El Shaddai Ministries

Pastor Mark Biltz: Are you ready? And let me, as we launch into this, introduce a couple of words to you. One of them is the Book of Revelation is also known as Chazon or Vision. How many of you know John had a vision? He had a couple of visions. And so we all have an idea of what vision means, but here's the other word Revelation is known as: it is known as Hitgalut.

Now, I have it in English there for you as well as in Hebrew. Hebrew is right to left. Now, I was talking to Danny Ben-Gigi at the break here and asking him a little bit better clarification of that word Hitgalut. And one of the things that he said that I thought was very—everything Danny says is very fascinating. But this vision that he had, it refers to it as kind of like a progressive revelation.

It's just like when this last service I talked about the fullness of the Gentiles means the maturing of the Gentiles. There's a beginning point and then as it grows and grows into the full revelation. Okay? So this book is a book that is progressive. It's not like instant vision where he gets the whole thing. It's more like an unveiling. You see a little at a time and a little more and a little more, and it's kind of like we see through a glass darkly right now, okay?

But the other thing that I thought was very fascinating about this word: it not only is progressive, but it involves response. It's like John sees something and then God responds, and then John responds, and God responds, and John responds. It's kind of a combination thing. So not only is it a progressive revelation, but there always brings a response.

And I think that again goes to God's commandments. He commands us one thing, but what are we supposed to do? Respond. There needs to be response. In any communication, what happens if the other person doesn't speak after you've spoken? Do you get it? All right. So anyway, this whole book also involves a response.

Now, and then something else that I read also concerning this word Hitgalut, which I thought was kind of interesting. And that one word is the same root word, but Galut means exile. And we know that John was in exile on Patmos, but we also know Yeshua also was in exile in heaven wanting to come back to Earth.

But here's the interesting thing: when you look at the name of this book, it's Revelation, but it's not a revelation of John; it's a revelation through John. When you look at the first verse, it's the revelation of Yeshua Hamashiach. Now, he knew Yeshua, he walked with Yeshua, he was his best friend. But now he's getting a vision of Yeshua from another perspective, which is what we're going to be doing.

I think it's interesting this word Bemidbar. How do we know that word? What is it? No, what's Bemidbar? In the wilderness! You know how we say Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy? They don't say that in Hebrew. Genesis is known as Bereshit, which means "In the beginning." So they take a Hebrew word that's the first part of that verse and that's what they call the book. So Genesis becomes Bereshit because that's the first word of the Bible, and it means "In the beginning."

Exodus becomes Shemot, okay, which is what? "These are the names." And that's how Exodus 1:1 begins. Vayikra, Leviticus. And Vayikra is the Lord calling out to Moshe. So Vayikra is "the Lord called out." And then the book of Numbers—when we hear Numbers, we think of what? Numbers! Okay, but in Hebrew it's Bemidbar, and it means "In the wilderness." And so they'll say Bemidbar, which really is "In the wilderness" is where God spoke to Moshe.

And then Deuteronomy is called Devarim, which means "These are the words." So in English we say Deuteronomy and what does that mean to you? Nothing. Okay, I think it comes from the Latin word which means repetition. But in Hebrew it's Devarim, which means "These are the words" that God spoke.

So when they say Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, they're really saying "In the beginning, these are the names, the Lord called out in the wilderness, and these are his words." Wow, that's pretty fascinating! So we're going to look at the book of Revelation from a whole another perspective.

Now, here again, we're going to go deeper into this word Bemidbar, which means "In the wilderness." Well, the last three letters, Devar, is "word," okay? And what's interesting, the Dalet symbolizes a door. Well, bar is also "son," as in Bar Mitzvah. But what do we see? It's in the wilderness is where we find Yeshua coming through the door.

That whole word Bemidbar, wilderness. We see the words—when we want to hear from the Lord, we have to go in the wilderness. How many of you know light pollution blocks the stars? Noise pollution blocks what you can hear? If you want to really see the Lord and hear from the Lord, this very word is telling us we've got to go in the wilderness and then we'll find the door of Yeshua.

Okay, so let's look at Revelation 1:1 and 2. "This is the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah, which God gave him to show his servants the things which must happen how? But it's a progressive soon, which he sent and made known by his angel or his messenger to his servant Yochanan"—that's John, "God who is gracious"—"who testified to God's word and of the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah about everything that he saw."

So guess what? We get to take a look at what John or Yochanan saw. Now, we need to know, as I said, Yochanan was Jewish, okay? All he knew was the Tanakh. He didn't have the New Testament. And in case you're wondering, when was the book of Revelation written? Historically, there's always debates about everything, but the vast majority believe it was written around 95, the year 95. Okay, that's when typically they believe it was written.

So the temple's been destroyed for 25 years. Okay, all right. But here's how I want to begin. If we really want to understand the revelation of Yeshua, we have to understand the bigger picture. We're going to end up taking the microscopic look, but I want to first start with the macro, the bigger look. To help us understand it, we need to see the bigger picture first, and then we'll narrow in.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, "To everything there is a season and the time to every purpose under heaven." How many purposes? Every purpose. So why did God create the universe and humanity to begin with? Did he need us? So first, if we want to understand the end, we've got to look at the beginning. He declared the end from the beginning anyway.

But let's think about this. Why did God create the universe and humanity to begin with? It says there's a purpose for everything, so that means God has a purpose, doesn't he? What was his purpose? Guess what? He wanted to be a part of the story, and he wanted to be discovered by his creation. He loves to play hide and seek, and he loves to be found.

Just like Alfred Hitchcock wanted to be in his movie. All the TV shows, Alfred Hitchcock put himself in it. Well, God wanted to create a creation, and he wanted to become a part of the story, and he wanted to be found. He wanted to play hide and seek. Okay? If the world was not created by God and it just happened to be here, then what's the point of asking whether there's any purpose or not to humanity? There would be no purpose.

If this was just an accident that happened to happen, we really don't have a purpose. There was a decisive reason for creation. Now, how many of us know that the Torah is likened unto water? Right? Comes down from heaven. And in Habakkuk 2:14 it says the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. How many know there's a lot of water out there?

So God wanted to be known by his creation. There's an ancient Midrash, and it says this: "God desired a home for himself in the lowest of worlds." Water is likened unto Torah, and water always seeks the lowest place. God is looking for the lowest place. So if you feel like you're at the bottom, guess what? That's where all the water goes. It's okay.

Listen to Deuteronomy 29:29, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever." And the whole purpose—remember, God created everything for a purpose. What is the purpose? "So that we may do all the words of the Torah." Wow!

If you throw out the law, if you throw out the Torah, you've just thrown away your purpose, and you won't know the secrets that are being revealed. Only if you love the law and desire to do it will biblical revelation come. Now, how many of you know you don't start a book or a movie in the middle of it? If you want to clearly understand the end of the book, where do you have to start? At the beginning!

You cannot understand the revelation of Yeshua without an understanding of Yeshua in the Tanakh. Because it's a full revelation of Yeshua. On the road to Emmaus, when he opened up the Torah, he was showing them him in the Torah, and that's how we need to see it. We need to see the revelation of Yeshua in Genesis.

Do you know all of the main themes from the Tanakh converge together in the Book of Revelation? We see the biblical requirements for the king, Messiah. And keeping true to the Scriptures, what verses do the Jews use to describe their Messiah and what will be accomplished? Well, one of the things they say is the Messiah will re-establish the feasts of the Lord.

Well, guess what? In the Book of Revelation, we find the feast of Rosh Hashanah being fulfilled. We have the judgment of the nations, the great tribulation, final judgment of Satan. We see Yom Kippur in the Book of Revelation, the glory of Israel restored, the wedding of the Messiah. We see Sukkot in the Book of Revelation, the fulfillment of the Messianic kingdom, the restoration of temple worship, God tabernacling again with mankind.

Now, look at Zechariah chapter 14, verse 16 and 17, is where it says it'll come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations who came against Jerusalem, every year from year to year, they have to go up and worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and keep the feast of Tabernacles. And it'll be whoever doesn't come up of the families of the Earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. Wow!

The rain speaks of the Torah. Yeshua's the living Torah. You don't come and worship the living water, you get no water. Also within Judaism, they believe the Messiah will be a military leader. Where does that come from? Back to Zechariah 14. Look at 3 through 4. The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle.

His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. Mount of Olives is going to split in two towards the east and west. There'll be a very great valley. Half the mountain's going to move to the north, half toward the south. But here we see that the Messiah—how many of you know Yeshua didn't come as a military leader?

That's why they say he couldn't be the Messiah. Okay, the first time I believe he came as a suffering servant. The second time he's going to come as a military leader. But this is John—how many you know John read Zechariah? He knew Zechariah. Well, look at Revelation 19:11, "I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and righteousness, he does judge and what else does he do? Make war!"

Okay, so Yochanan, John, had read Zechariah. He sees the big battle in Zechariah 14:16 and 17. He sees in verse 3 through 4. So that becomes part of the vision. We also have the scattering and the regathering of the 12 tribes. Look at Deuteronomy 28:64 through 67, which is kind of the Book of Revelation in the Torah.

Here's the promise: the Lord is going to scatter you among all nations from one end of the Earth to the other. And it says there you're going to serve other gods of wood and stone that neither you nor your fathers have known. And then it says among these nations, you're going to find no respite. There'll be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the Lord's going to give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, a languishing soul.

Your life will hang in doubt before you night and day. You'll be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning, you'll say, "If only it were evening," and in the evening you'll say, "If only it were morning," because of the dread that your heart will feel and the sight that your eyes shall see. So here we see there's going to be a big scattering all around the whole world.

But look at Zephaniah 3:20. John also saw the promise that "At that time I will bring you in, and at that time when I gather you together, for I will make your renown and praise among all the people of the Earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes," says the Lord. So John read about the scattering, he also read about the regathering and how God's going to restore their fortunes.

As a matter of fact, how many of you believe he read the Book of Isaiah? He read a lot of Isaiah. You see a lot of Isaiah in the Book of Revelation. Look at this: "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the Earth." So again, he's also reading how God's going to regather Israel again.

And look at Revelation 7:4, "And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel." So he's seeing the regathering of Israel. He's seeing the sealing of Israel. As a matter of fact, look at Revelation, this is chapter 21, verse 10 through 12.

He carries me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and he shows me that great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was likened unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone clear as crystal. There was a wall that's great and high which had 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels, and the names written were Catholic and Baptist and Episcopal.

No, that's not what it says! The 12 gates are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. So we see in the beginning the promised scattering of all of Israel, and then we also see in Isaiah the regathering of all of Israel, and at the end of Revelation we see all of Israel is gathered, and Jerusalem comes down from heaven, and there's the 12 tribes of the children of Israel are the gates.

Now, what else does John read? What else does he ingested in his life of reading? He reads how there will be no war. Look at Isaiah 2:4, God is going to judge between the nations. He's going to decide disputes for many people, and they'll beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

What's going to happen to the great war complex that's out there? They're in trouble. And he's—I mean, I can't also help but think of the judging between the nations in the gospels about the separating of the sheep and the goats. Those are nations, not people he's separating. But look at Isaiah 25:8 and 9.

John also read he will swallow up death forever. The Lord God is going to wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he's going to take away from all the Earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God, we've waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him, let us be glad and rejoice in his Yeshua."

Now think about this. It says that he is going to wipe away tears from all faces, doesn't it? Well, look what we see in Revelation 21:3 and 4: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, he will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'"

Well, where do you think he got that in Revelation? From Isaiah! God is using what he already has. This just reminds me again, most of you have probably heard the story, some of you may not have heard the story, but the one time when I had a gun at my head, okay? I was only about 21 years old, something like that. I was managing a Payless shoe store, Volume Shoe Store.

And it was 3:00 in the afternoon, the middle of the day. And how many of you know in the middle of the day you—I mean, it was in a strip center with a Kmart and a Chinese restaurant and all these things. And you know in these strip centers they have all big glass windows so everyone can see in. And the cash registers are always right by that front window, right?

Well, I'm in a long, narrow store. It's not a short, wide store like this; it was a long, narrow store. And I'm way in the back with the front window. 3:00 in the afternoon, everybody walking by in front, and I'm on the phone with my boss. And I hear the door ding and it's self-service, so hey, let the person look. Well, the next thing I know, he had walked the perimeter of the store and he comes to the back room.

My phone—the phone in the back room was right next to the entrance to the back room. And he puts the gun right at my head. "Get off the phone!" And I go, "Larry, I gotta go!" And he goes, "Are you being robbed?" Well, I knew the guy heard him yell "Are you being robbed?" And the guy looked at me and he said, "I said get off the phone!" I go, "Goodbye, Larry!" And I hang up.

He immediately tries to call back and the guy says, "Don't answer that!" Okay! He goes, "Let's go up front!" So we start going up front. And he goes, "Hurry up!" So I start hurrying up. And then he goes, "Slow down!" And I go, "Make up your mind!" The cash register is kind of—it's a wooden frame, it's U-shaped, okay?

So here it's U-shaped here. The front door is like where this is, with just a little walkway. And he's behind the counter here, and he throws a bag by the cash register, right? Well, it's 3:00 in the afternoon, people are walking by. I'd never been robbed before. I get behind the counter and I put my hands up. He goes, "Get your hands down, stupid!" I go, "I've never been robbed before, what do you want?"

And so I put the money from the cash register into the bag. But instead of handing it to him over the register, I go like this, because I want him to come around and grab the bag and get the heck out of here. But what did he do? He comes around, he grabs the bag, walks behind me, puts the gun at the back of my head, and says, "We're going back to the back room."

Oh, this is not a good sign. And I'm trying to think: "Okay, fight or flight," you know? I'm close to the front door. Is the guy drunk? Is he on drugs? Is he a professional? What are my odds? I mean, this is what is running through my mind. And I'd only been saved about two years. I didn't know the Bible hardly at all. I mean, raised as a Catholic, you don't even study the Bible. You know?

And then I've been saved for a couple of years and I thought Hebrews was in the Old Testament, you know? I mean, I just really didn't know the Bible. But they always tell you to read what? Proverbs and Psalms. Well, here's the whole thing. I had read Proverbs and Psalms; I'd at least had done that.

We're headed to the back room, and I'm going to bring up a Bible verse I'm going to share with you, it just blew me away. Okay, as we're headed to the back room, his next words were, "Lay down face on the floor." I'm thinking the old bullet in the back of the head trick, you know? So I mean, that's where my mind is going.

Out of nowhere comes a voice. It's not an audible voice that he could hear, but I knew it was from the Lord. Why? Because it's not where I was going! My mind is: "Oh no!" Here he goes, "Lay down face on the floor," and because I had read Proverbs—you don't need to memorize scripture, just read it! Because if it's in, God can pull it out.

And out of nowhere, when he says, "Lay down face on the floor," in Proverbs 3, verse 25, the Lord says to me: "Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it comes. When you lie down, you will not be afraid." Now, how is that going to come if I haven't put it in?

And so my point with the Book of Revelation, John had put the Tanakh in, and so God is pulling from the Tanakh and taking it out. This is why you can't understand the Book of Revelation without understanding the over 600 references back to the Tanakh. Okay, does that make sense? Okay. Genesis—oh, what?

Oh, she wanted to know if they got the guy! Okay, well, first off, when I lay down, you know, he goes, "Don't try nothing funny," and he turns and he bolts and runs out the front door. I think he just didn't want me to see what kind of car he got in, you know? But it was—they never did catch the guy at all.

As a matter of fact, my boss had called 911, and they said, "How do you know he's being robbed? Did he say he's being robbed?" And they didn't send anybody until I called! Which was very frustrating. And then when they come out, the policeman says, "Did he have a pistol or a revolver?" "I don't know! It was big and right there!" You know?

I don't know the difference—you know, they had to explain to me the difference between the two, you know? But they probably wanted to make sure that I didn't steal it and was trying to hide it. I mean, the guy only got like 100 bucks. So but anyway, moving on. Okay. In Genesis, you have paradise lost, and in Revelation, you have paradise regained.

Look at Isaiah 2:17 through 19. It says: "The haughtiness of man will be humbled, the lofty pride of men will be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols are going to utterly pass away." The people—look at this, this is Isaiah 2. "The people will enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when he rises to terrify the Earth."

Well, guess what John sees in the Book of Revelation chapter 6, verse 15 through 17: "The kings of the Earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and powerful and everyone slave and free hid themselves where? In the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand?"

Where do you think John got that from? Isaiah 2:17 through 19! I mean, all through the Book of Revelation, and we're going to go verse by verse and you're going to see all the connections, and so that's going to help us better understand Revelation when we make the connection. Here the Torah is supposed to be magnified to have its honor restored and be taught to all the nations as they come up to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem becomes the capital of the world. Right now, Jerusalem can't even be the capital of Israel without everyone being upset. Look at Micah chapter 4, this is verse 1 and 2. It says: "But in the last days, it'll come to pass the mountain of the house of the Lord is going to be established in Argentina."

No! "In the top of the mountains, and it'll be exalted above the hills. All the people are going to flow to it. Many nations, many nations are going to come and they're going to say, 'Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us of his ways.'" Wow, that's what we're going to learn: Torah. "We're going to walk in his paths, for the Torah is going to go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

Well, what do we see in Revelation 21:23 through 26? The city of Jerusalem becomes the capital of the world. It has no need for the sun—there is a sun, it just doesn't have a need for the sun—neither of the moon to shine because the glory of God lightens it. The Lamb is the light. The nations of them which are saved will walk in the light of it, and the kings of the Earth are going to bring what? All their glory and honor to it.

That's what we're reading about in Isaiah: all the riches are going to come to Jerusalem. And then it says the gates will not be shut at all by day, for there's not even a night there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. So here we reading Isaiah how basically all of the wealth of the nations is coming, and we read here that that is exactly what's going to happen in Revelation.

We also know there's to be supernatural peace in the land of Israel. How many know Israel has not had much peace in its history? Look at Isaiah 11:6, and it's not the lion but the wolf that'll lay down with the lamb. The leopard is going to lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child is going to lead them all. That is supernatural peace.

As a matter of fact, in verse 9, it says, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all of my holy mountain for the Earth is going to be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." That's just like what it—we read in Habakkuk. So here we see there's to be a supernatural peace. Well, how many know that's what happens in the Book of Revelation? Look at 21:6 through 8.

"And he said unto me, 'It is done! I am the'—actually, it's the Aleph and the Tav, the beginning and the end. 'I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes is going to inherit all things, I will be his God and he'll be my son.'" But look what happens: "the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

So in other words, he's going to clean out all the garbage and we're going to have peace on Earth. That's exactly what's going to happen. So I mean, John read Isaiah 11:9 and 11:6. He's reading Isaiah and he sees, "Wow, there's going to be peace." Guess what? Non-Jews will also be welcomed to live in the land of Israel and enjoy the temple. That's exactly right.

Look at Ezekiel 47:21 through 23: "So shall you divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel." Remember how many gates are there? 12, and they're named after the tribes. And look at this: "The land is divided according to the tribes of Israel." But look what happened: "It'll come to pass that you shall divide it by a lot for an inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you."

"Which shall beget children among you, and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel. They shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it'll come to pass in whatever tribal land they sojourn in, the stranger, there shall you give him his inheritance," says the Lord God. And they will go through the gate of the tribe that they're dwelling in. Yahoo! is right!

Look at Revelation chapter 5, verse 9 and 10: "And they're singing a new song saying, 'Worthy are you to take the book and open the seals, for you were slain and purchased to God with your blood men of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation and made them to be unto our God a kingdom of priests, and they reign upon the Earth.'" Wow! So everything that we're reading in Revelation is coming from the Old Testament.

Look at Revelation 22:3 and 5, "There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it. His servants will serve him, they'll see his face." That's heavy! "And his name shall be in their foreheads." Not a number; the Antichrist wants to treat you like a number, but God gives you his name. "There'll be no night, no need for a candle or light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever."

Now, something else I want to show you. How many of you heard of a chiasm? Okay, it's like where things on opposite ends and they come together and they hit the highlight. Well, I want you to look at this. As we look at the Book of Revelation, you're going to find it is written in a chiastic structure. In the first chapter, what do we have? We have an opening and a hello.

"I am the Aleph Tav, I am the one who's coming" in Revelation chapter 1, verse 8. Well, what do we find in the last chapter, 22? We have the closing and the farewell from the Aleph Tav saying, "I'm the one who's coming" in Revelation 22:12 and 13. So you see the same thing repeated at the end of the book, and then as we come together, look what we're going to find.

In chapter 2 and 3, you have seven distinct assemblies, the seven churches. Well, guess what? In Revelation 21, they become one; it's the bride. One bride, not seven assemblies, but they become one; we have the bride. And then in chapter 4 and 5, we have a heavenly or a celestial vision of a throne, 24 elders, and four beasts.

Well, guess what? In chapter 19 through 20, you have another heavenly vision with a throne, the 24 elders, and four beasts. It's repeated! And then what happens? In chapter 6 through 9, we have the seven seals, the 144,000 are sealed, we have seven trumpets and a rebellion taking place. Well, in chapter 14 through 18, we have seven plagues, we have the song of the Lamb with the 144,000 and all else, and we have seven vials and a rebellion takes place.

And then what do we have? In chapter 10 and 11, we have an angel and two witnesses. Well, in chapter 13, we have a dragon and two beasts. Do you see how everything is coming together? So what is the focus? What is the main thing is chapter 12, which is the woman, the man-child, and the dragon. That seems to be the focal point of the Book of Revelation when you look at it at a chiastic structure.

So that's how we're going to be kind of be looking at it as we go through. Now, I have some verses that aren't on your notes; you can write down. When it comes to this woman, the man-child, and the dragon, Revelation 12:17, it says how the dragon was furious with the woman, went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah.

To me, that is the core of the whole Book of Revelation. That is the verse, I believe, in chapter 12 that everything comes down to. The whole focal point of the Book of Revelation is you have the dragon, you have the bride, you have the man-child who's taken up, and then they make war with the remnant of her seed. And who are they? They are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah.

Okay, what do we have? We have Christians who have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah but don't keep the commandments. We have a lot of Jews who keep the commandments but don't have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah. The whole thing is, when everything comes together, when we do both, we keep the commandments and we have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah.

Now, what's interesting again, is it makes war with the remnant of her seed. Wait a minute, the man has the seed, not the woman. Look at Genesis 3:15, which isn't on your notes. See, again, Revelation comes from Genesis; it connects. "I will put enmity"—he's speaking to Eve—"between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, it'll bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel."

So what do we see in the beginning? We see this enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, which is fascinating. But then we also see in Revelation the dragon is going after her seed at the end. And guess what? Her seed bruises the serpent's head. Look at Malachi, write this verse down, chapter 4, verse 3 and 4.

God promises: "You shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day—in the day I shall do this," says the Lord of hosts. And then he says, "Remember the Torah of Moses, my servant." Again, everyone knows about Elijah coming back in Malachi, but the whole point of Elijah coming, he says, "But remember the Torah, the law of Moses."

Do you see why Satan wants the church to not love or want anything to do with the law of Moses? Because that's where we're headed. Now look at this. How many of you know in the Book of Revelation the number seven is very significant? Okay, what do we know? In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 9 and 10, "There remains therefore a rest to the people of God, for he that is entered into his rest, he's also ceased from his own works as God did from his."

The number seven has to do with the rest, doesn't it? The number seven has to do with the Sabbath, the seventh day, the seventh year, the Shmita year, seven times seven is 49, then the year of jubilee. Well, guess what? We have the number seven all through the Book of Revelation. We have seven churches, seven spirits, seven lampstands, seven stars, seven seals, seven horns, seven eyes, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven crowns, seven plagues, seven golden bowls, seven hills, seven kings.

Sounds very Jewish! As in the seventh-day Sabbath, the seven years, the Shmita year, the jubilee year. Symbolically, the number seven stands for completeness, okay? So this is why we need to—before we start, and we're going to actually start the Book of Revelation this next week. I just wanted to give you an intro to how Jewish this book is.

And this is why—now, for those livestreaming and for those here who didn't get a copy of those notes, they're online for free. You can if you have a printer at home, you can just print them out and follow along with us. Now, so starting next week, I go verse by verse through all 22 chapters and show you every verse where the references are in the Old Testament. There's over 600 references.

But what I'm going to be doing as we go through this—this way, you can kind of look ahead every week at when you see the chapter, we'll probably cover like one, maybe two chapters a week, but this is probably going to take us all year. Because of all the different references that we're going to be attaching to, because when you see the Book of Revelation, I want you to see it through the Jewish lens, okay? Because that's who it was written to.

See, this is the problem. The word "church"—let me see what time it is, do I have some time? I got a little bit of time. I mean, did you know there were no churches in the New Testament? You might say, "What? There were no churches in the New Testament!" They were only assemblies, okay? The word "church" wasn't even in the Bible until 1600 years later. All right? These were assemblies.

How many of you know there is an antisemitic bias in the church? Okay, let me give you a quick example. In the New Testament, where it says Jesus says, "Upon this rock I will build my church," what is the Greek word for church there? Ecclesia. Ecclesia did not mean church; it meant assembly. Do you know a Seahawks football game is an Ecclesia? It's just an assembly.

But what did the translators do when the English Bible came out? They wanted to create something separate from the synagogue. How many you heard of the Septuagint? When was it written? Around 200 BC, let's say 150 to 250 somewhere in there. How many churches were there then? Well, guess what? The word Ecclesia appears over 100 times in the Tanakh, okay?

But they wanted to create something different from the synagogue, so they called it church. Well, guess what? When you go to the Book of Acts chapter 19, do you remember when they were all worshipping the great goddess Diana for three hours? At the end of chapter 19 there of Acts, it says, "And then they dismissed the assembly." Well, guess what? The word was Ecclesia. How come they didn't put "church" there?

Oops! Because we don't want them to think the church was worshipping Diana. So how many believe there's bias in the media? Well, there was bias in the translators! So they just took Ecclesia and called it "church" when they want to call it church, and they call it "assembly" when they want to call it assembly. Same thing with synagogue. The Greek word is Sunagoge. Sunagoge meant assembly; they were synonyms.

Well, guess what? How many you heard in the Book of James, which is really Jacob? It says if one comes into your assembly with a gold ring, you know, fancy apparel, you know what? The word there is Sunagoge, but they don't want to put synagogue or then they'll think people were meeting in a synagogue. So they corrected—they changed it to assembly. But if you want to know, it was synagogue; they were meeting in synagogues.

But in Revelation, you're going to find about those who are of the synagogue of Satan. Well, guess what? The Greek word is Sunagoge. How come they didn't put "assembly of Satan" there? Ooh, now we want to equate the synagogue with Satan. So they will pick and choose when Sunagoge will be "synagogue" or "assembly"; they will pick and choose when Ecclesia will be "church" or "assembly."

So what we're going to do is look at the Book of Revelation from a non-biased view and look at it from a perspective that John had, because John was Jewish and he read the Tanakh, and everything in Revelation he's pulling from the Tanakh. And we've got to connect the dots together. Are you ready? Then come back next Shabbat. Let's stand.

This is going to be fun! I'm telling you, this Book of Revelation, I'm even discovering more. Oh, I was going to say, on that chart, you're going to find there may be some verses I skip, and I may be adding verses as I go. So it's a work in progress. I believe there's many more verses. Well, as a matter of fact, I know one of the verses in Revelation, there's over 80 verses that connect to that verse. One verse! But I'm not going to give you all 80 references.

So I already know there's a whole lot more. Some of them are an indirect reference, some of them are a direct reference. Avinu Malkeinu, our Father King, we just thank you so much for your Torah. We thank you that you gave Yochanan from all of the prophets of the Tanakh a revelation, a vision, a progressive revelation of what's to come. And Father, I pray that we would be able to understand it from your perspective in Yeshua's name. Amen.