Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 4 * BOOK 77
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE – PART 40
Genesis – Revelation (The Tribulation)
For those of you joining us on television, again, we’d like to invite you to what I think is a simple Bible study. We try to make the difficult things simple and interesting. And again, we want to thank you for your prayer support, financial support, and your mail. We read every letter. The other night it took us to midnight almost, didn’t it, honey? Boy, we had a bunch the other day. So anyway, we just want you to search the Scriptures and study them. And be prepared to answer questions that are thrown your way, because after all, that’s what we’re here for. We’re ambassadors, and we are to share our position in Christ.
We’re going to go back and pick up the remnant of Israel that’s going to flee to the mountains as we saw Jesus warn them in Matthew 24 in our last program. It’s going to be a mixed group of people. And I’m emphasizing that because a lot of people confuse this escaping remnant with the 144,000, which is also a remnant. Hopefully in this half hour we’ll separate those two entities that are not the same. This remnant that Jesus talks about in Matthew 24 and what Revelation 11 and 12 are taking about is a cross section of Israeli society. After all, the whole idea of this remnant is to be there and ready to go into the Kingdom. And you want to remember, Israel is going to be the largest nation in the Kingdom because of their largest number of entrants.
We’re going to have, as we saw earlier this afternoon, one third of Israel’s population—which would be around five million if it’s in the near future. That will be far more than from any other single nation on earth, although there will be a scattering from every nation. This remnant of Israel, which will be one third of the total or around five million, is going to be supernaturally protected by God out in some sort of a wilderness situation where all the horrors of the Tribulation will not touch them.
But I feel that they go out in unbelief, and they will become a saved nation when they see Christ returning. When they see Him coming in all of His power and glory, every last Jew in this remnant will become a believer. We will, hopefully, have time to show that before the afternoon is over. So, if you’ll come back in with me to Revelation chapter 11, we’ll repeat the last part of verse 13.
Revelation 11:13b
“…and the remnant were affrighted, (Because of all that’s happened as well as the earthquake.) and gave glory to the God of heaven.”
I feel that will be as they are supernaturally escorted out of the city. Never forget what Jesus said in Matthew 24, that you’ve got the people living on the housetop, which I feel are the retired, the wealthy who are pretty well set. The instructions are, don’t take anything from your house – just get going. You’ve got the working class, and you’ve got the young mothers and the children and so forth. So, you have a complete cross section in this remnant of the one third that we saw back in Jeremiah and Zechariah.
Now let’s pick them up across the page in my Bible, anyway—Revelation chapter 12 verse 6. Now remember, the woman is now going to be considered the whole nation of Israel, even as Paul spoke of the woman in Romans chapter 11. They become the whole even though there are only a third of them left.
Revelation 12:6
“And the woman (This one third I feel that are escaping from the area of Jerusalem.) fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, (a supernatural thing) that they (the Godhead) should feed her there (out in this wilderness situation) for a thousand two hundred and three score days.” Three-and-a-half years—from the mid-point until the end.
Now keep my beginnings and endings straight. The anti-Christ opens the seven years back there in Revelation 6 verse 1, and the two witnesses appear. Three-and-a-half years took us to the mid-point, when the anti-Christ went into the Temple and defiled it. This ended the first three-and-a-half years.
All right, now at the beginning of this second half, we have this escaping remnant. They are going to be protected for another 1,260 days, which takes you to the end of the Tribulation. And when they get to the end and Christ returns, they’ll be ready to go in and enjoy a refurbished, regenerated, and reconstituted—those are all words the Scripture uses—which prepare the earth like a Garden of Eden for this 1,000 year Kingdom reign.
All right, so God prepares a place, and they’re going to be fed there for 1,260 days or three-and-a-half years. Now, the interesting part of the flight is in verse 13, still in chapter 12.
Revelation 12:13-14
“And when the dragon (That’s another name for Satan. Remember, he is working hand and glove with the man anti-Christ.) saw that he was cast unto the earth, (out of heaven for the last time) he persecuted the woman (this remnant of Israel) which brought forth the man child.” Now verse 14 is God’s intervention.
Revelation 12:14-15
“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, (the one spoken of in verse 6) where she is nourished for a time (one year), and times (plus two years), and half a time (half a year), from the face of the serpent. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.”
Now you’ve got to remember that this is all language of symbolism. And what we have to put to this is a reality. So, since Satan and the anti-Christ are in control of everything, and they see this fleeing remnant of the Jews, what are they going to do? They’re going to send out a command to some military to go and destroy these escaping Jews headed for the wilderness. Now, before I go back to Exodus, we’re going to finish this account. So read on, if you will, in verse 15.
Revelation 12:15
“And the serpent (That is Satan, who is, like I said, using the man anti-Christ.) cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” Well, that’s just a military command to go and destroy these escaping Jews. Now verse 16, supernaturally now, don’t lose that—supernaturally.
Revelation 12:16
“And the earth helped the woman, (this escaping remnant) and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood (Or that military contingent that the anti-Christ has sent out after them. The earth opens up and swallows up this group of military.) which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” It just simply and utterly destroys them.
Now what we have to do is go back to Exodus and understand that this is just a repeat of what has happened before. Exodus chapter 19 and this is, of course, after Israel has gone through the Red Sea. The Red Sea closed over the Egyptian military and destroyed every one of them without the loss of a single Jew. Now they’re safely encamped around Mount Sinai, and Moses goes up into the mountain to meet with God. Verse 3 and as you read, constantly compare this with Revelation. Revelation is just a repeat under a little different circumstance. But on the whole, it’s the same thing as you have here.
Exodus 19:3-4
“And Moses went up unto God, 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; (Now watch it.) 4. Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, (What did He do? He drowned them all in the Red Sea.) and how I bare you (the Jews out of Egypt) on (What?) eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” Well, we’ve got to stop now and be careful. They didn’t fly, did they? No.
They walked. But it was a supernatural exodus that got them ahead of the Egyptian armies. Far enough that they never touched even the rear echelons of the Jews. And it was a miraculous thing that brought them all the way out to Mount Sinai after the Red Sea experience. The Scripture calls it “on eagles’ wings.” Well, it’ll be the same thing for this escaping remnant at the middle of the Tribulation. They’re going to escape out of Jerusalem and Judea just as miraculously as they did coming out of Egypt. So the language is the same. “I bare you on eagle’s wings, and brought you unto myself.”
Now come back to Revelation 12 just for a moment, again. We find that they have been brought to this place of safety where Jesus said they would be protected until the end of the Tribulation. Now back in Revelation 12 where we just left off, verse 17—after he sees the destruction of his military force and not the loss of a single Jew, he knows that he cannot do anything more with them, because God is still greater than Satan. Now he turns his anger. Verse 17:
Revelation 12:17
“And the dragon (Satan) was angry with the woman, (That is this nation as a whole.) and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, (But now here’s a different remnant than the one that Satan just missed. This is a remnant–) who keep the commandments of God, and (keep, or) have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Now what remnant is this? Well, this is the 144,000.
This is not the escaping remnant that we just read about that escaped as on eagle wings—which went out in unbelief. They’ll stay there in unbelief until they see Christ coming, and then they will believe to the last Jew. I feel that’s what Isaiah 66 means when it says, “will Israel be born in a day?” Yes. When that whole five million to the last Jew will become believers, and not a one will be lost. Now, I told you I would show you where I get that. I imagine I should do that before I go into the 144,000. Let’s do that a minute.
Go back to John’s Gospel chapter 21, and drop in at verse 4. This is in that period of time between His resurrection and the ascension. He has showed Himself visibly, physically, over and over. Now, the first thing I’ve got to define is that the Book of John has eight sign miracles. Eight! And they are sign miracles because of the Greek term Semion. Now, all the other miracles were not necessarily signs. All signs were miracles, but not all miracles were signs.
Now, a sign for Israel was something that proved to them miraculously that God was in it. This wasn’t a thing that would happen on the ordinary, everyday life. It was a sign, so it was miraculous. All right, now in the Book of John, we have eight of those miracles. They were all signs. Now, the first seven took place before His crucifixion. This one takes place after the crucifixion and resurrection. Now, if you know numbers in Scripture, seven is the number of completion. Eight is the number of new beginnings. So here we have, I feel, an indication of the new beginnings of the Kingdom, in which not a single Jew will be lost. All right, let’s look at it, verse 5 of John 21.
John 21:5-7a
“Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? (Or food. Have you caught any fish?) They answered him, No. 6. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. 7. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved (Who I feel is John.) saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,)…” Now, he wasn’t stark naked, but he was probably down to what we call underclothes.
John 21:7b-11
“…and he did cast himself into the sea. 8. And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. 9. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. 10. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. (Now here’s the key.) 11. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: (I know there’s more there than meets the eye, but here’s what I want you to see.) and for all there were so many, yet the net was not broken.”
Now, you remember in other instances when they had a net full of fish, what happened? The net broke. But the miraculous part of this is the net should have broken, but it didn’t. Since it’s the eighth sign, and we’re now looking at the Kingdom over the horizon, I feel that this is the sign to Israel that this remnant that’s going to be spared in those last three-and-a-half years will all become believers when they see the coming Christ. Not a single one will fail to believe. So the whole net full of Israelites will be brought into the Kingdom experience.
It’s kind of exciting to realize that this miraculous thing takes place, and yet you can reduce it to what we can understand and see what will happen day-by-day in Israel’s experience.
Now then, let’s go back and look at the other remnant. This is the remnant that Satan is now going to concentrate on for these last three-and-a-half years, or nearly so. Because I feel that these men will be raptured up shortly before the end of the Tribulation. Come with me to Revelation chapter 7. This is the other remnant. The first remnant was a cross section of Israel—men, women, boys, girls, wealthy people, common people—just a cross section of society. This is a remnant of young Jewish men—twelve thousand from each of the Twelve Tribes.
Revelation chapter 7 and drop down to verse 9. In verses 4 through 8 we have twelve thousand from such and such a tribe, and we wind up with 144,000.
Revelation 7:9a
“After this (After the sealing of these 144,000 young Jewish men.) I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, (Now watch where they’re coming from.) of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and languages, stood before the throne,…” Because as fast as they become believers in this final three-and-a-half years, they’ll be martyred. They will not live to see the light of a second day.
So John already sees the result of the ministry of these 144,000 Jews as they were able to circumvent the land. Now again, it’s miraculous. Do they have to go to language school? No. They’ll know every tongue and tribe and language that they approach. Will they have to fight the airports? No. They’re going to supernaturally go from place to place, and no one can put them the death! Because that’s the purpose of their sealing. They may suffer privation, but no one will be able to put them to death.
But due to the preaching of the 144,000, the converts who have become believers in this Kingdom Gospel—now, remember, it’s not our Gospel of Grace. That ended with the Rapture of the Body of Christ just before the Tribulation began. These Tribulation believers have believed the Kingdom Gospel—which is, the King is coming. And that’s what they’re to believe. So here they are in heaven from every tongue and tribe and nation, and then we find, as you drop down to verses 13 and 14–
Revelation 7:13-15
“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these (or who are these) who are arrayed in white robes? and where did they come from? 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.”
All right, now the 144,000 will minister to the nations of the world throughout most of the seven years. I think they’ll be raised up and raptured sometime before the final weeks. Come back with me now to Isaiah 24. Here we’re at the final end of the seven years. Everything has been destroyed. There’s nothing left except a few survivors. I think I’ve got time. Let’s read all the way from verse 1.
Isaiah 24:1a
Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty,…” Now, this is the result of the seven years of the horrors of the Tribulation. I think the final month is going to be a nuclear holocaust like none of us can imagine.
Isaiah 24:1-2a
“Behold the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. 2. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master;…” The whole cross section of society is mentioned here in verse 2.
Isaiah 24:3
“The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.” There will be nothing left. I always have to stop and ask people. You know that during the 1,000 year Kingdom, it’s going to be heaven on earth. Now think about that. Heaven on this earth. Gambling casinos in heaven? Why, heavens, no! What’s going to happen? Puff! They’re going. And all the other garbage that is associated with the world society, would that fit in heaven? No. So common sense tells you God is going to have to cleanse the planet of all of it. Everything that man has contrived is going to have to go. God’s going to make it all new. “The land shall be utterly empty.”
Now I envision it, and this is strictly my own idea. I can’t prove this from Scripture. I can come close, but I can’t really prove it. I see everything reduced to ashes like Hiroshima and Nagasaki were in 1945. Everything! Then God will miraculously bring it all back to the beauty of Mount St. Helen’s. Now that’s another one. I think God sent Mount St. Helen’s just to show us what He can do. How long did it take until Mount St. Helen’s was almost more beautiful than it was before? A year or two under ordinary circumstances. Look what God can do with the supernatural as the Garden of the LORD reappears as we see in Isaiah 51:3
So, the planet will be regenerated and reconstituted. Now these are scriptural words that happen in just a moment of time. But I think it’s going to be reduced to ashes with all the nuclear bombs that are being store-housed today. All right, back to our text in Isaiah 24:4.
Isaiah 24:4-5
“The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. 5. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, (they’ve) changed the ordinance, (they’ve) broken the everlasting covenant.” In other words, they’ve flown in the face of God in everything they think, say, and do.
Isaiah 26:6
“Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, (My, if that isn’t nuclear language, I don’t know what is. But what are the last three or four words?) and few men are left.” Well, what is that? All around the planet, here and there, there are going to be survivors. A few from every nation, I think, as we understand nations.
By the time we get to the end of the millennium, after 1,000 years of tremendous population explosion, is there just one nation? No. All the nations of the world are back in vogue. Well, where’d they come from? They come from the survivors of the Tribulation.
All right, it stands to reason. Just like today, you’ve got some believers; you’ve got some unbelievers. Well, it’s going to be the same way here at the end of the Tribulation. Not all these survivors are going to be believers, nor are they all unbelievers. So, what do we have to do? We’ve got two minutes to show you. Come back again to Matthew 25 verse 31. I’m going to have to do this quickly. Matthew 25 and here come these survivors of Isaiah 24.
Matthew 25:31
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:” He’s going to assume the throne there in Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. He’s finally going to be on His throne. Verse 32, now remember, supernaturally again.
Matthew 25:32-33
“And before him shall be gathered all nations: (Now, when the Scripture says all, it means all. So there will be survivors from every one of the hundred and forty some nations that are listed in the world today.) and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33. And he shall set the sheep (the believers) on his right hand, but the goats (unbelievers) on his left.”
Matthew 25:34
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, (the believers of these survivors) Come, ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” Where do they go? Into the Kingdom!!! And, I think, back to their homeland.
So now the stage is set. You’ve got the remnant of Israel, the largest number. Then you’ve got the scattered survivors of all the other nations of the world. This is at the beginning of those 1,000 years. There’s no death, and it’ll be a tremendous population explosion. If I had time, I could take you back to Revelation chapter 20. I can’t do it. I’ve only got seconds. But get into Revelation 20:8, and when Satan is released, how many nations are represented? All of them!
Revelation 20:7-8a
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,…”