Category Archives: Prophecy, Biblical

Is YHVH Raising Up Modern Day Jeremiahs?

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Jeremiah 1–2

Jeremiah the prophet received a direct call from YHVH Elohim to warn the nation of Judah, YHVH’s people, of impending judgment if they would not repent and return to his Torah. YHVH commissioned the prophet to warn and to rebuke those at all levels of society: kings, princes, priests and people (1:18). Is it likely that YHVH will raise up a prophet or prophets in the last days prior to the return of Yeshua the Messiah who will be doing the same thing as Jeremiah?

Jeremiah did not feel adequate to the job (1:6), yet YHVH assured him that he was, for YHVH personally had called and empowered him to do what seemed to be an impossible task: for one man, as YHVH’s representative, to set his face against an entire nation and to survive the resulting wrath of the wicked against that righteous man of YHVH (1:7–10; 18–19).

In the end times, will there yet arise true prophets in which the Word of YHVH is shut up like fire in their bones (Jer 20:9) who will utter forth the fiery oracles of YHVH, which like a hammer will smash to pieces the rock-hard hearts of YHVH’s obstinate, rebellious and sinful people (Jer 23:29)?

Yeshua prophesied that in the last days false prophets would arise, and if possible, would deceive the very elect (Matt 24:11, 24). If Satan the adversary has his false prophets on the scene just prior to Yeshua’s return attempting to deceive YHVH’s people, will not YHVH have his true prophets likewise on the scene to warn, rebuke, provoke, incite, encourage, and give spiritual direction to his people?

Some Christian teachers through their unbiblical teachings on the subject of prophets and prophecy are inoculating YHVH’s people against believing that Jeremiah-type prophets will arise in the last days. It is taught that during the New Testament dispensation until the second coming the character and ministry of the prophets is totally different than those during Old Testament times. Since we are living during the so-called age of grace, these teachers reason, YHVH’s prophets now speak only words of edification, exhortation and comfort, and any modern prophets who warn, rebuke, judge, call YHVH’s people to repentance, or otherwise speak in harsh, black and white terms could not be sent of YHVH, for that type of prophet is a thing of the past. They tell us that such a prophet brings strife, division, and disharmony within the church, makes people feel uncomfortable in their sin and therefore cannot receive the church system’s stamp of approval. Is it reasonable to assume that YHVH will limit himself and the going forth of his Word to the constraints of these soft-shoe teachers?

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Here’s some good news: The Millennium is coming!

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Isaiah 60:1–22, The Millennium and Heaven on Earth

Read Isaiah 60. How many of the prophecies contained in this chapter have been fulfilled? Can you think of any time in Israel’s troubled history when the blessed promises of Isaiah 60 had been fulfilled in any kind of a meaningful way? The answer to all of these questions is obviously, no! If YHVH’s Word is true, then a time is yet to come when these prophecies will become a reality. These prophecies will be fulfilled during the Millennium and in the New Heaven and the New Earth when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven (or “heaven on earth,” see Rev 21 and 22).

What Scripture Says About the Messianic Era or Millennium

  • The Millennium or Messianic Era lasts for a 1000 years. (Rev 20:2–7)
  • The regathering back into the land of Israel (the Promised Land) of Israelites who have been scattered throughout the earth in fulfillment of YHVH’s promises to Abraham is to occur. (Jer 32:36–38; Isa 14:1–2; Isa 60: 4, 9)
  • Ancient Israel entering the Promised Land is a type of believers entering into the Millennium. (Heb 3–4)

During the Millennium the following is to occur:

  • Elohim will live with his people. (Ezek 37:26–28)
  • David will rule as King over Israel. (Ezek 37:24–25)
  • YHVH’s annual feasts will be kept by all people. (Ezek 46:3–6; cf Col 2,16–17)
  • YHVH’s government will be established on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Torah will go forth from Mount Zion and the nations will go up to Mount Zion to worship YHVH in the house (temple) of YHVH. (Mic 4:1–2)
  • A highway of YHVH, or a highway of holiness will lead to Zion. (Isa 35:8–10)
  • Whether literal or spiritual, living waters will flow from Jerusalem and Yeshua’s throne. In Ezekiel’s vision, water was flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east. (Ezek 47:1; also Zech 14:8)
  • On the banks of this river, there were very many trees on each side. (Ezek. 47:6–9)
  • People will live to a very old age. (Isa 65:20)
  • Crowds of people will flock to Jerusalem. (Zech 2:1–4; Isa 49:14)
  • The temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt. (Zech 6:15; 14:20–21; Hag 2:6–9)
  • The Messiah will be king over the whole world. (Zech 6:9–13; Isa 11:1–5; Rev 20:6; 5:9–10)
  • The nations that do not want to serve and obey YHVH will be destroyed. (Isa 60:12; Zech 14:16–19; Isa 9:5–7)

The Millennium is the fulfillment of many glorious prophetic promises YHVH has made concerning his people of Israel (including Christians). Many Christians see the Millennium as the place where the righteous Israelites (i.e. Jews) will reign with Messiah, while the Christians will be reigning spiritually in heaven. In other words, the Jews have a physical inheritance or kingdom on this earth, while the Christians have a spiritual inheritance and kingdom in heaven. For those who believe this way, the Millennium is a symbolic metaphor for heaven.

For those who believe that the Millennium is merely a symbolic metaphor, the 70 or so scriptures in the Tanakh dealing with the Messianic Age are assigned to the “church.” To interpret Scripture in this manner is a form of spiritualization of the peshat or plain meaning of these prophecies and a form of replacement theology where the church as replaced the Jewish people. Much of this confusion stems from not knowing who Israel is as opposed to the Jews (descended primarily from the tribe of Judah, which is only one of the twelve tribes of Israel).

In my understanding of the Millennium, we take literally the words of Yeshua when he said that the meek would inherit the earth (Matt 5:5), not heaven. For us, this means that YHVH’s people, the saints, made up of both the Jews and those of the nations who combine in Yeshua to become the one new man and nation of Israel (Eph 2:11–19) and part of the olive tree of Israel (Rom 11:17ff), and are the seed of Abraham (Rom 4:16; 9:8–11; Gal 3:7, 8, 14, 28–29). These people will rule with Yeshua as kings and priests in his kingdom on earth for a thousand years during his millennial kingdom on earth (Rev 1:6; 5:10).

 

A great spiritual revival is coming…

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Exodus 34:1–35, Prophetic pictures of Moses’ second ascension of Mount Sinai. Moses’ second ascension of Mount Sinai is a prophetic and allegorical picture of the saints’ resurrection and glorification at the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah.

According to Jewish tradition, Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the second set of stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments on the first day of the sixth biblical month or 30 days before Yom Teruah, which occurs on the first day of the seventh month. Forty days later on Yom Kippur he descended from the mountain carrying with him the second set of tablets as a sign of YHVH’s forgiveness of the children of Israel after the golden calf incident. This signaled YHVH’s renewed relationship with Israel after they had repented of golden calf worship. 

We know that in biblical times a biblical Israelite bride, while waiting for her betrothed to arrive from his father’s house, would hear a shout and the sound of the shofar in the distance as her bridegroom approached (Matt 25:6 cp. Matt 24:31; 1 Thess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:51–52). If she were alert and not asleep (as were the ten virgins in Matt 25:1–13), she would have had time to put on her wedding robes, trim her lamp’s wick (an ancient version of a flashlight), and have it filled with oil and ready to light as soon as he arrived, since he would be coming at night time. 

Prophetically, the Scriptures indicate that the saints of Yeshua are to be resurrected and to meet the returning Messiah Yeshua in the air at the seventh or last shofar blast most likely on Yom Teruah (Day of the Trumpets also known as the Day of Shouting or Shofar Blasts, see 1 Thess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:52; Rev 11:15–18). From the time the saints begin hearing the shofar blasts in the distance signaling the arrival of Yeshua the Bridegroom until their ascension (at the resurrection) to meet King Yeshua in the air roughly seems to correspond to Moses’ ascension of Mount Sinai on the first day of the sixth month. That being so, then Moses’ descent with the stone tablets—the tokens of a renewed covenant between YHVH and Israel on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)—would correspond to Yeshua returning to earth with his just-resurrected saints. As Moses saw the glory of YHVH in the cleft of the rock the second time he ascended Mount Sinai (Exod 33:18–23; 34:5–9), and as he descended in a glorified state, his face shining with the glory of YHVH, so the saints will resurrect to meet Yeshua in the air, see his glory, and will return with him with their own glorified immortal bodies (1 Cor 15:42–54; 1 Thess 4:16–17).

First John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of Elohim, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” These resurrect­ed saints are those who have heeded YHVH’s call to come out of Babylonian, golden calf-type religious systems (i.e. Christo-pagan churchianity, Rev 18:4) where paganism has been mixed with the truth of the Scriptures. These same saints are now waiting to enter into an everlasting (marital) covenant with YHVH-Yeshua (Rev 19:7–9). They are those who love Yeshua and his the Torah-commandments (Rev 12:17; 14:12).

In the end times there will be a great spiritual revival as many people are saved and come to faith in Yeshua out of the great tribulation period (Rev 7:14). Some of these new converts to Yeshua the Messiah will be native Israelites, along with many Gentiles, who have been spiritually grafted into the nation of Israel, and all of whom have repent of the golden calf worship of Torahlessness and false religious systems. If we can trust the end time prophetic chronology of the fall biblical feasts, we see that this momentous and glorious event will occur in the time period leading up to the Day of the Trumpets when many people will wholeheartedly repent and receive the covering of the blood of Yeshua for their sins, as pictured by the Day of Atonement. This will be a continuation of the process of the rebirth and reunification of the two houses of Israel (loosely speaking, Ephraim who is he church, and Judah who are the Jews) that began in the apostolic era.

The Bible likens this process to branches being grafted into an ancient olive tree, or to the unification of Jews and Gentiles becoming into the “one new man” Israel of Elohim through faith in and the blood of Yeshua the Messiah (Rom 11:13–24; Ezek 37:15–28; Eph 2:11–19; Gal 6:16).

 

What is the past and prophetic significance of “the third day”?

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Exodus 19:1, 11, In the third month…the third day. 

In Exodus 19:1 we read that the Israelites arrived at Sinai in the third month, and according to Jewish tradition, a very significant event occurred on the third day of third month that was not only pivotal in the history of the Israelite people, but has profoundly influenced YHVH’s people, including you and me, to this very day. It was the giving of the ten commandments on Shavuot or the day of Pentecost. Now let’s connect some dots or put some pieces of the puzzle together to form a prophetic picture of an amazing biblical truth regarding the third day and explore the past, present and future implications of this.  

The biblical holy day of Shavuot, when YHVH gave the ten commandments to Israel and the world, was also when YHVH, for the first time in recorded biblical history, sounded the heavenly shofar—known as the first trumpet. Amazingly, this shofar event relates back to Abraham’s willingness to offer up Isaac as an offering to YHVH and to the ram that was caught in the thicket by his horns. 

While en route to the place where YHVH had instructed Abraham to offer up his only beloved son, he could see “the place” (Mount Moriah) afar off in three days (Gen 22:4). As we shall see later, this prophetically points to Messiah’s sacrificial death at the same location three millennia later. 

As we have just read, the Israelites were to be ready “on the third day” to receive the Written Torah thundered from the lips of the pre-incarnate Yeshua the Messiah (Acts 7:38; 1 Cor 10:4) at Mount Sinai. But the term the “third day” in Exodus chapter 19 also occurs in reference to Abraham and the akeidah or the binding of Isaac (Gen 22:1–18). What is the connection between these two events? Namely this. The near death of Isaac on Mount Moriah (Jerusalem) and YHVH providing Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead of his only beloved son prophetically pointed to the death of the Yeshua the Messiah the Redeemer at the same spot about 2,000 years later. Similarly, the Israelites, on the day of Pentecost when they received the ten commandments, were living out their own prophecy that also pointed to the same time when Messiah would come as the Living Torah culminating on the day of Pentecost or Shavuot, when he would write his Torah-laws on their hearts. Therefore, the “third day” reference for both Abraham and the Israelites had a similar relevance, for both were living in the second millennia B.C. or before the birth of Yeshua the Messiah, who was born near the beginning of the first century A.D. or in the third millennia, or on third day prophetically from both the time of Abraham and the Israelites.

Though a bit tangential to the subject of Shavuot, let’s look at another concept relating to the prophetic implications of the third day. As Yeshua, the Living Torah, came on the third day, so he will return on the third day after his first coming or in the third millennia after his first coming. That is, he came in the first millennium of our common era, and we have just passed into the third millennia of the same era and are now in the twenty-first century. According to biblical prophecy, Messiah will return in this third millennia, or third day as we read in Hosea.

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What is the Second Exodus?

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Understanding the Second Exodus

The concept of the Messianic Age in Hebraic thought involves an understanding of the first and final redemptions, which are two separate events. The first redemption or first exodus occurred when the Israelites obeyed the Word of Elohim and placed the blood of the lamb on the door posts of their homes resulting in YHVH delivering them out of Egypt. It is understood by redeemed believers that Israel’s exodus from Egypt was prototypical of one’s placing their faith in Yeshua (the Lamb of Elohim) who redeems them from sin’s death grip through his shed blood at the cross, and then leads them out of their spiritual Egypt of sin and worldliness toward the promised land of a new spiritual life in Messiah Yeshua.

By contrast, the final redemption or second exodus is a series of events that will occur at the end of the age prior to the return of Messiah Yeshua at the beginning of the Messianic Age (or Millennium).

For those who have placed saving faith in Yeshua the Messiah, at the final redemption, the redeemed believers will receive their spiritual or glorified bodies at the resurrection of the dead, which occurs at the second coming of Yeshua. After that, they will rule and reign with Yeshua for a thousand years during the Messianic Age.

Now let’s explore some of the biblical prophecies that pertain to the second exodus. This will yield us more clues as to the timing of the return of Ephraim to the land of Israel.

Isaiah 11:10–12:6

Although consisting of two chapters, this passage of the Scriptures is part of the same prophecy and speaks about the coming of Messiah, and the regathering of the outcasts of Israel from the nations to which they have been scattered. Below is a list of the salient points that pertain to the second exodus along with my commentary.

11:10, The root of Jesse (the Messiah) will be an ensign or banner to the Gentiles of the nations. We know that Yeshua was that root of Jesse who commanded his followers to preach the gospel to the Gentile world. The gospel has gone to the entire Gentile world only in the 20th century via the means of modern travel and mass communications.

11:11, Here, the prophet seems to be talking about another group of people — a remnant of his people (the outcasts of Israel, verse 12) as opposed to the larger group of Gentile believers from among the nations (who have heard the gospel message) referred to in verse 10. YHVH will recover his people ­— the remnant of Israel — the second time (i.e. the second exodus) from all lands including the islands of the sea (North and South America, England, Australia, Japan, etc.).

11:12, YHVH will set up an ensign or banner for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah. Yeshua is that banner. Even though Yeshua is the ensign for the Gentiles of the nations and for the remnant outcast of Israel who are scattered among the nations, only the outcasts of Israel will be regathered along with the dispersed of Judah.

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Ephraim and Manasseh in End Times Prophecy

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Genesis 47:28–49:28, Jacob’s end times prophecy. The Jewish sages recognize that this final portion of Genesis chronicles Jacob’s wish to reveal to his sons some prophetic understandings pertaining to Israel’s long and numerous exiles, culminating in “the Final Redemption” or “the Second Exodus” (i.e. the return of Israel [all twelve tribes, not just the Jews] from her exile in “Babylon” at the end of the age just prior to and after the return of Messiah at which time the two houses of Israel will be reunited under Messiah Son of David).

Jacob states the timing of his prophecies regarding his sons in Genesis 49:1 when he predicts what will befall them “in the last days.”

The Jewish sages believe that prior to the establishment of the Messianic Age (or Millennium), all Israel will go into a time of darkness, gloom and exile.

The sages deduct the timing and tenor of this prophecy from the fact that the Torah scroll fails to place the customary nine spaces between the last word of the previous parashah (or Torah portion), which ends in verse 27 and the next parashah, which begins in verse 28. There is only a one space gap in the Hebrew letters between these two Torah portions, which predicts the “closing in” of Israel as they go into exile and captivity in Egypt.

The sages believe that these prophecies not only predicted Israel’s first exile into  and redemption from Egypt but also a latter, end times one as well because biblical history often repeats itself. This is evident by the fact that some of these prophecies weren’t fulfilled until Messiah came the first time and afterwards..

Genesis 48:5, Ephraim and Manasseh. Here Jacob gives Joseph’s two sons the first born status and blessing. Reuben and Simeon were disqualified because of sins they committed (see 1 Chr 5:1–2).

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The Reuniting of the 12 Tribes of History and the Biblical Cycles of Redemption

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Genesis 46:1–7, The reuniting of Jacobs family—the twelve tribes of Israel. These verses recount the move of Jacob and his family to Egypt where they were reunited with Joseph and his family. This prophetically foreshadows a time in the future, which the Jewish sages call the Final Redemption, which is to occur just prior to and at the coming of Messiah Son of David (Yeshua the Messiah) as he comes to establish the Messianic Era (or Millennium) on earth. 

The same Jewish sages also teach us that part of that final redemption includes the reunification of the two houses of Israel (i.e. the Messiah-loving Jews and Torah-loving Christians) into one kingdom under Messiah Son of David. Where do we find this prophesied in the Scriptures? (Read Ezek 37:15–28, which interestingly enough is this week’s Haftorah portion!) This speaks of the family reunification or ­reconciliation of Judah and Ephraim at Messiah’s return. (Hos 5:15–6:4; 1:11; Acts 3:21; Ezek 37:25). This will be a supernatural work of the Set-Apart Spirit of Elohim (Ezek 36:19–32).

After the reunification of the divided family, where did the reunited and reconciled family move to? (Read Gen 46:34.) Goshen was in the Nile River delta area and was and to this day is the prime farm land of Egypt. It was a veritable promised land compared to the arid regions of Canaan. 

Could Goshen be a tiny prophetic picture of the millenial age that will occur after King Messiah defeats the Babylon the Great new world order (a type of end times Egypt) at his second coming? Possibly. As the ancient Jewish sages study the Scriptures, they have a sense that history for the people of Israel is continually repeating itself in cyclical patterns as YHVH works his purposes out among his people. As such, he is constantly endeavoring to reveal his plan of redemption and reconciliation to his people—at least to those who have eyes to see, and he is continually reaching out his loving hand of reconciliation to the next generations of Israelites. Therefore the Israelites settling in Goshen is but one more picture of the cyclical pattern of redemption that we see YHVH working throughout in the pages of Scripture, with all of these cycles pointing toward a final climax at the end of the age where all of the children of Israel will worship YHVH in spirit and in truth (John 4:23) under the rulership of King Yeshua the Messiah, Son of Joseph and Son of David.