It's about time.
Let’s dig into the book of Revelation, the source text of a vision recorded by the disciple John and give it our best to unseal what we can about the Biblical connections.
It seems complex and because of that, it’s the one book a lot of people shy away from thinking it's a bizarre and scary end-times prediction full of beasts, dragons, and global disasters off in the distant future that only a pastor or theologian can explain.
That's not the case.
While it seems to stand alone like an outcast that barely made in to the back of the Bible, the revelation reality is that the account is a deeply interconnected book that ties to the messages of the the prophets in the rest of the Bible and brings them full circle declaring the end from the beginning with a common decclaration, it's time to repent!!
True, it reads like a cryptic, end of time mystery novel, but its no novel.
Fundamentally, it’s deeply rooted in connecting the dots of the Tanakh, the book most tend to call the Old Testament but the better term is Tanakh because it connects the dots declared by the prophets too.
The Old Testament is a label with a revelation paradox. Think about that, if Revelation is about the end times, why is it so inter-connected to a book called an Old Testament?
The reality is it's not old and its not done away with or hung on the cross either. But, if you think that it is old, you'll never clearly see the Revelation message as the blessing it's intended to be for you:
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Revelation 1:3
Revelation draws fully from the Tanakh, weaving in and revealing themes of unending covenant promises, judgment, restitution and restoration found in the Torah, Nevi'im aka the Prophets and Ketuvim aka the Writings.
Revelation is about the things that must take place that proves the Old Testament is not old or done away with, and it reveals God has a plan declared to the prophets and the restoration plan will be fulfilled in Messiah.
In the Revelation narrative, you must keep in mind these words from Amos 3:7 "For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" because they're embedded in Revelation 10:7 "in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets."
In the original Hebrew of Amos 3:7, the word for "secret" is Sod סודו and Sod refers to a "council," "assembly," or "confidential talk."
Throughout the Hebrew Bible, "sod" appears in various forms to describe a close-knit group involved in strategic discussions and that's one reason Revelation echoes Daniel's visions of apocalyptic beasts, the ancient of days and Isaiah's new heaven and earth while Ezekiel's temple imagery pops up in Revelation's holy city, called New Jerusalem.
If you’ve missed the prophetic source imagery of the Tanakh embedded in Revelation you're not alone.
Most sermons say it closes with a description of the second coming. It does, but believe it or not, the source context of the visions John recorded zero in on fulfilling the Fall Feasts of the LORD.
Check it out for yourself, the setting of Revelation 1 starts in the holy place of the Tabernacle of God and it wraps up in Eden, aka the good news of the "restoration of all things."
Most miss the holy place, becuase the King James Bible mentions seven candlesticks, but for crying out loud you need to know there are no candles despite the Shakespeare styled wording of the King James Bible that can throw us in a tailspin.
The Bible basic true blue reference is the menorah lampstand that sits in the holy place of God's Tabernacle.
Now, before we dig in further, lets take a quick detour.
The book of Acts chapter three describes a miracle event as Peter and John walk up to the Temple for the afternoon evening prayers that has a tie to what John would see on the island of Patmos many years later.
Yes, you read that correctly, the disciples continued to ascend the steps to the Temple after the cross, they never thought the afternoon prayers were done away with. They still believed the message in Psalms 55:17, and they continued to pray like Daniel did as noted in Daniel 6:10.
After Acts 3, Peter is seen again in afternoon prayer in Acts 10:9 and of course Paul encouraged others to follow suit in Colossians 4:2.
My logical guess is John's vision in Revelation 1:10 likely started at this same afternoon prayer time on a Sabbath day, and remember the Sabbath, because it's not on Sunday.
Back to the the Acts story... one afternoon in Jerusalem, while ascending up to the Temple Mount, Peter and John walk by a man that had been crippled from birth and he was often seen in the area begging for gifts, but the thing is, the account says he wasn't begging for himself, he was seeking gifts for the needy at the Yafeh Gate that we now call the Jaffa Gate.
Let that sink in, the crippled beggar was begging for gifts to give to others in need!!
Instead of giving the beggar some cash money, they commanded that he be healed, rise up and walk.
Believe it or not, he did get up and he walked with them up the steps to Solomon's porch.
The crowds that knew him from the Yafeh Gate were absolutely astonished.
That healing was a much greater gift than you might imagine.
The "sod" side of the healing is the man would no longer be a disabled beggar, but restored or refreshed to strength to help others in need by his own good deeds.
Then, Peter told the crowd that witnessed the miracle:
"Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Messiah Yeshua, who was ordained for you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets." Act 3:19-21 HNV
That miracle set the stage for Revelation, after all it is about the good news gospel of God's restoration of God's Kingdom on Earth and the return of Messiah and because of that, its chocked full of imagery directly from the Torah and the Prophets about the times of refreshing and the restoration of all things.
It seems strange, did you know the prophet's messages are about refreshing and restoration of the planet and the return?
For most of us, it might seem that John saw something new in the vivid descriptions including the two beasts, four living creatures, and plagues, but for a first-century Bible believer, reading Revelation would have felt like connecting the jots and tittles from Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah and Ezekiel with the foundation of the Torah.
With Revelation - those mysteries come together. It’s an unsealing.
It unseals prophecies given centuries before that were not understood and that fact brings us right to the name.
We choose to call it Revelation, but the Hebrew word gives us more "sod" understanding.
In Hebrew, it’s known as “Hitgalut,” often translated as a vision or unveiling that describes a process of understanding divine truths by experiencing awareness of the reality zone of Almighty God's word.
Think of it like someone slowly pulling back a curtain before the big show starts and the main characters enter the scene.
At first you see a hint of what's behind the curtain, then you see a bit more of the scene, it’s like Paul says, “seeing through a glass darkly,” but then gradually the view of the stage and the setting is revealed.
John sees something, and then he has to respond—and by extension, the reader does too.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Revelation 1:3
Just like the Torah, Revelation demands participation.
It’s like any commandment, any mitzvah: God speaks, He commands, and that requires an active response from us that brings a blessing.
If you just hear it and believe it, but don’t do anything about it, well, the revelation hasn’t really landed, has it?
The relationship revelation loop isn’t complete.
Revelation grounds John's visions into something very personal: “OK, you saw this, now what?”
Keep what is written in it.
Deep Dive Audio Summary on this Post - 39 min.
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The whole book of Revelation is structured in a systematic pattern of sevens just like Genesis 1-2.
It’s also reveals the gospel message of hearing and seeing truth and then choosing action as the response: repentance, obedience, alignment, relationship which is front and center in the covenant at Mount Sinai.
There Moses doesn’t just say "hear and do" in one single place; rather, there are key moments where this declaration is made, each with a slightly different "level of" of commitment. Exodus 24:7 is the most famous instance, known in Hebrew as Na’aseh v’Nishma when Moses reads the Book of the Covenant to the people at Mount Sinai, and they respond:
"All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will hear."
Notice the response put "doing" before "hearing." In Jewish tradition, this is seen as a supreme act of faith—committing to the action before even fully understanding the details. There's a "sod" connection to the formal command repeated in Deuteronomy 5:1 but it is "reversed" as Moses prepares the second generation to enter the Promised Land, when he summons all Israel and commands:
"Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments... that you may learn them, and keep, and do them."
Did you see the nuance? Here, Moses establishes the logical order of education: Hear, Learn, Keep and Do. It is the basic roadmap for how a nation of God's people must maintain its identity over generations.
Then in Deuteronomy 5:27, after the terrifying experience of hearing God's voice directly at Sinai, the people are afraid they will die so they beg Moses to be their "intermediary" saying:
"Go near and hear all that the Lord our God says... and we will hear it and do it."
That's a revelation many miss. Jesus aka Yeshua is doing it, He is near, aka in the heavenly sanctuary so our call seen in Revelation 14:12 is specifically stating that here is the patience of the saints, that they keep the commandments of God.
That's preceded by Revelation 12:17: This verse indicates that the dragon which is interpreted as haSatan, went to make war with those who keep the commandments of God and those that hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Surely, you know who that describes.
Who wars to destroy both Jew and Christian?
Sticking with the Hebrew language, there’s a connection between “Hitgalut” (the unveiling) and the Hebrew word for exile, “Galut.” How does that work?
Well, think about John for a minute—where was he when he received this vision?
In exile.
He’s in exile away from Jerusalem and the Promised Land on the Isle of Patmos.
But take note, the book itself is not the revelation of John's exile. it about the Messiah King, and where is He?
In a sense, like John, Yeshua is in exile in heaven, waiting for the appointed time to return and establish the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, just as it's declared in the Lord's Prayer instruction in Matthew 6:9-10 "Pray then like this:
Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven."
Bottomline, in Revelation the exiled King returns and ends the end of exile for His people, who often feel the world is a place they don't belong. Revelation is a gift, a graphic communication about the restoration reunion of the family of God.
It's about the end of exile, a bride restored to relationship with her husband on earth, NOT the end of time with an escape hatch to hide.
Think about it.
When the Israelites departed Egypt, they organized in twelve tribes or as we say today family trees and they resembled an army camped around the Tabernacle of the LORD God of Israel.
Here's the thing though, not everyone that left Egypt to follow the LORD was born into the family, some were sojourners that chose to go with them after witnessing the ten plagues of judgement of Almighty God.
Everyone transformed from slavery to freedom overnight on Passover whether native born or adopted sojourner as long as the door of their house was covered in the blood of the lamb.
Jacob's descendants included the adopted families of Joseph's sons and the sojourners with them that followed God's instruction delivered by Moses. They all walked through sea of baptism and 50 days after Passover when they had arrived at the mountain of God, they received the "I do" betrothal vow of the Ten Commandment ketubah to turn away from the ways of the world to live in the ways of the LORD.
That happened on the 50th day, Pentecost, aka Shavuot.
That's the good news, but the bad news is the bride broke her vow with the Golden Calf sin front and center at Mount Sinai while the mountain above held the meeting place of Moses and El Shaddai, the Almighty Elohim God.
Fast forward some 480 years later as noted in 1 Kings 6:1 and you'll see that ten families split up from Judah. The ten tribes of Israel were collectively called Ephraim and they were led by Jeroboam who broke the vow again and repeated the crime against the Ten Commandment ketubah vow.
This time the sin was doubled and it was within the borders of the Promised Land establishing idol worship of two golden calves at Bethel and Dan in northern Israel. The Book of Hosea offers significant insight regarding the restoration of the scattered ten tribes of northern Israel and John's vision on the island of Patmos.
Hosea is particularly focused on themes of marriage, unfaithfulness, divorce and God's love for His people despite their transgressions that start with a harlot's idolatry.
In Hosea 2:14-16, God expresses intentions to lure Israel back, suggesting a restoration of the relationship, much like reconciliation after divorce. Hosea portrays divorce not only as an act of judgment but also as a metaphor for the broken covenant between God and Israel.
The narrative balances the themes of divine justice with compassion, offering hope for restoration even after profound unfaithfulness. Yeshua’s blood at the cross atones and covers sin as the lamb of God for those that choose to follow. The gospel of God reason though is almost impossible to follow unless you know that the Torah in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 describes a prohibition against a woman remarrying while her husband is alive.
This law emphasizes the sanctity of the marriage covenant at Sinai and the concept of idolatry with the revelation that once a woman has been with another man, she cannot go back to her first husband as a bride, yet Yeshua's death fulfills the requirement.
Not only that, His resurrection annuls the death penalty deed of dominion over the earth Adam gave to haSatan and in the end we see the big stories of the Torah and the Prophets are a prophetic picture of the book of Revelation.
This leads us right into the core concept in prophetic thought: if you want to understand the end, where do you have to look?
According to the Bible, go back to the beginning (see Isaiah 46:10) and forget everything you have heard in sermons about the division of church and synagogue, Christian and Jew.
In the end, there's no such thing as Judeo-Christian values, there's God's way or the highway to the lake of fire.
The book of Revelation is not some heavenly riddle to frustrate us; our Creator God wants us all to find and discover His goal to live on earth as He did in the beginning. That's why our Creator God embedded the gospel of God restoration plan for humanity into the fabric of the Torah and the Prophets.
Consider the book of Numbers —its Hebrew name “Bemidbar” means “in the wilderness,” which is much more evocative than just “Numbers,” and that name itself holds clues.
“Bemidbar” is like a deep well. When you start looking at the Hebrew root word, you find the last three letters for “davar” דָּבָר —word. Wilderness is “midbar,” you also have the letter “dalet” in the ancient pictographs. What does “dalet” look like? An entrance.
And what does “bar” mean?
Bar means son.
So put it together: the name “Bemidbar” (in the wilderness) contains the word, the door, and the son. In the wilderness experience, you find the son coming through the door—who is the word. That’s the staggering insight hiding right there in “Bemidbar” the name for the wilderness journey tells you where to find the Messiah.
That’s incredible and so think about it: if you really want to have a relationship with God, if you want to hear His “davar,” His word, clearly, where do you often need to go to do that?
Into the wilderness, away from the chaos in quiet time away from the noise.
You have to separate yourself, get away from all the religious static, the light pollution and all the distractions of the traditions of men that block the voice of God we all need to hear and do just as Revelation says:
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Revelation 2:5
Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy." Revelation 22:11
Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14 KJV
Seeing and hearing God requires intentional separation—quiet time, going into the wilderness if you will. True revelation isn’t so obvious; it takes a journey away from the world’s clutter and noise.
Sticking with the theme of encoded revelation, let’s talk about the main character: Yeshua, with this title—the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek “Alpha and Omega,” the first and the last, the "Aleph and Tav".
That’s a direct claim and it’s radical, utterly uncompromising and a sign of Messiah seen in the first verse of the Bible.
Yeshua’s quoting Isaiah 44:6, where God says, “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no God, king, the Redeemer.”
So when Yeshua owns that, He is making an explicit claim, I am in unity, one with the Father.
There’s no wiggle room there.
But it goes even deeper when you look at the ancient Hebrew pictographs. This is where it gets visually stunning. In the ancient pictographic Hebrew script that Moses used, the “Aleph” picture is an ox head, symbolizing God’s strength, power, but also, crucially, humbleness displayed in forgiveness, mercy and grace.
The ox was the primary working animal for thousands of years—the strong servant.
The ancient paleo Hebrew “Tav” pictograph was drawn as crossed sticks—like a cross, or a mark, a sign, a covenant symbol.
First letter, “Aleph” last letter “Tav” —literally, visually, “Aleph-Tav” את paints a picture of servant strength on a covenant cross. The Hebrew alphabet frames the Messiah: from divine strength and origin to sacrificial servanthood on the cross and it’s embedded in the very first and last Hebrew letters.
That’s fundamental gospel truth built right into the Hebrew language and it's revealed in the first verse of the Bible between heaven and earth, so how did we lose sight of it? Why isn’t this common knowledge?
The gospel of God involves that very beginning and the end of chaos with the word, “Aleph-Tav” in Hebrew. It ppears as the Hebrew word את “et.” Grammatically, it's said to function as a marker pointing to the direct object of a verb, but it's much more, it's the herald of Messiah. It appears over 7,000 times in the Hebrew Bible and it's hidden in English Bible translations other than the word "the."
But if we go back to the very first verse of the Bible in Genesis 1:1 we find it just like we do in Revelation:
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
“Bereshit bara Elohim”—in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
The את “et” actually appears—before the heavens and before the earth. So what happened in most English translations? Like's God's name, disguised as the LORD, it's been left it out, translated it as “the,” essentially ignored as a Hebrew grammatical pointer with no deeper meaning.
But the Revelation insight is that this "Aleph-Tav” את “et”—is the signature of the first and the last—like John 1:1-5 says, the word was not comprehended.
"Aleph-Tav” את marks Yeshua ever since creation, He wasn’t an afterthought.
So ignoring the את essentially removes the witness to Messiah in Genesis 1:1 and John knew that.
It connects the end—Revelation from the beginning. That’s why Yeshua declares Himself the Aleph and the Tav—from the very beginning, where His את sign is present.
It's not just the Aleph-Tav that's found in the beginning—the entire gospel of Gid plan is packed into six Hebrew letters בּראשׁית Bereshit, tracing creation to a cornerstone prophecy from Isaiah 28. It’s a stunning example of the divine fingerprint on the Hebrew language.
Let's take some time to break down בּראשׁית “Bereshit.”
The בּראשׁית picture is God’s plan from the beginning. It's about building a home for a wife and a family, a dwelling place for Almighty God and His children in the garden. Next, within the word, you can see “bar,” the word for son—aka Yeshua, the son. Next, you have the letters that spell “esh”—fire. And “el-shin-tav” can point towards foundation, just like Isaiah 28:16: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation.”
The son is the foundation stone and Yeshua was literally laid in stone in Zion for three days and nights.
How’s the son the foundation?
Check out the Hebrew, you have “resh,” meaning head—chief, beginning. Connect that to the suffering Messiah—what’s was put on Yeshua’s head? The crown of thorns. Now consider the Hebrew letters “yud” and “tav”—the “yud” is the hand, the “tav,” is the cross where His hands were nailed to the cross. And there’s one more layer: the root letters also form “reshit,” which means first fruits—as in first fruits of the resurrection after three days.
Let me try and put that all together from the very first word of the Bible that was lost in translation—God’s plan centered on the son in the beginning, the son is the foundation, upon whose head is a crown of thorns, whose hand is nailed to the cross, and who arose from death as the first fruit of life eternal to restore the bride.
Now you know what you didn’t know from the first word of the Bible. The entire gospel message is revealed there, signed and sealed right there in the beginning, waiting for Revelation, the time of the “Hitgalut”—the unveiling.
Revelation reveals Yeshua’s identity and purpose from the beginning.
But, what about our identity in Messiah as disciples, what's our calling to follow?
Revelation calls believers to be priests to the lost, see Revelation 1:6. That’s a return call, a restoration assignment straight from Exodus 19:6.
Almighty God’s original intention for Israel was, is and will continue to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests to spread the good news gospel of God.
But what happened after the end of the first exile in Egypt? The sin with the golden calf, idolatry. After that crime scene, the covenant assignment to be a priest was broken with the firstborn so it was given to the Levites and kingship eventually went to the tribe of Judah after the priesthood went to the tribe of Levi.
They became distinct offices, but what about the lost sheep the broken branches?
Yeshua brings them together in Revelation and that restoration fact was foretold in Zechariah 6:12-13.
It’s an amazing prophecy that talks about the man who's called “the Branch,” who will build the temple of the LORD. He will rule on His throne and at the same time He will be a priest—with rule and intercession together in one person.
The prophecy explicitly says the two offices—king and priest—which have been separated for centuries, will be unified in the Messiah.
So, when John tells believers Yeshua has made us kings and priests, he’s confirming that through our reunion with Yeshua, we get participate in that assignment from Mount Sinai just as God said and Moses wrote.
Are you prepared to operate under the King’s authority with priestly intercession for others that do not follow the God of Israel?
Revelation reveals Yeshua has restored this responsibility—the king-priest identity given to Adam in the beginning with dominion over creation, so what does Yeshua have to say to instruct the priesthood in their role?
To discover that takes us right into Revelation chapters 2 and 3—where we find the messages to the seven assemblies and the warnings there aren’t new or historical postcards. Not at all—the instruction is much like the phrase you've heard... “history repeats,” and it’s true, there’s nothing new under the sun.
So yes, the seven letters John was told to deliver to were for actual physical congregations in what’s now known as the nation state of Turkey, yet they still apply.
Back in the day, those congregations had very real problems: false teachers, complacency, mixing in with a culture that does not follow God’s instruction —things we still see front and center today.
The specific letters John was told to write down and deliver addresse recurring patterns of not following the "I do" of the Ten Commandments, so the warnings are valid for every generation past, present or future.
We all need to know, the central focus for this part of John’s vision is the Menorah that's in the holy place of the Tabernacle and it’s not seen by most of us because King James Bible describes the Menorah as seven candlesticks.
Here's the thing about that, there's no bee's wax candle stick in John's vision.
John sees Yeshua standing among the seven lampstands of the menorah and that image is absolutely key. It represents the seven assemblies, but it also connects back to Zechariah’s vision and 2 Chronicles 16:9:
“The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
The eyes of the LORD are represented by the menorah lamps. The menorah holds the light, and Biblically, what provides the light?
Proverbs 6:3 give us the answer: “The commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light.”
The teaching is the olive oil light is God’s voice, His Torah and it removes darkness and the Revelation lampstands echo Zechariah's menorah, symbolizing God's presence in those He's called to shine His light on the world.
You may have never noticed it, but Yeshua is doing the daily duty of the High Priest in Revelation.
He is walking among the Menorah lights, inspecting them, tending them, seeing if they’re burning brightly or just sputtering out from the lack of the oil of the Holy Spirit—bottomline He’s checking the quality of their light.
The question is how's your light burning?
The duty to tend the menorah (golden lampstand) was first given to all Israel back in Exodus and Leviticus. The key passages are plain as day:
Exodus 27:20–21 — "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil... to keep the lamps burning continually." The duty is to keep the oil in the lamps in the tent of meeting burning brightly.
Fast forward to Revelation chapter two and three. There are seven churches, actually assemblies represented by the seven lamps, and each letter written to them pulls from wisdom in Proverbs and Jeremiah's call to repentance, urging faithfulness amid trials.
The Greek language tells us these are not churches, they are called out assemblies.
The church word is εκκλησία pronounced "ekklesía" and Yeshua sees the problems of syncretism and lawlessness in the called-out assemblies located in Ephesus, Pergamum and Thyatira.
Let’s look at the specific problems that are recurring issues.
First up, Ephesus: they get praised for hating the works of the Nicolaitans.
What exactly was that? It’s generally understood but based on the name the works of the Nicolaitans represent lawlessness—meaning, basically Torah-less-ness. The Nicolaitan concepts follow the idea that because we have grace, God’s foundational instructions, His teaching, His Torah, is done away with; the Sabbath, the Feast of the LORD or even the food we eat doesn’t matter anymore because we are saved by grace.
All grace, no faithful obedience to God's unchanging, forever word needed, but is that what God's voice says?
No. So, Ephesus rightly rejected that Nicolaitan notion—they had good works, good doctrine, so what was their problem?
They had lost their first love. They rejected the priesthood assignment.
Their works were diligent, their doctrine was sound, but their heart—their motivation, their passion of love for Jesus-Yeshua that started it all—had cooled, they were no longer disciples spreading the light to the world.
The engine was running, but the spark plugs were misfiring. they were no longer spreading the word about their first love, they were keeping it for themselves and forgot the duty of a priest.
Next, Yeshua says Pergamum lives where Satan’s throne is and there’s some serious problems there.
There’s a specific failure in Pergamum that's found in the Torah, from the doctrine of Balaam. Nothing new, that takes us back to Balaam’s story in Numbers. It’s a critical warning about something insidious called syncretism.
Syncretism is the blending, mixing deception with truth, that links us to what the serpent asked Eve, did God really say?
It's time to remember Balaam.
He was the prophet hired by King Balak to curse Israel, but Almighty God wouldn’t let him because the God of Israel had blessed them as His children, so Balaam took a different strategy—Plan B. He couldn’t curse them directly, so Balaam taught Balak how to make Israel curse themselves by putting a stumbling block in front of them, specifically enticing the Israelite men to participate in Moabite pagan feasts, eating food sacrificed to idols, and committing sexual immorality.
That willful lust of the flesh compromised their blessing. Balaam's plan was the blending of pagan worship and forbidden relationships with God’s commands—that’s the doctrine of Balaam straight from the serpent. So, the doctrine of Balaam is not just about listening to a false prophet; it’s about adopting pagan practices, blending them in with your faith. It’s spiritual adultery. It’s allowing the surrounding culture’s values and practices to infiltrate and corrupt the purity of devotion to God’s ways, to live in His image.
Think about the Greco-Roman world of John’s day, it relied on a huge influence of Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. They were very Greek thinkers, intellectuals and some early church thinkers like them wanted to be more sophisticated or acceptable to that culture and mindset so they reinvented the Sabbath and shifted it to Sunday and turned their backs on the Feasts of the LORD, calling them Jewish because the were antisemitic.
And in doing so, the Biblically Hebrew concepts, the cyclical understanding of time, the importance of Torah—got diluted and replaced in the church. That blending is called synchronism, and it is a manifestation of the doctrine of Balaam that John is warning us about today.
Next is Thyatira—you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. She calls herself a prophetess, yes, and she’s actively teaching and seducing God’s servants to do the exact same thing as Balaam.
It’s the same sin, whether the compromise comes from external accommodation or internal corruption, the result is the same: spiritual adultery, impurities, a divided heart within the assembly.
Why were all these churches told to deal with these issues?
Yeshua gave us the stark reminders because payday is coming. He quotes Jeremiah 17:7: “The mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” True, grace is free; salvation is a gift, works don't earn salvation, but rewards in heaven on earth are tied to Kingdom good deeds and the reason behind doing good works is not to help ourselves but to help others.
Are works done in obedience, flowing from His Spirit, or are works done out of selfish ambition, cultural pressure, or just going through religious motions out of fear vs. love?
God knows the difference. Accountability is real in the end.
Think about it, without good works there's no charity, no helping others in need, we're just a bunch of scrooges holding on to our cash or ignoring others in pain, allowing them to suffer when we could do something to lend a helping hand.
If you call yourself a believer and doubt this, it’s easy to unwind if you want to follow Jesus.
Consider Jesus, the ultimate servant leader.
What if Jesus was like Plato or Socrates and just said what he thought about, wrote a book and never did any thing about His faith? What if Jesus never healed a leper or a cripple, what if Jesus never gave sight to a blind man, never healed the sick or cast out demons, never raised Lazarus from the dead or suffered to cover the sins of mankind on the cross?
What if He never rose from the dead displaying the work of Almighty God who has authority of life over death, could you ever consider Jesus as the Messiah or just a philosopher on a podium?
Moving on to Sardis, this the social church. It looks good on the outside. Oh yeah, Sardis had a name or reputation; they were known for being alive, active, probably doing lots of good things. But Yeshua says their works were not perfect or complete before God. They were busy, yes, but something was missing.
They were more concerned with maintaining their reputation, their name, than with truly honoring God’s name. So, activity doesn’t equal spiritual vitality.
Their works might have been impressive to men, but they weren’t flowing from a pure heart aligned with God’s will. It was self-centered self-effort, perhaps works spotted by the flesh, as Jude 1:23 puts it. Seems like it.
The warning, “If you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief”—His return will be a surprise for everyone who isn’t watching, someone asleep at the wheel, unprepared, ignoring the gospel message outlined in the Feasts of the LORD.
Yeshua won’t come back as a thief to His watchful, waiting, prepared bride; He only comes as a thief in the night to the unsuspecting, the complacent, the worldly—represented by Sardis, who look alive but are asleep at the wheel. It’s about suddenness for the unprepared that don't see the trumpet day of the LORD starts with Yom Teruah, Trumpet's Day.
Next, the infamous lukewarm church—Laodicea.
Their problem isn’t really false doctrine or even bad works, necessarily; it is their attitude, their self-perception. Totally material, wealthy, known for Laodicea’s fine wool and medical school producing eye salve, it seems. So they said, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” Material prosperity and complacency about spiritual reality, which Yeshua describes as “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”—the complete opposite of how they saw and see themselves. Their self-sufficiency had crowded out their need for intimacy in relationship with God.
This leads to that incredibly poignant image many have missed: Yeshua is standing outside Laodicea's door, knocking. It is often pictured like a polite soft tap, waiting to be invited in to a house that does not know him, but it can also carry the sense of pounding down the door with urgency: given their dire spiritual state—poor, blind, naked, yet they are thinking they’re just fine—the context tells us the knocking is like banging down the door.
It’s like someone pounding on the door of a sleeping person whose house is on fire: “Wake up, you’re in danger!” The door is a church door.
Comfort and wealth have locked Yeshua out; twe often think we have everything we need.
After addressing the letters to the earthly assemblies, the Revelation vision shifts dramatically from the Holy Place of the Tabernacle which contains the seven branch Menorah fueled by olive oil to the Most Holy Place.
In Revelation 4 and 5—John is caught up and he sees a door open in heaven. He moves from the Menorah room—the Holy Place through another opening into the Holy of Holies, the throne room of the Most Holy.
This marks a dramatic shift in perspective. No longer is the focus on earthly assemblies and their spiritual condition; now, John is invited to witness the heavenly reality, the very center of almighty divine authority, the throne room.
Revelation moves to heaven's throne with an echo back to the Tabernacle design and Ezekiel's chariot vision, with elders and creatures praising God like we see in Psalm 103. In Revelation chapters 4 and 5, John describes being “caught up” as he enters the throne room, the Most Holy Place and he's immediately confronted with awe-inspiring sights: the throne of God surrounded by twenty-four elders, four living creatures, and countless angels.
The Most Holy scene is filled with vibrant colors, thunder, lightning, and the continual worship of God. The four living creatures, each with unique faces and wings, proclaim God’s holiness day and night, while the elders cast their crowns before the throne, acknowledging Almighty God’s sovereignty above all else.
A scroll appears in Revelation 5. It is sealed with seven seals that recalls Ezekiel's sealed book representing God's ownership, the title deed, the dominion scroll of the authority once given to Adam that's handed over to the lamb of God.
At the center stage of this heavenly throne is the lamb—Yeshua, the Messiah—who alone is worthy to open the sealed scroll and reveal its contents. This moment is pivotal because the lamb of God worthiness is rooted in perfect, sinless Torah life, sacrificial death and resurrection.
In this we see Yeshua alone fulfills the messianic prophecies of the first purpose of Messiah as suffering servant to pay the price for mankind's sin and that in resurrection, Almighty God establishes Yeshua's full authority as both King and Priest over the planet to take it's dominion back that haSatan stole from Adam and Eve.
It's the redemption of the authority Adam unwittingly gave away in the Garden of Eden.
In the beginning, Adam was given the dominion deed over earth and every living thing on it. You'l find that in Genesis 1:26-31.
Fast forward to Revelation and we see that the worship in heaven intensifies as every creature joins in praise, declaring the lamb’s authority over death to receive the eternal deed to power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing from Almighty God to rule earth as King and High Priest as it was intended from the beginning.
This heavenly behind the scenes vision sets the stage for the Bible's final big redemption and it helps us unseal the rest of the Revelation restoration promise.
Take note that the focus shifts from earthly warnings to the drama of redemption that must include God's judgment on evil and the restoration of planet earth as it was intended from the beginning to be without death.
The throne room scene emphasizes the purpose of the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and everything which follows—the opening of the seals, the sounding of the trumpets, and the pouring out of the bowls—flows from God’s sovereign plan for the Lamb’s victory over death.
John’s journey from the menorah in the Holy Place to the most holy throne in the Holy of Holies mirrors the promised journey of believers that are restored as they move from earthly service and witness to intimate relationship restored with Almighty God, participating in and understanding the fullness of God’s redemption plan in Messiah.
The gospel of God message is clear—true revelation comes not just from seeing earthly realities, but from entering into redemption in God’s presence, beholding His glory, and responding in worship and obedience.
What John sees in the heavenly throne room confirms that the earthly Tabernacle—the one Moses built—was not the original, but a reflection of the unseen heavenly reality. Moses was granted the revelation vision just like John...
1. How else would Moses known the blueprint for the Tabernacle unless he saw it?
2. Moses warnings are a prophetic reflection of the warnings given in the letters
3. The curses Moses warned of are a picture of the tribulation distress in the book Revelation
While Moses' warnings are numerous, they generally fall into two categories: amnesia or forgetting who God is and ethical decay forgetting who your neighbor is.
All you have to do is remember the critical warning regarding "adding or subtracting" from the Torah, which was Moses' way of protecting the integrity of the Torah's message to live in God's image.
Compare the following to the Revelation warnings:
1. The Warning Against Intellectual Arrogance - Success can lead to an "I deserved this" mindset, which blinds a person to their own flaws and the grace they've received so Moses cautioned the people against believing that they earned their success through their own merit or righteousness. The Verse: "Do not say in your heart... 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land'" (Deuteronomy 9:4).
2. The Warning Against Materialistic Amnesia - Prosperity often leads to the delusion of self-sufficiency so Moses warned that physical comfort—full stomachs and beautiful homes—is the greatest threat to a person’s memory of the Divine. The Verse: "Beware that you do not forget the Lord... lest, when you have eaten and are full... your heart be lifted up" (Deuteronomy 8:11–14).
3. The Warning Against Theological "Addition and Subtraction" - Altering the message to fit current trends eventually dilutes the truth until it is unrecognizable so Moses was adamant that the Covenant must remain pure. He warned against human "innovation" that changes the fundamental nature of God's commands. The Verse: "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it" (Deuteronomy 4:2).
4. The Warning Against Exploiting the Vulnerable - A nation is judged by how it treats those who cannot defend themselves so Moses warned that mistreating the a sojourner or the "Ger" would bring divine judgment. The Verse: "You shall not pervert the justice due to the stranger or the fatherless... remember that you were a slave in Egypt" (Deuteronomy 24:17–18).
5. The Warning Against Cultural Assimilation, the "Snare" - f you copy the methods of a corrupt culture, you will eventually share their fate and since Israel would be surrounded by pagan cultures, Moses warned that Israel must not adopt the dark spiritual or evil practices of the surrounding people, specifically their "detestable" rites like child sacrifice or human exploitation. The Verse: "Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them... saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?'" (Deuteronomy 12:30).
6. The Warning of Inevitable Consequences - You cannot choose the deliberate action (disobedience) without also choosing the result (destruction) so Moses warned that the world is governed by moral decay cause and effect. He set before them a binary choice: Life or Death. The Verse: "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Some 1,500 years later, John glimpsed at things that Moses and the elders atop Mount Sinai witnessed first hand, such as the pavement under God’s throne, crystal clear, and the rainbow around the throne, shining like an emerald. This rainbow is a symbol of God’s enduring covenant faithfulness and His mercy, even amidst overwhelming majesty and impending judgment.
John also saw the living creatures surrounding the throne straight out of Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel 1 which describes the lion, the ox (or calf), the man, and the eagle. This isn’t random imagery. Ezekiel chapter on represents the attributes of God reflected in creation and the realms over which humanity was meant to have dominion but failed to do until Yeshua arrived on the planet.
The lion is king of the jungle and represents royalty, boldness, and fierceness—like God’s judgment described in Hosea about the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The ox is king of domesticated animals, standing for strength, endurance, patient service, and humility—think of Yeshua taking the form of a servant, as described in Philippians 2. The eagle is the king of the birds, represents soaring vision, transcendence, and the ability to see from afar—past, present, and future—like God watching over Israel and carrying them on eagles’ wings in Deuteronomy 32. Finally, the man represents humanity itself, created to live in God’s image with compassion, intelligence, relationship, and the fullness of perfected humanity as lived out by Yeshua the Son of Man.
The four faces together capture the composite purpose of the Messiah: the ruling lion and the servant ox, the the all-seeing eagle and the compassionate man living in the fullness of God’s image, His character expressed in His creation, and this sets the stage for the next scene—the scroll that no one in heaven or on earth had been found worthy to open.
Remember in Daniel 12, the angel tells him to shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. In Revelation, the scroll appears and it remains sealed up.
The unsealing represents judgment, redemption, and the title deed to the earth and etenal life which Adam forfeited.
Now, the Lamb of God is found worthy to reclaim it, and the act of opening the seals begins. There’s a connection to Jewish tradition here that missing in most churches— it's the theme of the Feast of Trumpets, a time associated with judgment and the beginning of the heavenly court.
Revelation 6 breaks the seals mirroring the plagues of Exodus and Joel's day of judgment-war, famine, death, all rooted in Tanakh's covenant curses for those that oppose God. The martyrs crying for justice echo Psalm 79 and Habakkuk's pleas.
The unsealing of the scroll initiates a sequence as the first four seals release the four horsemen—conquest, war, famine or economic collapse, and death. Things escalate quickly; each open seal unleashes another wave of judgment on the earth, building in intensity and conflict with the main antagonists.
Revelation 7 pauses for the 144,000 sealed Israelites, a nod to Ezekiel's marked remnant and Jeremiah's restoration promises. There's alos a great multitude hinting at Isaiah's promise of universal salvation for all mankind. Revelation highlights a specific quality of the 144,000 who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion. To see it, fast forward to Revelation 14:5 where it says, “In their mouth was found no guile or no lie.”
This points to Zephaniah 3:13 which says the remnant of Israel will do no wrong and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. No guile, no deceit—purity of speech looks to be the ultimate outward mark of inward righteousness.
The trumpets heard in Revelation 8 and 9 ramp up judgment, drawing images from the Exodus locusts and hail as well as the locusts from the prophet Joel's apocalyptic swarm while the abyss imagery ties to Job's Leviathan as well as Isaiah's chaos monster.
Revelation 10 reveals a little scroll, sweet then bitter, mirroring Ezekiel's scroll-eating, which is a prophetic call to proclaim truth despite pain. Next up, Revelation 11 reveals two witnesses, killed and then raised. They reflect Moses and Elijah, with a definitive ministry focused on the Torah and the Prophets. Their power and signs will serve as a "line of demarcation" with the goal to wake up nominal believers.
The planet takes part in the judgment. The earthquake ties to Zechariah's final big quake.
Revelation 12 then shows a woman and a dragon pulled straight from Genesis where we see the promise that the 'seed' of the woman (Messiah) crushes the serpent, with the dragon's war on her offspring reflecting Satan's attacks that are noted in Job and Zechariah and the balance of the Bible.
Revelation 13 introduces two ancient figures of opposition to God: the beast from the sea and the beast from the land. The beast and false prophet amplify Daniel's fourth beast and horns, blending political and religious deception, like the false prophets in Jeremiah. The first beast rises from the sea, which Biblically often represents the sea of nations aka the Gentiles, and churning chaos, tossed about like waves. It’s a composite creature—part leopard, part bear, part lion—drawing imagery from Daniel’s visions and representing various Gentile empires and powers. This beast gets its power from the dragon aka haSatan himself—empowering the final conflict and victory of life over death.
The second beast reeks of a religious propaganda power, coming from within established religious spheres on dry land. It has two horns like a lamb, deceptively harmless, but speaks like a dragon—its voice betrays the true source of its evil power. Its main tactic is visual deception through signs and wonders, performing great miracles that make people marvel, just like the magician's snakes in Pharoah's court.
This beast uses counterfeit miracles to legitimize his anti-christ system and commands people to worship the image of the beast—it’s the ultimate test like the one in the Garden of Eden, believe and do what God says or fall for the deception, did God really say?
This is why the Torah provides the ultimate safeguard when times get tough and they will get tough.
When times get tough, remember Deuteronomy 13: “if a prophet or dreamer arises and gives a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder comes true, but then says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ you are not to listen or follow.” God allows false miracles specifically as a test of loyalty—to see whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.
The test is whether the miracle like Pharaoh’s snakes leads you to worship the one true God according to His commandments, or if you want to fall into in adultery with Pharoah with disobedience.
The deception is powerful; people will follow spectacle instead of truth.
The mark of the beast is not just about a number —the Greek word for “mark” here is charagma χάραγμα which can refer to a brand, a stamp or a badge of loyalty to the beast system. The stark contrast is presented: you either receive the mark of the beast, or you have the Father’s name written on your forehead—a mind dedicated to the God of Israel versus selling one's soul to ownership by the beast that wants to destroy it.
We are not meant to be marked with a number or a brand like cattle herded to slaughter, but to bear God’s Abba Father name in His image.
Let's back track for a minute from chapter 13 because there’s a massive 200-million-man army mentioned in Revelation 9, that's noted to show us the cosmic scale of opposition to God's ways. But there’s a crucial Torah point: the evidence is in the text, just like Pharaoh during the Exodus, it confirms that judgment leads hard hearted rebellious people to curse God and His chosen, and theres' a floodwater problem with that in the end.
What leads people to repentance is goodness, kindness, and the patience of God.
The judgment of the great city Babylon noted in Revelation and the establishment of God's Kingdom go all the way back to the origins of organized human rebellion and the result was confusion of languages at the tower of Babel that remains with us today.
In Revelation, Babylon is seen as a harlot that represents the pinnacle of worldly systems—that are political, economic, and religious—all in opposition to God's ways. The harlot's judgment is sudden, catastrophic, and complete, described as repayment and vengeance for her sins, echoing the language used against historical Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and Jeremiah 51.
The focus of Babylon’s sin in the end is detailed in Revelation 18, where the merchants of the earth weep because their debt ridden global financial markets have collapsed.
Check the headlines of your local paper or business journal and what stories do you find?
The headlines say the globe is awash and drowning in debt. The United States alone is upside down to the deficit tune of about $37.6 trillion as of this writing. You'll also find the World Bank today carries a total global debt figure of just over $300 trillion.
So, ask yourself a simple question, does Revelation 18 hit home on the debt monster—which includes debt from households, corporations and governments?
Question number two, to whom or what is all that debt owed?
To put all that systematic debt into perspective, this amount is nearly 235% of the entire world's GDP production.
Written long ago before paper money or bonds, the Revelation debt cargo lists commodities—gold, silver, jewels, fine linens, spices, chariots, slaves, and chillingly, at the end, “souls of men” and that may well point toward illicit human trafficking which is in the headlines as well.
According to ourrescue.com: “A $172.6 billion industry thrives in the shadows of our global economy, profiting from human suffering (International Labour Organization [ILO], Global Estimates Report, 2023). Human trafficking generates profits that rival some of the world’s largest corporations, representing not just a moral crisis but a complex economic phenomenon that challenges our understanding of modern markets. This exploration reveals the disturbing economics of human trafficking and its far-reaching implications for global commerce and human rights.
The “souls of men” humanity crisis continues to intensify across the planet. The illegal industry now generates $172.6 billion from forced commercial sexual exploitation annually (ILO, 2024). Current estimates show traffickers hold 49.6 million people in modern sex slavery worldwide, including 12 million children (ILO and United Nations, 2024.)”
In the end, the "beast" of the Babylon "system" is judged not just for idolatry, but adultery, prostitution and for getting rich on the oppressed and for funding war and even abortion by calling it "family planning" in America or "sexual heath" in the UK.
Thank God, for now abortion funding in the U.S is collapsing, but in the UK, sexual health clinics and family planning services are still killing and the are primarily funded through the National Health Service (NHS) branding abortion as reproductive health.
Ultimately, just as Revelation 18:24 says, “in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.” The corrupt side of our global system's are built on greed, rebellion and oppression and they will fall in darkness before the true Kingdom comes to light; because you cannot build new Jerusalem on the foundations of Babylon the Great.
Chapter seventeen's Babylon the Great pulls from Isaiah's and Jeremiah's harlot cities, judged for idolatry, with her fall echoing Egypt's collapse. Chapter eighteen's lament over Babylon uses Ezekiel's Tyre dirge, mourning economic greed.
In stark contrast to fallen Babylon as a harlot, thank God the focus of Revelation dramatically shifts to Jerusalem and a bride. The fact is Jerusalem—an earthly city today with the Temple Mount still in ruins, will be resurrected in glory and in the end New Jerusalem is seen and it will remain.
Jerusalem is the vortex, the undisputed center of the final events and judgment against evil and if you read the headlines today you can easily see that the pressure cooker is building in and all around Israel.
That would have been impossible prior to 1948, so ask yourself, are you a part of the last generation before the day of the Lord?
Revelation 14 shows harvest and grape treading that echo's Joel's judgment and Isaiah's winepress, while the purity of those 144,000 in the final census recalls Leviticus' holiness code. Chapter fifteen's sea of glass and the song of Moses that reappear tie to Exodus' Red Sea victory, praising God's triumph over evil. Chapter sixteen's bowls of wrath are a final Exodus-style plague cycle, with Armageddon rooted in Zechariah's Megiddo battle.
The final battle culminates in the valley of Jehoshaphat near Jerusalem, as described in Zechariah 14. The nations gather against Jerusalem, the city is captured, but then the Lord intervenes—His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, which splits in two. This physical return coincides with the great earthquake mentioned elsewhere in Revelation; His re-entry vortex point is Jerusalem, and the city itself gets a new status and name.
Jeremiah 3:17 says that in that day Jerusalem will be called the throne of the LORD. Ezekiel 43 calls it “the place of the soles of my feet,” where God will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.
It becomes God’s permanent earthly capital and then we see it, the new Jerusalem descending from heaven in Revelation 21:2 — it’s the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
So, this magnificent golden city is likely not what some of us think, after all John saw a vision and a city is not a city without it's citizens.
New Jerusalem is the redeemed people of God, described in architectural terms made of living stones. Its foundations have the names of the twelve apostles, the Jewish disciples. The gates have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel— and shockingly there’s no Gentile Church Gate.
What do you do with that fact?
This shows name of God’s people throughout history and that family surname is Israel.
The New Jerusalem city wall is 144 cubits—12 times 12—representing the fullness of God’s redeemed community, the lighthouse to the world God intended all Israel to be from the beginning whether native born or sojourner.
Turn the pages to chapter nineteen and we see the rider on the white horse merges Zechariah's returning king with Isaiah's righteous warrior, celebrating victory over evil.
This sets the stage after the millennial Kingdom—the thousand-year reign of Messiah on earth, ruling with a rod of iron from Jerusalem.
One of the most surprising and sobering details of Revelation is what happens after the thousand years are over: haSatan is released for a short time. After a millennium of perfect, righteous rule by King Yeshua —no deception, no injustice, haSatan still finds and recruits willing followers. He gathers a massive army from the four corners of the earth to rebel against God’s Kingdom King in Jerusalem.
Even after living under a thousand years of perfect rule, the rebellion is unbelievable, but it shows the enduring nature of the human heart, it's like a rinse and repeat of the story of Noah's day. Forced righteousness isn’t God’s ultimate goal; it’s been a freely chosen love relationship since Eden.
This underscores the depth of the human heart problem that's deceived.
Chapter twenty's thousand years and final judgment draw from Daniel's thrones and Psalm 110's reign, with the book of life tied to Exodus' names in God's book. The Gog and Magog battle echoes Ezekiel's final war defeating evil and opening the door to chapter twenty-one's new heaven and earth fulfilling Isaiah's new creation, with the new Jerusalem with no temple needed since God's presence is direct, like it was for Moses in the tent of meeting.
Chapter twenty-two's river and tree of life shout back to Eden in Genesis and Ezekiel's life-giving water, with the curse lifted per Genesis 3, sealing the Tanakh's redemption plan from the beginning.
The Revelation timing of all these latter day events connects back to God’s appointment calendar with mankind outlined in Leviticus 24—the Feasts of the Lord, the divine appointments, and the prophetic redemption timetable.
Revelation’s vision aligns perfectly with the Fall Feasts: Trumpets (judgment), Yom Kippur (atonement), Sukkot (ingathering celebration) and the last or eighth day of Sukkot, known as Shemini Atzeret, is the perfect picture of eternity.
The imagery of the great winepress of the wrath of God in Revelation 14 is significant—after all grapes are harvested and pressed in the fall, not the spring. The final judgment and in-gathering harvest happens according creation and it's season which connects to God’s fall appointment schedule that was outlined at Mount Sinai.
The winepress imagery, spanning 1,600 furlongs (about 184 miles), pictures the totality of judgment and it echos Isaiah 63, where the Lord treads the winepress alone, His garments stained red—the fierce, righteous wrath of God against thousands of years of accumulated evil, sin and rebellion and those that refuse to repent.
For those who enter the Kingdom age, there is a specific command regarding the Feasts of the LORD.
Zechariah 14 says that all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will be required to go up year by year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. If they do not, there will be no rain or they will receive plague. This shows that God’s appointed times are not old and done away with or just for Jews alone—they are eternal appointments of worship that reveal God’s character and plan, and as in days of old they will be front and center to everyday life in the Kingdom of God.
As we begin to bring this snaphot of unsealiing Revelation to a close, let’s circle back to the people of God—the remnant, the overcomers.
What’s a defining characteristic beyond faithfulness and endurance?
A lesson application comes down to watching our mouths—becuase it is what comes out of our hearts, for out of the abundance of the heart, whether good or bad —the mouth speaks. The Hebrew term is "לשון הרע" (lashon ha-ra), literally "evil tongue" — meaning harmful speech about someone behind their back is a problem.
Remember Miriam, Moses’ own sister—when she spoke against Moses, God’s anointed spokesman, she was struck with leprosy, judged for her speech. It’s a powerful warning: if we want to be part of that remnant aligned with the King and His Kingdom, we have to guard our hearts and consequently, our words. What we say is important, Almighty God hears every word and knows.
We need to stand guard over our heart and mind.
Are we speaking words of faith, truth, encouragement, light and life backed by God's book of life to others, or are we speaking dark words of criticism, deceit, or echoes of the ultimate lashon ha-ra deceiver in Eden that tricked Eve, did God really say?
Looking at Revelation through the Hebraic lens of the Tanach transforms the vision—it’s not so confusing, not such a strange or chaotic book anymore. It becomes unsealed as the capstone of the foundation connecting the threads woven through the Torah and the Prophets.
The patterns, the context of justice cycles in a redemptive rhythm to identify the King comes into focus, and that means it's time to be like the disciples that rested in the study of the Scriptures that Jesus read and taught every Sabbath just as it's recorded in Luke 4:14-16, Mark 6:1-2 and Acts 13:27; 15:21; 18:24.
The book of Revelation, like the rest of the Bible promises a blessing to those who read, hear, and keep what is written. It’s meant to produce alignment with Almighty God's voice, will and plan of hope.
That blessing is why Yeshua said do not think...
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17
What does this all mean?
It's time to repent and return to God's voice, return to hear and do His words, speak them, keep them and walk in the faith of His Kingdom path so that you can ready your lamp for your assignment to show others the way of life and light.
Revelation reveals the gospel of God Jesus spoke of.
Many sermons end by saying we are sinners and Jesus died on the cross to save you if you believe that and ask Him into your heart.
Indeed, that is good news, and we need to know:
Jesus' sermons declared the Kingdom of God is at hand, so repent return to God's voice and believe the gospel of the Kingdom.
His sermons were spoken long before anyone, including the disciples knew a thing about the Passover crucifixion cross or the resurrection from the grave three days later on the day of Firstfruits.
So what was Jesus talking about in Mark 1:14 when He proclaimed the gospel of God?
What did Peter mean when he wrote to those who are elect exiles of the diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia according to the foreknowledge of God the Father:
For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1Peter 4:17
It's unsealed, revealed in Revelation.
The Messiah's first task was as Messiah ben Joseph to suffer and begin the process to restore mankind. Adam became mortal with sin, and like him we all die. Adam brought a curse on the Earth and his sin handed over th title deed of dominion over earth to haSatan.
Jesus or rather Yeshua as the disciple John knew Him, came to start the gospel of God process to restore the made in the image of God blessing and He preached of the Kingdom of God to come.
Revelation reveals Yeshua's good news gospel role of Messiah ben David is that the beast must be overcome just like David took out Goliath and God's Kingdom restoration will come and circle back to the good beginning of life.
Heaven and Earth will be restored and our image throught ressurection will be put back to the glorious way it was before sin's curse put entropy and death into action. To understand what Earth would be like without sin, we might look at what entropy actually does and if you ask me, the laws of physics can help explain the gospel of God good news about the restoration of all things.
Entropy can be seen as a picture taken at the fall of mankind, after all it is the reason for corruption, the reason that things decay and people die, and it's the reason time has a direction. It's also the reason for rain. Have you ever noticed that rain did not show up until Noah's day when the Earth and its inhabitant's became so corrupt, the flood broke out?
Before the flood, Genesis 2:6 paints the perfect picture as there was not rain: "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."
Ever since the flood, Earth’s weather is full of storms, they can become violent and destructive driven by the movement of heat from the Sun warming air air at equator and spreading it in direct conflict with the cold poles of the planet. It's a classic entropic process.
On a renewed Earth without entropy, the world would be a place of perfect efficiency, eternal preservation and paradoxical stillness or shalom. The laws of physics shows us without entropy the result is the reign of peace and eternal life, the sting of death is swallowed up.
And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. Revelation 12:16
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Revelation 20:14
Aging and loss of life is essentially the accumulation of entropic "errors" and "damage" and its seen in DNA within cellular structures as they decline, the reality is the opposite of evolutionary theory. It's why cells decay over time, they don't improve, but God has the answer.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4
Without entropy, your body would never "wear out." Without the effect of entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that the total entropy of an isolated system can only increase would effectively be "turned off."
Perhaps, that's why we see the Sun effectively turned off in Revelation 22:3-5:
"And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name [shall be] in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever."
But before that day, we need to know tribulation will come and the shofar trumpet will sound. The Trumpets Day warnings are found throughout Revelation as is Yom Kippur and the Feast of Tabernacles.
We can know the season but not the hour, it's time to repent:
Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. Jeremiah 26:13
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn [yourselves] from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. Ezekiel 14:6
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn [yourselves] from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Ezekiel 18:30
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Revelation 2:5
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Revelation 3:3
How does Revelation sum up the Bible's restoration promises?
Check out the city called New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and take notice, there's no church gate.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Wait, why no church gate?
It's because the God of Israel will restore His Kingdom.
The book of Revelation is difficult to understand because it rejects the idea of separate people in the end called "Christians" and "Jews" dismantling the theological and historical barriers between the "Church" and the "Synagogue" merging them into a single, unified people under the identity of Israel. The message is that all followers of Yeshua are grafted into one Biblical family called the Israel of God.
This perspective reinterprets end-times pulpit prophecy, suggesting instead of the "Church" escaping tribulation and leaving Jewish people to suffer again that the tribulation is actually a period of refinement for a unified bride rather than a time for a pre-tribulation rapture to leave others behind on earth to suffer while escaping to a cloud in Heaven.
The end times are a battle where the powers of darkness refuse to give up control of the planet, and Almighty God is sending Messiah to do battle and reestablish God's Kingdom on Earth as it was intended form the beginning. Believers are not removed to avoid conflict but are left in the "kingdom of darkness" to fight and function as "light" and represent the King before the final regathering.
The book reemphasizes that the Torah serves as a marriage contract, and the letters given in the holy place before the menorah establish the conditions for living in alignment with the King as a bride before the final resurrection.
Furthermore, the vision highlights the importance of the biblical Hebrew calendar and the importance of the Tabernacle and the Feasts of The LORD urging all Bible believers to live as a prepared bride for the coming kingdom.
The restoration of the Kingdom goes all the way back to address the historical split between the House of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and the House of Israel called Ephraim (the Northern Kingdom).
Long ago, God "divorced" the Northern Kingdom and scattered them into the nations, where they were "swallowed up" and became indistinguishable from the Gentiles of the nations. He also cast out Judah 2,000 years ago among the nations, but they never lost their identity and they were called back to the Promised Land in 1948.
Historically, since the days of Solomon, Israel had been split into two rival kingdoms (Israel and Judah) and for the past 2,000 years the split has been know as Christian and Jew. Yet, Ezekiel's prophecy promises a future where God would heal that division and gather them back into one nation. The passage continues by saying they will have "one king" and "one shepherd," which is the Messianic prophecy pointing toward Yeshua ben David (the "Son of David").
Immediately following the imagery of two sticks, God explains that this reunion represents the restoration of His people, its the "One Shepherd" passage found in Ezekiel 37:24–28.
"My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees. They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever."
The restoration is in process and the plan of God is to regather Ephraim the lost sheep "outcasts of Israel" from the nations and reunite them with the "dispersed of Judah." This gospel fact will fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 11, which promises that the envy and harassment between these two sticks will cease, allowing them to function as one people again as one stick in the hand of The LORD as declared in Ezekiel 37.
Verse 19 says: "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand."
Rather than a schizophrenic view of the "Church" as a New Testament group separate and apart from the Old Testament family tribes, the 12-gate restoration vision in Revelation unseals and redraws the ancient restoration picture. It reveals that believers from the nations, aka former Gentiles as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:11–12 are "grafted into" the Israel of God.
I know it's a mind blower, but the revelation of Revelation is that there's no replacement and nothing new about the "Commonwealth of Israel." After all, Ruth (the Moabite), Rahab (the Canaanite), Uriah (the Hittite) and the Ger (גֵּר) "Mixed Multitude" that left Egypt with Israel are proof that God loves adoption.
The covenant truth is that when a Gentile comes to faith, they do not enter a separate "Gentile church box" identity, but the revelation is the former Gentile believer is no longer a stranger to the covenants of promise first revealed to Abraham.
The gates reveal believers effectively become part of the "Israel of God". This revelation removes the concept of a dispensational church age, it destroys replacement theology and reveals the concept of the "one new man" family where all believers are royal citizens of a reunited Israel of God.
Under the Kingdom restoration, there are no "second-class citizens" because everyone shares their identity as the one nation family of God. This reunited family is described as a bride and visually represented as the New Jerusalem which has gates named after the twelve tribes of Israel, implying that entry into the city is in unity with the family of Israel plan under one Shepherd King rather than a separate new church, new religion replacement.
Since Revelation teaches with visions here's a graphic to reconsider the big picture of the "restoration of all things."
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| Click to Enlarge |
For other studies on the big picture consider:
Don't Be a Victim of Identity Theft
The mission is to find people living as commoners in chaos, teach them the Scriptures and its covenants and remind them they can be part of the royal family of the God of Israel believing in Messiah King, and then train them in the King's ways, the constitution (the Torah) so they are ready when the King returns.
