Prophecy

I recently posted an article on this site, titled THE ENIGMA OF BURNT OFFERINGS, suggesting that we are in a 10-year countdown to the visible second coming of Christ. Well, here is another very intriguing 10 that appears in the blessings of Moses on the sons of Israel just before he dies at age 120 opposite Jericho, which is then taken in 7 days with trumpets by Joshua (meaning "Yahweh is salvation"). By the way, I believe that the 7 days are prophetic of the last 7 years and Jericho is a figure for unregenerate Jerusalem/Israel. Also, I believe that Moses, as mediator of the Old Covenant, was resurrected, foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant. See Deut. 34:5,6 and Jude 9. If this were not so, how did Moses appear in an immortal body with Elijah, who was raptured, at the Mount of Transfiguration, which was also prophetic of the last 7 years, when Moses and Elijah will descend to Mount Zion at the resurrection and rapture to preach Jesus for 1260 days, Who will appear in glory at the end of those 7 years?

 

Would it be surprising that another figure for the last 10 years appears at the very end of Moses' life? I think not. As I've also written on this site, I believe that the 120 years of demonic activity before Noah's 600th year was prophetic of the Satanic and demonic activity that we are now in before the 6000th year (2030/31) and it is prophetic of God's release of the Jews (120 is a very Jewish number) from their dispersion to begin returning to Palestine. Moses' death at 120 is not a coincidence. It is prophetic that he will return with Elijah when these 120 years are up, which is in 2023/2024, I believe.

 

So, here is how Moses gave 10 blessings to the sons of Israel in Deuteronomy 33 and not 12. Seems strange. Do they foreshadow the last 10 years? I think so. Here are the tribes blessed, in order.

 

1. Reuben (1st in birth order, Leah's son)

2. Judah (4th in birth order, Leah's son)

3. Levi (3rd in birth order, Leah's son)

4. Benjamin (12th in birth order, Rachel's son)

5. Joseph (11th in birth order, Rachel's son)

6. Zebulun (10th in birth order, Leah's son)

7. Gad (7th in birth order, Zilpah's son)

8. Dan (5th in birth order, Bilhah's son)

9. Naphtali (6th in birth order, Bilhah's son)

10. Asher (8th in birth order, Zilpah's son)

 

A number of things jump out at you as you study the blessings. First and foremost is where is Simeon? He is completely absent. The poor tribe. Did Moses just forget them in his old age? And why is Issachar strangely included in the blessing to Zebulun? Why did they not warrant separate blessings? And is there any significance to the order at all, particularly Moses' tribe of Levi coming 3rd? I think so.

 

Here is my take on it. I believe that the last 10 blessings of Moses are prophetic of the last 10 years before the visible second coming of Jesus. This is why there are 10 and not 12. And the reason that Moses' tribe is 3rd, I believe, is that it indicates that Moses will descend to Jerusalem with Elijah at the end of the 3rd year at the same time as the resurrection and rapture occur. Then will come the last 7 years of "Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30:7).

 

I am even inclined to believe that the 10 Commandments that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai are also prophetic of these last 10 years. The Jewish Masoretic text of Exodus 20:1-17 even gives the 3/7 split with "parashah" breaks ordering the 10 Commandments like this:

 

By the way, this is how Luther's Large Catechism and the Catechism of the Catholic Church order the 10 Commandments, though the latter reverses 9 and 10, following the order of Deuteronomy 5:4-21. Strikingly, it has the 3/7 split with the first 3 commandments oriented towards God and the last 7 oriented towards man. And perhaps even more strikingly, it has the Sabbath commandment 3rd. Certainly the Sabbath is a great picture of the worship and rest that the resurrected and raptured elect will experience in heaven at the end of the 3rd year. And then will follow 7 more years until the final worship and rest is experienced at the end of the 7th year.

 

As I've also written before, I believe that the 10 plagues of Egypt are also prophetic of these last 10 years. Egypt of course is a figure for unregenerate Jerusalem/Israel. See Revelation 11:8. Here is something interesting that I have not written before. God only allowed the demonic magicians or soothsayer priests of Egypt to replicate 3 of Moses' signs:

 

1. Throwing a staff on the ground and it becoming a snake. Moses' snake ate up their snakes however. By the way, this could well be a picture of God "throwing" Jesus on the ground of Israel and becoming a "snake" as He took the sins of the elect upon Himself, like the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness to save the Israelites from death by snake bite. Jesus "devoured" Satan and the demons at His crucifixion and resurrection and then cast them into hell in 70 AD. At the same time, it could also be a picture of God and Satan (through the Holocaust especially) "throwing" the unregenerate Jews back on the ground of Israel in the last 120 years and the regenerate Jews coming out on top in the end.

 

2. Plague 1. The demonic magicians or soothsayer priests were also able to turn the Nile River to blood. I believe that God literally turned the waters of the Nile around that location into human blood for a short time until they had passed by and then He allowed the demonic magicians or soothsayer priests to duplicate that miracle. The reason I write human blood is that water figures in the Bible are always associated with Gentiles (e.g., see Rev. 17:15) and, so, turning the Nile River to blood would be an excellent figure for COVID, which has now killed nearly 4 million people around the world, nearly entirely Gentiles, in the 1st year (2021/22) of the last 10 years.

 

3. Plague 2. The demonic magicians or soothsayer priests were also able to duplicate the infestation of frogs in Egypt. Frogs are unclean animals to Jews and the figure is even used for the unclean or unholy spirits of the dragon (Satan), the Jewish Antichrist (who will be possessed by Satan) and the Jewish False Prophet (perhaps the head of the Sanhedrin or the Jewish High Priest, who will be demon-possessed) of Revelation 16:13. I don't know if there is significance to frogs being the 2nd plague or if it simply means the 2nd year (2022/23). Habakkuk 3:5 may suggest this: 3 years of pestilence, COVID, followed by 7 years of plagues, literally fire-bolts. So, I could see it meaning a 2nd year of the Satanically and demonically caused COVID or I could see it meaning Satanic and demonic activity in Israel or even the Jewish Antichrist and the Jewish False Prophet appearing on the scene, though perhaps not possessed yet, as that seems to happen after the resurrection and rapture (see 2 Thess. 2:7-8).

 

If Plagues 1 and 2 do relate to COVID, it suggests that both God and Satan and the demons are involved. Of course, God is always sovereign over what He permits Satan and the demons to do, as the book of Job teaches us, and the Bible clearly teaches that pestilence is one of the things that God uses to judge and punish evil. So, it should not be surprising if both God and Satan and the demons are involved in COVID. The unsaved and some saved have suffered and died, the latter for either discipline or sanctification.

 

The interesting thing is that Plague 3, gnats or lice, is the 1st that the demonic magicians or soothsayer priests could not duplicate. I believe that this is prophetic of the phenomenal sign, the resurrection and rapture, which will occur at the end of the 3rd year (2023/24), which Satan and the demons of course will not be able to duplicate or have any control over or be able to stop. And it suggests also that the plagues of the last 7 years, though Satan and the demons not active in Noah's day will be powerfully working, God's signs and wonders through Moses and Elijah and afterwards will not be duplicated. If Plague 3 was gnats, flying insects, I don't believe that it has connection to the "flight" to heaven of the resurrection and rapture. Plague 4 was flies and Plague 8 was locusts, so it is likely that the specifics of the 10 plagues do not relate well to the specifics of the pestilence and plagues of the last 10 years, but rather that the 10 plagues only prophesy the last 10 years and that the phenomenal sign of the 3rd year will not be duplicated, nor will any of God's signs and wonders of the last 7 years be duplicated.