Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 2 * PART 1 * BOOK 74
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE – PART 5
Genesis through Revelation
Okay, good to see everybody in again this afternoon. My goodness, I think we’ve got every chair filled. We’ve got a lot of out-of-state visitors today. We’ve got two up here from Florida. We’ve got six back there from Pennsylvania, and we’ve got several other new ones from our area. We want to welcome every one of you. For those of you joining us by television, again we’re just going to open the Scriptures and hopefully clarify a lot of questions. Because I can tell from the mail and the phone calls that some of the things we teach are just absolutely new to so many people. And yet it’s not new. It’s been in here for thousands of years. The only thing is, so many just can’t see it. But we’re going to do our best to keep opening the Scriptures. It’s not what I think or what any denomination thinks, but what does the Book say.
All right, for just a little refreshing of our memory, I’m going to look at a couple of verses we closed with in our last program, which on television, of course, was just yesterday. But for those of us in here, it’s been two weeks ago. Turn back with me to Luke chapter 1. We’ve been looking at this whole concept of “connecting the dots” of the big picture from Genesis to Revelation. The biggest share of it, of course, starts in Genesis chapter 12 and the call of Abraham and the appearance of the Nation of Israel.
The first eleven chapters of Genesis are what I call a disaster. It is pitiful how everything went down, down, down, from the time of Creation until God called out Abraham. Well, in the last taping we came up through the Old Testament showing the person of the coming King and how He had been prophesied all the way up through the Old Testament. Today, we’re going to look at the physical aspects of the Kingdom over which this King will one day rule.
So, just to pick up a little mind refresher from our last program, turn back with me where we stopped in Luke chapter 1, where Zacharias the priest has now had this outpouring of information from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It’s not just, like I always say, the wishful thinking of a good Jew, but rather, this was the very mind of God.
All right, I’m going to drop in at verse 69. This is just part of his speaking forth of what was about to happen so far as Old Testament prophecies were concerned, and that is that the Messiah was now in their midst. John the Baptist will soon start announcing it, but here Zacharias, at the birth of John the Baptist, is letting Israel know what is about to happen.
Luke 1:69-71a
“And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71. That we should be saved from our enemies,…” And I always make the point: now we’re not talking about sin, yet, we’re talking about their mortal enemies living all around them, even as they are today. That’s why it’s so appropriate.
Luke 1:71-74
“That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73. The oath (or the covenant) which he swear to our father Abraham, 74. That he (God) would grant unto us (Israel), that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him (God) without fear,”
Luke 1:75-77a
“In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. 76. And thou, child, (Speaking of John the Baptist, who has just been born.) shalt be called the prophet (or the forth teller) of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77. To give knowledge of salvation…” Now we’re dealing with the sin problem.
Luke 1:77-78
“To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, 78. Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us.”
All right, now that’s where we stopped. I’m going to go back now and pick up the other side of the prophecies and that is the Kingdom itself and all of its physical properties. We’re going to take you all the way back to where we’ve been many, many times over the last many, many years—to Exodus 19. And remember what we’re talking about. The last programs were the promises concerning this person, the Messiah, who would be the King over the glorious Earthly Kingdom.
Now, I’m going to go back and start in Exodus and bring along all the prophecies concerning the physical attributes of the Kingdom. Before we go any further, before I have the guys turn the board, I’m just suddenly reminded – because of all the questions we get showing the confusion in all denominations about this Earthly Kingdom. People can’t get it through their heads. Yeah, I’ve got heads nodding.
You’ve run across it. They can’t get it through their head that when time ends as we understand it, and the Tribulation has run its course, and the earth has been devastated by God judging the iniquity of mankind; that the earth is going to be totally renovated, regenerated, and reconstituted. (Those were the words that are used in Scripture.) It’ll be an earth like the Garden of Eden, and that will bring in the thousand-year Earthly Kingdom. And they can’t get it through their head.
Well, now I’ve just suddenly brought to mind, when my youngest son Todd went up to Southern Illinois University back in the late 80’s. And the first Sunday he was up there in Carbondale, he found a church and he went to a Sunday school class with college kids. He was up there working on his Masters. And the subject in that Sunday school that morning was the Kingdom of Heaven. And all they could talk about was the invisible, spiritual aspect of that Kingdom of Heaven. And he said after about twenty minutes he just couldn’t hold it any longer, and he interrupted, and he said, “Now wait a minute. You’ve got it all wrong. This isn’t an invisible kingdom. It’s a visible, veritable kingdom over which Christ is going to rule and reign as King.”
Now, how I picked it up, we came in the house from church and the phone was ringing. Todd was on the phone all shook up because of what he had just experienced at his Sunday school in church. And I mean he was shook up. Almost, he probably wouldn’t want me to say this, but almost in tears. Because when he pointed out their error that this isn’t something invisible and spiritual, but it’s a physical visible Kingdom, and he said, “Dad, what do you suppose they almost screamed at me?” And I said, “Tell me.” They said, “You mean it’s a political thing?” And he said, “Well, if you want to call it that. Yes. But it’s going to be a Kingdom over which Christ is going to rule and reign.”
He said, “They couldn’t get it.” They just scoffed and scorned him, and he said, “I’ll never go back.” I said, “I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t either.” But see, that’s the mentality of Christendom. Because Todd wouldn’t go to some offbeat, liberal church, he went to what he thought was a rather biblical one. But see, they have no concept of this earthly, glorious, one thousand year Kingdom over which Christ is going to rule and reign. But it’s through all of Scripture, as I’m going to show you today continuing on from the last taping.
All right, the first real mention of this Kingdom is in Exodus 19, so turn with me there. We’re going to jump in at verse 3. And then we’re just going to do a lot of Bible reading today. So those of you out in television, bear with me. We’re just going to let the Scripture speak for itself. I don’t have to comment on it. It’s so plain. The language is so evident, that we can just let it speak.
Exodus 19:3-5a
“And Moses went up unto God, (Up there at Mount Sinai remember, and they’re all gathered around the mountain. They’ve just escaped from the Red Sea experience.) and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4. Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. 5. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,…” Which he’s going to give now in chapter 20, the covenant of Law – the Ten Commandments and all the rest of it.
Exodus 19:5-6a
“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye (Now we’re talking about the Nation of Israel again.) shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: (They’re going to be the chosen race. And God says I can do this, because I’m Sovereign.) for all the earth is mine: (And now here it comes.) 6. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests,…”
Now way back, I haven’t done it for a long time, I said the Kingdom is the Kingdom is the Kingdom is the Kingdom. What Kingdom is it talking about? That thousand year reign of Christ, where the world is going to be totally under His dominion. It’s going to be Heaven on Earth, and that’s why it’s called the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s going to be completely void of sin and death and disease and all the things concerning the curse, because the curse will be lifted. Satan will be removed. He’s locked up in the abyss. So it’s going to Heaven on Earth.
Keep that locked in your mind that we’re talking not about Heaven of the Heavens. The Bible doesn’t tell us much about that. All we know about the Heaven of the Heavens – it’s going to be glorious! But we get all these descriptions of this Earthly Kingdom, and we’re going to look at them today. All right, so Israel is given the prospect that when this Kingdom comes in, and all the nations are going to be represented. They’re all going to be starting on a population explosion right along with Israel. But every Jew had the prospect of being a priest. Not just the tribe of Levi, all of them. But they’re going to have to meet God’s conditions. If they would be obedient, then God would bring in this glorious opportunity for every last Jew – verse 6.
Exodus 19:6
“And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. (Now, you see, that’s exactly the same words that Peter uses in his little epistle when he addressed the Jews of his day – that they were promised to be priests and a holy nation. That’s not to us. Paul never ever calls the Grace Age believer a priest. We’re members of the Body. We’re ambassadors. And we are certainly the promoters of Truth and all that. But we are never called priests in the Body of Christ. All right, so every Jew had the prospect to be a priest in this Kingdom.) These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”
All right, now let’s jump all the way up to where the prophets begin to lay out this Earthly Kingdom in all of its physical and political, if you want to use that word, attributes. Jump up with me to Isaiah chapter 2. As far as I can tell, this is the real first prophetic utterance, unless David may possibly have it in the Psalms. But of the prophets, this is the first instance that we have this Kingdom alluded to. Isaiah chapter 2, might as well start at verse 1.
Isaiah 2:1-2a
“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2. And it shall come to pass…” Now, does time mean anything to our God? Nothing. He’s timeless. So even though Isaiah is writing 700 years before Christ, and this hasn’t happened yet, don’t you believe this stuff that everything ended in A.D. 70. I can’t, can you? I just can’t get over it. How in the world they can say this kind of stuff. But anyhow, this has not happened yet. Does that mean it isn’t going to? Well, of course not. God is timeless. His wheels grind slowly, and it’s going to happen! Now we can see the evidence that we’re getting closer and closer.
I still like to go back to my old cartoon of the caveman. Yeah, every once in a while I pull it on Iris. You know, the old caveman was sitting in front of his door and he had a big sign over it — “The End Is Near.” And then he must have had a second thought and he put “er” on the end of it. “The End Is Nearer.” Well okay, it’s nearer now than it was two weeks ago when we were here. It’s getting closer and closer and closer. And again, I’m always going back to that verse in Galatians. I did in the last taping. How did Paul refer to the birth of Christ at Bethlehem? “That when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son.” What does that mean? God, in His foreknowledge, knew exactly what day Christ was going to be born. He knew the hour, but He doesn’t necessarily reveal it.
Now, it is the same way here. God knows when this is going to come to pass. We don’t. All we know is that we are getting closer and closer. All right, back to Isaiah chapter 2.
Isaiah 2:2
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain (or the Kingdom) of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, (Now remember, the word mountain in the Old Testament verbiage is a kingdom.) and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” All right, so this Kingdom is going to be above all the other kingdoms of this world. “…and all nations shall flow (Where?) into it.”
Now, as we come up through the Scriptures this afternoon, keep those words uppermost in your thinking. That everything in that Kingdom is going to flow into the capital city of that Kingdom, which will be Jerusalem. All right, let’s jump all the way up to chapter 9. Now, all we’re going to do all afternoon is just look at these chronologically unfolding Scriptures that are describing this coming Kingdom, that regardless of how you look at it, has not happened yet. But it’s going to. Verses 6 and 7:
Isaiah 9:6a
“For unto us a child is born, (a reference to Bethlehem) unto us (Israel) a son is given: and the government…” Now, you want to call it political? The only trouble is, in our understanding of Scripture, if it’s political, it’s bound to have what go with it? Corruption. Absolutely. But not in this one! This is going to be a government that is as holy and righteous as God Himself. So, you can call it political, but leave the corruption aside.
Isaiah 9:6b-7a
“…the government shall be upon his shoulder: (That is, this one who was born in Bethlehem.) and his name (when this Kingdom comes in) shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 7. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, (In other words, it’s going to slip right on into eternity, and it’s going to be–) upon the throne of David,…” Now stop. Where was David’s throne? In Heaven? No. Jerusalem, and in particular, on what mountain? Mount Zion. And that’s where Christ is going to have His headquarters in this thousand-year Kingdom. On Mount Zion.
Isaiah 9:7b
“…upon the throne of David, (where David’s throne was in the past) and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”
All right, let’s just go a little bit further to Isaiah chapter 11. I’m just taking these as they unfold in Scripture. In Isaiah chapter 11 we look at another aspect of this glorious Earthly Kingdom. And I’m going to emphasize that word ‘earthly’ all afternoon; so that people get it out of their heads that we’re talking about some kind of a spiritual, invisible entity. No. We’re talking about this planet that’s going to renovated and made new like the Garden of Eden. It’s going to be beautiful beyond comprehension, but it also has all of the other attributes of planet earth, the animal kingdom. And that’s what we see here in this chapter. Okay, Isaiah chapter 11 starting at verse 1.
Isaiah 11:1a
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,…” Now, that’s just Old Testament language that out of the family tree as we refer to it, we have Jesse. Out of Jesse came David, and then down through the hundreds of years of Israel’s history came Jesus of Nazareth, the promised line of David and Solomon and so forth.
Isaiah 11:1b-2
“…and a Branch (is a reference to Christ) shall grow out of his roots: (This is what’s going to happen to the Christ, the Messiah, when He returns and sets up this Kingdom on earth.) 2. And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, (the sevenfold spirits of God) the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;” In other words, He’s going to have all the attributes of the Godhead in His Kingdom rule.
Isaiah 11:3-4a
“And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge (Or rule—now, we’ve gone over all this before. For a lot of you, I know this is review. But we have a lot of listeners out there who have never heard this before, believe me.) he shall not rule after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4. But with righteousness (With all the righteousness of the Godhead remember, because that’s who He is. He’s God the Son.) shall he rule the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:…” In other words, the beatitudes are going to become the constitution of this Kingdom.
Isaiah 11:4b
“…and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, (In other words, to prepare it for this Kingdom economy.) and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” That’s all past. That was done during the Tribulation. Now, back into the Kingdom again.
Isaiah 11:5-6
“And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns. (Now we come to the animal kingdom.) 6. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; (No controversy between these wild animals. No death. No tearing from limb and so forth.) and a little child shall lead them.”
Because these incoming people at the beginning of the millennium are going to be flesh and blood. They’re going to be marrying and having families and having children. That’s the whole idea of the Kingdom. But there’s no sin. There’s no Satan. Everything is going to be harmonious, as Adam and Eve could have had it had they not eaten of the tree. Well anyway, how can this happen? I always have to do this, because otherwise people say, “Well, now this doesn’t make sense.” All right, come back to Genesis chapter 1. How can all these carnivorous animals: the lion, the wolf, the tigers, and the leopards—how can they all be cohabiting with little children and with lambs and goats, which would ordinarily be their easiest prey? But here’s the reason.
Genesis 1 verse 30 and this is the way it’s going to be again. Now, this is before Adam ate. This is before the curse fell. This is the way God originally created it. All right, Genesis 1 verse 30:
Genesis 1:30
“And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so.” Now what does that tell you? Everything. The carnivorous, as we call them, the lions and the leopards and the goats and so forth are all going to eat of things that grow naturally. That’s what we mean by the herbs. Nothing will kill something else for its diet. And that’s why it’s going to be so glorious.
All right, now with that concept, since the curse will be lifted and Satan is locked up, yes, this becomes very believable. Back to Isaiah 11 and now verse 7.
Isaiah 11:7
“And the cow (the domesticated cattle) and the bear (That would never happen ordinarily, but it’s going to because it’s going to revert back to the pre-Fall and so) shall feed; (that is together) their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion (of all creatures) shall eat straw (Or herbs, or grass, or forage, however you want to put it.) like the ox (cattle).” The lion won’t have to have meat for its diet. The lion’s full digestive track will be changed again so that it will be like it was before the Fall, where everything ate those things that grow naturally. All right, then verse 8:
Isaiah 11:8
“And the nursing child shall play on the hole of the asp, (a poisonous snake) and the weaned child (See, we’re showing that there are different stages of children just like today. There’s going to be infants and toddlers and older kids, and they’re all part of this glorious Kingdom economy now.) shall put his hand on a cockatrice’ den.” And now verse 9, here’s the frosting on the cake, as we like to put it.
Isaiah 11:9
“They (All these inhabitants of this glorious, Earthly Kingdom over which Christ is ruling and reigning.) shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: (There’ll be no death, no pain, no injury. It’s going to be glorious, and yet they’re going to be there in flesh and blood bodies.) for the earth (Not heaven, the earth) shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” In other words, everything is going to be as perfect as God can make it!
Why can’t people believe it? Does it stretch their imagination? My goodness, you know, if God could create the universe with all of its billions and billions and billions of stars and galaxies, you tell me that He can’t make this possible? Why, this is nothing compared to what He’s already done. And all He asks us to do is what? Believe it! That’s why faith is the key. God wants us to believe what He says. And He’s going to reward us accordingly.