Is It Perhaps the Season?1967 + 40 = 2007Gene Kobes, Tallahassee FL October 2006 |
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Editors Note: Brother Kobes is an Evangelical (big E), Dispensationalist. I may not agree with certain minor doctrines he mentions herein. However, his research into the number “40”, the interesting illustration regarding “generation” and his words regarding Israel are worthy of study. Further, his fervency to get this message out and the signs and wonders that have accompanied it are reason enough to broadcast this urgent message in its entirety unedited.
For supplementary material, you
may want to check these links ↓↓↓ A People Prepared Part 2
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The Seeing Generation: The Second Coming Made Plain ↓↓↓ Why I Believe that Yahshua has Secretly Returned
Dear Friend,
I have felt very inclined to get this message out to many people. Perhaps today more than ever. I am coming off three days on my knees as the Speakers Prayer chapel leader on an Emmaus walk. The walk experienced an MD in Psychiatry accept Christ as his Lord and Savior during the walk. He was led in the sinners prayer by a fellow pilgrim. There were other miraculous things that occurred as well. What I experienced in the prayer chapel was very emotional. I believe almost all speakers displayed a certain nervousness to include seasoned pastors. I come to attribute this show of emotion to the overpowering presence of the Holy Spirit to show man as a humble being and that Holy Spirit was in charge of the words and and talk one speaker lost his voice and got it back during prayer. There was anointing and weeping in prayer and I was utterly exhausted on my way home. I believe I slept ten hours last evening.
Bless you and your ministry.
In Christ, Gene
The last time I was talking with a friend about eschatology he mentioned that I should write some of our discussion down. I believe that I said at the time that much of this is published and it is only a matter of putting the respective pieces together to form a possible season. Mind you, I am not a date setter for the Rapture if you happened to be a Dispensational, Pre-millennial end-times believer. However, we are not precluded from believing, after viewing and experiencing world events, that we may be approaching the season when end time events become more evident. In fact we are scripturally instructed to study God’s word so that we might understand and discern the times. In Revelation 1:3 we read, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
What prodded me on to the task of writing some of this down was the reading II Kings 11 & 12 which is where I happened to be last month in my daily Bible study and devotion. Jehoash reigned forty years in Jerusalem and did right in sight of the Lord. I had not remembered that he had reigned forty years. I knew about King Saul, David and Solomon reigning forty years, but Joash as well!
Although I have other Biblical interests such as the History of Christianity, Evangelism and Eschatology, my interest in numerology has been discouraged by others because of the rap it has taken by association with evil or secular occurrences. Anyway, that particular day I thought I would do a little research on forty (40).
For those who have studied Hebrew or Greek or at least dabbled with a few translations know that those respective alphabet letters have numeric value. The Hebrew letter Mem, (13th letter of Hebrew alphabet) has a numeric value of 40. The meaning of mem is judgment from my research. Other translations provide trials, probation, testing. I could not find a reference from memory that provided the meaning mem as completion. However, one might consider judgment as completion.
You may wonder by now what forty has to do with the season. Here it is. We are approaching the 39th year on June 7, 2006 of Israel’s repossession of Jerusalem. After June 7, 2006 or the 11th of Sivan 5766 we will be entering into the 40th year which will be concluded by the Hebrew calendar on the 29th of Elul 5766. The first of Tishri 5767 begins the New Year for the Hebrews. So, by my humble calculations the season of forty years runs from June 7, 2006 to May 28, 2007 on the Gregorian calendar. However, the 1st of Tishri or September 23, 2006 on the Gregorian calendar is very important to the Hebrews for it begins the feast of Trumpets, Rosh HaShanah. This commences ten days of repentance (atonement) followed by Yom Kippur, the holiest Hebrew day. Leviticus 23:23-25. Atonement will appear again and again in connection with Biblical events.
When checking the Blue letter Bible on the web. I found 54 scriptures on the season in the Bible. I prefer to use Ecc 10:17 for the season. To every (thing there is) a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. However, perhaps Galatians 6:9 fits the theme better, “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Then in Jeremiah 5:24 we read, “Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season; he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.” Christ tells us that no one knows the time but that we are to know certain things (by study) and He goes on to describe a time (season) when we will see things take place. Bible students are supposed to understand these things.
So now I go back to the 40 and it’s Gemetria of Mem. Forty has long been universally recognized as an important number, both on account of the frequency of its occurrence, and the uniformity of its association with a period of probation, trial, and chastisement. It is the product of 5 and 8, and points to the action of grace (5), leading to and ending in revival and renewal (8). Reference biblestudy.org.
· Forty Years of Probation by Trial Israel in the wilderness. Deut 8:2-5; Psa 95:10; Acts 13:18
· Forty Years of Probation by Prosperity in Deliverance and Rest: Under Othniel, Judges 3:11 Under Barak, Judges 5:31 Under Gideon, Judges 8:28
· Forty Years of Probation by Prosperity in Enlarged Dominion: Under David, 2 Sam 5:4 Under Solomon, 1 Kings 12:1 Under Jeroboam II. 2 Kings 12:17 Under Jehoash, 2 Kings 12:1, Under Joash, 2 Chron 24:1
· Forty Years of Probation by Humiliation and Servitude: Israel under the Philistines, Judges 13:1 Israel in the time of Eli, 1 Sam 4:18 Israel under Saul, Acts 13:21
· Forty Years of Probation by Waiting: Moses in Egypt;, Acts 7:23 Moses in Midian, Acts 7:30
There are a number of forty day events that transcend the surface of the Bible:
· There were 40 days and nights of rain waters in Noah’s day · Forty days Moses was on the mount, Exo 24:18 · Forty days Moses was on the mount after the sin of the Golden Calf, Deut 9:18,25 · Forty days of the spies, issuing the penal sentence of the 40 years, Num 12:26 · Forty days of Elijah in Horeb, 1 Kings 19:8 · Forty days of Jonah in Nineveh, Jonah 3:4 · Forty days Ezekiel lay on his right side to symbolize the 40 years of Judah’s transgression · Forty days during the time Jesus was fasting and was tempted by the Devil, Matt 4:2 · Forty days Jesus was seen by His disciples, speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God, Acts 1:2
Forty day events not commonly thought of but have relevance are: · 40 days of Selichat before RashHashana · 40 days of conception to initial formation of fetus · 40 weeks of gestation until birth
Perhaps I should go back now and provide some body to this litany of forties. I personally like the story of Noah’s ark and the flood. There are some unique instructions that God gave Noah on the ark’s construction. God tells Noah, Genesis 6: 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out… The use of pitch to seal the outside of the ark is understandable but inside as well. Mindful questions such as these sometimes set me off to research. Strong provides a Hebrew meaning of pitch here as atonement. Mmm, interesting—God is providing Noah and family with atonement as well safety from the flood.
Genesis 7:17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the water increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. After a hundred and fifty days we have still another forty. Genesis 8:6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark. Now, what is very very interesting is that on the 17th of Nisan by Hebrew calendar the flood ended. The 17th of Nisan is the day Christ arose from the sepulcher tying one event in Genesis to one very important event in the New Testament. Christ died on the cross, (atonement) for our sins. It is really a joy when God reveals His glory with humble discernment of His word. God brought rain to flood the earth and cleanse it of sin, washing his creation. Christ died on the cross for our sins so that by His grace we have salvation.
I am not providing lengthy discourse here but just some insightful thought before moving on to further discernment. The next 40 on the list involved the number of years the Israelites remained in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caliph among the Israelites of their generation were allowed by God to go into the Promised Land. The generation of those that left Egypt (primarily Israelites) for the Promised Land was no longer alive.
Now, I will begin borrowing extensively from Michael Hile’s article, “The Last Generation.” Hile provides some explanations on these questions regarding a generation:
First what is a generation? According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, a generation can be defined in a number of ways including:
The generation described in Jeremiah 7:29,30 seems to best fit the generation described in the parable of the fig tree that will be present when Christ returns. When does a generation begin? The word ‘seed’ in the Old Testament was used to describe the lineage of offspring before and after conception. God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants are given in the book of Genesis: “And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee…And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generation” (Genesis 17:6-9)
The prophet Jeremiah’s generation and ministry began before he was born but was not manifested until after his birth. About this, the Scripture says; “Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4, 5) I will come back to this thought when addressing the generation that Christ was perhaps referencing.
When does a generation end? A generation ends at the death of an individual or at the death of those individual who are living at about the same time.
How long is a generation? This now begins to address a portion of my theme of the season. However, it is also one of the most perplexing and sought-after figures among students of Bible prophecy. What is the length of a generation? There appears to be much disagreement among both secular and religious writers concerning the length of a generation. Many believe as I have come to believe that a generation could well be forty years.
When Israel became a nation in 1948, some believed that Israel’s birth date marked the beginning of the generation that would see all the events leading up to the second coming of Christ. The theory was based upon the generation alluded to in the parable of the fig tree, in which the fig tree was symbolic of the nation Israel. “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near. So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all those things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heave, neither the Son, but the Father, Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is” (Mark 13:28-33) So in 1988 a number of Bible scholars were expecting a possible second advent. They were of course basing this premise on the nation of Israel and not on the city of Jerusalem which remained under the control of Jordan. Israel did not repossess Jerusalem until the second day of the 1967 war which was June 8, 1967.
Jerusalem may well be more of a focal point of reference when considering a timeframe, a generation, a season. Let us begin yet another list, a list of few reasons that highlight the importance of Jerusalem to man as well as very important to God:
(1 Chronicles 21)
Perhaps many of the above dates do not add to the Biblical relevance of Jerusalem being the city of Kings from King David forward. However, it is claimed to be the capital of the Jewish People for 3000 years even though they, the Israelites have been in disporia, scattered throughout the world, when not walking righteous in sight of the Lord. Jerusalem was chosen by King David to be the capital because the city, although part of the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, had not yet been conquered by the Israelites, and was not tied specifically to any of any of the twelve tribes.
For David, this was of great significance, because this enabled him to conquer the city with royal forces, and, as was customary at the time, retain it as royal property. He could use Jerusalem as the symbol for a united Israel. In order to emphasize the uniqueness and importance of Jerusalem, David brought the Holy Ark of the Covenant there and turned the city into the religious center of the People of Israel. He bought the threshing floor from the Jebusite and built an altar there to the Lord (Samuel II 24:21-25). Being a warrior, he was not permitted to build the Holy Temple himself. Therefore, he designated Solomon, his son and heir, to build the Temple after his passing.
I think it is possible from the above commentary to relate to the area of Israel as Jerusalem. In those days it was common to refer to kingdoms by their royal city. A prominent example of this is Babylonia of which Babylon was the royal city at that time.
In recent times Israel, Jerusalem and in particular the Temple mount was one of the most contentious issues at the Camp David talks when President Clinton arranged the peace summit in July 2000. The Camp David talks were a failure and hostilities in the area have since increased. Cannot one say as well that the Middle East remains at the center of the world’s attention for mankind today?
Now, how does God look upon Jerusalem? At the dedication of the temple we read in 2 Chronicles 6:5&6; “Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel. 6. But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.” We go back to Deut. 32:8-10 and read “When the Most High divided the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. 9. For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed him, and he kept him as the apple of his eye.” Now further we read in Psalms 17:8 where David is asking God, “Keep me the as the apple of the eye, Hide me under the shadow of thy wing.
To maintain this relationship, the Israelites were to walk a righteous path for we read in Proverbs 7:2; “Keep my commandments, and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye.” And in Lamentations 2:18 we read; “Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.” Finally in Zechariah 2:8 we read; “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” Not only is Israel scripturally proclaimed the apple of God’s eye but their king, the commandments, God’s word and the people are included. What is interesting here is something that the Jewish Messianic movement teaches. That is that the people, God’s word, the nation of Israel and God are one. This is something that can be related to in the prayer of Christ Jesus in John 17. Christ Jesus fervent prayer is that we all be one in Christ as Christ is one in the Father.
While reading Psalm recently, I found still more on how God felt about Jerusalem and in particular the temple mount (Zion). “Psalm 78:68 “But chose he the tribe of Judah, the mount of Zion which he loved.” Psalm 87:2 “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” Psalm 99:2 “The Lord is great in Zion and he is high above all people.” Originally the name referred to the Jebusite fortress conquered by David, on the southeastern hill of Jerusalem. Zion was later applied to where the Temple stood, and in turn came to denote the Temple area itself. Zion is symbolic of Jerusalem, of the Promised Land, of Israel’s hope of returning to Palestine (hence the term Zionism), and of heaven of God’s dwelling-place with his people.
I wanted to return to what constitutes a generation. The world life expectancy at birth is reported to be 64.77 years. This constitutes an average from a low in several African countries of 37 to the 70s in modern industrial nations. The United States population is reported to have a life expectancy of 73 + for men and 76 + for women. Many countries carry an estimate by their population since censes data is somewhat rudimentary. I was not able to find a reference however that factors into the generation the span from conception to death for an average world lifespan. This would take into consideration the number of abortions. This is important in my mind for that is what I believe God counts as a lifespan. As discussed earlier, a generation, as described in the Bible, begins at conception and ends at death.
What is provided from various sources is this information for 2002. There were 4,019,219 births in the United States for that year. For the same year there were 853,485 reported abortions. This amounts to an abortion rate of 21% of the birth rate. 21% subtracted from the lifespan of the male U.S. citizen brings this figure down to 58 years of age. If this rate would be applied to the average lifespan of 64 in the world it would be roughly 49 years of age. I humbly submit that this estimate could be much lower. For a common worldwide problem is that many abortions go unreported and are therefore not counted.
However, the length of a generation is not necessarily the period of time that occurs with the life span of an individual or group. Let us again look at the Wilderness generation. It was only a forty-year period for the disobedient generation of Moses’ day to die off in the wilderness. The curse was to be against the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward. They are the ones which the Lord swore unto Abraham, unto Isaac, unto Jacob because they have not wholly followed me: “…Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun. For they have not wholly followed the Lord. And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was consumed” (Numbers 32: 11, 13, also Psalm 95:8-11) So forty years could not have been the length of that generation, but it was the time God allotted for that generation to die off. Could not the age of a generation and a time of a generation be close to coinciding?
What about the Fig Tree generation. In the parable of the fig tree, Jesus talked about a generation of people (perhaps Jews and Gentiles) that would be living at the time he returned to earth to establish his kingdom. With Israel back in their land after 2000 years of dispersion and other end-time prophecies coming into focus (war in the Middle East and the Iranian threat increasing), the Jewish people now living in Israel could very well be the generation Christ was talking about.
Luke’s version of the fig tree parable, which mention the fig tree (Israel) and all the trees, (nations of the world) (Judges 9:8-20) states: “And he spoke to them a parable, Behold the fig tree, and all the trees, when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see those things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you. This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Luke 21:29-33).
If the length of King David’s generation, Christ’s generation, and those living today is 70-80 years (a 3000 year span), it would be reasonable to conclude that the generation Christ was talking about is in the parable of the fig tree will also be 70-80 years in length. If the fig tree in this parable represents the nation of Israel, as many prophetic scholars believe, and the generation that is described has a lifespan of 70 to 80 years, then we see several strong indicator that the generation Christ was talking about has already been born. That would mean that the return of Jesus Christ to establish his reign for a thousand years is close at hand.
The pieces necessary for development of the end-time prophetic puzzle began to fall in place between the middle of the 19th and first half of the 20th century when the Jewish people began coming back to their homeland in record numbers. More ominous are yet other end-time events that are unfolding at an ever increasing rate to wit:
False Christs All one needs to do is measure the difference today from twenty-five years ago. Some areas have moved slowly or at an acceptance rate and are simply passed off without taking note of what scripture speaks to about these times. In other words apathy has increased and there seems to be no resounding outcry of disgust with manner and degree of rampant sin.
Christians who take the Bible seriously should be actively watching the prophetic shadows that are appearing in today’s headlines. The primary purpose of God’s prophetic Word is to point people to Jesus Christ, “The author and finisher of our faith.”
As we entertain the possibility that we may be the generation Jesus was talking about in the fig tree parable nearly 2000 years ago, we are admonished by the Scriptures to watch and be prepared. As stated clearly by Jesus in Matthew and Mark, no man knows the day or the hour of his coming but the Father only. The same Jesus, however, was very angry with the Pharisees and Scribes for not discerning, “the signs of the times” and not knowing the time of their visitation. In these thought-provoking and challenging times in which we are living, we need to be informed and discerning.
One season there will be a generation of Christians that will escape the grip of death and be ushered into heaven, the final frontier for believers. The generation that is “Left Behind” will face the ruthless tyranny of a global dictatorship. The world stage is now being set for the closing act of this dispensation and the climax of world history. Christ’s return is drawing near. As God’s children, we may very well be the generation that is chosen to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the “Son of man” (Luke 21:34-36). That possibility is certainly worth pondering.
Humbly In Christ, Gene
Postscript
Sin was abounding in those
days as it is today. |
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