Tracking the Footsteps of Messiah
Tips to Reading the Prophetic Clues
In the Footsteps of Messiah series, we've delved heavily into prophecy. For some, it has been easy sailing. For others, it has been a matter of printing the newsletters and studying them slowly with Bible open, perhaps supplementing with the YouTube videos for clarification. As I was preparing the presentations for REVIVE this year, it DAWNED on me (keep reading...it's a pun) that crystalizing some of the research tools I use and teach my Torah classes might be useful for our newsletter readers.
There is a way to follow the tracks of themes in Scripture. Now, don't panic. This isn't tenth grade English class where the teacher had you looking for the themes of stories and poems, but the only theme you were sure of was that if you were supposed to find one, you couldn't find one.
Theme might be a little ambitious, and indeed, scary. How about symbolic language? There is an old rabbinic saying, "The Torah is the Prophecy, and the Prophets are its legs." In other words, the rest of Scripture is prophecy clarifying its Seed prophecies in the Torah. If we view the Torah thusly (sorry, had to give another nod to our embattled English teachers), then the Torah is full of symbols and symbolic language that will be found throughout Scripture. Figure out what night and day symbolize in Genesis One, and you'll spot those prophecies much faster ever after.
The key is context. You might run across a word that doesn't fit the pattern of what you thought the word symbolized. In such a case, it may not be symbolic in that use of the word, or you might have encountered a vagary of English/Hebrew English/Greek translation that occludes the meaning. Here is a small glossary I used at REVIVE:
Night = exile
Bed = sickness, spiritual laxity, death
Dawn = end of the exile
Day = Israel dwelling in its inheritance in Jerusalem, in Israel, obedient
Doubled mention with close proximity in the text = two distinct fulfillments of a prophecy
First, always apply these in context. Sometimes a day is just a day and a night is just a night. Sometimes the dawn is just the dawn. When we take a second look at these passages we've studied in the Footprints, though, it is easy to see how the symbolic and repetitive patterns work:
“The pronouncement concerning Edom:
One keeps calling to me from Seir,
‘Watchman, how far gone is the night?
Watchman, how far gone is the night?’
The watchman says, ‘Morning comes but also night.
If you would inquire, inquire;
Come back again.’” (Is 21:11-12)
The first couplet is a repetition of Edom (the Red One, the Red Beast) by naming Edom and Seir. Seir is Edom and Edom is Seir. Edom, the Red Beast of Rome's iron legs has something in common with Babylon the Great, which was its golden head. The image of a man, the image of a beast. The image of the man originated in Babylon with King Nebuchadnezzar, who literally was tranformed into a beast with human form in the Book of Daniel, eating grass and living outdoors. In Revelation, the Red Beast and Babylon the Great are paired for destruction, for they are the beginning and end of the same image. Both Babylon and Rome (Edom) exiled Judah, in which at least a small percentage all twelve tribes were represented, and therefore, representative of Israel. The prophecy, then, is twofold: the first exile under Babylon and the last exile under Rome.
The second couplet forms the axis: "How far gone is the night?" The question is repeated, again implying two times the question must be asked, the Babylon exile and the Roman exile. If the night is symbolizing exile, then the question concerns Israel's wondering as to the time of the dawn, or the end of the exile.
The watchman, whose ear is attuned to the night watches of the exile, knows the signs of impending dawn because of the positioning of the sun, moon, and stars, so he is questioned. On the Fourth Day of Creation, the sun, moon, and stars were put into place "for the sake of the moedim," or seasons, feast days. Those who know the feast days are in tune during the night watches of exile, for the feast days require an alertness in knowing the Scriptural calendar.
On the First Day of Creation, however, there was a separation of light and darkness. This is where an incredible amount of seed prophecy is found embedded in the text. On the First Day of Creation, Elohim prophesied to us the first exile under the King of Babylon:
"How you have fallen from heaven,
You star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who defeated the nations!
But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly [moed]
In the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
“Nevertheless you will be brought down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit. (Is 14:12-15)
A star of the morning, son of the dawn is the title applied to Yeshua, yet here, it was a place held by the King of Babylon. Instead of being a faithful and true witness to the Elohim of Creation, the kings of Babylon persisted in trying to extend their empire into the Heavens. Instead, they were cut down by the Medo-Persians, its dawn bringing the end of the night for the Jews and the beginning of a return to rebuild the Temple during the "day."
After the separation of light and darkness, evening and morning on Day One, strangely, Day Four follows with the additional separation of day and night by the placement of the sun, moon, and stars in their courses "for the sake of the moedim." It is as if the second exile under the Red One is prophesied here because even though a "morning" and "day" came, ending the first exile, another night of exile would follow under Rome.
In order to know the time of the end, the watchman tells the inquirer "Come back again." In other words, keep asking. Keep inquiring. Learn the signs of the night watches and how they testify to the moedim, and also become a sign and testimony of the moedim. The stars are the children of Abraham, "so shall the number of your seed be..."
By knowing the feasts and testifying to them by doing them, and by teaching others, we are preparing them for the dawn, the end of the last exile under the Red Beast. From there, we see the Light of Shabbat, a Day that is all Shabbat. It is a Day of the Divine Light as it was on the First Day of Creation without a need for the physical signs of the sun, moon, and stars.
Shabbat Shalom!
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