The Last Days – Part 6 – The Tribulation Purpose

Today we want to explore God’s purpose in bringing this awful time of wrath and judgement onto the earth and to mankind and we want to see how God’s love fits together with this period of time.

We know that a saved nation of Israel is one purpose of the tribulation and we’re going to explore this further and see what, if anything, is its purpose for us today, the Body of Christ.

To see the purpose of the tribulation we need to go back in time to Daniel’s Seventy Week Prophecy again, specifically Daniel 9 verse 24. But to set the scene we should see how and why this was all revealed to Daniel.

We go to Daniel 9 verse 20 to 23 where we see that Daniel had read in the Book of Jeremiah that the present captivity of Israel was about to end so he prays that God would reveal to him how He was going to fulfill these promises to the nation. We read,

 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel (that’s the angel Gabriel), whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 

And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 

At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:

Now we see God’s purpose for the tribulation in His answer to Daniel’s prayer, spoken through this angel, Gabriel.

Daniel 9:24,

“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. 

The purpose then is To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

Now in reading this through quickly we might lose the impact of just what this means.

To finish the transgression.

Notice it’s singular, THE transgression. Taken literally, this means setting up an entirely new order on earth, with an end to man’s rebellion against God, the rebellion that goes right back to the Garden of Eden. Every sin, every sickness, every death, every act of hatred and malice goes back to this rebellion. The impact of the statement to finish the transgression is overwhelming and the implications of it are far beyond our ability to understand, we who have known nothing but the transgression, the rebellion against God.

To make an end to sins.

This means not only the end of the guilt of sin, but an end of sin itself. It means to “seal up” or to “restrain” sins. This looks to a new, redeemed world, a world without sin. Who of us can really imagine that world?

To make reconciliation for iniquity.

Man’s iniquity, or his evil and perversity, must be reconciled to God’s justice and holiness. God cannot just shrug off or turn a blind eye to iniquity. This work of reconciliation was accomplished by Christ through His completed work on the cross.

 

To bring in everlasting righteousness.

Here we see not only righteousness as the goal, but everlasting righteousness. Righteousness that will last forever. This means an end to the corruption in leadership, injustice by courts and authorities, the ladder climbing over the rights of others and the abuse of power.

To seal up vision and prophecy.

This is bringing all prophecy, and all the visions God’s revealed to mankind to perfect fulfilment, every jot and title of it. It’s the final stage of human history and that history comes to perfect completion with the eternal reign of the Son of God. Every word of prophecy and every vision will be sealed and marked completed in full, so to speak.

And to anoint the Most Holy.

This last event is the anointing of “the most holy”. Most believe that to be the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Because the verse begins with, “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, it’s possible that the anointing or consecrating of the Most Holy refers to the city of Jerusalem after the millennium or a temple to come or maybe the New Jerusalem rather than the person of Christ, who was already anointed as we see in Acts 10:38 and Luke 4:18.

This is one of those places where God’s not fully revealed the meaning and therefore what we come up with is speculation, however whatever it is it’s something that’s vitally important to God and it’ll have a special place in God’s eternal realm of peace.

In order for this purpose to be fulfilled there’s another vital piece that must be completed. God doesn’t change His mind on a promise and part of the fulfillment of all these things is the completion of the promise of the land that God made unconditionally to Abraham.

This is what we’ll see completed in the book of Revelation.

To see how this’ll unfold let’s go back to Daniel 9 verse 26 and we read,

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. 

This prince that shall come is referring to the antichrist, but it’s the people of the prince that shall come that’s talked about here, that world Empire that will exist at the time of these days is the revived Roman Empire.

The people of that Prince will destroy the city and Sanctuary. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D by the Romans. These are the people of the prince that shall come.

A lot of people say that this was the end of Daniel’s prophecy right there. That was the beginning of everlasting righteousness and the beginning of the end as far as the Kingdom Come. Clearly not!

They say that the sacking of Jerusalem was the greatest tribulation that had ever occurred and fits with the description of it given by Jesus in Matthew 24:21,

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 

This may have been the greatest tribulation that had happened in Jerusalem, but it clearly doesn’t fit what Jesus said.

As much as you try you can’t find a scenario in the history of the world that matches this event.

If Christ put an end to all sins at that point in history, why do the events of Daniel 9 verse 26 happen AFTER the Messiah is cut off, and of course all we need to do is look around us to notice that sin, iniquity, and unrighteousness hasn’t ended at all.

The 70th week is not done yet that’s why in verse 27 we see,

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” 

When we understand the purpose of this tribulation it really helps us understand it’s detail.

In Matthew 24:15 Jesus’s disciples asked when will these things be and Jesus says,

Therefore, when you see the ‘ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet (that’s Daniel 9 verse 27), standing in the holy place then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Now, for the sacrifices and offerings to cease as per Daniel 9:27, there needs to be a temple here for this sacrifice to cease in, and it can’t be referring to the temple that the Roman’s destroyed in 70 A.D., because the prince who is to come, the antichrist, hasn’t come yet, and the covenant he’ll set up hasn’t happened yet just as the breaking of that covenant couldn’t have happened yet. Neither are any of the many other events associated with this prophecy to be found at that point in history.

Now we want to look closer at the rest of this verse, Daniel 9:27,

It says on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate or there’ll be an over spreading of abominations by that one who makes desolate.

This is an abomination that will lead to destruction, God’s judgment on the most horrible idolatry that’s ever happened where this prince that will come will set himself up as the Christ who has finally come.

Until the consummation, which is determined.

What does consummation mean?

It simply means the finishing of all things. The completion. It’s the end when things are wrapped up.

Which is determined. Determined, in advance, by God.

It’s determined judgment, punishment against those who make desolate God’s land, God’s Temple, and God’s people.

Was the Everlasting righteousness happening here when God promised to bring judgment upon those who desolate God’s people? It hasn’t happened yet. Daniel’s 70th week is still in the future.

We’ve only gone through Daniel’s prophecy very briefly here.

There’s been lots of books written about this and lots of people talking about it and it’s not our goal to clear up all the questions about it but rather to just show the purpose of the coming 70th week, that coming time of tribulation and the Kingdom.

What’s left to finish in this prophecy is Judgment from God and the establishment of His kingdom. That’s what’s still future.

We’ve had the temple and the city rebuilt, as we see in Ezra and Nehemiah, in the first 49 years from when the prophecy started.

We’ve had the Messiah cut off, or killed. We’ve even had the temple and the city destroyed again.

But what we haven’t had happen is what was determined upon his (Daniel’s) people (Israel).

Neither have we had the judgment and that everlasting righteousness. They just haven’t happened yet.

As we’ve said, Daniel’s 70th week is yet to happen.

Now let’s look at something else to see the purpose of the tribulation and the coming Kingdom and the future that God purposed since the world began.

That’s to finish all the punishment and judgment for sin, to end the transgression, the rebellion and man’s fall into sin, and to bring in righteousness and salvation to the Earth.

Revelation 4 is a key to this.

Revelation 1, 2 and 3 is a vision that John the apostle sees of Jesus Christ, and he’s given information to send in letters to seven churches. By the way we shouldn’t see that word church and immediately associate it with the church, the Body of Christ today. A study of these churches will show big differences to how God deals with the Body of Christ today, by grace alone and not by works. These Revelation churches are works based churches, different in many ways.

After that you don’t read the word Church in revelation anymore after chapter 3 until the last verse.

The word church doesn’t appear when Revelation starts talking about this tribulation period.

Some people like to say that the Rapture is referred to in Revelation 4:1 which we’re coming to but there’s nothing in the verse that leads us to believe this.

What we do have in the Book of Revelation is a description of the Fulfillment, the consummation of God’s purpose that’s been clearly prophesied throughout the Bible.

So, Revelation 4 verse 1 begins,

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” 

“After these things”. What things? The dictating of the letters to the seven churches as given by Jesus to John.

“And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

This is where some put the rapture. If you didn’t see it, it’s in between the words when John goes up to heaven. That’s when some say the church is being caught up to heaven.

Verses 2 to 4,

Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. 

And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. 

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. 

There was a rainbow round about The Throne.

Rainbows in the Bible are God’s symbol of promise. He set the rainbow in the sky in Genesis chapter nine after he promised salvation and not to flood the world again.

So, this is the image, the vision that John sees of the Throne of God.

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones, I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. 

People seem to be fascinated by those guys and books have been written about them, but the reality is, we don’t know!

So many people speculate but there’s not a verse that tells us exactly who they are and it’s not the point of what we’re trying to do here.

People get distracted by these details and they forget the big picture of what’s going on here.

The Bible doesn’t specifically tell us, so we move on rather than spend half a lifetime trying to define who the 4 and 20 elders are.

So, what’s going on here?

They’re up there in this Throne Room, there’s 24 Elders, there’s other creatures there and yet more strange creatures all around and there’s a crystal sea and everything else.

They start praising God in verse 11 saying,

You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.

But what’s going on starts in chapter five.

Revelation 5:1 says,

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll (or a book) written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 

Then in verse 2,

Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” 

Now that’s a strange scroll or book!

Why do you have to be worthy to open it?

Because this is not your normal book, friends.

You don’t have to be worthy to open your Bible, even though it’s named the “Holy Bible”. In fact, you can’t be saved without opening the Bible or without hearing the message in it.

So, what is this scroll, this sealed book, that they don’t know the contents of and you have to be worthy to open it?

Well, this scroll, this book is going to be incredibly important to our understanding of what’s going on here.

Many people skip over this chapter and go to the seals and the trumpets and the viles and look at all the exciting stuff happening which movies and countless books are written about and they forget the sealed scroll.

However, that has everything to do with the purpose of all that God’s going to accomplish.

God is sitting on the throne, and he’s got a scroll which is sealed and apparently, HE can’t even open it!

What? God can’t open it? Surely God can do all things, and yet, there’s something about this scroll and we’re going to find out what it is, and it has something to do with the purpose of the tribulation!

Revelation 5:3 says,

And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. 

So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.

Now, why is John weeping?

Well, apparently there’s something they know about.

Something, that in order for things to be complete for the consummation the end of all things to happen, this scroll must be opened!

This book concerns God’s purpose for the Earth.

We know that because as we read the rest of the Book of Revelation, as each of the seals are broken, things happen on the Earth.

And then what happens after the seals are broken and this scroll is opened? Christ comes back to the Earth and reclaims the Earth.

This scroll concerns God’s purpose for the Earth.

We’ll also see that this scroll’s not for us, the church, the Body of Christ. today. We, the church, don’t have a book with seals on it that we must wait to be opened before we have what God promised us.

Colossians 2:10 tells us,

and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 

We have a position right now complete in Christ in Heavenly places and that’s a glorious thing. There’s nothing we, as Christians, have to wait for.

However, Israel have prophecies that need to be fulfilled, signs that need to occur. They have tribulation and a kingdom and then there’s this sealed scroll that’s keeping them from getting there, but nothing needs to happen for us today to claim salvation and eternal glory with God.

That’s because of what Christ did for us and gave to us freely and made it known to us through the preaching the gospel.

This scroll concerns God’s purpose for the Earth.

Let’s look at Genesis 14:22 to get some background. Now, if you were a Jew 2000 years ago and understood Israel’s laws as most did, or, if you were John the Apostle, you’d probably understand what’s going on with this scroll and you may have been weeping over it like John.

Genesis 14:22 tells us,

But Abram said to the king of Sodom,

I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, 

Here we learn that God is the possessor of Heaven and Earth. See all things are his and Abram knows this, and he knows The God Who possesses all things. Now look at Exodus 19:5,

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 

This is on Mount Sinai where God speaks to Moses and to his people, the sons of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and he tells them his purpose for them, which is this Covenant of the law, and if they agree to keep it God’ll bless them but if they break it, He’ll curse them.

If they obey God’s voice and keep this Covenant, then they’ll be a peculiar treasure to God for all the Earth is His.

God makes it plain. All the Earth Is His.

God created the Heaven and the Earth, and he talks about the Earth for many chapters in the Bible. He doesn’t even talk about who goes to heaven until the Apostle Paul when he talks about giving you a seat in heaven, it’s all about the Earth in Exodus 19.

To his Earthly people, to a nation picked out by God, on the earth He promises a land on the earth. He says all the Earth is mine and I promise to give it to you above all the nations of the Earth.

Let’s look at Genesis 12:7,

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

If the Earth is the Lord’s he has the right to give it to whoever he wants and he told Abram, “I’ll give it to you.” Notice it’s a promise that has no conditions. This is before the law. It’s not if you obey my Commandments, it’s I’m going to give it to you.

Then, in Genesis 13:15 to 17, God says to Abraham,

for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. 

Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” 

God owns the land he gave it, entrusted it to man.

To the first man he said, “have dominion on the Earth” and what did Adam do? He started serving Satan, God’s enemy.

Then he calls Abraham, Abram at that time, and says, “I’ll give you this land”. Then it’s the same story over and over again. What happens when God gives things to people? They mess it up.

We’re going into this because this knowledge is vital to our understanding of the tribulation.

So, here God tells Abraham, “I will give you this.” Then in Exodus 19 He makes a covenant with them if you keep my law, I will give you this land.

Why did God add that law? He already made a promise.

Well, there’s many reasons for the law. We know that the law brings the knowledge of sin. So, God’s trying to get through to man that he’s a sinner and God’s the Saviour.

The law was going to show that. There’s another reason why God gave the law to Israel.

The law’s going to explain God’s rights!

If we think about that for a moment, the law is God’s righteousness. It’s the Declaration of the righteousness of God.

Deuteronomy 6:25 says,

Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’ 

Of course they can’t, but if they did, they’d be righteous.

The law declares God’s right, not just in his righteous works but also His right to things. His right to judge for example. He’s the judge of all things.

He created us but we rebel against that and say God has no right to judge me. Really? He’s holy, righteous, and good. We’re guilty sinners. The law condemns us. The law condemned Israel.

What right does God have to rule the planet? Well, He made it! But we resist that and sort of claim squatter’s rights because we’re here. It’s my land. Really? Well, the law explains God’s right to the land He gave, and it explains that if they don’t use it for God’s intended purpose, He can redeem it back!

Leviticus chapter 25 talks about the law of someone called the Kinsman Redeemer.

Many of you know of the Kinsman Redeemer through the beautiful book of Ruth.

Ruth’s husband, who died, had land in Israel.

Boaz had legal right under the law to marry this lady Ruth and assume the property that was her right.

They had to go through a process of the law that’s kind of confusing to us gentiles, especially today, but that’s what the law required.

It had to do with a legal ceremony of Boaz redeeming this land through his marriage to Ruth. The whole story is quite amazing but the short of it is that Boaz is taking these rights of the Kinsmen Redeemer from Leviticus 25.

Leviticus 25 verse 23 explains that the land shall not be sold forever.

This was God explaining to Israel that they were not supposed to sell their land. Remember, God gave the land to Israel and at this time they’re in the land. God’s divided up the land among the 12 tribes and they were not to sell it.

It was against the law. They were to keep it. It was their land right forever.

However, God knows what men are going to do. They’re going to break the law.

In Leviticus 25:24 and 25 we read,

And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. ‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold.

So, if someone were to happen to sell or lose the land somehow, maybe gambling it away, God has this law of redemption allowing for the land to be redeemed back. It can be purchased back by a brother, a member of the same tribe.

This is the law of the Kinsmen Redeemer.

Under the law the land was supposed to stay with Israel even if it did happen to be sold. And even then, the land was to stay within the tribe that it was originally given to.

You couldn’t sell the land to another tribe. Each tribe had their allotment and the land stayed in that tribe.

If someone was poor and because they needed money, they sold the possession, there had to be a clause to redeem the land by a Kinsman someone of the original tribe of the person who owned it.

That Kinsman could come and say well I’m of their tribe and I have the money. I’m going to buy back this land, and there was supposed to be a clause in every land deal that covered that.

The Kinsmen Redeemer had to be someone who was a relative of the person who originally owned the land and they had to have the means to pay for it.

So hopefully you’ll soon see how important this is not only to see the purpose of the tribulation but to better understand another facet of our Lord, Jesus Christ who was the ultimate Kinsman Redeemer because God manifests in the flesh and became a relative to us, like us, in human flesh, and he paid the price needed to pay for our sin, so he is the ultimate Kinsman Redeemer of humanity. That’s what he did here he redeemed Humanity, but not just humanity, but the Earth.

The crown of thorns he wore on the cross attest to that. He came to redeem the Earth and specifically for Israel. Today salvation’s offered freely to all but to the Nation Israel He came to redeem that which he promised to them, their salvation on the earth and their land on the Earth and Then, Leviticus 25 verse 26 to 28 says,

Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, then let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. 

But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee; and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.

Again, He’s talking about what price you could sell it for. It had to be the price paid for the debt that was owed. It couldn’t just be any price. They had to pay for the debt.

Again, we have Christ’s sinless blood being able to pay the price for what was owed by Sinners and the blood needed for their redemption. The wages of sin is death you see. Christ had to die.

So, you have in the law here a description of what the Kinsman Redeemer had to do in order to redeem the land.

Now, what does that have to do with Revelation you might ask?

What’s it got to do with the seals and the scroll we talked about?

Well, let’s look at Jeremiah 32 to see a missing link here.

When the Kinsmen Redeemer came and made the payment for the land, they would draw up documents just to declare who owned it like a mortgage contract or a title deed. They’d make two documents; one would be unsealed and public for everyone to know who had redeemed this land and the other one would be sealed.

In case someone meddled with the public, unsealed document, they could always go back and open the sealed document to see who the rightful owner was.

In Jeremiah 32:8 we see an example of this. Jeremiah is in prison for prophesying for God and the Babylonians are coming and they’re taking over Israel. So, people are selling their property.

Enemies are coming into the land and they’re destroying things and some people in the land are getting out while the going’s good.

So, Jeremiah’s sitting in prison, but one of his relatives, his uncle’s son, his cousin, comes to him and says, I got some land and you’re the Kinsmen, you’re the next in line so you have the right to buy this land so how about buying it from me.

Jeremiah says okay. He agrees.

Why does he buy it when everyone’s selling? He buys it because he knows that God says they, Israel, will come back to the land.

When they come back into the land, Jeremiah’s got a nice block of land.

We’ll read the passage because it’s important to see,

Jeremiah 32:8 to 15,

Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. 

So, I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. 

And I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. 

So, I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open; and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison. 

Then I charged Baruch before them, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this deed, which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.” 

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.” ‘

He’s bought the land and got together two documents or deeds proving it. One’s sealed and one’s not.

So, he instructs that the deed be put in a safe deposit box because he knows God’s going to bring Israel, and him, back to the land and he’s going to have the rightful documents of ownership for that land.

Hopefully you’re starting to see a picture unfolding.

Now, in Revelation chapter five, we see a scroll in the hand of God as he’s preparing to reclaim His land on the earth, His possession of the earth and here’s the document, the deed with seals on it.

The seals that were put on it were the Seals of the Kinsmen Redeemer, and nobody can open that scroll but the Kinsmen Redeemer who was not only a Kinsmen of the people who were in the land originally but was the Redeemer who paid the price!

In Revelation 5 then, who’s worthy to open this scroll? Noone could be found. We’re not the Kinsman Redeemer and so who is worthy?

Why are we telling about this Jewish legal process? Because people don’t understand this and instead, they’re looking to eclipses and world events. They want signs.

However, there was this immovable law and God dealt with Israel according to it, and he dealt with the land according to it, and he wrapped up his possession of the Earth in this law so that you and I can go back and read how he’s going to claim it.

It’s not just slap dash. God doesn’t do it by force like a bully. He has a legal right, and he proves it. God is a God of perfect Justice, you see.

When we left John, he was weeping because no one was worthy to open the scroll. then in Revelation 5:5 we read,

But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”

We know Who the Lion of the tribe of Judah is. We know Who the root of David is. That’s Jesus Christ. That’s the Messiah. Why is He opening the scroll here? Why didn’t he do it back when He was here?

Because if your right to ownership is disputed, where do you go? The sealed scroll. If someone else is squatting in your land and claiming it as theirs, the owner can say, NO! I bought and paid for it.

Well, how do you settle that claim in court? With the sealed document! You can corrupt an open document, but one that’s sealed with the seal of the Kinsmen Redeemer can only be opened by that Kinsman Redeemer.

Then, when it’s opened it up, everyone can see what was originally written because it was sealed when it was purchased.

When Christ, The Kinsman Redeemer comes back thousands of years from when He purchased the possession with his blood, He’s going to say well it’s time to open this document and he starts cracking these seals open.

Immediately things start happening in the earth in order for him to reclaim his title.

What does this have to do with our study of Prophecy?

We need to understand why these things are happening in the tribulation.

It’s because God’s reclaiming his right to the Earth and that’s not what God’s doing today.

Today, He’s sending his ambassadors to preach the gospel of the mystery of this current dispensation of grace that we’re all living in.

He’s not coming back to the Earth to reclaim it now, today, but when he starts breaking these seals He’s saying, “Now’s the time I’m going to claim my right to the Earth!”

This’ll be the time that He’s finished preaching grace to the world. That’ll be the end of the dispensation of grace and the removal of the church, the Body of Christ so this next event, the continuation of God’s dealing with Israel, can begin again.

When we realise this all the little details matter much less. We can study and use all of our time trying to piece together every detail, but now we know what the greater picture is.

God, at that time, is reclaiming the Earth, that’s why he’s opening those seals. In Revelation 5, verse 9, as Jesus starts loosing the seals, here’s what happens,

And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” 

By the way that Kings and Priests, that’s the same thing you find in Exodus 19 verse 5 and 6,

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 

And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

Israel are the Kins and Priests, not us, the Body of Christ today.

Now we see in Revelation chapter six the seal is being opened. God’s beginning to reclaim his land and it’s very different to what God’s doing today.

In Revelation chapter 11, the Lord starts unsealing this scroll, unleashing the events that happen during this tribulation is a result of the Lord doing these things.

If He never opened those seals, those things wouldn’t happen. It all begins because Jesus, the King, the rightful owner, starts to do it.

In Revelation 11:15 we read,

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

We just can’t sing that now friends and we couldn’t sing that back then when Jesus was born in the manger. The kingdoms of this world are not God’s kingdom at this time.

We can only sing that after Revelation 11 when the seals are opened, and he’s reclaimed the land, and the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord over which He’ll reign forever and ever.

Who’s squatting on the kingdoms of the world today?

The prince of the power of the air!

In Matthew 4:8 and 9,

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 

And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 

That’s when Jesus says, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND HIM ONLY YOU SHALL SERVE.’ ”

The devil tempts Jesus with the kingdoms of the world, and he can because he’s in current possession of them. He’s got squatters rights. Rights that Adam gave to him.

Then, Israel gave up their rights when they broke God’s law.

God’s whole purpose for the Earth is to reclaim it back rightfully and legally. He becomes the Kinsmen Redeemer and He seals that scroll; He intervenes with the dispensation of Grace in order to save the world by developing a new creature called The Body of Christ.

When he’s finished with all that, He unseals that scroll, reclaims his right and eventually the devil’s cast out of those positions and He says the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God. That’s the end that’s the consummation.

That’s the finishing of Daniel’s 70th week. That’s the kingdom established, the Everlasting righteousness bought in and the anointing of the Most Holy.

Israel will be saved. The documents will be unsealed, and everyone will know that Christ is the King, the rightful owner.

Couldn’t Jesus have gone through all this when He was on earth the first time?

Jesus had to ascend back to heaven in order for the Holy Spirit to come.

He knew that prophecy would be interrupted by this mystery of the Body of Christ. There were things that had to be accomplished before the opening of these seals.

 

When Peter said in Acts 2 that these are the last days He was speaking truth. That was what should have happened. The next prophecy event should have been the tribulation. The thing that stopped the unsealing of the scroll and all that went with that was Israel’s rejection of the Messiah and their rejection of Peter’s gospel when he said to repent for the restitution of all things is at hand. They didn’t repent of that rejection as Peter urged them to. Instead, they stoned Stephen to death, and they persecuted the apostles and so Israel fell.

As a result, God revealed the Revelation of this mystery to Paul, this interlude to prophecy, never revealed before.

So, this dispensation of Grace, which was the mystery revealed, is what intervened in prophecy. That interlude has lasted 2000 years.

We in the church today are not a part of that land deed on which those seals’ll be broken.

We’ve got no part in reclaiming the land. We’re going to heaven.

We’re living in the time of God’s grace, through Christ, freely available to all. We have no earthly land that was promised and no covenant.

We’re sealed with the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ till the day of redemption and how great that is.

So, that’s the purpose of the tribulation events and the kingdom come.

Next time we’ll explore the question of who will be saved during the tribulation.

Until then may God richly bless you.