And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Re 19:11-16)

Our lesson on the battle of Armageddon, or Har Megiddo, will be deep this week, so deep that I cannot edit a simpler or quick version so please join us on this podcast  so we can unpack this herd of white horses with their riders as well as their commander. Feel free to take screen shots of the quick-guide charts.

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Hello, again, time travelers. It’s Part Three of our Quick Guide ot Armageddon. Next week we’ll finish up with a look at the horses of Armageddon, but this week, we’re back with Deborah and Barak. We’re rolling the scrolls back in time to Sinai and the time of Avraham. We’re putting together just how Deborah knew to assemble exactly 10,000 soldiers on Mt. Tabor.

Of course, she was a prophetess, and she heard from the Father, but typically He builds on our preparation to be His messengers. As with the disciples who were prepared and waiting in Acts Two, so Deborah, whose name comes from the Hebrew word for “bee” and dvar, “word,” was prepared to be a vessel of the Ruach HaKodesh. Her husband is named Lappidot, which means “torches,” but it is thought that perhaps it was another name for Barak, whose name means “lightning.” Many people in Scripture went by more than one name. Ol’ Jethro had a lot of them!

How do we know Deborah is hearing from the Spirit of Adonai? As they discuss the details of the battle, Barak says to her:

“If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.” (Judges 4:8-9)

I don’t think Deborah is just warning Barak he better not have a problem with being a macho man. He is acknowledging her spiritual gifts and anointing, and she is affirming his request. It is a request for the Word and Ruach HaKodesh, of which Deborah is a minister, to accompany him in battle. Barak knows that mere military might will not be enough against such a formidable enemy, and he is more than willing to give the credit for the victory to the “woman,” which sometimes is a symbol for the Ruach HaKodesh in Scripture (see CG Workbook Four):

So Deborah and Barak in their time machines had hovered over Mt. Sinai, then listened in as Moses spoke and sang his last song to the Israelite tribes about forty years later (that’s not long if you’re in a time machine):

What follows in Moses’ exhortation is a summary of each tribe’s courage and blessings. What does Deborah do in her victory song after the battle? Summarizes the tribes’ courage or lack of in the fight at Har Megiddo!

The Torah time machine works great, doesn’t it?

The fiery Word of God was in His right hand when He dawned on them with a myriad, ten thousand holy ones, an angelic host. As they hover over the scroll, Deborah and Barak know they are not going to need 10,000 soldiers to win the fight. This number tells them that the Holy One will come marching with His myriads of angels to fight for Israel, which is exactly how the Song of Deborah begins. Oustanding study in the Word! Truly a holy time machine of prophecy. Those 10,000 soldiers will merely be the mop-up crew and decoys to lure in the enemy.

In Moses’ blessings, the lightnings in the Torah fire hint again to this coming victory over Sisera’s iron chariots. Barak says, I am not going to go without you, Deborah, you’ve got to go, too. Her husband’s name is Lapiddot, which means torches.

Deborah is not just coming in the power of the Holy Spirit and prophecy, it mentions her husband’s name, so she also is a type of a torch, one flesh with him. Lappidot is “torches, flashes,” plural, yet they are one in this battle. As a judge of Torah, Deborah knows Israel’s past and its fiery law of covenant, which was lit by lightning torches at the right hand of Adonai:

The light of a torch is a lamp that walks. Want to see an example? Spool up your time machine to the 25th of Tevet, around 331 BCE, and watch the 8 elders and high priest who marched to meet Alexander’s army in the “first” Chanukkah about 150 years before the ”lamp” miracle one we celebrate. Because Adonai had gone before them, they averted a war; Alexander had already seen the high priest in the dream. He spared Jerusalem and instead killed those who planted lies and slanders against the Jews.

In those times, a righteous person was known as a lamp; in fact, even before! In the time of the Judges (Eli the High Priest) and the time of King David, anointed leaders were known as “lamps.” This is our calling, to be the walking lamps, torches of the the fiery law. A mosaic uncovered by archaeologist even depicts the high priest and eight elders with lamps over their heads! When it is time to “go out” (yatza) to war or on a Divine mission, lamps sitting on a table or lampstand won’t do; we have to become torches.

Let’s take another trip back in our time machine to the time of Avraham now. Got your tissues, something to drink, and some snacks? We’re about to see another torch, and it will be a sight to remember. Don’t let your time machine get too close. It might get singed. Power up to the past so you can see what Deborah saw as she made her battle plans!

The Covenant with Avraham:

It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.’” (Ge 15:17-19)

Deborah’s opponents, Yavin and Sisera, are Canaanites.

The covenant with Avraham also promises the land of the Kadmoni, which means “Easterners, past, ancients.”

Since no one knows who the Kadmoni actually were or where they lived, it may be a way guaranteeing eventual victory over the kings of the east without having to identify a specific person or nation. In the end, it will fit.

The way of victory is through the power of the Holy One’s Presence, which will go before Israel when she is righteous and holy. She is a lamp, a torch of myriads as well.

Deborah is fiery; she is not afraid to be visible. She is a righteous lamp preparing the way for Messiah’s march from a broken mountain. That is what tabor means, broken off, split. Just as Messiah Yeshua’s feet will split the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, so Deborah, wife of Lappidot, torches, sends Barak “Lightning” with 10,000 holy lamps to Mt. Tabor to lure in the kings of the east with their chariots to their death at Megiddo.

The “going out” (yatza) is the verb that describes the rising of the sun and the going forth of an army. When we hear and know the Father’s will, first we work. First we take steps. We prepare. We do what we can do, study the scrolls, stock up on oil, then we wait for the miracle of His Presence marching.

The kings of the east try to possess the east, kedem, the ancient origins, yet they cannot reign there forever, for with this language was tribal territory assigned to Zevulun in the deed. If Jeremiah was told to buy property before the fall of Jerusalem because it would be a sign that Judah would return after the exile and once again possess their inheritance, then Deborah in her generation seized the title deed given to the tribes and did not lose faith.

You probably won’t need your time machines next week, but it never hurts to leave it parked in the garage. You never know. Between now and the resurrection though, keep those lamps burning and the torches lit. Next week, we’ll take a peek at the horses of Revelation and those fiery torches riding them.

If the blood is up to the horse’s bridles when the nations surround Jerusalem, one question might be: “Which horses?”

The horses of the human armies, or the horses of the holy myriads?

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Hello, again, time travelers. It is, was, and will be good that you’re back with us for our journey through time with Abraham, Moses, Deborah, and…well…Yeshua. We don’t have the names of the major players at the final Armageddon, but all we need to know is that Yeshua will be there.

Last week we looked at the prophetic cycling of particular place names that threaded into Deborah’s dilemma with the kings of the east, Jabin and Sisera. By rolling through the Torah scrolls, she read the prophecies, and with a Divine directive, she used the Torah lessons to guide the Israelite army to victory alongside Barak. This week we’ll gather some more clues in our quest for understanding Armageddon. I guess we better make that Har Megiddo, my brave Israelite warriors and scholars!

Let’s take a look at a couple more of the geographical locations of our heroes against the kings of the east. Alongside her Torah scrolls, Deborah holds the land title descriptions handed down from Joshua. Just for a quick trip, time travelers, set your time machine to the time of Joshua’s (Yehoshua’s) conquest west of the Jordan River. You’ll need those maps you taped to your steering wheel last week. Locate the one from the time of Joshua’s conquest and/or the time of the Judges, just don’t study your maps while you’re flying through time. I’m not sure what you might hit.

Okay, here we are. Take a good look at the tribal boundaries from Joshua’s conquest. Each tribe’s territory is described in detail, just like a land deed today. Locate the area of Zevulun, Ephraim, and Issachar, which takes up the area between the Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea.

Deborah’s battle with Sisera took place at the junction of Zevulun and Issachar’s territory along with the Levitical clan of Gershon’s. Look over the following verses closely and find the places on your map. Now here are the clues. What looks like a strange extra phrase “toward the sunrise [mizrach]” in the land title is a hint to the future battle with kings of the east:

 ?????? ?????????? ??????? ??????? ?????????? ??????????? ???????? ?????? ??????? ?????????????? ??????? ???????

More place-names stand out: Tabor, Kishon, Daberath, Kedesh.

Back to the future, young warriors. Let’s go back to Deborah’s palm tree. Can you see her? She’s scroll-rolling again. She’s totally ignoring that plate of pita, hummus, and olive relish. It looks delicious.

Last week we connected Deborah’s Kedesh with Kadesh, a place in the wilderness the four kings conquered before they turned back east and engaged the five kings and kidnapped Lot and his family.

There is also a Kadesh that was a key encampment for the Israelites in the wilderness. Deborah links Kedesh to Kadesh. Holy to holy. In fact, this is the encampment in the wilderness of Tzin where Miriam died and was buried in the month of Passover, the same month Pharaoh and his chariots were defeated:

For Deborah, life as a judge of Israel couldn’t have been all peace, love, and casseroles. If women in ministry are rejected today, imagine how difficult it would have been a few thousand years ago! Miriam’s ministry in Israel must have been a special inspiration to Deborah, a judge and prophetess:

Here is the outside-of-time hand of the Father on Israel’s behalf. Whereas the Kadesh in the wilderness was a place where there was no water because Miriam died[1], it would be an over-abundance of unexpected water, a literal flood, at the Kishon River that snared the kings of the east! Are you watching? Here comes General Barak, and he sits down beside Deborah under the palm tree.

What a wonderful precedent Miriam and Moses set for Deborah and Barak. Even in the tiny insight we have to Miriam’s life, which consists of her heroic saving of Moses’ life as well as her punishment for speaking about Moses’ Cushite wife, we have more clues, my fellow time travelers. The Israelite camp DID NOT MOVE WITHOUT MIRIAM. Not one inch!

And what about the Song of Moses after the defeat of Pharaoh and his bogged-down chariots in the Reed Sea? The Song was echoed by Miriam, who led the women. So what does Deborah do? After they defeat Sisera’s chariots in the bog of the Kishon, she sings The Song of Deborah. I think they were both probably altos.

What had Deborah seen in the scrolls?

If they obeyed the Great Shepherd’s instructions, then no one would need to strike a rock; instead, a flood of water would bog down and confuse the chariots and Sisera’s army.

Speak to the Rock. Speak.

Deborah looks at Barak. “Muster your 10,000 soldiers from Kedesh, holiness, and wait on Mount Tabor for Sisera’s troops to notice you.” The 10,000 holy soldiers will only appear to run away, which will lure in the kings of the east to Har Megiddo like Pharaoh was lured in.

Somehow Deborah knows that those 10,000 holy soldiers will be only a small portion of the full army that will show up for battle.

Deborah tells Barak that specific number of warriors: 10,000. They have a context for 10,000 because sometimes the word is translated as “myriads.” It suggests the myriads of holy ones (angels) who accompanied the Holy One at Mount Sinai when He gave the Israelites the Torah.

Fire up your travel machines, brave Israelites. Program in “Mt. Sinai” as your destination. Be careful. The weatherman reports rain, hail, lightning, and heavy clouds. Now we are watching what Deborah saw in the scroll. It is recorded in Deuteronomy 33:2. It says,

“The Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir,”

which is the territory of Esau of Edom, The Red One, who lived in Seir. In fact, it was from Kadesh that Moses requested, and was refused safe passage by Edom. He also requested to buy food and water, and he was refused by Edom: “Thus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.” (Nu 20:21)

“He shone forth from Mount Paran,” which is a big red mountain the four kings defeated before Sodom: “…and the Horites in their Mount Seir, as far as El-paran, which is by the wilderness.”

“And He came from the midst of 10,000 holy ones.”

So He came noticeably with myriads of angels. This is how King Solomon will see the Savior of Israel: “My beloved is dazzling white and ruddy, preeminent among the myriad.” (So 5:10 Artscroll)

“At His right hand, there was flashing lightning for them.”

Some translations are more literal, and they’ll translate it as a fiery law. So is it lightning, or is it a fiery law in His right hand?

Yes.

Barak’s name means “lightning.”

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Yael used her “right hand” (Ju 5:26) to drive the tent peg into Sisera’s skull, breaking/dividing it (???????), which is part of the compound name of Hazazon-Tamar, the place the kings of the east conquered just before the battle with the five kings.

Deborah and Barak are going to battle with the fiery Word of God. Barak is not going to need 10,000 soldiers. This number tells the Israelites that the Holy One will come marching with His myriads of angels to fight for Israel, which is exactly how the Song of Deborah begins.

Now you are seeing what Deborah saw in those scrolls.

So hold your position at Sinai, troops. Hover right here near Mount Sinai and idle until next Shabbat. Next week, we will and did and are traveling a little farther, to the camp of another brave couple: Avraham and Sarah. We’ll gather more clues to this smokin’ Israelite army of 10,000.

[1] The traditional reading of this passage is that the water dried up because Miriam died. The miracle of the cloud was associated with Aaron’s service, the manna was associated with Moses’ service, and the water from the Rock was associated with Miriam’s service. Indeed, Yeshua the Rock first met Miriam (Mary) after his resurrection.

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Over the last several months, we have done some deep dives into the principalities and powers in high places, the beast kingdoms, and then more particularly, into the kings of the east, another category that intersects with the beast kingdoms, including the Persian bear.

In term of their proto-prophecies in the Torah, we’ve been all over the place because prophecy is cyclical, even though not identical, from generation to generation. When we read of events in the Psalms, Writings, Prophets, and New Testament, the writers expect us to already be familiar with those proto-prophecies.

It was important to establish the earmarks of the battles with the kings of the east in Torah because Adonai declares the end from the beginning. If we want to have the basic understanding of the sixth and seventh bowls of wrath in the end and how they lure in the nations to Armageddon (Har-Megiddo), then we familiarize ourselves with them at the beginning:

Har is “mountain,” and Megiddo is “a place of crowds,” so important in its military situation that it has been destroyed and built over numerous times. It overlooks the Jezreel Valley’s flat, agriculturally fertile abundance as well as the road to the Western Sea, or Mediterranean, an excellent place to monitor the coastal trade route that connected continents from ancient times. John prophesies of a final crowd that will be drawn to this ancient hill in the ol’ breadbasket of Israel.

Rather than review some of the many points from our Heaven Shaking the Bear series, I will use them to augment some additional points in this newsletter. You can always go back and access the transcripts (thank you, volunteers!) or videos for little details, such as why even Canaanite kings are considered kings of the east. I’d rather add some new information for your handy time travel guide to Armageddon. We’ll be half Marty McFly and half Indiana Jones on our hunt for clues to Armageddon.

Let’s take a seat in our time machine, the Word, and travel back to our familiar story in Judges 4-5, the story of Deborah, Barak, and Sisera with his 900 iron chariots. A little clue is in Sisera’s 900 chariots. It links the ancient with the future. Nine hundred years (plus some) is the typical age of the pre-flood notables from Adam to Noah. In human history, they are the ancients. It was an era marked by the rebellion of the “sons of Elohim” who provoked human beings to such a violence.

Sisera’s chariots were iron, denoting the Roman beast kingdom that is mingled with clay in the feet of his image. In other words, something of Deborah’s story will establish a template for understanding the final defeat of the Red One, who appears in Revelation as the chosen steed for the Great Harlot Babylon. The nine-hundred-year era of the days of Noah and its violence will link to the end time of Armageddon.

Every time I see the word “Babylonian,” my mind says, “babaloney.” Don’t know why. But ick.

Okay, now let’s power up the time machine. We need to visit Abraham’s time during the battle for Sodom among the kings of the east, the Covenant Between the Pieces, and then visit Moses in the wilderness.

Ready? Push the Abraham button. It might say, Avram, but you’ll recognize it. Here we go.

Wait, wait. First, tape a copy of Judges 4-5 and a map of Israel on your steering wheel. We’ll need to compare what we see with the first battle of Armageddon that Deborah fought against Sisera to our past future locations.

Okay, here we come, Abrahamic period. We are landing among the four kings of the east, led by Amraphel (perhaps Nimrod), who marched through and defeated territories east of the Jordan. The five kings of the Sodom coalition have quit paying their taxes, so the four kings are on their way to collect plus interest.

Even though those cities of Sodom are situated mostly to the east of the Salt Sea, after the four kings first march and defeat cities east of the Jordan and in the highlands of Bashan, they are continuing as far as the Negev near Kadesh, En-Mishpat, and Hazazon-Tamar. By bypassing the Sodom coalition cities, the four kings are giving the five kings time to muster before the four kings turn back east and meet them near the Salt Sea in battle. Do you see this? Inexplicably, Sodom’s five kings are falling into tar pits! Shouldn’t they know about those tar pits? After all, this is their territory! How strange!

And there goes Lot and his family as captives. And there…someone escapes and runs to tell Abraham. Okay, we don’t have to follow them up to Damascus. We know how this ends. Check your Judges 4-5 Scriptures and map. They’re taped to your steering wheel, remember?

Something similar happened to Sisera’s iron chariot. Like Pharaoh drove his chariots into the Reed Sea and there his chariot wheels became “confused,” so Sisera drove his chariots into the mud of the Kishon, which he should have known about because he was a Canaanite.

Although Pharaoh was not a “king of the east,” he is the dragon, and his authority was passed to them. This suggests that our soggy bottom boys are experiencing a Divine intervention, not just a human battle. Something flies in their brains, stings them, and causes confusion…perhaps the tzirah, the supernatural hornet of Moses and Joshua?

The tzirah went before the armies of Israel, and it helped Moses conquer on the east side of the Jordan and Joshua on the west side of the Jordan. It first causes confusion, and then it cuts off root and fruit. It is the supernatural bug described as being released from the King of Abaddon in Revelation.

Not so coincidentally, Deborah’s name means “bee” in Hebrew, and “hornet” in Aramaic. The root of her name is “word,” as in Devarim, the fifth book of the Torah and perhaps the most apocalyptic since it is the little scroll of Torah. There was a reason Barak would not take his soldiers into battle without her; she represented the Divine power of the Word going before them!

How does Deborah know to tell Barak that he needs exactly 10,000 soldiers mustered from a place named “Kedesh”?

Deborah judged Israel under the “palm tree of Deborah.” A palm tree is a tamar:

Can you see Deborah studying the scrolls of Torah? Those scrolls are rolling her right into the time of Avraham, and she sees the conquests of Moses and Joshua in the wilderness, such as Amalek. She recognizes the conquests of the four kings as having the same names that are in the hill country of Ephraim near Har-Megiddo: From Kadesh to Kedesh. From Hazazon-Tamar to the tamar providing her shade to read the scroll. From En-Mishpat to her job rendering mishpat for Israel.

We know Deborah has spent time scroll-rolling back to Abraham’s time because she mentions something specific in her Judges Five song. The Song of Deborah mentions the courage of the tribe of Ephraim in the defeat of Sisera’s chariots:

If you need to, program in “Amalek in the Wilderness,” and travel there to see a bit of the battle. This “root in Amalek” is thought to refer to the wilderness battle under Moses in which the Ephraimite Joshua defeated Amalek. The tribe of Ephraim is rooted in its leadership in the victory in the wilderness in Israel’s first encounter with Amalek.

Deborah knows Amalek is enticed to attack when its opponent looks weak, so that gives her a Divine strategy in enticing this king of the east Sisera to his Armageddon. Okay, now travel back to the battle between the four kings and the five kings. The four kings of the east also conquered Amalek before turning back to battle the five kings of Sodom.

While the battle continues, let’s return to this question (you already know how that battle ends): How does Deborah know to tell Barak that he needs exactly 10,000 soldiers mustered from a place named “Kedesh”?

We’ve only partially answered it. And our answer is based on the battle between bad kings of the east vs worse kings of the east. We don’t want to take this as the only source of Deborah’s inspired strategy to lure Sisera to Har-Megiddo. Deborah is scrolling through the rolls of the Torah, and she must have some even better prophecies on which she bases her battle with Sisera. Let’s leave these guys for Avraham to deal with and travel forward and back to Deborah’s palm tree for more clues.

Yes, time travelers. Next week we’ll go back to the future with Deborah and spend some more time with Avraham and Moses. There must be a connection between Deborah’s forty years of peace in Israel and Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. Deborah has the handy traveler’s guide to help her map it all out. We’ll see her secret of selecting 10,000, and we might even take a peek inside Yael’s tent to find that she knew the Torah, and it guided her hand when she drove the tent peg into Sisera’s head.

Oh, dear, oh dread.

Sandals muddy like heavy lead.

Some yogurt he was fed.

Then he went to bed.

Now Sisera is dead.

A tent peg’s in his head.

Okay, Deborah is better at composing songs than I am. I gave it a shot. Roll your time travel machines to Judges 4-5, and we’ll see you next week.

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Huge!

This Changes Everything!

Secrets Revealed!

The Real Reason…

ALL CAPS!

What You’re Not Supposed to Know About…

Something That Shouldn’t Exist…

See Recipe in Comments Below[1]

Is this what it takes to get our attention now?

You would think so. When we search through YouTube looking for a favorite news outlet, we now slog through sensationalist titles and AI-generated title pages that entice us to view by showing extreme emotions: anger, fear, distress, shock.

Not comforting, is it?

It’s a weekly challenge for me when I try to choose a graphic that authentically represents the content of the teaching. At some point I think we have to admit that no matter how intriguing the title or graphic, mostly the same people will read and the same people will delete. Probably at most, an especially intriguing title will cause a tiny percentage of people to open an email who normally delete it. We are becoming more wise…or perhaps fatigued…with sensationalist content.

The ability of AI[2] to offer us not just curated viewing, shopping, music, or social media posts, but to communicate with us like an actual person in Customer Service chats or Chat GPT, creates an illusion of an interested and caring person we know. How cool is it that YouTube lets me know when a new beading or archaeology video is released?

Honestly, though, it’s digital machinery that has been fed immeasurable amounts of data. As I found out last week, it’s also been fed pirated books (Creation Gospel workbooks!) and videos (Creation Gospel videos!). The AI in turn cheerfully offers the information free to seekers.

There was a foreshadowing of this back in 2003 when we first went online with www.israelnet.tv, offering teaching programs from some of the best-known Messianic teachers of the day. Our tech guy contacted us and said he was watching someone download multiple programs simultaneously in real time. This was in spite of clear copyright cautions. We only had permission from the teachers to stream to our audience, not to re-distribute the programs for personal use.

With a little bit of investigative work, we tracked down the email address of the pirate. My burning question was, what kind of person steals Bible teaching? There’s much more lucrative content out there. Bible teaching? Really?

I sent the faceless Torah pirate an email, and kindly but firmly explained that we knew he was downloading copyrighted programs. I also explained that we did not have permission to distribute the material randomly; we were only licensed for the specific use on Israelnet.

Instead of an apology, the pirate went into the old trope: The Bible doesn’t belong to anyone. It’s free. Bible teaching should be free.

Pretext.

Aaargh, matey!

Sure the Bible is free. They’re in the top drawer of any hotel nightstand. An institution known as the Gideons gives away free Bibles. Most people have an extra copy they’d be happy to give away. But there was a reason Yeshua chose one of the disciples to carry the donation money bag.

Even though Yeshua was quite handy with multiplying loaves and fishes, they had to eat.

Relying on miracles instead of working is not the Scriptural example. Miracles are for when we reach the limit of human skill, access, or knowledge.

In my reply to the gentleman pirate, I agreed that the Bible is free. In fact, our Creation Gospel programs and workbook royalties are designated to support Torah-based orphanages, not pay salaries. My husband and I had full time jobs, so we didn’t rely on donations to pay the grocery bill or car payment. We donated our time and money. Other teachers, however, were full time ministers. They needed the income to support their ministries and families.

Not being as handy with loaves and fishes as Yeshua, they had to eat.

At the least, if this gentleman wanted to re-distribute the teachers’ programs, then he should obtain permission like Israelnet did. He should explain why the costs the teachers incurred, such as travel, studio, equipment, utility bills, (our streaming T-1 line back then was $1000 per month!), software, etc., was okay for him to remove from their pockets because he knew better than they did to whom their teaching and production work should be disseminated.

So in our times, AI developers are free to redistribute all the intellectual property it can consume, even apologizing for not listing everything due to “copyright rules.” It’s like nodding and saying “no” at the same time.

It’s not something we’ll change, however. In fact, it’s so incorporated into our daily activities that it’s probably impossible to disconnect unless we go off-grid. We’re being sluiced down that funnel faster and faster. The current Western trend toward socialism and communism is a symptom. The pirate’s reasoning that all Biblical content should be free is rapidly expanding. We feel entitled to confiscate anyone else’s hard work because it’s the “moral” thing to do. Share. Lift up the downtrodden. Love your neighbor.

Sometimes we feign asking permission by passing onerous laws to tax and take property. Others simply take without permission and know that the wealth from it will more than equip them to face their accusers in court by the time it makes it that far. The ultimate settlement is calculated as the cost of doing pirated business. The Author’s Guild reports that the median annual income from book sales is just $15,000 for full-time authors. We’re not all John Grisham. The authors are never going to recover the income they’ve lost to pirates and AI even when the case makes it to court.

Yes, I agree. Love your neighbor as yourself.

But what about “Thou shalt not steal”? That’s in the Bible, too.

Pretext.

Yes, that’s what the Torah calls it.

A pretext is when we make up a reason to conceal the actual reason we do or don’t do something. Pretext tends to spread like wildfire. We’d all like to avoid confronting our own fears, failures, laziness, aggressiveness, greed, or apathy if someone can come up with a pretext that sounds way better than “my fear,” “my laziness,” “my aggressiveness,” or “my greed.”

Numbers 11:1-6 is an example of a pretext:

The fire started with a taste for free meat and fish. This was the pretext. They even invented facts to go with the pretext: we ate free fish in Egypt; we have no appetite.

The opposite was true. The fish wasn’t free in Egypt. Even the straw for the bricks they had to find for themselves. They did, too, have an appetite. The ignoramuses even listed all the things they were craving.

The manna, the Word of Heaven was not tasty enough for their uncontrolled, greedy appetites.

It helps to know what preceded the complaining. For the first time, the organized camp moved with the Tabernacle, following the Ark of the Covenant and expected to give feet to the commandments they’d learned:

The Israelites had entered a new stage of responsibility in their walk to the Promised Land. No longer newly-saved milk-dependent babes in the wilderness, they had multiple commandments in which to walk. They were now organized by camp, directed by leadership. There was no map to their journey, only the Ark that traveled ahead looking for the place for them to rest.

When we don’t know exactly what lies ahead, we often look back. What we see when we look back takes on a glory and sheen that it never had when we were living it. Truth be told, we were miserable. But those reconstructed memories and invented facts make great pretexts.

Our present challenge is more than just leaking away of intellectual property or orphanage funds through pretexts or outright theft. Like I said, we won’t stop this flood until Yeshua returns. There’s no way to separate out an answer on a search engine that was stolen versus one that was taken from an open source.

Our present challenge is more than just clickbaiting viewers or listeners to read, watch, or listen to a program when they have thousands of choices each day.

Let’s put the two together.

We are in a transition period. We hear the footsteps of Messiah. We also know that the period just preceding his return is one of chaos, turmoil, war, weather phenomena, family conflict, rebellion, and mass confusion.

In the middle of this, a remnant is called out of that darkness in the “wilderness of the peoples.” What we feel as tribulation is really just a test. Tribulation is for the unrepentant. Yet, we, too, become scared, nervous, anxious, and angry. We’re not sure we know how to follow the Ark. Organization? The Beast uses those! Help!

Yes, the Beast is full of cravings and greedy desires. He does use organizations to clickbait and entice us, to offer us any pretext for complaining about the journey. To overwhelm us with “free” choices: Cucumbers? Fish? Melons? Garlic? Onions? Pick me! Pick me! I love free!

All our choices do cost something no matter the pretext or the truth of the Word. The only free thing is our salvation. After that is a wilderness journey of learning, and each lesson costs us some effort. And unlike the wilderness of the first Exodus, this Greater Exodus doesn’t come with a visible Moses or a leadership appointed by him. This is a bit scarier because it’s more than a bit greater than the first one! (Je 16:14-15; 23:7-8; Is 43:16-19)

You know what? I used AI to look up those verses faster than I could on Logos. I don’t think AI is the Beast. It’s a tool, but we need to know how to and how not to use it, just like we need to know how to use and not use the organizations to which we belong or which we use. We don’t put faith in government, medicine, recreation, education, or any other system. We use them, but they will ultimately fail…repeatedly. They are tools, but they are not the Kingdom. We must recognize where they fail and use them wisely where they are honest and successful.

While the wicked and lukewarm world with no clear direction enters this stage of confusion that precedes the Kingdom, knowing only an indiscriminate throwing off of every yoke, we are to walk with clarity. Training in the Word equips us, calms us, balances us.

This is why I know that trying to find the most enticing graphic or clickbait title is not going to get lots more people to open a newsletter. In fact, statistics tell me that fewer than 50% even open the weekly email.

People are weary and wary. When they do open those links that imply they HOLD THE NEXT GREATEST SECRET CONSPIRACY, they already anticipate that it will under-deliver.  They know we’re overrun with the pirates of our time. It’s kind of like those sea monkeys I ordered from the back of a comic book when I was seven years old. I still have no idea what that cloudy mess was, but the ads made me think something alive, mysterious, and fascinating could be had for the cost of postage and few bucks.

And I get it.

I, too, have to search for ways to promote books like Scorpions Ascent or a conference, to politely ask the readers or viewers for a minute or two to consider whether the book or event is a good fit for them. I don’t want to be a time pirate, yet on the other hand, if we don’t do something to attract the eye, the message is shouted down by edgier content producers. At what point do we become a time pirate? These are wilderness dilemmas, but Yeshua goes ahead of us so we won’t get lost.

My prayer is that we are quietly growing a trained remnant that doesn’t need superlatives, all caps, world-shaking prophecy insights, and carnival ride doctrines. They are faithfully collecting tasty manna in the Torah portions each week. They don’t need pretexts to justify their lust for the doctrinal carnival rides because they are not afraid of walking in the chaos Scripture warned us would accompany the period before Yeshua’s return.

AI can only appear to know you by your first name. It cannot know you at all. It is data programmed to identify your habits captured either legally or illegally by analyzing your keystrokes, questions, searches, and preferences. The upside is a quick search for a simple, non-life-changing question. The downside is that from now until Yeshua comes, we will not likely know for sure what images or voices are real. Oh yeah, that’s in the Bible, too.

A minister of pretext doesn’t really know you, either. He or she knows human fears, greed, cravings, laziness…even the good desire to do righteous things for your neighbor. The minister of pretext’s bait draws out the “rabble,” sharing confusion and darkness because they feed one another half-truths that become whole lies. In the end, it consumes them together. It doesn’t bear the fruit of righteous things. He’s a pirate who baits our scroll…em…scrolling time.

As we navigate this greater exodus, let us deliver what the apostles of Yeshua delivered and what Moses and the leaders in the wilderness delivered. Truth.

Truth still matters.

A human being doing the honest work of the Kingdom can hold truth and the good of others at the same time. It can give without stealing. Truth can be firmly upheld without being unkind. It can make manna tastier than anything from The French Laundry.

That is something the world desperately needs right now. Real human beings unafraid of the giants, robots, and raging, confused nutters. Strong, yet gentle messengers of Yeshua aren’t driven by their own fears, but by the good news promises of the gospel. They may not remember where you shopped online six months ago or that you like loom beading videos, but they know you are the Father’s treasured possession. This kind of knowing becomes a comfort to others:

Isn’t this a great passage Paul wrote to comfort the Thessalonians? These are words of relationship, not something Paul asked AI to write for him. Even back then, the recipient of a letter could sniff out a genuine letter from AI. A pastor who loves the flock is a gift from above AI will never duplicate.

This Shabbat is “Shabbat Nachamu,” the Shabbat of Comfort that follows the fast of Tisha B’Av. The readings for the weeks following are also comforts that the destructions will someday come to an end, and the hard work of walking through the chaos and confusion of the wilderness will come to an end.

The great thing about the Ark seeking out a resting place for the Israelites three days’ journey ahead of them in the wilderness? It is said that its cloud lifted up the low places, leveled the high places, and killed the scorpions and snakes in their path. It shaded them from the heat or cold. The journey was nothing to be afraid of, nothing  for which they needed to collect pretexts beforehand for failures. They were being afforded the comforts they would need even through the challenges of the journey.

It was those on the fringes the cloud had expelled for complaining who were consumed by the fire. It’s way bumpier and hotter out there where the cover of the clouds of glory is thin. The Presence of the Father can also sniff out a reluctant traveler on this journey. Leave the pretexts out there in the fire with the pirates, and report to your place in the cloud.

Complaining is the opposite of comforting.

Complaining is the opposite of comforting.

Complaining is the opposite of comforting.

[1] The recipe in Comments will be a link that ka-chings the content provider’s account and takes you to a “recipe page” that buries the recipe within dozens of ads. Clickbait.

[2] Fun Hebrew/English Coincidence Fact: The first AI pirate: in Hebrew: ?????, Ai means “heap of ruins.” It was a Canaanite city located just east of Bethel. It was the site of a major battle in the Book of Joshua. At first, the Israelites were defeated because a warrior named Achan (“troubling, troubler”) took treasure and hid it. After Achan was put to death, Joshua led a successful military ambush to capture and destroy the city. Pirates of Ai are in a heap of trouble.

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“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, as to what you will tell him: for I am lovesick.

What kind of beloved is your beloved, O most beautiful among women? What kind of beloved is your beloved, that thus you adjure us?” (So 5:9)

“The nations of the world say to Israel: ‘How is your beloved more than another beloved?” In what way is He God more than other gods, in what way is He a protector more than other protectors?’” (Midrash Rabbah to Shir 5§9)

Once again, the proto-typical event is the exodus from Egypt:

When did the other “gods” of the pantheon assume power over the nations?

And are these entities unruly evil demons or ruly assigned powers over the principalities (2 Pe 2:10; Jde 1:8)?

Too involved to answer, and probably not so fruitful, but when Israel goes into the principality of an assigned power, in a sense, it is the territory of that nation’s assigned angelic majesty, elohim, or “judge, authority.” There are indeed, however, unruly demonic entities that operate within those principalities that are worshipped as gods.

Elohim is spirit, yet He “eats” the gifts of our worship, the human desire to be near to Him expressed in gifts and sacrifices:

Elohim’s food is to receive our heartfelt, lovesick obedience free of the decay of death. Our food is to do the will of the Father who sent Yeshua, the Living Word. (Jn 4:34)

The evil and unclean gods of the pantheon also receive “food” when we idolize them [we actually worship ourselves and they enable it]. As in the Garden, when the serpent offered the humans the opportunity to “be like God,” so evil spirits receive the gifts and sacrifices of human beings as food, fuel for their ability to cross into our realm and proliferate.

It was the serpent who was trying to be like God, and he needed Adam and Eve to feed that desire. He fed them what they desired; they fed him what he desired. The serpent is always eager to feed our wrong appetite, desire, emotion, and intellect. The end result, though, is death, not life.

Obedience to Elohim’s voice, however, produces life and the ability to continue abundant life in the Garden, a Land flowing with milk and honey, wine and balsam.

The following recitation for the tithe of the third year contains specific language that reminds us we are not to feed the dead, whether ancestors or gods.

Instead, we feed only our Elohim with our holies of sacred obedience. In return, our Elohim sets us high above all the nations and their gods. This is why our Beloved is high above all others and why we are lovesick, seeking His Voice in the night of exile, which is what Adam and Eve should have done, waited to hear His Voice walking in the cool of the evening.

The unruly rebellious entities derive power when they are worshipped; in a sense, they are “fed” by human beings, which attracts greater numbers of unclean and evil spiritual beings…unclean in that those spirits are NOT assigned to the physical realm, but they hunt for physical hosts to enable them to operate there. It actually speeds the process of death and decay to the host because it is an unclean mixture. Life is only within one’s assigned realm:

When we “feed” a spiritual entity our disobedience and rebellion, we transgress, mixing two realms, which invites death, not life. It has no place in the life of a believer in Yeshua, or in a human being at all. This is why disobedience is equated with witchcraft:

And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,

He also has rejected you from being king.” (1 Sa 15:23)

Because of this rebellion, the kingship and authority was forfeited. Just as in the Garden when the serpent had to entice the human beings into rebelling in order to commandeer their authority to rule, so we still can be deceived into the giving our spiritual authority to the beast by trying to be “like God.” There is only one Elohim, and all other beings are created by Him, even the rebels of the universe. An altar is a “table” connecting the physical realm with the spiritual. Why would we feed rebellious spirits the food of our own disobedience and share their demonic table fare?

Angelic powers over principalities don’t need or want human worship to enlarge their influence or authority; they already have authority because it is assigned to them. Perhaps it was pre-assigned when the heavenly hosts were created, but more likely their creation prepared them to be assigned to their supervisory divisions after the Flood:

There is also this verse that synchronizes the symbolic 70 nations of the earth and their divisions to the number of Israelites who went down to Egypt:

This may not be a contradiction, but a hint to the restoration work in progress, a plan where the twelve tribes of Israel would become the judges over the nations from the gates of Jerusalem, i.e., the gates to the Garden of Eden, and the assigned princes over the nations would be shaken out of the way, that role concluded.

Whatever the details of the plan, it is evident that these angelic majesties were anticipated and assigned, but the original plan was for the righteous among humankind to judge those angels in administering the Kingdom on earth and possibly in the heavenlies:

These things are what makes our Beloved greater than the other gods of the nations. In addition, Messiah Yeshua can give his most beautiful Bride authority to rule the nations as at the beginning when Adam and Even ruled.

The gods of the nations, whether unruly demonic or the ruly assigned angelic majesties, cannot and will not give this kind of authority, for their authority is either usurped or only a temporary assignment.

The morning star? The first resurrection! We can share Yeshua’s table at the wedding supper of the Lamb. (Re 3:20)

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In this week’s podcast we will relate our general timing of Heaven Shaking the Persian Bear to the literal time of the Straits, the Jezebel woman’s refusal to repent and her present and future Tribulation sickness, and the regime change for those who are lovesick for their Messiah Yeshua and prepared for the fall feasts.

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Iran in Prophecy

Bad News Bears: Bear Flesh

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This podcast is a wrap-up lesson to Heaven Shaking the Persian Bear.

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There is a Heaven Shaking the Bear playlist to make it easier to find the videos. Click if you missed past livestreams: Heaven is Shaking the Bear Playlist

 In this week’s podcast we’ll examine the ancient origin of the Bear kings’ of the East relationship to women as recorded in Genesis, which will reveal (no pun intended) why the hijab has become such a flashpoint in Iran and why women are beaten, violated, and even killed for not wearing one or wearing it “improperly.”

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In the next installment of Heaven Shaking the Persian Bear, we’ll continue where we left off last week and take a final look at another Bear king of the East drawn into the river as well as the cost of the repairs needed to break the walls of the beast kingdoms.

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Shabbat Shalom!

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