The nations in prophecy, Part 1

When God divorced Israel and sent His ex-wife out of the house, did the nation of Israel have any further role to play in the divine plan?

Most certainly they did, and their role has emerged more clearly in recent centuries. Just because Israel should be more carefully defined as a nation, rather than as a race of people per se, does nothing to diminish that nation’s role in the divine plan.

The story of Joseph and his brothers in the book of Genesis pictures him as a prophetic type of Israel. He was lost in Egypt and presumed dead for many years, but in the end he emerged at the top of the world. In Genesis 48 Jacob formally adopted Joseph’s two sons, making Jacob’s grandsons full inheritors as sons. Hence, Jacob ended up with 13 sons, because Joseph became two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.

Likewise, Jacob split up the provisions of the birthright that had been passed down to him through the generations from Adam, giving Levi the priesthood, Judah the scepter, and Joseph the remainder of the birthright, including the estate (land) and its assets.

These all became factors in the divine plan of the Kingdom of God, and though each part changed and expanded over the years, nothing was lost nor will it be lost. Levi’s corrupt priesthood eventually ended when it was given to Jesus Christ, who, as a Judahite, was eligible to receive it through the Order of Melchizedek. The scepter also passed to Jesus Christ, though others have contended for the throne in the first century and even to this day. This issue is now being finally settled in the divine court, as other claimants are denied the right to rule the earth.

Jacob’s prophecy to Judah in Genesis 49:10 gave Judah the scepter only temporarily, much like the priesthood of Levi, for in the end, all of Joseph’s brothers would have to bow their knee to Joseph, as his dream prophesied (Genesis 37:10). This is why Levi had to give way to Jesus, the Judahite. But even Jesus could not fully take the throne as a Judahite, for Judah’s scepter was temporary. He had to come a second time as Joseph to receive the assets and territory of the birthright. At that point in time, He will be given the birthright to rule the whole earth, along with its assets, as the King-Priest of the Order of Melchizedek.

I have written of these things in greater detail in other books and articles, but this is a very brief summary of the big picture. The divine plan began in a small territory known as Canaan, but it ends with Christ ruling the whole world. Canaan was the type; the world is the fulfillment of that type.

The Israelites were deported by the Assyrians to Halah, Habor, by the river Gozan and in the cities of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6), in the area around the Caspian Sea. When Assyria fell a century later, these ex-Israelites of the dispersion began to immigrate north and west into Europe, where they became known eventually by anthropologists as Caucasians, on account of the fact that so many immigrated through the Caucasus Mountains that linked the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. Historians called them by other names, such as Gamiri, Khumri, Cimmerians, Sacae (Saxons), Goths, and so on. As time passed, nations were formed in Europe largely out of these ex-Israelites, who by this time had lost sight of their origins in Israel.

During this time, Christ was born in Judea, and the gospel began to spread into Europe. However, after the first few centuries, Christianity itself began to degenerate into mere carnal forms, based on carnal thinking. While the early Christians had focused on setting men free by the power of Christ, the later Christians began to think in terms of putting men into bondage to the church. True Christianity evolved into Churchianity, and the definition of “Christian” changed from one who had a covenant relationship with Christ to one who had a covenant relationship with the church. This was due to the mixed nature of Pentecost and to the manifestation of King Saul as a prophetic type of the church.

The church even degenerated to the point where they began to persecute and torture those who had different ideas from the established norms of “orthodox” Christianity. Their zeal to unify the church under a single creed brought the people under increasing slavery to the church, whose example was followed by the “Christian monarchs.”

If we skip most of history for the moment and see how the divine plan has emerged in recent centuries, the first date that is of interest to us is the year 1492. By this time the church’s slavery mindset had come of age and was fully part of the culture and practice of these ex-Israelites of the dispersion.

1492 is the year that Columbus arrived in Hispanola in the West Indies, opening up this part of the world to exploration, conquest, and settlement. Much of this is not a pretty picture, as we see the European nations acting like beast nations, with their carnal methods of conquest and slavery. The church, too, acted like the “little horn” that it was, a mere extension of the iron beast empire of Rome. Instead of preaching freedom in Christ, they came in search of church slaves, converting the people to a religious system, rather than pointing them to Jesus Christ. Instead of coming to set the world free by the law of Jubilee, they came looking to steal wealth that other people had accumulated through their labor over the previous centuries.

Yet 1492 was the first important year in modern prophetic history. It connects with biblical events through the factor of Cursed Time—that is, in cycles of 414 years—dating back to Noah’s curse on Canaan. I explained this in more detail in Secrets of Time, chapter 4. Noah’s curse upon Canaan came three years after the end of the flood, when his vineyard matured. This was 1660 years after Adam. The story is recorded in Genesis 9:24-27.

Noah cursed Canaan, and thus Canaan came into Cursed Time for 2 x 414 years. In other words, Canaan and his descendants received 828 years in which to repent of Canaan’s sin. This grace period ended in the year 2488, when Joshua led Israel into Canaan to conquer the land and bring judgment upon Canaan for their lack of repentance.

If we extend those two cycles of 414 years for another seven cycles, they end in the year 1492, the year that Columbus sailed to the Americas. At first glance it would seem that these ex-Israelites were being given a second mandate to commit genocide against the modern “Canaanites,” that is, the Indian population in the Americas. But this is not so.

Consider the case of Canaan first. The reason for Israel’s judgment upon Canaan was not merely to bring judgment upon the nation on account of the sin of their ancestor in the days of Noah. Canaan could have been judged in a New Covenant manner, if the Israelites had been willing to hear the voice of God. When God gave Israel the Ten Commandments at Mount Horeb, all the people heard the voice of God speaking from the Mount. However, they were afraid and ran away, begging Moses to go and hear on their behalf, so that they would not have to hear Him directly (Exodus 20:19-21).

This being the first Pentecost in Israel’s history, we can see that if Israel had been ready and willing to hear God’s voice directly, God would have written the law on their hearts. He would have given them the same Sword of the Spirit that we are supposed to have today. But they refused to hear, and so a carnal, physical sword was left to them, by which they conquered Canaan forty years later. Yes, God still assisted them in this conquest, for Canaan’s time of judgment had arrived. But this did not truly reflect the heart of God.

If the Israelites had been willing to receive the Sword of the Spirit, they would have conquered Canaan by the power of the gospel in the same manner that the early church conquered men many years later. But they were unwilling and incapable of fulfilling Pentecost under Moses. So the Sword of the Spirit remained out of reach until the first century, when 120 disciples were willing to draw near to God in the upper room to receive the promise of the Father.

Unfortunately, the church dropped their true Swords as time passed and eventually picked up carnal swords by which to conquer people and extend the kingdom of the church. This problem only increased over the centuries, setting the stage for the New World conquests, beginning in 1492.

This same hardness of heart, seen in the Israelites under Moses, was seen in the church among the ex-Israelites of Europe. Once again they had opportunity to bring freedom through Christ and by the Sword of the Spirit to expand the glory of the Kingdom of God to the “New World.” However, by this time the Sword of the Spirit had been lost and long forgotten by the Roman church and even by many churches of the Reformation, and too few knew how to use anything other than a physical sword.

Both the genocide of Canaan and later in the New World were avoidable, if the people of God had known God’s heart and had learned to use the Sword that He offered them. The conquest of the New World after 1492 brought few of them into the Kingdom of God, but mostly into the carnal kingdom of King Saul. The result was a largely bloody mess.

The actions of God’s people reflected negatively upon Jesus Christ Himself, of course. The conquered people could only see that Jesus was a military messiah who had come to conquer by force and to enslave the world to Himself. But the few who actually put on the nature and character of Jesus Christ were able to minister by the Sword of the Spirit in spite of the carnality of the majority. And so we also see some greatness exhibited in the midst of the carnage and carnality. Hence, many of the Indian tribes did turn to Christ, and so there are strong believers to this day.

We will continue this in our next part, showing other connections between ancient Israel and the modern nations.