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From Time to Time - Part Eleven

Oct 29, 2023 by: John Herbert | Series: From Time to Time

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Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me..........

We will continue to explore what it means that the man of sin will be revealed in his own time.

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Sunday October 29th 2023
From Time to Time – Part 11

1). Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it. 12 “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, Who are far from righteousness:
13 I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, For Israel My glory.

We had seen last week as we continued to seek to understand what it means for the man of sin to be revealed in his own time, that we would find our answer in remembering ‘the former things of old’, ‘and from ancient times things that are not yet done’. How we would find the end declared from the beginning.
	a). And in relation to the revealing of the man of sin and God’s purpose for him, we had begun by looking at the broad foundational type presented through Noah and the flood. Which in essence takes us to the end of the matter through that set out in the beginning. We had seen a satanic purpose among the people of the earth and how God had intervened to stop that which was taking place through bringing judgment upon those involved – Ge 7:20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died.

1 Pe 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

Not only then was there judgment upon the people of the earth but also upon the fallen angels who had orchestrated these events. A foreshadowing of what must take place when the antitype of those things declared from the beginning are fulfilled yet future. And then we had also seen that there was a new beginning following the flood, just as there will be in that future Day – Ge 9:1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

And we saw that through Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, that the earth would be repopulated, with the people of the earth being broadly divided into three groups who would come from the three sons. And for the families of Japheth and Ham to have access to God and His blessings, that they would need to ‘dwell in the tents of Shem’, the only son of Noah with a God.
	b). And out of the family of one son, Ham, a family under a curse, we had looked at the account of Nimrod, Ham’s grandson, who through his actions, provided additional details to be added to the type given through Noah and the flood.
	c). We again saw events among the people of the earth that brought God’s intervention to put an end to that which was happening, events that could only have been satanically inspired – Ge 11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

And again, after God’s intervention, there was a division of the people of the earth beyond that seen through Noah’s three sons. Firstly, through different languages and then by different geographical locations for each language group, and finally in the days of Peleg, through a physical division of the land mass. And all was done, we will remember, ‘according to the number of the children of Israel’.
	d). Through the additional detail we are given in the account of Nimrod we find the introduction of a man and a kingdom with aspirations that reach into the heavens and the inextricable connection between this man, Nimrod, and his kingdom, with Babylon and Assyria and the powers of darkness. Foreshadowing from ancient times those things which are not yet done, concerning the man of sin. Things that must result in God’s intervention and the judgment of the nations of the earth and the fallen angels, as seen in the foundation.
	e). And in order to add the next piece to the picture, we will move on from Genesis to the Exodus.

2). Ex 1: 6 And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. 7 But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. 8 Now there arose a new [a different kind of] king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

The children of Israel had gone to Egypt in the days when Joseph was second only to Pharaoh. An historical account that saw Joseph’s ‘death’ at the hands of his brothers and the brothers’ deliverance and restoration following the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine by the hand of Joseph. Again, foreshadowing what was, is, and will soon be Israel’s experience, as this type is fulfilled. And having gone into Egypt in the days of Joseph the children of Israel had multiplied and prospered there, picturing what awaits the nation during the Millennial Kingdom – Mal 4:2 But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.

With these things set in place, the historical account then continues to provide more detail on that previously seen. And in the historical account the children of Israel prospered in Egypt until a new king arose over Egypt ‘who did not know Joseph’. And this new king was a different kind of king altogether because he was not an Egyptian but an Assyrian, who took the throne of Egypt following the Assyrian conquest – Isa 52:4 For thus says the Lord GOD: “My people went down at first Into Egypt to dwell there; Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

And through the actions of this Assyrian Pharaoh, which could only have been satanically inspired, we have the introduction of the persecution of the Jewish people at the hands of a Gentile nation under a king who came out of the geographical area of Assyria. The persecution then of those who would be adopted as God’s firstborn son with regal rights. Those for whom the nations of the earth had been divided to receive the Jewish witnesses and God’s blessings through them. And as the Jews were those to whom the regal rights would be given, a satanically inspired attempt to annihilate the Jewish people followed – Ex 1:15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16 and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

The attempt to kill all the male Jewish babies, foreshadowed the attempt to destroy the Christ, the One born King of the Jews - Mt 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more.”
 
And we find the origins for this in the corruption of the bloodlines of the families of the earth before the flood in Genesis. And it can be taken back further still to the ‘death’ of Adam and the Woman in the Garden – 
Ge 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

It has always been, and continues to be, because of who will hold the scepter of rulership in the Seventh Day, that the death camps of the holocaust were built, and why the events of October 7th have taken place, and why nations surrounding Israel in the Middle East have the stated aim of driving Israel into the sea – Ps 83:2 For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. 3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones. 4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

And it will be why Satan/Antichrist will seek to destroy the ‘male child’ at the midpoint in the tribulation – Re 12:3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon [Satan] having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven [the fallen angels who rebelled with him] and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman [Israel] who was ready to give birth, to devour her child [the 144,000] as soon as it was born.

And then turn their attention to the woman – Re 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And we will have noticed that the Assyrian Pharaoh of the Exodus came from the same geographical area in which Nimrod had built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen, of which Nineveh became the principal city, becoming the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. The same city of course, to which Jonah was told to go and cry out against.
	a). And because of the intensity of the persecution inflicted upon them by the Assyrian Pharaoh, the Jewish people cried out to the God of their fathers, who heard their cry and sent a deliverer, Moses, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
	b). Then, if we go back to a previous study, we had seen there that the time for the sojourn of the children of Israel, concluding with their persecution in Egypt sometime after Joseph’s death, had a specific terminal point – Ex 12:40 Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

And in conjunction with this specific time, we also find God’s provision for His people, given to them through the deliverer whom He sent, that made their deliverance possible – Ex 12:43 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it………… 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it…….. 50 Thus all the children of Israel did; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. 51 And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies.

The very same day that the four hundred and thirty years came to an end was the very same day that the children of Israel kept the first Passover, establishing the inseparable connection between their deliverance from the hand of an Assyrian in the midst of Gentile world power, the end of a specific period of time, and God’s provision of the Passover, the death of the firstborn.
	c). And as we know, it will be the future fulfillment of Passover, the first of the seven Jewish feasts, that must take place at the end of the tribulation, that opens the door for the remaining feasts to be fulfilled. Feasts concluding with Tabernacles, the seventh feast, fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom itself.
	d). And following Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, foreshadowed in Noah’s family and the ark, there is the destruction of the power of Egypt, the Gentile superpower of its day, previously foreshadowed in the worldwide flood. And the destruction of the power of Egypt is effectively the destruction of the Assyrian and his cohorts – Ex 14:22 So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the LORD looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. 25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.” 26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” 27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained.

In v23 we see that the Egyptians pursued the children of Israel into the midst of the sea, picturing that future day when the Antichrist will pursue the Jewish people throughout the Gentile world. And as he does so, the same fate awaits him – 2 Th 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

Re 19:19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Ex 14:30 So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

The parallel here with the flood of Noah I am sure will not escape us.
	e). Then, as we would expect, following the destruction of the power of Egypt, just as we had seen following the flood and the events at Babel, a new beginning is seen as the children of Israel, adopted as God’s firstborn son, with the Theocracy established at Sinai and God in their midst, head to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – Ex 15:16………Till Your people pass over, O LORD, Till the people pass over Whom You have purchased. 17 You will bring them in and plant them In the mountain of Your inheritance, In the place, O LORD, which You have made For Your own dwelling, The sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established. 18 “The LORD shall reign forever and ever.”

Ex 19:4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” 7 So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him. 8 Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.

‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do’, this statement made by a delivered Jewish people remains to be fulfilled yet future. It was certainly not the case following the Exodus.
	f). There is no further division of the peoples of the earth in conjunction with this new beginning, because out of this new beginning the children of Israel were to have been God’s witnesses, fulfilling the purpose for the previous division of the Gentile nations. Which as we know has not happened, witnessed through type given in the account of Jonah.
	g). However, through the record of Israel in Egypt we have seen that the Jewish people will be persecuted at the hands of an ‘Assyrian’ in the midst of the Gentile nations. And the purpose for this will be for the Jewish people to cry out to the God of their fathers so that He will send a Deliverer to deliver them. And the reason for this persecution at the hands of the Gentiles is the Jewish nation’s disobedience, unfaithfulness and harlotry that extends from the banks of the Red Sea to the present day, and encompasses their rejection of God’s purpose for them – Jon 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

3). Jg 2:11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

The Book of Judges, we will remember, is a Book that chronicles the cycles of disobedience, persecution, repentance, deliverance by the hand of a Judge whom the Lord raised up, and disobedience once again, that is characterized in – Jg 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And in response to the Jewish people’s disobedience during this time, the Lord always responded the same way, ‘He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around.’ And those enemies of course were the Gentile nations that they had failed to remove from the land of Canaan.
	a). As the persecution of the Jewish people intensified, then – 
Jg 2:16 Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so. 18 And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. 19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.

And this was a cycle of events that continued through eleven of the fourteen judges that the Lord raised up to deliver them. However, on the death of the eleventh judge, something changed – Jg 12:13 After him, Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy young donkeys. He judged Israel eight years. 15 Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mountains of the Amalekites. 13:1 Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

Following the death of the eleventh judge, Abdon, the children of Israel were for the first time subjected to the Gentiles, the Philistines, for a complete period of time, forty years. And in this specific period of time, we will find a foreshadowing of the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity.
	b). At the end of the forty years God had raised up Samson as the twelfth judge – Jg 13:5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

Samson would begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, but a full deliverance could not, and cannot, come apart from repentance. And there is no scriptural record of repentance on the part of the Jewish people during this forty-year period, yet at the end of it a deliverer was sent. And we will remember that there was no national repentance at the end of the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity, but God, true to His Word, allowed a remnant to return to Jerusalem.
	c). What we will glean then, from our brief overview of the Book of Judges, is that God is faithful to His Word, in using the Gentile nations to persecute His people in order to bring them to repentance. Faithful to provide a deliverer for them and faithful to establish a specific period of time in which this will be brought about – Le 26:31 I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. 32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.

Da 9:24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

Seventy weeks, seventy sevens of years, four-hundred and ninety years have been determined from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, at the end of which is promised deliverance and restoration. As we have noted from Judges however, as well as what we looked at some weeks back in Daniel, this requires national repentance from the Jewish people. And to affect this national repentance God will use the Gentile nations under the control of one man, foreshadowed in the Nimrod, the Assyrian Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish this.

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

From Time to Time - Part Eleven

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From Time to Time - Part Eleven

Oct 29, 2023

Speaker: John Herbert

Series: From Time to Time

Category: Sunday Morning

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A Recap from the Sermon