The Lord shall send
the rod of your
strength out of Zion (Psalm 110:2).
In
ancient times the first banners were staffs without cloth. Staffs
used for praise dance are called in
Hebrew Matteh
(masculine form) or Mattah (feminine form).
Moses
held up the Rod
of God (Matteh haElohim) while the Israelites battled against
their enemies, the Amalekites. And
with that sign God gave
them the victory. After that Moses built an altar, and called the
name of it Adonai
Nissi-The Lord is my standard/banner (2.
Mose 17).
The
letters of the Hebrew
alphabet are holy signs from God revealing prophetic truths. The
twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Lamed
(l), a
symbol for staff, especially a shepherd‘s staff. In
ancient times written Hebrew was a picture language. The
staff is a symbol for identity and authority. The
Hebrew word for God „El“ means in picture
language: The strong Authority,
the strong
Shepherd.
The Hebrew
word picture
for congregation „qahal“ are those
who follow the Staff.
Jesus
is the Rod,
that will branch out to cover the entire
earth;
his life will bud
and blossom to fill the whole
world with
his fruit. There
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall
grow out of his roots (…) (Is.
11:1).
The
Hebrew word for redeemer is „Goel“. The word picture means: God
is lifted up. An the verb „gaal“, to redeem, means: To lift up
God. Jesus said: As
Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same
way the Son of man must be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him
may have eternal life (John 3:14). When
I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to me (John
12:32). Redemption
happens when God is lifted up.
Staffs
and banners are symbols for
elevation/lifting
up.
On
the right staff (look at the picture) it is written with greek
letters: Logos.
This is one of the greek names of Jesus and means Word.
The
Word (Logos) was God. (John 1:1).
The Word/Logos was lifted up on the cross.
Moses
and Aaron led the Israelites with the Rod
of God out of Egypt so that
they
could celebrate the feasts of the
Lord.
The
Hebrew
word for feast „chag“
means „dance“.
The word picture of chag means „place of lifting
up/elevation“.
Wherever
we dance for God we create a place of lifting
up.
The holy celebrations of the Lord like Pessach (Passover), Shavout
(Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles), which have prophetic meanings
for our lives
and for
the
world history, are named after the word for dance. We
shall live our life as a celebration of the Lord, a manifestation of
worship, a festival of his
love, a sacred expression of joy and thanksgiving.
For
the
cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it
by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their
journeys (Ex.
40:38). The
left staff (picture)
is called „Cloud
by day, fire by night.“
This reminds us that we are living tabernacles,
living temples of the Holy Spirit. We
shall use our bodies for God‘s glory (1. Cor. 6:19-20). Paul
writes: Offer
yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his sevice and
pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer (Rom.
12:1).
The
rod is a symbol for wanderings/pilgrimage,
inheritance, priesthood
and
royalty (
Jer. 10:16, Num.
17,
Gen.
49:10).
The
rod of kings is called scepter. We are a royal priesthood on the
pilgrimage to the promised land. When
Jesus sent the disciples out two by two, he ordered them to take
nothing with them except
a rod (Mark 6:8). The
word „teach“, „leemed“, means to
stretch
out
the rod. Jesus
will soon return to the earth to rule the nations with his rod and
then everybody will be taught by God (Psalm
110:2, Rev.
12:5,
Is.
2:3).
God
will
cause Israel
to
pass under the Shepherd‘s
rod
, and he
will
bring the
Israelites
into the bond of the covenant (Hes.
20:37).
The
walls, gates and the temple of Jerusalem were measured by an angelic
measuring
rod
as
a sign for God‘s future prophetic plans
and purposes
(Hes.
40, Rev.
11 and
21).
The
history of this
world, and
of or lives,
will
conform to the plans of Heaven and to the precise dimensions set
forth by the angelic measuring rod. We shall take the Word/Logos,
follow its exact measurements and walk into the dimensions of God‘s
will for our life.
Written
with ancient Hebrew letters the name „Esther“ means: A strong
help is the sign
(symbol, cross)
for a person. Queen Esther was saved by the sign of the extended
scepter. A strong help for us is the Scepter
of Righteousness,
the comfort of the Shepherd‘s rod and staff, the Cross
of Redemption:
The Lord our Righteousness-Adonai Tzidkenu! (Psalm
45
and
23, Jer. 33)
Remember
your congregation, which you have purchased of old; the rod of your
inheritance, which you have
redeemed, this mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
(Psalm 74:2)
The
physical and the spiritual realm have
an influence
on
each
other. What
happens in the spiritual realm has an
impact
on the physical realm, and the other way round actions in the
physical realm have an
impact
on the spiritual realm. We
do symbolic acts like the water baptism, the anointing with oil and
the communion, because we believe that these acts have
a
heavenly impact
on our lives. The
Bible is full of symbolism. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
have many symbolic names. One of the symbolic names of Jesus is
Branch
(Sach.
6,12). The
staffs, about which I wrote the last time, are made of cedarwood. The
cedar
is a symbol of
strength, stability, beauty, incorruption,
longevity and
eternity, because
it is secure from worm damage.
Because
of this the inner rooms of the Temple of Solomon were
paneled with cedarwood. Trees
are in the Bible symbols of
humans and peoples. Cedar
is a symbol of
Israel
(Num. 24:5-6), of
the Messiah (Song of Songs 5:15) and of
his
kingdom, which
gets
from
humble beginnings to a glorious accomplishment (Ez.
17:22-24).
The
prophets often used symbolic
acts, movements
and spectacles/dramas,
when they conveyed
God‘s message. As
a symbolic act the prophet Zechariah had to work as a Shepherd to
depict the ministry of the Messiah as a Shepherd (Zech. 11). He
took two staffs to feed the flock. One staff he called Noam
(Favor/Pleasantness),
the other he called Chovlim
(Connection/Unity).
The two staffs symbolize a twofold salvation, which the
Good Shepherd provides for his people. After
being rejected, the Shepherd brakes the staff Noam and the staff
Chovlim as a symbolic act: The Lord withdraws
his providence
for his people and withdraws
the blessing of fraternal
unity.
Historically,
the disappearance of the ten
lost tribes
followed their abduction
by the king of Assyria
in 721 B.C. But
the Lord has promised that he will again turn towards his people with
favor and that he will join together/reunite the tribes of Israel,
Ephraim and Judah.
The
Lord commanded the prophet Ezekiel to take two sticks. On one stick
he had to write for
Judah,
and on the other for
Joseph, the stick of Ephraim.
Then he had
to join them one to another into one stick in his hand (Ez. 37). This
act symbolized, that the Lord will gather his people and reunite them
under one Shepherd. Ephraim stands for the ten
lost
tribes. This prophecy
is now
fulfilling in
our days. Today lost Israelites form Asia, Africa and from all over
the World return back
to Israel and become again one nation.
The Lord
showed me, that I shall call the two sticks on the picture Noam
Judah and
Chovlim Ephraim
(Favor for Judah, Connection
with
Ephraim)
as a proclamation of this endtime-prophecy. Today Noam is a very
popular given name for boys in Israel. Naomi/Naamah
are female forms of Noam. Jesus is a descendant
of King Solomon and his wife Naamah. The name Judah (female form:
Judith) means to praise
the Lord with hands lifted up.
Ephraim means double
fruitfulness.
We shall praise the Lord and bear
much fruit.
Jesus
taught the people with parables, he often used a symbolic language.
In the parable of the prodigal son the father stands for God, the
Heavenly
Father. He
celebrates in his house the return of his prodigal son with music
and dance
(in greek: choros,
Luke 15:25). We
are always with the Lord and everything he has is ours. We also shall
express our joy with music and dance, when the
lost are
found, when
the dead
become alive. One of the seven deacons, who was chosen in Antioch,
the first heathen christian church, was called Prochoros
(Acts 6:5). The name Prochoros means Leader
of Dance.
There was a Levite called Chaggijja; the name means My
Feast/My Dance
ist the Lord (1. Chronicle 6:15). Levi
means Joiner.
The Levites as priests hade to join the people to God and to join
the
humans
to each other.
Jesus
was born into a family of wood workers. The profession of a carpenter
(in greek: tekton) was highly esteemed in acient times. A tekton was
a skilled master craftsman who joined together wooden items. This
profession has a symbolic meaning. Jesus
was as the Master Craftsman, the Wisdom in Person, by
God‘s
side when
he created the World (Proverbs 8). It
is his purpose to join/assemble
the lost/the scattered into the house of God. I
will make him who is victorios a pillar in the temple of my God, and
he will never again leave it (Rev.
3:12). Let
us be joined together through Jesus, the
Master Craftsman with God, our Father and with our brethren in his
house! Let
us
celebrate together the Lord with music and dance!
