God’s word mentions several trees by name: olive trees, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life, palm trees, tamarisk trees, poplar trees, sycamore trees, broom trees, cedar trees, almond trees, apple trees, walnut trees, oak trees, cypress trees, willow trees, pomegranate trees, mulberry trees, myrtle trees, and fig trees.  In fact, in Hosea 14:8 God compares himself to a tree, “I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me.”

ISRAEL – THE FIG TREE PROPHECY

Fig trees in the middle east are a fruit-producing tree or shrub. The size of the tree, and its capacity to produce figs, depends mainly on the soil that the tree is rooted in. Typically, the fig tree blooms before sprouting forth its leaves in the spring, and normally would produce, not one, but two crops of figs each year.

During the first dispersion of Israel, God sent a vision to the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, of two baskets full of figs. One of the baskets had good figs while the other basket contained bad figs.

“The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then said the LORD unto me, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’ And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.” Jeremiah 24:1-3

“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.  For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.  And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” Jeremiah 24:4-7

“And like the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil, surely thus saith the LORD, so will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt, and I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places to which I shall drive them.  And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.” Jeremiah 24:8-10

In the New Testament, as Jesus was preparing his disciples for what to expect in the future, they asked, “Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming, and the end of the age?” Matthew 24:3

Jesus said, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When its branch is still tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near: So likewise, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Truly I tell you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things are fulfilled.” Matthew 24:32-34

He tells them that the generation of people who will witness the Last Days or End Times will actually witness this blooming, or rebirth, of the “fig tree”. Throughout recorded history, nations have always been typified by “types and figures” to describe them. Russia is the “bear”, America is the “eagle”, England the “lion”, and Israel is the “fig tree”. Jesus was saying the generation that sees ISRAEL re-blooming, whenever that would take place, that generation would be the one to see the return of Jesus as prophesied in Jeremiah 24.

Israel was destroyed in 70 AD. When did it “bloom” again? May 14, 1948 is the date that history records Israel’s Declaration of Independence when they were reestablished in their ancient homeland. How long is a generation? “The days of our years are threescore years and ten (70); and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years (80) yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”   Psalm 90:10 

Many of the generation that were alive in 1948 are still alive and with us today. We are the people Jesus said would be alive on the earth when the Last Days would happen. That time is right now. The time of the “last days” Jesus referred to, is not “in the future” and it’s not “coming soon“. It is here right now. For the past 7 decades, all the major players have been taking the stage and playing the parts God said they would.



Another prophecy of these end times is the parable of the fig tree, found in Mark 11:12-14, “And on the next day, when they were come from Bethany, he [Jesus] was hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find any thing on it; and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said to it, ‘No man eat fruit of you hereafter forever’. And his disciples heard it.” He then proceeded on down to the city of Jerusalem, and into the Temple, whereon he flew into a rage, chased out the moneychangers, and called the Holy Place nothing more than a den of thieves. The disciples must have thought these were the actions of a madman. So then, try to imagine the disciples’ astonishment the next day, when on the same road back to Bethany, they passed right by that very same fig tree and, lo and behold, it had already withered up and died. They had to wonder about this man called Jesus, and why he would curse a fig tree. From Mark 11:20-24

Digging deeper, you will find that everything in the Bible, including the entire life of Jesus, has a divinely intended purpose or message. God does not waste his words, nor would Jesus have behaved in such a manner without signaling some meritorious meaning.

According to Jeremiah’s end time prophecy (Jeremiah 23:5) God says: “Behold the days come, said the Lord, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and also prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” This scripture continues to say that in the days of the rule of the righteous Branch (when Jesus rules from the third temple in Jerusalem during the millennium) that Judah itself shall be saved, and Israel will dwell safely in their land. Of course, Jesus was the righteous Branch that was born from out of the stem of Jesse, as found in Isaiah 11. In the strictest symbolic definition, God is the fig tree with the righteous branch being Jesus, while the figs are the fruit of the tree. Israel is symbolically represented as the early blooms on the fig tree while the church is typified by the leaves that are on the branch. Later in Romans chapter 11 we find that the Gentiles have been grafted into the branch. So, when Jesus found no figs upon the fig tree returning that afternoon after he had cursed the tree, he was figuratively laying out to the disciples that Israel still, as yet, had not born any fruit from the branch by the mere fact that their immediate generation simply did not recognize the epic “time of visitation” by their Messiah.

In Luke 18:31-33; Jesus had already instructed the disciples that he was going down into Jerusalem, and while there all the things prophesied concerning the Son of Man would be accomplished. He informed them that he would be mocked, scourged, and put to death; and yet rise up again on the third day. The symbolic paradigm acted out at the roadside fig tree was simply a public display of the rejection of Israel’s king, and that “Israel”, would suffer a historical curse in like manner as the fig tree that the disciples saw. Recall in Luke 12:56, that Jesus took to task the Scribes and Pharisees for not being able to discern the signs of the times. Israel should have anticipated that the season for Messiah’s appearance, the time for the harvest of good figs, was nigh at hand.

In Daniel 9:25-26 the prophet Daniel had foretold that the Messiah would appear in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem in exactly 483 years on the Hebrew calendar, after the commandment went forth from the Persian King Artaxerxes Longimangus, which was issued on March 14, in the year of 445 B.C. This commandment is recorded within the Bible in the book of Ezra, chapter 7, and again in most of the book of Nehemiah.

So then, on Palm Sunday, in the year of 32 A.D., every single Jewish believer should have been down at the Eastern Gate in anxious anticipation of giving a rousing welcome to the expected King of the Jews. Although there was a large crowd assembled to welcome Jesus into the city, spreading some palm branches before him, by and large Israel was very unimpressed with Jesus’ appearance. Even the disciples were not altogether sure who Jesus was. In Luke 10:23-24, Jesus said to them: “For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you have seen, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.”

Many people throughout Israel’s history had desired to see the Deliverer, the Messiah King, but to no avail. They had never been afforded that wonderful opportunity. However, a particular generation was providentially destined to be witnesses of the King’s timely presentation. Even today, there is a generation that has a divine destiny to not see death, but to be transported away by the returning King, much in the same manner Enoch was ushered up into heaven, Genesis 5:24.

The Bible is accurate, right down to the very minutest detail. God expresses everything in a carefully designed pattern. Every single word, phrase, jot or tittle, has purpose. It is absolutely foolhardy to alter any of it, or to not consider any portion as intensely significant.

All of Israel should have been on hand that Palm Sunday to thank God for being faithful to his word. There indeed was a very devout man, who had discerned that the Messiah would come during his lifetime, and he had been individually promised via the Holy Spirit that he would see Jesus arrival before his death. “And, behold there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Luke 2:25-26. Simeon had a direct promise from God that he would see the Messiah before he passed away. Simeon was not simply lucky, or rewarded for good behavior. Simeon was an old man by the time of the affixed timely event of the Virgin Birth, and he recognized fully that the anticipated date of the Messiah’s mission was only 3 short decades away and, therefore, was afforded the opportunity to live to see the time of Israel’s promised visitation by God. Simeon probably believed that Israel would accept their long-awaited King. He had no idea that Israel would kill the very one that was the lifeblood of the kingdom of Israel. He most likely died comforted in the notion that Israel was rejoined to their King. The generation that immediately followed Simeon should have expected Jesus.

Jesus’ very own generation should have had great expectation from among its own ranks that someone special from God would emerge. But the generation that failed to recognize him, later endured to see the total destruction of the beloved rebuilt city of Jerusalem. When Jesus approached the city on a high overlook, he wept over it. “And when he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”  Luke 19:41-44;

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food; and the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:17-18

Make no mistake about it, God’s promises to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the good basket of figs still remains intact. God still intends to glean a second harvest from the fig tree of Israel, but only after that fig tree (Israel) has again put forth its blossoms; producing the second harvest, another budding of the fig tree, later on in the growing season.

The leaves that sprouted forth from the Branch of the fig tree could have been for the healing process to be instilled in the souls of all the nations of this world. Had the church so conquered the nations in total, as did Jonah’s preaching to the Ninevites, Israel may have been spared the onslaught of Anti-Semitism. But alas, the church has not brought peace, but it has brought separation. The nations are all at enmity with the God of Israel and its grafted Christians! This is, at least in part, the reason for the need to heal the nations in the Post Millennial Kingdom of Israel.

Without question, the rebudding of national Israel in 1948, is the most powerful message that God has sent to the nations and peoples in the last 20 centuries, since the first visitation of the Branch. In restoring Israel once again in their homeland, God is raising up an ensign, or banner, which the nations of the world cannot ignore.

God says, “Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations. I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the Lord. For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land. “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.” Ezekiel 36:22-25

God is about to undertake a great shaking in the land of Israel. The second crop of good figs is already budding on the Branch. The Satanic hosts which are staged to pursue Israel will lead the nations to their fates when God shakes the Fig Tree. “And the stars of Heaven fell unto the earth, even as a “fig tree” casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Revelation 6:13

The parable of the fig tree carries with it a promise just like the one made to Simeon. As Simeon was promised to not see death until he had seen the Messiah, so will this current generation, the rebudded generation of Israel, see all things fulfilled before it passes. “I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place.”  Matt 24:34

Healing Nature of Figs

Figs occupy a high position among citrus fruits. Soft, sweet and pulpy, these delicious fruits promote health. Figs are pear-shaped hollow fruits, with sugary pulp and a large number of small seeds of golden color. Figs are variable in size and color. The ripe fresh fruits are juicy, wholesome and delicious. However, being highly perishable, figs are sold in the market in dry form. An analysis of fresh figs shows they contain a good amount of moisture and a little protein, fat and carbohydrate. Dry figs have a high nutritive value. Its most important food element is sugar which forms up to 74 percent of the whole fruit. Figs are excellent source of potassium, dietary fiber and manganese.

Potassium is very helpful to control high blood pressure; dietary fiber supports bowel regularity and helps to maintain sugar and cholesterol levels normal. Manganese helps to control infertility, weakness, heart disorders, memory loss, and muscle contraction.

Constipation: Taken either fresh or dried, the fig is regarded as a dependable laxative on account of its large cellulose content and its tough skin. The tiny seeds in the fruit possess the property of stimulating peristaltic or wave like movements of intestines which facilitates easy evacuation of feces and keeps the alimentary canal clean.
Asthma: Figs are considered beneficial in the treatment of asthma. Phlegmatic cases of cough and asthma are treated with success by their use. It gives comfort to the patient by draining of the phlegm.
Sexual Weakness: Figs can be beneficially used in the treatment of sexual debility. They can be supplemented by other dry fruits like almonds and dry dates along with butter. Their use has proved effective in such cases.
Weight Loss: Fiber and fiber-rich foods are helpful to lose weight. Figs are excellent source of dietary fiber and a great food for weight management.
Hypertension: Deficiency of potassium or low intake of potassium-rich foods can lead to high blood pressure. Figs are very good source of potassium which helps to control high blood pressure.
Figs are considered a restorative food which helps in quick recovery after prolonged illness, removes physical and mental exertion and endows the body with renewed vigor and strength.

Day 7

THE SEVENTH DAY

Genesis 2:1-3
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” 

THE 7th THOUSAND-YEAR PERIOD

As you have discovered from Day 1 through Day 6, God’s prophecy has been accurate for the past 6,000 years. The coming 1,000 years, or the 7th thousand-year period, will be a period of rest reflecting that of the 7th Day of creation.

God does not want you to be ignorant! As events unfold, keep your ears and eyes open. God has no intention to leave you in the dark – literally and figuratively. Eternity is a long time to be wrong.

“But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [Not sure he could have been more clear.] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9

Timeline of the 7,000 Years Prophecy

1st thousand-year period = 0 (Creation) -999
2nd thousand-year period = 1000-1999
3rd thousand-year period = 2000-2999
4th thousand-year period = 3000-3999
BIRTH OF CHRIST
5th thousand-year period = 4000-4999 (0-999 on our calendar)
6th thousand-year period = 5000-5999 (1000-1999 on our calendar)
7th thousand-year period = 6000-7000 (2000-2999 on our calendar)

There were 4,000 years before Christ was born and 2,000 years have passed since he was born. Therefore, 6,000 years have passed according to Biblical history. Matching the Genesis prophecy, the first 6 days have passed and we’re already 24 years into the 7th day which, according to Biblical prophecy, begins the 7th thousand-year period on this earth.

END TIMES TIMING

A study of God’s word reveals more details about the 7th Day, or last 1,000 years on earth and the transition into it, than any other time since creation.

The Old Testament prophet Hosea wrote: “After two days he will revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then we shall know, if we follow on to know the Lord, that his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth.” Hosea 6:2-3

Does this match God’s 7-day prophecy in Genesis? YES. According to Hosea, after two days (2,000 years after Christ was born) he will revive us, and in the third day (the 3rd thousand-year period after Christ was born) we would be raised up.

Hosea’s prophecy couldn’t apply to Christ rising from the grave on the third day, because it says he will “raise us up”, not Jesus. But if we combine 2 Peter 3:8-9 and Hosea 6:2-3, we can say that two thousand years after Jesus’ birth (the 5th and 6th thousand-year periods) he will revive us; in the third thousandth year (7th thousand-year period) he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight – if we follow and know and follow him as Lord.

The last 3 of the 7 Feasts of God, the Fall Feasts, depict what has been referred to as the ‘End Times’. It will be a tremendously challenging period as God transitions the world as it is now into a spiritually peaceful kingdom here on earth for the next 1,000 years. We serve a unique and intentional God who has not abandoned us, but has given specific instructions regarding our future. The Old Testament prophets have highlighted what to expect, when, and why, where we will be, what we will do, what kind of rest, and who will be our leader, our king.

The period from Adam to Abraham was 1948 years. God called Abram out of his country to go to a land God promised, a land flowing with milk and honey that would become the birth of God’s nation, Israel. Through God’s strategic plan, the 12 tribes were exiled from their country until May 14, 1948, when Israel signed it’s Declaration of Independence. Is it a coincidence that the year was 1948 that God brought his people back into the nation he promised Abraham? Coincidence? Not a coincidence? You decide.

“Now, learn a parable of the fig tree: When its branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So likewise, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Truly I say to you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:32-35.

God is clear. Israel is the fig tree. The generation born in 1948, the rebirth of Israel, will not pass until all these things (described in Matthew 24) are fulfilled.

So, how long is a generation? The Bible says, “The days of our years are threescore and ten (70); and, if, by reason of strength, they be fourscore (80) years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10

1948 = This generation shall see Christ
+  80 = A generation – Psalm 90:10
2028
–     7 = Years of Tribulation 
2021

Note: Some have suggested that Christ’s ministry did not last three years, but only one. During his ministry, there is an accounting of Christ attending only one each of the 7 Festivals (7 Feasts of God), not three separate years of 7 feasts. Jesus attended Passover once; the second time, he was the Passover offering, the Lamb of God slaughtered on the cross. Therefore, if this is true, and for other unknown reasons, the above timing may be a little off, but still very close.

As you can see, using the data from Matthew 24:32-35 along with the ‘proposed’ guess of a generation being 80 years from Psalm 90, we’re very close to the Rapture and Great Tribulation.

God’s promise, his word, is that this current generation will see the coming of Christ. Prior to this special Millennium will be a worldwide preaching of God’s word that all nations will hear. This global revival will be followed by the rapture of God’s people, which will usher in a 7-year period of severe tribulation such as the world has never seen.

PENSIVE INTERLUDE

“Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:1-7

“And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:12-14

“I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Seek me in vain; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.”
Isaiah 45:19

END TIMES BREAKDOWN

THE PROBLEM

The severity of the End Times we’re facing is because we have forgotten God and his commandments, provoking and unleashing his anger and judgment upon us. This isn’t the first time.

“God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”  “The day will surely come when God, by Jesus Christ, will judge everyone’s secret life. This is my message.”
Romans 1:18-20; 2:16

“Who can stand before [God’s] indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place and darkness shall pursue his enemies.” Nahum 1:6-8

“An appalling and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:30

“Behold, the Lord comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” Isaiah 26:21

“How is the faithful city become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loves bribes, and follows after rewards; they do not judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them. Therefore, said the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah I will rid myself of my adversaries, and avenge myself of my enemies.” Isaiah 1:21-24

“Behold, your people in the midst of you are women: the gates of your land shall be set wide open to your enemies…” Nahum 3:13

“Her mightiest warriors no longer fight. They stay in their barracks, their courage gone. They have become like women. The invaders have burned the houses and broken down the city gates.” Jeremiah 51:30

“Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses; I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled. Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.” Ezekiel 7:24-25

“…Therefore, I will bring strangers upon you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness.” Ezekiel 28:7

“Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.” Lamentations 5:2

“Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with carefulness; and say unto the people of the land, Thus said the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; ‘They shall eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with consternation, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell in it.”‘ Ezekiel 12:17

“For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.” Lamentations 4:6

“The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant.” Isaiah 24:5

^“Son of man, say to her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shone difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord had not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yes, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” Ezekiel 22:24-29

“A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women; a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.” Jeremiah 50:37

“The rich men are full of violence, and the inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore also will I make you sick in smiting you; in making you desolate because of your sins.” Micah 6:12-13

“The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery they break out, and blood touches blood.” Hosea 4:1-2

“Therefore, the Lord has rejected his people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.” Isaiah 2:6

“And at that time, shall Michael stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” Daniel 12:1

“The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, said the Lord, which stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” Zechariah 12:1-3

“Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shone. You have multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.” Isaiah 9:1-4

“The Lord said, Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. They will lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the fame thereof; our hands wax feeble; anguish has taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Do not go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side. O daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us. I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way. They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders; they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melts in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away.“ Jeremiah 6:22-29

1^st RAPTURE

The 5th Feast of God, The Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah. It is a two-day feast, the first of the 3 Fall Feasts. In the Old Testament this memorial of blowing trumpets occurred at the end of the fall harvest. At the sound of the trumpets, farmers dropped what they were doing and came from the fields to the temple to praise God for his abundant provisions.

The Feast of Trumpets is also a prophetic type and refers to the coming harvest of God’s people, called the Rapture. The great interval between the feasts of Pentecost (4th Feast) and Trumpets (5th Feast) represents time allowed for the work of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 24:36 expounds, “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” But Please Note: The Feast of Trumpets is a 2-day feast and, due to the number of time zones around the world, no one can ‘know’ the exact day or hour of this first rapture, but we definitely can see the signs of the times.

ATONEMENT

The 6th Feast of God, Yom Kippur, or ‘Day of Atonement’, is the holiest day of the Jewish year, and provides prophetic insight regarding the Second Coming of the Messiah, the restoration of national Israel, and the final judgment of the world. It is a day of atoning, repenting, being “at one” with God.

“And I say to you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, Fear him.” Luke 12:4-5

TRIBULATION

Following the Day of Atonement will be a 7-year spiritual battle for souls between Satan and God. The purpose for this last 7-year battle is a ‘last call’ for all Jews to return to God. Exhaustive and horrific details regarding this Tribulation are nested within the Old Testament and its prophets. For a brief synopsis of the reasons, click Because. The battle will end as Jesus, the Christ, the visible image of the invisible God, steps in and by his word, the Sword of the Spirit, ends Satan’s reign on earth.

2nd RAPTURE

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who shall be left…”. Isaiah 11:11.

It would appear that just prior to the end of the 7-years of the Great Tribulation, there will be a second Rapture alluded to in Isaiah 11:11, as it refers to “in that day” which previously has pointed toward this time of tribulation. We find in 1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” I would not recommend waiting for the 2nd Rapture to choose to accept Christ.

TRIBULATION OVER
CONVERSATION DONE!

 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

“Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as before…” 2 Samuel 7:10

“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13-14

This is a vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
“In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all—the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem. The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.”

THE MILLENNIUM
aka THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES

The 7th Feast of God, the Feast of Tabernacles, is referred to as the “Coming Home” Feast. It first began when God led the Israelites out of Egypt and demonstrated his power to protect them in the desert and within his Tabernacle, bringing them back to the Promised Land, the land God promised Abraham.

Every prophet in the Old Testament, with the exception of Jonah, described at least some part of the Millennium, or 7th Day Prophecy. There are way too many portions to publish but following are some great examples. For the sake of understanding, please know that End Time references to Judah refer to the Jews and references to Israel refer to the Christians. The title “Christians” includes anyone who has accepted, and become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. See Restoring the Two Houses of Israel by Edie Chumney. Ezekiel 37:15-17

God will transform the world as we know it now into a spiritually peaceful kingdom here on the earth. The 3^rd temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt and Jesus will sit on the throne for all to come and see (Ezekiel 40-48). “Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” Revelation 20:5.

During the 4-thousandth year, the desire of God’s heart was revealed with great clarity. God wanted to be the king of his people. But they didn’t want him. They wanted a king like all the other nations. Finally, during the last 1,000 years on earth, God will be our king. In Jerusalem, Christ, the image of the invisible God, will be on the throne; he will be our government.

“Say among the nations that the Lord reigns. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved; he shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the forest rejoice before the Lord; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.”
Psalm 96:10-13

“Thus said the Lord God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yes, they shall dwell with confidence when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.” Ezekiel 28:25-26

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” Daniel 2:44

“At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.” Jeremiah 3:17-18

“This is what the Lord said; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain. Thus said the Lord of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. Thus said the Lord of hosts; If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes? said the Lord of hosts. Thus said the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. Thus said the Lord of hosts; Let your hands be strong, you that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbor. But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, said the Lord of hosts. For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.” Zechariah 8:3-12

“I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing. The orchards and fields of my people will yield bumper crops, and everyone will live in safety. When I have broken their chains of slavery and rescued them from those who enslaved them, then they will know that I am the Lord. They will no longer be prey for other nations, and wild animals will no longer devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will frighten them. “And I will make their land famous for its crops, so my people will never again suffer from famines or the insults of foreign nations. In this way, they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them. And they will know that they, the people of Israel, are my people, says the Sovereign Lord. You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture. You are my people, and I am your God. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!” Ezekiel 34:25-31

“Behold! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. “No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only the cursed will die that young! In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains. They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the Lord, and their children, too, will be blessed. I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the Lord, have spoken!” Isaiah 65:17-25

See Also: Jeremiah 23:3-8; Jeremiah 30:18-24; Jeremiah 31; Jeremiah 33:13-26; Joel 3:18-21; Amos 9:11-15; Nehemiah 9:26-32; Micah 4:1-8; Obadiah 19-21; Zechariah 14:8-21; Isaiah 1:24-28, Isaiah 61:2 (2 purposes: then and now).

Final Judgment

At the end of the 7,000^th year is the Final Judgment. Those who die before or during the final Tribulation battle – without trusting God – will sleep through the 1,000 years of rest to be raised at the Final Judgment.

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28-29

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hades delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:12-15

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Revelation 20:10

Eternity

After the Final Judgment at the end of the Millennium, a new Jerusalem will descend from heaven, and Eternity will begin for those who trust and follow God. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And, I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Revelation 21: 1-3

“And this is life eternal, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

“Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Revelation 22:7

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Next Up: Who Am I?
The Fig Tree Prophecy
The 7 Feasts of God
The 2 Houses of Israel
Because
Gideon

SUMMARY

We have now come full circle. Just like Adam and Eve we are, again, confronted by Satan – tempted, but with more than an apple. Distractions on every side, constant information bombardment and confusion – anything and everything to prevent us from the peace of knowing and trusting God. This is not an accident!

Satan told Adam and Eve God lied, but today he says, “There is no God!” Be your own god! And we have not only taken a bite of the apple, we have accepted his whole meal plan! Is it coincidence, or warning, that one of the most popular computer software programs has an icon of an Apple with a bite out of it?

Deceit is not just in the garden, it’s everywhere! We are following Satan’s bidding, hook, line and sinker. How can we be critical of Eve’s sin? It was just an apple. Today’s Apple is a platform, not a fruit, but much more tempting. Our desire for knowledge has become more compelling than our relationship with God or people. It would appear we have abandoned every one of God’s Ten Commandments as well as Jesus’ command: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 (Which, by the way, is the short version of the original Ten Commandments.

We are currently on the verge of another worldwide judgment, with results similar to the original flood, as God judges each one of us on the merits of our relationship with him, the God of the universe, who ‘stretched out the north over the empty space and hung the earth on nothing.’ His judgment will be final, but not before everyone has an opportunity to follow his way, his truth and his life – the Word of God.

Isaiah 30:8-14
Now go and write down these words. Write them in a book. They will stand until the end of time as a witness that these people are stubborn rebels who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions. This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in oppression and lies, calamity will come upon you suddenly—like a bulging wall that bursts and falls. In an instant it will collapse and come crashing down. You will be smashed like a piece of pottery—shattered so completely that there won’t be a piece big enough to carry coals from a fireplace or a little water from the well.”

“The Lord has shown you what is good; what does he require of you: to be fair, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Just as God called Noah, God is calling you.

Genesis 1:24-31

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creeps upon the earth after its kind: and God saw that it was good.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female created he them.

“And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so.

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.  And the morning and the evening were the sixth day.”

That was a very busy day.

THE SIXTH DAY

According to Biblical record, land animals and man were created on the sixth day. Man did not evolve from a monkey or a cesspool or any other thing. God created man in his own image. Because they were created the sixth day, they were able to walk on the land and eat the herbs and fruit already created on the third day. Again, nothing was created out of turn.

God was not alone. The Spirit, the Word, Jesus the Christ, and Wisdom were all with God in the beginning (Genesis 1 and Proverbs 8). More importantly, he reveals that you were created in this image, therefore, you have inherited their attributes. There are many examples of these images throughout the Bible, such as being creative, a planner, having the ability to discern good from evil, access to dunamis power, holy, organized, faithful, loving, trusting, merciful, gracious, eternal, accountable, steadfast, sincere, committed, empowered to speak life-changing words, passionate, peaceful, orderly, fruitful, forgiving, obedient, giver. You have inherited the right to give yourself an upgrade!

God has not only shown the potential within each one of us, but also mapped out his best plan for us with specificity. We have been given the authority to reflect his image through instructions within his Holy Word.

“We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

The Bible’s blueprint will show you how to establish this strong foundation using God’s toolkit. Essentially, he put prophecy in our hands to either follow his guidelines or create our own. Yes, the ball is in our court.

THE SIXTH THOUSAND YEAR

The Holy Bible and the Jewish Talmud both teach that this world, as we know it, will last for six thousand years, with the 7^th thousand year ushering in the Millennium, the Cosmic Shabbat, the Messianic Era. The last 1,000 years on earth, the 7^th 1,000-year period, aligns with the 7^th Day – Rest.

The 6^th thousand-year period as we know it was 1901 to 2000. The Bible records 4,000 years from the creation of Adam and Eve to the time Christ was born and it’s been about 2,000 years since his death. We are now facing the 7,000^th year. God spoke in relative terms regarding each of the 1,000-year time periods, but close enough to connect the prophecy of his message. The time to pay attention is upon us more intently than ever before.

This sixth thousand-year period has seen huge, amazing advancements in knowledge: the printing press, electric lights, anesthesia, automobiles, telephones, radio and television, airplanes and computers to name just a few. Technical knowledge has increased more in this period than in any of the prior thousand-year periods and continues to increase exponentially.

The prophet Daniel was allowed a peek into the future, providing some insight into the end times: “But you, O Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end when many shall rush here and there, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12:4

In the book, Critical Path, Buckminster Fuller created the ‘knowledge doubling curve’. He noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century, but by 1945 it was doubling every 25 years. And by 1982, it was doubling every 12-13 months. Thanks to the internet, we have reached a point where relevant knowledge is increasing faster and in greater quantities than we can absorb, minute by minute.

Our Disconnect

When the increase in knowledge blossomed, man seemed to disconnect from God. Many reasons but mostly, while rushing here and there, keeping up with the Joneses and all the social events, there wasn’t time for God – or maybe there wasn’t the need for God (except when our plans failed and we had no one else to turn to.)

The first 5 of the Ten Commandments teach us how to have a relationship with God; the last 5 teach us how to have relationships with people. Deuteronomy 5.

Why were relationships so important to God that he cut out his instructions in stone – and how does our mainstream lifestyle reflect the fact we trash-traded his guidelines for our busy schedules and social media?

If you backup far enough it’s pretty simple. God wants to be our father, our king. When we have a relationship with God, our Father, he can mentor us like a shepherd: keep us from falling off a cliff, protect us from our enemies, provide for our every need.

One of the most striking examples of the evidence of God’s divine love and passion for us to do good and reflect his image is found in his conversation with Cain when Cain developed an attitude. God gently counseled him, but Cain chose not to follow God’s blueprint advise and ended up getting kicked out of God’s house (Genesis 4:6-7).

Man is the only part of creation given the gift of prayer – the ability to voice requests, seek forgiveness, praise God and build a relationship with him. “Then he said to me, Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day you set your heart to understand, and to chasten yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I am come for your words.” Daniel 10:12. Daniel had been praying for three weeks, with no results, when an angel appeared to him and explained why it took so long.

Man is also the only part of creation given choice. The advancement of knowledge and technology has been wonderful, while at the same time, the advancement of rebellion and evil deeds has also increased. (Deuteronomy 28 – the list of cursings is much longer than the list of blessings.)

Samuel was the prophet-priest through whom God sent Saul a message when he disobeyed. “Does the Lord have as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to obey God is better than offering the fat of rams. For rebellion is just like witchcraft, and stubbornness is just like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, God has also rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23  

THIS GENERATION

Most of this generation, those that will see Christ return, do not know God or his story, which is really sad. We are not physical beings with a spirit, we are spiritual beings with a body. God does love us, but he has rules, just like all good parents. Lucifer was perfect, until he became corrupted with pride, and then God threw him out of heaven to the ground. Ever since then he has been trying to trick people into following him.

“Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase.” Daniel 12:4

“Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; from such turn away. For of this sort are they who are… ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:1-7

“Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns. Surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the Lord, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins.”  Jeremiah 4:3-4

GOD’S DESIRE

God’s word, The Holy Bible, is still the best-selling book with over 5,000,000,000 copies as of 2021, Study it, understand the plot, the story line, or the ongoing spiritual battle. Explain it to your children, commit time evey week to peek inside this amazing gift of God’s Word and share it.

“Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 8:2-3

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

“Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in and will sup with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

“But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:12

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

“The price of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Romans 6:23

 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

Jesus said, “Father, I want these that you have given me, to be with me where I am that they may behold my glory, which you have given me; for you loved me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24

 “I will…. bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one who is called by my name; for I have created him for my glory; I have formed him; yes, I have made him.” Isaiah 43:6-7

“Our God shall come and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous, round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness; for God is judge himself.” Psalm 50:3-6

“I have made the earth, the man and the beasts that are on the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seems right to me.” Jeremiah 27:5

ETERNITY IS A LONG TIME TO BE WRONG

“He has shown you what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

Next Up: Day 7

Previous Post: Day 5

Page: Because

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after its kind: and God saw that it was good. 

“And God blessed them, saying Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”  
Genesis 1:20-23 

THE FIFTH DAY

According to Biblical record, the water and sea animals were created on the fifth day. They did not evolve from a tree or a cesspool or any other thing. God made them, each one; he spoke them into being. This image of God is very important to remember. The winged creatures and sea creatures were created the fifth day to fill the sky and the waters already created on the second day. Again, nothing was created out of turn.

At the end of Day 5, thousands of creatures flew above the earth and thousands of creatures filled the seas. Pitting sea monsters or piranhas against bluegills or catfish may have taken tiered precepts. For instance, how long did it take these creatures to establish their kingdoms? What were their lifesaving strategies? Were these precepts learned or inherent?

THE FIFTH THOUSAND YEAR

The miraculous birth of the Christ, the Son of God, Messiah, the visible image of the invisible God of creation, caused calendars to mark his birth as the starting point for the next, or fifth, thousand-year period. Imagine a young child teaching wisdom in the temple. Imagine God coming to earth in human form to redefine the world with God’s distinction. Imagine relationship rules taking precedence over laws and commands. Imagine the conflict between the lawmakers and the peacemakers. Imagine a world shaken by the voice of God when his Son was crucified. Imagine this child’s mother watching at the foot of the cross, knowing God had chosen her to deliver this King to his people, yet trying to understand how the path of this incredibly kind, warm and miraculous child was charted to such a bloody end.

His ministry, message and miracles brought hope to God’s people, but conflict to unbelieving, self-intuitive protectors of an outside influence on the powerful elite inner circle. His message mentored with love, peace and healing. His life on earth was brief, but poignant and unforgettable. He commissioned his people, his friends, to share his teachings and do the things he taught them to do with love, grace and peace to the end of the age.

This next 1,000-year period was a dark, unsettled time in many ways. Even though cities existed, nights slipped into a darkness we would have trouble comprehending. Homes were pitch black at night except for minuscule pools of dim candlelight. Evil has a tendency to thrive in the dark. And thrive, it did.

It became a time of pitting Roman Emperors and entitled Jewish leaders against the meek and humble Christ-followers, similar to pitting sea monsters or piranhas against bluegills or catfish, and definitely called for tiered precepts. For instance, how long would it take these Christians to establish God’s kingdom on earth, and what kind of horrors would they experience trying to transform the elites’ kingdoms? God’s precepts were learned through the grace and mercy of God, definitely not inherent skills. What were their lifesaving strategies?

The early church had serious disagreements among themselves, in addition to the difficulty of communicating Christ’s message accurately and in one voice. This new group of “Christians” ran into periods of severe sporadic persecution. For example, Nero blamed Christians for the great fire that destroyed 10 of the 14 city wards at Rome in 64 A.D., which apparently Nero ordered. Tacitus said Nero had the believers ‘torn by dogs, nailed to crosses, and even used as human torches to illumine his gardens at night.’

Throughout persecutions and grief, this relatively small group of Jesus believers exploded the teaching of Christianity throughout the whole Mediterranean Basin. It was an astonishing success, basically because of their incredible faith in Jesus, their Messiah, and the tremendous amount of persecution they chose to endure rather than to deny him. The whole roman empire within a number of decades was hearing the good news of Christ. Within one generation, the center of Christianity moved from Jerusalem to Rome.

In addition, there were two all-out empire-wide persecutions intended to utterly destroy the church. The first, under the emperor Decius, began in December 249. Everyone in the empire had to get a certificate from a government officer verifying that he or she had offered a sacrifice to the gods – an act that most Christians in good conscience could not do.

The second, called “The Great Persecution,” began on February 23, 303, under Emperor Diocletian. Galerius, the empire’s second-in-command, was behind this persecution policy and continued it after Diocletian’s death. For eight long years, official decrees ordered Christians out of public office, scriptures confiscated, church buildings destroyed, leaders arrested, and pagan sacrifices required. All methods of torture were mercilessly employed – wild beasts, burning, stabbing, crucifixion, the rack. But they were all to no avail. The penetration of the faith across the empire was so pervasive that the church could not be intimidated nor destroyed. In 311, the same Galerius, shortly before his death, weak and diseased, issued an “edict of toleration.” This included the statement that it was the duty of Christians “to pray to their god for our good estate.”

This tale is not only romantic but probably true. The year is 306. A young man arises in the dead of a late spring night in the imperial palace at Nicomedia in Asia Minor. He slips down to the emperor’s stables and commandeers the palace horses. He is thirty-two years old, and by all reports quite handsome. He has been a hostage. Now he is making his escape and seeking to delay pursuit.

His escape would change history, for his name was Constantine. He would become the first ruler in the western world to base the laws of the state upon the teachings of Jesus Christ. But he had to decide how far such efforts could go in a largely non-Christian society. For centuries to come, this baffling question would confront emperors, kings, prime ministers, heads of state and presidents who face precisely the same issue. And many ask if Constantine himself was truly a Christian. Or was he merely an opportunist, using the Christian faith for purely political ends? Historians would debate this question down through the centuries.

However, many facts about this man are well established. The son of Constantius Chlorus, Roman emperor in the West, Constantine was fleeing Galerius, emperor in the East. For ten years, he was held at the eastern court as a captive guest. If Constantius Chlorus should ever try to become sole ruler of the empire, the life of his son would be forfeited.

When Galerius became emperor in 305, Constantius Chlorus formally requested that his son be allowed to join him. Galerius outwardly consented but connived to make it impossible for Constantine to leave. Thus, Constantine’s decision to escape and embark on the longest continuous horseback ride recorded in the ancient world–more than sixteen hundred miles across Europe to the northeast coast of France. His biographer, Lactantius, comments that this was typical of Constantine’s intelligence, ambition, and decisiveness. He engineered his flight on the very night before he was to be hauled before Galerius to become a more explicit kind of prisoner. When Galerius awoke at noon the next day and learned that Constantine was long gone, he burst into tears.

Eusebius, another biographer and a man who knew Constantine well, tells it this way: Constantine called on God with earnest prayer and supplications that he would reveal to him who he was, and stretch forth his right hand to help him in his present difficulties. And while he was thus praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvelous sign appeared to him from heaven…He said that about noon when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, ‘Conquer by this.’ At this vision, he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle. And while he continued to ponder and reason on its meaning, night suddenly came on; then in his sleep, the Christ of God appeared to him with the same sign which he had seen in the heavens and commanded him to make a likeness of that sign which he had seen in the heavens and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies.

This experience, whatever it was, had a remarkable effect upon the would-be emperor. After this incident, two new terms figure prominently in his thought, language and policies. One is God and the other is Jesus Christ. Perhaps even then Constantine saw, however faintly, that such wars as men fought, wars that he too had spent most of his life waging, are mere shadows of the real war: the war between good and evil that rages unseen within every soul. This was the war the Christians had always understood–the war Constantine himself would better understand in the violent personal struggles that lay ahead of him.

The scene must have been extraordinary as thousands of grizzled warriors strove to reproduce the curious sign Constantine ordered painted on their shields. It is known as “the Labarum of Constantine.” A labarum was a Roman standard carried into battle, but here a Christian monogram replaced the traditional pagan symbols. It was centered around X and P, the first two letters in the Greek word for Christ. Though his troops revered Constantine, all Christian symbols, particularly the cross, were distasteful to them. In fact, most worshipped the god Mithras, and Christians constituted barely ten percent of the population. Indeed, many Christians themselves still shrank from using the cross in religious art. Although Jesus had died on one, the cross remained a punishment for slaves and a source of gallows humor–not something to be borne proudly into battle.

But orders were orders. On the morning of October 28 in the year 312, as Constantine’s troops stood ready to assault Rome, this symbol of Jesus Christ could be seen throughout their ranks, painted brightly upon shields or hoisted high as standards. They slaughtered Maxentius’ army at Rome’s Milvian Bridge, and the next day they marched triumphantly through the city’s open gates. The Roman Senate declared Constantine to be Augustus, emperor of the West, and in a succession of victories thereafter made him sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

One of his first acts was to draft a proclamation that ended the official persecution of Christians. Called the Edict of Milan, it placed Christianity on a par with the other faiths that enjoyed freedom under Rome, in order “that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.” For the first time since the year 64, when the emperor Nero declared war on the Christians of Rome and burned them as human torches in his garden, they had a reason for hope.

The full notion of Christendom–a political world entirely dominated by Christianity–was slow to take shape, however. Not until after 380, under the emperors Theodosius I in the East and Gratian in the West, would pagan temples be forcibly closed, and all Roman subjects were required to become Christian. Nonetheless, Constantine gradually infused his empire’s legal structure with significant Christian values. He made Sunday an official day of rest. New laws forbade the practice of divination and other magic. Confiscated Christian properties were restored. Magnificent churches rose in all major cities. He moved the imperial capital from pagan Rome to a new site, specifically built as a Christian city and named Constantinople (today, Istanbul). Christian clergy administered an imperial welfare program. In time, the emperor ceased paying the traditional homage to Jupiter on Rome’s Capitoline Hill. Coins no longer bore images of pagan deities.

On August 24, 410, the city of Rome, once master of the Mediterranean, fell to Alaric and his Visigoth armies. Someone opened the city gate from within. There were barbarian invasions, economic troubles, the rise of the Eastern Empire, government corruption, the arrival of the Huns, and the weakening of the Roman legions.

Afterward, refugees showed up all around the Mediterranean world. In Palestine, Bible translator Jerome described formerly haughty women who would now be happy to work for a crust of bread. He wrote letters lamenting the fall of the imperial city. Like everyone else, he could not avoid the symbolism of the event. “My voice sticks in my throat; and, as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken…”

Augustine took a different approach than Jerome. Giving a Christian interpretation to the events, he pointed out that the barbarian invaders had spared most of the churches and that even pagans had taken refuge in the Christian churches. He noted Christians had always suffered and would always suffer in this world. To phrase it in a modern cliché, God had never promised the Christian a bed of roses. God’s Word, his ministry, message, and miracles were preserved throughout the ages by diverse, dedicated Christians, including Monks, Irishmen, Englishmen and many nameless faithful men and women.

To Augustine’s way of thinking, the fall of Rome was less important than it seemed to most of his contemporaries. What was really going on was a far deeper warfare–the war between God’s kingdom and man’s; if God’s kingdom was not clearly distinguishable in this world, it is because not everyone who says he is a Christian really is. To the heathen who blamed Christianity for the downfall of the Roman Empire, Augustine showed that pagan practices actually were at fault for the weakness of the empire.

Throughout the ages, God-believing Jews and Christians have been persecuted. When persecuted, we call out to God and draw closer to him. When we draw closer to him, he draws closer to us and provides healing, peace, protection and leads us on the path of righteousness for HIS name’s sake, Psalm 23:3. God is our father and he is full of wisdom. He said, “Do not withhold correction from the child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.” Proverbs 23:13. A wayward, rebellious child should never be left to himself. Dr. Spock demoted the world when he removed spanking a child from parents’ rights. He said parents shouldn’t spank their children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped, and we might damage their self-esteem. We’re now trapped with a generation of undisciplined, entitled young people, instead of godly men and women. “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Matthew 16:26.

Clearly God’s vision of capturing souls for heaven differs from our thinking. So often we hear that death is the final step a person takes. However, God reveals amazing rewards throughout his prophecy of the days of creation where each day of creation reflects a 1,000-year period. We’re just entering into the 7-thousandth year, the period of rest.

Understanding God’s prophecy in Genesis helps us understand we do not die. We are not bodies with a soul, but souls within a body which can be healed and restored beyond our imaginations. This is more clearly seen in examples of AI bodies. They are created by men, who cannot create a soul, to be mere robot servants.

If we have a relationship with God prior to death, we will automatically be restored to our physical life during the last 1,000 years on earth. This will be a time of great healing and an opportunity to travel to see Christ on the throne in Jerusalem. This will be a time where we will live to be as old as trees prior to the final judgment.

“Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.” Isaiah 65:22.

If we do not have a relationship with God through Christ prior to death, there is no second chance. That person will appear for the final judgment and spend eternity in hell. “And whosoever was not found in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15.

REFERENCES

“All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations.” Psalm 22:27-28

 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.’” Matthew 28:18-20  

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14

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“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.’”

“And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” 
Genesis 1:14-19

The light created the first day of creation divided the darkness that covered the whole earth. On Day 2, God placed the firmament between the waters and now, on Day 4, God placed the sun, moon and stars in the firmament. He spoke them into place but, more importantly, he told us about this creation and the fact he spoke them into place. God doesn’t tell us every conversation, or every act, just the ones he wants us to take note of and remember. His love for us assures security and draws attention to his presence. He doesn’t want us to forget we’re the inspiration for his incredible, creative design.

• ^“Ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” Romans 1:20

THE FOURTH DAY

The Fourth Day God created the sun, moon and stars. These lights in the firmament were to provide direction for our way; light for a dark world. During the fourth thousand years, God put kings and prophets into place for his people, to provide leadership, structure, physical and financial protection, peace, and the presence of one who would solve problems. Some of these kings did a great job; some disobeyed God and followed the gods of other nations. Toward the end of the thousand-year reign of these kings, God presented his son to be king, the king of kings; the visible image of the invisible God. He was brought forth and laid in a manger.

God has rules. This is really important for us to grasp. There are rules of nature. God gave rules to the sun, moon and stars.

• “The Lord gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, he divides the sea when the waves roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart from before me, said the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.” Jeremiah 31:35-36
• I [Wisdom] was there “when he gave to the sea its decree that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he appointed the foundations of the earth.” Proverbs 8:29
• “He has compassed the waters with a boundary until the day and night come to an end.” Job 28:10
• “He binds up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not torn under them.” Job 26:8
• “Do you not fear me? said the Lord. Will you not tremble at my presence, who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it, and though its waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; even though they roar, can they pass over it?” Jeremiah 5:22-23
• The Lord answered Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who laid the measures of it, if you know? Who stretched the line on it? Whereupon are its foundations fastened? Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea with doors when it broke forth as if it had issued out of the womb when I made the cloud its garment and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and broke it up for my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, ‘thus far shall you come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stay?’ Have you commanded the morning since your days, and caused the dayspring to know its place? Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depth?” Job 38: 4-12,16
• “Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord [YHVH] is his name.” Amos 5:8
•  “The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. He sends forth his commandment upon earth: his word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool: he scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word and melts them: he causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow. He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his judgments to Israel. He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.” Psalm 147:11,15-20

God has warnings signs. While God gave us the sun, moon and stars for signs, seasons, days and years, he made it clear we are not to worship them. We are not to look to them for answers. God is very protective of his children and is not willing that any would become prisoners of Satan through their ‘study’ of astrology.

• “And when you look up into the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the forces of heaven—don’t be seduced into worshiping them. The Lord your God gave them to all the peoples of the earth.” Deuteronomy 4:19
• “You have trusted in your wickedness; you said, No one sees me. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that shall come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; none shall save you.” From Isaiah 47:8-15
• “When you come into the land which the Lord your God gave you, you shall not learn to do the abominations of those [other] nations. There shall not be found among you anyone that makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord your God drove them out from before you.” Deuteronomy 18:9-12
• “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you are led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like of the which I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” From Galatians 5:16-21
• The multitude of the harlotries of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, sells nations through her harlotries and families through her witchcrafts. From Nahum 3:4

God’s dynamic emphasis on words should be taken as a lesson, instruction, and perhaps a bit of self-prophecy. They exponentially expand our image of God, his power and majesty. During creation, God “spoke” physical things into being. We’re created in his image and should pay close attention.

• “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.  For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm 33:6
•  “He appoints the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names.” Psalm 147:4
• “Who makes Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; who does great things past finding out; yes, and wonders without number.” Job 9:9
• “Can you bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?”
  Job 38:31
• “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.” Isaiah 40:26
• “The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born.” Psalm 33:6
• You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.” Nehemiah 9:6
• “Seek him who makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.” Amos 5:8     

THE FOURTH WORD

The English translation of Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  However, the same verse in the original Hebrew says, “Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’arets.” There are 7 words in the first verse of Genesis in Hebrew. The fourth word (middle word) is “et” – Aleph (e) and Tav (t). We know him as the Alpha and Omega, Jesus the Christ.

• “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Revelation 21:6

This word, et, (Jesus, the Christ) is found exactly in the middle of the first sentence of the original Hebrew Bible with three words before it and three words after. The 6^th word is ve’et. The first part of the 6^th word is ve, which in Paleo Hebrew is a picture of a hook or connector or a nail with the last part of the 6^th word, et referring to Christ. The combination of the two with an apostrophe ties them together as one action between the words ‘heaven’ and ‘earth,’ signifying Christ would be the connector between heaven and earth, which was completed when he died on the cross.

FOURTH THOUSAND YEARS

Samuel

At the beginning of the 4^th thousand-year period, Samuel appointed his oldest sons to be judges over Israel. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice. Finally, the leaders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. ‘Look’ they told him, ‘you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king like all the other nations have.’ Samuel was very upset with their request and went to the Lord for advice. ‘Do as they say,’ the Lord replied, ‘for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about how a king will treat them.” From 1 Samuel 8.

The fourth thousand years was the time of kings and kingdoms, priests and mighty men of God. The Israelites had been through the wilderness experience and were settling in the Promised Land as a United Kingdom of the 12 Tribes of Israel. God called Samuel to guide the Israelites. Samuel loved the Lord and walked in his ways. When he was old, he appointed his sons, to judge Israel. But they didn’t walk with God and the elders of Israel came to Samuel and asked for a king like all the other nations. 1 Samuel 8:1-5. So, God gave them a king, Saul, who proved to be unacceptable.

• “And Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have done foolishly: you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you: for the Lord would have established your kingdom upon Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue: the Lord has sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be captain over his people, because you have not kept that which the Lord commanded you.’” 1 Samuel 13:13-14

David

Then God called David, a shepherd, to be king. David had a heart for God and became the people’s king. Of course, Saul did not take it well; he was very jealous of David and kept trying to kill him. David would not harm God’s anointed. David reigned as King of Israel for 40 years. Then his son, Solomon, became king. After Solomon’s reign, the kingdom became divided with two Kings, a King of Israel for the Northern Kingdom and a King of Judah for the Southern Kingdom.

Elijah

Throughout the fourth thousand years, there were good kings and bad kings. There were also many prophets of God during the reign of these kings, of whom Elijah was one. In 874 BC, Ahab became King of Israel when his father, the wicked King Omri, died. King Ahab was wicked like his father. He had no compassion for the people of Israel. He built idols to worship other gods and did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. 1 Kings 16:30-33.

God sent his prophet, Elijah, to warn King Ahab that due to his wickedness, there would be no rain for three years. Even though Ahab was very wicked, God loved him and wanted to give him one more chance to choose good over evil. One more chance to change the direction of his future. Would he listen?

King Ahab was very angry and wanted to kill Elijah, so God told Elijah to go to Cherith, a brook by the Jordan, where God would tuck him under his wing and protect him from King Ahab.  God commanded ravens to bring bread and meat to Elijah every morning and every evening and he drank from the brook until it began to dry up from the drought.  

When the brook dried up, God told Elijah to go to Zarephath and stay there, where a widow would take care of him. When Elijah got to the gate of the city, he found a woman gathering sticks and asked her for a drink of water. She got him a drink of water and the he asked her for some bread. The widow didn’t have any bread. All she had was a handful of meal and a little oil in a jar and she was gathering sticks for a fire to bake one final meal for her son and herself before they were to die.  Elijah told her to fix him a little cake first; God would provide for them, and she did. God was faithful. As the widow baked cakes, no matter how many cakes she baked, there was still plenty of meal and oil left to make more. They ate plentifully from a barrel of meal and a jar of oil that miraculously never became empty.

But then the widow’s son became sick and died and her heart was torn with sorrow. She could not understand how God could so carefully provide food to keep them alive and then allow her son to get sick and die. She asked Elijah why he had come. She had been prepared to die of starvation, but after being saved by of God, she didn’t understand why he would have allowed her son to die. Elijah went to the room where the boy was laying and asked God to restore his life and the boy began breathing again. When her son came running to her, the widow knew that Elijah truly was a man of God and, once again, she was comforted and protected by the hand of God.

In the third year of the drought, the Lord told Elijah to show himself to Ahab and tell him that God would send rain. Three years is a long time to go without rain, and things were getting tough for everyone. The crops had turned into dust, food was scarce, and water was very hard, if not impossible, to find. People were starving; animals were dying. There had been plenty of opportunity for King Ahab to think about his disobedience and the connection between his wickedness and the drought, but he didn’t repent. He wasn’t on his knees before God. Instead, King Ahab had been on a search and destroy mission for that “evil Elijah” that had caused so much trouble. While King Ahab didn’t care anything about the condition of his people during this drought, he and his servant, Obadiah, had divided the land between themselves and set out to find some grass and water to save the king’s animals. Shortly after Obadiah left on his journey, he met Elijah. 

Elijah asked Obadiah to tell King Ahab that he wanted to see him. So, reluctantly, Obadiah left and gave King Ahab the message, and the King came to Elijah, this man who was causing so much trouble for him. Elijah reminded King Ahab that he was the one causing trouble due to his disobedience of the Lord’s commandments and his blatant idol worship. Elijah told King Ahab to bring his people and his prophets to Mt. Carmel, including all 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of idols, for a showdown of power between the gods of Ahab and the God of Elijah.

On Mt. Carmel, Elijah stood before all the people of Israel and asked how long they would stand between two opinions. If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. Then Elijah asked for two bulls, one to be sacrificed to Baal and one to the Lord God. They were both cut in pieces and laid on dry wood without any fire. Then those following King Ahab would call upon Baal, and Elijah would call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answered by fire, let him be God. They said, “It is well spoken.”

The prophets of Baal circled their sacrifice and called on Baal to light their sacrifice with fire. They called from morning until noon. Elijah prodded them a little. He suggested they shout a little louder. Maybe Baal was talking and didn’t hear them, or maybe he was away on a journey, or maybe he was asleep. The prophets went wild! They were dancing, leaping, shouting at the tops of their lungs. They even cut themselves with knives and swords to draw attention from their god until the evening, but no fire.

Then Elijah gathered twelve stones and built an altar in the name of the Lord. He dug a trench around the altar, stacked the wood on the stones and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he asked for four barrels of water and drenched the sacrifice three times. It was time for the evening sacrifice when Elijah said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your direction. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that your people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”

Then fire from the Lord fell on the sacrifice and not only burned the sacrifice, but also consumed the wood, the stones, the dust and the water. All the people fell on their faces, proclaiming the Lord is God. Then Elijah ordered all 450 prophets of Baal to be killed.

Elijah went to King Ahab and told him to get something to eat and drink because there is a sound of abundant rain.  While King Ahab went to eat, Elijah began earnestly seeking God and praying for rain. He sent his servant to go look toward the sea for rain clouds.  There were no clouds. He sent his servant again seven times. Finally, a very small cloud appeared over the sea, and Elijah sent his servant to tell King Ahab to get on his chariot and get out of there because a mighty storm was coming. And it came to pass in the meantime, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. So, Ahab jumped on his chariot and headed for Jezreel, about 15 miles down the road. The hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he ran before King Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. 1 Kings 17 and 18.

Hezekiah

In 722 BC, Israel fell to Assyria and ceased to exist. The children of Israel walked in all the sins Jeroboam did, and they did not depart from them, so the Lord removed Israel out of his sight. They did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but repeatedly sinned against his covenant and refused to repent. Israel was carried away to Assyria out of their own land.

• ^“I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.” Isaiah 48:3

About that time, Hezekiah became King of Judah. Hezekiah was a good king and he trusted in the Lord. A few years later Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent threatening letters to King Hezekiah stating he was going to capture Jerusalem. When Hezekiah received the letter, he went to the Lord’s Temple and laid it out before the Lord. God responded through the prophet, Isaiah:

• “Therefore, thus said the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, said the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand (185,000): and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” 2 Kings 19:32-35

God Sets Up Kings and Kingdoms

Kings and kingdoms increased and were thrown down by God’s word, giving his people one example after another of the pitfalls that disobedience would bring.

“Then was this secret revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his, and he changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who know understanding. He reveals the deep and secret things; he knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him.” Daniel 2:19-22

Today, as then, God’s miracles are closely connected to our obedience to his commandments. We now see clearly that there is no one like our God. Basically, all kings failed the power and money test. How God’s heart must have ached with disappointment!

“Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” Isaiah 59:1

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:23

Throughout the fourth thousand years God’s people continued to disobey. Of course, there were good kings, but there were more rebellious kings. In 608 BC, Judah fell to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Many of the inhabitants were deported to Babylon. In 539 BC, Babylon fell to the Meds and Persians. In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia issued a proclamation allowing the Jewish people to return to Palestine and the Temple was rebuilt in 516 BC, 70 years after its destruction. In 129 BC the Jews regained rule of their land and had their own kings once again. This lasted until the Romans conquered the land in 63 BC.

• “Behold, the days come, said the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord…” Amos 8:11.

• “And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.” The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it. Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.” John 19:19-22
  
• “I Jesus have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Revelation 22:16

Jesus, The King of the Jews, was born appropriately in the fourth thousand-year period, paralleled with the Fourth Day when the sun, moon and stars were created. He was the bright and morning star. He was born, appropriately, in the fourth thousand-year period when the great lights were created to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. He is the Light of the World.

There were 446 years without a prophetic word from the Lord from the last Old Testament prophet until the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, at the end of the fourth thousand-year period.

Next Up: Day 5
See Also:
Prior to Day 1
Blood
And Image of God for a fuller understanding of the image in which you were created.

“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation, and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind; and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.”  
Genesis 1:11-13 

THE THIRD DAY

All throughout creation God had you on his mind. On day 3 he created seeds, trees, herbs and vegetation, all of which would all benefit your health, giving you energy and joy, with many different colors, tastes, benefits, and textures. Look closely at just a few simple creations and their purpose.

CARROT – A sliced carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye. Eating carrots greatly enhances blood flow to, and function of, the eyes.

TOMATO – A tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. Research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

GRAPES – Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and research reveals that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

WALNUTS – A walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

KIDNEY BEANS – Kidney beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like human kidneys.

CELERY, BOK CHOY AND RHUBARB – Celery, bok choy and rhubarb look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

EGGPLANT, AVACADOES AND PEARS – Eggplant, avocadoes and pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female and they look just like these organs. Research has proven that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers.

FIGS – Soft, sweet and pulpy, these delicious fruits promote health. The ripe fresh fruits are juicy, wholesome and delicious. Dry figs have a high nutritive value. Its most important food element is sugar which forms up to 74 percent of the whole fruit. Figs are excellent source of potassium, dietary fiber and manganese. The fig is regarded as a dependable laxative on account of its large cellulose content and its tough skin. Figs are considered beneficial in the treatment of asthma. Figs are an excellent source of dietary fiber and a great food for weight management. Figs are considered a restorative food which helps in quick recovery after prolonged illness, removes physical and mental exertion and endows the body with renewed vigor and strength.

SWEET POTATOES – Sweet potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics. They are nutritious, packing a good amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, and manganese into each serving. They also have anticancer properties and may promote immune function and offer other health benefits.

OLIVES – Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries and, again, resemble their appearance. They are rich in vitamin E and other antioxidants, which may help reduce the risk of health conditions like cancer, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.

GRAPEFRUITS, ORANGES and OTHER CITRUS – Rich in vitamin C, grapefruits, oranges and other citrus fruit look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

ONIONS – Onions look like body cells. Research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. Onions are also rich in B vitamins, including folate and vitamin B6 — which play key roles in metabolism, red blood cell production, and nerve function.

Before we were created, God is our provider.

“If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” Leviticus 26:3-4

THIRD THOUSAND YEARS

During the third thousand years the seed of Abraham grew and flourished into a beautiful nation, much like the seeds planted on Day 3. The Lord said to Abram, “And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed also can be numbered.” Genesis 13:16

ABRAHAM

God said to Abram, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come out of you.” Genesis 17:4-6

Now the problem here was that Abram was old and didn’t understand how that could happen. He and his wife, Sarah, had no children. But God promised, and made a blood covenant with his friend Abram, promising that God would take the penalty for both sides of the covenant. If God didn’t keep his promise, his penalty would be to give his life as a sacrifice. But he also took on the penalty for Abram. If Abram or his descendants didn’t keep their promise, God would pay their penalty by giving his own life as a sacrifice for their sin. From Genesis 15. [Side note: What kind of God does this?]

“Abraham and Sarah had Isaac at the time God appointed.” Genesis 21:2.

ISAAC

Abraham and Sarah had one son, Isaac. When it was time for Isaac to marry, Abraham called the eldest servant of his house and made him swear by the Lord, that he would go back to their home country and pick a wife for Isaac. The servant took ten camels and went to back to the city Nahor in Mesopotamia. He made his camels to kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening, the time that women went out to draw water. He prayed to Abraham’s God that the damsel to whom he would say, ‘Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink’, that she would say, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also’. That way the servant would know that was the one God had chosen for Isaac. Before he finished speaking, Rebekah came to the well with her pitcher on her shoulder and filled it. The servant ran to meet her and said, ‘Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water from your pitcher’. And she said, ‘Drink, my lord’: and she hurried, and let down her pitcher and gave him a drink. Then she said, ‘I’ll draw water for thy camels also, until they’re done drinking’. She hurried and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and then ran back and forth from the well until all his camels had drunk. From Genesis 24.

There was no question. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew how to lead and care for his people. All they had to do was ask. Nothing has changed.

JACOB

Isaac and Rebekah had twin boys, Jacob and Esau. The two children struggled together within her, so she asked the Lord what was going on. “And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be born of you. The one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23. Rebekah asked the Lord and he answered according to his prophecy.

Esau was born first. The firstborn always received the greater inheritance and blessing, but Jacob was God’s chosen. Esau didn’t value, or treasure, God’s inheritance and sold his birthright to his twin brother for a bowl of stew when he was hungry. Then when Esau went out to hunt, Jacob spoke with his mother and they conspired to deceive Isaac into thinking Jacob was Esau, so Jacob could get the blessing. Isaac gave him an amazing blessing, part of which was, “Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you: be lord over your brethren and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone that curses you and blessed be he that blesses you.” Genesis 27:29. When Esau came in to receive his blessing, it had already been given to Jacob. “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother, Jacob.” Genesis 27:41. Esau’s words got to back their mother, so she warned Jacob. She needed a good reason, so she told Isaac the daughters of Heth wearied her, so they sent Jacob back to her brother, Laban, in Padanaram to get a wife.

One night, as Jacob slept under the stars, he had a dream. He saw a ladder set up on earth and the top of it reached to heaven with angels of God ascending and descending on it. The Lord God stood above it and passed on to Jacob the covenant he had made with Abraham. “At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants.Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” Genesis 28:13-15.

Uncle Laban had two daughters and took advantage of Jacob. Jacob loved Rachel and wanted to marry her, but Uncle Laban tricked him into marrying the older first (Leah) and then he had to work longer in order to marry Rachel. Leah gave Jacob 4 sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. Rachel hadn’t had any children, so she offered her handmaid to Jacob and she had four sons: Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. Then Leah had two sons: Issachar and Zebulun and a daughter, Dinah. Then Rachel, Jacob’s beloved, had two boys: Joseph and Benjamin.

God ordered Jacob to go back home and, while on the way with his large group (wives, children, sheep, cattle and stuff), he saw Esau coming with his large group. Not knowing if Esau still wanted to kill him, Jacob sent his group on ahead of him to meet Esau, and Jacob stayed behind that night. “Jacob was all alone in the camp when a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” “What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.” “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” Genesis 32:24-28

So, Jacob had 12 sons and 1 daughter. Then Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and each of his sons became one of the 12 tribes of Israel.

From the significance of Abel’s offering, we find continued emphasis on the importance of the spotless lamb as being the only atonement for sin. Abram’s blood covenant with God clearly promised God himself would pay the penalty for our sins by coming to earth in human form, Jesus the Christ, called The Lamb of God, and would lay down his life for sinners. Abraham and Sarah’s only son, Isaac, was offered as a sacrifice only to be circumvented by God’s provision of a ram (he was testing Abraham’s obedience). Isaac’s life was a typification of the life of Christ: The birth of both Isaac and Jesus was promised, there was a long period of time between the announcement and the births, they were both named before they were born, both births were miraculous, both sons had very proud fathers, both sons were obedient to death, in both cases life came out of death, and the place Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed was Mount Moriah, which is very close, if not exactly the location of Christ’s crucifixion.

The embodiment of the term “family” comes alive in the Book of Genesis. There are many prophecies found in the books of the Prophets based on the life events of this amazing family revealed in Genesis. There are many “life lessons” on relationships, honesty, justice and obedience, also with a subtle revealing of the noncompliant attitudes such as rebellion, lies, backbiting, and many more. Each of these good “life lessons” are based on the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5. The first 5 commandments teach us how to build a relationship with God; the last 5 commandments teach us how to build a relationship with people.

“He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas said to him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you wilt manifest yourself to us, and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him. He that does not love me does not keep my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.” John 14:21-24

As a part of the blood covenant with Abram in Genesis, God foretold him that the Israelites would be afflicted for 400 years, which is what we discovered as fact in Exodus 12:40. The covenant was prior to Abram having any children, and it came true when Joseph, Abraham’s great-grandson, had been sold to his cousins by his brothers. (His brothers hated him and lied to his father saying he had been eaten by wild animals.) His cousins, the Midianites and the Ishmaelites, sold him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. Long story shorter: After being falsely imprisoned for two years for raping Potiphar’s wife (she lied), Joseph was discharged to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and saved Egypt from the famine. Joseph restored his relationship with the Pharaoh, who put him in charge of everything, except only in the throne would Pharaoh be greater. From Genesis 37-41.

During the famine, Joseph sent for his family and arranged a place for all 70 of them to live in Goshen. This was a brilliant plan of God’s to make sure the Israelites did not get into mixed marriages. They were given a place by themselves away from the Egyptians, who thought shepherds were dirty people. After the Pharaoh who loved Joseph died, the new Pharaoh turned Joseph’s family into slaves. Then God sent Moses to bring them home. The Israelites were in Egypt 430 years according to Exodus 12:40. The difference of 30 years from the number of years God told Abraham they would be afflicted there (400) would be assumed to include the time they were treated well. Upon leaving Egypt, the family of 70 had grown into 603,550 men over age 20, plus women, children and a multitude with them, flocks and herds and a great number of possessions.

• “And he [God] said to Abram, ‘Know of a surety that your seed shall be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.’” Genesis 15:13.
• “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.” Exodus 12:40.
• “And the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” James 2:23.

Prophecy: Before Abram had any children, God told him he would have more children than he could count. From a family of 70, to most likely over a million in 430 years, is a lot. Imagine how many there would be over 1,000 years. And so, they grew. Like the seeds on Day 3.

Muck Lesson-Prophecy:
As an escape route for Moses and his people to flee from Pharaoh, God gave Moses the sign to part the sea and to take his people through it on dry ground. God dried up the muck and Moses, with approximately 1,000,000 people, marched through the sea on dry land. Exodus 14:13-31.

When all had crossed, God told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea and the waters returned, drowning Pharaoh and all that were chasing Moses and his people, which means it was clearly much more than a couple feet deep.

Understand: 1. God knows how to save his people. 2. Be one of his children. 3. Do what God tells you to do. 4. Don’t worry about the details. 5. The wind and the waves know God’s name and obey. Psalm 107:25. Whatever problem you have in your life, ask God to keep revealing his power, his presence and his provision. And don’t forget to thank him.

GOD IS OUR PROVIDER

“Will you hunt prey for the lion; or fill the appetite of the young lions when they crouch in their dens and abide in the covert to lie in wait? Who provides for the raven’s meat?” Job 38:39-41

“They spoke against God; they said, ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide meat for his people?’” Psalm 78:20

“If I were hungry I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.” Psalm 50:12

Next Up: Day 4

“Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord; for he commanded, and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; he has made a decree which shall not pass.”
Psalm 148:4-6 

THE SECOND DAY

”And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” Genesis 1:6-8

God inserted space, referred to as firmament or heavens, between the waters above and the waters below. By doing so, this space created a terrarium environment for all the earth, with water vapors above and waters below.

“When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land.” Genesis 2:5

Imagine forcing a huge air-filled balloon under water in a pool. Only the power and Word of God could hold it there. At the end of Day 2, God again confirms this creation took place within a 24-hour period.

SECOND THOUSAND YEARS

During the first thousand years there was no rain, no direct sunlight and no UV rays. Each person lived between 777 and 969 years of age during that time.

But man grew more and more evil during the first thousand years. “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it makes me sorry that I have made them.” Genesis 6:6-7

As it turned out, God was furious with all the evil people. He chose to destroy everyone and everything on earth – except Noah and his family. It appears, out of all the people living on the earth, only “Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:9.

God gave Noah the design and instructions for building an ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall, which took Noah and his sons 100 years to build. When the ark was built, filled with animals and Noah’s family, God closed the ark. “Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” Genesis 7:4. God did exactly what he said he would do to everyone and everything on earth, with the exception of Noah and his family.

We’re told in Genesis 6 that all flesh died that moved on the earth, both fowl and cattle, and beasts and every kind of creeping thing that crept on the earth and every man; they all died.

So, how many people would have been destroyed by the flood?

Noah was the 10^th generation from Adam.  In addition to living between 777 and 969 years, each of the patriarchs is described as having other sons and daughters in addition to the ones mentioned in the Bible. Also, the patriarchs continued to have children when they themselves were 200 years of age and older. Josephus, the famous Jewish historian of the first century, reported that Adam and Eve had 56 children, 33 sons and 23 daughters. Noah’s 3 known sons had at least 16 sons between them. Seven of the grandsons of Noah had at least 38 sons. One could calculate an average of 10 or 11 children per family. This is a low estimate considering the high rate of longevity. There could easily have been a pre-flood population between 750 million to 7 billion people! That is a lot of wicked people!

As noted in day two, the flood had two sources of water: springs of the great deep were broken up and the floodgates of heaven were opened.

“In the 600^th year of Noah’s life, in the 2nd month, the 17 day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” Genesis 7:11. In the 601^st year, the 2^nd month and the 27^th day of the month, God told Noah to “Go forth.” Genesis 8:14-16. The animals and Noah’s family were in the Ark 1 year and 10 days; One year and 17 days if you count the 7 days in the ark before it began raining.

This flood caused the earth’s terrarium-like environment to dissolve. There was a major movement in the earth. The earth tilted on its axis and, for the first time, seasons were set in place, causing everything at the north and south poles to quick-freeze. This created fossilization, something rarely occurring today. The coal beds we now have were once mats of dense vegetation that were buried quickly. Many changes would have occurred, including a vast erosion of the earth’s surface, creating crevices like the Grand Canyon. No longer was earth all one land mass with perfect temperatures year-round. If you look at a globe of the world, you can easily see where the land masses were all connected at one time, and then pulled apart.

After the flood, God limited a life span to 120 years. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.” Genesis 6:3

During the second thousand years, God put laws into place to preserve, guard and protect his people. The laws seemed cumbersome and, therefore, God’s people ended up disobeying him time and time and time again. An entire generation ended up roaming around in the desert for 40 years while God led and taught a new generation to trust him. God gave them the Ten Commandments to summarize the laws of relationship with simplicity: the first 5 Commandments taught how to have a relationship with God and the last 5 Commandments taught how to have a relationship with people.

Then God gave them the Promised Land. After 40 years of learning to trust God, they didn’t. They were afraid. But Joshua and Caleb believed God and led the conquest of the land. In Joshua 24, Joshua highlighted God’s efforts and provisions for these stiff-necked people summing up with, “Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river…”     

Ever since that day, God’s people have drifted from his laws.

• Methuselah, one of the descendants of Seth, must have been a God-fearing man. His name means, “When he dies, it shall come.” Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, longer than any other recorded age of man in the Bible. Noah was born when Methuselah was 369 years old. When Methuselah died, the flood came. “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:8
• “Have you marked the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood?” Job 22:15-16
• “The Lord by wisdom has founded the earth; by understanding has he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.” Proverbs 3:19
• “It is he that builds his stories in the heaven and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord [YHVH] is his name.” Amos 9:6
• “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great; you are clothed with honor and majesty, who covers yourself with light as with a garment; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain; who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters; who makes the clouds his chariot; who walks upon the wings of the wind; who makes his angels spirts, his ministers a flaming fire; who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the voice of your thunder they hastened away.”
  Psalm 104:1-7
• “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out heaven with the span, and measured the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Isaiah 40:12

Creation of the firmament between the waters the second day, was mirrored by the destruction of that same firmament, in the second thousandth year when God released the waters above and below to destroy the evil works conceived by men and, at the same time, revealed his plan of salvation by water for God’s people.

Gentle Power: “Have you no respect for me? Will you not tremble in my presence? I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.” Jeremiah 5:22

Next Up: Day 3

Before the Spirit of God moved, darkness was upon the face of the deep.

THE FIRST DAY

“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:3-5

The prophecy continues. In Genesis 1:1, God began to declare the end from the beginning. He foretold his plan of salvation even before he created Adam and Eve. Now he continues in Genesis 1 to unfold not only the brilliance of his strategic creation, but also revelation of the correlation of these individual days to the coming one thousand-year time periods.

The first day was one morning and one evening, not one thousand years. The Hebrew word is YOM or YAMIN, which we find again in Exodus 20:11 signifying a 24-hour period. It’s also important to remember the light created on Day 1 isn’t from the sun or moon or stars, because God didn’t create those until Day 4. So, what was this light?

There is an element of light within an atom. An atom is composed of protons and electrons. If the protons are positive and the electrons are negative, then what keeps the electrons from crashing into the positively charged nucleus? If the nucleus is completely made of positive material, what holds it together? Wouldn’t it fly apart because of the like charges? No force is really strong enough to keep electrons away from the nucleus or to keep the nucleus together. No force, except the power of God.

“Christ existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.” Colossians 1:17. Could it be that Christ is the light that holds atoms together?

• All things are held together by molecules and atoms. Light is actually known to be a part of the atom and may most likely be the thing that is responsible for holding it together.
• Light is not a particle; it doesn’t have a mass, but it moves things and shakes things. You can’t figure it out. The only other option is that it’s a wave or a vibration. But a wave eventually wears out. Light does not run out. You can run it into something else, but it never changes, it never decays. It never loses what it is. You can measure its power and speed with Nano technology and track its direction, but the easiest measurement is either on or off.
• Light is the fastest thing in the world – 186,000 miles per second.
• Light brings not only clarity but also security. No one ever says, “I don’t want to go down that bright alley!”

The first day of creation was phenomenal. We’re not only introduced to the creation of light, it’s speed, power, and eternal qualities; but also, it’s source and power in our lives, Jesus, the Christ. Remember that Jesus is the Word of God. When God created light, he “spoke it” into being.

What does light reveal and what is there about light that pertains to prophecy?

God dropped more clues:

“All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 13-4

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

“[God] has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right had of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:2-3

Jesus was already there. “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.” Colossians 1:15-17

“I and my Father are one.” John 10:30. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6. “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” 1 John 5:7.

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:18-20

FIRST THOUSAND YEARS

Imagine a world with absolutely no written laws. Just do whatever you want. Adam and Eve first had two children, Cain and Abel. You could say they embodied light and dark, good and evil. Cain killed Abel and God cursed Cain – probably because he refused to repent.

The Book of Genesis reveals God’s heart and passion to build a relationship with his children perhaps as much or more than any other book in the Old Testament. He also reveals his prophecy for every one of us individually and lays the foundation for the coming Christ.

Adam and Eve were given specific details about the consequences of their actions before they were barred from (kicked out of) the garden. Because Adam listened to his wife and did what she said instead of trusting God, God told Adam the ground would now be “cursed”. Thorns and thistles would be a constant problem and working to provide bread would “cause his face to sweat.”

No doubt Adam and Eve had an attitude problem. No longer in paradise, life was hard. Then they had two sons: Cain and Abel. It appeared Cain was the gardener and Abel took care of the sheep.

We’re not told every conversation God had with this family, but he did not abandon them. In his loving passion for them, he continued to try to teach them how important their relationship with God would prove to be. One of those lessons appears to have been to honor God with gifts, called offerings. Cain brought veggies from his garden and Abel sacrificed a lamb. While we don’t have written proof of the conversation, we know it took place because both Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. If there had been no conversation, why would Abel think killing a beautiful, one-year-old lamb would please God? 

God had respect for Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. At first glance his disrespect for Cain’s offering might not seem fair, however God did tell Adam that as a result of their disobedience, the ground would be cursed. Maybe Adam forgot to share that piece of information with Cain. Maybe Adam didn’t connect the cursed ground to the offering. Maybe Cain didn’t bring his best fruit. Maybe it wasn’t the offering, but the condition of Cain’s heart. But the resulting message was clear. Cain’s offering did not receive God’s respect.

Cain was angry and upset! But God checked in with him to share some insight. God said, “Why are you so angry? If you do well, won’t you be accepted?  But if you don’t do well, sin is crouching behind your door. He is waiting to attack and destroy you, but you can rule over him.” Genesis 4:6-7

God was mentoring Cain. He was trying to lead him to victory over the evil influence of Satan. It actually looked like Cain was even going to make amends with his brother as later, he was talking with Abel and they went out to the fields. But then suddenly Cain killed his brother. Cain’s anger, jealousy, refusal to listen and obey brought cursing instead of blessing. 

God still mentors us. God has given simple instructions – with analogies for clarity. Abel’s gift was God’s promise to you and me. Our reaction to that promise is a firm prophecy for our future. 

“God paid a ransom to save you from the empty manner of life received by tradition from your fathers. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was paid with the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom from evil long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sakes.” I Peter 1:18-20

Another prophetic lesson: Don’t compare gifts. “The body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, ‘I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,’ that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,’ would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.” 1 Corinthians 12:14-18. God works in different ways, giving each of us different gifts, different ways to glorify him, but he is the same God that works in all of us.

The next son of Adam and Eve was Seth, who obeyed God and told his children about God for many generations. When you follow the genealogy and run the numbers, you will see that because people lived hundreds of years, Seth, who lived to be 912 years old, was 800 hundred years old when his father, Adam, died. Seth was 492 years old when Enoch was born, and Seth was 857 years old when Enoch was translated (also called raptured). “And all the days of Enoch were 365. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:23-24

Speculation. Do you wonder how Adam and Eve got over losing Abel? Did they repent finally? Did they mend their hearts to God? Did they diligently teach Seth about God? Or did God just reach out to Seth directly?

Just thoughts. Thoughts about you and me and how God is still mentoring us to follow him.

The first thousand years was a period of light and dark, mirroring the creation of light in the dark by the word of God on the first day. However, in the midst of lawlessness, by the end of the first thousand years darkness had completely overtaken the light with the exception of one family. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God was sorry he had made man and was determined to destroy them. “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repents me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:7.

“The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22

“We know the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murders of fathers and murderers of mothers, for fornicators, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for kidnapers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” Ephesians 1:8-9

“For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

What If Jesus truly is the light of the world, both literally and figuratively? We have a tendency to downplay God’s creation and his ability to impact our lives directly. What if we’ve missed one of the biggest breadcrumbs to understanding God and who we could be in him?

REFERENCES

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”  
John 8:12

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not overcome it.” 
John 1:1-5

“For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness’, has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”  
2 Corinthians 4:6-7

Next Up: Day 2

Cain and Abel

God promised to reveal how his plan for his creation would end, from the beginning. “Remember the things of old, for I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isaiah 46:9-10.

Therefore, we begin on the first page of the first book, the first verse of the first chapter of the Holy Bible.

Genesis 1:1

The Bible is written in two parts: The Old Testament and The New Testament. Originally, The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and The New Testament in Greek. While there are multiple Bible translations and interpretations, most versions begin Genesis by saying:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1

However, in Hebrew, it is written, “Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’arets.”

Breaking it down looks like this:

1. Bereshit = First, beginning, best, chief, choice part
2. bara = to create, shape, form from nothing
3. Elohim = Eternal God
4. et = Aleph Tav. When these 2 letters, e and t, (pronounced Aleph and Tav) are found together by themselves, they are not translated into any other language. Normally the Aleph Tav would be a type of conjunction pointing to the direct object, but there are hundreds of places in the Bible where the Aleph Tav sits there by itself without a direct object. Most interestingly, in each of these places, the Aleph Tav refers to what we know as the Alpha and Omega, Jesus the Christ. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. I am he that lives and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hades and of death.” Rev 1:8,18.
5. hashamayim = Heavens. There are three heavens. The heaven we can see, we call, “sky”. It is the first heaven. The “universe” which we can only observe through telescopic lenses is the second heaven; and “the place where God lives” is the third heaven. This third heaven is described as the “holy mountain of God” where originally Lucifer walked among the “stones of fire.” Ezekiel 28:14-16.
6. ve’et = This is a combination of ve, which is interpreted as a “connector, hook or nail”, plus et, the Aleph Tav
7. ha’arets = Land, earth. The whole earth as opposed to heaven.

Notice there are 7 words in the first verse in the original Hebrew language. Not an accident. Our God is a God of details. In Hebrew, the Bible reveals the whole plan of salvation hidden in the first verse of the Bible. The 7 days of creation represent a 7,000-year plan. We have just now entered the 7,000^th year according to Biblical history.

The 4^th word in Hebrew points to Jesus Christ, the Aleph Tav. This word is in the exact middle of the 7 words. Jesus was born at the end of the 4,000^th year, the middle of the 7,000 years of prophecy. The 5th word, hashamayim, (heavens), is followed by ve’et (ve=connector; et=Aleph Tav) and then ha’arets, earth. This ve’et (connector Aleph Tav) placed between the heavens and the earth is interpreted: Aleph Tav (Jesus Christ) will connect (fasten) the heavens and the earth by the nails in his hands, which he did when nailed to a cross; he died for our sins and rose from the dead after three days.

• “Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am!’” John 8:58
• “One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, ‘Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.’” Matthew 12:38-40
• “I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.” Revelation 1:18

(For a deeper dive, search “Rico Cortez Aleph and Tav”. It is an amazing study.)  https://wisdomintorah.com/mystery-of-the-Aleph-tav-wisdom-in-bereshit/)

The first verse of the Hebrew Bible highlights God’s plan of salvation. It stands there like a brilliant neon light radiating through the darkness. God loves you so much he didn’t want you to miss it. Amen.

GENESIS 1:2

“And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  Genesis 1:2

About the Holy Spirit

God introduces his Spirit in the 2^nd verse of the first chapter of Genesis. In Genesis 1:1 it is already noted that Jesus Christ, the Aleph Tav, was with God in the beginning. God was not alone.

The Hebrew word for ‘moved’ in Genesis 1:2 is interpreted ‘shattered’. The Holy Spirit wasn’t a hovercraft moving gently over the waters. This was a powerful act of creation. 

• “When you send your Spirit, new life is born to replenish all the living of the earth.”  Psalm 104:30

During my junior/senior high school years, I argued a lot about things in the Bible. I had developed a very personal relationship with God and, while I didn’t tell anyone about it (and didn’t really know much about the Bible), I questioned everything that was contrary to what I knew about God personally. My Sunday School teacher, Uncle Clark, took the brunt of it, of course. I asked him when was the first time the Holy Spirit appeared in the Bible – Was it in The Old Testament or The New Testament? He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, and probably said to himself, ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ Yes, clearly that wasn’t in his lesson plan. He just smiled instead of rebuking me for trying to get him off course. It was clear he wasn’t sure, so he told me he’d do some research and get back to me. I brought it up again in a couple months and asked if the first appearance of the Holy Spirit was when Jesus was baptized, and he agreed. A few years later I decided to actually read the Bible and started with Genesis 1. God had begun to teach me to study more and argue less. It was a precious moment. So, I began to study more and challenge God to answer difficult questions. God has been more than faithful. Over sixty years later, my “main” Bible is well worn, and my backup Bible is held together with duct tape.

• “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor has taught him? With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:13-14
• “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord….. and he shall judge with righteousness.” From Isaiah 11

Behind the Scenes

Genesis 1:3 through Genesis 2:3 describes the first 7 days of creation. But there were created things that appear to have been created between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3 – important things. While God chose not to lay out every detail, he did drop breadcrumbs.

In every play, every production, there is an unseen stage crew working behind the scenes. The same appears to be true of creation. At some point during this backstage creation, God created angels. The good angels are referred to as God’s angels.

• “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man, that you are mindful of him? And the son of man, that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor.”  Psalm 8:3-6

Sometimes they are identified: “And the angel, answering, said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God and am sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.” Luke 1:19

Sometimes they are not: “Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrifying to look at; but I did not ask him from where he was, neither did he tell me his name.” Judges 13:6

Sometimes they explain a situation, such as when Daniel didn’t understand why his prayer wasn’t answered for 3 weeks: “Daniel, greatly loved of God, listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you. Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for 21 days, the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way… Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me.” Daniel 10:11-13

Lucifer: Apparently all angels, like Adam and Eve, were perfect when they were created. But one in particular, named Lucifer, got significant mention.

• “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone— red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald—all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian, you had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire.  Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings. You defiled your sanctuaries with your many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought fire out from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All who knew you are appalled at your fate.” Ezekiel 28:13-19 
• “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who weakened the nations. For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.” Isaiah 14:12-15

Not only did Lucifer get banished and demoted, but it would appear many angels followed Lucifer to his new assignment; we know them as demons.

• “The angels who did not keep their first estate, but left their own habitation, God has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Jude 6
• “For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment.” 2 Peter 2:4
• God said, “Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire and brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.” Isaiah 54:16

Stage Crew Interactions

The entire Old Testament Book of Job is a conversation between God and Satan, God and/or Job and/or Job’s three friends. It would appear God included these conversations (42 chapters) because he needs us to understand how evil interacts in the lives of people.

• “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan the Accuser came with them. Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan. And Satan answered the Lord, “I have been going back and forth across the earth, watching everything that’s going on.” The Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth – a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.” Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! You have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Job 1:6-11
• “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand.’ So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.” Job 1:12

God allowed Satan to test Job, but Job proved faithful to God through it all, even though Satan destroyed his servants, his oxen, his sheep, his camels, his sons and daughters, and gave Job a very bad case of boils. All the while Job’s friends accused Job of some sort of sin against God for which he should repent. Even his wife told him to just ‘curse God and die.’ Job 2:9. God set them straight and rewarded Job with twice as much as he had before.

The Book of Job highlights amazing conversations. God is a faithful Father to those who trust his Word. And, yes, he had to raise his voice a time or two and put Job’s friends in their place, but at the end of the day, God alone sits on the throne.

• “I am YHVH (the Lord): that is my name; and my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to carved images.” Isaiah 42:8

One look at the future and it’s clear we need a God who is able to take care of us. The reality is that we have a God who is able to take care of us. We need to invest time to get to know him, understand who he is, how much he loves us, and the hard truth of his ridiculously simple family plan. Choose God.

• “See, I am sending an angel before you to protect you on your journey and lead you safely to the place I have prepared for you.” Exodus 23:20

Next Up: Day 1

Genesis 4 reveals God’s heart and passion to build a relationship with his children perhaps more than any other chapter in the Old Testament. He also reveals his prophecy for every one of us individually and lays the foundation for the coming Christ.

THE STORY

Just prior to Genesis 4, Adam and Eve were given specific details about the consequences of their actions before they were barred from (kicked out of) the garden. Because Adam listened to his wife and did what she said instead of obeying their Creator, God told Adam the ground would now be cursed. Thorns and thistles would be a constant problem and working to provide bread would “cause his face to sweat.”

No doubt Adam and Eve had an attitude problem. No longer in paradise, life was hard. Then they had two sons: Cain and Abel. Cain was the gardener and Abel took care of the sheep.

We’re not told every conversation God had with this family, but he did not abandon them. In his loving passion for them, he continued to try to teach them how important their relationship with God would prove to be. One of those lessons was to honor God with gifts, called offerings. Cain brought veggies from his garden and Abel sacrificed a lamb. While we don’t have written proof of the conversation, we know it took place because both Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. If there had been no conversation, why would Abel think killing a beautiful, year-old lamb would please God?

THE FRUIT OF THE GROUND

God had respect for Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. At first glance his disrespect for Cain’s offering might not seem fair, however God did tell Adam that as a result of their disobedience, the ground would be cursed. Maybe Adam forgot to share that piece of information with Cain. Maybe Adam didn’t connect the cursed ground to the offering. Maybe Cain didn’t bring his best fruit. Maybe it wasn’t the offering, but the condition of Cain’s heart. But the resulting message was clear. Cain’s offering did not receive God’s respect.

INSIGHT INTO EVIL

Cain was angry and upset! But God checked in with him to share some insight. God said, “Why are you so angry? If you do well, won’t you be accepted?  But if you don’t do well, sin is crouching behind your door. He is waiting to attack and destroy you, but you can rule over him.”

God was mentoring Cain. He was trying to lead him to victory. It actually looked like Cain was even going to make amends with his brother as later he was talking with Abel and they went out to the fields. Then Cain killed his brother.

God still mentors us. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers, principalities, rulers of this dark world and spiritual wickedness in high places because satan is crouching behind each door. God revealed our spiritual defense with an analogy of physical elements.

Put on God’s full armor in order to resist the enemy. Stand your ground. Just stand. God has already won the battle. Put on the belt of truth. Protect your heart with the breastplate of righteousness. Walk in shoes of peace. Quench those fiery darts from that stinking, stalking, slimy devil with the shield of faith. Put on the helmet of salvation, and take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God and pray.
From Ephesians 6:12-15

THE LAMB

Shepherds don’t drive sheep from behind, they lead them. Sheep are not innately intelligent. A shepherd’s hook is a stick with a hook on the end. When a lamb would wander off the path, the shepherd would extend the hook around the lamb’s neck and pull him back on the path. Sheep are not smart; they will walk right off a cliff without any thought to the consequences – and other sheep will follow. If a lamb gets his head stuck in a fence, he’s not smart enough to back up, so the shepherd extends the hook around his neck to back him up, rescue him from harm, and bring him back to safety.

But the shepherd doesn’t always stay out in front. When the path becomes a confused trail or steep cliff and the sheep become scared, the shepherd drops back and walks with his sheep. In the darkest shadows or greatest dangers, he is beside them, guiding and protecting.

All of us have gone astray like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Jesus, the Lamb of God, was led like a lamb to the slaughter. God laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.
Isaiah 53:6-7

God had respect for Abel’s offering because it pointed us to his plan to rescue us from sin by the blood of the lamb. From this beginning God painted a clear picture of salvation.  

PROPHECY

God has given simple instructions – with analogies for clarity. Abel’s gift was God’s promise to you and me. Our reaction to that promise is a firm prophecy for our future.

God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom from evil long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sakes.
I Peter 1:18-20

I will be your God throughout your lifetime – until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.
Isaiah 46:4

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives up his life for his sheep.
John 10:11

God still mentors today.

Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7