When God Answers
Have you ever been so troubled by something you take it to God in the form
of a question? Then have God answer
you. Knowing the answer has to be from God
because the answer is so clear and it comes from his Word. When this happens it truly strengthens your
faith. After a couple of times it gets
kind of scary, but at the same time reassuring.
In my well over a half century of life it is an experience I have
learned to cherish. It is like God says, “Yep, I am still here.”
When I first started trying to follow and understand the Lord there was
an issue that deeply troubled me. If the
God I was following was a loving, caring and kind God? How could he allow what happened to the
Jewish people in WWII to happen? After all these were His chosen people. It troubled me to the point I was having
trouble committing my life to following him.
When the answer came I knew it was not
something I had figured out. I had read
the passage several times and never noticed the verse or what it implied. It was in the 16th Chapter of
Jeremiah that the answer sprang out at me.
It is a chapter that deals with the end time. It talks about God kicking
Israel out of their land and then bringing them back. It was when I got to verse eighteen that the
light came on. It basically says God punished his people before he kicked them out of their land and that he would
punish them before he bought them back into their land. He very simply said he would punish them double for their iniquity. As bad as it
was, God was simply doing exactly what he had prophesied he would do. This gave me peace knowing he was fulfilling
His Word.
Little did I know this would be the start of a long term revelation to
me of things he was doing or had done in the past, which are laid out in His Word. Things that have a connection to this very
day and age, and are unfolding just as His Word had said it would. The understanding came to me by learning to
simply understand that His Word says what it means and means what it says.
The next verse that caught my attention was in Exodus. It caught my attention because of the way it
was worded. It says in12:41 “And it came
to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day
it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of
Egypt.” Why was it the selfsame
day? What was the significance of that
wording? There had to be a reason for saying it that way. It would be several years later that I found
a verse than showed me I was onto something.
The answer was in the Bible somewhere because His Word said so. Micah 7:15 made me see that it was the
fulfillment of a prophecy God had made to both Abraham and Jacob. He told them both that their people would be
returned to their land. It was a promise
that was made several times in the Old Testament.
Early in my Bible studies I noticed that the children were killed at the
time of Moses. Then again the children
were killed at the time of Christ. Both
of these events seemed to happen as Satan tried to prevent God’s people from
being delivered from evil. It made me
wonder if there is any connection between the prevalence of abortion in this
day and age and Biblical prophecy. When reading in Isaiah 57 it became clear to
me that Israel went into the captivity because of their sacrificing children. Leviticus 20:1-5 gives God’s view on the
matter and it may be one of the main reasons America is in such decline.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the
children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any
of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the
land shall stone him with stones. 3And I will set my face against that man, and
will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto
Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. 4And if the people
of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his
seed unto Molech, and kill him not: 5Then I will set my face against that man,
and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after
him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.”
The above passage makes it pretty
clear that it is not a God thing to kill children. Therefore it must be a tool of Satan to try
and prevent God’s Will from being done.
It was while reading in Amos that I realized that God, according to His
Word, had punished or would punish Damascus, Gaza, Tyrus and several others
four times. Using simple logic, if God
allowed the other nations four chances? Then surely he would allow Israel four times
as well. If that is the case then
abortion today may be to prevent one last unfulfilled prophecy. Could it be to prevent the coming forth of
the two witnesses to the end time mentioned in Revelation?
Coming to this realization made me wonder if Exodus 12:41 is correct
could there be other periods of four hundred and thirty years. Sure enough I found one in Ezekiel
4:5-6. Paul made clear that in Galatians
3:17 that there was a four hundred thirty year period between the captivity and
the coming of Christ. That makes clear
that there were three 430 year periods in the Old Testament.
In the course of my reading it became clear that there were some seventy
year periods also. Israel was in the
captivity for seventy years. From the
birth of Christ to the destruction of the temple was also seventy years. Both of these events had followed a four
hundred and thirty year period. So where
was the seventy year period at the time of Moses? At first I thought there was not one until I
was reading in Joshua and was reading about his death at a hundred and ten
years old. Having done all God gave him to do.
It was then I realized that Joshua 14:7 makes clear that from the time
Moses sent Joshua in to search out the land till he finished his work was a
period of seventy years. Joshua was
forty when Moses sent him into search the land and one hundred and ten when he
died. It is pretty simple math, but it
raises a couple of questions?
If there is a fourth four hundred and thirty period when did it start? And
when did/will the fourth seventy year period start.
It was when I was helping my daughter do a paper for school on Martin
Luther that the answer may have been discovered to at least one of the
questions. Martin Luther nailed his
treatise to the door on All Saint’s Day 1517.
If you add four hundred and thirty years to that date you come up with
1947. Close but not close enough. Note that in Exodus it says "to the day." Besides
I always thought Israel became a nation in 1948, So I got out the World Book
and looked it up. Yes Israel became a
nation in 1948, but it was bought before and voted on in the United Nations
in November 1947. When you allow for the
time it took to write the bill and its passage it is very close to the exact
date.
So what does all that mean? If
you add seventy to 1947 it comes out to November 2017, or maybe May of 1948
when they physically possessed the land.
The Book of Daniel talks several times of a period of 1290 days or three
and a half years. Yet in Daniel 12:12 it
talks about those being blessed who wait till the 1335th day, which is another 45 days. The question is when does the 1290
day period start? If you count back from
November 2017 it would be the end of April 2014 to somewhere around November
2014. The point is not to set a
date. The point is to show that by the
Bible’s own timeline we are somewhere near the end of time. Jesus said it would
end sometime, we can take that to the bank.
We can also take that he said we would be able to discern the time, but
not the date to the bank.
There are a couple of good indicators why this may be a fulfillment of Biblical
prophecy. Daniel 12:4 makes clear that
in the end knowledge shall be increased and people shall travel to and fro
throughout the world. Well that all
started in the mid 1400’s with the invention of the printing press and
beginning of the voyages of discovery, which made it possible to fulfill the
commandment Christ gave in Matthew 28:19-20 to, “Go into all nations baptizing
and teaching.”
The final thing that says to me that we are definitely living in the end
time is in Revelation 11:9-13 where it makes clear that the whole world shall
see the two dead witnesses laying in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a
half days. That definitely could not
have happened until just the last few years.
For those who believe the “Left Behind” version of the end time and
things starting with the rapture. You
might want to read Matthew 24:29-30 that clearly says “after” the tribulation
of those days, shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven. Jesus said at the end it would be as it was
in the days of Noah before the flood.
The Bible makes it pretty clear in Genesis chapter six that we are in
very similar times.
These verses make it pretty clear what God says is happening and what is expected of us.
6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 7As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. 8They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. 9And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. 10For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. 11Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
For anyone interested there is a free book on my blog called, “Farther
Down the Path” and it is done in seven parts and starts on my 3/23/12 blog
post. Yes it has a lot of me in it, but
that was not and is not the intent. My
goal was to show people how I came to understand all I have figured out and let
them make their own decisions on the matter.
Most of what it talks about is summarized here. Thanks for reading and
your comments are welcome…..
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