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Exodus Judgements and Revelation Judgments No. 1
The First Seven Plagues In Egypt
Putting The Judgements Into Perspective
In this post I will take a step back to put the judgements in the Book of the Revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach into better perspective. In doing this, I will be looking at the subject of the separation of people of Israel from Egypt, or the nations, that the judgements create.
The Distinction Between Israel and Egypt Is the Message
In Exodus the separation builds from the first judgments. When the waters turn to blood, they do not turn to blood for the Israelites. When the frogs and other creatures invade every space and every place they do not invade Goshen, where the Israelites were. Finally in the later judgements, the distinction begins to be specifically named, "Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, was there no hail." Thus this message was continuously strengthened until everything culminated in the final judgement of the death of the firstborn and the dogs among the Israelites did not bark, although the terror of the angel of G-d was in the land and there was a great cry in all the land. This was to show the complete safety and security that the blood of the Passover provided for the people of G-d..." that you may understand how Hashem makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel."
In the Book of the Revelation a very strong point is made about the distinction between Israel and the world before any open judgement is allowed to begin. In chapters 4 and 5 it becomes clear to those in heavenly places that the hour for Israel's final redemption and for judgements in the earth has come. Only in the midst of chapter six does this become apparent to those who are upon the face of the earth. Once it has been revealed in both heaven and earth that this hour is come, the judgments are ready to begin. But before they begin the great message of the judgements, which will be told in terms of the distinction that G-d makes between Israel and the nations, is clearly stated.
We can make this even clearer by putting it into its context in the Revelation. One has been found in heaven, the Lamb, who is able to open the Book of the Seven Seals. What book is this? It is the book of the authority to bring about the great judgments that will come upon the earth. What are these judgements for? They are for the final redemption of the woman of chapter 12, the redemption of the woman and her children, the final redemption of Israel from the fall of Adam and from her captivity among the nations, which represented her captivity to the fallen nature of Adam.
The First Seal
The first seal is the seal of authority over the word of Adam, which is the corporate power of empire and government. The Lamb of the tribe of Judah has been given power to take authority over every word of authority upon the earth, because he is the Son of Adam, whether it has taken the form of political authority or military authority. In opening this seal, the hidden Mashiach, in his office as the Lamb of G-d, takes immediate personal authority over every heavenly prince of every one of the seventy nations. He does this in order to bring about his revelation to his beloved Jerusalem, that she might receive him as her own.
The Second Seal
The second seal is the seal of authority over peace and conflict in the world. Again, the Lamb takes authority over this area of heavenly authority. This is the aspect of blessing and cursing coming from the word of G-d which is in the world, the aspect of weakness and strength that is in nature, and the area of jurisdiction over the human will, over the will to sin and the will to virtue.
For it is in the exercise of the human will in response to Divine Providence that conflict arises in the world or that conflict is prevented. It is this area of authority that the authority of the word of Adam must govern. Now the Lamb takes authority over both of these areas. He does so for the sake of his revelation to Jerusalem and for the sake of the her complete redemption from Adam's sin and from her own sin and from the world's sin. This means that the will of the nations, like the will of Pharaoh, will be moved away from peace toward conflict. For only so long as this temporary world continues as it is does the will of Pharaoh and the will of the nations have opportunity to choose peace and to try to build a civilization of peace. When the redemption of Israel comes it means this temporary world is coming to an end and therefore the opportunities for its building itself up in terms of its own structures of peace are coming to an end. Pharaoh and the nations can do nothing, therefore, except fear the redemption of Israel and hate the promise of it. When they see that it is coming, they can do nothing but set their will toward conflict.
The Third Seal
The third seal is the seal of authority over economic health and welfare. The second seal, the second area of authority, was over the area of the designs of Divine Providence in the world and over the management of the reaction of Humanity to those designs. This third area of authority is the area of life in nature and in human society where blessings and curses are felt and take effect. The former is authority over the situation of the world, its design as a world of time, and over reaction to that design. The authority here is over the dynamics of this world of time, how the blessings and curses of Divine Providence are realized, how their effects are distributed. It is the spiritual jurisdiction of giving and receiving, and of establishing measure for measure. It is authority over the world economy.
The world of time is a prison. Although a prison, by definition, is a place of punishment, this prison world is a prison of mercy – although only few recognize this mercy and many see the punishment. Punishment is not the will or way of G-d, but in order to be merciful to Adam it was necessary for G-d to put his hand in Adam's way, to prevent him from walking straight and irretrievably into death. G-d took the day of Adam's death into his own hand and in doing so turned it into a world of time in which Adam was imprisoned. Adam could not but experience this as a painful punishment, and on account of Adam's pain, G-d himself cried out with pain. But there was no other way than to allow for this world of time if G-d was to be merciful and prevent Adam from ending in eternal death.
In order to move the heart of Adam to turn from the thought of painful punishment to the thought of loving mercy G-d measured everything with great care in the world of time. In the authority of the word of Adam, which G-d gave to leaders and rulers in Humanity, and in the authority over the design of Divine Providence in the world, which he gave also to rulers, but under the supervision of his chosen servants, G-d purposed that all people everywhere should have opportunity to taste of the goodness of life, through the goodness of his word, and to know from this taste that life was in need of redemption and was worth redeeming. This opportunity for well-crafted taste of the goodness of life would come through the spiritual management of the economy of the world prison. the world of time. However, when the time of the end would come, a time of judgement and great conflict, only the Lamb of G-d was found worthy to manage the world economy with such precise measure that in the end G-d's love and mercy would be seen and not only pain and torment, and all the world would be saved.
The Fourth Seal
The fourth seal is the seal of the authority of death and life itself. Throughout history the angel of death has ruled over the children of Adam and the children of Adam have lived their lives in bondage through the fear of death. At times, through great plagues or famines, the angel of death has boasted of the ability to take the whole corporate soul of Humanity itself. Certainly this was the threat in the time of the great flood in the generation of Noah. Only the hand of mercy at the last minute seemed to grant a reprieve. In our times the angel of death boasts loudly with new threats that he is able to come through atomic fire or through a great inflammation of inhuman evil in the human heart and finally take the corporate soul of Humanity itself away with him. Yet here, in the hour that is revealed in heavenly places, even this angel and his authority is made subject to the authority of the Lamb of G-d who has taken away the sin of the world. Here, in the opening of the fourth seal, the angel of death is made to become the servant of the Redeemer of Israel and of his revelation of himself to her.
The angel of death will go out and will kill a fourth of the world's population, and the angel of hell will run along behind him like his dog, but they will not be boasting. Their authority will be stripped from them and they will be obeying the orders of the one who kills in order to make alive.
The Fifth Seal
The fifth seal is the seal of the authority of delaying the end of the day of death, the end of this world. The prayers of the faithful witnesses, the few are prayers for the many, for all Israel. The vengeance they pray for is the vengeance of their testimony of eternal peace being victorious over the deceitfulness of temporal peace, the cloak of conflict, and the false prophets who would build up this world at the expense of eternal salvation. It is not a vengeance of revenge that they seek but of the victory of good returned for evil. And for this very reason, their prayer, "How long?" is a prayer that delays the end until all that can be done in preparation for the fullness of salvation is done. This is the seal of the commission of Elijah and of the voice crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of Hashem."
The Sixth Seal
The sixth seal is the seal of the authority of bringing forth the hour of judgements in the world for the sake of the redemption of the children of G-d. No one knows the day nor hour when the Son of Adam will come, not even the Son, but the Father in heaven alone. But the Son was found worthy to open this seal of authority, over which no one but the Father of Israel himself held authority.
When the hour of the testimony of the Lamb's sacrifice for his people Judah and Israel is fulfilled and his kingdom is announced to the ends of the earth, then the end will come. The Son will hear the commandment of the Father and will go before the death-fear of the nations and before the hopelessness in the heart of Jerusalem and he will demand that they let go of his bride and allow her to lift up her face unto him. At this hour the rulers of this world will know that they have lost control of the Jewish People and of Jerusalem and of all her converts and they will fear the Lamb of G-d more than the angel of death.
Then all will be prepared for Israel's final redemption and for the judgements that must come to free her. It will be at that very time that the message of G-d in bringing forth the judgements will be made clear. For the unleashing of the storm-winds of judgement upon the world will be held back until the servants of G-d are sealed in their foreheads with the singular name of Israel's G-d, the name in which all his names are one.
The Next Post directly on this subject will be at the link first listed below.
However, I have posted several pieces that supply very important background understanding. If you read through the background studies and follow the links at the end of those studies it will lead you forward to this next study in this series which is on the sealing of the tribe of Dan. Or you can go directly to that study by following the link provided here:
Where is the sealing of the tribe of Dan and with what number is he measured? Answering this question will put us in a position to clearly understand the relationship of the judgements in the Book of Exodus and the judgements in the Book of the Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach.
Link to Critical Short Background Studies for this series.
