Gideon's Force and the Last Days (No. 22)

The story of Gideon has a symbolism that extends far beyond the restoration of Israel in the times of Jerubaal and the Judges, over three thousand years ago. It points towards the restoration of the system and the mighty struggle with the Baal or Mystery cult system in the last days.

The Restoration of the Last Days

How will the restoration be effected? Micah 5:3-6 says of Messiah that:

Micah 5:3-6 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. ⁴ And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord His God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. ⁵ And this Man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principle men. ⁶ And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when He cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

The concepts here are that:

· Messiah is to give up the elect to the world system until the Church (she that travaileth; see also Rev. 12:13-17) is completed. The dragon makes war with the remnant of the woman’s seed. This equates with the fifth seal. It also relates to the continuation into the Great Tribulation for the multitude who make their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.

· When the number of the Church is complete, namely the full number of those chosen or predestined from the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) and entered in the book of life of the Lamb at the foundation of the world (Rev. 17:8) are brought into the body of Christ, the end will come.

· The end times will entail an invasion by the forces of the north. This will be the last wars of the King of the North found in Daniel 11.

The prophecy seems to indicate that the end wars will entail the raising of seven shepherds and eight principle men to defeat the Kings of the North and to establish the prerequisite for the Millennium. The explanation of these wars and their sequence and duration is the subject of other papers.

Micah makes the point in Micah 5:7-15 that the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people. They shall be among the Gentiles as a young lion among flocks of sheep. They will, at that time, be invincible. This is identified as the last days from Micah 4:1.

What we are concerned about is how that sequence of activity will take place. How will the elect be prepared to deal with the situations that they will face in the future?

Firstly, the pre-conditions are established for the calling of the elect. This finally results in the cessation of the Church eras. There are four Church eras extant at the time of the coming of the Messiah in Revelation 2:18 to 3:22. The Pergamos Church appears to be not functioning and has been destroyed in war, or brought to repentance as stated in Revelation 2:16. There are elements of this church alive, but the major structure has been destroyed this century, prior to the final stages of the coming of the Messiah.

These extant eras are understood to be: the Thyatiran, now concentrated in Eastern Europe; the Sardis and Laodicean eras, which can only be the churches that are to be found largely in the English-speaking world, the Americas and the Pacific. The Laodicean and Sardis Churches are stated to be rejected and do not enter the kingdom of God as structures. The Church of the Philadelphians is a numerically small organisation with little strength, but is pure and loved by Christ. It is the Church of brotherly love.

These terms are descriptive terms and, in fact, there are elements of each era in each Church. The Philadelphians are in all eras and are pillars to all eras, but in the last days they seem to be formed from the elements of the other four churches prior to the coming of the Messiah.

All of these eras are asleep at the end time. This is established from the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Matthew 25:5-6 states that while the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept. At midnight (at the deepest part of the night) there was a cry made, Behold the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. All the virgins arose and went out to meet him, but the foolish virgins did not have enough oil in their lamps and they were extinguished (Mat. 25:8). These virgins, although betrothed, do not marry Christ at the first resurrection. As God does not break His word and because betrothal is a quasi-marriage (and certainly was at that time and place), they are consigned to a second marriage in the second resurrection.

Further, before the Messiah comes, the nations are warned as to what is to take place. The cry of warning is found in Jeremiah 4:15 (cf. the paper The Warning of the Last Days (No. 44)). Before we deal with that we must now examine the necessary pre-conditions that have to be met.

The sequence entails, firstly, the fall of the Churches (cf. Measuring the Temple (No. 137)) and, secondly, the fall of the nation.

The major example of what is to take place is found in the story of Gideon.

Gideon’s Force

Gideon was raised up and made a judge of Israel. The story is found in Judges 6:1 to 8:35. Israel had fallen into idolatry and was sent under the hand of Midian for seven years and they dwelt in the mountains in caves for defence (Jdg. 6:1-6).

Judges 6:1-6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand of Mid'ian seven years. ² And the hand of Mid'ian prevailed over Israel; and because of Mid'ian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves and the strongholds. ³For whenever the Israelites put in seed the Mid'ianites and the Amal'ekites and the people of the East would come up and attack them; ⁴ they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or ass. ⁵ For they would come up with their cattle and their tents, coming like locusts for number; both they and their camels could not be counted; so that they wasted the land as they came in. ⁶ And Israel was brought very low because of Mid'ian; and the people of Israel cried for help to the LORD. (RSV)

A parallel for this might be the Second World War (1939-1945). This war followed on from a similar disaster in 1914-1918, the First World War. Israel was depleted of its manpower from these wars.

God raised up Gideon through the Angel of Elohim or the Angel of Yahovah (Jdg. 6:20-22), namely Messiah, from a Passover. Thus, the restoration began a sacred year.

With ten men of his father, of a clan of Manasseh, he removed the altar of Baal that his own father had built together with the nearby Asherah (a phallus, not a grove as per KJV) (Jdg. 6:25 and fn. to Companion Bible). The phallus as part of the cross system can still be seen to this day in profusion in Lithuania.

After this, all the Amalekites, the Midianites and all the children of the east were gathered against Israel. Gideon blew the trumpet and gathered together all Manasseh and sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun and Napthali and they came up to meet him (Jdg. 6:35).

He tested God by prayer through the fleece to see that God was indeed with him to deliver Israel (Jdg. 6:36-40).

Judges 6:36-40 Then Gideon said to God, "If thou wilt deliver Israel by my hand, as thou hast said, ³⁷ behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that thou wilt deliver Israel by my hand, as thou hast said." ³⁸ And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. ³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, "Let not thy anger burn against me, let me speak but this once; pray, let me make trial only this once with the fleece; pray, let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew." ⁴⁰ And God did so that night; for it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. (RSV)

God was indeed with him and thus Israel pitched camp at the hill of Moreh in the south. The Midianites and allies were in the north (Jdg. 7:1). This has significance for the wars of the last days of the Kings of the North and South in Daniel 11.

What was then done is highly significant. The Lord had decided to redeem Israel but, so that no flesh would glory in the victory and that it was evident that the Lord had indeed delivered them, He decided to reduce the numbers available in the force (Jdg. 7:3).

Firstly, He had allowed the force to be gathered. This was symbolic of the gathering of the full number of the elect prior to Messiah’s return.

He then said to them that whoever was afraid of the battle may return home. Of the 32,000 that were gathered, some 22,000 returned home and 10,000 remained (Jdg. 7:3). The remainder were then further reduced.

Judges 7:4-8 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. ⁵So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. ⁶And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. ⁷And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. ⁸So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. (KJV)

The lesson here was that although the force gathered was effectively the inheritance of the Lord, namely His chosen congregation, He did not choose to use the force at His disposal. They were prepared, but returned home after they had reported for duty and made preparation for war.

The parallel with the last days is easy to see. The Holocaust was designed to eliminate the law of God and all Bible research from Europe and the world. It had the support of the Trinitarian churches of Europe. The work of the church was given time to be developed over the forty years after the war from 1946-1986. This is effectively a generation. This is also likened to the peace that Israel knew for forty years under Gideon, but that was after the battle (Jdg. 8:28).

The time frame of 1987 to the fortieth jubilee in 2027 is exactly forty years. This is the last generation of the church in the wilderness that Christ referred to as this generation in the Olivet prophecy. This generation will not pass away until all is accomplished (Mat. 24:34).

Quite obviously Christ was not referring to the generation of his time, as they all died nineteen hundred year ago and he uttered some prophecy that covered centuries. Revelation was itself a work that stretched over, at the very minimum, some thirteen centuries.

The First Eliminations

The earliest eliminations were all done in accordance with the laws of God as found in Deuteronomy chapter 20 (see the paper Deuteronomy 20 (No. 201)).

Not all were chosen or summoned and those that were called found themselves subjected to a screening process. This was also along the lines that many are called but few are chosen (Mat. 20:16).

The first reduction in numbers increased the odds from 4 to 1 to approximately 13 to 1 in favour of the enemy forces.

These numbers relate to the numbers of the governing units of the council of God; twenty-four elders in groups of two and also as one apostle and one judge per tribe under Christ. The structure of Christ and the apostles reflected this at the Last Supper. However, the god of this world also reflected that structure in his government as opposed by Christ alone.

The Final Selection Process

The second reduction in the numbers of the force was of a significance that related to the last battles in the last days with the Baal system. The selection process was done from the way in which the elect approached water. Water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. These living waters flow out of Christ (Jn. 4:10-11,14). The waters of Gideon exemplify the way in which we approach God. Those that worship God in a discriminating way are able to be used. This worship is of God (cf. The God We Worship (No. 2)). Obedience to him and respect for those acting under delegation is not worship. This may be symbolised by kneeling or prostrating oneself (the act of prostration (proskuneo) before Christ and the elect. Such action is an act of subservience, but is not of itself worship, as it is translated in Hebrews 1:6 and Revelation 3:9. We are to worship God the Father only (Lk. 4:8; Jn. 4:21-24; Phil. 3:3; Rev. 22:9).

The reduction from 13 to 1 to the next figure, which represents 450 to 1, has a direct relationship to act in obedience to the delegated authority of God and placed in the individual by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Elijah. 450 to 1 is the ratio of the priests of Baal to Elijah, as principal prophet dealing with the destruction of the Baal system, both in Ancient Israel and as the principal witness of the last days. This Baal system of the Black Cassocked Ones, the Khemarim of the Bible, will be destroyed in the last days. Gideon’s Force is assembled in the last days to do that task and accomplish the detail of the messages of revelation 14 (see the paper The Messages of Revelation 14 (No. 270)).

God has stated that He will send the prophet Elijah to restore all things.

Malachi 4:4-6 "Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. ⁵ "Behold, I will send you Eli'jah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. ⁶ And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse." (RSV)

The Bible is clear that Elijah will be sent to restore all things. No matter what any person does to teach the restoration of all things, the final restoration will not be complete until the nexus of the law is restored by Elijah. This has been broken under the demons and this will not be restored until Elijah comes and restores this nexus. At present it rains on the just and the unjust. Under the final part of the restoration under Elijah, the nexus of the law will restore the blessings and the curses (cf. The Blessings and the Curses (No. 75)) for the keeping of God’s Law. If we do not keep the Sabbath and the New Moons, the Passover and Unleavened Bread, Pentecost and The Feast of Tabernacles, we will get no rain in due season and all the plagues of Egypt will be placed on those who fail to send their representatives to Jerusalem for Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-19).

The relationship to the times of the end is this. The nations of Israel were given a period of forty years peace in which to disseminate the gospel and prepare the elect for the liberation under Messiah spoken of in Micah. The elect were then given exposure to idolatrous teaching, which resulted in full-blown Trinitarianism among the Churches of God. This was the error of the Laodicean Church. The Laodiceans were poor, pitiable, blind and naked. They thought themselves rich, but God has commanded Christ to spew them out of his mouth (Rev. 3:16). Those people in the church in the last days will have to buy gold refined in the fire (Rev. 3:18) of tribulation and white raiment of martyrdom (Rev. 6:11) washed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 12:11).

Sardis and Laodicea are held to be unfit to enter the kingdom of God and only individuals from those structures enter the kingdom of God. The remainder will be a relatively small force, like a commando unit, which will spread the word of God and warn the nations of the coming of Messiah. By the illumination of torches fed from the jars of the nation (see Gideon above) and using the trumpets of the watchmen of the last days, that force will work under the direction of Messiah. It will be composed of multiple tribes of Israel – initially commencing with Manasseh, Asher and Napthali with some from Zebulun (cf. Jdg. 6:35, 7:23). It extends to publishing affliction by Dan-Ephraim (Jer. 4:15) (No. 44 ibid., and No. 137 ibid.). Finally it sees the conversion of Judah and then the calling of the people to Jerusalem by Zebulun and Issacher, which is their birthright promise (cf. Calling the Peoples to Jerusalem (No. 238)).

In a sense, this is a continuation of the work commenced before the start of the measuring of the Temple in Revelation 11:1. The reference to the Little Book in Revelation 10:9-11 precedes the measuring of the Temple, but is also contemporaneous with it and goes on to the 1,260 days of the two witnesses at Revelation 11:2-6.

Gideon was given the understanding of the time from the dream given to one of the enemy force (Jdg. 7:13-15).

Judges 7:13-15 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, "Behold, I dreamed a dream; and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Mid'ian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat." ¹⁴ And his comrade answered, "This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Jo'ash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Mid'ian and all the host." ¹⁵ When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped; and he returned to the camp of Israel, and said, "Arise; for the LORD has given the host of Mid'ian into your hand." (RSV)

The 300 men were divided into three companies and given lamps and pitchers. They placed the lamps within the pitchers and, on a given signal, the whole group sounded the alarm together (Jdg. 7:16-18).

Judges 7:16-18 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. ¹⁷And he said to them, "Look at me, and do likewise; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. ¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, `For the LORD and for Gideon.'" (RSV)

This action prefigures the divisions of the work of the last days and the three shepherds who are to be removed in one month (see the paper Measuring the Temple (No. 137)). The work then involves Ephraim (Jdg. 7:24-25). The pursuit of the 15,000 children of the east by Gideon’s 300 extended over Jordan. 120,000 had been slain in the night. The battle had started at the beginning of the middle watch, i.e. just after 10 p.m. In other words this was just before midnight when the bridegroom came.

The idea behind this parable gave the name to the group placing Bibles in hotels and other areas, called the Gideons. We are finding however, that the Bible texts are being corrupted in all nations and languages by the Protestant system and the mistranslations are obscuring the true Bible narration and Laws of God.

Gideon attacked the camp of 15,000 with the 300 and captured the kings of Midian, Zebah (meaning sacrifice) and Zalmunna (meaning shade has been denied), who had fled (Jdg. 8:11-12). The two cities that had refused the group assistance, Succoth (meaning (idolatrous) booths or tabernacles) and Penuel (meaning the face of God), were punished for failing to render assistance. This prefigures the elements of the churches of the last days that have lapsed into false religious practice, had previously known God as the elect, and were to be punished. The elders of those in Succoth who refused food to the 300, on the grounds that they were not under their authority, were whipped with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars (Jdg. 8:7). The men of Penuel were in fact slain and their tower, or means of security and power, was destroyed (Jdg. 8:9,17).

Gideon was requested to rule over Israel, but he refused saying the Lord shall rule over you (Jdg. 8:23). This is in fact the end result of the wars of the last days. The request Gideon made was that the earrings, which had been taken from the Ishmaelites, be given to him as a reward. This was done and Gideon made a gold ephod out of it and it, in fact, proved to be an object of idolatry, which became a snare to his house. The significance is not readily understood from the text. Earrings were in fact amulets, which protected the orifices from evil spirits. They were idols in their own right.

The golden calf of the Exodus was made by Aaron out of the earrings of the host that came from Egypt. He said that these were the gods that brought them up out of the land of Egypt (Ex. 32:4). This was not a grammatical error as the scribes of Nehemiah thought, rendering the text in the singular (Neh. 9:18). Thus earrings were forbidden to Israel. The texts referring to earrings (mostly in the KJV) are mistranslations for forehead jewels. The significance is that the items taken into the Millennium will pervert the nation as the ephod made from the materials became a snare to Manasseh (cf. The Golden Calf (No. 222) and The Origin of the Wearing of Earrings and Jewellery in Ancient Times (No. 197)).

The warning of the coming of the last days is issued from Danite Ephraim.

Jeremiah 4:15-17 For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims evil [or publishes affliction] from Mount Ephraim [or the mountains of Ephraim]. ¹⁶ Warn the nations that He is coming; announce to Jerusalem, “Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷ Like keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has rebelled against me, says the Lord.

The end result of this war is found five verses later in Jeremiah 4:23-27.

Jeremiah 4:23-27 I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens and they had no light. ²⁴ I looked on the mountains and lo they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. ²⁵ I looked and lo there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled. ²⁶ I looked and lo the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before His fierce anger. ²⁷ For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

The Seventh Day Adventists use this text for justification of a heavenly Millennium (leaving a desolate earth to Satan for 1,000 years, contrary to Rev. 20:4) ignoring the promise that the Lord will not make a full end and that there are living men mentioned as dwelling outside the cities in Jeremiah 4:29. They themselves lapsed into Trinitarianism from a process that seemed to commence from the penetration of their ministry, after the death of Uriah Smith from 1931, finally culminating in the declaration of Trinitarianism in 1978. They thus forfeited their position for the next phase.

From this sequence, taken as prophecy, we are dealing with the publication of affliction involving a number of nations in the last days, under direction of the tribe of Joseph as Danite Ephraim using groups prepared beforehand, initially from Manasseh, using Asher and Napthali and the various tribes of Israel. That time is now at hand. We are being prepared. The tools we are given will form the nucleus for our capacity to endure the rest of the persecution of the remainder of the 100 years, which commenced from 1916 taking up fully from 1927. For more information on the persecution of the Fifth Seal see:

http://www.ccg.org/_domain/holocaustrevealed.org/

Each of the force will be a light and a trumpet to Israel and the world. The force went in among the nations with Gideon and spread fear and trembling. So, too, it will go amongst many nations in the last days from Micah 5:7-8. It is not for the faint-hearted or those who do not know their God; but the people who know their God will do mighty works.

A preoccupation with numbers saw 70,000 of one of the Sabbatarian churches over the last ten years fall and spiritually die, as was the case with David when he numbered Israel. David numbered Israel because God wished to make an example of Israel for their iniquity (2Sam. 24:1-25). David had Israel numbered in spite of His advice. On realising his error, he was given three choices:

· Seven years of famine;

· Three months of flight before his enemies; or

· Three days of pestilence.

He chose to fall into the hands of God and not men and chose three days of pestilence. 70,000 people died.

The pestilence was stopped short of the threshing floor of Araunah who, as a king, gave the floor to David as king. But David refused the gift and paid 50 shekels of silver for it. The altar was built there and the plague was stayed.

Here we see David paid 50 shekels for the threshing floor and the oxen, yet from 1Chronicles 21:25 he paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. So we can assume that the surrounds were purchased for 600 shekels and the area was enlarged for the construction.

Thus, the central core of the Temple of worship was established from an inflicted pestilence. God used this sequence to bring about His will through His servants. Many of the iniquitous died in that process. This is the same cleaning out process at the end.

God will achieve His will and promulgate His word at the end days. To do that, he has to purify the elect and remove all error induced by those who are respecters of persons and are unable to recognise and implement truth.

From the restoration of the last days the church will be strengthened and go on to prepare for the coming of the two witnesses and the restoration by Elijah of the nexus of the law of God (cf. also The Law of God (No. L1); the Law series (No. 252-No. 263) and The Witnesses (including the Two Witnesses) (No. 135)).

Until that time the spirit of Elijah rests in the Churches of God that must perform the tasks allotted to them in the restoration of the understanding of Bible prophecy.