LET us continue our study of the antitypical fulfillment of Judges 7:
In verses 9-11 Jehovah charged our Lord to observe the conditions of the antitypical Midianitish host, assuring Him that He had arranged conditions for its certain defeat. Jehovah indicated the overthrow of the hosts of error to our Lord by the signs of the times. Phurah, who seems to type our Pastor, along with our Lord investigated antitypical Midian and set their findings before the antitypical Three Hundred.
Verse 12 gives a description of the oppressors of God’s people, typing how during the Harvest the errorists, sinners, and selfish and worldly people would be very numerous and numerously organized.
In verses 13 and 14 a record is given of a dream that a Midianite in the outermost part of the camp told a comrade of his, and of the latter’s interpretation of this dream. The antitype is the following: The Midianite who dreamed and told his dream to his fellow type certain Foolish Virgins who were in faith and practice nearest the Truth people. Their studying various signs of the times saw what antitypes the dream of the Midianite. His telling his dream antitypes how in perplexity as to the significance of these events these Foolish Virgins told the teaching class of Foolish Virgins what they saw. The latter explained these signs of the times as indicators of Messiah’s overthrow of error and errorists at His Second Advent.
Antitypically our Lord was greatly encouraged when He saw how some who fought on the side of the errorists recognized that the overthrow of the doctrines of, and of the believers in the Divine Right was implied in the signs of the times.
Preparations for the Battle
Verses 16-18 describe the preparations for the battle. The division of the three hundred into three companies corresponds to the division of their antitypes into three companies: (1) the Volunteers, (2) the Pilgrims, and (3) the Colporteurs. The trumpets correspond to the message that their antitypes were to announce. Putting the trumpets into their hands types that the message would be in the power of each one of the antitypical three hundred. The pitchers type the humanity of the faithful. Their being empty types the fact that the faithful were free from selfishness and worldliness. The lamps, or torches, type the Truth and the holy spirit of Truth that filled the faculties of mind and heart of the faithful.
By the events of the times, and many agencies, especially the newspaper sermons, that our Lord used shortly after the outbreak of World War I to attack the doctrines of the Divine Right He charged His own to imitate Him in attacking these doctrines. In the type Gideon was to blow with the trumpet first, and then the hundred that were with him, so in the antitype, the Volunteers correspond to the hundred that were with Gideon; for the tracts they distributed announced the public meetings where the Pilgrims gave the message. The Colporteurs followed the example of the other two groups, specializing on Volume IV, The Battle of Armageddon. In the type the three hundred were to shout: “The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” In the antitype the Sword of the Lord were the Biblical principles of Truth and Righteousness that condemned the doctrines of the Divine Right, and that proved their supporters as defending errors. The Sword of Gideon type the proclamation of the overthrow of Satan’s empire by our Lord through the Great Tribulation and the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom upon its ruins.
The Battle Begins
Verse 19 indicates that the first attack began at the beginning of the middle, or the third watch, that is, from midnight to 3:00 a.m. The attack therefore began at midnight, and the antitypical midnight was about October 1914, shortly after the World War began. Our Lord began the attack right on time, especially through our Pastor’s published sermons. The Volunteers distributed The Battle of Armageddon and announced public meetings.
The Pilgrims were the next group to enter the antitypical battle. Our Pastor was the first of these to begin this part of the fight, on September 20, 1914, at Fort Worth, Texas. His first subject was “The Battle of Armageddon,” then “After the War – What?,” and then “The World on Fire.” Bro. Johnson began his part in this battle on October 8, 1914, at Graham, North Carolina. His first lecture was on “The Overthrow of Satan’s Empire” and was followed by the subjects “The War in Prophecy” or “After the War – What?”
The Colporteurs were the last to enter the antitypical battle, and they specialized on Volume IV, The Battle of Armageddon. The brethren of the three groups who did not use the recommended equipment, who did not take part in the fight until the end, or who did not possess the right spirit were not of the antitypical three hundred.
They broke the antitypical pitchers, which represents the consuming of their humanity in the service. Holding their lamps in the left hand type the fact that not the chief emphasis and use were to be made of the deeper truths in this battle; while holding the trumpets in the right hand type the fact that secular truths were mainly emphasized.
(to be continued)