Edition 400: January 16^th 2018

Four Hundred and more:

Introduction:

This is Edition 400.

 Hebrew is an alpha-numeric language. Each letter has a numeric value to it as well. You can simply add up the numeric value of a word. Bear in mind, that numbers in scripture have meanings as well. Hebrew letters are in picture form which have meaning too.

Don’t go overboard with these things!

This is edition 400. It is also a few weeks into the New-Year 2018, and a few months into the Hebrew year 5778. Is there any significance at all to this? I think so, although I’m most certainly not making a “doctrine” out of this. It’s simply interesting. Time will of course tell, as we move on.

The amazing number 400:

The number “400” is assigned to the Hebrew letter ‘Tav’ - ת. It is the 22^nd and final letter of the Hebrew alphabet and it means “Spiritual enlightenment or insight.” Some other meanings of ‘Tav’ derived from the verses in which it is used, as well as the pictogram are: Division, death and door.  

The left leg of the ‘Tav’ looks like a Shofar, giving it the meaning: “Alarming trumpet blast.”

The ‘Tav’ is made up of two other letters: ‘Daleth’ and ‘Nun’ meaning “judgement”.

The letter ‘Tav’ (400) also means: A sign, the cross, and eternity. In the days of Ezekiel, the pictogram of the Tav was a cross as shown in the diagram below. You can see that the modern “Tav” also looks like a doorway.

The final letter of the Greek alphabet is “Omega” with numeric value of 800 or 400x2. Tradition implies that the first 400 represents God’s initial work with man, and the second 400 represents God’s final work with man. Therefore we have 400x2.

Interestingly, Strong’s G400 is the word: “Anaphoneo” Meaning to ‘cry out with a loud voice of alarm!’ (Luke 1:42)

400 can also be represented as 40x10. 40 is the number of trial and testing, while 10 is the number of divine order, or complete manifestation.

400 can also be represented as 5x8x10. 5 is the number of grace. 8 is the number of resurrection and 10 divine manifestation.

400 is also 8x50. 8 is the number of resurrection and 50 the number of jubilee or release to freedom. This symbolises a perfect divine period.

What incredible significance all of this has, especially for the Jewish people!

The first occurrence in the Bible of the number 400 relates to the misery of the 400 hundred years of bondage for the children of Israel in Egypt, and their release from it. (Genesis 15:13) The Rabbis see 400 in relation to their deliverance by Messiah.

400 is also associated with the rebuilding of temple. There were 400 pomegranates on the two pillars of the Temple. (2 Chronicles 4:13)

Let’s put it all together:

So then, ‘Tav’ represents: Death, division, lamenting, crying out, alarm, judgement, divine order, jubilee, spiritual enlightenment, a sign, the cross, the temple, eternity.

Now the application:

Note that this is simply and application of these things, nothing more.

When applying these things to the Jews and Bible prophecy we need to consider that the Jews will go through much suffering soon and have a ‘death’ and a ‘judgement’ leaving them ‘crying out’ and ‘lamenting’. A great ‘sign’ will appear for them. (Nothing to do with Revelation 12!) They will suddenly receive ‘spiritual enlightenment’ and see the cross of Messiah! This will have eternal consequences for them.

This is all going to happen anyway because it is part of Bible prophecy. In fact some of it is already starting to “warm up.”

Does this mean that things are all going to begin now? I would not be so presumptuous as to maintain that because this is Edition 400, these things are going to start happening now.

On the other hand, as we look into so many other factors and events, it does look very much like we are on the verge of it all starting up now. I would not be surprised! For me personally there is a message here, but as said earlier, don’t go overboard with these things, just keep them in mind.

Is this the year of the great awakening, the veil lifting and the blindness clearing? If it is, prepare for a most dramatic time ahead!

If we are on the eve of Messiah’s revelation to His people the Jews, these are just some of the things which, are prophetically related, and will also take place around the same time:

Soon to come:

●2018 will be the year of intensive spiritual darkness for the world and much of the church, as the light begins to shine into Jewish hearts.

●Within a section of the church there will be a new form of deep supernatural darkness with accompanying lying signs and wonders that will deceive masses.

●This will also be the time of great revival, especially in the east. The church, open to the Spirit of God, and God’s work in Israel, will grow in leaps and bounds in the face of growing persecution.

●There will be a dual outpouring of the Spirit of God and the spirit of evil. Mixture of true and false doctrine will abound, deceiving many.

●New sets and cults will form quickly and lead many to destruction.

●This will be a time when restraint is broken down more and more, and sin and evil gets worse.

●Unrestrained “self” will be the order of the day. “Me now” will be the call of the world! “Instant gratification” will be the burning desire of the masses. It will all be for the common good of the state and furtherance of the universal man. – All doomed.

●The mass-media will become more and more deadly like poisonous vipers, blind and deaf!

●We will see new wars break out and old ones intensify.

Light and dark and the battle for Israel in these days:

Isaiah 60:2-3 “Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people (nations), but the Lord will arise over you (Israel) and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to Your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

2 Peter 1:19 “We have the prophetic word  made more sure (than seeing with our eyes and hearing with our ears – previous verses), which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”

In these two powerful verses above we have great insight! Bible prophecy is essential and shines as a light in the intensifying darkness. This severe spiritual darkness will cover the whole earth and all nations as it is beginning to do right now. Israel will be saved in this time and become the world’s most powerful evangelists in the tribulation.

So here we have “darkness, deep darkness”, and the light of Bible prophecy shining in the dark, and “dawning” in the hearts of those who believe in it, bringing them into glorious light.

Beloved brethren, I know Bible prophecy has been, and still is being dealt severe blows of credibility by those who have no place being in ministry. But do not discredit it, and do not cast it or its importance down.

 Revelation, spiritual insight and understanding is conditional upon obedience to God’s Spirit and a walk of repentance.

It’s important to understand that God does not run around blinding people spiritually for fun! It’s always as a result of man’s pride, rebellion and disobedience in the first place. It happens to the church just as it has done to Israel.

The verse below shows how it happened to Israel:

Isaiah 29:9-11 “Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. For the Lord has poured out on you the Spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely the prophets; and has covered your heads, namely the seers. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a scroll that is sealed...”

The Jews here had in fact blinded themselves by rejecting the Messiah who was clearly revealed to them in the Bible, by their prophets. As a result, God blinded them further and “sealed” the vision of Himself to them! What a great tragedy!

It was their actions in the first place that led to them being blinded.

But, all of that has a time-stamp on it! It’s about to all change dramatically! The repentance of the Jews will lead them into God’s light!

Isaiah 42:16 “I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known, I will make darkness light before them and crooked places straight.”

A great sign:

Jeremiah 32:21 “You have brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm and with great terror.” This was after 400-years of Egyptian enslavement. (Genesis 15:13)

The verse below is part of the discourse of God relating to the salvation of the Jews. If you think Isaiah 66 is familiar, you are right!

Isaiah 66, wrongly used, is part of the great deception presented by the Revelation 12-sign teachers, “proving” that the church gets born-again in a day at the rapture and is not actually born-again now.” They have taken that out of the context of the dispensation for Israel and applied it to the church. They did this to support an entire collection of verses all wrongly interpreted and applied – every one, to produce a great deception.

Whenever you find gross misrepresentation and error by a teacher, who later refuses to repent and correct his great deceptions – run away from them fast, because much more will be coming – mark those words!

Isaiah 66 is speaking to and of the Jews and their coming salvation. It has nothing to do with the dispensation of the church!

Isaiah 66:19 “I will set a sign among them (Jews)...they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.”

Could this be the sign?

Romans 10:19 “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will anger you by a foolish nation.”

This verse says that something will happen that will provoke the Jews to “jealousy” and “anger” at the same time. Most analysts agree that this “nation” in the verse above, is in fact the mostly Gentile church.

Could this sign for the Jews be the rapture of the church? It would most certainly make them jealous and angry as they, the chosen people are left behind!

I won’t say more at this stage, because I have spoken on this numerous times, but man-o-man it is exciting stuff – don’t you think?

Time is running out! So much has to happen in a short space of time and then eternity! What joy!

Rewards:

God has a secret key for each of us which opens a special room of treasures for us. The world offers many keys to successes – all a waste of time, if not inspired by Him. It’s the ancient, golden key of God that we need to find to unlock great eternal wealth. All the other keys open to empty rooms!

We should not be motivation by seeking to be better than someone else from a pride point of view. We are not to exalt ourselves and put others down.  But, nevertheless, there are many important issues and truths in rewards.

Rewards for excellence are part of the package deal! Working for reward alone is putting the cart before the horse. But when the horse is before the cart, the horse does get its reward.

It is perfectly legitimate to know what rewards are coming and why. There are literally hundreds of verses, parables and stories describing in detail much about rewards.

Our motivation is to serve our Lord as best we can. That will be rewarded. You can’t and must not remove that from the Bible.

Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do; do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for your service to the Lord Yeshua.”

Isaiah 62:11 “Proclaim to the end of the world: Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.’”

Matthew 16:27 “The Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father, with His angels and then He will reward each one according to His works.”

There is nothing at all wrong with running a race to win and get a reward. We are in this race really to exalt and glorify our Lord, but He has promised to reward those that do His will, excellently.

We will only be rewarded for the works we did in response to His prompting, leading and calling. So that shortens the list!

An illiterate toilet janitor called by God to clean toilets, and who does it excellently to the glory of God, will receive a greater reward than the CEO of that company who is called to be a CEO, but does it half heartedly.

Bear in mind that many will suffer loss of reward as they get to heaven and some will scrape in with no reward at all. Consider that rewards create an eternal, recognisable state for that person.

What will we be rewarded for and what not:

The Bible mentions five types of crowns given to believers for different things. They are: ●The crown of life (James1:12), ●The incorruptible crown (1 Corinthians 9:25-27, ●The crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8), ●The crown of glory (1 Peter 5:2-4), ●The crown of exultation and rejoicing (1 Thessalonians 2:19)

There are numerous other rewards for overcoming, service and even martyrdom. (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26. Revelation 3:21. Revelation 21:7, Revelation 22:12 and many more)

Here are a few more general “reward” verses: (Hover your mouse over them.)

Romans 2:6, Galatians 6:9, Matthew 25:21, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Hebrews 11:6.

We will not be rewarded for a glass of cold water given to someone who is thirsty. (Mark9:31)

We will be rewarded for a glass of cold water given to someone, in His name.

We will be rewarded for our “confidence / faith” in Messiah. (Hebrews 10:35)

We will be known in all the universe and in all eternity by our reward status. It is God’s final assessment of us –forever. We can’t go back and do it again!

Number your days:

Psalm 90:10-12 “The days of our lives are seventy years...So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

This is most important and often underestimated. “Numbering our days” does not necessarily mean just counting them although that may be involved. It really means we are to see and take note of the extreme value in the days our Lord has blessed us with.

Each day of our lives has momentous, vast potential.

Our Lord has given us only so many days. We can make those days count for eternal reward or count for nothing!

Consider the following table:

●70-years as a believer = 25,550 days

●50-years as a believer = 18,250 days

●20-years as a believer = 3,150 days

●1-year as a believer = 365 days.

●6-mths as a believer = 182 days.

If the rapture were to take place on Rosh Hashanah (September 10^th) this year, that’s 238 days from now for all true believers!

When you think of that, and especially when you compare these numbers to eternity, it’s a very, very short time we have on earth in the service of our Lord. It is this short time that determines our eternal state and our eternal “brightness!”

Do you see the gravity of this? Do you see the importance of not wasting your time with stupid, dumb things and just living for self?

Do you want to scrape into heaven by the skin of your teeth, and have no eternal rewards waiting for you? That’s what you call life’s biggest OOPS!

What can I do?

Many people really want to serve our Lord and get moving in the things of God. So many simply don’t know what to do! You must seek the voice of the Lord for you personally. But here are some more general things you must do:

2 Corinthians 5:15 “He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

Let this be your prayer: “Lord, I want to live for You. I want to rise to newness of life even now. Show me what I can and must do for You. Show me your calling”.

“Show me Your heart and passion.”

 “Show me how to truly exalt You in my life and glorify You. Lay on my heart Your will for me. Lead me and guide me.”

“Show me how to make my life count for You, so that I may finish my race with joy in you and testify to that.”

 “Give me strength to take up my cross, to deny self and to live and walk in holiness.”

Finally

I took the background picture of Mooi (beautiful) River Falls in KwaZulu/Natal and the orchid using the light-paint technique and combined them for effect.

Shalom and grow in His Grace!