I teach a weekly Shabbat service online in addition to posts I write for different outlets, including this one. From my Shabbat group as well as news broadcasts and online articles, the Wuhan virus, aka COVID-19, as a pestilence is troubling a great many people, and some, to our sorrow, have died. Some are looking to the heavens and expecting a rapture because of this pestilence. I do not believe, nor teach, that the rapture will happen anytime before Yeshua physically returns. We have to go through the refining process here on earth with all our peoples, all Israel and the many Gentile nations. As part of the refining process, Yeshua is going to destroy human governments that are opposed to Him and His rule. He with, and through, the Holy Spirit, is preparing a people ready for him. That includes being ready to be ruled by the terms of the Mosaic Covenant made at Mount Sinai, and reaffirmed several times since, and made into a New Covenant in our hearts. Let’s consider part of the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and interpreted by Daniel, servant of YHVH.
34 As you looked on, a stone was cut out, not by human hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were all broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth…
44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever; 45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.
Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45 NRSV
The imagery of the rock hitting the statue is not literal, but allegorical. When YHVH sets up his kingdom, certainly it will be Yeshua who will make a final end of all the kingdoms that constitute the statue. Yet nothing in this prophecy prevents a slow-motion strike via the pouring out of His Spirit that destroys these kingdoms slowly throughout some time before the beginning of the Millennial Period.
Another thing is certain, and that is the laws and customs of these kingdoms that do not belong in Yeshua’s kingdom will be swept away. Please note that the clay is also broken, and as Israel is the potter’s clay (Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6), so will those kingdoms wherein the tribes of Israel are mingled with iron and have laws and customs that are partly iron and partly clay be broken and swept away. Indeed, this must be because of the prophecy given to Jeremiah twice by YHVH:
“For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you; I will make an end of all the nations among which I scattered you, but of you I will not make an end. I will chastise you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.” …
“As for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, says the Lord, for I am with you. I will make an end of all the nations among which I have banished you, but I will not make an end of you! I will chastise you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”
Jeremiah 30:11, 46:28
And why are we, His people punished?
For thus says the Lord:
Jeremiah 30:12-15 NRSV
Your hurt is incurable,
your wound is grievous.
13 There is no one to uphold your cause,
no medicine for your wound,
no healing for you.
14 All your lovers have forgotten you;
they care nothing for you;
for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy,
the punishment of a merciless foe,
because your guilt is great,
because your sins are so numerous.
15 Why do you cry out over your hurt?
Your pain is incurable.
Because your guilt is great,
because your sins are so numerous,
I have done these things to you.
Who are our lovers? The kingdoms of gold, silver, bronze and iron. We need to reject our lovers, and repent, so that we can be broken free of them.
What is our guilt? Our rejection of the Torah of Moses. As Malachi warned us in the fourth chapter of his book:
See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi, chapter 4
4 Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.
Can we consider the Wuhan coronavirus a curse? Certainly we can!
So let us pray, let us turn back to the fathers, let us repent and reject all that belongs to our lovers, let us return to YHVH with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our might!
11:3 Restoration 