ISAIAH’S END-TIME TIMELINE

Isaiah’s End-time Timeline Chapters 50-51

LOOKING TO ABRAHAM

Exodus 34:10, Matthew 10:28, Galatians 3:16, Numbers 14:11

The continued subject is the just rejection of the nation for their continued transgressions; past, present and future; for the breaking of the law of Covenant. This is the reason for their estrangement, but He has not forgotten Zion as they have supposed. [Isaiah 49:14] The words here in chapter 50 appear to say that God has looked for a just reason and just person to redeem. He has called and none answered. In His response to the nation questioning His abilities to redeem, God reminds them predictively, that “at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: the fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”  [Isaiah 50:2-3] There being no idle words from God, these works can be expected to be accomplished.

These words connect to God’s thought in the following prophetic verses, (which continue the prophetic word of the 49th chapter) in that the nation’s greatest transgression was that of the future rejection of the Messiah. And at His Crucifixion we see a foretaste of that above declared power on display, in that for 3 hours it was dark in the middle of the day over the entire earth. [Luke 23:24] But this word of Isaiah 50:3 was but partially fulfilled then, at the crucifixion. We look forward in Scripture to Christ’s prophetic words for an even more complete application in Matthew 24:29 and in John’s words of Revelation 6:12, in the opening of the 6th seal. “….and, lo, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood….”

God, having looked and called among men for one to justify His salvation,  and finding none, He calls One in Whom He may find justification for redemption. [Luke 1:31 & 2:21 with Philippians 2:8] The verses of Isaiah 50 bear witness to Christ’s days of willing humiliation as His servant, and trusting the Father in the face of rejection by His brethren. [Compare Luke 22:64 and Matthew 26:67, 27:6 with Isiah 50:4-7] And He calls upon His followers, though in sorrow and darkness, and tempted in despair. Doubt not, surely it is this One through Whom He will yet show forth His mighty Hand of deliverance.

Though He has justified His Salvation in the nation of Israel by His Own Offering, He awakens but a remnant. In that the vast majority of Israel will yet walk in the warmth of their own religious fire. “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled, This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.”  He now extends His Hand to the Gentiles, to call out a new nation of people for His Name in the new Age of Mercy and Grace. [Hebrews 4:16, Matthew 21:43, Acts 15:14, Ephesians 2, and the Book of Revelation, the first 3 chapters]

ISAIAH CHAPTER 51 is an exhortation to those in pursuit of righteousness. Don’t lose hope. Don’t lose sight of the prize. [1 Corinthians 9:24] “…look unto the rock whence you were hewn…” … “Look unto Abraham your father…. for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” Remember Abraham, the father of your faith. Remember after I called Him out of Ur, out of the World, out of the darkness of his own light. Even then I brought him through hardship, in which he yet trusted me. Even in those 10 great tests and trials, he yet endured, becoming fully persuaded in Me. And being as good as dead, he received the Promise. I will yet show forth My mighty Hand of redemption, in the Covenant of marvels will the entire World see the terrible thing that I will do with you. [Exodus 34:10] He shall surely then comfort Zion…in the millennium.

But as a reminder, the Millennium is but preparatory for the Restoration of all things in the Kingdom of God. “….for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be fore ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” And as further assurance in His abilities to redeem, insight is given into what constitutes the Covenant of Marvels which He will finally accomplish in and through “Israel”, His trusted Servant. Now, to all nations His Salvation has gone forth. His arms will judge the people….and on mine arm shall they trust. In the light of this prophetic word, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness.…” (that is to say those justified in Him; in whose heart has the word of His Law gone forth) “….why should you fear whatever man may do?” They, like the heavens and the earth….. “….they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.” [Isaiah 51:4-8] The word is, “fear not man”, that may kill the body, and that in this Age, but FEAR GOD, the Author of Salvation. He who can fill the soul with life or destroy in death, and that exponentially in the soul in the next Age. [Matthew 10:28]

Jesus Christ has been anointed King. He is yet to take His Kingdom. Like David of old, who was anointed king, but had to first gather his men before he would take his kingdom from Saul, (Saul having lost his right to rule through disobedience) so Jesus gathers His Bride in this Age of Grace and Mercy. And then He shall come forth in the power of His might and take His Kingdom and Crown from satan, who has lost his right to rule. He will take full authority in the World as He takes the Crowns from fallen angels, and receives in good will from good Angels, and grants them to His Bride. Wait for this, in inspired trust is the depth of these Scriptures. “Fear not man”.  Fear not the Anti-Christ in light of God’s Words. Remember your God, the Creator. The great oppressor will soon not be found.

As sure as God is calling out a people for His Name, so the Jews must drink of the cup of His fury, the cup of her transgressions, the cup of the indignation of His Wrath. Then the Lord will plead her cause, and she will drink of the cup of trembling no more. She will fear man never again. As the Lord will give her enemies of that cup, and they will drink the fury of His indignation until they are consumed.

MEDITATING ON GOD’S WORD TO REMEMBER ABRAHAM

Remember the covenant that God has with him. My deliverance or redemption of you is based upon the irrevocable promise to him. My dealing with you is in the pursuance of fulfilling my promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The burning bush of Moses was but the pursuance of that promise of Genesis 15. Centuries later when the cup of the Amorites’ iniquities was full, God continued His pursuit of filling up His promises to Abraham in his seed/Seed.

How shall you know that I will deal faithfully with you? Because I will fulfill my promises to bring you in to the land I promised his seed. The mission of Christ and the direction of the Father is the result of that covenant with Abraham and his “seed.”  God has REVEALED THAT ABRAHAM’S SEED IN THE FLESH WOULD GO INTO BONDAGE AND AFTER FOUR GENERATIONS HE WOULD BRING THEM OUT. SO HE NOW SPEAKS AGAIN OF A FUTURE LONGER BONDAGE IN WHICH THEY WILL GO INTO, AND NOT ONLY THE PROGENY OF ABRAHAM’S NATURAL SEED BUT THIS BONDAGE WOULD INCLUDE HIS SUPERNATURAL SEED’S seed AS WELL. That is to say Christ’s seed of which we are. [Galatians 3:16] So it is in the end times, both would be under heavy bondage, after which Jesus Christ will, as Moses did in the past, bring them out into the fullness of their different inheritances. This then is not only the filling up of the Amorites’ iniquities, but that of the whole world.

So it is by these assurances that the pursuers of righteousness in both groups of God’s Church may rest in faith and hope. That is God’s blood/Blood sacrifice of Genesis 15 & 22 type Christ as the anti type, and the sure Covenant words there spoken are made even surer in the Words of Covenant later given in Isaiah 49:6. That Moses wrought the fury of God in response to Egypt’s treatment of the seed, is exactly what God said to Abraham that He would do to Egypt. So Jesus shall fully bring to bear God’s fury on all who, in malice against God, exercised repressive dominion over His people. (Both groups of Revelation 12 and 14.) So it is in type like Moses bringing the Wrath of God on Egypt, that the Mission of God in Jesus Christ fills up with meaning the Wrath on the World. Now both in the heavens above and earth beneath is the redeeming of both the earthly and heavenly seed. [Hebrews 11:12, Acts 7:2,5 with Genesis 15:7,18 13:15] If it is asserted that Abraham’s seed occupied it, thus did he. Acts 7 declares God promised Abraham himself the Land. And God has not yet fulfilled that promise. See also that the words of Stephen about Moses are types of Jesus Christ, and as Egypt is for the end times Anti-Christ. As Moses was rejected, when he tarried on the Mount, and Aaron and his idol were accepted instead, this is a picture of the faithless Jews and the faithless New Covenant Man’s acceptance of the Anti-Christ. These being both seeds, the natural and spiritual seed. [See 2 Peter 2, Hebrews 6:4-8, 10:26-39]

Numbers 14:11 “And the Lord said unto Moses; how long will this people provoke me?”  Israel has never received the Promised Land on the basis of faith, as did Abraham. At Mt. Sinai they covenanted on the basis of keeping the law. And as they have habitually broken the Covenant of their justification, they have been removed twice form the Land, and thus will be removed a 3rd time. And as the Land was promised to his SEED, Christ has never possessed the Land and so it is yet future. And when He takes His right of promise, He shall divide His spoils and fulfill the promise of God to Abraham’s seed.

Abraham’s seed then living at the time of Christ’s Kingdom Manifest, but what of Abraham? In what sense should we consider his personal inheritance of promise in the Land? What is the state of Abraham? His body is dead. [Deuteronomy 25:9] Where then is Abraham? Luke 16:22,23 says he is in Hades, that is, his essence is there. And his spirit is with God. [Ecclesiastes 12:7, Luke 23:46] So in no sense in his current condition may he enjoy his inheritance of promise, nor is he currently “redeemed”, but is held captive by the “gates of hell”.

This was well understood from Genesis 15 where God told Abraham that he would go to the intermediary place of the dead. (As it was well understood by Christ’s faithful followers that is where they would also go. John 11:24) But also that he would rise again, be united with his body and spirit, and finally enjoy the promise of his inheritance. It was in this, his faith, that God declared He was well pleased. [Hebrews 11, Luke 20:35-38]

God is at odds with death. And although Abraham is technically in that state, and thereby “unclean”, God has appointed him, as are some of his seed/Seed to be a part of that future First Resurrection out from among the dead. Therein restored to his body and spirit, redeemed in the undoing of the curse of “dust you are and to the dust you will return”. Now resurrected in clothed holiness-In Christ. “….what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead…..for if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy….”    

It is in this sense that “God is the God of the living”. For it is in this future state Abraham will again be living, full of glorious life through Christ. In no other way but THE First Fruit, that is Jesus Christ, has the ‘out from among the dead’ resurrection been implemented.“In that God having provided some better thing for us (the Seed of Abraham in Christ) that they (the seed of Abraham) without us should not be made perfect.”  [Hebrews 11:40] It is in this sense and knowledge that the Spirit has always spake through His servants. The resurrection ‘out from among the dead’ is reserved until the End Times, when Jesus Christ leaves that place and position of High Priest to claim His own. Not before then, thus says Daniel 12:1-3. And thus was the understanding of Mary. [John 11:21] It is in that sense that Jesus spoke here in Luke 20. It was in that sense that Paul spoke in Philippians 3:11. It was in that sense he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:52,  Hebrews 6:2 and 11:35, and in that sense does John write in Revelation 20:5,6. It additionally is in that sense that Peter on the day of Pentecost some 40 plus days after Jesus Christ (as the First Fruit offering unto God) was Resurrected, that Peter in his sermon declares David still in the grave. Surely had there been a resurrection out from among the dead at Christ’s Resurrection, David would have been a part!

It is at the 2nd coming of Christ, when the iniquity of the World has filled the Cup of indignation, that Abraham and his seed shall be redeemed out of satan’s kingdom. It is then when his seed as the grains of sand may inherit in the realm of the Earth….and the Singular Seed’s seed may inherit as the stars of the sky, that realm in the heavens above the earth. It follows that the prophecy of Isaiah 51:6 is not that time of His 2nd Coming and the first resurrection, but it speaks to His initiating the 2nd resurrection, those remaining dead unto judgment. Those words of 51:6 are those actions of Revelation 21:1.

The Gospel is the message of the Gentiles into the New Man. The few Jews receiving the Atonement and power of the Holy Spirit into that same New Man. The Gospel does not fulfill the Promise to Abraham. Until the Gospel Age of the New Man is over, the resurrection is suspended to that end. Just as the Age of the Preeminence of the Jews in faith in Jesus Christ is.

“Whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence, firm to the end.” The Gospel of the New Man in Mercy and Grace is being presented. The gift of eternal life is being extended. The Gospel dead are being gathered until Christ departs the Temple. Then the Age of mercy and Grace will count her worthies and the Age of reward according to works in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ begins. Abraham will then be resurrected and God’s Covenant with him fulfilled in the intent of God’s promises to him. His new life in endlessness begins, as the Son of the Resurrection in Christ, his Messiah the fullness of Jesus words, “God of Abraham…God of the Living”.

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