Knowing the Footsteps of Messiah
This week I’d like to focus on the Footsteps of Messiah. We’ll do a more in-depth study of specific prophecies in the live stream on Shabbat at 4:00 pm, but in view of the increasingly troubled time we are in, I thought it worthwhile to present a Sukkot “after-party” encouragement to begin preparing for Passover. In fact, if you’re not already thinking about Passover, you’re behind!
It is traditional to read the Song of Songs during the Passover week. Its main theme is resurrection, but incredibly, the ancient sages’ commentaries link the Song to other prophecies. Their expectation of the ingathering of the exiles, the nature of Messiah, the times in which he will return, and the judgments are incredibly contemporary to what is happening to the fig tree Israel today and even headline news. This week and next, we will shine the spotlight on some of the expectation concerning the fig tree prophecy contained in
2:13 The fig tree has ripened its fruit,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!
Revelation Chapter Six, Matthew Chapter Twenty-four, Isaiah Chapter Thirty-four, and other key prophecies are decoded by the Song’s Midrash of ancient commentary on the fig tree. It is heavily Messianic and apocalyptic in its explanation of this prophecy of the fig tree. Yeshua reminds the disciples of this principle of the fig tree Israel:
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“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: as soon as its branch has become tender and sprouts its leaves, you know that summer is near.” (Mt 24:32)
The midrash Shir 2§26 clarifies ancient understanding of what an “unripe,” or “young,” or “unformed” fig is:
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“The fig tree represents the nation of Israel. For as the unripe figs mar the flavor of the figs as a whole, so too, the sinners of Israel mar the nation as a whole....These young fruit allude to the sinners of Israel, who died in Egypt during the three days of thick darkness.”
The thick darkness of Egypt is described in the Book of Revelation along with the other ten plagues. In other words, Yeshua is gently reminding us that we’ve read the text of Revelation before. While prophecies are not filled exactly according to previous patterns, they are fulfilled similarly to previous patterns. There’s enough to go by. So when John pens these words, the average feast-observant Israelite can make the connection:
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And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the eminent people, and the commanders and the wealthy and the strong, and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Re 6:12-17)
If you’ve already completed Creation Gospel Workbook Two, then you already have a good working understanding of the preceding paragraph. Now let’s take a closer look at the darkness and unripe, unrepentant figs. The midrash speculates that these “unformed” figs were Egyptian collaborators who did not want to leave Egypt. “As the verse states, ‘And there was a thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for a three-day period. No man could see his brother nor could anyone rise from his place [tachat].’” (Ex 10:22-23)
10:23 לֹֽא־רָאוּ אִישׁ אֶת־אָחִיו וְלֹא־קָמוּ
אִישׁמִתַּחְתָּיו שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים וּֽלְכָל־בְּנֵי
יִשְׂרָאֵל הָיָה אוֹרבְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָֽם
Later commentators are uncertain why the older ones associated a plague on Egypt, in which Egypt was singled out for darkness, with the Israelite unrepentant sinners. The fig tree is Israel, but the unripe figs are any among Israel who would not repent or even go so far as to obstruct the exodus of their brothers.
One guess is that while the Israelites “arose” from a three-day darkness like arising from death, a certain portion, their “brother,” did not. This was thought to conceal the judgment of the unrepentant, reluctant Israelites from the Egyptians. The odd use of tachat instead of makom or other words hints that the place from which the wicked brother could not arise was “beneath, underneath, below.”
Another idea is that chantah “has ripened,” [הַתְּאֵנָה חָֽנְטָה] is linking these unrepentant sinners to the Egyptian practice of embalming their dead. This is found in Genesis 50:2 “Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.”
וַיְצַו יוֹסֵף אֶת־עֲבָדָיו אֶת־הָרֹפְאִים לַחֲנֹטאֶת־אָבִיו
וַיַּחַנְטוּ הָרֹפְאִים אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל
Israel is symbolized by the ripe figs and the grape blossoms. In order to understand this, one has to understand a little bit about how a fig tree forms fruit. The fig leaf and fruit sprout at the same time. It is possible to tell even before the leaves fully form whether a tree will yield a “first” quality fig. The later-ripening figs are much smaller and less flavorful, sometimes shriveling and dropping from the branch before they can be harvested.
This pattern suggests that the unrepentant among Israel may not experience the Greater Exodus, but instead die in the plagues of the tribulation of those days because their “star” or “light” will fail and fall in the darkness. Like a wind (ruach) shakes loose the puny, unformed fig or withered leaf, they will simply turn loose of life in the darkness.
What is left is the scent (reyach) of repentance in the darkness, and those Israelites will arise from the shackles of sin. In darkness, the sense of smell becomes more acute. Egypt is figurative of death and Abaddon, the realm of the lost: "Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, 'How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is destroyed?'” (Ex 10:7) “Destroyed” is avdah, of which Abbadon is the permanent construct.
The sages cite Isaiah 34:1-6 as a related context for the unripe figs, or unrepentant Israelites. Not so coincidentally, this prophecy is echoed in John’s Revelation:
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Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples! Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it. For the LORD’S anger is against all the nations, and His wrath against all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them, He has turned them over to slaughter. So their slain will be thrown out, and their corpses will give off their stench, and the mountains will be drenched with their blood. And all the heavenly lights will wear away, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; all its lights will also wither away as a leaf withers from the vine, or as one withers from the fig tree.
Mountains are nations. Isaiah goes on in the passage to give us more specific details that link the prophecy to John’s:
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For My sword has drunk its fill in heaven; behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom, and upon the people whom I have designated for destruction. The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. (Is 34:1-6)
In Revelation, Babylon, the golden head of the “first” image of the beast kingdom, is riding the scarlet beast, the Red One, or Rome. This shows how the kingdoms of the beast’s image are one. The serpent lost his feet, so he has built kingdoms to walk among the nations and rule them, and therefore, Israel. This is how the beast kingdoms derive authority from the serpent. For a more thorough study, refer to the January 2021 newsletters or the corresponding YouTube videos.
Isaiah 34 contextualizes these falling stars and figs with the fall of Botzrah and Edom. They are in the same geographic location. Edom (Esau) is known as “The Red One.” He is the final beast kingdom associated with Rome. Botzrah/Petra were headquarters of the Nabateans, a people who thrived almost entirely on commercial trade and taxation of every good or service that passed through their kingdom on the ancient Spice Route. Blending the commercial trade with Babylon, the first beast kingdom, with Edom, the Red Beast (Re 17:3), would have linked John’s generation’s contemporary kingdom to the first one, Babylon. The Romans even took over the Nabatean’s taxation outposts on the Spice Route.
For our present generation, we are still mingled with the many systems of Rome’s daughter kingdoms. If we come out of Babylon, then we come out of the entire image of the beast kingdoms. How we do that, and what happens once we leave Egypt, will be the subject of next week’s newsletter. If you’ve wondered why it seems that evil decree piles atop evil decree lately, then it was predicted by the ancient sages as well as Yeshua, John, and the Prophets. We’ll take a very pointed look at their predictions in light of the plague and other evils that coincide with the Footsteps of Messiah. In the darkness, the sense of smell becomes so important.
Yeshua doesn’t judge by the sight of his eyes or the hearing of his ears, but with his sense of smell (Is 11:3 “riyach”)! He can detect the ripened figs and smell the grape blossoms even in the thickest darkness. And even though the grapes have not ripened, they are giving off the fragrance of the fruit that will ripen in the coming months. They are repentant, and they already emit the fragrance of the fruits of repentance to come in the summer harvest. Not perfect, but ripening. Perhaps now we are beginning to understand how the days will be shortened for the sake of the elect?
SHABBAT SHALOM!
