The New Covenant and the Great Multitude
16 Clues Why the “Great Multitude” of Revelation 7 are Living Humans!
Chapter 19, Part 3 Preview: Revelation 7 describes a group of 144,000 Israelites and a great multitude. Could the great multitude be the same one described in the New Covenant chapters of Jeremiah 30 and 31)? Are they dead people brought back to life? Dont be a victim of “Replacement Theology”!
Jeremiah 31:27-28 In days to come, declares Yehovah, “I’ll resow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of humanity, and with the offspring of animals. 28 Then, with the same fervor that I oversaw uprooting them and tearing them down, and overthrowing and destroying them, and doing them harm, I will now oversee their rebuilding and replanting, declares Yehovah.—Gabriel Bible
Jeremiah 33:25-26 This is what Yehovah said, “If My covenant of day and night fails, if I havent appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, 26 then I will also cast away the offspring of Jacob, and of David My servant, so that I wont make his descendants to be rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because I’ll cause their captives to return, and I’ll have mercy on them.
First let’s read the only text on the Great Multitude found it the book of Revelation. But soon we’ll see that there are a lot of other texts about them. All I want to do here is identify them, and just very briefly describe their story. That story is the predominant theme of all of my books:
Revelation 7:9-17 After this I saw an enormous crowd of people that no one could count, from every people, nation, tribe and language. They were standing in front of the throne and the Lamb, wearing white robes, and they were holding palms in their hands. 10 They were shouting, “Eternal Life to YHVH, to the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!” 11 All the Messengers stood around the throne with the Elders and the four living beings, and they bowed face down in front of His throne and worshiped YHVH, 12 and said, “Aw-main. Blessing and praise and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to YHVH forever and ever, Aw-main.’” 13 Then One of the Elders turned and asked me, “Who are these people wearing white robes, and where do they come from?” 14 I said, “Friend, you know”. He replied, “These are the ones who are coming out [1] of the Great Tribulation. They’ve washed their clothes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 That’s why they are in front of the throne of YHVH, serving Him day and night in His Temple. [2] And the One seated on the throne will ‘protect them under His shadow’ [Aramaic nageen alihun, ‘shadow over them’]. 16 They wont hunger or thirst any more, nor will they be ‘overcome’ by the sun or burning heat, 17 because the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will feed them and lead them to springs of living water, and YHVH will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
[1] Present tense. The Online Bible differentiates the tenses more accurately than any English version, if you click on the paraphrased (numbers) in the KJV. This being an ongoing process is a paradigm buster. [2] Ezekiel chapters 40-48 are all about the temple services during the Everlasting Kingdom, tho people dont want to hear that. Ezekiel 47 is clearly the same time period as Revelation 21-22. The Levites, other than descendants of Zadok, are disqualified from serving in the future temple (:10-16.) Perhaps the 144,000 will take their place.
Do You See Dead People?
OK, now let’s compile a list of clues as to who they are, but there only appears to be one contender in this race!
Clue #1: The very first clue as to who comprises the Great Multitude (or enormous crowd) is that they are “a crowd of people that no one could count”. There is a specific prophecy that identifies this crowd!
Clue #2: They are “the ones who are coming out of the Great Tribulation”. This is another exodus! Revelation 7:14
Clue #3: They are “from every people, nation, tribe and language.” Revelation 7:9
Clue #4: “They were standing in front of the throne” Revelation 7:9
Clue #5: They are “holding palms” Revelation 7:9
Clue #6: They are praising Yehovah: “Blessing and praise and wisdom and thanksgiving...” Revelation 7:12
Clue #7: They are “wearing white robes” Revelation 7:13
Clue #8: “They’ve washed their clothes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:14
Clue #9: It’s also a regathering! When it says “they are coming out of The Great Tribulation”, coming out means “to come from one place to another”, in the Greek. Revelation 7:14,15
Clue #10: They are “serving Him day and night in His Temple” Revelation 7:15
Clue #11: They will need protection and, “the One seated on the throne will ‘protect them under His shadow’ [Aramaic: Nageen alihun, ‘shadow over them’].” Revelation 7:15
Clue #12: “They wont hunger or thirst any more” Revelation 7:16
Clue #13: “Nor will they be ‘overcome’ by the sun or burning heat” Revelation 7:16
Clue #14: “YHVH will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17
Clue #15: Yehovah will “lead them to springs of living water” Revelation 7:17
Clue #16: Yehovah will “lead them” Revelation 7:17
Is there any indication that these people died? Is there a group of people who meet all 16 of these criteria? Why is John, Yeshua’s (Jesus’) most loved disciple, only an outside observer?
Scriptural match #1: Like John, Hosea identified an enormous crowd that also “cant be measured or numbered”. He identified this crowd as the descendants of Judah and Israel! Now you know who’s in the Great Multitude. When the multitudinous 12 tribes are gathered they will be “reunited” (v.11 below). This all happens just before “the Day of JezreelHosea 1:5, see Barnes notes). Now you know when, but there are many other clues!
Hosea 1:10-11 Yet the number of the descendants of Israel will be like the sand of the seashore that cant be measured or numbered, and then, in the place where they were told, “You are not My people’, they’ll be called ‘sons of the living Elohim (God).’ 11 The descendants of Judah and the Israelites will be reunited, and they’ll appoint a leader for themselves, and go up from the land, because the Day of Jezreel will be profound.
John should have known who composed the multitude when he was asked, since it shouldnt be a secret:
Amos 3:7 Surely the Sovereign Yehovah will do nothing without revealing His intentions to His servants the prophets.
Scriptural match #2: The book of Micah blames the Day of Yehovah on Israel and Judah. The first quote establishes the context. The second quote explains that there will be a remnant of Israel coming out of the Great Tribulation—alive and gathered into one place:
Micah 1:2-5 Listen people, all of you. Listen, O earth, and everyone there, allow the Sovereign Yehovah to be a witness against you, the Sovereign from His kadosh Temple. 3 Look, Yehovah will come out of His place, and come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4 The mountains melt under Him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water pouring down a steep place. 5 “All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isnt it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem?
Micah 2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, Jacob, I’ll certainly gather the remnant of Israel, I’ll unite them together like like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the middle of their pasture, a noisy multitude due to the number of people.
Notice that in the Greek, the “great multitude” or “enormous crowd” of people are “the ones who are coming out of The Great Tribulation” (7:14), as they gather before the throne. That all by itself would preclude them from being part of the instantaneous resurrection! They are still arriving before the throne from the north, south, east & west for initiation! Everyone assumes that they have all died, but none of them have, they are still being rounded up! The Online Bible differentiates the tenses more accurately than any English version, if you click on the paraphrased (numbers) in the KJV. This gathering being an ongoing process is a paradigm buster!
The time of Jacob’s Trouble is the Great Tribulation, but notice the focus on the gathering:
Jeremiah 30:7-11 That day will be terrible! There will never be another like it. It’s the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he’ll be saved [liberated] out of it. Then in that day, declares Yehovah the Warrior King, I’ll break the yoke from your neck, and snap your chains. Foreigners will no longer enslave you. 9 You’ll serve Yehovah your Elohim, and David your king, who I’ll raise for you. 10 So dont be afraid, O Jacob, My servant, declares Yehovah, or be dismayed, Israel, because I’ll save you from a distance, and your descendants from the land of their captivity, and Jacob will return, and be quiet and at ease, and no one will frighten him. 11 I am with you to save you, declares Yehovah. I’ll completely destroy the sovereignty of all the nations where I’ve scattered you, but I wont completely destroy you. I’ll discipline you in just measure, but I cant let you go unpunished.
Isaiah also spoke about the survivors of the Great Tribulation against Israel assembling on the Kadosh mountain:
Isaiah 27:12-13 On that day, Yehovah will thresh [harvest] from the Euphrates river valley to the Nile * of Egypt. You Israelites will be gleaned one by one. 13 Also during that day the great shofar will sound, and those who were dying in the land of Assyria and those who were banished to the land of Egypt will come and worship Yehovah on the Kadosh Mountain in Jerusalem.
Scriptural match #3: They are “from every people, nation, tribe and language.” Jeremiah 31 is a parallel chapter about the “great multitude”, (and coming as no surprise), it’s the New Covenant chapter:
Jeremiah 31:8 Look, I’ll bring them from the North Country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, pregnant women and those in labor together, a great multitude of returning exiles will return here.
Scriptural match #4: They were standing in front of the throne”. Jeremiah 3:17 matches this description. “At that time they’ll call Jerusalem the throne of Yehovah, and all of the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yehovah, to Jerusalem, nor will they walk any longer after the stubbornness of their evil mind.”
Scriptural match #5: Revelation 7:9, says they are “holding palms in their hands”. There are only two references to palm branches in the Bible, both having to do with building booths sook-kaw’ for the Feast of Tabernacles: Leviticus 23:40 and Nehemiah 8:15. However in both the Aramaic texts and the Greek texts it literally says that they were holding palm trees in their hands! John 12:13 mentions palm branches, but in Revelation it literally says palm trees. Could they be holding replicas of palm trees like the many in the new Temple? There is just one place in the Bible that is very heavy on palm trees—Ezekiel chapters 40-41. Thirteen of the 23 references in the Bible to palm trees are associated with Ezekiel’s Temple. They appear to be replicas of palm trees. And the Great Multitude do serve in that Temple, as we’ll see.
Scriptural match #6: They are praising Yehovah and match #7 “wearing white robes”. Jeremiah 31:12 says: “They’ll come and shout for joy in the elevated place [or height] of Zion, they’ll be beaming over the goodness of Yehovah over the grain, the new wine, the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd. Their life will be like a well watered garden, and they wont ever be sorrowful again.” I believe that the “elevated place” is a somewhat veiled description of the New Jerusalem that is approximately 1,379 miles in height (12,000 X 606 feet and 9 inches to a stadium) as indicated in Revelation 20:16. The immense size of the city would obliterate the Mediterranean or “Great” sea were it to “land”, but the sea will remain just as it is—except for the salt! (Ezekiel 47:10-20)
There is a parallel in the Tanak to priests praising Yehovah in white clothing in 2 Chronicles:
2 Chronicles 5:12 also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine white linen, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them one hundred twenty priests sounding with trumpets,) 13 it happened, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yehovah, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised Yehovah, saying, “He is good, because his loving kindness endures forever!” Then the Temple was filled with a cloud, Yehovah’s Temple...
The bride is being purified and made white during the Great Tribulation, and not before that. This will occur during the 1,260 days. It is purification by fire:
Daniel 12:7...10 I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the water of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by the One who lives forever that it will be for a time, [a year], times [2 years], and half a time [1/2 a year], and when they’ve made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the qodesh, ko’-desh people, all of these things will be finished... 10 Many will purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked, and none of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
Daniel 11:35 Some of the teachers will fall away, to refine them, and to purify them, and make them white, all the way to the time of the end, but it will still happen during the time appointed [Hebrew: mowed, a special Festival Day].
Wearing white robes does not mean you are dead. In fact if you dont begin wearing white robes in the spirit, while you are alive, you can forget about wearing them later.
Revelation 3:4-5 Yet you have a few good names in Sardis who havent defiled their clothes. They’ll walk with Me in white because they are worthy. 5 Anyone who is victorious will wear white clothes, and I wont blot their names from the Book of Life. I’ll acknowledge their names before My Father and before His Messengers.
Even the Laodiceans were admonished to clean up their act and put on white clothes:
Revelation 3:18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so that you’ll actually become rich, and buy white clothing from Me so that you can clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness wont be so apparent, and eye salve for yours eyes, so that you can see.
Scriptural match #8: “They’ve washed their clothes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” These are people who literally accepted their one last opportunity to repent:
Isaiah 1:9, 16-19 Unless Yehovah the Warrior King had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. ... 17 Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the orphans. Plead for the widow”. 18 “Come now, and let us reason together”, declares Yehovah, “Tho your sins be as scarlet, they’ll be as white as snow. Tho they are red like crimson, they’ll be like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land,
Isaiah 4:3-5 Then anyone left alive in Zion, anyone who is left behind in Jerusalem will be called kadosh, everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem, 4 when Yehovah has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and rinsed the bloodstains from Jerusalem, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning. 5 Yehovah will create ABOVE the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and ABOVE her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, because ABOVE all the splendor will be a place of shelter.
In an end time prophecy about the 12 tribes there is an interesting statement. Judah in particular could be in for a lot of bloodshed, but tho her sins are sacrlet, they will become as white as snow:
Genesis 49:10-11 The scepter wont depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to who it belongs. To him will the obedience of the people be. 11 Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
Following the first exodus, as the multitude were about to meet their Maker, they washed their clothes. History repeats itself.
Exodus 19:14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and set the people apart, and they washed their clothes.
Scriptural match #9: It’s a regathering:
Jeremiah 3:17 At that time they’ll call Jerusalem the throne of Yehovah, and all of the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yehovah, to Jerusalem, nor will they walk any longer after the stubbornness of their evil mind.”
The first contingent from the nations will be the scattered Israelites of the diaspora, and friends of Israel.
Scriptural match #10: They are “serving Him day and night in His Temple” (Revelation 7:15). We know that there wont be a Temple in New Jerusalem above, after the wrath of Elohim, but there will be a Temple and priests serving in it as we see in Ezekiel. Not one line of the last 9 chapters of Ezekiel has been fulfilled yet:
Ezekiel 44:10-12 But the Levites who strayed far from Me, when Israel went astray, who wandered from Me after their idols, they’ll bear the consequences of their sins. 11 Yet they’ll be ministers in My Temple, and have oversight of the gates of the Temple, and serve in the Temple, they’ll slay the burnt offering and the other offerings for the people, and they’ll stand before them and serve them. 12 Because they served them before their idols, and were tripped up by the family of Israel, so I’ve lifted up My hand against them, says the Sovereign Yehovah, and they’ll bear their wickedness.
Isaiah 61:4-7 They’ll rebuild places desolate since antiquity, they’ll bebuild the ancestral places and places now wasted and deserted, and they’ll restore cities parched from heat, and places deserted for many generations. 5 Foreigners will stand and tend your flocks, and aliens will be your plowmen and your vinedressers. 6 And you’ll be called the priests of Yehovah, people will call you the ministers of our Elohim. You’ll savor the wealth of the nations, and you yourselves will enter into their splendor. 7 Your shame will be replaced with a double inheritance, and instead of humiliation you’ll shout for joy over your territory. So in your land you’ll own twice as much as the other nations. You’ll have everlasting joy.
Scriptural match #11: “the One seated on the throne will ‘protect them under His shadow’” (Revelation 7:15). This is the New Jerusalem above.
Isaiah 4:5-6 Yehovah will create ABOVE the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and ABOVE her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, because ABOVE all the splendor will be a place of shelter. 6 There will be a sukkah [tabernacle] for shade [literally shadow] in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and a chuppah [wedding shelter] from storms and rain.
Jeremiah 31:10-11 Hear the Words of Yehovah, you nations, and announce it in the islands far away, and say, “The One who scattered Israel will regather him, and protect him, like a shepherd does his flock. 11 Because Yehovah has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of the one who was stronger than he.
Scriptural match #12: is covered in Isaiah 49 “They wont hunger or thirst any more”; and clue #13 “Nor will they be ‘overcome’ by the sun or burning heat” (Revelation 7:16). These are human concerns.
Isaiah 49:10-13 describes these exact same events, the end of “hunger”, “thirst”, “heat”, “sun”, along with “springs of water” in the context of survivors of the Great Tribulation, from all twelve tribes of Israel returning to the land of Israel during the Second Exodus, at the beginning of the Everlasting Kingdom!
Isaiah 49:10-13 They wont hunger or thirst, nor will the heat or sun strike them, because the One who has mercy on them will lead them. He’ll guide them to springs of water. 11 I’ll make all My mountains a way, and My highways will be exalted. 12 Look, these will come from far, and look, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim”. 13 Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth, and break forth into singing, mountains, because Yehovah has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His afflicted.
Obviously this is in the context of survivors of the Great Tribulation, from all twelve tribes of Israel, returning to the land of Israel, during the Second Exodus, at the beginning of the Everlasting Kingdom!
Scriptural match #14: “YHVH will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17
The cessation of tears and death begins as soon as the Everlasting Kingdom is established!
Ezekiel 25:6-9 On this mountain, Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will prepare a ‘lavish’ banquet using the ‘best foods’ for every nation, a banquet with well aged wines, of ‘choice’ pieces full of marrow, and refined wines. 7 On this mountain He’ll remove the ‘covering that looms over’ all people, the veil that ‘overshadows’ every nation. 8 He will devour death forever! The Sovereign Yehovah will wipe away the tears from every face. He’ll eliminate the scorn of His people from the entire earth. Yehovah has spoken! 9 Israel will be saying in that day, “This is our Elohim! We have been waiting for Him to rescue us! This is Yehovah! We’ve been waiting for Him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate His rescue!”
Check the entire context of Isaiah 25. Yet the wicked are excluded from this blessing:
1st Corinthians 15:23-24 but everyone in their order, Messiah was the firstfruit, later, at His coming, those who are the Messiah’s. 24 Then the end of these events comes when He’ll have handed over the Kingdom to YHVH the Father, when every ruler and every government and every powerful force will have been overthrown.
Isaiah 35, a short 10 verse chapter covers this well.Scriptural match #15: Yehovah will “lead them to springs of living water” Revelation 7:17. First we’ll focus on the water.
Isaiah 49:6-13 6 He asks, “It is too small of a thing for you to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the Israelites who were ‘spared’? I’ll make you a light to the nations, so that you can bring My message of deliverance to the remotest parts of the earth. 7 This is what Yehovah says, the Redeemer of Israel, and ‘their’ Kadosh One, to the One who man despises, to the One who the nation abhors, to the Servant of rulers, “Kings will see You and rise, and leaders will bow down, because of Yehovah who is faithful, the Kadosh One of Israel, who has chosen You. 8 This is what Yehovah says, “In an acceptable time have I answered You, and in a day of deliverance I have helped You. I’ll protect You and give You to the people as a covenant, to restore the land, and to repossess its desolate heritage. 9 You will say to the prisoners, “Come out’ and to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves’! They’ll be My sheep, grazing along the roads and finding pastures on every high places that was previously bare. 10 They wont hunger or thirst, nor will the heat or sun beat down on them, because the One who has mercy on them will lead them. He’ll guide them to springs of water. 11 I’ll turn all My mountains into roads, and My highways will be elevated. 12 They will come from far away! They will come from the north and from the west, and they will come from Australia. 13 Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth, and break out into singing, mountains, because Yehovah has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His afflicted.
Scriptural match #16: Yehovah will “lead them” out of darkness (Revelation 7:17).
Isaiah 42:15-16 I’ll destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I’ll make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. 16 I’ll bring the blind by a way that they dont know. I’ll lead them in paths that they dont know. I’ll turn darkness into light before them, and make the crooked places straight. I’ll do these things, and I wont forsake them.
I’ll repeat this verse with the emphasis on leading them:
Isaiah 49:10 They wont hunger or thirst, nor will the heat or sun strike them, because the One who has mercy on them will lead them. He’ll guide them to springs of water.
Jeremiah 31:9 They’ll be crying as they return and asking for favor as I lead them. I’ll have them walk by river valleys, on a level path so they wont stumble, because I’ll be a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn son.
Jeremiah 31:11-12 Because Yehovah has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of the one who was stronger than he. 12 They’ll come and shout for joy in the elevated place [or height] of Zion, they’ll be beaming over the goodness of Yehovah” over the grain, the new wine, the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd. Their life will be like a well watered garden, and they wont ever be sorrowful again.
This is in sharp contrast to the destruction of Israel:
Deuteronomy 32:22-27 For a fire is kindled in My anger, it burns to the lowest Sheol, it devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire. 23 “I’ll heap evils on them. I’ll spend My arrows on them. 24 They’ll be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I’ll send the teeth of animals on them, with the poison of crawling things of the dust. 25 Outside the sword will bereave, and in the chambers, terror, on both young man and virgin, the suckling with the gray-haired man. 26 I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men. 27 Were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, Yehovah hasnt done all this.’”
It is sometimes assumed that the people marked with the writer’s inkhorn in Ezekiel are the 144,000, but that happens just prior to the wrath, as this short chapter explains:
Ezekiel 9:2-6 Six men came from the way of the upper gate that lies toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand, and one man in the middle of them clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar. 3 The splendor of the Elohim of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house, and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side. 4 Yehovah told him, “Go thru the middle of the city, thru the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done ‘here’. 5 To the others he said where I could hear, “Go thru the city after him, and strike, dont let your eye spare, or have pity. 6 Kill all of the old men, the young men and the virgins, and little children and the women, but dont come near anyone who has the mark, and begin at My Temple. Then they began with the old men that were before the Temple.
This would seem to be just after the 1,260 day period, so it seems that they would be the last of the Great Multitude to be protected just prior to the Day of Yehovah. Sorry, no rapture. The precious few are saved alive.
The sealing is supernatural protection for a chosen few among the millions of Israelites—“out of every tribe, and language, and people, and nation” where they were dispersed. They wont die in the Tribulation, rather, they will be singled out while still in the flesh! They will be preserved from death during the perils of the end time—that is why the Spirit Messengers (angels) must protect them from the harmful things that will occur in the physical realm—things hurting “the earth”, “the sea” and “the trees”.
Within the text about the 7th shofar is another reason to believe that New Jerusalem is within actual view!
Revelation 7:18-19 The nations were angry, but Your anger has come, and it’s time for the dead to be judged, and for You to compensate Your servants the prophets, and the kadishea [saints] and those who fear Your name, both small and great, and to destroy those who have destroyed the earth. 19 The Temple of YHVH in the sky was opened, and the ark of His covenant WAS SEEN inside His Temple. There was lightning and thunder and voices, an earthquake and huge hail.
So in Parts 1 & 2 we saw that the New Covenant isnt with “the church”. It’s with Israel and Judah:
Jeremiah 31:31-33 The time is coming, declares Yehovah, when I’ll make a New marriage Covenant with the family of Israel, and with the family of Judah, 32 Unlike the marriage Covenant that I made with their ancestors during the time when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, since they broke My Covenant, tho I was their Husband, declares Yehovah. 33 In this marriage Covenant that I’ll make with the family of Israel after those days, declares Yehovah, “I’ll put My Torah in the very seat of their thoughts and emotions, and I’ll write it [the Torah] into their minds. I’ll be their Elohim, and they’ll be My people.
The target of the Bible is Israel, the bow is Judah, the arrow is Ephraim, the Bull’s eye is all of Israel returning to their land and to their Elohim, the arrowhead is the surviving 144,000 pioneer leaders leading the way, the “Great Multitude” is the body of Israel following in line!
Zechariah 9:13-16 I will bend Judah as My bow, I’ll load the bow with Ephraim [as the arrow]. I’ll stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, Javan, and wield you like a warrior’s sword. 14 Yehovah will appear over them, and His arrows will flash like lightning, and the Sovereign Yehovah will sound the shofar, and march into the storm winds from the south. 15 Yehovah the ‘Warrior’ King will defend them. They’ll devour and subdue with sling stones, and they’ll drink and shout as if they were drunk, and they’ll be filled like the basin at the corners of the altar. 16 Yehovah their Elohim will rescue them on that day as the flock of His people, because they are like the jewels of a crown, like a glimmering beacon over His land.
In Chapter 28 we’ll see more evidence that Yeshua’s bride isnt “the church”, she is none other than the Great multitude of Israel—coming home!
Isaiah 54:3-7 You’ll spread aboard toward the right and toward the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and inhabit the desolate cities. 4 “Dont be afraid, because you wont be ashamed or humiliated and you wont be embarrassed, because you’ll forget the disgrace of your youth. You wont remember the shame of your widowhood. 5 Your Makers are your HUSBANDS [yes, both are plural, search word: makers], Yehovah of Armies is His name, and the Kodesh One of Israel is your Redeemer. He’ll be called the Elohim of the entire earth. 6 Yehovah has called you like an abandoned wife with a hurting spirit, even a young wife, when she is rejected”, says your Elohim. 7 “For a brief moment I’ve set you free, but with great compassion I’ll gather you.
Ultimately “Replacement Theology” has to do with who the Israel of Bible prophecy really is. Is it “the church” or is it the misguided descendants of Israel who are awakened as a result of the coming Great Tribulation? Who is going to take over the land of Israel and live there for many many generations. So an addendum to this chapter, of sorts is: Should We Move To Israel Now?
Chapter 20 is about The Seven “Churches” of Revelation
