Revelation, Rapture, and Resurrection
For God So Loved the World
Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. (Genesis 45:5)
The Bible explains why the redemption has been delayed. The redemption will not come "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Romans II:25). That's because God takes "no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:I1). "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Just as "the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark," God waits while people from the nations repent under the influence of the revelation of the gospel message (I Peter 3:20). If we want to hasten "the coming day of God," we should conduct ourselves in holiness and godliness (2 Peter 3:II-I2).
Paul suggests that the delay before the redemption is the result of the gospel message going to the nations. That is to say, God hit the pause button on the end times for the benefit of the Gentiles (Romans II). He prefers to save the world rather than destroy it.
During this period of waiting, the Jewish people remain largely estranged from the Messiah. Much as Joseph's brothers mistook Joseph for an Egyptian viceroy, Jesus appears in the eyes of the Jewish world as a Gentile religious figure. Until His patience with the nations has been exhausted, it must be so: "I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Romans I1:25). This is all by God's design.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Preserving the Remnant
God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. (Genesis 45:7)
In this week's Torah portion, Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers. He tells them not to punish themselves with self-recrimination for their actions against him. Although they intended evil against him, God orchestrated it for their good. He says, "Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God" (Genesis 45:8). God sent him into Egypt ahead of his brothers in order "to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance."
When Yeshua returns, every eye will see Him. His brothers, the Jewish people, will recognize Him. The "partial hardening" will fall away. Eyes will be opened.
The prophets speak of the Jewish people who survive the exile as "the remnant" of Israel. Yeshua will bring a "great deliverance" to the remnant of Israel. He will gather the "remnant" of the exiles who remain alive until His coming. Even if He must raise them from where they sleep as "a remnant in the earth," He will do so, as the Prophet Isaiah says, "Our dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy" (Isaiah 26:19). "For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans II:15).
After revealing his identity to his brothers, Joseph brought his family to Egypt, where he ruled as viceroy. The Messiah will gather the exiles of Israel to be with Him in the place where He reigns: the city of Zion, i.e., Messianic Jerusalem. Although God has scattered the remnant of Israel "to every wind" (Ezekiel 5:10) so that "the remnant of Israel will be among many peoples," (Micah 5:7), He "will gather the remnant of [His] flock out of all the countries where [He has] driven them and bring them back to their pasture" (Jeremiah 23:3, cf. Jeremiah 31:7-9):
Then it will happen on that day that the LORD will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. (Isaiah II: 11-12)
I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; like a flock in the midst of its pasture they will be noisy with men. (Micah 2:12)
The Messiah will rescue those who remain, and "in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped ... will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 10:20). "It will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape" (Joel 2:32).
Much as Joseph's brothers found forgiveness with Joseph, the surviving remnant will find atonement for sin through faith and repentance in the name of Yeshua:
"In those days and at that time," declares the LORD, "search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom 1 leave as a remnant." (Jeremiah 50:20)
Then "all Israel will be saved" (Romans II:26). The nation will enjoy the bounty of the Messianic Era:
In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. (Isaiah 4:2)
Paul interpreted these remnant passages in light of his own day, when the majority of the Jewish people did not find the idea of a crucified Messiah persuasive. In those days, the Jewish believers were myriads and myriads, all of them zealous for the Torah, but Paul was holding out for that day when "all Israel will be saved." Paul regarded the Jewish believers of his day as a sort of early remnant of Israel: "There has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice" (Romans II:5).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
An Unfulfilled Prophecy
Come down to me, do not delay. You shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. (Genesis 45:9-10)
Joseph's brothers did not recognize him so long as he remained in his Egyptian disguise—not until he chose to disclose his identity. Likewise, the church's historical presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as an apostate leader of a Gentile religion who abolished the Torah and supplanted the Jewish people has concealed His true identity from Jewish eyes. What would it take to remove the disguise?
Christian missionary strategy attempts to remove the disguise by using the Bible to prove that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Since the Jewish Bible consists of the scriptures that the church refers to as "the Old Testament," missionaries present a series of Old Testament Bible prophecies that seem to describe Jesus. For example, a missionary to the Jewish people might argue that, since Isaiah mentions a virgin (in the days of King Ahaz) conceiving a child and bearing a son that she names Immanuel, Jesus must be the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14). Who else was born of a virgin? It's usually not a successful strategy, but missionaries to the Jewish people often marshal a bevy of such Bible prophecies as irrefutable evidence. They argue, "If He fulfilled so many Bible prophecies, how can He be anything but the promised Messiah?"
Contrary to expectation, Bible prophecies are precisely the problem. Even if we were able to somehow remove the theological distortions and the historic brutalization of the Jewish people that have occurred in the name of Jesus, the Bible prophecies raise more problems than they solve. That's because biblically literate Jews know that there are certain prophecies that a candidate must fulfill to even qualify for the role of the Messiah. The biggest one is called the ingathering of Israel. The prophets considered the ingathering of Israel as the hallmark of the final redemption. As of yet, Yeshua of Nazareth has not delivered on this detail.
In his classic treatise on the Torah's laws governing the kings of Israel, Maimonides presents a list of criteria culled from Bible prophecies that a messianic candidate must fulfill before the nation can definitely consider him to be the real Messiah. He cites Deuteronomy 30:3-5 as the Torah's original job description for the Messiah:
Then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it." (Deuteronomy 30:3-5)
If a king will arise from the house of David who delves deeply into the study of the Torah and, like David his forefather, observes its commandments as prescribed by the written Torah and the Oral Torah, and if he will prevail upon Israel to walk in the way of Torah, and repair its breaches, and if he fights the wars of the LORD, we may confidently consider him the Messiah. If he succeeds in all of this, builds the Temple, and gathers in the dispersed remnant of Israel, he is definitely the Messiah. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim II:4)
Anti-missionaries object to the idea that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah on the basis that He did not gather the remnant of Israel from exile as the prophets predicted. In Yeshua's day, most Jews lived in Diaspora, outside the land of Israel, but Yeshua did not gather them home. Just the opposite happened. Shortly after His life on earth, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jewish people into an exile that still persists to this day:
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. (Matthew 23:37)
To be the Messiah, He must gather the exiles of Israel. Until He does that, identifying Yeshua as the Messiah is a matter of personal belief. That explains why the disciples of Yeshua have always been referred to as "believ-ers." As religious Jews, the authors of the New Testament knew that Yeshua had yet to accomplish the ingathering, the final redemption, and all things promised for the Day of the LORD. They believed that He was about to do so. They believed Yeshua is the Messiah on the evidence of His resurrection of the dead, not because He had already accomplished everything. Likewise, we believe that He will fulfill all of the Bible's criteria about the Messiah when He returns, including the ingathering of the remnant of Israel.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Rapture
Many people believe Jesus will make a brief visit to rapture the church up to heaven before the travails of the tribulation begin. At the time of their rapture, they will undergo a miraculous transformation, shedding their mortal state to put on the immortal state of the righteous resurrected. They will not, however, precede the dead in Christ. The dead among the followers of Christ will be revivified first, resurrected into immortal bodies, and simultaneously transported into the air to meet Christ. With all these ascending hosts in tow, Christ will return to heaven.
In popular depictions of the event, unmanned cars careen off the road. Those left behind are baftled at the disappearance of thousands of people. Jesus, the "thief in the night," pulls the greatest heist in history, stealing away a significant portion of the earth's population.
In some versions of the theory, the raptured and resurrected remain forever afterward in heaven. In "pre-tribulation" eschatological systems, they remain in heaven for seven years to wait out the seven-year tribulation that is to precede the second (or third) coming of Christ. While they wait in heaven, God pours out His judgment on the human beings who remain on the earth. Unfortunately for Jewish people who did not become Christians prior to the rapture, they are left to contend with the tribulation and the antichrist. At the conclusion of the seven-year tribulation, the raptured and resurrected return with Christ to the earth and fight the Battle of Armageddon. This version of the rapture supposes a second coming of Christ, followed shortly by a third coming.
Those who call themselves "pre-tribulation" more or less endorse the above-described scenario, but the equally vocal "post-tribulation" camp believes that the rapture will not happen until after the seven years of tribulation. Some suggest other versions, including a compromise "mid-tribulation" theory in which the believers are removed from earth before the first three and a half years of the antichrist. In any case, all these camps believe that there will certainly be a rapture.
Only a narrow band of Christianity believes in the rapture-mostly dispensationalist Evangelicals. But in the 1970s and 198os, Hal Lindsey's end-times bestsellers rocketed belief in the rapture into the American Evangelical consciousness with titles like The Late Great Planet Earth, The Rapture, and Vanished into Thin Air. It has since become a dominant expectation of the second coming.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Caught Up to Heaven
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. (I Thessalonians 4:17)
The word rapture derives from the Latin verb rapiemu, which means "carried off" or "caught up." It appeared in the fifth-century Latin Vulgate translation of i Thessalonians 4:17, where it translates the Greek arpazo (apna(w), a verb that quite literally means to snatch something away:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up (rapiemu/arpazo) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (I Thessalonians 4:16-18)
Those who believe in the rapture of the church read I Thessalonians 4:17 as if it says, "Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up to heaven." That's not quite correct. It does not say that the believers will be caught up to heaven. It says that they will join the company of the resurrected who "meet the Lord in the air" and thereafter "shall always be with the Lord."
In tandem with I Thessalonians 4:17, proponents of the rapture cite Paul's hopeful words in i Corinthians 15:5I-52 as evidence for the church being raptured to heaven:
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (I Corinthians 15:51-52)
Paul says that the "dead in Christ" will rise at the sound of the trumpet of the Messiah. Those believers who remain alive, waiting on the Messiah's coming, will undergo a parallel transformation into imperishable bodies. But he fails to mention that they will be caught up to heaven. He does not say anything about anyone being caught up into the air in i Corinthians.
Yet another Pauline text often employed to support the rapture speaks about how the believers will undergo an instantaneous transformation to the immortal state of the resurrected, but it says nothing about anyone being raptured away to heaven:
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)
The statement "our citizenship is in heaven" does not refer to literally going to heaven any more than Paul's Roman citizenship required him to literally go to Rome. (It didn't.) Instead, heaven is the seat of authority issuing the credentials of citizenship just as Rome extended its citizenship across its entire empire.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Left Behind
I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left. (Luke 17:34-36)
A third text rapture teachers often cite inspired Christian songwriter Larry Norman's 1969 hit "1 Wish We'd All Been Ready," the 1972 movie Thief in the Night, and the popular 1990s Left Behind books and motion pictures. On the strength of so much Christian media, the interpretation of this text has become ensconced in the church:
Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. (Matthew 24:40-4I)
These words are widely understood to mean that, when Jesus comes to rapture the saints, the one left working in the field will be left behind because he is not a Christian. The one left grinding at the mill will be left behind for the same reason. However, the full context of this passage, especially when compared with its parallel in Luke 17, points to a completely different interpretation (see Lesson 2).
When Yeshua returns, He comes to usher in a day of judgment. He likens that day of judgment to Noah's flood (Matthew 24:37-39). Just as in Noah's day, the generation of the Day of the LORD will ignore the warnings leading up to the big event. Life will be going on as normal when catastrophe strikes the earth. Just as the flood took people away in judgment, the "taking away" in Matthew 24:40-41 refers to people taken in judgment.
If this meaning is unclear in Matthew 24, Yeshua makes it explicitly clear in a parallel passage where those "taken away" correspond to those drowned in Noah's flood (Luke 17:27), to those who perished under the fire and sulfur in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:29), and to Lot's wife who turned into a pillar of salt (Luke 17:32).
Wherever it is that those who are "taken" are taken, we don't want to go there. Yeshua's disciples inquired, "Where [will they be taken], Lord?" He replied, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered" (Luke 17:37). The corpses of those "taken away" will be food for the birds, much as the corpses of those who perished in the flood became food for the carrion-eating birds like the raven that Noah released from the ark. When Messiah comes, the wicked will be slain and left as food for birds, too (Eze-kiel 39:17-19). Better to be "left behind" than to become food for vultures.
This macabre prophecy is echoed in Revelation 19:17-18, which speaks of the birds assembling "for the great supper of God" so that they can feast on the corpses of those the Messiah defeats at the time of His appearing. "All the birds were filled with their flesh," (Revelation 19:21). Those "left behind" are the righteous who survive the Day of the LORD. They can be compared to Noah and his seven family members who survived the flood, as the Apostle Peter says, "The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment" (2 Peter 2:9).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Rapture in the Torah
Having examined the proof texts used to support the rapture theory, we can see that the premise —believers being caught up in the air with Jesus — hangs on only one Pauline text: I Thessalonians 4:16-18. Just one passage constitutes thin evidence for an idea that so radically alters the established expectations of Jewish eschatology.
The apostles were not innovators. One rarely, if ever, finds ideas in the New Testament that exist wholly outside of conventional Jewish thought. If Yeshua or the apostles taught a concept contrary to conventional first-century Jewish norms (such as the controversial concepts of healing on the Sabbath or the inclusion of Gentiles in the kingdom), they supported the innovation with lots of argumentation and ample testimony from the Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures. More often, the apostolic writers simply endorsed the existing Jewish worldview, speaking with the same symbolic language and eschatological expectations of their contemporaries with little to no contradistinction.
How is it possible that Paul would introduce something so novel and significant as the rapture when Moses, the prophets, and Yeshua Himself did not mention it? How could he introduce something so sensational without offering a single proof text? Not a single, "As it is written."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Messiah and the Ingathering
If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. (Deuteronomy 30:4)
Near the end of Deuteronomy, the Torah delivers a terrifying litany of curses that culminate in the destruction of the nation and the exile of the Jewish people. Moses declares, "The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other" (Deuteronomy 28:64). But He will not leave them scattered in exile. God promises to regather His scattered people from that exile: "If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back" (Deuteronomy 30:4). Moses does not explicitly mention the Messiah in Deuteronomy 30:4, but the Jewish apocalyptic tradition unanimously understood the Messiah as the agent of God who will accomplish the redemption Moses predicted. In the first century, Jews expected the Messiah to be the agent of that ingathering. For example, Targum Pseudo-Yonatan (an early Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah for synagogue use) projects the ingathering as a component of the coming of Messiah:
Though you may be dispersed unto the ends of the heavens, from there will the Word of the Lord gather you together by the hand of Elijah the great priest, and from there will He bring you by the hand of King Messiah. (Targum Pseudo-Jonatan on Deuteronomy 30:4)
Jewish eschatology refers to this aspect of the final redemption as the Ingathering of Exiles (Kibbutz Galuyot, nim? 17a?). It's such a firm component of Jewish expectation that it is considered to be one of the ten fundamental tenets of Judaism.
Ingathering of Exiles = The end-times gathering of the Jewish people from the nations and their return to the land of Israel.
The Talmud says, "The day of the ingathering of the exiles is as important as the day when heaven and earth were created." The prophets all testity regarding this great return to the land when God will "assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah II:12). He declares through Jeremiah, "I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture" (Jeremiah 23:3). Through the Prophet Ezekiel, the LORD says, "I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel" (Ezekiel II:17).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Great Trumpet Blast
It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. (Isaiah 27:13)
Isaiah connects the ingathering of the exiles and their return to the land of Israel with the sounding of a trumpet. A parallel prophecy in Zechariah alludes to the trumpet of the LORD as His whistle for gathering the people:
I will whistle for them to gather them together, for I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they were before. When I scatter them among the peoples, they will remember Me in far countries, and they with their children will live and come back. (Zechariah 10:8-9)
Ezekiel connects the ingathering of the exiles with the coming of the Messiah in a passage that speaks of God returning the Jewish people to their land and appointing a Davidic king over the nation. Notice how the prophet uses the name "David" as a title for Messiah:
Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land, and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them ... My servant David will be king over them. (Ezekiel 37:21-22, 24)
Based on these and many other similar prophecies, Jewish eschatology firmly links the ingathering of the exiles with the trumpet of Messiah and the final redemption. The Messiah will gather up all the scattered children of Israel from the four corners of the earth and return them to the promised land.
Jewish liturgy petitions God for the ingathering of the exiles three times every day:
Blast the great shofar ['trumpet"] for our freedom. Lift a banner to gather our exiles, and quickly gather us together from the four corners of the earth to our land. Blessed are You, O LORD, who gathers the outcasts of his people Israel. (Shemoneh Esreh 10)
Yeshua invokes all these messianic expectations and directly alludes to the above prophecies when He says that the Son of Man will "send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other" (Matthew 24:31). His "elect" are not "the Christians," as replacement theology assumes, but the chosen people: the people of Israel.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Resurrection and the Ingathering
Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that 1am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. (Ezekiel 37:12-13)
The trumpet of Messiah summons the exiles and wakes the dead. At the conclusion of Ezekiel's vision of the valley of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37), the LORD explains to the exiles of Israel that He will not leave their dead in Babylon. He will resurrect them and bring them back to the land, too. That's why Jewish eschatology associates the sound of the great trumpet that heralds the ingathering of Israel and the coming of Messiah with the resurrection of the dead.
These elements of prophetic expectation regarding the ingathering explain Paul's words in both i Thessalonians 4:16-18 and I Corinthians 15:51-52. The so-called rapture, the resurrection, the ingathering of Israel, the coming of the Messiah, and the trumpet of the LORD are all aspects of the same event: the Day of the LORD.
Paul looked forward to the day when the Messiah would return to gather His elect from the four corners of the earth. When he spoke of that day in his epistles, he did not feel it necessary to provide any proof texts. The ingathering of the exiles was a well-established point of Jewish doctrine so often repeated in the Torah and the Prophets that proof texts were not needed. When Paul mentioned those events, he assumed that his readers knew he was speaking of the ingathering. His readers probably did, but Gentile Christians living eighteen hundred years later did not. Their expositors were left trying to fill in the blanks. They assumed that Paul was speaking about Christians being taken to heaven by Christ. Instead, Paul was speaking about the ingathering of Israel: Jews being taken to Jerusalem by Messiah.
Paul seems to narrow the scope of the event to Messianic Jews when he says "the dead in Christ will rise first" (I Thessalonians 4:16). Does that language intend to exclude non-Yeshua-believing Jews? He remains silent about their participation.
What about the Gentile disciples from the nations? Are they to be "left behind" when the Messiah comes to gather in the exiles of Israel? Not according to Paul. The redeemed in Messiah are privileged as servants of the King to join His retinue. They have become fellow heirs with Israel, and as such, they will share in the Jewish nation's great exodus from the nations. They will be gathered with Israel into the kingdom:
The Sovereign LORD declares-he who gathers the exiles of Israel: "I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered." (Isaiah 56:8 NIv).
In that day, they "will come from east and west, and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 8:II).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Arriving On Camels
Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. (Isaiah 49:22)
The prophecies of Isaiah describe the ingathering of Israel in terms both supernatural and natural. In several of the prophecies, the ingathering sounds more mundane than miraculous. The exiles return to Israel by conventional modes of transportation. The nations will be responsible for ushering the Jewish people back to the land of Israel. In that day, the nations will bring the Jewish people to Jerusalem as a form of tribute to the LORD:
Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. (Isaiah 66:20)
They "gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried in the arms" (Isaiah 60:4). They will arrive on "a multitude of camels" and in "ships of Tarshish" (Isaiah 60:6, 9).
The Messiah will subdue the nations and carry off their possessions, i.e., the scattered people of Israel. He will force the nations to surrender the Jewish people living in their midst:
Can the prey be taken from the mighty man, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? Surely, thus says the LORD, "Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued; for I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will save your sons." (Isaiah 49:24-25)
Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. (Matthew 12:29)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Arriving on Clouds
Who are these who fly like a cloud and like the doves to their lattices? (Isaiah 60:8)
In the same series of prophecies, Isaiah hints toward an ingathering of the exiles that sounds like the rapture. While describing the ingathering, he asks with astonishment, "Who are these who fly like a cloud and like the doves to their lattices?" (Isaiah 60:8). The rabbis explained the phrase "fly like a cloud" to mean that the exiles will be transported on the clouds to the land of Israel:
If you think it will be difficult to ascend [to Jerusalem], the scripture states, "Who are these who fly like a cloud?" (b.Bava Batra 75b)
The clouds will come and carry them to Jerusalem. (Pesikta Rabbati I:1)
So what does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He will bring clouds and will have them fly, as it says, 'Who are these that fly like a cloud?'" (Midrash Tanchuma, Tzav 12:1)
It is stated: "Behold, these will come from afar; and lo, these will come from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim" (Isaiah 49:12). [How will these be gathered?] It says: "Who are these who fly like a cloud and like doves to their lattices?" (Isaiah 60:8). (Shemot Rabbah 51:8)
With clouds He will redeem them, as it says, "Who are these that fly like a cloud?" When He gathers them back, He gathers them like doves, as it says, "...and like doves to their lattices." (Yalkut Shimoni I:235)
How will they ascend [to Jerusalem]? The Holy One, blessed be He, will make clouds for them, and they will ride upon the clouds, which will lift them upward, as it is said: "Who are these that fly like a cloud?" (Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 8:3:2)
Master of the Universe, do not let them remain trapped [as exiles] in the hand of Rome... give them wings as it is said, "Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like the doves to their windows?" (Mechilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 21:2)
This widely accepted interpretation of Isaiah 60:8 matches Paul's language about being "caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (I Thessalonians 4:17). The second-century Apocalypse of Elijah seems to rely on the same source text and interpretation when it compares the second coming of Yeshua to the descent of a flock of doves:
When the Messiah comes, He will come in the manner of a covey of doves with the crown of doves surrounding Him. (Apocalypse of Elijah 3)
On that day the Messiah will pity those who are His own. And He will send from heaven his sixty-four thousand angels, each of whom has six wings. The sound will move heaven and earth when they give praise and glorify. Now those upon whose forehead the name of the Messiah is written and upon whose hand is the seal, both the small and the great, will be taken up upon their wings and lifted up before his wrath. Then Gabriel and Uriel will become a pillar of light leading them into the holy land. (Apocalypse of Elijah 5)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Camels or Clouds
Behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. (Daniel 7:13)
Which one is correct? Will the exiles of Israel return to the promised land by conventional modes of transportation as indicated in Isaiah 66:20 and similar passages, or will they be caught up in the air, on the clouds flying like doves, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" when "the dead will be raised imperishable" (I Corinthians 15:52)?
The Talmud considers a related question about potential modes of transportation. Will the Messiah come riding on a donkey as predicted in Zechariah 9:9, or will He arrive on the clouds as predicted in Daniel 7:13-14?
Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)
Behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. (Daniel 7:13)
There's a big difference between arriving on the clouds and arriving on a donkey. Arriving on the clouds of heaven presents an auspicious debut. It implies a divine endorsement. It's a revealed miracle-an announcement from heaven. It's a definitive sign that leaves little room for scoffers and naysayers. It betokens a redemption involving supernatural signs, wonders, and dramatic reversals of the natural order.
Arriving on a donkey is not much of a sign. A lot of people ride donkeys every day. The donkey implies a mundane and prosaic process that leaves ample room for uncertainty and doubt about the messianic claims of the donkey rider. It implies a redemptive process within the constraints of the ordinary course of history and human affairs that does not much overstep the boundaries of the natural observable world. The return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel in modern times might be understood in similar terms. Religious Jews sometimes refer to Zionism and the secular State of Israel as "Messiah's donkey."
If you know the New Testament, you already know there are two advents of the Messiah. In His first coming, He revealed Himself to the nation as King Messiah when He entered Jerusalem "humble and mounted on a donkey," received with shouts of acclamation. When He returns, He will reveal His identity as King Messiah when He "will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30).
The sages of the Talmud were not Yeshua-believers, nor did they anticipate a "second coming." The Talmud reconciles the seeming contradiction by suggesting that the Messiah will come with the clouds of heaven only if the nation proves to be worthy of a miraculous redemption. If the Jewish people have repented sufficiently to merit the redemption (Deuteronomy 30:1-3), then the Messiah will come to them on the clouds. However, if the nation has not repented, God will bring the redemption through more mundane methods: lowly, riding on a donkey:
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi raises a contradiction. It is written, "With the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming." And it is written, "humble, and mounted on a donkey." If [the Jewish people] merit it, "with the clouds of heaven." If they do not merit, "humble, and mounted on a donkey." (b.Sanhedrin 98a)
If they sin a little, he lowers them ... If they merit, He lifts them like a cloud, as it is stated: "Who are these who fly like a cloud?" (Numbers Rabbah 20:20)
Rabbi Yehoshua's insight reveals something profound about the triumphal entry. It explains why Yeshua wept as He approached Jerusalem (Luke I9:41-44). The nation had not heeded His message and repented. If they had done so, He might have flown to Jerusalem instead of taking the donkey.
Rabbi Yehoshua's insight also reveals a potential solution to the question about the mode of transportation to be employed at the time of the ingather-ing of the exiles. There will be a distinction- two waves of returning exiles. Those who have repented in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah will accompany Him to Jerusalem "with the clouds of heaven." Those who have not will need to rely on a more conventional mode of conveyance.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Destination Jerusalem
Those who anticipate beaming directly to heavenly Paradise should revise their trip itinerary. According to the prophets, the destination of those caught up in the air is not heaven; the destination is the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. The preeminent Torah commentator, Rashi, lends weight to the idea of a "catching away" when he speaks of God picking up each exile in His hands at the time of the ingathering:
Great is the day of the ingathering of the exiles, and it will come about with much difficulty, as if God Himself will be obliged to take hold of each person with His hands, each one from his place, like the matter which is spoken of [in Isaiah], "And you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were . scattered ... will come." (Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:3 quoting Isaiah 27:12-13)
Disciples of Yeshua can anticipate being transported along with the exiles of Israel to the holy city of Jerusalem for the great coronation of the King, and, as Paul says, "So we will always be with the Lord" (I Thessalonians 4:17).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
When He Saw the Wagons
When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. (Genesis 45:27)
Jacob did not initially believe the good news that his son Joseph was still alive, much less a ruler in Egypt. The rabbis say that when Joseph vanished from Jacob's household, Jacob lost the spirit of prophecy that would have enabled him to know the truth about Joseph. His ensuing prophetic blindness prevented him from knowing that Joseph lived. At the moment that Jacob believed his son still lived, his spirit revived, and the Holy Spirit returned to him. Then he saw everything clearly.
What changed his mind? What caused him to believe? Jacob finally believed "when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him" to Egypt. The wagons proved Joseph's existence, position, and power:
When he saw the wagons, which Joseph had sent to bring him, the Spirit of Prophecy which had gone up from him at the time that Joseph was sold, returned and rested upon Jacob their father. (Genesis 45:27, Targum Pseudo-Yonatan)
The wagons that Joseph sent to carry his estranged family to join him can be understood as tokens of the final redemption. When Messiah comes, He will dispatch His angels to gather His elect ones from the four corners of the earth. He will carry the remnant of Israel out from the nations where they are scattered, as it says, "I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself" (Exodus 19:4). The ingathering of Israel will be the final proof that Yeshua is the Messiah. As Maimonides said, "If he gathers the exiled of Israel, then he certainly is the Messiah."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.