The Little Known Prophecies of Asaph

Tomorrow is Yom Kippurim, it's the day of atonements now called Judgment Day.

Perhaps it's time we turned to listen to the cymbals of the prophecies of Asaph. They can be heard if we will just listen and we can be inspired with courage, spirit and hope.

In my Scripture studies I found Asaph means "gatherer."

1Chronicles 16:4-5 tells us Asaph was the chief Levite musician appointed by King David to minister before the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. He led with the music with cymbals. He made a lot of noise.

That tells us his assignment from David was to get the attention of all worshipers before the covenant of God in the Ark.

Long before the Ark of the Covenant arrived in Jerusalem, it was located out in the hills of Gibeon, the same place The LORD asked Solomon what blessing he would ask for and Solomon's answer was wisdom.

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Today, Gibeon is called al-Jib.It's located a few miles due north of the Temple Mount in 'so called' Palestinian territory.

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If you'll take a moment to look at the satellite image [Google Maps] you will see what appears to be a small round, flat topped hill in the center of Gibeon. Perhaps, it's the spot that the Tabernacle (Beit HaMikdash) once stood.

One the Tabernacle arrived in Jerusalem, the Ark withe the two stone tablets enscribed by God with the Ten Commandments was placed inside, within the Most Holy Place. Benaiah and Jahaziel were the two priests with trumpets marching before the Ark of the Covenant of God and David delivered a psalm to thank the LORD into the hands of Asaph and his brethren.

In the book of Joshua, we also learn that Gibeon was the very place where the sun stood still. 

When the Ark arrived in Jerusalem it was there that Asaph was appointed as the chief Levite:

"And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, and to record, and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel: Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obededom: and Jeiel with psalteries and with harps; but Asaph made a sound with cymbals" 1 Chronicles 16:4-5

Asaph's cymbals are important. 

That word for cymbal is the Hebrew word "zakar" and it means to be brought to remembrance, to recall. 

2 Chronicles 29:30 tells us that in addition to Asaph's scribal duties as a Levite, his assignment was to thank and praise Y-H-V-H the God (Elohim) of Israel and that Asaph was a visionary and a prophet.

Let's look and consider some of the prophecies of Asaph's psalms.  The first of twelve records a promise about a coming day of trouble, it is seen in Psalms 50...

"Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

This is a big time cymbal, a warning for what Asaph wrote about in Psalms 83. 

We need to keep in mind Asaph used cymbals, he didn't play a harp or a flute. He gave warnings from God to those that might say... God did away with His instruction and teaching, His commands have nothing to do with grace. 

If you beleive that you need to hear the cynbals crash. If we believe that Gods' instruction is old and done away with, Asaph tells us that Almighty God calls us guilty:

But to the guilty God says, "What right do you have to declare my statutes, That you have taken my covenant on your lips, Seeing you hate instruction, And throw my words behind you?

To those that point a finger at God's Kingdom instruction is old and done away with, you will have a problem in the Kingdom. Jesus said that, after all tht was the point of the Sermon on the Mount. If you doubt that read it again.

Asaph records this...

"You give your mouth to evil. You harnesses your tongue for deceit. You sit and speak against your brother."

"You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that the "I AM" was just like you."

I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes."

This is serious folks... READ IT AGAIN:

"You thought that the "I AM" was just like you." 

"I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes." 

Many pulpit sermons have taught that Jesus hung the law of God, recorded by Moses on the cross. 

Yet, in Psalms 73 Asaph warns of the future lament of those that got lost in their church life journey and slipped as they 'thought' they were following the walk of Messiah, when instead without knowing it they were lured by the teaching of wolves in sheep's clothing.

A remnant of Bible believers are now awakening to the sound of Asaph's cymbals before the Ark of the Covenant under the Mercy Seat at Jerusalem. 

If you are waking up, you are being trimmed by the vinedresser to bear fruit.

It's time to realize that the Spirit of Almighty God is at work in the restoration of truth. Some know this because they sense it, they feel there has to be more. They know in their hearts that despite the protests of a pastor, family or friends, the Word of God stands true, but they are troubled and sometimes overwhelmed by there has to be more. 

In their hearts they are realizing that the Sabbath, the Feasts of The LORD and even God's instruction for a healthy menu are important to their Creator God. They know because God said so and that's enough.

They realize the walk of Messiah Yeshua aka Jeus the Jew is the way of Heaven on Earth.

Almighty God's Spirit is tugging at and changing hearts. He is pruning the olive tree and ingrafting wild branches as the vinedresser just as Yeshua spoke of in John 15:1-10. 

The vinedresser is the Holy Spirit of "I AM." 

We are not the vinedresser! The LORD God is and He is calling people by pulling on their heart strings and His Spirit is guiding people to the unchanging light of Scripture to repent so that they can return to His instruction just as Jesus said: Repent for the Kingdom of God is near. 

We are the generation "to come" that Asaph wrote about. We are finally realizing why Jesus (actually Yeshua) said, not one jot or tittle has passed from the Torah.

Whether we have read Asaph's prophecies or not, these words remain true:

"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped." Psalm 73:1-2

"For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart. I was so senseless and ignorant. 

I was a brute beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory." Psalm 73:21-24

Asaph even tells us in Psalm 74 about the cup of redemption at Passover:

"For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth."

"For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red... in Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel."

The thing about the 74th Psalm that is so striking is the fact that Yeshua's earthly heritage was of the line of Judah. Simply put, as I've said, Jesus was a Jew. 

Asaph served in David's court when the Beit HaMikdash was relocated to Jerusalem before the Temple was ever built. Yet the prophecy was that The Temple would be destroyed by fire. On the 9th of Av that happened twice, once in 586BC at the hands of the Babylonians and again in 70AD by the Roman Legions after Yeshua taught there.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Asaph the cymbal prophet recorded Jerusalem's future:

"They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground." Psalm 74:7

Psalms 77 contains Asaph's prophecy of the incredible awakening to truth that many are experiencing today around the world today. 

The global remnant awakening is that God's words stand forever, unchanged since the beginning and because of that people are returning to the ancient root of the tree of life, the Torah and connecting with the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Many church people are coming to realize Rabbi Yeshua wants us to turn back to God's ways if we want to be like Him and live as a house of redeemed people. 

Bottomline, we all need to do what Jesus did.

We all need to walk like Him in God's commandments if believe in Him. If we want to be like Him. we need to teach the written Torah of God. 

Jesus never started a new religion. Instead, He taught the meaning of mountain top messages of God written by Moses. 

Asaph's wrote this about the move of God's Spirit today:

"I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times."

"And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. 

Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? 

Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph."

"Thou lead thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron."

Asaph bangs his cymbals again in Psalms 78 as he describes Ephraim the son of Joseph as "the generation to come" to arise and not be a stubborn or rebellious generation any longer, but steadfastly turn back and repent 'before' the battle comes!! 

That battle cry is described in Psalms 83 !!

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!" Psalm 83:1-4

It's all about Israel, the Promised Land. The battle is not far in the future. 

Hamas attacks Jews with jihadist terror funded by Iran. They blow their child recruits and women up with body bombs to try to kill Jews. They fire rockets at Israeli schools and kindergardens and its all just a warm up.

Those that follow Jesus need to pray for Israel and the Peace of Jerusalem.

We must not continue to be like the old Ephraim of old that turned away from the Torah and chose his own religious ways. We must not continue to make the same mistakes and refuse to walk in God's teaching and instruction...

"Give ear, O my people, to my law (Torah): incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. 

We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. 

For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: 

That the generation to come might know [them, even] the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: 

That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. 

The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his Torah..."

In Psalm 79, Asaph turns his prophetic words toward Jerusalem as he points to the disaster to come that John recorded in the book of the Revelation of Yeshua:

"O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. 

O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake."

We must call for the plea for salvation and forgiveness too:

"Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake."

As we turn the page on to Psalms 80, we can see Asaph's cry for our Savior's return, "the man of the right hand" and the "son of man" that is also described in Mark 16:19, Acts 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, Hebrew 10:12 and Revelation 5:7:

"Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. 

Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts...

Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou made strong for thyself. 

So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved."

Asaph declares the 'Day of Trumpets' in Psalm 81. It's about the shofar day of Messiah Yeshua's return. 

It is appointment with God that has been re-discovered by a remnant, but Asaph laments of those that still walk in their own ways like old Ephraim did before the judgment of the Assyrians carried them out of the Promised Land:

"Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony...

Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. 

I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. 

So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!"

Asaph continues the lament we will share if we donlt listen and seek Almighty God as described in Psalms 82. This Psalm is for those that still walk in religion confusion. Asaph hints that it is this latter day walk in darkness that brings the shaking of the earth prophesied in Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8 and Luke 21:11:

"They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course."

Finally, in Psalms 83 Asaph gives us the headlines that we will all read one day.

Our news stories tell us Amalek-like Shi'ite Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map and they are using Sunni proxy puppets like Hamas and Hezbollah to attack the innocents. 

Not only that, the U.N. and The Quartet wants to divide the land despite the fact God warns against that in Joel 3:2 and despite the fact that Palestinian jihadists continue to fire rockets from Gaza while the antisemitic hate filled radical Islamic world wants to wipe the Jewish people off the map. 

It's almost time to the cymbal of Asaph. It's worth repeating:

"Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. 

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. 

They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. 

For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: 

The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah."

Asaph calls on God to no longer remain silent. It's almost time to hear the sound just like the lightning and thunder in the fearful whirlwind pillar of fire at Sinai in the wilderness of Arabia. 

We need to know the little known prophecies of Asaph. He calls for judgment so all, including the Palestinian people and the jihadists that surround Israel. In the end all will know His name is not Allah but it is יהוה Y-H-V-H.

"O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. 

Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O יהוה Y-H-V-H."

It is time to hear the cymbals !

It is time to heed the Spirit of God before its too late and keep our eyes, like His on Jerusalem. 

We need to be like Messiah and learn the Scriptures given to us by our Heavenly Father. Just look at Matthew 4:4-10. We all need to study Matthew 5; 11; 21 and Matthew 26 too. Messiah's response is like that in Joshua 8:31, 1Kings 2:3 and Psalms 40:7:

"It is written..."

It's time to know "The One Called Jesus." Really know Him and His teaching which is the whole Bible, not just the back of it take out of context. 

That means it is now time for all of us to repent and return as disciples, united together in unison with God's covenant word. It means we must repent, return to hear and do God's word if we want to walk prepared in the faith of the Kingdom path before the day of The LORD, called by His Spirit to be set apart in His service.

God is a sovereign God. He is the loving, unchanging God and He has provided a way to offer you His salvation though grace. You can repent and accept His gift of life and walk in Messiah's ways because you love Almighty God, not because you have to to earn redemption.

Consider carefully what your own life consists of, look at it and repent of your sin, ask God's forgiveness and ask others too. Accept His gift of love through Messiah Yeshua. 

Do it now and open His instruction manual for living life His way!

What does this all mean? 

It's time to do. Time to repent and return to God's voice, return to hear and do His words and walk like Yeshua as a disciple in the faith of the Kingdom path so that you can ready your lamp for your assignment. 

Stretch out your hand, and take from the tree of life, and live forever.

That means open a Bible, read it, listen to God's voice and do Yeshua's teaching about the forever jots and tittles. 

You can learn how the things which are written in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms are concerning Messiah and you can teach others to live life like Jesus, it's love in God's way:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John 3:16-17

Open your eyes if you're dead in your own valley of dry bones.

Look up and you'll recognize Messiah from Abraham's promise passed on to Isaac and Jacob as written by Moses in the Torah. You can see Him too in the Prophets and the Writings.

Repent and walk your Emmaus Road with Messiah. Study the Scriptures He taught every Sabbath that are filled with doing life God's way in the Kingdom, and tell others about Him. Be a gatekeeper until the house is complete.

May God Bless as you seek your oil to light a fire pleasing to Him!

Shalom.