Kingdom Come

Between 760 and 753 BC Amos prophecies the destruction of the nation of Judah.

“I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said…I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered…the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn…”

And then after pronouncing such extreme judgement, the LORD says:

“Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel?”

In context, the LORD must be comparing Israel’s curse to another cursed people, right?

Wrong.

In context, the LORD is comparing Israel to another blessed people as he elaborates “Have not I brought up / rescued

• Israel out of the land of Egypt?
• and the Philistines from Caphtor / Crete, [fleeing the cruel Minoan culture],
• and the Syrians from Kir [after ungodly King Azah paid the king of Assyria to conquer Damascus and carry its people to Kir like the Cherokee Trail of Tears]…

In an exquisite act of justice, since Israel snubbed YHVH’s act of grace in rescuing them from slavery in the Egyptian international empire, he will put them back where he found them.

• I will sift the house of Israel among all nations…
• All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
• yet shall not the least grain [the tiny remnant of faithful] fall upon the earth.
• In that day [prophetic future judgment] will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen…his ruins…
• That they may possess the remnant of…all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD.”  (Amos 9:1-11).

While awaiting the permanent dwelling place of the Son of David “Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God” (I Peter 3:21-22), the tabernacle /temporary dwelling place of the spirit of the prototypical king of Israel is carried in a variety of agents:

• David’s body which was genetically passed down through his Y chromosome through his descendants, fulfilled in Jesus.
• Sons of God who share the same experience as David of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
• Melchizedek David’s planned temple at Jerusalem, built by his son Solomon, destroyed but promised to be rebuilt.
• the Mosaic tabernacle / tent…Which had
  • the golden censer,
  • and the ark of the covenant…
  • the golden pot that had manna
  • Aaron’s rod that budded
  • the tables of the covenant / Ten Commandments;
  • And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat;

of which we cannot now speak particularly.” (Hebrews 9)

Because these items disappeared from public view when the kingdom / government of God was

• taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof…
• For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
• Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 21:43, I Chronicles 16:9, Matthew 25:40)

The transfer of this ministry occurred during Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem. For 20 years from 605-586 BC the prophet Jeremiah was denouncing Jerusalem’s corruption and urging repentance exactly as Jesus the Christ and Paul did in the future. And this brought down on him, did as surely as to the Christ himself, relentless attacks on his life.

From Jeremiah 38:

“Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon…Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

“Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king’s house heard that…Ebedmelech went forth out of the king’s house, and spake to the king saying…he is like to die…Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee [to defend your rescue operation], and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.

Ebed–Melech means Servant of the King. Transliterated to Arabic as abd where it is commonly used and always followed by a name of God in the sense of worshipper, as in “Abd-ullah” / Slave of Allah. We can brush right over this servant’s name as meaning servant to the current king of Israel, or we can apply some higher order critical thinking skills to the record of this critical event.

Because Ebedmelech approaches the king as a moral authority in the same way as Daniel in Babylon speaking out for the God of YHVH despite facing death for doing so, clearly the king served by Ebedmelech is the same one served by Daniel – the Most High God.

Like Daniel as an Israelite captive in Babylon assigned to serve the King of Babylon because he had a royal’s rare political expertise, Ebedmelech an Ethopian captive in Judea could only be serving the King of Judea because he too was a royal trained in government administration and international relations.

Ebedmelech’s royal lineage is found in Ethiopia’s national epic the Kebra Negast which documents that when the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon in Jerusalem during the 10th century BCE she had a son by him.

This does not have to be confirmed in scripture to be credible, as it is 100% consistent with King Solomon’s standard a practice of forging political alliances through family ties that every single occurrence wasn’t documented within the broad strokes of “together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites…Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses…” (I Kings 11:1-3)

Ethiopia’s medieval kings called themselves the Solomonic dynasty and claimed direct descent from Menelik and Solomon. This dynasty ruled until 1974, and their biblical connection was codified in Emperor Haile Selassie I’s 1931 and 1955 constitutions…

Ebed-Melech is a “heathen called by my name” as much as those called by the Order of “Melchi-zedek” / King-Priests.

“Now the word of the LORD came [to Ebedmelech]…thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword…because thou hast put thy trust in me.” (Jeremiah 39:15-18)

Can we not anticipte that just as Ebedmelech the Ethiopian (hint, hint, stated 4 times in 9 verses)

• risked his life to save one oracle of YHVH,
• he would likewise risk his life to save the other, even more valuable Word of God? And risked his life he would have, trying to sneak some solid gold items from the national treasury.

For sure somebody did, as during this siege the Ark of the Covenant disappeared from history.

From 2 Mcabbabees 2:1-5:

“Jeremiah Hides the Sacred Objects for Worship. According to the official records, Jeremiah the prophet…in obedience to a divine revelation, issued orders [to whom?] that the tent and the Ark should accompany him, and that he went off to the mountain that Moses had ascended to view God’s inheritance  [on what is now the border with Jordan]. Upon arriving there, Jeremiah found a cave-dwelling where he placed the tent, the Ark, and the altar of incense, after which he blocked off the entrance.Some of his companions came up later with the intention of marking out the path, but they were unable to find it. “

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church leaders claim that the Ark of the Covenant has for centuries been closely guarded in Aksum at the Church of St. Mary of Zion. Not even the high priest of Aksum can enter its resting chamber. Its sole custodian is a virgin monk who cannot leave the sacred grounds until his death…throughout the Ethiopian Orthodox world…Each one of their churches houses its own tabot, a sacred replica of the Ark. Tabots are kept in the Qeddest Qeddusan, or Holy of Holies, and are only taken out during festivals and times of need. Indeed, each tabot is venerated as if it were the Ark itself.

The likelihood of an Ethiopian connection to safeguarding the Ark of the Covenant is consistent with the discovery in 1773 that the Book of Enoch had been preserved by the Ethiopic church, which considered them as canonical as the books of the Bible.

Because of the striking similarities to Christian terminology and teaching the Book of Enoch was once believed to be post-Christian. This can be resolved by acknowledging the Hebrew Commonwealth of Nations predating Christianity, proven by recent discoveries of copies of the book among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran showing that the book was in existence before the time of Jesus Christ. Many of the key concepts used by Jesus Christ himself are directly connected to terms and ideas in the Book of Enoch.

Over a hundred phrases in the New Testament find precedents in the Book of Enoch. Another remarkable bit of evidence for the early Christians’ acceptance of the Book of Enoch was for many years buried under the King James Bible’s mistranslation of Luke 9:35, describing the transfiguration of Christ. Apparently the translator here wished to make this verse agree with a similar verse in Matthew and Mark. But Luke’s verse in the original Greek reads: “This is my Son, the Elect One: hear him.”

The “Elect One” is a most significant term (found fourteen times) in the Book of Enoch…great scriptural authenticity is accorded to the Book of Enoch when the “voice out of the cloud” tells the apostles, “This is my Son, the Elect One” – the one promised in the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Jude tells us in verse 14 that “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied…” Jude also, in verse 15, quotes the Book of Enoch (2:1), where he writes, “to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly.” It appears that these written prophesies were available to him at that time.

The piece d’ resistance for an argument in favor of the Ark of the Covenant with its contents being, with forethought and intent, safeguarded and operated by Ethopians until Jesus the Christ fulfills its purpose by his return is found in the New Testament.

“And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza…and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet… And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth…And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this?…

In the media frenzy over the recent unjust execution of Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, without question this high-ranking politician would be wondering, “is the prophet speaking of this Jesus?”

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus…

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him / joined him to the body of believers.” (Acts 8)