What is man?

What is meant by Jacob’s trouble and how to survive it?

The book of Revelation is full of warnings of disturbing events that will soon start happening throughout the world. In fact, I believe that it has already started in places like South Africa (and South America), where we have had ongoing violent service delivery demonstrations in Municipalities throughout the country for the past few months. In addition, after the newly elected President announced the expropriation of property without compensation to be promulgated as a law of the land in the near future, we have had numerous cases where hordes of people invaded farm lands including wine farms in the Western Cape leading up to major problems for landowners, since law and order has become non-existent. Over the past few months numerous public buildings, passenger trains, grocery and liquor stores have been set alight and or ransacked by hordes of people who claim to demonstrate for better services, with the hidden agenda of distributing the little wealth still available in the country. In the final chapter of the book of Revelation, Yahshua Messiah the Revelator concluded in verse 7, saying: “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” However, most do not fully understand the urgency of heeding the staggering prophetic warnings in the Scriptures. The prophecies in the Scriptures are not to be taken lightly, since the future of mankind is at stake! If we pay attention to these warnings that Elohim recorded for us in His Word, He promises a way to escape so that we need not suffer the dangerous times ahead of us. The sufferings which will overwhelm this planet and all nations upon it need not happen to us. Elohim made His warnings known to mankind in His word for thousands of years, but because Elohim seemed so unreal to most people, they do not have regard for the word of Elohim and do not accept that the prophecies given in the Scriptures to be applicable to them any longer. It is for this reason that millions today, plod on like ignorant sheep, heedless, careless, calloused and skeptical. They are as if sleep-walking, totally unaware of the grave danger ahead.

Although our heavenly Father is a merciful loving Father, He has just about had it with mankind, but more specifically with the house of Israel whom He has been warning to return to Him and His ways throughout the Tanach. However, deceived by Satan and his many agents who are supposed to be the spiritual guides and teachers in Israel, very few are beginning to pay attention to what YHVH is saying to us in His word. Instead many in Israel listen to the so-called prophets of yesteryear, like the French prophet Nostradamus and the South African prophet ‘Seer’ van Rensburg and newly self-appointed prophets who have no idea of what they are talking about. It is for this reason that YHVH warns these so-called prophets in Israel in Ezekiel 13: 1 – 9, saying: ‘Then the word of YHVH came to me saying, (2) “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own inspiration, ‘Listen to the word of YHVH! (3) Thus says YHVH Elohim, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. (4) O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. (5) You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of YHVH. (6) They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying, ‘YHVH declares,’ when YHVH has not sent them; yet they hope for the fulfilment of their word. (7) Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘YHVH declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?”’” (8) Therefore, thus says YHVH Elohim, “Because you have spoken falsehood and seen a lie, therefore behold, I am against you,” declares YHVH Elohim. (9) “So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am YHVH Elohim.”’ Instead of listening to or studying the prophecies of these so-called prophets and modern day wannabe prophets of our nations, we need only turn to the Scriptures to see what YHVH has foretold to happen to both houses of Israel in the latter days through the prophecies of the ancient prophets of Israel.

Our Father has given us a graphic description of the trouble that would befall us through His word in the near future, when He will pour out His wrath on mankind in Ezekiel 7: 2 - 11, saying: “And you, son of man, thus says YHVH Elohim to the land of Israel, “An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land. (3) Now the end is upon you, and I shall send My anger against you; I shall judge you according to your ways, and I shall bring all your abominations upon you. (4) For My eye will have no pity on you, nor shall I spare you, but I shall bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will know that I am YHVH!’ (5) Thus says YHVH Elohim, ‘A disaster, unique disaster, behold it is coming! (6) And end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you; behold, it has come! (7) Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near—tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains. (8) Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you, and spend My anger against you, judge you according to your ways, and bring on you all your abominations. (9) And My eye will show no pity, nor will I spare. I will repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, YHVH, do the smiting. (10) Behold, the day! Behold, it is coming! Your doom has gone forth; the rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. (11) Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, none of their multitude, none of their wealth, nor anything eminent among them.’”’ YHVH continued His warning message to the nations of Israel, telling them in verses 14 – 21 that their silver and gold will become worthless, when He gives them into the hands of foreigners, saying: ‘They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle; for My wrath is against all their multitude. (15) The sword is outside, and the plague and the famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also consume those in the city. (16) Even when their survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each over his own iniquity. (17) All hands will hang limp, and all knees will become like water. (18) And they will gird themselves with sackcloth, and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. (19) They shall fling their silver into the streets, and their gold shall become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of wrath of YHVH. They cannot satisfy their appetite, nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling. (20) And they transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them. (21) And I shall give it into the hands of the foreigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it.’”’

The world does not have long to wait before shocking, earth-shattering events will start happening at breathtaking speed, like it happened in Europe immediately prior to World War II. Rav Kepha wrote about the attitude of people in the world today in 2 Peter 3: 3 & 4, saying: ‘Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, (4) and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” Rav Shaul aptly described the people of today in Romans 1: 28, saying: ‘And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge Elohim any longer, Elohim gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.’ There are not many people who believe that Elohim is going to intervene in human affairs in the near future. But, surprising as it may sound, there is sufficient evidence that the miracles and historical events recorded in Scriptures actually happened. And if we can prove that they actually occurred, we can be absolutely certain that the events prophesied for our day and age will also happen in due course. Let’s therefore turn to the books recorded in the Scriptures to see how Elohim intervened in world affairs in the past and afterwards, we will study Elohim’s end time warning message for us and how we can prepare to escape the terrible holocaust this world is bringing upon itself. Turning to the book of Jude, we see from verses 14 & 15, how Elohim warned rebellious mankind what would befall them at Messiah’s return, whilst Adam was still alive, saying: ‘And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, YHVH came with many thousands of His holy ones, (15) to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”’ We see from Genesis 5: 22 that Enoch walked with Elohim and during his lifetime YHVH told him that He will one day come with power to execute justice and to convict wicked sinners for their sins. But similarly, there were also other prophets who delivered similar warnings to mankind throughout the ages, as witnessed in Acts 3: 18 – 24, as follows: “But the things which Elohim announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Messiah should suffer, He has thus fulfilled. (19) Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of Adonai; (20) and that He may send Yahshua, the Messiah appointed for you, (21) whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which Elohim spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. (22) Moses said, ‘YHVH ELOHIM SHALL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED in everything He says to you. (23) And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ (24) And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.”

Rav Kepha tells us in 2 Peter 2: 5 that YHVH used Noah to warn the people of a worldwide catastrophe just prior to the flood of those days, saying: ‘And did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.’ We see the reason why YHVH spared Noah and his family from Genesis 6: 8, 9 and 7: 1, in this way: ‘But Noah found favor in the eyes of YHVH. (9) These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with Elohim. (7: 1) Then YHVH said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.”’ When Elohim warned Noah about the destruction to come, he followed Elohim’s instructions given in Genesis 13 – 18, to make an ark for him and his household, to escape the flood that He was preparing to destroy all mankind. Noah obeyed, as recorded in verse 22 of Genesis 6, as follows: ‘Thus Noah did; according to all that Elohim had commanded him, so he did.’ We also see from Matthew 24: 38 & 39 that the world around Noah remained heedless at that time, in this way: “For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, (39) and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” Later, during Abraham’s time serious sins were committed in the city of Sodom, as witnessed in Genesis 13: 13, as follows: ‘Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against YHVH.’ We also see from Genesis 14: 17 - 22 how at that time Melchizedek the king of Salem who was a Priest of the Most High met with Abram and the king of Sodom. It was during this meeting that Abram paid a tithe to Melchizedek and considering the time of the meeting, Melchizedek must have warned the Sodomites to repent of their evil deeds, or eventually suffer the consequences for their sins, namely death! Judging from this contact, there must have been previous occasions during which the king of Sodom and Melchizedek met and communicated. But, their sins eventually became so bad that Elohim finally ordered that the entire population of the city be destroyed by fire and brimstone as punishment, just as the entire earth’s inhabitants were destroyed during the flood, except for Noah and his household. As recorded in 2 Peter 2: 6 - 9, Lot was the only righteous man living in Sodom, when Elohim destroyed Sodom, in this way: ‘And if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; (7) and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (8) (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), (9) then Adonai knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.’

The messengers of Elohim warned Lot that He was about to destroy Sodom as punishment for their sin, as witnessed in Genesis 19: 1, 12 & 13 as follows: ‘Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. (12) Then the men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; (13) for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before YHVH that YHVH has sent us to destroy it.” We see from verse 14 that Lot also warned his sons-in-law to leave the city, but they like the people of today, thought he was joking and made fun of him. But, we see from verses 24 & 25 how Elohim destroyed these communities, in this way: ‘Then YHVH rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from YHVH out of heaven, (25) and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.’ Most people today are not in the least concerned with warnings such as these in the Scriptures. Most will continue to enjoy the excesses and illegal materialistic pleasures of the world. They ridicule any mention of Elohim’s warnings of looming disaster and could not care less simply because they do not believe that Elohim exists. But, because Elohim is a merciful Elohim He warned ancient Israel of the punishments He would bring upon them if they continue to live in sin, as witnessed in the book of Deuteronomy 28. Verses 1 - 14 contain the blessings they would receive if they obey Elohim and verses 15 – 68 contain the curses they would receive, for not obeying His teachings. But, we see that faithless Israel sinned in spite of these warnings, as recorded in 2 Kings 17: 13 – 15 as follows: ‘Yet YHVH warned Israel and Judah, through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” (14) However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in YHVH their Elohim. (15) And they rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which YHVH had commanded them not to do like them.’ We see from verse 20 that YHVH then punished them, as He warned, in this way: ‘And YHVH rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.’

The book of Jonah in Jonah 1: 1 – 2 and 3: 1 – 4 shows that Elohim was also merciful to Gentiles and warned them of impending destruction because of their sins, as follows: ‘The word of YHVH came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, (2) “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (3: 1) Now the word of YHVH came to Jonah the second time, saying, (2) “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” (3) So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of YHVH. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. (4) Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”’ In the case of Nineveh the entire city believed Elohim’s message and repented as recorded in verse 5, and we see from verse 10, that when Elohim saw that they turned from their wicked ways, He changed His mind regarding the disaster He was about to bring upon them. But we see later from the book of Nahum Chapters 1: 1 and 3: 1 – 3 that the repentance of Nineveh did not last very long, when YHVH again warned them, in this way: ‘The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. (3: 1) Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; her prey never departs. (2) The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of the wheel, galloping horses, and bounding chariots! (3) Horsemen charging, swords flashing, spears gleaming, many slain, a mass of corpses, and countless dead bodies— they stumble over the dead bodies!’ The punishment Elohim meted out to these Gentile people are recoded in verses 4 – 7, as follows: ‘All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries, and families by her sorceries. (5) Behold, I am against you,” declares YHVH of hosts; “and I will lift up your skirts over your face, and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace. (6) I will throw filth on you and make you vile, and set you up as a spectacle. (7) And it will come about that all who see you will shrink from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her? Where will I seek comforters for you?” The Assyrians of Nineveh returned to their old ways of sin soon after the threatened catastrophe did not occur and about a hundred and fifty years later, Elohim pronounced Nineveh’s final doom through the prophet Nahum.

Yahshua indicated in Matthew 24: 21 & 22 that the coming Kingdom of Elohim will be established during a time of world-wide war and distress, saying: “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. (22) And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.” The world we live in is full of weapons of mass destruction that could destroy all life from the face of the earth. We are today living in the days that Yahshua spoke about and unless the time of trouble immediately ahead of us is not shortened, no flesh would be saved alive. Those alive at this time will witness the destructiveness of nuclear war, but we will also witness the last-minute intervention by Yahshua our Messiah to come and save us from ourselves. The seventh trumpet will announce the victory of the King of kings, before this generation will pass away. The tremendous sound of Elohim’s voice is compared to the sound of the great trumpet in Revelation 1: 10 & 11, as follows: ‘I was in the Spirit on (YHVH)’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, (11) saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven congregations: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”’ The sound of the shofar filled those who heard it with fear, because they knew it signified the horror of impending war. It is the warning of war that gives the joyous Feast of Trumpets its contrasting note of seriousness. We are told in Ezekiel 33: 2 – 6 that the ram’s horn was blown by a watchman of the Israelites when an enemy approached the camp, in this way: “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman; (3) and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the trumpet and warns the people, (4) then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. (5) He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. (6) But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’”

Verses 7 – 9 of Ezekiel 33 tells us that Elohim appointed watchmen over the house of Israel to warn the wicked to turn from their sins; should these watchmen not transmit Elohim’s warning to the wicked and they die in their iniquity; He will require their blood from the watchmen. But if the watchmen warn the wicked to repent and they do not listen and therefore dies, the watchmen will have saved their own lives. Throughout the ages the faithful servants of Elohim were responsible to warn His people, as witnessed in Amos 3: 6 & 7, as follows: ‘If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not YHVH done it? (7) Surely YHVH Elohim does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets.’ We read Elohim’s instruction to us through Isaiah 58: 1, saying: “Cry loudly, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins.” YHVH has revealed what is going to happen before Messiah’s return on earth in Matthew 24: 1 – 29. Yahshua warned His disciples (and by implication also us His modern day disciples) about the many counterfeits of the true faith, where false teachers will come in His name and will mislead many. He also told them that they will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but that they should not be terrified, since these things must happen before the end will come. He warned that some of us following His teachings will be delivered up to tribulation, and some will be killed for believing in His true name. Many will fall away and deliver up one another, and because lawlessness will increase, most people’s love for Elohim will grow cold. But, He assured those who endure to the end that they will be saved. He also commissioned His followers to proclaim the gospel of the coming kingdom of Elohim, as a witness to all nations; then the end shall come.

We see the reason for the punishment YHVH is about to unleash upon the earth in Isaiah 24: 3 – 6, in this way: ‘The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for YHVH has spoken this word. (4) The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. (5) The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. (6) Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.’ Elohim says He will bring this distress upon defiant and sinful men who hate the truth and peace and love evil. Even so, Elohim’s punishment will be a manifestation of His love for His people, as is recorded in Hebrews 12: 5 – 7, as follows: ‘And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF YHVH, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; (6) FOR THOSE WHOM YHVH LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” Elohim’s punishment is directed at those that He wants now to repent from their evil deeds as Rav Kepha wrote in 2 Peter 3: 9, saying: ‘YHVH is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.’ A popular myth is that Elohim is about to close ‘probation’ and that the time of salvation will soon be over. According to this belief, a ‘resentful Elohim’ will soon bring down His rage by pouring out unbearable torture upon defenseless human beings. But, this is totally a pagan idea of a god capable of all the base passions of degraded men, and is totally untrue of the one and only true Elohim.

Right from the time when YHVH recreated the world, after Satan’s rebellion, He set spiritual laws of cause and effect in motion and even though He explained it to mankind, under Satan’s influence, they chose to follow their own ideas of what is right and wrong. Like He did with Adam and Eve, YHVH initially explained these Laws to His people, as witnessed in Genesis 6: 9 to Noah and in Genesis 26: 5 to Abraham. When Israel eventually became more numerous, He led them as His chosen nation out of Egypt and gave them His Torah as a manual of how to live happy abundant lives. But, because they did not want to be prescribed to how to live, they like Adam and Eve partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil on a daily basis. After the house of Israel rejected Elohim’s way, He scattered them to live among the Gentile nations of the world, where deceived by Satan, they eventually were taken captive by Esau in the guise of the Roman Church and became Christians. Elohim has since pleaded with them through His prophets in the Tanach, but because they have been taught by their Christian teachers that the Tanach including the Torah was fulfilled or abolished for them by their false messiah, they rejected the message, and killed the prophets. In addition rebellious mankind put Elohim’s Son who brought the good news of the Kingdom of Elohim in the world to come to death. They martyred His apostles who went out into the world to proclaim the message to the exiles of the house of Israel, dispersed among the Gentiles. Elohim has given the Gentiles called by His name (from the house of Israel) every chance to turn from their wicked ways, but they would not heed and without defeating His purpose for us, He did not remove the right of free moral agency from us. Except for a very few people whom YHVH is busy calling during this age, mankind proved that they will not respond voluntarily as long as Elohim’s pleading is limited to words. Elohim is therefore about to step in and speak to this rebellious and hell-bent people with more than words.

Like any wise and loving father punishes his children for their own good, when they refuse to respond to kind and loving verbal admonition, so will an all-loving, all-wise Elohim finally plead with the rebellious house of Israel in the only language they are able to understand. Yes, He is going to punish the Israelite nations of the world with righteous judgment, including plagues so terrible that many will at last recognize Elohim is dealing with them. Many will start to listen and turn from their wicked ways to seek Elohim and His ways that lead to peace and everything good, during the great tribulation. The time following the tribulation described in more than 30 different prophecies throughout both the Tanach and the Renewed Covenant as the ‘day of YHVH’, shall lead directly into the second coming of Messiah and world peace! After the awesome signs in the heavens and earth occur and immediately before the seventh seal are opened, further disruptions will be stopped for a brief period of time as described in Revelation 7: 1 – 4, in this way: “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. (2) And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living Elohim; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, (3) saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants of our Elohim on their foreheads.” (4) And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.” The ‘four winds’ are symbols of the four trumpet plagues, but they are restrained from blowing until the ‘servants of Elohim’ are sealed on their foreheads. First of those to be sealed are the 144,000; 12,000 from each of the 12 literal tribes of Israel.

But what is this ‘seal’ with which they are sealed? We see the answer given in among other Ephesians 1: 13 & 14, as follows: ‘In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Set-apart Spirit of promise, (14) who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of Elohim’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.’ The 144, 000 are sealed ‘on their foreheads’ or symbolic of their minds by receiving the Set-apart Spirit of Elohim, which is Elohim’s name or authority written there. Yahshua’s final prayer for His congregation of called our believers was that they would be kept in the Father’s name (as may be read John 17: 11). This sealing, or receiving of Elohim’s Spirit, is a result of personal repentance of past sins and total surrender to Elohim’s righteous ways, and by which we are kept in the Father’s name. After the 144,000 are sealed, a great number of others will also be sealed, as we see from Revelation 7: 9, in this way: ‘After these things I looked and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands.’ But, who are these people from all nations? We find the answer in verse 13 & 14 of Revelation 7, as follows: ‘And one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?” (14) And I said to him, “My Master, you know.” And he said to me "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”’ They are seen clothed in white robes, symbolizing purity and righteousness – obedience to Elohim’s laws – unspotted by the ways and customs of the world. As they see Elohim’s intervening through terrible supernatural signs in the heavens and on earth, this great multitude of all nations will surrender themselves completely to Elohim; ask Him to cleanse them from all their past sins by the blood of Yahshua Messiah and be brought under divine protection, so that just as Elohim protected the children of Israel when He poured out the plagues on ancient Egypt, so shall all these be protected from the plagues to come. Then, just as those protected from those ancient plagues were taken under Moses and Joshua to the Promised Land, so shall those saved from the coming plagues be taken by Messiah, the second Joshua, into the Kingdom of Elohim – to be set up on earth with headquarters in Jerusalem! Halleluyah!