• 2024-09-11 | Chris McCann
  • Audio: Length: 25:27
  • Passages covered: Luke 12:28, Luke 13:32, Exodus 19:10,11, Hosea 6:2, John 9:4, James 4:13-14, 2Chronicles 20:15-17, Joel 3:12-16, Malachi 4:1.

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Genesis 40 Series, Part 21, Hosea 6:2

Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #21 in Genesis 40, and we will be going back to Hosea 6, in case you have not been with us for the last few studies. 

We have been looking at Joseph’s interpretation of the dream of the butler, and the three branches in the dream were said to be “three days.” So we started looking at references to “three days” in the Bible, and it has led us into some interesting ideas. There were references to “today,” and “tomorrow,” which are two days, and there are other references that speak of today, tomorrow, and a third day. Luke 12 and Luke 13 help to show this. It says in Luke 12:28:

If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

The grass represent men. That is the spiritual definition in the Bible. So today the grass is, and tomorrow it is in the oven. But in the next chapter we read in Luke 13:32:

Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

The third day comes into view. There is today, tomorrow, and third day. We also found references to a third day in Exodus 19. First, it said in Exodus 19:10:

And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,

Then it goes on to say in Exodus 19:11:

And be ready against the third day: for the third day JEHOVAH will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.

Then verse 13 speaks of the trumpet (jubile) sounding long, and the people going up. So this all fits very well with Luke 13 and our understanding of “cures,” casting out devils, and of washing clothes (being sanctified). It identifies with the two outpourings of the Holy Spirit when God was saving His people. 

Likewise, we read in Hosea 6:2:

After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

To “live” is to “quicken” us, spiritually. In the third day He will raise us up, and that fits with Exodus 19 where it says we will go up. It also refers to JEHOVAH coming down on the third day, so it is clearly Judgment Day.

Again, it said in Luke 13 that today and tomorrow He does cures, the work of salvation, and the third day He will be perfected. Given this other information, we can understand that because in Judgment Day there is no longer “cures,” the works of salvation, as it says in John 9:4:

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

The third day would identify with “night,” which is the Judgment Day period. So we can see all this, but there is a “monkey wrench thrown into the works,” as the expression goes, concerning today and tomorrow. I pointed out that in Isaiah 31:9 the word translated as “furnace” is the same Hebrew word translated as “oven,” and I mentioned that because it spoke in Luke 12:28 of being cast into the oven tomorrow, and it says in Isaiah 31:9 that Jerusalem is His furnace, and Jerusalem is a type of the New Testament church. 

So I had said that “tomorrow” did identify with the judgment of the churches, and that is correct with our understanding because the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit began in 1994, which was also the official point of judgment on the house of God. But when we find mention of “today and tomorrow” without the mention of a “third day,” then my earlier understanding of “today” being the day of salvation, and “tomorrow” being the Day of Judgment is correct. The reason I say that is because of a couple of verses, one of which is in James 4:13-14:

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

There is no direct statement here, but do you see how this could relate to the idea that the grass, representing men, exists “today,” but “tomorrow” is cast into the oven, and their lives are gone. So that is not too direct, but let us take a second look at 2Chronicles 20, which is a historical parable pointing to Judgment Day. Just compare this chapter to Joel 3 which speaks of the valley of Jehoshaphat, another clear reference to Judgment Day. The information regarding the enemy destroying one another is something we see in several verses that show this is characteristic of that great and terrible day of the Lord, Judgment Day. In 2Chronicles 20, we see a reference to “tomorrow.” It says in 2Chronicles 20:15-17:

And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith JEHOVAH unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of JEHOVAH with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for JEHOVAH will be with you.

Obviously, this is being said while it is “today,” but “tomorrow” they would go to the battle. Again, the proof that this battle is a figure of Judgment Day can be found in Joel 3:12-16:

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of JEHOVAH is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. JEHOVAH also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but JEHOVAH will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

This language of the sun and moon being darkened and the stars withdrawing their shining is immediately after the Great Tribulation, which was the beginning of Judgment Day, and that occurred on May 21, 2011. That was the beginning of the final judgment of the world. That is referred to twice as “tomorrow” in 2Chronicles 20. If we find this language by itself, like the reference in Luke 12:28 to being cast into the oven “tomorrow,” that “oven” is the oven described in Malachi 4:1:

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith JEHOVAH of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

It really simplifies it when we just see a reference to two days without reference to a third day. “Today” is the day of salvation, and “tomorrow” is the Day of Judgment. The judgment is for the world, including all the unsaved of the churches, as they became a part of the world when they were defeated by Satan and his forces. All are fallen, and all are being destroyed. That is how we understand that.

But when we find a “third day” in view, then “today” represents the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit; “tomorrow” is the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which also has an element of judgment involved as God was also judging the churches. (Jerusalem is a furnace, or oven.) Yet God was still saving the great multitude outside of the churches. And the “third day” comes when we will be perfected, and He will raise us up. That is the prolonged Judgment Day period which began May 21, 2011, and according to a good deal of biblical evidence it will conclude in the year 2033.

I know some say the Bible is not difficult. They think it is easy. But they do not understand what we must do in order to harmonize our conclusions with the whole Bible. If I just continued to say that “today” is the church age; “tomorrow” is the Latter Rain outside of the churches, and the “third day” is Judgment Day, then we have to ask, “What about 2Chronicles 20?” It does not mention a third day, although a little further into that chapter they went to gather the spoil for three days, but that is something else entirely. It was already tomorrow, so that is telling us that in Judgment Day there is another picture the Lord is painting with that language. Given that it was already “tomorrow,” they would have to go three days from that point, so that does not fit any of these scenarios.

But with the language of going to the battle “tomorrow,” the battle of Judgment Day, it is saying that “tomorrow” is the “oven.” So I think that as far as these scriptures are concerned, we have understanding, but we always have to be open to correction if we find another verse that comes up, and then we look at it. But I am pretty confident that this is how we are to understand it.