Today is Easter. It is Resurrection Sunday, and so I thought that it would be good for us to look at some verses dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. The Bible has a great deal to say about Jesus as the Lamb of God.
For instance, in John 1:29, there is this statement made by John the Baptist:
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
He was calling Jesus a lamb because a lamb was the sacrificial animal that God had declared would be offered, especially at the time of Passover as the lamb would be sacrificed as a picture for the sins of Israel. Yet in the whole Bible when we read about the Lamb of God or the sacrificial lamb, it is always pointing to Christ.
So today I would like to look at some of the history in the Bible concerning the Lamb of God. Later we will go back to the Lord Jesus Himself as He went to the cross. We could go back many hundreds of years before this time when Israel was offering up the sacrifices of the lamb at the time of the Passover feast. We could even go back further into Biblical history to find references to a lamb.
But prior to all of this, there is even more history. Before this world was even created, God has things to say about Jesus as the Lamb of God, which we have been learning lately over the last couple of years.
In Revelation 13:8, it says:
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Without question, this is Jesus who is being spoken of. But it is not referencing 33 A.D. It is saying that it was “from the foundation of the world” that the Lamb was slain. What we used to add to this is that it means “in principle,” and yet it does not say this at all. It just says:
…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Some people may not like this, but this was God’s plan. He decided, in His infinite wisdom, to lay upon the Lord Jesus Christ the sins of His people, a great multitude that is perhaps as many as 200 million. This is what we are learning today.
So all of the sins of millions of people were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ and, as the Lamb, He was slain. He was the sacrificial Lamb, even though there were not lambs before or from the foundation of the world. There was not a world. There was not a cross, as well as none of the things that we see today. God just uses the language of the Lamb to indicate that Christ is that sacrifice.
For instance, 1 Corinthians 5:7 says:
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The big emphasis of the Passover was the Passover lamb; and Jesus is not only called “the Lamb,” but He is called “our passover.” This is another one of His titles.
So when we are thinking about Easter, like we are doing today, that Christ rose from the dead early Sunday morning, this is a good day to remember that Christ was victorious over sin, even though His victory over sin did not occur in 33 A.D. It occurred prior to this from the foundation of the world. This is when He was slain and rose. He was resurrected from the foundation of the world according to Romans 1:3-4:
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
The way in which God wrote this, it is not always easy to hear what He is saying; but look at Romans 1:4 again:
And declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection from the dead:
If we do not read the statement in the middle, we can see how this flows. He was declared to be the Son of God by or through or via the resurrection of the dead.
This means that Jesus did not take upon Himself the title or the name of “the Son” until He rose from the dead. It cannot be early that Sunday morning in 33 A.D. that God is looking at because if you read the Gospel accounts, long before He rose from the dead He was called “the Son of God.” If you look up the word “son” in the New Testament, you will see several references to “the Son,” and the cross is not even in view.
How could He be called “the Son” prior to going to the cross? He could be called this because He was the Lamb slain before the world was created and then He rose from the dead before the world was created. He paid the penalty for sin for His elect people long before the world was created.
This is why Hebrews 4:3 says:
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Some people insist that Christ paid for sin on the cross in 33 A.D. because they do not like the idea of Jesus dying from the foundation of the world and rising prior to the world’s beginning.
Why do they not like this? I can understand why. One reason is because we thought that we understood this. We thought that we at least understood this about the Bible. We figured if we knew anything, it was happening on the cross.
So this issue is really a matter of humility and humbling ourselves to what the Bible actually says, which is that He did not die on the cross to pay for sins. He did go to the cross and this was a very real thing. He did suffer, but He was not bearing sin and He was not paying for sin because that would have been double jeopardy. He would have paid for sin a second time and there was no need for that. Hebrews 4:3 tells us that “the works were finished,” which is past tense, “from the foundation of the world.”
If anyone does not agree with this and insists that He paid for sin in 33 A.D., then what works were finished? What works were finished before the world began? They would have to answer this.
Revelation 13:8 says that He was slain. Romans 1:4 says that He rose from the dead to be declared the Son of God. Hebrews tells us that as the Son, He created the world. This means that He had already done it all. The works were finished, and then He spoke and created the world and the universe.
One of the purposes for what God is doing at this time is to hit at the heart of proud man with these doctrines, with these teachings that He had hidden until the time of the end. They are all designed by God Himself to zero in on a proud heart. If anyone does not really want to submit themselves to God and His Word and want to continue with their own beliefs and ideas, then God has really designed this for that purpose.
Let us also go to Hebrews 9. This is a verse that many people like to go to for the purpose of showing that Christ was bearing sin at the time that He went to the cross and that He did die for sin at that time. In Hebrews 9:23, it says:
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these…
This is referring to the blood that Moses would sprinkle. God said that “almost all things are…purged with blood.” He said this because He is so exact and perfect. Not everything is purged by blood. There is the sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost, which is not forgivable. But “almost all things are…purged by blood,” and God gave the Old Testament sacrificial system especially to Israel, which was the “patterns of things in the heavens” that needed to be purified by the blood of the sacrificial animal.
Then it goes on to say:
…but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
This is because animal sacrifices cannot take away sin in any way. No one’s sins are ever pardoned or forgiven due to offering one lamb or offering one hundred thousand lambs, as Israel sometimes did in their observances of feasts. They would slay tremendous numbers of animals according to the Law and would offer them up to God. But in the case of every sacrifice rightly offered, it was actually a picture and an illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
Then we read in Hebrews 9:24-26:
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true…
Again, “figures” is like the word “patterns.” It continues:
…but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he…
This is referring to Christ:
…must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world…
The Greek word that was translated “since” is the same Greek word that was translated “from,” as in Christ is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” It is the same identical Greek word apo.
For then must he often have suffered [from] the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Let us think about Hebrews 9:26. Does it say:
For then must he often have suffered [from 33 A.D.]…
Does it say this? If it said this, then anyone who thinks that Christ was bearing sin on the cross would be right. But it does not say this. It says:
For then must he often have suffered [from] the foundation of the world…
Why go back to the foundation of the world? Because this is when He suffered. Obviously and clearly, He suffered “from the foundation of the world” and, therefore, there is no need for Him ever again to suffer, not in 33 A.D. or at any other time. He did it “once” and “from the foundation of the world,” which agrees with Revelation 13:8, which agrees with Hebrews 4:3, which agrees with Romans in that He was “declared to be the Son” and as the Son created the world. Everything fits.
Why does Hebrews 9:26 then say:
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
This word that was translated “appeared” is the same word that is found in 1 Peter 1:20. We read in 1 Peter 1:19-20:
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
God is again referring back to the foundation of the world, which is when Christ was the Lamb, without spot, without sin. This is when He was slain. But now, once, He has appeared; once, He is being made manifest. This is when He entered into the human race and gave the appearance that He was bearing sins.
Why did He do this? Because He is the Light of the world and the Bible says, “for whatsoever doth make manifest,” which is this same word, “is light.”
It was already done. It was already finished. It was already completed. All the sins of His people were paid for and it was guaranteed that each and every one would become saved as a result, but there was darkness concerning this. There was darkness.
Yes, He gave the Old Testament sacrifices, but more light needed to be shed. There needed to be more clarity, and so Christ came into the world to demonstrate, “Here is what this means. Here is what I have done. Here is the work that I have finished.” He then went through His period of ministry and began to suffer in the garden as He drunk the cup of God’s wrath and went to the cross.
This was all real. He truly did suffer. The only thing is that He did not have the sins of His people upon Him. He was not bearing sin at that time. Jesus was the Lamb of God from the foundation of the world.
Mr. Camping has pointed something out recently. Turn to Luke 11:30. Some people think that there would have been no purpose for Christ to come into the world just to manifest this. However, it was God’s purpose that was accomplished. Notice what it says here in Luke 11:30:
For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.
Jesus was “a sign” or a tableau. Some people do not like this word. I did not even know what this word meant at first because I had not heard this too often. It just means that Christ came to make things manifest, to reveal, to show, to shed light upon, which is exactly what He did.
What understanding this has accomplished is that, as this was nearly impossible before, now it is absolutely impossible for anyone to claim any part of their salvation. Man was not even here and there was nothing as yet in the world when God did it all. It was all His work and He gets all the glory. It is all to the glory of God, as the Bible declares, “Mine own arm brought salvation unto me” and, “of the people there was none with me.” This is what the Bible tells us.
Turn to Isaiah 53. This is another passage that I have heard taught on Family Radio recently. Of course, this is speaking of Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God. Isaiah 53:3 says:
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
What is significant about this verse? It is all in the past tense, and yet this is seven hundred years before Christ came. Should it not read, “He will be despised”? Or, “He will be rejected”? But it does not say this.
Continuing in Isaiah 53:4-7, we read:
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
This is all in the past tense.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and JEHOVAH hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Here we read of the Lamb of God brought as a silent sheep to the slaughter from the foundation of the world. Of course, this was in the past. It was in the past in Isaiah’s day and in all of the history before it. This was when Christ paid for the sins of His people.
Let us look at the Lamb of God in Biblical history in a couple of places. Genesis 22:7-8 says:
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering…
God Himself is the Lamb. Jesus is God. Jesus is the Lamb. We thought this was looking toward the cross, and to some degree it was; but also, this has already been accomplished.
Let us go to Exodus 7. I was looking at the Passover feast in Exodus 12. What brought this feast about was God bringing judgments on Egypt and eventually slaying the firstborn. I noticed something that is interesting that pertains to our day, which is something that happened prior to God bringing these judgments, and they were judgments. Exodus 7:4 says:
But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
He speaks of these plagues as “great judgments,” and so the plagues were judgments of God. Again and again, as God brought a plague, He would send Moses to Pharaoh in order to warn Pharaoh and then Moses would tell Pharaoh what was going to happen before it happened.
We know that there is a Biblical principle involved with this. The Bible tells us that “the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” We are aware that God followed this pattern with Noah. Before the judgment of the flood, God forewarned Noah. Before the destruction of Sodom, God came to Abraham and said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” God did not hide this from Abraham. This is why Abraham interceded for the righteous in Sodom, as He gave Abraham advance information that it was going to be destroyed. Then God, in the person of two messengers that are called “angels” in the KJV, which was God Himself taking on the appearance of these two men, God went to Sodom and He forewarned Lot of the destruction of Sodom and basically dragged Lot out of the city by taking him by the hand.
So this is the Biblical pattern. The Lord God will do nothing until He first forewarns His servants the prophets. His servants then share this information with everyone else. Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.” Lot went to his sons-in-law, and so this is the pattern. Before God was going to destroy Nineveh, He sent Jonah to give them a very direct message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” and so there was “time and judgment” included in this message. And before destroying Jericho, God forewarned Rahab through the spies. The spies went in. Rahab had heard the report, along with the other people of her city, and she feared God. In hiding the spies, she requested that she and her family might be spared; and they were.
Another encouragement is that God works in families, does He not? Who was saved from the flood? One family. Who was saved from the destruction of Sodom? One family. Who was saved out of Jericho? One family.
So this is encouraging to us. We are all members of families. This is also encouraging to us who are parents that God did save some of these men’s children and that He spared them. And in taking a look at the plagues that the Lord was bringing upon Egypt, we find that in many places He forewarned them.
Turn to Exodus 8. We read in Exodus 8:1-2:
And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
He told them ahead of time. He told them what He was going to do, and it was a judgment of God.
In the same chapter, we read in Exodus 8:21-23:
Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am JEHOVAH in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.
They knew about the swarm of flies prior to God bringing them. Pharaoh had a night to think about this. Of course, we know that his heart was being hardened and that he was not listening to God.
Does this sound familiar? Is it familiar to see where God is telling people directly, “This is what I am going to do”? He is doing this today, is He not? May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day. What is the condition of many people’s hearts as they are hearing this information? God’s people are going to be humbled. God will work this out and they will begin to fear, like the Ninevites, and the Lord will draw them to Himself. But many people turn a deaf ear to this.
Have you ever read the account of the plagues and thought, “Pharaoh, you were so stupid! You are so dumb! You have such a hard head. Not only do you have a hard heart, you have such a hard head”? Again and again, God is showing His power and Pharaoh hardens his heart all the more. He knows what is coming. He knows exactly what is coming.
Look at Exodus 9:1-6:
Then JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith JEHOVAH God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, Behold, the hand of JEHOVAH is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. And JEHOVAH shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. And JEHOVAH appointed a set time, saying, To morrow JEHOVAH shall do this thing in the land. And JEHOVAH did that thing on the morrow…
They had time. They were forewarned. God always does this. As we look in the Bible, we can see that He always does this. If He does this with a world of a few million and if He does this with the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah and the other two cities that probably had maybe hundreds of thousands of people in them, if He was so careful and so desirous to warn the righteous and also to let the sword of His wrath be known to them, then why would anyone think that God would not follow the same pattern and do exactly what He has done in these lesser types of Judgment Day and, of course, warn a people of seven billion in the world of our day of “the great day of his wrath”?
When we read the Bible, it does not make sense to think that God would give us a verse like Amos 3:7, which says:
Surely the Lord JEHOVAH will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
To read of all of this and then to believe that we cannot know anything about the time of the end, that we cannot know the day and that we cannot know the hour and that God would leave us in the dark about this, is unbiblical.
Well, the world has been in the dark about this according to God’s purpose all throughout history until the time of the end. Now we are there and we are no longer in the dark. God is opening up this information.
Who opened up this information? Who opened up the Book? The Lamb. The Lamb! He prevailed. He is worthy. He is the One who took the seals off of the Book.
Today we have people all over in the churches and congregations of the church world praising the Lamb. They are praising the Lamb; and yet when they hear that Judgment Day is next year, they stop praising the Lamb.
But it is the Lamb who opened the Book to reveal this information and pinpoint the Day of Judgment to show us God’s appointed Day. If you read Revelation 5 and 6, it is the Lamb who is taking one seal after another off of the Book.
I do not fully know why it is that God emphasizes that it is the Lamb who does this, but we know that the Lamb was from the foundation of the world and the Lamb is at the end of the world. Maybe this is the purpose. God knows that it is the time of the end when the seals are taken off and the Lamb is the One who is doing it.
As we continue in Exodus 9, let us look at Exodus 9:17-21:
As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go? Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. He that feared the word of JEHOVAH among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: And he that regarded not the word of JEHOVAH left his servants and his cattle in the field.
This applies to us. We can ask ourselves this question: am I regarding the Word of the Lord or am I not regarding the Word of the Lord? God has said what He is going to do, just like He told Pharaoh; but Pharaoh did not listen. Pharaoh did not obey. He did not humble himself under the mighty hand of God and submit himself to the power of God. He instead dismissed it, but how could he dismiss it when all of the other previous judgments had come to pass?
This really shows us the nature of man. They do not want to hear from God. They certainly do not want to obey Him. They do not want to be humbled before Him. They hear these things. The information about Judgment Day is coming exclusively from the Bible. It is coming only from the Bible, which is the Word of God. Just as God spoke to Moses or just as God spoke to Noah, so He is speaking through His Word today to His people and to all people, “Will you not regard the Word of the Lord? Will you not fear before Him? Will you not humble yourself and begin to cry unto Him for mercy?”
If you regard the Word of the Lord, you will. If you have no regard for the Word of the Lord, you have much more in common with Pharaoh than you would like to admit. If you will not regard the Word of the Lord, you can picture yourself as these Egyptians who left their cattle in the field and who had no intention of submitting themselves; and yet, again, the plague came according to the Word of the Lord.
God’s Word is true and faithful and dependable and steadfast and sure. It is going to be fulfilled on every account. The promises of God are always fulfilled.
Let us also look at Exodus 10. We read in Exodus 10:4:
Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
And Pharaoh failed to listen again.
Go to Exodus 12. God now has one last plague or judgment to bring, the death of the firstborn. It says in Exodus 12:11:
And thus shall ye eat it…
I need to explain that God is instituting the Passover. He is giving commands regarding the Passover.
We read in verse 5, Exodus 12:5:
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
Exodus 12:7:
And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
Exodus 12:11:
And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste…
If you remember, Jesus said that we must eat of His body and drink of His blood. We have to eat of the Bread of Life. This is the same idea here as Jesus is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” He is the Passover Himself, and this feast has everything to do with Christ. This is why when He went to the cross in 33 A.D., it was at the time of the Passover. God was fulfilling the purpose and the spiritual meaning of this feast, which looked to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, too, there is great urgency for man to eat of the Passover in haste, because time is short. Has anyone noticed how rapidly time has gone? Does anyone remember when we were here in this same place when we had four years to go? Then we had three years to go. Then two years. How much time do we have left? Not much. This is the last summer that we are approaching. There will be a summer in 2011, but it will be after Judgment Day. It will be after God has taken His people to Heaven and after the Day of Salvation is over. This is the last summer, the last summer season wherein salvation is possible. Then we will have another fall and another winter, which we just came out of and was kind of harsh. But it will be the last winter and then we will have spring. In the spring, it will come. It will come in the spring of next year.
It will come, but maybe I or a few of us will no longer be alive because the Lord could take us at any time. But this Day will come. It is His appointed Day. God will work out His salvation plan. He will save the last of His elect, and then there will no longer be any purpose for this world except to experience five months of torment and tremendous sorrow and grief, knowing that God has already taken His people out of the world.
This is one reason why God says here in Exodus 12:11:
…ye shall eat it in haste: it is JEHOVAH’S Passover.
Then we read in Exodus 12:12:
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am JEHOVAH.
God is using the Passover and the departure of Israel from Egypt as a picture, on one account, of Judgment Day.
Long before this time, He had already said to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14:
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
This is a picture of the end of the world. God is going to judge the world. His people will come out of the world with great spoil and with great substance, because God will give us a new heaven and a new earth and everlasting life.
This is why He promises that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” We will receive the inheritance, not unsaved man who is using up his inheritance at this time during these days because his treasure was not in Heaven. His treasure was on earth, and so Christ is coming as a thief to rob him of his treasure because a thief “cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy,” which is nothing but negative, negative, negative. A thief never comes to bring blessings. A thief is not going to come to someone to bring them to Heaven and give them the reward of eternal life. A thief does not do this.
If anyone thinks that Christ is coming as a thief for them, and by this they mean that we cannot know and that we remain in the dark, then He may be coming for them as a thief because they do not know anything about His coming. This means that He is not coming to bless you in any way or to give you any kind of benefit. He is coming to kill you, to destroy you, and to steal your treasure that you stored up on earth rather than in Heaven.
This is why He is coming as a thief. He will take everything away and leave you even without a covering, as it says in Revelation 16. We read in Revelation 16:15:
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
So Christ is coming as a thief to take the manmade covering that people put on themselves to cover up their sins, things that the churches have developed with their manmade gospels that they use to indicate that someone’s sins are covered and that they are no longer “naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Yet Jesus is saying, “I am coming as a thief and your foundation will be discovered and the covering that you received whenever as you accepted Christ is worthless. I am going to take your covering from you and you will stand before Me spiritually naked and experience shame for five months.”
This is the reason why God’s people realize and know from the Bible that Jesus is not coming as a thief for them. You can ask someone about this, “Do you really think that He is coming as a thief for you? If so, then He is coming to kill you. He is coming to destroy you.” But He is not coming as a thief for the child of God, as 1 Thessalonians 5:4 indicates:
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
He is not coming as a thief for His people at all.
Returning to God speaking to Abraham in Genesis 15, He is telling him that His people will be afflicted for 400 years. Israel was in Egypt for 430 years, from 1877 B.C. until 1447 B.C., but they were not afflicted all 430 years. This is really very simple to harmonize. Joseph was in power. There was a honeymoon period between him and his family and the Egyptians. He was at the right hand of Pharaoh and had done incredible things. He had interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, which worked out wonderfully for Egypt and Pharaoh. Pharaoh had his entire kingdom strengthen through this to where Egypt was probably the greatest nation on earth in that day due to being able to gather all things during that famine. So for the first 30 years—probably until the Pharaoh passed away or for however long it was until Joseph was no longer in power—they were not afflicted. However, following this for a period of 400 years, they were. This does not mean that they were slaves for 400 years. It probably started slowly to where they became more and more outsiders, until finally at one point, Egypt did enslave them and they were put under hard bondage. Those in authority were cruel taskmasters over them.
So the time comes when God speaks of judging this nation and His people coming out with great substance, and then He says in Genesis 15:16:
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
We know through the Biblical calendar of history who these four generations are referring to as they went into Egypt: Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Aaron. When we put all of these generations together, it totals 430 years. It is a little involved knowing how old Levi was when he went into Egypt, but all of the other ages are known.
So God shows definitely that it was a 430-year period to the very day. He says this in Exodus 12:40-41:
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of JEHOVAH went out from the land of Egypt.
So God has this in mind for quite awhile. He knew that He was going to do this. This was the appointed day of deliverance. This was the appointed day of judgment on the Egyptians, as all of the firstborn were slain. Then He tells them in advance. He tells them in advance what He is going to do. He is going to bring His people out. At the same time, He is going to bring wrath and His judgment on Egypt, and it had to be precisely on that day and on no other day. It was “the selfsame day.”
This is how exact and perfect God is and how He works out His Biblical calendar of history to the day, and so we have May 21, 2011. It will not be any other day; it will be that day. This is because it is the 8400th day of the Great Tribulation. It is not 8399. It is not 8401. It is the 8400th day, a full 23-year period. It is also 7,000 years from the flood. Plus, what is May 21, 2011 in the Hebrew calendar? It is the 17th day of the 2nd month, which agrees with the day that God shut Noah and his family into the ark. Therefore, He could not have this land on May 22nd, nor could He have it on May 20th. It had to be May 21, 2011.
If you go to a Hebrew calendar website [note: http://www.hebcal.com/converter/ for example] and you type in “May 21, 2011,” you will see that it is the 17th day of the 2nd Hebrew month of Iyyar. If you type in “May 21, 2005 or 2010 or 2015,” it does not come up. I went from a 20-year span of 2000 to 2020, and there is only one year when May 21 is this particular Hebrew day, which agrees with the day that God shut Noah into the ark. For this and many other reasons, this must be the day; and God is again following the pattern of forewarning His people.
Let us now read Exodus 12:13:
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
So the question is: do we have blood on the doorposts of our house? Not literal blood, but do we have the blood of Christ covering our house or covering us as individuals? Is it covering our children? Is it covering others in our family?
Remember that this is referring to the night of “the destroyer.” “The destroyer” went through the land of Egypt, house to house. Where there was not the blood, He destroyed. He killed the firstborn, from Pharaoh who sat upon the throne, to a prisoner in the dungeon.
It does not matter who you are. “God is no respecter of persons.” He is only looking to see, “Are you covered by the blood or are you not covered by the blood?” It could be that some are not covered by the blood, and yet we have time because it is still the day of salvation.
But there is one thing that is very necessary, which is that the Word of the Lord be regarded, that it be heeded, that it be listened to, that it be believed. If you regard not the Word of the Lord, then you are in company with the Egyptians.
We see finally when it was all over that God had devastated Egypt. The army of Pharaoh and Pharaoh himself died in the Red Sea. Their crops were ruined. Their animals were dead. All of their firstborn were slain, and yet Israel marched out triumphantly. They marched out gloriously.
Of course, we know that they were not all saved. Most of them were not saved, but God was using this as a picture to illustrate what He is going to do next year as His people will be saved.
Let us just look at a couple of last verses. We saw the Lamb from the foundation of the world. We read of the lamb in the history of Israel and the Passover feast. We know that Jesus was “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” who came and made what He had done manifest in the first century A.D. We know that it is the Lamb who opened up the Book, the Bible, and who is revealing all of these truths to us and giving us all of this information.
If people have a problem with this, it is not Family Radio that they have a problem with. It is not any individual whom they have a problem with. They have a problem with the Lamb, because God is the One who is taking the seals off the Book.
We find in Revelation 21:22-23:
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Then verse 27, Revelation 21:27:
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
May each of our names be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Let us stop here.