When I was first a Christian I used to believe that it was always wrong to tell a lie, no matter what. Both Leviticus 19:11 and Colossians 3:9 talk about not lying to one another. There are scores of verses that talk about honesty.

I was first introduced to the idea of exceptions to this rule by a friend of mine. He spoke about the Chinese Christians who lie to communist authorities while they are escaping from prison and persecution type situations. Also there are Bible smugglers who lie to get Bibles to Christians in persecuted countries. There is a lot of deceit that happens, even with Voice of the Martyrs, doing things in secret and using deception for the sake of the gospel. You could consider this lying.

Didn’t Christians also practice deception and lying during Hitler’s reign to have the Jews? Someone would come to their house and ask if there were Jews there and they would say, “No”.

I am also challenged by the story in 1 Kings 22 where God put a lying spirit in the mouth of his own prophets in order to purposely deceive someone…

The repeated theme is (I think) actually that of the “warrior-bride” tricking the “serpent” before making an escape, as observed by James Jordan in his lectures. This would possibly include all the examples above plus the Hebrew midwives, Rahab’s hiding of the spies, Jael’s deception of Sisera, Michal’s lie after David’s escape and Esther’s “invitation” to Haman. These and many more were “eye for eye” justice from Eve upon the father of lies, the serpent, fulfilled of course in the cross.

It appears again in Revelation, when the serpent vomits out counterfeit living waters (false doctrine) which is swallowed hook, line and sinker by the Judaisers and Jews (the “Land”), but not the saints. In this case it was like Solomon’s sword – a deception that made plain which woman was the true mother of the living child and which woman was lying.

So Eve deceives the serpent. It is ironic justice.

Amalek is the archenemy of the saints. This first Amalek most likely descended from Japheth. Numbers 24:20 paints him as the original great “Sea beast”, and a counterfeit Alpha and Omega.

“Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction.”

Esau moved to Mount Seir and merged with the Horites to become ahybrid part-Canaanite people known as Edomites. One of Esau’s grandsons was named Amalek (Genesis 36:16), which shows a conscious or subconscious alliance between Gentile hatred and false brother hatred of God’s chosen son—a “Land beast”. This has an enormous impact on interpreting the later history of the Bible.1

False Solomon

As the exodus was bracketed by the destruction of Egypt at the beginning, and the destruction of Jericho at the end, so Joshua’s Conquest was bracketed by Jericho at the beginning and Hazor at the end.2 Both Jericho and Hazor, first and last, were devoted, or placed “under the ban”. No plunder was to be taken from them. They refused God’s sacrifice, so they themselves became altars in holy war. They were burned as a whole burnt sacrifice with fire from God’s Altar, and never to be rebuilt (Deuteronomy 13:12-18).3

The next conspiracy of nations was under Jabin in Joshua 11. He was conquered, but another Jabin arose after Israel’s disobedience (Judges 4). Jericho, the first devoted city, had been retaken by an old enemy, so now Hazor, the last devoted city, had been rebuilt and a new Jabin was on the throne. Jabin is a title, and it means “insight” or “he understands” – a false Solomon. The first Jabin was the head of the conspiracy of nations allied against Israel. As a wise ruler, he was the counterfeit “Transfigured King” who gathered Israel’s enemies together “like the sand on the seashore”. The Lord commanded Joshua to burn their chariots, hamstring their horses and plunder all their cities except Hazor. But Israel’s disobedience led to Jabin’s “resurrection”. A wise serpent had ascended from the pit to usurp Israel’s throne.

The narrative in Judges 4 focuses on Jabin’s right hand man, Sisera. Symbolically, Sisera was the seed of the serpent. The account of Deborah, Barak and Jael highlights Eve as the Covenant warrior-mother, tricking the serpent and crushing his skull with a tent peg. As was later said of Mary, mother of Jesus, Jael was “most blessed among women” (5:24). The “offspring” (Barak) of the woman (Deborah) crushed the “offspring” (Sisera) of the serpent (Jabin).4

“I will put enmity between you and the woman…” (Genesis 3:15)

(Interestingly, it appears that Solomon’s building projects included new gates at Hazor. See here.)

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1 See James B. Jordan, Esther: Historical & Chronological Comments (I), Biblical Chronology Vol. 8, No. 3, www.biblicalhorizons.com
2 We will see this same three-city bracketing in the New Testament.
3 See James B. Jordan, The Law of the Covenant, p. 154. Download from www.biblicalhorizons.com
4 See James B. Jordan, Judges: God’s War Against Humanism. Download from www.biblicalhorizons.com