When we looked at key “prepping” points for the Greater Exodus as children of Sarah, Jerusalem above and temples of the Ruach HaKodesh. We saw the need to:

guard against wickedness entering her house, a temple of the Ruach HaKodesh
pray for her generation (until the Holy One Himself seals our lips)
obey the Covenant, especially assembling on Shabbat and at the feasts, conspicuously holding daily “services” the lost may easily find because they are landmarks

This week, we’ll identify the traits of the warriors of a thousand generations gathering to Jerusalem. Here is our working text:

?Your neck is like the tower of David,
Built with rows of stones
On which are hung a thousand shields,
All the round shields of the mighty men. (So 4:4)

To understand a thousand shields and generations, we look at the First Mention of a thousand:

To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.” (Ge 20:16)

When Avimelekh “redeems” Sarah’s reputation to a thousand generations, the earlier part of the story gives context.

In ancient times, rape was viewed as less permissible than killing the husband and then taking the wife. For this reason, Avraham twice uses the deception “Say you are my sister” to protect himself. In a sense, the serpent “killed” Adam and then had access to Eve, perhaps the source of some strange doctrines pertaining to the serpent and Eve. It is a spiritual metaphor, not a physical relationship. In Sarah, the 1,000 generations were in jeopardy, yet her reputation, which was held captive, was redeemed with 1,000 pieces of silver. In Messiah Yeshua, the serpent killed the Bridegroom, yet he resurrected, zealous with love stronger than the grave.

Once confronted with the plague on his house because he held Sarah unlawfully, Avimelekh seeks to rectify the wrong and clear Sarah’s name to lift the plague.

“And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered [ra-ah-”seen”], that you have done this thing?” Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God [Yirat Elohim] in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she actually is my sister…” (Ge 20:10-12)

Avraham worried that there was no Yirat Elohim, or fear/reverence of Elohim. This is the seventh spirit of Adonai listed in Isaiah, which Creation Gospel students know quite well! It is the Shabbat spirit. Why does Avraham say “Elohim” instead of “YHVH”? Perhaps it is because he does not think Avimelekh knows the Creator as YHVH, as Pharaoh did not, but probably he was familiar with variations of “El” or “Elohim” as Creator. The important point is that Avraham did not identify any reverence (also translated as fear) of Elohim in Avimelekh’s city-state. Where there is no reverence of Adonai, there is little respect for rule of moral law.

It is no accident that Yirat Adonai is connected to Shabbat and the Temple:

“You are awesome [norah, from yareh, ?????? ?????], O God, from Your Sanctuaries.” (Ps 68:35/36)

“From where does the awe of God issue forth if not from the Holy Temple? Thus does it state, ‘My Sabbaths shall you observe, and My Sanctuary shall you fear [tira-u ?????????] (Le 26:2).’” (Shir 4§7)

“This verse indicates that the Sanctuary is sanctified in its destruction just as it was sanctified when it still stood.” (ibid)

Fear of Elohim is what Avraham pointed out was lacking among Avimelekh’s people, who would murder him for access to his wife as the serpent “murdered” Adam to corrupt his children with sin. Just as Adam and Eve (bride and bridegroom) lost their dwelling place in the Garden, so the serpent seeks to prevent the Bride and Bridegroom from entering in sanctity of Torah covenant.

Sarah, representing her descendants Israel, maintained her sanctity in the Fear of Elohim, which preserved 1,000 generations. Prophetically, the Vineyard of Israel is already “cleared before all men” by 1,000 pieces of silver. The thousand shields are a thousand generations, Israel. How are they “conspicuous” in their generations? One way their necks are like the Tower of David, the Temple, is their observance of Shabbat. They both are a Sanctuary and reverence His Sanctuary. They cease from their labors on Shabbat because they continue to reverence Him. These are the offspring of Sarah and Avraham. These are the warriors of a thousand generations, polishing their shields in reverence for the Holy One. Because they remember the covenant of Torah, He remembers them:

Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations… (1Ch 16:15)
He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations… (Ps 105:8)

The warrior comprehends the Word:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (G2638) it. (Jn 1:1-5)

The Torah is a light, and the commandment is a lamp. The Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The Torah is the Word. The Word is the Torah. The one who “comprehends” this is a warrior:

“comprehend” G2638 katalamban? Sept. for ????????, ?????, also for ?????, etc.; (from Homer down); to lay hold of; i. e.: to lay hold of so as to make one’s own, to obtain, attain to: with the accusative of the thing; the prize of victory

The Torah is a Tree of Life to those who take hold of her. To comprehend something Biblically is not just to understand how it works; it is to grab it! Take hold of it! Pursue it! Seek it!

Its many contexts support the meaning of actively seeking for [and finding] something. Darkness is the “place” and identity of those who do not seek the Word actively; therefore, they cannot obtain. The Word must be sought to obtain its Light of the Torah and Lamp of Mitzvah (commandment). We are not passive recipients. This is the inheritance of Sarah’s Tent to the children of Avraham.

Now let’s look again at the fuller context of the 1,000 generations of Israel:

“The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. He also confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan, as the portion of your inheritance.’” (1 Ch 16:16-18)

Psalm 105 repeats 1 Chronicles 16.

“All the thousands and myriads that crossed the Jordan River and whom I shielded (from the Canaanite kings), I shielded only in the merit of the one who came for a thousand generations, i.e, Yehoshua [Avot 1:1]. And it is not you alone who depended upon the merit of Yehoshua, but all shiltei, the mighty men, for anyone who rises and rules and prevails over his evil inclination, such as Moses in his time, David in his time, and Ezra in his time, their whole generation depends on their merit.” (Shir 4§7)

Anyone…ANYONE…who seeks the Word of Yeshua, takes hold of it, and lives by it, is a mighty warrior and a shield for his or her generation. The hopelessness of this generation reflects the Evil One’s desperate last attempt to keep the shield of the last generation from taking its place on the Tower of David, the Temple. Yeshua taught the warriors of 1,000 generations how to pray:

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from [the, G3588 ho] evil.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

As Yehoshua was a mighty shield to 1,000 generations, the sages and Yeshua (contraction of Yehoshua) teach that ANYONE who rules over “the evil” in his generation becomes a shield to that generation. The world depends upon those shields who defend the spiritual stature of the “Tower of David.” While the evil inclination will be bound for the duration of the millennium, it is those who fight it in their generation who are the warriors and shields standing between utter destruction and salvation, like the Temple. They are the little sanctuaries offering gifts and sacrifices on behalf of the nations in each generation.

The context of “The Lord’s Prayer” is acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Adonai and His role as supplier of help in both earthly needs and the spiritual need for strength to withstand the evil inclination, which becomes a satan to accuse us.

We cease secular work and our “own thing” on Shabbat because we are shields hung on the Tower of David, protecting the world by reverencing His Sanctuary, who we are, on His holy Shabbat.

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Is 58:13-14)

To delight in the Shabbat and become a functional sanctuary, we have to change our hearts from “Oh, how awesome I am” to “Oh, how awesome He is!” Otherwise, we will seek our own pleasure rather than what pleases Him. What pleases Him is to minister to others and bring them into the “House” so that He may be a sanctuary to all, and they in turn may become little sanctuaries. This is the context of Isaiah 58.

A shield is something strong. It protects the holiness and righteousness of Israel and Shabbat because it acknowledges Heaven’s sovereignty in a world that does not serve the King over kings. In a world that increasingly scorns the moral laws of the Word, we are conspicuous. Although it feels as though we are being attacked, it is simply the world counter-attacking the conspicuously different faithful shields of their generation.

Observing Shabbat and letting His Word sustain us become a strong place for others, a refuge of many shields from generations past who revered Adonai. Because the tower is conspicuous, people may find it. The context of Isaiah 58 details the many ways we as little sanctuaries can minister ”daily bread” to others and bring them into the House in reverence.

“The fear of God issues forth to the entire world through their knowledge that His Presence rests within the Temple; hence, the Temple serves as a standing testimony to the world that God’s Presence dwells among Israel…the verse juxtaposes Sabbath observance with reverence for the Temple to intimate that just as the commandment to observe the sanctity of Sabbath is everlasting, so the reverence one must have for the Temple is obligatory forever-even in its destruction.” (4§7)

In the meantime, the shields of Israel are sanctuaries who show “all men” the Fear of Elohim by honoring Shabbat with the same reverence as if the Temple still stood, for a measure of its sanctity and its Bridegroom resides in her, the descendants of Sarah.

Take hold of the Light of Yeshua…conspicuously…and become a shield of your generation. Those who sanctify the Shabbat and reverence Adonai are those preparing to move into their inheritance.

In the last teaching, we saw how The Footsteps of Messiah are directly linked to the feasts. More specifically, it is the three “foot festivals,” also known as the chagim:

Pesach
Shavuot
Sukkot

A feast is not just a moed or chag, but mikra [convocation]. It is a planned happening. Here is our working text:

Your neck is like the tower of David,
Built with rows of stones
On which are hung a thousand shields,
All the round shields of the mighty men. (So 4:4)

Prophecies are planned things, but we don’t always understand they are guides that inform every generation…prophetically, a thousand generations, thus “a thousand round shields.” Because the neck is a vulnerable spot, the Tower of David is an excellent analogy. It is tall and conspicuous in Jerusalem, yet a thousand shields cover it. Likewise, in the Shabbat Blessing After Meals, every week we acknowledge that Adonai is a tower of salvations to His King, a Shield keeping His promises to 1,000 generations of Israel [1,000 is a symbolic number-don’t get out the calculator!]

“He is a tower of deliverance to His king,
And shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
To David and his descendants forever.” (2 Sa 22:51)

In return, the righteous of each generation walk in the Covenant, and they become shields for their generations. The obedient service of Israel protects the earth in their generations from total calamity. It almost makes me wonder if the sealing of the saints in Revelation and the half-hour silence is not just to protect them, but also to silence them from interceding so that the final destructions can be loosed.

Like a mikra, or appointed time of the feast, the prophecies of the gathering of the twelve tribes of Israel are already known. The Temple was the focal point of gathering, and the Tower of David thought to represent it. Rather than the modern Tower of David built in the Second Century BC on the ruins of earlier fortifications, the Biblical tower is thought to be the Temple itself:

Pesikta Rabbati 33:1 R’ Avin the Levi said: “our neck is like the Tower of David, built as a model …” What does talpiyot mean? The hill toward which all turns are directed. [tel-hill; “the holy hill,” the Temple Mount]

Proverbs 15:6 “The house of the righteous one [i.e., the Temple, built by David] is a tower of strength, but with the entrance of wickedness, it is polluted.”

Tosafot on Berakhot 30a:10:1 The Gemara concludes that the verse “as the tower of David”, refers to the Beit Hamikdash [Temple]. ??????? literally means a landmark.

The House, or Temple, is a metaphor for Israel, something Paul emphasized. The Temple past, present, and future is the place where it all “happens.” It is part of the prophecy of the Greater Exodus to gather a single people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. What could possibly unite that remnant from every nation on earth? The appointed times.

On the other hand, isn’t Israel still very scattered? Some faithful, like Joshua and Caleb, visit the Land of Israel and attend the feasts anyway, setting steps in the Land, giving a good report, and establishing a claim to their future inheritance. Even if they are prevented from living there now, they will be back at the conclusion of the Greater Exodus!

Others cannot afford it or are too feeble. Nevertheless, they continue guarding and serving in the lands of their exile faithfully. They gather for the feasts and understand that they are little temples stationed wherever they are to testify to the Covenant by being “conspicuous,” like a tower hung with a thousand shields.

These are the shields of their generation, leaving no generation’s place with an empty spot. Because the rows of stones graduate higher and higher, each generation builds on some strength or advances a step higher than the previous ones. This allows them to “shield” their generation with obedience and prayer. Scorn for the shortcomings of previous generations completely misses the point of restoration from such low spiritual places. Instead, appreciate the sacrifices each made to prepare another layer for the next generation’s shield.

Preparing for the Greater Exodus is a matter of protecting and serving with one’s individual temple, something about which Paul obsessed in his letter to the Corinthians, by all reports a real wild bunch of believers:

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1Co 3:16
If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. 1Co 3:17
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 1Co 6:19

In what reality would the Temple service omit the daily sacrifices, prayers (incense), renewal of the menorah’s oil, the special Shabbat sacrifices, and the seven feasts? Only in an apostate reality of the harlot riding the Beast, eras when wickedness was allowed through the gates of the Temple and Israel failed in her twenty-four watches at every level: priestly, Levitical, plus each tribes’ 24,000 representatives who served each month on a schedule.

The House, or Temple, is a metaphor for Israel, something Paul emphasized. There was no point in using it to teach the Corinthians about their role unless he intended for them to correlate it to the Temple patterns. Paul’s rabbinic training explains his obsession with this metaphor, which matches that from the Jewish sages’ insight into the destruction of both Temples:

Proverbs 15:6 “The house of the righteous one [i.e., the Temple, built by David] is a tower of strength, but with the entrance of wickedness, it is polluted.” (Midrash Rabbah Shir HaShirim 4§7)
The Gemara concludes that the verse “as the tower of David”, refers to the Beit Hamikdash [Temple]. ??????? literally means a landmark. (Tosafot on Berakhot 30a:10:1 )
“Now, does it not stand to reason that if to His Temple the Holy One, blessed is He, showed no favor, then when He comes to exact retribution from those who destroyed it, all the more so will He not show them favor?” (Midrash Rabbah Shir HaShirim 4§7)

Yeshua’s own conspicuous “Temple” was torn down and rebuilt for all mankind’s redemption in three days. (Mt 26:61; 27:40) There are consequences for Israel allowing wickedness into the Temple, and likewise there are consequences for those saved by Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection who invite wickedness back into the Temple of their bodies. Those who destroy it will repay the Holy One, including those who engage in self-destruction.

This is why a life of repentance is necessary to maintain holiness in the temple of the Ruach HaKodesh. We must conduct the services daily. We are a “landmark” wherever we are, something and someone who will be noticed either for a beautiful “neck,” growing spiritual stature, or for a polluted waste of opportunity because of harlotry. Those who grow, pray, and obey, are the shields of their generation.

To understand a thousand shields and generations, we look at the First Mention of a thousand:

To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.” (Ge 20:16)

Silver represents a redemption-price. Sarah’s reputation was redeemed before all men.

Sarah is a prophetess known for both physical and spiritual beauty. She appeared much younger than her age, having vitality from a spiritual source. Her barrenness was Divinely-appointed, perhaps waiting until she (and Avraham) attained a height, a tower of faith and noticeably righteous living to pass on to Isaac. This protected him the Land from giants. Abraham was even friends with giants! There was no reason for the ten spies to be discouraged by giants, but to be conspicuously righteous in one’s generation is to stick his or her neck out.

Righteousness in Yeshua is taller than giants.

Sarah’s “neck” was unfettered by foreign kings, and unlike the scarlet harlot in Revelation, she does not make covenant with the Beast. In Sarah’s case, she did not enter in covenant with Pharaoh, the Dragon-king, nor Avimelekh, a Canaanite king. The 1,000 pieces of silver “clear” her reputation before the entire world. She maintains spiritual integrity and prominence. This is Israel, Sarah above, Jerusalem above, “a thousand generations” and “kings of peoples” which will descend from her.

Until she is released by both Pharaoh and Avimelekh, plagues descend upon their houses. In the generation of Moses, when Pharaoh doesn’t let Israel return to its Promise, plagues descend upon his house and all Egypt, much worse than when Sarah brought the first plague upon Egypt (symbolic of the world, the wilderness of the peoples, the wilderness of Egypt, Ezek 20:35-36).

Revelation describes the plagues that will also descend upon the nations of the earth until they release the Woman Israel who is not rightfully theirs, the descendants of Sarah and Abraham, the last exodus of the 1,000 generations. The gathering of the Greater Exodus will be tribulation on earth, but necessary to release the Woman Israel and clear her name before “all men.” That means all.

Next week, we’ll take a closer look at the prophecy pattern concerning Sarah and her descendants, illustrated by Yeshua, and then taught by the apostles. As Israel prepares for her gathering, she must:

guard against wickedness entering her house, a temple of the Ruach HaKodesh
pray for her generation (until the Holy One Himself seals our lips)
obey her Covenant, especially assembling on Shabbat and at the feasts, conspicuously holding daily “services” the lost may easily find because they are landmarks