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The work of the house of Joseph, part 9

On the third day of the feast of Tabernacles, Psalm 50:16-23 was read.

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes and to take My covenant into your mouth? ¹⁷ For you hate discipline, and you cast My words behind you. ¹⁸ When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you associate with adulterers. ¹⁹ You let your mouth loose in evil and your tongue frames deceit. ²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. ²¹ These things you have done and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. ²² Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver. ²³ He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”

The feast of Tabernacles was the feast where the entire book of Deuteronomy was read and studied. In Hebrew, the book is entitled, These are the Words (or speeches), taken from the opening phrase in the first chapter. The English name, Deuteronomy, is from the Greek name and means “the second law.” It is the collection of Moses’ speeches that he gave at the end of Israel’s wilderness journey.

The third speech of Moses correlates with the third day of Tabernacles, the third bowl, and the third sign in the Gospel of John. This third speech is recorded in Deuteronomy 9-13. In my commentary, I used the title suggested by Ferrar Fenton, Why Israel was Chosen. However, it might also be called, Why Canaan was Expelled. The speech shows Israel’s responsibility as “chosen people,” and it also shows the contrast between them and the Canaanites.

This was also a warning to the Israelites not to act as the lawless Canaanites. We know from biblical history, of course, that the Israelites failed to live up to the requirements of being chosen, and so, in the end, only a remnant of grace was truly chosen (Romans 11:7). The passage in Psalm 50, which was read on the third day of Tabernacles at the temple, admonishes the people for their lawlessness.

Who Will be Shown the Messiah?

The psalmist’s conclusion in the final two verses admonishes those who “forget God,” and it honors those who honor God by keeping His laws. Of the obedient ones, God says, “I shall show the salvation of God.” The Hebrew word translated salvation here is yesha, a prophecy of Yeshua (Jesus). It is a promise to the obedient ones that God will reveal the Messiah to them.

This promise is not merely to those who attempt to follow the law as an Old Covenant obligation. The promise is given to those who offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. While the sacrifices in those days were to be offered with thanksgiving and rejoicing, the New Covenant dropped the requirement for such sacrifices, for these have been replaced by the ultimate Sacrifice, Jesus Christ Himself. This is now the true Sacrifice that must be offered with thanksgiving and gratefulness.

Essentially, we learn that those who are truly chosen, those whose hearts are right with God, will be shown the Messiah as the true Sacrifice. This, of course, was fulfilled in the New Testament, and this also brought out the great dispute between Jesus and the religious leaders.

When the priests read Psalm 50 during Tabernacles, they saw themselves as righteous, and they saw Jesus as unrighteous. The religious leaders would never “associate with adulterers” (Psalm 50:18) and thieves, whereas Jesus ate with “sinners and tax collectors” (Mark 2:16). Jesus defended the woman caught in adultery as well (John 8:4).

Hence, the religious leaders might have thought of Jesus when reading Psalm 50 at the Feast of Tabernacles. However, their hearts were not right. They had destroyed the law by their traditions (Matthew 15:3), and He quoted Isaiah 29:13 to them as well. Matthew 15:7-9 says,

⁷ You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ⁸ “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. ⁹ But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”

It is also noteworthy that Isaiah 29:13 was preceded by a prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction in Isaiah 29:1-6. There Jerusalem is called by its prophetic name, Ariel. Ariel has a double meaning: (1) lion of God, and (2) hearth of God. The prophet builds his case upon this double meaning. Jerusalem was supposed to be the lion of God, but because it failed to be obedient, it became God’s hearth, or fireplace.

The prophecy shows how God Himself was to lay siege to the city, because His enemies were occupying the city (Isaiah 29:3). In other words, God was to raise up unspecified nations to lay siege to the city, and “she will be like an Ariel [fireplace] to Me” (Isaiah 29:2). What follows is a description that sounds like a nuclear event (Isaiah 29:6). Just a few verses later, the prophet testified that the city and its people preferred its own traditions to the word of God. This issue was the root problem in the New Testament conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, which ultimately led to the crucifixion.

This prophecy is consistent with the third bowl of wine that is poured out against “the bloody city” for its long-standing rejection of the word of the prophets, saints, and apostles. Further, the Israeli Prime Minister at the time was Ariel Sharon, known also as “the bulldozer” for his policy of demolishing Palestinian houses if they did not fully submit to Jewish rule.

Religious Leaders vs. Simeon

So on the third day of Tabernacles, the priests read, “What right have you to tell of My statutes and to take My covenant into your mouth? For you hate discipline, and you cast My words behind you.” They did not realize that this word was directed at them, not at Jesus.

For this reason, as a whole, they were not shown “the salvation of God.” Only certain righteous men such as Simeon received the promise of God. Luke 2:26-30 says,

²⁶ And it had been revealed to him [Simeon] by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the law, ²⁸ then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, ²⁹ Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word, ³⁰ for my eyes have seen your salvation.”

Simeon had heard the voice of God and was led to go into the temple on the 40^th day from the feast of Trumpets. His name means “hearing,” and as a result of hearing, he saw the promise of God fulfilled. He must have known by the Spirit that the Messiah would be born on Trumpets and would be brought to the temple on the 40^th day. Perhaps he even knew the name that the Messiah would be called, for Yeshua means “salvation.”

The Third Sign in John

The third miracle-sign that John presents to his readers is found in John 5:1-9. It is the story of a man who had been sick for 38 years. He represented the nation of Israel, whose entry into the Promised Land had been delayed for 38 years (Deuteronomy 2:14). He had sought healing at the well of Bethesda, waiting for the angel to stir up the water (John 5:7).

Seeing that this was the third sign, we may relate it to the third bowl of wine in Revelation 16:5, where “the angel of the waters” poured out the bowl on the rivers and streams. By linking the two passages, we see that this prophesies of healing at the time that Joshua the Ephraimite (i.e., Yeshua in His second coming) leads us into our Promised Land.

There were many at the well of Bethesda, but only one was healed. The healed man thus represents the overcomer, not the nation as a whole. The bloody city will be destroyed about the same time that the overcomers receive the promise of God. In terms of Moses’ third speech in Deuteronomy 9-13, we can say that there is a distinction between those who are truly chosen and those who are not. For this reason, Moses’ speech speaks of the chosen ones being blessed, while showing why the Canaanites were brought to disaster.

The message is clear: the judgments of God are impartial, for Deuteronomy 1:17 says, “You shall not show partiality in judgment.” Jesus is the impartial Judge (Matthew 22:16; John 5:22), who judges all men according to their works, whether they are genealogical Israelites or not. No one is chosen on account of his physical genealogy.

Pouring out the Third Bowl of Wine and Water

In April 2002 some friends from Michigan were led to send me a bottle of water from Lake Huron. After praying about it, we understood that on Passover (April 27) half of this water was to be poured out at the Islands of Peace in the Mississippi River not far from my office. The other half was to be poured out at Tabernacles, September 27, 2002, along with the bowl of wine.

I myself spent Passover in Arizona, where I had been invited to teach the word. So others poured out the water into the river on April 27. The reason for this alteration from normal procedure is yet unknown, but it seems to indicate a two-step fulfillment in regard to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It may also reflect the possible entry points into the Promised Land: Kadesh-barnea and the Jordan River. Recall that the people were supposed to enter Canaan at Tabernacles from the south at Kadesh-barnea, but because of their lack of faith, they ended up crossing the Jordan River on the east side of Canaan at Passover 38 years later.

Just before pouring out the bowls on September 27, 2002, my wife and I, along with Ron Oja, were led to fly to Seattle for special meetings on the first days of the feast of Tabernacles, the weekend of September 20-22. These meetings were hosted and directed by a woman named Sitareh, whose revelation it was to do this.

The theme was “The Priesthood,” and these meetings signified the crossing of the Jordan River as well. Seventy of us were at the gathering, representing the Melchizedek priesthood. As priests of God, we prophetically carried the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan, drying up the river so that the rest of the people could enter the Promised Land.

When we returned to Minneapolis, we poured out the third bowl of wine, along with the second half of the bowl of water from Lake Huron, at the Islands of Peace. In doing this, we again bore witness to the word of God in regard to judgment (wine) and the outpouring of the Spirit (water). In no case should it be understood that we were initiating anything. We were simply bearing an earthly witness to the heavenly plan as directed by the Holy Spirit.