Did Sisera's temples or Jotham's escape prefigure the Gospel story?

rakovsky

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Yeshua pointed to Messianic prefigurements in the TaNaKh like the story of Jonah's release from the Fish, and Messianic Jews have an especially close reading of the TaNaKh. I want to please ask if you share my sense that (A) Yael's nailing Sisera through the temples or (B) Jotham's escape from Abimelech might serve as Messianic prefigurements.

A) Do you think that the nailing through the temples symbolized anything?
To provide background: In Deuteronomy 23:13, the Israelites were instructed to use a spike ("yated") to dig holes for their refuse. In Judges 4, Yael (יָעֵ֣ל) fed sour milk to Sisera, the Canaanite commander who had been attacking the Israelites, made him sleep, took a spike ("yated") and nailed it through Sisera's temples, fastening his head to the ground. In Psalm 22, the Messianic narrator cries that his enemies "gouged (kara) my arms". And then in Psalm 40, David sings, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened (literally: gouged/dug, kara)". I took this to mean that God made ears in David symbolically, allowing him to hear God's word.

My theory was that Yael gouging Sisera's temples symbolized God (Yah, El) digging/gouging/opening symbolic "ears" in gentiles to let them hear His word. I thought that gouging a nail through someone's temples could metaphorically be like gouging "ears" into them. On the other hand, Yael's name is not quite the same as "Yah-El". And I couldn't find anyone else seeing anything special in the nailing of the temples in particular. So I am writing to see whether you think that nailing the temples could represent anything.

I did find that some believers see Yael as prefiguring Yeshua's mother Mary/Miriam, because in Judges 4, Deborah praises Yael as "Blessed among women", reminiscient of Gabriel's praise of Mary in Luke's Gospel. In their theory, Mary's giving birth to Yeshua led to the end of Satan, similar to God's prediction in the Garden of Eden about the Seed of the Woman crushing the Serpent's Head. In their theory, Yael's spike weapon represented the nails in Yeshua's Cross that served as holy instruments in this victory. And the spike going into the skull represented the cross going into Golgotha ("the place of the skull"). But maybe they are also reading too much into these connections?
 
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rakovsky

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B) Do you think that Jotham's escape was a Messianic prefigurement?
In the Book of Judges, the bad contender to Israelite rule, Abimelech, kills many of his half-siblings who have a better claim to rule. He kills them at a large stone that Joshua had placed, and only his half-brother Jotham escapes. Jotham then climbs to a summit of Mount Gerizim and announces a parable (found in Judges, Chapter 9) about trees choosing which tree should rule over them. In the parable, the fig tree, the olive tree, and the vine each avoid becoming the ruler, and finally a thorny bramble, representing Abimelech, is chosen to become the ruler.

Jotham's parable is frequently considered Messianic, with the thorny bramble representing the crown of thorns that becomes Yeshua's crown and the other trees given other prophetic meanings.

However, my question is whether Jotham's escape is also Messianic? Since Jonah's release from the Fish, Joseph's release from the Slaver's pit, and Daniel's release from the Lion's Den are often considered Messianic prefigurements, I wonder whether Jotham's escape could also be considered a Messianic prefigurement. Since his parable is seen as a prophetic parable, I wonder if this would make him a prefiguring "type" of the Messiah, and if his escape from the stone where Abimelech was going to kill him with his brothers could represent the Messiah's resurrection after the Crucifixion on the rock of Golgotha.
 
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rakovsky

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In being born in water and spirit.

How many times was water poured till Fire lit the altar?
It was Three times as 1 Kings 18 says for Elijah's instructions:
“Fill four waterpots and pour the water on the offering and on the wood.” “Do it a second time,” he said, and they did it a second time. “Do it a third time,” he said, and they did it a third time.
 
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rakovsky

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Other than Jotham, who gave a Christological parable pointing to the crown of thorns, escaped and his brothers were killed on a stone, it is hard to see whether Jotham served as a special prefigurement of Yeshua the way that, say, Isaac and Joseph did.
Here is the passage about Jotham's escape in Judges 9:
1 And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,

2 Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

3 And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.

4 And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baalberith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.

5 And he went unto his father's house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.

6 And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.

7 And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.
A Biblical commentary noted that this passage reflected an ancient practice of a claimant to the throne killing his brothers who could be competitors, in this case Abimelech killing his half-brothers in order to take the throne.

If I had to read this passage Christologically, it would be in some kind of inverse form. Abimelech "communing" with his full brothers would be like the Last Supper, the 70 pieces of silver would be like the pieces of silver given to Judas, the 70 victims would be like 70 apostles who were Jesus' "brothers". The 70 brothers' killing and Jotham's escape would be an inversion of Christ's killing and the apostles' escape at Gethsemane. The killing on the stone could be pointing to the Crucifixion on Golgotha, or if it meant that they were knocked down from the stone and killed, then it could point to the killing of Yeshua's brother James, who in early traditions was knocked down from a wall and stoned.
 
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rakovsky

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I appreciate your reply. Maybe you are right.

If this is a kind of inverted prefigurement in the case of Jotham, it could be harder to see. Worship in the Northern Kingdom, which focused on Mount Gerizim where Jotham made his speech was a kind of inverted or deviant version of Judah's worship. Worship was supposed to be at the Temple, but the Northern Kingdom focused on the mountain.

In an inverted prefigurement, maybe his preaching on the mount about the Israelites' future after his escape represents an inversion of Yeshua's Great Commission on the mount in Matthew's Gospel.
 
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