(#2 5984) Like the Men of Issachar

FIRST POSTED ON 15 JULY 2018.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

In our last session, we spoke about how God has an urgent Word for His people today, and explained it in terms of the concepts Rhema and Kairos. I then gave examples of how God’s Rhema and Kairos apply in our personal lives.

However, what we want to discuss here is not about how God speaks to us personally but collectively as His people. In fact, the Bible is primarily His message to Israel, the Church and the world. His purpose is so that we, as one Body of Christ, understand the times we live in and know what we together as one people of God should do.

There is an example of this in the Old Testament. In 1 Chron 12:32, when King David was rallying for support from the people to bring Israel under his rule following the death of King Saul, the men of the tribe of Issachar acted decisively to join him because they understood the times - meaning, God’s will for the nation then - and knew what Israel should do. Similarly, we believe that God is speaking to His people today and we, like the men of Issachar, need to hear, understand and act decisively as one people of God in light of His Rhema and will.

I cannot overemphasise this point, especially in this day and age when we tend to focus only on ourselves and God’s calling for us as individuals. Yes, God may have different callings for different people, but there is also a general calling for all of us as believers together as part of the one Body of Christ. Just like the men of Issachar - I am quite sure not everyone was called to support David as warriors; some would have contributed financially or helped in other ways. The point is that they united as a tribe behind the nation of God in alignment to His will.

It therefore also means looking beyond our church, which is the local congregation of the Body of Christ, and even our denomination and indeed the worldwide Church itself, to recognise that God’s Word is for all of His people today. Now, who are His people? We shall consider this question again later. At this point, I just want to emphasise the need to have this global perspective that is more than us individually, local church denomination etc to see who are God’s people as God sees it. Let us be like the men of Issachar, who not only saw things from their individual point of view, not even as a tribe, but as the entire nation of Israel.

Link to presentation.

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(#1 5984) From Now to Eternity - Rhema & Kairos

NOTE: I WILL BE UPLOADING MY BLOG POSTS ON A WEEKLY BASIS EVERY SHABBAT (FRIDAY 7PM). FIRST POSTED ON 1 JULY 2018.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to the Issachar B7D Fellowship!

This is the first of my Shabbat YouTube blog posts and I am so happy to be with you here today. I have named my YouTube blog “From Now to Eternity,” because I believe that the time has come to proclaim God’s living word, His Rhema, in this, His Kairos or appointed time. I pray that this will be an ongoing journal to equip and encourage all of you who are tuning in, all whom the Lord calls, to keep the faith until He returns to bring us all back to eternity.

Now, in my welcome video, I said that God has an urgent word for His people today so that, like the men of Issachar, we understand the times and know what we should do. What He wants to speak to us is apparent in the Bible when we consider it through the perspective of the 7 Days of Creation.

Let us now try and unpack this a bit more, starting with the words, God has an urgent word for His people today.

Here, we need to understand the concept of Rhema and Kairos.

Rhema literally means an “utterance”, God speaking to us. This is different from Logos, which refers to God’s written word that became flesh in Jesus. So whereas Logos is in a sense eternal, Rhema is very specific, at a particular point in time. Often, we experience God’s Rhema when the Holy Spirit prompts or convicts our hearts during our Quiet Times. So for instance, we may have read a Bible passage many times before, but one day the words from the passage suddenly “jumps” at us. That is Rhema, God speaking to us at that particular point in time. When God speaks, we are always touched and transformed in some way, because we know that God’s word never returns to Him empty (Isa 55:11).

Kairos meanwhile refers to that opportune time, usually for some form of action to take place. As we will see in our later sessions, it is that appointed or we could even use sacred (set apart) time. This is very different from Chronos or linear, historical time. So for instance, when God released His Rhema to you, that particular time was His Kairos - His opportune, appointed and even sacred or set apart - time for Him to release His word to you. In a sense, we could say that God acted at that point in time to speak to you, because we know that God’s word brings about change and transformation in our lives. Often, it also leads us into action as we respond to His Rhema.

So, let us summarise this - first, we are talking about God’s word, not my word, not my theories, theology, doctrine or perspective. It is not one among many. We are talking about what God is saying. Next, it is what God is saying to us today, not at any particular point in time, not the eternal word of God but what He wants to speak to us today.

So the key message here is that God wants to speak, to say something that is specific to us, at this particular point in history. That is what Rhema and Kairos is all about.

The Question is - do we believe?

Link to presentation.

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Annual Introduction - AM 5984 (2 October 2024 - 22 September 2025)

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to the Issachar B7D Fellowship!

Jews celebrate the Feast of Trumpets at sunset today by blowing the Shofar to mark the beginning of a Jewish New Year. We are another year closer to the end of the Sixth Millennium before Yeshua returns to usher in His Millennial Sabbath Rule as symbolized by the Seventh Day of the original Creation account. Until then, we pray for the day when Israel will celebrate this Feast recognizing Yeshua as their promised Messiah who will return at the Last Trumpet.  

We will soon mark the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, the first territorial invasion of Israel since 1948. Our prayers go out to those affected by this tragedy. Others however have criticised Israel’s retaliation, putting the country under intense international pressure and isolation. Meanwhile, the entire region is on the brink of war, as tensions escalate between Israel and Iran. How do we make sense of all this in light of Yeshua’s soon return?

As Yeshua ministered over Jerusalem for the final time days before His crucifixion, He lamented, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Mt 23:37-39). Centuries earlier, Jeremiah had described this desolation as a “time of trouble for Jacob” when “‘cries of fear are heard … [when] every strong man [has] his hands on his stomach like a woman in labour, every face turned deathly pale … How awful that day will be! No other will be like it … but he will be saved out of it” (Jer 30:5-7). Elaborating on that day, “when all the nations of the world are gathered against her” (Zech 12:3), Zechariah said God would “set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem” (v. 9) while “pour[ing] out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him” (v. 10). God has allowed these things to happen to Israel as part of His merciful plan to redeem His rebellious and sinful people when they finally recognise Him in Yeshua. 

Last year, I spoke about how we are now living in the period of birth pains. What is happening to Israel today is part of this beginning of birth pains as described by Jeremiah earlier. We can expect more to come over Israel and the Church before Yeshua returns to birth His new creation. As citizens of God’s kingdom and Gentile members of the “commonwealth of Israel” (Eph 2:12), let us therefore look to God’s Truth and not be swayed by divisive arguments over Israel. Let us know His Will and seek Israel’s restoration, recognising that Israel’s “hardening in part” is only for a season “until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved” (Rom 11:25-26). Let us not be conceited, “do not consider yourself superior … do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches [Israel], he will not spare you either” (Rom 11:18-21). Finally, let us approach Israel with God’s heart of mercy and not with a judgmental spirit, “because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).

God bless you and God bless Israel,

Stephen & Wei Ling Lim

Song credit - Yamma Ensemble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnkb7...)

Link to e-Book - https://5722a1c4-623d-4701-a1bb-fc17c...