In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.
Continuing: (I say to you, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.”) The word “ruin” above is from the Hebrew word hariycah, from the word harac, meaning to utterly be thrown down, as in John 2:19.
John 2
13 And the Jews’ Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of your house hath eaten me up.
18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shew you unto us, seeing that you does these things?
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, [You will] Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will you rear it up in three days?
21 But he spoke of the temple of his body [His church with Him at its head].
Harac is the word Elijah uses (in 1 Kings 19:10 & 14) when he complains to the LORD of these men who have “thrown down” His altars, and only he is left. The LORD answers telling him of the elect remnant He has preserved, outside and undefiled by Baal: the spirit at work in Ahab and Jezebel.
1 Kings 19
1 And Ahab [meaning, father’s brother] told Jezebel [meaning, Baal is her husband] all that Elijah [my God is Jehovah] had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not your life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.
3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
6 And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
7 And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for you.
8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What do you here, Elijah?
10 And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down [harac] your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What do you here, Elijah?
14 And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down [harac] your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
15 And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus [where they wait silent and in tears]: and when you come, anoint Hazael [the one who sees God] to be king over Syria [these my exalted]:
16 And Jehu [Jehovah is he] the son of Nimshi [the son of the deliverer/rescuer] shall you anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha [God is salvation] the son of Shaphat [who he has judged] of Abelmeholah [field of dancing] shall you anoint to be prophet in your room.
17 And it shall come to pass, that him that escapes the sword [word] of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword [word] of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
Paul and James quote these two events, Elijah and repairing the breach in the house of David, and in telling of them use the same word kataskapto, rendered “digged down” and “ruin;” the word only appearing these two times. Elijah is spoken of in Romans 11:3 as Paul speaks of the elect and the return of those who are again grafted in as branched returned to the root from where they are departed (the return is the repair of the breach: the perets above in Amos 9:11; perac (perez) in Daniel 5:28, and Pharez (perets) the illegitimate son of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar, the origin of the branching off and the reoccurring breach.)
Romans 11
1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin [the last son of Jacob, by Rachel who died in his birth, while traveling between Bethlehem [the family of bread – God’s word] and Ephrath [the heap of ashes – from where God creates man from the ruin)].
2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot you not what the scripture says of Elijah? how he makes intercession to God against Israel saying,
3 Lord, they have killed your prophets, and digged down [kataskapto] your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what says the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9 And David says, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always [as in Egypt].
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you.
19 You will say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stands by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not you.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as you in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Acts 15
5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees [perez-ees, those seeking to maintain the breach and hinder the building from the ruin] which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses [cleaning the outside – when God changes the inside, the minds of men] .
6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
8 And God, which knows the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts [minds] by faith.
10 Now therefore why tempt you God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
12 Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins [kataskapto] thereof, and I will set it up:
17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who does all these things.
18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
Friends, all these things are written to admonish and correct us, into reconciliation with the God. We are those outside the corrupted establishment, the unclean made clean; those come to know God first, in a world where He is forgotten. This election is the idea seen in the four women mentioned in the LORD’s genealogy: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. These are all patterns of what Paul speaks of in Romans 11: the grafted in outsiders and undesirables. It is seen in the words of Ruth in Ruth 4, where she speaks her being grafted into God’s house.
Ruth 4
11 And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do you worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem:
12 And let your house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give you of this young woman.
13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son.
14 And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left you this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.
15 And he shall be unto you a restorer of your life, and a nourisher of your old age: for your daughter in law, which loves you, which is better to you than seven sons, hath born him.
16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.
17 And the women her neighbors gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Amos 8
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin [the idols] of Samaria, and say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, The manner of Beersheba lives; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Amos 9
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the Lord that does this.
13 Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God.
Ezekiel 32
2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, You are like a young lion of the nations, and you are as a whale in the seas [agitating the waters and causing the storms among the people]: and you came forth with your rivers [spewing your lies and deception as death in the waters], and troubled [stirred the mire as blood in] the waters with your feet, and fouled [defiled] their rivers.
3 Thus says the Lord God; I will therefore spread out my net over you with a company of many people; and they shall bring you up in my net [as your table is made a snare seen as death in the waters].
4 Then will I leave you upon the land, I will cast you forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon you, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with you.
5 And I will lay your flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height.
6 I will also water with your blood the land wherein you swim, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of you.
7 And when I shall put you out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and set darkness upon your land, says the Lord God. [as it is this day in the famine.]
9 I will also vex the hearts [turn their minds to their delusions] of many people, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.
10 Yea, I will make many people amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.
11 For thus says the Lord God; The sword of the king of Babylon [confusion] shall come upon you.
12 By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt [the captivity you have gloried in], and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.
13 I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord God.
Psalm 81
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder: I proved you at the waters of Meribah. [when you tempted me and questioned if I Am truly among you] Selah.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto you: O Israel, if you will hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in you; neither shall you worship any strange god.
10 I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt: open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied you [as in Exodus 17:1 – 7].
