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When those four riders of the apocalypse come, think about…

In Scripture, the head often represents the authority, the will of the person. When we dedicate our heads to Yeshua, we submit our will to him. Because he submitted his will to the Father, he has bounty in his hand. That bounty consists of the Bride, those who respond to the Father, who drew them to Yeshua. They have a marriage covenant with Heaven as described by King Solomon in the Song of all Songs:

Your shoots are an

orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits,

henna with nard plants. (So 4:13)

It was customary for the bridegroom to send pomegranates as gifts to the bride in the interim between the betrothal and the actual ceremony and consummation of the marriage. These are gifts of the Bridegroom to the Bride to “wear” until he comes. It is the way for the Bride to learn the nature of her Groom until they physically dwell together. When she learns who he is, his will, what pleases and displeases him, she adjusts her own attitude and behavior to reflect those desires. She prepares for him just as he prepares for her.

Ultimately, Yeshua is preparing a place for the Bride “in my Father’s House.” Because no one can dwell in the Father’s House in rebellion, the Bridegroom is preparing the bountiful Bride to dwell in the Presence of the Almighty’s House. As she walks in the Father’s will, and therefore Yeshua’s will, the Living Word, she builds the reputation of the King of Kings. She proclaims His Name on earth by her deeds, which are His deeds. She re-introduces mankind to their Creator and Lover of their Souls.

The Good Name built by the pomegranates, whose pips (seeds) represent the 613 commandments, is pictured by the ancient marriage customs. Although betrothed and technically married, the couple lives apart until the final stage of the marriage, kiddushin. Only then will they dwell together. In the meantime, though, the bride is considered already married, forbidden to all others, and she wears the name of the bridegroom. This gift of a good name reflects unity with the Bridegroom, who by His “pomegranates” has set apart the Bride from all other nations and gods who represent an adultery for her:

“And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for You and awesome things for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods?” (2 Sa 7:23)
“So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’” (Dt 4:6)

The Mishkan (Tabernacle in the Wilderness) is a template of the Famous Name gift exchange between Bride and Bridegroom. The Bride brought the Bridegroom thirteen items as gifts for the building of the Mishkan:

Gold

Silver

Copper

Turquoise wool

Purple wool

Scarlet wool

Linen

Goat hair

Red-dyed ram skins

Tachash skins

Acacia wood

Shoham stones

Stones for the settings

This list does not include items that were depletable, such as olive oil and spices for anointment. Then the Bridegroom gave her similar gifts, each mirroring one of her gifts to Him for the preparation of a Mishkan to make a place for His Presence to dwell with her:

“I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 16:10-14)

Enumerated for easier reading:

Embroidered cloth

Tachash (porpoise or badger) sandals

Fine linen (priesthood)

Silk (“cloud of glory”)

Ornaments

Bracelets (tablets of Ten Words)

Necklace (words of Torah bound around the neck/heart)

Nose ring (justice)

Earrings (Shma)

Crown of beauty (Divine Presence Is 60:19)

Gold (purity of Torah)

Silver (redemption)

Fame (of the Groom’s Name)

The Bride brought earthly gifts, which the Bridegroom matched with spiritual gifts.

The next building block is understanding that the Bridegroom doubles the gifts of the Bride. In fact, the principle that the Queen of Sheba brought Melekh Shlomo a huge quantity of spices (1 Ki 10:10) which could be measured, for it was earthly riches, but which he exceeded so far in his gifts back to her that they had no measure and could only be described as “royal bounty.” These represent spiritual gifts. What is in one’s hand is what he/she controls and represents his/her bounty or wealth.

Bounty = ?????? ke-yad, “hand”

It is the practice of the bridegroom to double the bride’s dowry. If she brings 13 gifts to the Mishkan, then he gives 26. Here is an example of a negative application of the principle:

“Comfort, O comfort My people,’ says your God. ‘Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.’” (Is 40:1-2)

If the Bride gives her Bridegroom sins, he obliges and doubles the consequences of those sins. Not a double-portion gift she wants!

Although only 13 good gifts are listed in Ezekiel, it is thought that those gifts will be doubled in the future, the millennial reign of the Prince of Peace, and in the World to Come, it will be royal bounty without measure, for it will be an eternal royal Mishkan (without measure):

“The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” (Re 3:12)

The Bridegroom is preparing a place for overcomers. They overcome for the sake of His Name, not to make themselves famous. They are the “shoots” of the pomegranate orchard, full of its pips, which represent the commandments. The shoot is from the same material as the tree. The Hebrew word for shoots is shalakh, “sent ones,” as in apostles and messengers. It can also mean an arrow, which hits the mark once sent. “Torah” itself is from yara, to shoot an arrow.

Once sent, a pip produces a new pomegranate tree, not weeds. They keep and live those mitzvah-pips, and because they overcome in walking in them, their reputation is like Yeshua’s description of his own mission:

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” (Jn 4:34)
“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (Jn 5:30)
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jn (6:38)
“This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” (Jn 6:39)
“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.” (Jn 6:57)
“He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.” (Jn 12:45)

Because we perform the will of the Bridegroom, who gifted us his pomegranates, we proclaim his Good Name even before the resurrection. In submitting our will to the Bridegroom’s will, we are assured he will conclude our marriage contract made at Sinai when we said, and say every year at Shavuot, “We will do and we will hear.”

When he meets us and draws us into the Cloud of his Presence to dwell with him, he will raise us from the dead (1 Th 4:15-18). At that time, we will be able to see the bounty on our heads. It will be more than double bounty…it will be the eternal bounty of the riches of His Presence with us. So let’s re-read the reward that has been placed on our heads:

“The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” (Re 3:12)

How is this better than the Mishkan in the wilderness? The Mishkan was a movable tent for His Presence on earth. The Temple is the Mikdash, a permanent, holy dwelling for kiddushin, or the “holy consummation” of the marriage. Mikdash, or Temple, holds the Hebrew root kadash, for holiness. Those who bear the Name on their heads are the holy ones.

A pillar in Hebrew, amud, means “something permanent, enduring, immovable.” What’s so incredible is that in the future Temple, it is a merging of the Ruach-built Mikdash above fused with a completely pure building from what He created below, natural and spiritual in perfect harmony as was intended from the Creation. As in the first Temple, in which the two main pillars had names (Boaz and Yachin), so the Bride of Messiah will have the Bridegroom’s new name. She will be bountifully full of pips, ministering healing to the nations with her own shoots and leaves.

The good news? Yeshua has given us the Living Word, a bountiful supply of pips on which to feed and from which to produce more good fruits and healing leaves while we await his coming. The four riders of the apocalypse will be a welcome sight to the Pips. There is indeed a great reward on their heads.

We are not the hippie generation that held empty promises of peace and love. We are the enduring Pippy Generation!

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