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WINDS OF CHANGE No 5 `So Judah went into captivity . . .`

During 1996 we were listening to a well-respected Bible teacher who was speaking at a venue in London. Towards the end of his message he spoke of unusual signs appearing in the heavens during 1996 and 1997. There is nothing particularly unusual about this as `the Heavens' have declared the Glory of God for as long as man has walked the earth. As the Psalmist says: (Psalm 19:2)

" Day after day they pour forth speech; Night after night they display knowledge. "

However, an awareness of the times in which we live brought to mind the words of Jesus when He was answering the earnest questions of His disciples concerning `the end of the Age'. He said: (Luke 21:25)

" There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish . . . "

The words of Jesus continue as He refers to extreme natural, physical and heavenly convulsions which will occur: (Luke 21:27)

" . . . they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory . . . "

and whilst we understand that these `signs in the sun, moon and stars' will occur at `the end of the Age', in the Great Tribulation, later in the same passage the disciples were told: (Luke 21:29-30)

" Look at the fig-tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and KNOW that summer is near. "

We have seen in our times the dramatic outworking of these words, with the rebirth of Israel as a nation in 1948 and their regaining Jerusalem in 1967. We also see the `sprouting of the leaves of all the trees' in the continual struggle for independence of numerous ethnic groups and countries, long under the yoke of larger nation `states' - which gives an understanding of the eventual fate of the European Super State which is being formed in our time. But as the `signs in the heavens' (spoken of in the message we heard in 1996) were to appear on specific Levitical Feast Days of Israel there was little doubt in our minds that indeed the heavens were `pouring forth their speech'. In the course of a busy life, however, these matters, although never completely forgotten, lost their sense of immediacy - until we heard an audio tape message in late 1999, again by the same Bible teacher! At the end of his message he mentioned briefly one specific sign in the heavens that had appeared, and this prompted us to once again consider the `knowledge the heavens displayed night after night'.

Although we have already put down our thoughts on these signs in our study booklet `The Heavens Declare . . . Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?', the particular sign we wish to reflect on here is the one which occurred on the night of the Levitical Feast of Trumpets - or Rosh Hashanah as it is called in Hebrew. We quote:

" . . . centered on the movements of the constellation known by the sign of Virgo. In its movements Virgo passed through a constellation of stars and appeared with twelve stars above her `head', whilst at her `feet' a new moon was birthed in its own cycle of movement, which comes through its position to the sun. The Book of Revelation, which sets out the chronological timing of what is spoken of in earlier Scriptures as `the Day of the Lord', contains many such signs `spoken' of in the heavens. The controversial chapter 12 speaks clearly of:

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A great and wondrous sign (which) appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. "

We are not intending to repeat here what we set out in that particular study booklet. Since then other spiritual patterns and principles have emerged, into which context the earlier signs in the heavens need to be set in order that we may gain further understanding of the soundless speech pouring forth in the heavens. We shall therefore step back for a moment from the signs in the heavens to look briefly at one such Scriptural principle which is pertinent for these Reflections for a Sunday Morning. We have set out this principle in detail in our study booklet `The LORD Has a Controversy With the Nations'. Space prohibits a full repetition of what that study contained, but we will quote certain parts of it in what follows. Enough to say that it was a study on the structure of the Book of Jeremiah, which records the words Jeremiah spoke over a period of 40 years - that is, `from the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign until the taking into captivity of the last of the kings of Judah, Zedekiah son of Josiah'. Knowing that in Scripture numbers very often have a spiritual meaning, and that it is agreed by Bible scholars that the number 4 has a meaning of `testing', and the number 10 a meaning of `fulness', we can therefore see that the number 40 speaks of the fulness of testing. In our study booklet we set out the Scriptural principle that, as Jeremiah faithfully spoke the Word of the Lord for 40 years it was for the testing of the character of the kingdom of Judah - a Probation Period in which Judah's faithfulness to the Lord was in question - and God's judgement was delayed whilst Jeremiah spoke for those 40 years to see what response would be forthcoming. We know, of course, that the nation failed to respond and were taken into captivity in Babylon.

We now need to look at the `terms' of this particular Probation - which will then give us an understanding of what to look for should there be other Probation Periods in which the Lord is speaking to His people. Turning to the historical books of Scripture we see this in the Second Book of Kings, starting at chapter 23 (and here we quote from our earlier study `The LORD has a Controversy with the Nations') :

" The Fourty Years of Probation (which had started with such purifying zeal under King Josiah, leading to the cleansing of the Temple and the Land of Judah, during which time the Spirit of God was moving in the response of the people in their love for God) had slowly moved into apostacy during the reign of King Jehoiakim, and finally ended in the reign of King Zedekiah with the destruction of the Temple - the place where God manifested His Presence in the Most Holy Place. Here, then, we have the general framework of the Probation Period of Jeremiah's time. It was outworked within a Temple setting, beginning with a move of the Holy Spirit, Who had enabled King Josiah to begin his reforming work of cleansing and purifying the Temple and the surrounding land. It led to a great awakening among the people, a renewing of the Covenant and their relationship to the LORD of the Covenant . . . . But the religious leaders . . . . failed to maintain that response, and so the prophet Jeremiah continued to speak his words of warning that a scattering of the people would come about through `the controversey the LORD has with the nations. The apostacy deepened, and ended at last with the destruction of the Temple, with the scattering of the flock into captivity, and in the desolation of the pastures of the shepherds . . "

In that same study booklet we then looked for another Scriptural Probation Period for the nation of Israel - and we saw it clearly revealed in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. (We quote)

" To understand this Probation Period we need to see that the Book of the Acts of the Apostles is a continuation of the ministry of Jesus through `witnesses whom God had already chosen' (as Peter said when preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God at the house of Cornelius) and in the early chapters of this Book the message was still to the household of Jacob, the nation of Israel - and it followed the same pattern as revealed in the Probation Period of Jeremiah's time! In the opening chapter we read that the disciples were expecting the restoration of the Kingdom of God to Israel. In accepting Jesus as Messiah they fully understood what had been offered to the nation of Israel, and now as they gathered around their risen Lord, their questions were even more urgent and expectant: (Acts 1:6)

` So when they met together, they asked Him, `Lord, are You at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?' "

As we read on we hear the response of Jesus to their urgent questioning, and in chapter 2 we see the beginning of the Probation Period when Peter stood up with the Eleven (in the Temple compound), raised his voice and addressed the crowd! (We quote):

"We read of the reforming zeal amongst the people as large numbers of individuals from the nation of Israel responded to Peter's proclamation and accepted Jesus as their Messiah and were brought into Kingdom of God. These were indeed times of signs and wonders as the Presence of God manifested in that Temple setting. It spilt out into the land of Israel - in miracles of the mighty power of the Lord, and in fellowship and commitment to one another . . . . They were indeed heady and intoxicating times, and it seemed as though, after all, the Kingdom had been restored to Israel. But twenty years on, as Paul was launched into the fulness of his ministry to `the ends of the earth', it was beginning to follow the same pattern as the Probation Period of Jeremiah's time . . . . there was a hardening in the hearts of the men of Israel, and the people began to question what had happened. "

This later Probation Period - which began at the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) in AD 29, following the crucifixion of the Messiah at the earlier Feast of Passover - was set in its last phase in AD 62 when came the final rejection by the Jewish leaders of the Kingdom of God. We read of this in the closing verses of Acts 28: (Verses 25-28)

" They (the leaders) disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when He said through Isaiah the prophet:

Go to this people and say, ` You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. ' For this people's heart has become calloused; and they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.

Therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen. ' For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. "

Finally in AD 70 the armies of the Roman Emperor Titus completed that Probation Period with the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple, and the scattering of the people of Israel.

Of course it can be argued that these two Scriptural examples could be mere coincidence - indeed there are other Scriptural examples of testing seen in the number `40', and there are also other examples of renewal and revival, decline and apostacy. However in both of the Scriptural examples given here we see that both began in a Temple setting in Jerusalem; both saw and experienced the manifest Presence of God in their midst, releasing His miraculous power and a sense of holiness and righteousness in the lives of the people, together with the certainty that the Kingdom of God was being restored to the nation of Israel. When that did not happen both Probation Periods saw a rapid decline into apostacy; both Probation Periods ended with the destruction of the Temple (the only place where God has chosen to reveal His Presence); and both experienced the scattering of the people into captivity - and the land was made desolate!

We concluded our study booklet on the Probation Period of Jeremiah with the suggested probability of another Probation Period having commenced in 1967, when the nation of Israel - newly and miraculously restored in 1948 - regained the city of Jerusalem and declared it to be the eternal city of an undivided nation of Israel. In this same period we saw an equally miraculous move of God in His Church, which has been labelled `the Charismatic Movement'. We know that in this Dispensation of Grace the only `Temple' in which the Presence of God is manifest is in the Church, and if there is an outworking of a contemporary Probation Period in our time we would expect to find the same pattern emerging as in the other two previous examples we have mentioned. It starts with the cleansing of the Temple; it is confirmed by miraculous acts of God, by the zeal of the people, by the fellowship of the believers, by the proclamation of the Gospel and the announcing of the Kingdom of God. Thirty years on this early zeal has diminished and without doubt the most awful apostacy is sweeping through the historical Church in the West. The great revival of the 1960's is not living up to `expectations' and there is a scattering of the sheep as they leave churches and fellowships because of the error and often downright heresy being expounded. In Israel, during the same period, we have seen the early joyful expectations of a restored Israel (albeit as a secular nation) giving way to them exchanging land for peace, with negotiations to take place in the year 2000 on the final status of Jerusalem. Certainly there is the pattern of a Probation Period unfolding in the `Temple' of believers in the Western Church AND in the land of Israel, and if this really is so we will see it end in the same way as the two other Probation Periods we have set out - the `destruction' of the Temple and a scattering of the sheep, culminating in a captivity as real as those seen in the times of Jeremiah and the Apostles.

We would now bring these Reflections back to the present time and place them within the timescale of the signs in the heavens mentined at the beginning of this booklet. We saw that the sign centered in the constellation Virgo, (described in Revelation 12, that is, the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head) appeared in the heavens on the Feast of Trumpets in 1997. To place that particular sign of `the heavens pouring forth their speech' into the timescale of this latter-day Probation Period that began in 1967, we need to remind ourselves of the prophetic message which lies within the heart of the Seven Levitical Feasts of Israel - and in particular the last three, which await their final outworking beginning at some future Feast of Trumpets. Once again we draw certain facts from our study booklet on the Levitical Feasts of Israel, with the under-standing that the Feast of Trumpets is a call to repentance, leading through to the `Awesome Days' and into the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippor), which is also called the Sabbath of Sabbaths. In Jewish eyes this is the most important of all the Levitical Feasts for it leads into the completion of all things - the fulness of the Kingdom of God in the land of Israel, the Feast of Tabernacles, the beginning of the seventh and final one-thousand years on earth when God will tabernacle with His people in Jerusalem. One passage of Scripture establishes the basis for the Feast of Trumpets: (Leviticus 23:23)

" The LORD said to Moses, `Say to the Israelites: On the first day the the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts . . . . . "

As you read the details of this Feast in other passages of Scripture you will note that it is to be a day of quiet joy and the sounding of the Shofar: `Do not grieve, this day is sacred to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep '. It was a call . . a trumpet call . . to repentance, and from the day of the first blowing of the Shofar all the people began to pass under judgement, but it was also a reminder of God's covenanted relationship with His people and a drawing back of His people into a relationship with Him.

Following the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, and about AD 1100, the Feast had developed into a two-day event, and throughout the developing liturgy there came a sense of a call to prepare for a meeting with God, an arousal of fear and awe of God because of impending judgement, and a regathering of the people of Israel. Reflected in their Torah readings for those days there was a deep sense of national resurrection, of going through a trial, yet with the certainty of a final restoration as seen in the knowledge of a final Feast of Tabernacles. So with these thoughts in their minds the days following the Feast of Trumpets became known as the Awesome Days. This, then, is the background to the Feast of Trumpets: A call to repentance because of an impending judgement before a final restoration. And so on one such day in 1997, thirty years into what we have set out as a fourty-year Probation Period, there appeared in the heavens the sign exactly as recorded in Revelation 12: `a woman clothed with the sun . . .'

As we have said, by AD 1100, under the teaching of Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (better know as Rashi) the Feast of Trumpets had developed into a two-day Feast, and within these two days of intense religious fervour there was a special Sabbath of Repentance, with another seven days (known as the Awesome Days) leading to the tenth day, the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 23:26-32 records this most awsome Feast:

" The LORD said to Moses, `The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and afflict yourselves . . . . "

Here we would pause as this Reflection is not intended to be a discourse on the Feasts of Israel. Our purpose here is principally to show the amazing convergence of dates that have come within this Probation Period of fourty years which, we believe, commenced in 1967, and thirty years later in 1997 coincided with the annual cycle of the Feast of Trumpets with an incredible sign in the heavens (recorded in Revelation 12 as `the woman clothed with the sun . . .') The Feast of Trumpets, leading through to the Awesome Days and culminating with the Day of Atonement on the tenth day, therefore clearly coincides with the last ten years of the Probation Period. With the understanding that the Feast of Trumpets has developed into a two-day Feast the `sign in the heavens' takes us to a point in 1999 which will lead into the seven `Awesome Days' and finally into the `Day of Atonement' on the tenth day, which will coincide with the completion of the last ten years of the Probation Period.

We now need to wrench our thoughts back to the fourty-year Probation Period which we set out in great detail in the earlier study booklet mentioned, and we must remind ourselves that although both Israel and the Church are on a parallel journey, we are concerned at this point only with what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church (particularly in the West) in this Laodecean Church Age. Clearly the Levitical Feasts of Israel in the first instance concern the nation of Israel - they only concern the Church in as much as all believers are `grafted into the Olive Tree' and, therefore, are called to journey together to meet the Lord. A time will certainly come when the last three Levitical Feasts (Trumpets, The Day of Atonement and Tabernacles) will be completely fulfilled in the corporate life of the nation of Israel - a trumpet call to repentance, a seven years period of Awesome Days - or as it is also known, the Day of Jacob's Trouble (the Tribulation) - leading to the Day of Atonement when according to Zechariah 12:10:

" I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look unto Me, the One they have pierced, and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child . . " and so `all Israel will be saved' and enter into the glorious final Feast of Tabernacles. The Bride, however, is NOT called to suffer wrath and will not have to endure the seven years of Tribulation and, as we have said before, these Reflections are therefore concerned with the Church. From what we have set out here there appears to be very clear warnings of what will be outworked in the life of the Church, particularly in the West, during the next seven years, for in the two Scriptural examples of a Probation Period we have used both ended in the destruction of the Temple, the scattering of the flock of the pastures, ending in captivity, outworked through `the controversy the LORD has with the nations'! If the refining work of the Tribulation causes Israel to cry out to the Lord and so be brought back into a right relationship with God, there also appears to be a seven-year period needed to complete the Probation Period we too have entered into - which will cause the Church to cry out to the Lord and so be brought into the right relationship with her Lord - a pure and spotless Bride ready for her Bridegroom!

In closing we would look briefly at the spiritual implications of what this means. This is not to ignore the physical difficulties that will occur, unpleasant though they may be. They will not deter the true disciples of Jesus, for we are a spiritual people with our eternal inheritance secure in His hands. But if the end result of the Probation Periods we have considered ended in captivity, we need to look at what this means in the spiritual realm. Captivity follows a period of intense siege warfare, and in earlier periods of history the besieging armies surrounded the city and steadily destroyed all the physical support the city depended on for its existence. Modern warfare has the same strategy, although conducted these days by computer-directed missile attacks by sea, air and land. Captivity, then, follows a successful siege. So with this natural understanding we now need to gain a spiritual understanding of what we need to discern in the remaining seven years of this Probation Period.

As always it is preferable to let Scripture speak for itself, lest we become carried away with emotional sensation. We would therefore suggest that Psalm 137 speaks very clearly of what it means for a spiritual people to be taken into captivity:

" By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we rembered Zion . . . . How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? "

The armies of Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege against the people of Judah. Slowly and systematically their social structure had been stripped away as the siege took its toll. Next would follow the stripping away of all that had sustained their life - food, water, all the supplies needed to sustain their normal lifestyle, and contact with the outside world - they were a people who had lost all that had supported them in their God-given social and religious life. Only then, in utter despair and anguish (read of the appalling destruction that occurred in the closing chapters of the Book of Jeremiah), "Judah went into captivity, away from her land" Jeremiah 52:27. In Psalm 137 we also read: (verse 3)

" . . . there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, `Sing us one of the songs of Zion'. "

In captivity they could not sing, for the Presence of God, to whom they sang songs of praise, was manifest only in the Temple in Israel, and Zion was destroyed. They could not hear from God now, nor could they speak to Him - they were in captivity!

That, surely, was the ultimate captivity for the people of God - they could not hear Him or speak to Him for they were in a foreign land. All the necessary support for their religious and social life had been destroyed and `they sat down and wept when they remembered Zion'. If indeed the Church in the West is now entering the remaining seven years of a Probation Period, which in turn will lead to a `captivity', the implications are clear. We will find that the support and structures that we have established for our church and religious life will be removed -and if we `pause and quietly think of that' we will find that the siege process is already well under way, with some ministries and Church leaders already in some disarray! Exposed and vulnerable, our `spiritual' life, for too long focussed on our needs instead of on a personal relationship with the Lord, the `church' will be taken into a spiritual captivity where it will no longer be able to hear from God, or to speak with Him for His Presence is to be found in:

" . . . Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God . . . "

the entrance to which is to be found only in Jesus: (Hebrews 12:24-28)

" . . . the mediator of a new Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, `Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' The words `once more' indicate the removing of what cannot be shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. "

And here we shall leave these Reflections for a Sunday Morning. It is for each one who reads these words to test the contents for themselves, to know if God is truly warning us whilst there is yet time. For ourselves, we are of the opinion that: (Psalm 19:1-2)

" The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. "

The soundless speech they proclaim is that the Church is about to enter its own personal `Awesome Days', leading to its `Sabbath of Sabbaths', when repentance will turn the Hand of God to outwork what is required to:

" . . . present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. "

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