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TWIN TIMELINES

Part XI

The Twin Timelines phenomenon, in which ancient historical sequences in Scripture are recapitulated in a later time period, presents us with scenarios which can seem to be implausible. The present series has demonstrated how the chronological succession of power, as well as the struggle over religion during the period of Ahab and Jezebel, has been supernaturally repeated in recent political history in America. In our last installment, we showed how Jehu’s ruse (in which he feigned support for the priests of the Baalim and the Groves in order to destroy them), anticipates Donald Trump’s overtures to corporate Christian leaders in order to gain their support in his electoral campaign against the left wing, which the believers also abhorred.

The concept that respected mainstream Christian leaders could Prophetically Parallel the Prophets of Baal (and their goddess worshiping counterparts the Prophets of the Groves), is decidedly  unpalatable to the majority of believers in the church today. To further complicate matters, we have also shown the Twin Timelines worldview is hardly limited to the specific “script” in which Ahab (anticipating the evil of Bill Clinton), is succeeded by Jezebel (foreshadowing Hillary Clinton’s corrupt political apparatus), as their collective evil is ultimately overturned by the unlikely outsider named Jehu (who prefigured Donald Trump).

We have also observed how other historic figures in the Old Testament parallel a much larger pattern at later points in time. An excellent example of this is Esau, who shunned his eternal inheritance as the chosen son of Isaac, in exchange for physical comfort. The life of Esau prefigures a massive rebellion against the LORD on the part of the Old Testament people of Israel, as they opposed Yahweh’s ordained plan of mediating the light of God to the Gentile nations. In the case of Esau, similar to the case of Jehu/Trump, we see more than one rendition of the Temporal Recapitulation pattern.

The Old Testament clearly shows that God appointed the family of Israel to shine His Holy light to the nations, as God moved to retrieve that which was lost in the fall of mankind at the Garden of Eden.

“You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2).

Students of Scripture will recall that Esau cared not for the enormous honour which was bestowed upon him through the unmerited favor of being born the grandson of Abraham, who was the father of faith. As the first born of Isaac and, theoretically scheduled to become “Israel” even before his brother Jacob was translated into that blessed role, Esau discards the enormous opportunity. Anticipating the worst trade in history, Esau’s opportunistic brother Jacob took advantage of a short term circumstance in which Esau was so famished after a field trip, he traded a meal for his birthright.

“And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage [which Jacob had prepared]; for I am faint…And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Genesis 25:30-32, 34).

Obviously Esau could have prepared his own meal, for the text tells us he “was a cunning hunter,” who was known to bring home “venison,” so his short term discomfort (and apparent impatience) to obtain a bowl of lentil soup was hardly worth something as important as his inheritance. Further, his subsequent actions indicate his self centered nature, as he ignored the path his parents advocated.

Eventually, Esau came to regret his decision, and he intensely sought the blessing of his father Isaac, but it was already too late.

“And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him” (Genesis 27:41).

As the fortunes of Jacob (who becomes known as Israel) increased, the Scriptures put forth the proposition that the blessing which Jacob received from Isaac, was related to the authority the LORD had granted to the family that God had chosen to be His people, under the promise to Abraham that out of His “seed,” all the world would be blessed.

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

As the two brothers Esau and Jacob’s lives progressed, knowing that years earlier his grandfather Abraham had insisted that Esau’s father Isaac marry within the Hebrew family, Esau rebelled from the ways of his family, and married Hittite women, to the great consternation of his parents.

“And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite” (Genesis 26:34).

The account of Esau shows that his fortunes consistently deteriorated, as he veered further and further from an honourable course of action. For instance, after Jacob received the great blessing from their father Isaac (who was on his deathbed), Esau became bitter, and even vowed to murder his brother. In fact, even before his father Isaac went on to his eternal inheritance, the Word of God tells us that as the consequences of his choices emerged, Esau’s bitterness increased, so he intentionally defied his family, and sought to provoke them through even more bad decisions. 

“When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son” (Genesis 28:9).

Most Bible readers know that Esau was dubbed Edom (which means red, apparently a reference to the red pottage he obtained in exchange for his birthright), and his many descendants became known as the nation of the Edomites. The individual history of Esau/Edom Prophetically Parallels the entire fate of the Edomites, and for many centuries we see the Edomites in conflict with their near relatives, the Israelites. We further see that, following the pattern of Esau, the nation of the Edomites consistently tried to re-insert themselves into the chosen family of God, clearly identified as Israel.

Late in the Old Testament history of the Southern branch of Israel known as Judah (where we find the Israelite people referred to as Jews), we find a branch of the Edomites were known as Idumaeans. Some years before JESUS CHRIST was born, an Idumaean military man named Antipater became indispensable to the King of Judaea in Jerusalem, and he ultimately seized the throne of what was left of Israel. The Northern Israelite kingdom of Samaria had been destroyed centuries earlier by the Assyrians, and the Idumaean dynasty of Antipater’s son Herod was the last line of rulers which had long sought to politically maneuver their way back into the family of Israel.

Seeking to reverse Esau’s tragic decision made over a thousand years before, the Idumaean King Herod even married a Judean princess to convince the Jews the Edomites should be counted as Israelites. They complied with Moses’ requirement of male circumcision, and compelled the Idumaeans to follow the commandments issued by Moses. Herod’s marriage to a Jewish royal marks an event which periodically occurs in the Twin Timelines, as we occasionally see a Role Reversal in the Temporal Recapitulation.

Just as the Hebrew Esau diluted the sacred family line of the chosen people by marrying Gentile women, Herod the Gentile usurper married a Jewish royal to seek to strengthen his illegitimate claim that he was a genuine member of the chosen people. The Herodian/Idumaean controlled government in Jerusalem actually passed laws which proclaimed the Idumaean/Edomites were to be counted as Jews – and they even seized the ancestral land of Simon, one of the 12 Israelite tribes. Their entire history Prophetically Paralleled the life of Esau, as they tried to regain the lost blessing which passed to Jacob/Israel.

However, the Herodians also recapitulated the original infraction of Esau, as King Herod sought to leaven the Jew’s religion, by incorporating Gentile religious elements into the Israelite’s Old Covenant with the LORD. To put it another way, the ancient desire of Esau to retrieve his birthright position facilitated a bitterness that marred the entire history of the Edomites, and the New Testament speaks of it.

The New Testament cautions the redeemed sons and daughters of God in Christ, concerning how circumstances sometimes move against the believer, and in this context it cites the story of Esau. As the Christ rejecting Jews are no longer to be counted as the sons of God because of Jesus (Prophetically Paralleling the shift of the blessing from Esau to Jacob), a key passage in the book written to the Christians of Hebrew descent, tells all believers not to become bitter as the LORD corrects His children’s poor choices.

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (Hebrews 12:7).

As Esau was in disfavor with his father, he resented his misfortune -- to the degree his actions were Prophetically Paralleled by an entire nation of his descendants. In short, the book of Hebrews cites the story of Esau as an example of what not to do:

“Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected” (Hebrews 12:7).    

Ironically, the book of Hebrews is positively filled with Prophetic Parallels, as the profound teaching repeatedly uses analogy – and immediately after rehearsing the tale of Esau, the author applies the Prophetic Parallels to physical Israel in the Old Testament, and their successors Born Again Israel, in the New Testament. As the Hebrews knew they were the mediator between the LORD and the Gentile nations under the Old Covenant, they also knew that God had chastised them for their historic apostasy.

“Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us…by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:10, 12).

Jesus Christ made it very clear that because Old Testament Israel dishonoured the unmerited favor related to their birthright as the chosen people, the LORD had determined to remove them from their standing as the heirs of salvation.

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

Thus, the Christians with Jewish heritage were being told in the epic writing to the Hebrews, to remember that Esau’s futile effort to regain the standing he had forfeited was tainted by bitterness, which contributed to even more widespread consequences of a negative nature. Indeed, the Hebrew prophets, voicing the heart of God, also categorically denounced the defiance found in Esau, as he stubbornly resisted the chastising of the LORD.

“I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Esau saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever” (Malachi 1:3,4).

It is a critical article of the faith that we recognize that “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), and through Christ, He has opened heaven’s gates to people of faith from every nation, without preference.

“For [He] wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by [His] blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

Thus, since the amazing grace of God, found in the New Covenant of JESUS CHRIST, does not love any Flesh and Blood people more than any other, and the LORD redeems people from every nation, the opposite side of that spectrum mandates the “indignation” of the LORD cannot fall upon anyone (such as the Edomites) based on their Flesh and Blood heritage. The Scriptures do, however, indicate that everlasting enmity with God is based on Spiritual principles, so all Christians should be extremely cautious of becoming Spiritual Edomites, which this particular Prophetic Parallel reveals; but further explanation of this truth will have to wait for the next installment of Twin Timelines.

-- James Lloyd

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To Be Continued