The Sign of the Clay Jug & the Basket

 

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. - 2 Corinthians 4:7 KJV

Beginning especially in 2017 when the Revelation 12 Sign of the Woman occurred, we have been in an intense time of watching for our Lord. Many of us have wondered what God’s timeline is, but I very much appreciate what one Brother said the Lord told him--“It’s not a timeline; it’s a sign line!”

 

And there have been numerous signs in the heavens as well as upon the earth. What has come to my attention lately is the many archaeological signs that have occurred. God seems to have purposely timed these discoveries for they point to the time of Jacob’s Trouble; and, therefore, the End of the Church Age.

 

Let me name just a few. For example, the 1,600-Year Old Mosaic In Northern Israel Depicting End Times Prophecy From the Book Of Daniel. There is no doubt we are in the times that Daniel prophesied about where “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4) and we are ready to teeter off into the 70^th Week of Daniel or the seven-year Tribulation.

 

From the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, some have concluded that King David will be resurrected at the end of Daniel’s 70^th week and installed as co-regent over Israel, ruling the Kingdom with Jesus Christ. On July 10, 2019, The Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that Biblical Ziklag had been discovered at the Khirbat er-Ra‘i excavation site:

 

The famous biblical story of Ziklag relates to David. The Philistines inhabited the town but gave it to David and his men in 1 Samuel 27. The town was attacked and burned and the families taken by the Amalekites while David and his men were away (1 Sam. 30). David mounted a rescue mission and retrieved everyone alive, along with a great quantity of spoil that was distributed to numerous allies in Judah. Source

 

Now the End Begins has a great archive if you want to do some of your own “digging” into all these prophetic archaeological finds, but let’s talk about a recent find discovered two years later at the biblical Ziklag site.

 

The Jerusalem Post reported that a 3,000-year-old inscription was found bearing the name of a biblical judge by the name of Jerubbaal or Yeruba’al--the name given to Gideon who in obedience to God tore down the altar of Baal:

 

An inscription dating back some 3,100 years ago bearing the name of a biblical judge Jerubbaal was uncovered in the excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Kiryat Gat in the Southern District of Israel, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday. . .

 

Inscriptions from that period – the 12th-11th century BCE – are extremely rare. All the dating has been carried out through both pottery typology and radiocarbon of organic samples found in the same archaeological layer.

The writing, inked on a jug, marks the first time that the name Jerubbaal has been found outside the biblical text.

 

The Jerubbaal inscription, written in ink on a pottery vessel.
(photo credit: DAFNA GAZIT/ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY)

The Book of Judges beginning in Chapter 6 tells the story of Gideon and foreshadows the time of Jacob’s Trouble coming to Israel. Also hidden within the story of Gideon I believe is a prophetic illustration of the Rapture of those in Christ.

 

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. - Judges 6:1 KJV

And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: [and] because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which [are] in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. - Judges 6:2 KJV

 

Compare the above verses with those in the Books of Daniel and Revelation telling of seven years of great trouble coming to national Israel and how at the opening of the Seals everyone “hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains”!

 

The Clay Pot and Judgment of Israel

 

After drafting this article, the Spirit of the Lord urged me to go ahead and take the time to watch Todd Adkins’ July 23, 2021, video. Sure enough our dear Brother Todd made the same connections I had related to Judges 6:1-2. But he also pointed to an account in Jeremiah 19 regarding a clay pot and how it also related to the coming judgment of Israel:

 

Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and. . . proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem;

 

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

 

Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;- Jeremiah 19:1-4 KJV (in part)

 

Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as [one] breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury [them] in Tophet, till [there be] no place to bury. - Jeremiah 19:10-11 KJV

 

Israel, of course, is not the only nation to be judged. God will judge all the nations.

Before I delve further into the account of Gideon, I want to share with you another archaeological discovery that I believe ties into this and give Todd Adkins credit for bringing it to my attention. It is the discovery of the oldest intact basket in the world.

 

“As far as we know, this is the oldest basket in the world

that has been found completely intact and its importance is, therefore, immense,”

the IAA said.

 

This basket was discovered in the area of the Cave of Horrors where 40 skeletons of women, men and children were found during excavations in the 1960s. Not only that, but additional fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls were also found:

 

The IAA said the scrolls it found were Greek translations

of the books of Zechariah and Nahum. . .

 

Todd gave some wonderful insights related to this but let me share what came to my mind when I heard of this discovery.

Woman in the basket

 

I remembered the research I had done on Zechariah’s seventh vision of “a woman sitting inside the basket” which I shared in I ASKED THE LORD, WHEN IS THE RAPTURE? HE ANSWERED ME! Here’s an excerpt:

 

A video by Godshealer7 End Time Prophecy YT caught my attention this past week. Sister Barbara came out and asked the Lord, “When are we going?” When He answered her, it caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. He replied, “When the fire rains down, you’ll come up.”

 

. . . In her video Sister Barbara speculates on what the “fire” might refer to, but I believe it is in reference to nuclear missiles which is what several other believers have been shown. . .

 

Zechariah 5 gives convincing evidence that “fire” refers to nuclear warheads. . .

 

Zechariah describes what he is seeing based on what he is familiar with, but he does not know what he is actually looking at as indicated by the next verse:

 

So I asked, "What [is] it?" And he said, "It [is] a basket that is going forth." He also said, "This [is] their resemblance throughout the earth: "Here [is] a lead disc lifted up, and this [is] a woman sitting inside the basket"; - Zechariah 5:6-7 NKJV

 

Let me bring your attention to the word translated woman. This comes from the Hebrew word 'ishshah which can be translated as woman or fire offering!

 

So you see where Sister Barbara’s prophetic word of the fire coming down could very well be referring to nuclear war.

 

As I said before, many believers have been shown that on the Day of the Rapture missiles, meteors/asteroids, and fallen angels will come down and we will go up! (Related article: The Revelation 12 Galactic Federation, The Great Re:Set, and The Rapture)

Basket of Summer Fruit

 

My first thought when I heard about the ancient basket being found was Amos’ basket of summer fruit which I wrote about in RAPTURE Cut-Off Time 2020:

 

. . . Joel 1:5 speaks of the new wine which is made at the grape harvest. Peter associates new wine with the end of the age when he quotes Joel's prophesy about the coming Day of the Lord in Acts 2.

 

In Song of Solomon 2:11-13 notice that tender grapes are the final agricultural sign mentioned before the shepherd, a type of Christ, says, “Arise, my love...and come away,” thus signaling a possible late summer Resurrection/Rapture.

 

. . . As noted by T. W. Tramm, “Biblically, summer begins at the vernal equinox in March and ends at the autumnal equinox in September.”

 

SUMMER AND ISRAEL

 

While summer in general is associated with the Church, the end of the season—the time when figs and olives are harvested—bears significance for Israel. For instance, in Amos, a basket of fruit that has ripened over the summer is a symbol of Israel being ripe for judgment:

 

“This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of summer fruit … Then the LORD said to me, ‘The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer’” (Amos 8:1, 2).

 

In Jeremiah, the Jews lament the passing of the summer harvest:

 

“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved” (Jer. 8:20).

 

While the context of the verse is an ancient judgment, Jeremiah may also be alluding to a future time when Israel sees the Church rescued via the Rapture and comes to the painful realization that they are not saved.

 

In Micah, summer is when the upright people have been swept from the land:

 

“What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets” (Mic. 7:1-2). . . [From theseasonofreturn.com/tw tramm]

 

AMAZINGLY, just days after the world’s oldest basket was dug up, The Times of Israel reported that 4th-century BCE baskets still containing fruit found in sunken Egyptian city!!!

 

Archaeologists working at a site of submerged ruins off the coast of Egypt discovered wicker baskets filled with fruit dating back to the 4th century BCE, the Guardian reported Monday.

 

The discovery was made in the city of Thonis-Heracleion, a one-time bustling metropolis that sat on the edge of the Nile River, where it meets with the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Those who are reading my blog articles will realize the connection this also has to The Delta Sign for the city of Thonis-Heracleion sat at the Nile Delta where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea! 

The Rapture in the Story of Gideon?

 

Now let me share with you where I believe I saw a foreshadowing of the Rapture in the story of Gideon. . .

 

After noticing the parallels between Judges 6:1-2 and the Books of Daniel and Revelation, what next stood out to me in the story was where the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon:

 

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which [was] in Ophrah, that [pertained] unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide [it] from the Midianites. - Judges 6:11 KJV

 

We are not yet in the seven-year Tribulation but are at the edge of it beginning and we are feeling the oppression of the enemy as Gideon was. At this point in the story, it is after the wheat harvest. Later in the story in Judges 7:13 it tells of the dream of barley bread that represents Gideon and his army.

 

Righteous Gideon and his army are a picture of BARLEY just as those in Christ are considered part of the FIRSTFRUITS of the BARLEY HARVEST associated with Christ’s resurrection. Gideon was threshing WHEAT when the angel of the Lord came to him. Ruth and Boaz--a picture of the marriage of The Bride of Christ to Her Lord--married after the WHEAT HARVEST.

 

When I came to verses 19 and 20 in Judges 7, my jaw dropped and I gasped, “It’s a picture of the Rapture!”

 

So Gideon, and the hundred men that [were] with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that [were] in their hands.

 

And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow [withal]: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon. - Judges 7:19-20 KJV

 

In Judg. 7:19 Gideon and his company came to the camp of Midian "in the beginning of the middle watch," or at midnight.

 

(2.) As representing the terrors of the great day. So the excellent bishop Hall applies it; if these pitchers, trumpets, and firebrands, did so daunt and dismay the proud troops of Midian and Amalek, who shall be able to stand before the last terror, when the trumpet of the archangel shall sound, the elements shall be on a flame, the heavens pass away with a great noise, and the Lord himself shall descend with a shout! blb/Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry here is referring to The Day of the Lord which encompasses the two-part Second Coming of Jesus Christ--

 

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. - 2 Peter 3:10 KJV

 

The Heavenly Bridegroom comes at midnight (Matthew 25:6) with a shout, the voice of the archangel (“voice” is translated from phōnē which can mean “ a sound, tone, as of musical instruments), and the call of a great trumpet:

 

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. . . - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV

 

At the sound of the great heavenly euphony, our spiritual bodies will break out from our fleshy “clay pots” in a brilliant blaze and with lightning speed meet the Lord in the air!

 

. . . and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 

Related article: I Believe 2021 is The Year of Our Wedding

[The Sign of the Clay Jug & the Basket updated August 6, 2021]