Hi, dear Reggie. I want to share with you some very interesting thing. It is about ships of Chittim. Look at this:

KJV-And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever.
(Nu.24:24)
NASB-But ships {shall come} from the coast of Kittim, And they shall afflict Asshur and will afflict Eber; So they also {will come} to destruction. (Nu.24:24)
In Russian translation of Bible ,Tora and Tanah the word “THEY” (“So THEY also {will come} to destruction”) have to do with ships of Chittim.

I think there is a parallel with Dan 11:30 and have to do with your words:

….“In support of this view, notice that only a short while before the Antichrist launches his successful assault on Jerusalem (Dn 11:31 with Rev 13:14), he is successfully intercepted and turned back by the “ships of Chittim” (Dn 11:30; Chittim or Kittim is a term commonly associated with the maritime powers of the Mediterranean coastlands). We should note that something has happened between verses 30 and 31 THAT HAS COMPLETELY SHIFTED THE BALANCE OF POWER. (Maybe because of destruction of Chittim’s ships?)… or am I in error?

So I think all Balaam’s prophecy is very interesting…
Thanks God for His words through you!
A.

In my opinion your suggestion is not in error. Not only the ships of Chittim, but the western power (or powers) that is represented by the ships of Chittim might also come under sudden attack at the same time that the Antichrist invades Israel.

I suggested that an alliance between Israel and the nation or nations represented by this naval presence in the Mediterranean helps to explain why Israel puts its trust in a man that can stand between the Arab world and the western advocates of land for peace. We may be sure that the Islamic Arab world would never concede any part of the temple mount to Israel’s orthodox community under the present conditions that exists today. Something big has got to give!

I see more clearly something that always perplexed me. How would Israel come to put its trust in a single man who will rise from the eastern half of the Roman world, out of one of the four divisions of Alexander’s kingdom, according to Dan 8:9? There would be the danger of divided loyalties to say the least. Seeing the relationship that the ships of Chittim apparently has to the guardianship of the peace has put it all in perspective for me. I see now that it is not so much the Antichrist (the vile person of Dan 11:21) that Israel trusts; it is the US. or some such powerful alliance of nations who will stand as guarantor and protectorate of the peace. In that way, Israel can dare to negotiate her otherwise “indefensible borders” in exchange for peace and international guarantees of protection.

We may be sure that the Islamic Arab nations will not be happy to recognize Israel’s right to statehood. There must be some great change to bring them to the table. Any Arab and Islamic recognition of Israel will come reluctantly if at all. The Antichrist only pretends to support the covenant. He hates it; as does the many with whom he secretly conspires for its destruction (Dan 11:27-30). So it is reasonable to infer that something big has got to happen in the region that will radically change the face of Middle East politics, as shown by the recent speeches by Mahmoud Abbas and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the UN general assembly. They were quite loud in their sworn promise to never recognize Israel’s right to exist. For the covenant to be confirmed, we may be sure that there must be a massive shift in the politics of the region, since under the current conditions, the Arab world will never tolerate Jewish reclamation of any part of the forbidden temple mount. I have always supposed it will require nothing short of war for the present political state of affairs to change THAT dramatically.

If the current balance of world power continues to the end, the ships of Chittim would be the US, and possibly a league of nations (the covenant is confirmed “with many”). These will be the “guarantors” of the peace that permits Israel to proceed with its plans to build the temple and start the daily sacrifice that the Antichrist will stop in the middle of the week (Dan 8:11; 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). Notice also that this sudden invasion of Jerusalem is against what Daniel calls, “the holy covenant” (Dan 11:28, 30). This is the covenant that I believe was “confirmed” (not made or created, but the word means to strengthen or cause to prevail) in Dan 9:27. I believe the covenant of Dan 9:27 is not merely a peace arrangement, but it is the same “holy covenant” referred to in Dan 11:28, 30. It is therefore a covenant that already exists. It is not “made;” it is “confirmed.” Dan 9:27 is not properly translated, “and he shall make a firm covenant with many,” but rather, “he shall make firm THE covenant (i.e., the “holy covenant”) with many.

Confirmation of this holy covenant necessarily includes a dangerous “league” (alliance or agreement) with the Antichrist (Dan 11:23). This will be the false peace (Dan 8:25; 11:23-24; Eze 38:8, 11, 14), the “agreement with death and hell” (Isa 28:15, 18) that will permit Israel and the unbelieving world to so presumptuously declare “peace and safety!” (1Thes 5:3). We may imagine that if Israel was saying “peace and safety” at the beginning of the peace treaty, they will be saying it now even more confidently than ever after the ships of Chittim have so successfully intervened. This mighty demonstration of force will greatly reassure Israel and her friends just how invincible this peace really is that permits Israel’s return to the institutions of the holy covenant. No doubt, many that hold an optimistic view of Israel’s future will feel very vindicated in their rejection of the prophetic warnings of imminent calamity (see Isa 28). But the proverbial rug is about to pulled out to the shock and astonishment of all who have put their trust in man.

[Note: It is not the secular world that will recognize the covenant as holy. That is God’s view of Israel’s right to the Land and to the temple mount. Some nations (certainly the ten) will “hate the covenant and conspire against it” (Dan 11:27-28, 30-31). On one side, the covenant is holy, because it recognizes Israel’s right to the Land and city, particularly the controversial temple mount. But on the other hand, it is also a covenant with death and hell, because of Israel’s trust in man as its security and guarantor.]

I pointed out that in the space of just one verse (Dan 11:30-31), the ships of Chittim that were able to successfully repulse the southward advance of the Antichrist (a man that in the very next verse will hold the entire world ransom by his military and economic dominance). In the very short time contemplated between those two verses, something has happened that has nullified the mighty power of the west. What is it? In Dan 11:30 the ships of Chittim turns back the Antichrist. In the next verse he goes with irresistible force to the temple to stop the sacrifice and place the abomination that starts the tribulation (Dan 11:31; 12:11 with Mt 24:15-16, 21; 2Thes 2:4; Rev 11:2; 13:5). What has happened in such a short space of time? That is the question I have not heard any commentator ask, even among those few who reject the common view that all of this was fulfilled in antiquity.

In Dan 11:30 the Antichrist is either unable or unwilling to challenge the might of the ships of Chittim. This leads us to ask, what has happened between verses 30 and 31 that can explain such a sudden and massive shift in the balance of world power? Well, for one thing, this man has just risen from the dead by reason of the healing of the mortal wound (Rev 13:3, 12). After his ascent into the abyss, he ascends as “the “beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (Rev 17:8, 17). The resurrection of the beast (‘man of sin’) fulfills the mystery of iniquity that is necessary before Jesus can return (2Thes 2:3, 7-8). Also, this now risen ruler has secured the backing and support of that host of gentile nations mentioned in Eze 38:2, 5-6 and also Ps 83.

So what happened to the western power that had so lately flexed its military muscle and turned back the very man who in such a short while is to become the dominant military power who will control the economy of the world? I believe something more serious is implied than merely a strategic move that takes the west by surprise and cuts off their ability to interfere with his plans against Israel.

I believe the US and its allies may be among those whom Ezekiel describes as “those who dwell carelessly in the isles” (Eze 39:6). Although the fire is sent from God, it is no contradiction if that fire should come through the agency of the ten kings allied with the Antichrist, who “hate the whore and burn her flesh with fire” (Rev 17:6). This will certainly be fulfilled when the Antichrist attacks Jerusalem, but when pondering these passages, the thought occurred that this fiery judgment could also extend to the supporters of Israel, the ships of Chittim. Who is to say that at the same time the Land of Israel is being flooded with the deadly foe, the complacent west is not receiving a fiery judgment by a sudden and unexpected nuclear strike on its principal cities? It is chilling thought, but I think true.

So at the very same time that Jerusalem is being suddenly and unexpectedly attacked, so also is the complacent, and equally unsuspecting west who have supported and even promised protection for the deadly peace arrangement with an Antichrist, by the presumptuous pressure that the west has put on Israel to exchange land for peace, land that God said is not Israel’s to negotiate, because it is His (Ex 34:12; Lev 25:23).

So much appreciate you dear brothers and the knowledge that you have covenanted to remember us in your prayers. Reggie

The post The Ships of Chittim appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

Is the Day of the Lord visible in the Pentateuch [aka The Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy]? I think this is beyond what one would call “an interesting topic”

The Pentateuch (first five books) is the foundational seed bed for the eschatology of the covenant, which will be developed and detailed by the later prophets around the concept of the day of the Lord. While the day of the Lord is not explicit in the Pentateuch, it is certainly implicit. It is anticipated and required by what we might call, ‘the dilemma of the covenant’. The conditional structure of the covenant in the Pentateuch sets up the necessity of a supernatural divine intervention of apocalyptic judgment and transforming revelation. Otherwise, abiding Jewish inheritance of the Land would be a hopeless prospect.

The prophets saw the coming day of the Lord as the transitional point of division between the ages. It would accomplish the final resolution to Israel’s long exile and suffering under the curses of the broken covenant (see chapters Lev 26; Deut 28 through 32). It would mark the end of gentile supremacy (i.e., “the times of the gentiles”; Ezek 30:3 with Lk 21:24), with the restoration of the kingdom to Israel” (Dan 2:44; Zech 1:17; 2:12; Acts 1:6; 3:21). It would secure the regeneration and final return of the penitent survivors of Jacob’s trouble  (Isa 59:21; 66:8; Jer 30:7; Ezek 39:22, 28-29; Dan 12:1; Zech 12:10; Mt 23:39; Ro 11:25-26). Through terrible judgments (Ezek 20:33-34, 37), in combination with amazing grace and mercy, Jewish unbelief will be conquered once and for all, as a hopelessly disobedient people are “born in one day” (Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9). Moses prophesied that this transformation would come when Israel is “in tribulation, even in the latter days” (Deut 4:30-31).

The revelation of a coming day of the Lord solves the dilemma created by the tension that exists between the unconditional oath made to the Fathers and the subsequent covenant conditions that could only be fulfilled by the power of the Spirit. How else could a people always prone to backslide ever continue in the Land forever? How else could a little agrarian nation surrounded by aggressive super powers lie down in safety?

The eschatology of the covenant is implicit in many of the statements of Moses. For example, at the threshold of entering the land, Moses declares his pessimism concerning Israel’s ability to continue long in the Land. “And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swore to give them (Deut 31:21).  For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days” (Deut 31:29).

Moses gives the principal reason why the nation’s tenure in the Land would not be long. “Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. (Deut 29:4). This damning condition would persist until the eschatological gift of the new heart promised in Deut 30:6. Apart from regeneration, the intractable condition of the natural heart would continue to doom the nation to the perpetual curse of judgment and exile. But Deut 30:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 anticipates the coming in of a New Covenant. The New Covenant gives the righteousness that the Law demands but could not give. That is the task of the New Covenant (“I will put,” Jer 31:33; 32:40; Ezek 11:19; 36:27).

Moses prophetically anticipates the New Covenant when he says, “And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that you may live” (Deut 30:5-6).

This is as much an eschatological promise of national resurrection as anything in Ezek 37 or elsewhere in the prophets. This is the language of divine enablement through the miracle of regeneration. In order to see how Jeremiah would have conceived of the New Covenant, we need to understand that the covenant envisioned an actual Jewish inheritance of the Land that would be enduring and without further threat of the curse. Final security in the Land was an inalienable feature of the ‘everlasting covenant of peace’ (Gen 17:7-8; Lev 26:6; Ps 105:10-11; Isa 54:10; 61:8-9; Jer 23:6; 32:37, 40-41; Ezek 34:25, 28; 36:27-28; 37:26; 39:28-29; Zeph 3:13, 20). This is why the prophets envision a nation that is entirely righteous to the last person.

In order for the covenant to be fulfilled in its full scope, it is not enough that only a remnant receive a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek 11:19; 36:26), because the presence of a godly remnant was never sufficient to keep the nation from backsliding and going again into exile, so a mere remnant existing within a mostly apostate nation could never be sufficient to make the promise sure of everlasting inheritance.

The saints of the OT were not strangers to the law written in the heart (Ps 37:31; 40:8; 51:10; Isa 51:7), and the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit (Gen 41:38; Ex 28:3; 31:3: 35:21; Num 14:24; 27:18; Deut 34:9; Ps 51:10-12; Neh 9:30; Isa 63:11; Dan 4:8; 5:11, 14; Mic 3:8; 1Pet 1:11), but they also knew that the presence of a godly remnant was insufficient to save the nation from exile (e.g., Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel).  That is why they envisioned an ‘everlasting righteousness’ (Jer 32:40; Dan 9:24) that would extend to all the nation (Isa 4:3; 60:21; Jer 31:34; Ezek 39:22, 28-29), and to every child born to them thereafter (Isa 44:3; 45:25; 54:13; 59:21; 61:9; 65:9, 23;  66:22, etc.).

“From that day and forward” (Ezek 39:22), not one of the elect seed of Israel will ever fail of this everlasting covenant of grace (Ps 89:30-31, 32-33, 34; Isa 59:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40). In this way, the inheritance of the Land will be sure to all future generations of the Jewish people until the end of the millennium.

At the day of the Lord, the revelation on which the church is built (Mt 16:17-18) will shine through to the penitent remnant when the Deliverer comes out of Zion (Isa 59:16-17, 18-19, 20-21; 63:4-5; Zech 12:10; Ro 11:25-26, 27). The day of the Lord arrives with the end of the unequaled tribulation (Isa 66:8; Mic 5:3; Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1; Mt 24:21, 29).

We conclude that the New Covenant is essentially the covenant of regeneration established in the Godhead before the foundation of the world (Heb 13:20; Rev 13:8), but here in Jeremiah, as in the other prophets that speak of the “everlasting covenant,” the emphasis is on that time when there would be no more a mere remnant dwelling in the midst of an apostate nation, because the covenant promises that “all Israel shall be saved.” This means that from the day of the Lord and forward (Ezek 29:22), every Jewish survivor of the tribulation would be holy, able now to inherit the Land forever. This is manifestly the Old Testament background behind Paul’s use of the phrase, “And thus all Israel shall be saved” (Ro 11:26).

Because it is God’s own righteousness, and nothing of their own, not one among them will ever again depart from the holy fear that God will put in their heart by the regenerating power of His Spirit (Isa 45:17; 59:21; Jer 32:40). Such miraculous uniformity of Jewish salvation will be an astonishment and a witness to the nations of God’s ability to accomplish His impossible mission to plant Israel permanently in their own Land, without fear of further judgment or expulsion (2Sam 7:10; Jer 24:6-7; 31:28; 32:41; Amos 9:15; Lk 1:73-75).

God will not relent concerning the people of His special election lest the Word of His promise appear to be defeated by Jewish unbelief (compare Num 14:15-21; Deut 32:26-27; Ezek 36:22-23, 32-36; 39:27; Ro 9:16). It is this historic enmity that God is determined to overcome, ere the age can end. “For God is able to graft them in” (Ro 11:23).

An examination of the context will show that the New Covenant is not established with Israel as a nation until AFTER the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ (Jeremiah, chapters 30 – 31).  [Note: Jacob’s trouble is the great tribulation (or Zion’s travail) that ends with the day of the Lord (compare Isa 13:6-8, 10; 66:8; Mic 5:3; Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1; Joel 2:31; 3:14-15; with Mt 24:29; Acts 2:20; Rev 16:14-15). The tribulation designs to remove the pride and power of self-sufficiency that hinders the faith of the prodigal nation (Deut 32:36; Ezek 20:3-34, 37; Dan 12: 7).]

Moses further shows that the face of God must remain hidden from the larger nation (Deut 31:17-18; 32:20; Isa 8:17), until “that day” when the Spirit will be poured out upon the whole house of Israel (Ezek 39:22, 28-29 with Zech 12:10).

What then could make the promise of enduring inheritance permanent and secure? Only the everlasting righteousness of Christ, as “the Lord our righteousness” (Isa 54:17; Jer 23:5-6). His righteousness, in contrast to all human righteousness, is alone sufficient to meet all the demands of the covenant, and so preserve the nation in the Land forever, as well as give every believer the full assurance of final glory. This is the righteousness that is revealed in the gospel (Ro 1:17). It is the everlasting righteousness that belongs only to God (Mk 10:18; Ro 7:18; Ro 10:3; Phil 3:9).

The revelation of the day of the Lord, however, solves only part of the dilemma of the covenant. It does not explain the basis by which eternal life and the gift of the Spirit can be lawfully given to the believer. This would only come to light with the glorious revelation of the mystery of the gospel.  The atonement is at the heart of the mystery of Christ’s twofold coming to Israel. This was unknown in other ages (Ro 16:25-26; Eph 3:5; 6:19; Col 1:26; 1Pet 1:11). “Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1Cor 2:7-8).

The atonement is the basis of all salvation in both testaments. Contrary to anything that anyone expected, Messiah would come twice, a first time to accomplish the atonement, and a second time “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Mt 24:29). Though entirely foretold (Isa 53:8; Isa 66:7; Mic 5:1, 3-4; Dan 9:26; Acts 26:22; Ro 16:25-26; 1Pet 1:11), the ‘hidden wisdom’ of a crucified and risen, twice coming Messiah and Lord, would remain concealed within the prophetic scriptures (Ro 16:26) until the appointed time of revelation.

So the early stages of redemptive history begins in a conflict between an unconditional election and promise (God swears by Himself alone while Abraham is in a deep sleep; Gen 15:12) and the addition of conditions that require a righteousness too high for man, such that only God could provide. The means by which God would provide this righteousness was only dimly seen in other ages. Full light concerning the nature and basis of this righteousness would not come until after the mystery of the gospel was revealed to the apostles and prophets of the early church after the Lord’s resurrection (Mk 8:30; 9:9; Lk 24:21; Acts 1:6 with Acts 3:21; Eph 3:5).

However dimly understood in other ages, no one was ever justified by any other righteousness than the righteousness of God in Christ, since no other righteousness was ever acceptable in any age or dispensation. Therefore, since it is clear that Old Testament saints were most certainly alive to God by the Spirit,  we conclude that God imputed the righteousness of Christ to those that were regenerate by faith before the fuller revelation of “the mystery of the gospel” (Eph 6:19).

The prophets understood the necessity of regeneration, which they spoke of by such expressions as “circumcision of the heart, new spirit, law written in the heart,”  etc. They also understood that the regeneration of only a few could never meet the conditions required for the promise of security in the Land to be sure and lasting. This is the conflict that is created by extravagant promises that were made to depend on the fulfillment of conditions that are too high for human ability. The prophets saw these humanly impossible conditions all fully met by the apocalyptic in-breaking of God in the day of the Lord. But the revelation of a day that would regenerate the nation and break the power of the gentiles is only part of the solution to the dilemma of the covenant, because there can be no new birth without an atonement.

The ultimate solution, therefore, would await the first century revelation of the mystery of the gospel (Ro 16:25-26; Eph 6:19). The mystery of a partial present fulfillment (the ‘already’) and a deferred day of the Lord (the ‘not yet’), built around two comings of the Messiah to Israel, reveals how the New Covenant is received first by the church, with a view of making Israel jealous (Ro 11:11, 14, 31) and finally by the penitent survivors of Israel at the end of the tribulation.

So the Pentateuch sets up the background for the covenant dilemma that gave rise to the revelation of the day of the Lord, which prepared the way for the more ultimate and final revelation of Christ’s atonement in the context of His twofold appearing to Israel.

So the mystery reveals two stages of covenant fulfillment. The church sees clearly the first stage that was not known in other ages (Ro 16:25-26; 1Pet 1:11), but to its great loss, it has all but lost sight of the second stage that the prophets saw so clearly.

Lord, restore the original context of the mystery, by which your greater glory is made to shine more brightly.

Reggie

The post The Eschatology of the Everlasting Covenant appeared first on Mystery of Israel.