Footsteps of Messiah:
The Greater Exodus Part Four:
Warriors on the Move
In the last newsletter, we looked at key “prepping” points for the Greater Exodus as children of Sarah, Jerusalem above and temples of the Ruach HaKodesh. We saw the need to:
- guard against wickedness entering her house, a temple of the Ruach HaKodesh
- pray for her generation (until the Holy One Himself seals our lips)
- obey the Covenant, especially assembling on Shabbat and at the feasts, conspicuously holding daily "services" the lost may easily find because they are landmarks
This week, we’ll identify the traits of the warriors of a thousand generations gathering to Jerusalem. Here is our working text:
Your neck is like the tower of David,
Built with rows of stones
On which are hung a thousand shields,
All the round shields of the mighty men. (So 4:4)
To understand a thousand shields and generations, we look at the First Mention of a thousand:
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To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.” (Ge 20:16)
When Avimelekh “redeems” Sarah’s reputation to a thousand generations, the earlier part of the story gives context.
In ancient times, rape was viewed as less permissible than killing the husband and then taking the wife. For this reason, Avraham twice uses the deception "Say you are my sister" to protect himself. In a sense, the serpent “killed” Adam and then had access to Eve, perhaps the source of some strange doctrines pertaining to the serpent and Eve. It is a spiritual metaphor, not a physical relationship. In Sarah, the 1,000 generations were in jeopardy, yet her reputation, which was held captive, was redeemed with 1,000 pieces of silver. In Messiah Yeshua, the serpent killed the Bridegroom, yet he resurrected, zealous with love stronger than the grave.
Once confronted with the plague on his house because he held Sarah unlawfully, Avimelekh seeks to rectify the wrong and clear Sarah's name to lift the plague.
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“And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered [ra-ah-”seen”], that you have done this thing?” Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God [Yirat Elohim] in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she actually is my sister...” (Ge 20:10-12)
Avraham worried that there was no Yirat Elohim, or fear/reverence of Elohim. This is the seventh spirit of Adonai listed in Isaiah, which Creation Gospel students know quite well! It is the Shabbat spirit. Why does Avraham say "Elohim" instead of "YHVH"? Perhaps it is because he does not think Avimelekh knows the Creator as YHVH, as Pharaoh did not, but probably he was familiar with variations of "El" or "Elohim" as Creator. The important point is that Avraham did not identify any reverence (also translated as fear) of Elohim in Avimelekh's city-state. Where there is no reverence of Adonai, there is little respect for rule of moral law.
It is no accident that Yirat Adonai is connected to Shabbat and the Temple:
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“You are awesome [norah, from yareh, נוֹרָא יָרֵא], O God, from Your Sanctuaries.” (Ps 68:35/36)
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“From where does the awe of God issue forth if not from the Holy Temple? Thus does it state, ‘My Sabbaths shall you observe, and My Sanctuary shall you fear [tira-u תִּירָאוּ] (Le 26:2).’” (Shir 4§7)
- “This verse indicates that the Sanctuary is sanctified in its destruction just as it was sanctified when it still stood.” (ibid)
Fear of Elohim is what Avraham pointed out was lacking among Avimelekh’s people, who would murder him for access to his wife as the serpent “murdered” Adam to corrupt his children with sin. Just as Adam and Eve (bride and bridegroom) lost their dwelling place in the Garden, so the serpent seeks to prevent the Bride and Bridegroom from entering in sanctity of Torah covenant.
Sarah, representing her descendants Israel, maintained her sanctity in the Fear of Elohim, which preserved 1,000 generations. Prophetically, the Vineyard of Israel is already “cleared before all men” by 1,000 pieces of silver. The thousand shields are a thousand generations, Israel. How are they "conspicuous" in their generations? One way their necks are like the Tower of David, the Temple, is their observance of Shabbat. They both are a Sanctuary and reverence His Sanctuary. They cease from their labors on Shabbat because they continue to reverence Him. These are the offspring of Sarah and Avraham. These are the warriors of a thousand generations, polishing their shields in reverence for the Holy One. Because they remember the covenant of Torah, He remembers them:
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Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations... (1Ch 16:15)
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He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations... (Ps 105:8)
The warrior comprehends the Word:
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (G2638) it. (Jn 1:1-5)
The Torah is a light, and the commandment is a lamp. The Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The Torah is the Word. The Word is the Torah. The one who "comprehends" this is a warrior:
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“comprehend” G2638 katalambanō Sept. for הִשִּׂיג, לָכַד, also for מָצָא, etc.; (from Homer down); to lay hold of; i. e.: to lay hold of so as to make one's own, to obtain, attain to: with the accusative of the thing; the prize of victory
The Torah is a Tree of Life to those who take hold of her. To comprehend something Biblically is not just to understand how it works; it is to grab it! Take hold of it! Pursue it! Seek it!
Its many contexts support the meaning of actively seeking for [and finding] something. Darkness is the “place” and identity of those who do not seek the Word actively; therefore, they cannot obtain. The Word must be sought to obtain its Light of the Torah and Lamp of Mitzvah (commandment). We are not passive recipients. This is the inheritance of Sarah’s Tent to the children of Avraham.
Now let's look again at the fuller context of the 1,000 generations of Israel:
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“The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. He also confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan, as the portion of your inheritance.’” (1 Ch 16:16-18)
Psalm 105 repeats 1 Chronicles 16.
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“All the thousands and myriads that crossed the Jordan River and whom I shielded (from the Canaanite kings), I shielded only in the merit of the one who came for a thousand generations, i.e, Yehoshua [Avot 1:1]. And it is not you alone who depended upon the merit of Yehoshua, but all shiltei, the mighty men, for anyone who rises and rules and prevails over his evil inclination, such as Moses in his time, David in his time, and Ezra in his time, their whole generation depends on their merit.” (Shir 4§7)
Anyone...ANYONE...who seeks the Word of Yeshua, takes hold of it, and lives by it, is a mighty warrior and a shield for his or her generation. The hopelessness of this generation reflects the Evil One's desperate last attempt to keep the shield of the last generation from taking its place on the Tower of David, the Temple. Yeshua taught the warriors of 1,000 generations how to pray:
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from [the, G3588 ho] evil.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
As Yehoshua was a mighty shield to 1,000 generations, the sages and Yeshua (contraction of Yehoshua) teach that ANYONE who rules over “the evil” in his generation becomes a shield to that generation. The world depends upon those shields who defend the spiritual stature of the “Tower of David.” While the evil inclination will be bound for the duration of the millennium, it is those who fight it in their generation who are the warriors and shields standing between utter destruction and salvation, like the Temple. They are the little sanctuaries offering gifts and sacrifices on behalf of the nations in each generation.
The context of “The Lord’s Prayer” is acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Adonai and His role as supplier of help in both earthly needs and the spiritual need for strength to withstand the evil inclination, which becomes a satan to accuse us.
We cease secular work and our “own thing” on Shabbat because we are shields hung on the Tower of David, protecting the world by reverencing His Sanctuary, who we are, on His holy Shabbat.
- “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Is 58:13-14)
To delight in the Shabbat and become a functional sanctuary, we have to change our hearts from “Oh, how awesome I am” to “Oh, how awesome He is!” Otherwise, we will seek our own pleasure rather than what pleases Him. What pleases Him is to minister to others and bring them into the “House” so that He may be a sanctuary to all, and they in turn may become little sanctuaries. This is the context of Isaiah 58.
A shield is something strong. It protects the holiness and righteousness of Israel and Shabbat because it acknowledges Heaven’s sovereignty in a world that does not serve the King over kings. In a world that increasingly scorns the moral laws of the Word, we are conspicuous. Although it feels as though we are being attacked, it is simply the world counter-attacking the conspicuously different faithful shields of their generation.
Observing Shabbat and letting His Word sustain us become a strong place for others, a refuge of many shields from generations past who revered Adonai. Because the tower is conspicuous, people may find it. The context of Isaiah 58 details the many ways we as little sanctuaries can minister ”daily bread” to others and bring them into the House in reverence.
- “The fear of God issues forth to the entire world through their knowledge that His Presence rests within the Temple; hence, the Temple serves as a standing testimony to the world that God’s Presence dwells among Israel...the verse juxtaposes Sabbath observance with reverence for the Temple to intimate that just as the commandment to observe the sanctity of Sabbath is everlasting, so the reverence one must have for the Temple is obligatory forever-even in its destruction.” (4§7)
In the meantime, the shields of Israel are sanctuaries who show “all men” the Fear of Elohim by honoring Shabbat with the same reverence as if the Temple still stood, for a measure of its sanctity and its Bridegroom resides in her, the descendants of Sarah.
Take hold of the Light of Yeshua...conspicuously...and become a shield of your generation. Those who sanctify the Shabbat and reverence Adonai are those preparing to move into their inheritance.
