The Tribulation Gate

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First a few details about measurements. In my studies I have discovered that the hand-breadth is three and a half thumbs. The span is two hand-breadths which amount to seven thumbs. The common cubit, the cubit of a man, is five hand-breadths, which amount to seventeen and a half thumbs. The cubit of a cubit and a hand-breadth is therefore one common cubit of seventeen and a half thumbs plus a hand-breadth of three and a half thumbs, for a total of twenty-one thumbs, (17.5+3.5=21). Moreover the larger cubit of twenty-one thumbs amounts to six hand-breadths, (6*3.5=21), which is also three spans, (3*7=21).

The gates of the Ezekiel Temple are six, three outer gates and three inner gates, and they are all of the same measurement. These gates appear very narrow because of an extraordinary height of sixty cubits, (Ezekiel 40:14), that is, by the cubit of a cubit and a hand-breadth, (the cubit of twenty-one thumbs).

Here is a typical model-drawing of the Ezekiel Temple just to show what I mean about the tall narrow design of the gates, (with a link to where I found it below the image file, which is only to give credit, and really has nothing else to do with this thread).

Ezekiel 40-43: Ezekiel's Vision of the Temple | GE315

Jehovah is holy and cares for the way how he is worshipped. God has lofty standards and we need to try to worship God the way he wants and not how we think it is best.

ge315.org

So then, what can we glean from this information in light of the following statement from the Master?

Matthew 7:12-14 TS2009 (W/Footnotes)
12 “Therefore, whatever you wish men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
13 “Enter in through the narrow gate! Because the gate is wide – and the way is broad – that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter in through it.
14 “Because the gate is narrow and the way is hard presseda which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Footnote: aOr the way is afflicted.

The way is hard-pressed? afflicted? Yes:

G2346 θλίβω thlibo (thliy'-ɓō) v.
1. to compress.
2. to squeeze.
3. to press hard.
4. (passively) to be hard pressed.
5. to pinch.
6. (figuratively) to press in against, to crush (in a crowd).
{literally or figuratively}
[akin to the base of G5147]
KJV: afflict, narrow, throng, suffer tribulation, trouble
See also: G5147

Wait a minute, this is nearly identical to the word typically used for the so-called tribulation, (a noun), even the great tribulation mentioned in Rev 7:14, which is megas with thlipsis.

G2347 θλίψις thlipsis (thliy'-psis) n.
pressure.
{literally or figuratively}
[from G2346]
KJV: afflicted(-tion), anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble
Root(s): G2346

And look at that, thlipsis actually comes from thlibo, the verb, our word used in the Matthew passage quoted above. So the gate is not only narrow but also troublesome, as in tribulation, (see also Acts 14:22, much tribulation, thlipsis).

Okay, so how tall is this narrow gate of the Ezekiel Temple again? Oh yeah, sixty cubits by the cubit and a hand-breadth, which is the cubit of twenty-one thumbs. And how many thumbs are in sixty cubits by the cubit and a hand-breadth?

21*60 = 1260

Hmmm, that number 1260 sure sounds familiar, I think I saw it in Revelation 11 after the command to measure the Temple. I suppose it is kind of like saying enter through the Tribulation 1260 gate. I also heard the same in Paul's Tribulation Gospel.

 

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When the vow of the Nazir is taken it is without question that a man, a certain one, will die suddenly, in an instant, alongside the Nazir. It is not a question of if, (KJV), but when.

Numbers 6:9 YLT
9 'And when the dead dieth beside him in an instant, suddenly, and he hath defiled the head of his separation, then he hath shaved his head in the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he doth shave it,

Numbers 6:9 TS2009
9 And when anyone dies beside him in an instant, suddenly, and he has defiled the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing – on the seventh day he shaves it.

In this text we find two words next to each other that are supposed by scholarship to be muwth, (death), but one of them may actually be meth, (a man, such as in the name Methushelaḥ)), and meth is often used for little ones, or a general term for unnamed members of a family or group, and so on. From the symbolism and usage in scripture it is quite possible that this term may also be used for the old man nature which is personified as a man.

Who is the one accused of having become a ringleader of the Nazarim? That is of course Paul, who neither confirms nor denies it but essentially, in his response, he does confess to being of the same sect or "the Way", ("which they call heresy", Acts 24:1-14). In the passage where Paul takes four men with him into the temple, the four men are under the vow of the Nazir, (and Paul himself is also a Nazir, as likewise also no doubt Yakob the Tzaddik).

Acts 21:20-27 ASV
20 And they, when they heard it, glorified God; and they said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them that have believed; and they are all zealous for the law:
21 and they have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the customs.
22 What is it therefore? they will certainly hear that thou art come.
23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men that have a vow on them;
24 these take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges for them, that they may shave their heads: and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof they have been informed concerning thee; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, keeping the law.
25 But as touching the Gentiles that have believed, we wrote, giving judgment that they should keep themselves from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication.
26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them went into the temple, declaring the fulfilment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.
27 And when the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him,

This is clearly the vow of the Nazir, and the phrase "days of purification" surely pertains to the seven days of cleansing required for anyone who has been defiled by the dead, just as it is written in the Nazir passage, (BaMidbar 6). However what is most revealing is that the text reveals that all four of these men must have somehow become defiled at the same time: but how can this be? All four of them had someone die suddenly beside them on the same day? This is only possible if we are talking about a scripture appointed time line that is common to all: in other words it is an appointed time which appears to be the same for every Nazir, (thus, again, it is not if but when (כי) in the first passage quoted herein above). Moreover this then means that every Nazir loses the first days of separation do to the defilement, and thus, just as with these four in the passage above, the purifications and the shaving constitute the new supernal beginning, (of the new man in Meshiah, which Paul also speaks much about).

As for suddenly or instantly, (BaMidbar 6:9a), this also is Paul's so-called rapture straight from the Torah, and the Nazir passage is referring the hearer and reader back to the following Shemot 33 passage. Herein a slightly different word for a moment or instant is used, and it literally means a wink or blink of the eye, (though it is not typically rendered that way in English translations).

Exodus 33:2-6
2 And I will send My Messenger before you, and I will drive out the Kanaani, the Amori, and the Ḥitti, and the Perizzi, the Ḥivi, and the Yebusi:
3 unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people: lest I consume you in the way.
4 And when the people heard this bad word, they mourned, and no one put on his head-gear.
5 And יהוה said to Mosheh, Say to bnei Yisrael, You are a stiff-necked people: in one blink of an eye I will come up into your midst and consume you! And now, put off your head-gear, for I know what I will do with you.
6 And bnei Yisrael plucked off their head-gear from mount Ḥoreb.

Thus your old man is the one put to death, for Elohim is Good, but the old man necessarily dies right alongside you in the time appointed of the Father.

 

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After Paul's vision near Damashek we read that he went into Arabia to immerse, (as admonished by Ḥananyah when he laid the power, (hands), upon him that he might receive sight). This would have been six months according to the typology, just as Yakob, from the 24th of the first month to the 24th of the seventh month which Yakob spent in Sukkoth, (to the end of the feast in the seventh month). So then, is it Arabia in the Greek text or might it rather be Arabah? (Sukkoth is in Arabah Yordan). After six months Paul then returns to Dameshek and preaches there for three years, (Gal 1:17-18), and the full three years and six months are the same as that of the Prophets: a time, (two)times, and half a time, the measures of the Mishkan and later the Temple, (although the Temple is larger, but the same ratios: one square, two squares, and the porch is the half). Thus king David says in two Psalms, Elohim has spoken in His sanctuary, I will rejoice, I will divide Shekem, and measure out the valley of Sukkoth, (Psa 60:6, Psa 108:7).

A straight line on the map, from Shekem to Sukkoth, points out Peniel and Maḥanaim. The line runs right down the middle of a great symbolic footprint of the Mishkan across the valley of Sukkoth. At the same time the line divides Shekem it also measures out the valley of Sukkoth and points out Peniel, marking out this portion of Yakob's journey back home from Padan-Aram. Genesis 32-35 is three and a half years, a time, (two)times, and half a time.

Yakob meets with the Malakim of Elohim in the beginning of the passage at Maḥanaim, (Gen 32:1), and there Yakob sets up camp as the time of Pesaḥ Matzot is at hand. By the time Yakob has sent messengers to meet up with Esau, and they return, the week of Matzot is fulfilled, (it is the 21st). Yakob wrestles with the Malak through the night, near dawn, (the fourth watch of the night), in the same day wherein Daniel the Prophet receives the great and final vision, which commences in the ninth chapter, that is, the twenty-first yom of the rishon ḥodesh. Once one understands that the sacred calendar day is seven yamim in a yom, (from the opening creation account), the shabuim yamim of Daniel begin to come into view. In the tenth chapter the three shabuim yamim are three days, that is, twenty and one yom, (Dan 10:13, counting only the seven yamim in a yom in a sacred calendar day). The Prophet gives us the date, which is the 24th day of the rishon ḥodesh, (Dan 10:4), which is three days after Gabriel had come to him at the commencement, in the previous chapter, touching him at the time of the evening oblation in the 21st verse. The vision is thus divided into two parts, (one of the ways of closing up the vision).

The 21st is the same day wherein Paul receives the vision of Meshiah near Damashek, and it is understood by the text and what is said, for the Master says to him, Shaul, Shaul, why do you pursue-persecute me? It is to the drying of the thigh to kick against the cattle-prod, (Acts 26:14). We are informed that this was spoken in Hebrew but even the Greek text bears this out with a little deeper investigation.

σαουλ σαουλ τι με διωκεις σκληρον σοι προς κεντρα λακτιζειν

σκληρον (skleron)

G4642 σκληρός skleros (sklee-ros') adj.
1. dry, i.e. hard or tough.
2. (figuratively) harsh, severe.
[from the base of G4628]
Root(s): G4628

And what is the root, G4628?

G4628 σκέλος skelos (ske'-los) n.
the leg (as lank).
[apparently from skello “to parch” (through the idea of leanness)]
KJV: leg

Thus we have in essence a dried out leg: and this is used in conjunction with the word kentron, (κεντρα in the highlighted text), a cattle-prod, goad, or poker. We therefore have in Paul's vision a direct reference to Breshiyt 32, where Yakob wrestles with the Malak in the night, and the Malak touches the hollow or joint of his thigh, and dries up the sinew which shrank. Both Yakob and Paul are being likened to cattle, while the Master has the cattle-prod, and he uses it to point them into line. The date is 21 Abib, and Paul is then blinded for three days until Ḥananyah is sent, (whom Paul also sees in a vision while he is blinded), the same three days Daniel was also fasting and mourning three shabuim yamim, (Daniel 10:1-4), and Paul's vision contains the same dates as Daniel's, and Daniel's vision contains the same dates as Yakob's.

The porch is half a time, the secondary holy place is (two) times, and the holy holies is a time.