Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #28 of Genesis, chapter 22, and we are continuing to read Genesis 22:15-19:

And the angel of JEHOVAH called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith JEHOVAH, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

In our last study, we were looking at the promise of blessing that God gave to Abraham and his seed, and we looked at the multiplying of that seed which was said to be as the stars of the heaven.  We saw that the stars were brought up previously to Abraham in statements in the book of Genesis.

Then we went to Deuteronomy, chapter 1, which was written in the 40^th year of the wilderness sojourn, almost at the conclusion of the entire time of the wilderness sojourn.  We saw an interesting statement made in Deuteronomy 1:10:

JEHOVAH your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

If that were literally true, then that would be a fulfillment of the statement made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would make their seed “as the stars of heaven for multitude.”  Historically, although Israel had a significant number of people, we know that all the men that were 20 years and older who came out of Egypt perished, except for a handful, like Joshua and Caleb.  But there were those that were under the age of 20 that grew up in the wilderness that were now said to be “as the stars of heaven for multitude.”  We have seen before that the “day of temptation” in the wilderness was a judgment of God upon the Israelites, as it says in Hebrews 3:8-11:

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

You see, the 40 years was the outpouring of the wrath of God, wherein He would cause them to wander around from encampment to encampment.  They did not enter in because they failed the test.  Their children that did enter in were a type and figure of God’s elect.  Since the 40-year “day of temptation” has so many similarities with the Day of Judgment that officially began in 1994 with judgment against the churches, we can understand this statement that the Lord moved Moses to state: “JEHOVAH your God hath multiplied you...”  Keep in mind what it says in Genesis 22:17:

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven…

In Deuteronomy 1, it was the 40^th year since Israel’s coming out of Egypt, which would have been the year 1408 or 1407 B. C. because the 40^th year was not yet completed.  The promise given to Abraham was many hundreds of years earlier, but, obviously, this was not what God had in view.  We know that from statements in the New Testament that Christ was the seed, and Jesus would not be born into the world for another 1,400 years.  Also, the seed counted in Christ, the elect, were becoming saved all throughout history until God saved the last one prior to May 21, 2011.  And, yet, here it says in Deuteronomy 1:10: “JEHOVAH your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.”  If that were true, historically, this would have fulfilled the promise given to Abraham, but it is not true historically.  Again, they were a significant number as a nation, but today we have cities that quadruple that number of about two million.  We have cities of eight, nine or 10 million, so what is a couple of million?  So this is another instance where the literal historical situation is being used as a figure, and in itself it cannot qualify to fulfill what it is pointing to, but what it points to (spiritually) does qualify to fulfill the multiplication of the seed of Abraham.  It is pointing to the great multitude that God saved out of Great Tribulation and brought them into the Day of Judgment.  God has been dealing with this great multitude since 1994, which was a Jubilee Year and a time of deliverance when the Latter Rain began to fall from heaven and the Gospel went out to the nations to begin saving over the (about) 17 years up until May 21, 2011.  Then that great multitude was brought into the Day of Judgment for the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  But God is not a respecter of persons, and Judgment Day was brought upon all – both the righteous and the wicked – and all people entered into this prolonged time period.  God is pouring out His wrath, spiritually, upon the unsaved inhabitants of the earth, while His elect children go (safely) through it.  The world is like a desert wasteland or wilderness.  It is a barren land because the Gospel of salvation is not falling anywhere in the world, including the churches.  It is a dry wasteland across the face of the earth, but the Lord will bring His people through it.

I do not know if you or I or anyone listening to this will be alive to make it all the way to the year 2033, but that year will come.  I am increasingly confident of that and, therefore, it can be said, “JEHOVAH your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.   We can actually say that today in the Day of Judgment.  In this prolonged day, the elect are like the stars of heaven for multitude.  The promise to Abraham has been fulfilled because everyone that was to become saved (whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life) have now been saved.  The great multitude has been brought together.  That is what it says in Revelation 7:9:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number…

We can relate that to the statement we read in Genesis 15, where God said, “Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them,” implying that no man could number them.

Again, it says 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;

Then the question was asked in Revelation 7:13:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

Where did they come from?  Of course, God had that question asked because He wanted the answer to be on the record.  He wanted us to know where they came from, as it says in Revelation 7:14:

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

The Great Tribulation is not something hidden any longer – it has been revealed to us, as God has revealed many things through the opening of His Word.  He has taken a “secret thing” and He has shown it to His people:  “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”  (Amos 3:7)  And the timeline for the church age of 1,955 years has been revealed, and the beginning of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 1988 has been revealed.  The concluding date for the Great Tribulation of May 21, 2011 has also been revealed, which was an exact 23 years to the very day or an exact 8,400 days.  The number “84” is a number that identifies with the Great Tribulation, as does the number “23.”  These things have been revealed and confirmed because of the timeline from the flood.  God told Moses, “And yet seven days,” and He would bring a flood of waters upon the world.  Seven historical days later in the calendar of Noah, on the “seventeenth day of the second month” in Noah’s 600^th year, God shut him in and brought the flood.  The waters began to fall from heaven and the rain would fall for 40 days and 40 nights.  That “seventeenth day of the second month” was the underlying Hebrew calendar date for May 21, 2011, the day when the wrath of God spiritually began to fall on the inhabitants of the earth, just as the rain fell in the days of Noah.  You see, that confirms the timelines for both the church age and the Great Tribulation.  Clearly, we can see how it confirms the 8,400^th day as the day of transition from judgment on the churches to judgment on the world.   It confirms that exact 23 years, because to “shut the door” has to do with Judgment Day, without any question, just as the rain falling in the days of Noah had to do with judgment day. 

In confirming the 23-year Great Tribulation, God simultaneously confirmed that our understanding of the end of the church age was correct, as it came to an end the day before Pentecost in 1988, and then judgment began at the house of God on May 21, 1988.  Then 2,300 evening mornings brought us to September 7,1994 and the beginning of the Latter Rain which continued for about 17 years until May 21, 2011 when the judgment transitioned from the churches exclusively to judgment upon all the unsaved inhabitants of the whole world.  The Bible confirms these things.  We know that the Great Tribulation took place over that time span of 23 years, so God intentionally caused the question to be asked concerning the great multitude: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  In other words, these were those that had been saved and their sins were washed away; they are wearing the fine white garments of the righteousness of Christ, and they came “out of great tribulation.”  These were the last fruits unto God.  The earlier verses in Revelation spoke of 12,000 from the 12 tribes totaling 144,000, and they were called the “firstfruits,” in Revelation 14.  There are the firstfruits and last fruits, as the fruits have to do with God’s salvation.

So, here is the language of the great multitude saved at the beginning of this 40-year period that God has arranged (from everything we can read) as a final testing program, especially designed for His people to see what is in their hearts.  Remember Deuteronomy 8 concerning the 40 years?  God did do that with Israel of old, but we can understand it to apply to us today that are living in this time period.  God did it to prove thee; that is, to test thee.  God did it to humble thee; that is, to to bring us into submission, broken before Him and His Word. 

In case I have missed something, let us read that again, in Deuteronomy 8:2:

And thou shalt remember all the way which JEHOVAH thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

That last part was the part I was looking for.  God is proving us to know what is in our hearts, as it says in 1Corinthians 3:13:

Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it…

The “day” of temptation and the “day” of judgment are synonymous with one another.  It goes on to say in 1Corinthians 3:13:

…because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

We could substitute the word “prove” for the word “try.”  You see, it is going to be made manifest or made known what is in your heart and my heart and everyone’s heart who claims to be a true believer.  A person can make the claim that they are one of the elect, but everyone’s claim will be manifested (or made known) what is in the heart of man, regardless of their spiritual condition of being “gold, silver, precious stones,” or “wood, hay stubble.”  It will be revealed.  The “day” will reveal it. 

That is what the 40-year time of Israel in the wilderness revealed, as the hot sun beat down upon them and they suffered from hunger or thirst.  It became evident through their murmuring, complaining and rebelliousness toward God, again, and again, and again, despite all the goodness, all the mercy and all the wonderful things that God had done for them.  He freed them and provided for their needs with water out of the rock and manna from heaven, and their shoes and clothing did not wear out.  During the entire time, God provided for them and, yet, they murmured.  At the first sign of trouble, they would complain and want to turn back. 

And that matches so well, does it not, with what has been happening over the last few decades during the Great Tribulation and now into the Day of Judgment?  So many have complained.  So many have spoken evilly.  So many have “loathed that light bread,” which points to none other than the Word of God that has been opened and revealed to the understanding of His people.  Many have loathed and reviled these truths that God had kept in reserve until this time period.  Our fathers never knew them, and the critics will even point that out in their criticisms: “The churches never accepted these doctrines like Christ having paid for sin at the foundation of the world, annihilation, the faith of Christ, understanding the true meaning of the Sunday Sabbath or (spiritual) baptism as the washing away of sin.”  They criticize, complain, murmur and despise the goodness of the Lord and, in so doing, they hearts are revealed.  Their true spiritual condition has shown itself.  And their bodies fall like carcases in the wilderness, once it is shown that they have failed the test.  They have returned to Egypt in their hearts, and this is one of the purposes for God having left His people on the earth in this Day of Judgment.  And when we finally reach the end of 40 years, He will bring us right to the point of entry into the Promised Land of Heaven, and those that cross over will have endured to the end.  They will not be those that murmured.  Remember what it also says in Hebrews, chapter 3 after telling us about the “day of temptation” that lasted 40 years, it says in Hebrews 3:15-19:

While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Then it goes on to say in Hebrews 4:1-2:

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

You see, they could not enter in because of unbelief; that is, there was a problem in their hearts, so God showed that throughout the 40 years.  Likewise, when we look at our present time period going back to 1994 to the present, we see individuals that will not humble themselves and bow before the Word of God and the things the Bible teaches.  They rise up against them.  Their pride manifests itself, as they come against God’s Word in their anger, and they show that they are proud and not humble.  They fail the test, and they reveal a heart of stone and a heart of unbelief, rather than a broken, contrite heart and the new heart that God gives each of His elect.  The hearts of the elect do “bend the knee” and submit to the will of God, no matter how grievous a thing it might be, whether it be in the day of judgment on the churches when we had our own family members in the churches, and God said we had to depart out.  The elect child of God, sorrowing, would even leave the churches with his own family members still remaining there, because that is the nature of that heart that God placed within him.  It is a heart that hears the voice of Christ and does the will of God, no matter how difficult and grievous it may be to do the will of God.  The elect child of God performs the doing of it by God’s moving within him to do so, and he came out.

It is the same today with this even more grievous time period.  If anyone thinks that (the Great Tribulation) was the most difficult thing you had to go through, now there is something even more grievous that God has kept for last.  It is the fact that God has shut the door of heaven and ended His salvation program, and this is what the people of God must share with others.  We take no pleasure in it.  Even in our own homes, there is a birth of a son or daughter or a grandson or granddaughter, and our loved ones comes to us and say, “You cannot believe that God stopped saving anyone all the way to 2011 – it is now so many years later.  It is not right.  It is not just.  It is cruel.”  And all we can say is this: “Oh, I would long that there still be salvation, too.”  As it says in the parable of the beggar in Luke, we would desire to bring some “water,” but we cannot.  Even though it touches our own house and our own family, all we can do is be broken before the Word of God, saying, “May God’s perfect will be done.”

As Jesus said as He was enduring the demonstration of the judgment of God in the Garden of Gethsemane:  “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”  That is the nature of the heart of an elect child of God.