“Yeshua went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His talmidim came to him to show him the buildings of the temple.

But he answered them, “Don’t you see all of these things? Most assuredly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the talmidim came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”

Yeshua answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray.

For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will lead many astray.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places.

But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.”

Matthew 24:1-8 (Hebrew Names Version)

When Yeshua began to tell His disciples about the last days, He was very clear about what the world would look like. He described the times like birth pains.

Now, I’m a mom five times over, so believe me when I tell you I know what happens when birth pains start. They get harder and closer until the end comes—and a new life is born. That new life will be the new heaven and earth promised us in Revelation.

“I saw a new heaven and a new eretz: for the first heaven and the first eretz have passed away, and the sea is no more.

I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.

I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”

He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”

He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alef and the Tav, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.

He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.”

Yeshua – Revelation 21:-18 (Hebrew Names Version)

As happens when the baby is born, tears are wiped away and joy is unbounded. Imagine when Yahweh makes a whole new heaven and earth! He will wipe away every tear! Death will be gone! No more sadness, crying or pain!

Are you looking forward to it? So am I.

What else does Yeshua say about the end of days? Let’s look at a few more verses from Matthew to see if it looks like the times we are living in right now.

“As the days of Noach were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noach entered into the teivah,

and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

Yeshua — Matthew 24:37-39 (Hebrew Names Version)

What were the days of Noah like? People certainly didn’t think they were about to be destroyed. The earth didn’t know that a flood would drown it as well as all the people who were living wicked lives. Those people had their own standards of behavior, didn’t think of anyone but themselves, and did unspeakable acts of depravity.

“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the eretz, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The LORD was sorry that he had made man on the eretz, and it grieved him in his heart.

The LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

But Noach found favor in the LORD’s eyes.”

Genesis 6:5-8 (Hebrew Names Version)

Man’s wickedness was so bad that Yahweh had no choice but to destroy almost every single person alive. But Noah…

“This is the history of the generations of Noach. Noach was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noach walked with God.”

Genesis 6:9 (Hebrew Names Version)

“This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”

Genesis 6:9 (New King James Version)

There was one person—only one!—in all the world that walked with God.

Here we discover a scripture that has been misinterpreted by many. It seems to say that Noah was the only righteous man in the generation of his day. And that scripture has so much in it that it is hard to see everything it is conveying.

Yes, Noah was “perfect in his generations,” a man who was considered blameless. This doesn’t mean he was perfect. So what does it mean?

Let’s back up a couple of verses. Here’s how I see it.

“The Nefilim were in the eretz in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came to men’s daughters. They bore children to them: the same were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

Genesis 6:4 (Hebrew Names Version)

“There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

Genesis 6:4 (New King James Version)

If Noah wasn’t a perfect human being, what could those words mean? I suggest to you that his DNA alone was not mixed with that of the Nefilim (giants, wicked angels). Everything on earth had been corrupted by this heinous crime committed against Yahweh’s creation.

A question arises, if Noah was perfect in his generations, how was the Nephilim DNA transmitted after the flood? You only need to look at the earlier verses quoted here for the answer. NOAH was perfect in his generations. Not Noah’s wife nor the wives of his sons. It is through them that the corrupt DNA survived the flood.

“The sons of Noach who went forth from the teivah were Shem, Ham, and Yefet. Ham is the father of Kana`an.

These three were the sons of Noach, and from these, the whole eretz was populated.”

Genesis 9:18-19 (Hebrew Names Version)

Did you notice that only Ham’s son Canaan is mentioned? Why do you suppose that is? Obviously there were more children that just Ham’s son; otherwise, how was the whole earth populated? What was so special about Canaan? Let’s look when he is next mentioned.

“Ham, the father of Kana`an, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

Shem and Yefet took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.

Noach awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.

He said, “Cursed be Kana`an; A servant of servants will he be to his brothers.”

He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; Let Kana`an be his servant.

God enlarge Yefet, Let him dwell in the tents of Shem; Let Kana`an be his servant.”

Genesis 9:22-25 (Hebrew Names Version)

Even though it was Ham who sinned against Noah, he cursed Ham’s son! There are some commentators (called parshanim in Hebrew) who say that the account in the Bible is wrong, that it was Ham who was naked and Canaan who saw him. There is no biblical basis for this at all.

On the other hand, did Canaan, the son of Ham and a woman who had tainted DNA, have some mark that would be indicative of that DNA? Even if not, it is telling that the promised land—the land of Canaan—was populated with giants when the Israelites went in to claim the land. Yahweh told them to utterly destroy every man, woman, and child.

“But of the cities of these peoples, that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;

but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amori, the Kana`ani, and the Perizzi, the Hivvi, and the Yevusi; as the LORD your God has commanded you;

that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against the LORD your God.”

Deuteronomy 20:16-18 (Hebrew Names Version)

The word Kana’ani means Canaanites. The Perezites, Hittites, Amorites and Jebusites were all populated by giant races. Every race of people on the face of the earth other than the Israelites were following pagan gods, so what made these tribes so special that Yahweh would want them completely wiped out?

The horrendous sins of the tribes of Canaan.

There were originally ten tribes in Canaan that Yahweh hated. By the time the Israelites arrived, three of them had already been dealt with. The remaining seven tribes were to be completely eradicated by the Israelites, and only those tribes. All other peoples were not to be attacked unless the Israelites were attacked, and then driven back, not wiped out.

But the Canaanite people were extremely violent. The whole tribe—men, women, and even children—promoted idolatry, gang rape, bestiality, child sacrifice, and more.

The gods the people worshiped were not moral beings. They were real spiritual beings that warred against each other. Ba’al, the Canaanite storm god, defeated the sea god, Yamm, becoming the high god of the ancient Near East. Eventually, Mot, the god of the grave, gained power by attacking Ba’al. Anat, Ba’al’s wife, took joy in slaughtering both Yamm and Mot by cutting off their heads and hands and wearing them as a belt and a necklace. She cut them in half, found them up, and sifted them in the wind.

El, the father of the gods, was married to Asherah. (You may have heard of Asherah poles in the Kings’ period of Israel.) El and Asherah produced seventy children, among them both Ba’al and Anat. El told Ba’al to have sex with his own wife. One of Ba’al’s wives was his own daughter. In the texts of their religions, many more examples are exist, and none of them are portrayed with contempt.

Because the Canaanites worshiped these gods, they behaved just as their gods did. (We have examples of god worship in today’s Easter ritual, as Ishtar was the goddess of fertility. This is why bunnies and eggs are part of the Easter celebration.) Ishtar worship then took the form of sexual acts, including orgies and temple sex. The worshipers considered sex with the priests as sexual union with Ishtar herself.

Incestuous fantasies were considered good things and dreams of the type were considered good omens. The Egyptian Dream book’s section for men says:

“If a man sees himself in a dream…

… having intercourse with his mother: Good. His companions will stick to him.

… having intercourse with his sister: Good. It means that he will inherit something.

… having intercourse with a woman: Bad. It means mourning.”

Papyrus Chester Beatty III recto (BM10683) from about 1175 BC, quoted in Lise Manniche, Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 100.

Even Lot’s daughters thought nothing of sleeping with their father, because of the Canaanite culture in which they grew up. The children born from this incestuous relationship were the fathers of the Amorites and the Moabites.

Another sexual sin was that of homosexuality. The Babylonians had a magical text that said:

“If a man has intercourse with the hindquarters of his equal [male], that man will be foremost among his brothers and colleagues. If a man yearns to express his manhood while in prison and thus, like a male cult-prostitute, mating with men becomes his desire, he will experience evil. If a man has intercourse with a cult prostitute, care [troubles] will leave him.”

A. Kirk Grayson and Donald Redford, Papyrus and Tablet, p. 152:149.

The tribes of Canaan used homosexual rape to demonstrate authority and power. Other men highly regarded this act. (Today, groups of prisoners sometimes corner a man in the showers and rape him to dominate him.) In Lot’s day, this was common practice in Sodom and Gomorrah.

“But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sedom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

They called to Lot, and said to him, ‘”‘Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.’”

Genesis 19:4-5 (Hebrew Names Version)

In Noah’s day, all flesh was corrupted. The Nephilim not only had sex with women, but apparently with animals as well. In Canaan, the worshipers did as their gods did, performing bestiality as a form of worship.

“Mightiest Baal hears; He makes love with a heifer in the outback, A cow in the field of Death’s Realm. He lies with her seventy times seven, Mounts eighty times eight; She conceives and bears a boy.”

Mark S. Smith, trans., in Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, ed. Simon B. Parker, p. 148

Not all animals were subject to bestiality though. There were laws that protected some animals. The Hittite law said:

“If anyone has intercourse with a pig or a dog, he shall die. If a man has intercourse with a horse or a mule, there is no punishment.”

Hoffner, “Incest, Sodomy and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East,” p. 82.

Sometimes animals were tied to a woman’s bed to bring about a blessing. The women did disgusting, grotesque things with the animal, enjoying the practice. (Leick, Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, p. 205.)

The same Egyptian dream book that described incestuous dreams also describes dreams of sex with animals that are a good omen. However, if a woman dreamed of having sex with her husband, she was doomed. (Manniche, Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 100–01.)

In the Canaanite underworld, there was a deity called Molech that required child sacrifice. There is widespread evidence of people following that rite in the Bible. Just look at these references: Lev. 18:21; 20:5; 2 Kgs. 16:3; 21:6; 23:10; 2 Chr. 33:6; Ezk. 16:21; 20:31; 23:37; Jer. 7:31; 19:5; 32:35; Isa. 30:33; 57:9.

Whereas Yahweh greatly esteemed the firstborn of all life precious, Molech required the sacrifice of the firstborn son in order to ensure the gods’ blessings. Children all the way up to four were sacrificed. Child sacrifices were laid as the cornerstone of a house to garner the gods’ blessings over the house and the family. Victories in battle were secured by the sacrifice of a child (Judg. 11:30-40; 2 Kgs. 3: 26-27).

“In fact, we have independent evidence that child sacrifice was practiced in the Canaanite (Carthaginian and Phoenician) world from many classical sources, Punic inscriptions and archaeological evidence, as well as Egyptian depictions of the ritual occurring in Syria- Palestine, and from a recently discovered Phoenician inscription in Turkey. There is therefore no reason to doubt the biblical testimony to Canaanite child sacrifice.”

John Day. Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, p. 211–12

“No other ancient people, however, regularly chose their own children as sacrificial victims, or equated them with animals which could sometimes be substituted for them. The Phoenician practice indicates a definition of the ‘family’ and the boundaries belonging to it and alienation from it that was incomprehensible to others in the ancient Mediterranean.”

 Shelby Brown. Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice, p. 75.

This was the kind of worship that Yahweh told His people to exterminate, that the worship of their gods would not be a snare to the Israelites.

But, they didn’t completely drive out the Canaanites as Yahweh had instructed them.

“Yet the children of Menashsheh couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Kana`anim would dwell in that land.

It happened, when the children of Yisra’el had grown strong, that they put the Kana`anim to forced labor, and didn’t utterly drive them out.

Joshua 17:12-13 (Hebrew Names Version)

Today, descendants of the ancient Canaanite people still live in the promised land, and war is a constant condition between the “Palestinians” and the State of Israel.

What do you think? Are we living in the end of days?

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