144 000!! This is so COOL!!

It's been so .. awesome finding God's heart in this Book!!

The Prophetic Promises in Deuteronomy 4
I thought Moses’ exhortation in Deuteronomy 4, verses 23 and following was very interesting because it lays out the history of Israel in advance.

In verse 23 he warns about worshipping false gods.  In verse 25 he tells them they will do it.  In verses 26 and 27 he tells them that they’ll be destroyed as a nation and scattered among the nations.
But verses 29 through 31 are a promise of restoration:
 29But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

 30When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
 31(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

First of all, for anyone that says the national people of Israel were not permanent in God’s plan and were merely a type of the Church – that the “Israel of God” has always been the Church – there are some big problems:  If that’s the case, then the “Church” must have fallen into idolatry and been scattered throughout the nations….And the Church must still be in idolatry because, “even in the latter days” turning to God will bring His mercy.  Hmmmm…  So much for Covenant Theology…. and pretty dangerous cause I believe thats  calling God a liar!!

That is not to say that homiletically we can’t apply a passage like this to ourselves, but it’s truly speaking of Israel and the covenant promises to the Jewish people.

As an aside, I recently read an article from Compass Bible Church that addressed the issue of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 and 14.  It was interesting because it pointed out the Haredi, the most orthodox of the orthodox Jews, not just in Israel, but worldwide, are excellent candidates for these that are sealed during the Tribulation.  In the article, Bill Perkins points out that the young un-married Haredi do not date, much less have sex; and there are apparently approximately 150,000 males of these between the ages of 18 and 35 worldwide – the only group of Jewish men who could fulfill the prophecy.  Bill proposes, “Imagine what they will be like when, post-Rapture, God suddenly opens their eyes to biblical truth and marks them for service. They already have a zeal for God’s Word, so when they understand the rest of the story of how their forefathers rejected Jesus their Messiah, they will become the most proficient and prolific evangelists the world has ever seen!”


Kind of interesting!
Shalom….

The “sealing”
Rev 7:2-8
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the
seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four
angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till
we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there
were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes
of the children of Israel. (KJV)
5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe
of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were
sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe
of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of
Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the
tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar
were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the
tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of
Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. (KJV)