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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