Between A Rock And A Hard Choice (1 Samuel 20)

August 4, 2024

Have you ever found yourself in a no-win situation? The most famous, of course, is the Kobayashi Maru – an exercise given to Starfleet Academy cadets so they can experience fear in the face of certain death. Not sure how effective that is since everyone knows they’re not actually going to die.

There are other no-win scenarios in the real world. For example, a Cornelian dilemma is when no matter what a person chooses, it will be detrimental to themselves or someone near them.^[1]

Maybe you’re in what looks like a no-win situation, spiritually. Some circumstance, some choice, some relationship where it seems like you can’t do what’s right because it might not work out?

More generally, looking at the society around us, it’s easy to think, “Ok, God has given me these principles and these values and these commands to trust in and live by, but if I do, I’m going to lose everything to this Godless culture.”

When we have thoughts like that we should look to the examples the Lord has for us in His word.

1 Samuel 20 is a story of desperation. David is wracked by fear, worried that God won’t keep His promises. Saul is plagued by paranoia, in full rebellion against God’s will. The nation was in a precarious and dangerous position.

In the middle we have Jonathan, Saul’s oldest son and David’s closest friend. That seems like a no-win situation. Which side should he choose? Any choice he made would come with serious consequences. Neither party was really doing what they should, but Jonathan had loyalty to both.

But because he was Godly and faithful, and because he allowed his faith to dictate his actions, we will see the power of God working through his life and he is able to do the impossible – to fulfill his duty and navigate a no-win situation, helping to stabilize the nation along the way.

1 Samuel 20:1 – David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What did I do wrong? How have I sinned against your father so that he wants to take my life?”

David was the hero of Israel. He was an army commander. He was also Saul’s son-in-law. God announced He was going to give the throne to David because Saul rejected the word of the Lord. Because Saul was jealous of David and angry at God, he tried to kill David, but was unsuccessful time and time again. He tried all sorts of schemes, none of them worked because God intervened.

At the end of chapter 19, Saul sent 4 volleys of agents to go get David in Ramah, but each time when they got there, the Spirit of God came upon them and they started prophesying. It’s one of the more comical miracles of the Old Testament. Don’t say God doesn’t like to have fun!

Despite God’s faithfulness, David was afraid and he convinced himself that eventually God would let him down. So, he comes to Jonathan to plead his case and get some help.

1 Samuel 20:2 – ²Jonathan said to him, “No, you won’t die. Listen, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without telling me. So why would he hide this matter from me? This can’t be true.”

Jonathan wasn’t right about his dad but he was absolutely right about David. He wasn’t going to die. There were times Jonathan spoke prophetically, but he’s not having a vision here. He just believed what God promised and he accepted God’s will even though it was going to cost him. Jonathan is the crown prince. He should have the throne after Saul. But in chapter 18, Jonathan met with David and gave him his robe, his military tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt. He knew what God had decreed and so he renounced his claim to the throne. He trusted God’s way.

Jonathan was more concerned with his spirituality than his success. When we see him in 1 Samuel, he always has this mindset: What does God want? How can I be part of what God is doing?

1 Samuel 20:3 – ³But David said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor with you. He has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or else he will be grieved.’ ” David also swore, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

David was wrong again. There wasn’t a step between him and death, there was a Savior between him and death. And the Savior used Jonathan as a shield for David in his time of need.

1 Samuel 20:4 – ⁴Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”

David came frantic and desperate. There’s indication in the language that he really didn’t speak to Jonathan like a friend.^[2] But, in this moment of stress, Jonathan was full of faith in God. And God used him personally to minister to David. Jonathan didn’t say, “Look, this really isn’t my problem.” He had a heart of compassion. He thought of himself humbly, as a servant. And God used him.

1 Samuel 20:5-8 – ⁵So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I’m supposed to sit down and eat with the king. Instead, let me go, and I’ll hide in the countryside for the next two nights. ⁶If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urgently requested my permission to go quickly to his hometown, Bethlehem, for an annual sacrifice there involving the whole clan.’ ⁷If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he becomes angry, you will know he has evil intentions. ⁸Deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I have done anything wrong, then kill me yourself; why take me to your father?”

David was a great tactician, but his tactics would lead him into one of the darkest periods of his spiritual life. But we see, in this moment, he doesn’t appeal to God for help. Instead ends with this manipulative and overly dramatic ultimatum: Kill me yourself! David’s faith was faltering which led to him scrambling.

Despite the pressure and the manipulation Jonathan’s faith is active. Now, walking by faith is going to put him right in the path of danger, but we’ll see Jonathan is safe in the hands of God.

1 Samuel 20:9-11 – ⁹“No!” Jonathan responded. “If I ever find out my father has evil intentions against you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?” ¹⁰So David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” ¹¹He answered David, “Come on, let’s go out to the countryside.” So both of them went out to the countryside.

Jonathan says, “Come with me.” He wasn’t afraid to be seen with David. He wasn’t afraid to spend time with him. This is the man who is going to take your crown, your throne, and your position. But Jonathan did not allow jealousy to grow in his heart.

As Christians, we’re called to lend our strength to help brothers and sisters who are weak among us. We’re to personally encourage one another and build each other up,^[3] not tear people down.

1 Samuel 20:12-16 – ¹²“By the Lord, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If I find out that he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you? ¹³If my father intends to bring evil on you, may the Lord punish Jonathan and do so severely if I do not tell you and send you away so you may leave safely. May the Lord be with you, just as he was with my father. ¹⁴If I continue to live, show me kindness from the Lord, but if I die, ¹⁵don’t ever withdraw your kindness from my household—not even when the Lord cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” ¹⁶Then Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord hold David’s enemies accountable.” ¹⁷Jonathan once again swore to David in his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

Jonathan believes God’s promises. He takes up David’s cause as his own. He trusts his future not to his own strength but to God’s mercy. Why? Because of love. Not just a brotherly love. Not just a friend’s love. Not a self-serving love. Not love that waits for the other person to do the right thing first. This is God’s love. We know it as agape, but that’s a New Testament word. The Old Testament speaks about God’s hesed love. Jonathan uses that term twice here where we read “kindness.”

Hesed is a covenant commitment of loyalty, compassion, and grace.^[4] Jonathan wasn’t doing this because he and David were buddies, but because he made a covenant of active loyalty with him. His mindset was bigger than the here and now. Look at how he talks about their future. He says, “I may not even be around for the fulfillment of these things. But, if I’m still alive, show me mercy. Show my family mercy.”

Jonathan had the most to gain from David’s death. And he had the most to lose if David survived. But he surrendered his life into the plan of God because he believed that God knew best.

1 Samuel 20:18-24a – ¹⁸Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the New Moon; you’ll be missed because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹The following day hurry down and go to the place where you hid on the day this incident began and stay beside the rock Ezel. ²⁰I will shoot three arrows beside it as if I’m aiming at a target. ²¹Then I will send a servant and say, ‘Go and find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to the servant, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you—get them,’ then come, because as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no problem. ²²But if I say this to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you!’ then go, for the Lord is sending you away. ²³As for the matter you and I have spoken about, the Lord will be a witness between you and me forever.” ²⁴So David hid in the countryside.

“The Lord will be a witness.” He knew the Lord was watching. He knew the Lord was with them. In the moment, David felt forsaken and alone. But Jonathan told him, “No, God is still in charge. He is still accomplishing His plan and He will not let your life fall through the cracks.”

1 Samuel 20:24b-25 – At the New Moon, the king sat down to eat the meal. ²⁵He sat at his usual place on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him and Abner took his place beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.

Have you ever had a really uncomfortable meal with someone? Imagine the pressure of this dinner. There are the 4 seats. Jonathan is across the table, facing Saul. David’s seat is empty. But Jonathan is unafraid. He does not hide or cower. He faces his father with confidence and courage, not because he plans to fight him, but because he knows the Lord is with him.

1 Samuel 20:26-27 – ²⁶Saul did not say anything that day because he thought, “Something unexpected has happened; he must be ceremonially unclean—yes, that’s it, he is unclean.” ²⁷However, the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal either yesterday or today?”

The first day was a holy day and Saul knew that David was a devout follower of the Law. But the second day was not a holy day. You could eat that meal even if you were ceremonially unclean.^[5]

1 Samuel 20:28-29 – ²⁸Jonathan answered, “David asked for my permission to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹He said, ‘Please let me go because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the town, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor with you, let me go so I can see my brothers.’ That’s why he didn’t come to the king’s table.”

Was it wrong for Jonathan to tell this lie? Robert Bergen writes, “Jonathan would have to tell his father a lie, but not one that would violate either the letter or spirit of the Torah, since its purpose was to preserve innocent life.”^[6] The plan succeeded in revealing Saul’s true plans for David.

1 Samuel 20:30-31 – ³⁰Then Saul became angry with Jonathan and shouted, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you are siding with Jesse’s son to your own shame and to the disgrace of your mother? ³¹Every day Jesse’s son lives on earth you and your kingship are not secure. Now send for him and bring him to me—he must die!”

In his rage, Saul tried to use “three powerful motivators: shame, guilt, and greed.”^[7] He dangles the throne in front of Jonathan. How could he possibly choose to derail his own future? Well, Jonathan’s identity wasn’t tied to wealth, power, or earthly success. He life was about God’s will.

But this is a moment of decision. Saul says, “Bring David to me.” The Christian life is a life of decisions. There are many days when we’re able to just exist and live a regular life. But all of us will necessarily be brought to moments where choices must be made. Choices to either trust God or trust ourselves. Choices to do what is convenient in the short term or to do what is eternally right. Choices to follow the commands of God or to compromise with a raging world.

In those moments of choice we can step back and see that the world’s offer is not genuine. In this moment, Saul has no love for his son. In fact, he won’t even call him his son. He won’t use his name. This is all pressure to reject God’s will and instead try to gain something temporal.

1 Samuel 20:32-33 – ³²Jonathan answered his father back, “Why is he to be killed? What has he done?” ³³Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.

One commentator writes, “Since Saul’s son had chosen to identify himself with David, he must be treated like David.”^[8]

When we walk by faith, we should expect to be treated the way Christ was treated. Jesus promised us, “You will be hated by everyone because of My name.”^[9]

Jonathan did not shrink. He boldly spoke the truth. He challenged Saul’s wickedness with words. He didn’t throw the spear back. He didn’t rally troops to depose the king. He knew God was already accomplishing that plan and he was in step with what God was doing.

1 Samuel 20:34 – ³⁴He got up from the table fiercely angry and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father’s shameful behavior toward David.

The thing Jonathan was most upset about was not that he was almost killed by his own dad (again), but that his father was acting shamefully toward the Lord’s anointed. What an amazing perspective Jonathan had! On his life. On what really mattered. On what should and shouldn’t be done. It was all informed by his faith and trust in the Lord – his confidence that God’s way is best.

1 Samuel 20:35-42 – ³⁵In the morning Jonathan went out to the countryside for the appointed meeting with David. A young servant was with him. ³⁶He said to the servant, “Run and find the arrows I’m shooting.” As the servant ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷He came to the location of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, but Jonathan called to him and said, “The arrow is beyond you, isn’t it?” ³⁸Then Jonathan called to him, “Hurry up and don’t stop!” Jonathan’s servant picked up the arrow and returned to his master. ³⁹He did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. ⁴⁰Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the servant who was with him and said, “Go, take it back to the city.” ⁴¹When the servant had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone Ezel, fell facedown to the ground, and paid homage three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept with each other, though David wept more. ⁴²Jonathan then said to David, “Go in the assurance the two of us pledged in the name of the Lord when we said, ‘The Lord will be a witness between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring forever.’ ” Then David left, and Jonathan went into the city.

Jonathan followed through on his promise. Once again, he invoked God as a witness. David runs off to escape the danger. But what does Jonathan do? He goes back into the city! Back to Saul, who had just tried to kill him. Why didn’t he simply go with David? Because God had called Jonathan to stand beside his father. And so he returns in faith. This is amazing! He didn’t have to.

Jonathan navigated this no-win situation. He was used by God to minister to both David and Saul like light in the dark. Like salt, he preserved life and held back the spread of evil.

It cost him a lot. But throughout Jonathan’s story we see that he was fine with that because he knew this wasn’t about a fight between his father and his friend. It wasn’t about who gets to sit on an earthly throne for a few years. This was about walking with God, being used by God, and trusting that God knew what He was doing.

We live in a culture that is trying hard to make you hate people. Some group, some opponent. We’re supposed to see them as unforgivable. Irredeemable. Worthless. Enemies to be destroyed.

But that’s not the Christian calling. We’re supposed to stand against certain ideologies and philosophies – the doctrines of demons. But Jonathan’s example here is a reminder that the Christian calling is to follow Jesus and be in whatever position He places you. Jonathan didn’t live in the mindset that he’s either team David or team Saul. He acknowledged that God was bringing Saul down and raising David up. But Jonathan was really just on team Jehovah. And that’s why he was able to navigate this no-win situation with integrity and effectiveness. That’s why he could say, “David is going to be the next king,” but then go back to Saul’s court and give his life in defense of his father. That’s what God asked of Jonathan. That was the unique position God placed him in.

That’s how Daniel was able to be friends with Nebuchadnezzar. Or Manaen could be a close friend of Herod the tetrarch. Because God places His people not to destroy others but to minister to them.

God’s desire is to reconcile and to sustain and to redeem. That doesn’t mean He would overlook Saul’s evil. But it means He would send people like Jonathan into these situations to be light, to be salt, to rise above the anger and the manipulations and the worldly perspectives and instead work grace. Grace is loving kindness to the undeserving. Saul did an unforgivable thing when he tried to kill his son. But there’s Jonathan, back in place Monday morning.

Are you in a no-win situation? Do you feel like we’re in a lose-lose culture? That’s a great place to be if you’re willing to walk like Jonathan. Because your life can become a conduit of world-saving grace. You can be the salty solution to a no-win situation.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelian_dilemma
↑2	Robert Alter The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary
↑3	1 Thessalonians 5:11
↑4	The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel. Vol. 3.
↑5	Robert Bergen The New American Commentary Volume 7: 1, 2 Samuel
↑6, ↑7, ↑8	NAC
↑9	Luke 21:17

Ezekiel 1:1-3 – I Coulda Been A Kohanim

July 28, 2024

We recognize certain milestone birthdays and set them apart for special observation and celebration.

16 Driver’s license
18 Reaching adulthood
40 Midlife
65 Traditional retirement age
100 Less than 1% of the US population lives for a century

In Mexico and other Latin American cultures the 15^th birthday for young ladies is celebrated with a quinceañera.

In Judaism, a bar mitzvah (for boys at 13) and bat mitzvah (for girls at 12) mark their coming of age.

In Israel among the male descendants of Levi’s son, Aaron, birthdays at 25yrs, 30yrs, & 50yrs are significant.

In Numbers 4:23 we are told, “From 30 years old and above, even to 50 years old [Levites] enter the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting.”

A few chapters later we read this clarification. “This is what pertains to the Levites: From 25 years old and above one may enter to perform service in the work of the tabernacle of meetings” (23:24-26).

From age 25 until turning 30 the Levites apprenticed. At 30 they began their service. Retirement was mandatory at age 50.

We learn immediately that Ezekiel was a “priest” (1:3) entering his “30th year.”

What ought to have been a milestone was more like a crushing millstone.

Ezekiel did not write to us, but what he wrote is still for us. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (Second Timothy 3:16-17).

When the apostle Paul wrote those words, “all scripture” was the Hebrew Bible we call the OT. The NT was still being written.

I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 How Would You Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You?, and #2 How Would Others Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You?

#1 – How Would You Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You (v1)

It is not uncommon for an interviewer to ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

In Israel, if you were a descendant of Aaron, you were going to be a priest, a kohan (kohanim is plural).

Ezekiel knew what he was going to be as an adult. Only, when the time came, it was not possible:

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem in 606BC during the reign of Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim surrendered to him. Nebuchadnezzar took some of the Temple treasures and prisoners, among whom were Daniel and his three companions.
Nebuchadnezzar returned in 597BC. King Jehoiakim had died and was followed by Jehoaichin, who reigned for only three months. He was taken captive to Babylon with the remainder of the Temple treasures and other prisoners, among whom was Ezekiel.
The Babylonians returned to Jerusalem in 586BC and destroyed the Temple and the city.

Levites were not priests the way we think of them. Zachary Garris writes, “The Levites were not just priests – they were warrior-priests. Their priestly origin is based in righteous violence. But God put the violent nature of the Levites to good use. Not only would the priests among them slaughter animals on a regular basis for sacrifice, but also all the Levites would guard the Tabernacle & Temple and the cities of refuge. Yahweh ordained and scattered the Levites throughout Israel in order to guard His worship.”

What does he mean by “righteous violence?” When, for example, the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf, Moses called for “every man [to] put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ” So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day” (Exodus 32:27-28).

NT believers are warrior-priests:

The Church is called “priests” in Revelation 1:6.
We are warriors, told to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6) and to become skillful utilizing various spiritual weaponry (Second Corinthians 10:4).

How is the warfare for you? What fronts are you fighting on? Where are you behind enemy lines? Are there chinks in your armor? Are you wounded? Are you getting more proficient with spiritual weapons, or are you trusting in the methods of the world and the strength of the flesh?

Ezk 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar…

Ezekiel was living in Babylon, down by the river.

Historians and Bible commentators are thankful for Ezekiel’s careful keeping track of time. But when somebody is that careful keeping track of days, it communicates a deep longing. Think of your kids counting how many ‘sleeps’ until you are taking them somewhere fun.

Ezekiel’s longing is captured in Psalm 137.

Psa 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion.

Psa 137:2 We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it.

Psa 137:3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

Psa 137:4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song In a foreign land?

Psa 137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill!

Psa 137:6 If I do not remember you, Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth – If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy.

Psa 137:7 Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, “Raze it, raze it, To its very foundation!”

Psa 137:8 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!

Psa 137:9 Happy the one who takes and dashes Your little ones against the rock!

NT believers wait with a deep desire.

We “wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (First Thessalonians 1:10). Knowing I could be with Jesus right now, I am motivated to invest myself serving Him today.

The conditions of the Babylonian captivity weren’t severe. In fact, when it ended and they could return home, most Jews chose to stay and live under Persian rule.

Looking around… Things are getting severe. Do you say, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” Or are we becoming too comfy-cozy?

Scholars have done the math. Ezekiel was taken captive at age 25, just when he would have begun his apprenticeship. The first vision came to him on the day of his 30^th birthday.

God did not need Ezekiel to priest in captivity, but rather to prophesy.

Ezk 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

How are we to understand the “visions?” A commentary I consulted said, “One of the unusual parts of Ezekiel’s experience seems to be that he was physically taken away by the Spirit of God while the hand of God was upon him, and that he was returned to his place among the exiles at the end of his vision. We conclude this from the reference in a later chapter that reads: “Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound. The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went with the strong hand of the Lord upon me.”

Ezekiel was the first believer to be caught up & away bodily.

Before moving on, I want to mention the modern-day kohanim. How can they be identified?

Geneticist Dr. David Goldstein says, “[As it turns out] almost 100% of all men with family tradition of priesthood do descend from kohanim. Generation after generation of Jewish women were faithful to their husbands and their tradition. What a proud record of fidelity. Geneticists describe these results as “the highest record of paternity-certainty ever recorded… Date calculation based on the variation of the mutations among kohanim today yields a time frame of 106 generations from the ancestral founder of the line, some 3,300 years ago.” This exactly supports the tradition of descent from Aaron, brother of Moses.”

Many modern Jews with the surname Cohen & Kahn are kohanim.

The Nezer HaKodesh Institute for Kohanic Studies is teaching Jewish priests to perform Temple service for the Third Temple.

#2 – How Would Others Describe What Jesus Is Doing In You & Through You? (v2-3)

Take time to source a claim before you Insta, FaceBook, or X. It will keep you from furthering false rumors, like “ABC Refused to Renew Whoopi Goldberg’s and Joy Behar’s Contracts for The View for being toxic.”

The next two verses read like an independent Fact Check, verifying what Ezekiel said in verse one.

Ezk 1:2 On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,

In this third-person account Ezekiel is being vetted. It’s a spiritual background check so the reader can be comfortable the priest was indeed raised-up as God’s prophet.

Ezk 1:3 the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

The LSV (Literal Standard Version) of verse three reads, “the word of YHWH has certainly been to Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and there is on him there a hand of YHWH.

It’s the findings of his vetting. Ezekiel is a bonafide prophet operating in the sphere of God’s almighty power.

There are no prophets today.

There is the Gift of Prophesy. It is a gift from God the Holy Spirit for some (not all) believers. It is exercised to benefit & bless the Church as discussed at length in First Corinthians 14.

In our fellowship it mostly takes the form of God the Holy Spirit impressing on a person to call our attention to a particular Scripture. Often that Scripture, or several taken together, speak encouragement to the gathering – and to someone in particular.

We would also acknowledge dreams and waking dreams, i.e., visions, as forms of Church Age prophesy.

The person speaking needs to be vetted. What they’ve said needs to be judged by the written Word.

If ultimately the Gift of Prophecy is the application of the written, complete Bible, why do we exercise it?

The Bible presents it as a gift that has not ceased. I do not have the freedom to ignore it simply because it is controversial.
A large portion of First Corinthians is dedicated to the proper exercise of gifts, prophecy being an important one. Why so much instruction about the so-called Sign Gifts if they were to shortly cease?
Nowhere can we honestly prove from Scripture that certain gifts, like prophesy, have ceased. Cessationists mostly criticize the very real abuses of the gifts. But this requires correction, not cessation.
On a personal level, it is humbling and intimate for the Lord to speak to you using independent means. Sure, you can search out verses from Nave’s Topical Bible. But when the Word speaks to you in a live setting, it can be precious.

Jeremiah, in Jerusalem, had been prophesying for about 35 years to this point. Daniel was just beginning his amazing ministry and was at the heart of the action in the very courts of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.

Ezekiel was stuck out along the River Chebar, a canal that was connected to the River Euphrates, in a Jewish settlement. He was out in the sticks, in Riverdale, a nobody, a priest who would never serve in the Temple.

Is “the hand of the Lord upon [us] here” in the sticks by the Kings River?

One way to determine an answer is to read Jesus’ letters to seven churches in the opening chapters of the Revelation. It is our belief that each letter was written to every church. Yes, the letter to, say, the Church in Philadelphia was for that spiritual community, at that time. But the things the Lord says to them are applicable to any Church, any time they find themselves like Philadelphia.

One argument in favor of that is the fact they all end with Jesus saying, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (plural).

Another argument in favor of their being written to every church is that some of the rewards promised to a church are elsewhere promised to all believers.

We can read the letters asking, “How are we like or unlike each church?” Would Jesus commend us for certain things, or criticize us?

The heavens opened for Ezekiel. The heavens will open for us:

1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

1Th 4:17 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.

1Th 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Secret rapture is a term frequently used as a pejorative by those who deny the idea that the rapture of the church is separate from the Second Coming of Christ. Do you think graves opening to release the dead in Christ will happen in secret? Christians alive at the time will be flying airplanes, driving cars. It won’t be very secret when the co-pilot announces over the comm, “Ladies & gentlemen, the Captain was just raptured, and I cannot raise LAX air traffic control. I suggest you buckle-up… And receive the Lord.”

Maybe the Gideon’s could explore having a Bible in the storage compartment of airline seats?
Or Franklin Graham can record a 90sec evangelism video to play?

Billy Graham once said, “Jesus wants to give you hope for the future. He wants you to learn what it means to walk with Him every day. When you come to Jesus, God gives you eternal life – which begins right now as you open your heart to Him.”

Prophecy Update #794 – This Mount Is My Mount

July 28, 2024

October 7, 2023. Hamas massacred Israeli’s in a bold sneak attack.

October 9, 2023. Israel declared war on Hamas.

None of the major news outlets understand the true cause of the fighting.

Ismail Haniyeh is the political leader of the Hamas terrorists. In May of 2021 Hamas launched rockets in retaliation for Israeli security forces entering the Al Aqsa Mosque after Palestinians threw stones and other objects at them. Hamas opposes any changes to the status quo at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. One article noted. “The compound, which sits atop the Old City plateau known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as Temple Mount, is the most sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The current war was started by Hamas in response to the arrival of the red heifers. These exceedingly rare animals are needed to establish worship on the Temple Mount. In January, 2024, a Hamas spokesman specifically identified the red heifers as proof Israel would soon try to destroy the Mosque & other Islamic buildings.

Control of the Temple Mount must always be kept in mind when discussing these conflicts and wars. The Jews want to build their Temple. The Arabs believe the site to be theirs, and that Israel has plans to destroy their mosques & buildings.

We find this more than interesting because a Temple will exist in Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation. In fact, a critical moment in the Tribulation must happen in the holy place of the Temple.

Daniel prophesied about it in the 6^th century BC.
Jesus acknowledged Daniel’s prophecy in the first century AD.

We live in the Church Age. It began on the day of Pentecost fifty days after Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It precedes the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, more commonly known as the seven-year Great Tribulation.

The Tribulation will not begin until something fantastic happens. The Lord said He would return for us, the Church, raising the dead in Christ, then catching up (rapturing) believers who are alive when He comes. He promised His Church Age believers, “I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10).

The resurrection and rapture of the church is always imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!

The Remains Of The Day (Of The Lord) (Isaiah 66:1-24)

July 21, 2024

At the end of Life of Pi, 16yr old Pi Patel tells two different versions of his ocean survival story to officials investigating the shipwreck.

⇉ The first account involves him surviving 227 days at sea in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The hyena kills the zebra and later the orangutan. Richard Parker kills the hyena.

⇉ The officials do not believe his account. Pi retells the story. The animals are replaced by humans. The cook kills the sailor and feeds on his flesh. He then kills Pi’s mother, after which Pi kills him and uses his remains as food and fish bait.

At which point your book club disbands.

It’s a good thing that the Book of Isaiah does not have a bizarre ending. Let’s look at it: “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

On our way to this open burial site, we will first visit two Temples:

A Tribulation Temple in verses 1-9.
A Millennial Kingdom Temple in verses 10-24.

It is The Tale of Two Temples – one that God detests and one that He delights in.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Be Certain That What You Are Building Is According To God’s Preference, and #2 Be Certain That What You Are Building Is Affording God Praise.

#1 – Be Certain That What You Are Building Is According To God’s Preference (v1-9)

Isaiah’s ministry to Judah took place before Solomon’s Temple was destroyed. King Nebuchadnezzar would do the dishonor in 586BC. Jews were taken captive and brought to Babylon.

The Jews returned to Jerusalem after 70yrs of captivity. They rebuilt their Temple, the Second Temple, sometimes called Zerubbabel’s Temple on account of him being governor.

Jerusalem would come under Roman control. Herod remodeled the Second Temple, going all out. It was called Herod’s Temple. It was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.

Which of these Temples is Isaiah referencing?

Neither. He looks forward and predicts another Temple. It will exist in the future 7yr Great Tribulation. We call it the Tribulation Temple.

Isa 66:1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?

Isa 66:2 For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the LORD…

The LORD wasn’t anti-Temple. But you & I cannot build Him a Temple without His impetus and instruction and then assume He will put His presence there.

The same is true of your Christian life & walk; It must be biblical, Spirit-led, & in His timing.

Isa 66:2 … “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.

Temple or no, God looks for tremblers:

They know their spiritual poverty.
They are “contrite,” i.e., they don’t think more highly of themselves than they ought.
They are pre-submitted to God’s Word.

At first I read it as tremors and thought, “Man, I’ve got this!”

We tremble when cold or weak. But we also tremble with excitement. It’s a romance word.

In your embrace, I tremble,

my heart a captive of your tender touch

Isa 66:3 “He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol…

They bring bulls and lambs, and the other prescribed things. They’d be horrified at what their sacrifices look like to the LORD. Can you see them bringing a dog and breaking its neck? That’s how awful their hypocritical worship was.

God is not pleased with the Tribulation Temple since the worshippers there are hypocrites.

Isa 66:3 … Just as they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations,

Isa 66:4 So will I choose their delusions, And bring their fears on them; Because, when I called, no one answered, When I spoke they did not hear; But they did evil before My eyes, And chose that in which I do not delight.”

There is a principal of God’s discipline by which He steps back and gives us what we want. You’re delusional to think humanity can find a way without God.

The CEV reads like this in verse five – “Some of your own people hate and reject you because of me. They make fun and say, ‘Let the LORD show his power! Let us see him make you truly happy.’ But those who say these things will be terribly ashamed.”

An equivalent today, for us, would be for professing Christians to call us Jesus Freaks.

Isa 66:6 The sound of noise from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the LORD, Who fully repays His enemies!

There’s Tumult at the Temple! Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes, “The voice that the [unbelieving] non-remnant will hear is the voice of YHWH rendering recompense or judgment.”

Isa 66:7 “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; Before her pain came, She delivered a male child.

Isa 66:8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children.

We need to keep our metaphors distinct with careful reading:

In the NT, the 7yr Great Tribulation is described like a woman having severe birth pangs over a period of time (Matthew 24:8).
In our Isaiah passage, Israel is described as having no birth pangs, and delivering suddenly.

The birth in Isaiah is something else. Two things, really. One is political, and one is spiritual:

“Shall a nation be born at once?” Yes, it can, and in the case of modern Israel – it was born in a day. May 14, 1948. That’s the politics.
Who is “the male child?” Don’t answer yet! The “male child” born without birth pangs, “at once,” is also called in this verse, “children,” plural. Thus it isn’t Jesus. This is the new birth, the spiritual birth, of the Jews who flee Jerusalem ahead of the antichrist’s attack.

While holed-up in Petra, the prophet Hosea says they receive Jesus at once as Messiah & Savior. They are immediately born again spiritually. “Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight” (6:1-2).

Isa 66:9 Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the LORD. “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.

“No” & “No.” Jesus will save the elect nation of Israel. “All Israel” who endure to the end of the Tribulation will be saved.

We – the Church – will be in Heaven while all this goes down on the Tribulation Earth. There are lessons for us involving building with or for God.

#2 – Be Certain That What You Are Building Is Affording God Praise (v10-24)

Isaiah mentions “priests and Levites,” “offerings,” and a religious calendar. These are all things associated with a Temple. The Millennial Temple is ordained by God. It is described in great detail by Ezekiel (chapters 40-48).

Isa 66:10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, And be glad with her, all you who love her; Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her;

Isa 66:11 That you may feed and be satisfied With the consolation of her bosom, That you may drink deeply and be delighted With the abundance of her glory.”

Isa 66:12 For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream [In the future Millennium the Gentile nations of the Earth recognize Jerusalem as capital of the world & bring their abundance there] Then you shall feed; On her sides shall you be carried, And be dandled [bounced] on her knees.

Isa 66:13 As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

Isa 66:14 When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, And your bones shall flourish like grass; The hand of the LORD shall be known to His servants, And His indignation to His enemies.

Isa 66:15 For behold, the LORD will come with fire And with His chariots, like a whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire.

Isa 66:16 For by fire and by His sword The LORD will judge all flesh; And the slain of the LORD shall be many [This is Second Coming language]

Isa 66:17 “Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves, To go to the gardens After an idol in the midst, Eating swine’s flesh and the abomination and the mouse, Shall be consumed together,” says the LORD [The “mouse” may refer to what is known as myomancy, the practice of reading omens from the behavior of rodents]

Isa 66:18 “For I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory [Throughout the 1000yrs of the Millennium, Gentile nations will come to Jerusalem to bend the knee to Jesus]

Isa 66:19 I will set a sign among them [We are unsure of the “sign,” but it reminds us that our God is mighty to save in every dispensation] and those among them who escape [Those who “escape” means Jews & Gentiles who endured to the End of the Great Tribulation. They escaped/endured in mortal bodies, as so they enter the Kingdom in those bodies] I will send to the nations: to Tarshish and Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory [These nations are literal, but they represent nations farthest away all over the Earth] And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles [People born in these far away locations the future Kingdom will have a sin nature & need to be evangelized]

Isa 66:20 Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the LORD out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD [Saved Gentiles will accompany Jews on pilgrimages to the Millennial Temple]

Isa 66:21 And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites,” says the LORD [Amazing – some Gentiles will serve as priests & Levites!]

Isa 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the LORD [In the last chapter we saw that in the Millennial Kingdom Jesus would restore the current Earth & heavens. After the thousand years He will create a new Earth and heavens] “So shall your descendants and your name remain.

Isa 66:23 And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.

Temple worship will be established, complete with sacrificial offerings and a full religious calendar.

Will we bring offerings & keep the Sabbath and such? No. The Church had no such practices in the Book of Acts; why would we in the Kingdom? The Church was and remains distinct from the nation of Israel, and from Gentiles who are saved before & after the Church Age. We are not superior or inferior, and everyone is saved the same way – by grace through faith. But Jews, the Church, and Gentile nations remain distinct in the Millennium & eternity.

Isa 66:24 “And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me…

“They” are the “all flesh,” i.e., the mortal inhabitants of the Millennium, who come to visit Jesus in Jerusalem. They will, while traveling, see the“corpses” of the Tribulation transgressors.

There are a few facts to consider before we can offer an interpretation:

The Great Tribulation is 7yrs long. At the mid-point, 3½ yrs, the antichrist goes to the Tribulation Temple, says he is God, and demands to be worshipped.
The Lord said, to the nation of Israel, “Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:16). Most scholars suggest that they flee to Bozrah, to the rock city of Petra.
They are pursued by the Satan-possessed antichrist.
The Lord returns to Earth to Bozrah, where the armies of the antichrist have the Jews surrounded. They call out to the Lord, are born again.
Jesus delivers the remnant and mounts a campaign back to Jerusalem, overcoming enemies as He goes.

In a previous study, we were made to understand that what we refer to as the Battle of Armageddon is really better understood as a longer campaign rather than a single battle.

From Bozrah to Jerusalem, Jesus single-mouth-ed-ly defeats the armies of the world.

The campaign we call the War of Gog & Magog, described in Ezekiel 38&39, takes place during this last part of the Tribulation^[1] – adding to the death toll.

It is difficult for us to grasp the extent of the carnage that will take place. The Bible refers to it as a wine press that squeezes out the blood of the Lord’s enemies. “Blood poured from the winepress, [reaching] as high as horses’ bridles, for a distance of [about 200 miles]” (Revelation 14:19-20).

In Ezekiel we read, “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. Indeed all the people of the land will be burying… They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them… And they will make fires of them for seven years.”

(What do you think – The Corpse Corp?)

This valley is also called The Valley of the Travelers, The Valley of the Passengers, and The Valley of Them Who Pass Through.

Isa 66:24 … For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

Are there eternal flesh eating “worms?” No. This refers to maggots. They don’t “die” is a way of saying that they have an abundant food supply. Bodies will be burned, too. But not by eternal fire.

Thus is not a look into Hades or the Lake of Fire. There is no mention of “souls,” only corpses. This is a mass gravesite. It seems to be an open grave since travelers can see the corpses.

You’ve undoubtedly seen pictures of the piled-up corpses of Jews from the Holocaust. Even with that evidence, there are those who say it never happened.

And guess what? At the end of the one thousand years, an innumerable number of unbelievers attack Jesus at Jerusalem – willfully ignorant of prophetic history, and with corpses to prove it.

I’ll close the Book of Isaiah with this appropriate quote: “The Christian watches with great interest the providences of God towards the Jews, knowing that their return to their land is a preparation for the fulfillment of much prophecy, and Jesus Christ’s coming. ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’”

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	John Walvoord, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, & Charles Feinberg are among the Dispensational scholars who teach this.

Prophecy Update #793 – @TextWithJesus

July 21, 2024

You can text with ‘Jesus.’

The developers say, “Discover a new, interactive way to engage with your faith through Text With Jesus, a revolutionary AI-powered chatbot app, designed for devoted Christians seeking a deeper connection with the Bible’s most iconic figures.

The app is pre-loaded with a wide range of biblical figures, including the Holy Family, the Apostles, and more. We’re constantly adding new figures, so stay tuned!

Two of the FAQ’s:

Am I really talking to Jesus? Isn’t this blasphemous? Our app is a tool for exploration, education, and engagement with biblical narratives, and it is not intended to replace or mimic direct communication with divine entities, which is a deeply personal aspect of one’s faith. The AI-powered app does not claim to provide actual divine insights or possess any form of divine consciousness, but simply uses its language model to generate responses based on a wide corpus of biblical and religious texts. The purpose of the app is to stimulate reflection, deepen understanding of religious texts, and encourage meaningful conversations about faith.
Can I really chat with Satan? Satan is included in the app to provide a comprehensive understanding of biblical narratives, reflecting the character’s role as described in the Bible. However, interaction with Satan is turned off by default and must be manually enabled by the user if they choose to engage with this figure. The portrayal is rooted in Christian teachings, and users have full control over their engagement with all figures within the app.

Anthony Levandowski is an AI pioneer. He launched an AI religion, called Way of the Future. “For the last 4 billion years we’ve had organic lifeforms, [but] now, for the first time things are changing and we’re going to have inorganic life forms,” Levandowski told Bloomberg. “We don’t know what [these inorganic life forms] are going to be, [but] we’re going to fuse it with all these magical powers, and we want it to give us things.”

Levandowski believes that AI can bring “Heaven on Earth.” He says, “Here, we’re actually creating things they can see, be everywhere and maybe help us and guide us in a way normally you would call God.”

BTW This is idolatry; be aware & beware.

In our Weekly Updates, we have connected AI with what is called in the Revelation, the Image of the Beast. It is something inanimate that is given “breath” so “that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast to be killed.” It might be what defiles the Tribulation Temple. It’s easy to see how most of the global population will go along with it.

Especially if they are already texting religious characters that seem alive thanks to AI.

Is AI the thing that will power the Image? We’re not saying that – only that it certainly could.

The resurrection and rapture of the church is always imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!

Only The Bad Die Young (Isaiah 65:1-25)

July 14, 2024

“No, I am your father.”

“Soylent Green is people!”

“I see dead people.”

Each of those motion picture reveals took me completely by surprise.

There are a few surprise reveals in the New Testament, called “mysteries.”

Clarence Larkin explains: “The mysteries are eleven in number, eight of which were revealed to the apostle Paul. Of the remaining three, one was revealed by Jesus, and two were revealed to the apostle John.”

The biblical use of the word, “mystery” refers to some truth that had been hidden in the past, but was eventually revealed by God. In a sense, it is more like what we call a secret. It is a sacred secret until revealed by God at the exact right time.

Romans 11:25 was a sacred secret. “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

Not made clear in the OT was that an unspecified but temporary period of judicial “blindness” would be a discipline for the nation of Israel rejecting Jesus.
During that time, God will reach-out to “Gentiles” until their number comes to its “fullness.”

We are tasked to make known the sacred secrets.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Have A Share In History’s Greatest Mysteries, and #2 You Are To Share History’s Greatest Mysteries.

#1 – You Have A Share In History’s Greatest Mysteries (v1)

Tucker Carlson is a popular conservative political commentator and author. I caught a few minutes of him being interviewed. Referring to Christians who read & know their Bible, he said, “In the end when it really gets intense, like it is now, it’s Christians, it’s people who actually believe the Bible, who are the only ones with wisdom, who know what’s really going on. They’re not shocked at all.”

I’m not into speculating whether he is saved or unsaved. He is, however, 100% correct about Christians and the End Times. We do know what is going on.

Passages like chapter sixty-five remind us that we are in a flow of divine, providential history. It has its beginning in the Garden of Eden. It is going to never end in a glorious eternity.

Isaiah 65 involves the past and future history of Israel in the plan of God during three biblical dispensations:

Isaiah 65:1 is set in our present era. Scholars refer to it as the Dispensation of Grace. For one thing, without a physical Temple in Jerusalem, we can’t keep the Mosaic Law per se. We call this era, the Church Age.
The seven year Great Tribulation will follow the Church Age. Jesus described it as trouble “such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). It will affect everyone on Earth, but it is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble in the sense that God uses the tribulation to bring the nation of Israel to salvation. Isaiah 65:2-7 are set in the Great Tribulation.
Isaiah 65:8-25 are set in the 1000yr Kingdom of God on Earth that follows the Great Tribulation.

One more comment before we get into the text. There are a number of views on the End Times, and views within those views. A few of them have substance in that you can see how scholars arrived at them from the Bible itself. I’ve told you before that, officially, Calvary Chapel’s End Times teaching is PreMillennial PreTribulation Dispensational Futurism.

PreMillennial – Jesus will return to Earth a second time before the Millennial Kingdom.
PreTribulation – Jesus will resurrect believers from the Church Age before the seven year Great Tribulation. Almost simultaneously, He will transform all living believers on Earth. This is the rapture. The resurrected & raptured saints are taken to Heaven.
Dispensationalism identifies various eras, or time periods, that are distinct from each other in the plan of God. The critical point that Dispensationalism makes is that the nation of Israel and the Church are distinct groups in God’s plan, and that they will remain distinct.
Futurism is our insistence that the Bible is to be read normally. When it contains a prophecy that has not been fulfilled, we understand that it will be fulfilled.

Getting now into the text before us, for better clarity, I want to read verse one in the International Standard Version (ISV).

“I let myself be sought by those who didn’t ask for me; I let myself be found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that didn’t call on my name.”

The Lord turns His attention towards the people who were outside of the covenants and promises to the elect nation of Israel.

The word for “nation” is the common word for Gentiles. From God’s point of view, all non-Jews are Gentiles.

This is the mystery, “that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” The Gospel goes throughout the whole Earth, to Gentiles as well as Jews.

The last chapter in the Book of Acts records Paul, in Jerusalem, gathering together a group he called “leaders of Israel.” He shared with them that Jesus was their Messiah. They again rejected Jesus, and they rejected Paul. He then said, plainly, “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” (Acts 28:28).

The “fullness of the Gentiles” refers to the finish of the Church Age so that the Great Tribulation can begin. When the last person in this age believes the Lord, there will be a “shout,” the “voice of an archangel,” and a “trumpet” will sound, “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord” (First Thessalonians 4:16-17).

After announcing that God was going to save Gentiles, Paul “dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him,

preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31).

It’s an inspiring practical example of our activities in the Church Age: Rent, Receive, and Reveal.

Rent – Whether or not we own anything in this material world, we should consider ourselves renters, having a light touch. Our ‘carnal footprint’ should be small. By carnal, I don’t mean sinful; I mean it in contrast to being led by the Holy Spirit.
Receive – We have a commission to receive any and all people God brings to us, directly or indirectly. With the commission, we need the Lord’s compassion.
Reveal – The Gospel, of course. But note: Paul talked about the Kingdom of God. He emphasized prophecy.

One more thing – perhaps the most important. Paul had “confidence.” In what? Certainly not in Himself! The word translated “confidence” means free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance. It means I am empowered by the indwelling God the Holy Spirit.

#2 – You Are To Share History’s Greatest Mysteries (v2-25)

Church Age… Resurrection & Rapture… Great Tribulation.

Isa 65:2 I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts;

Isa 65:3 A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, And burn incense on altars of brick;

Isa 65:4 Who sit among the graves, And spend the night in the tombs [grave soaking?]; Who eat swine’s flesh, And the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; [God wanted them to be separate, because they were special; they wanted to be like the surrounding nations, sinful]

Isa 65:5 Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, Do not come near me, For I am holier than you!’ [Self-righteous superiority] These are smoke in My nostrils, A fire that burns all the day [As opposed to the sweet aroma of true worship]

Isa 65:6 “Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will repay – Even repay into their bosom –

Isa 65:7 Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together,” Says the LORD, [The idea isn’t generational curses of your ancestors falling unfairly on you. It describes the acceleration of sin in a community when each generation becomes increasingly desensitized] “Who have burned incense on the mountains And blasphemed Me on the hills; Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.”

The consequences of sin had to be faced; God would pay them back in judgment for their idolatrous worship. The Assyrian threat and the Babylonian Exile were two of the ways He repaid His people. Ultimately it will be by the Great Tribulation.

Has God cast away His people? Certainly not! God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.

All through her history, God always preserved a remnant of godly Jews. The next verses, 8-16, introduce us to the believing remnant of Israel that shall endure to the end of the Great Tribulation, and inherit the Kingdom of God.

Isa 65:8 Thus says the LORD: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, And one says, ‘Do not destroy it, For a blessing is in it,’ So will I do for My servants’ sake, That I may not destroy them all.

The nation of Israel is compared to a cluster of mostly rotted grapes. Some grapes are still good to make wine. That is the believing remnant within the nation.

Isa 65:9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, And from Judah an heir of My mountains; My elect shall inherit it, [In context, the “elect” refers to the nation of Israel] And My servants shall dwell there.

Isa 65:10 Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, And the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, For My people who have sought Me.

Isa 65:11 “But you are those who forsake the LORD, Who forget My holy mountain, Who prepare a table for Gad, And who furnish a drink offering for Meni. [These are proper names of heathen deities]

Isa 65:12 Therefore I will number you for the sword, And you shall all bow down to the slaughter; [i.e., the Time of Jacob’s Trouble] Because, when I called, you did not answer; When I spoke, you did not hear, But did evil before My eyes, And chose that in which I do not delight.”

Isa 65:13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My servants [the believing remnant] shall eat, But you [the unbelieving Jews] shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, But you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, But you shall be ashamed;

Isa 65:14 Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, But you shall cry for sorrow of heart, And wail for grief of spirit.

Isa 65:15 You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; [This may mean that their name would be used proverbially, like that of Sodom]. For the Lord GOD will slay you, And call His servants by another name; [In 62:2, “The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the LORD will name”]

Isa 65:16 So that he who blesses himself in the Earth Shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Shall swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My eyes.

I despise every time C3 PO says, “Thank the Maker.” In verse sixteen, the “troubles” of the Great Tribulation are over. To “bless yourself” means to thank God for your blessings. The one, true God of the Bible.

Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new Earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Think about how wrecked the Earth & stellar heavens will be after the Tribulation:

The most severe earthquake ever recorded will cause cities to collapse and islands and mountains to disappear (Revelation 16).
The sun turns black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the moon becomes like blood, and stars fall to the earth as if figs were being shaken from a tree by a strong wind Revelation 6).
A third of the sun, moon, and stars are struck, turning a third of them dark. This results in a third of the day and a third of the night being without light (Revelation 8).

That’s a minuscule sampling of the destruction.

In 1989 the Exxon Valdez spilled nearly 11mil gallons of crude oil in Alaskan waters. They are still cleaning it up!

It won’t take Jesus long to restore the Earth & heavens.

Because this is a work that only God can perform, the Hebrew term bara, indicating a supernatural act, is used for “create.”

Daniel 12:11-12 reveals that there will be a seventy-five-day interval between the end of the Great Tribulation and the start of the Millennial Kingdom.

But wait. Don’t some Christians like to say, “It’s all going to burn?”

The Millennial Earth will be restored.
After the 1000yrs, there will be a complete recreation. The apostle Peter wrote, “The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the Earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (Second Peter 3:10).

Isa 65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy.

Isa 65:19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying.

The Millennium is utopian, but not perfect. You don’t need to look far to find an example. In just a moment we will see that there is death in the Millennium. But Jerusalem, with Jesus on its throne, will be a Joy-only zone.

I like the CEV for verse twenty: “No child will die in infancy; everyone will live to a ripe old age. Anyone a hundred years old will be considered young, and to die younger than that will be considered a curse.”

There will be blood in the Kingdom of God on Earth:

Its inhabitants are mortal Jews & Gentiles who survive the Great Tribulation. Their offspring will be mortal, and therefore, possess sin natures.
When the Millennium is described in Revelation twenty, Death is not completely defeated until after the thousand years.

No infant mortality; no abortion. No euthanasia or assisted death for seniors. As time passes, lifespans will increase. If you live to 100 today, it is considered amazing. A 100yr old will seem just a child in a thousand year kingdom.

Isa 65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Isa 65:22 They shall not build and another inhabit; They shall not plant and another eat; For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands [This description applies to Jews in the Promised Land. The Church isn’t looking forward to planting vineyards in the Holy Land]

Isa 65:23 They shall not labor in vain, Nor bring forth children for trouble; For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, And their offspring with them. [This has caused some to say that Jews born in the Millennium will all be saved]

Isa 65:24 “It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” Says the LORD.

When was the last time the serpent ate “dust?” At the ruin of creation. Things will have come full circle to the restoration of what was ruined.

It’s exciting that the Lord will answer our prayers before we finish speaking. Beyond excitement, there is endearment. In order to answer before we finish speaking, He must be constantly attentive to each one of us. In fact, this reads to me as though He knows us so well that He can complete our sentences

While answered prayer is wonderful, intimacy is more so.

Prophecy Update #792 – Right Before Your Very Eyes

July 14, 2024

Prophecy accounts for 25% of the Bible. That’s a lot, and it is why we reserve a few minutes to discuss current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.

Much of it has been fulfilled, but there remain significant End Times predictions. For example, the Book of the Revelation is entirely a future prophecy from chapter four through the end.

Biometrics, Artificial Intelligence, cashless commerce, the manipulation of human DNA, global government, the exponential growth of human knowledge, and instantaneous communication are the major topics that we monitor.

The most significant prophetic topic is the nation of Israel.

Thinking about Israel and the future, we have seen, and we are seeing, prophecy being fulfilled as we say, ‘right before our very eyes.’

The word diaspora was coined to describe the migration of the Jews coming out of the Babylonian captivity. Since that initial dispersion, the Jewish people have faced many more upheavals and resettlements from the times of the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and during World War II (at the hands of Hitler).

Regarding the diaspora, Jeremiah prophesied, “As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them. For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks” (Jeremiah 16).

Over 2,800 years ago, the prophet Ezekiel spoke these words about Israel:

“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land” (36:24).

The first part of that was fulfilled on May 14, 1948. Isaiah made this wild claim: “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children” (66:8).

One day the Holy Land was under British control. The next day, they were a sovereign nation.

In Zechariah 12:3-4, God declares: “I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves.”

BTW, we support Israel. In May, Israel’s ambassador to the US, said this: “The hateful rhetoric spewed by public figures, the targeting of students on college campuses, and the outright attacks on Jewish persons and institutions across the country are expressions of a centuries-old hatred that has long sought to tear us down. The newest form of this ancient hatred has taken aim not only at the Jewish individual or the Jewish people, but also at the Jewish state, implying it has no right to exist. It is one thing to criticize certain Israeli policies. It is something totally different to question the very legitimacy of the Jewish State.”

These are remarkable, centuries old fulfilled prophecies.

The resurrection and rapture of the church is always imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it. Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!

That’s A Belief! (Luke 7:1-10)

July 7, 2024

For five seasons in the 70’s and 80’s, Charlie’s Angels followed the adventures of groups of female detectives who had been recruited into the Charles Townsend Agency. In 115 episodes, viewers never saw Charlie’s face. Quite unusual to have the person whose name is in the title of the show not appear on the screen. Even so, Charlie’s angels carried out their missions every week.

There’s a remarkable person in Luke 7. The heading in your Bible probably says something like, “A centurion’s faith,” yet, the centurion never appears on the page. All the action, all the messages come through people he sent on a mission. And even though we never see his face, at the end of the story we’re told that Jesus was astounded at this man’s faith.

Sometimes our culture uses the word “faith” to talk about spirituality in a non-specific, benign way. When an interviewer doesn’t want a confrontation, they’ll talk about faith instead of saying the word Christian or Hindu or Muslim. It can be a group-everyone-together kind of word.

Our secular culture is generally fine with you having “faith” in some far-off sense – something you do when you’re on your own time – but keep it to yourself. Don’t bring it to work with you.

But for a Christian, faith is the most crucial aspect of who we are, what we think, and what we do.

Here are a few of the things the Bible tells us about our Christian faith:

We’ve been justified by faith.^[1] We’re saved by grace through faith.^[2] We cannot please God without faith.^[3] We walk by faith.^[4] We live by faith.^[5]

Faith should absolutely define a Christian’s whole life. In this text, we’ll see how this centurion’s faith changed his understanding, shaped his attitudes, and motivated his actions. It made him who he was and made life-changing differences for the people around him.

Luke 7:1 – When [Jesus] had concluded saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum.

Jesus had just completed what we sometimes call the Sermon on the Plain. It’s the Sermon on the Mount, but in Luke we’re told that the Lord gave it after coming down from a hilltop and standing in a level place. Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount multiple times in different places. After this delivery, He and His disciples and a large crowd walked with Him into Capernaum.

This sermon is maybe the most important teaching in all of Jesus’ ministry and all of church history. In it we are confronted with what faith really means and what it really does in the life of a Christian. We learn about how Christians have joy in suffering, how we totally redefine what is important in this life, how we must love our enemies and show them mercy because God our Father is merciful.

After preaching this message, Jesus had a chance to practice what He preached – to show those who had been “listening” the reality of these commands and how to live the sermon out.

Luke 7:2 – ²A centurion’s servant, who was highly valued by him, was sick and about to die.

Centurions were serious warriors – “prestigious members of a relatively small class of military leaders,” some ranking like a knight in the empire.^[6]

This particular centurion had a servant who was very sick. Matthew’s Gospel uses a term that indicates the servant was just a boy^[7] and he tells us the servant was paralyzed and in “terrible agony.” The word used there is one that means being tortured.^[8]

This servant was highly valued by the centurion. He wasn’t valuable as property but as a person.^[9] This was genuine care – the servant boy was precious to the centurion. He wasn’t just some stone-cold killer, but a man with a heart beating in his chest. Not what you’d expect from a Roman centurion, but that’s because this man had been transformed from the inside out.

Luke 7:3 – ³When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, requesting him to come and save the life of his servant.

What did the centurion hear? First of all, he heard that Jesus was back in town. But it’s clear he had heard a lot more about Jesus. We discover that the centurion had heard a lot of things but he made his own decision about what he thought about Jesus.

Here’s what we know: We know he had contact and relationship with the Jewish elders in the area. We know he paid to build a synagogue for the Jews. That’s probably a good indicator that this centurion was what was called a “God-fearer,” meaning a Gentile who believed in the Jewish God and embraced much of the Jewish religion, though they weren’t circumcised. They would attend synagogue and worship there, but they didn’t follow all of the purity laws.^[10]

What would this centurion have heard about Jesus in the synagogue, from the Jewish elders? Capernaum served as Jesus’ headquarters at the time.^[11] He would’ve been well-known there, but the news of Jesus’ miracles had already spread far and wide,^[12] but as that news spread, so did the resistance among the Jewish religious elite. By this time, Jesus had already been labeled a blasphemer by the scribes and Pharisees.^[13] They were already following Jesus around to complain that He ate with tax collectors and that His followers didn’t fast the way they did.^[14] And as recently as Luke chapter 6, we are told the scribes and Pharisees were “filled with rage” after Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and were actively conspiring against Him.^[15]

So, the centurion would’ve heard a lot of things. But then he considered the truth on his own. He did not allow the local elders or the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem to determine what he thought. We’ll find he had a remarkably robust understanding of Christ, but in the moment he might say, “Ok, I know you don’t like this Guy, but I’m pretty sure He can save the life of my dying servant.”

Don’t let other people decide truth for you. Jesus once said to those who believed in Him, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”^[16] We live in a time where it’s commonplace to let someone else tell you what to think. But, God invites you to seek His wisdom, and He promises that it will not be withheld from you.^[17] The centurion heard a lot of things about Jesus, but he sought the truth of these things himself.

In the second part of the verse: “He sent some Jewish elders to [Jesus].” Now, I find this funny because these guys did not like Jesus, did not believe in Jesus, were part of the greater conspiracy to kill Jesus, but, they felt indebted to the centurion and wouldn’t deny his request.

The message they were asked to deliver was, “Come save the life of this servant.” Maybe the story is giving us a hint about how upset they were, because they didn’t actually get the message right. The centurion never asked Jesus to come to his house, but just if He would heal this boy.

Luke 7:4-5 – ⁴When they reached Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy for you to grant this, ⁵because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.”

Some linguists suggest that the Jewish elders were sharp and demanding of Jesus. They say the Elders didn’t request at all, but were summoning Jesus,^[18] and kept on hastily beseeching Him.^[19] The literal rendering of what they said to Jesus was, “He for whom you will do this is deserving.”^[20] Now, why? Why did they categorize the centurion as worthy? “Because he did things for us.”

Isn’t it telling – the Jewish elders hated that Jesus spent time with tax collectors, or when He said Gentiles were worth saving, but it was ok for them to like this Gentile, because, after all, he shelled out for their building.

People love to show grace to some but not others. We’ll overlook a thousand flaws in a friend or someone we think will get us something, but that other guy? Oh I hate that guy! Look at those flaws. Look at the mistakes he’s made. He is not worth kindness or grace or the time of day.

Jesus showed grace to Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot and Nicodemus the Pharisee and the woman caught in adultery and the rich young ruler and the Syrophoenician woman and the lepers and Jairus, the leader of the synagogue in Capernaum, whose daughter had not yet been raised from the dead. He very well may have been part of this delegation.

Jesus cares about you, not because of what you can do for Him, but because He has loved you from before the earth was created.^[21] Now grace doesn’t mean He’s fine with the life we’re living. Whether someone was a wealthy Pharisee or a penniless sinner, Christ called all to repentance and to forsake their sin and to devote themselves to God. But grace is extended freely to all.

Luke 7:6 – ⁶Jesus went with them, and when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, since I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Have you ever prayed, “Oh, Lord, You’re doing too much for me. Don’t worry about helping me out so much.” I certainly haven’t! But, in a sense, that’s exactly what the centurion said. This time he sent some friends out, making sure they got the message right.

It must have been a comical scene. We have to speculate a bit, but Jesus and the Jewish elders…they aren’t buddies, but there they are walking together. And now this other delegation comes up and says, “No, stop, you don’t need to actually come. It’s too much hassle for You.”

Let’s notice what the centurion did. First, he didn’t send a message berating the Jews he sent. They messed up, but he wasn’t mad about it. He didn’t try to distance himself from them or call them out. He was gracious even though they made a mistake.

Second, he acknowledged that Jesus is Lord. Now, maybe he was just being respectful, but what he said next indicated that he had a faith in Jesus as the Christ.

His belief in Jesus not only gave him hope that his servant might not die, but it shaped the way he thought of himself. From the human perspective, he’s a great warrior, a great leader, wealthy and successful, respected by friends and foes alike. The leaders of the Jews said, “This guy is worthy!” But he considered Christ and evaluated himself and said, “Oh, I’m not worthy at all. Who am I that Jesus would come to my house? I have no place to demand anything from God.”

Faith in a heart grows fruit in a life. Everyone worships something. Everyone puts their hope for the future in something. And, like a tree, that faith grows and produces fruit. In the centurion’s heart we see the fruit of humility, kindness, meekness, a willingness to trouble himself on behalf of a servant.

The centurion was the total opposite of Naaman. Remember Naaman? He was another Gentile military commander in need of healing. When the man of God didn’t come out to meet him, he pitched a fit. “Do you know who I am?!?” But here, the centurion says, “I know who I am. I don’t deserve it. I’m not clean enough. I’m inadequate.” And, on a spiritual level, he was absolutely right.

C.S. Lewis once wrote this to a friend: “The one essential symptom of the regenerate life is a permanently horrified perception of one’s natural and (it seems) unalterable corruption. The true Christian’s nostril is to be continually attentive to the inner cesspool.”^[22]

The centurion’s message continued:

Luke 7:7 – ⁷That is why I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.

His faith was his own, not determined by what other people said. His faith had shaped his heart and his attitude toward himself and others. And here we see a glimpse of how big this man’s faith was. The centurion believed that Jesus speaks and the cosmos obeys. And he belied that though he was unworthy, God desires to save. Do we believe these things? Do we really think that Jesus’ love and righteousness and grace and power are the answer to the problems in this world?

Luke 7:8 – ⁸For I too am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

The centurion acknowledged that Jesus commands everything! He’s not summoning Jesus, even though the centurion has a lot of earthly authority. Instead, he put himself under the authority of this Teacher from Nazareth and in his request submits to whatever Jesus’ decision would be.

In his analogy, he assumes that Jesus’ commands are good and that they are compassionate. “Say the word. Give the command. And when You do, compassion and mercy and goodness will be the result.” The unbelieving world sneers at the commands of God. It accuses God of arbitrariness and repressiveness, but God’s commands are good because He is a God of love and compassion.

And now, the response:

Luke 7:9 – ⁹Jesus heard this and was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found so great a faith even in Israel.”

There are only two times that we’re told Jesus was astounded like this (your version may say He marveled). One is at the great faith of the centurion and the other is at the lack of faith in Nazareth.^[23] Where He should have found faith, it wasn’t there.

Many people had a very hard time believing Jesus. The scribes and Pharisee struggled of course. But so did the disciples. Even John the Baptist, Jesus’ own cousin, the forerunner of the Messiah sent by God, in a few verses would say, “Hey…are You really the Christ?”

How’s our faith? What group might we fall into on this spectrum? The centurion wasn’t better than us. He didn’t have some special understanding. In fact, we have way more revelation and understanding than he did. It’s not a question of cleverness or specialness, it’s a matter of willingness. The centurion, despite the cultural, relational, personal pressures, decided to surrender to the truth that had been revealed to him and to live by faith. He allowed his living faith to shape his mind, his perspective on life, and his activities.

And because of that, Jesus had the opportunity to do something unique: to heal from a distance. “Well, big deal, of course Jesus can do that.” It was a big deal. We know Jesus can do that, but they needed to see that He could do that. To see that He was even greater than Elisha. Remember how Jesus pointed out that He was greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah. He wanted the Jewish people to understand that He really was the Messiah they had been waiting for and here the Lord has this special opportunity to heal from a distance because of the centurion’s faith.

Luke 7:10 – ¹⁰When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant in good health.

Luke leaves out a few last details. Matthew records that Jesus said, “Go. As you have believed, let it be done for you.” And the servant was healed that very moment.^[24] The centurion didn’t have to buy his way into relationship with Jesus. He didn’t have to prove his “deserved” it. He agreed that he didn’t deserve it. And the Lord was so excited to minister to him and his dying servant.

This kind of faith is possible for any of us. And our lives are each an opportunity for God to do something unique for His glory – to reveal His love and kindness to a needy world. If faith is alive and well in our hearts, we will be more like the centurion, less like everyone else in the scene. Living faith keeps a proper understanding of how poor in spirit we really are, but holds confidently to what we know is true about our Savior – His power, His grace, His desire to work in and through our lives. It’s not always easy. I find myself feeling like the disciples in Luke 17 saying, “Lord, increase our faith! I don’t think I can live out the Christian life.” But we can. And God is with us to accomplish it in us if we are willing to surrender to Him, exercise our faith, being strengthened and encouraged in it as we walk by faith and live in faith.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	Romans 5:1-2
↑2	Ephesians 2:8
↑3	Hebrews 11:6
↑4	2 Corinthians 5:7
↑5	Romans 1:17
↑6	Harper’s Bible Dictionary
↑7	Bob Utley The Gospel According To Luke
↑8	Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words
↑9	The NET Bible First Edition Notes
↑10	The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary
↑11	Utley
↑12	Luke 4:14, 37
↑13	Luke 5:21
↑14	Luke 5:29-33
↑15	Luke 6:11
↑16	John 8:31-32
↑17	James 1:5
↑18	John T. Carroll Luke: A Commentary
↑19	A.T. Robertson Word Pictures In the New Testament
↑20	Carroll
↑21	Ephesians 1:4
↑22	C.S. Lewis Letters To Malcom: Chiefly On Prayer
↑23	Mark 6:6
↑24	Matthew 8:13

One ClayNation, Under God, Impressionable, With Synergy & Atonement For All. (Isaiah 63:7-64:12)

June 30, 2024

What is the everyday object Biblical archaeology most depends upon?

Pottery.

David Chapman, Professor of Biblical Archaeology, writes, “Archaeologists get very excited about pottery as very few people elsewhere in the world do because it’s one of our main ways of dating.”

The potter & the clay is a biblical illustration.

Psalms, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Zechariah, Matthew, Romans, and the Revelation make use of the illustration. And of course, Isaiah.

Isaiah appeals to the potter working with clay four times, including once in our text: “We are the clay, and You our Potter; And all we are the work of Your hand” (64:8).

The long passage in Jeremiah provides the interpretation of the illustration. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it” (18:6-10).

In the finish of chapter sixty-three we will see that the nation of Israel did “evil in [God’s] sight so that it [did] not obey [God’s] voice.” God therefore relented “concerning the good with which [He] said [He] would benefit it.”

Then, suddenly, Isaiah’s vision is of Israel in the future. We are with the remnant of Jews who have survived the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Jesus is about to return to Earth to save Israel. They repent! God “Relent[s] of the disaster that [He] thought to bring upon [Israel].”

I’ll organize my comments around two attention-getting points: #1If Your Nation Is Unrighteous, Then God Will Relent Concerning The Good With Which He Said He Would Benefit It, and #2 If Your Nation Is Repentant, God Will Relent Of The Disaster That He Thought To Bring Upon It.

#1 – If Your Nation Is Unrighteous, Then God Will Relent Concerning The Good With Which He Said He Would Benefit It (63:7-12)

National unrighteousness is characteristic of Israel’s history. Read the Book of Judges if you don’t believe me.

Isaiah starts by reminding his audience that the LORD would rather be blessing them.

Isa 63:7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD And the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.

Isa 63:8 For He said, “Surely they are My people, Children who will not lie.” So He became their Savior.

In the OT Book of Deuteronomy we read, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ‘Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments’ ” (7:7-9).

Despite the difficulties they might face, and the consequences of their sin, God would remain faithful to the covenants He had made to their ancestors.

Aren’t there worse things than lying? The word for “lie” can be translated, deceit or deceitfulness. Think of your kids. Lying is sin; deceitfulness is on another level. It is evil.

Isa 63:9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.

The “Angel” is none other than Jesus in a pre-incarnate appearance. When He so appears, we call it a Theophany or a Christophany.

The event descriptions seem to generally fit their time in Egypt, followed by their Exodus out of Egypt. Their Savior fully identified with them, redeemed them, and was their protector.

Isa 63:10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.

It isn’t a fight to destroy Israel. This match is a struggle with Israel to bring them to repentance. R. Kent Hughes calls it, “The grip of God’s relentless grace.”

The Jews “grieved His Spirit.” In the NT letter the apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Ephesus, he said, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice” (4:30-32).

The wilderness wandering of the Jews was the quintessential example of bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice. From the moment the Hebrews refused to enter the land of the giants until that generation died, they were grumblers & mumblers.

By those same behaviors we grieve the Holy Spirit Who indwells us. We’re told, “Do not.”

Sometimes we say, I CAN’T not do them.”
God says you CAN not do them.

Sin obviously grieves a Person with the first name “Holy.” I think what most grieves the Holy Spirit is a disbelief that He is your Helper, your Counselor, your Teacher. Of course you are weak, frail, prone to wander. Go to God, not the world, for grace.

Isa 63:11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying: “Where is He who brought them up out of the sea With the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them,

Isa 63:12 Who led them by the right hand of Moses, With His glorious arm, Dividing the water before them To make for Himself an everlasting name,

Isa 63:13 Who led them through the deep, As a horse in the wilderness, That they might not stumble?”

Isa 63:14 As a beast goes down into the valley, And the Spirit of the LORD causes him to rest, So You lead Your people, To make Yourself a glorious name.

Through Moses, the LORD shepherded His nation, with the intent of pasturing them in the plenty of the Promised Land.

Isa 63:15 Look down from Heaven, And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are Your zeal and Your strength, The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained?

The “me” is the nation of Israel. The 7^th century Jews were struggling with the problem of their suffering. “Where is God when it hurts?” “Why, God? “Why me?” His abundant love, expressed in His “mercies,” seem “restrained.”

The answer, in their case, is all too obvious: They were totally backslidden in sin.

What about us? What if suffering isn’t the consequence of our sin?

Some of God’s mercies are going to be severe mercies because we remain in our unredeemed bodies that interact with an evil world system.

Isa 63:16 Doubtless You are our Father, Though Abraham was ignorant of us, And Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

We might call Abraham the Founding Father of the nation of Israel.
Israel was Abraham’s grandson and the father of the twelve sons who would be the twelve tribal patriarchs of the nation of Israel.

They seem to be complaining that God formerly helped Israel, but isn’t helping them now. If He really is Father & Redeemer, then prove it.

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why have You made us stray from Your ways, And hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants’ sake, The tribes of Your inheritance.

A ton of ink is wasted trying to explain God ‘making’ a person ‘stray,’ and ‘hardening’ his or her heart.

Carefully note this: This is what the backslidders were saying to the LORD. These were not God’s words. It is their accusation. It is their false accusation. God does nothing of the kind.

Isa 63:18 Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.

The glorious, promise-filled life in the land flowing with milk and honey seemed a pipe dream. In their current predicaments, it seemed they were out of their land longer than they were ever in it! It would worsen:

From the destruction of the Temple in AD70 until 1948, the Jews were dispossessed.
Even though back in their land, adversaries are still treading down their Temple – by not allowing them to have their Temple!

Isa 63:19 We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, Those who were never called by Your name.

Another accusation hurled at God – He had disowned them. Have you ever hurled that one, terrible comment, meant to hurt someone? That is what Israel did here… To God.

Israel has had a long history of unrighteousness.

It continues today. They are in their land, but in unbelief in their Messiah. In 2018 Israel passed legislation declaring that it was a Jewish nation. It is a powerful reminder that the Jews have not received Jesus as their Savior.

Is the United States a righteous nation?

No; not by any standard we might apply. I’m not talking about our founding, but rather our floundering. I’m talking about the Father, not the founding fathers.

People are asking, “Is God going to judge us?” He isn’t going to judge us… He IS already judging us.

This is what judgment looks like when God gives a nation over to the sin it demands.

#2 – If Your Nation Is Repentant, God Will Relent Of The Disaster That He Thought To Bring Upon It (64:1-12)

We are transported to the future, when the 7yr Time of Jacob’s Trouble is nearly ended. The antichrist’s forces have surrounded the Jews holed-up in Bozrah. It is a seemingly hopeless situation. They call upon the Lord, repenting of their sin. Wouldn’t you know it – God receives them, returns, and ends their enemies.

Isa 64:1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence –

Isa 64:2 As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil – To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

This is future-talk. It started in 63:1-6. “Come down” is the cry. This is the Second Coming.

Isa 64:3 When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence.

When did the Lord come down and mountains shake at His presence? In the future! The Lord and His prophets can speak of the future as if it is fulfilled.

Isa 64:4 For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

In 6000 years of human history there has been no god or man comparable to the uniquely prophesied and qualified God-man, Jesus Christ. All the posers ask you to “act” for them – to work and sacrifice for them. There is only One who came as a Servant to save you. God waits, not willing any should perish.

Isa 64:5 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned – In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.

Isa 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Isa 64:7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

This is a spiritual 180 from the previous chapter. You probably recognize wording here that sounds familiar. That’s because the apostle Paul quotes it in the NT Book of Romans. This is the ‘Roman’s Road to Salvation’ in its unpaved beginnings: “we have sinned… No one calls upon [God’s] Name… our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”

Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

There is a fact about the Potter & the clay we sometimes overlook. The illustration is always, only used of God’s molding and shaping nations. It is not used of molding and shaping individuals.

This is not insignificant. Certain aggressive but disturbing theologies teach that the Master Potter makes some ‘people-pottery’ that will definitely be saved, AND He makes some ‘people-pottery’ that cannot be saved. If you object to that awful depiction of God, they will look at you with their cold, steely eyes and say three words they believe will render you subdued and compliant: “God is sovereign.” God’s sovereignty becomes like ‘nuclear fire’ in a game of rock- scissors – paper.

Of course God is sovereign! His sovereignty doesn’t mean God can behave in ways that are contrary to His nature. If something would be immoral for us to do, how much more terrible if God does it?

That approach to sovereignty reminds me of the famous Richard Nixon quote, “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

God is so sovereign that He can (and does) allow for my free will.

Isa 64:9 Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look – we all are Your people!

When has or will all Israel be saved?? At the Second Coming of Jesus.

Isa 64:10 Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

Isa 64:11 Our holy and beautiful temple, Where our fathers praised You, Is burned up with fire; And all our pleasant things are laid waste.

There are admittedly various times that these two verses can be said to have been fulfilled. One of those times is in the future Temple in the Great Tribulation. That seems to fit the context best here.

Isa 64:12 Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O LORD? Will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee writes, “The prophet closes this chapter with a question: Will God refuse to act? The remainder of Isaiah’s prophecy is God’s answer to this question. God rejected Israel only after they rejected Him, but it did not thwart His plan and purpose for them and for the Earth. God has carried through with His program, which is yet to be finalized.”

More than a few scholars suggest that this prayer in chapter 64 is the prayer of repentance that the Jewish remnant will pray while holed-up in Bozrah and under attack by the antichrist. We looked last week at a passage in Hosea that indicated they would repent, over a period of three days, looking upon the One they pierced as Jesus returns. All Israel will thus be saved!

The Master Potter has made it clear: “O United States, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “The instant I speak to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy the US, if you turn from evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. The instant I speak concerning the US, to build and to plant it, if you do evil in My sight so that you do not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit you.”

Prophecy Update #791 – Gait-Way

June 30, 2024

We reserve a few minutes to discuss current trends that you’d expect from reading Bible prophecy.

We are futurists. We interpret all unfulfilled prophetic passages as future events that will occur in a literal, physical, apocalyptic, and global context.

Biometrics, Artificial Intelligence, cashless commerce, the manipulation of human DNA, global government, the exponential growth of human knowledge, instantaneous communication, and the rebirth of national Israel are End Times phenomena the Bible predicts.

Taken together, the prophecies we most discuss are those that predict global government that features a cashless, global economy, that is accessed by a biometric identifier. During the future 7yr Great Tribulation, the world leader we call the antichrist will control every aspect of the lives of his citizens.

I came across an advance in biometrics. It’s called, Behavioral Biometrics.

“Behavioral biometrics measures and uniquely distinguishes patterns in the behavior of device users. These are habits and proclivities humans develop over time, given their interactions with different devices. The related techniques used to capture and evaluate biometric behaviors can be extremely effective in evaluating whether the correct individual is logging into an account, or whether the individual’s behavior is consistent with that person’s normal patterns as opposed to those of a fraudster.”

It monitors phone movement, keyboard behavior, touchscreen behavior, and mouse behavior, to determine your behavioral profile. Your gestures & your gait, too, can be profiled.

Bulgaria is going fully biometric in developing access control systems for mass gatherings. No tickets or wristbands; just scans biometric info as you approach a door or an entrance. It’s the future.

I’m not saying that behavioral biometrics is, or will be part of, the Mark of the Beast. I am saying that things you would expect from reading the Bible are developing right before our eyes. The stage is being set for the Great Tribulation.

In His incarnation, Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom promised Israel had come. When the Jewish leadership rejected Jesus as their King, Jesus went to Heaven. The physical kingdom on Earth went on standby.

The Tribulation will not begin until something fantastic happens. The Lord said He would return for us, the Church, raising the dead in Christ, then catching up, rapturing, believers who are alive when He comes. He promised His Church Age believers, “I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Rev 3:10).

The resurrection and rapture of the church is always imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!

Calvary Hanford Transcripts

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Prophecy Update #791 – Gait-Way