1 Corinthians 1:18-31
1 Kings 14
Joel 2:1-11
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Thoughts and Commentary on Today's Reading
In Joel 2 we find an amazing and detailed portrayal of the Final Battle of Armageddon. To gain insights into this epic climax of the conflict between the forces of Good and evil, we may not only look to prophecies like Joel 2, but we may also look to historical shadow pictures from the past. Today, I will focus on this final Battle, as details emerge from Bible history as well as Bible prophecy.
Prophetically, the Final Battle in possessing
their inheritance, was Israel’s conquest of Jericho. This took place in the
final seven years! As Bible prophecy foretells, the Battle of Armageddon will
be fought and Babylon will fall, in the same way that Jericho fell long ago.
Thus, we see that the fall of Babylon will take place just prior to the
ultimate Jubilee, in which Yahweh’s
saved will enter the New Jerusalem.
Jubilee is the fiftieth year.
Fifty is the number represented by the letter, nun (נ).
Joshua was the “son of Nun,” Numbers 11:28. This number refers to the
restoration of all things, returning us to the unfallen state of the original
Garden of Eden. As we have seen in this series, End Time events match the “pattern”
given to Moses (Hebrews 8:5), and bring into harmony the wilderness journey,
the ministry of Messiah, and the prophecies of the End of the world. Knowing YAH's Ways (Psalms 103:7), we see that
this harmony also includes the hidden meaning in the numbers.
From the Book of Genesis, we find a significant key
regarding Jubilees. Yahweh ordained
exactly 120 Jubilees to the fall of Babylon and the End of the World.
And
Yahweh said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he
also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years,
Genesis 6:3
Notably, since old-time Creationists have understood the
earth to be about 6000 years old, we find another evidence for the Jubilee
cycles to conclude at 120:
50
(years in a Jubilee cycle)
x
120 (Jubilees) = 6000
6000= 120 Jubilees
At the conclusion of the 120th
Jubilee, the 7000th year will commence.
The Jubilees also form an interesting pattern of 40’s:
o 40
Jubilees from Adam to Abraham
o 40
Jubilees from Abraham to Yahshua
o 40
Jubilees from Yahshua to the End
= a
total of 120 Jubilees
Far more than just interesting
trivia, one must note that we have already had one hundred and nineteen
Jubilees. The next Jubilee will be the 120th!
Babylon’s fall parallels
Jericho’s in that it will not only take place on a Jubilee, it will also happen
at the time of the Fall Feasts, in the beginning of the final Jubilee. As we
will show in Bible Prophecy, Babylon will fall specifically on the final Day of
Atonement – the Day when the ultimate Jubilee begins.
Then
shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the
Seventh Month, in the Day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound
throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim
liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a
Jubilee unto you… Leviticus 25:9-10
Trumpets are blown on the Day of Atonement to herald the
beginning of a Jubilee year. Trumpets were also blown by the priests of ancient
Israel as they encircled the doomed city of Jericho. The walls of Jericho fell
down at the shout and the last trumpet blast. And, it will be at the Voice of
the Archangel and the Trump of God on the final Day of Atonement, on which the
kingdom of Babylon will fall, forever ending the reign of the Beast.
To fully establish that the Beast’s reign will be broken
and that Babylon will fall on the final Day of Atonement, in addition to the
commencement of the 120th Jubilee which takes place upon that Day,
we must carefully examine the prophetic timelines. These timelines, largely
given by the prophet Daniel, will all play out at the End of the World.
DANIEL’S TIMELINES
Of all the prophetic, biblical timelines, several
of them culminate on the final Day of Atonement. For the purposes of this
study, we will focus on only three of these timelines, which end on the Day of
Atonement, as follows:
1. The
Sabbatical/Year Jubilee Timeline
2. The
2300 Day Prophecy Timeline
3. The
1260 Day Prophecy Timeline
In order to conclude on the same Day, each of
these timelines layers upon the other timelines, overlapping at times. Before
we examine how this works, let’s begin by establishing the Day of Atonement as
the ending point for the above-mentioned timelines.
First, as we have already seen, Sabbatical Years (Shemita Years) and Jubilees begin and
end on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:8-13). Thus, since the final Day of
Atonement will begin the ultimate Jubilee, and since all Jubilee Years begin
after the seventh Sabbatical Year, we can conclude that the final Day of Atonement
will culminate the Seventh Sabbatical (the
49th year counting from the previous Jubilee) and will start the
final Jubilee. This longest prophetic timeline forms the base layer of our
final prophetic timeline diagram:
43rd Year
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44th Year
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45th Year
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46th Year
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47th
Year
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48th Year
|
49th
Year
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50th Year
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Year 1
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Year 2
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Year 3
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Year 4
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Year 5
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Year 6
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7th
Sabbatical
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120th
Jubilee
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The Final Seven Years
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The next longest of these timelines, ending on the
Day of Atonement, is the 2300 days. This timeline will form the next layer in
our diagram. But before we demonstrate that the 2300 day prophecy will end on
Atonement, we must first establish that this prophetic timeline has an End-Time
fulfillment. Noting that this timeline has had past application, many
Christians do not believe that the 2300-day-timeline has a final fulfillment,
which is yet future. In the future, it will play out in literal days.
Recorded in Daniel Chapter 8, the vision of the
2300 day prophecy has had past applications (such as from 457 BC to 34 AD, in
which it was fulfilled in prophetic time). But, according to Daniel 8:17, the
2300 day prophecy is predominantly for the End and will ultimately be
fulfilled in the Last Days.
So he came
near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but
he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the End shall
be the vision, Daniel 8:17
Having established that the vision of Daniel 8 is
for the End of Time, including the 2300 day prophecy, we next need to look for
Scriptural evidence on its ending.
And he said
unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the Sanctuary be
cleansed, Daniel 8:14.
The Sanctuary was cleansed on the Day of Atonement
(Leviticus 16:16-20). Since Daniel 8 specifically states that the Sanctuary is
cleansed at the end of the 2300 days, we can see that the 2300 day prophetic
timeline will end on the final Day of Atonement – which is the same final Day
for the Sabbatical Year / Jubilee Timeline. For this reason, we can accurately
lay the 2300 Day Timeline upon the 7-Year Sabbatical/Jubilee layer, as shown
below:
Final 2300-Day Timeline (6.38 years)
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50th Year
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Year 1
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Year 2
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Year 3
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Year 4
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Year 5
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Year 6
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7th
Sabbatical
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120th
Jubilee
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The Final Seven Years
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Layering a timeline upon the foundation of another
timeline may seem strange and pointless, at first. After all, if the final
seven-year timeline is already in play, why would Yahweh need to delineate another timeline within it? In Matthew
Chapter 24, Yahshua compared the
final Time of Trouble to labor pains, which come upon a woman with increasing
intensity. Prophetic events like earthquakes, pestilences (diseases), famine
and wars were the early birthpains, or the beginning of “sorrows”.
All these are the
beginning of sorrows (the birth pains), Matthew 24;8
But just as labor pains start at a lower magnitude, but
continue to increase until the point of giving birth, similarly, the Trouble
foretold to come in the Last Days will continually uptick from one level to the
next. This increase in intensity and pain will continue to rise until the Final
1260 Days, known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, which will reach an intensity
that is unprecedented in its magnitude. This End-Time principle was expressed
through the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel.
Howl ye; for the
Day of Yahweh is at hand. It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt. And they
shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in
pain as a woman that travaileth, Isaiah 13:6-8.
For thus saith Yahweh;
We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth
travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins,
as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for
that Day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the Time of Jacob's Trouble;
but he shall be saved out of it, Jeremiah 30:5-7.
And at that time
shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy
people: and there shall be a Time of Trouble, such as never was since there
was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be
delivered, every one that shall be found written in the Book. Daniel 12:1
Considering this, we see that the Final Seven Years of
earth’s history will be a troublous time, characterized by deception, false
christ’s, wars, pestilences, famines, and earthquakes – described by Yahshua in Matthew 24:3-13. But while
this timeline contains troubles, it will not begin at an unprecedented level.
The intensity of trouble upticks with the commencement of
the 2300 Day Timeline, however. This Timeline begins with the establishment of
the Abomination of Desolation, which Yahshua
described in Matthew 24:14-20. The fact that the 2300 Days begins with the
Abomination of Desolation is given by the prophet Daniel, as follows:
Then I heard one
saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How
long shall be the vision concerning… the Transgression of Desolation (also
known as the Abomination of Desolation), to give both the Sanctuary and the host
(God’s people) to be trodden under foot (persecuted)? And he said unto me, Unto
two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed,
Daniel 8:13-14.
The next increase in painful intensity occurs with the
beginning of the final 1260 Day timeline, which layers upon the previous two.
And it is during this timeline that the level of trial and trouble reaches an
intensity which has never been seen upon this planet before – nor will again.
There are two key events which delineate this timeline
and mark its commencement:
1)
The
Reign of the Beast power, as a demonic entity – Revelation 13:3-5 and
Revelation 17:8
2)
The
Testimony of the ultimate Two Witnesses – Revelation 11:1-12
Once again, we see that the 1260 Day Timeline is layered
upon the prior two timelines, as shown in the diagram below. Significantly, the
2300 Day Timeline marks the full rise of final Babylon. Babylon is the ideology
and system of false worship, which is at its worst, when all the world wonders
after the Beast and worships the dragon (Revelation 17:8, Revelation 13:8-12).
Thus, this period is delineated as “The Reign of Babylon” on the diagram below:
THE REIGN OF
BABYLON
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Final
1260-Day Timeline (3.5 yrs)
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50th Year
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Final 2300-Day Timeline (6.38 yrs)
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Year 2
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Year 3
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Year 5
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Year 6
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7th
Sabbatical
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120th
Jubilee
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Beginning of Sorrows
Matt. 24:1-13
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Abomination of
Desolation
Matt. 24:14-20
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Reign of the Beast
(from the Abyss)
& Testimony of the
Two Witnesses
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But what does all this mean to each of us - personally? Christians have been forewarned that Armageddon is coming. But where does that leave us? What are we supposed to do about it?
Every soldier knows about boot
camp. Every enlistee expects to learn
how to succeed in battle. In boot camp, each one must learn about weapons and
when and how to use each one. To go into
battle without learning the skill to win, produces only fear and defeat. That is the sorry scene in the life of most
Christians. They seem to have forgotten
that we can no longer rest in the pasture under the shadow of our Loving
Shepherd. We are, even now, within the battle zone where land mines and sniper
fire send us collapsing, wounded and defeated before our Captain.
It is time to learn the
weapons and strategies of war! We must
now, for the hour is late, and the threat by the enemy is intensifying, --in
our homes, in our work stations, in our nation, and in ourselves! Will we continue to allow Satan’s
thought-bombs to defeat us?
When we focus on our needs and
wants and how to succeed in our own ambitions, we set ourselves up to be easily
defeated by the enemy of souls by his surprise attacks and snipper fire. It
happens on a daily bases. It is a life
and death matter: Eternal Life or
eternal death is guaranteed, according to our skill and concentration on the
battle plan of our Captain.
Our Captain insures our
victory if we listen and obey His Word.
But, He will not back us (Jer. 21:4), if we choose our own way and
convince ourselves that our part is not essential. After all, He’ll win the war whether we
perform as good soldiers or not. That is the message of the false gospel.
Yes, it does matter, and He
says of His people, “You are my battle ax
and weapons of war, for with you I will break the nations and destroy their
kingdoms.” Jeremiah 51:20. But our weapons are not carnal; they are mighty
through God (2 Corinthians 10:4. Paul also tells us to put on God’s Armor. It is
an Armor of Light, Romans 13:12. It
is an Armor of Righteousness, 2
Corinthians 6:7. We must be covered in
it (Ephesians 6:11-13) if we would stand, both now, and in the ultimate “evil
day.”
1.
Let this mind be in you… Eph. 2:5
2.
Renew your mind in the Word daily – Romans 12:2; Eph.
4:23
3.
Do not dwell upon negative thoughts (Satan’s plants)
with memorized Scriptures. Don’t accept His thoughts of guilt, fear,
bitterness, unworthiness, i.e., but counter them with the Words of Scripture,
as Yahshua did, “It is written…”
Lk.4:4.
4.
Spirits operate through thoughts. Harboring the
negative thought produces a stronghold for the enemy or your soul.
We are not wrestling with flesh and blood but
against spiritual wickedness in high places, Ephesians 6:12
The rulers
of darkness know their battle plan; you must know Yahweh’s, or you’ll
lose! So, girding up the loins of your
mind (1 Peter 1:13), be serious, sober, and obedient to your Captain.
The battle
is over your mind!! With that territory
settled, guarded, and committed, you may be trusted as a warrior against the
enemy! But, that will never happen until you prove to yourself (in your mind)
that you love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, mind, and spirit. This you prove by how much time you
spend in the Word! Yahshua is God in
the Flesh; the Scriptures contains God in the Word. Remember, the Word Creates what it
speaks!!! You are fooling yourself (by
Satan’s lies) if you think you can love God without time in His Word. The more time you spend there, the deeper
your love will grow. Little time, little
love; much time, much love.
When you
have repeated victories in these preparations for daily scrimmages, you are
ready to go on the offensive in the epic battles, into which God calls you. The
more victories, the more power. God will give you only what you will use to
secure your stand and reach others. Yahshua
told us that when we received that power of the Holy Spirit, we would be
empowered to be His witnesses, everywhere (see Acts 1:8). This mighty Work is
what Israel’s camp experiences in the Wilderness were all about. They are the
prophetic shadow-pictures which help us grasp and better prepare for the
Father’s Work, through us, in giving the final Gospel Call and in defeating the
kingdom of Babylon. May we all be ready to receive the Seal of the Living God
and to advance in Yahweh’s Army, in
whatever ways He will call us to serve!
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