The Week of Millenniums

By Tim Sullivan

 

Introduction

There are over 31,000 verses in the Bible and we all have our favorites. But the Bible is much more than a collection of individual verses. It is a story with a beginning and an end, meant to be appreciated in part but also considered as a whole. The entire Word of God is greater than the sum of its magnificent parts.

One should not suppose that the 66 books of the Bible appear in chronological order; this is the exception rather than the rule. However there is a timeline to the Bible that, once understood, will inspire you to marvel even more at the wisdom and poetry of God.

From cover to cover the Bible is the story of God’s covenants with his creation. But God’s greatest promises are reserved for a portion of the general population, a chosen few he calls “the seed of the woman.” The Bible tells the story of God’s love for his people, Israel. This story unfolds over a period of 7,000 years in five major chapters. The first chapter is the prologue; it is the history of the world from Adam to Terah, the father of Abraham. The next two chapters tell of the birth and death of the nation of Israel. The last two chapters tell of her burial and resurrection from the dead.

In order to lay the groundwork for the Bible timeline, certain facts and truths must be put into place: namely, the differences in the Jewish and the Western calendars, and the pattern of the biblical “week.”

Problems with the Calendar

The principal calculations of a calendar are established by natural law. Every 24 hours the earth fully rotates on its axis, the measure of one day. Every 29 ½ days the moon orbits the earth; this is a lunar month. Every 365 ¼ days the earth circles the sun; this is a solar year. A reliable calendar must calculate the passing of time in a way that incorporates the measure of a 24-hour day, a lunar month, and a solar year.

But here is where things get complicated. All those half and quarter days cannot be simply rounded off and discarded. Also, the sum of 12 lunar months is about 11 days shy of the 365-day solar year. This puts the lunar months out of synch with the four seasons. Spring, summer, fall, and winter are governed by the earth’s orbit around the sun, not the moon’s orbit around the earth. Strict adherence to a lunar calendar would result in the seasons occurring in different calendar months from year to year.

The Jewish calendar of the Old Testament was based primarily on the lunar cycle. An average year lasted 360 days. In order to reconcile the lunar months with the four seasons, an extra month was added to the calendar seven times over a 19-year span; 12 years had 12 months, and 7 had 13 months. This ensured that Passover would always occur in spring.

The starting date of the Jewish calendar is the first day of Creation. Perhaps it should be noted that most modern Jews, like most modern Christians, consider the story of the seven days of creation to be only a tale of religious tradition.

Today the world at large utilizes the Gregorian calendar which is primarily a solar calendar. The number of days in a year is set at 365. The number of months per year is set at 12. But the number of days in each month differs. Four months have 30 days (April, June, September and November); seven months have 31 days (January, March, May, July, August, October, and December); and one month (February) has only 28 days. Furthermore, every fourth year (or “leap year”), an additional day is added to February.

The Gregorian calendar is often called the “Christian” calendar because it divides history into eras before and after the birth of Christ, BC and AD. With the rise of secularism, the terms BCE and CE (Before Common Era and Common Era) are showing up more and more. Call it what you will, man’s history still centers on the birth of Christ.

A major difference between the Jewish and Gregorian calendars is the starting point of each new day. The Jewish day begins at sunset because, in the beginning, “the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5). In the Gregorian calendar, each day begins and ends at midnight.

The Biblical Week

Nature determines the measure of a day, lunar month, and solar year; God himself gave us the week. (Let the secularists try to dispose of that one!) One of the great patterns in the Bible is the measure of seven equal portions of time. As we shall see, there is a week of days, a week of weeks, a week of months, a week of years, a week of seven years, a week of decades, and a week of millenniums.

The Week of Days

It was not until the time of Moses that the Creation model (six days of labor followed by a day of rest) became a pattern for daily living. This tradition began as the children of Israel wandered the Wilderness. God promised to “rain bread from heaven” six days a week. “Six days ye shall gather it,” said Moses, “but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none” (Exodus 16:26). Verse 30 tells us, “So the people rested on the seventh day.”

Keeping the Sabbath as a day for rest and reflection is one of the Ten Commandments in the Law of Moses.

Exodus 20:11:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

As Christians we honor the Sabbath by resting in the finished work of Christ.

Hebrews 4:10:
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Ultimately the Sabbath foreshadows the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.

The Week of Weeks

With the Levitical law, God established seven annual feasts for Israel: the three springtime feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits; the summer feast of Harvest; and the three autumn feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. Seven weeks, or a week of weeks, separated the spring feasts from the summer feast. Because the summer feast began on the fiftieth day after Firstfruits, it came to be known as the feast of “Pentecost.”

Leviticus 23:16:
Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

The Week of Months

The seven annual feasts took place over a period of seven months, a week of months.

The Week of Years

The sabbatical year, a year of rest for the land, was observed every seventh year, the conclusion to a week of years.

Leviticus 25:4:
But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

The Week of Seven Years

After 49 years, or a week of seven years, the Israelites celebrated the year of Jubilee.

Leviticus 25:8:
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

The Week of Decades

Human beings are appointed a lifespan of seventy years, a week of decades.

Psalm 90:10:
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

God neither guarantees nor limits man’s natural life to seventy years. But whether our years be eight or eighty, our life passes swiftly by.

James 4:14b:
... For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

This knowledge is not given to us so we bemoan the brevity of life. We are encouraged to seek the wisdom of God to make the most of our days.

Psalm 90:12:
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The Week of Millenniums

There is one more week in the Bible: seven measures of time, each unit lasting 1,000 years. The week of millenniums is not directly stated in the Bible but it is strongly inferred. The Bible does tell us that with the Lord, a thousand years is as one day.

Psalm 90:4:
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

2 Peter 3:8:
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

This truth has both a figurative and literal interpretation. It is figurative because God lives in a dimension beyond time.

Isaiah 46:10:
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

But this truth is also literal. All the recorded events of the Bible fit into seven units of time, each unit lasting 1,000 years. These 7,000 years span the history of planet Earth from its creation to its foretold demise.

Of course, it is impossible to reconcile the idea of seven millennial days with the conclusions of secular historians and scientists. The Bible’s account of the age and genesis of the universe, the creation of life, the Great Flood – not to mention the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus – these things are foolishness to the sages of worldly wisdom. Their faith (or lack of it) is their own business. Mine is to teach the Bible.

That being said, an effective Bible timeline demands that one reconcile biblical events to the Gregorian calendar. The most successful approach has been to match biblical testimony with recorded secular history. This is the method used by the writers of the BibleWorks© timeline, the source for the dates cited in this study.

Let me emphasize that the purpose of this study is NOT to establish the precise dates of biblical events past, present, or future. Various timelines differ as often as they agree. The sole intention of this study is to present the framework of the Bible so we can see the “big picture” of the greatest story ever told.

The Prehistory of Israel

Days ONE and TWO in the Week of Millenniums

The story of the Bible does not actually begin in Genesis 1:1. The first eleven chapters are the introduction to the story; they are the “prehistory” of Israel. This prehistory centers on the lives of two men, Adam and Noah.

Day 1:

Genesis is a book of ten generations:

• The generations of the heavens and of the earth (Genesis 2:4)
• The generations of Adam (5:1)
• The generations of Noah (6:9)
• The generations of the sons of Noah (10:1)
• The generations of Shem (11:10)
• The generations of Terah (11:27)
• The generations of Ishmael (25:12)
• The generations of Isaac (25:19)
• The generations of Esau (36:1)
• The generations of Jacob (37:2)

The first 1,000 years of Bible history are recorded in the first 5 chapters of Genesis. “Day One” witnessed the beginning of the generations of the heavens and of the earth, and the generations of Adam.

Human history begins with Adam. It was his foolish decision that enslaved all future generations to sin, and death by sin. God told Adam he would die in the day he ate the forbidden fruit. Spiritually, Adam died the instant of his transgression. He died physically at the age of 930 years, before the first millennial day was over. Either way, Adam died on the day of his disobedience.

Key events of Day One include:

• The creation of the heavens and earth
• The first man, woman, and marriage
• The original sin
• The first children, Cain and Abel
• The first cities and craftsmen
• The birth of Adam’s third son, Seth
• The birth of Lamech, the father of Noah.

Day 2:

By Chapter 6 of Genesis, the world had grown so evil that “it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth” (Genesis 6:6). But a man named Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (verse 8). Day Two centers on the life of Noah. Genesis 7:6 says, “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.” After the Flood it was left to his sons to repopulate the earth. Genesis 10:32 says that “by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.”

The line to Christ goes through Noah’s son, Shem (see Luke 3:36), and for this reason the generations of Shem are listed twice in Genesis, in Chapters 10 and 11. The generations of Shem lead to Terah, the father of the patriarch Abraham.

Key events of Day Two include:

• The birth of Noah
• The events surrounding the Flood
• The repopulating of the earth
• The confusion of language in Babel
• The birth of Abraham

The First Covenants

In the prehistory of Israel, God is known as “the God of heaven, and the God of the earth” (Genesis 24:3). His primary relationship to man is as his Creator. He is also a God of his word, who makes and keeps covenants. By his covenants he shows who he is and will be, and what he expects of man in return.

God’s first covenants with man were made in Eden. The first preceded man’s fall, the second followed after. The first covenant, often called the Edenic covenant, defined man’s duties to God and nature.

Genesis 1:28:
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Expressly stated within this covenant was the one thing man was forbidden to do. But Adam willfully disobeyed God and as a result, he severed their spiritual union. God might have disowned his creation then and there, but instead he chose to initiate a new covenant, often called the Adamic covenant. With this covenant, God condemned man and woman to a life of hardship but he also foretold his plan for mankind’s redemption.

Genesis 3:15:
And I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

After the Flood God reaffirmed portions of the Edenic covenant with Noah and his sons. With the Noahic covenant God ensured man’s dominion over the planet.

Genesis 9:1-2:
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

The Noahic covenant included God’s unconditional pledge that “neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood” (v. 11). God then sealed his covenant with a heavenly token.

Genesis 9:12-13:
And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

So long as this earth hangs in space, God will keep this covenant.

Genesis 8:22:
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

The first two millennial days center on the lives of Adam and Noah, the fathers of the human race. The covenants God made with these men were a blessing to all the people of the earth. But with the advent of Day Three, God’s covenants would be exclusive to a peculiar people – his chosen people – Israel.

The Rise and Fall of Israel

Days THREE and FOUR in the Week of Millenniums

Day 3:

The third millennial day tells the story of the birth of the nation of Israel. Here the Bible story begins in earnest with God’s call to Abram.

The events of Day Three center on God’s covenants with Abraham, Moses, and King David. We read of the genesis of the tribes of Israel, and how Joseph led the Israelites into Egypt and Moses led them out of it. In the wilderness God gave his people laws to teach them how to live a holy and sanctified life. Joshua led a new generation across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. At first they were governed by a series of Judges. Their last judge, Samuel, anointed their first king, Saul. King David led Israel into unity and conquest. And as this millennial day drew to a close, David’s son Solomon conducted worship in the completed House of God in Jerusalem.

Day Three is especially notable for three everlasting covenants God made with and concerning his chosen people. First, in the Abrahamic covenant, God vowed to make Abraham “the father of a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). God made an unconditional promise to give him and his seed “all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8).

With the Mosaic covenant, God vowed that in Israel there would be an everlasting priesthood. This promise was also made without condition.

Numbers 25:13:
And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

With the Davidic covenant, God promised an everlasting house and kingdom. Again this promise was unconditional.

2 Samuel 7:16:
And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

An everlasting seed, priesthood, house, and kingdom – these were never rewards of merit, but rather gifts of God’s amazing grace. But how should the people of God conduct themselves on earth? Through the Law, God showed that there are blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. But many of the Israelites confused grace and works. Some tried to earn God’s favor by doing works of the flesh, a complete misinterpretation of the message.

Romans 9:32:
Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

Others thought that since they had God’s favor, they were free to sin. Israel’s lack of faith, coupled with her rejection of holy law, prevented God from immediately fulfilling the covenants of Day Three. Those who believed would have to wait for a better day.

Day 4:

In the Bible there is more written about the fourth millennial day than any other era. Here we read of the fall of the nation of Israel, starting with the division of the kingdom and culminating with her rejection of her Messiah.

No gift of God negates his laws. When Solomon turned his heart to other gods, he reaped a terrible consequence for his nation. The kingdom, so recently united by his father David, was torn asunder. The ten northern tribes became a new political entity called Israel, governed by commoners who were not of David’s royal line. It was left to the two southern tribes to continue the House of David as the nation of Judah.

Day Four gave witness to some of the most renowned prophets and prophecies in the Bible. Sadly their words were rarely heeded. After about 200 years, the kingdom of Israel was defeated by the Assyrians. The ten tribes were so thoroughly assimilated into that pagan culture that within a short time they were no longer considered Jews. In fact, they were thought of as dogs. When a woman of Samaria asked Jesus for help (near the close of this millennial day), he told her, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs” (Matthew 15:26). Of course we know that in the end Jesus did help her.

The people of Judah fared little better. Within 350 years they were conquered by the Babylonians and scattered among the nations. But even as Jerusalem burned to the ground, God gave his people the New covenant in which he vowed to restore them. Once again this promise was unconditional.

Jeremiah 31:33:
... After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Nebuchadnezzar’s strange dream foretold the annexation of Jerusalem by five empires: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and a fifth, mysterious kingdom. All but the final stages of this prophecy were fulfilled in the fourth millennium.

Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild her Temple and city walls. This story is told in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, chronologically the last books of the Old Testament. After this there is a 400 year gap in Bible testimony that resumes with the events surrounding the birth of Christ.

Alexander the Great became king of Macedonia in 337 BC, and for a time the Greeks reigned over Israel. In 168 BC, they were driven out by an army of Jewish dissidents called the Maccabees. This period of Israeli independence was short-lived, and by 63 BC, the Romans occupied the land of Judah. In 40 BC, the Roman Senate made Herod king of Judah. It was he who “slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men” (Matt. 2:16).

The fall of the nation of Israel was solidified by her rejection of her Messiah. The fourth millennial day closed upon Israel like the stone that was rolled in front of the Lord’s sepulchre.

The Times of the Gentiles

Days FIVE and SIX in the Week of Millenniums

Many modern Christians divide Bible history into two eras – before Pentecost and after Pentecost (call it BP and AP). By their reckoning, everything that happened BP was done in preparation for a better thing to come, a super believer and a church that would replace “natural” Israel as the chosen people of God.

When the Bible is considered in part and not in whole, the oddest interpretations seem plausible. Certainly the Day of Pentecost was greatly significant. But there is no justification for the idea that the church AP comprises the spiritual Israel that is destined to replace the old.

God has long divided humanity into two groups, Hebrews and Gentiles. The Hebrews (or Jews) are the seed promised to Abraham; the Gentiles are everyone else. And during the 2,000 years from Abraham to the Ascension, the Gentiles were nothing more than the unchosen people of God, strangers from God’s covenants of promise. But after Israel rejected her Messiah a new era began, known as “the times of the Gentiles.”

Luke 21:24:
And 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.

On the Day of Pentecost God opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles. All who believed on Jesus would be adopted into the commonwealth of Israel. This was such an unexpected revelation that it took the early apostles years to accept it.

Ephesians 3:5-6:
Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

During this era only a “remnant” of Jews will believe (Romans 11:5). Many more Gentiles than Jews will come to Christ. But this is not because the Gentiles are in any way superior to the Chosen People.

Romans 11:25:
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

God’s favor upon the Gentile Christians is intended to provoke Israel to jealousy.

Romans 11:11:
I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

It is no small thing that the Times of the Gentiles were ushered in with the gift of tongues. When Isaiah prophesied of the judgment of God on Israel, he said, “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people” (Isaiah 28:11). Paul cited this prophecy in his teaching on the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14. With both the supernatural gift of tongues and the diverse languages of the Gentile Christians, God is speaking to his people!

But what evidence indicates that this age will last two millennial days? Part of the answer is based on simple arithmetic. There are seven days in the Week of Millenniums. The first four days – the 2,000 year prehistory of Israel and the 2,000 years of Israel’s rise and fall – have passed. The Sabbath day is the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth. That leaves two days, or 2,000 years, between Christ’s Ascension and his Return.

Some 1,981 years have passed since the Ascension. God has kept the precise date hidden, undoubtedly to deter people from calculating the year of his Son’s return. But God would have to disregard patterns that he himself established to prevent “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:2) from fitting into two millennial days.

A stunning piece of evidence is found in the book of Hosea, in the midst of his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel.

Hosea 6:2:
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

Could it be more plain? More amazing?

Days 5 and 6 are the “last days” of the millennial week before the Sabbath. These are the days foretold by Joel when the gifts of the Spirit are freely given and freely received.

Acts 2:17-18:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

Yet despite the abundance of grace that has been bestowed upon the Gentile Christians, we are just as prone to spiritual infidelity and carnal thinking as were the Jews in their day. These “last days” are sure to challenge our love and faithfulness to God.

2 Peter 3:3:
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

2 Timothy 4:4:
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Just as the tribes of Israel were assimilated by the Assyrians, much of the church today willfully molds itself after patterns set by secular culture. Sadly, people who call themselves Christians are often the first in line to denounce the Scriptures as archaic ideals and foolish myths.

The sixth millennial day concludes as Jesus returns for his church. In full accordance with Jewish custom, he will steal away his bride in an event some people call the Rapture of the church. This will be followed by the uprising of the Antichrist, which unleashes the Great Tribulation. But during this time of terror, Jesus and his bride will be safely hidden away until the time comes for the Lord’s glorious return to conquer the earth.

Isaiah 26:20:
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

The Day of the Lord

Day SEVEN in the Week of Millenniums

Over the centuries the Lord has appeared to countless men and women in visions. But Jesus has never returned to earth since the day of his departure. On the great day of his second coming, Jesus will return to the very place of his ascension, the Mount of Olives. As his foot touches the ground, the mountain will split in half, forming a great valley.

Zechariah 14:4:
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

This is the valley of Armageddon, where the battle for the supremacy of the world will be waged one final time.

Revelation 16:16:
And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Revelation 19:14-15:
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

A horrific battle puts an end to the Great Tribulation. The forces of the Antichrist are soundly defeated. Satan and his angels are imprisoned for 1,000 years. And finally the House of Israel is fully restored to God.

Ezekiel 39:22:
So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.

God’s everlasting covenants with Israel will be satisfied in full, and the promises he made to Abraham some four thousand years previously will be completely fulfilled.

Romans 11:26:
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Thus the greatest era in the history of the earth shall be ushered in, the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Revelation 20:6:
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Yet even this is not our final glory. This old world will be consumed in flames, and we will be transported to new heavens and a new earth to dwell in righteousness forever.

2 Peter 3:13:
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

A Time to Every Purpose

A Story of Israel’s Birth, Death, Burial and Resurrection

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

The story of the Bible is the story of God’s love for Israel, a people he bound to himself through everlasting and unconditional covenants, sealed with his Word, his Spirit, and his blood. The Bible tells this story over the course of 7,000 years of earth’s history, a week of millennial days that span from her creation to her demise.

Days One and Two tell the story of Adam and Noah, the fathers of the human race. But to everything there is a time to be born, and Israel was born in the person of Isaac, the son of Abraham. God told Abraham, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” (Gen. 21:12). And on the third millennial day, the God who calls himself “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” made for himself a people by virtue of an everlasting promise of a seed, a nation, a land, a priesthood, and a throne.

But there is a time to die. Less than 100 years after the kingdom of Israel was united, it was divided. On the fourth millennial day, Israel and Judah were conquered by pagans and scattered among the nations.

There is a time to be planted, buried in the ground. And for 2,000 years, the nation of Israel has been awaiting her revival. Days 5 and 6 are the Times of the Gentiles. God chose this time to reveal the great mystery which he kept hidden in himself – that in Christ, the Jews and Gentiles are fellowcitizens in his eternal household. In this glorious era, God is making himself known in the person of his Son, Jesus.

The full restoration of Israel is as sure as the Word of God itself. There is a time to pluck up that which is planted, and on Day 7, the dry bones of the house of Israel will be raised to life everlasting. Let these words be shouted from the mountaintops!

Ezekiel 37:11-14:
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

There is a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. This is the story of the Bible, the story of God’s love for Israel, and his great plan for the salvation of man through his Son Jesus. To him be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen, and amen!

 

 

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For the charts that accompany this presentation, please view the October 2011 issue of The Vine & Branches ONLINE or in the downloadable PDF.

From the October 2011 issue of The Vine & Branches