Sermons - Cornerstone Christian Fellowship

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Seventeen

Mar 13, 2022 by: John Herbert | Series: Passover to Tabernacles

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Jon 1:12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

We will continue this week to look at the Jewish people's transformation as a result of the Tribulation. This week's message will be delivered by John Clarkson.

The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button.

Sunday March 13th 2022
Passover to Tabernacles
Part 17

1). Jon 1:12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”………….. 15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows. 17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

We had seen last time that it was a part of God’s predetermined plan to have ‘prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah’. The great fish swallowing Jonah wasn’t accidental or coincidental but by Divine design. The great fish was there for a purpose, to provide Jonah with protection in much the same way as the Ark provided protection for Noah and his family as they went through the flood, and to afford Jonah the experience that would cause him to repent, to change his mind concerning God’s purpose for him.
	a). And we know that in the antitype of this, God has ‘prepared’ the Gentile nations as part of His predetermined plan, just like the great fish, to receive the Jewish people when they are dispersed into those nations at the mid-point in the Tribulation. And as with the great fish this is to provide protection for national Israel and to afford the Jewish people, individually and nationally, with the experience of unprecedented persecution at the hands of the Gentile nations that will bring them to repentance, to change their minds, about God’s purpose for the Jewish people.
	b). Then we had seen that bringing the Jewish people to repentance is inextricably connected to removing their sin in the fires of affliction
Isa 1:25 I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy.

Eze 16:35 “Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD! 36 Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, 37 surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. 38 And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. 39 I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare. 40 “They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. 41 They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers. 42 So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more.

And it is the destruction of Israel, as the harlot, that we have seen described in Revelation Chapter 17 - Re 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement………………..18 And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns [has regal authority] over the kings of the earth.”
And we can add to this - Re 18:8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

We will also know that judgment and redemption go hand in hand. It is the Lamb, as though it was slain, who will open the seals on the seven sealed scroll, not the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
	c). As the Jewish harlot is destroyed so regal Israel will rise from the ashes of the harlot’s burning.
	d). This is just what is pictured for us in the Book of Esther – 
Es 1:18 This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media will say to all the king's officials that they have heard of the behavior of the queen. Thus there will be excessive contempt and wrath. 19 If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it will not be altered, that Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

In the type seen here in the Book of Esther, it is queen Vashti who pictures the Jewish harlot, whose behavior has caused ‘excessive contempt and wrath.’ And because of her behavior, Vashti, just like the Jewish harlot, ‘shall come no more before’ the King. And Vashti’s ‘royal position’ was to be given ‘to another who is better than she.’ – Es 2:16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

As we follow the type, we see that Esther becomes queen instead of Vashti and that ‘the king loved Esther more than all other women.’ Esther then pictures the repentant and cleansed Jewish nation that will emerge from the flames of the harlot’s burning – Es 5:1 Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, across from the king's house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house.
This process of purifying the Jewish people to bring about an irrevocable national change has been pictured in a foundational type through Jacob –
Isa 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
Nor shall the flame scorch you.

2). We will remember that Jacob had acquired all of Laban’s wealth and had subsequently been told by the Lord to return to the land of his fathers. And it is while Jacob is making this journey that he has an encounter with ‘a Man’, that will be familiar to us – Ge 32:22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23 He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” 28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

This of course is a foundational type, to which other types, bearing on the same subject and other related Scripture must be added. Nonetheless, what is pictured here will hopefully be obvious for us.
	a). In v24 we see that ‘Jacob was left alone’, and this is just the position the Jewish people will find themselves in following the resurrection/rapture of the church. They will be ‘alone’ out among the Gentile nations, separated from God by their harlotry.
	b). And it is while Jacob is alone that ‘a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.’ This wrestling match that takes place during the night is a picture of the dark night of the Tribulation when God will ‘wrestle’ with the Jewish people as He uses the Gentile nations to bring then to repentance and bring about national cleansing. Not only is He there to bring about national cleansing but also national protection, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
	c). And through the course of this struggle, Jacob asks to be blessed. Let’s look at the verses again, 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” 28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Jacob prevailing in his struggle with God and men, pictures the Jewish people being brought through the final three and a half years of the Great Tribulation. The same picture we see from Jonah in the belly of the great fish and Noah and his family in the Ark.
	d). Then, because Jacob prevailed – Mt 24:13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

We see that Jacob delivered from the night and his blessing was to have his name changed from Jacob, the name that means supplanter, to Israel, the prince who rules with God. And here is where we see the removal of Vashti and the acceptance of Esther in the Book of Esther. This is Keturah marrying Abraham and becoming fruitful in Genesis Chapter 25.
	e). During the night when Jacob wrestled with the Man, Jacob’s hip socket was touched and put out of joint, the muscle shrank – 
Ge 32:32 Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank.

The word translated ‘shrank’ has the idea of being crippled. And we can find a man unable to walk through being crippled by disease at the pool of Bethesda at the Lord’s first Advent – Jn 5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity [weakness of the body] thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

The man at the pool of Bethesda provides another type for the spiritual condition of the Jewish people. And the nature of the man’s disease has echoes of Jacob’s, crippled hip. Jacob, picturing the Jewish man of the flesh, is crippled, he has a diseased hip. And from the verses in John Chapter 5, this man was not able to do anything to help himself, and had no understanding of what the Lord offered him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

We also see from these verses that the man had this infirmity, a weakness of the body, for thirty-eight years. Needless to say, thirty-eight is not a random number.
	f). If we compare Scripture with Scripture, we will take ourselves back to the days of Moses and Joshua. The Jewish people arrived at Kadesh Barnea where they refused to enter, two years after the Exodus, under Moses leadership, but it was another thirty-eight years before the second generation was ready to enter the land under the leadership of Joshua. Jesus and Joshua are the same name, one Greek and the other Hebrew. And Jesus had presented Himself to the Jews as their King with the offer of the Kingdom of the heavens, and of necessity a restoration of the earthly kingdom covenanted to David, presenting signs showing the spiritual healing available to the nation upon repentance. The healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda is another facet to this picture, with the thirty-eight years pointing to a time from rejecting the land to entering it. From rejecting God’s purpose for them to accepting it.
	g). However, the healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, also makes clear that it will only be on the Seventh Day, under Jesus, that the Jews will return to the land in the antitype of the second generation entering the land under Joshua.
	h). And if we add the two years that it took to arrive at Kadesh Barnea to the thirty-eight years before entering the land, we find forty years. And forty is another number showing completeness, a number associated with testing and probation. Jesus was forty days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, and Jonah had proclaimed to Nineveh Jon 3:3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

And the man at the pool of Bethesda who had the infirmity for thirty-eight years before his healing is another picture of the Jewish people as the great harlot. And in the man’s healing on the Sabbath, we see again the purifying of the nation from its harlotry. 
i). In that Day their harlotry will be removed forever and God’s people will then be the people of God He had brought the nation into existence to be – Eze 36:23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

More often than not, we will refer to the Jewish people as ‘Israel’, and that is certainly the name by which we identify the nation in the Middle East today, but really this is a misnomer. The Jewish people throughout their history, and most especially today should be called the nation of Jacob, the man of the flesh. The man of the spirit, Israel, has never yet been seen in the earth. But will be in that future day in the antitype of that seen in Genesis Chapter 32.

Let’s continue in - Ge 33:1 Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there, Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants. 2 And he put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last. 3 Then he crossed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 And he lifted his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, “Who are these with you?” So he said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”

Esau had hated Jacob and had looked for his death – Ge 27:41 So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

But when the meeting between them recorded in the verses we have just read from Genesis Chapter 33 occurred, it was not Jacob but Israel who met Esau. And this meeting brought reconciliation, joy and blessing not hatred and death - Ge 33:10 And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. 11 Please, take my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” So he urged him, and he took it.

And this foreshadows the nation of Israel, no longer Jacob, as the Millennial Kingdom begins. No longer a hated, pariah nation, but a welcomed brother bringing the Word and the blessings of God – 
Ge 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Let’s remember that all the nations of the earth have descended from the three brothers who left the Ark at the end of the flood. And as those nations descended from Ham and Japheth choose to ‘dwell in the tents of Shem’, so God and His blessings will be theirs - Zec 8:23 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’ ”

3). Jon 2:10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. 3:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”

Jonah, as we have seen, is a Book providing a foundational type, for Israel and the nation’s calling to be God’s witnesses to the Gentile nations. And Jonah vomited onto dry land, pictures the Jewish people, no longer Jacob but now Israel, back in their land as the Millennial Kingdom begins.
	a). And this is recorded in one verse at the end of Jonah Chapter 2. And in this one succinct verse we see Israel’s deliverance and restoration to the land. Jonah had previously said ‘salvation is of the Lord’, but no details are given in Jonah beyond this.
	b). The account at the beginning of Jonah Chapter 3, shows God repeating his calling to Jonah a second time, after which Jonah went to Nineveh and preached the message that God had given to him.
	c). In the antitype, this takes us directly into the Millennial Kingdom, when Israel will fulfill her calling to be God’s witnesses, having been commissioned a second time, as Jonah was. The Millennial Kingdom itself will be the fulfillment of the seventh and last Jewish Feast, that of Tabernacles.
	d). What we don’t see in Jonah, is how the six feasts leading to Tabernacles are to be fulfilled, and these we will need to set in place if we are to complete our journey from Passover to Tabernacles.
	e). The Book of Jonah began with Jonah’s calling to go to Nineveh, that great city. And we know from Isaiah Chapter 43 that the Jewish people have been called to do as Jonah was, with respect to the Gentile nations.
	f). And we also know that the Jewish people have, like Jonah, attempted to flee from their calling throughout their history. But their calling has never been abandoned – Ro 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Israel’s calling as God’s witnesses is inextricably linked with the fulfillment of the seven feasts given to the nation, and Israel’s calling was uppermost in the Lord’s mind as He dealt with His disciples following His resurrection – Act 1:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We will continue with this next time – if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.

Passover to Tabernacles - Part Seventeen

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Passover to Tabernacles - Part Seventeen

Mar 13, 2022

Speaker: John Herbert

Series: Passover to Tabernacles

Category: Sunday Morning

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A Recap from the Sermon