Last week we were looking at Hebrews 11 and Enoch. I will just read one verse out of Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11:5 says:
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Those Greek words that are found here in the English as “translated” or “translation” are not found too many times in the Bible. They are two different Greek words. There are two times when the word “translated” is used, and “translation” is another closely-related Greek word but they have two different Strong’s numbers. The total number of times both are found in the New Testament is 9 times, out of which, 3 times is here in this chapter and one time in Jude where God speaks of “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.” The word “turning” is this word that we find here in Hebrews 11:5.
We can see that it is basically the same idea. Enoch was a human being just like us. God turned him into a completely new creature at the time that He took him up. Enoch was raptured. He was taken away while he was still living. He never died. When he was 365 years old, God took him. It does not tell us that He took him as dramatically as Elijah, who went up in a chariot by a whirlwind. It just says that God took him, and we do not know how. He could have been lying in his bed; he could have been walking around; whatever. When he was 365 years old, God took him to Heaven and translated him and gave him that new resurrected body that God’s people are looking forward to. So this word “translated” means a change, a dramatic change, like turning God’s grace into lasciviousness.
Lasciviousness is one of the works of the flesh. So in Jude, it is just saying “turning God’s grace,” which is completely apart from works, “into a gospel of works,” and that happens whenever anyone adds anything to the Gospel where they indicate that you have to do something, whether it is: accepting Christ, walking down the aisle, being baptized, etc., etc. Whenever someone says, “You can be saved if you do this,” they have immediately transformed or translated God’s Gospel of grace—which is the only real Gospel, the only true Gospel—into something apart from grace. No matter what it is, it is a works gospel, and there is no saving power and there is no blessing of God in that kind of a gospel, and so God uses that word.
He also uses this same word in Hebrews 12:26-27:
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
It is the word “removing.” So God is going to shake the earth and He is going to remove the earth. He is going to create a new Heaven and a new Earth. He is going to translate the earth into a new perfect world at the end when, after that 5-month period is done on October 21st, He burns up and melts with a fervent heat everything we see, everything around us on the earth, everything that we see in the sky: the sun, moon, and stars. The whole universe is destroyed. It is rolled up like a scroll. It is no more. And then God speaks, just like He spoke to create this world, and He recreates. It does not take much from Him because He is all-powerful. He just simply says, “Let there be,” and there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth. And so that word, again, is used to indicate a great change from this world to the new world, and we can see how God uses it.
That word is also used a couple of other times in relationship to the change in the priesthood where God made a change; that is, Christ came “after the order of Melchisedec.” He was not of the tribe of Levi, and that word “changed” [note: Hebrews 7:12] is this word “translated.” It has to do with a big dramatic change.
So we were looking at this and this word “translated” led us to Acts 7. In Acts 7:11, it says:
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Who knows what the words “great affliction” actually are? “Great affliction” is “great tribulation,” megas thlipsis, which is found in Matthew 24: there will be great tribulation that the world has never known, megas thlipsis. It is found in Revelation 2 and in Revelation 7 and here, and that is it: four times in the New Testament.
So God, in using these two words together, always has in mind the season of Great Tribulation that we are in that follows the end of the Church Age, which happened in 1988, up until 2011. The full 23 years from May 21 st, 1988, to May 21st 2011, 8400 days, is the Great Tribulation, the megas thlipsis, and yet God uses those two words to describe what happened in the days of Jacob and Joseph, that famine, that seven-year famine.
Remember, God gave Joseph the ability to discern dreams. Pharaoh dreamed because God gave him those dreams and troubled him very greatly because of those dreams. He had to know, “What do these dreams mean?” Just like what God did with Nebuchadnezzar where Daniel was given insight into Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Well, with Joseph, God gave him discernment to understand the two dreams of Pharaoh as being one. They were both saying the same thing. The interpretation of the dream was that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.
Awhile back when we did the study on Genesis, I was saying that the seven years of plenty related to the Church Age, as God sent the Gospel into the world and many became saved over the 1955 years of the Church Age. Well, we need to correct that because we have learned that God did not save a great number of people during the Church Age, but it is interesting that the corn was stored up during those seven years of plenty. I think that it was 1/10th of the corn that was put into a storehouse [note – it was actually 1/5th of the corn – “the fifth part” which was stored], and it was not to be touched. It was not to be used for anything because it was stored up against the time of famine.
We now know that the famine represents the Great Tribulation, so the seven years of plenty was the Church Age. It was the Church Age, but it was not indicating people being saved by great numbers. It was God storing up His Word. He sealed up these things until the time of the end, and nobody could touch it. Nobody could get to that grain. It would have been a serious offense in the days of Egypt if someone had tried to break in and take some of that grain. That was the lifeblood, Joseph knew, of the people of Egypt and many surrounding nations, against the dearth that he knew was coming. So the storing up of the grain relates, actually, to God storing up His Word abundantly, the abundant information that He was going to reveal during the Great Tribulation, during the latter-rain period from 1994 until the end or until May 21st.
So here in Acts 7:11-13:
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren…
We are not going to get into that, but we know that the second Jubilee and the period of the latter rain are synonymous and it has to do with God setting His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people, like Isaiah 11 tells us. That is why, I think, it emphasizes here that Joseph was made known “the second time” when he revealed himself to his people. He was unknown to them, to his own brethren. His own brothers could not recognize him until he made himself known. And, again, that is what God is doing today. He is revealing Himself, He who is the Word, to His people. He is revealing truth to His people.
Then it goes on in Acts 7:13-16:
…and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem…
Or Shechem.
…and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
The word “translated” is in verse 16:
…carried over into Sychem…
Or Shechem, and that is the same word that is used of Enoch in Hebrews 11. It is a word that means a dramatic change or translation.
In other words, we could understand this word to mean the rapture, because that is what Enoch represents, the rapture. Enoch was born in the year 7106 and from 7106 B.C. until 1994—and I am going to say this because I said it last week and I need to make a correction—is 9100 calendar years. I do not think that I mentioned calendar years last week. I just said that it was 9100 years. Calendar years means that you take 7106 plus 1994 and it equals 9100. Normally, you would subtract one because there is no year zero whenever you go from B.C. to A.D. But, at times, God gave us time paths that would fall on calendar years and it just adds to the possibilities of His giving us particular information.
So Enoch’s 9100 years were from 7106 B.C. to 1994 and they were 9100 calendar years, which would be 7 x 13 x 10 x 10. 7 has to do with perfection; 13 has to do with the end of the world; 10 has to do with completeness, and then the 10 is doubled.
So Enoch’s length of time points to the believers being raptured after 13,000 years of history, just like when Jude says of Enoch that he was the seventh from Adam. That is what Jude says, “Enoch…the seventh from Adam.” When we look at the genealogy, he was the seventh, yet when we understand that Noah was basically in the place of Adam when he came out of the ark and it is going to be 7,000 years from the flood until the destruction of the world, we can relate that Enoch was the seventh from Adam and tie it in with the world lasting 7,000 years from Noah who was in a position of Adam, in a real way, when Noah came out of the ark.
So that is one thing. The other thing is, and I do not know if anyone noticed because no one said anything to me, but, really, I made a big mistake last week. I was going over this and I wanted to correct it. I want to go over this again because it says in Acts 7:15:
So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
I did not mention that. Acts 7:16:
And were carried over into Sychem…
So it was not just Jacob, but “our fathers”:
…were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Let us go back to Genesis 33 and look at verse 18. This is soon after Jacob came out of Padanaram or of Laban’s house. He had just fled. He had just got done meeting up with Esau and he gave Esau all kinds of gifts because he was afraid of meeting him, and now he had gone to Shalem, a city of Shechem, and Shalem is very much like Shalom. It is related to the word for peace, and it says in Genesis 33:18-20:
And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for an hundred pieces of money. And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-Israel.
You see, that is what the New Testament calls Emmor and Sychem. Does anybody see the problem now with what Acts 7 is saying and with what Genesis 33 is saying?
If we go back to Acts 7:16, Jacob and our fathers:
…were carried over into Sychem…
Or Shechem.
…and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Who bought it? Jacob bought it.
Last week, I said that Jacob was laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought, and, actually, that is true, though that is another complication. That is true, but when Acts 7 is speaking about this burying place in Shechem that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor, that is kind of what I was saying was in view, but it is not.
I know that this is a little confusing. First, let us back out and take a look at the timeline. In Genesis 47, Pharaoh asked Jacob a very important question in verse 8. Genesis 47:8-9:
And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been…
So Jacob is 130. How old is Joseph at this point? Joseph is 39, because he was 30 when he came out of prison. There were 7 seven years of plenty that followed immediately after interpreting Pharaoh’s dream. That was when the years of plenty began, making him 37. Then there were 2 years of famine. He revealed himself to his brethren after those 2 years and he said, “Bring my father over.” So he would have been 39 at that point after the 2 years of famine.
Now, Jacob had Joseph when he was 91, which is 7 x 13, just like Enoch after the 9100 years. That is when Joseph was born. Jacob says, “I am 130,” and that is another way of verifying it, and that then means that Joseph must be 39 at that point because 39 + 91 gives you 130. In other words, God is really stressing the number 13.
So Jacob is asked this question by Pharaoh. He could have asked him a thousand different things, “How do you like Egypt?,” but he asked him, “How old are you?” That is the only question that he asked him, and he said, “I am 130.”
We know from other places in the Bible, like Jehoiada the priest died at the age of 130, that this has to do with the 13,000 years of history, which we have already gone past in 1988. That was the 13,000th year of Earth’s history. After Jehoiada the priest’s death, then Joash the king, who did right all the days of Jehoiada, went astray. Just like after 13,000 years of history, the church falls away. Or Josiah the king died at the age of 39, which is 3 x 13. Following that was that 23-year period, from 609 to 587. Or we find Asa, who was a good king, and in the 39th year of his reign, he became diseased in his feet. And, again, we see 3 x 13.
God uses these numbers to teach us that after 13,000 years, there is going to be a big change in the world, especially amongst those who are professing Christians or who call themselves the people of God because they are going to fall away.
The life of Jacob and Joseph has a lot to do with the time that we are living in, so God is using this number 13 in this historical context many times. It is almost enough times to match up with what happened at the cross with the number 3, as it was God’s purpose. And, here, at the same time that Jacob is 130, Joseph is 39 years old and they are coming into Egypt after 2 years of the dearth, which is likened to the Great Tribulation that takes place after 13,000 years of history, and now Jacob is going to live in Egypt.
How long will he live in Egypt? Turn to Genesis 47:28
And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.
Remember, he came in after the 2 years of famine, which is actually picturing the first 2300 days of the Great Tribulation, and then he is going to remain in Egypt for the remainder of the dearth and beyond.
But the 17 years ties into 1994, because that is the time when God brings the latter rain. And how long will the latter rain last? It will last 17 years. 1994 to 2011 is 17 years. It is not a full 17 years. We would have to be here until September of 2011 [note: the speaker inadvertently said 1994 here when he intended to say 2011], but it is still 17 years from 1994 until 2011. Then Jacob dies when he is 147 after 17 years in Egypt and he is carried over into Sychem, which means “translated,” which means “raptured.” Wow! Do you see what God is doing? The number 13…the number 13.
When Jacob dies at 147, how old is Joseph? He is 56. Joseph was sold into Egypt when he was 17, so this is 49 years later. He was 17. When Jacob dies, he is 56. So that is 39 years from the time that they put Joseph into the pit and sold him to the Midianite traders.
Again, we see 3 x 13. It is God’s purpose that after 13,000 years of history, this is going to happen, that He will finish His salvation plan and bring His people into their everlasting resting place, into Shechem or the field of Mamre and Machpelah, and we will get into that.
We also looked at this last week, in Genesis 50, after Jacob dies. Genesis 50:3:
And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
And that is how many days? 70 + 40; there is a conjunction here.
I was looking at some websites that were describing how the Egyptians embalmed and for what length of time. They had various figures, but this is what the Bible says. He was embalmed for 40 days, or 40 days were fulfilled for him. The embalming process was a way of preserving the body. That is why we find mummies today that were embalmed long, long ago in Egypt and they are still pretty well-preserved.
So they would take care of that process, and then it says:
…and…
And that is a conjunction.
…the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
Indicating 40 + 70, which is 110. But there is another period of mourning here. If we go down to verse 10, Genesis 50:10:
And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
Now if you read the context, it would seem that more time would have transpired from taking the trip into Canaan and some of the events that are described there, but what God gives us is 117 days total time from Jacob’s death until he is placed in the cave that Abraham bought, not the one he bought. He is placed in the cave that Abraham bought. So that is 117 days, which works out to 3 x 3 x 13. God’s purpose doubled: 13 again.
After 13,000 years of history, Acts 7 tells us that Jacob was carried over into Shechem. He is translated into Shechem. Again, I think that we are seeing that God is verifying, He is confirming that this is going to happen. After 13,000 years of history, plus that Great Tribulation period, then will be the rapture, then will be the carrying up and away of His people.
Now, let us go to Genesis 23. In Genesis 23:1, it says:
And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.
Anyone know why it is significant that God gives us her age at her death? The number 127 is used only with King Ahasuerus, that he reigned over 127 provinces, but it is significant that He gives us Sarah’s death age because he does not give us the death age of any other woman in the Bible, only Sarah, only right here in Genesis 23, and Sarah, according to Galatians 4 “is the mother of us all.” She is the believer’s mother. She is that representative of Jerusalem above. So when she dies and is buried—and that 127 is also a picture of all the Kingdom of God, like Ahasuerus reined over 127 provinces—it is really typifying all believers who are going to have a possession.
Abraham never bought anything except this one piece of property in Genesis 23. We do not read that he ever bought anything else in Canaan. The land of Canaan was promised to him for an “everlasting possession,” but he never owned anything except what is described here in Genesis 23.
It says in verse 2, Genesis 23:2-11:
And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead.
Actually, this is a form that they are going through, because you have to keep in mind that when someone dies, it is not a time when you really want to make a sale, to sell your land and to get as much as you can for it. They were very sensitive to this and so they would go through this process where he is in front of the people of the children of Heth and he wants to buy this land. Ephron says, “Take it.” If Abraham would have said, “Okay. Thanks. Give me the deed,” it would have been contrary to the whole system that they had set up. It is just a coy and kind way where you do not want to offend and you do not want to seem greedy after someone has died, so you are saying, “Take the field.” Then Abraham who knows their manners and their custom goes on to say in verse 12, Genesis 23:12-16:
And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.
Notice that he said, “Hear me.”
And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me…
You see, this is the key. Now he is going to give him the price.
…hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.
You see, it is like a form.
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
This also relates to Christ purchasing the world to redeem His people out of it. The children of Heth were Canaanites. Heth was a son of Cainan. So here they have this field and this sepulcher in the field and Abraham wants to buy it. He will not take it for free. He will not take it for free because God is going to purchase it, like Jesus bought the world. Christ bought the world in order to redeem His people.
Look at Ephesians 1:14, it says of the Holy Spirit:
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
So God’s people are the purchased redemption, but so is this world.
So God is going to redeem the world by renewing it, as well as renewing His people and making us completely new creatures. We are the “purchased possession,” and this sale of the field amongst the children of Heth means that God did it in full view of the world and He did not need anyone’s help or assistance in anyway. He paid the full price in order to redeem His people, and that is what this field has to do with.
Then in verse 17, Genesis 23:17-20:
And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.
It is a guarantee. This is made sure. You purchased it. This land, this cave, this sepulcher is yours, and that is where Sarah was buried.
Look over to Genesis 25:7-10:
And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.
And go a little further into Genesis 35:27-29:
And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years (180). And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
So Isaac was buried in the same place and so was Rebekah. Even though we do not read about her death, we will see later on that she is in the same burying place, and so was Leah. Prior to Jacob’s death, she was also buried there, and we do read exactly when Leah died. But Abraham and Isaac were buried there with their wives. Leah was buried there, and so, definitely, Jacob would have been buried there.
If we go to Genesis 49:29-32, it says:
And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
So Jacob, without question, was buried in the burying place that Abraham bought, and it is confirmed in Genesis 50:12-13:
And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
So I do not think that there is any question. Jacob is with Leah and Abraham and Isaac and their wives, all in that same sepulcher, in the same burying place. That is where he was buried.
Now, if we go back to Acts 7:15-16, it says:
So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died…
After 17 years. After 17 years:
…he, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem…
You see, that is the key because Abraham’s purchase of the field and Jacob’s purchase of a burying place are one and the same. Spiritually, they both represent the very same thing, which is that this is a guaranteed possession out of the land of Canaan, pointing to what Canaan pointed to, which is Heaven itself and that God’s people have a guaranteed future in the Kingdom of God, in the Kingdom of Heaven.
So God’s people will be translated, raptured into that Kingdom following the timeline of history—the 13,000 years and then the 17 years of the latter rain—and then they will be lifted up. And that is what we are looking forward to. We know that May 21st, 2011, is that day, which is after that 17 years, and then that is what is going to happen.
Now, who is buried, though, in Sychem? Who is buried in that field that Jacob bought? Go to Joshua 24. It is the last chapter of the book of Joshua. It says in Joshua 24:32:
And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
So Joseph’s bones where buried there many, many years later. But where was Reuben buried? Where was Benjamin buried? Where was Judah buried? Our “fathers” were translated into Canaan. They were carried over.
Now, the Bible does not give us this information, except in Acts 7, but we can gather that Jacob’s sons, the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel, the ones who were the progenitors from whom all the tribes would come from, each one of them, upon their death in Egypt, were likewise taken to the burying place of Jacob and buried in the land of Canaan. That is how we can understand it in Acts 7:16, where it speaks of our fathers:
…were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought…
Now, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were patriarchs. They were the fathers of Israel, and God here is using Abraham because, in a way, it is synonymous with Isaac and it is synonymous with Jacob. It is just saying that our “father”…actually, historically, it was Jacob who bought the field, but, here he is called “Abraham.” He is identified in Abraham, like others in the Bible who are sometimes identified by the names of other men. Was John the Baptist Elijah? He was not Elijah. He was John the Baptist, but the Bible calls him “Elijah.” And, likewise, there are other instances of this where God just simply identifies a person because they are in the same vein or they are walking in the same steps, “He came in the spirit and power of Elijah,” and so was Jacob. Just like God promised the land to Abraham and He promised it to Isaac, He promised it to Jacob. They are all synonymous in that sense.
If we go to 1 Chronicles 29, David is speaking, and it says in 1 Chronicles 29:10:
Wherefore David blessed JEHOVAH before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, JEHOVAH God of Israel…
Jacob had his name changed to “Israel.”
…of Israel our father, for ever and ever.
Or look at verse 18, 1 Chronicles 29:18:
O JEHOVAH God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever…
And then it goes on.
So in Israel’s eyes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the “fathers.” They were the patriarchs, the ones to whom, primarily, God gave the promises to, and then it was handed down from each succeeding generation through history.
So, you see, God is testing the leaders of Israel through Stephen in bringing this historical information. Remember there is also a question that we did not get into where Stephen says that there were 75 souls that went into Egypt but in Genesis it says 70.
And so through what apparently seems incorrect or contradictory, God is testing those leaders of Israel who were hearing this case, and He is also testing anyone who would read the Bible and read these accounts, where we could obviously see in Genesis 33 that Jacob bought the land but here he is called “Abraham,” and that is how God wrote the Bible. So I wanted to go over this, hopefully, to clear it up a little bit more, to clarify it a little bit more.
Alright. Why do we not stop here and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Father, that it is beyond us and would forever be beyond us, except that You are gracious in condescending love in taking the care to help us to understand what Your Word says in some places. Even though there is much we still do not understand, we thank You for the tremendous amount of truth and Bible information that You have opened up over the last few years, and we do ask that You would continue to open up our understanding and our eyes increasingly as we are going to the end. We are approaching the end of time and, Father, we are always comforted and encouraged and strengthened by Thy Word, and we pray that You would continue to use Your Word for all these things and more in our lives, and we thank You for this day, Sunday, that it is a day where we can be energized once again by the Word, and we pray that You would equip us for this coming week, and we also ask that You would help us to have fellowship, firstly, with You and also with one another, and we pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Okay. Why do we not have a question and answer now and then we will close with a hymn.
Chris: If anyone has any questions that you would like to make, and that was a lot of verses and a lot of ideas all at once, but if anybody has anything, now is the time. Also, on Paltalk, if you have a question, you can just raise your hand and Bob will read it for you. At this time, if anybody has anything, just come on up. Yes, Chris.
1st Question: Good afternoon, Chris. Joshua 24:29 and Genesis 50:26.
Chris: Joshua 24:29:
And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of JEHOVAH, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
1st Question continued: Is there any significance to Joshua and Joseph living to 110? That is my first question. My other question is that you made a reference to Joshua 24 where you said that, I believe, they took the bones of Joseph to bury him in the cave of…
Chris: Sychem…well, the one that Jacob bought.
1st Question (continued): Jacob.
Chris: Yes, Jacob bought the one from Shechem from Hamor for 100 pieces of silver. That is the one that Jacob bought, and Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah for 400 pieces of money.
1st Question (continued): What was that Scripture reference from Joshua that you are talking about.
Chris: It was the next to the last verse in Joshua 24. I think it was verse 32. So Joseph was 110 and Joshua died at 110 and they are both types of Christ. So the number 11, in their death, 10 x 11 is in view and that normally points to Christ’s first coming. And so, you see, God, just like in Daniel 12 where there is all kinds of an emphasis on the end of the world, He gives us a verse about the 1335 days that only fits Christ’s ministry. So from one verse to another, God’s focus can shift, and that is why we have to be careful in reading the Bible. But, in this case, Joseph primarily is a type or he is a picture of Christ who is going to feed His people at the end of the world during the latter rain.
Okay. Yes, Howard.
2nd Question: I would like you to comment about something that occurred to me in the course of your teaching. The age of Jacob when he comes to Egypt and stands before Pharaoh, he is 130. Joseph is 39. If you add those two together, it is 169, which is 13 x 13.
Chris: I do not know if we can do that. That is interesting, but I do not know if we can do that because I do not know of anywhere else where that has been done. Jacob was 130 and Joseph was 39 at the same time. If you add the two together, it is 13 x 13. I do not know, because we need some kind of Biblical justification to do whatever we do. For breaking down an age, we can see that God is the One who gave him that age and God is the One who made Joseph that particular age at the very same time. But then we could to a lot of other things if we started adding people’s ages together, and I really do not think that it is a proper way of doing it.
2nd Question (continued): This is at the point where Jacob has come into Egypt to get out of the great affliction, and I am not saying that it has any significance, but in light of what you have been teaching, it is very enlightening. I would just say that 13 x 3 = 39 and 13 x 10 = 130. I do not know whether that…
Chris: Yes, those are important breakdowns because Joseph is 39: 3 x 13. The number 3 has to do with God’s purpose. 13 has to do with the end of the world.
For instance, I think I mentioned this, but go to 2 Chronicles 16:12:
And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to JEHOVAH, but to the physicians.
Asa was an extremely faithful king. It said in 2 Chronicles 14:2:
And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of JEHOVAH his God:
He is the one who put away his mother from being queen. He was a faithful man of God until the 39th year of his reign, surprisingly. Then he becomes diseased in his feet, and then he does not seek to the Lord; he seeks to the physicians.
Now, why? Why would God give us that information to begin with? Well, when we see all of this other emphasis in the Bible on the number 13, we realize that it has to do with after 13,000 years of history. The church was accomplishing the purposes of God up until that point, but then they became diseased in their feet. “How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good tidings of great news!” Well, what are the feet of the messengers of the Gospel in the church like now? Like leprous. It is as awful as you can get because there is no salvation and no blessing.
So the church has become diseased in the feet as far as their bringing the Gospel to the world. Do they seek to the Lord in their disease? No, they seek to physicians. Job said, “You are all physicians of no value.” Physicians have to do with those who bring a gospel, because we are all spiritually sick. Christ came not for the righteous but to heal the sick, and here we are. We are diseased and church after church will say, “I have the remedy. I have the medicine that you need. Here it is: the gospel,” but it is lacking power. It is lacking God’s blessing. There is no salvation in any church, and God emphasizes that in Asa’s case.
Josiah became king at 8 years old in 640 B.C. He reigned 31 years, the Bible tells us, so he would be 39 in 609 B.C. and he died. He died in a stupid way because he insisted on going out to battle with the Egyptians, even though he had no quarrel with them and the Egyptians did not want to fight him. But that good king, the best king of Judah, had to die, just like Asa had to have something terrible happen to him in that 39th year because God is teaching that after 13,000 years, that is it. That is it. And so, 3 x 13, “It is My purpose, Josiah, and you are dead.” That is it as far as blessing the land of Judah, which typifies the church, and then for the next 23 years inclusive, we find Judah under the assault of Babylon. Not at the very beginning, but a little into that period. But for those 23 years, it typifies the Great Tribulation, and there are many other instances in the Bible where God is emphasizing this.
Now, sometimes people hear that you break down numbers and they think, “Well, how can you do that?” Like 3 x 13. Well, God gave us the number 39 and we break it down and we see that it breaks down into that or 130, 10 x 13, the completeness of what God has in view after 13,000 years of history.
Well, did you ever read Revelation 20 or 21 about the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven? Did you see all of the number 12’s in there? And then God uses the number 144 and it means exactly the same thing. God breaks it down. In that case, He is showing us: 12 means fullness; 144 means fullness; 12 x 12 is 144. You can read it within that chapter. So God is there teaching us, yes, break down the numbers.
I think that I mentioned this before, not because it means anything, but just to show you that this is not new or recent. A. W. Pink was a faithful teacher in the early 20th century. He died, I think, in the 1940’s. He did a study on the book of Exodus and he came to a point where a number was given and he broke it down, just like we hear, day after day on Family Radio, 5 x this x this. And then he said that the number 5 means this and the number this means that. He was a little off, as far as how we understand what those numbers mean, but how did he come to do that? How did he come to do that 65 years ago? Mr. Camping would have been a youngling at that point. I do not think that Mr. Camping would have known much about breaking down numbers at that point, but A. W. Pink did because he was a child of God. And where did he learn? I do not know. Maybe we will find somebody else in history also—I would not be surprised—who likewise broke down numbers because the Bible, I think, leads us in that direction.
Okay. Anybody else have anything?
3rd Question: Jude 1:14-15.
Chris: Okay. Jude 1:14-15 says:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
3rdQuestion (continued): I was trying to find in the Old Testament where this prophecy is.
Chris: I do not think that you are going to find it. Actually, I know that you will not find it because God does not give us too much information in the Old Testament about Enoch, except in Genesis 5. He tells us in Genesis 5:23:
And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
And we talked about that last week. That is the number of days in the year, and that has to do with the “acceptable year of the Lord,” which goes right up until May 21st, 2011, and then following that, Enoch was taken. He was translated. He was raptured. It is also connected with Nehemiah building the wall in 52 days, as we know that there are 52 weeks in a year and the wall represents the wall of salvation. He completed the wall after 52 days. And so God took him.
Now, Jude is writing under the inspiration of God and Enoch said those things in his life, that “the Lord cometh,” so he was pointing ahead to Christ’s return at the end of the world, and those words are word-for-word what he said. God just did not record it in the Old Testament, but he gave Jude the words, just like God gave Moses the words of Adam and Eve and the words of many other people whom Moses would not have known anything about. So that is how that works out.
3rd Question (continued): I just this morning said that the language, I am not sure if I am just recalling it from this Scripture, but the language sounds very familiar.
Chris: Oh, the “ten thousands of his saints.”
3rd Question (continued): Right. The whole thing just seems very familiar and I am not sure maybe if it is coming from…
Chris: Well, you might be thinking of Zechariah 14. Is this the right place? I think I am in the right place, but I do not see it. Am I in the right place here? Where do we find that language? I thought that it was in Zechariah 14 where it speaks of fleeing. Zechariah 14:5:
And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and JEHOVAH my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
That is related to what Jude is quoting Enoch as saying, that “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” It might also be in Judges. Deuteronomy 33:2:
And he said, JEHOVAH came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
So, yes, this is one place. There might be others where that kind of language is being used. And, again, Enoch was the seventh from Adam and he is bringing the message of Christ coming with ten thousands of His saints. So in history, he was the seventh generation from Adam, but since we see how God uses Enoch with that 365-year lifespan and then he is taken up, we could also, I think, relate it to Noah. After he came out of the ark, there is the 7,000 years of history. And if anybody ever was as in a position of Adam—Christ is the second Adam, so I would not say that Noah was the second Adam—but he is in the position of being like Adam in repopulating the world.
4th Question: This is a two-part question, Chris. I never really understood this and I do not know if it has anything to do with the end of the Church Age or not, but Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire. I do not understand that. I really do not understand that. The other part of this question is why did Elisha desire a double portion of his spirit? I do not understand that. I never understood this and I just want to know if any of this whole scenario, in fact, it being a two-part question, has anything to do with the end of the Church Age?
Chris: I do not know, Gloria, as far as the timing of this. Other things would have to come into place, but it is interesting regarding Elijah that everybody knew that he was going to be raptured. It was common knowledge. “Knowest thou not that thy master will be taken away from thy head today?” The sons of the prophets knew the day. And then they went to another place near Jericho and 50 sons of the prophets came out, “Knowest thou not that thy master will be taken up from thy head today?” “Yea, I know it; hold your peace.” So all kinds of sons of the prophets knew that Elijah was going to be taken up in a whirlwind. It is a beautiful picture of the rapture because, just like Enoch, he is the other person who did not die when God took him. He physically never died and so it is a picture of God taking up His people, but there are other things that have to be worked out that I do not understand how to fit in. I am sorry that I cannot help you any further.
We have come to the end of our time, so why do we not stop here and close with a hymn.