We will take a chapter from the 144,000 Harps to pull together the war between the Red Beast and the 144,000-strong army of Revelation. These calamities recorded in the Torah portions and in the judgments on Jerusalem will be avenged on the Beast!
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We continue this week from where we left off last week in “The Dust of Jacob Pt2” Here we delve into where John writes about how the angels of the four winds held them back until the righteous were sealed. If the righteous are somehow in the Clouds of Glory, even in a preliminary gathering among the nations, their smoke of sacrifice and prayer would go straight up as in the Wilderness, unaffected by the four winds:
“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.” (Re 7:1)
The stillness of winds upon the earth reflects what happened within the protection of Sukkot of Glory in the wilderness. The smoke of the altar fire went straight up, unaffected by the winds. The job of the four winds can be to gather, to scatter, vitalize, or simply hold still/stasis. ”Holding back” may be complemented by another angel’s mission of gathering. Typically, angels do one thing at a time, requiring multiple ministers to address multiple steps in a mission.
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Our Footsteps series has considered the signs of Messiah’s coming within key verses of the Song of Songs. Our most recent text is a prophecy of the final wilderness “of the people” and the Mishkan (Tabernacle) of Israel:
What is this coming up from the wilderness
like columns of smoke
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
with all the scented powders of the merchant? (So 3:6)
Israel emerges from the wilderness of the peoples in Clouds of Glory. When we look for evidence of how Yeshua is working among us to gather us, the Wilderness Mishkan is a logical place to look. Last week, we took a close look at the “two witnesses” of fire in the wilderness that amazed and terrified the surrounding nations. There was the fire of two altars that never went out, one of sacrifice and one of incense, each with its column of smoke. There was a pillar, or column, of cloud by day and one by night, the night pillar revealing fire in the darkness. And according to the sages, the two tablets in the Ark of the Covenant produced two tongues of fire that cleared the area of the encampment of serpents and scorpions when the cloud and Ark stopped. Sound familiar? Hint: Acts Two.
This description of the “two witnesses” sounds very much like the Midrash’s description of how the Mishkan settled down:
“And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.” (Re 11:5)
The Midrash Rabbah to Shir 3:5 describes why the nations marveled at the Israelite camp in the wilderness:
“When Israel was roaming from encampment to encampment in the Wilderness, the Pillar of Cloud would sink in the evening and then the Pillar of Fire would spring up, and the smoke of the burning pyre atop the Outer Altar would rise straight up, unaffected by the wind, and two darts of fire would issue from between the two staves of the Ark and incinerate the snakes, fiery serpents, and scorpions before the Israelites. [commentary to Ex 40:38]
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In last week’s teaching, we examined Isaiah’s prophecy in couplets:
“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 third couplet urges the inquirer to ask twice, or “come back again.” Return from the second exile, the long exile of The Red One, Edom of Seir.
In a layer of Jewish understanding about King Messiah’s hiding place, Isaiah implies that not only are those in exile calling, anxious for the night of exile to end, so is Messiah, who has been tying and untying the bandages of the sick outside the gates of Rome, anxiously awaiting the Father’s appointed time for his return, to “come back again.” The midrash is not to be taken literally, but illustratively.
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In the last episode, “How Far Gone is the Night?”, we put forward a prophetic verse from Isaiah to help us understand the final beast kingdom. Here it is in its couplets:
“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)
This is important because the last beast performs his deceiving signs “in the presence of the first beast.” The first beast is Babylon. This explains why Babylon the Great is “fallen, fallen.” The image of the beast King Nebuchadnezzar set up for the nations to bow down and worship was one image. Because Daniel had interpreted his gold-silver-bronze-iron dream of the image as the successive beast empires, the King of Babylon thought by forming the image ALL of gold, his kingdom would endure forever. He thought all he needed to do was bring in representatives from all the nations to bow to it. Of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego would not bow, and the king temporarily repented. He’d have to be turned into a crazy beast to be completely broken (Da 4:33).
Likewise, in Revelation, human beings who will not repent or who will only repent superficially and worship the image of the beast will be completely broken. If Babylon the Great falls, then all the beast empires fall with it, including its systems among the nations of the world upon which the iron-and-clay feet stand. From the Babylonian head to the Persian chest to the Greek lower torso to the Red Roman iron legs, the Beast will fall. It is empires and nations, yet ONE image, which helps us to understand how the last beast’s signs are performed in the presence of the first. The feet don’t rome too far from the head. Sorry. Couldn’t resist a pun.
Edom is Rome, the last beast kingdom, and its feet are standing upon the earth mixed with the clay, the peoples of the earth. It will be shattered by the Stone of Israel, and all the beast kingdoms that attached to the golden head of Babylon will fall. The night watchmen, who represent those skilled in knowing the times and seasons that turn in their cycle, are experts in the moedim. The moedim were set in place on the fourth day of Creation when the sun, moon, and stars were put in their place “for the sake of the moedim,” often translated as “seasons.” The night watchmen watch these stellar movements every “night,” or exile.
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