Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #10 of Revelation, chapter 10, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 10:6-7:

And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

If you have been following along with us, you will remember that we have been discussing the word “swear,” as God swore to Abraham.  He swore concerning the seed and He swore concerning the Promised Land, and all those things relate to the Gospel. 

God also swore concerning the people that came out of Egypt, but who murmured against Him; they were not truly His people, although they were physical descendents of Abraham, but they were not of that “promised seed” and they were not His elect.  So God swore that they would “not enter into his rest,” and that they would not, historically, go into the land of Canaan.

Now we were looking at a comparison and you could write this down in columns.  On one side, in one column, you could have the historical situation with the Israelites in Egypt and the coming out of Egypt; and on the other side, you could title it: “Babylon, as it relates to the world, during the Great Tribulation period.”  I am not going to spend a lot of time going back over this, but I want to finish this. 

There were five things:

1. The captivity of the Israelites in Egypt matches the captivity of God’s people in “Babylon,” as God commanded His people to leave the churches.  The historical command to the people of Judah was to go into captivity into Babylon and, spiritually, that was pointing to going out into the world where the “latter rain” would be during the Great Tribulation.
2. The Jews multiplied while in captivity in Egypt and they became a great nation.  Likewise, all of God’s elect in the Babylon of this world during the latter rain (during about the last 17 years of the Great Tribulation) became a great multitude from every people, nation and tongue.
3. There was a time of great deliverance for the Israelites in Egypt.  God multiplied them and, at the proper time, delivered them with a great deliverance.  That is exactly what God did with the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation.  The Israelites came out of Egypt and God’s elect came out of Great Tribulation, which ended after an exact 23 years or 8,400 days, on May 21, 2011.  In a spiritual sense, all those that were redeemed came out of the Babylon of this world and entered into the kingdom of God.  (This is spiritual for now as they were translated and lifted up to be seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, but there will be a literal, actual entering into God’s kingdom in both body and soul after the rapture.)
4. As soon as the great multitude was delivered from Egypt, they entered into a 40-year testing program from God; that is when God swore, “They will not enter into my rest,” and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years in many encampments; they experienced many trials and tribulations.  What is important for us to take note of is that when God said they will not enter into his rest, He was referring to the unbelievers that were Jews.  It says in Hebrew 3:17:

But with whom was he grieved forty years? was itnot 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.

Now this was an incredibly large number of Jews that came out of Egypt that were over the age of twenty and, actually, there were only a handful of believers, like Moses and Joshua and Caleb.  The overwhelming majority of them were unbelievers, but not if you would have asked them; they would have said they were descendents of Abraham and they were faithful; they would certainly have said they were “Israelites, indeed,” but not from God’s perspective, as God looked upon their hearts.  And time, after time, as He tried them, they failed the test and murmured against Him and rebelled, so God destroyed them over the course of the 40 years.  So here is the important thing from our perspective.  There was a great multitude of Israelites; they were all delivered and not one was left behind; they all ended into a 40-year wilderness sojourn and there were both true believers and unbelievers (all Jews) that experienced the same testing.  God brought the “hot sun” upon both groups.  The same hot sun that shined down upon Korah and Dathan was the same hot sun that shined down upon Joshua and Moses, so Joshua and Moses were also experiencing the testing throughout that 40-year period, and that identifies with what God did on May 21, 2011. 

There was a great multitude, God tells us, that were saved from the nations of the world and there were large numbers of people that “identified” with this great multitude; they also, for whatever reason or purpose, “joined up” in believing these things, handing out tracts concerning these things, and so forth.  They began to identify with God’s people.  Then May 21, 2011 came, that great day of deliverance when God saved all of His elect and brought them out of spiritual darkness into the light.  At that point, God brought all into testing and the test, of course, had to do with trusting God and waiting upon God.  And when things did not turn out as expected, right away some began to “murmur.”  It is amazing how similar it was.  In a way it was like that “hot sun” that beat down upon the Israelites.  These people began to immediately distance themselves from the teachings of the Bible that had locked in May 21, 2011, as Judgment Day, even though it is derived from the Biblical calendar history, from the Biblical evidence for the end of the church age and from other sound teachings from the Word of God.

Of course, time has continued and it has been almost three years since we entered into “these days after that tribulation” and, over the course of time, more and more people have fallen away.  More and more people returned to the churches and some went back to the world – they remembered “the leeks and the cucumbers,” just as some of the Israelites did when they lusted in the wilderness and desired to return to Egypt.  Some went back to “politics” and some went back to “social gospels,” or whatever other wants and desires they had for this world.  They returned and they did not stand fast.   Why?  It is because God has “sworn” and “taken an oath” that not one of these people will enter into His rest. 

Now I do not know who God’s elect are and who are not God’s elect.  I do not know who just “joined up” or who was just clinging to these things, but we can know that there is a great similarity between what happened when the Israelites came out of Egypt and what happened during the time of the Great Tribulation and into this present period of judgment, as God has “drawn out” Judgment Day.

Why did He not just make Judgment Day a single day?  It is all according to His sovereign will, but why did He not make it “five months”?  Or why did He not make it a year?  Why prolong it for four years and four months and sixteen days?  The 1,600 days is a period of time that is over four years long, but it is also a period that breaks down to “40 x 40.”  Just think about that.  Since May 21, 2011, it is as though we entered immediately into a period of “40 days,” and then you go through that period of “40 days,” and there is another period of “40 days,” and so on.  That continues for forty times forty, until you get to 1,600 days.  Then the 1,600^th day (or the 40^th x 40^th day) is also a day that would be the 10,000^th overall Day of Judgment, since May 21, 1988, when judgment began on the churches, on the house of God. 

In addition, the 1,600^th day is also the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Is that not amazing?  That one day, October 7, 2015, has the significance of being the end of the 40 x 40 days, since May 21, 2011, and that day will also have the significance of being the 10,000^th day since judgment began.  That day will have the further significance of the last day of Tabernacles and we are familiar with the language of the Bible, where Jesus says, “I will raise him up on the last day.”  We also read, “In the last day, that great day of the feast,” and that term “last day” identifies with the last day of the world and the rapture and resurrection and the completion of all of God’s promises – the completion of the oath which God has sworn and the day when God says that “there should be time no longer.”  It relates very much to that 10,000^th day, that 1,600^th day and that last day, that great day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  So we can see how all those things tie in with the fact that the Lord Jesus is “swearing” and taking an oath and how that relates to God’s salvation program.  He is swearing that not a single one of those people that were not truly God’s people will “enter in.” 

God has so devised and so designed the Day of Judgment, which is a parallel period of severe testing for the true believers, and He has so perfectly developed this period of time so that it is a snare upon all the unsaved people of the earth.  It is designed to “drive away” and cause those that were just “hangers on” to go away (to go to “Egypt”), to go away from trusting in the Word of God.  They no longer identify with those that endure to the end and continue through this “wilderness sojourn.”

• 5. After exactly 40 years (not 41 years or 45 years) the Israelites entered into the Promised Land of Canaan, the land of the oath and the land that God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give to them and their seed for an everlasting inheritance, and that identifies with the end of the period of testing, the 1,600 days, when it is our hope and expectation that at the end of the 1,600^th day, God will complete His judgment, finish His testing, and raises up all those that waited for Him and endured to the end – to that last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Those that are alive and remain upon the earth will then be raptured, after the Lord resurrects the dead bodies of the saints and joins them with their souls, and then all those living and remaining on the earth will be caught up with them to be with the Lord. 

That is our wonderful hope and we have comfort from the Bible that this is a legitimate hope. This is not just “drawing numbers” or throwing timelines together in any old way.  You know, we have to approach a timeline or a time path to the end of time like we would approach any other doctrine in the Word of God.  You do not develop a doctrine concerning “marriage and divorce,” for example, in a wishy-washy way.  You do not develop a doctrine concerning a woman’s role in teaching the Bible by just throwing in just any old verse.  You do not develop a doctrine of salvation by superficially grabbing hold of certain Scriptures that may indicate that a person can bring salvation to himself.  You have to take the time to harmonize these things with everything else the Bible has to say.  That is how all doctrine is rightly divided.  We must study to show ourselves approved, rightly dividing the Word of God and then doctrine comes forth carefully. 

Unfortunately, what some people have done during this time of confusion since May 21, 2011, is that they just find any “number.”  They see that the Bible talks about “three and one half years,” or the Bible talks about “1,335 days,” or the Bible talks about “1,260 days,” and they are grabbing left and right and inserting these numbers onto May 21, 2011, and where does it lead?  That is wrong and that is not how to come to proper doctrine.  

Well, did we not do that same thing with the 1,600 days?  No – we searched the Bible and we found a passage and chapter where God was focused on Judgment Day, and other information in the Bible confirmed and established that day as beginning on May 21, 2011.  Then we saw that from that point of May 21, 2011, there is a “number,” like the 1,600 furlongs, that identified with that day and then we see how God gives Biblical precedent for using things like “branches” and “sheaves” and “cubits” to identify with “time.”  So we searched and we wondered: “Can 1,600 furlongs represent 1,600 days?  And, if so, what would develop?”  Then we saw that everything fit together in an excellent way, just as a hand in a glove.  We have all come through a difficult winter and we have had to wear gloves.  And if you have a glove that fits very well, you put your hand in it and it just fits snugly, like it was just made for it.  That is what “1,600 days” was in relationship to the “8,400 days” of the judgment on the churches.  When you add them together, you have that even and perfect “10,000 days” of judgment and that completes the judgment, because judgment began at the house of God.  What would complete it?  The “1,600 days” brings it to “10,000 days,” which is a spiritual number of “completeness.”  More than that, it falls on the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and that identifies with the end of the world.  So you have to be careful in developing doctrine – you cannot just throw anything out there. 

We need to allow the Bible to guide us and for God to make identification with key points like Judgment Day.  To take a number from Revelation that is talking about the “two witnesses” and apply it to Judgment Day has no relationship – God was not talking about Judgment Day there; He was talking about the judgment on the churches when the “two witnesses” die, but He was not talking about May 21, 2011.  Also, you cannot take a figure out of Revelation 12, like the “1,260 days” that the woman hid herself in the wilderness; that had nothing to do with Judgment Day.  Likewise, the “1,335 days” of Daniel 12 relates to the ministry period of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so on.

So, again, the final and fifth point was that just as the Israelites entered the Promised Land of Canaan,  God’s people that are “alive and remain” and endure to the end will be brought into heaven.  God “whittled” the Israelites down (in death) until not one that He had sworn against entered into His rest.  Likewise, only God’s elect will remain and endure to the end and enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next study, we will move into Revelation 10:7:

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished…

There are a lot of interesting things God is talking about in that verse, so please join us for our next Bible study in the Book of Revelation.