight or you’re going to miss the point of these art things that I’ve prepared from the different arts.  Just load with your mind with this concept, “the kingdom,” and then get it blown when you see the Egyptian concept.  Notice what Psalm 145:13 says, “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures throughout all generations.”  So like the previous verse this teaches the kingdom of God as Creator is universal, over all, unchanging forever. 

 

But there’s another way to look on the kingdom.  For that turn to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:10, this is a second way to view kingdom.  This is a petition and it says, may “Thy kingdom come.”  Now do you see a little conflict there with what I just said?  If God’s kingdom is universal, unchanging, always was and ever shall be, why in the Lord’s Prayer do we pray for “Thy kingdom” to come?  See, it follows in the rest of verse 10.  That petition is amplified in the Lord’s Prayer as “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”  So the reason why the kingdom here apparently is not yet but still future is because God’s will is not yet being done in history. 

 

So here we have a second meaning to the word “kingdom of God.”  And that is it is a coming kingdom and it is looked upon as God as the redeemer.  The first one God is the Creator; the second one, God is the redeemer.  When it views God as the Creator His kingdom is always there but when it views God as redeemer the kingdom is yet future because evil has yet to be eliminated.  The first concept that I’ve given, the kingdom of God is created, includes both good and evil; Daniel says in Daniel 2:19 that all the nations rise and fall at the command of God; God is in charge of both good and evil, so good and evil exist in His first kingdom concept, the universal kingdom.  But the second use of the word kingdom excludes evil because it says may “thy kingdom come,” O Lord, and by that I mean may “Thy will be done,” and so obviously the second use of the word “kingdom” in the Bible excludes evil. 

 

We have another reference to kingdom in this sense, turn to Acts 1:6 for one of the questions that the disciples asked the Lord Jesus Christ before He left.  “When they, therefore, were come together they asked of Him, saying, Lord, will Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel.”  Now that must imply that the kingdom was one day existing, it was taken away and will someday again be restored because restore means that it was once there, it is not now there, and one day will be there again.  So in Acts 1:6 you have this peculiar feature of the kingdom; the kingdom was once in history, it’s no longer in history, but one day shall again be returned to history.  “May thy kingdom be restored to Israel,” notice it’s always restored through Israel.

 

Out of this we obtain a second category of the use of “kingdom,” the coming kingdom as contrasted to the universal kingdom.  And the coming kingdom is the kingdom that excludes evil, it is a salvation kingdom, it is a kingdom that involves three opposites; out of this second concept we have three offices.  We have a king, a priest, and a prophet.  Those three offices are always exercised in the coming kingdom; when God redeems these three functions occur.  First, the king, what is the king office concerned with?  Things of administration.  What does the priest do?  He brings the people on their sins before God; the priest represents the people before God.  The prophet represents God before the people.  So you have these three functions that are linked to this coming kingdom: a king, a priest and a prophet. 

 

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:24 and you’ll see what happens eventually to this coming kingdom.  These two ideas that are identified with the word “kingdom” in the Bible have led the new theologians to define the kingdom of God as something that’s always coming but never arrives.  You’d expect something like that from the new theology.  But nevertheless, this is the modern definition of the new theologian, that the kingdom of God is that which is always coming but never comes.  It’s paradoxical because they feel the kingdom of God is part and parcel of eternity, man lives in time, therefore you can’t get the time and eternity mixed and therefore the kingdom of God never happens but it’s always there.  It’s about ready to break in but it never quite makes it.  That’s the way the kingdom of God is used by the modern liberal clergyman; when he uses the kingdom that’s what he means.  That’s not what I mean, and that’s not what I’m talking about. 

 

I’m talking about the kingdom as it is presented in the Word of God and in 1 Corinthians 15:24, “Then comes the end,” this is the eternal state, the final, final, final end, “Then comes the end, when He,” Jesus Christ, “shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.  [25] For He must reign, until he has put all enemies under His feet.  [26] The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.  [27] For He has put all things under His feet.  But when He says all things are put under him, it is clear [manifest] that He is excepted who did put all things under Him,” namely the Father.  [28] “And when all things shall be subdued unto Christ, then shall the Son Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”  So these verses teach that the coming kingdom comes, it grows, it gradually wins out and when it finally and ultimately wins with Christ as the King, Priest and Prophet, when it finally wins it becomes the universal kingdom. 

 

Now you want to see the two ideas merge in the future.  Right now they’re different; right now we have the universal kingdom of God, Jesus Christ rules as the Son.  A question came up at Christmas time, how could Jesus rule when He was in infancy, when He was in the manger did the Baby Jesus run the universe?  Of course He did.  He’s the Son of God, that’s why, and His deity ruled the kingdom; always does, always has.  The universal kingdom is Christ as Son reigns in the universal kingdom.  But Christ as Messiah reigns over the saved kingdom or the coming kingdom.  That’s His kingdom.  In other words, the humanity of Jesus is identified with the second kingdom; the deity of Christ is identified with the first one. 

 

Now in the future the two coalesce because in the future Christ is able to bring all enemies under His feet.  This means, by the way, when it says all, it means hell, and it means that in eternity the ruler of hell will be Jesus Christ.  Now those of you who have sweet little pictures of Jesus holding a lamb, stroking it on the head, picking up these little dear children etc, and you have a very nice sentimental emotionalized version of Jesus, just remember Jesus loves but Jesus is also a just judge.  And He is going to be the head officer in hell for all eternity, so you figure it out.  And not only is He going to be the head officer over hell but there are going to be no riots in hell either; people will be orderly and they will be under a rulership of Christ; now it won’t be a pleasant rulership but it will be a rulership.  So Christ’s kingdom is expands in time, expands and expands and expands and expands and finally becomes out to the outer limits of the universe.  So the coming kingdom becomes the universal kingdom.  You have to see that the two ideas ultimately emerge.

 

Now why all this talk about the kingdom?  Because of the nature of the kingdom.  Turn back to the first time kingdom occurs in God’s Word.  Genesis 10:8-12 deals with the first time the kingdom appears in human history.  “And Cush begot Nimrod; he” Nimrod, “began to be a mighty one in the earth.  [9] He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; before whom it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before,” literally “against the LORD.”  Nimrod was an apostate.  [10] “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar,” that’s Mesopotamia.  [11] Out of that land he went forth strong,” Asshur is the word for strong, “and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, [12] And Resen between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city.”  So this is the rise of kingdom in history.  It was under a fierce individual in history that, as we shall see, apparently lives forever in the mythology of the world, they mysterious man, Nimrod.  His name apparently is derived from the Hebrew word revolt, and he is the head of a one-world government that incorporated various city-states.  Now don’t think these were large towns; the population around this time was less than 10,000 so he obviously didn’t have too many people in his kingdom.

 

The significance, however, of Nimrod is not the quantity of his kingdom; the significance of Nimrod’s kingdom is that it is globally comprehensive.  It included all men to that time, for in Genesis 11:1-9, another narrative on the same thing, the towel of Babel.  “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.  [2] And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.  [3] And they said one to another, let us make brick…” and so on, and they built this great tower as a memorial, the first United Nations building in history.  So we have this kingdom. 

 

Now what is the kingdom and why is this word used of the kingdom.  Kingdom comes about through a sin principle.  Let’s look at the sin principle.  What is the sin principle?  The sin principle is basically this, that man wants to sin but he doesn’t like the results of his sin.  He wants to sin but he doesn’t like the results of his sin.  What’s an illustration of this?  Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve sinned, or I should say Ish and Isha because Eve had not received the name of Evah because she was not the mother of all living at that time, she was known as Isha, but nevertheless, you have Adam and Eve, we’ll just use that term.  They both are naked and they realize they are naked.  This has implications about the human body which we don’t we want get involved with, but they know they are naked and their nakedness is a source of shame to them.  So they desire to cover up their nakedness.  What do they do?  They take fig leaves, sew them together and make clothes out of them to cover their nakedness.  Now let’s ask a question. 

 

Was it wrong for them to desire covering their nakedness?  No, because eventually what did God do?  He covered their nakedness, but how did God cover it and how was the mode of covering different from the mode that Adam used.  Adam used fig leaves which represents human works.  God used an animal.  Do you realize the first animal that was ever slain in history was slain to provide skins for man?  It’s in Genesis 3; God killed an animal and from that dead animal obtain skins which He then covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness.  And God provided the clothes, picturing that when we receive Christ what is our new clothes in Christ?  His imputed righteous­ness.  He provides our spiritual clothes; every man until he becomes a Christian is spiritually naked.  You didn’t know that non-Christian were nude, did you?  Well, this is basically the way it’s pictured in God’s Word—spiritual nudes and they need some clothes on and Christ, when they believe in Christ He gives them clothes.

 

Now this is a picture of a principle; man wants to get rid of the results of his and why he does is not bad but he does it by an illegitimate means.  So let’s look at this.  We have the results of sin; the results of sin have to be dealt with.  The problem is how do you deal with the results of sin?  You deal with the results of sin on a works basis or a grace basis.  There are two choices; the grace basis is God’s way; works basis is man’s way.  Works basis just perpetuate negative volition; grace is positive volition.  Works means that I insist on rebelling anyway and I am in deep water and I’m going to get in deeper water.  See, this is just a principle when people do something foolish, you find this in counseling very often, somebody steals or somebody does something stupid and then what happens?  They don’t like the results of it because they’re afraid they’re going to get caught and it’s natural to be afraid of the results of it, but instead of relaxing and stopping the negative volition at that point they just try it again and cover it up with another sin and the first thing you know you’ve got 20,000 sins tacked on to one another, it just goes on and on and on and on. 

 

Now this is the same thing that attended the rise of the kingdom here.  What was the situation of man at this time, in these verses?  Let’s use a little imagination.  What was the problem of man?  What does he say in Genesis 11:4, why do they want this power, this big memorial, “Let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth.”  Now what was on the face of the whole earth?  Part of what was on the face of the whole earth was wild animals multiplying like crazy, probably attacking man and so on.  This is why in the ancient art you always have the fierce animals portrayed.  Today they’re all extinct but nevertheless, then the animals because the generation was shorter than man were able to multiply faster than man.  So you have wild animals; you have geological disturbances because the earth is still recovering from the flood.  More than that you’ve got a problem of fractured society.  Why a fractured society?  Because you have some believers and some non-believers and when you have a group, a population that is struggling against great odds you can’t have people on your team that are going to double-cross you.  You’ve got to work as a team.  You’ve got to work as a team and if you don’t you’re dead.  Therefore they realized that they have to work together as a team and what was becoming more and more obvious by the third and fourth generation was that you had some negative, some positive and they were beginning to fracture that community.

 

So there were cracks in the society and they had the first social problems right there.  So they said look, we’ve got social problems and what we’re going to do with this is we’re going to design a perfect society and we are going to use the fourth divine institution to do it.  So we take the fourth divine institution, which is government; what was government given for?  To order to society?  Negative.  Government was simply given to judge moral evil; that was all.  But what these people want to do is to develop a perfect, and translated that means safe, society.  Safe from what?  Safe from the results of sin.  What are the results of sin?  Moral and physical evil.  So there are the results of sin.  Physical evil—geological disturbances, bad weather, crop failure, all these physical evils.  Moral evil—the problem of men and their struggle with each other and so on.  Physical evil would involve wild animals and so forth. 

 

So you’ve got the moral evil, you’ve got the physical evil, man has brought this on himself but he wants to get rid of it, he wants to be safe from it so he invents a system called perfect society.  To bring this perfect society about he prostitutes what was a bona fide institution which was government.  Government is not to bring about a perfect society because government was given because society was imperfect.  Government was given to restrain evil until He brings about perfect society, Christ.  So government was never given to bring about perfect society.  So immediately some of you who know welfare theories and so on can see what the implications are here.  Government was given to restrain evil until God brings about the perfect society.  But man couldn’t wait for that, so just as Adam picked up the fig leaves, the nearest thing he could grab that would solve his problem, these people picked up government, which was the nearest thing that could solve their problems and they began to build, not a government but a super government, a super government that would construct a perfect society, a society that would give them insulation from the wrath of God, and a society that would involve moral principles, ethical principles, would involve law, it would involve welfare, it would involve all the comforts that you could possibly get.  That is the word “kingdom.”  That is the connotation of the rise of kingdom in history. 

 

Now, does this tell you something, when that word “kingdom” is turned around and attached to God’s name?  What does it mean?  Let’s take the word, you’ve got the connotation.  Kingdom—perfect society.  Now God says I will bring the kingdom of God.  What does that imply?  It means a perfect society, doesn’t it?  What did God do to Adam?  He replaced his fig leaves with skin.  What is God going to do here?  He’s going to replace the Nimrod concept of kingdom with His concept of kingdom.  Was it wrong for the people in Nimrod’s day to want to do away with physical and moral evil?  No.  What was wrong then?  The way they were trying to do away with it.  God says you wait on Me and I’ll give you perfect government and when I get through the results of moral and physical evil will be finished, and I will cover you, man collectively, society, the whole social order, I will cover your nakedness as I covered Adam’s nakedness, but you’ll have to wait until I do it My way.  That is the kingdom of God. 

 

Now you can begin to see some political implications here.  You have two kingdoms existing in the thinking of men down through time.  You have the kingdom of man that is epitomized at the fountainhead of our present era by Nimrod, and every politician that has not been saturated with the Word of God is trying to bring about the kingdom of man.  He is trying not to use government as just a means of judging crime because what’s happening?  The more and more interest in welfare the less and less interest in crime.  And so you see, isn’t it ironic that in our day we have some of the most strongest anti-freedom government we’ve ever had and yet we have more crime, when government’s original, one purpose…one purpose was to stop crime, that was the only purpose of government as originally given, but now man twists government around and prostitutes it to get away from the results of his sin which he doesn’t want to stay with and instead of looking to God in grace to supply the need…, by the way notice, it’s legitimate to want to do away with social evil; it is legitimate to want to do away with physical evils expressed in our day by the ecological problems.  That is a legitimate desire, but what is wrong is how you are trying to do it and God says I am going to provide and I insist that I provide, not you man.  And so God fractures this kingdom of man early in history by breaking up the linguistic unity of man. 

 

So we have this fracture; notice the connection.  What is the historical origin of the word “kingdom?”  The origin in history is man trying to deal with the social effects of his sin on a racial wide basis, and so now when God says I will bring you the kingdom He means the same thing, the doctrine of premillennialism.  God’s salvation doesn’t stop with the individual; the word “kingdom of God” includes social solutions.  And so the kingdom of God will come, will come, future, and it will come God’s way.


Now, since Satan operates we have a struggle in history.  We have in the kingdom of God concept, summarizing, we have it in promissory form which would correspond to the dispensation of promise, from Abraham to Moses.  During that time the kingdom of God existed in one family.  Now let me show you something, why it’s important to see when the kingdom of God is function.  We’ll put K plus Theta; Theta is the Greek letter that starts of Theos for God, so when you see the symbol…[tape turns] … so you have K plus Theta, the kingdom of God and from Abraham to Moses it exists.  How does it exist?  What is the kingdom of God?  It includes protection against moral plus physical evil.  What did we just learn in Sunday School this morning?  Was it or was it not true than everywhere Abraham went he was blessed and the blessing included changing things in the physical environment.  Of course it did.  So you have, when the kingdom of God is functioning a miraculous thing happens in ecology.  So you have both a mythological and a social factor operating together.  Do you see the relevance, the extreme relevance of this for the 20th century man?  When the kingdom of God is actively functioning you have an ecological dimension and you have a social dimension operating. 

 

So it operated inside of one family from Abraham to Moses.  The second phase, from Moses to Ezekiel; during this time it operated in one nation.  It operated in the moral sphere, it operated in the physical sphere; the physical sphere included weather for crops, part of the legitimate kingdom of God, because what is the [can’t understand word] for the kingdom in the first place.  Why does man need the kingdom of God?  Because he has problems with the climate, he has problems with the weather; he has problems with his whole physical environment.  Why?  His own sin but nevertheless it’s the result of his sin, just like Adam had trouble with his nakedness, and he wants to do away with the results of his sin which includes the problems in the forces of the physical environment.  So, when the kingdom operates in the nation Israel you have climatic control, based, by the way, on national obedience.  When that nation was in obedience God would provide.  We know that He would adjust the climate and the rainfall in the nation so that they would have bumper crops toward the fifth and sixth years of the cycle, such that in the seventh year they could rest.  To do that, the only way that could have been done would be to bring on a cyclic thing in the climate to affect the agricultural production.  So when the kingdom of God is operating it shows up physically. 

 

We said it goes from Moses down to Ezekiel.  Why does it stop at Ezekiel?  The Shekinah glory leaves the temple.  And in 590 BC the kingdom of God left history and it was never seen again.  From this point forward Israel operates, and by the way, if you have some training in philosophy you will now understand why you do not have the development of logical rational philosophy until after 590 BC.  I think that it’s vitally related to the fact that the universe was not operating in a uniform way before 590 BC, it was operating in response to the nation Israel and once the universe became tuned out to just a routine, then man in his intellect figured he could understand it and so you have the rise of rationalism and so on, just a suggestion but I think it correlates nicely.

 

So you have the nation; you have the nation go out in the time of Ezekiel.  You come down to the time of Jesus.  Jesus announces, “the kingdom is at hand.”  He doesn’t say the kingdom has come, he says the kingdom is at hand, I am the King, if you will believe Me, then the kingdom can come now.  The kingdom was not yet, but the kingdom could come if the nation would receive Jesus as Messiah.  We know historically the nation rejected Jesus as Messiah and so in Acts 1:6 the apostles ask Jesus, Jesus, when you come will you…they ask Him at Pentecost, will You, when Your Holy Spirit comes, will You restore that kingdom back to Israel, because again the heart cry is to solve the problems of society, to solve the problem of the physical environment, to get rid of these results that we as mankind have brought upon ourselves.  And that’s legitimate.  But, Jesus never replied because the answer is no, the kingdom is not yet and will come when Christ returns and then the kingdom of God will function in history once again.  The kingdom of God operates today only in the sense that the individual heart receives Christ; that’s the limit.  The kingdom of God is not operating in its normalized function today during the Church Age.

 

What does all this have to do with the book of Judges?  The book of Judges is a struggle to make up for the sin of the people and to avoid a satanic counterfeit kingdom.  Now the satanic counter­feit kingdom was Nimrod.  And down through history nations, Gentile nations, have always tried to establish a counterfeit nation, that is a social order that would try, genuinely, to solve social problems.  Again, there’s nothing wrong with trying to solve social problems, there’s nothing wrong with trying to solve these physical problems in the environment.  What is wrong is how you are doing it, just as it was not wrong for Adam to desire to be clothed, the problem was, which set of clothes.  And so it’s the same with society, you have a social salvation by works or a social salvation by grace, two ways, but it is a genuine social salvation. 

 

Dr. Chafer has written about Satan’s organization and how this cosmos organization expresses itself in human society in these words; this is one of the greatest passages in all my study and I’ve studied this thing about ten years and I’ve never come across a passage that so succinctly summarizes it as Dr. Chafer did in his systematic theology, volume II, page 84.  The title of the section is The Cosmos is Wholly Evil, wholly evil, and he means the society here, the social structure is wholly evil.  Dr. Chafer writes:  This is indeed a hard saying.  Though it be true, it calls for elucidation.  Satan does not incorporate into his vast system certain things which are good in themselves.  Many humanitarian ideals, morals, and aspects of culture are consonant with spiritual realities, though resident in the cosmos.  The root evil in the cosmos is that in it there is an all-comprehensive order or system which is methodized on a basis of complete independence of God.” 

 

Notice what he is saying, that evilness of society is not the moral or the immoral, the evilness is the whole system; man declaring he wants to live socially and is a racial unit independent of God.  Nimrod built his tower and if you have artistic tendencies the way to paint the tower of Babel is one fist raised in the air because that expresses what the tower of Babel was, a fist to God.  We’re going to see how later on the Egyptians build their pyramids and say the same thing, we have our order and you can’t come to it.  The pyramid is a declaration of man’s works.  So down through history you have these defiant expressions in the architecture that defy God and so we will establish… were the pyramids good, sure, it was beautiful, beautiful mathematical form and a beautiful piece of architecture.  But it was wholly evil because it was shaking a fist in God’s face.  So that’s the way you have to view society, it’s not the independent evils and deeds in society, it’s the whole system of society that wishes to live independently of God. 

 

Chafer continues, “It is a manifestation of all that Satan can produce as a complete exhibition of that which enters into the original lie.  It is the consummating display of that which the creature … creature can produce,” that which the creature, not the Creature, “the creature can produce, having embarked on an autonomous career.  The cosmos is not a battleground whereon God is contending with Satan for supremacy; it is a thing which God has permitted, that the lie may have its fullest unveiling.  It is reasonable to suppose that the cosmos represents the supreme effort of the supreme creature, and that as it began with the repudiation of God, it has maintained its intended segregation from the will and purpose of God.  That things good in themselves are included in this great system is doubtless the occasion for many deceptions.  The fundamental truth “is, however, “that ‘whatsoever is not of faith is sin.’  (Romans 14:23; cf. Hebrews 11:6) is not recognized or believed in the cosmos.  The lie must run its course that it may be judged, not as a mere hypothesis or incipient venture, but in the complete and final exhibition of its antigod character.  It began with the repudiation of God by angel and man and maintains that distinctive trait until antichrist appears and is destroyed.  The Humanitarian enterprises, the culture, the laws, and religious forms of the cosmos constitute no evidence that God is recognized is His true position or honored.  This is a Christ-rejecting cosmos.  Its princes ‘crucified the Lord of glory.’” 

 

And what he is talking about here is not denying the existence of good in the cosmos; he is denying the overall structure of the cosmos.  Now if Satan is going to counterfeit he is obviously going to counterfeit by means of some system that will represent true righteousness.  We said that when Satan operates he always operates to try to encourage man to bring about that which man himself wants and desires.  Of course, in the history of mythology and down through history we have the role of man shown clearly, and the needs of man shown clearly in the promises of the Word of God.  One of the great promises of the Word of God is that man would receive a Savior and a great King, Priest and Prophet.

 

I am now going to illustrate the theme of the kingdom of man as they were expressed in Egyptian art forms.  I want you to notice how, when you see these things you will understand what the struggle is that’s going on here in the book of Judges.  This is not just a struggle between the Republicans and the Democrats; this is a struggle going on between the powers of Satan that have designed Egyptian culture and God who has designed Israel’s culture.  It is a total cultural collision, on every area.  And that’s the problem in Judges.

 

Let’s look at these, first let’s deal with the problem of Pharaoh.  What about the origin of Pharaoh?  Every time a Pharaoh ascended the throne they went through a thing called the mystery play of succession.  The mystery play of succession was a drama that had to be enacted before the Pharaoh could sit on his throne, and in this drama two gods fought, there was actually three gods.  One was called Osiris, the other god is Horus.  Horus is the son of Osiris, and another god is called Seth.  The two gods struggle, Seth and Horus.  The battle goes on, Seth hurts Horus, wounds him and so they divide up the land of Egypt, the myth goes, so that Seth takes the upper section, the southern section of Egypt is upper Egypt, they go by upper and lower by the way the Nile River goes.  So you go upstream in the Nile and up river even though you’re going south; so southern Egypt is Upper Egypt.  Then in the delta area where the Nile fans out, this is called Lower Egypt, it is that area that Horus took over.  But the myth goes that the earth-god decided to restore all of Egypt under the control of Horus and Seth was made the daddy-daddy and he just kind was always pictured as the thinker.  And Horus regained control over Egypt. 

 

So now you have the Pharaoh known as the Pharaoh of the two lands.  And everywhere Pharaoh’s throne would be taken there would be two thrones, Pharaoh would sit on one or Pharaoh would sit on the other depending on the ceremony, depending on the geographical location because the memory was equally ingrained that Egypt at one time had two parts but were united under Pharaoh.  Pharaoh, and this is the interesting thing, when he ascended this throne became Horus and the Pharaoh who had died was Osiris.  I don’t say they were incarnate; I say they were, pretty strong language, Pharaoh is Horus, and in the ceremony when he accepts the crown of Egypt he becomes the god-king Horus.  Pharaoh is not ruled by any law, Pharaoh is the law because Pharaoh is God. 

 

Now you’re going to see this reiterated in various ways.  Keep in mind what we know already in history.  We know the promise of the Messiah that comes through Eve.  We know there’s a legitimate crying out for an ordered society on the part of man, and so we find now Satan actually creating his society.  Let me show you evidences of this.  Here we have this figure lying in a casket; he represents the dead Pharaoh, this Pharaoh at this point in the ceremony becomes Osiris, and his son, Horus is pictured in Egypt art as a hawk or a falcon.  On top we have Isis; Isis is the wife of and sister of Osiris in the myth.  Now Isis and Horus have intercourse and this falcon is pictured as Isis and she is going to begat Horus.  Horus is pictured in many cases like this, this is a human body and you can see he has a hawk’s head or a falcon’s beak here. 

 

One thing you want to understand about Egyptian art, Egyptians didn’t believe that something like that literally existed.  You’re reading the art wrong; this art is to be looked up on as a diagram or a poster.  For example, the nearest thing I can say would illustrate this would be if you opened your newspaper you’d see the political cartoons; often times the man is pictured as half-gorilla or something if they want to make fun of him, and this is the way it is.  Think of it as a cartoon and so they are saying that here is Horus, he is wearing Pharaoh’s head gear but he has the face of a falcon.  And the falcon is Horus.  So this declares that Isis and Osiris begat their son, Horus.  So Horus becomes the son of Osiris is this ritual.  And every Pharaoh, when he ascended the throne was identified with Horus; the priest would conduct this elaborate ceremony and when they got through crowning the man, the man would be Horus and he would be addressed from that time, as Pharaoh, king of the two lands and son of Osiris, Horus your majesty.  And Pharaoh was god. 

 

Now this should change some of your thinking about these little innocent trips down to Egypt that are going on here in the Bible.  This is the kind of society that Egypt was.  Now who are Osiris and Horus?  They were past kings, according to Egyptian tradition, who lived a long time ago and the King Osiris actually died, he was a literal king, he died and Horus died and they became gods.  But I would suggest that the falcon is a clue to the true nature of Osiris and Horus.  Let’s look at this a moment.  Horus, the word, means hidden one; it doesn’t mean falcon, and yet he is always represented by the falcon.  What is a falcon?  A falcon is a bird used in hunting; who do you know that has existed in past history as a hunter?  Nimrod.  Nimrod has definitely been identified as Marduk, who was the god in Babylon who answers to Horus.  There are a lot of similarities going on between the Babylonian god Marduk and what he does and Horus and what he does down in Egypt.

 

So I would suggest to you that Osiris and Horus are actually nothing but Nimrod symbols that have come down, they’re actually representative.  If this is so and I just tentatively suggest it, this certainly shows you what’s on their mind, doesn’t it.  What is the thing identified with Nimrod?  Kingdom!  And so therefore they trace their kingship and every coronation of the king reenacts the Nimrodian myth that here we have kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom.  Now this isn’t too consequential but let me go on and present more evidence.

 

I’m reading from a book, a very excellent study on it by Professor Frankfort, University of Chicago called The Kingship and the Gods.  On page 131 Dr. Frankfort says this and he’s dealing with this problem of the coronation of Pharaoh, and here’s actually a part of the coronation ceremony, fortunately somebody recovered this from papyri and we now have what went on.  This is actually funny, it was a script for a play and it has do such and such, do such and such, Pharaoh …. and what he says and the priest who represents Horus, what he says, and after Pharaoh receives his crown and became identified as Horus here’s what was addressed to Pharaoh.  “Take now thine eye,” the eye was the part of Horus that had been damaged by Set, “Take now thine eye, hold to thy face; place it well in thy face, thine eye shall not sadden with sadness; take now the fragrance of the gods” and the priests would scent him, they’d pour perfume all over Pharaoh at this point in the ceremony.  “That which came, which has come out of thyself,” at this point the crown and feathers are placed upon the king.  “Scent thy faith with it so that thou art fragrant through and through and thou art great, the eye of Horus the son of Horus,” and so at this point Pharaoh becomes Horus. 

 

But there’s another symbol that I want to deal with that has to do with Pharaoh and that is how this Horus symbol is tied to the son, and it’s tied to Pharaoh.  First let me show you, here’s a statute of Pharaoh and you can see Horus, pictured here as a falcon with his wings around Pharaoh.  This is some way Pharaoh obtains his support and Pharaoh’s power is clearly the power of Horus, portrayed here by the falcon.  Why the falcon?  It has nothing to do with the name “Horus.”  It must have something to do with that ancient Horus script, maybe it was Nimrod who set up the kingdom.  But Pharaoh had another name besides the son of Horus which would be depicted by this piece of art.  This is actually a statue with this falcon embracing Pharaoh. 

 

Pharaoh had another name that is very intriguing.  He was called the son of Hathor.  Now this is intriguing because he wasn’t the son of Hathor was he?  Didn’t we say that in Osiris’ myth it was Isis; Isis was the woman who conceived and brought forth Horus, the god, but when it spoke of Pharaoh, he had another title, son of Hathor.  Hathor has absolutely nothing to do with Osiris, in fact, Hathor is a woman who has nothing to do with any man; in fact her name means the house of Horus, or the mother of god.  Does that sound familiar?  That’s what her name was; Pharaoh, thou art glorious in the mother of God, and they would say this.  Now where did this creep into mythology?  Isn’t this a reflection of the Genesis 3:15 motif coming over into the ceremony?  The Pharaoh is called son of Hathor, son of the woman who housed god in the [can’t understand words], Hathor, the divine eternal virgin, mother of god.  And so you have then Pharaoh as another one of his titles.  Elsewhere Hathor, the great lady, is called the lady of the stars, the lady, the mother of god.  So here is some more information about how these people in their society viewed Pharaoh. 

 

Now another thing, Pharaoh is identified with the son; he is often called the son of Re.  It’s interesting that when they wanted to refer to the deity of Pharaoh they always called him son of Hathor.  But when they wanted to deal with his sonship, they called him son of Osiris, or Horus.  So it’s very clear that one mythological theme, born of the virgin mother, mother of god, has to do with producing an incarnate god in history and so when Pharaoh was god he was the son of Hathor; when Pharaoh sits on the throne he is Horus, son of Osiris, throne succession in one myth, divine nature in another myth.

 

But he is also known as the son of Re.  Re appears to be his heavenly father and he always bows down and obtains help from his heavenly father.  But when you begin to study the son and you begin to study how this son motif crops up over and over in Egyptian art, you come out with some pieces of symbolism that looks like this.  Here’s how the son was pictured.  This was a famous symbol used in Egypt; the sun with wings on it, and what were the wings?  The wings were the falcon.  So here now we have another mythological scene; we have Horus represented by the falcon, tied to the sun, and you have the great sun worshippers.  We are going to see sun worship in the last part of the book of Judges and you are going to see sun worship creep into 1 Samuel.  And when you do [can’t understand section here] also creeps in.  You got the connection, here in Egypt it was the symbol of the sun with the wings of Horus that represent divine sovereignty in history.  It was a symbol that expresses this.  And so Horus, the falcon, now becomes identified with Re, the sun god.  Here again is Horus, represented as a falcon and on his head is the sun disc.  Again clearly showing the connection between Horus and the sun; the sun being the father, Horus being the sun in this particular case, in this Re thing.

 

But then something even more intriguing, something I didn’t point out about that drawing I just showed you.  What is coming out of the sun?  A snake, and down through existing history as well as the mythology of the ancient world the symbol of the snake is always identified with the sun; it’s interesting, and it has been suggested by Alexander Hislop that the reason for this is that the sun is that which enlightens the physical world and the snake is that which enlightens the spiritual world.  You see the clear satanic, deeply satanic nature of this thing.  When you talk about the kingdom of Egypt you’re talking about something very evil.  Not evil in the sense that they were immoral but evil in the very structure of the society, grounded on the very symbols of Satan, the sun that is called the fiery state in the book of Revelation and is the picture of Satan.

 

So therefore when Pharaoh is referred to as the son of Re I suggest to you that it means the son of Satan, translated, and this is why later on in history, when you look at the Pharaohs, for example they opened up King Tut’s tomb and they found that he died at 24, killed as a result of war, King Tut looked like this on his face mask; there are two snakes on his headgear.  And the Pharaoh’s used this as their divine emblem.  This shows you their authority, the authority of the snake, the snake that gives life and gives wisdom.  And anybody schooled in the Word of God knows what this symbology means. 

 

Let’s see some Bible verses and see if this is just a lot of hot air or whether the Word of God reflects this.  We’re sensitive now to the Egyptian background, turn to Psalm 87:4, perhaps we can give new meaning to some of these Scripture references to Egypt.  “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia: this man was born there.”  That’s a list of the nations; what nation is conspicuously absent in verse 4?  Egypt; Egypt is called Rahab, and that’s not the whore in the book of Joshua.  Rahab here is a word used for the snake in the Bible, so translated verse 4 means “I will make mention of the snake and Babylon to them that know me,” clearly Egypt is called the snake, the serpent. 

 

In Psalm 89:8, “O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee?  Or to thy faithfulness round about thee?  [9] Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.  [10] You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm,” speaking of the Exodus.  And who did God scatter at the Exodus?  Egypt; and what is Egypt called here?  The great snake, Rahab.  I hate to spoil it for any of you herpetologists.

 

Turn to Isaiah 30:7, in this one you have to know the Hebrew to get it; “For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose; therefore have I cried concerning this, Rahab sit still, [Their strength is to sit still].”  The snake sits still, in other words Israel as going to trust in the snake and God says oh no you’re not, the snake sits still, that’s the adjective you trust, the snake that sits still, the dead snake in other words. 

 

Isaiah 51:9, “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD;” this is addressed to Messiah, “awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.  Art thou not he that cut Rahab and wounded the serpent.  [10] Art not thou he that has dried the sea, and the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?  [11] Therefore, the redeemed of the LORD shall return…” and so on.  Don’t you see the imagery, do you see why the Exodus was from Egypt and not out of Babylon, because it was Egypt that was a satanic society which was smashed by God’s intervention. 

 

One final reference, Ezekiel 29:3, notice what it says “Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great snake that lies in the midst of his rivers,” so there again the Word of God recognizes the snake symbol in connection with Egypt.  Maybe you’ve read these passages in God’s Word and never put them all together before but this certainly shows you the fact that when God redeems He redeems out of a sinful society.

 

Now that’s not all, and to show this I tried to get a drawing so let me just draw two drawings that are in Egyptian art and this really is interesting.  On an ivory comb found in the first dynasty, this is the earliest time, the first dynasty of Egypt; we have a design that looks like this: we have a bird here, and over the whole thing we have two sets of wings.  Now let’s look at those symbols a moment; here we have the wings of Horus, declared to be the one who rules over all the heavens.  Here we have two scepters, used by the Egyptians for welfare, social health, and order.  And so we have the two scepters that represent health and order for society under the kingship of Horus, and here we have a box, and on it sits again Horus, and in the box is the name of the king, showing Horus incarnating himself in the king, ruling produces a welfare in society and not only that, but the man’s name is written with a snake on the inside.  So you have an expression of the incarnation of Horus, the great god under whom Horus ruled from heaven and he ruled through his incarnate human leader and as a result of the rule of the incarnate Horus you have a perfect social order. 

 

Now let me show you another one, a drawing very parallel to this.  Again you have the scepters, picturing welfare.  Up above you have the Egyptian heliograph for heaven and down below the Egyptian heliograph for earth.  And in between, written in hieroglyph is the Pharaoh’s name.  What does this picture?  It pictures that Pharaoh is the mediator between heaven and earth and the rule of the incarnate Pharaoh produces the perfect social order.  Don’t you see the blasphemy of this thing, using the very symbols in the Word of God appropriated to this man.  Here, then, is the kingdom of man operating and it was this against which these judges in this book of Judges are struggling against.  They are struggling against the man who was the very antichrist himself; he claims that the is the son of a virgin, he is a virgin son of the mother of god, he claims that he represents the mediator between heaven and earth, that he and he alone is the integrator of society, and that all men must bow before him, Pharaoh, son of Osiris, son of Hathor, the king of the two [can’t understand word].

 

This is what kingship means and I hope when we continue with the rest of the judges, and when we begin with Samuel you’ll understand, this is not just a political squabble that’s going on, this is a deep-seated spiritual struggle to avoid letting the kingdom of man come in and ruin the kingdom of God of Israel.  Jehovah will reign; Jehovah hasn’t brought about His virgin born Son yet, they must wait many, many centuries before God brings His virgin born Son, but He will come.  But until that time they are to trust Him, to trust the promises, that God will rule to develop His kingdom and we are in the same position.  We are in much the same position in our generation.  More and more the western political thought is not suggest a small kingdom, but more and more the politicians of high levels think of themselves as social messiahs, thinking of them as the ones who will bring about the perfect social order that will do away with all these things.  Isn’t this the claim of Pharaoh?  I am the virgin born son and I bring about the perfect social order.  And then it was this, Rahab, the great serpent, the great snake that God leveled in the Dead Sea when He redeemed the nation out, away from all of that thought. 

 

And so don’t you see the struggle that each one of you are going to have to do, living in a society like this, in which you get pressed, crammed, rammed and squeezed to think, to go along with this idea instead of waiting on the promises of God, waiting for the virgin born son who is the true mediator between heaven and earth, to bring about the true kingdom of God.  And we just sit and wait, just like these Israelis of the Old Testament had to, sit and wait and be laughed at.  And finally they could wait no longer and they said we want a king now, like the other nations; give us one.  So you see the blasphemy of that?  We want a king like Pharaoh, put your snake on his headgear, we don’t care, we want our social order now and we’re about to compromise everything to get it.  And that’ just the spirit of the 20th century.  It’s just the spirit of America.  It’s just the spirit that you have to fight day and night. 

 

So when we go back into the book of Judges I’ll try to bring more of this historical background in so you can place yourself back in and sympathize and empathize with these people, and enter into the struggle that they had.  With our heads bowed.