LET us resume our study of Gideon – Type and Antitype, with Judges 8: 2, 3. Remembering that our Lord is antitypically speaking here as the Mouthpiece of the antitypical Three Hundred, we see how true was His remark that by these Three Hundred He had not made such captures and slaughters as the Youthful Worthies had in the case of Sectarianism and Clericalism, in antitypical gleaning. We also remember that in the type and antitype it was not the Three Hundred who in the first battle did the slaughtering, but the Midianites, who in the darkness were unable to distinguish one another from foes, who did the slaughtering (Judges 7: 22). Same with the antitype, it was antitypical Midianites who by their deeds and debates associated with the war slaughtered one another in their erroneous views, especially with the doctrines of the Divine Right. The antitypical Three Hundred merely broke their pitchers, held up the light, and blew on their trumpets.

Let us now proceed to Judges 8: 4-9. When considering types, the logical order of events frequently displaces the chronological order. Verse 4 tells of Gideon and his three hundred crossing from the west to the east side of the Jordan, while the events described in the last clause of Judges 7: 25 and in Judges 8: 1-3 occurred on the east side of Jordan. Hence, the event described in verse 4 occurred before the events narrated in the last clause of Judges 7: 25 and in Judges 8: 1-3. The explanation: The sacred historian first described unto a completion Gideon’s first battle (Judges 7: 9-22); then he described to a completion that battle in which Gideon did not take a personal part (Judges 7: 23-25); then he described its aftermath (Judges 7: 25 [last clause]-8: 3); then in Judges 8: 4, going back to the end of Gideon’s first battle, the sacred historian describes the pursuit of the Midianites retreating from the first battle by Gideon and his three hundred, who followed them from the Valley of Esdraelon to the Jordan, then across the Jordan eastward.

Type and Antitype of Judges 8: 4-9

The episodes given in verses 5-9 prove that the preparation for, and the fighting of antitypical Gideon’s second battle would not only occur after the separation of antitypical Elijah and Elisha, but after another group of organized Levites would be separate and distinct from the faithful. In fact, the opening clause of verse 11 shows that as antitypical Gideon was marching to the second battle, he passed by and beyond the last group of those Levites who do not believe in organizations controlling their work. Thus, this second battle was not to be entered into until the faithful were separated from all three groups of Levites under bad leadership.

The antitype shows this, for only after the separation of the Amramites, the last subdivision of the third group of antitypical Levites, from the Priests began, that the second battle began. Therefore, verses 4-11 prove that the Lord’s faithful Three Hundred would have a public work to do long after the first and second smitings of Jordan had taken place, and after the Priests had been separated from all eight Levitical groups, as these were led by bad leaders. This helps determine the chronology of the second antitypical battle. True enough, the first attack against antitypical Zebah (Eternal Torment) and Zalmunna (Consciousness of the Dead) was launched on July 18, 2020. Verse 12 refers to the follow-up work.

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