Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 4 * BOOK 74
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE – PART 4
Genesis through Revelation
Okay, good to see everybody back for our number four program this afternoon. Again, we want to welcome our television audience. And we just trust you will, as so many have written, take your Bible and your pen in hand and study with us, because we’re not going to be preaching at you, hopefully. I think I’ve only done that once or twice in thirty years where somebody came up and said, “Les, you did everything but the invitation.” But I normally claim to just be a teacher. I’m not going to preach at people. I just want folks to see what the Book really says. And it’s not that difficult. That’s what we’re trying to do, even in this series of programs. It is to show how everything fits from Genesis through Revelation. It’s not that difficult.
All right, we’re going to take this program, now, and continue on the concept that Israel is looking forward to a coming earthly kingdom, because that’s what God promised Moses on Mount Sinai back in Exodus 19: that Israel would be a “kingdom of priests.” And, you remember, I made the point (I think it was on the program) that in order to have a viable kingdom, you need two entities. What is it? The king and his subjects. All right, so now we’re going to look at the king aspect. And the ideal kingship of Israel, of course, was King David. He was a man after God’s own heart, and, I think, the apple of God’s eye! So, we’re going to jump from Exodus to II Samuel chapter 7, and we’re going to look at God dealing with King David.
Now on our timeline, remember, Abraham appears at 2,000 B.C. Then we’ve got almost 500 years between Moses and Mount Sinai and King David, who rules and reigns about 1,000 B.C. You can pick that up on the timeline. It’s not up there yet, but it will be in a moment. Okay, II Samuel chapter 7 and let’s drop down to verse 8 where God is speaking to David through the prophet Nathan.
II Samuel 7:8-10a
“Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: 9. And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. 10. Moreover (on top of all that) I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own,…” Now, as you read this, think back that since 1948 this has all been fulfilled. They’re there. By divine appointment. God said it. God promised it. And these preachers and theologians can pooh-pooh this all they want. They’re lying through their teeth, because God cannot lie. Man can, but God can’t. And God has said He’s going to “bring them back and plant them,” and you and I have seen it.
II Samuel 7:10b
“…I will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as beforetime,” Now, keep that right between your ears, because we’re going to jump up to Luke in just a little bit, and you’ll see the same thing repeated. That’s what I like to do by connecting Scriptures. All right, now verse 11:
II Samuel 7:11
“And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also, the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.”
Now, I have to stop. The first impression you get of “a house” is a building, right? So I suppose the first thought is that we’re talking about Israel’s Temple. No. We’re going to talk about a different house. When you have a royal family anywhere in history, it’s always called The House of such and such. The House of Togarmah. The House of Windsor in England. The House of Orange in Holland. The House of Hapsburg’s in Austria. It was called a house, because it’s a royal bloodline. Out of that family is where the kings and queens always come.
So, the “house” that God is promising David is not a physical building of wood and stone and rock, it’s a royal bloodline. It’s the family of David. And we call it the House of David. Okay? Now read on in verse 12.
II Samuel 7:12
“And when thy days be fulfilled, (In other words, he’s going to die physically like everybody else.) and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will (Now watch the I wills that God speaks in the Old Testament. If they haven’t happened, they will. God’s Word will never fail. So, after you’ve died–) I will set up thy seed after thee, (in other words, other sons and so forth) who shall proceed out of thy bowels, (Inner-most being—in other words, they will be genetically children of David.) and I (God says) will establish his kingdom.” That is, this coming son of David.
II Samuel 7:13-14
“He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” (Who are we talking about? Messiah Jesus – who’s going to be this King of Israel.) 14. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. (Now we come back in the language to the Nation of Israel itself.) If he commit iniquity, (We know God the Son never will, so now we’re talking about the Nation.) I will chasten him (or punish) with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:” In other words, God did that, you remember, with the Babylonian invasion. He did it with the A.D. 70 Roman invasion. He’s going to do it once more in the Tribulation, but the final end will be Israel’s glorious blessing.
II Samuel 7:15-16
“But (in spite of all the chastisement) my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 16. And thine house (This royal family starting with King David and ending with King Jesus when He returns to set up His kingdom.) and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: (Not just for a thousand years, it’s going to slip right on up into eternity.) thy throne shall be established forever.”
All right, now let’s jump all the way up to Luke chapter 1. And here we’re dealing with Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. If you know the account, John the Baptist’s father was stricken dumb, unable to speak, at the very conception of John in the mother Elizabeth. For nine months Zacharias had to labor as a priest at the Temple unable to audibly speak. All right, let’s jump in at verse 57. We’re going to take our time so that there are no gaps for questions.
Luke 1:57-58
“Now Elizabeth’s (That’s John the Baptist’s mother, the wife of Zacharias the priest.) full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. 58. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her; (Because she was beyond childbearing age, remember.) and they rejoiced with her.
Luke 1:59-62
“And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. 60. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John. 61. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. 62. And they made signs to his father, (See, he couldn’t speak.) how he would have him called.”
Luke 1:63-65a
“And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they all marveled. (That he and Elizabeth were in full accord that this unusual name would be used for this child.) 64. And his mouth was opened immediately, (The minute he wrote John, he got his speech back.) and his tongue was loosed, and he spake, and praised God. 65. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings…” In other words, here is this elderly couple that has had a special child, evidently. It’s been miraculously declared by his losing his speech and gaining it back.
Luke 1:65b-67a
“…and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him. (That is, the child.) 67. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit,…”
Now, that’s the key, because of the things he’s going to say. He doesn’t speak, as I’ve said over and over before, he doesn’t speak as a well-meaning Jew, or somebody who was sort of exaggerating. Everything he says is directed by the Holy Spirit.
Luke 1:67b
“…Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,” Or spoke forth. It doesn’t mean that he’s telling future events, as much as he is speaking forth the Word of God. Now you’ve got to remember, how long has it been since anybody has written anything to the Nation of Israel? Four hundred years. From Malachi to the appearance of all this was four hundred years. We call it the four hundred years of silence, where God never spoke a word to Israel through prophets or through miraculous appearances – nothing. Four hundred years of silence. And I suppose that was one reason that this caught Israel so off guard. Now, let’s read on.
Luke 1:68a
“Blessed be the Lord God of (The human race? Who?) Israel;…” See how Jewish this is. That’s what I want to emphasize now. This is all Jewish. This is God dealing with Israel. This isn’t the beginning of Christianity, for heaven’s sake. This is the fulfilling of the Old Testament. Most have got it all wrong, and they teach it wrong. They’ve got it all wrong, because this is not the beginning of the Church Age. This isn’t Christianity. This is just an extension of the Old Testament promises. And that’s what he’s referring to.
Luke 1:68-69
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, (Israel) 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant (Who now?) David;” See how we’re connecting it? David is the one that began this whole genealogical line that led us up to the appearance of the Messiah. All right, now as I emphasize the Jewishness of all this, I know there are going to be questions out there in television. Now wait a minute, you mean He didn’t have anything to do with the Gentiles? Not a thing!
All right, now I’m going to use Scripture to back that up. Keep your hand in Luke. We’re going to jump all the way up to Ephesians chapter 2. And I’ll make statements, coming up in the next few programs, that Jesus, nor the Old Testament prophets ever had anything to do with the Gentiles, with the exception of a few. Precious few exceptions – Jonah went to Nineveh, the Syrian general Naaman, and Rahab on the wall of Jericho; and then in Christ’s earthly ministry, only two – the Canaanite woman and the Roman centurion. That’s all.
He never had any evangelical contact with Gentiles. Now, they may have come, and they may have eaten all of the free food that He gave out, because even the politicians know that if you want to get a crowd, offer free food. They all like a free lunch. So, there may have been some Gentiles at the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. I won’t deny that. But there was no spiritual contact. None, except those two.
Now look why. In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12, and this is as plain as language can make it. And why can’t people read it? Ephesians 2:11 and 12 – this is from the pen of the Apostle Paul writing to his Ephesian believers at the city of Ephesus.
Ephesians 2:11a
“Wherefore remember, that ye (Gentiles) being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by those who are called the Circumcision…” In other words, Jews referred to Gentiles as Uncircumcised. See that? Now verse 12:
Ephesians 2:12a
“That at that time…” While God was dealing with His covenant people Israel, from Abraham in 2,000 B.C. all the way up to the time of Paul’s conversion, the Gentiles had no access to God’s saving grace. Except the very few exceptions I mentioned.
Ephesians 2:12a
“That at that time ye were without Christ, (What’s the other word for Christ? Messiah. They didn’t have the hope of a coming Messiah. They didn’t even know what the word meant.) being aliens (or non-citizens) from the commonwealth of Israel,…”
Now, of course, we’ve gone against that in this country. We give just as much rights to the non-citizen as we do to the citizen, if not more. But that’s not the norm. In any other nation on earth, the illegal immigrant doesn’t have any rights. He’s not a citizen. And it certainly was true with Israel. The non-citizen had no rights.
Ephesians 2:12b
“…you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers (In other words, they were not participants.) from the covenants of promise,…” Now, we have taught the covenants in days gone by: the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Palestinian Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant. They were all between God and Israel, in which the Gentiles had not one smidgen of rights. All right, here it is.
Ephesians 2:12c
“…you were strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:” Now, some bleeding-heart liberal will say, well, God was unfair. No! How long did God deal with the Gentile world before this kicked in? Two thousand years.
From Adam to Abraham God tried to deal with the whole human race. He made salvation available to anybody that would just follow His instructions. For 2,000 years He dealt with them. What did they do with it? Walked it under foot. They scorned it. All right, so that’s when God set them aside, and said, okay, I’ll bring out another little nation, and I’ll deal with them. All right, so for 2,000 years God did. He let the Gentile world go, as Paul writes, and He dealt only with His covenant people.
All right, then when the Covenant people rejected everything, He turned, once again, to the Gentiles. Now for 2,000 years, again, He’s been bringing salvation to the whole world. God’s never unfair! Don’t ever even think it. He’s always fair. In this Age of Grace that we’re in today, as the Body of Christ is being filled, one can be saved by believing in our heart for salvation, “that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.” God calls that a free gift. We find those instructions in I Corinthians 15:1-4 and in several other Scriptures of the Apostle Paul.
All right, coming back to Luke, now, this is why it’s all Jewish. God is still on covenant ground with His covenant people, and the Gentiles have no part of it. All right, back to Luke chapter 1, and we left off at verse 69.
Luke 1:69-71a
“And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; (And that’s Jew only.) 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been with us since the world began: 71. That we (the Nation of Israel) should be saved from our (Not our sins, yet, but what?) enemies,…”
Now, do you remember what God told David back there in II Samuel? The very same thing. That they were spared from all their enemies because of God blessing King David. They didn’t have to worry about the Philistines and what-have-you when David was ruling. He was in control of that part of the world.
All right, then they lost it all. Now, here comes the possibility that they can enjoy that same thing once again, where they wouldn’t have to worry about invading armies of the Babylonians or the Syrians or the Egyptians or anybody else, because this coming king would save them.
Luke 1:71b
“…from our enemies, and from the hand of all that (What?) hate us;” Now, you’ve got to remember, the whole Middle East has hated the Jews since day one. And we wonder—how long are they going to get away with it? Well, now a verse just comes to mind. We’ve got time. Let’s go back and look at it. I hope I’ve got the right one.
I think I want to go to Ezekiel 35. Some of these come to mind, and I’m not always sure where it is. But here it is, Ezekiel 35, lest you wonder: is God always going to let the Arabs get away with it? Huh-un. No, their day is coming, and I don’t think it’s all that far off. All right, Ezekiel 35, now this is written almost 600 years before Christ, and we’re seeing it get ripe for fulfillment. Oh, it’s getting ripe. Their day is coming.
Ezekiel 35:1-3
“Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2. Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, (Who was Mount Seir? Esau. And in the scheme of things, who is Esau? One of the fathers of the Arab world—Ishmael, Esau, the sons of Keturah, and so forth. All right, so this is a prophecy against the offspring of Esau.) 3. And say unto it, (That is, the kingdom of the offspring of Esau, the Arab world.) Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.”
Ezekiel 35:4-5
“I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. (Now, look at the next verse) 5. Because (Not because God is unfair. Not because God is hateful, but because of the opposite. He’s just.) thou (Remember who we’re talking about now, the Arab world.) hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, (or their problems) in the time that their iniquity had an end:”
Now, you want to remember, Israel would have to be chastised from time to time by their enemies. And this is one of the things I always had a hard time comprehending. He used the Babylonians to chastise Israel, and then He comes back and He blasts the Babylonians. The only conclusion I can come to is because they overdid it. Instead of just simply defeating Israel, they tortured them and murdered them by the millions. They overdid it, and then God had to come back and punish them. So anyway, I think it’s the same way today. There are times when God uses instruments to punish God’s people, and then He has to come back and punish the punisher, because they take advantage of the situation.
All right, back to Luke chapter 1. Reading on, goodness, we’ve only got two minutes left. Okay, verse 71, again, repeating it.
Luke 1:71-73
“That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us: (In other words, God’s going to utterly destroy them.) 72. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, (The patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Twelve Sons; the beginning of the Nation of Israel all had these promises given to them.) and to remember his holy covenant; 73. The oath which he swear to our father Abraham,”
That’s why I’m always going back to Genesis 12. Everything rests on that Abrahamic Covenant, because out of that covenant came the Nation of Israel. Out the Nation of Israel came the Word of God. Out of the Nation of Israel came the Messiah, who went to the cross for the sins of the world. This is all part of that Abrahamic Covenant. All right, but Israel is only looking at the Kingdom aspect. They’re not looking at the Cross. They’re looking at the King. All right, come back to Luke 1, verse 74.
Luke 1:74
“That he (this God of Abraham) would grant unto us, that we (the Nation of Israel) being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,” In other words, living in the midst of peace and material prosperity, but it’s also going to include the spiritual.
Luke 1:75-77
“In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. (And now he comes back to his own son, John the Baptist.) 76. And thou, child, shall be called the prophet (or the foreteller) of the Highest: (The Son of God, who will be appearing some 30 years after all this is announced.) for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,” To whom? His people – Israel.