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DOUBLE DOUBLE:

Déjà vu In Bible Prophecy

Part L

 

In our last installment of Double Double, we elaborated on how the book of Nehemiah anticipates the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ, as Nehemiah is dispatched from the royal throne to restore the temple in Jerusalem. Chapter XLIX in the present series included comments on the doubling of Nehemiah’s second coming to Jerusalem, in which he ejected  the Antichrist figure who had taken up residence in the temple.

Part of the doubled cycle includes the fact that Sanballat, as a “shadow” of Satan, is orchestrating events which resulted in his servant Tobiah (manifesting the Spirit of Antichrist before the time of Jesus) entering in to   the temple. This was accomplished because the “strongman,” seen in Sanballat, has a daughter that is married to a descendant of the high priest, who has control of the temple.

Jesus told us that when we oppose the “strongman,” he must be bound before we can “spoil his house.” 

“How can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? And then he will spoil his house” (Matthew 12:29). 

The occasion where Jesus spoke of this presence (the “strongman”) was contextually all about devils which were being cast out through his power. This confirms the identity of Sanballat as a material world vessel,  representing Satan, as Sanballat is the “foreigner” who is orchestrating the evil from behind the scenes.

This identification helps to explain why the Word of God regularly speaks of standing in the gap to block the adversaries’ entrance into the perimeter of the temple.

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land” (Ezekiel 22:30).

We might suggest the New Testament era “shield of faith” (Ephesians 6:16) is the Spiritual equivalent of the “hedge” and the “gates,” even as the “wall” around Jerusalem is related to the Spiritual equivalent of Nehemiah’s project.

“But when it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews” (Nehemiah 4:1).

 As we noted last week in the video on Part XLIX of Double Double, the entrance of the “type” of Antichrist (Tobiah), moving into the temple, is doubled again by King Herod.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the return of Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…“

“Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God” (II Thessalonians 2:3,4).

Thus, as Tobiah in Nehemiah’s timeline entered in (and defiled) the temple, we also saw a prophetic echo of this event centuries later, when King Herod entered in to Nehemiah’s temple, which he had refurbished.

This is intertwined in the prophecy of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks  regarding   the coming of “Messiah the Prince.”

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall rebuilt again, and the wall, even in troublous times” (Daniel 9:25).

In the prophet Daniels’ writings, we find the amazing prophecy which not only points us to another sequential recapitulation of the Spirit of Antichrist sitting “in the temple of God” (II Thessalonians 2:4), it has text which confirms Daniel’s prophecy that it is in the time of the Roman Empire that the doubled event will occur.

“And in the days of these kings [the four kings mentioned in Daniel 2, including Rome], shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44).

First, we hasten to add that the Seventy Weeks prophecy is all about JESUS, as opposed to the Rapture Cult fiction that says this astonishing prophecy is about the so-called Antichrist. Jesus is the one who “finish[es] the transgression” and makes “an end of sins” as he “make[s] reconciliation for iniquity,” when He “bring[s] in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel 9:24).

These are all characteristics that were prefigured by Nehemiah the Pre-Messiah. As Daniels’ prophecy continues, we do see another shadow of the Spirit of Antichrist, which applies to the fact that evil King Herod, in the time of Jesus, sought to restore the grandeur of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

“And for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make [the temple] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Daniel 9:27).

The word “overspreading” is veiled in our time, but the underlying Hebrew term speaks of a room addition to an existing building – indicating  abomination is “spreading out” or expanding. In fact, a Hebrew Concordance (essentially a dictionary) tells us the word means a “wing” (think of a wing added to an existing building). The West Wing of the white house comes to mind.

Included in the Hebrew definition of the citation is the word “pinnacle” – and it is related to the “wing” which is in view. To put it more succinctly, this prophecy in Daniel tells us that an expansion of Nehemiahs’ temple will occur, and it will include a pinnacle, or a tower.

“Overspreading. 3671: kanaph, kaw-naf; from 3670; an edge or extremity; spec. (of a bird or army) a wing (of a garment of bed clothing) a flap (of the earth) a quarter, (of a building) a pinnacle” (Strong’s Exhaustive concordance, emphasis mine).

This is the very pinnacle spoken of in the New Testament.

“And [Satan] brought [Jesus]…and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from [here]” (Luke 4:9).

Documents from this period tell us of a great tower, that was added to the temple, by King Herod as a tribute to Mark Antony of Rome, and it was called The Tower of Antonia.

“This fortress, castle, citadel, or tower…which overlooked the temple, could be no other than what Hyrcanus I built, and Herod the Great rebuilt, and called The Tower of Antonia” (Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus, Book XIII, Chapter XVI).

Under the Old Testament law of Moses, only Israelites could even enter the temple, but Herod (who was an Idumaean), not only entered into the tower, just like Tobiah before him, he moved into the “wing.” 

“The citadel he repaired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace, which he called Antonia” (Wars of the Jews, Flavius Josephus, Book I, Chapter XXI).

The Idumaeans were descendants of Esau – and they were also called  Edomites, in an earlier time. The reader will recall that it was Esau who forfeited his birthright because he sold it to Jacob, who became Israel. In bitter regret, Esau later completely turned from God, and mingled his seed with the various Arab tribes that progressively surrounded Israel.

By pinpointing the expansion of the abomination in which the Gentile Idumaean moved into the temple, the prophecy converges with Daniels’ prediction that it is “in the days of these kings” (Daniel 2:44) that God will set up his kingdom, as the Citadel was named after a Roman Caesar.

History records the dynasty of Herod was favoured by Rome, so naming the pinnacle The Tower of Antonia (as a tribute to Caesar), is somewhat predictable.

The fact that this abomination was a doubled version of Tobiah moving into a “chamber” of the temple (Nehemiah 13:5), has an additional significance as these two episodes involved Flesh and Blood, whereas the event they foreshadow, in which the Spirit of Antichrist enters into the  Spiritual temple of Israel (that is the body of Christ), has not escaped our attention.

This is part of Zechariah’s triune equation, in which we see all creation with three components in which two parts (read Flesh and Blood) are cut off and die, while the third part is Spiritual.

“In all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein” (Zechariah 13:8).

This division can be assigned as the Spirits of Life, Death, and Hell. Actually, the doubles are everywhere, as the Herod of Christ’s time, also manifests another prophetic cycle which intersects with the Tobiah in the Temple pattern.

In the Gospels, we see Herod the Tetrarch, who was inhabited by Death. His wife Herodias manifested Hell -- which “causes” (Revelation 13:12) those who dwell on the earth to embrace Death – even as the the Spirit of Life was in John the Baptist. Herodias hated John because he reminded Herod it was not lawful for him to have Herodias (who had been the wife of Herod’s brother), so she pushed Herod to kill John.

In previous studies (notably the Serpents, Scorpions, and 70 Sons DVD), we’ve shown “Death” (the Serpent Spirit – Revelation 9:18, 19) has the authority but is reluctant to kill, even as “Hell” (the Scorpion Spirit – Revelation 9:5) desires to kill, but lacks the authority.

In the account, (through Salome, her seductive daughter that dances for Herod) Herodias maneuvers Herod into promising the young vixen anything she desires. Under the instruction of Herodias, the daughter requests the Life of John the Baptist (one of the Sons of God).

“And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist” (Mark 6:24). 

Thus, the saga of the “leaven of Herod” (Mark 8:15) intersects with the Nehemiah/Sanballat/Tobiah pattern. Just as Tobiah and Herod are manifested as the “two parts” that enter in to the temple – juxtaposed against the Spirit of Antichrist entering into the Spiritual body of Christ in our time (the third part) -- the example of Herod (representing the Spiritual Serpent), Herodias (as the Spiritual Scorpion), and John the Baptist is a double of the Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah sequence.

But a further elaboration on that instance of Sequential Recapitulation will have to wait for another installment of Double Double: Déjà vu In Bible Prophecy.

 

 --- James Lloyd

 

To Be Continued