The Two-Hundred-Sixty-Second (Israel: The Conclusion)

As promised, this week we’re going to continue our study of Israel and how the truth about it helps us understand prophecy.  As we recognized last week, the central theme of scripture is Israel, and Israel is defined as those that are faithful and obedient to YHWH.  Yes, we can see times where those that were faithful turned away from Him, but when He sent prophets to warn of judgment and call for repentance, those that repented were called the remnant of Israel.

We also looked last week at how today’s state of Israel and the people that call themselves Jews are related to the Israel of scripture in name only.  The nation of Israel is a political establishment, not a title representing scriptural Israel, but it is situated in an area similar to the promised land given to scriptural Israel by YHWH.  Today’s Jews are converts to Judaism rather than bloodline related to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and historians and experts agree that the Palestinians are more likely to be physical descendants of Jacob than the European Ashkenazim that make up the state of Israel and run that country today.

Also, as stated last week, that doesn’t mean anything about how we, as believers, should treat Israel and the Jews.  We should pray for them as we pray for anyone else that does not believe in Yeshua Ha’Mashiach as their Lord and Savior.  By the same token, we should not just blindly agree and support everything the nation of Israel does.  We’re not going to go into depth with that, but just take that for consideration.  Think about how we judge other nations for what they do, based on how Yeshua taught us to act, and apply that same thought process to Israel.

Now that we’ve got that quick review taken care of, let’s get into this week’s topic.  If you look back at early studies we’ve done, you’ll find that our understanding of the end times has changed quite a bit.  Through study of scripture and a better understanding of history, which I believe was led by the Holy Spirit, we have come to figure out that our original view of the prophetic future was wrong.  We’ve looked at many other eschatology beliefs covering a wide range of interpretations, and come to realize that while each of those interpretations might have some nugget of truth in them, none of them get everything exactly right.  The reason we know that is because the beliefs that come from them have to either change how various verses are interpreted depending on what’s stated in the verse or even completely ignore verses because they don’t align with the overall eschatological view.

The bottom line is that because scripture is the Word of YHWH and cannot be broken (John 10:35), in order for a belief, view, or interpretation to be correct there must not be a verse you can find in scripture that refutes it.  Sometimes those verses mean our overall view is incorrect, but sometimes they mean our interpretation of the verse is incorrect.  Case in point, the first century Jews, as a result of the interpretation of scripture that was passed down through generations, believed that when the Messiah showed up He would conquer the Gentile nations and establish a physical, governmental kingdom.  Obviously, that view was incorrect, but it was based on how they parsed and interpreted the various verses they had studied for centuries.

As far as this week’s study though, just so we’re on the same page, we don’t yet have a final, indisputable answer to what the future holds.  Further study is required, but maybe we’ll never come to one.  What we do have is a better understanding of what prophecies may be indicating based on our recognition of what the name Israel means according to scripture and some of the imagery in it.  That recognition sort of melds all of scripture together in one cohesive picture, rather than the typical understanding of there being a break and shift between the Old Testament and the New of how things are defined and who is involved.  

Again, this is not supersessionism, or replacement theology.  No one “replaced” Israel.  Israel was never about a singular person and his descendants, and the fact that the name was given by YHWH to a person confirms that.  He did not call His chosen people Jacob, because it was never about a physical bloodline to begin with.  YHWH renamed a man, Jacob, to Israel and thus anyone can be renamed to Israel based on their true faith and obedience to Him.  This fact, that of renaming, is another theme of scripture even for believers in Yeshua (Revelation 2:17).

We’re going to get more into Revelation’s prophecies, but first we must recognize and review some specific patterns of scripture.  It’s through patterns that YHWH helps us understand and interpret scripture, spiritual things, and His prophecies.  For instance, YHWH told Moses that another prophet would arise who would be like him (Deuteronomy 18:15).  This prophet is one that generation after generation of Israel, and then more specifically the Jews, was looking for.  The “prophet” the Pharisees were referring to when questioning John was this same one that Moses told the people to look for (John 1:24-25).

We can’t forget also that John himself was the fulfillment of a pattern.  He was the fulfillment of the prophecy that Elijah would come before the Day of YHWH (Malachi 4:5), and Yeshua told the people that (Matthew 11:14).  He reiterated this to His disciples (Matthew 17:10-13).  

This is not an idea that was foreign to the Jews at the time of Yeshua, namely the fact that the prophecy of Malachi was referring to a person that would come in the power of Elijah, not that Elijah would be resurrected to walk the earth prior to the Day of YHWH.  This method of interpretation is hard for us, who didn’t grow up in the same environment as the Jews, to understand, but it’s vital in order for us to figure out what prophecies are saying and how they might have been fulfilled.  Unfortunately, for many Christians, even the most well-read scholars, this concept is lost and we get views and interpretations that are way out in left field.

As my understanding of scripture grew and I studied eschatology more and more, a lot of historical things started to fall into place in terms of how certain end times prophecies were, more than likely, already fulfilled.  As I kept researching the different views of eschatology, the ones that agreed that these prophecies had been fulfilled didn’t quite sit right with me in terms of the fact that some of them went so far as to say Yeshua wasn’t even going to physically return and rule on earth.  Maybe it’s just the fact that I was still hanging on to the dispensational views I originally held involving a millennial reign, but I couldn’t sit myself squarely in any of those eschatology “camps” so I kept studying and trying to make sense of it all.

Until fairly recently, still nothing made sense, but then the understanding of Israel came and the patterns started to come into view.  We alluded to the main pattern earlier and referenced it last week: the remnant of Israel.  From the entrance into the Promised Land to the first and second destructions of Jerusalem and the Temple, this pattern has been fulfilled over and over again.  A smaller group of faithful YHWH-followers were saved, in one way shape or form, from judgment and destruction, and they continued and grew the next “generation” of Israel.  In fact, this pattern even predates Israel back to the days of Noah when he and his family was saved from the total destruction caused by the flood.

Just as the ger, sojourners/Gentiles, joined ethnic Israel during the exodus from Egypt and became Israelites, they did so for each remnant that was preserved to continue the name of Israel.  You see that in Yeshua’s time with even members of the Roman Army joining believers and receiving the blessings of healing from Yeshua Himself (Matthew 8:5-13).

Whereas previously, I struggled to try and reconcile the fact that everything I read and studied was suggesting all the end times prophecies had already been fulfilled with the belief that YHWH would not have given us scripture without putting our future in it, now I was beginning to understand that He did put us in there.  It just wasn’t the way I was expecting Him to do it.  I was expecting books like Jeremiah, Malachi, and Revelation to prophesy specific events and timelines relevant to us today, but instead, He gave us books like those as patterns of what we’re to expect.

Once I came to this realization, I started to look at things differently.  When doing this, I found that there are hints and clues in these various already-fulfilled prophecies, and even some references by Yeshua during His ministry, that tell us there will be another “remnant event.”  The clues don’t tell us when or how, but they do tell us it will happen.  Only this time, it will be a remnant from the group of people that call themselves Christians.

Believers struggle all the time to reconcile Yeshua’s prophecies that many consider related to end times.  If you read through Matthew 24 and 25, you probably have had the same struggle.  For example, how can no one know the day or hour (Matthew 24:36), but also that when you “see all these things” you’ll know it’s near (Matthew 24:33)?  Why are the virgins not ready (Matthew 25:3) if Yeshua gave them all the signs to look for so that they could be ready?

I believe this is because Yeshua was giving immediate and future prophecy nearly simultaneously, and I also believe the way to discern this is through the harvest cycle, which would have been well-known to the people He was prophesying to.  Do you know the various harvests that occurred during the year in Yeshua’s time?  Did you know that there are three main periods of these harvests?  How about the fact that the feasts of YHWH correlate to these harvests?

The first harvest was barley, followed shortly after by wheat.  These harvests coincide with the time of Passover and Pentecost, respectively.  Next was the grape harvest, which covered about four months, the second half of which also included the fig harvest.  Finally, the olives were harvested, which included the last month of the fig/grape harvest and continued for another two months.  This overlap period, and shortly after, coincided with the feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.

Can you think of anything, especially parables or prophecies, that sound familiar to these harvests?  What about the parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)?  How about the parable of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20:1-16)?  Or the teaching of the barren fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22), the wicked tenants (Matthew 21:33-44), the prophecy of the fig tree (Matthew 24:32-35), or the prophecies of the great winepress of YHWH (Revelation 19:15) and the harvest of the earth (Revelation 14:14-20)?    

As you can see, harvests are a big theme surrounding end times prophecies, and the interesting part is how the harvest seasons mirror almost exactly the events from Yeshua’s death and resurrection to 70AD.  Not only that, but the timing of the siege of Jerusalem itself in 70AD coincides with the harvests that I believe represent the judgment of the apostate Jews at that time.  For reference, the siege began in April and completed in August.  This time period covers the wheat and barley harvests as well as the portions of the grape and fig harvests that don’t overlap with the olive harvest.  

To put it plainly, and hopefully remove any confusion you might have, I believe that Yeshua used the imagery of harvests not only to warn people of impending judgment but also give them a clue as to when it might occur.  Obviously, we know that Yeshua’s death and resurrection occurred at Passover, and during our study of what death means according to scripture we recognized that when He rose there were righteous dead that rose with Him (Matthew 27:53).  I believe this event mirrored the firstfruits portion of the barley/wheat harvests since these were the first people to ever be resurrected through Yeshua’s blood.  Paul confirms this connection to firstfruits in his writings (1 Corinthians 15:23).

As stated earlier, this same time of year was when the final siege of Jerusalem started.  It continued through the beginning of the grape and fig harvests, and I believe those harvests mirrored the overall events of the Jewish-Roman War from 66-70AD that culminated in a siege that finished in August of that year.  Yeshua’s teachings of vineyards and figs were all warnings of these events.  Nearly every scholar would agree that references to fig trees in these teachings are clearly related to Israel, and there’s even some current end times beliefs that connect the formation of the state of Israel with the fig tree leaves Yeshua specifically mentions as a warning sign.  

To expound on this, that would then mean that references in Revelation to grape harvests and being thrown into the winepress of YHWH’s wrath are also associated with the siege of Jerusalem.  This agrees with what I’ve found in my study of scripture and research of history, but still leaves the question of what’s left in prophecy for us believers today?  Well, I’ll ask you this: what does nearly every scholar, if not all of them, associate with the Holy Spirit?  

You’d be hard pressed to find one that disagrees with the Holy Spirit being represented as oil, and that’s where our last harvest comes in.  Olive oil was the main oil used at the time, and I find it interesting, perhaps even telling, that the siege of Jerusalem completed before the olive harvest would have begun.  It’s almost as if YHWH was signifying that the remnant of Israel that was saved from the judgment placed on Jerusalem were also now associated with oil, and, in other words, are associated with the Holy Spirit.

We skipped over Pentecost earlier, but that was the time, shortly after Yeshua’s resurrection, in which believers first received the Holy Spirit.  Now, since we have the Holy Spirit as a token, or pledge, of what our personal future holds due to being faithful to Him (2 Corinthians 1:21-22), not only is oil representative of the Holy Spirit, it is also representative of us as believers.  And that means just like there were events from YHWH for the Jews mirroring the wheat, barley, grape and fig harvests, there will be an event, or events, mirroring the olive harvest that are associated with believers.

We certainly don’t have one main city or region that we inhabit as the Jews did in 70AD, and we don’t have a prophetic book that gives us specific events prophesied to occur for apostate Christians, but we can use the patterns in scripture of previous judgments to get a good idea of what to look for and what’s to come.  We did get a blueprint of how we keep from being the object of YHWH’s wrath for that judgment though.  And that is where this week’s topic connects us to Israel.

Have you ever studied the imagery of New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22)?  Some believe this city is purely spiritual while others believe that it will physically descend from heaven, but regardless of which you believe there are two very important aspects of the imagery we need to recognize.  First, the foundation of the city’s walls bear the names of Yeshua’s twelve apostles, and second, the gates are labeled with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel as well as having heavenly messengers stationed at each gate (Revelation 21:12-14).

The significance of the first aspect may be obvious to you, but it has to do with something Yeshua told Peter (Matthew 16:16-19).  While the Catholic Church might have their own interpretation of what Yeshua said, He was referring to the fact that Peter knew and believed that Yeshua is the Son of YHWH.  Not surprisingly, the imagery of the New Jerusalem wall foundations, or the “rock” on which the walls are built, include the apostles’ names.  This is because the only way New Jerusalem exists, and subsequently the only way people can actually enter the city, is by knowing and believing that Yeshua is the Son of YHWH.

Like I said, that may seem obvious, but what about the gates?  They’ve got angelic “bouncers” at each one and the names of the tribes of Israel are above them.  I don’t know about you, but that tells me that you can’t get in unless you’re in one of the tribes of Israel.  Or, at least, you have to have an association to Israel in order to enter.  Just like in a big commercial building where people involved in servicing the building have to go in and out through the door labeled “service entrance,” I believe in order to get in and out of New Jerusalem you have to be a part of the tribes of Israel, and now that we know that includes us as faithful and obedient believers in YHWH and Yeshua, we can be confident in our ability to join Them in the city!

Revelation also tells us specific aspects of how we enter the gates (Revelation 22:14).  Most translations from the Greek present the beginning of this verse as a mirror of the washing of Israel prior to being given the commandments in the wilderness (Exodus 19:10), but some manuscripts (and even the N/KJV translations, interestingly) state that instead of washing robes it’s those that do His commandments that are able to enter the city and eat of the tree of life.  The Hebrew version of Revelation actually states doing the commandments vice washing robes, so I’m inclined to believe that this is the most accurate translation.  

So, as we can see, being a faithful, obedient believer in YHWH and Yeshua, which includes following His commandments, is the thing that gives us the right to enter the gates of this promised city and be in the presence of YHWH and Yeshua.  This is what connects us to Israel and allows us to enter through gates that have the tribes’ names inscribed on them.  I hope this week’s study of the relation between us, Israel, and the (actual) end times has been a blessing to you!

Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene