A REST REMAINS FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE LORD
O.K. Doves, now it’s the days of Noah, Chanukah, or Esther
presents herself before King Ahasueras in the
10th month. Would not want to foster the impression that I
have complete feast burn-out now. For His good reasons He delays His coming,
yet this last year the virgins certainly have gathered in waiting and, what
I love, LEARNING about Him and His feasts. This learning we will be able
to take up with us and have this treasure in heaven forevermore. Hopefully
His further delay does not find us all asleep at that moment !
So, here are some thoughts I have to add to
yours regarding the days of Noah, and which I can add to my sorry record
of predicting the day and hour of His coming. (hey we may get an “A” for
effort anyway).
Our Lord pointedly remarked about the days
of Noah, that the people of the world will be “eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage”, up until the very day Noah entered the ark. These
people must have been quite at ease, and not in any way concerned about
the coming judgment. Marrying and giving in marriage assumes a “future”,
as does so many of the things people do. For instance, now people are
planning their retirements, building retirement homes, getting married,
etc. Unlike many of us Doves, they do not feel any urgency about the possibility
that we might be in the end of days, despite obvious weather and earth-related
changes.
First of all, the last time the Hale-Bopp comet passed this earth, was during the days of Noah.
I am sure that Noah himself took note of this, and other earth-related changes,
and cosmos-related changes, which we ourselves see today, and that he knew
“about” the time, for God had said He would give men “but 120 years” to
strive with men by His Spirit. Furthermore, Noah’s grandfather Methuselah,
died just before the flood. His name means “when he dies it (the flood)
shall come….” So, Noah had some sign posts regarding when the flood would
happen. We saw the Hale-Bopp comet in the spring of 1997, and this coming spring will
be the ninth anniversary of this very significant sign in the heavens.
As the flood during Noah’s time probably involved massive earth and cosmos
changes as a prelude to the great flood, so we also have seen both earth
and planetary warming, and sun anomalies; increasing earthquakes, increasingly
devastating hurricanes / typhoons, and for the first time in any of our
lives, the great tsunami, a herald of more of those to come. We, too,
know “about” the time of His coming, from various countdowns like the six
great days, the man at Bethesda
pool healed after 38 years, the formation of the nation of Israel etc.
Upon this we superimpose the earth and cosmos-related birth pains, and wow…..we’re
surely somewhere in the time period of His coming; if not, then we all better
head for the tall grass !
THE ECONOMY
Now, just how long can this staggering bubble
economy, obviously in its death throes, continue to run on the fumes of
debt only? It is my feeling that the bankers of the world will opt for
hyperinflation as a way of resolving the, ahem, “debt problem”, a monumental
amount of worthless (created out of thin air, “printed” worthless, U.S.
dollars), held by the nations of this world in return for their cheap labor
and goods. As we watch for the eruption of the various volcanic calderas
in the world, this is the big one,,,when the hyperinflated currencies
of the world blow to the highest heavens, in an economic collapse the like
which the world has never seen, globally. For the past five years, people
have been living by borrowing into ever-inflating property values, which,
when the prices go “the other way”, will be left with bloated long and short-term
debt accounts, completely annihilating all they have worked for their entire
lives. Read the history of the hyperinflation of the l920’s in Germany
for a preview of what governments can do when they decide to bail on their
loans, and hyperinflate the currency into oblivion
so that their creditors are left penniless. In the coming years, this is
shown by the black horse of the apocalypse-----a man works all day long
for just enough grain to make one loaf of bread. But “touch not the oil
and the wine”…….we can see this already by the working man having to pay
more for gas and oil, while the “rich” have their oil and wine (per the
latest QUARTERLY profits of the oil companies.) Incredible.
So, the economic complacency of the days prior
to the flood – how long can it last? Because when the world economies
finally implode the judgement years will shortly
be upon us, complete with the “mark” to help sort it all out.
The state of the economy tells us we are near
to His coming.
HIS REST
Jesus told us to look at Noah and Noah’s times.
Population explosion, “strange flesh”, evil just everywhere. Our entertainment
industry pretty much covers all this and more… Noah was a man of faith and
“did what God told him”, in building the ark, and entering that ark when
God told him to. He spent many years preparing for God’s salvation, as
we should be doing for ourselves and our families. The name Noah means
“rest”, for:
Genesis 5:28-32
28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a
son: 29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort
us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which
the LORD hath cursed.
and:
Noah, repose; consolation (from
Hitchcock’s Bible names)
and:
from: http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=noah-1
Derived
from the Hebrew name Noach meaning "rest,
comfort".
In the New Testament, we see many verses concerning our
“rest”, such as the following list, and we can think to ourselves the name
of “Noah” for each reference to rest, below,,,I
notice many verses speak of “entering into” that rest,,,,somewhat
like “entering into” the ark.
2Thess
1:7
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
Heb
3:11
So I sware in my wrath,
They shall not enter into my rest.)
Heb
3:18
And to whom sware he
that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
Heb
4:1
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left
us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of
it.
Heb
4:3
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb
4:4
For he spake in a certain
place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all
his works.
Heb
4:5
And in this place again, If they shall enter into
my rest.
Heb
4:8
For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward
have spoken of another day.
Heb
4:9
There remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God.
Heb
4:10
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from
his own works, as God did from his.
Heb
4:11
- Let us labour therefore to enter into that
rest, lest any man fall after
the same
example of unbelief.
In that Noah’s name means “rest”, and God Himself rested
on the 7th day after His works, we are, also, to enter into our
rest, which also occurs “on the 7th day” (the millennium).
Our Lord also said, “come unto me you who are
heavily burdened, and I will give you REST”. Above, when Lamech
named his son, he spoke of Noah as being a sign for “rest” for those who
toil.
In 2nd Peter, it is discussed that like Noah,
God’s people will be delivered out of temptations:
2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person,
a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly; 2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to
deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto
the day of judgment to be punished:
And the Philadelphia
church is promised to be “kept from the hour of temptation which will come
upon the whole world”.
Perhaps this happens on the very day when Noah entered
the ark, (November 19 this year, according to some of you Doves).
JESUS IS THE DOOR
Jesus speaks of Himself as being the door of
the sheep. He also says when we begin to see signs of His coming we will
know He is “at the door”. And the Philadelphia
church has “an open door that no man can close or no man can open”. God
closed the door when Noah was safely inside,,,,and this door which is offered to the Philadelphia
church is obviously a door that only the Lord can open or close.
Noah was told by God seven days before the
flood, to enter the ark. I would like to believe that we will have some
kind of seven-day notification also, which we will all recognize as our
Lord’s prompting to be ready for Him. This seven-day warning might be the
set-up, for the foolish virgins seeking their oil, and the door which is
closed to them, being that door to the ark of the rapture. And He said
that “many” would be saying “Lord, Lord, open unto us”---kind of sounds
like what people may have said after Noah was in the ark