Torah and New Testament Foundations-The False Messiah-Part 14

Let’s go to another picture of the False Messiah in Isa 22.15-25. Shebna will be a picture of the False Messiah and Eliakim will be a picture of the Messiah. God will hurl Shebna headlong, grasp him firmly and roll him tightly like a ball, and cast him into a vast country (Like Azazel-Ezek 29.1-7; 32.1-8; Dan 7.26; Nahum 1.15; Zech 14.5; Jer 52.8-9). He will be deposed from office and pulled down from his station. “In that day” (when Messiah comes) he will call for Eliakim, clothe him in the tunic of Shebna and give him authority. He will set the key of David on his shoulder (v 22). This verse is applied to Yeshua in the Book of Revelation. This establishes Eliakim as a picture of the Messiah, and Shebna as a picture of the False Messiah (Rev 3.7-8). Eliakim is driven “like a peg” (yotaid) in a firm place (v 23). He will become a throne of glory to his father’s house. They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house (v 24), all the least of the vessels from the bowls to jars. “In that day (when the Messiah comes) the peg (yotaid) driven in a firm place will give way (Shebna deposed), it will even break off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

We need to talk about the term “yotaid” (peg) briefly. Shebna is a picture of the False Messiah and Eliakim the true Messiah. Eliakim is called a “yotaid” and the Lord will hang all the vessels on him. But then we see that the yotaid (peg) will give way and fall, and all that hung on it will be cut off. So, how can this be if Eliakim is a yotaid and a picture of the Messiah? If Eliakim is a yotaid, then Shebna is a yotaid. If Eliakim is the Messiah, then Shebna is the False Messiah. Therefore, there is a true yotaid and a false yotaid. The false yotaid (Shebna) fell, taking all who depended on him with him. He is replaced by the true yotaid (Eliakim). In other words, the False Messiah will be replaced by the Messiah.

The word yotaid from Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, # 3489, says that it is a nail or a pin. It is also used metaphorically as a prince, from whom the care of the whole state hangs, as it were (Zech 10.4); the same person is also called a corner stone, on which the state is built. So, we have a number of ways the word yotaid is used. It is used as a tent peg, nail or pin, as a post with pegs (in the Mishkan) to hang vessels on, and it is also used for a prince on whom the fate of the state rests.

Gen 3.15 says that the Nachash (serpent) is wounded in the head. Rev 13.3 says Leviathan the twisted serpent (Isa 27.1) is wounded in the head. So how does yotaid play into this? In Judges 4, we have the story of Devorah and Sisera. Sisera is a type of the False Messiah. He is coming against Israel. Devorah has assembled troops on the top of Mount Tabor to avoid the chariots of Sisera. She is with a man named Barak, meaning “lightning.” Devorah (meaning a congregation) has the root “davar” meaning “word.” She is married to a man named Lapidot (torch). The Lapid candle is used in a Havdalah service at the close of the Sabbath and it is extinguished in a glass of wine, a picture of the death of Messiah. They are forced to fight in the rain and Sisera’s chariots get stuck in the mud and bog down. Sisera flees from Devorah and Barak, and hides in the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber (where Hebrew comes from). He asks for water (Ruach Ha Kodesh) and she gives him milk (word). he goes to sleep, but she took a yotaid with a hammer and drove it through his head and he died. Barak (lightning) is pursuing, and Jael comes out to meet him and she shows him Sisera lying dead.

From Isa 22, we have Shebna, the ruler of the house and he has built a great tomb for himself (22.16) so he would be remembered. But the Lord says he is going to roll him up like a ball and throw him into the wilderness. His office will be given to someone else (Eliakim). He will give Eliakim the “key to the house of David.” This verse is directly applied to Yeshua in Rev 3.7-8. Shebna is a yotaid that fails. Eliakim is a yotaid that won’t. So we know the head of the False Messiah will be crushed (Gen 3.15) and wounded (Rev 13.3). A yotaid destroyed Sisera in Judges 5.24-31. In Ezra 9.8 it says “give us a yotaid in the Holy Place” (Ha Kodesh of the Temple). Zech 10.1-5 says that from God comes the cornerstone, from him the yotaid. So, the yotaid is a picture of the Messiah.

The yotaid is represented by the letter Vav in Hebrew, which is the number “six.” We know there is a true yotaid, but there will also be a false yotaid. Rev 13 talks about the False Messiah. He imitates God’s name on the foreheads of his followers. The forehead is the seat of the intellect, comprehension and profession. God’s name is written on the forehead of his people (Rev 14.1). God’s name is represented by the Hebrew letter “Shin.” Shin is the first letter in Shaddai and Shalom, both names for God, and it is the first letter of the name Satan. If it has a dagesh (a dot) on the right side, it has a “sh” sound. The letter shin also has three heads. The name of God can be imitated by using three vavs (yotaids) or 6,6,6. This looks very similar to the shin, but it isn’t, it is the name of the False Messiah. The dagesh on the left of the false shin would have the “s” sound, like in Satan. But they will look similar.

This “mark” may be literal or it may be a metaphor. God says many times that the commandments should be on the forehead and hand (Deut 6.8), or that kindness and truth should be bound around the neck (Prov 3.3). He says that the commandments should be bound on the heart and tied around the neck (Prov 6.21). This is not meant to be literal, but it is a metaphor for keeping the commandments as an outward action of a persons acceptance of the Torah. Likewise, in Rev 13.16, this is a metaphor for the outward action of an unbeliever’s rejection of the Torah. They will demonstrate this rejection in how they think (forehead) and what they do (the hand in action). People won’t be able to buy or sell without complying with the anti-Torah policies of the False Messiah. But, that has been done before without computers (Dan 11.29-39). Nazi Germany limited the commerce of Jews without computers. In other words, people knew who you were by what you believed (forehead) and by what you did (hand). We believe it will be the same way when the False Messiah comes. We are not saying there won’t be a computer chip or something with the name of the False Messiah put on your hand or forehead, we are just saying it might not be that way. What a delusion that would be. People will be looking for a mark in their hand or forehead, when all along the mark is what they did (hand) and believed (forehead) in their “lawless” (no Torah) lifestyle. God marked his people in Ezek 9.4 on their foreheads and spared them because they were against the evil practices they saw. It wasn’t a mark you could see, except spiritually. The mark was inward. Think about it!

In Part 15, we will pick up here and talk about the Azazel from Yom Kippur.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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