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).
In the comments section of this blog, one of our readers asked an excellent question that I asked myself for years.
I’m having trouble taking Enoch 1 seriously. Is there some compelling evidence that makes it seem to be authentic?
Here is my answer just for Coleen, and hopefully you’ll find it enlightening as well.
The Book of First Enoch Validatedwith Cautions
I appreciate your concerns about the book of First Enoch and am happy to address them. For many years, I was extremely skeptical about its authenticity, and have even expressed these reservations in times past on this blog. However, when I’m not sure about something, I try to keep an open mind realizing that new information on a subject may change my understanding of it. This has been the case with the book of First Enoch. Let me briefly explain.
There are a whole boatload of folks out there in the Biblical truth restoration movement who have a little information, have done a little study on a subject for several years, and because of easy access to mass audiences on the internet and through social media, they put out a whole plethora of ideas about anything and everything. Because they may know a little more than the next guy, who is tuning in for the first time, they’re perceived as being experts. A third grader is an expert in the eyes a first grader. But now where is that same third grader when placed up against a person who has a doctorate on that same subject? Sadly, we have a lot of third graders running around trying to teach us a lot of things about subjects they know little or nothing about. This includes the book of First Enoch.
With regard to the book of First Enoch, let me confess that I’m not an expert. I’m the third grader in the room on this subject. But as Henry Ford once said when challenged about his lack of formal education, “I may not be the smartest, but I can hire the smartest to work for me.” In my case, I can read what the experts scholars have to say on the subject of First Enoch, and as well-exercised biblical lay scholar, researcher, prolific writer and teacher for decades, hopefully by now I can get to the truth of a matter.
Our new annual Scripture Reading Schedule for 2019-2020 with daily readings is available to download and print. If you are still working through 2018-2019’s Scripture Reading Schedule, the link will still be available on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links”. If you are using a mobile device or tablet, the link may be below, meaning you’ll need to scroll down instead.
Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link or the “share your thoughts” box below.
The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day: one each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.
Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 1/5 through 1/11/20.
Luke 1:6, Righteous…blameless. Zachariah and Elizabeth (Heb. Elishevah) were totally Torah-observant to the point of being blameless in YHVH’s eyes. This confirms Moses’ words in Deut 30:11–14 that Torah-obedience isn’t outside the realm of human possibility as some in the church erroneously teach today.
Luke 1:10, Praying … incense. Incense is not only a biblical metaphor for prayer (Ps 141:2; Rev 5:8; 8:3–5), but in the temple, was actually burned while praying.
Luke 1:19, Gabriel. Beside this reference, Gabriel is only elsewhere mentioned in Daniel (Dan 8:16; 9:21). Gabriel means “strong, mighty man or warrior of El.” Michael is the only other archangel mentioned in the Scriptures (Dan 10:13, 21 12:21; Jude 9; 12:27).
Luke 1:20, Because you did not believe. There is a lesson for us in YHVH muting the mouth of Zachariah for a season. If the spiritual leaders are unable to believe what YHVH has told them already, how can he give them more revelation—more things to speak and teach about? If we’re not hearing new revelation from Elohim, maybe it’s because we haven’t believed what he has already told us.
Luke 1:28, Blessed are you among women. These words of Gabriel were repeated verbatim in Elizabeth’s prophecy concerning Yeshua (verse 42). Doubtless this was a supernatural confirmation to Mary concerning her role as the mother of the Messiah, for how could her cousin have known what the angel had spoken to her previously?
Genesis 47:13–26, The economic results of famine. Severe food shortages led to the people’s dependence on the government for food and survival. This is because the people had failed to prepare for such an event.
Because of famine resulting in people starving, the Egyptian government was able to step in and literally take control of the people’s lives, their land and material possessions. The government then collectivized them by moving them into cities where it could “take care of” or control the people. In the process, the government became the master and the people became its serfs, if not slaves.
This all happened in large part because during prosperous times the people failed to make preparations for hard times and thus became unwitting victims of natural circumstances and their own careless lifestyles.
The more a person prepares for hard times such as famine, natural disasters or economic collapse, and the closer they are to the land thus giving them the ability to raise their own food, the less dependent upon the state they will be, the more freedom they will have, and the less likely the government will be able to control their lives. Spiritual freedom is tied to physical independence as well.
In Revelation 13, the Bible prophesies a time coming when the end times Babylon the Great New World Order world ruling economic, political and religious system will exclude earth’s inhabitants from being able to buy and sell food and other life-sustaining essentials unless they take a subcutaneous “mark” on their bodies famously called “the mark of the beast.”
Most people will take this mark resulting in their eternal spiritual damnation, while a few people will refuse to take it.
Hunger and privation, whether man-caused or naturally occurring, can be means by which an evil governmental system can control its people simply because humans will do and accept virtually anything to feed their starving bodies.
The more Elohim’s saints do now to prepare, especially spiritually, but also physically, for the horrifically hard times the Bible prophesies will occur globally in the end times, the more likely they will be to not deny their faith and to survive to meet King Yeshua the Messiah in the air as his glorified, triumphant bride!
Genesis 47:15, The money has failed. An economic collapse had occurred. When there is no food to buy, money is worthless, since you can’t eat money.
Genesis 47:24, One-fifth to Pharaoh. As dire as the economic condition was is Egypt, the government only taxed the people at a twenty percent tax rate!
Most people reading this are likely paying more than twenty percent in taxes to the government right now. Think about it!
Psalm 82:1,Elohim stands…the gods/Congregation of the mighty. Dr. Michael Heiser in his two books, Reversing Hermon and The Unseen Realm puts forth a convincing argument that the elohim mentioned in this verse are what Scripture refers to in many places as “the hosts of heaven” and refer to Elohim’s divine heavenly council. This same council is also referred to in Deut 33:2; 1 Kgs 22:19; 2 Chron 18:18; Job 15:8; Jer 23:18; Dan 7:9–10 and Heb 2:1; Acts 7:53.
“The congregation of the mighty” seems to be a reference to Elohim acting as the Supreme Judge among his divine, heavenly council that carries out his orders. This is more than the traditional “Godhead” (i.e. the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and also includes angelic and spirit beings, and even Satan himself.
From time to time, Elohim gathers his council together as we see in Job (Job 1:6; 2:1). Even lying spirits are subject to and do the bidding of Elohim who presides over this council also referred to as the host of heaven (1 Kgs 22:19–23). Moreover, some of the “Us” passages in the Scriptures, which have typically been attributed to the “Godhead,” likely also refer to this divine counsel (e.g. Gen 11:7; Ezek 44:6). This has been the view of ancient Jewish sages as well.
Modern biblical theologians have traditionally taken a non-supernaturalistic view of this passage by saying that the gods here refer to human rulers. While elohim may by definition and biblical usage refer to human rulers, this passage can’t be limited to this definition alone, since verse seven refers to these gods/elohim as “dying like men” as a result of Elohim’s divine judgment on them because of their wickedness. This threat makes little or no sense if it is referring only to human rulers.
For the record, Yeshua quotes verse six in reference to human rulers (John 10:34; 14:30; 16:11), so this passage should not be taken to refer only to Elohim’s divine counsel or just to human rulers, but probably to both. This is because behind human rulers are evil spirits or principalities that govern the nations (Dan 10:20; Eph 6:12; Rev 13:2) and all under the aegis of Satan, who has his own kingdom (Matt 12:26) and is presently the ruler of this world (John 12:31); however, all of this is under the ultimate authority of YHVH Elohim.
The idea that there were and are unseen evil spirits and demi-gods that behind the scenes rule the nations of the world is revealed in the book of Enoch and is also found in traditional ancient Mesopotamian historical accounts and forms the basis for the ancient Greek mythos.
Additionally, we learn from Genesis chapter ten (the Table of the Nations) that, at that time, there were seventy nations of the world that rebelled against YHVH at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11). Interestingly, and a little later, Jacob had 70 descendants who went down to Egypt (Exod 1:5) and who become the children of Israel. From them, Moses chose 70 elders to rule over Israel (Exod 24:1), which would eventually became the Great Sanhedrin that ruled the Jewish people. YHVH then commissioned Israel to evangelize the apostate nations by being a spiritual light to them (Deut 4:5–8)—a task they utterly failed to perform. Picking up where ancient Israel failed in its mission, Yeshua chose 70 disciples not only to replace the Jewish Sanhedrin in spiritual authority over the people of Elohim, but to go forth and to preach the gospel to the 70 nations (Luke 10:1–12, 17; Acts 1:8 cp. Matt 28:18–20) that had been lost to the kingdom of Satan at the Tower of Babel, thereby to reclaim the world for the kingdom of Elohim at the devil’s expense.
Eventually, and hopefully in the not too distant future, the resurrected and glorified saints, who will become the sons of Elohim and will be adopted into his divine family as small E elohim (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1; Gal 3:26; Rom 8:14; Eph 1:5), will rule and reign with Elohim (Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6) over the new heavens and new earth. This will all to Satan’s detriment and to that of the small E elohim rulers of his present-day earthly kingdom, all of whom will be cast into the lake of fire at the end of the age (Rev 20:10).
Psalm 81:3, Blow the trumpet [Heb. shofar] at the time of the New Moon [Heb. chodesh], at the full moon [Heb. keseh meaning full moon or concealed, covered—scholars disagree as to its meaning and the origin of the word], on our solemn feast day [Heb. chag] — NKJV. The ArtScroll Stone Edition Tanach translates this verse alternatively as follows,
Blow the shofar at the moon’s renewal, at the time appointed for our festive day.
The origins of the Hebrew word keseh behind the phrase “full moon” is uncertain and there is debate among the experts on this subject. Some Hebrew lexicons relate it to a Hebrew root word meaning “to conceal, to cover” (e.g. Gesenius; Strong’s number H3677 cp. H3678), while others tell us that it means “fullness; full moon” (e.g. Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon; cp. The TWOT; Strong’s). BDB tells us that the origin of keseh is unknown and that it may be an Aramaic loan word meaning “full moon.” Gesenius in his lexicon states that the etymology of keseh isn’t clear, but he favors the idea of the moon being covered or concealed in darkness as opposed to being covered in light (i.e., in its full moon state).
The only other usage of keseh in the Scriptures is found in Prov 7:20, which gives us no clue as to the exact meaning of the word.
Orthodox Jewish scholars tell us that keseh means “to conceal or to cover.” They say that the only biblical festival that occurs at the time of the new moon (biblically, when the first sliver of the new moon becomes visible) is Yom Teruah (or Rosh HaShanah), which occurs on the first day of the seventh month (in late summer). At this time, the moon is nearly completely covered or concealed except for a small, visible sliver.
The next phrase in this verse speaks of a solemn feast day, which is the Hebrew word chag. This word refers to the three pilgrimage festivals, which are Passover and the Feast (or chag) of Unleavened, the Feast (or chag) of Weeks or Pentecost and the Feast (or chag) of Tabernacles (Exod 23:14–16; Deut 16:16).
Jewish scholars relate the word chag to Yom Teruah (which they say refers to Rosh HaShanah, see The ArtScroll Tanach Series Tehillim/Psalms Commentary on this verse). The problem with this interpretation is that the Scriptures never call the day of the new moon (rosh chodesh) a chag, nor is Yom Teruah technically a chag either in the strictest sense of the meaning of the word and its usage in Scripture. Therefore, the word keseh, if it means “concealment” must be referring to both the new moon day (the first day of each month, and to Yom Teruah, which occurs on the first day of the seventh month), while the chag must be referring to the three pilgrimage festivals.
Those scholars who take the word keseh to mean “full moon” say that the phrase in this verse containing this word refers to the pilgrimage festivals (Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, and Feast of Tabernacles), which all occurred on or very near the time of the full moon.
Whichever interpretation you side with, the bottom line is this: The Scriptures command us to sound the shofar at the time of the New Moon, on Yom Teruah and during the three pilgrimage feasts. (See also Num 10:10.)
