We started looking at Revelation 6 last week. We read in Revelation 6:11-17:
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Last week, we started looking at this. We were directed here from the book of Zephaniah because it speaks about the Day of the Lord, and the same language is found in this passage in Revelation where it speaks of “the great day of His wrath is come.”
We are trying to understand how God is viewing this and how He is instructing us. We have learned from the Bible that the Day of the Lord begins when God begins the judgment process on the churches and congregations, and then it will transition into the Final Day, the Last Day, the Day when men and women are standing before God for judgment. God will then cast all of the unsaved into Hell.
But first, His wrath, His anger, begins on the churches and congregations, and there are several verses that show this in the Bible. 1 Peter 4:17 says, “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God,” and there are verses in Jeremiah that indicate that God begins judging those whom are called by His Name. Then Jeremiah goes into the judgment on all of the other nations of the world.
Here in Revelation 6, it seems, it appears, as you first look at it, it is the very end of the world itself. As you read it, it is talking about the sun being darkened, the moon being darkened as blood, and the stars falling. There is an earthquake. Every mountain and island is moved out of its place.
Some people want to look at this literally, but there are some problems if it is looked at literally. Just consider what it says in Revelation 6:13:
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth…
If we are looking at this literally and stars—not one star, but stars, plural—are falling to the earth, what is going to happen to the earth? The stars are like the sun, our sun, are they not? They are burning with fervent heat. They are tremendous balls of gas that send forth great light. If they are falling from Heaven and approaching earth’s atmosphere, any way you look at it, if they were to get anywhere close to earth, what would happen to the earth? If one star got anywhere near us, the earth would be burned up in that fervent heat of 2 Peter 3. That would come into play and we would melt with that fervent heat. But here it says that stars (plural) are falling to the earth.
In discussing this with someone recently, someone said, “Well, it does not have to be a whole star. It does not have to be the enormous stars that are out there. It could be bits and pieces of stars, kind of like meteorites that are falling to the earth.” But, immediately, when you start doing that and when you start saying that kind of a thing, you are theorizing and speculating and you are not taking it literally anymore—you have ceased to take it literally. Some say, “Well, yes, but God could suspend the natural processes and the natural workings of the universe.” Yes, but a star? How can stars—that are so many times bigger than the earth—fall to the earth and God suspend the natural workings of the universe just so that the world does not burn up? Yes, but you have a star sitting on your planet—not one, you have several stars sitting on your planet! It does not leave much room.
You see, you have some problems; you have some major problems, because it says, “the stars of Heaven fell unto the earth.” Then we read in Revelation 6:14:
And the heaven departed as a scroll…and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
In this world, we are familiar with earthquakes. Earthquakes cause the earth to shake; the earth shakes. Yet when we have an earthquake, normally, the mountains stay put. It would be a cataclysmic earthquake; it would be an enormous quake if one mountain were moved out of its place or if one island was moved out of its place. But here it says, “every mountain” upon earth, “every…island” is moved, and the stars are falling to the earth, simultaneously.
Then, who is going to survive this? Who is going to survive any of this? We saw one little earthquake that took place out there in the sea and a tsunami developed and 150-200,000 people were killed. Well, what if it is worldwide? What if it is all of these mountains all across the face of the earth and so forth? Who is going to survive?
Yet we read of seven groups of people in Revelation 6:15:
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
I do not know about you, but if the mountains just did a little skip and hop, where they had been settled in a certain position ever since God formed them but now, all of a sudden, they moved out of their place, one of the last places of refuge that I would probably want to go to is that mountain that just showed itself to be so untrustworthy. Yet it says that these people are hiding themselves in the dens and in the mountains, “Cover us! Cover us!”
We can see that if we look at this literally, we have problems. We have problems, and this is without going into many other problems that we could point out. Since this is found in the book of Revelation and the book of Revelation speaks about a beast coming out of the earth as well as many other things that are symbolic—things that are really parables that God has given us—we wonder, “Could there be something else in view here other than the literal destruction at the end of the world, because these people are still continuing to exist and they are still able to cry out that the Great Day of His wrath is come?” Well that was what we were looking at last week.
You know, there is discussion of the sun, moon, and stars in several places in the Bible. Let us go to Matthew 24:29, where it says:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Then over in Mark 13:24:
But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
If you read this carefully, it is saying that for a period of days, after the tribulation, these events will be taking place in the sun, the moon, and the stars. When you factor in that stars are falling to earth, as it says here in Mark 13:25…
And the stars of heaven shall fall…
…we realize that this is very similar to Revelation 6.
Just consider the enormous consequences of this happening, literally. God is still speaking of a period of time known as “those days” when this is taking place, even though if the sun, moon, and stars are out of action, there would not be any time keepers for people to be able to really track time anymore by days, and there would be no differentiation between day and night.
So God does talk about the sun, moon, and stars in several places in the Bible—Old Testament and New Testament—but there is something unusual about Revelation 6:12, where it says:
…there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
The moon being like blood is not very common in the Bible. We do not found it in every single place where we read about the sun, moon, and stars. We only find three times in the Bible where the moon turns into blood or is like blood and is darkened.
God uses this type of description in Acts 2:16-21. It says there:
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
This is an unusual place to put a verse that is dealing with salvation and deliverance. Actually we know that in Acts 2, three thousand became saved on the day of Pentecost. But it is interesting that Peter says “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” and then he speaks of “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…and the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood…and it shall come to pass, whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved”—all in the same context. “This is that”—not at the Cross. Yes, it is true that the sun was darkened at the Cross but was the moon turned to blood, literally? No, the moon was not turned to blood at the Cross. “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”
So here we are at the day of Pentecost and these Apostles of Jesus, these Jews, begin speaking in all of the different languages of those who have gathered in Jerusalem from the many different nations—they were Jews from various nations, round about—and they were speaking in those languages, even though they had never learned those languages, and they were hearing the Gospel. God was indicating that it was now the time to send the Gospel into all of the world to teach all nations the things of the Gospel, and three thousand became saved, fulfilling the prophesy in the book of Joel, “this is that”—and it is in the same context. Following the language of the sun being darkened and the moon turning to blood, salvation—salvation.
So this is very interesting and we wonder, “Well, what does the book of Joel say, because it is pointing us back there?” This is the third place in the Bible, the only other place in the Bible, where the language says that the moon was turned to blood. The book of Joel is before Amos and after Hosea. If we go back to Joel 2:28-32, it says:
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood…
This is the third and last time in the Bible that we find this language, “the moon became as blood” or “moon into blood.”
… before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Again, the moon turned into blood and there shall be deliverance—there shall be salvation.
One time, somebody asked me a question. They said, “Look at Joel 2:28.” Then they read it, where it says:
And it shall come to pass afterward…
And then they asked, “After what? After what?” That made me look and think about it, and, well, we know the answer, because it is quoted in the book of Acts, in Acts 2. It is the Feast of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God is beginning, officially, to evangelize the world. We know that this is what it is talking about: after God begins to bring the Gospel to the world, after Jesus went to the Cross. But it is found here in Joel 2.
A little higher up in this chapter, in Joel 2:23, it says:
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately (or righteously), and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain as the first.
Just a note, we should read this as “as the first” rather than “in the first month.”
So we have God speaking of the rain, the rain from Isaiah 55:10-11 or Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32:1-2 will tell us that the rain is likened to God’s Word. His Word will fall as the rain. So in Acts 2 when it is the day of Pentecost, which signals the Feast of Firstfruits, the Gospel begins to go out, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”
The prophesying of the sons and daughters is bringing the “rain.” It is bringing the rain of the Word of God—the rain of the Gospel. The rain that God intends to bless to save individuals in the world amongst the nations of the world, as the Church Age would get underway and go out into the world.
So “afterward” in Joel 2:28 is referring to the former rain, as it says here in Joel 2:23:
…and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain…
After that, well, the sun is darkened in the nation of Israel. The light of the Gospel is put out. The moon, which carries the reflected light of the sun, will be turned to blood. This is because the Word of God that is within the nation of Israel will no longer be a blessing to them but a judgment because the Lord Jesus walked amongst them and they did not believe that He was the Messiah. They did not believe God and so they ceased to be the people of God forever. There was nothing left but judgment for them, unless God had mercy on certain individuals. But as a nation, as a corporate body, they were judged. The Light of the Gospel was put out completely, forever, in Israel. The sun was darkened, the moon would not give its light, and your sons and daughter will prophesy. But as a result of this, do you remember what we read in Romans 11:11? We read there:
I say then, Have they stumbled…
This is speaking of Israel.
…that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
On the one hand, judgment, and on the other hand, “a great door and effectual” is opened up to the world. The Gentiles will now hear the Gospel and God’s early rain or His former rain begins to fall across the face of the earth.
The interesting thing is that the former rain is joined to the latter rain in Joel 2:23, “the former rain, and the latter rain as the first.” So could it be that God has a plan that when He begins to evangelize the world a second time, when He is going to blow the trumpet for the second Jubilee and save a great multitude of people in the world, He will once again darken the sun and turn the moon to blood within the churches and congregations, and then your sons and daughters will prophesy?
We know that the Bible tells us that God is going to save a great multitude of people. How is He going to accomplish this? How is He going to get this done? Your sons and daughters will prophesy. This is the only way.
When we read this verse, this just means that believers, children of God, the elect, will carry the message. We will share. We will witness. We will testify to the truth of what the Bible says. Through this, God is going to save a great multitude. Of course, it helps to have the electronic medium to share this message, because then it can be multiplied across the face of the earth through radio and internet, through all of the things and through all of the technology that God has developed today where this great multitude will hear and will become saved.
But you see, in Revelation 6, we have the Great Tribulation. We have the Great Tribulation and, again, the sun is darkened and the moon is not giving its light, and the Great Tribulation ties in with the latter rain. So it is not the end of the world. It is not the end of the world.
At this point, let us not lose sight of the fact that the world is going to be destroyed. There is nothing that is going to last forever in this world or that will endure. The mountains are going to be destroyed, and the seas and the land. The Bible is very clear in 2 Peter 3 and in other places that there will be a literal destruction of this earth. But in Revelation 6, God is looking toward a spiritual truth. He is trying to teach us that there will be judgment coming on the churches and congregations, where, once again, the people of God will be sent forth to evangelize the world and the sons and daughters will prophesy.
Then we read in Revelation 6:13:
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
So the stars of heaven are likened to a fig tree that has some fruit on it. There is a wind that comes and it shakes the branches. It is a mighty wind and the fruit that is on there begins to drop to the earth. God is saying that this is what the stars of heaven are like.
Let us just look at this idea of the stars of heaven. If we go to Hebrews 11:12, it says:
Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky…
This is the same word “heaven” that is in Revelation 6.
…the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
So the stars of heaven are being associated with the promise to Abraham—your seed will be as the stars of the heaven.
Let us go back to Exodus 32:13 and look at this:
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
Actually if there is one verse that we can point to, and the Bible does this, if there is one verse somewhere, God can define a term. If there is just one or two verses and you are looking for what God means by something and what the spiritual meaning of it is, God can use those one or two verses. But when it comes to the stars, they are numerous—the verses are all over the place, where God again and again and again is assigning a spiritual meaning to the stars. Really, we would have to work at it to miss it—to miss what He is saying.
Let us go to Isaiah 14:12-13, where we read:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
There, Lucifer, who is Satan, is saying that he is going to “ascend into heaven,” and he is going to exalt his throne above “stars.” Then the next thing you know, “I will sit upon the mount of the congregation”—this is the church. This is referring to the church because the church is where the stars, spiritually, are found. Actually, keep this in mind because this is also giving us a definition for “heaven” as being the churches and congregations—not the heaven that is out there, the expanse.
Or look at Daniel 8, where it is speaking of the he goat. We read in Daniel 8:10-12:
And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.
Can Satan cast down stars, literal stars, to the ground? No, but those individuals who God likens to “the stars of heaven for multitude,” can he cast them down? Yes, because he is stomping on the truth of God’s Word. In the process, the stars are cast down to the ground.
Let us go to Joel again, Joel 2, but a little earlier. In the first few verses, it speaks of the assault of Satan during the Great Tribulation against the church. Continuing in this context, we read in Joel 2:9:
They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
This is how John 10 describes Satan coming into the church.
Continuing in Joel 2:10-11:
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
This is the army that God commissioned when He loosed Satan to come against the church to destroy the churches and congregations. Here the assault of Satan is likened to the sun being darkened and the moon being dark and the stars withdrawing their shining.
Or look over at Micah, which is after Amos. In Micah 3:5-6, it says:
Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
This is not over all of the world; this is not literal. It is over those in the church who have resisted the truth of God’s Word. They want nothing to do with it, so they are in spiritual darkness.
Or let us go to Obadiah. In Obadiah, which is before Jonah, we read in Obadiah 1:3-4, which is a one-chapter book:
The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.
This is referring to someone who brings salvation to themselves, thereby insisting that they are one of the stars of heaven, they are one of Abraham’s seed, they are one of the elect of God.
Yes, but they have exalted themselves. They accepted Christ or they took some action that they think got them saved. They have lifted themselves up to Heaven. But God says, no, He is going to bring them down. On that Day of Judgment, they are going to be saying “Lord, Lord, did I not do many things in Your Name?” Yet they were never truly born again. So, again, the stars here are not referring to literal stars—again and again and again.
Let us go to Revelation 12:1:
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Here is the sun, moon, and stars. This woman will bring forth the man child, who is the Lord Jesus. She represents the body of believers, and you can read Revelation 12 to see this. You can also go back to Genesis 37, when Joseph has one of his dreams. In this dream, Jacob is given the designation of the sun. The mother is given the designation of the moon, and Joseph’s brethren are called “stars” that come and bow down to him.
Again, Jacob and his family represent the body of believers who are spiritually assigned this designation by God as being the sun, the moon, and the stars. They are all wrapped up within the believers, within the true children of God. God has given them this designation because they are light bearers, or light carriers, as they are bringing the Gospel light to the world. They are like luminaries that are shining in the darkness of this world.
So if God determines, as He has in the past in the nation of Israel, that there is where He would place Himself and that there is where the people of God were to be in the Old Testament, then He ceases to use them and instead calls His people out, then Israel becomes dark, spiritually. Or if God determines in the New Testament during the Church Age that believers will be in churches and congregations, then they have the lights of the Gospel, the light of the candlestick. They are the sun, the moon, and the stars.
But if we come to the time when judgment begins upon the church, then God at first, originally, left the church, and the believers remained, did He not? God left the church at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Well God identifies Himself as the sun in several places, but the believers are totally wrapped up in the sun, moon, and stars, because the sun is their covering, as it says here in Revelation 12:1:
…a woman clothed with the sun…
This is the covering of Christ’s righteousness.
…and the moon under her feet…
This is representing the Law of God that can no more condemn us because our sins have been paid for.
…and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
That is representing the salvation that God gives each believer.
So it is entirely wrapped up in the body of believers. This is why it is not until the dividing point of the Great Tribulation that the sun, moon, and stars are said to be darkened.
Let us also go to Jude, which is the little Epistle right before Revelation. I really want to make a point of this because there is so much information. In Jude 1:13, speaking of false prophets, it says:
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Because they are not true believers, they are like “wandering stars,” but they are still like stars. They are still being likened to stars.
Or let us go to Revelation 1:16, speaking of the Lord Jesus:
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
Now go down to Revelation 1:20:
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches…
So God is defining for us who the seven stars are. They are in Christ’s right hand. They are the “angels of the seven churches.” Then when you read Revelation 2 and 3, it refers to seven congregations—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. There are seven congregations and each one of the addresses unto the congregation is unto “the angel of the church”: “to the angel of the church in Philadelphia” and “to the angel of the church in Pergamos,” and so forth. So there are seven angels. There are seven angels and God is speaking to each of the angels of the seven churches and those seven angels are seven stars. They are one and the same. They are synonymous.
Why is this important? Well, when we go to Revelation 15, and we have looked at this in the past, it says in Revelation 15:1:
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Then in Revelation 15:5-6:
And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: and the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
This is an astounding statement, because the seven angels were placed and position by God in seven churches where, symbolically, they were to remain. They were to remain throughout the Church Age. That is where the true believers were found. That is where the “stars” would be found—in the churches and congregations of the world. But now we are coming to the time of Great Tribulation and the seven angels come “out of the temple.” They come out, not empty-handed, but carrying seven vials full of the plagues of the wrath of God.
When we remember that the seven angels are the seven stars and that they are coming out of the temple, then this is picturing what Revelation 6 is telling us—that the stars of heaven fell to the earth. They fell to the earth. The body of believers, who are typified by the stars, have come out of the churches and congregations, but not empty-handed. We carry the message that the Church Age is over. We carry the message that God is finished using the churches and congregations, and it is like pouring ugly plagues upon the church, upon its waters, upon the seat of the beast, and so forth, that Revelation 16 describes. Every time we share, we are fulfilling these Scriptures that are informing us that God’s people are coming out and witnessing to the truths that we have learned from the Bible.
So, again and again, when we look at the stars, it leads us back to the believers—to the believers—even though there are literal stars in the sky, in the heaven. Yet in the language here in Revelation 6, it is not pointing to those literal stars but to the spiritual stars, because they are falling to the earth.
What is the reaction? For the most part, what is the reaction of people today who are still in the church as they are hearing the news, as they are hearing the information that the Church Age has come to an end? The reaction is, “No, no.” Overwhelmingly, the reaction is resistance. “No way can this be true!” And they are going back to their church, back to their pastor, back to their confession and creed, and they are saying, “Look, you confirm it to me. You tell me the truth. The Church Age is not over, is it?” And the pastor is telling them, “No way. No way. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the church.”
Of course, they are entirely misreading that verse from Matthew. It has nothing to do with the corporate church. It has to do with the eternal Church—the Body of the Elect—those whom God saves. Yet they are going back to find their security and their safety and their covering from this judgment that has begun. A real, honest, earnest judgment of God is underway and God is pouring out wrath, terrible wrath, because no one is being saved within the churches and congregations.
What is the reaction of so many? “Let me go back to my church and find my safety, to find my assurance, to find reassurance that I am going to enter into Heaven because I am okay with this church. I am alright with this church.” And to the rocks and the mountains, they say, “Cover us! Cover us!”
We do not have time to get into it today, but all of the groups in Revelation 6:15—the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man—it can be shown from the Bible that these are all pointing to those who are in the churches and congregations. Every one of these groups is pointing to those who are in the church, and they are hiding themselves in the “dens.” What did Jesus say? “My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.” They are hiding themselves “in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.”
Deuteronomy tells us, “For their rock is not as our Rock.” Our Rock is God Himself, the Great Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Their rock is another kind of a gospel that they are trusting in, and it goes back to that vine of a strange, degenerate plant that is the context of Deuteronomy 32. Yet they are running into the dens. They are running into their churches. They are running into the rocks of the mountains. “Cover us! Cover us and protect us from these strange things that we are hearing.”
Maybe they have a friend or a relative whom God has saved and has left their church, and they are hearing this information. Maybe they have a radio and they are hearing it through the radio. Yet maybe initially, there is a little unsettledness in hearing this kind of news that has never been proclaimed before in the history of the world.
It is unheard of to say that the Church Age is over. We are kind of used to making this type of statement, but it is an astounding thing for the tradition of the church that has been around for nearly two thousand years to come to an end. “No, let me go to my pastor.” And the pastor assures them and assures them and assures them.
Yet what kind of safety, what kind of protection is there in the assurance of the words of a man? Yes, he is ordained and he went to seminary, but so what? So what? What does that show? What does that prove? Is he going to protect someone? Is he going to save someone—a priest or a pope or a bishop, or whoever? Are their words actually going to save someone from the fiery wrath of God and from eternal damnation, or is the only covering the salvation of God Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ? We know that is the only covering. That is the only thing that can avert and hide someone truly. We must be hid in the Lord Jesus.