(#29 5984) Day 4 - Prophetic Narrative & Rhema (Part 1 - Understanding the Message)

FIRST POSTED ON 1 OCTOBER 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

Previously, we saw how God had progressively released His Rhema in His Kairos - first to the Old Testament Prophets, then to the Apostles and the Church, and now to those of us who recognise the signs of the times. These are not 3 separate messages but a single unified voice or prophetic narrative. If I could sum up this 3-part message in a simple sentence, it would be “the Messiah would come, came as Jesus, and will return soon to establish His Kingdom.” In this session, I want to highlight 3 very important aspects to understanding this prophetic narrative:

First, this message that we are now called to proclaim is not something new to the Word of God - like a new book or chapter in addition to what has already been written in the Bible. The Bible itself warns us not to add to or subtract from God’s Word. It is a message that had been there all along, only that it was hidden in the Scriptures in various signs and symbols, peoples and events throughout the Bible, as we have seen for ourselves in our study so far of the first four Days of Creation.

God’s messengers in the past had in fact hinted at Its existence. Even as they prophesied and declared those things that were made known to them, they pointed to something more and the incompleteness of their own understanding.

Having said this however, this message is new in that what was hidden before - the Bible uses the term “mystery” - has now been made known to us in God’s Kairos.

Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 13:52. During His time, God’s written word consisted only of the Old Testament - also known as the Law and Prophets. This was because the rest of the Bible - the New Testament - had yet to be written. However, Jesus said that when those who taught God’s word became His disciples, they would find in the “storeroom” of the Old Testament not just the “old treasures” of what they already knew, but “new treasures” of mysteries and things unknown to them previously which were now made known and explained to them by God’s revelation.

The Apostle Paul is the best example of this - he used to possess only the “old treasures” of the Law and Prophets as a devout Pharisee or Jewish religious teacher. However, following his conversion, God revealed to Paul the two greatest mysteries hidden in the Old Testament - that of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the mystery of the Church opening the way for Gentiles into God’s Kingdom. His writings concerning these two mysteries make up almost half of the New Testament books.

Today, we are privileged to be that generation who will find in the Bible not just the “old treasures” of what have already been taught - the doctrines that make up our Christian faith - but also “new treasures” concerning the final mysteries surrounding the end times - understanding the signs of the times, knowing the nearness of Jesus’ return, recognising the trials that will arise and therefore preparing and equipping ourselves for what needs to be done - if we believe and receive God’s Rhema that is being released today.

Lastly, this message completes the entire picture, the culmination of a common prophetic narrative. As mentioned earlier, the Old Testament Prophets addressed various nations over a period of four centuries, bringing God’s Rhema to His people as well as His enemies. Yet there was a common theme or narrative shared by these prophets that would only be partially fulfilled during their time, nor was it completely fulfilled at the first coming of Jesus, but pointed to a distant future - a future which is now upon us - when God will bring about its eventual and complete fulfilment.

The thought of prophecies having partial and multiple gradual fulfilments should not surprise us given our earlier cyclical understanding of time. This idea is best reflected in the Jewish word for year (Shanah) - it shares the same root as the words “repeat” and “change” portraying time as an ascending helix, where there is a repeat/review of key historical events (history and prophecy repeating itself) but also change brought about by the multiple gradual fulfilment of prophecy.

Further, the prophetic narrative that we will be looking at here applies not only to Israel but also the Church. We learnt previously that what happened to Israel was not only instructive but prophetic of what would come upon the Church, as the Commonwealth of Israel during this period of grace.

Before we conclude, I just want to briefly mention that our understanding and interpretation above of God’s Rhema, His prophetic narrative throughout the Bible, is in line with the traditional Jewish approach to scriptural interpretation. Here, the “Pardes” approach speaks of four progressively deeper levels of interpretation - beginning with the literal or plain meaning of the text, followed by the allegorical or symbolic meaning, then comparative or by way of patterns and similar recurrences, and finally the secret or mystery that requires divine revelation and inspiration through the work of the Holy Spirit. We see this most clearly in our understanding of the 7 Days of Creation - literally, as describing God’s work of creation; symbolically as referring to the 7 millennia of world history; comparatively as seen in the patterns/similar recurrences of 7s pointing to the Sabbaths, High Sabbaths, Sabbaticals, Jubilee or Sabbatical of Sabbaticals, and the Millennial Sabbath; and finally the mystery revealed regarding the signs of the times and Jesus’ soon return in our generation.

Link to presentation.

Read the e-Book.

(#28 5984) Day 4 - The Prophets

FIRST POSTED ON 15 SEPTEMBER 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

Previously, we learnt of God’s purpose for Israel to indirectly point to Jesus and pave the way for His coming and return through various aspects about the nation. But God didn’t stop at just that - He also spoke plainly to His people and to all mankind about Jesus (although God did not identify Jesus by name then) by sending Prophets throughout Israel’s history to proclaim His Rhema in His Kairos.

These Old Testament Prophets, who guided and warned Israel in their walk with God, served as God’s lesser light by prophesying the coming of a Messiah or Anointed One and His Kingdom.

In God’s Kairos, His Word literally came to life in Jesus, who died for our sins to fulfill His Rhema as spoken of in the Law and through these Prophets.

After His resurrection, Jesus commanded His Apostles to proclaim the Gospel or Good News that He was the Messiah and that His Kingdom had arrived - although for now, His Kingdom would be hidden in the hearts of His people, as they called by faith on His name for their spiritual salvation even as they waited for His physical return. Since then, every generation of the Church has reached out into the world to fulfill this Great Commission. This has been God’s Rhema in this Kairos period of His grace, kept hidden in previous ages but revealed to the Apostles and the Church (Eph 3:4-5), until the fullness of the Gentiles have come into His Kingdom.

Now, we are standing at the end of history, almost two thousand years since Jesus first came. We saw previously how we are very likely the last generation, the ones who will experience the end-time tribulation and finally witness Jesus’ return.

In this Kairos moment, God is once again releasing His Rhema to His people, kept hidden previously but now revealed through the signs of the times as understood in light of the Seven Days of Creation, which is to proclaim that Jesus the Messiah and His Kingdom will soon return. His Kingdom will no longer be confined within the hearts of people and, as described in Mt 11:12, “subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.” Instead, Jesus will set up His Millennial Kingdom to rule over the earth from His throne in Jerusalem, and Israel will be restored to fulfill its destiny as His kingdom of priests and holy nation.

Link to presentation.

Read the e-Book.

(#27 5984) Day 4 - Reflections (For Such a Time as This)

FIRST POSTED ON 1 SEPTEMBER 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

The book of Esther is unique in that there was no mention of God throughout. Yet God’s hand was clearly at work through a young Jewish girl who had the courage to stand and speak His Rhema in His Kairos. As a result, God’s people was rescued from total destruction.

The evil in Esther’s time was the same evil that wiped out six million Jews during the Jewish Holocaust of World War Two. It is a solemn reminder that God’s enemies, led by Satan, will not stop seeking to destroy God’s people until Jesus returns in judgment. Even now, the world is lining up against Israel, while Christian communities are being persecuted everywhere. We are told that an end-time holocaust will come when “all who refused to worship the image [of Satan]” will be killed (Rev 13:15). Our Lord Himself had already warned us of what is to come - “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me … but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Mt 24:9-13). The enemy’s attacks are also being carried out within the Church itself as apostasy grows and the Truth of God is undermined. We are that generation that will not only see Jesus’ return to bring in the dawn of a glorious new millennium but also to live through the darkest of the darkest night before it.

As I had mentioned before, the purpose of the Issachar B7D Fellowship is not to speculate on dates but to understand the signs of the times so that we know how close we are to His coming. But more than that, we are called to know not just for sake of knowing, but so that we know what to do in such times. For the past 2,000 years, we have heard and heeded God’s Rhema in the form of the Great Commission. This must continue until the fullness of the Gentiles have come into the Kingdom. But we are now living in the last Jubilee; we are that final generation whom Jesus is speaking to in Matthew 24. It is time to recognise that the signs point to us, and that we should therefore hear and respond to His Rhema for us in this Kairos.

Like Ezra and Nehemiah, we are called to repair the foundations and rebuild the walls of our faith, both individually and together as one people of God, so that we will survive when the storms of internal apostasy and external persecution hit. Like Esther, we are to rescue His people, not just by bringing them into the Faith but to help them hang on to it until Jesus returns.

As the passage above tells us, God’s work and will can never be undermined, despite our inaction or outright disobedience. As Mordecai put it, “if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.” God doesn’t need us, but He did choose us so that we have the privilege and joy of participating in His divine plan. May those who see the signs and hear God’s Rhema as we do persevere with the kind of faith and courage that Mordecai and Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah, had. After all, “who knows but that you have come to your … position for such a time as this?”

Link to presentation.

Read the e-Book.