Broad meadows

In the last installment we examined three different accounts in the Old Testament that appear to be prophesying someone who begins their prophetic ministry after they are resurrected. Examining the people who were resurrected in the Old and New Testament, only Jesus prophesied after his death in the book of Revelation ( but he only did and will die once), but the prophets Elijah, Elisha and Jonah all symbolically die before starting a prophetic ministry, with Elisha and Jonah both also experiencing physical death. The fact that Elijah doesn’t die physically seems to point to the possibility that this coming prophet is tied in some way to the Rapture.

In today’s installment we will be looking at Genesis 15 using some of the techniques that were used in putting together the prophetic story of the cup. It’s my opinion that Genesis 15 is one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible. In Genesis 15 you have the introduction of many symbols that I believe give a detailed and prophetic account of God’s plan for humanity and the mechanisms that He plans to use to accomplish His purpose.

In this account, the basis for faith being the cornerstone of God’s desire in establishing a relationship with people is stated when the LORD said, “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6. God goes on to tell Abram what will happen to his descendants, the punishment of the Amorites and the land they are to inherit, all of which came true, with the inheritance to come.

“So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. ”
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.” Genesis 15:9-12.

The first thing that I will usually do when looking at a grouping of symbols like this is to look for biblical definitions found in the rest of scripture. These can be found anywhere in the Bible, so you have to really know your Bible or get a Bible app that has word search capability. The app speeds things up dramatically.

The list of symbols that I’m specifically looking at are the heifer, the goat, the ram, the dove, the young pigeon and the sun. The first one that jumps out to me is the dove. In Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit is depicted as a dove landing on Jesus. It stands to reason then that one of these other symbols would refer to Jesus, but none of them are clearly associated with Jesus. In Revelation 1:16 it says, “In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” But in Revelation 10:1 it says this, “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars.” As we did when following the cup, the way to sort this out is to follow that symbol without defining who it is, just let the context of each account where it is presented give meaning and nuance to what is being prophesied.

Another thing that I do when looking at symbols that don’t seem to have an easy biblical definition is to seek to understand what makes something what it is. What is it purpose? What are its defining characteristics. Simple but precise definitions can be very illuminating. So let’s try that on heifer. What makes a heifer a heifer is that it is a cow that has never calved. In other words, they have no descendants. I believe this is exactly the what is meant in Isaiah 53:8 when he states, “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his (Jesus’) descendants?” So it appears that the heifer and the dove are definitely together.

So right now we are left with the goat, the ram and a young pigeon. Given that the Holy Spirit is symbolized by the dove and in the parable of the sower that Satan is portrayed as a bird, it stands to reason then that the young pigeon is also a spiritual entity of some kind, a lesser and perhaps angelic being than the Holy Spirit, the dove.

The goat and the ram are spoken of in Daniel 9 describing the Persian and Greek empires to rise, but I think that there is more to them than just those significant historical events. As I believe the title of this series gives away which way I’m leaning, I think that the sun and the goat are the two that merge in this case and I will be following the two of those symbols along the way and I think you will see why as we go.