ISAIAH’S END-TIME TIMELINE

Isaiah’s End-time Timeline Chapter 42

THE IRREVOCABLE CALLING

Deuteronomy 26:19, Romans 11:15; 11:29, Matthew 12:17-18, Zechariah 12:11-12, 2 Peter 2

The Irrevocable Kingly and Priestly Calling to Israel and to the New Man

The theme of Israel’s Covenant with God continues. That theme being: God has long since called Israel to priesthood/shepherd-ship, to be the intermediary agent, as they were appointed by God, to be “….for a light of the Gentiles”. (The rest of the nations of the World.) They are to bring through that priesthood, “judgment and righteousness” into the World. They then must comprehend God on that level which enables them to “love their neighbors”. That is to say; love their enemies (Gentiles). The reality was that they were too concerned with their interests, their own survival and well being, to be priests unto their neighbors/Gentiles. [Leviticus 19]

God’s call for them to glory; in priesthood and kingship, can only be obtained by the capacity realized in the bonds of affliction. Humility and contriteness are prerequisites to priesthood. Their future is glorious, but first must come the capacitating of affliction unto death. (If the Sacrifices of the Old Covenant speak to Christ’s self-sacrificing of His life, they would also then need to speak to His priests’ lives.)

It would be good to realize that prophecy needs to be obscure, an enigma, by often speaking poetically or indirectly. Therefore, it has the ability to safeguard itself from those who would resist and attempt to change or stop its fulfillment. And therefore revelation is reserved for those who are given eyes to see & ears to hear. 

“BEHOLD my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” [Isaiah 42:1; see Matthew 12:17-18] Here, “my servant” is Israel, or the Messiah, or both. We can we look at these verses as having dual meanings. That is to say; as a mix or combination applicable to the Lord, or His servants, or both. As He has vouchsafed us (rendered/revealed) in the Psalms, wherein Scripture has Him mixed in with David often. See for example, John 15:25 with Psalms 35:19, & 69:4. So here in Isaiah, He is often mixed/blended in Scripture with the nation of Israel.

These verses answer to, or have in view, God’s Priesthood/Shepherd-ship and King-ship in authority in the World. This was the Covenant *calling of Israel when they were brought out of Egypt. This priesthood and kingship to co-rule calling remains on the Nation and people of Israel; although the Covenant has been broken. [Romans 11:29 with 11:15]

*(We further understand that this calling did not originate with Israel but this great irrevocable calling goes back to Adam, that living soul, that new creature God created to co-rule with Him over this World.)

SHEPHERDS OR LIONS?

That calling, was unto a life preeminent in the earth, “…to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name and in honor.…” [Deuteronomy 26:19 with 28:1-13] God had made them able to be partakers of a certain blessed inheritance as saints in that Old Covenant light, which was to be extended to the Gentiles, and that not in a condescending way. This “calling” of a servant “…in whom my soul delighteth…” to minister the knowledge of Yahweh to the Nations required a certain kind of heart. It required a shepherd’s heart. Not in “vainglory… but in lowliness of mind..”… exampled by Moses. The realization of which God had invited all Israel into through Torah Covenant. A Covenant calling which the Prophets continue to expose their unwillingness to fully answer unto. (See Matthew 23:2 with John 9:39 and Acts 13:46)

Thus with their persistent refusal; comes the question: “Who is blind, but my servant? Or deaf, as my messengers that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.” Moses prophesied, “….Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” [Deuteronomy 31:20, 32:15]

Because of their shepherds’ darkness; they did not esteem the Rock of His/their salvation. And rejecting Him, they were cut off from the heavenly kingdom inheritance, although they yet maintain the earthly inheritance blessing once they have seen the embodiment of that Calling. The Calling they once had as the shepherds of God unto all the Nations; but refused, and mourn for their loss. They mourn in the realization of their need of that same self- sacrificing spirit of Jesus the true Jew, the Servant and Shepherd of God. [Isaiah 40:11] The Shepherd that loved God with all His heart and in Whom God delighted, who faithfully brought forth light/judgment to the Gentiles. The Jew in holy jealousy, that is to say; mourns the realization and acknowledgement of that spirit of calling, with promise, that they had refused, upon which they may be “resurrected from the dead” into a certain priestly, kingly LIFE. [Romans 11:15, Zechariah 12:11,12]

Jesus has taken the calling out of a people for God’s Name from the Gentiles, but not in the annulling of the promises to Abraham’s seed, for that shall surely come to pass. BUT the calling out is in this Age, that mysterious heavenly call, suspended in time, is in the dispensation between the 69^th and 70^th week of Daniel. That calling only to be perpetuated in the spirit of the Lord, exampled in the Apostles. See Acts 20:18-29 for example.

AS NOW the NEW MAN in Jesus Christ is to be THE LIGHT UNTO THE GENTILES. But in the same way that Israel lost its way, so has Christendom lost its way. In that their shepherds also led them astray. (Read Jeremiah 5:31.) The Israelite did not learn to love his neighbor; therefore he would not love the stranger. That is to say, as the Christian has not learned to love his brethren; he therefore is unable to be the greater light of a higher calling /of a greater, more abundant life-giving priest to the Gentiles. Read Zechariah 11 with Deuteronomy 31 & 32. These are examples of both groups of God’s church who shortly refuse the Shepherd-ship. In the Book of Revelation Chapter 3:14-22, the Book of Jude 3-5,16, and 2 Peter 2, we have the sister Scriptures of indictment to the New Covenant Church of God in Christ Jesus. Shepherds and their sheep who were set apart, in that special calling of glorious priesthood as the light to the nations, who are rejected as fat wolves, that steal their way in, devouring the flock.

THE BREAKING OF THE SHEPHERDS’ STAVES

The breaking of the staff of beauty relates to breaking Covenant with Israel, in the glorious but mysterious kingdom of the heavens. [Matthew 13:11] The inheritance of which is given unto another nation found worthy of that calling by the bringing forth the fruits thereof. Matthew 21:43 relates to that loss of heavenly throne call of the Bride / the first-born inheritance. In the breaking of the staff, we find they refused to be guided by God in their salvation and were then broke off the limb from true “Israel” (the Lord). And God turned to Gentiles to graft in a New Nation/ the Nation of the New Man, into that mysterious heavenly call. [Hebrews 3:1] He, having been rejected by His brethren, stooped low. “…suffering death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him…in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings…that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them….Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.”

Who, having passed into Heaven, appointed shepherds for His flock. “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at an time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.…”

And with the prophesied Word and example of Israel before us, we see the degeneration and present condition of the church, and our fearful state. In Scripture we discover the destinies in the one being given up to Babylon, then Rome and in the future to the Anti-Christ. In the other, given up to Mystery Babylon seen in Constantine, and in the last days, the Laodicean church given over to the Anti-Christ. It was the prize of the heavenly calling that Israel forfeited. It is the prize of the earthly calling that is yet extended to the Jew who faithful to God does not succumb to the Anti-Christ /Anti-God, that they now stand in threat of. To the Jew that succumbs, he shall lose the preeminent calling in the earth. And he shall stay in Hades / the intermediate place of the dead for a thousand years until the Great White Throne judgment.

It is the prize of the heavenly calling of the First-Fruits that much of the New Covenant church has lost. They have walked in the darkness of the eye of their chosen shepherds. Their arm withering as they are now given up to the sword of the Anti-Christ (2/3?)…The prize of the heavenly calling yet remains for those who lost the reward of staying awake and praying. But now they must endure in faithful patience, even unto death, in the Tribulation persecution to have a part in the heavenly calling, in that promised harvest at the end of the Tribulation period. Failure of a Christian to do this, is the loss of the heavenly calling and he will remain in Hades/the place of the dead until the second resurrection and the Great White Throne judgment. [Revelation 12, 13, 14 & 20:4-6]

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