Prophecies – The Lord’s Great Week

The late Howard Rand gave us the following insight; that prophecy has not been given to men to make them prophets but rather for the purpose of confirming God’s Word and the Word of His Son, and thus to enable men who walk by faith to know and recognize the truth. I love prophecy, it has helped me so much in strengthening my belief and to understand without a word of doubt that we are living at that most precious time when the Lord Jesus Christ is set to return to rule His Kingdom. Certainly, it makes the words of Exodus 20: 9-10 bring a sense of excitement to the faithful; “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work……” We can certainly understand that this passage refers to our 24 hour days as we know them and that is why, until a number of years ago, our Christian civilization basically respected our Sunday Sabbath. Still, in studying prophecy, we must always be aware of the broader meaning and in many cases, a possible dual fulfillment. In 2 Peter 3: 8 we learn, “…that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” So, to God, a day is as a thousand years. It follows then, that Exodus 20: 9-10 also refers to God’s Great Week, His plan to leave mankind to their own devices for six days, or, six thousand years, this followed by one day, or, one thousand years, when the Lord will come to earth to rule His Millennial Kingdom. Great Bible Scholars like Rand, Usher & Panin have pinpointed the beginning of God’s Great Week at roughly 4,000 BC, give or take a few years, so there is no doubt why the faithful are looking so anxiously at this present moment in time.

It is evident that the Lord has timed His Return to coincide with His Harvest of good Christian men and women to accomplish the second stage of His Greater Purpose, whatever that purpose may be. A sense of urgency is obviously building and time is short for the Watchman to spread the message to those brothers and sisters who have yet to form a relationship with Christ and become firmly wedded to the Laws of God. As an aside, many readers with a farming background might remember that years ago, the farmer would take a part of his wheat crop and process it through several layers of screens, each with different size mesh, and which would individually move at differing speeds. The top screen would gather the chaff and each succeeding screen would eliminate inferior seeds and foreign material until all that were left were the plumpest, healthiest and highest germinating seeds. These were then stored in sacks to be used for the following years’ crop, thus ensuring the continuing high quality sought by the farmer. Significantly, what those farmers did with their seeds to ensure high quality is probably a lot like God’s six thousand-year sifting process. Strikingly, it must be clear that a farmer never picked up a handful of inferior seed to mix with the bountiful seeds after he completed the sifting process. Neither will the Lord. God tells us exactly this in Exodus 16: 27, “And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.” My old Dad used to sing and hum a little tune that I can still hear in my mind, “Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me….” This could be God’s tune as well. He doesn’t want us to sit with false gods, whether new age, humanism, materialism or otherwise. He demonstrated His Love when He sacrificed His Son so we might find Salvation, yet He attached a condition. Dear reader, notwithstanding what we are being told by a growing number of today’s theologians, there is only one way to arrive in the Kingdom, a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself told us this very clearly, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me” (John 14: 16). Is there any wonder why the faithful living at this precious moment in time sense the urgency for the unsaved, as the end of the six thousand years signals the release of Man’s long descent from the fall of Adam. After Christ returns, it will be too late, the best they can hope for is a favourable judgment in the Second Resurection at the end of the Millennial Kingdom.

So, my friends, “Six days (6,000 years) shall we labour, one day (1,000 years) shall we rest.” Still, the Bible is clear, there must be witnesses if Exodus 20: 9-10 is indeed a true prophecy. For one, 2 Corinthians 13: 1 demands this, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” Perhaps John 2: 6-10 is a double witness. Many think so. Some point to the six large vessels filled to the brim with water that Jesus turned to wine for the wedding guests at Cana (John 2: 6-10). They then couple these passages with Jesus’ statement to His Disciples that He will not drink of the fruit of the vine until He drinks it with them in the Kingdom (Mathew 26: 29). Finally, they suggest the vessels are symbolic of the six thousand years before the wine is served at Christ’s marriage ceremony to Israel in the seventh day.

I agree with the above interpretation and other verses seem to present the same timeline. Still, I believe there is another witness and a most important one. A friend of mine and I were studying the Gospel of Matthew and were impressed with the following passage.
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his rainment was white as the light. And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.” (Matthew 16: 27-28 and Matthew 17: 1-3)

These are five of the most significant verses in the Bible, because they not only provide the double witness we are seeking, but prove beyond any shadow of a doubt the existence of God’s Kingdom. In this scenario, Jesus is talking to His Disciples (Matthew 16: 24), Peter is specifically mentioned (16: 17). Jesus had just told them that He is indeed the Christ and what men must do to gain entrance to His Kingdom (16: 18-26). He confirmed He would someday be returning to His Kingdom and would then pass judgment (16: 27). Then He made the oft misunderstood passage by today’s theologians that there were some in His very midst that would see the Kingdom before they go to their deaths (16: 28). Then, amazingly, to fulfil this very statement, Jesus took three of those disciples to the mountain after six days, i.e., yes, in the seventh day, dear readers. Jesus gave these three disciples a vision, a glorious glimpse of the Kingdom. As He was transfigured, He demonstrated how a body will be changed in a twinkling of an eye, just like Paul said it would in 1 Corinthians 15: 52. Interestingly as well was the presence of Moses and Elijah in the vision. These two great workers for the Lord not only symbolize the Law and the Prophets, they represent the two groups Christ will gather in His Kingdom. Moses, of course, represents the Law but he also represents the dead saints, or, those who have died in Christ and who will be resurrected first in the Kingdom. Elijah represents the Prophets and the live saints, that is, Christians who will be translated upon the return of Jesus Christ.

This passage is a direct gift from from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Make no mistake about it, soon we are to witness the Great Glory of God. The six days have or are nearly set to expire. We know the Lord Jesus Christ was resurected early in the third day so we can expect that He will come in all His Glory early in the third one thousand year day from Jesus – the seventh day from Adam. To those who disbelieve, we can but quote Jesus Himself when He said, “Behold, I have told you before” (Matthew 24: 25) and fervently hope these unbelievers will be directed to the Son by the Father before it is too late.