From Chapter 22: The Zeal of the Lord

The fame of Gideon’s victory extends beyond the record of the book of Judges. Isaiah comes back to “The Day of Midian” in chapter 10 verse 26: “And the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb”, and in Psalm 83, where the psalmist prays: “Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, ‘Let us take for ourselves the pastures of God for a possession. O my God, make them like the whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind!’” (Ps. 83:11-13). Many prophetic voices today would say that God is preparing the Church for history’s final confrontation between darkness and light, and is raising up the Gideons of this generation who will carry the banner for Jesus and see the works of the evil one destroyed in His name. But the aim of defeating the enemy is not just that we can reclaim our “pastures” and live in prosperity, health and happiness: it is that Jesus should be glorified. The psalmist continues: “That they may know that You, whose name alone isthe Lord, are the Most High over all the earth” (Ps. 83:18). Every stronghold pulled down is ground gained for the King. Wherever the light has overcome the darkness it brings glory to the Lord. The glorious cause we are fighting for is the increase of the Kingdom of God. It’s time to leave the shelter of the winepress behind and feel the wind on the threshing floor.

Read Isaiah 9:6-7 again. Ultimately, what is it that increases the government of Jesus? What is it that builds the Kingdom of God on Earth? The victories that we win in the name of Jesus take the ground and glorify His name, but there is another, higher element above them all; an over-arching rallying cry from Heaven that is the primary thrust of the increase of the Kingdom of God, and without which no Gideon will prevail. The only thing that will “perform this” is “the zeal of the Lord of Hosts”. The perfect love that drives out fear and the zeal of the Lord are one and the same passion.

The primary meaning of the word “zeal” used here refers to sexual passion or ardour. Our God is a jealous God: He refers to Himself in the Old Testament as Israel’s husband, betrayed by her unfaithfulness (as illustrated for example in the book of Hosea); and Jesus is the coming bridegroom whose marriage is the culmination of the entire Bible story. In Zechariah 1:14 the Lord of Hosts says, “I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal.” All the passion in the word of God points forward to the marriage of the Lamb to His prepared, perfected bride. How does the bridegroom say His Kingdom will increase while the bride is being prepared?

He tells us the gates of Hell will not prevail against it: His warrior army will bring Him glory. “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place” (2 Cor. 2:14 nasb). But while Isaiah proclaims that it is only “the zeal of the Lord that will accomplish this”, the zealous Lord Himself tells us (Matt. 11:12) that “the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force”. When Jesus made this well-known statement he had just commanded the twelve to go out and preach the kingdom of God: “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:7-8). What they had just “freely received” was His authority to demonstrate the life-giving power of this Kingdom (Matt. 10:1). When, a short while later, John’s disciples came to ask Jesus whether He really was the coming Messiah who would usher in the kingdom of God, He pointed to the works that were being done – the sick healed, demons cast out, the dead raised – as proof of His credentials. In His reference to the Kingdom of heaven “suffering violence” and being “taken by force” by “the violent”, His time-frame was very specific: He said that this had been happening since the days of John the Baptist until the time He was speaking. The word used here, Harpazō, means to seize on, or eagerly lay claim to. There appears to be an inescapable logic here: those violent ones, whose way was prepared by John the Baptist, were Jesus and His disciples. No other human being in the world at that time had the power and authority to bring the light of Heaven to the darkness of Earth. Jesus possessed it because the Father had given it to Him (John 3:35), and He in turn freely gave it to His disciples. The scope of that Kingdom authority was extended when He sent out the 70 a little later; again on the mount of ascension when He commissioned His followers to go into all the world; and finally when He delivered it to the Church through the Holy Spirit. We are sent out with the authority to claim back what is ours in Christ.