IKVETA DEMESHICHA: The Footsteps of the Messiah.

The name Ya’akov (Jacob) sounds like the Hebrew word for “heel” (akev).

That’s the wordplay behind the verse…

Genesis 25:26

26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

From a Messianic perspective, the name also hints back to the warning in Genesis 3:15 where the Lord said that the seed of the serpent will bruise the “heel” of the seed of the woman. The “seed of the woman” can be understood as a prophetic title for the Messiah.

The Bible mentions the “heels of Messiah” in Psalms:

Psalm 89:51

51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

AMPLIFIED VERSION

51 With which Your enemies have taunted, O LORD, With which they have mocked the footsteps of Your anointed.

The Greek:

h6119. ‘âqêḇ; or ‘iqqbah;

a heel (as protuberant); hence, a track; figuratively, the rear (of an army): — heel, (horse-)hoof, last, lier in wait (by mistake for 6120), (foot-)step, heel, rear, footprint, hinder part, hoof, rear of a troop, footstep heel mark of heel, footprint

The rabbis understood these references to “the heels of the Messiah” symbolically to indicate the final generation that will see the coming of the Messiah.

Let me say this frankly…we are the final generation on Earth. The Paris Olympics of 2024, tell us the truth. A generation gone depraved, rebellious, and utterly lost. And at the same time, a generation longing for God and His Kingdom. One Light, the other darkness. One longing as a Bride, the other stubborn as a donkey. One obedient to God, the other utterly gone from His face.

Please follow me, this maybe long but it surely is prophetic.

Rabbinic sources refer to the generation of the final redemption as “the heels of Messiah (Ikveta deMeshicha), or to translate it another way, “the footsteps of Messiah.”

When things seem darkest, we should listen for the footsteps of Messiah.

The Mishnah predicts what it will it be like in the generation of the footsteps of Messiah:

With the footsteps of Messiah, impertinence increases and famine increases.

The vine gives its fruit and wine is expensive.

The government turns to heresy and there is no reproof. The house of assembly will be for prostitutes, and Galilee will be laid waste, and the [Golan] made desolate.

The border inhabitants will go from town to town, receiving no hospitality, and no one will take pity on them.

The wisdom of the scribes will sour, and those who fear sin will be rejected.

Truth will be sealed away, children will shame elders, and elders will rise before children, as it says [in Micah 7:6],

“For son treats father contemptuously, daughter rises up against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.”

The face of the [last] generation will be like the face of a dog.

A son will not feel any shame before his father. Upon whom shall we depend? Upon our Father in heaven. (m.Sotah 9:15)

Yeshua predicted a time of calamity before the coming of the Son of Man when “the love of most will grow cold” and “a man’s enemies will be the members his household” (Matthew 10:30).

This was the case with Jacob and Esau.

Jacob’s life, his struggle with Esau, and his many travails allude to the difficult days of trial and tribulation that will come upon the world and upon the people of Israel before the coming of Messiah. Even the meaning of Jacob’s name hints toward that interpretation.

The prophet Jeremiah spoke of the coming judgment on his people as the time of Jacob’s trouble: Jeremiah 30:7

Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it

Although the seed of the serpent may bruise the heel of Messiah, the Messiah will crush the serpents head beneath his heel.

I like what Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David says. This really gave me fresh insight and understanding. Let me share some of this with you.

Here is something that Jewish thought teaches. Until the serpent committed the crime of persuading the Adam and Eve to eat from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, in the Garden of Eden, he walked about on two feet like man.

As punishment for bringing man low, he was condemned to crawl upon his belly and to be in eternal mortal conflict with man.

We all know what Genesis 3:14 and 15 says. But let me get it for you directly from the Hebrew.

14 And God God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (eikev – עקב).

This is the first use of the word ‘eikev’, and it defines the creation of the concept of the heel. When God first spoke the word ‘eikev’, the reality was created for the very first time.

 ‘Eikev’ in the Hebrew means heel.

This conflict is described here in the Torah as man’s efforts to trample upon the serpent’s head and the serpent’s efforts to strike at man’s heel.

The Rabbis point out that originally the serpent did not crawl upon its belly, that God altered its form following this episode. As well, He altered its nature. Ever since his fall, the serpent envies the upright position of man which he once enjoyed. Aware that he can never regain that position because of the Divine curse upon him, the serpent tries to do the next best thing to bring man down to his level by injecting his venom into his body.

The heel contains a part of the body that contains insensitive skin that cannot feel anything of significance. On the other hand, that which is totally insignificant and trivial:

This is an accurate description of our generation: We are totally insensitive to the spiritual reality. We are devoid of understanding or feeling, yet we are very much in tune with that which is totally unnecessary, transient, and meaningless, that we can feel.

This is what Rabbi Hillel Ben David says again, “In the overall stature of Israel’s history, our generation is the very “heel”, the lowest part of the body, while our predecessors are like brains, heart, and other higher parts of the body.”

Therefore, our task and mission are likewise the last, or heel, to complete and finish all that is still required to bring about the Messianic redemption.

The serpent bit the heel and injected death into that part of the body. From this point in the body, death spreads until it eventually covers the entire body.

Just like the connection between body and soul, the soul’s connection with the body is to the entire body, including the heel.

The heel is below the leg. It does not have the brains of the head, nor the character traits of the heart, nor the ability of the hands. Even the legs’ ability to walk is not in the heel, for it is possible to get around even without the heel. Our Life-force is not felt in the heel.

This struggle between Adam and the serpent is typified in the struggle between Jacob and his brother Esau. The Torah records that the birth of these twins was in such a way that the heel of Esau was intimately involved:

Genesis25:24-26

24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.

26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

Hosea 12:3-5

3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;

5 Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.

Jacob’s name is made up by joining the Yod to Eikev (the heel):

Jacob (יַעֲקֹב) = yod (י) + eikev (עקב).

Yod has a numerical value of ten (10). Thus, the meaning of Jacob is “ten in the heel”.

So, Jacob’s name contains two concepts.

• His name begins with the letter Yod the first and highest level of God’s name and ends with the word for heel (eikev), the lowest of mundane levels. So low that it is as though dead.
• Secondly, the name Jacob also implies that the revelation of the ‘Yod’ permeates until one’s heel.

When Jacob and Esau, the twins, were born,

“The first one came out all red like a hairy mantle all over, and they called his name Esau. And afterwards his brother came out, and his hand was holding the heel of Esau, and he called his name Jacob”

From the very beginning Jacob had his hand (Yad = Yod) at the heel of Esau, the heel and foot of all the worlds. That was why he was called Jacob.

In Midrashic tradition, Jacob, who was also called Israel, represents the Jewish people. His first-born twin brother Esau represents the oppressive non-Jewish world, especially the Roman Empire.

We are living in a period of history known as the ‘Ikvata d’mashicha’ – עקבות דמשיחא, the ‘birth-pangs of Mashiach’. We are witnessing a world sinking to a level from which it cannot descend further. Depravity can go just so far before it devours itself; it will rot like a seed until nothing is left.

Why should the coming of the redemption be connected to the heel?

Every generation corresponds to a part of the body.

We are the generation of the heel. The heel is the lowest and the least sensitive part of the human body. You can stick a needle in the fleshy part of the heel and not even feel pain.

If we really knew what was going on in these last generations, we would literally not be able to stand. God in his infinite mercy has given us an insensitivity to events so that we can carry on.

Very soon, God will bring the final curtain down on world history. And then God will take our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh and blood.

Our generation is called the “Heels of Mashiach” and it is also for two seemingly opposite reasons:

• We are the lowest generation with the spiritual sensitivity of heels.
• We are very close on his heels so-to-say of these tremendous revelations.

Behold the Messiah’s Footstep are heard. Behold He comes!IKVETA DEMESHICHA: The Footsteps of the Messiah.

Shalom

Willie Soans