Biblical Forensics©


“Deliverance before Judgment”

Part 15


Before covering the Biblical Typology of Exodus, I want to point out that the Bible actually explains how to study and interpret Bible prophecy. Amos 8:11 describes that a “famine for hearing the Word” would occur in the last days. The probable cause for this was briefly mentioned in Part 13-14 of Deliverance before Judgment.(1) Theological seminaries do not teach their students Bible prophecy. Because of this lack of thorough Biblical training, the strength of spiritual growth for future congregations which they will one day serve will become limited and even hobbled.

Even with personally possessing nearly eleven years of formal theological education almost none of it was devoted to the subject of Biblical prophecy. However, this negligence in curriculum has not held me back in the least or prevented me from studying Bible prophecy on my own, which I have done now for over fifty years. However, this is not to diminish or devalue formal theological training at all. Those years of training equipped me with foundational skills, knowledge, and training which are absolutely needed to aid in the understanding of Bible prophecy.

God has not left us without clues to the deeper understandings in His Word and these are often discovered in Bible prophecy.

The Apostle Paul, himself of Jewish background –(Philippians 3:5), may very well have eaten ham sandwiches. This delivers a decisive blow to the religious belief that a vegetarian diet is a Biblically binding law even today. Several religious groups require that a vegetarian diet be practiced among their congregants. But is this true for believers today or should this be viewed simply a lifestyle preference? God gave special food laws to Israel which were recorded in the Old Testament, but they were given particularly to keep God’s people separate from other nations. This approach would no longer be productive in the New Testament period in light of Paul’s mission strategy which was to unite Jew and Gentile together in one body under Christ. Its principle of moral separation could be retained without cultural separation. Furthermore, health and food safety may have been a consideration then that is no longer a significant factor today because we have modern-day refrigeration. Food and our feelings about it, or any scruples that are not specifically condemned in Scripture, are not worth arguing about, flaunting, or judging - these should never be allowed to tear down other believers or tear apart the church. It is wrong for one believer to insist on his or her freedom when it causes others to stumble. –(Rom 14:20-22). Nonetheless, cults like the Seventh Day Adventists and others still continue to stress the importance of adhering to a vegetarian lifestyle implying that it is God’s approved way for humanity today.

Even so, if it causes someone else to fall, then put it aside for the other’s sake (see also 1st Corinthians 10:23-24; 1st Corinthians 10:31-32). Therefore, mature believers would want to consider avoiding eating meat or drinking wine or doing anything else if it might cause another Christian to stumble. Truly strong believers can restrict their freedoms for the sake of others when such occasions arise where conduct or choice could result in an unintended offense.

In those areas of disagreement, Paul counsels believers to keep their beliefs between themselves and God. The brother or sister who believes in certain freedoms should not be trying to influence others with scruples to “loosen up.” Those bothered by some actions should not be judging or condemning those with freedom, nor should they be trying to force their scruples on the entire church. Instead all believers should seek a clear conscience before God. Believers who do so are blessed and do not condemn themselves by doing something they know is all right. This person has a good, but not insensitive, conscience –(Romans 14:20-22).

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. –(Matthew 5:17). The Law and its lesson was a template for holy living, not an end all in itself. Jesus fulfilled or brought about a comprehensive understanding of the essence of the Law when he died on the Cross. When He cried out from the cross, “It is finished”, Jesus was saying he completed and exceeded or surpassed the law. The Old Testament law was not rescinded per se but now must be reinterpreted and reapplied in light of Jesus. It was time to examine how the Law and the Prophets pointed to Jesus because God never changes his mind. Jesus’ coming had been part of God’s plan from Creation -(see Genesis 3:15).

Jesus mission was, “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” –(Luke 4:19). In short, He came to proclaim the dawning of a new era for this world's sighing, sobbing multitudes. He presented Himself as the answer to all the ills that torment us. And it is true, whether you think of these ills in a physical sense or in a spiritual sense, Christ is the answer.

“Whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” –(Isaiah 28:9-10). For our instruction in the things of God, it is needful that the same precept and the same line should be often repeated to us, that we may the better understand them. God, by his word, calls us to what is really for our advantage; the service of God is the only true rest for those weary of the service of sin, and there is no refreshment but under the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus.

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and might things, which thou knowest not.” –(Jeremiah 33:3).

Two things are particularly worthy of notice in this text.

It is necessary for several things to be wrought with divine power in the soul before we can spiritually act upon this invitation. The Lord says, “Call unto me.” Can I therefore at once call unto him? Can I seek his face? Can I pray to him acceptably? I cannot, except He is first pleased Himself to work certain things in my soul. What are these things? A deep sense of sinfulness and guilt, a sense of our ignorance, a sense of our helplessness, an inability, and impotency in divine things, a glimpse of the things which we desire to experience. Faith in the promises; faith in God who gives them; faith in Jesus in whom they are stored; faith in the blessed Spirit through whom they are communicated; hungering, thirsting, panting, longing, and languishing after those blessings which God has to grant and the last quality is patience and perseverance to wait at God’s footstool.

What are some of these “great and mighty things” which thou know not?

  1. One is, Divine sovereignty—that God “does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and that he will fulfill all his pleasure.” Can proud, rebellious, independent man, submit to God’s sovereignty? Yes! He can, when he is brought down by the Spirit of God.

  2. The salvation of the soul by the blood and obedience of God’s only-begotten Son.

  3. The reason of all our trials; the end to be answered by all the providential circumstances through which we pass; the cause of all the afflictions, temptations, and distresses that the soul has had to endure; is another of those great and mighty things which God makes known in answer to true prayer. We cannot perceive the sun behind the cloud, so we cannot see the Lord’s face when he hides himself behind a cloud of afflictions and sorrows.

  4. That all things work together for good to our souls; that whatever we pass through in providence or in grace, is for our spiritual profit.

  5. The super-aboundings of God’s grace over the aboundings of our sin.

  6. The pardon of sin, the sweet enjoyment of God’s favor, testimonies of his eternal love, smiles of his loving countenance, the witness of the blessed Spirit, the leadings, guidings, and teachings of that divine Comforter.

These are the “great and mighty things” that God’s people are longing from time to time to experience. There are two leading features in every gracious man’s experience—

“Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to change thyself before thy God, thy words were hard, and I am come for thy words.” –(Daniel 10:12). While still in a foreign land, Daniel still had not forgotten the God of his fathers, and to him was given the noted vision of the “Ram and the He Goat,” But Daniel did not comprehend this strange vision, and yet he knew it was from God and had a deep and future meaning for nations and people. So, of course, he followed the bent of his religious mind and prayed about it. It is very clear that some unseen forces or invisible spirits are operating to hinder the answers to our prayers. Enough is revealed to know that there must be a contest in the unseen world about us between those spirits sent to minister to us in answer to our prayers and the devil and his evil spirits who seek to defeat these good spirits.

The passage furthermore gives us some intimation as to the cause of delayed answers to prayer. For “three full weeks” Daniel mourned and prayed, and for “twenty-one days” the divinely appointed angel was opposed by the “Prince of the Kingdom of Persia.”

Well was it for praying Daniel that he had the courage, fortitude and determination to persist in his praying for three weeks while the fearful conflict between good and bad spirits was going on about him unseen by mortal eyes. Well will it be for us if we do not give up in our praying when God seems not to hear and the answer is not immediate. It takes time to pray, and it takes time to get the answer to prayer. Delays in answering prayer are not denials. Failure to receive an immediate answer is no evidence that God does not hear prayer. It takes not only courage and persistence to pray successfully, but it requires much patience. “Wait on the Lord and be of good courage; and he shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” –(Psalm 27:14) (3)

“And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” –(2nd Timothy 3:15-16). Timothy was one of the first second-generation Christians: he had become a Christian, not because an evangelist preached a powerful sermon, but because his mother and grandmother had taught him the Scriptures when he was a small child -(2nd Timothy 1:5). For Timothy, the holy Scriptures were primarily from the Old Testament - Genesis to Malachi. There were sources for Timothy’s faith and these provided encouragement to continue in the faith:

Scripture, God’s Word, teaches about salvation; but knowing Scripture alone saves no one (many Jews had known Scripture from childhood, yet had opposed Jesus and the salvation He offered - see 2nd Corinthians 3:15-16; Paul himself exemplified that in his early years, Act 26:9-11). The Scriptures show people their need for salvation and show them how to get it - by trusting in Christ Jesus.

Timothy had known the Scriptures from childhood, so he knew that all Scripture was inspired by God. When Paul spoke of all Scripture, he was primarily referring to the Old Testament, since it was complete at that time. But the scope of Paul’s assertion would include any writing that was considered authoritative enough to be read in church meetings, which by the end of the first century would have included the four Gospels and Paul’s writings. According to 2nd Peter 3:15-16, Paul’s writings were classified as “Scriptures.”

The Scriptures, affirmed Paul, were inspired by God. A translation closer to the original Greek would be, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” This tells us that every word of the Bible was breathed out from God. The words of the Bible came from God and were written by men. The apostle Peter affirmed this when he said that “it was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak from God” (2nd Peter 1:21).

Paul’s words here reminded Timothy that because Scripture is inspired and infallible, it is also useful. The Bible is not a collection of stories, fables, myths, or merely human ideas about God. It is not a human book. Through the Holy Spirit, God revealed his person and plan to certain believers, who wrote down his message for his people. This process is known as “inspiration.” The writers wrote from their own personal, historical, and cultural contexts. Although they used their own minds, talents, language, and style, they wrote what God wanted them to write. Scripture is completely trustworthy because God was in control of its writing. Its words are entirely authoritative for our faith and lives.

Scripture was profitable to every aspect of Timothy’s ministry. Scripture:

The Bible is not purely a record of the past - the history of the Jews and then of the church. Rather, every story, every prophecy, every teaching, every admonition, and every command points beyond to the author, God, who came to us in Jesus Christ. God confronts us in the pages of his Word - telling us how much He loves us, how we can become His children, and how we should live to please Him.

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.” -(Acts 17:11). The Bereans were of a better race, extraction, or birth, than those at Thessalonica; but the word refers more to their conduct, as a proof of their better disposition, than to their birth, or any peculiar lineal nobility. It was a maxim among the Jews, that “none was of a noble spirit who did not employ himself in the study of the law.” It appears that the Bereans were a better educated and more polished people than those at Thessalonica; in consequence far from persecuting:

“Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” -(2nd Peter 1:20-21)

The collective lesson to be learned from this selection of passages is to explain how the Bible is to be studied, understood, and interpreted. In the process we discover that the Scriptures often have multiple meanings or even exceed gaps of time. One of the finest examples of this “gap”, (sometimes referred to as the “Gap” theory), (a meaning that goes beyond an event from one book to another) is shown in how Jesus teaches using a passage from Isaiah.

In Luke 4:16-21, Jesus reads from Isaiah, and only quotes part of it, because not all of the verse was fulfilled at Jesus’ first coming, over 1,900+ years ago. “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day; and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

Turning to Isaiah 61:1, we observe that the wording includes additional text that Jesus did not read in His Luke 4 explanation above. The portion that is underlined in the above paragraph, is what he did read. But there is more beyond the text “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” He left off and did not read the following portion: “and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn;” Jesus purposely did not read this last part of Isaiah 61:2. Why? Because the day of vengeance was a future event and will occur at the Great Tribulation. Now, if there can be an unstated time gap of nearly 2,000 years in this one single verse, then it is unreasonable to conclude that it is “unbiblical” for there to be another unstated time gap of seven years between the Rapture and Jesus’ Second Coming which also may exist in another Biblical verse. In other words, there are several identified verses which contain multiple fulfillments in more than one book or passage of Scripture. Not all are in the same book, and not all have fulfillments at the exact same time as the example shown in Isaiah.

There are some 24 specific examples found in Scripture where a time “gap” exists or where a specific portion of a prophecy appears and then later, elsewhere in the Bible, we find the second part of that same prophecy continuing on to its complete fulfillment, yet it was unstated in the passage. There are those who would argue that “gaps” in Scripture do not exist but they argue from an uneducated position or lack understanding concerning this topic.

Another example of a “multiple fulfillment” is found at John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” This one verse contains at least three fulfillments that we can identify:

  1. Jesus spoke of His body, which was destroyed and raised from the dead.

  2. Jesus spoke of the literal temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in 70 AD, -(Matthew 24:2) and will be raised up in the near future.

  3. Jesus spoke of the body of believers, which have been persecuted and killed, and will be raised up soon, on the “third day” according to Hosea 6:2, “After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.”

The phrase “three days” appears 75X times. This reference to “after three days” is found a total 20X with 12X of those sited shown as “in (or) on three days” – all but three of them are found in the Gospels:

The explanation of this phrase “after three days” or “in three days” has a precedent in Genesis 40:18, where we read: “And Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:” God not only provided a concept but then gave us the interpretation of its meaning as well. This should serve as an excellent example showing how and why the study of the repetitive use of words, numbers and phrases should never be discounted as something of no consequence or purpose. Another sample which is a most astonishing example of God’s incredible Divine design and architecture carefully woven within the word choices of the Scriptures is found at Acts and in Joel.

In Acts 2:17 Peter, filled with Holy Spirit is quoting from Joel 2:28, explains to the crowds who had gathered in Jerusalem that this specific prophecy had been fulfilled during the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. But, only a portion of the prophecy in Joel has been fulfilled. We are still waiting for the “Day of the Lord”. This instance provides a third example of a 2,000-year time gap between fulfillments in Scripture, where the Scripture passage does not specifically make mention of any “time gaps” whatsoever in the verse itself, yet the gap exists all the same. This entire issue will be covered in a future segment in greater detail. There is an imbedded Divine Pattern that requires further examination and a closer look!



Pastor Bob

Notes:

  1. Deliverance before Judgment Part 13 http://jesusisthewaythetruththelife.com/node/88

  2. https://justifiedbychristalone.com/2009/08/30/a-study-of-jeremiah-chapter-33-verse-3/

  3. Prayer & Praying Men by E.M. Bounds 2007

Commentaries:

Life Application New Testament Commentary

IVP Bible Background Commentary

Believers Bible Commentary

Matthew Henry Commentary

Adam Clark’s Commentary on the Bible

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