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The Biblical Overview of The Plan of God – Part 12

Prophecies Concerning The Year of Jubilee – “That God May Be All In All”

Lev 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Introduction

We ended our last study with these words:

“In our next study we will show that many of the prophecies which the churches of Babylon apply to the millennium have been misapplied to that period of time, and are in reality to be applied to the kingdom of God which is even now within God’s elect, and to the time that follows the millennium. This is the time when God will be all in all.”

All the prophecies in Isaiah, which we have been told refer to those who live at the time of the millennium, are in fact referring primarily to the condition of the kingdom of God which is even now within His elect, those who are being prepared in this life to rule this world with Christ during the millennium. But because Christ’s words “shall never pass away” (Mat 24:2), they will also apply to all the rest of mankind who will be resurrected with spiritual bodies in the great white throne judgment, to be judged in the lake of fire.

This is how Christ instructs us to view His kingdom at this time:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not [in this age] with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, [at this time] the kingdom of God is within you.

That being true, and the kingdom of God being within us at this time, it is now that ‘the wolf is dwelling with the lamb’ (Isa 11:6) within those who will first be the rulers of this world and then will judge angels.

1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

This prophecy in Isaiah 11 applies to all men, each in his appointed time. But that appointed time for all men is either primarily now, while we are being judged in these clay vessels prior to the millennium, then, secondarily these prophecies, which are prophecies about God’s judgments, will apply to all men after the millennium when they are being judged in the lake of fire.

Notice how these prophecies which have been attributed to the time of the millennium actually refer to a time of judgment, and not to a time of being ruled with a rod of iron, leading up to a time of universal rebellion against “the Lord and His Christ”.

Isa 11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
Isa 11:5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

What does this fiery judgment produce? It produces “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” with which all who now know Christ are so gratefully familiar.

Here are the very next few verses:

Isa 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Isa 11:7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Isa 11:8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
Isa 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Does the knowledge of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea during a time which leads up to the destruction of the nations in the four quarters of the earth? No, obviously it does not. But it is doing just that in all those who are being judged at this time, and the knowledge of the Lord will also fill the earth as the waters cover the sea when the lake of fire is doing its purifying work on all men of all time following the universal rebellion of all mankind after the millennium.

Those verses in Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 will also have a secondary application to each person who is cast into the lake of fire, but they have no application to those who are being ruled with a rod of iron during the millennium as they are so commonly misapplied.

Here are two more prophecies which are commonly misapplied to the time of the millennium:

Isa 2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Isa 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isa 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Isa 2:5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

And:

Mic 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
Mic 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Mic 4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Mic 4:4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.
Mic 4:5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
Mic 4:6 In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;
Mic 4:7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

These two prophecies are almost identical and certainly are speaking of the identical same “last days”. But that phrase ‘last days’ is not to be understood as the time of the millennium or the “little season” of rebellion which follows the millennium. That “little season” would be the physical ‘last days’ and the physical ‘time of the end’. But Christ tells us that His words are spiritual words (Joh 6:63), and spiritual words are never to be understood as having their exact same primary physical meaning. Physical death, for example, is never to be confused with spiritual death, and Christ is not a physical ‘lamb’; rather He is “the Lamb of God… slain from the foundation of the world”.

Luk 9:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Not even “the kingdom of God” is yet to be taken literally and in its primary physical sense:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

These prophecies concerning “the last days” will apply to those who live through the time of the millennium only after they are cast into the lake of fire, and through that judgment “in the last days”, they will be purged of their rebellious carnal minds. For the millennial age to be a time for mankind to “freely repent and believe the Gospel, personally choosing Christ as Savior and Lord” would work against the very purpose for which God has ordained for Satan to be released and granted to “deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth”. The very purpose for the feast of tabernacles and the last great day is to provide God the occasion He is seeking to “destroy death”.

In their final application, all these prophecies in Isaiah concerning “the last days” of physical “Judah and Jerusalem” will be fulfilled only after the fire of God’s word, which is the same ‘fire’ of “the lake of fire”, has purged “Judah and Jerusalem [as well as] Sodom and Samaria” of their rebellious, carnal mind, which is also the mind of their father, the devil, who will be right there in that “lake of fire with them”.

Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

In Romans 11 we are told what happens to physical Israel “in the last days”. In that chapter we are informed “that blindness in part is happened to [physical] Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they [“Israel… according to the flesh] are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Here now are some verses which have been hidden in plain sight from the day they were written until the day we are given to see them. These verses of scripture will most always be avoided by those who teach that the millennium is a time when physical Israel will rule this earth, and that during the millennium mankind will “freely repent and believe the Gospel, personally choosing Christ as Savior and Lord”. These are the verses which gives us the time table for when “the fulness of the Gentiles [is] come in, [and when] the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, [and therefore when] all [physical] Israel shall be saved”.

The timetable to which Paul refers in Romans 11 is given to us in Ezekiel 16. This entire chapter is addressed to “Jerusalem”. We will read just the most pertinent verses:

Eze 16:2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

Eze 16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men [false doctrines of men], and didst commit whoredom with them,

Eze 16:20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them [your false doctrines] to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

Eze 16:33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

When will physical “Jerusalem” be judged for all of her sins? When are these “last days” of Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 and Ezekiel 16, which are also addressed to “Judah and Jerusalem”? Let’s read it again so we will know when these “last days” will be:

Isa 2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Isa 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Mic 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
Mic 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Now when does this take place? When is “the fulness of the Gentiles come in” (Rom 11:25)? When will all physical Israel be saved (Rom 11:26)? Here is when the scriptures reveal all these things will happen. This is “the last days” of carnal Judah and Jerusalem. Continuing with the prophecy of Ezekiel 16:

Eze 16:53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
Eze 16:54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

Sodom and Samaria are “returned to their former estate” only in the lake of fire, which begins its purifying work only after the “little season” of rebellion which follows the millennial reign of Christ and His elect with a rod of iron over the kingdoms of this earth.

Where is the phrase ‘a thousand years’ in any of these prophecies concerning Israel and Jerusalem? Of course the answer is that it is not there. Rather, here is what we are told takes place during that symbolic “thousand years” period of time:

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

And this is the outcome of the thousand-year reign:

Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

The death of the spiritual “old man’, the rebellious carnal mind, is also the outcome, the product, of the lake of fire which will follow the millennium and the last great day, also known as “a little season”.

This now is the product of the lake of fire. Continuing with what is revealed to us in Isaiah 30:

Isa 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction [“saved, yet so as by fire” 1Co 3:16], yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
Isa 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Isa 30:22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

“Eyes that see [and] ears [that] hear” are both the fruit of the repentance and obedience that are the result of the lake of fire which follows the feast of tabernacles and the last great day.

Continuing in Isaiah 30:

Isa 30:23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
Isa 30:24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
Isa 30:25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. [Rev 20:7-9]
Isa 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
Isa 30:27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
Isa 30:28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
Isa 30:29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
Isa 30:30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
Isa 30:31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
Isa 30:32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
Isa 30:33 For Tophet [Also called ‘Gehenna’ and ‘the lake of fire’] is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. [vs 25 and Rev 20:7-9]

Don’t allow words like “rain… ground… earth… cattle… oxen… and pastures” lead you to believe that these words have no spiritual application to the time of the lake of fire. “The invisible things of God are understood by the things that are made” (Rom 1:20). “Tophet” is “the [spiritual] lake of fire”, and the “wood” that kindles the flames of Tophet is just as much a spiritual term as the “rain… the ground… the earth… the cattle… the oxen… and the pastures” which are the spiritual fruit of that “fire and much wood”. The spiritual flames of spiritual Tophet come from the mouths of God’s elect as Isaiah informs us:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil [These are “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”, who are symbolized by all of the holy days.]

These words summarize the “one event” of judgment which all men of all time must experience, “every man in his own order” (Ecc 9:2 and 1Co 15:23)

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

“Every man… shall be saved… by fire”. That is what we have just read. The fire that saves those who must be condemned to the lake of fire, is the very same fire, the words of God, which save God’s elect at this time, as the apostle Peter plainly tells us:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

We have already answered Peter’s rhetorical question. Death and the grave, and all that are in them, are cast into the lake of fire to face the same fiery trials of 1Pe 4:12, but in resurrected spiritual bodies:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [All who were not in the first resurrection, Rev 20:6] was cast into the lake of fire.

This all serves to demonstrate that many of the prophecies we have been told refer to the time of the millennial reign of Christ and His elect over the kingdoms of this world, are found to be much more applicable to the kingdom of God within us at this time, and to the time when we will, as the lake of fire, give to all men of all time the mercy we have been given. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” does not prove that God’s calling of physical Israel will be fulfilled at the time of the millennium, rather we have seen that gift and that calling will be fulfilled “when Sodom… and Samaria return to their former estate” (Eze 16:55).

Now notice a principle which is revealed in the verses which immediately follow the declaration that “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”:

Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Rom 11:30 For as ye [Gentile Romans – Rom 1:13] in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Being “a Jew… Israel… Abraham’s seed” has now become a matter of spiritual relationship with God and is no longer attached to a physical pedigree:

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

So it will be spiritual Jews, spiritual Israelites, repentant sinners taken from every nation on earth who will be used by God to show mercy to the physical Israelites through whose unbelief we have believed and have been shown mercy. The truth is that Rom 11:30-31 is addressed to Gentile Romans whose belief had come to them through the unbelief of the physical nation of Israel:

Rom 1:13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

It will be through us, through spiritual Israel, that the all in all goal of the plan of God for all men will be accomplished, even as all of the holy days of the three seasons of the year are also being fulfilled through us:

Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

“The church which is His body [is], the fulness of Him that fills all in all”. It is a rare person who is even given to understand that this is so, because Christ’s “inheritance [is] in the saints”.

It is even fewer who realize that this “all in all” is also typified for us outside of the seven festivals of the three seasons of the year. The goal of the plan of God, God being all in all, is outside the scope of this earthly vessel of clay. Therefore it is represented, not in a day which follows seven sevens of weeks, but in a year which follows seven sevens of years which we are given in the Old Testament law of the year of the jubilee:

Lev 25:9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
Lev 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

You will notice that the trumpet of the jubilee is sounded on the day of atonement, the day when the scapegoat was offered for the iniquities of Israel. We will stop here for today, and next week we will see what was to take place in the year of the jubilee, and we will find, as we have already pointed out, that even this goal of the plan of God for all men is accomplished through “the church which is His body… the glory of His inheritance in the saints”.

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