• Home
  • Studies
  • Book of Jeremiah – Jer 47:1-7 The Day… Cometh to Spoil all the Philistines

Book of Jeremiah – Jer 47:1-7 The Day… Cometh to Spoil all the Philistines

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Jer 47:1-7 The Day… Cometh to Spoil all the Philistines

[Study Aired July 31, 2022]

Jer 47:1  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
Jer 47:2  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
Jer 47:3  At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
Jer 47:4  Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
Jer 47:5  Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
Jer 47:6  O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
Jer 47:7  How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.

The Philistines are first mentioned in the time of Abraham when he ‘made a covenant with Abimelech’ the king of the Philistine city of Gerar (Gen 20:2):

Gen 21:32  Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

The Philistines were already in the promised land when Israel came up out of Egypt. They were in the promised land, but they were there without the benefit of being circumcised. The promised land itself signifies the promise Christ has given to live His life within us. ‘The promised land’ signifies our physical bodies as “the temple of God… [in] vessels of clay… [and] earthen vessels”:

Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye [Our physical bodies (Rom 12:1)] are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

It is in that sense the Philistines typify the very beginning of our relationship with Christ as ‘carnal babes in Christ’. The false doctrine of a ten-second sinner’s prayer has blinded the eyes of most Christians from even being aware that in the beginning of our relationship with Christ we are all ‘carnal… babes in Christ’:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The Philistines typify our own flesh while we are ‘carnal babes in Christ’. We can see clearly that a ‘carnal babe in Christ’ is not yet circumcised in spirit, and is therefore “yet carnal” even though he is in the promised land, signifying that he is in a carnal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We all begin our relationship with Christ the same as these carnal Corinthians proclaiming that we are Catholic or Protestant. We are in the land of promise, but we are still spiritually uncircumcised of heart in spirit.

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Like a “carnal babe in Christ” the Philistines are in ‘the promised land’ but without the benefit of circumcision. As such “at that time the Philistines [have] dominion over [us]”, as the story of Samson graphically demonstrates:

Jdg 14:1  And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Jdg 14:2  And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
Jdg 14:3  Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

There are many spiritual lessons for us to unwrap in these four verses of Judges 14, and the first spiritual message is to see what a spiritual ‘Philistine’ means. Until we understand the spiritual significance of these people being ‘in the land’ in an uncircumcised state of being, this prophecy against “the Philistines” will be nothing more than a historical account of how the Lord used a physical man named Samson to deliver His physical people from their physical enemies. Once we come to see that Christ in us is the promised land, and once we are finally given to understand that as “carnal babes in Christ” we have these uncircumcised Philistines within us, and that these uncircumcised Philistines and the uncircumcised giants among them, dwell within us, then we can at last begin to slay them with the five smooth stones of grace through faith and begin to cleanse and purify the temple of God which temple we are.

Jer 47:1  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.

Samson’s attraction to a Philistine woman betrays the immaturity which his Nazarite vow portrays:

Jdg 13:1  And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
Jdg 13:2  And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.
Jdg 13:3  And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.
Jdg 13:4  Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
Jdg 13:5  For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

We may have been led to believe that taking on a Nazarite vow indicates some degree of spiritual maturity, but the truth is quite the opposite. While a Nazarite vow does indeed signify a very special calling, a call to dedicate one’s life to the Lord’s service, it also signifies the most immature stage of that service. The Nazarite vow, as demonstrated by the examples of both Samson and John the Baptist, signifies each of us as ‘carnal babes in Christ’. Samson was “a Nazarite unto God from the womb” and so was John the Baptist:

Luk 1:13  But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
Luk 1:14  And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
Luk 1:15  For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

John the Baptist being ‘filled with the holy spirit’ is not an early version of the filling of the holy spirit which occurred on the day of Pentecost. It is rather in the same sense that Samson was filled. It was a filling which gave him the strength to remain faithful to his immature outward Nazarite calling. Likewise, John the Baptist being ‘filled with the holy spirit’ had no more in common with spiritual maturity than the “first Adam” has with “the last Adam”. Both ‘Adams’ are in “the same [clay] vessel” but the first is destined to “dishonor [and] destruction” and “the last… Adam” is destined to “honor” and to becoming a king and priest with Christ for a thousand years, to be followed with the judgment of angels in the lake of fire.

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Both Samson and John typify Christ, who through their deaths bring light and life to the Lord’s people. Neither Samson nor John will be in the kingdom of God as Christ revealed with these words concerning John’s function in His plan:

Mat 11:11  Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Luk 7:28  For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Christ also told His apostles:

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Lest there be any doubt that the great men of God of the Old Testament are less than the least in the kingdom of God, Peter makes it very clear with these words:

1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Just as Mother Eve’s spiritually nude condition caused her to want to eat of the forbidden fruit, it was also Samson’s immature, Nazarite condition which caused him to be attracted to a Philistine woman instead of the daughters of his own people. Here is the URL to the first of a two-part study on the spiritual significance of the Nazarite vow:

The Spiritual Significance of the Nazarite Vow

Neither ‘strong drink’ nor ‘strong meat’ can be accepted and processed and digested by a carnal babe in Christ.

Samson’s blatant disregard of his father’s admonition speaks for itself concerning his immature position in the promised land. This lack of any fear of the Lord must be burned out of us before we will be granted to ‘go on unto perfection and maturity’. That is what the judgment of the Philistines accomplishes within us:

Jer 47:2  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land [of the Philistines, the promised land], and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
Jer 47:3  At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;

The death of Goliath and the routing of the entire army of the Philistines serve to support these words in the New Testament:

Jud 1:12  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

When Samson married the woman of Timnath, “of the daughters of the Philistines” he willingly prepared a feast with the family and friends of his new wife:

Jdg 14:10  So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.
Jdg 14:11  And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

This feast with ‘thirty companions’ of the uncircumcised Philistine family into which Samson was marrying tells those who are given spiritual vision and spiritual hearing that Samson is about to begin the process of being judged. Here is the URL on the spiritual significance of the number three:

Numbers in Scripture – Three, the Process of Spiritual Completion Through Judgment

We are told that David slew Goliath with a stone from his sling:

1Sa 17:50  So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

Because the Philistines within us must be ‘twice dead’ by the ‘sword of the word’ this is what the holy spirit inspired to be written in the very next verse:

1Sa 17:51  Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

Jer 47:4  Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.

It is very instructive to know that the Philistines and the Caphtorim are both the descendants of Mizraim, which is Egypt:

Gen 10:13  And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
Gen 10:14  And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.

The Philistines and the Caphtorim are both the children of Mizraim and the name ‘Mizraim’, which appears only four times in the King James Version, actually appears in the Hebrew 681 times and it is always translated as ‘Egypt’ or ‘Egyptian’ or the plural ‘Egyptians’:

Knowing this very close relationship between Egypt and the Philistines makes it very clear that the only difference between the spiritual significance of these two enemies of the people of the Lord is that the one is in Egypt, persecuting the Lord’s people, signifying the bondage of the Lord’s people to the carnal rebellious world. The other is an uncircumcised Philistine ‘carnal babe in Christ’ which is also just an uncircumcised Egyptian who is in the land of promise, having a relationship with the Lord’s people but, as a presumptuous and unruly child, always attempting to dominate the Lord’s household. The Lord will not yield to His rebellious “carnal… babes in Christ”. Instead, He will punish them and destroy the kingdom of the first man Adam within His house… His temple.

Jer 47:5  Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?

Baldness has both a positive and a negative application. In its positive application it was simply a self-imposed part of the mourning process:

Job 1:20  Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,

Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves nor make themselves bald for them:

In its negative application, baldness was inflicted upon an enemy to humiliate him:

1Ch 19:4  Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away.

Isa 3:17  Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts.

Isa 3:24  And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

Cutting oneself was forbidden by the Lord while being common among the Gentiles.

Deu 14:1  Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

The Lord is our Father, and it is His will, and His alone, to chasten and scourge those He loves. We are not given to take that scourging upon ourselves. Nevertheless, the Lord’s people followed the customs of the nations around them and also cut themselves, as Jeremiah reveals when speaking of Judah’s impending judgments:

Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Jer 16:2  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
Jer 16:3  For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 16:5  For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Jer 16:7  Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

The prophets of Baal cut themselves in their efforts to get Baal’s attention, but the Lord has not given the spirit world to communicate with this realm to that degree, and Baal did not hear them:

1Ki 18:25  And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
1Ki 18:26  And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
1Ki 18:27  And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey,  or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
1Ki 18:28  And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
1Ki 18:29  And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

The spirit realm can, and does, tempt us to disobey the words of the Lord, but the Lord’s people are always forbidden communications with that realm:

Lev 19:31  Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

Lev 20:6  And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

1Sa 28:3  Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.

However, the sword of ‘the Lord’s servant’, Nebuchadnezzar, is not at all restrained and is given to destroy the symbol of our old  man and his kingdom, signified by the Philistines within our land:

Jer 47:6  O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
Jer 47:7  How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.

It is by the Lord’s words we are purged of the giants like Goliath and the armies of the Philistines within us. The Lord’s words are signified abundantly by both fire and water, an apparent contradiction which serves to keep the mysteries of the kingdom of God hidden from those who have not been given eyes to see nor ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God and the things of the spirit (Mat 13:10-15, 1Co 2:13-14).

As ‘fire’ the Words of the Lord burn up all the ‘wood, hay, and stubble’ within us:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

As ‘water’ the Lord’s words are “rivers of living waters” springing out of the bellies of the Lord’s elect, washing us clean:

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great  day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Other related posts