We are seeing many Biblical events prophesied in the Bible come to pass concerning the end times that are unfolding with breathtaking speed and taking centre stage is Israel and the Jewish people. If one wants to take the spiritual pulse of God’s end-time calendar then look no further!
In this regard, God is wooing Israel not gently but with the sternness of One intent on bringing restoration likened to an abandoned husband, and in order to achieve this objective He will eventually bring His covenant people to their knees. This is a “Tough Love” that will not let us go, the Bloodhound of Heaven who will do whatever it takes to restore us to himself when we go astray.
God’s protective hand over Israel has a limited shelf life that has always been conditional upon obedience to the terms outlined in His marriage contract given on Mt. Sinai with the 10-Commandments. Since the establishment of Israel as a sovereign state on May 1948, 73 years ago, God has faithfully protected Israel against her enemies for the sake of His covenant, despite her unfaithfulness and spiritual adultery. But, the Bible speaks of a time when He will temporarily withdraw His hand of protection in the period known as the Great Tribulation, when He will allow Satan to sift them as wheat until He Himself intervenes sovereignly where we read in Zech 12:10 God pledging:
“ …I will pour out a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy on the family of David and the citizens of Jerusalem. As a result, they will look upon Me whom they pierced, (They’ll then be able to recognise me as the One they so grievously wounded) they will grieve over Him as one grieves for an only child, and they will moan and weep for Him as one weeps for a firstborn son.”
On that day, all the nation’s armies will have surrounded them and Satan’s agenda for their annihilation will be imminent. It is at that end point that Yeshua will remove the veil of blindness from their eyes and they will behold Him as their saviour and Lord, the Messiah they have been searching for 2000 years and rejected.
God describes the Jewish people as stubborn and stiff-knocked. Instead of giving Him the glory for His Divine protection as His covenant people by recognising that it is solely by His grace and mercy, they have given themselves the glory declaring that it is through their own might and power that they have been sustained. But, the Jewish people are a work in progress and that good work that He has began in them He will bring to completion. And this is something that every believer can play a part in.
God has commanded us to pray for them and for all those who minister the Gospel to the Jewish people and we see that this as the very heart beat of Paul that is revealed in Rom.10:1 where he shared, “Brothers, my heart’s deepest desire and my prayer to God for Isra’el is for their salvation. This same burden is mirrored when we pray for the shalom of Jerusalem. When we do this in obedience to the command in Scripture in Ps.122:6 we are praying for the salvation of the Jewish people and the return of Yeshua for there will only ever be a true and lasting peace when the Prince of Peace takes His rightful place to rule and reign that He will do from Jerusalem that will be established as the capital of the world during the 1000 year millennium reign.
The stage has been set and we are seeing current events in the Middle East escalate rather than deescalate that will ultimately develop into the war described in minute detail in chapters 38-39 of Ezekiel where it describes a coalition led by Russia, Turkey and Iran who will attack Israel motivated by the spoils of war and a demonically inspired anti-Semitic hatred. God will supernaturally and sovereignly intervene to deliver Israel against all odds because as Scripture declares, (Ps.121:4) “He who keeps Israel neither slumber nor sleeps.”
(Ps.94:14) “The Lord will not abandon His people nor forsake His inheritance.”
(Isa. 41:11-12) “Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.”
(Isa. 43:1-2) “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.”
Israel’s enemies will learn the hard way that God is in full control and every attempt to come against His covenant people will be to come against the “Apple of His eye.” It is only after this when the Anti-Christ emerges out of the shadows to take the world stage that we will see God turn His back on His people temporarily in order to ultimately win them back to Himself.
In all of this, God has called and equipped us in the here and now to stand for Him. And for this, we need to place upon ourselves our spiritual armour to wage our spiritual warfare effectively against the fiery darts of the enemy who seeks to steal, kill and destroy every vestige of our identity in Him.
The armour described by Paul in Eph 6 relates specifically to the priestly garments (the garments of glory and beauty) mentioned in this Parasha and also in Ex 28. This is what the High Priest wore as he ministered to God in the Temple. We read in Ex 19 that we are a “royal priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar (unique) people” (quoted in 1Pet. 2:9), so we too need to be clothed in priestly garments that form the basis for the armour of God as referred to in Eph. 6.
By the way, Paul never had in mind a Roman soldier in his description of the spiritual armoury. The Romans were the bitter enemies of the Jews so Paul would never have used such an alien illustration in this context. In Eph 6:10-18:
“Finally, grow powerful in union with the Lord, in union with his mighty strength! 11 Use all the armour and weaponry that God provides, so that you will be able to stand against the deceptive tactics of the Adversary. 12 For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. 13 So take up every piece of war equipment God provides; so that when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist; and when the battle is won, you will still be standing.
14 Therefore, stand! Have the belt of truth buckled around your waist,[b] put on righteousness for a breastplate,15 and wear on your feet the readiness that comes from the Good News of shalom. 16 Always carry the shield of trust, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. 17 And take the helmet of deliverance; along with the sword given by the Spirit, that is, the Word of God;
THE BELT OF TRUTH (‘avnet emet’)
Yeshua is the TRUTH who alone sets us free from every evil, deceit and enslavement. The colours of the high priest’s linen belt were intricately interwoven with threads of gold representing God’s Divinity and blue representing the heavenlies and purple typifying Yeshua as King of King’s and Lord of Lords.
This linen belt worn by the high priest was like a sash which he would wrap around himself symbolising every believer who is covered in God’s truth! This is the belt of truth Yeshua spoke of referring to Himself when He stated, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” This belt was made from the same items as the breastplate of righteousness that kept it secure and in position. It is through embracing the truth encapsulated in the person of Yeshua that we are made righteous.
THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (‘hoshen tzedeka’)
This covered the heart of the high priest and had settings of 12 stones representing the tribes of Israel with the name of each tribe engraved upon the stones (Ex 28:15). Those who are deemed righteous before God can therefore do no other than to love Israel and the Jewish people because it is engraved upon the ‘ephod’ of their hearts. And yet, despite this, many believers are ignorant, apathetic or strongly antagonistic against Israel because they either don’t know their Bible or else eat up the false narratives and fake news promoted in most of social media.
FEET FITTED WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE
We should allow nothing to separate us from true fellowship with God. This is why the high priest went barefoot in the Tabernacle and why God commanded Moses to, ‘take off your shoes because you are standing on holy ground’ at the burning bush. The high priest wore a cloak with tassles at the bottom with pomegranates and bells attached so that everyone could hear him ministering to God in the Holy of Holies which represented a Divine melody of fruitfulness grounded in holiness.
The high priestly garments included a cloak with items shaped into pomegranates and bells sewn into the fringes that tinkled as he moved around the Temple. So, it is with us as we serve the Lord and share the ‘besorah’ (Gospel) with others through our words and deeds, we make a beautiful ‘sound’ before the Lord and bear fruit as represented by the pomegranates. In Isa 52 the prophet declares, “How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news!” What makes them beautiful? It is because they are barefoot so whenever we journey in life through times whether on the mountain tops or the valleys, we do so as a priest of God!
When we walk barefoot our feet eventually become toughened and calloused and immune to rough surfaces. So too, as the children of God, the Lord transforms our spiritual constitution as we learn to weather the storms of life and spiritual battles we face.
HELMET OF SALVATION (‘tzitziot Yeshua’)
The high priest wore a special covering upon his head, a turban with the words inscribed on a golden plate attached to it, ‘kadosh l’Adonai’ (holiness unto the Lord). The high priest’s head covering would have ‘tzitziyot’ (fringes or tassels) that were used to keep it attached representing our thoughts that must be holy in order to fulfil the command of God for us to “Be ye holy even as I am holy.” (Lev 11:44; 1Pet 1:16). When Satan attacks believers, he begins by sowing a seed in our minds and how we respond is what will determine the outcome. Paul describes in 2Cor 10 how powerful our spiritual armoury is to bring down all demonic opposition and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Yeshua.
It is through our minds that we make the conscious choice to follow Yeshua both as Saviour and Lord in obedience to the calling that He has placed upon our lives. In Hebrew, ‘kadosh’ (holy) means to be ‘set apart.’ God desires us to live ‘set apart’ lives for Him. We are in the world but not of the world. That means that contrary to cutting ourselves off from those who are unredeemed, we engage with them by presenting the Gospel, in season and out, through our words and actions; we become the influencers rather than the influenced.
Every thought, action or reaction is judged against the measure in which we apply the helmet of salvation. We must learn to take captive every thought to the obedience of Yeshua (2Cor10:5). What a joy and privilege it is for us to practice the presence of God through thinking upon things that bring glory to Him!
SWORD OF THE SPIRIT
The sword of the high priest was used to kill the animals presented for sacrifice. In Heb 4:12 the Word of God is described as a double-edged sword (referring to the high priests sword) that can pierce even to the dividing between the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This weapon is powerful for defeating all opposition illustrating the importance to spend time daily in His word as we learn rightly to divide the Word of Truth.
The sword of sacrifice cuts off the flesh. Sacrifices ceased with the destruction of the 2nd Temple but Scripture states that the body of every believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Each day we must choose whether to sacrifice what our flesh wants or do what is pleasing in God’s sight according to His Word.
SHIELD OF FAITH (magen emunah)
Above all, we take the shield of faith. What is faith (Heb 11:1)? We live by faith, we walk by faith. It is a shield that will protect us from every fiery dart of the enemy. The shield of faith is not something outwardly visible, yet is powerfully present and applied in the life of a believer. Ps. 28:7 declares that, “God is our shield!” and in Ps. 3 that (He)is a shield for me, the glory and lifter of my head!”
THE POWER OF PRAYER
Paul ends his description of our spiritual armour with a piece of advice often overlooked urging us to “… pray at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the Spirit, vigilantly and persistently, for all God’s people.”
This is prayer in all its varieties: supplications, intercessions, warfare, worship. It is like the altar of incense, the piece of Tabernacle furniture placed closest to the Holy of Holies. There, the incense of smoke would burn upon the coals and ascend upwards even as our prayers ascend to the Throne Room of God. This sweet incense was offered daily continuously by the priests and reminds us that God is not merely a casual acquaintance who we come to only when convenient, but He is someone who we seek sweet communion with at all times.
And lest we forget, “7 We have this treasure in jars of clay, so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from ourselves. 8 We are hard pressed in every way, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not in despair; 9 persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may also be revealed in our mortal body.” (2 Cor. 4)
Let’s walk the path of holiness as His priesthood following in His ways clothed in the full armour of God and become an expression of worship unto Him. And in these end times, let’s bear up Israel and the Jewish people, described in Scripture as the “Apple of His eye” that they may turn their eyes to behold the One who is their Jewish Messiah and Lord.
