The Minor Profits

[0:00] Well, if you will open your Bibles, please, we will just refresh your memory. I don't intend to spend a lot of time on this because we did cover it last time. And it begins with verse 12 of chapter 2, which is speaking in terms of the coming of the Messiah.

[0:17] And I want to remind you that in the prophets, we find a great deal of prophecy and a great deal of prophesying. And the difference is this, when a prophet prophesies, he simply preaches.

[0:32] He delivers the message, the burden that the Lord has laid on his heart. And in the case of Israel and in the case of Judah as well, that always has to do with a calling the people to judgment.

[0:45] It is the prophet of God that is actually threatening the people of coming judgment unless they repent and change their ways.

[0:57] And you recall their greatest sin was idolatry. And for that, the northern tribes will be led into captivity in Assyria in 586 B.C.

[1:09] After the northern tribes were led into captivity in 722 and 586 B.C., the southern two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, will be led into Babylonian captivity from which they will return after 70 years.

[1:27] So, these prophets that God raises up sometimes prophesy to the north, sometimes prophesy to the south. But in each case, the big problem was their idolatrous relationship in their worship.

[1:43] And God said he was going to judge them for that. But, time and again, he sent prophet after prophet to warn them. So, the long-suffering of God is extended. And the question is, just how long-suffering is God's long-suffering before he brings the hammer down?

[1:59] And when he does, interestingly enough, he uses pagans who are also steeped in idolatry to judge his own people.

[2:11] Now, that's interesting. And he does so because, as we are reminded in Amos chapter 3, and I think it's verse 2, where the Lord says through Amos to the nation of Israel, You only, of all the nations of the earth, have I known.

[2:29] In other words, God is saying that he has a peculiar relationship with the nation of Israel, with his chosen people. Therefore, because they have more enlightenment, more information, they are held more accountable than the heathen around them.

[2:45] So, God is going to judge them for that. And this is exactly what we see in Micah and passages that we've already considered. But we find a floating back and forth between a promise of judgment and retribution, and then followed with a guarantee of blessing and restoration that is always conditioned upon the repentance of the individual.

[3:12] And in verse 12 of chapter 2, we find a reference to the future here, when the prophet says, I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob.

[3:23] And let me remind you again, that when the word Jacob is used, he's not talking about an individual person. Jacob, that is, of the Jacob and Esau, is long off the scene.

[3:35] He's been dead and buried a long time ago. But Jacob is the name generally that is assigned as a synonym for the nation of Israel or for Judah, because they are descendants, of course, of Jacob.

[3:48] So we read, I will assemble all of you, Jacob. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. And that's really important. The remnant literally refers to the leftovers.

[4:04] And these are Jews who will be survivors of the tribulation period, wherein two-thirds of the Jewish population in the world are going to be eliminated.

[4:19] Because of the persecution of the Antichrist. But it won't be only Jews. It will be a great many Gentiles, too, who will not survive the tribulation period. And here he is talking about gathering the remnant of Israel.

[4:33] I will put them together like sheep in the fold. And the Hebrew word for the sheepfold is bazrah. B-O-Z-R-A-H.

[4:45] And that just happens to be the name of one of the cities in southern Edom. And it is located close to Teman. That is T-E-M-A-N. These are both cities in ancient Jordan.

[4:58] Actually, it's the land of Moab, southern land of Moab. And this is where the rose-red city of Petra is located. It is going to constitute a sheepfold.

[5:11] And there will be in that, this is a huge, huge area, Petra. And you've seen pictures of it, perhaps. It's sometimes referred to as the rose-red city of Petra, where buildings are literally carved out of the stone.

[5:28] And it is a place that is so isolated. It's very, very high. This is sunk way down. It's very high. And the only way into it is through a pass that will accommodate no more than one or two horses or horsemen at a time.

[5:45] It's that narrow. It is just a slit, the entrance into that, if you are going there on foot. And there is where these people who constitute the remnant of Israel are going to be gathered.

[6:00] And they will be providentially provided for with food and water by God in the same way that he provided for the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

[6:12] Fellas, this is last day's stuff. This is tribulation time. This is future. And it is very, very significant. This is very close to the wrap-up.

[6:24] And as these people are sequestered there, I don't know how many there will be, but suffice it to say, likely hundreds of thousands. They will not be there for a lengthy period of time.

[6:37] The Antichrist will be trying to get at them. And we'll look at our drawing on the other side in just a moment. He says, I will put them together like sheep in the fold, like a flock in the midst of its pasture.

[6:51] They will be noisy with men. The breaker goes up before them. The breaker is the Messiah. Yeshua HaMashiach.

[7:02] He is the breaker. And he is called the breaker because he is going to break the siege that has been laid against Petra and these people. They are being threatened with annihilation.

[7:15] So far as I can gather, this appears to be the surviving remnant of the nation of Israel, of the people who are the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[7:27] They are right on the edge of complete annihilation. And that would be the total end of the Jewish people worldwide. Now, even though the Jews today only constitute not 1% of the human population, but two-tenths of 1% of the human population, that's still a whole lot of people when you're talking about 6 billion people worldwide.

[7:59] But as we've already noted in our prophecy study, time is coming when huge numbers are going to be eliminated due to the plague, the pestilence, the Antichrist, and so on.

[8:11] And the depopulation of the world worldwide is just going to be absolutely staggering. But these will be the surviving remnant of Israel, and the Antichrist is just chomping at the bit to get at them and eliminate them.

[8:25] Because the Jew constitutes the strategic necessity in the plan and program of God for future fulfillment.

[8:38] Because of the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God's integrity is at stake. And he will fulfill all that he has promised regarding them.

[8:49] And we read in verse 13, The breaker goes up before them. They break out. That is, those who are confined in this sheepfold in Basra, they break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it.

[9:03] So their king, Messiah, and they, by the way, while they are there, while they are there in that massive area called this sheepfold, they are going to undergo a time of spiritual reformation, regeneration.

[9:22] They are going to conclude that Jesus of Nazareth really was the Messiah. And our ancestors rejected him.

[9:36] And remember, when Jesus, shortly before, shortly before he was arrested, this is in connection with his cleansing the temple the second time, shortly before he was arrested, he walked out of the temple, and he made this tremendous statement.

[9:52] He said, Your house, your house is left unto you desolate. And you will not, he said to Israel, he said to Jerusalem, you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

[10:17] And these people are going to be sequestered in this huge holding area where they will be miraculously provided for by God while the Antichrist is trying to get at them to annihilate them.

[10:32] And they are crying out for the Messiah to return. And this is the prophecy in Jeremiah, in Zechariah 12, in verse 10, very key prophecy that says, And they, that is the Jewish people, and I believe it is this remnant, they will look upon him whom they pierced.

[10:55] And they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son. And it will be a mourning of national repentance, of deliverance, of acceptance of Yeshua as their Messiah, and he will be their breaker.

[11:16] He will break that siege and he will lead his people out of this holding area, Basra, this sheepfold where they are situated, and he will begin marching north.

[11:32] Let's, let's come just quickly if we may, I hadn't planned to do this, but we've got to do this. Isaiah, Isaiah 63, just to refresh your memory from last week, Isaiah 63, the prophet writes, Who is this who comes from Edom?

[11:57] Now, Edom is the general area that is today described as Transjordan. This is the original land of the Edomites, and you will recall the ancestor of the Edomites was Esau, the brother of Jacob, and he is going to, and his people are going to populate this area of Transjordan, and they're still there today.

[12:24] Moab, this is where Ruth will come from, Moab is in the north, and Ammon, or Ammon, is the capital of present-day Jordan, and Moab, and Ammon were the two sons of the incestuous relationship with Lot and his two daughters, remember when they fled Sodom and Gomorrah.

[12:41] Who is this who comes from Edom with garments of glowing colors from Basra? this one who is majestic in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength, and the response to that, it is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

[13:08] And this is a rhetorical kind of question that is going back and forth like an interview that is being held, and the question is, why is your apparel red, and your garments like the one who treads in the winepress?

[13:22] And the answer is, I have trodden the wine trough alone. And this trotting of the wine trough, of course, is reminiscent of the fact that when you trot in the wine trough, in the winepress, you squeeze out the juice that's in the grapes and the blood, as it were, the blood from the grapes runs down, it's collected, and eventually it's bottled and drunk as wine.

[13:46] But here, the winepress is humanity. And it's not going to be grapes. It's going to be human bodies.

[13:57] And the carnage is going to be indescribable. This is going to make, this is going to make the invasion of Normandy in World War II small by comparison.

[14:12] This is going to be incredible. I don't know to what extent it's hyperbole or to what extent it is literal, but this is what the prophet is referring to when he talks about blood flowing to the horse's bridles.

[14:26] And this is going to take place in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which we'll be looking at in just a moment. Why is your apparel red and your garments like the one who treads in the winepress?

[14:37] And he says, I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no man with me. Well, they're going to be with him. They're all going to be with him. They're going to be led out.

[14:47] He's the breaker and he's going to lead the way. But they are not going to be part of the combatant. We are going to witness this as well as an audience, but we are not going to be participants.

[15:01] The only one who will be engaged in the conflict is Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. And he will decimate the enemy with his spoken word.

[15:14] This is the sharp sword that proceeds out of his mouth that is referred to in Revelation 19, and he will decimate the enemy by his spoken word. This is the same one who said, let there be light, and there was light, and he will speak the word.

[15:29] It says, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath, and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I stained all my raiment, for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption has come.

[15:46] And I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished, and there was no one to behold. So my own arm brought salvation to me, and my wrath upheld me. Now if you will take a look quickly at the sheet that was provided you with the campaign of Armageddon, and I am indebted for this drawing to Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, who is one of the most knowledgeable scholars regarding modern and ancient Israel.

[16:15] He's authored a number of books, and he led the study group that I was a part of in 1990, when we spent six weeks in Israel, and he's quite a scholar.

[16:26] So if you will look at the eight stages of the campaign of Armageddon, you will see that stage one is located in Megiddo. It's to the north, and you can see the number one there.

[16:40] That is where the armies are going to amass, and these will be armies from all over the world who will be gathered there in Megiddo.

[16:51] This will not be the place of battle. It will simply be the place of gathering or the staging, and then from there they will march southward, and you can see, well, the second item that's going to occur is far to the east.

[17:08] You see number two, the destruction of Babylon. That is going to occur when the Antichrist is massing and marshalling with the troops of which he will be the commanding officer of the whole.

[17:22] All of these nations are going to gather together, and this is the peak of anti-Semitism when the goal is singular, and that is to eliminate the Jewish people.

[17:35] Because you see, Satan's objective from the get-go has always been to thwart the plan and program of God. The name Satan literally means the adversary, and he is adverse to everything that God is about, and his goal, his objective, is to thwart the plan and program of God.

[17:58] Well, if you can find a way to eliminate the Jewish people, you've done that, because of the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[18:09] And if you can find a way to defeat Yeshua, the Messiah, you can do that. And Satan had his first chance at that in the temptation that is recorded in all three of the synoptics.

[18:25] And he is still, after, the Messiah in any way that he can be. So here, his Babylon is going to be destroyed.

[18:37] This will be a Babylon rebuilt, of which he will be the head. And he will receive word that Babylon is destroyed, and as a result, he will march south.

[18:48] You can see the line of demarcation here. Number three, number three, excuse me, which is the fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem. This will be the final destruction of Jerusalem, and it will be pretty much leveled, all again with the intent of ridding themselves of the Jew.

[19:07] And then, they will march south. If you follow the line, down to item four, that's where the armies of the Antichrist will assemble at Basra, and five is where the national regeneration of Israel takes place, and the regeneration consists only, of course, of the remnant.

[19:28] They are all that is left, and that will take place there. And number six will be the second coming of Christ, and he will come to Basra or Petra, be the breaker, lead the people out, follow the line then that goes north, if you will, up to item seven, which is the beginning or the end of the fighting of the valley of Jehoshaphat.

[19:52] And this valley is also known as the Kidron Valley. It runs north and south, and it is part of the great African rift. It runs all the way up into the north, and it comes clear down into Africa, this huge rift that separates the city of Jerusalem on the west, and then the Mount of Olives on the east, and there is this huge ravine in between.

[20:21] This ravine is going to be the place of the onslaught, and it will be there in the valley of Jehoshaphat. That's just another name for it. And then for item number eight, there will be the victory ascent.

[20:35] This is after the enemy has been completely decimated. Christ will return then to the Mount of Olives from which he originally ascended. And that's a bird's eye view of the campaign of Armageddon and the events that are going to transpire.

[20:52] And this is what Isaiah is talking about in chapter 65 or 63, and it is also what Micah is referring to in the latter part of chapter 2.

[21:03] Any questions or comments before we move on? Okay, let us get back then if we may. Yeah? Yeah? Is it just going to be Jews?

[21:14] I'm sorry? Is it just going to be the Jewish people in Petra? Yes. Yes, it will be the Jewish people. And you've got to remember that this is also during the period of the 144,000 and their evangelistic efforts.

[21:29] And these are going to be 12,000 Jews from each of the 12 tribes. And they are going to have considerable success in their evangelistic efforts. So it's going to be a time of unparalleled persecution evangelization.

[21:48] These 144,000 are going to be specially designated by God and they will have the seal of God on their foreheads and they will be virtually indestructible.

[22:00] I just cannot imagine it. But one of the things we pointed out fellas and this is important to keep in mind because a lot of people have great difficulty when they read the Revelation and some of the things that transpire there in the book of Revelation they say well that can't be literal that's got to be figurative well there is figurative language in Revelation and there are all kinds of figures of speech in Revelation and there are all kinds of types and symbols in Revelation but the thing to keep in mind is when the church is raptured when we are removed the dispensation or the administration of the grace of God is complete that's open and then the focus once again returns to the nation Israel and unfinished business God has with Israel and that will be known as the time of Jacob's trouble Daniel calls it that and it is the 70th week of Daniel which there have been 69 but we are now between the 69th and the 70th we don't belong to either one we are sandwiched in between referred to by Paul in Ephesians 3 as the mystery we are the body of Christ which was never prophesied never predicted never promised but just shows up and as you read Ephesians 3 it gives you the outline and the rationale for that so when the church is gone

[23:27] Israel then is back on center stage and there is going to be a massive return of miraculous phenomena and as you read the revelation and some of the things that are going to transpire both in number and in content and in description it just boggles the mind because it is completely unfamiliar to us in the kind of world that we live in today but a principal feature of the tribulation period is going to be a return of the supernatural there is going to be unparalleled demonic activity and angelic activity and physical phenomena occurring during these seven years and we think that it can't be that way because we want to evaluate everything on the basis of the world we know and understand but fellas the world hasn't always been as it is now and the world is not always going to be as it is now there's going to be a really significant change take place during the 70th week of Daniel

[24:42] Jesus describes it in Matthew 24 and 25 in the Olivet Discourse and he says it will be a time such as the world has never seen before and will never see again and unless those days were shortened there would be no flesh saved man would completely destroy himself but God brings an end to it and he does this with the coming of the Messiah yes Roger how far is Petra from Jerusalem I would say as the crow flies probably 75 to 120 miles something like that roughly 100 miles yeah yeah I don't know that's the distinct possibility remember what Jesus said when you see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place now the abomination the desolate or desecrates or defiles is the antichrist and he says when you see the abomination that desolates stand in the holy place that requires the rebuilding of the Jewish temple in order to have a holy place and a most holy place and the antichrist is going to stand there and position himself declare himself to be deity and demand worship and Jesus says in

[26:16] Matthew 24 when you see the abomination that desolate stand in the holy place spoken of or prophesied by the prophet Daniel then you flee to the mountains don't stop to take any possessions with you don't stop to gather up this or that or anything else just get out of town and do it quickly and head for the hill and of course the hills they're going to be heading for those that make it will be Petra and that is like a fortune yes and hope is not winter time yeah right because that would complicate things yeah yeah yes sir okay any other comments or questions yes dan this thing is almost beyond human comprehension oh it is I don't have any doubt about it

[27:17] I can't imagine yeah it is beyond human comprehension because it is going to be a period that is fraught with all kinds of physical phenomena this is what Christ is talking about when he says the moon is not going to give its light the sun will be turned to darkness there is going to be some kind of activity taking place on earth we don't know if it is going to be the result of some kind of fallout or whatever but you know when some of these volcanoes erupt and by the way this is going to be another physical phenomena I think that is going to be happening during the tribulation period because we are told about multiple earthquakes in diverse places now it is not all that unusual to have an earthquake here or an earthquake there but there are going to be multiple earthquakes and that will aggravate volcanic activity and there will likely be eruption and you can imagine the kind of obscure vision that that is going to involve

[28:21] I I remember how dark they were saying it was when Mount St. Helens went off in Washington years ago and how it affected the whole atmosphere and the ash and everything that was you know and who knows about Yellowstone you know Lake Yellowstone which is a beautiful lake there in Yellowstone Park Lake Yellowstone is actually a lake full of the top of a volcano and that thing went off back in I think they said the 1300 or 1400 and if it ever goes off again and this is where Old Faithful is located you know this stuff that is boiling down underneath after all these years it still is all of these steam that is coming up from the earth it's only because there's heat down there and if that thing should ever blow the seismologists tell us if Mount

[29:21] St. Helens were to blow it would cover it would cover Atlanta Georgia with six inches of ash are you kidding me clear across the continent think of what it would be like everywhere in between and Mount St.

[29:41] Helens when that blew that was just like a firecracker but the one in Yellowstone would be like a stick of dynamite compared and these may be things I'm not saying that this is going to happen during the tribulation period but there are going to be multiple earthquakes and all kinds of physical phenomena fellas the name of the game for people who are alive during this tribulation period is to just stay alive everything is going to be very very difficult food hard to come by drinking water hard to come by you're not going to go to Kroger's and buy a bunch of bottled water stuff like that's not going to be available the name of the game will be survival and it's not going to be easy it's why it's called the tribulation and the word the Greek word for tribulation is expressed with a man holding a grape between his fingers and squeezing the grapes until finally it bursts that's a picture of tribulation that's the squeeze that's going to be put on humanity during that time

[30:55] Joe I don't think it's hard for to understand how just a slight change in the environment or in things can make a massive difference just like this spring the farmers you know we just had a little more rain I might just say a little more rain than normal and so many percentage of the crops could not get out you know there was less food being produced and I mean that was just you know a few inches more rain than normal I mean it's easy for me to see that you could have things happen that could change everything absolutely absolutely it would not take a great deal to really upset life as we know it and the withholding of rain and look at what happened here in the Dust Bowl in the 1930s when tonnage I mean tonnage tonnage of topsoil was removed from farms out west and just blown east all over the place and just they called it the Dust Bowl for a good reason and it's just that's just a little sampling of what this tribulation period is going to be yeah yeah well yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's simplifying well that's part of that's part of the picture that's a that's a very important part of the picture but I'm I'm up

[32:41] I'm completing now Christianity Clarified volume 48 or 49 and each one has 20 segments on it and in this particular volume I I discuss the fact that a principle thing that has resulted in a lot of anti-semitism and a lot of the persecution of the Jews is that the Jew exclusively has been charged with the murder of Christ crucifixion of Christ and formerly they've been charged with deicide and deicide is the killing of deity and that's officially what they've been charged with and there is no question that the Jewish the Jewish hierarchy that originally struck the deal with Judas to hand over

[33:48] Jesus they instigated that and they were responsible but on the CD I bring out the fact that there are multiple parties responsible for the death of Christ including you and me and including his own father who gave him and then forsook him when he was on that cross because he was bearing our sins and even Jesus himself was responsible because he was willing to be given and he said no man takes my life from me I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again so ultimately who was really responsible for the death of Christ everyone everyone we all had a hand in it Christ died for our sin it was my sin your sin the sin of humanity that put him there and it was because of his incredible love for us that he was willing to pay that price and when he agonized in the garden and prayed oh my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me and the cup he was talking about was drinking the bitter dregs that would that he would experience in his separation from his father and remember when the sun refused to shine or it was shining but you couldn't see it for three hours from twelve noon to three in the afternoon there was darkness and some say well that was that was an eclipse that was an eclipse of the sun not for three hours you know how long an eclipse of the sun lasts 22 minutes and that's it this was three hours of darkness and earthquakes rumbling and people must have been absolutely terrified and there was the son of god suspended on that cross and during those three hours twelve noon to three o'clock in the afternoon when he finally said father into thy hands i commit my spirit and he gave up his spirit and he died and jesus died spiritually and he died physically he died spiritually because spiritual death means separation from god that's spiritual death and christ was separated from his father in a way that the trinity had never known separation or cleavage we cannot imagine what that was like that was the agony that was the cup that he was talking about the cup of physical pain was minor compared to the abandonment of his father calling out my god my god why have you forsaken me that was the humanity of jesus crying out and he forsook him because the father could not bear to look upon sin and jesus was laden down with our sin surely he hath borne our iniquities and our transgressions and we did esteem him smitten stricken of god and afflicted he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him all this is isaiah 53 fantastic

[37:48] passage other comments or questions anyone well now we can look at what we had intended to bring this morning and that's in chapter 3 of micah and i said here now heads of jacob he's talking to the rulership the rulers of the house of israel is it not for you to know justice in other words what he is saying aren't you supposed to be the experts of the law is it not for you to know justice you who hate good and love evil what's he addressing he is addressing the corruption that was realized in israel at this time and god had sent the prophets there to expose it and that's what he's doing and fellas whenever a prophet comes on the scene and starts preaching about the vices and the evil that's taking place they always meet a lot of opposition because no one likes to have their sin and their weaknesses revealed that sinners do not come to the light they prefer darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil and everybody wants to commit their crimes under the cover of darkness so it isn't exposed and that's exactly what is taking place here you who and he's talking about the brutal way that they are treating their people this is what power does to those who are unfortunate and under their authority eat the flesh of my people strip off their skin from them break their bones chop them up as for the pot as meat in a kettle then they will cry out to the lord but he will not answer them instead he will hide his face from them at that time because they have practiced evil deeds this is evil turning itself upon evil evil is dishing it out and the recipients are receiving the byproducts of it thus says the lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray when they have something to bite with their teeth they cry peace these are false prophets that lead the people astray and fellas we hear a lot today about fake news nothing new about fake news it's at least as old as

[40:19] Micah chapter three actually it goes all the way back goes all the way back to genesis three the first item of fake news that was ever delivered was by the adversary when he said yay hath god said you shall surely you shall not surely die god knows that when you eat thereof you shall become as god's knowing good from evil and so on well hey thanks for your kind attention and I appreciate this we'll get into chapter three next time that