Footsteps in Famine
Why does Yeshua say not to believe it if someone says he is “in the wilderness”?
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For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again. And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. (Mt 24:21-28)
The suggestion is that the generation of Footsteps’ wilderness is a wilderness of a different kind. While the pattern of exodus is a "holding pattern" between Egypt and Israel, the wilderness of the Footsteps may not be a geographic location where all Israel is gathered, at least not in its preliminary stage. It may occur within the geographic locations of their exile.
The Midrash describes a period of “wandering” from town to town for the people of “Galilee” during the Footsteps. Galilee at that time was known as “Galilee of the Nations.” Perhaps the sages foresee the righteous among the nations who are driven to form those little flocks in the wilderness while still in the nations. As an example, this passage contributed by one of our online students, Marcia P., fits this expectation:
- You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. By Your power You have redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph...Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints were not known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (Ps 77:14-20)
While the exodus from Egypt forms the pattern, the prophetic hint is "sea" and "paths." The sea in Scripture represents the nations. The hint is that there may be many paths through which the children of Jacob will be redeemed due to their scattered geographic locations. In a previous newsletter, we took a glance at the "little flocks" that are expected to form among the nations. While truth dims in the world, the truth will be held safe and shine brightly in those little flocks, so much so that the dragon seeks to harass them, pursuing them to the "wilderness." Even though he sends out a flood of wickedness through unceasing evil decrees, he is unable to drown her at that time, for even the earth itself will help and swallow the lethal effects decrees.
The Midrash also predicts that the meeting place of the Torah sages, scholars of the Word, will be used instead for licentiousness during the Footsteps. Anti-Torah activities and behavior will be carried on within the buildings once set apart for the study of the Holy Word. There will be little that distinguishes those who use those buildings from the licentious behavior of the world around them.
In a previous lesson, we also saw the prediction that the Footsteps would be a time when “not a penny is left in a purse” because of economic ruin. Inflation will be high and there will be little money. As in the wilderness, there will only be daily bread even for the righteous, yet they have been prepared for this through their study of the Word, especially the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land.
During this period of "the face of the dog [hypocrisy and lack of shame]," great spiritual scholars and leaders of the Word will die, causing discouragement and wandering among believers.
Insolence will increase, honor will dwindle, and “The vine will produce its fruit, but the wine will be foul.” In other words, there will be many “grapes,” but the grapes are not good, producing foul wine, so Torah is in abundance, but those able to produce good wine from it are few, leaving scarcity in sanctification. Wine for kiddush, or sanctification of the moedim (feast days of Adonai and Shabbat), will be of poor quality. The wine will be so foul that “the world’s dominant power will be drawn after the false beliefs of the heretics, and it will propagate the heresy. No one will be able to rebuke anyone else, for they will all be sinners,” and therefore, hypocrites.
This sounds very much like today's headlines. Those who devour with "woke" words are devoured in the next news cycle for hypocritical behavior, yet they are unashamed and unapologetic unless it is financially expedient. People of faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have never had more access to the Word, yet rarely has the fruit been more foul.
The sources for the following are from the Midrash Rabbah to the Song of Songs Chapter Two, which notes that all commentators do not agree, and that they offer events in a slightly different order. In next week's newsletter, we'll examine how in Revelation, the “horseman” order of The Four Craftmen is different.
The Footsteps in Famine
Birthpangs of Messiah
After the plague that sweeps around the world, the seven-year period of Footsteps begins during which the son of David will come. A progressive famine marks the first three years: “The seven-year period during which the Son of David will come:
- In the first year, that which is stated, ‘I will bring rain on one town, and on one town I will not bring rain (Amos 4:7),’ will be fulfilled.
- In the second year, the arrows of famine will be sent forth against it.
- In the third year, there will be a great famine in which men, women, and children will perish, and pious people of good deeds will become few, and the Torah will be forgotten from Israel.” 2§29
It is thought that for the children of Israel, the first glimpses of the new world will be seen in the last four years.
- In the fourth year, there will be a famine, but not a complete famine, a sufficiency, but not a complete sufficiency.
- In the fifth year, there will be a great sufficiency, and the people will eat, drink, and rejoice, and the Torah will be restored to its original state and be given anew to Israel.
- In the sixth year, there will be sounds of redemption.
- In the seventh year, the Sabbatical year, there will be wars.
- In the aftermath of the seventh year,* the eighth year, the son of David will come.
*”In rabbinic writing, the term shavua is used for one period of the seven-year shemittah cycle described in Leviticus 25:1-7.” In other words, the Footsteps are expected to synchronize with a shmittah cycle on the heels of a worldwide plague.
- “When the seventh year is complete, and the eighth begins, the son of David comes. The Gemara teaches (Arachin 13b): ‘The harp of the Holy Temple was one of seven strings, but that of Messiah will be one of eight strings.’ The number seven is symbolic of the natural world, which was created in seven days. The number eight represents the world of Messiah, which exists on a more elevated plane than the world of seven. The seven notes of this world’s music will be brought into perfect harmony by a newly revealed eighth note, ethereal and pure.”
Here are additional [disputed] notations to the seven years as perceived by the children of Israel:
- In the first year, the famine will be in certain spots while others will be unaffected.
- All areas will suffer a limited famine in the second year.
- The third year is the most severe, even limiting Torah study.
- The fourth year brings signs of recovery.
- In the fifth year, intensive Torah study will return.
- In the sixth year, sounds of the shofar will herald the return from exile.
- In the seventh year, there will be wars between idolatrous nations and Israel. Some say the sixth.
- The seventh and eighth are tied together.
The "axis" of this seven years is the fourth year. The fourth assembly of Revelation, Thyatira, is warned strongly against spiritual immorality, or else she will be thrown into "great tribulation." Tribulation worse than what she has experienced to that point. One might speculate that an unrepentant person of faith reaches a vital decision point in the fourth year of famine. Continue in sin, or repent and experience the last years of famine under the direct supervision and provision of Messiah. Priests and shepherds.
This may be an additional explanation of how those days must be shortened for the sake of the elect. If we consult the pattern of Joseph's administration, there were seven prophesied years of famine. Pharaoh allowed Joseph to administrate the preparations and manage the economy of the seven years. During that seven years, Joseph did exactly what is predicted of the Footsteps, he left not a penny left in a purse except for the priests and Israelite family in Goshen who gathered there with their flocks...and only Joseph could give them seed to try again. Imagine if only Messiah could give the world the Seed to start anew when the famine was over!
If we shorten the "days," we fast-forward to the Exodus. Before we travel on, though, there is one fragment of information that has always puzzled me. In commentary to the days of the famine in Egypt, one Jewish commentator speculates that when Jacob arrived in Egypt, the strength of the famine was broken and it was not as severe as it could have been. Pharaoh honored Jacob for this with an audience that is recorded in the Torah after Joseph presents his "shepherd" brothers to Pharaoh:
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And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.” They also said to Pharaoh, “We have come to reside in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”
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Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. (Ge 47:2-7)
This blessing is thought to be a lessening of the famine's strength in Egypt even though it affected the entire world. In spite of the blessing, the "priests* and shepherds" residing in Egypt were exempt from losing their lives. Joseph had urged his brothers to leave their property in Canaan and not to worry about provisions. He would supply. This merges the shepherd theme of the little flocks in the wilderness of Egypt/the peoples with the expected famine of the Footsteps.
This may be a shadow of what the sages predicted during the Footsteps. Yes, the famine will be severe, even upon the Children of Israel during the first three years...especially the third year...but in the fourth year, the Children of Israel see a break in the clouds. If they have not lost heart (they were not surprised by living in a time of wilderness "daily bread only" and recognized the sounds of Footsteps), they will experience a turning point in the "wilderness of Egypt" and "wilderness of the peoples" from Ezekiel's prophecy. Scott Aaron, an online student and teacher, pointed out that Israel may indeed be led to an encounter in the wilderness: a re-affirmation of the Covenant at Sinai. He writes:
- Regarding Ezekiel 20:35 "wilderness (midbar) of the peoples (ha-amim NOT ha-goyim), and I will judge (shafat) you face to face." As you know, midbar comes from dibbur (speech) and/or debar (word). Deuteronomy 5:4 is a parallel passage "Adonai spoke to you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire... to declare to you the word (debar) of Adonai..." and then goes on to repeat the 10 words. I hope this sheds light on your speculation that the "wilderness of the peoples" event is a possible parallel event to the Sinai event when Israel was brought into the Sinai covenant. It appears we will be brought into the wilderness for a similar re-covenanting event. Wow! Hosea 2:14 also has some similar wilderness language which includes a covenant.
Whether the wars fall in the sixth or seventh years, the Midrash records details of the final redemption by the hands of “blossoms,” or the Four Craftsmen. It is based on Zechariah 1:21:
- “And He spoke saying, ‘...These craftsmen have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of nations who raise a horn against the land of Judah.”
- “And these are the ‘craftsmen’ of Zechariah’s vision: Elijah, King Messiah, Malchizedek, and the Anointed One [Mashiach] of War.” 2§29
In next week's newsletter, we'll explore the prophecies of The Four Craftsmen.
*Although presumably these were priests of Egyptian idols, it is the typology sometimes used in prophecy, not the literal example. For instance, Joseph was "like a father" to Pharaoh, suggesting the typology of the close relationship between the Father and Son Yeshua.
We do plan to live stream more Footsteps on YouTube on Shabbat at 4:00 pm Eastern.
SHABBAT SHALOM!
