Footsteps of Messiah
The Child Watchers
In this week's newsletter, I'd like to circle back to the predictions from Footsteps Part Three. In it we examined a couple of principles in the arrival of the Footsteps of Messiah. The text was:
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...the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. The fig tree has ripened its fruit, and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along! (So 2:12-13)
The final Turtledove voice is that of King Messiah’s, proclaiming Good News. The fig tree Israel has ripened its early fruits, and the vineyard Israel is blossoming, her fragrance that of repentance and a promise of good fruits and deeds to follow in the harvest season of summer.
This turtledove voice is also identified with Joshua’s at the Passover season, who spoke to the leaders to “pass [avar] in the midst of the camp and command the people saying...in another three days you will cross this Jordan to come to take possession of the land.” (Joshua 1:11) Avar is the root of Ivri, a Hebrew, one who crosses over the Great River Euphrates like Abraham. Abraham was shown the Garden of Eden hovering just above the Land of Israel, across the Perat (Euphrates) River. This was the Land that his seed would inherit, not just the physical land below.
The midrash identifies a tribulation of the Footsteps:
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“Young people will shame the old, and the old will rise before the young. A son will not be ashamed to commit sins in the presence of his father” [fatherhood and the role of parents is diminished; Micah 7:6]. The footnote says that “social conventions will become inverted to the point that old people, who should be respected, will themselves subscribe to the new order and give reverence to youth.” 2§30
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“In the pre-Messianic era, the leaders will only appear to be leading the nation; in reality they will be following the whims of the masses.” 2§29
Commercials today portray children as the heroes and their parents as dim, bumbling idiots. In politics, entertainment, business, and every other Babylonian system, public opinion deceives the wicked into thinking it gives them control and power. Aging politicians pander to college students by adopting their "woke" ethics, and they can become inexplicably popular with an age group that usually has not yet crossed the generation gap.
These politicians and public figures, however, are riding a wild, red animal that turns and devours anyone who disrupts its appetite of the day. A politician who believes he or she is surfing the tide of public opinion will find himself or herself drowned by it. It is whimsical, twisting in so many directions that Scriptural morals and ethics are barely heard.
In this week’s Torah class, we studied Song of Songs 2:15, which continues the thread of the vineyard Israel: "Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, while our vineyards are in blossom."
The fox is not a terrifying hunter like a wolfpack or pride of lions. The fox is an observer. He usually collects his prey at night. He dashes in quickly and is gone with hardly a trace. Foxes may throw their kill over their shoulder and trot off with it to eat in seclusion, kind of like an Egyptian seizing a Hebrew baby boy to throw in the Nile. The fox is thought to represent the Egyptians. Like the serpent, the fox has a reputation for cunning, not strength. We will study the fox more closely in an upcoming newsletter.
The “beast” kingdoms are represented by the more powerful lion, fearless bear, swift leopard, and a super-terrifying poly-monster. (Da 7:3) The reason that the Egyptians are seen as the “fox” is derived from two clues:
- Their weakness, yet cunning
- They must be "seized" for judgment, just as the Egyptians seized the infant Hebrew boys. The principle of middah k'neged middah, or measure for measure, is applied to Egypt when they are drowned in the Reed Sea like they drowned Israelites in the Nile
The symbolism of the fox describes how the Egyptians seized the infant Hebrew boys first to kill them on the birthing stools, and then to thrown them in the Nile when the first plot was unsuccessful. The Egyptians decided to deal shrewdly with Israelites. They targeted the infants, the most helpless members of society, at first attempting to take their lives before they drew their first breath. They watched the Israelite women closely for signs of pregnancy. By killing the potential deliverer the magicians predicted, the Egyptians believed they could preserve their kingdom. Assyria and the beast kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome were conquerors of territory, not defenders like Egypt for much of its history.
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The Hebrew word for fox is shual
- H8168 is the shoresh of shual:
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שֹׁעַל shôʻal from an unused root meaning to hollow out; the palm; by extension, a handful:—handful, hollow of the hand.
Pharaoh thought to “deal wisely” with Moses and Aaron, and by extension, the Holy One: “Come on, let us deal wisely with them.” (Ex 1:10) Pharaoh did not march his army to conquer the Land of Israel, but instead, his advisors and counselors observed the Israelites and found a way to hold them captive in exile. The Israelites helped build their kingdom.
By mentioning foxes AND little foxes, there is a suggestion that the fox prophecy is perceived in two ways:
Prophecy to be fulfilled more than once
Greater and lesser foxes, or older and younger foxes.
Some sages say the “little foxes” were Egyptian schoolchildren sent into the bathhouses of the Hebrew women to spy on them and report back to the officers which were pregnant. This gave them an approximate time to seize the newborns from the birthing stool or take them to the Nile. When indoctrinated children inform on adults, listen for Footsteps. When Israelites have no choice but to participate in the building of a "fox" kingdom, listen for Footsteps.
This week I was thinking about the children spying on adults, and I was corresponding with a couple of students after class. To me, my generation can be uniquely characterized as one of the few in which non-Jewish (or at least not reared Jewish) people awakened to the Torah. However, as we've grown older, we're followed by a younger generation that developed the internet phenomenon into things like Facebook and other social media, internet intrusion, linking and "sharing" of data, and the commercial algorithms that track us relentlessly. Billionaire kids and their minions in tshirts, pushing and funding ethical laws their grandparents did not "know." I remember attending my first computer class in 1986 while I was pursuing my Master's degree. The professor told us the internet was invented to revolutionize education, making libraries worldwide accessible. None of us realized it wasn't just nerdy academics doing library research. It would be way more. And what an education it would provide.
Platforms are bamot in Hebrew, also translated into English as "high places." They influence elections, morals, commerce, etc. They are the media for planning murder, kidnapping, suicide, theft, pedophilia, rape, drug sales, and other criminal activity, as well as the media for observing and planning adultery and other immoral, idolatrous behavior.
Although the vaccine has generated worldwide attention, one thing that people fear is already accomplished. The network of 0s and 1s has already assembled our profiles and tracks our every move. Someone in a position to know told me Wednesday that there is no question cellphones listen to us. She wouldn't say more, but I understood. It's already done. The fox conducts careful observation and assembles the data to plan the perfect strike on the henhouse. He's all eyes and ears.
And he's in the house already.
Adam named the fox shual to denote his essence: he is a burrower, a maker of hollowed-out hiding places for security. He patrols his territory and seeks to control what feeds him. Like the hollow of a hand, he generously holds it open, then snaps it shut quickly like a trap...or he gradually closes in after long periods of observation. A fence is no deterrent to a fox with time.
For instance, you may have vocalized in a conversation a certain topic. Inexplicably, your web browsing is populated with ads related to that topic. This week, our Torah lesson on Zoom was about the “little foxes” of Song of Songs 2:15. I didn’t browse for fox pictures on the internet, just inserted from Powerpoint file graphics. It all communicates.
When I pulled up Adobe Stock today to select a graphic for this newsletter, a fox image covered the Home page. I never searched for a fox photo on Adobe Stock, yet out of millions of graphics, they helpfully supplied one today. It was a rather creepy one at that. Foxes usually have a cute factor going for them.
Clearly, Powerpoint is “talking” to Adobe, which helpfully invited me to log in on my choice of Google, Facebook, or Apple…on the Firefox web browser. Login pages in turn prompt me to add more personal information for an added layer of burrow “security”: phone numbers, alternate email addresses, etc. "When they say, 'Peace and safety, sudden destruction comes upon them like a woman with child.'" (1 Th 5:3)
Incredibly, while I was teaching the Song of Songs fox lesson on Tuesday, my husband looked out the back door and saw a red fox stalking our new puppy, who was playing in the back yard. The fox was concealed in the tall pasture grass, inching forward on his belly. So okay, this was Fox Week for us.
What remains is to see how these schooled-children will execute their intentions fully. The apostles proclaimed the Good News and discipled others in the worst of political, religious, social, and military climates. The Footsteps of Good News actually thrived in that environment, not the reverse! The Israelites actually thrived reproductively under murderous decrees. It's not that they were unaware of the foxes, but that they focused more on producing fruit than worrying about whether life would be like it always had. A true revelation of Messiah Yeshua prepares us for the fact that life will never the same. Life is meant to change when his Footsteps ring in your hearing above the cries of conspiracy, revolution, censorship, and mourning for the dead.
That does not mean we disregard those who have already crossed over. We have lost many righteous souls, and we will lose many more. Their testimony is there to propel us forward. If we are afraid of the destruction of the body, then we will fall prey to those who destroy the soul on these high places, either from unwitting participation in their "New Covenant" of fallen humanism, or from the delusion that we can escape the last clutches of Babylon in the Roman Empire by other than miraculous means. It won't last forever, though, no matter what the fox thinks. Any fox that thinks to destroy the Bride of another will soon find his lair exposed and destroyed. The rise of the Torah among Israel marks the decline of the beast kingdom. The fox's success is a mere illusion to those in darkness. Our Deliverer is coming.
Who knows how His arrival and our departure looks? We only know to prepare in the Word. Prepare with hope according to those principles and patterns. Pray, b'ezrat HaShem, that we will not kick over our sukkot when the real persecution comes. If we don't yet see this present trouble as an opportunity for fruitfulness, we might arrive too late to the summer harvest.
Let us hold our young people close, alerting them to the little foxes, teaching them Scriptural values that remain firm long after the technological advances of this age have retreated into history with the image of the beast. I hear Footsteps. Live.
We do plan to live stream more Footsteps on YouTube on Shabbat at 4:00 pm Eastern.
SHABBAT SHALOM!
