Kingdom Come

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

Clearly equating the children of the Ethiopians with the children of Israel. But how? Thiscan only be discovered through scrutiny of the clues scattered through scripture.

Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth;

saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD…All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen.” (Amos 9:1-11)

Prior to the fulfillment the prophecy may come to pass, providing opportunity for God’s people to recognize the unfailing truth of his word and providing sterling opportunity to witness of this until the fulfillment when:

“the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night…when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them…But ye, brethren / like Paul, sons of God are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief…let us watch and be sober…For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thessalonians 5:2-9)

The application to the tabernacle of David as a temporary dwelling place has come to pass in a variety of agents:

• David’s body which was genetically raised up through his genetic descendants, fulfilled in Jesus,
• Sons of God in whom Jesus’ Holy Spirit indwells
• David’s planned temple at Jerusalem that his son Solomon built which was destroyed but promised to be rebuilt,
• .the ark  of the covenant for the physical evidence of YHVH’s covenant with his people rescued from Egypt.

“For there was a tabernacle made…Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant…wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and 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 it had been lost to sight of his rebellious people, that is.

“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.” (II Chronicles 16:9)

And the priestly ministry of the ark of the covenant remained in force for many more years after it was lost to Israel.

“into the second [tabernacle, which holds the ark of the covenant] went the high priest alone once every year…The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all [in heaven] was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. Which was a figure for the time then present.”(Hebrews 9)

I know this sounds like heresy to Christians who speed read through difficult books like Hebrews, but the data is there. Yes, Jesus the Christ died and rose again – but the work of salvation is NOT FINISHED until the resurrection of God’s people to everlasting life!

From Hebrews 10:

• after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God…expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
  • This has not yet happened – the Adversary is still the god of this world.
• he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the LORD,
  • “Those days” specifically reference the great tribulation
• I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
  • Isn’t it patently obvious that this has not happened not only in Judaism rejecting the Christ but Christianity rejecting a holy lifestyle? It is not until great tribulation forces nominal believers to act on that belief unto death that this is established.
• And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
  • This does not refer to salvation from hell, but the need for God to chasten his people.
• Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
  • Can we not recognize the current practice in paganized Christianity of the Eucharist?
• Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
  • We are still in the era of faith in the resurrection!
• exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
  • For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

“The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Matthew 21:43)

This had precedent in the Babylonian Captivity. Jeremiah is God’s oracle at this stage in Jerusalem’s corruption exactly as Jesus Christ and Paul in the future.

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40)

And what Jeremiah’s / the Christ’s adversaries did was consign Jeremiah to a drawn-out death by torture. “Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon…Jeremiah sunk in the mire.”

“Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian”

Braaaaake!!! Stop right here!!!

Isn’t it obvious that this individuals’ name is being documented in this Book of Remembrance for the future when the books are opened and the actors judged to be discarded into fire or cherished forever?

Ebed means Servant. Transliterated to Arabic in Islam as abd it is always followed by a name of God in the sense of worshipper, as in “Abd-ullah” / Slave of Allah.

Melech means King.

“Ebedmelech…spake to the king saying, My lord the king, these men have done evil…he is like to die.”

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 to determine who exactly which king he served. Like Daniel at this same time in Babylon. When 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, and both are acting as melchizedeks, priests / intermediaries of the Most High God.

“Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee [to fight the opposition to this action!], and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die…So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison [under guard for his own safety] until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.” When, in the ages-old “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, the Babylonian conquerors treated him as Zedekiah’s prisoner of war and released him to freedom.

As for Ebedmelech: “Now the word of the LORD came…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 figure out 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 filch some solid gold items from the national treasury.

“Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon…burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem…” and a detailed listing of all the plunder from the combined temple / national treasury follows.

But! no mention of the Ark of the Covenant with the tablets written with the very finger of Israel’s God. Totally out of character from one victorious national god to his defeated adversary’s god. Israel did not have statues of YHVH. The Ark of the Covenant was Israel’s only physical manifestation of their national God.

One of the most well-known theories about the Ark of the Covenant is linked to Ethiopia’s 14th-century national epic, the Kebra Negast. According to this account, the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon in Jerusalem during the 10th century BCE and had a son by him.

This is 100% consistent with King Solomon’s political agenda, and more credible than not: “king Solomon loved many strange women, 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 the Solomonic dynasty—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…

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 Ethiopian connection to safeguarding the Ark of the Covenant is consistent with the claim that the Ethiopians also archived the pre-Flood words of Enoch. In 1773, Scottish explorer James Bruce discovered that the Book of Enoch had been preserved by the Ethiopic church, which put it right alongside the other books of the Bible. Bruce secured three Ethiopic copies of the book and brought them back to Europe and Britain. When in 1821 Dr. Richard Laurence, a Hebrew professor at Oxford, produced the first English translation of the work, the modern world gained its first glimpse of the mysteries of Enoch.

Though it was once believed to be post-Christian (the similarities to Christian terminology and teaching are striking), recent discoveries of copies of the book among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran prove that the book was in existence before the time of Jesus Christ. Many of the key concepts used by Jesus Christ himself seem directly connected to terms and ideas in the Book of Enoch. Thus, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Jesus respected it highly enough to adopt and elaborate on its specific descriptions of the coming judgment descending upon “the wicked”.

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)