Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #20 of Genesis, chapter 4 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 4:25-26:

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of JEHOVAH.

As we pointed out in our last study, God is giving us an historical parable. Adam is a figure of the Lord Jesus. His wife pictures the “mother of us all,” Jerusalem above and the bearing of two sons identify with God’s elect: Abel, who was slain and Seth, another seed that God appointed instead of Abel. Seth was born to Adam and Eve when Adam was aged 130. That is a very significant age, but we are going to save the information for “130” when we get to Genesis, chapter 5, verse 3, where Adam’s age was given as 130. We will talk about Jacob and a couple of other people in the Bible where the number “13” is key, emphasizing the end of the world. We know based on how that number “130” is used that relates to the end of the world. It relates to 1988 because that was the 13,000th year of earth’s history and that is when the grievous 2,300 evening mornings of the Great Tribulation began and then on September 7, 1994 the Great Tribulation transitioned to its second part when God would save the great multitude outside of the churches and congregations.

So, this is not incidental language. God first lets us know about the separation of Cain and Abel when he inserted that Hebrew phrase: “And in the end of days it came to pass.” Then we find that another seed was given instead of Abel to Adam and Eve when Adam was 130 years old and, again, that age identifies with the time of the end or “the end of days,” just as it said in Genesis 4, verse 3.

There were two sons and this reminds us of two seasons:

1. the season of the church age;
2. the little season of the Great Tribulation.

It reminds us of two seasons of rain:

1. the early rain during the church age;
2. the Latter Rain during the last part of the Great Tribulation.

It reminds us of two kinds of fruit:

1. the firstfruits that were gathered during the 1,955 years of the church age;
2. the great multitude that came at the end in the feast of ingathering as the final fruits of the harvest came in during the about 17 years of the second part of the Great Tribulation.

Abel would identify with the firstfruits that were saved during the church age. Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, which relates to the year 1988 and the beginning of the Great Tribulation, so Seth identifies with the great multitude. We can see in a few places that in God’s salvation program He had planned for there to be “two sons” or two groups of children. It says in Isaiah 49:19-21:

For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

I will stop reading there. Notice the similarity. Eve lost her son Abel and then came another child that God appointed instead of Abel. Here, God speaks of “thy waste and thy desolate places,” and a place that is too narrow for thee and where you are being swallowed up. Then God mentions children you will have after you have lost the other. You have lost children and then you will gain children afterwards. Then the question is asked, “Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro?”

Let us turn to Revelation, chapter 7. You may remember that it mentions 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 12 tribes are mentioned, with 12,000 sealed (saved) from each tribe. Then 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;

It is significant that the 144,000 identify with the church age. They are children of God, the elect that were saved during the church age, but what happened to them? We know from the rest of the Bible that the judgment of God came upon the churches when Satan was loosed. The “two witnesses,” which represent the Law and the prophets, were slain and they were lying dead in the streets. So, apparently, the children of Israel were “lost,” even though we know that the elect are eternally saved. But as far as the salvation program in the churches, they were “lost” because the church age ended. The witness of God from the churches and congregations was finished. Was that it? Would there be no more children? Again, it says, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude,” so there were more children.

Again, we have to go to other parts of the Bible, but we know that outside the churches during the second part of the Great Tribulation God planned to stretch forth His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His seed and He saved an enormous number of people all over the earth in the scores of millions. Then that program was complete once the Great Tribulation ended. We see how that language matches what we are reading in Isaiah, chapter 49. Again, it says in Isaiah 49:20: “The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other.” And, again, it spoke in Revelation of something that happened after the 144,000, in Revelation 7:9:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude …

These are the children that Isaiah 49 is talking about and, if we need more confirmation, it goes on to say in Isaiah 49:21:

Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro?

If you follow the language of being “desolate” and a “captive,” it identifies with the God’s judgment on Judah, which in turn paints a picture of judgment on the churches. The word “captive” is the word that is used, again, and again, in the Book of Isaiah. They are desolate because the judgment came upon the churches and there was a spiritual desolation in the midst of all the world’s churches. God had commanded to go into Babylon.

Notice the questions: “Who hath begotten me these? And who has brought up these? These where had they been?" Now turn back to Revelation 7 and after this great multitude appeared, there is a question about them. It says 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?

It is just like the question in Isaiah 49: “These where have they been?” In other words, where did these other children (the great multitude) come from? When came they?

Do you see the similarity? There is the similarity in verse 20, referring to the children you will have after you have lost the other. There is similarity in their asking the questions, as if they were surprised. There is all kinds of wonder about where these children could have come from and then the answer is given 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…

This answers the question of Isaiah 49:21: “Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

They “came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” These are the children you will have after you have lost the other.

Do you see how the information in Genesis is assuring us and confirming to us that the timeline we have for the year 1988 is correct? It was the time when you would “lose” children; the church age would end and the time of the firstfruits. It was the time of the Great Tribulation when you would find other children, the great multitude of children.

This is why God’s people believe these things when we tie Isaiah 49 with Revelation 7 and with Genesis 4, the latter which said, “And in the end of days.” If that statement was not there, we could have maybe made some connections like the wheat and the tares, but it strengthens the connection because God wrote it that way in Genesis 4:3: “And in the end of days.” Then He separated two brothers and told us of another seed appointed instead of Abel.

Did it just so happen and is it only coincidence? We see these “coincidences” all the time. The Bible has an enormous amount of incredible “coincidences” and it is as if there was a brilliant, intelligent mind designing all this information and laying it out in a pattern and parable across the entire history of the world. Man cannot have it both ways and they criticize the Bible like it is just any other book or they do not give God the glory and honor He deserves or recognition that He is a “thinking” God that does know the end from the beginning. When He gave His Word, it was not just haphazard, coincidental or incidents that were not well thought out, but everything was very precise and intentional concerning the events that happened, the time in which they happened and their precise relationship to future events in God’s Biblical calendar of history.

Once, again, we are seeing such amazing connections and amazing links to the Biblical calendar we have received. It was handed down to us and much Bible study was put into the recognition of this timeline. It is a Biblical calendar because it is derived from the Bible and when we see these events unfolding in this way, with the connections between one Scripture and another, we have confirmation. The year 1988, the 13,000th year of earth’s history, was the beginning of the Great Tribulation. It was the time that one son (Abel) died and the children are lost, but it is the time of the appointment of a second son, Seth. It is a time for the great multitude: “And whence came they?” or, “Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?” The language is consistent and God is confirming that we are on the right track.

Let us go over to Isaiah 54:1:

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith JEHOVAH.

I am going to continue reading, but let us stop for a moment. What is in view? There are two sets of children. God is saying there are more children of the “desolate,” but that implies that the married wife also had children, so there are two sets of children just as we saw in Isaiah, chapter 49, where God used the language of waste and desolate places (verse 19) and language of having lost children and removing to and fro (verse 21); we saw how this language relates to the time of the Great Tribulation and the Great Tribulation is the time when there would be a great multitude of children, according to Revelation, chapter 7. So when we read in Isaiah 54, verse 1 where it said, “For more are the children of the desolate,” we can understand it to mean “more are the children of the Great Tribulation,” because the Great Tribulation was a time of desolation. There was spiritual desolation for the first 2,300 evening mornings and the desolation continued within the churches, but then God began to pour out His Holy Spirit during the Latter Rain outside of the churches, so “more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife.”

Why does it refer to a married wife? The married wife was national Israel at one time. Israel was married to God, historically. God relates the “144,000” to the 12 tribes of Israel, with 12,000 from each tribe. Spiritually, they represent the children of Israel. Israel is the married wife, so the Lord is saying that there will be more children of the Great Tribulation than there were children of the church age because the “144,000” were the firstfruits unto God that were saved over the 1,955 years of the church age. And, yes, we can give that specific number of 1,955 years of the church age, from 33AD to 1988, the 13,000th year of earth’s history.

It goes on to say in Isaiah 54:2-3:

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

God is going on to elaborate on the “more children,” so that is the reason for enlarging the tent and that fits in with what it said in Isaiah 49:19: “For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.” It is too confining because there are more children – there is the great multitude. More are the children of the desolate. This is the Bible’s teaching and I know that you and I have not (physically) seen the great multitude, but we also know that God is insisting in the Bible that there was a great multitude that was saved over the course of the Great Tribulation – they came out of “great tribulation.” They were more than were saved during the entire church age, based on this language of Revelation 7, Isaiah 49 and Isaiah 54, as well as other Scriptures that prove this fact. The Bible’s doctrine is that God planned to save a great multitude out of Great Tribulation. Remember that in Revelation, chapter 20 we also find two groups of saved individuals. It says in Revelation 20:4:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

These are all the elect that are in heaven and they identify with the firstfruits unto God because they did not worship the beast and the image because they lived and died before the Great Tribulation started when the beast rose up from the sea. They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years and that “thousand years” relates to the completeness of eternity – once you are saved you live forever. A “thousand years” is the completeness of whatever is in view and in this case it is eternity.

Then 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 particular “thousand years” is referring to the “thousand years” of the binding of Satan. He was bound at the cross in 33AD and he was bound for the entire period of the church age for 1,955 actual years. Then came the end of the church age and Satan was loosed for a “little season” of the Great Tribulation. Do you see how that fits with everything else? It fits with the language of the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation. The “rest of the dead” would be God’s elect and they were not born again until after the “thousand years” were finished or until the year 1988, the end of the church age. It does not get specific here and tell us which part of the Great Tribulation, but it tells us it was after the “thousand years” and then the rest of the dead would live. In Revelation, chapter 7 God was more specific and He told us it was the great multitude that came out of “great tribulation.” They are the mysterious children that were spoken of in Isaiah 49. More are the children of the Great Tribulation than of the church age.

All of these things are in view when God appointed another seed instead of Abel. There were two sons. One was slain by his wicked brother, but God raised up another. The firstfruits were the children of God and it is as though they are slain when the church age ended, but God raised up more children and not just a few more. It was a great multitude. There were more children of the desolate than of the married wife.

Now we can see why it says in Genesis 4:26 that Seth was born to Adam (a type of Christ) when Adam was 130 years old (representing 13,000 years when the Great Tribulation began in 1988) and Seth also had a son and called his name “Enos” or “men,” and then “began men to call upon the name of JEHOVAH.” It was during that time when the Word of God went out as never before all across the face of the earth, beginning in 1994. We are not that far removed from that time that we cannot remember. We remember how the whole world heard about Judgment Day, May 21, 2011 and they were warned. The watchmen blew the trumpet and many took warning as God saved the great multitude.