TYPES AND SHADOWS OF TODAY AND THE NEAR FUTURE
PROPHECY OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION (#5 in this series)
03-22-15 This message may be viewed live streaming video at www.tabernacleofmoses.org commencing today Sunday at 11:00am, and repeated 24/7 for one week; thereafter, the audio and notes without video are archived.
The depth of our revelations depends upon the correctness of our doctrine. Love joins; Sin separates.
THE PROPHECY
(Amos 8:11) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
hear = Heb: to hear intelligently consider, discern, perceive, understand, witness.
(Rom 10:17) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
THE PROPHECY CLARIFIED
(Luke 4:25,26) But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save [Gk: except] unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon [Gk: catching fish, a fishery], unto a woman that was a widow.
Sarepta = Gk: refinement /// to fuse (metal), refine (lit. or fig.): melt, purify, purge away.
(James 5:17,18) Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
TYPES AND SHADOWS
THE SEEDS OF THE PROPHECY BEING PLANTED IN YOU
(1 Kings 18:1,2) And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth [i.e., I will end the three years and six months of famine/tribulation]. And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore [great] famine in Samaria.
Commentary: “after many days” = Elijah (Jesus Christ in type and shadow – for Elijah speaks God’s word and Elijah performs God’s miracles) lived with the widow woman (the church in type and shadow - sheep) and her son (us in type and shadow - shepherds) until the latter part of the third year of the “great famine” (Luke 4:25) (i.e., the Great Tribulation in type and shadow), while they together (God’s flock in type and shadow) received daily sustenance from the miraculous barrel of meal (the crushed seeds of God’s word) and the miraculous cruse of oil (the Holy Spirit).
(1 Kings 16:30) And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him.
The Nelson Study Bible: Ahab is generally recognized as the most evil king in the history of Israel. Jezebel’s influence over her husband was much stronger than the godly influence of the prophet Elijah.
Commentary: King Ahab thereby qualifies as a type and shadow of The Antichrist, inhabited by Satan himself, rather than being inhabited by Satan’s demons (fallen angels), as lesser folks are.
(1 Kings 18:3,4) And Ahab called Obadiah [Heb: servant of Jehovah] [a type and shadow of us], which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly: For it was so, when Jezebel cut off [Heb: destroyed] [killed] the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave [“in two caves, fifty in each” NIV], and fed them with bread [“I am the bread of life” John 6:35: Jesus Christ] and water [the Holy Spirit].) [The exact same nourishment that we are receiving now]
Commentary: Obadiah, serving as governor under Ahab in Israel (symbolizing the religious world) is a type and shadow of us, as earlier was Joseph serving as governor under Pharaoh in Egypt (symbolizing the secular world), excepting of course that Joseph served without fear and was thus full of faith (a Jesus Christ type), whereas Obadiah served with mingled faith and fear (a becoming Jesus Christ type and shadow). This may be illustrated by the vertical spectrum of belief that we incrementally ascend, commencing with fear on the bottom (Obadiah) and concluding with faith on top (Joseph). Actually the “widow woman” would be on bottom, then Obadiah, heading upward ultimately to Joseph.
(Psa 111:10) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
THE WIDOW WOMAN (NO BIOGRAPHY) AND OBADIAH (NO BIOGRAPHY) ARE PROGRESSIVE TYPES AND SHADOWS OF US. THEY REPRESENT BELIEVERS LIKE US WHOSE FAITH IS INCREASING BUT (PRESENTLY) LACKS FULLNESS
(1 Kings 18:5-16) And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all fountains [Heb: springs] of water, and unto all brooks [Heb: streams]: peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive [animals necessary to sustain continuing warfare], that we lose not all the beasts [but what about the people?]. So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way [Heb: a road (as trodden); fig. a course of life or mode of action] by himself, and Obadiah went another way [Heb: a road (as trodden); fig. a course of life or mode of action] by himself. And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah [a type of Jesus Christ] met him: and he [Elijah] knew him, and fell on his face [homage, worship to one vastly superior], and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah [a rhetorical question, i.e., a respectful greeting]? And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? [a manifestion of Obadiah’s lack of faith] As the LORD thy God liveth [a manifestation of Obadiah’s faith], there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord [Ahab] hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath [based upon pain and destruction for the nation being found out to be a lier] of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD from my youth. Was it not told my lord what I did [works – “faith without works is dead” James 2:20,26] when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD'S prophets by fifty in a cave [“in two caves, fifty in each” NIV], and fed them with bread and water? And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. And Elijah said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to day. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
Commentary: “fountains of water” (Heb: springs) = springs are water springing up (hence the name) out of the earth, whereas rain is water descending down from Heaven, i.e., God’s word. The fountains of water springing up from the earth were fed by the rain and thus in famine represented the dwindling wisdom of man, and the rain water descending from Heaven represented the escalating wisdom of God, restrained. Imagine, if you will, your probable living conditions in a world of great famine (and consequent Great Tribulation), a world of the complete absence of “hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11), the complete absence of hearing the Word of God (rain from Heaven), a world without God.
Amen
(John 3:3) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
(Rom 10:9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Rom 10:10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.