My
Powerful Vision on the Twelve Shewbread Loaves and the Twelve Baskets of
Barley Fragments
"The Lord has shown me that precious souls are starving, and dying for
want of the present, sealing truth, the meat in due season; and that the swift
messengers should speed on their way, and feed the flock with the present
truth. I heard an Angel say, 'Speed the swift messengers, speed the
swift messengers; for the case of every soul will soon be decided, either for
life, or for death.'" Review and
Herald, September 1, 1849 (vol 1, p 11).
Click to go to our Home PageDear Reader, At 1:30 a.m., January 11, 2008, I experienced a
most powerful vision that showed me the following matters of serious import
for the bride of God’s Army of Joel 2, and for making herself ready for His
coming. The Lord showed me a powerful view of all of the following factors
and their relation to one another. I felt a powerful compulsion to arise
immediately and write this out for God’s people.
The Lord showed me that Ellen White’s statement of
Christ’s Object Lessons, 406,
concerning the voice of God AND THE VOICE OF THE BRIDE,
designate His bride, the 144,000, who awakens the ten brides
maidens.
Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine
no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great
men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Joel 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck
the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
"Lingering
near [not at] the bride's house are ten young women robed in white. Each
carries a lighted lamp and a small flagon for oil. All are anxiously watching
for the appearance of the bridegroom. But there is a delay [since 1844]. Hour
after hour passes the watchers become weary and fall asleep. At midnight the
cry is heard, 'Behold, the bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him.' The
sleepers [all ten slept Matt. 25:5], suddenly awaking, spring to their feet.
They see the procession moving on, bright with torches and glad with
music. They hear the
voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. The ten maidens
seize their lamps and begin to trim them, in haste to go forth, But five have
neglected to fill their flasks with oil [character]. They did not anticipate
so long a delay, and they have not prepared for the emergence." E. G.
White, Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 405, 406. The voice of the bride
that awakens all ten virgins [all
slumbered and slept Matt. 25:5],
then the bride is a separate entity, who is awake before the awakening of the
10 virgins. This is attested to in Isaiah 62:11, where the mother, The bride is made ready
first: Rev 19:7 Let us
be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is
come, and his wife hath made herself ready. I
was shown the significance of the 12 baskets of
fragments of the barley loaves.
John
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1 After these things Jesus went
over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. 2 And a great multitude followed
him, because they saw his
miracles which he did on them
that were diseased. 3 And Jesus went
up into a mountain, and there he sat with his
disciples. 4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. 5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him,
he saith unto Philip, Whence shall
we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 And this he said to prove him:
for he
himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered
him, Two hundred pennyworth of
bread is not sufficient
for them, that every one of
them may take a little. 8 One of his
disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother,
saith unto
him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves,
and two small fishes: but
what are they among so many? 10
And Jesus said, Make the
men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the
men sat down, in
number about five thousand. 11
And Jesus took the
loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to
them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. 12
When they were filled, he said unto
his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be
lost. 13
Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto
them that had eaten. The Lord has shown this
writer in vision that the twelve baskets represent the literal twelve tribes
of The guests are the
wheat, GC 427. If guests (wheat) they cannot be the bride (Barley
firstfruits). The guests at the wedding feast are the brides maidens. The bridesmaids are not the bride and the bride is
not the brides maidens. The bride is the leaders
(pillars in the "The
marriage represents the reception by Christ of His kingdom. The 1Ch 28:16 And by
weight [he gave] gold for the tables of shewbread,
for every table; and [likewise] silver for the tables of silver: [All gold in the Sanctuary symbolized
Christ] Mat 12:4 How he
entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread,
which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Strongs #3899 Bread of the presence The food of God Those who eat of the table, they
household [eg. The bread of heaven, the Word, the bread
of Christ, His body] To furnish a banquet [the marriage feast
of the Lamb in honor of the bride] Twelve small loaves
which were set out in the holy tabernacle before Jehovah every week. The Four Pillars. The gate of the sanctuary court was hung on four
pillars, Ex. 27:16,--only four, no more, no less, with the command, "See
that thou make it after the pattern," lest thou mar God's great plan.
Why four? For the same reason that the vail, which
represented His flesh, Heb. 10:20, was hung on four pillars, and for
the same reason that when He tabernacles on earth, inspiration gave us His
life in four gospels. As seven in the Bible indicates
completeness and perfection, so the number four in the sanctuary,
dictated by God, must have some divine significance. This number occurs in
the four coverings, the four ingredients of the shewbread, the
incense, the anointing oil, also in the fourth commandment and in other
places, where it always points to Christ. As the number four points to
Christ, so the multiples of four, 12, 24, 48, 60, 12,000, 144,000
are used to indicate special groups of His true followers. Continuing our study, we shall notice that this
number, the number four, recurs frequently, and to the spiritual
minded the promise is, "The Spirit of truth will guide you
into all truth." John 16:13. The
Path to the Throne of God, [The Sanctuary Service], by Sarah Elizabeth
Peck, p. 41. The
Significance of the Shewbread
[From: The Path to the Throne of God,
by Sarah Elizabeth Peck] Page 122 Fine Flour Bread. Not only as a whole, but in each of its
"four" ingredients, the bread symbolized Christ. The fine flour of which it was made, was flour
ground fine, all unevenness and all coarse particles removed. This
represented Christ, who was made perfect through suffering. If we are to be
like Him, we too, must pass through the grinding process--we must be refined,
all coarseness and roughness removed from our lives. "In Jesus there was
no unevenness. He was always even, always the same. In Him one day's walk
never contradicted another, one hour's service never clashed with another. In
Him every grace was in its perfectness, none in excess,
none out of place, none wanting. In Him firmness never degenerated into
obstinacy, or calmness into stoical indifference." Andrew Jukes, in The
Law of the Offerings, p. 75. Ron’s Commentary: The Lord has shown me in
vision that the twelve loaves of bread also symbolize the twelve tribes of Other Ingredients. The shewbread
was a true meat offering, besides the fine flour, there was oil, salt, and
water, but, like our communion bread, no leaven. Lev. 2:1,5,11,13. Oil symbolized Christ working
through the Holy Spirit. "We
receive Christ through His Word; and the Holy Spirit is given to open the
Word of God to our understanding, and to bring home its truths to our
hearts." MB 164. Salt is a
preservative, a symbol of incorruption. A reverent study of the Word will
preserve the Christian Bible student from corrupt doctrines as well as
corrupt manners. Salt is sometimes put on icy walks to keep people from
slipping and falling, and the Word of God in our hearts will keep us from
falling on the slippery paths of life. Salt is
not only a preservative, it is also a symbol of perpetuity. "The Lord...gave the kingdom...to David forever...by
a covenant of salt." II Chron. 13:5. It is
also a symbol of wisdom: "Let your speech be alway
with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every
man." Col. 4:6. It is a symbol of friendship and hospitality. Reference
to this is made in Ezra 4:14, margin: "Because we are salted with the
salt of the palace." And so the Christian is admonished, "Have salt
in your selves, and have peace one with another." Mark 9:50. As we share
our faith with others, we must do so with incorruption of mind and sincerity
of heart. Our attitude must be one of friendship and hospitality, of peace
and good will, and our speech "with grace"--never unkind or
critical. It is when we mingle these graces with our efforts to give the Word
to others, that we shall become "the salt of the earth." Matt.
5:13. God's Word Cleanses. The water used in the bread
represents the cleansing power of the Word of God. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his
way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word."
Ps. 119:9. Jesus gave Himself for the church, "that He might...cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word." Eph. 5:26. "Now
ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." John
15:3. Obedience to the Word of God cleanses and refines and ennobles our
lives, and enables us to be true servants of God. The Word Sanctifies. To sanctify is to make
sacred and to set apart for a sacred use. Obedience to the Word of God, represented by the bread, sanctifies
the soul. "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth."
John 17:17. We are born again only of the incorruptible Word of God. I Peter
1:22, 23. It is by the Word that we become "partakers of the divine
nature," II Peter 1:4. Its influence upon our lives destroys the carnal
life, and imparts a new life--the life of Christ. The Word of God "is
able to build up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are
sanctified." Acts 20:32. Page 123 Unless we eat, digest,
and assimilate this bread of life, we can have no life in us, John 6:53, any
more than we can live a physical life if we neglect physical food. We may drag along in a semi-starved condition for a
time, but sooner or later life becomes extinct. This neglect is the first
step toward going back to the beggarly elements of the world. "My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hos. 4:6 When Jesus said, "I am that Bread of
Life...if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread
that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world," the Jews and also the disciples murmured, and said, "How
can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Jesus explained, saying, "It
is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto
you, they are life." John
6:48,51, 52,63. The Word of God is the living bread, giving refinement,
wisdom, cleansing, spiritual strength and endurance, and finally
sanctification and eternal life. Ron’s Commentary: His Life, His Holy Spirit
life and soul. Frankincense on the
Bread. "And thou shalt put
pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial,
even an offering made by fire unto the Lord." Lev. 24:7. This frankincense was the same as that
burned daily on the golden altar. At the end of the week, it also was burned
on the golden altar, "an offering made by fire unto the Lord." It
represented the righteousness of Christ, which mingled with sincere prayer is
given to those who eat the Bread of life "continually." It taught the
lesson that "never should the Bible be studied
without prayer." When the Bible is studied without prayer,
we are told that Satan stands ready to suggest error, or belittle the
sacredness of the Word. [Emboldened
emphasis added]. The frankincense was on the bread "for a memorial,"
or as Moffatt has it, "a reminder to the
Eternal"--a reminder that His righteousness is promised to all who
give prayerful study to the Word. Ron’s Commentary: An offering of
self-sacrifice by buying gold tried in the fire—faith that works by the indwelling
righteousness and self-sacrificing love of Christ. The
"Continual" Bread. Of
the type, Christ said, the bread was "before Me alway."
Ex. 25:30. The table was never without it, therefore it is called
the "continual" bread. Num. 4:7. Chosen ones of the Kohathites,
a division of the Levites, prepared it every Sabbath, I Chron.
9:32, and at the beginning of each
Sabbath, the "newly baked" bread was brought to an incoming priest
who "set it in order" on the table "before the Lord."
Lev.. 24:5-8; PP 348; Smith's Bible
Dictionary [No further reference given]. Then the old bread was taken
away, and eaten the following week by the outgoing priests "on behalf of
the Israelites, to mark a lasting compact." Lev. 24:8, Moffatt. At the end of the week, whatever of the
old bread remained, was burned on the brazen altar, "for
it is most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire." Lev. 24:9. Does this not teach us that our study of
the Bible should be constant, a daily partaking of the bread of life? Does it
not teach us that during the week we are to eat and digest the
holy bread continually? This special Sabbath feast, together with
daily and prayerfully partaking of the Living Bread, is the first essential
to "growing up" into perfection of character. It is essential if we
are to be kept from sin,--"Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might
not sin against thee." Ps. 119:11. It is essential to sanctification--it
is "most holy" unto the Lord. There is no substitute for earnest
study of the Word; it is "fundamental;" it cannot be merely
"supplemental," as Christ, the Word, was made flesh, John 1:1,14,
so the Word of God in us must be made flesh. We must not only know the
word, we must be the word. Page 124 The Scriptures a
Safeguard. If the Bible is truly to be our
"safeguard" through times of trouble, we must dig
deep into its rich mine of truth,
comparing scripture with scripture. In these closing hours of probation, we
need to study more earnestly than ever before. Satan knows that the Bible,
studied with heart and mind and soul, will be our "safeguard"
during the perils of these last days; therefore it is his "constant
study to keep the minds of men occupied with those things which will prevent
them from obtaining the knowledge of God." V Test 740;
See also GC 593. But if we improve our opportunities to gain a
knowledge of the Bible, God will not leave us to the buffetings of the enemy.
To those who hunger and thirst after righteousness the promise
is that they shall be filled. Matt. 5:6. This promise, "set in the
framework of faith" and "placed in memory's halls," will never
fail. V Test 630. The channel of communication will
be unobstructed. "Deep, earnest study of the Word under the guidance of
the Holy Spirit, will give fresh manna, and the same Spirit will make its use
effectual." VI Test 163. Then let us not depend on others to do our
thinking for us, but let us sink the shaft deep into the treasures of His
Word. If our opportunities for education have
been limited, how encouraging are these words: "The understanding of Bible truth
depends not so much on the power of intellect brought to the search, as on
the singleness of purpose, the earnest longing after righteousness." GC 599. "If
he (the Christian) would have his powers and capabilities daily improved, he
must study; he must eat and digest the Word...The
soul that is nourished by the bread of life will have every faculty vitalized
by the Spirit of God." VI Test 153. If in this
spirit we daily feed upon the Word, Jesus will multiply it as He did
the five loaves, so that not only shall we ourselves be filled, but through
our efforts the multitudes also will eat and be filled. Mark 6:35-44; John 6:9-13. As Christ multiplied Bread of His Presence. Shewbread
literally means "bread of the face" or "bread of the presence." "The bread of the face," says Smith's Bible Dictionary, "is
therefore that bread through which God is seen; that is, through the
participation of which man attains the sight of God. Whence it follows that
we have not to think of bread as such, as the means of nourishing the bodily
life, but as spiritual
food, as a means of
appropriating and retaining that life Page 125 Moses
Built an Altar and Twelve Pillars According to the Twelve Tribes of Pillars as a Symbol. Exodus 24:3-8 gives us a key to the significance of
pillars. After The twelve
pillars represent the 144,000--twelve-thousand from each of the twelve
tribes. They are obedient and without guile. Only the 144, 000 enter the Ellen White says that we
would do well to celebrate the feasts of harvests--the feast of unleavened
bread, for that feast is yet to be fulfilled in the final harvest of the
barley bride and the wheat, the bride and the guests respectively. "The Passover was followed by the
seven days' feast of unleavened bread. On the second day of the feast, the first fruits of the year's harvest, a
sheaf of barley, was presented before the Lord. All the ceremonies of the feast were types of the
work of Christ. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was an object lesson of
redemption, which the Passover was intended to keep in memory. The slain
lamb, the unleavened bread, the
sheaf of first fruits, represented the Saviour. With most of the people in the days of
Christ, the observance of this feast had degenerated into formalism. But what
was its significance to the Son of God!" The firstfruits offering was a sheaf of
barley. It represented Christ as the firstfruits risen from the dead as
regards the harvest connected with Matthew 22 and 25. The bride of Christ,
the 144,000 are firstfruits in the sense that they are second, third, fourth,
etc., etc. to Christ. That is why Revelation 14:1-4 refers to them as
firstfruits to God and the Lamb. So the bride is symbolized by barley
and not wheat, and that is just another of a long list of distinctions
between the bride and the guests. RevelationPrevious
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1 And I looked, and, lo, a
Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him
an hundred forty and four thousand, having his
Father's name written in their
foreheads. 2 And I
heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I
heard the voice of harpers harping with their
harps: 3 And they
sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were
redeemed from the earth. 4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. God bless and may
His bride make herself ready soon is my prayer, Ron |