Some Prophetic Hints
by D. Rule
It is so easy to open up the Word of God to find verses or subjects that have to do with ourselves— how we can enjoy our blessings, how the Lord can solve some particular problem or guide us in a decision we must make. And yet, if we really want to know the heart of God, it is extremely important for us to enjoy, with God, His Word—not bits and pieces, but all of it.
A tremendous amount of the Word of God has a prophetic character to it. We are going to look at a few things to help us in studying prophecy. There is much to enjoy and to profit from the prophetic character of the Word of God.
When was the last time you read through the prophetic books starting with Isaiah to the end of the Old Testament? Your answer will tell you whether or not you are enjoying a large portion of the Word that God has given you for your profit.
Three Destinies
All men face one of three eternal destinies: heaven, earth, or hell. Your destiny is heaven with Christ or hell with Satan. God is now preparing a heavenly people for His Son. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, your destiny is heaven, and if you have refused Him it is hell. But there are people whose destiny is neither heaven or hell, for God is concerned also with preparing for Himself an earthly people. Prophecy concerns the earth and God's dealings with His earthly people, that is, Israel and all other nations who will populate the earth in a coming day.
When we go back to the Old Testament and follow Israel's history, we learn from it tremendous insights about what is still going to take place in the future. What do I mean by that? Jehovah put before His people certain promises and He said that if they were obedient, He would take care of them, and if they did not obey, then certain things were going to happen. And they did happen. God's moral ways never change. So the lessons not learned in the past by His earthly people must be learned in the future. And God's promises not yet fulfilled will be fulfilled.
Two Enemies
In the history of God's earthly people we learn that they had two mighty enemies. The first enemy was called the Assyrian. The second enemy was the Babylonian. To distinguish the two enemies is very important in understanding God's ways in the future. When the Assyrian was the enemy of God's people, God was in relationship to them and He owned them as His own people. I want to repeat that: when the Assyrian was the enemy of the people of God, Jehovah God recognized them as His people. He could call them His servant and use the Assyrian to chastise them, to punish them for being unfaithful to Him. But He still owned them as His people and Judah could never be taken over by the Assyrian.
But then there came a time when the Lord had to say, I can't recognize them as My people anymore. So He wrote over them the word, Lo-ammi, which means: not My people. After He wrote those words over Israel they had a new enemy, the Babylonian. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came and he was able to conquer the land of Israel totally and take the people out of the land into captivity. That is important to the understanding of God's ways, because God is going to deal again with His earthly people and when He does, He is going to deal with the same two enemies.
First the enemy is going to be the descendants of the Babylonian empire and the empires that followed it. During this time, Israel still has written over it, Lo-ammi: not My people. The enemy will have power over the professed people of God when He is not recognizing them as such.
Later God will recognize Israel again as His people, but He will in the future, as in the past, again use the Assyrian to chastise them. Yet He will say that they are His people and the Assyrian cannot do as he wishes. God will use him to punish and teach the people of Israel through chastisement, but the enemy is not going to take over the people of God.
The Split in Israel
What else do we see in the history of God's people? He brought them into a wonderful land and told them that they were His people; He loved them and He would take care of them. But then we find that those same people, in their unfaithfulness, split into two groups. They split into two parts and became the ten tribes that are called Israel, and the two other tribes that are called Judah. In the midst of that collection of ten and two, there was also a small number out of all twelve tribes that were looked at as faithful to the Lord. They were looked at as a remnant of the people. As in Israel's past, so in Israel's future we see a faithful few—a remnant of the people. As we read and enjoy the prophetic word we see the remnant who follow the Lord taken up and dealt with in a special way by the Lord.
God's Orderly Way
In God's ways with man He is very orderly. God deals with different companies at different times. As we read our Bibles, we need to notice carefully who He is talking to or talking about.
In His ways with His earthly people, God deals first with the remnant, then the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, then the ten tribes, and finally He makes them to be again one united nation of twelve tribes.
God distinguishes between the earth and the world. Isa. 26:99With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. (Isaiah 26:9) says: "When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." The earth includes Israel, the Roman Empire and the other nations that had to do with Israel at the time our Lord Jesus was here. The world includes all the rest of the people on the planet earth. In prophecy we see God judging the earth while the rest of the world looks on and learns righteousness. In the Revelation "a fourth part of the earth" means Israel and "a third part of the earth" means the Roman Empire.
In God's ways of judgment it's as if He says to a nation, It's your turn; you come. He brings them into His land and deals with them there. Then He calls another group of nations and says, Now it's your turn, and He deals with them there. He deals with the whole of the earth in this way.
God's ways in blessing are like a stone dropped in a pond. It starts at a point and then includes increasing circles. It begins at Mount Zion, and then spreads to the beloved city of the Lord, Jerusalem. Then He has a little larger circle called Judah, the two tribes and where they lived, then the whole land of Israel, then the earth, and finally the whole world comes into blessing. As we read the prophetic word and seek to enter into God's thoughts and heart about it, it is extremely important, and enjoyable too, for us to see which circle God is dealing with.
Isaiah and Revelation
The most comprehensive book of prophecy is Isaiah. Revelation, on the other hand, is rather special as a prophetic book. It completes the prophetic word by taking up subjects that could not be known until Christ came and the Church was formed. The Old Testament prophets give us prophecy viewed from the earth, while John in the Revelation is taken, in spirit, into heaven so that we may view prophecy as seen from heaven.
Prophecy and Christianity
God introduced Christianity into the earth; it was something unknown in Old Testament times. The prophets had nothing to say about it, so God, to complete His prophetic word, gives us an extra book in the New Testament. It shows us how God deals with the professing Church and how it fits in with other dealings with the earth. In the seven churches of Rev. 2 and 3 we see the moral history of the Church on earth. But after the Lord Jesus calls us and all the believers home to heaven, there will still be a large body of people on earth which professes to be the Church. So God takes up that group and shows us what is going to happen to them. We read about a false prophet and we read about Babylon the great, things that the Church had become on the earth, and about various leaders that interact with it. It shows us how God deals with it in judgment to bring it to its end.
Revelation
You can divide the book of Revelation right in the middle. There are twenty-two chapters. Take the first eleven and you will find that they are in chronological order; that is, the Spirit of God takes events one after another right through His dealings with the earth. From the twelfth chapter to the end He takes up things by topics, not chronologically. Sometimes the topic is a person or a nation, and sometimes it is a subject, such as the coming of the Lord and what the consequences of that coming are going to be for the earth, or a description of what the future states of Jerusalem and Israel are going to look like.
Isaiah
Let us look at Isa. 1:11The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. (Isaiah 1:1): "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." We have a key right here. God says that He is going to tell them what His purposes are with respect to Judah and Jerusalem. "In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me." God tells us that He has taken Jerusalem, Judah and His people and has nourished them and cared for them and looked after them, and yet they have rebelled against Him. So then He takes up their case as a rebellious people.
The End of the Story
Have you ever started to read a book and partway through you have said, "I can't wait; I have to see how it's going to end"? So you go to the last chapter to see how it ends and then you can finish reading the book. We don't have time to read all of Isaiah, but let's find out how it ends. Turn to the last chapter of Isaiah, verse 10, "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her.... For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river.... And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem.”
We see that it will end well for Israel but also notice those words, "For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many." That's the character of what is coming for the earth and that's how Isaiah presents it to us. As you read through it you will see how He takes different groups of nations and people and shows them to us, telling us He is going to test this people and see what they are. It is the test of fire and judgment in the earth. Our works are going to be tested by the fire of God, to see what kind of works they are, whether they are gold, silver and precious stones, or wood, hay and stubble. So the nations of the earth are going to be brought under the fire of God's hand and He's going to test them to see of what sort those people are. It says that many shall be slain of the Lord—that is, many shall not stand the test of what is brought before them.
Daniel
Daniel's prophecy covers the period of time when God says to Israel, Lo-ammi (not My people). When He says that, the Babylonian and the three other world empires which followed it are brought before us. For this period of time called "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:2424And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)), He removes Israel from being the center of His earthly government and allows the Gentile powers to have the reign over the earth. The three powers which followed the Babylonian are the Medo-Persian, the Greek and the Roman. Alexander the Great only reigned a few years, and when he died his Greek empire was broken up into four parts. Two parts, the northern part and the southern part, continued on in history and prophecy. From Daniel's prophecy we learn that they, the king of the north and the king of the south, will rise again before God and man.
When our Lord Jesus was here, the fourth empire, the Roman Empire, was in power. What's God going to do? God is going to put the earth back as it was before His eyes at the time His Son was crucified.
And so He revives the Roman Empire and establishes its power in the land. Also, His people were in the land when His Son was crucified but they were apostate; they rejected Him. So these people are brought back and put on the stage. But they are people who will have nothing to do with Him just as when the Lord Jesus was here.
A Remnant
In the midst of this people is a small group that has faith in Him. It isn't very large. I'm always impressed when I read about Anna in Luke's gospel. She was a woman over one hundred years old, yet it says of her that she spoke to all in Jerusalem that were looking for the Lord. If a woman of that age could speak to all looking for the Messiah, there must not have been very many. But there were a few, and the Lord so desired and valued them that some of them are spoken of by name. The Lord will have a few faithful ones to be a witness for Him at the time when He resets the stage to have His dealings with the earth.
Judgment Before Blessing
First the Lord must cleanse the land of all its defilement and remove from it in judgment all those who have rejected Him and followed a false Christ. He sends a desolator through the land and scrubs the land clean. He has to take out of His land all that defiles. He can't bring His people into blessing and He can't bring Jerusalem into blessing with all the pollution and abominations in the land.
When the Lord was cast out we know Pilate was there; we know Herod was there; we know the Jewish leaders were there, but they were all against Christ. Men of like character are going to be there again, but what is He going to do? He takes before His eye the ones that we know of as the beast and the false prophet and says: I'm going to remove them in judgment from My land first. And He does that.
We see some of these events in Daniel, but remember Daniel couldn't see all the way to the end. If you go to the last chapter of Daniel, you find that there was much yet to be done, beyond what Daniel could see, beyond what we call the seventieth week of Daniel. Daniel's vision ends with, "Thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book," and, "Blessed is he that waiteth." We must look to other prophets to see how the people are delivered from their final enemies and made the center of blessing for the whole earth.
The Psalms
Many of us read the Psalms, finding verses here and there which we enjoy and apply to ourselves. That is fine. But at the same time I hope we learn to read it as the thoughts and feelings of God's people when God, in that future day, is dealing with His land and His people in judgment. The Psalms express their hopes, their feelings, their insecurity, and their praise as they pass through and then look back on the Lord's ways with them in chastisement and then blessing.
You don't get true Christian thoughts out of the Psalms because they do not express the Christian's position in Christ. You and I can and should enjoy a settled peace now that they won't enjoy in those future days of agony and uncertainty as the Lord is dealing with them.
Teaching Confidence
God takes His people and says, I know how you feel. Yet they are brought to have confidence in the Lord. So He takes a few of His own and the Lord Jesus comes back to His own and reveals Himself to them secretly and says, I'm going to be with you now. You're going to be My people and I'm going to be with you; yet, you have to learn some things first.
So He again brings onto the stage, as it were, the Assyrian and says, This is the rod of My anger. This is the one that I used to chastise you before and I'm still going to use him. He brings him back on the scene, for they must feel the hand of the chastisement of the Lord.
Jacob's Trouble
Jer. 30:44And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. (Jeremiah 30:4): "These are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah." Again notice that it concerns Israel and Judah. It isn't the city of Jerusalem that's before Him, but it's Israel and Judah. "For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace." He wants us to understand how they are feeling. His people are now in the land, and the Lord is having His work of judgment with their land and all the nations of the earth about it. They are trembling. There is fear and turmoil. Some of these feelings are expressed in the Psalms. Then we read: "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.”
To understand this chapter, we need to recall what Jacob's trouble was. He was a man who wanted the blessing of God, wasn't he? But what was the problem in his life? Jacob wanted the blessing of God, but he thought he could get it by his own efforts. He even resorted to deceitful means to try to get it. Maybe you have had Jacob's trouble too. Maybe you feel like you can earn or that you deserve the blessing of God, so you strive after it and seek it with all the energy of your nature. Jacob schemed to get the blessing, but God had to teach Jacob that he could never get the blessing by striving for it. He had to learn that God was the Blesser according to His own heart of loving-kindness. Man only gets into trouble when he strives for himself.
God's earthly people haven't learned that lesson yet. They are now trying to secure their land and their blessing by their own efforts. But all twelve tribes will be brought into the land and then shall come a time of fear, great trembling and paleness in anticipation of all these enemies that are coming down upon their land. They are there and the Lord is there and they learn that the Lord is with them. He says to them in Jer. 30:1010Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. (Jeremiah 30:10), "Therefore fear thou not, O My servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee.”
Fellow Christians, have we learned the lessons Israel will learn through Jacob's trouble? Israel has to go through it, and as we read the Word of God, we can apply these things to our own lives. Prophecy is not a dry, unintelligible thing. From it we learn the moral ways of God with His people and with us.
Here He says, "I will save thee." They have to learn to trust Him to save them. Maybe you need to learn that; maybe I need to learn that in my life. When they learn to trust in the Lord and not in themselves, then, in spite of their apparent helpless position of the enemy coming and they with unwalled villages, we read: "Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid." Why? "For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.”
The dispensational dealings and covenants of God with man change with time, but His moral ways are always constant. As you study prophecy you learn His ways with man, including yourself.