Let us go to Isaiah 11. Before I read some verses there, I would just like to point out what we have talked about previously, which is what many of us know. We are on the verge of crossing Jordan. This is one way that the Bible puts it.
We have heard the song entitled, “Shall We Gather at the River?” Spiritually, this is what God has done. He has gathered His people by the water. The river Jordan is one way of looking at this or the Red Sea. We are right there at the point where it is time to cross over, to pass from this world into the next and into the Kingdom of Heaven.
This is just as the Bible has always said this would happen and God has guaranteed that this will happen. He has promised this and His Word is altogether true and faithful and trustworthy.
All of the events of the Bible first had to work themselves out. God had to accomplish some things, which He has done. He needed to save all of His elect and He has done this. He saved all of His people just prior to May 21, all whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
This act also brought the judgment on the world, on all of the unsaved people, because there is now no possibility for someone who is not saved today to become saved. The Book has been opened, as it says in Revelation 20, and it is Judgment Day. God is opening the Book and the names of all of the unsaved people of the world are not found in it. This is spiritually bringing the fire and the brimstone. This is the judgment on all of the earth at this time.
God has given us two historical examples of the crossover from this world to the next. In the case of the Jordan River, the waters were dried at the point of the crossing and then they went over into the Promised Land. In the case of the Red Sea, the sea parted into two parts; and then the Israelites went over on dry ground.
In both cases, all of the Jews were gathered. All of Israel came out of Egypt. There were not any Jews left there. As a matter of fact, from what we know from the Bible, there were not any Jews anywhere else in the world. This is because Jacob and his family went into Egypt. All of the people of Israel were there. They grew there, they multiplied there, and they came out of there. There were relations in other places, but there were no Jews. All of the Jews came out of Egypt and all of the Jews were by the Red Sea and all of them desperately needed a miracle once they saw that Pharaoh and the Egyptians were coming after them.
These are two historical examples that God gives us and they also teach some other things that I hope we will get a chance to look at as we go on. But I would also like to read from Isaiah 11. I think that we are going to see three stages here that are very familiar as we look at them and relate them to the great tribulation period and our present time. It says in Isaiah 11:10-11:
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse…
Who is the “root of Jesse”? This is Jesus. This was the problem as we were looking at those who had the seed fall on stony ground; the sun rises and scorches them. This is because it tells us in the parable that they had no root in themselves. They had not Christ who is the root of Jesse. Therefore, when tribulation and affliction arose for Christ’s sake, as it did on May 21 and into these five months, the heat of the sun scorched them and they could not continue to grow.
It continues:
…there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
To set the hand again the second time is pointing to the outpouring of the latter rain. One way that we identify this is the last 6100 days of the great tribulation. We also identify this as the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit or as the second Jubilee.
These are all saying the same thing. God began to send the Gospel into the world in a wonderful way outside of the churches and congregations. This was stage one.
Then we read in Isaiah 11:12:
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
This is stage two and this verse relates to Matthew 24:31:
And he shall send his angels [messengers] with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
This is what God has done. On May 21, all of His people were gathered. 2 Thessalonians 2 says that there would be a “gathering together unto him.” This is what is taking place now.
Look at it this way. He sought out His sheep, especially through sending the latter rain. He then found His sheep. He gathered them all together. Where? He gathered them into the sheepfold. Then He shut the door of the sheepfold, as it says in John 10.
When we were saying that the door would shut, we did not emphasize enough what God emphasizes in John 10, which is that it was a door to the sheepfold.
So He gathered all of the sheep. Then He shut the door because He has them all. Anyone now who is continuing to say that there is still salvation is like “a thief and a robber” who is trying to climb up some other way. They are certainly not going through the door because the door was shut.
Another thing that God did on Judgment Day on May 21 was to gather the sheep and to separate them from the goats. He put the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. It says that “a shepherd divideth his sheep,” He does this. As a shepherd, He puts His sheep on the right and the goats on the left.
This is spiritually what God has done now. He has separated the wheat from the tares. This was completed at the end of the church age. All of the tares who were left in the church were immediately bundled for the fire of Judgment Day. Now throughout this five-month process, there is a spiritual fire that is weeding out any others who were not in the churches but who still professed to be Christian and who, for whatever reason, clung to the believers and to these teachings from the Bible.
That was stage two. Then we read of stage three in Isaiah 11:15-16:
And JEHOVAH shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
God is going back here historically to the Red Sea, to Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt. They are gathering together by the sea.
Isaiah 11 is definitely looking at the great tribulation when God set His hand a second time and the time after that during these five months. He is saying that, once again, there will be an occasion where God makes dry waters and His people, the remnant, will go across. It is a highway for them and they will cross this dry ground. It is not said here, but this is pointing to crossing into Heaven.
This is what we saw in Revelation 16:12:
And the sixth angel [messenger] poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
The water is referring to the water of Babylon, which is typifying the whole world, and God has dried up the waters of the world. There is no more salvation.
What did the rich man who was in torment want? He wanted a drop of water to be applied to his tongue, because this represented salvation. There was no water where he was.
He was in torment and we are in five months of torment. That is how this five-month period is described. There is no water. The oceans, the seas, the rivers, the lakes, the streams, the creeks, and the puddles are all dried up all over the earth.
There is nowhere to go. There is no church, no ministry, no individual; there is nowhere that anyone can go to find even a drop of water that would allow them to become saved today if they are not already saved. There is still the Bible, there is still the Gospel, and there is still great blessing by God for His people; but for those who are not saved, it is Judgment Day.
It is the Day of Judgment. We have to realize this. We fully understood this when we thought that we would not be here. We fully understood that it was Judgment Day and that God would not save anyone for these five months. We just happen to be here and some people do not like this idea now. They want there to be the possibility of salvation for whatever reason, and yet the people of God understand that the Bible will not allow for this.
This is actually necessary, because God has to prepare the way. He has always literally done this historically. He has dried up waters, but this is a spiritual event that is taking place over these five months. He has spiritually dried up the waters from the earth and this is preparation for crossing into the Promised Land, into Heaven.
This was one thing that I wanted to look at. A second thing is if we go back to the book of Exodus, there are three different things that I wanted to take a look at. That was the first. A second thing is looking at how God has identified His people as sheep, which we are familiar with by now. We are very familiar with how Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep.” He emphasized this three times to Peter, which indicated that it was God’s purpose that sheep be fed. So I would like to take a look at how God views the crossing of the Red Sea from the perspective of the crossing of sheep.
For instance, it says in Exodus 10:8-9:
And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve JEHOVAH your God: but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks…
This word “flocks” is also translated as “sheep” many times. It continues:
…and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto JEHOVAH.
Moses was saying, “We will go with our sheep,” and we know that God uses animals at times to represent people. In this case, even though the people of Israel are leaving, there is also the fact that they would not leave their flocks or their sheep behind. This is tied in with this.
Let us go to Psalm 78:50-53:
He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
God is speaking here of the Exodus. He is indicating that their coming out of Egypt was like a shepherd who brought his sheep out. This says that He “led them on safely” and that He “guided them in the wilderness like a flock.”
We can see the tenderness of the Lord. Psalm 23 tells that the Lord is a shepherd. “Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.” We can see how He finds His people who, spiritually, were in captivity and in bondage to sin and to Satan. He delivered them, all of them. He freed them and they all go forth; now, He is leading them out.
John 10 tells us this, too. In John 10:2-3, we read:
But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
He “leadeth them out.” Once He has them all, the sheepfold door closes; and then it is time to go forth.
So He brought them out of Egypt by His plan. He could have taken them very quickly to the Promised Land, as we know. The land of the Philistines was near, but He did not do this. He did not think that is was wise to do this lest they see war and become afraid. Instead, He led them by the way of the wilderness and brought them to the Red Sea. But very quickly, He could have just taken them right up by the way of the Philistines and they would have been to the Promised Land.
He also could have brought us into Heaven immediately on May 21, but He did not. He did not. He had a two-part plan in mind. He first had the overall deliverance of His people. He gathered all the sheep. He led them out of captivity, out of bondage to sin and to Satan. Then He allows us to experience a wilderness sojourn for five months as we continue to be in this world. Yet the second part of His plan is coming soon.
Let us go to Isaiah 40 and we will see further how God looks at His people as sheep, especially at this time of deliverance. We read in Isaiah 40:10-11:
Behold, the Lord JEHOVAH will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
This sounds very much like salvation and Christ’s coming. It continues:
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
Do you see how kind and good and gentle a shepherd He is?
Do you remember what Jacob said to Esau when Esau came to him with 400 men and Esau wanted to leave some men to help Jacob tend the herd? Jacob said, “The children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me…I will lead on softly.”
This is what is in view here because God just saved a great multitude of people, which means that there are masses of young sheep. They are all over the place. God knows who they are; we do not.
So there were great numbers of young with them and God is this wonderful Shepherd who He is guiding His people very carefully and very gently to where we need to go. He is leading us in this wilderness to the point where He would have us be.
Let us go back to Exodus 14. This is where they are right at the edge of the sea. We read in Exodus 14:13-14:
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of JEHOVAH, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. JEHOVAH shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Remember what the prophet told Jehoshaphat and his army, “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle.” They went forth singing and praising the Lord. When they reached the watchtower in the wilderness, they saw that they were all dead corpses. God had won that battle.
Who won the battle at the Red Sea? God destroyed the whole army of Egypt with His mighty hand. The Israelites did not do one thing. They were afraid. They saw the Egyptians marching towards them. They saw them pressing towards them and knew that those Egyptians wanted nothing but to severely injure and kill them. God had just brought Egypt to their knees. He had killed their firstborn and they were furious. Here they were closing in, getting ever closer.
If you read the preceding verses, this is the point where they began to murmur. It does not say that they murmured here in Exodus, but we read in Psalm 106:7 that they “provoked him at the sea,” just like they provoked Him after the Red Sea at the waters of strife and many other times in their 40-year wilderness sojourn.
They did this even at this point, which was just days after witnessing the greatest deliverance imaginable with their very eyes. Even then, they quickly grew afraid. They quickly began to say, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt?”
This makes us wonder what they were referring to. When Moses and Aaron first went to Pharaoh, he made their burden even greater by not providing straw. We can imagine that they were murmuring then a lot about this man Moses who had come to deliver them. They probably said this at that time. Then once God did all of those mighty miracles, they quieted their mouths and did not say anything; but their nature was never changed.
We know that these individuals, for the most part, were unsaved people. God is using them here to typify saved people. But since they were unsaved historically, they feared. Actually, God does not point this out as a fault here. We can understand that Moses is speaking to all of Israel and that this would be addressed to us, too:
…Fear ye not, stand still…
We do not have to do any work. We do not have to do anything.
…stand still, and see the salvation of JEHOVAH…
Then we read in Exodus 14:15-16:
And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
So Moses was told to lift up his staff, his rod. This was probably his shepherd’s staff, because he was a shepherd in the land of Midian for forty years. This is where God found him and called the shepherd Moses. This was after He had humbled him awhile.
The prince Moses, the prince of Egypt, he was ready to deliver the people when he was a full forty years old, and yet it was not God’s timing. He had to flee from Pharaoh and I am sure that this was a time of great humbling. He had been brought down from the palace to the desert, from ruling over Egypt to actually ruling over sheep.
God did humble him and teach him. Then remember that when God finally comes to him from the voice of the burning bush, He tells Moses that he was going to go back to Egypt and bring a message to His people to deliver them. Moses, at this point, said, “Oh, no; not me,” because he had been greatly humbled.
God does this to His people, but He did take Moses and Aaron and He brought them back to Egypt. Moses was a shepherd of sheep whom God decided to use to lead out His people.
Let us take a look at Psalm 77:15:
Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
It is interesting how God emphasizes that Moses stretched out his hand or his arm as Moses used his staff. This is what parted the waters. We will take a look at this in a little bit.
Then it says in Psalm 77:16:
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
Do you remember Psalm 114? This really fits in with this verse. It says in Psalm 114:1-6:
When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?
Here God is indicating that when Moses stretched out his arm, the waters fled in fright. They were driven back. They ran. They ran from the strength of God and from the power of God. Hopefully, we will get a chance to think about what these waters represent in a little bit.
As we continue in Psalm 77:17-20, we read:
The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Here is God leading His sheep all the way through the Red Sea.
This is actually said again in Isaiah 63:11-13:
Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
We read here of “the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm.” We read in Isaiah 53, “To whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed?” The “arm of Jehovah” is a picture of Christ Himself.
We read in Isaiah 51:9-11:
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of JEHOVAH; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of JEHOVAH shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
Here is that glorious arm, Christ Himself. God says in Isaiah 63, “Mine own arm brought salvation unto me.” It is this arm that parted the sea and opened up the way in order for God’s people to pass over.
They were at the sea with nowhere to pass. God just divided it very literally and gave them a way to travel so that they could go across and escape. They fled and were delivered out of the hand of all who hated them. They were delivered from their enemies who had pursued them and had wanted to kill them, and this was because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us go to 1 Corinthians 10 and we will try to think about the sea a little bit with this information. We read in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2:
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
Now we can understand the saying, “baptized unto Moses.” It was not Moses, because he was just a man. It was whom Moses represented. He represented that glorious arm, the right hand of God who is Jesus Himself.
The Israelites followed Moses as he led them like a shepherd through the dry ground to cross the Red Sea. God spiritually views this act as a baptism. What is baptism but the washing away of our sin? We are cleansed when we are baptized by the Holy Spirit.
Physical baptism does not wash away any sin. Physical baptism can clean off a little dirt. It might clean off a dirty hand, but it will not clean your soul. Physical baptism never cleansed anyone’s sins. It never saved anyone. We must be baptized by the Holy Spirit and this baptism is only performed by God Himself to those whom He is pleased to save and to deliver them from their sins. He is the only One who can perform this baptism. He has already done this and He will do this no more.
Remember that Jesus said to James and John, “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Jesus actually answered this and said, “Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.” This is because the elect’s sins were in Christ as He made payment for them from before the foundation of the world.
The sea, which is picturing God’s wrath as His Word brings judgment on sin, parted because Jesus completed the payment. He made it in full. He paid for all the sins of His elect. Therefore, the wrath of God cannot touch them, not even the littlest bit of the wrath of God. It was completely dry ground. It was not muddy. It was not mire. There was not any water at all that touched the Israelites. They went over on dry ground, because none of God’s wrath applies anymore to the people of God.
Jesus did this before the foundation of the world in paying for the sins of His people. But there had to be an application of this in redeeming His people, which He did all through history as individuals heard the Gospel. Then He finished the application just prior to May 21, the last day of those 6100 days when He had set His hand again to recover the remnant of His people. This is how we were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. But the Egyptians were not baptized. They did not have their sins paid for by Christ. God’s glorious arm divided the sea only for His people. This was not done for the Egyptians.
Let us go back to Exodus 14:3:
For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
That is, they were sitting ducks or that they were helpless sheep. Pharaoh had this great army. They had some time to stew. They had just buried their firstborn. Pharaoh’s firstborn had died, too. I am sure that in their grief they also grew angry and frustrated that they had let Israel go. As they talked amongst themselves, we read what they said at the end of Exodus 14:5:
…Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
They must have wondered why they had let them go, especially after they had heard that they were entangled in the land. The Israelites had apparently not made a wise decision in which way to go. They were trapped, and so the Egyptians thought that they could go with the chariots that they still had and with the horsemen, with the whole mighty army of Egypt that had proven itself to be victorious against every other nation. They thought that they could go and destroy them.
So it says in Exodus 14:7-9:
And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. And JEHOVAH hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.
This was all of Egypt’s army, the complete host. This was all of the chariots, as well as all of the horsemen, all of the horses, and all of the foot soldiers. They all went.
God is emphasizing this to let us know that this was all the power of the enemy, including Pharaoh. Pharaoh died in the Red Sea. Forget that movie. He did not go back to the queen. He did not do that. He died in the Red Sea. The Bible tells us this in the Psalms. He died along with everyone else.
Remember that Pharaoh represents Satan and that the Egyptian army represents the forces of Satan or his kingdom. All the power of the kingdom of darkness was coming against the helpless people of God.
This is speaking of us. Us! We were nothing but helpless sheep who were all delivered on May 21. How do we defend ourselves? What do we do? What do we do against the media or against the opinion of the churches or against the calendar that has the date of October 21? The calendar is followed by October 22nd, and so they think that we have trapped ourselves. We are entangled. We cannot go any further.
This is true. We have no other date. We have no back up. Forget about 370 days in the ark. That does not fit anything. Forget about 2012 or any other date. October 21 is the only date that fits all of the information that God has given us.
Look at all that hangs on this. The end of the church age hangs on this, because it is the same calendar. The length of the great tribulation, the 23 years hangs on this. What God did during those 2300 evening/mornings hangs on this. The latter rain hangs on this. The saving of the great multitude hangs on this.
Doctrine after doctrine after doctrine is right there with us. There is no fall-back position. We have our backs up against the last place we can go, and this is exactly where God wants us. He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to realize that we have nowhere else to go. We have no other positions to go to. He wants us to look this way also, to be floundering in a sense, to look like we are unwise in everything. In this sense, He is going to bring out the enemy.
Somebody brought this up recently. A caller called up and brought up the city of Ai and how there was an ambush laid for them. Israel went to do them battle and then retreated, just as they did the first time. They showed weakness and this drew out all the men of war from the city of Ai, but there was an ambushment behind them. Once they pursued, then God set the city on fire and it went up like the smoke of a furnace.
This language relates to our day. God also uses the language of a snare for the people who are His enemies at this time.
The word “pursued” is the same word that is translated sometimes as “follow after.” When Saul pursued David, he followed after him. He was always interested in where David was. Saul would gather his men and go after David repeatedly.
This is also the word translated as “persecution.” This is true of this word in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.
Do the people of the world persecute the true believers? Yes. Of course, there are degrees of this. In history, we find that there was persecution. There were beheadings and burnings at the stake. There is always the persecution of being ostracized or having others separate themselves from us.
There are all of these different levels of persecution, but one thing that unites them all is the enemy’s focus on God’s people. It is like they are using a magnifying glass and watching the people of God.
Why are they watching so closely? Why is it that there are individuals who have listened to the Open Forum more times than I have and for a longer period than I have, but they did not listen to learn? They listened to find fault. “Now Mr. Camping, on such and such a date at such and such a time, you said…”
This caller would be very accurate with what had been stated at that time. It was incredible to realize the number of people who did this and to the degree that they listened and paid attention, but not to learn. They did not do this to learn. They were listening to find fault.
This continues to this day. There are groups. I am sure that some of you are aware of them. They have websites. There are individuals who send unsolicited emails. Why? This is constant, and it is not what we taught five years ago. It is what we taught last night. It is what we are teaching today.
They are listening and listening. They cannot wait. They put so much energy and so much effort into attacking Family Radio. Of course, this is because we are a false gospel. This is because we are a heresy. But who puts this kind of an effort into attacking heretical teachings?
I have no idea what the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach. I have no idea what many false gospels teach. I know what the Bible says and how to identify them, but I do not know what they are teaching and I have no interest in knowing what their latest point is.
Why are they following so closely? Why are they pursuing so hard? This is because this has been the case all through history.
If we go to Revelation 12, we will read of the woman who brought forth the man child. That child was Christ. This is referring to when He entered into the human race. The woman is representing the body of believers. Afterwards, Satan who is cast out of Heaven goes after the woman. It says in Revelation 12:12-13:
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
This is the same word in Romans 9:30-31 that speaks of following after righteousness. They are following. He followed the woman.
This is also the same word that is in 1 Corinthians 14:1 that says, “Follow after charity.” The word “follow” is the word “persecute.”
Satan followed the woman down through history. The length of time referenced here in Revelation 12 has to do with the entire church age. From the cross to 1988, Satan followed the woman. He followed the body of believers all through the ministry of Family Radio.
This was especially true as the churches were given up. God judged them and they had no truth. God had no concern about them.
Where was truth going forth from? It was coming from Family Radio. This is why all of the focus and the zeroing in was on the teachings of Family Radio. It was through Family Radio that the whole world heard about Judgment Day on May 21.
Do you think that it was an easy thing for the whole world to hear about a teaching from the Bible? Do you think just any old ministry could do this? Could any old false gospel have gone and put all of their money into that? Who else did this? Who else has even gotten close to bringing the message of Judgment Day to all of the world in the way that we just witnessed?
Nobody in all of history and in all of the world has ever been able to accomplish this. Of course, Family Radio was able to do this only because God is with them. Family Radio is the ministry that teaches that no man can do anything to get saved. It is all by the faith of Christ and not man’s works. This gives God the glory.
You will find if you check out other religions and other gospels that they will give you something to do, some work that you can do. They will tell you that you are to get baptized, that you are to partake of the Lord’s Table, that you are to accept Christ. But this is all works from works gospels.
Let us go to Nehemiah 9 and then we will go back to Exodus 14. In Nehemiah 9, we will look at this word “pursue,” as the Egyptians pursued Israel. We read in Nehemiah 9:9-11:
And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea; And showedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day. And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors [their pursuers] thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
This is just like Babylon being cast down like a millstone into the waters.
The pursuers of God’s people cannot do anything but pursue. They have to continue, and so they are. They are following us and following us.
How far did the Egyptians follow the Israelites? Is this not something? They actually went into the sea after them.
If we go back to Exodus 14:19-20, we read:
And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.
We do not have the time to get into this, but this is exactly what is happening today. God’s people have light within. They have the light of God within to see; but out in the world, there is darkness. The cloud is representing God’s Word. You can look in Numbers 9 to see how God identifies the cloud and the movements of Israel during the 40-year sojourn. He identifies the cloud with His commandments.
Then we read in Exodus 14:21:
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea…
Remember that this hand is Christ. It continues:
…and JEHOVAH caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind…
Here we see this direction again. This is the direction of the Kingdom of God. He is preparing the way of the kings of the east; that is, God’s people who are spiritually kings. Our kingdom is not here. This is identified with Christ because He comes form the east.
It continues:
…by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
This took awhile. It took a whole night for God to do this. Could He have done this instantaneously? Yes. But He had Moses stretch out his arm. Then the waters began to divide. God used the strong east wind to turn the waters back.
I do not know how this was possible. This was a miracle; especially that the waters stood there. It was nothing but a miracle that the waters parted and divided and stood like a wall on either side and that the ground was dry. Even if the waters had divided, the ground should have naturally been saturated and very hard to have traveled over. Instead, it was completely dry, but this took all night.
Then it goes on to say in Exodus 14:22-23:
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
They persecuted or followed them into the sea. They did not just go into the beginning of the sea. They went into the midst of the sea.
We know from what God has said that He had a wall of fire that was holding back the Egyptians while He worked all that night as He parted the sea. The sea parted and then Israel was commanded to go forward and to begin to travel across the dry ground.
At a certain point, God then must have dropped the wall of fire that was holding them back to allow them to pursue, which they did. They pursued into the midst of the sea and got to a point where it says in Exodus 14:24-25:
And it came to pass, that in the morning watch JEHOVAH looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for JEHOVAH fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
They just figured this out. They did not realize this when He destroyed their nation, they did not realize this when there was a pillar of fire holding them back, and they did not realize this when they saw the sea part.
This could only have been due to blindness, blindness of heart. It was hard-hearted blindness that allowed them to follow the Israelites into the midst of the sea, all the while thinking that they were going to win, that they were going to kill them, that they were going to overcome them.
This is the same blindness that the world operates under. They think that somehow everything is going to turn out right as this world continues. They think that they are going to get their own way, when everyone individually and personally knows that everyone is going to die. Nobody is going to win in the end.
So here, God allows them into the sea; but we have a problem. I was thinking that we are all at the edge of the Red Sea. October 21 is when the sea opens and then God just takes us to Heaven.
What is the problem? The problem is that they are following and that they are going quite a distance in following. When the sea parts, they might have been going on dry ground. It does say that they drove their chariot wheels heavily, and I do not know exactly what this meant. But they are going into the sea.
How could they follow us when God returns on October 21 and He takes His people out of the world? We cannot understand this in this way. The way to understand this is that it took all night for the sea to part.
We are in a time of darkness in the world. The light of the sun is dark. The light of the moon is dark. The stars have fallen. There are no lights in the sky. It is spiritual darkness.
When did God dry up the water of Babylon, the great river Euphrates? At what point? It was on May 21. He saved all of His elect. He ended salvation. He dried up the Gospel water. He will never save another soul. All 200 million are gathered together. The water is dry at that point. He has prepared the way of the kings of the east.
Have people been following us and pursuing since that point? Yes. Yes, they have. It would appear that this is what God has in view.
Let us read Exodus 14:27-28:
And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and JEHOVAH overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.
This would be October 21, the completion of the five months of judgment. All of the enemy of God is now drowned and the sea fell on top of them.
We read in Hebrews 11:29:
By faith [by Christ] they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
This is the same word for “devour,” as when Satan goes about as a roaring lion “seeking whom he may devour.” This is what happens to Satan himself. He pursued to devour God’s people and he ends up being devoured. He ends up drowning, as Pharaoh did. Spiritually, this pointed to Satan and mankind’s destruction.
Remember that in the flood of Noah’s day, the whole world drowned. I think that we can see a connection there as well.
Unfortunately, we have come to the end of our time. We will close here.