Genesis 40 Series, Part 25, Hosea 6:2
Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Today is study #25 in Genesis 40. In our last study we were continuing to look at the Hebrew word translated as “revive,” or “lived,” in Hosea 6:2:
After two days will he revive us…
In Ezekiel 37 we read of God commanding Ezekiel the prophet to prophesy two distinct times. First, God commanded him to prophesy in Ezekiel 37:7:
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
We are of His bones, or His flesh. We are His bride as this is a reference to Jesus Himself as the body of Christ was being formed over the church age. The first command to prophesy identifies with the church age and those spoken of in Revelation 20:4:
….and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God….
They are the firstfruits, those elect saved through the preaching of the Gospel by the “two witnesses,” the Spirit of God within the churches during the church age. And these were followed by “the rest of the dead,” as it says in Revelation 20:5:
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
This is the same figurative 1000-year period in which Satan was bound. If we put this altogether, we see in Revelation 11 that Satan arose out of the bottomless pit and killed the “two witnesses,” and the church age was ended. The began the Great Tribulation and judgment upon the churches, and the implication is that the rest of the dead will live after the thousand years were finished. They are not the ones beheaded in Revelation 20:4, which are the “144,000.” So we see the progression there with Revelation 20:4 being the firstfruits, and those in Revelation 20:5 being the final fruits. They are the from two periods of rain, the early rain and the Latter Rain.
We did not go to Revelation 7 last time, but we can definitely see the “144,000” in Revelation 7:4:
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
Then Revelation 14 tells us exactly who the “144,000” are in Revelation 14:4. First, it says in Revelation 14:1:
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
Then look at Revelation 14:3-4:
And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, beingthe firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
They were the Pentecostal harvest, a result of the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost that began the church age. The “144,000” are those saved during the church age.
Then going back to Revelation 7, we read in Revelation 7:5:
Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
It goes on to list all the tribes, and 12,000 were sealed from each of the 12 tribes. So “12,000 x “12” equals “144,000.” So there were 144,000 of the firstfruits saved in the early rain.
Then we read in Revelation 7:9:
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Who are these? The question was asked. It says in Revelation 7:13-14:
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
They are a second group, the great multitude. They are not the “144,000.” There is a clear distinction. There are two groups. And this second group is called “the rest of the dead” in Revelation 20:5. They are called dead because as we look at Ezekiel 37, we can see who God is dealing with here. They are dead, dry bones. Of ourselves in our sinful condition we are spiritually dead, and our flesh is also dead in sin. So God uses the figure, “the rest of the dead,” and he says they “lived not again until…” Why would God say that? We are conceived in sin and born speaking lies, and we are children of wrath even as others. The Apostle Paul pointed out, “I was alive once without the law,” and that was when he was in the loins of Adam back in the Garden of Eden, as we all are children of Adam. So in the loins of the first man Adam we “lived” until the point that he sinned.
So two groups were saved in the early and Latter Rain periods, and we see this very consistently in the statement in Hosea 6:2:
After two days will he revive us…
Jesus said, “I do cures today and tomorrow,” and the third day He would be perfected.
And in Ezekiel 37 Ezekiel prophesied to the dead dry bones, and it goes on to say in Ezekiel 37:8-9:
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
The wind is as the Spirit of God. This was the second command to Ezekiel, and the Spirit went forth and did His work of restoring “life,” as we read in Ezekiel 37:10:
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them…
The word “breath” is the same word translated as “wind” in verse 8 and verse 9. And it is the same word that will be translated as “spirit” in verse 14: “And shall put my spirit in you…” So it is the word “spirit.” So it could say, “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the spirit came into them.” And they lived.
Revelation 11 identifies with the Great Tribulation after the end of the church age when the “two witnesses” were lying dead for three and a half days, the 2,300 evening mornings. Then it says in Revelation 11:11:
And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
They stood upon their feet, just as the dead dry bones in Ezekiel 37:10:
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
This is the great multitude which no man can number. It is “rest of the dead” of Revelation 20:5:
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
So this statement in Revelation 20 ties in with the Great Tribulation period, and what we read in Revelation 11 ties in with the end of the church age and the time after the church age when the two witnesses were killed and their testimony was finished. And in Judges 15 Samson was done speaking and he cast away the jawbone, and then he thirsted temporarily, and then water came out of the hollow place of the jaw, and his thirst was quenched. We discussed how Samson is a type of Christ, and it was as though Christ thirsted and His thirst was quenched by placing the sheep on His right. That would identify with bringing the Gospel to the body of Christ, the elect out there in the world.
The word “lived” is the same word “revived” used in Hosea 6:2, and if we go to Genesis 45 we will find another reference to the Great Tribulation. It is a historical parable. Joseph was sold to slave traders who in turn sold him as a slave to Potiphar in Egypt. Joseph served in Potiphar’s house for a while, and then he was thrown into prison for a while, and then at age 30 he came out of prison after interpreting Pharaoh’s dream. There would be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. We understand that this represents two periods of time. The seven years of plenty was the Word of God that was in the churches, and the churches went into practically every nation over the 1,955 years of the church age. By the end of the first century, God completed the Bible and sealed up His Word, and the abundance of truth would remain sealed in “hidden” parables, and the Lord would not open these things up to the understanding of His people until the time of the end, the time of the Great Tribulation.
The seven-year famine was broken up into two periods. And this is important. There were two years of famine while Jacob and his other sons remained in the land of Canaan. Then after two years, Joseph revealed himself to his brethren and they told their father Jacob, and they all left Canaan and went into Egypt in order to be nourished by Joseph. Jacob was informed that Joseph was alive in Genesis 45:25-28:
And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.
The spirit of Jacob revived. It is the same word used of the dead dry bones. They “lived” and stood upon their feet. It is the same word used in Hosea 6:2: “After two days will he revive us…” And it is the same word used in Judges 15 when he drank water from the hollow place of the jawbone, and he drank and his spirit revived. It said in Judge 15:19:
But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived…
During the Great Tribulation salvation quenched the thirst of those that thirsted after righteousness. And now we see that after two years of the seven year famine, Jacob revived. By the way, we often do not find a verse like this to confirm our spiritual understanding, but in this case we can read Acts 7:11:
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
The two words translated as “great affliction” are “megas-thlipsis,” which are translated “great tribulation” in Matthew 24:21,Revelation 7:14 and Revelation 2:22. They always point to the judgment on the churches at the time of the end and to the period of Latter Rain in the second part of the Great Tribulation. The great multitude came out of “great tribulation,” the exceeding great army that stood upon their feet.
Here, the great multitude is not so much seen because it is teaching of the end of God’s relationship with the churches, as the land of Canaan represents the corporate church, and Jacob and his children departed out of Canaan and went into Egypt, a picture of the world. And there they would be fed with the grain that was stored up, and Jacob’s spirit revived. Do you see how wonderfully God ties all these things together?
We have to stop here. Lord willing, we will continue with this and look at another passage, and then we will go back to Genesis 40 to continue our look at the “three days.”