Barley in the Bible, part 14
As we continue our studies about barley in the Bible, we are now getting down to some of the last few mentions. But to do this justice, we need to learn the whole story of one of the characters in the book of Judges. This will be a study of the story of Gideon, the judge.
We begin in the book of Judges, chapter 7 where we will read the verse which is going to be our takeoff point for this study.
First though, in very brief review of some of the previous parts of this series, in part one we looked at barley as an ordinary grain and its physical properties and characteristics in the natural. Then we began looking at barley symbolically in relationship to the Feasts of Israel.
From that point onward, we have studied many passages in the Bible having to do with barley or at least where barley was mentioned and we are now coming to some of the last mentions.
We have covered as much as I have been able to glean from these barley episodes. It goes without saying that there is a lot more still to be discovered because God’s word goes deeper and deeper and deeper. So there are probably 10 or 20 or 50 additional meanings still hidden deep below what I have been able to glean, but this is where we’ve gone so far.
In Judges chapter 7, we start reading in verse 12 and pick up the verses which are directly pertinent to barley.
KJV Judges 7:12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.
13 And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
14 And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.
We cannot possibly understand that passage without having the context of the whole story of this part of the life of Gideon. Therefore, let us now turn back to Judges, chapter 6, where we will read the beginning of the story.
To set the stage here, the book of Judges, chapters 1 through 5, have showed the stories of other judges that came before.
After the children of Israel had come into the promised land and they began—as God had commanded them—expelling and exterminating the Canaanites that were living in the land, they did not do a complete job.
Throughout the book of Judges we find a pattern which occurs over and over again in the history of the Israel people during this period which lasted about 400 years.
The pattern is this: It begins with the children of Israel being generally obedient to God’s law. As a result, and as was prophesied and promised by God, they are blessed. The nation is at peace, they become prosperous, they are a happy people.
But after a while, they begin to get lazy. They begin neglecting God’s law—which means, they no longer punish criminals. Therefore crime increases. The average Israelite no longer feels safe walking down the streets of his town or city.
Does that not sound familiar? As in America today?
Simultaneously, they begin worshiping false gods, the gods of the Canaanites. Prominent among the false gods was the worship of Baal, Ashtoreth (alternate spelling: Ashtaroth), and Moloch (alternate spelling: Molech).
We could do a very lengthy study of these pagan deities showing their modern counterparts in America, but that would take us far off our course in the barley series, so we shall save that subject for another time.
Suffice it to say here that the parallels in America would be uncanny, except for the fact that we know that we are the actual descendants of ancient Israel who have been regathered in America in these latter days. Therefore, it is not that uncanny for we see that we are sadly following the same patterns as our genetic forefathers did in ancient Israel.
All this turning from God brings about the gradual deterioration of the nation as the people experience the curses of the law. Those curses are listed in both the book of Leviticus and the book of Deuteronomy. We have done lengthy studies on those in years past and we intend to update those with new lectures as time permits.
When the nation has declined to the furthest extent in their disobedience and debauchery, that is when some of the last and worst curses of God’s law come into effect.
These consist of enemy nations conquering the Israel people and either (a) taking the Israelites as captives to another land, or (b) the conquerors occupy Israel and sit as harsh rulers in the land of Israel, oppressing the people into various levels of slavery and/or economic bondage.
God brings bondage on the people of Israel by bringing alien peoples, either these same peoples, the Canaanites that were among them, or God brings outsider aliens in to conquer the Israelites, and put them into bondage.
This is happening to us in America now so plainly that no one can miss it. Millions of aliens from almost every country in the world have broken down the gates and flooded our nation as an invading army.
When the people suffer enough from the curses of the divine law, they begin to cry out. When teachers arise to show them how we have strayed (part of my job) and then the people realize why we are in bondage, and if this is followed by repentance, only then does God send a deliverer—called judges in the book of Judges.
At this point in the book of Judges, that process has happened over a period of decades and centuries prior. And now in chapter 6, it is happening again.
KJV Judges 6:1 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD
[We interrupt for a quick explanatory comment about the word LORD in the King James and many other English versions. I add the word Yahweh because Yahweh is the original word here in Hebrew. It is four Hebrew letters and to the best of my knowledge, it should be transliterated as Yahweh. The word, LORD, when in all capital letters, is actually a substitution for the holy name. I am simply adding back the holy name where it belongs.]
Judges 6:1b and the LORD [Yahweh] delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.
As we go along in our study of the story of Gideon, we are going to see that there are many parallels with our people Israel in America today. By “Israel in America,” we are not referring to those known as “Jews.”
In fact, we can begin to see the parallel already (That statement was made in 1990, when I first delivered these studies as oral lectures. We are editing these lectures to bring them up to date now in 2025.)
Some of our people (Christianized Israel) in America began to realize that we are in economic bondage. Upon that realization, what did they do?
They became what were known in decades past as survivalists; now they are called preppers. They made for themselves dens and caves which are in the mountains and in the hills. In other words, they built “survival retreats.”
I remember meeting a number of people in the 1970s and 1980s who were finding a place in the country which they believed would offer the best chance for survival in the case of nuclear war, or massive civil unrest, etc.
Many of us who were alive in the 1960s (I was a teenager), saw huge “race riots” that occurred in many major cities. I have a friend who was a young policeman in Detroit during the massive riots there in the Sixties.
He told me hundreds were killed. He has shared with me some shocking stories about what occurred on the streets during that scary time, incidents and deaths that the “prostitute press,” both the local and national media, would not report.
Those were much worse and more widespread than what we saw in a few cities in 2020 which were supposedly centered around the cause célèbres of “Saint” George Floyd.
We hope not, but it is quite possible that, God forbid, we shall soon see similar widespread civil unrest in many cities. This coming Saturday, we are told, there are plans for “No Kings” protests in hundreds of cities and towns across America. The organizers assert there will be 2,000 locations globally.
We shall see what actually materializes. Let us pray today for God’s protection this Saturday even while our nation is awakening to our need to repent. By God’s mercy, perhaps their hoped-for major violence will end up being a dud.
We know that the playbook of those who are seeking to destroy America has not changed from the 1960’s until now in terms of the strategies and tactics.
Briefly, the strategy is to bring about widespread lawlessness and chaos throughout the country in order to justify a totalitarian government as part of a global government. We believe that President Trump and his team of “white hats” are struggling mightily against those plans of the wicked—and they are being successful.
The tactics of the totalitarians include the Hegelian dialectic (thesis, antithesis, synthesis), aka revolutionary parliamentarianism, or more easily understood as “pressure from above, pressure from below,” or create a problem, offer a solution, and implement the ‘solution’ which always brings about more government oppression and more liberties lost.
This masses of the American people are in the middle, just trying to make ends meet, and due to the stresses and strains of two or more jobs, both parents working, there is little time left to pay attention in any serious way to what is going on in government until protests hit the streets in their city or town.
The radical Leftists and anarchists in the streets are the “pressure from below.” But they could do nothing without organization, direction, and lots of money. The “pressure from above” is that the street anarchists are actually paid by wealthy people and organizations “from above” to create the problems and chaos “from below.”
Those of us who have “followed the money” discover that there are now billions of dollars that are doled out to the radical agents provocateur in the streets from NGO’s (non-governmental organizations such as foundations and all sorts of other “non-profits” or shell companies, either fake corporations or fake LLC’s [Limited Liability Companies], etc.)
An agent provocateur (a French phrase) is a person who intentionally encourages people to do something illegal, usually so that they can be arrested. Here is a sample use in a sentence (based on recently revealed information):
It has now been revealed that approximately 274 persons, either paid employees, paid informants, or otherwise associated with the FBI, were in the MAGA crowds on January 6, 2021, along with an undetermined number of Antifa members, many of whom were working as agents provocateur and/or as professional agitators.
The term agitator refers to “a person who stirs up others in order to upset the status quo and further a political, social, or other cause.” In today’s America, both agitators and agents provocateur are sometimes “full-time jobs.” They are paid to create chaos.
They are financed “from above” by the George Soros-types, to include Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn), the Bill Gates foundations and many other “cut outs (intermediate organizations) to hide the money trail.
Much of the money initially came from us, the taxpayers, by means of various governmental agencies—like USAID—issuing huge grants (for a made-up, but not far from reality example) to discover the mating habits of homosexual frogs in Haiti.
Of course, there is really no such program, but there are many wackier than that, where the money goes to an NGO in Haiti where the several people involved scrape off their “share,” and then send the bulk of the money back to a George Soros-type who then sends it out via his Open Society Foundation to another Leftist organization, such as Act Blue, who then helps finance Antifa or “No Kings,” etc. That’s how it works!
(To be continued.)
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