Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #14 of Genesis 33, and we are going to read Genesis 33:15-17:

And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

I will stop reading there.  We were looking at Daniel 8 in our last study, so let us pick up there, and go to Daniel 8:11-14:

Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

We have been looking at this, but we started in Genesis 33, where Esau is type of the Law, and the men with him were following the Law.  Esau offered to leave some of his men with Jacob, but Jacob refused: “What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord.”  Then we saw that at the time of the end, there was the final bringing in of the elect of God that were predestinated to salvation, and God had a plan to bring into His kingdom only those that were truly saved, unlike His plan for the church age when many entered into the churches and professed to be saved, and even giving the appearance of salvation, but the net broke.  We have been relating these things to the two major fishing expeditions that are laid out in the Gospel accounts. 

In the first fishing expedition, the net broke because many that came into the churches were not saved, and they had not really entered into the kingdom of heaven.  The net broke, and the “fish” could go through the hole in the netting and escape.  They were not safe and secure in God’s kingdom.

But in the second major fishing expedition, in John 21, the catch was secure.  The net did not break, and this is related to what we read concerning the 2,300 days in Daniel 8:14:

And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

That is, over the course of 2,300 days, the “daily” would be taken away, and the “daily” represents the Spirit of God, the Light of the Gospel, who is Christ Himself.  And His sanctuary was cast down, we are told in verse 11.  The word “sanctuary” is also in verse 14, where it says, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” and this word is the usual word for “holy.”  So it is when the holy place will be cleansed.  But prior to that, the daily was taken away, and the place of His holy place was cast down.  Then we saw the description of it being cast down in verse 13: “…the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot,”  This “holy place” refers to the New Testament churches and congregations.  We see this word translated as “sanctuary” is also translated as “holy” in Leviticus 16:1-2:

And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before JEHOVAH, and died; And JEOVAH said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

Here, the word “holy” is this same word translated as “sanctuary.”  It could have said, “…that he come not at all times into the sanctuary within the vail before the mercy seat.”  So we know it was talking about the “Holy of holies,” where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt, which signified God’s presence in the temple, and also in the city Jerusalem and in the people, the Jews.  It is the presence of God, the Holy One of Israel.  The holiness of God was there in the figure of the ark, and this made everything else that it touched holy.  It became a super holy place, and the temple was made holy.  Of course later, God rent the veil of the temple after Christ went to the cross, and that pictured that it was no longer the “holy place.”  God had removed Himself from Israel, and He no longer would dwell with them.  His presence was gone.

This word is translated as “holy” very often in the Old Testament.  It is also found in Psalm 79:1:

O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

This refers to Old Testament Jerusalem and the people of God, the Old Testament Jews.  But, spiritually, it represents the New Testament churches and congregations, as typified by Jerusalem and the people of Israel. 

What we are interested in regarding Daniel 8:14 is the statement, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”  The 2,300 days was the period of darkness that was in view when the disciples went fishing and caught nothing, because virtually no one was saved over the course of these 2,300 days, which is a period of about six years and four months.  We can pinpoint it with precision.  It began May 21, 1988, and it extended through September 7, 1994.  It was the 2,300 evening mornings.  On May 21, 1988, the church age ended, and the “early rain” stopped falling, and God stopped saving anyone within the churches and congregations due to the fact that He had saved all those He intended to save.  The “firstfruits,” typified by the 144,000, were brought in, and then after that rain came the famine of 2,300 days.  It was spiritual night or darkness, and this is the period that is in view when it says, “…the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot.”

But afterwards, the sanctuary would be cleansed, so prior to this the sanctuary would apply to the New Testament corporate church.  They were the sanctuary or holy place, and God’s presence was in the midst of the congregations, as we read of the Lord Jesus in Revelation 2:5:

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Christ is likened to the “candlestick,” and the candlestick is likened to the “daily.”  The candlestick was in place when Christ was in the midst of the congregations, but God warned them to repent or else He would come quickly, and the reference to coming quickly is a reference to His coming as Judge.  When we look at that phrase in Revelation, it is mentioned three times as a warning to the churches and three times as a warning to the world.  And the language “come quickly” means that it would be at the first available instance in God’s timetable of “times and seasons.”  The first time that Christ came quickly, or like a thief in the night, was when Christ came upon the churches to judge them, and that occurred at the first available instance after the church age had ended, which means that He came after 1,955 years.  We do not think that is “coming quickly,” but, again, it means He came at the first possible moment He could so in accordance with His timetable for things.  So there was the warning to the churches to repent, or Christ would come quickly to judge the churches, as judgment begins at the house of God.  That is now past.  It has already happened.  The churches were that “holy place,” the dwelling place of God and His Word, the Holy Bible.   Therefore, there was the association of God in their midst, and the Word of God in the pulpit made the churches the New Testament sanctuary or holy place.  Remember what we read in Matthew 24 when God makes reference to the book of Daniel, in Matthew 24:15-16:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

The holy place, or the sanctuary, was made holy by God’s presence among them and by God’s Word being with them.  But when you see Satan, the abomination of desolation, stand in the holy place where he should not be, then let him who reads understand it.  God would reveal these things through the Scriptures to the understanding of His people.  He would open their spiritual eyes to see, and then they would know.

It is just like when we read this, we can see it with perfect clarity.   It is so clear.  That was the pollution of the sanctuary after the church age ended, and over the course of those 2,300 days, which was the necessary period of famine in between the rains.  The sanctuary had been polluted, just as the net was broken, and now it would be cleansed, which would identify with the net that did not break.  We wonder, “How is that?”  Again, it said in Daniel 8:14:

And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look at exactly how God has cleansed the sanctuary.