Exodus 15:27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Luke 9:1, 10:1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. … After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

Numbers 1:44, 11:16 These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men: each one was for the house of his fathers. … And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.

There are times when such improbable associations of numbers happen by chance. This is not one of those times. Repeatedly, and in many other examples I will show below, the number 12 and the number 70 are seen together. These mean something. Quite a bit, actually. Let’s start with the things we already know.

Water represents the spirit of God. (John 7:37-39). And drawing water out of a well as a symbol of salvation is not unknown:

John 4:10-14 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.… Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him A WELL OF WATER springing up into everlasting life.

So Jesus specifically said that those who receive this living water from Him – the saints – will have a WELL OF WATER in them, that springs up to eternal life. John 7 refers to having RIVERS of living water coming out of the bellies of the saints; and Jesus Himself is referred to as a “fountain” of living water (Jeremiah 2:13). The second time Elim is mentioned in the Old Testament, rather than saying there were twelve wells, Moses uses a different term… one which means much more in light of these other verses…

Numbers 33:9 And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve FOUNTAINS of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they pitched there.

So if the twelve wells represent twelve sources of “living water”, will that fit the other examples? Are the apostles such sources of living water?

Matthew 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So the water being the spirit, these twelve – and the other 144,000 under them – will be the source of this spirit in the future, and Jesus will lead the rest of mankind in the second resurrection to those twelve fountains.

Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Which is why Jesus is pictured as a tree bearing twelve types of fruit – the leaves of which heal the nations.

Revelation 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

My other articles have established beyond doubt that Jesus is this tree of life; and therefore that these twelve fruits are the apostles, which will head the twelve saved tribes in the first resurrection. The exact same pattern is followed in the church:

Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

And this church of which Jesus is head, is it divided into twelve in any way? Why yes, we find that it is!

Ephesians 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the [TWELVE] apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

So the twelve wells correspond directly to the twelve apostles; Who in turn correspond directly to their future selves as the twelve heads of the twelve spiritual tribes; they also correspond to the twelve “princes” who headed the twelve tribes in the wilderness. These twelve men were chosen and set up by God, personally:

Numbers 1:1-5 And the LORD spake unto Moses … saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel … And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers. And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you:

Then He names one from all thirteen tribes except Levi (of whom Aaron was already selected)…

Numbers 1:16-17These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel. And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names:

These princes of Israel were not priests. They were however the heads of the tribe. Initially, before the Levitical priesthood, the heads of the house offered offerings for their families:

Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

Abraham also did this, as did Noah, and as we must assume all the other righteous men like Enoch, Abel, and Shem did. So it was clearly a patriarchal priesthood – the oldest righteous man in a family was the de facto priest. The person responsible for teaching the law, offering sacrifices for sins, and so on. This is in fact the rules God set up for the passover:

Exodus 12:21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.

These “elders” who killed the passover were the heads of EACH household.

Exodus 12:3-4 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

The man who is the head of the house – that is, the patriarch, who is ideally the oldest – although probably not in cases where the oldest was too weak to do such work, or was disqualified by rebellion against God. Still, theoretically the oldest should have been the priest, and in that sense at least, the firstborn – even if not literally the firstborn son of their mother, the oldest person is still the first-born of those still alive! He was born before everyone else in the family!

God intended for this same priesthood to continue down into Israel.

Exodus 22:29 Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

The priests were to be selected by their firstborn status, not out just one tribe, but the heads of EVERY tribe, and the firstborn in EVERY family – thus distributing the power and contact with God evenly throughout the entire nation.

Exodus 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

However, because of the repeated rebellions, God chose, instead of the firstborn out of the entire nation, the tribe of Levi:

Numbers 3:12-13 And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine; Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the LORD.

So God compromised and took Levi instead of all the other firstborn; that was a long digression but that groundwork needed laid so we can refer to it in the rest of the article. Suffice it to say for now that God intended the heads of the tribes to be the priesthood, and that Levi was a compromise – but certainly not the ideal. Even then however, the heads of the house STILL offered the passover sacrifice. So despite the priesthood replacing the firstborn, the heads of the houses still retained some measure of that authority.

Because of this, these twelve “princes”, the “firstborn” of the twelve tribes, are often found bringing offerings for their tribe; apparently actually offering them themselves, although that is arguable. In any case, they very closely interacted with the priests.

Numbers 7:2-3 That the princes of Israel, heads of the house of their fathers, who were the princes of the tribes, and were over them that were numbered, offered: And they brought their offering before the LORD, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen; a wagon for two of the princes, and for each one an ox: and they brought them before the tabernacle.

Remember specifically that there was ONE wagon for every TWO princes; that ratio will be very useful after a while. Meanwhile, these princes brought these gifts (which were for the moving of the temple and its items), and then apparently offered their offerings personally on the altar – which as I understand it was a task ordinarily (and strictly) reserved for the priests.

Numbers 7:10-11 And the princes offered for dedicating of the altar in the day that it was anointed, even the princes offered their offering before the altar. And the LORD said unto Moses, They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the dedicating of the altar.

The sacrifice they offered has a lot of familiar numbers in it (70, 10, 5, 2, etc), but I’m not prepared to explain that right now. Moving on, the point is that these men offered sacrifices to God; initially! But then later, after several rebellions…

Numbers 17:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.

Twelve rods, plus Aaron’s (remember, Aaron wasn’t technically one of the princes for the Levites were not numbered for war, being reserved for the priesthood (Numbers 1:47-49, 2:33). So the conclusion is that these twelve princes were the same symbol as the twelve apostles; the same as the twelve wells of water. And as final proof of that, we can directly connect these twelve princes with bringing out water – that is, the spirit – to the people! In this song that is quoted from the Wars of Moses, an obvious prophecy is contained in actual history:

Numbers 21:16-18 And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the LORD spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: THE PRINCES DIGGED THE WELL, the nobles of the people digged it, BY THE DIRECTION OF THE LAWGIVER, with their staves. …

These twelve princes DUG the well, to give the people water, AT THE DIRECTION OF THE LAWGIVER! And if that isn’t a metaphor for one TREE bearing twelve manner of fruit… and one HEAD with twelve apostles as the foundation of His church – and one Jesus and twelve apostles heading the twelve saved tribes in the 144,000… as I say, if that isn’t a metaphor, I don’t know what is!

The bottom line conclusion is that these twelve represent the spiritual leadership of a nation. The leadership that corresponds to the priesthood. That statement will make more sense after the next section.

TWO LEADERSHIPS

If you know much about history, and you think about it, you’ll realize that the only governments IN HISTORY which have EVER had a division between church and state have been governments God set up; the USA and NW Europe are unique in that. Every pagan kingdom – Rome, Babylon, Egypt, China, you name it – the Caesar/King/Emperor/Pharaoh is ALSO high priest/divine/god/son of god. There are no exceptions among pagan kingdoms.

This is because religion is based on morality; morality is based upon correcting sin and changing the heart. And so when you give your average person authority to enforce his religion on anyone else, he enforces it differently on them than on himself. Even the best intentioned man given power of life and death over those he deems heretics always ends up a despot. History has proven this to the tune of hundreds of millions of martyrs.

God, knowing that man is basically corrupt, realized that the only way to prevent this was to divide church and state; by having one lawgiver, and one priest. One who enforces the law, and one who only teaches it. Thus Israel was set up as a kingdom with a king and a high priest. They interacted somewhat, but David was not a priest. The priest, at that point in history, did not have the power to enforce sins. It was a fairly good system – not ideal, but for dealing with carnal people it worked pretty well as long as the people were decent. (1 Samuel 12:13-14).

Now throughout the Bible there is a clear division between these jobs; Moses was not a priest. However, Moses was the undisputed leader of Israel. Aaron was not a leader of Israel, but he was the only one allowed behind the veil – but then Moses was the only one to whom God spoke “face to face”. They were a team, but one in which Moses was clearly the chief; God described their relationship thus:

Exodus 7:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

This article will greatly expound that metaphor of God/Prophet;

Exodus 4:15-16 And thou [Moses] shalt speak unto him [Aaron], and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him INSTEAD OF GOD.

So Moses was to Aaron in place of God; the ultimate authority. The civil ruler just as Aaron was to be the spiritual ruler. Subsequent events bore this concept out, because after the death of Moses the leadership of Israel did NOT go to a priest, but to Joshua!

Deuteronomy 31:23 And he [God] gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.

So Joshua took over the civil leadership of the people; and the people, while he lived, acknowledged his authority.

Deuteronomy 34:9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

While we’re here, I’ll mention that Joshua had the SAME “spirit of wisdom” that Moses had, BECAUSE Moses laid his hands on him… and we’ll come back to that later. Regardless, Joshua was the unquestioned leader of Israel – and at this time, partnered with the high priest!

Numbers 34:17-18, 29 These are the names of the men which shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun. And ye shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land by inheritance. … These are they whom the LORD commanded to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.

So God AGAIN set up twelve princes – a different twelve this time, since the first twelve died in the wilderness! One prince of each twelve tribes, to be used in dividing up the land among the people. Joshua was clearly in charge, then Aaron, then these twelve princes.

Now we established that the twelve princes corresponded to the firstborn, the wells, the twelve manner of fruits, the apostles, and hence the SPIRITUAL leadership; just as Moses and Joshua corresponded to the CIVIL leadership. This is that contrast clearly set up between the civil and the spiritual leadership. Church and state.

And just as initially it was in this nation, state (Moses/Joshua) OUTRANKS church (Aaron/Eleazar)… but the state (and the laws it enforces) is built out of the teachings OF that church! And if the church does it’s job properly, there is very little for the state to do!

THE PALM TREES

But so far I have exclusively spoken of the wells; what of these palm trees? Little is specifically said of the palm trees to help us understand their meaning, but there is enough. We know that trees in general often represent people, and specifically people in authority. A simple search for “trees” in the Bible shows this regularly in the prophets. The palm tree is a frequent decoration in the temple, hence presumably in the Garden of Eden as well. But in the few verses we see the palm tree, it appears specifically connected with leadership;

Judges 4:5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

It is to be noted that during the period of judges, there was a distinct division between the judges and the priests. Only one priest is also called a judge, Eli, the others all being out of other tribes. Also, there was not a constant succession of judges for most of the period (approximately 500 years). Judges were raised up as there was a need for them. I talk about that more in my work on Chronology, in the section on the Judges.

Here, I will only say that God raised up a judge, who administered the law for a few years, until he died, and after his death Israel sinned, was sent into captivity, repented, and God raised up a new judge – time and time again.

Malachi 2:7For the priest‘s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

This is the job of the priesthood. And the idea was that if the priesthood was there to teach the people the truth, and was doing a good job of it, Israel wouldn’t be sinning, and therefore wouldn’t need a judge to correct them. So a judge was on an “as-needed” basis.

So here again we see the division of the priesthood and the judge – church and state – with the judge appearing only when the priesthood was run badly. And the civil leader, the judge Deborah, lived under a palm tree – not enough for a conclusion, but certainly interesting. The only other really telling use of a palm tree is in…

John 12:13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.

This DIRECTLY connects palm trees to the KING of Israel. And hence, connects palm trees again to a civil leadership. So there are seventy palm trees, with a good chance they represent civil leadership. Now we plug these ideas into the other examples and see if it makes sense. Moses was the civil ruler; this cannot be argued.

Exodus 18:14-16 And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God: When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.

Which, in a nutshell, is the job of a civil ruler; the priest teaches right and wrong, but the civil ruler takes the rules and makes decisions that apply to individual cases – and then enforces that decision.

Verses 17-20 And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

Which sounds remarkably like what God had said about Moses – that he would be to Aaron a god, and Aaron his prophet.

Verses 21-22 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, TO BE RULERS of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: And let them JUDGE the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.

So Moses was a judge; and now Moses was to set up RULERS, under himself, to JUDGE the people – and he would handle only the hard cases, and devote himself to broad matters of administration. Which further establishes that a judge and a civil ruler are the same. Here, many echelon of judges are spoken of, but no total number is given. But later, out of these, seventy elders are selected:

Exodus 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

Little more is said of them at this time; but something must have happened, this system of elders didn’t seem be working, for later God was personally involved in setting it up:

Numbers 11:11, 14 And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? … I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

The same thing Jethro saw coming, which his idea was supposed to fix – and which apparently, it didn’t completely fix – finally came to a head; Moses was worked to death and sick of the job of bearing this burden alone.

Verse 16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me SEVENTY men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.

Clearly, these men were elders, and OFFICERS over them – the same officers whom Moses had set up at Jethro’s suggestion – but now God was going to set them up HIS way.

Verse 17 And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.

And so the seventy were given the spirit that was on Moses. Just as Joshua was later given of the spirit that was on Moses. So that they could help Moses in the burden of civil rulership. And now we must pause and discuss this spirit.

THE SPIRIT OF..

It has been assumed that this spirit on Moses was the holy spirit. And while Moses certainly HAD the holy spirit… that wasn’t the spirit spoken of here! The best place to start this topic is with Elijah.

2 Kings 2:9, 15 And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of THY spirit be upon me. … And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

This wasn’t the holy spirit. This was the spirit OF ELIJAH. That doesn’t mean Elijah was reincarnated; but Elijah had a certain attitude. One uniquely his, formed by a certain combination of the seven spirits of God. This attitude fitted him well for a certain job – head prophet to Israel. He had the holy spirit too, of course, but it was Elijah’s own spirit which made him what he was.

And Elisha requested a double portion of ELIJAH’s spirit; he wanted to be an ultra-Elijah. And so it was granted him. God liked this particular pattern of spirit which made Elijah so much, that he planned to bring that same pattern to play before Jesus came:

Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

Elijah wasn’t going to be resurrected before Christ returned, but someone with the attitude and thus the OFFICE of Elijah was to come before Jesus – and do what?

Luke 1:76 And thou, child [John the baptist], shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

This man in the spirit of Elijah was to “go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways”. Now look at what Jesus commanded the seventy to do…

Luke 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two BEFORE HIS FACE into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

Note how specifically that matches the job of John the Baptist; to go “before His face” into every city where He would later go. They were to go and put up the handbills saying “the circus is coming to town!” in a manner of speaking, only here they were saying “The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” (Luke 10:9). Now this was the EXACT job of John the Baptist, of whom Jesus said…

Matthew 11:10 This is he of whom it has been said, See, I send my servant before your face, who will make ready your way before you.

John the Baptist did not give them the spirit of God. He was teaching them strictly the doctrine of REPENTANCE – not spiritual repentance, for the spirit was not given.

Acts 19:4-6 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

So you might easily say that John was giving them a physical or civil baptism, one meant to PREPARE a people for the SPIRITUAL baptism which was to come later. It’s not difficult to establish that John had more authority than Jesus when He was on the Earth…

Jesus…

Philippians 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Galatians 4:1-2 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

John said of Jesus…

John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

Matthew 3:13-15 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

And Jesus said of John…

Matthew 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

John was older than Jesus; began preaching first; and was by Jesus’ own admission the greatest man alive. And John made a great civil impact!

Mark 1:5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

Even the Pharisees came out to be baptized, he made such an impact. This all corresponds very well to what a judge would have done; what Moses would have done. But they did NOT receive the spirit, and so this could NOT have been a spiritual ministry! John said that job was for JESUS to do!

Luke 3:16 John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

But Jesus did not baptize with the holy spirit UNTIL He was resurrected – it was only THEN that He was mightier!

So as the civil leadership was his, John said the SPIRITUAL leadership was Jesus’; fulfilling the same pattern as Moses and Aaron; Joshua and Eleazar; and so many others you’ll see below. Now we established that the twelve were the spiritual leadership under Jesus; the twelve apostles were the foundation of the church. And we just established that the seventy fulfilled the same job as John the baptist.

Jesus sent out twelve, then in the very next chapter He sent out seventy; it would take a conscious effort NOT to connect that to the twelve wells and seventy palms; or the twelve princes and seventy elders; we established in each of those cases that the twelve represented the SPIRITUAL leadership, and the seventy represented the CIVIL leadership. Reading the stories of both the twelve and seventy (Luke 9-10) shows several key differences in their jobs, even though they superficially look similar.

Now it’s time to start showing that this theory can be useful at unlocking some difficult scriptures; for instance, this one:

Luke 9:51-53 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

These messengers were again doing the job of John. But when the twelve disciples, who were traveling with Him – not the ones having been sent – they asked…

Verses 54-55 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

They wanted to call fire down from heaven AS ELIJAH DID! And Jesus said “you don’t know what manner – what TYPE – of spirit you are of” – a strange comment to say the least! All it can mean is that the disciples assumed that they were of the spirit of ELIJAH – and Jesus was saying that they WEREN’T! That they were of the OTHER spirit!

Jesus said first “you don’t know what spirit YOU are of… for the son of man didn’t come to do that…” – which says that they were of the same SPIRIT, the same OFFICE, and the same ATTITUDE as He Himself was! Now while Jesus had no authority on this Earth, he came with a very specific job in mind.

Hebrews 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

He came to shed his own blood so that, AS HIGH PRIEST he could enter into the holy place! Thus establishing that Jesus was fulfilling the job, not of Moses, but of AARON. He didn’t come to be a KING! HE wasn’t here to be a CIVIL leader!

John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

JOHN was the civil leader who prepared a people which was reasonably decent for Jesus to speak to and offer His spirit! Just as Moses whipped the people in shape for Aaron! This is also why Jesus didn’t condemn the woman taken in adultery (John 8:3-11)

So to recap so far; Moses, the seventy who received the spirit from him, Joshua who received the spirit from Moses, all the judges, Elijah, Elisha (who received the spirit from Elijah), John who likewise was of the spirit from Elijah, and the seventy Jesus sent out who did the same job as John, all are pictured by the seventy palm trees. All represent the civil, physical, old-covenant-type leadership.

On the other hand, Aaron, Eleazar and all the other high priests, the twelve princes, the twelve apostles, and Jesus (while a man) who was of that “same manner of spirit” as the twelve – were NOT of the spirit of Elijah. All are pictured by the twelve wells/fountains/rivers of living water from which is extracted the spirit, making them represent the spiritual, new-covenant leadership.

DEACONS

This pattern is primarily 12 and 70; however, it seems to also “reduce” to 12 and 7 often; for example, the apostles were the spiritual leadership of the church; and no civil leadership, or “judge” was needed at first. However, when people became more carnal – just as in ancient Israel – they needed a civil ruler.

Acts 6:1-2 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.

So the Greek widows weren’t being taken care of as well as the Hebrews; there was misappropriation of funds in God’s church! What a shock. The apostles didn’t want to stop preaching to become accountants, so what did they do?

Verses 3-4 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you SEVEN men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this BUSINESS. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

So they set up seven men – seventy were not required for such a small task – to become the CIVIL rulership of the church; the deacons. Now these men, like Stephen, were certainly not barred from prophesying, or preaching, but their OFFICE, was one of administration, not of spiritual teaching! Their responsibility was first to ensure that the money was handled fairly and that the mundane details of managing a church were taken care of.

Now there is another pattern that connects this 7 to the 70 pretty well in the temple. In the tabernacle, as in the last two temples, there was a single candlestick with seven candles in it. Thus, seven lights representing the seven spirits of God who are the “watchers”, the “eyes”, the “holy ones” who make administrative decisions over this Earth. (See my various articles on the seven spirits).

Also in the temple were twelve loaves of bread – arranged into two rows of six each (Leviticus 24:5-6). Remember how the twelve princes brought six wagons, two princes per wagon? The same ratio. The loaves of bread in another article (“Symbolism Of The Showbread”) I concluded represented the book of life, with the twelve groups (the 144,000) of the saved saints; which are the spiritual leadership headed by the twelve apostles, which again ties back to twelve wells, twelve manner of fruits, and so on.

On the other hand, the seven candlesticks represent the civil administration, specifically the seven angels of God; Stephen indicates this when He says “you who received the Law given through angels, and yet have not obeyed it.” (Acts 7:53, WEY), or as the Philips translation has the same verse “You … received the Law of God by the hand of angels …”

But what has troubled me about that theory is that in Solomon’s temple, instead of a single seven-branched candlestick, Solomon’s temple has TEN candlesticks – totaling SEVENTY flames! 2 Chronicles 4:7. Thus giving us yet again TWELVE spiritual leaders (the twelve loaves of showbread) and SEVENTY civil rulers (the flames).

In that context, there are SEVENTY nations mentioned in Genesis 10-11. Also, seventy people went into Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:26-27). Further, there are seventy bullocks offered during the seven days of Tabernacles (Day by day, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 = 70). Perhaps these are offered for the seventy nations, considering Tabernacles is about the salvation of the other nations?

Regardless, this is still not the real type of 12/70, or more specifically, civil/spiritual leadership.

JESUS AND THE FATHER

The ultimate type of all this is Jesus and the Father; the Father, the civil ruler, the lawgiver; Jesus the advocate, the spiritual head of the church. The Father does the exact same job as John, in fact.

John 6:44-45 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

The FATHER must whip the people into shape, and once they are repentant and brought in line a little bit, He leads them to Jesus! The FATHER makes a people “prepared for the Lord” – just as John did!

Luke 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

And Moses does the exact same job for Jesus!

Luke 16:29-31 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

If they don’t hear Moses, they CAN’T hear Jesus! Just as if they don’t hear the Father, they CAN’T hear Jesus! Just as if the Pharisees didn’t hear John or Moses, they COULDN’T hear Jesus!

John 5:39,46 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. … For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

The job of the civil ruler is to forcibly correct those who are too evil to even be approached by spiritual truth; those who are so far outside the law that the priest who tries to approach them is ignored or killed. The job of the priest is to take the people who are civilly obedient – to the old covenant – and teach them to be SPIRITUALLY obedient – the new covenant.

PRIEST AND KING

But here we run into a snag; for Jesus is the high priest, and thus the spiritual ruler, it is clear. A dozen scriptures testify this. But a dozen others say plainly that Jesus is KING. Which is He? Is one person both jobs, thus combining church and state? Not at all. When Jesus was here, as quoted above, He said “now is my kingdom not from here”. So Jesus was NOT king then. He is not king yet, even now, until the return of Christ.

Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

So at the second coming of Christ, Jesus becomes the KING – and no longer the high priest. As various scriptures attest (see my article on the millennium), the Aaronic, Levitical priesthood is set up again. Once again establishing clear divisions between church and state – with Jesus switching roles. Jesus will remain King of kings and Lord of lords how long?

1 Corinthians 15:25-28 For he must reign, TILL he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, THEN shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Jesus will reign as king UNTIL the 50,000 year Pentecost (see my article, “The TRUE Plan of the Holy Days”). Then He will offer up the two loaves, the finished kingdom, to His Father. When that happens He will AGAIN switch positions, back to High Priest under God, with the rank of Melchizedek, forever – and the name Melchizedek shows this, as it means “my King is the righteous One”.

KINGS AND PRIESTS

Revelation 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

This verse has always bothered me; are we kings, priests, or kings and priests at the same time? When we are resurrected, does it mean that EACH person will be both offices? Or that some are of one office, and some of another?

Think about it this way; this life is a training period for the kingdom of God. We are learning obedience first of course, but we are also honing skills, methods of leadership and gathering command experience in this life. Now suppose Aaron is resurrected in the kingdom of God. Aaron was a priest. That’s all he ever did. He has vast experience in that field and that field only.

Will God resurrect him and put him in charge of the nation of Israel? A job for which he has no training, and which frankly he was lousy at (remember the golden calf that just “popped” out of the fire while Moses left him in charge?).

Aaron is quite fit for a high priest. Quite good at teaching. But when it comes to correcting sinners, every single time he was put in that position he fumbled it miserably. So why would God resurrect him and make him a king, the job for which he exhibited such ineptitude?

On the other hand, David was an excellent king. He ruled and governed people with remarkable skill and justice. However, in every case where David tried to be a priest, he failed miserably. (Remember when he went to get the ark, and did it all wrong and Uzzah died?). Further, BECAUSE David was such a good king and warrior, God forbade him from building the temple.

So would you put David in the Kingdom as a priest, or a king? The Bible plainly says David will be a king. It never says he will be a priest. Likewise it says Aaron will be a priest, and never says he will be a king. Both jobs are necessary, and both are going to exist; but they will not be held by the same person.

Never in history have those offices been shared in God’s kingdom. Why start then? This article makes it clear that there are two offices; kings (civil leaders) and priests (religious leaders). There is every reason to believe we’ll still need those two offices to be separate then, because each office teaches a different type of person in a different way – and their approaches cannot be combined!

A priest teaches; he, in effect, ASKS people to obey God, or teaches them how. A king doesn’t ask – he COMMANDS people to obey God – and they had better obey! These cannot be combined. Granted, there can be minor overlap such as stern teachers and gentle kings, but the fact is that some people need saved with compassion, and others need saved with fear, as Jude tells us (Jude 1:22-23).

If the same person tries to teach and command, or show compassion, then exert control through fear, then compassion again, the person being corrected will be confused. The only way it works is to have one person be the “bad guy” and someone else be the sympathetic “friend”.

If you’re paying close attention, that gives away my next subject…

THE HUSBAND AND WIFE

Ultimately, we’re looking at a pattern of a properly set up household. The woman is designed different from the man, mentally. Men are impatient, stern, judgmental types. They like to see justice done, problems solved, using as much force as necessary to get the result they think is right. They tend to focus more on one thing at a time and solve it before moving on.

Women on the other hand are much more patient, nurturing, and born multi-taskers. There is a reason why more teachers are women than men – because that is the “spirit” the woman is born with. They like working patiently with children and prefer solving their problems by giving them a shoulder to cry on than giving them a swat – the instinctive response of the man.

This, you’ll notice, is the exact same pattern as that of the king and the priest. The woman deals with the children’s problems on a day-to-day basis in the home, doing the majority of the training and raising of the children while the man is out working. When the children disobey however, she usually leaves it to the husband to give them their punishment, something she can’t bear to do herself.

I realize these patterns are not followed today, but then the homes aren’t set up as the Bible commands today. Fifty years ago it was much closer to God’s home design and we had much less juvenile crimes and broken homes to boot, but that’s another article. For now we will take “Leave It To Beaver” as a pattern of the typical home.

Women are always more involved in religion than men. Churches worldwide – not just Christian churches, but taoist and other religions as well are predominately women. Because women are naturally inclined more towards love, mercy, hope, and so on – and that’s all most churches teach today. A real man isn’t interested in such drivel; he wants judgment, justice, action. Something that churches today cannot give him, but which the Bible can supply amply if merely believed.

The point is that the man is the King of the home. The woman is his priest. To the children, he is “God” and she is “his prophet”. In this way the children grow up with a woman to nurture them on a day to day basis and be their friend, and a man to correct them when they need it and be, when necessary, the bad guy. This gives them a balanced environment and is the biggest reason why the broken homes of today are such a tragedy.

When children grow up without either parent, they are missing a huge spectrum of emotional development; without a mother, they grow up without that section of love a father simply isn’t emotionally able to give; they tend to grow up detached, distant, or angry.

Without a father, they grow up wild, uncontrollable, or else tip to the other side of the spectrum and become completely wimpy babies when they grow up. Which is why the modern style of home with the woman as absolute head and the wimpy excuse for a husband tends to create these juvenile delinquents – because they are living in effect without a real father. The offices of the king and priest are combined in the modern woman, which God considers an abomination (Isaiah 3:12).

THE TWO WITNESSES

This is a pattern that runs throughout every authority in the Bible; a king and a priest; a civil ruler and a spiritual ruler. The husband and wife, and even the two witnesses have this relationship.

Revelation 11:3-4 And I will give power unto my two witnesses ,… These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Which is a reference to…

Zechariah 4:11, 14 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? … Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

Zechariah 3:8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.

Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Zerubbabel was the governor of those returned from the captivity – the civil ruler. Joshua was the high priest at the time. God used them to picture the two witnesses who would return at the end time. Once again, the same relationship – just as John the Baptist was the civil ruler and Jesus the spiritual, the “high priest”, so Joshua – Hebrew for Jesus – is the “high priest” to Zerubabbel, the civil ruler. And the civil ruler is always the spirit of Elijah, the kingship spirit.

And Elijah is yet to come in our future (Matthew 17:11), but so is his counterpart, this Joshua – together they comprise the two witnesses. The details of who they are I don’t yet know, but there are many clues in Zechariah 1-6 and Haggai.

There is no smashing conclusion to all of this; it’s a bit overwhelming actually, now that you see all the patterns everywhere of 70 and 12, of male and female, of Moses and Aaron, God and Jesus, deacons and apostles, and… well, here’s a chart I made up of all the parallels I could think of; that’s as good a conclusion as any.