From Eliyahu

Dear friends,

We could say twelve is an important number in the Scriptures because Jacob had twelve sons who, in turn, founded the twelve tribes of Israel. If we said that, technically we would be wrong, because the meaning of the number twelve predates Jacob in Scripture. Before Jacob had fathered his twelve sons YHWH had given Abraham's son, Ishmael, twelve sons. They are called "commanders" (princes) in Genesis 25:16. These twelve sons of Ishmael are thought to be the progenitors of the Arab nations.

Jacob's brother and principal rival, Esau, was patriarch of eleven tribal chiefs. Perhaps he himself was considered the twelfth chief. Alternately, perhaps the idea here is that the nation springing from Esau fell short of the perfect governmental foundation, in contrast with the perfection of Israel (see Genesis 36:40-43).

My point here is that twelve was associated with foundational tribal government before the nation of Israel developed, and then is perfected with Israel. The number twelve is composed of four sets of three - like the layout of the camps of Israel - and like the gates leading into the New Jerusalem. There are thought to be four directions of the compass, four corners of the earth, four primary elements (earth, water, wind, fire), four walls of a house, four legs on a table, and so on. Four is the number of foundation, balance and stability. A man, woman and child make three, the most basic functional family. Body, soul and spirit are the three parts of a functional living person. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the Three manifestations of Elohim in perfect relationship together. Three can be seen as the number of essential functional relationship. Multiply three (essential functional relationship) by 4 (foundation, balance and stability) and you get the number 12 signifying perfect tribal government, which is Biblically synonymous with perfect national government. This works best if we remember that the Creator's definition of a nation is tribal - a big family descending from one common patriarch, even if bringing in other genetic stock through marriage and procreation as the nation grows. (Gen 10, Num 1-7, Rev 22 etc)

Since the nation is a big family then family government on a tribal scale is essential to national cohesion and function. This is where the twelve commanders of Israel come in. Each of them, operating in familial yet purposeful love, pulls their tribe together into a functioning unified whole, and then brings their tribe into functional unified order with the other tribes of the nation. When these twelve commanders lead in harmony with our Heavenly King and His chosen national leader (ex. Moses, David, James the Just, etc) our nation embraces our national purpose and we fulfill our national covenantal mandate, namely, to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" manifesting the glory of Elohim in our midst. This is beautiful, wonderful, and brings the greatest possible blessings to our nation and glory to our Elohim. This is the vision of what a functional Israel was meant to look like. This is Messiah's vision of Israel. This is why Y'shua our Messiah appointed twelve men to be leaders of Messianic Israel under James as the earthly Davidic leader. Y'shua continued the Biblical pattern of the national government of Israel. It is this same pattern that must be restored to the faithful remnant of Israel in these last days. If you agree then support this ministry! We have the mandate, we have the prophetic word, we have the vision, we are working toward this goal, and by His grace and your help, we will succeed as He leads!

Our Midrash today focuses on the twelve commanders of the twelve tribes of Israel, as presented to us in Bamidbar/Numbers 7. We have a pattern here, in this chapter, of how the tribal government of Israel looks when it is working at its best. Consider this. Pray about this, that YHWH will restore His remnant nation of twelve tribes, complete with fully functional tribal government, as we see it in this chapter of the Torah, continuing all the way through the rest of the Scriptures.      

There are twelve tribes of Israel. It matters which tribe you belong to, because YHWH is raising up His tribal nation again and He has a role for you to play.

Blessings and Shalom,

Eliyahu Ben David

PS - Download the chart for this program from here.

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