About the Stained Glass - From Joseph came two tribes named after his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Both were born in Egypt, where their illustrious father’s talent as a dream interpreter and administrator saved Egypt and his own family from famine. One hundred years later, the stage is set for the triumphant Exodus from slavery. Ephraim (from the root “pri” meaning fruit) was named as his father declared “God made me fruitful in a desert.” This tribe proved to be a larger and stronger tribe than that of Manesseh, however Manesseh’s strength was recognized as that of a tribe whose loving kindness was strong and blessed with the fortitude to uplift others from the lowest places. Ephraim’s standard is the head of a bull while Manasseh’s was symbolic of what was probably a wild ox now extinct—although somehow it earned the transmutation of that of a unicorn, which we all know to be a mythical image.

Joseph, the dreamer and visionary (coat of many colors)…he once dreamed that his parents, in addition to his brothers (sun moon and stars) all bowed down to him. The shofar extends from the unicorn and represents the blasts of freedom sounded for the Exodus over a pyramid. The pomegranate, symbolic of one of the “seven species” represents the fruit of good deeds. According to midrash, there are exactly 613 seeds within a pomegranate corresponding to the number of mitzvot prescribed in the Torah. Dates, pear, and apple symbolize the bounties of the tribe of Ephraim and the fruit eaten at Passover, reminding us of the Exodus. Legend maintains that pious women went into the apple orchards of Egypt to give birth so as not to surrender their babies to Pharaoh’s executioners. It became known as the “orchard of holy apples” and resplendant with shekhinah, God’s feminine aspect. One final note, Gideon was a descendant of the Tribe of Manesseh.

The Early and the Latter Rain

Zechariah 10:1 – Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain.

The Lord will make flashing clouds;

He will give them showers of rain,

Grass in the field for everyone.

The time of the Latter Rain has been recognized by Torah and Christian scholars as coming at the time of the end, or the latter days. It is imperative to know when the “latter rain” arrives, because this is when we must ask of the Lord to do and to fulfill certain things. The prophet identifies immediately that the source of information and goodness is from the Lord and not from any other source of authority.

Rashi says request it “if you need it”. The Redak says if you make your request at the time of the latter rain, Hashem will make “lightning: He will immediately hearken to your prayer and make lightning and give rain.”

On a literal (pshat) basis the “Latter Rain” is only identified in contrast with the “Early Rain”. The early rain came at the end of the hot and parched summer, when the fall sowing of grains was dependent upon the proper moisture in the ground. The early rain is the first rain of the Torah year, usually immediately after the festival of Succot in the fall. The Latter Rain came in the spring to prepare the crops for harvest. This was when the sheaves of barley were to ripen prior to Passover.

The time of the latter rain falls during Nissan, when rain causes the vegetation to grow quickly.

On a spiritual basis, we already have as a historical context. The followers of Yahshua, prior to the formation of the Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia (Jerusalem Church of Acts), experienced the Latter Rain came at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Ruach Hakodesh). An era was about to close on the national consciousness of the Jewish people. In about forty years after Pentecost, the collective symbols of national and spiritual identity of the Jewish people would be destroyed; Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod.

At this time the spiritual leadership of the Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia, under the leadership of James the Just (Jacob the Tzaddik), the brother of Jesus (Yahshua) were to establish the fourth great party in Judaism after the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes. The Nazarene Party essentially swallowed up the Essene Party and had great affinity with the Zealots and the masses of the people. Until 62 CE, when James the Just was stoned on the pinnacle of the Temple Mount, he was defacto the spiritual leader and High Priest in the Land of Judah.

According to Josephus, James the Just was known “because of his piety towards God and his benevolence to this country men.” (Josephus Antiquities XII, 43) According to Epiphanius, James the Just “officiated after the manner of the ancient priesthood wherefore also he was permitted once a year to enter the Holy of Holies, as the Law commanded the High Priest, according to that which is written, for so many before us have told of him, both Eusebius and Clement and others. Furthermore he was permitted to wear the high priestly diadem upon his head,…” (Epiphanius, Panarion IXXVII , in Schonfield 148)

In the meantime, the Torah scholars, in the Land of Israel, knew that the days of the nationhood were about over. About the year of 36 CE, they quietly and fervently began collecting the manuscripts and oral traditions of their rabbinic sages in order to preserve the writings under the safeguard of the rabbis. This oral tradition was respected by the rabbis as initially being given by Moses, to help the Israelites understand the application of the written Torah given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

As such, the Early Rain fell upon believers in the Torah and the Hebrew-Judaic traditions and culture. In the year of 2030, we will be approaching the 2000 year anniversary of Pentecost. The question that needs to be raised is, will the Latter Rain fall again on a Hebrew-Jewish body of believers or will it fall on all believers around the whole earth? The spiritual rain which fell on the seedlings of the “Good News” would eventually have to have a second rain to mature and ripen the harvest before the reapers, send by the Lord of Hosts arrive.

Let us first look at a review of the Early and the Latter Rain passages as expressed by the Prophets.

Job 19:46 – “They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.”

Proverbs 16:15 – “In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain.”

Isaiah 30:23 – “The Lord will give you rain for the seed you sow, and as the produce of your soil he will give you heavy crops of plenty in plenty.

When that day comes… “The passages of 30:26, depict a time of the end event, when ‘the moon shall shine with a brightness like the sun’s, and the sun with seven times his own brightness…” This will be in an era of a solar nova, when the brightness of the sun will explode into the brilliant radiance seven fold. The miracle of this event, the increased sun strength will destroy and parch most lands and crops, but the Lord will provide rain and abundance to the Land of Israel.”

Bob, I interpret this as a SOD, since if it is a P’shat obviously the earth cannot survive. As a SOD, it relates to the moon (Rachel) being on an equal footing with the sun (Jacob). The brightness is the degree of Torah revelation, indicating that the children of Rachel will become Talmudim Chachmim (learned in Torah wisdom).

Joel 2:23 – “Be glad then ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God : for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.” Thus Nissan.

Hosea 6:3 – “If we follow on to know the Lord; his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Jeremiah 5:24 – “They did not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives us the rains of autumn and spring showers in their turn, who brings us unfailingly fixed season of harvest.’”

Accompanying the Latter Rain will be “Bright clouds”, known in Hebrew as Chazizim,or Thunder clouds.

The Redak defines the Chazizim as “lightning.” Rashi defines them as “rain clouds that bring rain.”

The “showers of rain” representing the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, will come down from heaven and will affect every blade of grass. This will be recognized as a miraculous event as witnessed by the whole world. This figure of speech is descriptive of the latter rain which the Holy Spirit will visit upon His people just prior to the Return of the Messiah. The brightness suggests a more overpowering illumination than first witnessed at Pentecost by the disciples of Yahshua in the Upper Room.

Since the phrase is repetitious, it could be a SOD, especially if SUN and MOON earlier are a SOD. But Redak says this defines “selective showers of rain” Should one person require rain for one herb, that one herb alone would receive rain

Let us now carefully weave this phrase into the events at the time of the end. The enemies surrounding the borders of Israel; Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian in Gaza and the West Bank, will by the miraculous workings of God be subdued (Zechariah 9). The Palestinians will even be asking for Israel to be their protector as the Jebusites did to David after he captured the Jebusite fortress and made it his capital, Jebu-salem or Jerusalem. The Jebusites were assimilated with the Israelites and became as one with them.

On a global basis, the time of tribulation will be exacting pain and sorrow on all the inhabitance of the world. The believers in Yahshua and His Father, the God of Israel will share the same fates; war, terrorist attacks, famine, pestilence (including biological warfare). During the cold and frosty evenings of winter, all of the barley crop will grow alike. Before the sixth seal arrives (Revelation 6:12-16), when Satan seals his own with the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:11-18) and the ascending Angel of the Lord seals the believers in God with the Seal of God (Revelation 7), a miraculous event will occur.

It is my belief that the world approaching the sixth seal will be experiencing a world wide famine. The continent of Africa and the Nile valley will become parched and barren as the noted famine in Somalia. The Nile River will dry up and the Islamic nation of Egypt, on the southwest border of Israel will collapse in internal deprivation. The engines of the world economy will come to a screeching halt and the flow of oil needed to run the engines of a flourishing economy will dwindle to a trickle, choking off the economies of the Middle Eastern nations.

Suddenly the spring rains will come but only to the land of Israel. The crops, vineyards and orchards will bloom and ripen, not under the gentle showers of spring rains but under the “chazizin” or the thunderclouds of intense lightning, the “bright clouds” of natural drama and spectacle. CNN World Report will televise these nourishing rains which will be a visible drama of the protecting hand of the God of Israel.

The Rebirth of the House of Joseph

The spiritual and literal saints will awaken to the fact that in the midst of the spring rains in Israel, a miraculous spiritual rebirth, latter rain by the Holy Spirit, will be occurring over the whole earth. This will include the gentile Christian Church who recognize the God of Israel and Yahshua His son, the gentiles who were living in the lands across the world who are reclaiming a spiritual and literal genetic awareness that they are the children of the Lost Tribes of Israel and the Jewish people in the Land of Israel living in halakhah (according to the Life of Torah) with the secular Jew who will find a new spiritual awakening. These three groups will recognize the voice of God in the lightning of the latter rain in the same sense that the tribes of Israel recognized the voice of God in the thunder and lightning, which came down from Mount Sinai.

Jacob blesses Ephraim & Manasseh in the Presence of their Father Joseph, the Visier of Egypt

The literal manifestation of the latter rain in the land of Israel will be a sign that the Ruach HaKodesh is returning in all of Her power. A revival will sweep the world. The Jewish people, who have just witnessed a vast increase in the migration into the land of Israel (Zechariah 9) in the land of Gilead and Lebanon, will now experience a re-birth, as their brethren, the House of Ephraim or Joseph, are literally assimilated into the Land of Israel (aliyah). They are and represent all the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel. Remember, a large part of this assimilation will be the Tribe of Ephraim, of which the blessing upon Ephraim by his grandfather, the Patriarch Jacob when he stated that Ephraim would become as “myriads of myriads” or “a multitude of nations”. (Genesis 48:19) The evidence of the migration patterns of the Israelites suggest that the nations of Europe were predominately inhabited by these scattered tribes of the House of Israel, including the United States of America, as a European colony, from England, Spain, France, and Portugal.

If the rebirth of the land of Israel arrives with the literal manifestations of the latter rain, the vast migrations into the land of Israel by the “Ephraimites” and their fellow Israelites will result in a vast cultural interchange between the predominate Christian-Israelite followers of Yahshua (Jesus) and the Jewish Torah believing Orthodox. If Israel can today accept a secular Russian Jew who is a non-believer in HaShem (God of Israel), she will be impelled to recognize the Christian believers in Yahshua who are recognized as Israelites.

To the Orthodox Jew, the oracles of God, the Torah, which they have zealously preserved and studiously sought to adhered to, will now become imbedded into their hearts when out of jealousy (Romans 10:19) they perceive the spiritual righteousness of their Israelite brethren who are followers of Jesus. Is this not the symbolic picture of the two “sticks” or the “tablets” portrayed in Ezekiel 37? Will this not be seen to be the fulfillment of the full restoration of the House of Judah and the House of Ephraim/Joseph that is representing the whole House of Israel.

We must always be aware, the literal manifestation of God’s blessing upon Israel will also be depicting the spiritual or other dimensional events that are occurring on a cosmic level between the forces of good and evil. Lest we forget, the literal outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost came after the ending of the Jewish civil year at Purim and after the beginning of the Jewish religious or spiritual year at Passover. So also the latter rain may also begin at Pentecost, eighteen months or six months prior to the coming of the Maschiach ben David (Messiah son of David) on the Day of Atonement, Yon Kippur.

Zechariah 10:2 – For the idols speak delusion; the diviners envision lies,

And tell false dreams; they comfort in vain.

Therefore the people wend their way like sheep;

They are in trouble because there is no shepherd.

The “idols” in the era of the Hebrews were the “teraphim”, household gods, such as the ones that Rebecca stole from the house of her father, when Jacob left the house of Laban. (Genesis 31:19)

The important thing I have learned about Teraphim is that they are made in the FORM OF A MAN and are able to speak through sorcery.

These teraphims will become vehicles of demonic illusions, where an inanimate statue will become a vehicle to communicate a message from the other world. We are presently in an era in which statues of the Virgin Mary, the Madonna, cry tears or weep blood, and give messages of prophetic utterances. The Madonna craze, in the religious circles of Catholic influence, are more powerful than the utterances of the Pope himself.

On the other hand, messengers reputing to be from God, including the worked and reworked translations of Nostradamos, Edgar Cayce, Jean Dixon and other modern New-Age prophets with their other dimensional guides give a portrayal of the time of the end that give a perspective and desires of the arch-deceiver Satan himself. Don’t for a minute believe these messages are literally false. Recognize that they are mostly literally true but with messages of deception from the powers of darkness. Remember that Satan’s perception of truth is a portrayal of an alternative way of looking at life, a way that is destructive to the way the Lord designed us to live.

Redak says this occurs in the last of the last days when the people will realize that false prophets have misled them before their destruction by promising them peace and futile consolations. My personal opinion is that these are people operating on a lower level of prophecy (the Ru’ach Ha-kodesh), but who have not learned to discern the messages coming from THEIR spirits from those of the Ru’ach Hakodesh. Many think they are prophets just because the Ruach Ha-Kodesh gives them a message but the OFFICE and MINISTRY of the prophet is a different level of prophecy altogether, which entails very great personal sacrifice, a great sense of mishpat and tzedekah and the ridding of the human soul of the KLIPPOT or HUSKS (through a Tikkun) that alters the message or keep it from being received at all.

This is an interesting perspective. A person whom the Lord given a prophetic message does not necessarily become a prophet. As ben Joseph has stated, the Tzaddik or the righteous one, which also includes the person who is entrusted with the prophetic office living in a spiritually elevated world, a world of personal loneliness and of great personal sacrifice.

The majority of the world lives as though they are herded animals, lemmings on a march, or a flock of migrating birds. People of the world are seen wandering from one spiritual ideology to another. This may be an illusion that there will be no spiritual leader or Tzaddik in the land of Israel in the latter days. Even so, in the latter days, when the reality of God’s way is being revealed in its totality, the “messengers of God” who speak from the pulpits will disappear into the crowds. They will slink away as spiritual cowards. We will see a great “falling away” of the spiritual leaders within the churches. People, who are dependant upon a leader, will become desperate for any “sign” or “portent” from God. Only those who have learned to listen to the “still small voice” and learned how to connect to the power of the Spirit of God will understand and know what is happening.

Their “traveling like sheep” is a reference to their exile according to Redak. To me this speaks to the current tension that exists in the souls of JOES who are being dislodged from their traditional religious frameworks and learning to hear the voice of Hashem through the Torah and His prophetic revelation to their innermost beings.

Let us consider that the shepherd is a royal motif. First it could be the kings of the land (3 Samuel 5:2, Isaiah 44:28, Jeremiah 23:2-4) or God as our King and Shepherd (Psalms 23:1, Psalms 100:3, Ezekiel 34:11-16) or the Messiah as the Davidic King as Shepherd (Ezekiel 34:23-24, John 10:11-16, Hebrews 13:20, 1 Peter 5:4) Yet the human agencies who represent either of these three motifs are recognized also as shepherds.

Zechariah 10:3 – My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goatherds.

For the Lord of hosts will visit His flock, the House of Judah,

And will make them as His royal horses in the battle.

HaShem, as He spoke to the leadership of the Judaites returning from Babylon, directed his wrath to the shepherds, the recognized leaders of the land and the willful secular Jews who wanted to form their own type of Judaic culture as a modified Babylonian culture, without the blessings and direction from HaShem.(God).

Today, we also recognize that the secular Jewish state was formed in 1948 with returnees from a land of exile. Most of the returnees came out of the Holocaust in World War II Germany recognizing their desire for a national state, but not spiritually aware of their role as “spiritual emissaries of HaShem”. They formed a secular state under the same political framework that they had serviced under in “Babylon”, from where they had been exiled. Even today, the Nation of Israel is a police state with autonomy and state privileges only to its own people.

God realizes that the flocks are helpless, because they, the sheep, have been taught to depend upon the “servants of the Lord”, secular states and the organized church, yeshiva, synagogue, and religious hierarchies for their spiritual direction. These teachers do not train their people how to open up, and release the fences and barriers we place around our spiritual lives. The wrath of God will be upon these leaders, the shepherds, not the sheep.

AMEN! Not just that but in the Last Days, the church itself may be the woman circumventing Ephraim and trying to hold back his return. www.torah-voice.org/messjews.htm See; Isaiah 3:12, 9:16, Jeremiah 2:8, 26-27; 8:1-2; 10:21; 32:32; Ezekiel 22;23-31; 34:2-10.

These teachers will be national leaders, political leaders, educational leaders, and spiritual leaders. For the citizens of the free world, we are now caught up in a nationalistic and cultural battle against terrorism. This is stated to be a battle against “Evil”. We are not sure, if it is “evil within” or “evil without”. Evil is a moral and spiritual dimension, not usually addressed by secular states. The fact that “evil” is becoming the enemy shows that there is an evolutionary process that is moving our secular western democracies towards governments of force and persuasion. The reality is, evil can only be overcome by good. In as much as this process can very easily override individual free will and in itself become a state of power, greed and control, then our moral righteousness used to overcome evil with force can actually be fighting evil with evil. What a turn-around that will be when the battle against the “Evil One” is manifested in full, the battle will eventually be controlled by the “Evil One” himself. Maybe there is a fact to suggest that the Lamb-like “Land Beast” of Revelation that many Christian scholars believed to be America may in turn be the reality of the “Beast of Terror” that we are fighting today, “Peace like Beast of Islam”. Yet the “Force” that we are using to fight the Islamic “Beast” will end up being the Terrible “Sea Beast” of Revelation that many Christian scholars believed to be the rise of the One World Order, may in turn be the reality of the “War Beast of the International Intelligence Organizations” that in turn are the western internationalist’s forces of power, greed and control, are actually both in the process of being morphed into the reality that they are the “Agents” of Satan.

Everyone in a position of teaching another person has an awesome responsibility. Their credibility will reflect the God or god’s they serve. It is useful to remember, the life you live is reflected by the God you serve.

TRUE. I believe this especially applies in a “religious framework” where the sheep blindly “eat” from the same pasture over and over and over again.

Goats are a more independent type of domestic animals. They represent those who follow their own spiritual wills. They are willful even in their own self-deception. The evil in which they teach comes from their will and their resultant willful lives, in which they refuse to lay at the foot of the cross and become servants of the Lord. The sheep will follow a goat, and the goats will be punished for not following the ways of the Lord.

Also I discovered a mystical reference, possibly to the ATUDIM (translated goats) as the chiefs of Esau who according to the Midrash, laid their crowns of thorns on the coffin of Jacob AFTER Joseph placed his crown on the coffin. The thorns surrounding the coffin made it a GOREN HA-ATAD, (a field of thorns). ATUDIM is plural for ATAD. The rabbonim are in agreement that the spiritual House of Esau is Rome and the Roman Church, which is responsible for 99 percent of the pagan elements and idolatry in the “Church” today, including doctrines such as the deity of Messiah and Trinity which persist in the Protestant churches. In this context, the GOATS are those who preach non-Torah doctrine.

It is useful to remember that the Christian Church is still in the midst of a reformation. Every different denomination is a different step away from the Mother Church in Rome and moving towards their former Mother “Church” in Jerusalem, the orthodox, Torah believing, Jewish believers in Yahshua. Even the Seventh-day Adventist, one of the last in this reformation process, who have returned back to the worship of the Shabbat, the 7^th day Sabbath of the Hebrews, and the Mosaic message of “clean meats” are not Kosher observant, and instead of Torah balance in a sinful world, moved to the opposite spectrum of vegetarianism as a creed, not a choice. Yet, they still observe the orthodox Roman church’s view of the Divine as a “Trinity”, rather than the triune image of the Sefirot of the World of the Divine observed by the ancient Hebrews.

What is of interest is that the “Lord of Hosts will visit his flock”, the House of Judah. As a result of that visit, the House of Judah will be elevated to the role of the “goodly horse in battle”. Are the people of Judah also being portrayed as a flock of sheep without a shepherd? We do know that the flock is not the “Lost Tribes of the House of Israel”. Neither are the Jews “the prodigal son” who lost his way. Rather, the Jews are the “older son who stayed home”, and yes, they remained in halakhic observant of their covenant with God. Are we seeing a warning to the political leaders of Israel today and the spiritual leaders of Orthodox Judaism in their halakhic observant of Judaism, put up barriers of protection around their people so that their own Jewish descendants and even the “Lost Tribes of the House of Israel” cannot return home? They may be truth-fighters for HaShem, but also have become arrogant and conceited in their “chosen ness”.

I agree that Judah is not the prodigal but I don’t agree that this is a warning to political leaders and spiritual leaders who staunchly maintain halachah. The fact that the scenario with JUDAH is contrasted with the shepherds and the goats, to me says just the opposite. JUDAH becomes majestic out of its faithfulness to Hashem and Torah b’halachah.

It is true that Judah has remained faithful to Hasham and the Torah b’halakhah (how to live the life of Torah). This is not in dispute even though most Christians think that the Jews have been rejected by their God, we must be reminded that even the Apostle Paul, who was noted as the “Pharisee of the Pharisees” disputed the fact that the God of Israel rejected His own people.

Within the days of Paul, there were two halakhic interpretations of the Torah, the Torah according to Beit Hillel, the Pharisees of Hillel and the halakhic interpretations of the Torah according to Beit Shammai, the Pharisees of Shammai. When the temple of Herod was destroyed in 70 CE, is it not amazing that the Torah interpretations of Shammai were rejected for evidence based spirituality in the political world of 1^st century Judaism saw that the Shammaites infected and fomented the Jewish Zealot movement with an anti-Goyim (anti-Gentile) barriers that eventual caused the Jews their own destruction.

It is true that Judah becomes majestic out of its faithfulness to it covenant with Hashem, the God of Israel. The Jews also were faithful to the halakhah of Torah, but they chose the wrong halakhic interpretation during the years of globalist oppression. They could have avoided their destruction if they had more “loving kindness” as the famed Hillel the Great suggested and Yahshua the Messiah affirmed in life and action. It suggests also, as Rashi agrees, that the Torah of Shammai may become the correct halakhah in the coming days when the Messiah will rule over this planet earth with a “rod in His mouth”.

The Fierce Fighters of the House of Judah

Zechariah 10:4 – From him (Judah) comes the cornerstone,

From Him (Judah) the tent peg,

From Him (Judah) the battle bow,

From Him (Judah) every ruler together.

The context is that out of Judah will come HaShem’s son, Yahshua, (Genesis 49:10, Micah 5:2) the Chief Cornerstone, (Psalms 118:22-23, Isaiah 8:13-15, 28:16, and Daniel 2:35,45; Matthew 21:42; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:6-8) and He will make Judah and Jerusalem also a cornerstone. Both have become a stumbling block for all the nations. Another translation used is “capstone”. The former is the first stone laid at the corner of a building, which defines the structure for the rest of the building. On the other hand, the “capstone” is the final stone that is placed upon the completion of the building. Do we see here the Messiah as the final and crowning achievement of the Lord of Hosts in His plans and purposes for His chosen people? Yes, Yahshua is the “cornerstone”, the first corner foundation stone, and the “capstone”, the last stone placed on the building as the crowning conclusion of the great building masterpiece.

The cornerstone here is simply the head of the people. The stake below is the officer and the bow the warrior. Israel will not need the assistance of any other nation; they will wage their own battles.

Are we dealing here with Yehoshua (Jesus) as coming out of Judah, and also being Judah’s cornerstone, or any head, ruler, prime minister or leader of Israel (Judah)? It appears this text is multi-dimensional. The war to be fought in the time of the end will be a real war with a bloody death for many of its participants. At the same time, this will be the ultimate spiritual warfare, for at the end all the cosmic forces of both good and evil will be fully participating. Remember the words of the Lord to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by military might, nor in your own strength, but by My Spirit, stated the Lord of Hosts.” At the same time, this Zechariah passage does not diminish the fact that physical might or military strength are necessary yet only when it is guided by the Spirit of the Almighty.

Out of Judah will come forth the “tent-peg”, that Judah was originally given when the House of Israel fell. This peg was removed (Isaiah 22:22-24), when Judah also fell to the forces of Babylon. She was replaced after the exile from Babylon was completed for 70 years, yet returned to exile with the fall of the Temple of the Lord, Herod’s Temple in 70 CE. This word, yathed (Heb-3489, Strong’s) is interpreted as nail, peg, tent-peg paddle, or stake. If the context is a military portrayal, “the goodly horse” than the officers over the armed forces, and under the modern prime minister and military commanders is an apt portrayal.

Out of Judah will also come the battle bow. This is known as the Divine Warrior terminology and is always presented by the prophets as the bow, ready for battle. (Zechariah 9:3, Psalms 7:12, 45:5, Lamentations 2:4, 3:12, Habakkuk 3:9) Yet, Judah has one problem, she needs an arrow. Will this arrow will be reserved for the House of Ephraim (Joseph)?

But the next verse doesn’t mention the ARROW even being necessary and the verses following that (below) speak of Joseph’s return come AFTER this particular conflict or series of events.

Yehoshua (Jesus) will bring out of Judah, the spiritual, military and political leadership necessary to vault her to her own rightful role as the blessed one of the Lord of Hosts. Together they will be in preparation for the day when Israel will have to stand alone in her service to the Lord of Hosts.

Zechariah 10:5 – They shall be like mighty men,

Who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle.

They shall fight because the Lord is with them,

And the riders on horses shall be put to shame.

If it is suggested that the above reference in Zechariah that only the Holy Spirit will battle, for his people, then this passage is in vain. Why praise mighty men who battle for the Lord if we are to sit passively by and expect the Cosmic Powers of God to do the work for us. Here it states, the sheep, the weak, will now become mighty men.

What a different picture of the Jews of the Holocaust, and the world opinion of the Jews today. The prowess of the military might of Israel is legendary to the size of her military forces. But it has not been always so. During the Holocaust, the Jews were leaderless like wandering sheep being hunted by the wolves of the Nazi leaders. Yet, right after World War II, the Nation of Israel was established in May 14, 1948 B.C.E. and their national identity was restored. With their national identity we have seen a progressive development of a spiritual identity. The Orthodox Jews in the past year or two have almost achieved a majority status in the population of the country.

They shall fight because the Lord is with them. The defense of the Land of Israel will not be only because of their military prowess, which they have, but the conviction that they are now being led by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that He has given them their prowess. Recent historical analysis on a logistic basis of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have over and over been outnumbered, outgunned and fully surrounded by enemies when attacked with the intention of their adversaries to destroy and obliterate their whole country. At the end of each conflict, Israel has been the decided victor with the possession of more land than prior, able to win conflicts with 1/10^th the armor of their opponents, maintained air superiority with fewer aircraft, and maintained an unprecedented kill-ratio.

After the 1967 six-day war, the IAF (Israeli Air Force) had destroyed over 400 planes of the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. In 1982, the IAF destroyed over 100 Syrian planes with no losses of their own. A military exercise, in the fall 1999, between the United States Navy Sixth Fleet and IAF, Israeli Air Force, in the Negev showed the Israeli completely trouncing the U.S. Navy pilots, according to report on the Air Force Monthly. This exercise involved engagements between IAF F-16’s and US Na Navy F-14 and F-18’s. According to the sources, the exercise ended in a score of 40:1 in favor of the IAF pilots. According to the report, IAF pilots downed 220 U.S. aircraft to a loss of only 20 of its own. It was stated that the report was not published “save the reputation of the US Navy pilots.” Yes, the American horse riders (pilots) were put to shame.

There are two different military strategies that the Lord has portrayed Judah at the time of the end. The King of the North invasion and the Gog-Magog battles clearly depict that the enemies against Israel will not be destroyed by the military dominance of Israel, but because they have been confounded, confused, or their military weaponry will be disabled by some other-dimensional forces beyond their control. Yet this passage is clear, Israel will have to fight her own battles and when she accepts her mission as being in defense of the God of Israel, the Lord of Hosts will truly go to battle with her.

One only has to go the battle accounts of both the Israelis and the Egyptians of the 1967 Six Day War, and listen to the Egyptians seeing overwhelming forces that did not exist, phantom tanks that were not in the vicinity and overwhelming noises of invasion that caused the Egyptians to jump out of their tanks and flee in terror. Some prophetic teachers see this as a conditional prophecy, which will never be fulfilled. The position of this writer is that if the Lord of Hosts states He will do a certain deed, it will be done, and secondly, all prophecies, given to Israel by God will see their ultimate fulfillment in the latter days.

The Land of the Twelve Tribes –

Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary

The Houses of Judah and Joseph

Zechariah 10:6 – I will strengthen the house of Judah, and

I will save the house of Joseph.

I will bring them back, because I have mercy on them.

They shall be as though I had not cast them aside;

For I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them.

The Lord of Hosts will make Judah into a military power of formidable strength. Prophecy fulfilled? This will be a marker or seed for the beginning of the restoration prophecies of the Lost Tribes of Israel under the leadership and banner of the largest tribe, Ephraim of the House of Joseph. It is true that in the context of these texts, Ephraim is not a participant in the military defense of the land of Israel at this time. Yet this event is a watershed for the salvation of the house of Joseph.

All the major commentaries, Rashi, Kara and Ibn Ezra agree this is Ephraim and since there was no known return of exiles from Assyria during the days of the Second Temple (subsequent to this prophecy) it implies a yet to be fulfilled exile.

It is these prophetic statements that cause many Christian theologians to close the books of the prophets in the Old Testament. They state that this is a conditional prophecy and since Judah failed to live up to covenant relationship with HaShem, she will forever be cast into exile. Why was this stated in the first place? The House or Nation of Israel never came home, so from a limited human perspective, 2730 years later, it will never happen. Wait a minute! Must we limit the Almighty God to our human dimmed vision? Yes, once again, the Lord of Hosts states that the house of Joseph, the lost sheep of the house of Israel will be saved. Why will this happen? It will happen because HaShem will have mercy on them. They will be restored as though they had never been exiled in 722 B.C.E. by the Assyrians empire. The prodigal son will return home with honors and the signet ring of the Father.

The Hebrew HOSHVOTIM is believed to a combination of HOSHAVTIM and HASHIVOTIM. This implies a physical return and resettling as well as a spiritual return to the YESHIVOT of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The Land of Israel under David and Solomon –

Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary

I am the Lord their God because they now recognize me as their God, for I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If God hears, then the house of Joseph is calling and searching for their own identity. This is a prophecy in the process of being fulfilled.

I found it fascinating that the Adventist Bible Commentary, who does not accept the return of the House of Joseph, states though,

Adventist Bible Commentary - “However, a glorious destiny awaited those among these tribes who would join themselves to the Lord and unite with the remnant of Judah.” (ABC 1108)

The question is when?

The passage in the future tense, clearly designates the Return as an END TIMES phenomenon and something which was not fulfilled subsequently as some contend that the Ten Tribes returned at the time of the Return from Babylon.

Zechariah 10:7 – Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man,

And their heart shall rejoice as if with wine.

Yes their children shall see it and be glad;

Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.

The House of Joseph shall also be given strength as a mighty warrior. Is this man of Ephraim, an individual “Joe” or rather a literal or spiritual descendant of Joseph, literally from the tribes of Ephraim and Manesseh and symbolically the “entire Lost Tribes of Israel” that is living in the Land of Israel at the time of the end? Is this collectively those Ephraimite nations who will come to the aid and protection of Israel?

Both good questions! Mighty man is a remez of the mighty men of David who were fierce fighters.

“Their hearts shall rejoice as being drunk (merry) with wine” gives us a word picture that is self explanatory. It does not portray a warrior drinking non-alcoholic grape juice. This has the appearance of a full release of exultation and emotional joy.

YES! And the vineyards of Judah will provide the wine!

“Their children shall see it and be glad….their hearts shall rejoice (exult) in the Lord.” Here we see that the whole families will be involved in the salvation of their people.

JEWS (Judaites) AND JOES (Josephites or Ephraimites) together again should make any heart exult.

The House of Joseph (Ephraim)

Texts from the TaHaKh (Old Testament)

Ezekiel 37:15

“Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying; ‘As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: “For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companion.” Then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companion.” Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick and they will become one your hand.

The Egyptian Visier, Joseph, the son of Jacob

“And when the children of your people speak to you, saying; “Will you not show us what you mean by these?” say to them “Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companion; and I will join then with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.” And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.

“Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and