Bible Study Seattle

Jacob was born to Isaac and Rebekeh in 1960BC.  Abraham died fifteen years later in 1945BC.  Joseph was born 1870BC.  Jacob leaves Laban in 1863BC after 20 years of service to him.  Jacob then runs into Esau before Joseph is sold to the Egyptians in 1852BC.  Isaac dies aged 180 years in 1840BC.    Joseph ascends the throne in 1838BC.  Jacob dies age 147 in 1813BC.  Where was Isaac during the betrayal of Joseph?  Did Jacob confer with Isaac over the apparent loss of his favorite son?  Did the brothers get a talking to by their grandfather Isaac?

Why try to figure out bible chronology?  Some say it’s a useless endeavor, that it has nothing to teach us.  Chronology is very difficult, but not impossible.  Bishop Ussher is probably the most famous chronologist, concluding that Adam was created 4004BC.  But then, why were the Hebrews so meticulous recording dates?  There has to be a lesson for the faithful.  Someday, when all prophecy has been fulfilled, the chronology will prove to all that God declared the end from the beginning:

““Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’”  Isaiah 64:9-10

God made the chronology very difficult to figure out in order to hide the truth in plain sight.  Only those that really seek will find.  But all will find out with ease in the resurrection.  The way to confirm the correct chronology is by the parallels that God has placed in history that only God could have orchestrated over thousands of years.

How will people be judged in the Kingdom?  Will they be judged by discerning judges like this:

“Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him.  The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.  It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.  This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.  So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”  Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”  The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.  The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”  Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”  Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.”  When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.”  1 Kings 3:16-28

Will this be the case when they are no other witnesses and two people claimed they were wronged by the other?  Or will it be like this:

“The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”  The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”  John 4:17-19

Will people’s bluff be called supernaturally?

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence—
As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
When You did awesome things which we did not expect,
You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.
For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Behold, You were angry, for we sinned,
We continued in them a long time;
And shall we be saved?
For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on Your name,
Who arouses himself to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.
But now, O Lord, You are our Father,
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all of us are the work of Your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord,
Nor remember iniquity forever;
Behold, look now, all of us are Your people.
Your holy cities have become a wilderness,
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
Our holy and beautiful house,
Where our fathers praised You,
Has been burned by fire;
And all our precious things have become a ruin.
Will You restrain Yourself at these things, O Lord?
Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?”   Isaiah 64

He will rend the heavens and come down!  When all hope seems lost and all the enemy nations are ransacking Jerusalem and the surrounding land:

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.  His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.  He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.  And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.  From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.  And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”  And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.”  Revelation 19:11-19

The longings of Isaiah will come true.  YHWH will not let Israel perish.  But they will have to repent first.

“For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.”  Isaiah 64:4

This God the eye has seen is Jesus.

“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”  John 1:18

The only begotten God is also Jesus.

“Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.”  John 6:46

The One who is from God is Jesus.

“No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”  1 John 4:12

If no one has seen the Father, what about all the appearances of YHWH in the Old Testament?  It turns out that most of the appearances of YHWH are Jesus speaking for YHWH.  This is clear in the comments to Moses:

“Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”  And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.  Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”  Exodus 33:18-23

I highly recommend The Third Day Bible Code and Warrior from Heaven by Kermit Zarley.  Third Day looks into many of the third day symbolisms and their relation to the resurrection.  Warrior from Heaven stitches together prophecies of Jesus’ second coming and Armageddon in a literal way.

Some people insist that Hebrew days were reckoned from dawn to dawn rather than sunset to sunset.  It’s true that daylight hours were divided into morning and evening i.e. The 9am morning sacrifice and the 3pm evening sacrifice.  Jesus died at the time of the evening sacrifice, 3pm.  But that evening really just represents the going down of the sun, not actual nighttime.  Some say that only the Sabbath was sunset to sunset.  But what about Genesis: Evening and morning, the first day.  Evening and morning, the second day, etc.  All seven days were evening then morning.  The only real offset is the start of the Jubilee year, which starts just past half way through the Sabbath year.  This ordering of the day is important because it has prophetic implications.

One of the amazing tactics of particularly sinful people is blaming you for doing what they are doing.  The ultimate example of this is:

“All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?”  But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”  Matthew 12:23-24

The Pharisees were calling Jesus evil!  As if he was calling on Satan to do his miracles.

This coming Sabbath, April 11, 2015, is the first of the seven Sabbaths to Shav’uot or Pentecost.  Firstfruits is already past.  That is the waving of the barley sheaf.  Shavuot is the wheat harvest.  Both barley and wheat represent the faithful.  Both are part of the firstborn.  As are priests and Levites.  Fifty days to Pentecost is reminiscent of the Jubilee in the 50th year.

These are the greek words often translated as first day of the week in reference to the resurrection of Jesus.  The problem is that it means the first of the Sabbaths.  There was a seven Sabbath count until Shavuot.  The women came to the tomb at dawn of the first of the seven weekly Sabbaths before Pentecost.  This is important for typology, since the church will be raised at the beginning of the Sabbath Millennium.  More discussion:  http://torahtimes.org/commentary/refuted.htm