Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible Part in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is Part #2 of Genesis, chapter 17 and we will read Genesis 17:1-8:
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, JEHOVAH appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
I will stop reading there. In our last Part, we were looking at Abram’s age of 99 and we noticed it was 13 years since the birth of Ishmael, at the end of chapter 16. The use of the number “13” was no accident because God was emphasizing this number because it was the time of the promise; He is going to restate the promise to Abram and change his name to Abraham. Sarai will give birth the following year, so there would be conception when Abraham was 99 (13 years from the birth of Ishmael) or conception of the promised seed, the child Isaac. In the first instance, Isaac represents the Lord Jesus Christ, but we also know from Galatians, chapter 3 that God counts all the elect for the seed in Christ. This is why there is a 13-year span from the birth of Ishmael which represents the covenant that genders to bondage, the covenant of works, and it is important that at this 13-year mark the conception takes place of the promised seed, which is the true covenant or true Gospel of the Bible. It was the conception that came through the promise or by the grace of God as He saves people without the inclusion of man’s works. God does all the work. Faith is a work and it is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ that the whole company of the elect become saved and, again, the whole company of the elect are in this seed.
This is the way God looks at it and it is pointing to the end of the world after 13,000 years of earth’s history, which took place in 1988. Immediately after that, there was the 2,300 grievous evening mornings and then came September 1994 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to evangelize the earth with the Latter Rain that saved the great multitude out of Great Tribulation. This was the completion of God’s salvation program to find all the lost sheep of the house of Israel, all those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and this took place after 13,000 years.
Even when we look at the entire history of the world, in the Old Testament days very few people became saved, especially when you look at the length of time in view of 11,000 years and hundreds of millions of people lived during that 11,000 years of Old Testament history. And, yet, just a handful was saved, here and there, like Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and then, infrequently, there were larger amounts like the 7,000 out of the entirety of Israel. And we should not think there were 7,000 there and 7,000 from every nation, because Israel was where the Word of God was and they were the caretakers of the Word of God, so the primary blessing would have been there. It was only when the Word of God went out a space, like Assyria, or through contacts with Israel, like when Naaman the Syrian came to Israel and became saved. Also, there were cases of other contacts with Israelites, like Naomi and her husband and their two sons that married Moabite women and through that contact Ruth the Moabitess became saved. Also, Rahab the harlot became saved through contact with the spies from Israel. But we have to keep in mind that it was not God’s program to send Israelites all over the world as missionaries. There was no command to the people of Israel to spread the Gospel to nations round about them or overseas. It was not God’s program at that time to evangelize the earth and to send forth missionaries in that way. That was reserved for the church age.
So, when we read of these accounts in the Old Testament, we should not think that somewhere far off there were people being saved that were not spoken of in the Bible. No – that was not taking place. Therefore, we have a very accurate understanding of just how few people did become saved during the first 11,000 years of earth’s history.
Then God began to evangelize the earth after Christ went to the cross and resurrected. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out and three thousand became saved through the preaching of Peter. That signaled a change. More people would hear and become saved. We would think that far greater numbers of people became saved over the 1,955 years of the church age, but the Bible indicates in Isaiah (and other places) that there were not vast numbers being saved. It was also a much shorter period of time. When you compare almost 2,000 years to 11,000 years, what it comes down to is that there were more saved over the course of the church age and, yet, not all that many. Again, there would have been hundreds of millions of people that lived in the world over the 1,955 years of the church age, but just a remnant of them became saved.
So, God did “save the best for last” when the Latter Rain was poured out beginning in 1994 and the Bible speaks of a great multitude saved out of Great Tribulation. We are living in the time after the Tribulation and after God has completed His salvation program, so we can gather that there are scores of millions of God’s elect that are presently alive and living on the earth. Therefore, this historical typology we see in this 13-year span in which there is conception of the seed when Abram is 99 is a good way for the Lord to indicate the children of promise coming to the birth as that promised seed to inherit the land. At this point just 13 years from the birth of Ishmael, God brings up the fact that Abram will inherit the land for an everlasting possession. When does that take place? It takes place, ultimately, at the end of the world. It is impossible for this early land to be given as an everlasting inheritance, but it points to the new heaven and new earth that will be given to the elect or the seed of Christ and we will live in that new heaven and new earth, as represented by the land of Canaan, for evermore. We see both of these things in view as God is, once again, emphasizing that Abram will have a seed and his seed will inherit the land. We cannot miss the connection through that 13-year period from when Abram was 86 to when he was 99 and these things coming to pass and being fulfilled after 13,000 years of earth’s history, the time we are in right now.
By the way, in our last Part, I pointed out that the Bible emphasizes two major epochs or periods of time, the 11,000 years that identify with the first coming of Christ and 13,000 years that identify with the second coming of Christ. Someone might say, “If 1988 was the 13,000th year and we are now in the year 2017, it is 13,029 years, so we have missed it and we have gone by the expected date.” However, that is not true. If we look back at creation in 11013 B.C., it is an interesting number, as Mr. Camping used to point out. It has the number “11” and a “0” and the number “13.” I do not put too much stock in this, but it is interesting that at with the very creation of the world God selected a year in which those two important numbers are within it, with the year “0” right in the middle. It suggests going from 11,000 years and then continue counting to 13,000 years and that will bring us to the end. As is stated in another passage, God knows the end from the beginning and I would not discount that God could state the end of the world in the creation date itself of 11013 B.C.
From 11013 B.C., we know the Bible emphasizes the number “11.” There is an 11-day journey referred to in Deuteronomy that points to the coming of Christ. Joseph’s death age was “110” and Joseph was a great type of Christ. Joshua’s death age was “110” and Joshua was a great type of Christ. The number “110” is “10 x 11.” But when we look at the date of creation, Christ did not come in exactly the 11,000th year from creation, which would have been 13 B.C. We could say that at that point of 13 B.C. there was a sort of 2,300-day period that went from 13 B.C. to His birth in the Jubilee year of 7 B.C. So, Christ entered the world in 7 B.C. or 11,006 years from creation. Then He lived in the world and went about His ministry and then He was crucified in 33 A.D. When we put it all together, we add the creation year of 11,013 + 33 and it totals 11,046 calendar years and then Christ completed His first coming. It was 11,046 calendar years or 11,045 actual years until it was completed, but the Bible just emphasizes the “11,” which points to the milestone of 11,000 years. You really cannot get any more finely tuned when you are dealing with types and figures, historical parables and the death ages of individuals like Joshua and Joseph, and so forth. Just try it some time. If you want to paint a picture to point to a span like 11,046 years or 11,045 years, how would you do that with someone’s age? But when you point out that the 11,000 mark signals the first coming and 13,000 years signals the second coming, then you can use Jacob’s age of “130” when he entered Egypt and all the numbers we have mentioned in relationship to “13” or multiples of “13.”
We know the first coming of Christ did fulfill the Word of God and all God had promised regarding the coming of the Messiah. It happened according to that timetable of 11,045 actual years or 11,046 calendar years. When we go back to the creation date again and we go to the time of the end of the world, we know that the year 1988 was the 13,000th year, just like 13 B.C. was the 11,000th year. We can pinpoint the end of the church age to that year. We can pinpoint the beginning of the Great Tribulation to that year. But, it would not be until 1994 (after 2,300 evening mornings) that God would pour out the Holy Spirit a second time and it would point to the second coming of Christ in that sense, as He came in the Jubilee year of 7 B.C. and He also came in 1994 in a Jubilee year. This has the same perfect relationship to 1988, the 13,000th year as the year 7 B.C. was to 13 B.C., the 11,000th year. They are in identical positioning, but exactly 2,000 years aPart.
If we go from 1994 to 2033, just like we went from 7 B.C.to 33 A.D., we come to the exact number of years for the first coming of Christ. It is parallel, but everything is separated by 2,000 years. We find that 2033 A.D. is 1,346 calendar years and 1,345 actual years. Do you see how that follows the pattern of the first coming of Christ?
So, because we are in the 13,029th year, it does not mean we have missed it and it is incorrect. You cannot know it is incorrect until you go to the year 2033 A.D., the exact number of years after the 13,000th year as the time when Christ went to the cross in 33 A.D. was in relationship to the 11,000th year. It was 11,045 actual years then and 13,045 actual years will take place in the year 2033 A.D.
This fulfilment of the things we read about regarding the promised seed coming to fruition and the granting of the Promised Land for an everlasting possession in this historical parable was 13 years, but remember Abram entered into the land of Canaan at the age of 75 and to the time when Ishmael was born was 11 years. Then it was 13 years from the birth of Ishmael to the conception of Isaac.
You know, in understanding the pattern in the first coming of Christ, we can see the pattern laid out before us and it is a duplicate insofar as the Jubilee year and insofar as the expected year to bring everything to conclusion. Right now, we are looking at the year 2033 A.D.
It is a shame and it is very sorrowful that so many people gave up and have gone back to “Egypt,” spiritually. They would tell you something else, but the fact is they have turned back from the direction God would have us to go and, yet, the time is still coming. It is coming still. We have the strongest indicators, it appears, and it is growing stronger and stronger in pointing to the year 2033 A.D. than anything we had previously. You can look at this time from the creation which matches with the first coming or you can look at the 2,000-year period itself (from 33A.D.to 2033 A. D.), as that is a major and very strong time path. Or, you can look at the flood in 4990 B.C.to 2033 A. D., which is 7,023 calendar years, just like creation to the flood was 6,023 actual years. These are three very strong time paths that are pointing to the same year.
And, here we are 13,029 years in to what would be 13,046 calendar years or 13,045 actual years and we are approaching quickly. We are coming fast upon it and, again, it is too bad that some people have impatiently gone back. No wonder the Bible says, “in your patience, possess ye your souls.” These people have impatiently given up and they have been horribly mistaken in thinking that “nothing happened” when something did happen. Of course, none of God’s true elect have given up. Yes, it is possible that some have turned away slightly and that is sin, but, for the most Part, those turning back are not saved. And anyone who is truly elect and turns away from the truth, God will make sure that it will not continue, just as He does not allow us to continue in a sin. God will turn His people “forward.” Forward is always the Biblical direction, as we wait on the Lord and look with great expectation for that which is fast approaching: “Behold, I come quickly.” It will be quick, according to God’s timetable and it will be speedy according to the first available instant in His times and seasons and His timetable for the end.
When we look at the first coming of Christ, there was the big announcement at His birth and the hoopla and then things died down and years passed, even decades. And, yet, God waited until it got close to 33 A.D. and in the year 29 A.D. Christ went about healing and doing many miracles, but up until that point there were a lot of years in which I am sure a lot of people turned back, even though they had heard the earlier reports of the coming Messiah. Because there was a period of inactivity, they concluded “nothing happened.” It was too bad for them. And it will be too bad for the professed elect in our day that have turned back. It is very, very sad that they have done so, because it is coming. It is quickly coming.