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The True Fulfillment of Prophecy, second final

It occurred to me that in order for this series on prophecy to be complete, it should include a section on the kings from the east, because this is a topic that is usually misunderstood.

Revelation 16 is a chapter detailing the long-term prophetic fulfillment of the seven days of Tabernacles. It focuses specifically on meaning of the drink offering of wine that was poured out each day for seven days. Numbers 19:12 says,

¹² Then on the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work, and you shall observe a feast to the Lord for seven days.

Drink offerings (of wine) were to be poured out on the first day (Numbers 29:16), on the second day (Numbers 29:19), etc. According to Alfred Edersheim, these drink offerings, along with wine, also included water:

“On every one of the seven days the priest filled a golden pitcher with water from the Pool of Siloam… and brought it through the Water-gate to the Temple, where he poured it, together with the wine of the drink-offering, into two perforated silver bowls.” (The Temple: Its Ministry and Services as They Were at the Time of Jesus Christ (London: Religious Tract Society, 1874), chapter 14, “The Feast of Tabernacles.”)

Edersheim then explains:

“The pouring out of the water was regarded as symbolic of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”

Again, he writes in the same chapter,

“At the same time that the wine was poured into the one bowl, the water from the Pool of Siloam was poured into the other.”

Hence, the offering of wine, representing blood, prophesied of divine judgment, while the offering of water prophesied of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He also notes that the priest poured them out at the same time into two separate silver basins connected to the altar.

The traditional description, derived from the Mishnah (Sukkah 4–5), says that the priest held the water pitcher in his left hand and the wine pitcher in his right hand, pouring them simultaneously.

This helps explain why the Gospel of John 7:37–39 connects Tabernacles imagery with living water and the Holy Spirit. The feast itself was held in the seventh month, which was called by two names: Tishri, “beginning,” and Ethanim, “flowing waters.”

Tabernacles Prepares for Judgment by the Holy Spirit

The feast of Tabernacles under the Old Covenant ritual prophesied of both judgment and the outpouring of the Spirit simultaneously. Jesus said in John 16:7-11,

⁷ But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [“Comforter,” KJV] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. ⁸ And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; ¹¹ and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit goes far beyond imparting the gifts of the Spirit. On the level of long-term prophecy inherent in the feast of Tabernacles, it is about judging “the ruler of this world” as well as to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness.” For the moment, our focus is upon this judgment. Revelation 16 portrays seven bowls of wine being poured out, climaxing with the judgment and overthrow of Mystery Babylon.

In John 7:37 we read that Jesus made His call “on the last day, the great day of the feast,” that is, the 8^th day of Tabernacles, when no water was offered as a drink offering. He shouted, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’.” In other words, the time would come when one would have to transition from literal water to the Source of living water Himself.

This was a reference to the prophecy in Isaiah 12:2, 3, which says (literally),

² Behold, God is my Yeshua… For Yah Yahweh is my strength and song, and He has become my Yeshua. ³ Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of Yeshua.

Jesus understood that this prophesied of Himself, as His Hebrew name was Yeshua.

Whether the Holy Spirit judges Mystery Babylon or personal sin, the ultimate purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bring repentance to all and to break the power of the institutions that hold men in bondage to sin. Only then can the Spirit guide us into all truth (John 16:13), for then the fleshly impediments will be removed.

The big impediment is the Old Covenant veil that prevents men from seeing the glory of God (2 Corinthians 3:13-18). As long as one is caught up in an Old Covenant mindset, they are partially blind and cannot truly see the glory of God or His goodness. Exodus 33:18, 19 says,

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” ¹⁹ And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you…

The goodness of God is manifested by understanding how God created all things “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and how He will ultimately restore all of creation to Himself. How will He do this? Who will He use to accomplish His will? Those are the big questions.

The Eastern Kings

The sixth bowl of wine that was poured out in judgment upon Mystery Babylon is described in Revelation 16:12,

¹² The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.

Many in the church have interpreted this to mean that China, Iran, Russia, and/or others will mobilize to attack the state they believe is Israel. Hence, they see these “kings” as God’s enemies, and this is the foundation of their interpretation of Revelation 16:12. But if they would study history, they would quickly discover that the overthrow of Mystery Babylon is a repeat of the overthrow of the original city-empire of Babylon in the days of Daniel.

In those days, the “kings” were the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5:28), whom God had raised up to overthrow Babylon and to set free the captives of Judah. Was Cyrus an enemy of God? No, Isaiah called him “My shepherd” (Isaiah 44:28) and a “messiah” (Isaiah 45:1). Isaiah 44:28 says,

²⁸ It is I who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.” And he declares of Jerusalem, “She will be built,” and of the temple, “Your foundation will be laid.”

The main difference is that during Daniel’s time, the prophecy was fulfilled in the earthly city and the second temple, while in Revelation 16 the future prophecy applies to the heavenly Jerusalem and the spiritual temple described in Ephesians 2:20-22. Likewise, the old city of Babylon is not the same as Mystery Babylon today.

The main point is that although Cyrus himself did not know the God of the Bible (Isaiah 45:4), this was no impediment to the purpose of God. God does not need believers to use them in accomplishing His will.

Likewise, Darius the Mede ruled the city (Daniel 5:31) for about three years while Cyrus continued his conquests. Daniel 6:1-3 tells us that Darius reorganized the kingdom into 120 satraps (provinces), a number pointing to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He installed Daniel as the chief of “three commissioners” (Daniel 6:1-3). Daniel represented the overcomers in his day, and God inspired Darius the Mede to be the chief ruler in his kingdom.

This foreshadowed greater things to come, all of which were forecasted in Revelation 16. Hence, the “kings from the east” are not God’s enemies but are accomplishing the will of God. Those who teach that today’s kings from the east are God’s enemies are actually showing that they themselves are working against the plan of God. Who, then, are the real enemies of God?

The blindness manifested in such prophecy teachers is rooted in their Zionist view. They function in the spirit of Edom and have an Old Covenant view of prophecy, complete with a physical temple in Jerusalem, Levitical priests, animal sacrifices, and (perhaps most importantly) the view that all non-Jews must be exterminated or driven out of the land.

The River Euphrates

Part of the prophecy to Cyrus, the Persian king, is written in Isaiah 44:27,

²⁷ It is I [God] who says to the depth of the sea, “Be dried up!” And I will make your rivers dry.

History tells us that Cyrus diverted the water of the Euphrates upstream from Babylon, so that his troops could walk into the city on the “dry” riverbed. Herodotus, the Greek “father of history,” wrote:

“Cyrus, by diverting the river into the lake, made the stream sink so low that the natural bed of the river became fordable.” (Herodotus, Histories, Book I, sections 191–192)

He then explains that the Persian troops “entered Babylon by way of the river.” This was how Persia overthrew Babylon in 537 B.C., setting the prophetic pattern for the modern overthrow of Mystery Babylon, prophesied in Revelation 16:12.

The literal river has been drying up since 2003.

Dying river in the 'cradle of civilization' sparks fears biblical prophecy could be coming true | Daily Mail Online

It is a physical sign of a greater problem eroding the power structure of Mystery Babylon itself. Babylon is largely a financial empire that depends on liquidity. The banks of the river represent the banking system itself, which directs the flow of the water. The river has a current, i.e., currency. Financial terminology today is taken largely from the character of a river. Euphrates means “fruitful.”

The Hebrew name is Perath, Phrath, or Ephrath (Genesis 48:7) and Ephraim (plural). It is also a place near Bethlehem where Rachel died while giving birth to Benjamin, “son of My right hand.” In a way, drying up the River Euphrates is linked prophetically to the death of Rachel and the birth of the sons of God.

The prophecy in Revelation 16:12, then, is an integral part of the judgment of God on the fleshly financial system of debt-money by which men are kept in financial bondage worldwide. By breaking the financial flow of liquidity in the world’s banking system, God causes the sons of God to arise with a Kingdom financial system based on the principle of redemption and Jubilee.