From the beginning or the start of this Blog, I have tried to explain just why the Lord had me doing this – just what it was I was told to share. I’ve also said, from-the-get-go too, that it’s okay if you don’t agree with me or “get me” because it’s for specific people and I still stand by that statement today.
What we have been learning is how the Lord is repeating Patterns of the Past and how these same patterns will continue to be repeated until His Second Coming. Months ago, it was brought to our attention, one specific pattern, and that was the pattern of God’s Judgment on Israel during the reign of King David. Because of David’s sin and disobedience to the Lord, God sent His Prophet to him and allowed David to pick or decide what judgment would be allowed. As we read in the Scripture below from 2 Samuel 24:11-17 2 Samuel 24:11-17 (NIV),
2 Samuel 24:11-17 New International Version (NIV)
11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three[a] years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”15 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,[b] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”
Gad, the Lord’s Prophet, is sent to King David to deliver this news as the decision was in his hands as God was testing David again to see what the heart of a true King and a true Child of the Lord would do…put himself and the welfare/safety of his family/loved ones first or would he put all the people of his kingdom and their well-being before himself. I make this point here to show that all decisions made by us are a continual form of testing as God searches for the pure hearts of man – for it is the status of one’s heart that truly decides the length of judgement that God must allow when we sin as God shows mercy on men whose heart is remorseful and full of repentance. Once God sees this, He then will allow His Great Mercy to be given to prevent further death, damage and/or punishment for He knows the lesson has been learned and the consequences accepted and understood. That is what His “refining” is about – it’s us learning the error of our ways, accepting the Lord’s Will and Ways which then, brings us under His Wings and it is there, that God’s True Mercy is upon us and it is then, He blesses us and all that we do because He saw our obedience throughout these steps/path.
David chose the 3-days of pestilence as the judgment/punishment as it, in his eyes, would be the least damaging, least lengthy time period and it would also include him and his own – he would be just as affected as his people. Again, this shows the heart of a good king. Remember this too, God loved David and David loved God so He was partial to David as He truly knew the heart of His Child…He saw the sadness, how sorry David was that he had sinned against the Lord and God knew this. During these days of judgment though, 70,000 Israelites were killed and on the 3rd day, God told His angel to stop and allow no more execution of this pestilence judgment because if He did not stop it, shorten the day(s), there would be no one left so the angel stopped and the day(s) were cut short.
Where is this pattern going to repeat itself? Well, this occurs again in Matthew 24:15-22 (NIV Version) (see similarities between 2 Samuel 24:16? – same chapter/verse number) where is says,
Matthew 24:15-22 New International Version (NIV)
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
The above starting with verse 16 – it is a JUDGMENT from God…this is an attack from one of Israel’s enemies and it will be a chemical gas attack and it too will last for 3-days which will kill again, just like in 2 Samuel above, 70,000. But, just as God allowed with King David and his 3 days of pestilence, He will too cut short the days spoken above in Matthew for the sake of His Elect because if He doesn’t, no one will be left standing. He is warning the people that when this starts, leave immediately and run to the wilderness so you can survive. He is screaming to them “Don’t go back into your house for one thing, no matter how much you think you need it, you don’t – time is not on your side so FLEE from this city now!” The Lord is telling the people who are in this affected/attacked area to “RUN FOREST RUN!” Then He is saying that due to the tribulation of “those days” (specifically those days He was just referring to), no one would be standing if the Lord Himself does not go in and stop this attack; to clean up and rid this gas that is invisible to see but lingers in the air and causes people’s skin to fall off, eyes pop out and they will literally be “a dead man walking”. Many will crumble and fall to the ground and die right there on the streets because they did not heed the Lord’s dire warning.
Matthew 24 has always been a chapter that caused division between Christians as it is here in this same chapter, that the Post-Trib believer’s get their scripture to back up that idea because immediately following, is verses 29-30 which states:
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[a]30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[b] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.[c]31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
This chapter has been a hard one to understand, to make sense out of because of the jumping around that occurs (you read this verse and this is happening; you read the next verse and that is happening, leaving the reader slightly confused and wondering if they missed something or misread the words somehow) and it is here that the forefathers/teachers had to make “a” teaching fit. They had to have an answer, a response to questions and a firm, long-standing teaching regarding this area – Matthew 24 as it never truly “flowed”, allowing again the reader to walk away with a true and easy understanding of the lesson Jesus wanted us to take from here.
I stand by what I’ve had said many times, the Bible, the Inspired Word of God is truly His Word but too, it has been left here for almost 2,000 years and in the hands of the enemy. Yes, the enemy has manipulated, tweaked and removed God’s Words in various places to cause confusion within the Children of the Lord. The enemy knows God’s Word better than we do and yes, he absolutely knew how misled we would be in certain areas of events and their correct timing just by moving a paragraph here or there,. God had to allow this as nothing is done without His Divine Permission. Do we realize the velocity of a simple line change/move in a chapter like this? Well, let me give you an example of the extreme damage that has been caused by the simple misplacement of a comma! The Jehovah’s Witnesses whole belief on “soul sleep” (that when you die – you are just dead and your spirit goes neither to Heaven or Hell; that the dead literally know nothing until the Resurrection) is based on this one sentence and the movement of placement of one tiny tiny comma:
Luke 23:43 New International Version (NIV)
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
LUKE 23:43 Jehovah Witnesses NEW WORLD TRANSLATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES – SAME VERSE READS THIS:
And he said to him: “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
See how the comma was moved in the JW Bible to be placed AFTER the word “today”? It changes the entire meaning of the sentence and is saying, “I tell you this today (today is the day I’m telling you this information), you will be with me in Paradise (not today, but at a later time)”.
Now, see how it reads in the NIV with the comma following the word “you”? It reads, “Truly I tell you, today (meaning right now after you die “immediately”) you will be with me in Paradise.”
See how misplacement of words, sentences and/or paragraphs can mislead the reader to a entirely different understanding of the message/teaching/meaning?
For those who do not believe that these manipulations to God’s Word has occurred throughout time and that the enemy has removed full-complete, whole books from the Bible for his own long-term deceptive reasons, well, I don’t even know what to say. God allowed this so a man’s faith had to be brought front and center in a believer’s life for they had to rely on their faith in the Lord for understanding and teaching as it was no longer there (the answers) for them to read. This just made the Children of the Lord stronger “Overcomers” in their walk which is very pleasing to the Lord as those who overcome what was laid in their path, triumphed at the finish line and loved the Lord even more. Again, what the enemy tried to use for evil/bad, the Lord turned around for good!
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW! 