Spiritual Warfare Volume 8 Joseph A Cortes 1 Table of Contents The Emerald Stone and Judah 1 The Fifth Stone 14 Naphtali, the Sixth Son 26 Gad: The Boldness of a Lion 42 Asher 56 Issachar 69 The Prophecy of Zebulun and Issachar 82 Joseph, the Fruitful Bough 101 Jasper, the Final Stone 112 The Emerald Stone and Judah In this series, I am still in the latter part of verse 14, “and having on the breastplate of righteousness...” This is not self-made righteousness, not man-made righteousness, not self- righteousness, not a righteousness that comes through our efforts as a Christian to-do list. No, this is righteousness imputed into us. We are clothed with it because of what Christ has done and provided for us. Often people take the verses that Paul outlines for us in Ephesians 6:10 through 18 about the Christian armor and define what Paul is saying here by using the Roman armor that was available for Paul to see to give us an illustration of what he was saying. That is a good starting point, but it is milk, specifically, it is non-fat milk, not whole milk. And that is where Christianity is stuck. Paul was a scholar of the law of what was available to him in the Old Testament. He was not comparing the armor of a Roman soldier to get the message to the Ephesians. No, he was referring to the High Priest and the breastplate and all the pieces of the armor described in Ephesians 6. Through the breastplate of the High Priest, Paul was showing how important the breastplate was in the Old Testament and to the Israelites. Although the breastplate had its significance in the Old Testament even the Old Testament saints did not know exactly what it would prophecy for the future. But now looking back, we can see clearly the importance, the meaning, the definitions, the understanding and knowledge, and the symbolism that comes from the High Priest's breastplate that all points to Christ and what He has made available to us to protect the center seat of our emotions, the heart, the breastplate. So that is why we begin here with Ephesians 6:14. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;” We have already gone through Exodus 28:15, the priest's clothes, where we read, “And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment [the mishpat ] with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen….” We covered all the colors and the twined linen. We skipped verse 16, but we will come back to it. Then, in verse 17 the stones in the breastplate are described, “And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row.” Currently, we are looking at these stones and the names of the children of Israel, the 12 brothers, engraved on these stones. Verse 18 begins, “And the second row shall be an emerald...” The emerald is where we are now. Skipping to verse 21 we read, 1 “And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.” “And the second row shall be an emerald….” The name of the tribe on the emerald stone is Judah. The emerald is green which always symbolizes life in both Old and New Testament. In this case, the emerald was a bright rich green gem similar to one of those flashing lights that I preached on last time. So, the emerald was a bright rich flashing green gem. It is also the fourth foundational stone in the New Jerusalem and that has significance. It also represents here in verses 21 and 18 the one who rules the lights over the earth. In addition, it represents Jesus Christ, who rules over the lights over this earth and how Christ divides the light from darkness. The chosen ones are us, the saints. We are children of light divided from the children of darkness because we are the saints chosen to carry out His commission to live in the light. This is not just an Old Testament statement here in Exodus 28. It is also found in Ephesians 5:8, “For ye were sometime darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light;” This emerald stone represents life, and it represents the children of the light and Jesus because He rules the light and separates light and darkness. It is a tag on us and it cannot be taken away. Satan might try, but he will be unsuccessful. In the New Testament, I Thessalonians 5:5 says the same thing, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” We are not children destined for destruction; we are children destined for peace and safety throughout eternity. This green colored gem, which symbolizes life, also allows us and our spiritual enemy to know that we are part of the children of light. We are not part of the darkness. Satan likes to live in darkness, and I am not just talking about the nighttime. He likes to keep your mind in darkness. He likes to blind you with darkness. Black becomes white, white becomes black. If he is able to accomplish that, then he has the victory over your life. He is the one who is successful, and Christ is not in the picture. The emerald represents the One who rules over the light. Just as we have looked at three brothers already, Reuben, Simeon and Levi, we begin now with Jacob's fourth son, Judah. Go to Genesis 29:35, “And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the L ORD : therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing [or stood from bearing ].” This is Jacob's fourth son born to Leah, and she named him Judah which means ‘praise ’ because she praised the Lord for showing her favor. Remember she was not the favorite wife. She thought that Rachel and Jacob hated and despised her, but God listened to her plea and heard her voice and she came forth with these first four sons. Judah being the fourth son left her praising the Lord who had shown her favor. Now we march through Genesis as we did with the other brothers and we do not see Judah in the picture until the Joseph story where he has his dream; he became Jacob's favorite son, but the brothers were jealous. We begin where Joseph is looking for his brothers, finds them, they plotted against him, wanted to kill him, but they decided to sell him. We are now in Genesis 37:26. We begin here because Judah’s name is on the fourth stone and we need to see some of his background before we move into the promise and prophesy of Judah. Verse 26 begins, 2 “And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?” They were planning to kill Joseph, and leave him for dead, but Judah steps up and says, “What profit if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?” At least he did not want to kill him. He was not as bad as the others. However, what he did in verse 27 was just as bad because he would go back to his father and lie to him saying that Joseph was dead, some animal tore him up, and the only thing remaining was his bloody torn coat. “Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh.” Well, that is just grand of Judah. Look how he tries to justify not killing his own brother, but then justifies the selling of him. He tells his brothers, “There is money involved, so we can make a profit. We kill two birds with one stone. We get Joseph out of our hair. This silly kid thinks we are going to bow down to him and take orders from him. Well, we will show him. We will sell him and make money off him and see who gets the last laugh. Let's not kill him. After all, he is our brother.” What a lame excuse for selling him. Two wrongs do not make a right in this case. “Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother….” If he is your brother, why sell him? Why not say in this case, “Unto thee, O brother, I have sinned. Forgive us. We had temporary insanity going on. The desert heat got to us.” Not only do I think Joseph would have forgiven them, but he probably would not have mentioned it to his father. But nevertheless, we really do not know what would have happened. We just know what did happen. Verse 27 ends be saying, “…and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. [Because they would get money out of this by selling him as a slave.] Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.” Then the brothers lied.