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The Battle of Gideon Today--Part 2

The "little horn" of Daniel 7 and Rev. 13 was given power to overcome the saints until the end of days. Then the situation is said to turn around. Revelation 12:8 says that at the time of the Two Witnesses, or the Moses-Elijah ministry, Michael makes war with the dragon and casts him down. The immediate result is in verse 11, speaking of the saints on earth: "and they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony."

In other words, the overcomers reflect the changed spiritual condition in the heavens. The pattern of spiritual warfare is set forth in a number of biblical types, but our focus here is Gideon's battle against the Midianites, allied with the Amalekites and the "children of the east."

These three adversaries, I think, are also reflected in the three "frogs" of Rev. 16:13, but that is another story for another time.

Midian is here a type of the Saul-Church. Moses married a Midianite woman named Zipporah, one of seven sisters (Exodus 2:16, 21). Moses is a type of Christ (Acts 7:37), and in that regard Zipporah is a type of the Church. By extension, then, the seven daughters of Jethro the Midianite represent The Seven Churches in the book of Revelation.

The fact that Midian means "contentious" only adds detail to the type. Why do you suppose there are thousands of denominations today, along with internal power struggles within denominations? The Church developed its doctrine known as "Replacement Theology," by which it contended that the Church had replaced "Israel" as the holder of the Birthright. That doctrine is not very accurate, as I showed in my book, Who is a Jew?. Prophetically speaking, however, in this case the Church under Pentecost has played the role of Midian, which laid claim to the land of Israel in the days of Gideon.

Amalek is the second player in the battle of Gideon. Amalek is the grandson of Esau-Edom (Gen. 36:12) and is the one placed under the generational curse for attacking Israel as they came out of Egypt. Exodus 17:14-16 says,

" ¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Write this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.' ¹⁵ And Moses built an altar, and named it The Lord is My Banner. ¹⁶ And he said, 'The Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation'."

The Amalekites wanted the wealth from Egypt that Israel was carrying. Amalek's father (i.e., Esau's son) was Eliphaz, which means "my god is fine gold." May I introduce you to Mr. Feingold?

In Secrets of Time, I showed that Amalek came under Cursed Time here. The book was written "as a memorial" (i.e., to remember this event as a cause for judgment against Amalek). Even so, afterward it appeared that God had forgotten the incident until the days of King Saul. In 1 Samuel 15:2 God tells the prophet,

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek . . ."

King Saul did indeed defeat Amalek, but as a type of Church under Pentecost, Saul could not complete the work. However, the important thing is that God suddenly seemed to "remember" what Amalek did, after seeming to forget it for centuries. But when Amalek's Cursed Time period had concluded, and they had not yet repented of their sin in Exodus 17, the day of judgment arrived. Saul was king at the time, so it fell upon him to execute this national judgment upon Amalek 414 years after they had attacked Israel.

Nonetheless, Saul proved inadequate to the task under the Old Covenant judgment, even as the Church later proved inadequate to the task of New Covenant judgment. I suggest that if the Church under Pentecost had not lost its first love, and if they had not lost the Sword of the Spirit, they would have been able to "exterminate" Amalek by converting them through the Love of Christ. But Pentecost was unable to do this with a mere downpayment of the Spirit.

Amalek, of course, is part of Esau-Edom and has been expressing itself through the Jewish people since the days of John Hyrcanus, who conquered Edom and converted the nation to Judaism. That occurred around 126 B.C., according to all the history books. Josephus tells us in Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, ix, 1,

"Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea [Greek name for Edom], and subdued all the Idumeans, and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would be circumcised, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision and the rest of the Jews' way of living; at which time, therefore, this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews."

The Jewish Encyclopedia [1903 ed.] agrees in its article under Edom, saying, "They were then incorporated with the Jewish nation. . . From this time the Idumeans ceased to be a separate people."

Forcible conversion by threat of death does not convert people to God. It only converts people to religion, in this case, to Judaism. Yet from God's perspective, they remained unbelievers, regardless of their use of fleshly circumcision. The important fact, however, is that they "ceased to be a separate people." The prophecies of Edom and Amalek, therefore, would have to be fulfilled through the Jewish nation. The only way individuals could extract themselves from this position is by becoming new creatures in Christ, for this is how we all must break the curses from the past all the way back to Adam.

It is significant, then, that in the days of Gideon there was a coalition between Midianites and Amalekites--that is, between the Church and the Jews. We see this manifested in the world today under the banner of Zionism, where Christian Zionists have allied with Jewish Zionists to give the Birthright back to Esau in 1948. Zionism is the main prophetic fulfillment today of the Midianite-Amalekite takeover of Israel in the days of Gideon. It is not so much the takeover of the land itself, but of the Birthright--the right to be called the sons of God. (See my book, The Struggle for the Birthright.)

Finally, the third group allied against Gideon's army was called "the children of the east." Apparently, this was not a nation as such, but Bedouin tribes under Midian's domination. Prophetically speaking, they are represented today in the children of Islam. This conflict goes back to the book of Genesis once again, where Ishmael felt that he had a claim to the Birthright, since he was the oldest son of Abram. Here is where the Bible differs from the Koran, for the Bible records that Isaac was given the Birthright.

There are, then, three main religious contenders for the Birthright: Traditional Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. These all appear as opponents of a fourth contender--the Overcomers, represented by Gideon and his army. Each has its own unique claim and can argue its case before the Divine Court, where God can sort out truth from fiction.

Who will win their case in the end? I put my money on the overcomers, and for this reason I am part of Gideon's army. The numbers favor the others, but I believe the overcomers will win this court battle. Then they will be in a better position to assist the others in a better understanding of God.