Everyone wants to feel included, don’t they? Don’t you? Remember those elementary school games where sides were chosen. One by one the teams were formed. Always the best athletic ones were chosen first. The rest of us were chosen last. Even worse was when there was an odd number and the captains had to decide who would take the last one. That one had to hear the reasons why he shouldn’t be on each team and then one reluctantly allows this, now deflated and ego-broken soul, on their team. Those were the good ole days, right?

Did things really get better as you got older? Sometimes. But, often, the ways of exclusion get subtler and more sophisticated, but the exclusion was still there and still hurt just as much. Why is this? And why does it bleed into every area of one’s life, including religion?

Yet, this was not God’s plan. Believe it or not, God had a plan of inclusion from the very beginning. Does that surprise you? Maybe your thinking about Israel being God’s chosen people. That sounds exclusionary, doesn’t it? Yet, it isn’t. Or, rather, wasn’t supposed to be that way. Let’s discuss these steps of inclusion that God wanted from the beginning.

As you’ve noticed, if you have read many of my posts, a lot of them center around the Jewish feasts. Why is that? Because they are the secret to God’s word and gives us an insight into God’s heart. This time, we’re focusing on Shavuot. This occurred fifty days after Bikkurim, or the feast of Firstfruit. In the land of Israel, this was around the time of the wheat harvest. Yet, the very first Shavuot occurred out in the desert, around Mt. Sinai. Why? Because it set the whole stage of not only what God wanted to do for Israel, but with Israel as well.

How do we know this was the first Shavuot? Recall that the first Pesach (Passover) occurred as the children of Israel made a mass exodus from Egypt. Here is the order of events over the next fifty days:

—  Left Egypt: 15th day of 1st month (Nu 33:3 – 1st day of Unleavened Bread)

—  Day 1: 16th day of 1st month (First Fruit)

—  Day 46: Arrived at Sinai 1st day of 3rd month (Ex 19:1)

—  Days 46-47: 2 days of consecration of people (Ex 19:10-11)

—  Day 48: God appeared as thunder, lightning, smoke and fire on the mountain, the mountain shook, and God spoke in thunder (Ex 19:16-20). God called Moses up to the mountain, gave him the 10 commandments and other laws; Aaron, his sons and 70 elders of Israel also on mountain worshipped at a distance (Ex 19:20 – 24:3)

—  Day 49: Moses wrote down all the words God had given him (Ex 24:4)

—  Day 50: Moses read the Book of the Covenant to them, they agreed to it and Moses offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, consecrated the people with “the blood of the covenant.” Moses, Aaron, his sons, and 70 elders of Israel ate with God (likely the Pre-Incarnate Christ) (Ex 24: 4-11)

What’s that you say? Starting to sound exclusionary? Before any agency can help everyone, it must be set up by a select few. This is sort of what was happening here. Yes, God did call them his “chosen people” (Ex 19:5). But, we need to understand why he said that. This was not a statement of exclusion, but a statement of responsibility. They were chosen to be priests to the world (Ex 19:6). That is, they were to be the standard for all other nations to follow. They had been created as a nation here at Mt. Sinai to be the model for other to follow. Starting to sound more inclusionary? Let’s not forget that inclusion does not come without requirements, consequences, and change, but it also comes with many blessings and rewards.

So, this is why Israel was created. Israel was the standard, the banner of God to the world. This was the first step of God’s inclusion for everyone. Did it work? Well, it could have. It could have been glorious. But, no, it failed. Why? Pride. Pride is always exclusionary and never inclusionary. The words “chosen people” became a battle cry rather than an invitation. Consequences occurred.

Yet, God did not give up. He continued to use Shavuot as an example of inclusion. We’ll look at one of those examples next time. Let’s remember that just because God expects change, he is not being exclusionary, but is offering a way of inclusion into something he has for us that will be even more glorious. And that requires faith. Faith is the key. Faith is the pride destroyer.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Ever been frustrated because you had to get something done, but you couldn’t because someone else had to do their part first – and wasn’t? I’m sure this is how Ezekiel felt many times. God had him sacrifice so much to be the watchman to his countrymen. Yet, he wasn’t seeing any change in them. I’m sure he often asked God, “What’s the point?” But God helped him to realize that Ezekiel’s future hope and the hope for the world was not dependent upon their obedience. Sure, we decide if we become a part of that, but our actions to not deter God from his plans. Let’s see what he told Ezekiel.

Israel was now dispersed. Nebuchadnezzar had captured Judah along with their beloved capital city Jerusalem and had even destroyed their beautiful temple. The Northern Kingdom of Israel has been taken captive by Assyria some one-hundred years earlier. Only a remnant was now left in their land. I’m sure Ezekiel felt all was lost. He likely couldn’t see how any of God’s promises could now come true. Was all hope gone? God said no.

God gave Ezekiel another vision (Ek 37). A very strange vision. One could classify it as a nightmare – an Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-type of nightmare. Before Ezekiel lay a dry valley filled with human bones. There were likely hundreds of them all thrown together, many of them now disconnected. I’m sure Ezekiel was bewildered. Why was he here? Suddenly, the bones began to vibrate and then move! Do you think Ezekiel jumped backward? I think he did. I would have run! The bones then came together and formed skeletons. Sinews came upon the skeletons, and then flesh covered the sinews. Now, rather than a valley of bones, it was a valley of corpses. It just went from bizarre to morbid. Ezekiel then felt a wind. The wind blew over the corpses, and then into them! The corpses began to breathe! They then sat up and then stood to their feet. God had taken something totally worthless and made it purposeful.

It’s obvious this vision was about Israel. After all, God had just told Ezekiel he would make his Name great again and would cleanse Israel and put his Spirit within her (Ek 36:23-17). Isn’t that what the wind just did? Many have put history to Ezekiel’s vision: the bones represent Israel dispersed throughout the world, the formed skeletons represent the national pride of Israel which still remained in those dispersed which united them as a dispersed nation, the sinews represented the return of Jews to Israel from Russia, Poland, Germany, and central Europe in 1881-1948, the flesh covering the sinews represents the Tribulation period when Jews an Israelis from every nation will gather back to Israel, the wind entering the corpses represents Israel’s national conversion at Christ’s return, and the bodies living and standing to their feet represent Israel in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom. Is this an accurate interpretation? It would seem reasonable. Either way, it was clear God was going to bring about a miracle in Israel’s future and make them his people again.

While this vision was for Ezekiel, God reiterated this message to him and told him to give a visual message to the people. Ezekiel took two sticks (Ek 37:15-23). On one he wrote, “belonging to Judah and all the Israelites associated with him.” On the other, he wrote, “belonging to Joseph and all the Israelites associated with him.” Joseph represented the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two largest tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Ezekiel then joined the two sticks together into one whole. God stated he was going to join Judah and Israel back into one nation (Ek 37:22) by gathering them from wherever they had been scattered. They would no longer, and never again, be two nations. God also stated he would cleanse them and be their God.

Although many Jews did return to Israel from Babylonian captivity by the decree of Cyrus who conquered Babylon (2Ch 36:23), this promise was not completely fulfilled with this return. Not all Jews returned, and it did not include Israelis from the Northern Kingdom, although there were likely a few. Actually, most Jews stays in Babylon. So, what was God referring to?

God gives more information to Ezekiel. He states that the Messiah will rule the people and David will be his prince (Ek 37:24-25). Now, the term Prince is used later in Ezekiel, but this was not used in the same context here. Here, God is calling David both king and prince. Why? David will be the king of Israel and will be subservient to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the King of kings. God states the temple will be restored, everlasting peace will be established, and all nations will know God made Israel holy since his sanctuary will be among them forever (Ek 37:26-28). We know this must be future, even to us, because these things have not yet occurred.

God was giving Ezekiel hope. God was giving Israel hope. Israel’s hope is also our hope. Don’t you want to be part of it: something so grand it is hard to comprehend. Everyone wants to be part of something mind-blowing. You can. It just takes a little faith to put your trust in this coming Messiah and off yourself. Christ did it all for us. Reach out to him. He’s reaching out to you.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Year of Prophecy: © 701 BC (Isaiah 39)

Year of Fulfillment: 586 BC (2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36:15-19)

Time until fulfillment: ~115 years

The prophecy of the captivity of Judah by Babylon is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the fifth of ten.

As was noted in a previous post, even before this prophecy, Joel prophesied against Judah regarding the invasion by Assyria. Not long after the Assyrian conquest of Israel, the Assyrian general Sennacherib (the son of Sargon II) came to power in 705 BC and attempted the invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 701 BC (130 years after Joel’s warnings). King Hezekiah of Judah attempted to buy him off with approximately 11 tons of sliver and 1 ton of gold, even stripping off the gold from the doors of the temple to obtain it (2Ki 18:13-16). Instead, this just made the king of Assyria want more and within two years returned to Jerusalem knowing that Hezekiah was building an alliance with Egypt. The key to this Assyrian attempt being unsuccessful was Hezekiah turning the problem over to God. Hezekiah’s prayer for victory was so that “all the kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God” (2Ki 19:19). In response, God smote 185,000 of the Assyrian army causing Sennacherib and the remainder of his army to return to Nineveh (2Ki 19:35-37). In Sennacherib’s personal account, there is no mention of the capture of Jerusalem, just the ancillary conquests and tribute.  But, of course, no mention of the defeat. Therefore, by this act of Hezekiah, Judah and Jerusalem never succumbed to Assyria.

Not long thereafter, Hezekiah had a fatal illness (2Ki 20) and Hezekiah prayed that God would heal him. God sent word through the prophet Isaiah that Hezekiah’s request had been granted (Is 38:4-8). Then, Merodach-Baladan of Babylon sent an envoy to Hezekiah to wish him well after his recovery (2Ki 20:12). Hezekiah received them and showed them all he had. When Isaiah heard of this, he told Hezekiah that one day everything Hezekiah and his descendants had would be carried to Babylon (2Ki 20:16-18; Is 39).

The Chaldean (or Neo-Babylonian) empire grew in power and eventually overthrew the Assyrian empire in 612 BC as prophesied by the prophet Nahum. The main power came when Nabopolasser became king in 626 BC and brought Babylon to world renowned status regaining control over Mesopotamia. During this time of the conflict between Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, the kingdom of Judah became the pawn. Josiah tried to take the opportunity to gain back territory taken from Judah, but was defeated in a battle with Necho, king of Egypt (2Ki 23:29-30; 2Ch 35:20-26). King Necho deposed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, caring him off to Egypt where he died, and made his brother Eliakim a puppet king, changing his name to Johoiakim (2Ki 23:31-35). Judah thus became a tribute state to Egypt. In 605 BC, Nabopolassar’s son, Nebuchadnezzar, defeated Egypt and completed the Chaldean dominance of the known world, and Judah then became a tribute state to Babylon (2Ki 24:1). However, when the Babylonians suffered a defeat in 601 BC, Jehoiakim defected his alliance back to Egypt. Jehoiachin became king of Judah after his father died and at the same time Nebuchadnezzar mounted an offensive against Jerusalem. Jehoiachin surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar plundered the city and temple, took Jehoiachin captive, and made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king, changing his name to Zedekiah (2Ki 24:17). Nine years later, Zedekiah rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar returned in 588 BC, besieged the city for 2 years, and caused its utter defeat in 586 BC, burning and plundering the city (2Ki 25).

During this time, God made several attempts through various prophets to get the people to repent and turn back to him and not suffer the fate of this judgment; however, they would not listen (2Ch 36:15-17). King Zedekiah treated many of these prophets harshly and accused them of treason (Jr 37:9-21) and not being patriotic (Jr 38:4-6). It is never a question of if God will fulfill his promise, but when.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Year of Prophecy: © 765 BC ,  (Book of Amos)

Year of Fulfillment: ©722 BC  (2 Kings 17:3-6)

Time until fulfillment: ~43 years

The prophecy of the captivity of Israel by Assyria is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the fourth of ten.

Although Amos was the first prophet to prophecy of the capture of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, he was not the last. The prophet Hosea picked up where Amos left off. Other prophets like Isaiah and Micah also prophesied against Israel. The fall of Israel to Assyria occurred during the lifetime of these later three prophets.

Also, approximately 70 years before Amos, the prophet Joel prophesied against the Southern Kingdom of Judah similarly and compared the Assyrians to locusts. Joel first reminded Judah of the invasion of locusts they had encountered and how it occurred in four phases with each more destructive than the previous (Jl 1:4). Joel then calls the people to repentance (1:13-20) where he is probably thinking back to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 11 where Moses stated that this type of punishment would come because of sins of disobedience. Joel then informed Judah that an army was coming “such as never was of old nor ever will be” (2:2). Joel contrasted this army with the locusts that had devastated the land earlier. The locusts left nothing; neither would this army (2:3). The number of the army would be just as vast as the locusts; one would be able to hear them coming from a far distance (2:5). As they came, all obstacles would seem futile to them: they would appear to leap over mountains (2:5), scale walls, and enter houses without resistance (2:9). The invasion would be relentless; it would keep coming, not swerving from their course (2:7). As the locusts blotted out the sun by their numbers, so would this army (2:10). Joel then again asked Judah to repent (2:12-17) so that the Lord would have pity on them and reclaim His land (2:18). Then the Lord would make food plentiful (2:19), drive away enemies (2:20), send the needed rain showers (2:23), and they would have plenty (2:24). But first, they must repent. This description that Joel gave shows just how relentless and cruel the Assyrians could be to those deemed enemies.

From the time of Jonah’s ministry (785-772 BC) when the king of Nineveh repented (Jh 3:6-9) until approximately 40 years later, Israel received no confrontation with Assyria. However, in 745 BC, when Tiglath-pileser III came to the throne, all that changed. King Menahem of Israel was able to buy off Tiglath-pileser with 50 shekels of silver for each man: 60,000 men for a total of 37 tons of silver! (2Ki 15:19-20). Less than a decade later, Pekah, a later king of Israel, tried to force Ahaz, the king of Judah, into an alliance against Assyria (2Ki 16). Tiglath-pileser then took more of Israel’s cities and people captive and set Hoshea up as a puppet king over Israel (2Ki 15:29-30). Five years later, Shalmaneser V, the king of Assyria after Tiglath-pileser, besieged the capital city of Samaria because Hoshea had failed to pay the customary tribute to Assyria and had tried to gain the help of Egypt (2Ki 17:3-6). The siege lasted for 3 years (2Ki 17:5) during which time Shalmaneser V died and Sargon II completed the conquest in 722 BC. Sargon then intermixed the remaining people of Israel with the people of several conquered countries (2Ki 17:24) thereby destroying national resistance and the people’s national identity. This resulted in the people of Samaria losing their Jewish identity and forever being classified as Gentiles by the people of Judah (Ne 2:20, Jn 4).

Although the Kingdom of Israel had time to heed prophetic warning, they did not. They were considered troublemakers and asked to leave the country (Am 7:12-13). However, just because the people did not want to hear the message or the prophets were considered unpatriotic did not change the truth of the matter. It occurred as prophesied and probably occurred more harshly than anyone would have predicted. Scripture is clear in that Israel fell because “they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated His covenant” (2Ki 18:12).

This fulfillment should be a sober reminder to us that we also need to heed what scripture tells us is part of our future. Our God has made a way of escape from impending apocalypse. The solution is simple, but requires a leap of faith. The Israelites here, did not do that. Don’t follow their example. Heed the words of the prophets and obey the Lord your God.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Year of Prophecy: © 1762 BC (Genesis 46:4, 47:9)

Year of Fulfillment: © 1422 BC (Joshua 4:19)

Time until fulfillment: ~340 years

The promise to Jacob that his family would return to Canaan is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the third of ten.

This promise is similar and related to the promise to Abraham discussed previously. God had told Abraham his descendants would be enslaved for a 400-year period but would return with great wealth (Gn 15:13-16). Apparently, Abraham’s descendants taught this fact to their children, for Joseph asked his brothers to not forget ‘his bones’ (realizing that it would be a long time before it would happen) when they returned to Canaan (Gn 50:24-25). Joseph realized that he was part of that fulfillment (Gn 50:19-20) and the reason he asked his father and family to come (Gn 50:21), and the reason God assured Jacob that going to Egypt was part of His plan (Gn 46:3-4). After the time of Joseph, however, this promise seemed to have faded with time. The Israelites complained even before they left Egypt (Ex 5:20, 6:9) and as they were leaving Egypt (Ex 14:12). Truly, if God had not kept His promise, no one would have even known He had forgotten. Thankfully, God does not forget! (Is 49:15; 2Pt 3:9).

There are promises in the Bible for us as well. That is why we need to read and study so that we can know what they are and claim them, knowing they will come true. God never forgets. That should be a comfort to us as well as a wakeup call. Do you want to be ready for the next fulfilled promise to come or be totally surprised and unprepared? The choice is yours.

Note: There seems to be a discrepancy between the times the Israelites were slaves in Egypt versus the time it took for the fulfillment of this prophecy. We know the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years (Ex 12:40-41) and were in the wilderness for 40 years (Js 5:6); However, John Pratt (a Biblical chronologists whom I chose to indicate the timing of these Biblical events) puts the Crossing of the Jordan River in 1422 BC. Apparently, he is considering the 430 years to start with Joseph entering Egypt rather than Jacob and his family entering Egypt. Jacob was in Egypt 17 years before he died (Gn 47:28), which is about the same number of years as Joseph’s age when he was sold into Egypt (Gn 37:2). The important point is that God kept his promise even when the children of Israel had forgotten all about it. We can always count on God not forgetting.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Everyone wants to feel included, don’t they? Don’t you? Remember those elementary school games where sides were chosen. One by one the teams were formed. Always the best athletic ones were chosen first. The rest of us were chosen last. Even worse was when there was an odd number and the captains had to decide who would take the last one. That one had to hear the reasons why he shouldn’t be on each team and then one reluctantly allows this, now deflated and ego-broken soul, on their team. Those were the good ole days, right?

Did things really get better as you got older? Sometimes. But, often, the ways of exclusion get subtler and more sophisticated, but the exclusion was still there and still hurt just as much. Why is this? And why does it bleed into every area of one’s life, including religion?

Yet, this was not God’s plan. Believe it or not, God had a plan of inclusion from the very beginning. Does that surprise you? Maybe your thinking about Israel being God’s chosen people. That sounds exclusionary, doesn’t it? Yet, it isn’t. Or, rather, wasn’t supposed to be that way. Let’s discuss these steps of inclusion that God wanted from the beginning.

As you’ve noticed, if you have read many of my posts, a lot of them center around the Jewish feasts. Why is that? Because they are the secret to God’s word and gives us an insight into God’s heart. This time, we’re focusing on Shavuot. This occurred fifty days after Bikkurim, or the feast of Firstfruit. In the land of Israel, this was around the time of the wheat harvest. Yet, the very first Shavuot occurred out in the desert, around Mt. Sinai. Why? Because it set the whole stage of not only what God wanted to do for Israel, but with Israel as well.

How do we know this was the first Shavuot? Recall that the first Pesach (Passover) occurred as the children of Israel made a mass exodus from Egypt. Here is the order of events over the next fifty days:

• —  Left Egypt: 15th day of 1st month (Nu 33:3 – 1st day of Unleavened Bread)

• —  Day 1: 16th day of 1st month (First Fruit)

• —  Day 46: Arrived at Sinai 1st day of 3rd month (Ex 19:1)

• —  Days 46-47: 2 days of consecration of people (Ex 19:10-11)

• —  Day 48: God appeared as thunder, lightning, smoke and fire on the mountain, the mountain shook, and God spoke in thunder (Ex 19:16-20). God called Moses up to the mountain, gave him the 10 commandments and other laws; Aaron, his sons and 70 elders of Israel also on mountain worshipped at a distance (Ex 19:20 – 24:3)

• —  Day 49: Moses wrote down all the words God had given him (Ex 24:4)

• —  Day 50: Moses read the Book of the Covenant to them, they agreed to it and Moses offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, consecrated the people with “the blood of the covenant.” Moses, Aaron, his sons, and 70 elders of Israel ate with God (likely the Pre-Incarnate Christ) (Ex 24: 4-11)
  

What’s that you say? Starting to sound exclusionary? Before any agency can help everyone, it must be set up by a select few. This is sort of what was happening here. Yes, God did call them his “chosen people” (Ex 19:5). But, we need to understand why he said that. This was not a statement of exclusion, but a statement of responsibility. They were chosen to be priests to the world (Ex 19:6). That is, they were to be the standard for all other nations to follow. They had been created as a nation here at Mt. Sinai to be the model for other to follow. Starting to sound more inclusionary? Let’s not forget that inclusion does not come without requirements, consequences, and change, but it also comes with many blessings and rewards.

So, this is why Israel was created. Israel was the standard, the banner of God to the world. This was the first step of God’s inclusion for everyone. Did it work? Well, it could have. It could have been glorious. But, no, it failed. Why? Pride. Pride is always exclusionary and never inclusionary. The words “chosen people” became a battle cry rather than an invitation. Consequences occurred.

Yet, God did not give up. He continued to use Shavuot as an example of inclusion. We’ll look at one of those examples next time. Let’s remember that just because God expects change, he is not being exclusionary, but is offering a way of inclusion into something he has for us that will be even more glorious. And that requires faith. Faith is the key. Faith is the pride destroyer.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens