Part 6.1 - After Six Day..
After Six Days…On The Seventh Day The Climax Of The Age The entire history of this world and man is moving toward one event. Some people believe that history has been molded entirely by the human race. It is as if man is the driving force of history. Some people look at past history in the light of today and believe the world has become a technological marvel of what man can achieve. Some people believe that there is no limit to what man can accomplish in the years ahead. Some people believe that the world is heading toward destruction. Still others believe it is heading toward a utopia where all the world’s problems will be solved. In some ways, each thought has some element of truth; but none is the correct view of world history whether past, current or future.
Man might believe that he is in control of the destiny of this world, but he is not; God is. God alone is the true driving force of all of history. At times during world history, it might have seemed that God was an absent ruler. But even in the darkest of times, God has ruled in the kingdom of men because He has been moving toward one mighty climax of the age. In His longsuffering, He has been pressing on toward one goal. He has been working to culminate history in one tremendous event whether man knows it or not, whether man cooperates or not. This event is centered on one person, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. God’s Son will return to this earth one day very soon to take the scepter of the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, He is coming to personally and visibly rule over this earth. His Kingdom will be a Kingdom of righteousness and peace for He will rule with a rod of iron (Revelation 19:15). Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne (Psalms 97:2). In that day, all the enemies of God will be subjected to God’s King; for He must rule until all His enemies have been put under His feet, until the last enemy, death, is destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). The Son of God will head up or sum up all things in heaven and on earth (Ephesians 1:10). All things will be gathered together in Him and He will fill all things with His life. Christ will be all and in all (Colossians 3:11). In that day, the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day, it shall be-"The Lord is one," and His name one (Zechariah 14:9). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is coming and He is coming soon. The time is almost up! For this purpose, God has been longsuffering and working for nearly 6,000 years of world history. God’s Son will sum up the history of this world and of man. When He comes to reign over this earth, He will take this earth from chaos to order, from war to peace, from unrighteousness to righteousness, from injustice to justice. At the end of His rule, a new heaven and a new earth will be brought forth and He and His Father will usher in the Day of God, the eternal ages to come, the beginning of an eighth day (1 Corinthians 15:27-28; 2 Peter 3:12). But the eternal ages are not the primary focus of the prophetic Scriptures. As revealed through the prophets, the Bible draws our attention to the age that is coming, the age of our King, the millennial reign of Christ, the Day of the Lord, the Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10; Revelation 20:4-5). It is the seventh day of world history that brings to a close the six days or 6,000 years of man, Man’s Day. It is the day of rest for God and His people. It is the Reign of the Heavens.
What has God been doing in history? He has been working to restore ruined man and this earth which is in the bondage of corruption (Romans 8:21) in order to usher in the Day of His Son and bring many sons unto glory (Hebrews 2:10). He has been working to restore man to the very purpose for which He created man-to have dominion.
According to God’s Word, He is coming and He will not delay (Hebrews 10:37). How long will it be until God sends His Son back to this earth to rule? God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31).
We may not know exactly when our beloved Lord will return, but we can stand on God’s Word that He will come, for the Father has assured us by raising His Son from the dead. Because He was raised from the dead, we can be absolutely 100% sure that the Righteous One is coming back to judge the world. A day has been appointed.
God Is Precise
God’s timing is perfect. He does not delay. In fact, God is very precise in what He does (see Revelation 9:15). Unfortunately, when we study the Scriptures, we read with our own understanding and begin to believe that God works in ways similar to fallen man. The result is that we fail to see that God works in a very fixed, precise, accurate and deliberate fashion.
Throughout the Scriptures, there are many numbers used for a variety of purposes. Some specific numbers are repeated often to reveal God’s principles in dealing with man (e.g., six, seven, ten, twelve, forty). For example, one refers to unity or oneness; two refers to witness; three refers to divine perfection or completeness; five refers to human weakness and grace; six refers to man and incompleteness; seven refers to the perfection or completeness of that which is in view; eight refers to a new beginning, the beginning of a new series; ten refers to ordinal (an order or series of numbers) perfection or completion of that which is under discussion; twelve refers to governmental perfection or completeness; forty refers to a period of trial, testing, probation or chastisement.
Understanding God’s meaning to numbers in the Scriptures is a key that will unlock many truths and clear up confusion. This is a particularly important matter in understanding God’s timing and the completion of the work that He is doing to bring all things under subjection to His Son (Hebrews 1:13) and to bring in His Kingdom (Matthew 16:27-28; Matthew 17:1). To further understand God’s purpose and plan, we must understand the principle He laid down in the very beginning of His Word. Numbers play a significant role in understanding God’s restoration work and in them we discover His principle of restoration.
Six Plus One-The History Of The Heavens And The Earth In the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, it is recorded that God took this earth which was in ruin and chaos because of the rebellion of Satan and restored it in six days. The Spirit of God hovered over the raging waters and breathed life into something that was in death and darkness. God spoke light into the earth and began a work of restoration. On the sixth day, He formed man, Adam, from the dust of the earth; He commanded man to have dominion over the earth. Man was created in the image and likeness of God to rule over God’s earth under God’s sovereignty (Genesis 1:26). When He finished the work of restoring this earth and creating man, God declared that it was very good (Genesis 1:31). God was very pleased and He rested on the seventh day.
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (Genesis 2:1-4NKJ) This is the history of the heavens and the earth. God set the principle of restoration in the very beginning when He restored the earth the first time. He firmly established the pattern for the entire history of the earth, from the beginning to the end of its restoration. God restored a ruined earth, brought on by the rebellion of Satan, in six 24-hour days. On the seventh day, God rested. He set apart the seventh day and blessed it. In God’s original restoration of this earth, we discover His unchanging principle in the history of this earth, both then and now. He restores in six days and He rests on the seventh. The Fall
Adam, as the federal head of the new creation, man, was to take dominion over the earth. He was created in the image and likeness of God; therefore, he had every ability to rule if only he had obeyed God and trusted in God alone. Unfortunately, Adam sinned and became disqualified to rule over the earth. He could not have dominion as God had intended. The best Adam could do was try to dominate in a world that was not under his dominion. He was sent forth from the Garden to till the land. A good example of this loss of power to rule is given to us through the animals. Adam named every animal that God brought before him. There was no fear on the part of the animals or of Adam. They were at peace together because Adam was created to rule over them. They had been given to Adam. After the fall of Adam this all changed with Noah and the flood. When he came out of the ark, Noah was given by God every moving thing as food but He put fear of man into every moving thing (Genesis 9:2). Man was no longer at peace with his world. He could no longer command or rule because he was not in dominion. Instead, he had to till the land and he had to hunt for his food. Just consider how the animals of the wild respond to man today. Except for some domesticated animals, those creatures in the wild (the bush) do not obey man but rather, at best, they act fearful toward man and, at worst, they would just as soon devour man. All man can do is try to dominate in a world that he has been disqualified from subduing. Since the flood, all that man can do is "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). Man can no longer "rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Genesis 1:26). With Adam’s sin, the entire human race began its decline into ruin and death took hold of man. Since man was created to have dominion over the earth, the earth also went into corruption. Paul describes it as the bondage of corruption or slavery to corruption (Romans 8:21). The whole creation groans in travail, awaiting the day that the sons of God are revealed and brought into glory. What a day that will be!
Thank God; He did not destroy man and start over with a new created being. Oh, there were times that God wanted to start over, particularly in the days of Noah. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them." (Genesis 6:6-7)
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and mankind was not completely blotted out, for eight people were saved during the time of judgment of the earth through the flood. God made a promise: Never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh (Genesis 9:15). God used the water first to judge Satan and then man. The final judgment of Satan, man and the earth and the heavens associated with this earth will be by fire (2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 20:10; Revelation 20:14-15; Revelation 21:1).
One Day Is As A Thousand Years
God’s purpose and plan cannot and will not fail. Following Adam’s fall, God began a new work of restoration centered on man and brought about through the Man, the Son of God, the last Adam. God’s plan of restoration is based on His principle of restoration-six plus one; that is, six days of restoration work and a seventh day of rest. However, God’s day is no longer a 24-hour day. In reference to the history of this earth, the Bible tells us that one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). The order of the words in this verse is important because they refer to God’s restoration work in the beginning before the fall of man and then after the fall. God’s restoration started with a 24-hour day before the fall that became a 1,000-year day after the fall. God’s day became a 1,000-year day. In other words, God restored a ruined earth in six 24-hour days; but when Adam fell in disobedience, God began a new work of restoration that will last six 1,000-year days. He restored the earth and brought forth man in six 24-hour days. Now, He is restoring man and the earth brought into corruption by man in six 1,000-year days. God has set 6,000 years to do this work. This age could be called Man’s Day, for six is the number of man. To me it is for a very little thing that by you I may be judged, or byman’s day, but not even myself do I judge. (1 Corinthians 4:3YLT {ea}) In the very beginning, God left another proof of this principle of one day. When Adam was commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was told for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die (Genesis 2:17). We know that when Adam ate of the tree, his spirit went into death, his spiritual communion with God was broken and he was no longer clothed in the glory of God. He became naked. No man since Adam except the Man, Jesus, has ever walked in uninterrupted glory. But a fact that is often overlooked is that Methusalah lived 969 years (Genesis 5:27), the most years that any man has ever lived on the earth. Man has never lived a full day, a full 1,000-year day. If Adam had not sinned, man would have come into uninterrupted glory in the full day. One day is as a thousand and a thousand as one day. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
Praise God; there is a day coming when a glorified people will live the full 1,000-year day in the millennial reign of Christ. This day is the Age of the Kingdom and Glory. The fact that must catch our attention is that since Adam, nearly 6,000 years have passed. There cannot be much time left on God’s clock. When the time is up, God will send forth His Son a second time, which will be the last. Hallelujah! The Day of Glory is coming. The Seventh Day-The Reign Of Christ A seventh day is coming, the Lord’s Day, the Kingdom Age, when Christ will take the scepter of the Kingdom of Heaven and sit upon His throne. Nearly 2,000 years ago or 4,000 years from the time of Adam, God sent His Son to this earth; He took on the form of man and died for the sin of the world to redeem man back to God. Through Him, God reconciled all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven (Colossians 1:20). At Calvary, God’s Son defeated all powers and principalities. God’s Son is to inherit the nations and possess the earth. He is God’s King.
"But as for me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the {very} ends of the earth as Thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.’" (Psalms 2:6-9) When Christ appears the second time, His presence on this earth will bring in the seventh day or the last 1,000 years of world history. This last day is the millennial reign of Christ.
All down through history, God has been working to culminate all things in the triumphant return of Messiah, Jesus, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The One who was despised, rejected, spit upon, marred as no man has been marred; who had a crown of thorns thrust upon His head, was then hung on a cross and crucified, and finally was raised from the dead to ascend to the throne of God is coming back a second time. This time He is coming in glory and power. He will be wearing many diadems or crowns (Revelation 19:12). He is the ruler of all things in heaven and on earth. In that day, He will end Man’s Day and bring in His Day, the day when He rules in righteousness. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works" (Hebrews 4:4). There is a seventh day coming, for there remains a rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9). God’s word is true and it shall come to pass whether man knows it or not, even if His people believe it or not.
God has given us His unchangeable principles in the Old Testament for they have been established with Israel in reference to the Sabbath and the Ten Commandments.
"Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; {in it} you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:9-11)
"But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for {this} is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you." (Exodus 31:13)
"It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased {from labor,} and was refreshed." (Exodus 31:17) The Sabbath is a sign between God and the sons of Israel. Why? Because God wants them to have a reminder continually before them not only because of the need to rest from labor today but because there is a day of rest to come. God was refreshed on the seventh day and He will be refreshed once again when His Son ushers in the seventh day.
Israel keeping the Sabbath is meant to be a sign between God and Israel; but it is also a sign to the whole unbelieving world as well, whether they realize it or not. Israel is a sign to the nations. The Lord Jesus spoke a parable about the fig tree (Matthew 24:32-35). When the fig tree, which is a symbol of Israel, puts forth leaves, the end of the age is very near. The nation of Israel (a remnant in unbelief) is back on the land and the leaves have come forth; the summer is near and the seventh day is coming. The seventh day will be a holy day as God’s King sits upon His throne.
It is interesting that the Lord Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). He is the fulfillment of all the Law, including the commandments. When He comes He will end the sixth day and bring in the seventh day. He will fulfill all the days determined by the Father. But why are Israel and the Sabbath a sign of the seventh day? Because it is God’s dealings with Israel and the nations that will sum up Man’s Day. The judgment of Israel will close out Man’s Day. Most likely, the Church will not be included in God’s dealings during the Great Tribulation. The last 3½ years of Man’s Day are Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:15-28) which refers to Israel, not the Church. In fact, today Israel is a sign to the Church that the time is almost up. When the Church is taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air it will be a sign to Israel that the end is near for them. It should be noted that the Church has been given a sign of her own to remember the Lord’s return, and that is the Lord’s supper: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26). Until He comes, the seventh day cannot come.
[There is much disagreement over when the Church will be taken up in the clouds. The different views include before the Tribulation, in the middle of the Tribulation (start of the Great Tribulation) and after the Great Tribulation but before the final wrath of God (pre-wrath). Regardless of the view we hold, we are exhorted to be watching and praying for we do not know the day and the hour of His coming.] In the Old Testament, God has given us types (shadows) of things to come that are the antitypes (the real things). For example, in writing about Noah being saved through water, Peter described this event as an antitype of the believer’s baptism or immersion in water (1 Peter 3:21NKJ). In the record, we discover that the type of the coming seventh day was revealed when Moses went up on the mountain (which in the Scriptures refers to a kingdom) to meet the Lord and after six days God’s glory appeared. The antitype is found in the account of the Lord Jesus going up on a mountain and being transfigured in the presence of Moses, Elijah and three disciples. The antitype reveals that after six days the Lord of Glory Himself will appear in His Kingdom. When Moses was commanded to go up to the mountain, it is recorded: Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel (Exodus 24:15-17NKJ).
After six days, on the seventh day, the glory of the Lord appeared to Moses and Moses received all the instructions for Israel to be a kingdom of priests unto God. The blood of the lamb had been applied, they were delivered from Egypt (the world) and they were on the brink of becoming God’s chosen nation on earth to lead all the other nations (Deuteronomy 28:1; Deuteronomy 28:13). In other words, God’s Kingdom was to be manifested on earth through Israel. However, as with Adam, the nation of Israel failed in their calling, never reaching the heights that God commanded through Moses. Moses is a type of Christ, the Deliverer. Moses brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt. When Christ comes, He will come as Israel’s Deliverer coming out of Zion. "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob" (Romans 11:26). In that day, they will be brought out of bondage in the world and returned to the land, forgiven for their transgressions, healed of their sickness and restored as the head of the nations. They will be God’s people, bringing blessing to the redeemed Gentile nations of the world during the Kingdom Age. In the Gospel of Matthew, the antitype of the Kingdom and Glory coming on the seventh day is revealed. When He walked this earth, the Lord Jesus took three of His disciples up on a high mountain and appeared to them as the Son of Man coming in glory and in His Kingdom.
"Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" (Matthew 16:28; Matthew 17:1-5NKJ)
After six days, on the seventh day, what did the disciples see? They saw the King standing, transfigured in glory. They saw the Son of Man coming in glory on the seventh day. God’s voice boomed out: "This is My Son!" It is God’s Son who is coming to take the scepter of the Kingdom of Glory. When He comes, Christ will be like a consuming fire, just like when the glory of the Lord appeared as a consuming fire on the mountain with Moses. Christ will judge His people, the nation of Israel and the Gentile nations. All that is not of His life, that has not borne fruit for His Kingdom, will be consumed in the fire of judgment.
[Luke records the days differently from Matthew, which could lead one to discount the seventh day, but the Scriptures never contradict one another. Instead they present a fuller picture of the truth. Luke records that "some eight days after these sayings" (Luke 9:28). The key to understanding the difference in the six days verses the eight days is the time period to which each writer referred. Luke counted his days from the time of "these sayings," which started in Luke 9:18. Matthew counted his days starting at the end of these sayings. In other words, Jesus taught His disciples over a two-day period (Matthew 16:13-28; Luke 9:18-27). Matthew simply counted his days following these sayings, and Luke counted his days at the beginning of these sayings. Three is a very important number; in the prophetic Scriptures, relative to the coming of the Lord, the third day and the seventh day are one and the same. Thus, if we take Luke’s account of two days for the sayings and consider what these sayings actually revealed, we will see that they all referred to the Christ going to the cross, building His Church and finally coming as the Son of Man in the glory of His Father, ushering in the Kingdom Age or the seventh day. Prophetically speaking, God has set aside two days or 2,000 years from the cross to glory. Using Luke’s account of the days, we arrive at the same conclusion as Matthew-after two days, on the third day, the Kingdom comes.]
Even Jude left us a reminder of the seventh day that is coming when he wrote of Enoch who is a type of Christ’s Church being removed from the earth before God pours out His wrath on an unbelieving world.
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, "to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them." (Jude 1:14-15NKJ)
Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, is very significant. Why? Throughout the Scriptures, seven is God’s number of perfection. It means divine completion. As the seventh from Adam, Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24). He was taken away so that he did not see death (Hebrews 11:5). Enoch was removed from the earth alive before God poured out His judgment on a sinful, unrighteous world from which only Noah and his family were saved. But notice that Jude declared a prophesy from Enoch which is not recorded any other place in the Bible. Enoch prophesied of the Lord’s coming to execute judgment. What is this judgment? It is the judgment of all, and it is associated with the return of the Lord. Judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17), so the Lord will judge His Church which is His Body (2 Corinthians 5:10) before He turns to Israel and the Gentile nations (Revelation 6:1-17; Revelation 7:1-17; Revelation 8:1-13; Revelation 9:1-21; Revelation 10:1-11; Revelation 11:1-19; Revelation 12:1-17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-20; Revelation 15:1-8; Revelation 16:1-21; Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-24; Revelation 19:1-21). As Enoch was removed from the earth, so will be the Lord’s people who are alive when the Lord comes hidden in the clouds of glory. As the seventh from Adam, Enoch represents those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb who will be taken up in the air to be with the Lord-both those redeemed who are alive when He comes (like Enoch) and those redeemed who have fallen asleep in the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). At the end of the Great Tribulation and the great day of His wrath (Matthew 24:29; Revelation 6:15-17), the Lord Himself will descend from the clouds (Acts 1:11) and step foot on the earth for all eyes to see Him (Zechariah 14:4; Revelation 1:7). He will take the scepter of the Kingdom and the kingdom of the world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15). His reign of glory will begin and righteousness and peace will be upon the earth for the final age, the Age of the Kingdom of the Son, before eternity This is the history of the heavens and the earth-seven days; six days of man, Man’s Day; and one day of the Lord, the Lord’s Day. Seven thousand years will complete the history of the heavens and the earth as we know them. Following these days, a new, glorious day begins. It is the endless ages, the eternity of God. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer {any} sea. (Revelation 21:1)