From Time To Time - Part Five Sep 17, 2023 by: John Herbert | Series: From Time to Time Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T020_20230917.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Mt 12:43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. We will continue to look at God's specific arrangement of time. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday September 17th 2023 From Time to Time – Part 5 1). Ge 4:8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” 13 And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” 15 And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. We had seen last time that God, in the foundation, through the lives of the first two brothers, had established a profound spiritual truth with respect to two future brothers, national Israel and the Christ. And we had seen that like Cain, national Israel had continually failed to bring the offering that God required of them – Mt 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Just as Cain was to bring an offering of the fruits of the ground so Israel, the fig tree and the vineyard, was to bring an offering of the fruits of repentance. And the failure to bring the offering the Lord required, which must begin with national repentance, was despite being given every opportunity to do so and to be accepted, through the ministry of prophet after prophet – Zec 1:1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 2 “The LORD has been very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the LORD of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. 4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the LORD. 5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 Yet surely My words and My statutes, Which I commanded My servants the prophets, Did they not overtake your fathers? “So they returned and said: ‘Just as the LORD of hosts determined to do to us, According to our ways and according to our deeds, So He has dealt with us.’ ” ’ ” Isa 1:1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it?........... 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. And the ministry of the prophets we have seen set out in the parable of the vinedressers in Matthew Chapter 21. A process concluded with the sending of the Son of the Owner of the vineyard with a somewhat terminal offer to do well and be accepted, given by the Son at His first Advent – Mt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But rather than do well and be accepted, the Jews countenance fell, just like Cain, and they burned with anger, just like Cain – Jn 5:16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” 18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Jn 8:59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. Mt 26:3 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. In their anger, the Jews killed their Brother, allowing for only one possible outcome, the Jewish people would be driven out from the face of the ground to become vagabonds and fugitives upon the earth, just as had happened to Cain in the type. And yet, in God’s great mercy and love for His people, one final opportunity to do well and be accepted was given through the re-offer of the Kingdom of the heavens to the same generation of Jews by the church during the Acts period, just as the Lord told them it would be – Lk 13:6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ” Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” But the die was already cast, and the inevitability of that pictured through Cain was irreversible, confirmed through the religious leaders’ murderous reaction to Stephen’s message to them recorded in – Acts 7:54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And if we go back to the verses we had looked at, from Matthew Chapter 3, where John the Baptist told of the ax being laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that did not bear good fruit would be cut down and thrown into the fire, and the verses recorded in Luke concerning the fig tree that still would not produce fruit, we will find additional commentary on the inevitable expulsion of Israel from the land, after the reoffer of the Kingdom of the heavens came to a close, seen at the end of the Book of Acts. A tree is used in Scripture as a metaphor for a nation, and Israel, as we had also seen last week, is metaphorically represented by a fig tree, a fig tree that produced no fruit acceptable to the Lord, only fruit apart from faith, the unacceptable offering. The cutting down of the fig tree then pictures the removal of Israel’s position as a nation state, that should have ruled at the head of the nations on the earth and over the nations from the heavens, and the ‘tree’ being thrown in the fire provides the picture of the judgment that must inevitably follow. b). The Jews then, driven from the face of the land, out among the Gentile nations, as with the Babylonian captivity, were to be dealt with there, at the hands of the Gentile nations, to bring them to repentance, that they might bring the offering to the Lord that will be accepted – Ps 34:18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. But this change of mind will only take place at the completion of the specific time that God has allotted for this to be brought to pass, the full four hundred and ninety years of Daniel’s prophecy, not a moment before. And we know that God’s Jewish clock stopped just before midnight, so to speak, after four hundred and eighty-three years. Leaving seven years to be completed. Seven years that must wait until God has finished calling out of the Gentiles a people for His name, seven years that must wait until the Holy Spirit has completed His search for the bride for Christ. And only at the conclusion of these seven years will the Jews find cleansing for their defilement through their contact with a dead body – Nu 19:11 “He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. 13 Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him. The entire house of Israel is unclean, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’, through their contact with the dead body of their Messiah. And they can only be cleansed from this uncleanness on the Third Day and the Seventh Day. Which speak of the same Day. The Third Day following the two days of the dispensation of the Jews of which those seven years still remain, which is also the Seventh Day from Adam. And national Israel’s cleansing cannot take place except at the time God has set for it, a time irrevocably set in the foundation – Ge 1:9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, [a picture of the Gentile nations, later called seas] and let the dry land [a picture of Israel] appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. [a picture of Israel’s fruitfulness in the Third Day. Fruitfulness also typified in Abraham’s marriage to Keturah in Genesis Chapter 25] And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day. Hos 6:1 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. 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. Est 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. And there is another facet to God’s specific timing for Daniel’s seventieth week and Israel’s cleansing at the conclusion of it, that must be considered Nu 35:25 So the congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled, and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. 26 But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits of the city of refuge where he fled, 27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, 28 because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession. In Numbers Chapter 25, there are what appear to be a strange set of verses that deal with the ‘manslayer’ who unwittingly is responsible for the death of another, with very specific instructions given as to how the ‘manslayer’ is to be dealt with, not only in terms of the unwitting death he caused but also, in relation to the land of his possession. And these verses were placed in Numbers with a view to the Jewish people and their Messiah at His first Advent. Israel is the manslayer, guilty of the murder of their King, but not guilty of the unwitting death of their Passover Lamb – Lk 23:34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” For the murder of their King, the Jewish people will pay blood for blood, but provision has been made, set out in Numbers Chapter 25, for the nation that unwittingly killed their Passover Lamb. c). The city of refuge to which the ‘manslayer’ in the natural could flee would find its equivalent in the Jews being scattered throughout the Gentile world. Although two thirds of the Jewish people will be killed at the hands of the Gentiles during the tribulation, with the majority of Jews out among the nations, the nations are also the place where national Israel will be protected. A national protection set in the foundation through the experience of Noah – Ge 7:17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And this same place of protection for national Israel, that corresponds to the city of refuge, is seen again in the figurative language of the Revelation Re 12:6 Then the woman [national Israel] fled into the wilderness,[any place that is not the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – therefore the Gentile nations] where she has a place prepared by God, [the Ark of Genesis Chapter 7 and the city of refuge of Numbers Chapter 25] that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And that seen in the verses from the Revelation is exactly the command given by the Lord within the same timeframe recorded in – Mk 13:14 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. [mountains are used metaphorically to represent kingdoms. And the only ‘kingdoms’ that those in Judea could flee to would be the Gentile nations] And if we follow the instructions given in Numbers Chapter 25, we see that national Israel, in ‘the city of refuge’, out among the Gentile nations, CANNOT return to the land of their possession until AFTER the death of the High Priest. And within the overall scope of the type, the death of the High Priest can only point to the termination of the Lord’s present ministry as High Priest on behalf of those who will inherit salvation. A ministry that began at His ascension and will end at the resurrection/rapture – Re 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. Although the verses we have looked at from Mark 13 and the Revelation 12 deal with events that transpire at the midpoint in the tribulation, Israel’s place of national safety, out among the Gentiles, for the purpose of repentance, extends all the way back to the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. And according to the verses from Numbers Chapter 35, if the manslayer was to leave his city of refuge and return to the land of his possession before the death of the high priest, he would put himself into extreme danger. 2). Let’s see what the Scripture has to say about all of this by looking at the verses that God had Matthew record in his gospel, following on from the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in Matthew Chapter 12, the action that effectively marked the terminal point for the offer of the Kingdom of the heavens to the Jews by the Lord – Mt 12:43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” These verses we should see as a parable, a precursor maybe to Jesus speaking many things to them in parables in Matthew Chapter 13. a). The ‘unclean spirit’ of v43 is used as a metaphor for unrepentant, unfaithful Israel following the Lord’s crucifixion, a nation unclean from their contact with the dead body of their Messiah. A defilement that can only be cleansed on the Third Day and the Seventh Day. A metaphor that inevitably harkens back to type presented in the sign given on the Sabbath that had been attributed to Satan - Mt 12:22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; [a picture of Israel’s spiritual condition] and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” And in Matthew 12:43, the ‘man’ that the unclean spirit goes out of, provides the metaphor for the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this detail concerning Israel leaving their land, following the death of their Messiah, prophetically looked to the events of AD70 when the Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem, along with the temple, dispersing the Jews out into the Gentile world. An event that parallels the nation’s rejection of God and His purpose that ultimately resulted in the Babylonian captivity. And just as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, in AD70, Israel as a nation state, ceased to exist, the fig tree that produced bad fruit, the unacceptable offering was cut down, placing the Jewish people in a diaspora, where they went through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none. Israel had been set aside while God has turned His attention to those to whom the Kingdom of the heavens is offered in Israel’s place. The heavens remain closed to Israel, the Lord during this time is no longer speaking to them, and for them, and during this time no living water is to be found. They had been cut off from their purpose with respect to the Day of Rest, and that purpose at present is out of reach. And nor can the Jews find rest for themselves amid the constant Gentile persecution, having been thrown into the fire that is going to burn seven times hotter in the very near future. b). Matthew 12:43 then, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none, encompasses the time from AD70 until May 1948 – 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ The word ‘house’ is used as a metaphor for the land, the same as the metaphor of ‘a man’ seen earlier in the verses. But the use of this word ‘house’ denotes more than just a return to the land. It also prophetically pointed to the establishment of a Jewish nation state, the house of Israel. And from 1948 a Jewish nation state, the country known as Israel, has existed again in part of the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And following the end of WWII, the Jews of Europe really were ‘vagabonds upon the earth’, having lost everything they previously possessed. Roaming refugees with nowhere to go. It is not surprising then that they gravitated to the one place on earth over which they had a claim, the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This return to the land in 1948 and the years since though, was, and remains, completely different to what happened at the end of the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonian captivity ended with the completion of God’s appointed time, seventy years. However, in 1948, as even today, God’s four hundred and ninety years have not been completed, and God does not act outside of the set times that He has established. He always remains true to His Word. And then at the end of the Babylonian captivity, when a remnant of Jews returned to the land, they did so under God’s directive, but this was not the case in 1948. Rather what happened then was the attempt of a still unrepentant nation to establish themselves as a kind of pseudo ‘messianic kingdom’ but without their Messiah, desiring to be a part of the kingdom of this world under the sway of the wicked one. And this is not a million miles away from those Christians today who seek to establish some form of pseudo spiritual Kingdom of Christ upon the earth apart from God’s specific timeframe and direction and apart from the Husband/wife relationship Scripture demands, again, all within the kingdom of this world under the sway of the wicked one. c). We also see from Matthew 12:44 that the land had been left empty, and swept, and put in order. In other words, the physical land of Israel was exactly as God had intended it to be having removed the Jewish people from it – Le 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest— for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. Mt 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ” Then we see from Matthew 12:45, that having returned to the ‘house’, he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And again, we must understand that this is figurative language and not literal. A remnant of Jews having returned to the land and having declared and established a nation state have done so entirely in their own strength, through a Zionist political movement apart from God’s timing and apart from their Messiah. They have not returned as a result of national repentance and nor are they there under God’s direction, the two prerequisites for the scriptural return seen in prophecy. d). By attempting to deliver themselves from the hands of their enemies while still remaining within the boundaries of the kingdom of this world and with the complicity of Gentile world power, completely apart from the God of their fathers, they have put themselves into a dire spiritual condition that is expressed through the metaphor of the ‘unclean spirit’ taking ‘with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself’, with the conclusion of the matter summed up in the phrase ‘the last state of that man is worse than the first’. They have put themselves in a place of extreme danger, having returned from ‘the city of refuge’ before the death of the High Priest. And the final spiritual condition of the Jewish people as God begins the last seven years of the four hundred and ninety can only be more bankrupt than it has ever been since the days of the exodus onwards Da 9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many [in Israel] for one week……. Re 6:1 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. And such a deplorable spiritual condition can be easily explained as we call to mind that God’s covenant people will enter into a covenant relationship with the man of sin, the Antichrist, Satan’s son, the counterfeit messiah. A spiritual condition pictured in the Book of Jonah by the prophet going ‘down into the lowest parts of the ship.’ e). And the consequence for Israel’s action in doing this, pictured as we have seen through taking seven other spirits more wicked than himself, thereby producing a last state worse than the first, is exactly what Israel, the people, the land, and the rebuilt temple, must experience in the very near future, as God remains true to His Word – Lk 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. We will continue with this next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed. From Time To Time - Part Five Sep 17, 2023 Speaker: John Herbert Series: From Time to Time Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T020_20230917.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Mt 12:43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. We will continue to look at God's specific arrangement of time. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday September 17th 2023 From Time to Time – Part 5 1). Ge 4:8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” 13 And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” 15 And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. We had seen last time that God, in the foundation, through the lives of the first two brothers, had established a profound spiritual truth with respect to two future brothers, national Israel and the Christ. And we had seen that like Cain, national Israel had continually failed to bring the offering that God required of them – Mt 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Just as Cain was to bring an offering of the fruits of the ground so Israel, the fig tree and the vineyard, was to bring an offering of the fruits of repentance. And the failure to bring the offering the Lord required, which must begin with national repentance, was despite being given every opportunity to do so and to be accepted, through the ministry of prophet after prophet – Zec 1:1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 2 “The LORD has been very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the LORD of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. 4 “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the LORD. 5 “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 Yet surely My words and My statutes, Which I commanded My servants the prophets, Did they not overtake your fathers? “So they returned and said: ‘Just as the LORD of hosts determined to do to us, According to our ways and according to our deeds, So He has dealt with us.’ ” ’ ” Isa 1:1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it?........... 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. And the ministry of the prophets we have seen set out in the parable of the vinedressers in Matthew Chapter 21. A process concluded with the sending of the Son of the Owner of the vineyard with a somewhat terminal offer to do well and be accepted, given by the Son at His first Advent – Mt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But rather than do well and be accepted, the Jews countenance fell, just like Cain, and they burned with anger, just like Cain – Jn 5:16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” 18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Jn 8:59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. Mt 26:3 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. In their anger, the Jews killed their Brother, allowing for only one possible outcome, the Jewish people would be driven out from the face of the ground to become vagabonds and fugitives upon the earth, just as had happened to Cain in the type. And yet, in God’s great mercy and love for His people, one final opportunity to do well and be accepted was given through the re-offer of the Kingdom of the heavens to the same generation of Jews by the church during the Acts period, just as the Lord told them it would be – Lk 13:6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ” Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” But the die was already cast, and the inevitability of that pictured through Cain was irreversible, confirmed through the religious leaders’ murderous reaction to Stephen’s message to them recorded in – Acts 7:54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And if we go back to the verses we had looked at, from Matthew Chapter 3, where John the Baptist told of the ax being laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that did not bear good fruit would be cut down and thrown into the fire, and the verses recorded in Luke concerning the fig tree that still would not produce fruit, we will find additional commentary on the inevitable expulsion of Israel from the land, after the reoffer of the Kingdom of the heavens came to a close, seen at the end of the Book of Acts. A tree is used in Scripture as a metaphor for a nation, and Israel, as we had also seen last week, is metaphorically represented by a fig tree, a fig tree that produced no fruit acceptable to the Lord, only fruit apart from faith, the unacceptable offering. The cutting down of the fig tree then pictures the removal of Israel’s position as a nation state, that should have ruled at the head of the nations on the earth and over the nations from the heavens, and the ‘tree’ being thrown in the fire provides the picture of the judgment that must inevitably follow. b). The Jews then, driven from the face of the land, out among the Gentile nations, as with the Babylonian captivity, were to be dealt with there, at the hands of the Gentile nations, to bring them to repentance, that they might bring the offering to the Lord that will be accepted – Ps 34:18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. But this change of mind will only take place at the completion of the specific time that God has allotted for this to be brought to pass, the full four hundred and ninety years of Daniel’s prophecy, not a moment before. And we know that God’s Jewish clock stopped just before midnight, so to speak, after four hundred and eighty-three years. Leaving seven years to be completed. Seven years that must wait until God has finished calling out of the Gentiles a people for His name, seven years that must wait until the Holy Spirit has completed His search for the bride for Christ. And only at the conclusion of these seven years will the Jews find cleansing for their defilement through their contact with a dead body – Nu 19:11 “He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. 13 Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him. The entire house of Israel is unclean, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’, through their contact with the dead body of their Messiah. And they can only be cleansed from this uncleanness on the Third Day and the Seventh Day. Which speak of the same Day. The Third Day following the two days of the dispensation of the Jews of which those seven years still remain, which is also the Seventh Day from Adam. And national Israel’s cleansing cannot take place except at the time God has set for it, a time irrevocably set in the foundation – Ge 1:9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, [a picture of the Gentile nations, later called seas] and let the dry land [a picture of Israel] appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. [a picture of Israel’s fruitfulness in the Third Day. Fruitfulness also typified in Abraham’s marriage to Keturah in Genesis Chapter 25] And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day. Hos 6:1 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. 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. Est 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. And there is another facet to God’s specific timing for Daniel’s seventieth week and Israel’s cleansing at the conclusion of it, that must be considered Nu 35:25 So the congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled, and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. 26 But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits of the city of refuge where he fled, 27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, 28 because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession. In Numbers Chapter 25, there are what appear to be a strange set of verses that deal with the ‘manslayer’ who unwittingly is responsible for the death of another, with very specific instructions given as to how the ‘manslayer’ is to be dealt with, not only in terms of the unwitting death he caused but also, in relation to the land of his possession. And these verses were placed in Numbers with a view to the Jewish people and their Messiah at His first Advent. Israel is the manslayer, guilty of the murder of their King, but not guilty of the unwitting death of their Passover Lamb – Lk 23:34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” For the murder of their King, the Jewish people will pay blood for blood, but provision has been made, set out in Numbers Chapter 25, for the nation that unwittingly killed their Passover Lamb. c). The city of refuge to which the ‘manslayer’ in the natural could flee would find its equivalent in the Jews being scattered throughout the Gentile world. Although two thirds of the Jewish people will be killed at the hands of the Gentiles during the tribulation, with the majority of Jews out among the nations, the nations are also the place where national Israel will be protected. A national protection set in the foundation through the experience of Noah – Ge 7:17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And this same place of protection for national Israel, that corresponds to the city of refuge, is seen again in the figurative language of the Revelation Re 12:6 Then the woman [national Israel] fled into the wilderness,[any place that is not the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – therefore the Gentile nations] where she has a place prepared by God, [the Ark of Genesis Chapter 7 and the city of refuge of Numbers Chapter 25] that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And that seen in the verses from the Revelation is exactly the command given by the Lord within the same timeframe recorded in – Mk 13:14 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. [mountains are used metaphorically to represent kingdoms. And the only ‘kingdoms’ that those in Judea could flee to would be the Gentile nations] And if we follow the instructions given in Numbers Chapter 25, we see that national Israel, in ‘the city of refuge’, out among the Gentile nations, CANNOT return to the land of their possession until AFTER the death of the High Priest. And within the overall scope of the type, the death of the High Priest can only point to the termination of the Lord’s present ministry as High Priest on behalf of those who will inherit salvation. A ministry that began at His ascension and will end at the resurrection/rapture – Re 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. Although the verses we have looked at from Mark 13 and the Revelation 12 deal with events that transpire at the midpoint in the tribulation, Israel’s place of national safety, out among the Gentiles, for the purpose of repentance, extends all the way back to the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. And according to the verses from Numbers Chapter 35, if the manslayer was to leave his city of refuge and return to the land of his possession before the death of the high priest, he would put himself into extreme danger. 2). Let’s see what the Scripture has to say about all of this by looking at the verses that God had Matthew record in his gospel, following on from the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in Matthew Chapter 12, the action that effectively marked the terminal point for the offer of the Kingdom of the heavens to the Jews by the Lord – Mt 12:43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” These verses we should see as a parable, a precursor maybe to Jesus speaking many things to them in parables in Matthew Chapter 13. a). The ‘unclean spirit’ of v43 is used as a metaphor for unrepentant, unfaithful Israel following the Lord’s crucifixion, a nation unclean from their contact with the dead body of their Messiah. A defilement that can only be cleansed on the Third Day and the Seventh Day. A metaphor that inevitably harkens back to type presented in the sign given on the Sabbath that had been attributed to Satan - Mt 12:22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; [a picture of Israel’s spiritual condition] and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” And in Matthew 12:43, the ‘man’ that the unclean spirit goes out of, provides the metaphor for the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this detail concerning Israel leaving their land, following the death of their Messiah, prophetically looked to the events of AD70 when the Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem, along with the temple, dispersing the Jews out into the Gentile world. An event that parallels the nation’s rejection of God and His purpose that ultimately resulted in the Babylonian captivity. And just as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, in AD70, Israel as a nation state, ceased to exist, the fig tree that produced bad fruit, the unacceptable offering was cut down, placing the Jewish people in a diaspora, where they went through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none. Israel had been set aside while God has turned His attention to those to whom the Kingdom of the heavens is offered in Israel’s place. The heavens remain closed to Israel, the Lord during this time is no longer speaking to them, and for them, and during this time no living water is to be found. They had been cut off from their purpose with respect to the Day of Rest, and that purpose at present is out of reach. And nor can the Jews find rest for themselves amid the constant Gentile persecution, having been thrown into the fire that is going to burn seven times hotter in the very near future. b). Matthew 12:43 then, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none, encompasses the time from AD70 until May 1948 – 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ The word ‘house’ is used as a metaphor for the land, the same as the metaphor of ‘a man’ seen earlier in the verses. But the use of this word ‘house’ denotes more than just a return to the land. It also prophetically pointed to the establishment of a Jewish nation state, the house of Israel. And from 1948 a Jewish nation state, the country known as Israel, has existed again in part of the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And following the end of WWII, the Jews of Europe really were ‘vagabonds upon the earth’, having lost everything they previously possessed. Roaming refugees with nowhere to go. It is not surprising then that they gravitated to the one place on earth over which they had a claim, the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This return to the land in 1948 and the years since though, was, and remains, completely different to what happened at the end of the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonian captivity ended with the completion of God’s appointed time, seventy years. However, in 1948, as even today, God’s four hundred and ninety years have not been completed, and God does not act outside of the set times that He has established. He always remains true to His Word. And then at the end of the Babylonian captivity, when a remnant of Jews returned to the land, they did so under God’s directive, but this was not the case in 1948. Rather what happened then was the attempt of a still unrepentant nation to establish themselves as a kind of pseudo ‘messianic kingdom’ but without their Messiah, desiring to be a part of the kingdom of this world under the sway of the wicked one. And this is not a million miles away from those Christians today who seek to establish some form of pseudo spiritual Kingdom of Christ upon the earth apart from God’s specific timeframe and direction and apart from the Husband/wife relationship Scripture demands, again, all within the kingdom of this world under the sway of the wicked one. c). We also see from Matthew 12:44 that the land had been left empty, and swept, and put in order. In other words, the physical land of Israel was exactly as God had intended it to be having removed the Jewish people from it – Le 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest— for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. Mt 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ” Then we see from Matthew 12:45, that having returned to the ‘house’, he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And again, we must understand that this is figurative language and not literal. A remnant of Jews having returned to the land and having declared and established a nation state have done so entirely in their own strength, through a Zionist political movement apart from God’s timing and apart from their Messiah. They have not returned as a result of national repentance and nor are they there under God’s direction, the two prerequisites for the scriptural return seen in prophecy. d). By attempting to deliver themselves from the hands of their enemies while still remaining within the boundaries of the kingdom of this world and with the complicity of Gentile world power, completely apart from the God of their fathers, they have put themselves into a dire spiritual condition that is expressed through the metaphor of the ‘unclean spirit’ taking ‘with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself’, with the conclusion of the matter summed up in the phrase ‘the last state of that man is worse than the first’. They have put themselves in a place of extreme danger, having returned from ‘the city of refuge’ before the death of the High Priest. And the final spiritual condition of the Jewish people as God begins the last seven years of the four hundred and ninety can only be more bankrupt than it has ever been since the days of the exodus onwards Da 9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many [in Israel] for one week……. Re 6:1 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. And such a deplorable spiritual condition can be easily explained as we call to mind that God’s covenant people will enter into a covenant relationship with the man of sin, the Antichrist, Satan’s son, the counterfeit messiah. A spiritual condition pictured in the Book of Jonah by the prophet going ‘down into the lowest parts of the ship.’ e). And the consequence for Israel’s action in doing this, pictured as we have seen through taking seven other spirits more wicked than himself, thereby producing a last state worse than the first, is exactly what Israel, the people, the land, and the rebuilt temple, must experience in the very near future, as God remains true to His Word – Lk 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. We will continue with this next time if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.
