Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #11 of Genesis, chapter 22. Again, we will read the first couple of verses in Genesis 22:1-2:
And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
We have been looking in the Bible at the word “tempt” and we have seen how God has an entire plan or program of “temptation,” which has to do with testing those that claim identification with the Bible and that say they are true believers. So at the time of the end, He has devised a brilliant plan that comes from His fountain of wisdom, wherein He has been opening up His Word, more and more, over the course of this 40-year period, which began with judgment on the churches and then transitioned to the world. It is a “day of temptation” and a Day of Judgment.
The Lord will rain down “manna from heaven” by opening up His Word at the time of the end to reveal many truths that had been sealed up and hidden until that time. He will feed His people and provide spiritual nourishment for us as we continue this “wilderness sojourn,” in a spiritual sense, over what appears to be a period of 40 inclusive years and 39 actual years.
Last time we were looking at other Biblical evidence that also points to 40 years. It points to the year 1994, as it did in Ezekiel 4 with the 390 days he laid on his left side, which ties in with 3,900 years from 1907 B. C. to 1994 A. D. That served as the starting point for the second phase when he laid on his right side for 40 days. The Lord said He had appointed him each day for a year, so we add 40 years to 1994. (We get that information from the Bible, not from me.)
We also saw that the 40 years (which the Lord called a “day of temptation” when He speaks of the 40-year wilderness sojourn) had a beginning point of “great deliverance” and a concluding point of entrance into the Promised Land after 40 years. Again, that fits with what we understand about 1994, a Jubilee Year. The Jubilee has to do with the deliverance of the captives. The year 2033 concludes all things with the entry into what the Promised Land of Canaan represented, the new heaven and new earth.
Then we looked at the “forty stripes” of Deuteronomy 25:1-3. It had to do with the limitation placed upon a judge. He could only sentence a criminal to forty stripes, and no more. Then we saw in 2Corinthians 11:24 where the Apostle Paul said, “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.” He was sentenced to that judgment five different times and on each occasion, he received only 39 stripes. We saw how that fits in very nicely with the “stripes” the Lord has been meting out on the churches since 1994, officially, and all the way up to today as God judges the entire world; the corporate church is just viewed now as another province of the kingdom of Babylon. The unsaved inhabitants in the churches are experiencing the same wrath of God as the unsaved inhabitants of the earth, so they are receiving more stripes. And, yet, the Bible says that only forty stripes can be administered, and the Apostle Paul had 39 stripes administered because the Jews were afraid of violating that Law. So, here, we see God laying out a (final) judgment program where there are 40 years in view, but there are 39 actual years. We can see how that fits into these things, but let us look at some other things.
First, we should realize that when Jesus was born in 7 B. C., it was a Jubilee year. From that Jubilee year in 7 B. C. until the year 1994 is exactly 2,000 years. We could break down 2,000 years as “40 x 50.” Every 50 years is a Jubilee year, so the year 1994 was the 40th Jubilee since Christ came as the essence of the Jubilee. From that point, there was the declaration to “set the captives free” over the course of the church age, with the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 33 A. D. Then 1994 was the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the conclusion of God’s overall salvation program. So it is very significant that 1994 is already identified with “40,” as it is the 40th Jubilee year. And, of course, the Jubilee began the Latter Rain in which God saved the great multitude, and it is still in view, even though God stopped saving people back on May 21, 2011. However, the “deliverance” is not complete until we get to the last day, the day of the resurrection and the rapture. That is the day when all the people of God are delivered “from this body of death,” and we receive new resurrected spiritual bodies. That will complete what the Jubilee always pointed to, spiritually. Again, if the mounting Biblical evidence is correct for the year 2033, then it would be after 40 Jubilee periods from the birth of Christ, plus 40 inclusive years. We can also call it 40 calendar years, because from 7 B. C. to 2033 A. D. is 2040 calendar years. So, again, it would be 40 Jubilees, plus 40 calendar years, and then God will bring all things to fulfilment or completion. That is another bit of Biblical evidence we are looking at, but one further piece of information has to do with Esau. It says in Genesis 26:34-35:
And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
When Esau was 40, it was the year 1967 B. C. He was born in the year 2007 B. C. In the Old Testament, we count down, so “2007 - 40 = 1967.” Both Jacob and Esau were 40 years old, but the Lord is focused on Esau because the name “Edom,” which Esau later takes, identifies with “Adam,” and God is really tying in Esau with Adam. We can see that God also ties Esau to Adam in other ways. For example, when God said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated,” it is really a summation of every saved and unsaved human being. Esau is a representative of all unsaved mankind, just as Adam was the representative of mankind.
So, after 40 years, God made a special point to let it be known in Genesis 26:34 that Esau married heathen women. He took heathen wives that were not approved by his parents. We see later with the example of Jacob what Esau should have done. He should have gone to the land of Haran and taken his wife from within the extended family. But he was a rebel. Here, God is indicating that after 40 years he failed the test. In the life of Esau, we constantly see him failing a test, like when he sold his birthright and Isaac gave the blessing to Jacob and not to him. It happened over and over again in the life of Esau. He would fail the test God put before him.
This was a very grievous failure. Remember, back in Genesis 6 when God saw that the sons of God were taking to wife the daughters of men, it resulted in God’s determination to bring the judgment of the flood. So it is not a light thing in the sight of God when those that identify with the kingdom of God start looking at the daughters of men and taking them as wives. It was a terrible failure indicating that Esau had failed the test. So the number “40” is in already in view, as Esau was 40 years old. But the number “40” is also in view when we look at a time path that flows from this incident. From 1967 B. C. to the year 2033 A. D. is exactly 4,000 years! The number “4,000” is “10 x 10 x 40,” or “40 x 100.” The multiples of “10” point to completeness and, of course, the number “40” relates to God’s testing or tempting program or His proving program: “Will you obey me, or no? Will you keep my commandments, or not?” He did this with Israel in the wilderness. He did this with the original Adam in the Garden of Eden when God set up the testing program of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Would Esau obey, or not? Esau did not obey. He failed, and he is a representative of all mankind. This is the reason we see this very direct and very powerful time path of 4,000 years that spans the time from the birth of Esau as well as Jacob because the elect have been on the earth just as long as the unsaved. But, again, God’s focus is on Esau and the fact that he is a representative of mankind. After 4,000 years, in the year 2033 it will be the 40th inclusive year since God began to judge the churches officially in 1994. And it will be the final failure of mankind, because at that point, God will bring to pass the completion of the judgment upon all that have failed His testing program over the course of the history of the world. Then He will destroy all the unsaved that are still alive on the earth with the final destruction of the earth. He will also destroy whatever remains of any unsaved that have ever lived upon the earth, as everything is burned up.
So that is a very powerful time path, especially as it falls on a year in which the 40-year time path ends from 1994. Again, we see 4,000 calendar years that end on the same date. This is all more Biblical evidence. This is one thing, but then we add it to the other things, as we work on a doctrine. We are trying to discover if this is the truth. Is this what the Bible is teaching? I have said it before, but there is an enormous amount of Biblical evidence pointing to the year 2033. We have not even talked about the pattern of Christ’s first coming and that 40-year period from 7 B. C. to 33 A. D. which matches 1994 through 2033. Christ was born in a Jubilee year in 7. B. C. And 1994 was a Jubilee year and from 1994 to 2033 is an identical length of time. There are also all kinds of other time paths that we have talked about on occasion. We are not even getting into that right now, but we are just looking at this number “40” and how this 40-year period stands out. It greatly stands out.
Let us look at something else. This is fairly recent. I was just looking up the word “forty” again, and I saw something interesting concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:1-2:
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Then Satan came and tempted Him, and He passed the test and Satan fled. Now that is very interesting because, again, we see this number “40,” regarding the forty days and forty nights. We know God often uses “40” in association with the wilderness sojourn of 40 years. When Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments, how long was He on the mount? It was 40 days and 40 nights.
By the way, Moses did this twice. When he came down with the first set of the Ten Commandments, he found that Israel was not faithfully waiting, but they were involved in idolatry. So he broke the two tables of stone, and there was an awful judgment upon them for their involvement in spiritual fornication. Then Moses went back up the mountain. How long? It was 40 days and 40 nights. Then he came back down the second time, and he did not break the stones with the Ten Commandments.
We talked about this recently at the last “Day in the Word,” and how this relates to the two fishing expeditions we read about in the New Testament. The first time the net broke, just like the first time when Moses came down from the mountain and broke the Ten Commandments. The second time, in John 21, the net did not break. We are not going to get into that, except to say that it, too, can be related to the two outpourings of the Holy Spirit. The two fishing expeditions and the two occasions that Moses received the Ten Commandments can be related to the two Jubilee years (7 B. C. and 1994 A. D.) which were beginning points for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (Note: It took from 7 B. C. to 33 A.D. before the Holy Spirit was actually poured out, but Jesus was the essence of the Jubilee, born into this world in 7 B.C.)
I just said that because Moses’ 40 days and nights on the mountain two different times can be related to the first and second coming of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 4, when the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He went into the wilderness to be tempted immediately after He came up out of the water (of baptism), from everything we can read. He was commissioned, as it were. Of course, there is deeper spiritual meaning to His baptism and coming up out of the water and the dove lighting upon Him, but we will not talk about that now. However, that started His period of ministry, which began with His temptation of 40 days and 40 nights. Following that, He would go about his three and a half years of His ministry. He would carry out His ministry and then go to the cross and die in a demonstration. Then early that Sunday morning, He rose from the dead. We read in Acts 1:1-3:
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Here, again, there are 40 days in view. After He completed His ministry on earth, He rose from the dead and showed Himself alive for 40 days. In an interesting way, we see that the Lord Jesus began His ministry with 40 days of temptation, and then there was the period of ministry, followed by another 40-day period. They “bookend” His ministry, coming at either end of His ministry. How long did He minister? It was three and a half years.
I hope you see what is developing here, because we know that from when Christ was born in the Jubilee year of 7 B. C. to 33 A. D. was 40 calendar years. Then what happened after that? Let us allow the Bible to tell us, in Revelation 12, where it speaks of the spiritual woman that brought forth Christ, which it has to do with the time He entered into this earth in 7 B. C. It says in Revelation 12:5-6:
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
The reference to “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (1,260 days) is a reference to the people of God that were in the churches; they would go through the wilderness of this world for “1,260 days.” If you divide the 1,260 days by 365 days, you get “3.5” or “three and a half years.” Jesus was tempted for 40 days, ministered for three and a half years and then showed Himself for 40 days. Christ entered into the world for 40 calendar years, from 7 B. C. to 33 A. D. From that point, there was a wilderness experience for the people of God as the Holy Spirit was poured out over the course of the New Testament church age. And then what? After that spiritual three and a half years, remember what we read in Daniel 9 about the seventieth week, in Daniel 9:27:
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…
This is why there is further confirmation that the period of Christ’s ministry was “three and a half years” or half a week. Then when He went to the cross, the sacrificial system of Israel did cease.
It goes on to say in Daniel 9:27:
… and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
That is, the second half of the seventieth week extends to the time when there is an overspreading of abomination and it is made desolate. Remember that Matthew 24 speaks about the “abomination of desolation,” and officially it was 1994 when Satan began to rule in judgment upon the churches and congregations – after the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 and after the 1,260 days the “woman” fled into the wilderness and had been kept safe and secure from Satan. But then Satan entered into the churches and the woman’s safety, as it were, is no more. Than what happened in 1994? There is another 40-year period from 1994 to 2033, or 40 inclusive years.
In other words, we can see that Christ began His ministry with 40 days of temptation. Then there was the three and a half years of ministry itself, followed by the Lord Jesus showing Himself for 40 days. Likewise, Christ entered into the world for 40 calendar years to 33 A. D., followed by a prolonged “three and a half years” that stretched from 33 A. D. to 1994; and followed, again, by 40 years. They are “bookends” over a period of time that is identified with the wilderness sojourn of the people of God, as Christ was working through His people during that period of time, just as He ministered the first time on earth and His people minister to the world during the 1,260 days or three and a half years, concluding with another 40 years. After 40 days of showing Himself, Christ went up to heaven. Of course, if we are correct, after 40 years, in the year 2033, the body of Christ, His people, will go up to heaven.