Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! Previously, we saw how the Old Testament Prophets warned Israel that God would soon discipline and exile His people. Not only that, God would use the very enemies of Israel as His instruments of discipline before these pagan nations were in turn judged by Him for their wickedness and cruelty. All these took place according to God’s word but that was not the end. The time is almost upon us now when Israel and the Church will again be severely tested and disciplined by God for their unfaithfulness. God will allow a satanic kingdom to rise up in these end times to threaten Israel even as more and more believers worldwide suffer at the hands of an increasingly Apostate Church that has fallen away from God. All these events will culminate in a final showdown outside Jerusalem, when Jesus will appear in the sky and return to save His people on this appointed day - The Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is something mentioned by many of the Old Testament Prophets. It refers to the end of the world as we know it. To the Jews, it is that great day when the Messiah would come to deliver Israel from its enemies and usher in His eternal rule. To Christians, it is the glorious Second Coming of Jesus. Yet the Prophets had described it as a dreadful day, because it was the day when God’s discipline of His wayward people and judgment of His wicked enemies would reach its climax. It is the day when Jesus will return to put an end to the Antichrist’s last-ditch attempt to destroy Israel in the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, which is also known as the Valley of Decision. On that day, God will decide who are truly His - disciplined yet loved by Him and therefore awaiting deliverance - and who are reserved for judgment, condemnation and destruction. Like the Jewish day that begins at sunset, it will be a day that starts in darkness and night first before giving way to the glorious dawn of Jesus’ Millennial rule. Jesus Himself told us that He would return like a “thief in the night.” Be careful what we wish for because we may not be ready for it! But take heart! Even as God’s judgment unfolded for His enemies, the Prophets reassured Israel that there was ultimately comfort, hope and restoration for God’s people following His discipline. We saw this in the past, and will see it again in the future. In God’s Kairos, a faithful remnant of Jews returned from exile to rebuild the nation and the Temple, preparing the ground for Jesus’ first coming 2,000 years ago. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the way of salvation and restoration was open to all mankind. Now in these last of last days, God once again brought about the return and regathering of the Jews in 1948. After a period of discipline during the Tribulation, Israel will acknowledge its Messiah at Jesus’ appearance and be fully restored as His Kingdom on earth during the Millennium and into eternity. The Church, which experienced a similar restoration during the Reformation, will also be comforted with this hope of final and eternal restoration as the Bride of Christ in the New Heaven, Earth and Jerusalem. Now, central to the entire narrative of the Old Testament Prophets was their prophecy of the Messiah as the Suffering Servant and Redeemer at His First Coming, before He returns on the Day of the Lord as the future King of Kings - Jesus Christ. There are at least 353 Old Testament prophecies that have already been fulfilled by Jesus at His first coming. We can be sure that He will fulfill the rest when He returns. In fact, all of creation and history, and God’s plan and purposes as revealed in the Bible, are about Jesus. The last few prophets of the Old Testament - Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi - urged the exiles to finish rebuilding the Temple because - as the verse above tells us - the Messiah’s coming would very much be linked to the Temple’s existence. God would also send a messenger to prepare the way before Him, and yet we are told that His coming would be sudden/unexpected. This was what exactly happened when Jesus first came. Although announced by John the Baptist and accompanied by various signs and wonders, the people still rejected and crucified Jesus. The Temple in Jesus’ time was the most magnificent as it had ever been, but tragically the people totally missed recognising their God, their True Temple. As in the past, God will again send another messenger - in fact, He would send two of them (I’ll talk about this next time) - to announce Jesus’ return. But let us not wait until then to believe that Jesus is indeed coming soon, for the message is already being announced to us now. May we rebuild our spiritual temple and community in such a way that we will be ready to recognise and receive our King and not be caught asleep by His sudden return. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g51c41d56fa_0_0

Issachar B7D Fellowship

1 Nov 2019 (#4 Session 4) Day 4 - Prophetic Narrative & Rhema (Part 3 - Day of the Lord & Messiah)

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to the Issachar B7D Fellowship! Sunset today (Sunday, 29 September 2019) marks the beginning of a Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah - "head of the year") with the blowing of the Shofar (Ram's horn) to commemorate the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah - "Day of Trumpets"). More importantly, this Feast is prophetic of Christ's return at the Last Trumpet. If we go by the official Jewish calendar, we are entering the Hebrew year AM 5780 (AM or Anno Mundi means year after Creation - meaning we are entering the 5780th year after Creation), but if we take into account the possibility that there are 165 missing years in this calendar (which I have covered in my study), then this brings us much closer to the end of the Sixth Millennium at AM 5945. In my own study, where I have based my dates on the chronology of people and events in the Bible, we are even nearer at AM 5979 before Christ returns to usher in His Millennial Sabbath Rule as symbolized by the Seventh Day of the original Creation account. Looking back, the Issachar B7D journey started three years earlier in May 2016 with a prophetic word that the Lord released in His Kairos or appointed time, a word that I was commissioned to write down. Although I didn't know then when or where it would end, God knew and in His Kairos exactly two years later, in May 2018, I finished putting down all that was needed to be said and the full B7D materials can be found here in my website. It was only recently that I realized how prophetic God's timing was. God ensured that I finished putting down His word for His people in the very month that Israel celebrated 70 years of nationhood since its rebirth in May 1948. It is my personal belief and deep conviction that God's final countdown started from that Kairos moment, meaning that some of us will live to witness Christ's return. Since then, I have put up short Youtube podcasts - each lasting just a few minutes - every first and fifteenth day of the month to unpack the word that the Lord has for His people to prepare this final generation for His soon return. We are now slightly past the halfway mark in my series of podcasts, which will end just before we enter into the next Jewish New Year in September 2020. From then on, I hope to faithfully repeat my series of podcasts every Sabbath or Friday evening, completing each cycle of the entire Issachar B7D message according to the cycle of the Jewish year, year after year after year, so as to keep the flame of God's Truth alive even as the world grows darker. I guess time will tell if I heard my Lord correctly or am I merely deluded. Like the men of Issachar, we are called to understand the times and know what we should do. For my wife and I, we have chosen to start realigning our lives to what we believe is God's Rhema for His people today, and that means recognizing and seizing every opportunity for fellowship now as God's means of preparing His people to encourage and support one another when the storms and trials eventually come until we see our Lord return in His glory or until He calls us home. "Let us not neglect meeting together ... but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25) God bless you, Stephen & Wei Ling Lim Song credit - Yamma Ensemble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnkb7M3dKTg)

Annual Introduction - AM 5979 (29 September 2019 - 18 September 2020)

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! Previously, we learnt of God’s purpose for Israel to indirectly point to Jesus and pave the way for His coming and return through various aspects about the nation. But God didn’t stop at just that - He also spoke plainly to His people and to all mankind about Jesus (although God did not identify Jesus by name then) by sending Prophets throughout Israel’s history to proclaim His Rhema in His Kairos. These Old Testament Prophets, who guided and warned Israel in their walk with God, served as God’s lesser light by prophesying the coming of a Messiah or Anointed One and His Kingdom. In God’s Kairos, His Word literally came to life in Jesus, who died for our sins to fulfill His Rhema as spoken of in the Law and through these Prophets. After His resurrection, Jesus commanded His Apostles to proclaim the Gospel or Good News that He was the Messiah and that His Kingdom had arrived - although for now, His Kingdom would be hidden in the hearts of His people, as they called by faith on His name for their spiritual salvation even as they waited for His physical return. Since then, every generation of the Church has reached out into the world to fulfill this Great Commission. This has been God’s Rhema in this Kairos period of His grace, kept hidden in previous ages but revealed to the Apostles and the Church (Eph 3:4-5), until the fullness of the Gentiles have come into His Kingdom. Now, we are standing at the end of history, almost two thousand years since Jesus first came. We saw previously how we are very likely the last generation, the ones who will experience the end-time tribulation and finally witness Jesus’ return. In this Kairos moment, God is once again releasing His Rhema to His people, kept hidden previously but now revealed through the signs of the times as understood in light of the Seven Days of Creation, which is to proclaim that Jesus the Messiah and His Kingdom will soon return. His Kingdom will no longer be confined within the hearts of people and, as described in Mt 11:12, “subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.” Instead, Jesus will set up His Millennial Kingdom to rule over the earth from His throne in Jerusalem, and Israel will be restored to fulfill its destiny as His kingdom of priests and holy nation. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g4f0848e9e5_0_4

15 September 2019 (#1 Session 4) Day 4 - The Prophets

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! The book of Esther is unique in that there was no mention of God throughout. Yet God’s hand was clearly at work through a young Jewish girl who had the courage to stand and speak His Rhema in His Kairos. As a result, God’s people was rescued from total destruction. The evil in Esther’s time was the same evil that wiped out six million Jews during the Jewish Holocaust of World War Two. It is a solemn reminder that God’s enemies, led by Satan, will not stop seeking to destroy God’s people until Jesus returns in judgment. Even now, the world is lining up against Israel, while Christian communities are being persecuted everywhere. We are told that an end-time holocaust will come when “all who refused to worship the image [of Satan]” will be killed (Rev 13:15). Our Lord Himself had already warned us of what is to come - “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me … but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Mt 24:9-13). The enemy’s attacks are also being carried out within the Church itself as apostasy grows and the Truth of God is undermined. We are that generation that will not only see Jesus’ return to bring in the dawn of a glorious new millennium but also to live through the darkest of the darkest night before it. As I had mentioned before, the purpose of the Issachar B7D Fellowship is not to speculate on dates but to understand the signs of the times so that we know how close we are to His coming. But more than that, we are called to know not just for sake of knowing, but so that we know what to do in such times. For the past 2,000 years, we have heard and heeded God’s Rhema in the form of the Great Commission. This must continue until the fullness of the Gentiles have come into the Kingdom. But we are now living in the last Jubilee; we are that final generation whom Jesus is speaking to in Matthew 24. It is time to recognise that the signs point to us, and that we should therefore hear and respond to His Rhema for us in this Kairos. Like Ezra and Nehemiah, we are called to repair the foundations and rebuild the walls of our faith, both individually and together as one people of God, so that we will survive when the storms of internal apostasy and external persecution hit. Like Esther, we are to rescue His people, not just by bringing them into the Faith but to help them hang on to it until Jesus returns. As the passage above tells us, God’s work and will can never be undermined, despite our inaction or outright disobedience. As Mordecai put it, “if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.” God doesn’t need us, but He did choose us so that we have the privilege and joy of participating in His divine plan. May those who see the signs and hear God’s Rhema as we do persevere with the kind of faith and courage that Mordecai and Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah, had. After all, “who knows but that you have come to your … position for such a time as this?” Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g50618e53f0_0_1

1 September 2019 (#12 Session 3) Day 4 - Reflections (For Such a Time as This)

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! Before we continue any further, I want us to consider the signs of the times found in our study of God’s Word so far. This is because we are called to understand them and not be like the hypocritical religious leaders in Jesus’ time who were not satisfied with those signs already given to them but demanded more. Ultimately, such individuals will never be convinced and will face the consequences of their unbelief. We learnt earlier that we are reaching the end of the sixth millennium - AM 5978 (Aug 2019) in the calculation used here. If we go by the Jewish calendar, the year is 5779 but if we take into account the likelihood that there are 165 missing years in that calendar (unfortunately we don’t have time to get into this here), then this brings us to the Jewish year 5944 - which is close to our own calculation. We further learnt that we are living in the 70th Jubilee cycle since the Israelites entered the Promised Land and in the 40th Jubilee cycle since Jesus’ first coming and birth of the Church, and that this could be the Final Jubilee cycle before He returns. Interestingly, Israel also celebrated in May 2018 70 years since its rebirth as a nation. Lastly, in 2017, the Protestant Church celebrated 500 years since Luther’s proclamation. If Jesus first came about 530-odd years after Cyrus’ proclamation, going by that same time-frame, we could be looking at another 30-odd years before He returns. This fits in with our other indicators - all pointing to the next 20+ to 50+ years. Now, some of you may object - did Jesus Himself not say that we will not know when He will return? That even He doesn’t know - only the Father knows - and that His coming will be like a thief in the night? I will address this in detail at the end of our entire study but at this point I just want to say that what we are doing here does not contradict what Jesus told us. We are not here to figure out exactly when Jesus is coming, to pinpoint the exact date of His return. But as the verses above suggest, we are expected to understand the signs of the times so that we know how near we are to His coming. Knowing how near is different from knowing the exact date, but it is also very different from saying that it could be now, in this generation, or a hundred generations from now, because that would make us wake up from our complacency. So if we stop closing our minds and instead open our eyes, we will see that we are indeed the final generation. We are the ones Jesus spoke of when He said “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened” (Mt 24:34, Lk 21:32). No doubt many of us may pass away first before this happens, but the point here is that there will be those among us even now who will witness the events leading to Jesus’ return. Going back to our other verse above, Jesus spoke of the sign of Jonah. In Mt 12:38-42, Jesus explained that this sign referred to His death and resurrection. But Jesus also mentioned how the men of Nineveh whom Jonah preached to repented, unlike the Jews of His day. Consequently, while the Ninevites were spared from God’s judgment which was supposed to come forty days later (Jon 3:4), for these unbelieving Jews, their end did come within their generation about forty years later with the Roman exile of 70 AD. Today, we are that generation to whom the sign of Jonah is once again given for a final time. We can either choose to repent and believe or continue ignoring the meaning of this and all the other signs I have listed here until it is too late. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g4f21611841_0_69

15 August 2019 (#11 Session 3) Signs of the Times

Shalom Aleichem! Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Grace and peace to you from our Lord, Saviour and King. God has an urgent word for His people today so that, like the men of Issachar, we understand the times and know what we should do. What He wants to speak to us is apparent in the Bible when we consider it through the perspective of the 7 Days of Creation (B7D). And His word is this - we are fast approaching the end where we will be tested in unprecedented ways. We therefore need to equip ourselves now in our fellowship groups so that we can uphold one another and others in the Body of Christ to keep the faith until our Lord returns. The Issachar B7D Fellowship is our response in obedience to His word. Through it, God equips us by His people, Word and Spirit. As you study God's Logos together in your own fellowship groups, may His Rhema and Spirit transform you into such future and Christ-ready fellowships in His Kairos. For His Glory, Stephen and Wei Ling Lim

Bible through the 7 Days of Creation in Brief

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! In our last session, we saw the importance of kingship, love and obedience in the kingdom life of God’s nation and His people. When we examine Israel’s history from the time of Yehoshua (Joshua) to Yeshua (Jesus), we find that failure in precisely these areas was what ultimately led to the country’s downfall. It didn’t start out this way though. Following the Exodus and wilderness years, we are told that the Israelites under Joshua served God all the days of their lives (Jos 24:31). However, when a new generation arose, they neither knew God nor what He had done for Israel. Because they did not acknowledge Him as King and instead worshipped the idols of the peoples around them, God disciplined the Israelites by allowing their enemies to force them to a point of repentance. Each time they cried out to God for help, He was faithful to raise up a judge or leader to deliver them and give them rest from their enemies. The people would remain faithful until that judge died, and then a new generation would arise to repeat this vicious cycle. The book of Judges summed it up with this statement - “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit” (Judg 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25). Despite three centuries of going through the same cycle of idolatry, oppression, repentance and deliverance, the Israelites still did not acknowledge God as their True King; instead, they longed to be like the nations around them and demanded for a human king. Israel existed as one united kingdom for 120 years and reached its peak in the early years of King Solomon’s rule. When Solomon completed the First Temple in Jerusalem in AM 3000 - the start of Day 4 or the Fourth Millennium - Israel was finally fully equipped to serve as the lesser light drawing all nations to worship God on His holy mountain. But this was not to be. Unlike his father David who was after God’s own heart, Solomon loved women more than he loved God. This eventually led to idolatry with disastrous consequences for the nation. Israel will only recover its former glory when Jesus returns to rule from Mt Zion during the Millennium. But for now, the once united and powerful kingdom became divided and severely weakened after Solomon’s death. Both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah became vulnerable to foreign powers, tempted to make compromises and fell into idolatry, corruption and injustice. And as we will see later on, both rejected the warnings of the Prophets. God eventually punished both kingdoms and exiled the Israelites for their sins - the Northern Kingdom of Israel to Assyria in 722 BC, and Judah to Babylon in 586 BC. As mentioned before, the land rested for 70 years during the Babylonian exile to make up for all the years that Israel did not keep the Sabbatical and Jubilee cycles. God disciplined Israel but also set a definite time frame after which He would restore His people according to His mercy and faithfulness, and deal with His enemies according to His holiness and righteousness. So, in His Kairos in 538 BC, God released His Rhema - amazingly, through a pagan king, Cyrus - who issued a proclamation allowing the Jews to return to the Promised Land to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. And, in His Kairos about 530-odd years after that, God Himself would come to His people as a man, the Logos Word made flesh, Jesus, the Messiah and Greater Light, Lord and Saviour of the World. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/edit#slide=id.g4ee4ba2061_0_132

15 July 2019 (#9 Session 3) Day 4 - History of Israel (Part 3 - Israel from Yehoshua to Yeshua)

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! In today’s session, we will cover the period from the time the Israelites left Mt Sinai until the next generation stood by the banks of the Jordan river forty years later, and the prophetic lessons we can learn from their wilderness journey. First, when Israel set out to conquer the Promised Land, the nation was effectively entering into warfare as they would need to defeat the pagan peoples occupying the land then. Similarly, the Church is called into warfare and we must expect and be prepared for spiritual opposition as we rescue and take possession of lost souls for God’s Kingdom. Next, the way the Israelites were encamped around the Tabernacle of God as they proceeded on their journey reflected how the life and community of the Israelites then, just as the life and community of the Church today, must revolve around worship of God as a witness to the surrounding nations. This is our primary weapon to win others to Christ - by reflecting God’s glory as His lesser light and so draw people to Him. Worship is also important in warfare as the devil will try to derail us through earthly distractions and temptations or by using fear and intimidation. We can only stand firm and overcome when we keep our focus on God alone. When we worship God in this way and have no other idols in our hearts - even things that are seemingly good such as health and family - then we won’t give a foothold for the enemy to use these against us. As we all know, a journey that should have only lasted eleven days (Deut 1:2) ended up taking forty long years (Num 33). This wilderness period is prophetic of the forty jubilees from the time the Church - filled with the Holy Spirit - moved out of the upper room on the Day of Pentecost almost two thousand years ago until now, as this generation - like the one led by Joshua - await Jesus’ return to lead us into the Promised Land of the Millennial Kingdom and ultimately into eternity with God. The number forty in the Bible is often associated with testing and trials, patient obedience and judgment. Like Moses who was up on the mountain forty days (Ex 24:18, 32:1), Jesus is “up on the mountain” of God’s heavenly throne these forty jubilees, a trial period to test whether we will remain faithful to Him while we wait for His return. We can either be like the rebellious three thousand who died at Mt Sinai during the first Pentecost, or the believing three thousand who were saved on the Day of Pentecost (Ex 32:28, Acts 2:41). Ultimately, at the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. Kingdom life is about God’s Kingship over Israel and the Church and the lives of each and every citizen of the kingdom. It was, is, and will always be about Love and Obedience. As Jesus Himself put it, “If you love me, keep my commands” (Jn 14:15). Obedience should not be out of habit or even duty, which can only fulfill the letter but not the spirit of the Law. It must ultimately stem from love for God. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g34ae2e5598_0_322

1 July 2019 (#8 Session 3) Day 4 - History of Israel (Part 2 - Lessons from the Wilderness)

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! Over the next few blog posts, we will conclude Session 3 by looking at the history of Israel and what it means for the Church as God’s royal priesthood and holy nation today. By Church, I want to clarify that we are speaking here about the Church in its visible form - as an institution, denomination or local body of believers that we belong to - just as by Israel, we are referring to the visible Jewish nation. This is because God has chosen to work through these earthly communities (Ekklesia) to bring about His spiritual plans and purposes. In 1 Cor 10:1-11, Paul pointed out how Israel served as an example for the Church. He used the Greek term tupos, which means, in the technical sense, a pattern in conformity to which something must be made; in an ethical sense, a warning; and in a doctrinal or Biblical sense, a person or thing prefiguring or foretelling a future person or thing as it relates to Jesus. In other words, what happened to Israel is not only instructive but PROPHETIC of what will come upon the Church even as Jesus’ return draws near. In fact, as we will see later, Israel’s history would virtually repeat itself in the growth and development of the Church. That the Church should behave like Israel, as though they were both from the same tree, should come as no surprise. In Rom 11:11-32, Paul warned Gentile believers not to be proud, thinking that they were superior to the Jews. This was because they were in actual fact ingrafted into God’s Kingdom in place of the Jews, who were the natural branches as it were but who had been cut off for now due to their rejection of Jesus. As I had briefly mentioned in our last session, the entire nation of Israel would be removed from the face of the Earth for almost 2,000 years following the Roman Exile in 70 AD. In its place, the largely Gentile Church was ingrafted in as it were to bear the fruits of the Kingdom of God among the nations during this “time of the Gentiles”. However, when the fullness of the Gentiles have come in - by this, Paul was referring to Jacob’s prophecy regarding Ephraim that we learnt about earlier on - Israel will be revived to prepare for Jesus’ return, even as the ingrafted branches of the Church begin to wither - something I hinted at in my last session and that we will go into in greater detail in my future podcasts. And we know that Israel has indeed been reborn since 1948. So we see then that the Church is not separate from Israel - not distinct from, let alone replace Israel as the final or perfected Kingdom of God. The Church is here for a season and a purpose. To phrase it another way, both Israel and the Church are the same Kingdom of God but revealed in different ways at different times. While Israel was, historically, how God chose to reveal His Kingdom through whom Jesus first came, and eschatologically or in the end times, for whom Jesus will return, prophetically, the Church - which was a “mystery” (Eph 3:6, 10) until then - was how God chose to reveal His Kingdom in whom the Body of Christ reaches its full maturity - the fullness of the Gentiles - before Jesus returns. This correct understanding of how Israel and the Church are related is important because it determines the Church’s true identity and mission - especially in this Kairos when - as we saw in our last session - Jesus will return soon to establish His millennial kingdom and rule. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g4b288663b7_0_0 Go here to study more about the relationship between Israel and the Church as the Kingdom of God - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UNfIf_ks_KzajPF-DQ9YKiLnRyOR96ACzB7xDD6ViDY/present?slide=id.g2574a2b65c_0_0

15 June 2019 (#7 Session 3) Day 4 - History of Israel (Part 1 - Israel & the Church)

Issachar B7D Fellowship Live Stream

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! In our opening session, we learnt about God’s concept of time - how earthly time is temporal and is in continual linear motion. We then learnt how God gave us a series of weekly, monthly/annual and sabbatical/jubilee cycles in patterns of 7s as a way for us, who live in earthly time, to understand His eternal will. These were given in the form of religious practices and festivals, as well as national laws and regulations, that Israel was to observe on specific dates. In so doing, Israel was to mark and draw the world’s attention to the sacred or appointed times symbolised by these occasions whereby God would bring about His plan of redemption in His Kairos through the coming and return of Jesus. Weekly cycle - Sabbath first seen in the 7 Days of Creation points to the 7 millennia (7,000 years) of world history, revolving around the coming of Jesus the Greater Light and His return on the Day of the Lord to inaugurate the Sabbath rest, which is the period of the Millennium. If we understand time as being measured according to the chronology of events and people in the Bible, then we are reaching the end of the sixth millennium in our day. Looking back at the narrative of the 7 Days of Creation, God is telling us that the world is now living under the rule of man - more specifically, one man - the Antichrist. In fact, the Apostle John tells us that the spirit of the Antichrist was already at work in our midst since his time (1 Jn 4:3), but as we approach the end of this Sixth Day of Creation the Antichrist will soon be revealed in the flesh. Monthly/Annual cycle - 7 High Sabbaths that Israel was to celebrate in the form of 7 Feasts of God over 7 months every year. These High Sabbaths, which can be grouped into the Spring and Fall Feasts according to Israel’s agricultural calendar, point to 7 Kairos events during these 7 millennia of world history. Now, we know that the Spring Feasts have already been fulfilled in God’s Kairos 2,000 years ago with the coming of Jesus. Here, the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits to commemorate the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt pointed to Jesus' death and resurrection as our Passover Lamb opening the way for our salvation and escape from the bondage of sin. Meanwhile, the birth of Israel as a nation at Mt Sinai, which took place on the day of Pentecost with the giving of the Law, pointed to the birth of the Church at Mt Zion with the giving of the Holy Spirit. Today, we are reaching the end of the Summer interval - this age of grace and year of the Lord’s favour (Isa 61:1-2a, Lk 4:18-19) more commonly known as the Church Age - before the Fall Feasts arrive in God’s Kairos to mark Jesus’ return and another great exodus - that of the final and complete deliverance of God’s people from His enemies, and ultimately from the judgment of sin which is eternal death. Sabbatical/Jubilee cycle - God commanded Israel to let the land rest every seventh or Sabbatical year and to further proclaim freedom for the people during the year of Jubilee, which takes place every 50th year - that is, after 7 by 7 or 49 years. This cycle was to start after Israel entered the Promised Land, and points to the spiritual rest and freedom that the world and mankind would ultimately experience during the Millennial Sabbath after 6,000 years of human sin and struggle. We know that, historically, the Promised Land only got its rest after 70 Sabbatical cycles and this during Israel’s exile in Babylon because of her disobedience and unfaithfulness to God (Lev 26:34-35, 2 Chron 36:20-21). Today, we are in the 70th Jubilee cycle from the time Israel first entered the Promised Land. In 2018, Israel celebrated 70 years since its rebirth as a nation. The Israel we know today is far from God and the Church is not doing that much better. All these indicators point to us as being the last generation in God’s Kairos who will witness Jesus’ return to usher in this Millennial rest during a similar end-time Babylonian exile as prophesied in the book of Revelations. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g4e50b5c110_0_0

1 June 2019 (#6 Session 3) Day 4 - Sacred Times

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! Why do we celebrate the Holy Communion? For most of us, it is to remember and proclaim the Lord’s death (1 Cor 11:26a). Here, the bread and wine represent His body and blood which was given to save us. Now, in order to fully appreciate this, we need to realise that Jesus gave us this command during His Last Supper with His disciples. This meal took place on the eve of the annual Jewish Festival of the Passover, which was to commemorate how God’s judgment passed over the Israelites the night before their exodus from Egypt 1,500 years earlier. As part of the Passover celebration, the Jews were to sacrifice and eat the Passover lamb like how their original ancestors did. This was so as to ultimately point to Jesus, our true Passover Lamb, who was sacrificed on this appointed day so that God’s eternal judgment would pass over us. He is the perfect Lamb of God who died for our sins as we saw in our last session. Jesus is also the True Bread that came down from heaven to give us eternal life, like the Manna that God sent to sustain the Israelites during their subsequent wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. In Jesus’ death, God revealed His love for us (Jn 3:16), adopting us as His children at the price of His one and only Son. However, Jesus’ death is also the dowry and bride price to make us His Bride. As we see here, the cup of wine symbolises His blood of the New Covenant - which is essentially a marriage contract. You see, when Israel failed to keep the Law - her old marriage contract with God - the punishment was supposed to be divorce or death. We can read about this in Lev 20:10 and Deut 24:1-4. But God in His love and mercy did neither - He chose instead to die in our place to pay the price of our spiritual adultery. He then rewrote the marriage contract, this time not on tablets of stone but on our hearts, paying the bride price again with His own blood and sealing it with the Holy Spirit, so as to guarantee our eternal union with Him. We could say that Jesus performed two miracles at two weddings, one at the start and the other at the end of His ministry - turning water into wine in Cana (His first miracle), and turning wine into blood (His last miracle, spiritually speaking); in these acts, we see why He is our Living Water that wells up to eternal life. The Bible speaks of at least two weddings and a funeral as we see here, but of only one marriage made in Heaven - that of the Lamb and His Bride. Until that Day, until He comes (1 Cor 11:26b), we are called celebrate the Holy Communion, to share in common the bread and wine representing Jesus’ body and blood. When we do so, let us remember that salvation is not about us, our exodus from bondage to sin and journey to the Promised Land; it is about God and His sacrificial love to restore our broken relationship with Him. We are no longer slaves to sin, but children of God and Jesus’ redeemed bride. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g4c23645697_0_0

15 May 2019 (#5 Session 3) Day 4 Reflections (Do This in Remembrance of Me)

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog! In our last two sessions, we saw firstly how - through the Law - Israel pointed to man’s utter sinfulness and need for Jesus, who alone could meet all its requirements so that we could be forever reconciled with God. Then we saw how God gave Israel the Tabernacle as a way for a sinful nation to serve as His priest drawing all men to worship Him. More importantly, the Tabernacle reflected God’s desire to be reconciled and dwell among us. Knowing that we are unable to find our way back to Him, God took the first step to find us - all out of Love. Now, although God gave Israel the Tabernacle, as well as a Priesthood and Sacrificial system to carry out its mission to the world, these were all imperfect and insufficient. Otherwise, there won’t be a need for a permanent solution in Jesus and for Israel to act as God’s lesser light pointing us all to Him. We know from the Bible that God chose Moses’ elder brother Aaron to be the High Priest and Moses’ tribe - the Levites - as priests. But they, like the rest of the Israelites and indeed mankind, were sinful and fallen individuals. The blood of the animal sacrifices were also only of symbolic value and could not really atone or serve as payment for man’s sin. The author of Hebrews tells us how “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins … [because] it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Heb 10:11, 4). Surely we do not think that an animal could take our place. We are made in the image of God and therefore only one among us - but who is perfect in God’s eyes - could properly represent and pay the price for our sins. God had purposely made it such because His intention was for Aaron and the Levitical priests to point to Jesus, our true and perfect Great High Priest, whom we saw before was of the mysterious priestly and royal line of Melchizedek, while the inadequate animal sacrifices that had to be offered day after day, year after year, pointed to the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God, the one and only perfect and sinless man who could therefore by His one sacrifice atone for the sins of mankind for all time. As we end this session, we can see how the Law, Tabernacle, Priesthood and Sacrifices, all point to Jesus. May He who fulfills all the Law’s requirements for us, who came as a man to tabernacle and dwell among us, our Great High Priest who now intercedes for us at the right hand of God, and the perfect Lamb of God who died for our sins - Jesus - may He bless you until we meet again in our next session. Link to presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oJkmnecyCSWf2FF5hmGZyqV6q4aPC-fBwSrwZ1s5JuA/present#slide=id.g4c1af23ac7_0_0

1 May 2019 (#4 Session 3) Day 4 - Priesthood & Sacrifices

​Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Grace and peace to you from our Lord, Saviour and King. God has an urgent word for His people today so that, like the men of Issachar, we understand the times and know what we should do. What He wants to speak to us is apparent in the Bible when we consider it through the perspective of the 7 Days of Creation (B7D). And His word is this - we are fast approaching the end where we will be tested in unprecedented ways. We therefore need to equip ourselves now in our fellowship groups so that we can uphold one another and others in the Body of Christ to keep the faith until our Lord returns.  The Issachar B7D Fellowship is our response in obedience to His word. Through it, God equips us by His Spirit, Word and people. As you study God's Logos together in your own fellowship groups, may His Spirit and Rhema transform you into such future and Christ-ready fellowships in His Kairos time.  For His Glory, Stephen and Wei Ling Lim

hubhopper

Issachar B7D Fellowship

hubhopper