Revelation 7

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Right. Well, thank you for our time together,
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Lord. We're so thankful that we can come open your word and pray to be a brother.
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My people are here to be with our hearts, people, our lives help us to be more like Christ. So love us that he gave himself for us in his name.
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Remember, I'm right. Revelation six.
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When I moved the camera moves, you still won't see what
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I'm writing on the board. You still still won't be able to see what I'm writing on the board.
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Probably. Yeah. Let's read verses 12 317. And we will get through the rest of this chapter today.
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I looked when he broke the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair.
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The whole moon became like blood and the stars guy fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
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The sky was split apart like a scroll when it's rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of its out of their place.
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And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and strong. Every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
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And they said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand.
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So last week, we went through a number of Old Testament passages to try to let you see the development of the day of the
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Lord. What was the day of the Lord in the Old Testament? Day of a day of judgment.
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90 probably 99 % of the time in the Old Testament when the great day of the
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Lord came or a day of the Lord came, judgment and salvation were present.
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Now you have times where that's not the case.
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But we can say let's just look for some for instance, when Joel, Joel had and Joel chapter one, it was talking about a locust invasion.
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And I made the argument that sometimes if you went home and read that, I don't know if anybody went home and read Joel chapter one, sometimes you don't know if it's a real locust or if it's the armies of the
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Assyrians coming, you don't know. But we know that that is specifically speaking of something imminent.
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Then when you get to chapter two, what did it say? It talked about the great day, the great day of the
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Lord coming. And what did Peter say that day was? Peter said that was at the time of Pentecost.
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Remember, he was out here was preaching to the men, the Holy Spirit had fell upon him that it's already spoken tongues, tongues of fire, all that, okay.
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And he went out and he preached and he said, this is that meaning, hey, what was prophesied in Joel two is here.
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Then you get to Malachi, we skipped a few, but then we get to Malachi. What did
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Malachi say the great day of the Lord was, it was, it was going to be at a time when the forerunner to the
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Messiah would come and he would preach and he would preach the coming of Messiah, he would preach then that judgment was coming.
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And how do we know that? Who did Jesus say that the one that was coming in the spirit of Elijah, who did
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Jesus say that person was? He said it was John the Baptist. So that's how we know what was coming.
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John says the ax is laid at the root. He was trying to turn the hearts of the people to who?
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To God. That's what he said he was there to do. Look, he's coming before the Messiah to turn your hearts to the people.
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The Messiah is here. And if you do not, the great day of the Lord is coming.
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And then what is it one of the quotations in Malachi is exactly what said right here, who is able to stand.
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And then we got into the New Testament. And we begin to see some of those passages that talk about the day of the
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Lord. And those then begin to move forward to not an imminent time other than Peters preaching at the day of Pentecost in Acts 22.
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But then begin to point to something what? Go ahead, you can say something into the age.
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And it's very clear that's the end of the age because you have in Acts 17, where Paul standing up on the
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Areopagus. And what did he say, a God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by that man whom he has raised from the dead.
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What's that day? That's the great day of condemnation against the wicked. And that's also what a day of salvation.
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Anytime with the exception of just a couple when God comes and in judgment, there's salvation.
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When he hauled off the northern kingdom, prophesied in Joel, and in Isaiah, he hauled off the northern kingdom into captivity intermarried them with the with the
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Assyrian other refugees, there was always a remnant. So you see, judgment, salvation, when
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God came in 100 years later, and he hauled off them into Babylonian captivity, was there salvation in there?
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Was there? That's what that's what you're reading Jeremiah certainly was who who did
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God save when he killed and slayed the other ones who were the ones hauled off into captivity,
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Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, and others of them that God's preserve their life, even though judgment came on the nation, and they stomped them down like mud in the street, it says, he said he slayed them, but then he hauled some of them off into captivity, which did what it preserved, not only the line of the
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Messiah, but preserved men and women to be taught. What did Daniel do? We just went through Daniel last year.
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What did Daniel do? He taught people the Word of God. He preached to kings.
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Remember, he outlived all his captors. Isn't he the reason for the wise man? Good, good possibility.
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Not for sure. But it's a good, I would say it's a good deduction. But we don't know for sure.
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Yeah, and I've often wondered, how did Daniel get the scroll from of Jeremiah?
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I mean, Daniel was old when he was reading that Daniel was probably close to 80.
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When he was reading that, that's a long time to carry a scroll around from you when you were hauled off at 1415 16 years old.
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But yeah, I think that's a good deduction. Good possibility. How did those in the in the in the East hear about that the
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Persians most likely Yeah, probably from Daniel or someone that was being taught by him.
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So then we get let's back up. This before the day of the Lord's even brought up in that terminology,
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Sodom and Gomorrah was their judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, yeah, man. God rained down hell, not just hail, hail from heaven on those people.
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And who did he extract in salvation? lot, his two daughters, the other one, she got turned into a pillar of salt.
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Back up some more. What about the flood? God drowned the whole earth.
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And was that not judgment? Hey, somebody don't think that's judgment. Something's wrong with their receptors, because he drowned the whole earth, but eight souls.
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And in that was the salvation of eight souls. It actually says that in Peter, he saved eight souls through the floodwaters.
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So you have judgment and salvation. Now you're even going to let's just take the destruction of Jerusalem when the destruction of Jerusalem come.
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Was that a judgment on the destruction of Jerusalem? Yes. Did he wipe everybody out? Yeah, all the ones that didn't leave and didn't heed to the words of Christ.
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It says when you see the surrounding armies, you better run to the hills. Who stayed? The people that didn't listen.
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What happened to those that didn't listen? They got they perish. So now we have in this coming passage, we have the other that the great coming day of the
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Lord. If I did not get to a one passage, because we ran out of time.
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But let's back up to Thessalonians real quick. Because I was asked the question.
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Go to second Thessalonians. Second Thessalonians chapter two.
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I'll begin in verse one. And I was asked the question, well, when this happens, where are we? So let me read this.
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And I'll answer that question. And then we'll move on. Now we request you read.
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Now we request you brethren, with regard to the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together with him. Hey, do you see that right there? Right in the very beginning of that chapter, you have judgment and salvation right there.
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What's the coming day of Jesus Christ, it's going to bring judgment. And then what does it say he's gonna do?
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He's gonna gather what us together with him. So you have the judgment of the wicked and the salvation of the elect.
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He said that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or by a message or a letter as this from us to the effect that the day of the
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Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you. For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed.
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The son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself. But every so called God and object of worship so that he takes a seat in the temple of God displaying himself to be
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God. Okay, question was when, if, are we going to be here?
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If there's a question, but if the if when this comes to pass, are we going to be here?
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Are believers going to be here when this comes to pass? Of course. Yes, we are.
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If you're alive, when this thing that's just been described as a, the man of sin, the man of lawless, if you're alive in, are you raising your hand?
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Okay. Sorry. I was like, man, I ain't got the disagreeable part. Okay. Um, yeah.
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So if you're alive at the time in which this takes place, you will be here.
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There's no extraction. There is no, um, there's going to be no secret rapture that's going to remove you from this time.
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You, if a person is alive, they're going to see who this man of lawlessness is. They're going to see the great apostasy. And I do believe the great apostasy is connected to the man of lawlessness.
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The question was then, do, do I believe in the rapture?
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And we'll get more of this as we get later in the book. Of course I do, but not in the same terminology or in the same, um, uh, sequential order that, uh,
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Hal Lindsay, uh, John MacArthur and any other dispensational eschatological person does.
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If you're, if a person denies the catching away of God's people, he is a full blown heretic.
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I'm just gonna let you know that. Now we can differ on when that takes place, but we can't differ on does it take place?
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It will. It has to. If not, Jesus Christ is then a liar. He says he will descend with the shout of the archangel.
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The dead in Christ will rise first and those who remain, which means who those who are alive at the time of his coming will be caught up.
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That's the word caught up. Harpazo is the Greek word. Raptura is the
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Latin Vulgate word, which has convoluted a whole bunch of stuff. Okay. We are caught up with him in the air.
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So yes, when this happens, the man of lawlessness appears. We will be here if you're alive, when that happens now, and that will be the coming beat that comes before the day of the
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Lord. This man of lawlessness. Now turn over to second
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Peter. I think this passage helps people, in my opinion, to understand that Peter understood that the day of the
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Lord, meaning the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent at the time of Acts chapter two.
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But then when he gets to second
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Peter chapter three, go to verse 10.
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He says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up.
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Okay. The day of the Lord will come like a thief. Does that mean, uh, it's going to come in secret rapture?
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No. What does it mean when it says like a thief? Jesus used this very term and I'm good. You're saying something unexpected, unexpected.
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Jesus even said the same thing. If a man would have known the night, the robbers or the thieves would have come. He would have been waiting.
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That's why you should always be alert, be sober. That was Jesus's words. And here's Peter saying,
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Hey, it's going to come in a time in which you do not know. Verse 11, since all these things are to be destroyed in these, in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be destroyed by the burning elements.
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They will melt with intense heat, but according to his purposes, we are looking for the new heavens and the new earth and which righteousness dwells.
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So when the day of the Lord comes at the end of the age, it's it, it's over.
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When Jesus comes, he descends on that, on the horse with his angels. Even, uh, first Thessalonians says he will pour out retribution on all of those that did not obey the gospel, not part, not some, all of them.
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He will destroy the wicked. He will destroy this earth with intense heat. That's why we don't have to worry about some nuclear
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Holocaust is going to crack the globe in half because of this passage right here, who's going to do it.
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God's going to do it. Not some human man -made, uh, missile.
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God's going to do it. Why? Because it's going to be the judgment of God. And I do believe at that point, people will know it.
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And why do you say I believe that? Because it says in the days of Noah, they were eating, drinking, giving in marriage.
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They were doing their own thing. And they did not understand meaning who, who didn't understand the people party and living life, doing our thing.
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It says until the flood came. And then when the flood came, they understood that this was the judgment of God.
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Now back to Revelation chapter six, look what these people say.
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We're 16. It says, and they said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and the wrath of the lamb.
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The, I believe this is saying it's the end of the age. Why? Because they recognize that what these people recognize what is taking place at this moment is the wrath of God, not just some bad situation.
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They understand that this is the wrath of God and the wrath of the lamb. Every person that has ever lived that does not place faith in Christ on that final day.
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They're going to know that this is the wrath of God when it comes. Why? Because God's going to reveal that to them.
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Look, uh, when Jesus splits the Eastern sky and he comes, every eye is going to see him.
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You know how many times you've been out, look across the ocean and you see that sun, when it comes up, you can barely look at it.
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It's going to be that bright and everybody will see. And the passage says that when the coming of the son of man, it'll be as lightning flashes from the
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East into the West. I don't believe that's an accurate, uh, or the, uh, the most accurate translating of that because lightning doesn't flash from the
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East to the West. I don't know if y 'all know that lightning doesn't fly. No, I've often thought about that passage and it's, it's, it's like saying how it's going to be, um, you can't help but be aware of it.
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Yeah. The word from the East to the West, it's like, it's going to be, you know, lightning, lightning doesn't flash from the
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East to the West. Sometimes it goes this way. Sometimes it goes that way. The word is actually astrophe, which means that for the light to, to, to appear.
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So when you seeing the sun come up from the East and it always comes up in the East, there's no denying where it's coming from.
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And just as it rises in the East and points to the West, there's no denying that what's happened.
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That's what I think that passage is saying, because it's not like when the son of man appears, uh, boom.
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Oh, he saw a flash of light and he's gone. No, no, no. When he appears, it's going to be like the sun. And as it comes up, the whole globe will know that he is here.
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Now it says here for the great day of the wrath has come and who is able to stand.
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There were two questions we asked. How long at the souls of the, of the altar, how long before you're going to punish all these people who keep killing us?
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And he, we said, okay, what was that timeframe? Four seals.
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And in the fifth seal, you had souls. And then they asked that question and we'll put it right here.
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And in that timeframe goes, how long from here to the sixth seal, which
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I believe is final judgment. I would say this timeframe right here is from Jesus's ascension to his return.
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Let me put that second coming. That's how
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I understand it. We'll talk about seventh seal in two weeks, maybe.
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Um, I can tell you what I, so you have an idea. I believe the, this is a continuation of that.
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I specifically did not deal with the word earthquake at the beginning.
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I was waiting for somebody to say, Hey Mike, you skipped over a word and everybody knows me. I don't skip stuff.
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I did not skip it. If you look at the sixth seal, it began in verse 12, an earthquake.
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What is an earthquake? Okay. When we see an,
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I agree with you. Um, when we see an earthquake in scripture, what is that a sign of?
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It's a theophany. God has appeared. God has appeared. Go to Mount Sinai.
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What was happening at Mount Sinai? There was some shaking going on. Okay. Um, we, every time in revelation, you can go just read through it, take you a pin and Mark where there it says there's an earthquake, the appearance of God or the judgment of God is coming in the member.
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These are parallels, the seals. Then you have the seven trumpets.
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Remember, these are parallels with one another.
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When you get to here, you're going to see another earthquake that starts when you get to the end of the seventh seal, you're going to see earthquake, fire, lightning, hail, and some craziness.
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Same thing happens when you get to the seventh seal, you're going to have a small earthquake.
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Then when you get to the seventh seal, craziness, hail, earthquake, fire, and lightning, same thing when you get to the seventh seal, crazy earthquake fire.
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And if you don't believe me, you want to look over there right now. We can. It's interesting too in Jesus' resurrection.
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Um, there's a great earthquake recorded. Sure. Yeah. And, and because the appearance of God, the appearance of God, the appearance of God, the appearance of God, um, go flip over to chapter eight and this will be with the opening of the, this is the, the seventh seal has been opened.
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This is right. This is, this is right before the seven trumpets are blown and it says in verse three, then the angel took the sensor filled with a filled it with the fire of the altar.
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He threw it to the earth and followed it peels of thunder sounds, flashes, lightning, and an earthquake.
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So the beginning of God's judgment began to begin with, uh, an earthquake with the seventh seal end with earthquake, earthquake, flip over to chapter 11 verse 13.
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This is in the sixth trumpet. And in that hour, there was a great earthquake and a 10th of the city filled.
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We're not gonna do it. All that we'll do when we get chapter 11, but see it, the earthquake was came at the sixth trumpet, follow it down to the seventh
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Trump, the seventh trumpet in verse 19 and it says, and the temple of God, which is in heaven was open.
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The Ark of his covenant appeared in this temple and there was flashings of lightning, peels of thunder, sounds of thunder, a great earthquake and a great hail storm.
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So you see that the judgment of God is coupled beginning with an earthquake and ends with an earthquake.
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So that tells you that those timeframe right there is God's judgment. Okay. So when the, when this comes, who can stand if this destruction is so bad and it's so terrible and it's so pervasive and it's so, um, universal, let's just be honest.
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That sounds pretty universal. Who can stand? Well, let's read chapter seven after this.
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And I think this is a continuation of the vision.
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Okay. Where it says after, does everybody else translation say after this? No, what'd you say? After these things, it's just a continuation of the vision.
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Okay. So here it is. The, the questions asked who can stand and then in the net, the, the, the, the following that part of the next part of the vision is he saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or any tree.
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And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of God.
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And he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth, the sea saying, do not harm this earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond servants of our
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God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed 144 ,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel from the tribe of Judah 12 ,000 were sealed from the tribe of Reuben 12 ,000 from the tribe of Gad 12 ,000 from the tribe of Asher 12 ,000 from the tribe of Nathali 12 ,000 from the tribe of Manasseh 12 ,000 from the tribe of Simeon 12 ,000 from the tribe of Levi 12 ,000 from the tribe of Issachar 12 ,000 from the tribe of Zebulun 12 ,000 from the tribe of Joseph 12 ,000 from the tribe of Benjamin 12 ,000.
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And after these things, once again, the continuation of the vision after these things,
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I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation and all tribes, peoples, tongues, and they were standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes, palm branches were in their hands, and they cry out with a loud voice saying salvation to our
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God who sits on the throne and to the lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders were the four living creatures and they fell on their face before the throne and worshiped
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God saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.
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Hey, we've already heard that haven't we? Earlier in the book, what do these elders and these four living creatures keep doing?
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Them jokers are getting some exercise. They are falling on their face and popping up and falling on their face and popping up and they're worshiping.
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And one of the elders answered saying to me, these who are clothed in the white robes, who are they and where are they come from?
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And I said to him, my lord, you know, and he said, like he was scared to answer, you know, why are you asking me?
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And he said, and these are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation and they have washed their robes, made them white in the blood of the lamb.
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For this reason, they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple.
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And he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them and they will hunger no they will hunger no longer their thirst anymore, nor will the sun beat down on them or there be any heat for the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to the springs of the water of life and God will wipe away every tear from their eye.
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I don't see how you can't think that's not talking about the new heavens in the new world.
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Well, go ahead. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
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Good. Um, I don't see how people I don't know where what this means right now where people got the image of heaven that was just like clouds and all the ridiculous things you hear.
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It's like when you clearly see like, they tell my kids and my daughter asked me, she's like, what's daddy? What's happens? Like, all we can do is read right here and see, we have images of what it's going to be like, yeah, this is actually like a mean, you hate that really answers a lot of questions when you see like, they just sit before the throne and worship when you ask, like, or is it gonna be like this?
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And how is it gonna be like that? And how are animals going to be added? And just, you know, it's like, all that's gonna matter is worshipping, worshipping, worshipping the lamb.
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Hey, you may ever wonder where you get the heart from a we're going to be sitting on the clouds plucking heart.
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It's earlier in the book of Revelation. Remember where it says that people that were playing harp harp was just a worshipping instrument.
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But you know, now you've got the vision of us having angel wings, which is utterly ridiculous. We're higher than the angels, the angels look down on us.
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And they're like, astounded that God would even redeem us. And but when we're made in the in the we are glorified bodies, where the imagery of playing a harp is an is an instrument of worshipping him forever.
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So I don't think that everybody's going to be walking around, you know, plucking a harp, it's just it has the idea of worshipping him forever.
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Now, back up, let's walk through chapter seven, for about 15 minutes.
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Question, comment, Andy, were you clearing your throat to rebuke me? I was just clearing my throat.
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Okay. I was like, oh, boy, I've embraced myself for impact. After this,
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I saw the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth. I understand this, okay?
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Is a pair members parallels all through the book. And if you disagree with me, or you say, Hey, I'm gonna understand.
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Ask now. I see these four angels standing at the four corners of the earth as a parallel to the four seals, which were judgment on the land.
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You mean this isn't a proof text for the earth is flat? No, I don't think so.
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But when it says boy, that's a good question. What do you mean from the four corners of the earth? That's a good question. That's it.
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It's just from all from all directions. And he's holding he's basically these are holding back the winds, the winds of what what would these winds carry with it?
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It's obviously it's judgment. If you go heavy in Old Testament, when we were reading through Zachariah a couple years ago, remember in Zachariah, you had the chariots and Zachariah early in the book,
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I think it's in chapter two, I can't remember, I think it's in chapter two of Zachariah, but there was these chariots on wind of chariots that were bringing judgment.
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And this is echoing that now it's not saying the exact same thing. But it's saying these chariots
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Rua holding back the winds, the spirit Numa, Ptuma. Okay, in the in the
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Greek Rua in the in the passage in, in, in Zachariah, meaning the spirit or wind, these are holding back the judgment of God.
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So it would not blow on the earth, the sea or any tree. And he says,
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I saw an angel ascending from the rising of the sun. So where's this angel ascending from the east, he's ascending from the east, having a seal of the living
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God, and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom were granted to harm the earth, the sea, saying do not harm the earth, the sea, or trees until we have sealed the bond servants of God on their foreheads.
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Now, I'm just gonna tell you right at the beginning, I don't think there was an angel coming down with a big stamp was gonna stamp
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Yahweh on their forehead. Okay, although that would be kind of cool if you did. This has echoes back to Ezekiel nine.
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If you want to go back and read it on your own time, I do it. Remember, Ezekiel was when the second deportation, or was the first deportation depending on how you understand the time frame was 603, 605.
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The next one was in 597. I don't think there's any discrepancy when that one has because of the historical data.
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That would have been the time in which Ezekiel would have been hauled off into captivity in the Old Testament and to Babylon.
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He is given visions. He's given some crazy stuff. Sometimes he's picked up by his hair and he's floated over Jerusalem and he's told to measure the temple and all this.
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But in this particular case, the angel with battle axes are standing around Jerusalem.
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They're fixing to go in. He says, hey, this is what I'm fixing to do to Jerusalem. I'm going to go in there and I'm going to wipe it clean.
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I'm going to kill every man, woman, boy, girl, whatever it is. Just read chapter nine of Ezekiel. This is the
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Cliff Notes version. Then God tells one of them who has an ink bag.
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He says, take your ink pen and before I do this, I want you to go through that city and I want you to mark on the head of every one of those that I tell you to.
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They're mine. So when we think of this here, the ceiling, it has Old Testament foundation before great destruction that God was going to do what?
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He was going to save some people out of that time of destruction. And how was he going to do that?
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He's going to put a mark on their forehead. That's what he did in Ezekiel. So they went through and he said, well, I want you to begin at the temple, at the sanctuary.
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Start there, begin to mark them until you're done. And then when you're done, the battle axes of the angels will go through there and they'll wipe them clean.
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Meaning it was going to be the destruction of Jerusalem, which did take place in 586 BC. Well, this here says, hey, we're going to hold back the winds of judgment so it doesn't blow until these people are sealed.
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Now, here's the question. Who are the ones being sealed here?
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This is Jewish people, it sounds like. We need to make a distinction between the tribes of Israel.
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Is that how you spell Reuben? I think that's how you spell Reuben. It starts with an E, doesn't it? Reuben. Simeon. These would have been from Leah.
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Zilpah. Anybody remember who
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Zilpah and Bilhauer were? They were the handmaidens. So, Jacob was supposed to work for Rachel.
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Yes, sir. Leah's got two more because Leah had six of them. I ain't done yet. I got you. I'm going to show you.
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I'm doing a chronological order for a reason. All right. I got you. You're right. These were
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Jacob got tricked to marry the ugly one first. Okay.
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That's what he said when he woke up and the sun came up. He opened up the tent and was like, that was not as good as I thought it was last night now.
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So, he says, I'll work for her. And he said, okay.
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And he did. He did his seven years and it's time to pay up. He said, okay.
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No problem. There it is. Lights went out. It's probably dark and when they didn't have lights.
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He went in. He thought he consummated the marriage with this one.
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He married this one and he was not happy. He said, well, fulfill your time with Leah for the week and then
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I'll give you the other one for another seven years. So, he did not love
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Leah. You say, well, how do you know that? Because the scripture tells us that. It says very clearly in Genesis 29 that God opened up the womb of Leah because she was not loved.
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That's exactly why he did it. He loved her. She was beautiful.
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She had a crazy eye. That's all it says. That's what it says. She had a crazy eye.
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I don't know if it was like a flounder or like a catfish. We don't know. There's a crazy eye. All right. This is the order in which they were born to Leah.
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Well, the baby race begins. She's now jealous because her womb's not been opened.
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So, what does she do? She says, check it out. I can't give you one, but she can.
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So, I think they would have thought they would have learned from old grandpa. Great -grandpa should have told them this doesn't end well.
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So, he marries Bilhah. Then, there's more problems.
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She then gets jealous and wants more kids, too. Can't. So, then, yeah, naturally.
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She does the same thing. She gives them these guys. Here, you take my handmaiden. So, now, he's got four wives.
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What's interesting is we don't know if these were even Hebrew. You know that? We don't.
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These were basically slaves. We don't know if they were Hebrew, meaning descendants of Abraham. We don't know.
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I've often wondered that because in the listing, and we'll get more into it. We don't have time to get to it. In the listing of them, you have these are always considered second class.
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They weren't beloved. They weren't the desire. What they were trying to do was build an empire.
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Well, then, there was the need for more babies.
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You kind of read Genesis towards the end. They were buying Jacob for mandrakes.
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Anybody know what a mandrake was in the Old Testament? It was an aphrodisiac. So, they were like, hey, the kids was out there playing with the mandrakes.
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You give me your mandrakes, and I'll give you my husband for the night. I mean, she obviously knew she was fertile, and she was trying to get pregnant.
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Anyway, you should go read 29 through, I think it's 37. So, then, you have
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Issachar, Zebulun. Those are the 12 sons of Jacob.
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They need to be made distinction between the 12 tribes. We won't have time to do that, because there is a difference.
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These are always looked at as second class. They were basically,
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I don't want to say concubines, because they were actually wives that were taken care of.
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I also want to let you know, I don't know if Andy touched on this when he did in marriage, but in the Old Testament, you know,
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I'm not an advocate for polygamy. So, I just want to let you know that my wife is sitting in the back. I love her and her rolling. Okay, I don't want anybody else, unless there was four of her.
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I'd take four of her. The Bible never condemns it.
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You read the Bible from beginning to end. It's never condemned.
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Baffles me. It's never condemned. There are actually laws put in the
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Mosaic Law, so that when they did do this, these weren't mistreated, like they weren't treated as second class.
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They were to treat them just the same. Treat them as if they were just like the first one, just like the one that was loved, all the same.
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Same conjugal visits, same conjugal rights, same food, same shelter, same clothing, all of that.
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No favoritism. But what happens is there's always favoritism. That's what happened and caused all the problems.
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Now, you know, we'll close this up here, but I do want you to know, we don't know when that shift exactly took place that polygamy then began to not be the norm.
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We don't know exactly when. I can tell you when we see it begin to taper off, after the exile, after they come out of 586
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BC, they come through the 70 years of captivity. They then go into the new part of the back to the land.
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We never see again multiple wives. Never. The only thing you could ever closely say there was multiple wives maybe was when
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Ezra tells them to put away their foreign wives and that's open to interpretation was there multiple wives there as he was just telling those men as a whole that that married pagan wives to just put them out.
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Okay, that is a very rough passage. That's the first time we see in scripture where God actually tells them to divorce their wives.
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The kids are not part of the promise. The kids are outside the covenant. The wife you marry is outside the covenant.
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Never should have done it before. And Ezra said pack them up and send them on their way. That's hard, but we don't know when polygamy actually began.
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When that took place other than we can look in history and see that we don't see it any time after that.
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Question, comments? Are those Hebrew names? What's that?
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The wives? We don't know. You don't know if they're Hebrew names? We don't even know if they're
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Hebrews. Well, I know you said that. I just didn't know if they were Hebrew. Well, are they a
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Semitic name? Yes. Yes, I think that and I don't want to split hairs because Abraham was a
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Semite. Okay, but Hebrew began with Abraham.
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The Hebrew actual Hebrew began with Abraham. Anybody know when actually the word Jew began?
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We hear it a lot, but you know the word Jew actually took place after the...
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Oh man, we got to go. I'll deal with that next week. We got to go. Burt, will you close us out?