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The work of Elisha, part 17

In early March 2010 we drove to California to hold a conference in San Jose, just south of San Francisco on March 5-7. We called it the Joseph Conference. The conference itself did not entirely fulfill part 2 of Elisha’s resurrection sign. It was just the start of a journey across the country from California to Manassas, VA, where we held our Passover conference April 2-4.

We traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast, stopping at our home in the Twin Cities before continuing to Manassas. Another way of looking at this was that we went from Joseph to Manasseh (son of Joseph). Manassas is the Greek spelling of Hebrew name, Manasseh.

Essentially, Joseph and Ephraim are the same, because the birthright of Joseph was passed down to his son, Ephraim. So the Joseph conference in San Jose (“Saint Joseph”) can be seen also as an Ephraim conference, while the Passover conference in Manassas, VA can be seen as a Manasseh conference. Both sons of Joseph were thus pictured in the cross-country journey.

What, then, was God doing and revealing by focusing our attention on the sons of Joseph? What did this have to do with resurrection? And did the midpoint of our trip in Minneapolis/St. Paul add anything to the revelation?

Elisha’s seventh sign was about raising Joseph from the dead. Scripture does not tell us the name of the boy that Elisha raised, but I suspect that his name was Joseph. We cannot say for sure, of course, but when Elisha’s sign was manifested in 2010, we know that it was all about Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

Elisha Restores Joseph

To really understand the seventh sign of Elisha as it unfolded in 2010, one must know the story of Joseph himself and understand the prophetic significance of his two sons. In fact, most people were blind to what was happening prophetically, because such understanding was possible only if they knew the Scriptures and the history of the House of Joseph. Unfortunately, few in the church today have studied this, because their attention has been diverted to Judah and the Jews.

Likewise, most people have no revelation of prophetic timing, so they missed the importance of the year 2010, which was the Year of Joseph’s Manifestation. The tribes of Joseph-Israel revolted against the House of Judah after Solomon died in 931 B.C. This “breach” between the Scepter and the Birthright only got worse 210 years later when the Assyrians conquered Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria.

This conquest destroyed the House of Israel, which was led by the tribe of Ephraim, and this marked the prophetic “death” of Joseph (and his sons). The House of Joseph was “separate from his brethren” (Genesis 49:26 KJV) on a long-term, historical level, just as the man Joseph was separated during his time in Egypt.

This long-term separation began to end in 2010 after 6 x 490 years (931 B.C. to 2010 A.D.). When the time came for the seventh sign of Elisha, God combined that sign with the prophecy of Joseph to raise Joseph from the dead and restore him to his family.

This is how Elijah’s calling in Malachi 4:6 is being completed through Elisha.

⁶ He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.

Elijah’s calling was to “restore all things” (Matthew 17:11; Mark 9:12). John the Baptist was called to do this, but he was executed before doing much work of restoration. The real restoration must begin with the reunification of the two sticks of Judah and Joseph. This is something that John did not do through his Elijah calling. It is something that had to await the rise of the House of Elisha who was given the double portion of Elijah’s calling.

Prophetic Names of Joseph’s Sons

Joseph had two sons through his wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera (Genesis 41:45). The oldest was Manasseh, and the second was Ephraim. Their prophetic names are explained in Genesis 41:51, 52,

⁵¹ Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” ⁵² He named the second Ephraim, “For,” he said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Manasseh was named to describe the breach that had occurred between Joseph and his family. Manasseh’s name means “causing to forget.”

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h4519/kjv/wlc/0-1/

Centuries later, when the tribes of Joseph were exiled to Assyria, their exile was patterned after Joseph’s own experience when he was separated from his brethren and sold as a slave in Egypt. Over the centuries, these Israelites lost their identity, because they were no longer known as Israelites but as Gamiri, Khumri, Saka, and other names. In other words, they forgot their father’s household and became the so-called “lost tribes of Israel.”

Joseph had been renamed Zaphenath-paneah in Genesis 41:45, which hid his identity from his own father and brothers after being elevated to power in Egypt. So also, the Assyrian records changed the name of Joseph’s descendants from Israel to Gamiri (or Gamira). Because the Assyrians never called the Israelites by the name Israel, this served to “lose” the House of Israel, and these Israelites themselves eventually forgot who they were.

All that is now beginning to change. In the year 1900 the great library of Nineveh was unearthed by archeologists, and the 1400 tablets were sorted and dated. The results were published in four volumes by the University of Michigan Press in 1930 by Professor Leroy Waterman under the title, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire. (I have a set of these in my library.)

These volumes show that the Israelites were then called Gamiri, and the land where they were resettled was the land of Gamir. The point is that this change of name, or identity change, fulfilled the prophecy of Manasseh, “causing to forget.” Archeologists unearthed the evidence a century ago, but only in 2010 did we reach the Year of Joseph’s Manifestation.

We then had two conferences, one in San Jose to represent Joseph-Ephraim, and the other in Manassas, VA to represent Joseph-Manasseh in order to restore the fathers to the children through the ministry of the House of Elisha.

The other side of the story was Ephraim, who, though younger, was the actual holder of the birthright. When Jacob adopted Joseph’s two sons in Genesis 48:13-22, Ephraim was placed above Manasseh. Jacob gave his name Israel to Ephraim (Genesis 48:16). This was why, many years later, when the great breach occurred, the tribe of Ephraim led the House of Israel and why they were the ones who thereafter were known by the name of Israel. Judah did not have the right to call itself Israel, because the name was given to Ephraim.

The birthright itself was the right to be called the sons of God. This was the right of birth given to Joseph and his sons. Hence, Jacob blessed Joseph in Genesis 49:22 saying, “Joseph is a fruitful ben,” that is, a fruitful son. Ephraim means “double portion of fruit.” Jacob crossed his arms and put his right hand upon Ephraim (Genesis 48:14), knowing that the Fruitfulness Mandate took precedence over the principle of forgetfulness.

So whereas Christ came the first time from the tribe of Judah to claim the Scepter, He is coming the second time through Joseph to claim His Birthright. That is why He comes with His robe dipped in blood (Revelation 19:13). It identifies Him with Joseph, whose robe was dipped in blood (Genesis 37:31).

His first coming raised the controversy over His throne rights; His second coming has now raised the controversy over His right to decide who are the true sons of God. Who are truly the chosen people? One side says that one is chosen by one’s fleshly genealogy; the other side says that one is chosen by being begotten by the Spirit.

See my tract: Who are God’s Chosen people?

No King in Israel

The two conferences in 2010 essentially celebrated the resurrection of Ephraim and Manasseh. The year 2010 marked the end of 6 x 490 years in which Joseph-Israel was lost and presumed to be dead. But this was not the only time cycle that was important. The year 2010 was also 390 years since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

The number 390 is built upon the number 39, which is the biblical number for “infirmity.” See The Biblical Meaning of Numbers from One to Forty.

The number 390 takes “infirmity” to a national level, where the infirmity is characterized by “no king in Israel.” Specifically, it refers to Israel without the Messiah. I explained this more fully in Secrets of Time, chapter 13 in my discussion of the main theme of the book of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25).

This described the 390-year period from the first judge (Othniel) until the foundation stone of the temple was laid in the fourth year of Solomon. That foundation stone was a type of Christ, for Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:11,

¹¹ For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Hence, when Solomon laid the foundation of the temple, Israel then had a king. Of course, this was only a type and shadow of a greater manifestation yet to come. Nonetheless, it established the meaning of a 390-year period.

From the fall of Samaria in 721 B.C. until 2010 A.D. was precisely 7 x 390 years, and the final cycle was from 1620-2010. The Pilgrims came in 1620 to crown Jesus as King. Although their intentions were valid, there was no way for them to know that they would have to wait another 390 years to complete the cycle.

The year 2010, then, was the endpoint of two long-term prophetic cycles, which emphasizes the importance of that year. (1) 931 B.C. to 2010 was 7 x 490 years of the breach between Joseph-Israel and his family; (2) 721 B.C. to 2010 was 7 x 390 years in which there was no king in Israel.

Throughout the year 2010 events happened which proved that this was indeed the year of Joseph’s Manifestation (and resurrection) and also the year when America’s time of “no king in Israel” came to an end. On August 28, 2010, Glenn Beck’s 500,000-man rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. declared Jesus to be the rightful King in America. He named this rally “Restoring Honor” (to Jesus Christ). In a speech, he told the people at the gathering,

“America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness.”

I am quite sure that Glenn Beck did not understand the long-term prophetic significance of his rally. Nonetheless, God led him to do what he did, just as God had led the Promise Keepers to do a similar declaration in 1997 on the 390^th anniversary of the Virginia colony (1607). Between these two declarations, we were given a double witness that crowned Jesus Christ as King in America.

I believe that these declarations set the stage for the conflict that we are now seeing in America. The Babylonians do not want to crown Jesus King, and they have rallied to oppose His right to rule. For this reason, Babylon is being overthrown. Resistance is futile. God has raised up His own opposition in order to delay the coronation of Christ until the appointed time.

All of these signs of Joseph were part of Elisha's seventh sign, where he raised the Shunammite woman's son from the dead. There were more signs yet to come before the divine plan could be completed. Nonetheless, the year 2010 was very important in this sequence.