Bereansearching Bible Studies

Many people dismiss the Bible as the Word of God. That does not change, or invalidate, what the Bible is. Careful study and searching of the Bible will show that it is the supernaturally crafted Word of God explaining that God is exactly as He describes Himself; that Judgment Day for sin is real; Hell is real; and that the only way of escape to eternal life in Heaven with God is through the Person and Atoning Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Provides His Own Hermeneutic

There are many ways that one can choose to interpret the Bible, but the most trustworthy hermeneutic (method of interpretation) that one can use is that provided by Jesus Himself. On the Road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday following His Resurrection, Jesus taught the following to His disciples, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27). Please note how this was entirely consistent with what Jesus told the Pharisees before He went to the Cross in John 5:39, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” and John 5:46, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” The only scriptures available at that time were what we know today as the Old Testament (“Moses and all the prophets … in all the scriptures“). And Jesus was saying that all of the Old Testament spoke of Him —which careful reading confirms can be found through prophecy, shadows, and “types”. Some “types” representing Jesus are obvious, like Isaac, David, Joshua, or Joseph; others less so, like Jonah, Gideon, Boaz, Mordecai, or Nehemiah. One even less obvious example, but nonetheless quite a significant one, is found in the historical account concerning the man, Barak, in Judges 4 &5.

Barak as a type of Christ Coming in Judgment on Judgment Day

Judges 4–5 records Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam. Barak (a man listed among the great men of faith in Hebrews 11:32) in the original Hebrew is בָּרָק (bārāq)^H1300, which means “lightning”, but also “glittering sword.” Scripture consistently uses the same word, bārāq (or the Greek equivalent in the New Testament), to represent both God’s presence and coming judgment:

• Exodus 19:16 — there were thunders and lightnings^H1300, and a thick cloud upon the mount (Sinai)
• Psalm 77:18 and Psalm 97:4  — His lightnings^H1300 lighten the world; the earth trembled
• Deuteronomy 32:41; Job 20:25 — God’s “glittering sword”^H1300 of vengeance and judgment on His enemies
• Matthew 24:27; Luke 17:24 — the coming of Jesus will be as lightning from east to west on Judgment Day
• Revelation 4:5; 8:5, 11:19; 16:18, — lightnings from the throne and in the coming Judgment

Lightning and thunder belong together: the flash is seen; the voice that follows is heard. Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12) and the Judge whose Word cannot be stopped. Barak led ten thousand down from Mount Tabor into the Kishon valley to destroy the enemy—an earthly picture that clearly echoes the coming of the Lord with His saints on Judgment Day (Jude 1:14–16).

The Hermeneutic Test: Abinoam?

Barak is repeatedly identified as “the son of Abinoam” (Judges 4:6, 4:12; 5:1, 5:12). If Barak is meant by God to serve as a representative “Type” for the Son, Jesus Christ, then consistent with Jesus’ own hermeneutic, then Abinoam should typify God the Father.

Abinoam, in the original Hebrew, אֲבִינֹעַם (‘ăḇînōʿam)^H42 means “father” (אָב(‘āḇ)) ^H1 “of beauty” (נֹעַם (nōʿam)) ^H5278” or “father” (אָב(‘āḇ)) ^H1 “of pleasantness” (נֹעַם (nōʿam)) ^H5278. Noam (“beauty”) is an attribute that God (the LORD) uses to describe Himself (Psalm 27:4; Psalm 90:17). Wisdom, which Scripture also identifies with Christ (John 14:6, and Revelation 2:7 and Revelation 22:2, and John 1:1-4), is described as having ways of “pleasantness” (and “peace“) (Proverbs 3:17); remembering also that Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” according to Isaiah 9:6.

We should also remember that when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, in Matthew 3:17, we read, “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son,  in whom I am well pleased.” If we think about it, we can see how “pleasantness” and “pleased” are closely related… “Pleasantness” = causing pleasure (the source, which in this case is Jesus), while “Pleased” = experiencing pleasure (the receiver, which in this case is God the Father).
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Zechariah’s Prophesy of Jesus’s Betrayal and Atonement

The decisive text is Zechariah 11:10-13. We read there that God cuts “asunder” His staff named “Beauty“, נֹעַם (nōʿam) ^H5278, thereby breaking the covenant with national Israel, and the price that God demands is “thirty [pieces] of silver” and to “cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.” Moreover, we can also infer that the believers knew God was speaking about Jesus, “the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it [was] the word of the LORD.” Remembering that Jesus is “the Word made flesh” as we read in John 1:14.

In Fulfillment of that prophesy, we know that it is Jesus, the Word of the LORD (as we read in John 1:1), Who was cut asunder, and He was broken by God for all believers. Jesus had to come under God’s just judgment and wrath for sin under the first covenant of works, in order that the new covenant of grace in Christ to be instituted. The thirty pieces of silver were the price given to Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus, and that Judas “cast down the pieces of silver in the temple” (“The house of the LORD“), and which were later used to buy “the potter’s field, to bury strangers in” (also known as “the field of blood.” Matthew 27:8 & Acts 1:19.)

We should also note that “thirty shekels” was the legal price of a servant (Exodus 21:32); Jesus is the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:11). If Noam represents Jesus, then the “father of Noam” can also be viewed as the Father of Jesus from a second perspective. Having already identified Barak as representative of Jesus, we can see that the hermeneutical prediction holds. All that was done was to compare scripture with scripture (“spiritual things with spiritual” per 1 Corinthians 2:13), which provides us with another example of how the Bible is its own interpreter.

Conclusion

1. Both the person “Barak” and the application of that name portray Jesus Christ as both lightning and glittering sword—pointing us to Jesus’s coming as the Judge on Judgment Day. 
2. Abinoam is the father of Barak…initially suggested his being a “Type” to represent God the Father, but the name “Abinoam” (Father of Beauty”) also links us to Zechariah’s prophesy where the staff “Beauty” unequivocally represents the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thereby confirming the identified “Type” of Abinoam representing God the Father.
3. Father and Son are seen represented together in this one historical account, which affirms the typological/allegorical methodology and the Bible being inherently self-consistent.

Barak is a shadow, not the substance. Salvation is only through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. (This study is a small excerpt from a more extensive study of Judges 4–5: The Battle of Armageddon—the earthly version already happened.)

We should also remember Jesus’s admonition to the Pharisees to search the scriptures. May we all become more like the Bereans and take the time to search the scriptures to see Jesus.

Brief note on Zechariah 11:14
The second staff, “Bands,” חֵבֶל (ḥēḇel) ^H2256 is cut to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel—the end of the old covenant relationship with national Israel, marked also by the rending of the temple veil upon Jesus’ death (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). The first staff broken is Christ; while the second staff broken is the old bond under the law (“the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23) that His death both fulfilled and replaced, which initiated the new Covenant of Grace (the gift of eternal life) for the eternal Israel of God.

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This entry was posted on July 22, 2023 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Bible Studies. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.