MasterTruth

Joseph Echoes the End From the Beginning

I’m exploring Genesis this year with one powerful lens in my magnifying glass: That God “declares the end from the beginning.” If that’s the case, we can expect to find reflections of Christ's life and end-time events woven into the Genesis narratives. That is indeed the case. Richmond has been teaching a class called Jacob’s Journey showing clearly from Genesis what you can expect to happen in the future as it unfolds before our eyes. In eight weeks, he’s been following Jacob/Israel from Gen 28-35. (If you’d like to hear this class, he suggests coming up with a total of 8 individuals ready to learn, and he will teach it to your group.)

I am now moving along to the next major historic and prophetic character, Joseph. He is quite easy to see as a type of Christ. I have three pages of single-spaced parallels between Joseph and Jesus. But one event in Joseph’s life stands out to me right now as a super example of how God orchestrated events in Joseph’s life to foreshadow Christ’s life in the world, and it’s in the details I’ve previously missed.

Joseph is off to a roaring start in Gen 37 when he is proclaimed to be his father’s beloved son. (Look at this with me through prophetic lenses.) His brothers hate him (vs 5&8). Not only does his father love him the most, Joseph dreams a couple dreams about his brothers eventually bowing down to him. (Are you starting to see Jesus yet?) His father sends Joseph to find his brothers, and of course, “they receive him not.” They throw him into a pit.

We will slow the story down as we approach the detail I’d never observed before. The brothers first want to kill him (vs 20). Brother Reuben suggests that they not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again. (Genesis 37:22) The other brothers want to kill Joseph. Reuben tells them to just throw him in a pit. Why? Because in his heart, he intends for there to be no blood shed and to deliver Joseph back to “his father again.”

Stop. Think about that a little more deeply in the larger context.

• Joseph came to his brothers from his father (do note it says “his father” and not “their father.” They all had the same father. But this passage points to “his” father. Exact wording matters).
• God’s greater purpose that unfolds in the coming chapters is that instead of going back to his father right away, Joseph’s destiny was to go down to Egypt. If you don’t know any other typology in the Bible, do know that Egypt is a type of the world.
• Had Reuben carried out his desire to deliver Joseph to his father again right away, their salvation from the later famine wouldn’t have happened. Prophetically, Jesus had to go down to the world for a designated time to accomplish our salvation. It involved shedding his blood and then going back to His father.
• Here’s the New Testament parallel to Christ: Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (John 13:1)
• Reuben’s good intentions to not shed Joseph’s blood and to deliver him back to his father before he ever had a chance to go down to the world reminds me of Peter’s rebuke to Jesus’s claim that He must die and rise again in Mark 8:31-33. Jesus responded Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. God’s sovereign plan trumps man’s good intentions.

You know, many characters in the Bible picture Jesus in hologram fashion. What I like to figure out is what aspect of Christ they picture. Moses=Jesus as prophet (Deut. 18:18). David=Jesus as king (Jer. 23:5-6 and Luke 1:32-33). How about Joseph? I think he pictures Jesus as sinless savior, and maybe even more specifically, the sinless savior of Israel. (Their national salvation is still to come, Jer. 31:33.) Do you realize that Joseph was one of only a few Bible characters in whom no sin is ever recorded? There is a reason for that. He, of course, was a sinner like everyone else, but he was put in the Bible to picture a sinless savior who came to his own, and his own received him not. He accomplished his mission in Egypt/the world, and his Jewish brothers ultimately bowed down to him. God designed for Bible history to repeat itself.

I’m just at the beginning of Joseph’s life. Study it along with me beginning with Genesis 37. Look for the treasures of Christ as you go.

R&J Shee

When is the Rapture Happening?

Anyone watching what’s going on in this world (not just in the U.S., but in the whole world) knows that these are not normal times. Much of life is bordering on apocalyptic. But before it actually gets apocalyptic, the rapture must happen first.

To understand how close we are to the rapture, just look at the tribulation and work backward. You’ll find yourself right where we are, bordering the pre-tribulation rapture that then kicks off the tribulation. It will be like a zero-entry pool. You know the kind that starts with getting your toes wet, and as you walk further in, you go deeper. Well, we are standing at the edge of the toe-dipping part. Look at the unfolding of the seal judgments in Rev. 6. It’s an overview of the tribulation. Here’s the order of things once the tribulation kicks off:

• The antichrist enters (first seal, Rev. 6:1-2, white horse. He rides out as a conqueror)
• War (second seal, Rev. 6:3-4, red horse. Peace is gone and people are killing each other)
• Famine (third seal, Rev. 6:5-6, black horse, he has scales. Weighing food)
• Population reduction by various means (fourth seal, Rev. 6:7-8, pale horse, ¼ of the population dies from a combination of war, famine, plagues and wild beasts)
• Tribulation believers are murdered (fifth seal, Rev. 6:9-11)
• Geological/cosmic doom (sixth seal, Rev. 6:12-17, earthquake, sun turns black, moon turns red, stars fall)

Now just look back at that list. Can you not see any/all of this breaking out at any time? We already see the spirit of antichrist working in global leaders. For all we know, they have a non-elected world leader picked out who could step out on the world stage any time (after the rapture). This cabal of current global antichrists who support THE antichrist would desire nothing more than to stand behind a one-world leader coaxing out another world war, famine, population reduction, killing those who turn to Christ in the tribulation and cheering on the signs in the sun, moon and stars (that will probably be folded into the climate change narrative).

But there’s so much more for earth-dwellers to fear in the tribulation. We know there will be a one-world financial system, and everyone will be surveilled, and only one religion will be allowed (and demanded). We know all that from these verses:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev. 13:16-17)

Rev. 13 goes on further about an image of the beast everyone is required to worship. Only in the past year have we seen what that might be like. Imagine (it’s not hard) artificial intelligence putting out an image digitally on your cell phone, maybe even setting an alert and an edict to worship that… with surveillance activated and consequences if you don’t. Will it work exactly like that? Maybe and maybe not, but we can see how all that has been written is possible through technology, surveilled and forced compliance, and weaponization against non-conformists. (Haven’t we already had a test of global conformity to an edict?)

But to our point, we are transitioning right now into that beast system. After the rapture, with a flip of the switch, a lot of global edicts masterminded by Satan and the antichrist can be implemented. It won’t be implemented until the restrainer (the Holy Spirit—who lives in us) is gone at the rapture. Remember, God has not appointed us to wrath, I Thes 5:9.  But you hear the engines. The systems for a one world government, monetary system and religion are being built, tested and tweaked as we speak.

Now, when is the rapture? Pretty soon, we would say. Get your life in order. Be doing what you would want to be found doing when the trumpet sounds and you go up. Quit doing what you don’t want to be found doing when He comes back. Clean up your life and start making it count for the kingdom of God. Use your talents for the Lord. Share the gospel. Disciple other believers. Study your Bible with an attitude of “forgive me” and “yes Lord, whatever you say.”

R&J Shee