25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him; lest suddenly the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you are cast into prison.
26 In truth I say to you, You shall by no means come out from there, till you have paid the last cent.
It can be said that this teaching has reference, most likely, to the Roman court and occupation. Saying this enables us to see a prophetic significance by extension. If it is a condition of the Roman occupation then there is an application for all Israel in respect to the whole Roman Captivity. And, like Jeremiah facing Babylon, Yehoshua is saying (in principle), as it were to Jacob, accept this chastisement from the Hand of HaShem and go down into Egypt/Rome from where you will be redeemed with great riches. But if you resist, the captivity will be counted literally as 400 years instead of 210 years (with the remaining years having already been served from the birth of Isaac). This is like the teaching of the rabbis that if Israel is worthy the redemption will come sooner but if she is not worthy then it will come later. Worthiness, according to this principle, is to accept the chastisement: i.e., for Jacob to honor Leah by not rebelling against Laban's (the old nature's treachery), but rather praising HaShem for His goodness, and likewise accepting the sale of Joseph into Egypt. Worthiness, according to this principle is also that Joseph must remain the ruler of Egypt even when it is revealed that he is alive - and Jacob must, even then, go all the way down into Egypt so that the correction of Israel can be fully received.
This is the revelation that when Mashiach comes he will not immediately bring the rule of the Jews over the nations but that both the Jews and the nations will continue to need to be ruled over by Mashiach himself for a period for the correction of Israel to be fully received and then at the end the adversary will even be released for a short time to come against Jerusalem and the whole court of the Mashiach in all the world, (the Pharaoh that did not know Joseph), to try the creature of God in one final trial of correction and then the true end will come and this is the compete re-creation of the world, where mortality puts on immortality and corruption puts on incorruptibility. Then in the eternal world the Jews, being taught to a higher level of Torah education than the gentiles will begin to teach all nations, each at their level, in that eternal academy where the atmosphere is only love and love is only satisfied in ever learning to know the Blessed Holy One better and better.
I would add to this one thing. Matthew 5:25 and 26 can also be read according to the principle of "if the shoe fits, wear it." That is, the reference to the judge can also be to the rabbinic judge where the rabbinic judge is in some way in collusion with the Roman authorities. Now such collusion would not be just on the outer political level but would also be on the deepest spiritual levels, where it is not even realized. If we are understanding the adversary that can deliver us to the judge as being our old nature, agreeing with it can be understood as agreeing that God has created beauty, face to face, to help engender our fruitfulness, etc. But - looking at the adversary as our old nature - here, we do not need to immediately see the judge as being HaShem but can initially see the judge to which the old nature turns us over as being the Torah judges. And the Torah judges, so long as they do not defer to Mashiach defer to the Roman authorities. This deference to the Roman authorities takes the form of the ruling principle that the old nature causes the majority of people to be not be liberal from the heart in their business dealings with others. This causes stringent Torah court rulings, or sometimes reactive lenient rulings, from which there can be no redemption for Israel without paying the last cent. However, even under captivity to the Roman authorities, Rabbi Akiva shows in Bava Basra 71b a way to rule according to the Messianic spirit. See there.
May Yehoshua's peace fill your home.
