OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS THE END FROM THE BEGINNING

Nov 4th 2024, the progression of prophecy lands on verse 4 of Isaiah chapter 19. 

The enemy of our souls will try to shore up His failing operations and  the whole organization will be given into the hands of a harsh and cruel leader.

1 The burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

2 “I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

3 The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers.

4 And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them,” Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

5 The waters will fail from the sea, And the river will be wasted and dried up.

6 The rivers will turn foul; The brooks of defense will be emptied and dried up; The reeds and rushes will wither.

7 The papyrus reeds by [c]the River, by the mouth of the River, And everything sown by the River, Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.

8 The fishermen also will mourn; All those will lament who cast hooks into the River, And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.

9 Moreover those who work in fine flax And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;

10 And its foundations will be broken. All who make wages will be troubled of soul.

11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, The son of ancient kings?”

12 Where are they? Where are your wise men?

Let them tell you now, And let them know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan have become fools; The princes of Noph are deceived; They have also deluded Egypt, Those who are the mainstay of its tribes.

14 The Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst; And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work, As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

15 Neither will there be any work for Egypt, Which the head or tail, Palm branch or bulrush, may do.

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OUR FATHER IS ONLY KNOWN BY THE SON OF GOD AND THOSE TO WHOM THE SON REVEALS HIM TO

Mathew chapter 11 continues in verses 25 - 27 where Jesus, having explained the hazards of having the truth presented to people who then reject it, continues on to thank God the Father for His strategy of concealing the great mysteries of the kingdom of God  from the elite people of society but revealing  them to the unsophisticated people. 

The access gates into the knowledge of the kingdom of God are regulated by criteria set by the Father and the societal uppercrust is automatically screened out and only by exceptional intervention of God are any people from these higher strata let into the fold. This is which is why Jesus said in Mark chapter 10 verse 25, that it was harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than a camel to go through the eye of a needle and that all things are possible with God if exceptions were needed.

25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 

The Lord Jesus then reveals more gates that regulate access into the kingdom of God.

Jesus has been given all things pertaining to the administration of the kingdom of God and at that point in time, Jesus' status as the Son of God was only known by the Father. In the same way, the Father was only known by Jesus the Son of God.

The knowledge of the Father is revealed only to those who Jesus, by His own authority, choses to reveal Him to and thus, the access gates to the knowledge of the kingdom of God are generally regulated by the restrictions placed on the  elite and then more specically, by those whom Jesus hand-picks to have access to that knowledge.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE JUDGEMENT IS COMMENSURATE WITH REVELATION

Having just spoken to the people about their propensity for rejecting the servants of God who were sent to them, Jesus, in Matthew chapter 11 verses 20 - 24, rebuked the cities in which He had done great miracles and yet had found excuses not to turn back to God.

20 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

In this passage, the Lord Jesus revealed the operation of a relative scale of judgement in the kingdom of heaven that is pegged to the level of investment that is sunk into the territory for the redemption of its people.

Tougher measures of judgement were allotted to the cities in which many great signs were done for them to witness and yet did not repent and turn to God.

The cities in the time of Jesus like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, had been visited by Jesus and great miracles had been performed there but instead of taking the miracles as gracious invitations to repent, these cities judged and scandalized Jesus for doing miracles on the Sabbath day and for eating and drinking and associating with outcasts. They formulated excuses to diminish the significance of the message that was brought to them.

As a case study, Capernaum, a city near the sea of Galilee, had these miracles, among many others, occur within its vicinity;

• Healing of the man with the withered arm
• Healing of the woman with the issue of blood
• Raising of Jairus' daughter from the dead
• Delivering a demoniac in the synagogue
• Healing of Peter's mother-in-law
• Healing of many people who came for help

Because of the many miracles that occured there, the Lord Jesus singled out the city of Capernaum as an example of a city that would suffer great judgement.

He had chosen Capernaum to be the epicenter of His ministry which elevated it in prominence before heaven and yet it would fall into Hades because the people did not repent inspite of all the miracles that were performed there.

Jesus compared the city of Capernaum to the ancient city of Sodom saying that Sodom, a lawless city in the time of Abraham, would have repented and been spared from destruction if the people had seen the same miracles that the people of Capernaum had seen.

The opposite end of this sliding scale represents the people who, with almost no leading and no attesting miracles, repented of their sins and cried out to God for mercy. 

The city of Niniveh, for example, had a reluctant prophet named Jonah sent to them  and he merely crossed from one end of the city to the other warning of a coming judgement and yet, in response,  the whole city, including the king and the animals, were cloaked in sackcloth and ashes and they repented for their sins before God.

Mercy was shown to Ninevah on account of their unreserved reaction to the lean presentation by Jonah.

This sliding scale of judgement can be manipulated by regulating the amount of revelation that the people are exposed to.

Mark chapter 4 verses 11 - 12 captures this in action where Jesus explains to His disciples why He spoke in parables;

11 And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, 12 so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them.’ ”

The disciples were in the kingdom and it was for them that the mysteries were revealed but for those outside the kingdom, these mysteries are hidden in parables lest they understand and turn and their sins are forgiven.

If, however, they receive the greater understanding and do not repent, they are subject to greater judgement and would have been better off not being exposed to the knowledge prescribed for those already in the kingdom of God.

Amen.

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