Biblical Insights, Geographical Parables, Part 2: The River Kishon (The Snare of Judgment Day)
Map source: https://sonlightcamp.org/2017/01/15/first-light/
Introduction
Concerning end-times prophecy, you can pick up almost any book on the subject today and you’ll find many references to “the Battle of Armageddon” (mentioned in Revelation 16:16). In those books you’ll often find a description of some future earthly/physical battle that the authors believe will take place between various nations of the world and national Israel in the literal physical location of the plain of Megiddo in northern Israel. Is there any validity to this interpretation? We need to take a closer look at what God has to say in Judges chapters 4&5, focusing in particular on the roles of Deborah and Barak in the destruction of the Canaanites and the implications that they hold for us today.
And as we proceed in this post, looking only at one geographical location of the Bible, the River Kishon, please bear in mind that the Judges 4 account is entirely prophetic! Although the events in the account actually occurred in history, and are accurately recorded in the Bible, the account nonetheless foretells what will occur in the short period just prior to the end of the world and Judgment Day when Jesus returns from Heaven on the clouds of Glory and destroys this world and all who hate God and His Word.
Barak, serving as a “Type” of the Lord Jesus Christ, came down from Mount Tabor with Deborah and 10,000 men (who are together “Types” of the Eternal Church of God, the “Saints”) with Barak to destroy all the Canaanites (“Types” of the enemies of God, the unsaved of the world ) at the River Kishon in the Valley of Megiddo (Jezreel) (Which altogether develop a “Type” of Judgment Day).
This post is an another excerpt of a larger exposition on Judges 4&5. It shows how perfectly God uses allegories to convey spiritual truths that can be understood if God graciously gifts us the eyes to see (and if we make the effort to look, by prayerfully reading the Bible, as God lovingly instructs us to so read).
The River Kishon is at the Foot of Mount Tabor (to which Judgment Comes from Heaven Like a “Snare” Upon All Mankind)
In Judges 4:7, we read how God, speaking through Deborah, would bring Sisera to the river Kishon* קִישׁוֹן (qîšôn)H7028 (meaning “winding” or “twisted/bent“, like a fishhook?) from the Hebrew root word “qowsh”(קוֹשׁ (qôš)) H6983, which is the diminutive of “yaqosh” (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš))H3369, meaning “entangled” or “to set a trap or snare” like that of a fowler) that is located at the foot of mount Tabor in the middle of the plain of Megiddo (from which Armageddon is derived) for Barak to meet in battle.
Nonetheless, God promises security from Judgment Day to the believer who trusts in the LORD Jesus Christ, as we read in Psalm 91:1-3, “¶He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, [He is] my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341 of the fowler (קוֹשׁ (qôš)H6983, [and] from the noisome pestilence.“
Also a fishhook is, without doubt, also a “snare” as we read in Amos 4:2, “The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.“
The Allegorical Location of the Battle of Armageddon (Judgment Day) Is SET AS A “SNARE“
God makes it clear in Judges 5:19 that the battle in Judges chapter 4 is to be linked both geographically with the valley of Megiddo, and therefore there is no question of its relationship spiritually to the the location representing the end of the world that is known as the Battle of Armageddon, “The kings came [and] fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.”
Note how this ties in with Revelation 16:16-18, which tells us, “¶And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.”
Another link between Armageddon and Judgment Day, when Jesus returns as Judge (but also with salvation for the believers), can be found in Zechariah 12:10-12 “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.” And these verses are referring back to 2 Kings 23:29, when King Josiah was slain by Pharaoh Nechoh in the valley of Megiddo and there was a great mourning for King Josiah in Jerusalem. (Hadadrimmon is a town in the valley of Megiddo named after two false gods of Syria (Haddad and Rimmon))
And we know from Judges 5:21 that the Valley of Megiddo is through which the river Kishon flows (1 Kings 18:40), “The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.”
On the one hand, we know from Joshua 23:13, that to God would use other nations as “snares” and “traps” to punish the disobedient of His people, “Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out [any of] these nations from before you; but they shall be snares (פַּח (paḥ))H6341and traps (מוֹקֵשׁ (môqēš)) H4170 unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.“
Psalm 35:8, “Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net (רֶשֶׁת (rešeṯ)) H7568 that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.“
We also note that in Psalm 69:22&23 we read, “Let their table become a snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341 before them: and [that which should have been] for [their] welfare, [let it become] a trap (מוֹקֵשׁ (môqēš)) H4170. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.” These verses are referenced in Romans 11:9&10, ¶And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway”.
Backstory to Judges Chapters 4 and 5
These two chapters make it clear that God had raised up the Canaanites to punish Israel for its apostasy. In Judges 2:1-3, we read, “¶And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare (מוֹקֵשׁ (môqēš)) H4170 unto you.”
Note also that the wicked do try to “snare” the righteous, but, nonetheless, they will be caught in the net of their own devices as we read in,
Psalm 35:8, “Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net (רֶשֶׁת (rešeṯ)) H7568 that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.“
Psalm 64:5, “They encourage themselves [in] an evil matter: they commune of laying snares (מוֹקֵשׁ (môqēš)) H4170 privily; they say, Who shall see them?“
Psalm 140:5, “The proud have hid a snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341 for me, and cords (or bands, (חֵבֶל (ḥēḇel) H2256); they have spread a net (רֶשֶׁת (rešeṯ)) H7568 by the wayside; they have set gins (מוֹקֵשׁ (môqēš)) H4170 for me. Selah.“
Psalm 141:9 &10, Keep me from the snares (פַּח (paḥ))H6341 [which] they have laid (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš))H3369 for me, and the gins (מוֹקֵשׁ (môqēš)) H4170 of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets (מִכְמָר (miḵmār))H4364, whilst that I withal escape.“
Psalm 142:3, “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341 for me.“
Proverbs 14:27, “The fear of the LORD [is] a fountain of life, to depart from the snares (מוֹקֵשׁ (môqēš))H4170 of death.“
Psalm 124:7, “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341 of the fowlers (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš))H3369: the snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341 is broken, and we are escaped.”
Job 19:6, “Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net (מָצוּד (māṣûḏ)) H4686.”
Psalm 66:11, “Thou broughtest us into the net (מָצוּד (māṣûḏ)); H4686 thou laidst affliction upon our loins.“
Ezekiel 12:13, “My net רֶשֶׁת (rešeṯ))H7568 also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare:מָצוּד (māṣûḏ) H4686 and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.“
Ezekiel 17:20, “And I will spread my net (רֶשֶׁת (rešeṯ))H7568 upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare (מָצוּד (māṣûḏ)), H4686 and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.“
Ecclesiastes 9:12, “For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net (מָצוֹד (māṣôḏ))H4685, and as the birds that are caught in the snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341; so [are] the sons of men snared (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš))H3369 in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.“
That “evil time” is Judgment Day, and that “snare” the Hebrew “qowsh”(קוֹשׁ (qôš)) H6983, which is the diminutive of “yaqosh” (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš))H3369, meaning “entangled” or “to set a trap or snare“, is the word from which Kishon (the river) is derived, and clearly tells us it is allegorically pointing to the ultimate “snare” for mankind that awaits everyone who is unsaved on Judgment Day!
Isaiah 8:15, “And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš)) H3369, and be taken.“
Isaiah 24:18, “And it shall come to pass, [that] he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.”
Isaiah 28:13, “But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš)) H3369, and taken.“
Jeremiah 50:24, “I have laid a snare (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš)) H3369 for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.” Remember that “Babylon” represents “the world” when Judgment Day comes (Revelation 14:8, Revelation 16:19, Revelation 17:5, Revelation 18:2, Revelation 18:10, Revelation 18:21).
Lamentations 3:47, “Fear and a snare (פַּחַת (paḥaṯ))H6354 is come upon us, desolation and destruction.”
Finally, Proverbs Chapter 7 is a parable that addresses the dangers of being enticed by, and falling prey to, a false gospel, typified by the harlot, the strange woman/adulteress, that snares the unwary, simple ones who are “void of understanding”. Proverbs 7:23 tells us the end of such as a result, “Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare (פַּח (paḥ))H6341, and knoweth not that it [is] for his life.” And then the stern warning by God to everyone in the last verse of the chapter, Proverbs 7:27, “Her house [is] the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.“
Jesus Warned of The Snare to Come!
Remember, that Jesus spoke of Judgment Day in the context of a “snare” in Luke 21:34&35, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare (παγίς (pagis))G3803 shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.”
And look at how Jesus statement harmonizes with what God gives to us in Psalm 9:15-17, “The heathen are sunk down in the pit [that] they made: in the net (רֶשֶׁת (rešeṯ))H7568 which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth: the wicked is snared (נָקַשׁ (nāqaš)) H5367 in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, [and] all the nations that forget God.” And again, please also note the consistency with Psalm 35:8, “Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net (רֶשֶׁת (rešeṯ)) H7568 that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.“
And the harmony with Psalm 11:6, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares (פַּח (paḥ))H6341, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: [this shall be] the portion of their cup.“
Please note also that God tells us clearly in Isaiah 28:13 that those, who refuse to hear the Word of God, will be condemned as though they would be caught in a snare. “But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared (יָקֹשׁ (yāqōš))H3369, and taken.” (Again this is the very root word from which Kishon (the river) is derived.)
Moreover, regardless of the derivation of mount Tabor, which the evidence provided above (and in more detail in a separate post) makes a strong case for mount Tabor to represent Heaven, there is no doubt that God clearly has established severe Judgment at the foot of mount Tabor in association with the river Kishon (“to snare”), and the Megiddo (e.g., Armageddon) valley that it flows through. This is because it is also a fact that after Elijah confounded the 450 prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:20-40 on top of mount Carmel (near the Mediterranean Sea), that we read in verse 40, “And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.“
We should also take particular note that both mount Tabor and mount Carmel are both mentioned in the same verse in Jeremiah 46:18, “[As] I live, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor [is] among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, [so] shall he come.” It would seem that God is saying that He Is surely coming again in Judgment (on Judgment Day) as surely as He did bring Judgment to the valley of Megiddo (Armageddon) from both mount Tabor and mount Carmel in the past.
*Note: The destruction of Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon is corroborated in Psalm 83:9, “Do unto them as [unto] the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison (Kishon):” Also in 1 Samuel 12:9, when Samuel was chastising the people of Israel by recounting God’s mighty works and God’s punishments for apostasy, “And when they forgat the LORD their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.“
Conclusion
In this study we have seen yet another case where God has masterfully crafted history, and the recording of it, and in this case particularly the use of geography, to prefigure the return of the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgment Day. Judgment Day will be the last event in history when the Lord Jesus Christ will come back in the clouds of Glory from Heaven (as “Typified” by Mount Tabor) to destroy all wickedness, and send all of the unsaved to an eternity in Hell, and put an end to this entire creation, which is under the curse of sin. It will mark the end of time and the beginning of eternity wherein righteousness will dwell in new heavens and a new earth forever. Judgment Day will come upon all mankind as an unexpected “snare” (or net) to which we have nonetheless all been forewarned!
In 2 Peter 3:10 we read, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” But thankfully in 2 Peter 3:13 we read, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.“
Today’s Application: Are You Ready?
Jesus is the only Way of escape from the just penalty for our sins. All other ways that man can devise will lead only to Hell come Judgment Day. You are either with God or against God. Have you made peace with God through Jesus Christ? Please pray to God for mercy through Jesus Christ and He will show you mercy. Judgment Day is for any individual only a heart beat away, but for the world it is coming very soon, given all of the signs of the times that we are currently all living in.
Explore posts in the same categories: Bible Studies
Bereansearching Bible Studies 
Leave a comment