Waits and Measures / February 2000

Waiting on the Lord is one of the most difficult things a believer must do. For some reason, waiting is very distasteful. Experienced believers have learned to never pray for patience. However, waiting on the Lord is one of the truest measures of our faith. As we have been waiting for this winter with Y2k anticipation, the Middle East negotiations, the Pope's visit, and our changing world, God has been measuring us to see who will truly look to Him. In searching the Scriptures for encouragement, I came upon clear evidence of others having to wait on the Lord. At this strategic moment, let us review how waiting on the Lord can be a measure of our faith.

Moses had already had the experience of the burning bush. He was extremely motivated and had been dispatched to Egypt to speak with Pharaoh. He went to Pharaoh and nothing happened. That is, nothing happened that Moses was expecting. Even though God had told Moses that Pharaoh would harden his heart, maybe Moses felt his life would have an impact on the exodus situation. Moses had said, "Let the people go," and Pharaoh said, "No, I will not let the people go." So much for Moses big plans to lead the children of Israel to deliverance. Instead, Pharaoh made the people make bricks without straw.

Moses was suddenly facing disappointed brethren, an antagonistic Pharaoh, and his own personal questions of purpose. His questions were threefold to the Lord.

Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, "O Lord, why hast Thou brought harm to this people? Why didst Thou ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he has done harm to this people; and Thou hast not delivered Thy people at all."

Exodus 5:22-23

Here we are in the winter of 2000 with many events appearing to line up with the end times. We believe that the great end time scenario will be the fulfillment of the "greater exodus." We believe that the tribulation saints will leave Egypt (the present world system) headed by Pharaoh (the antimessiah), travel through a great and terrible wilderness (the great tribulation) and cross over the Jordan (the resurrection and rapture) to the Promised Land (the millennial Kingdom). So, like Moses, here we are just prior to God's judgments about to fall on Egypt. In frustration and impatience for what doesn't seem to be happening, Moses questions God. In like manner, we are asking the same questions.

1. O Lord, why hast thou brought harm to this people? O Lord, why have you allowed many of your people to be embarrassed and ashamed in their zeal and faith to prepare for your coming? Why do you allow scorners and unbelievers to mock and ridicule our desire and behavior to love and obey your word? Your people are being ridiculed for wisely preparing for your soon return.

2. Why didst Thou ever send me? Why did you call me to teach and prepare the brethren for the end times and your return? Why did you call me from my youth to prepare and teach me, if you weren't going to have me fulfill this destiny and purpose? Why did you have me end my secular successful career to serve you if you weren't going to keep your end of the deal?

3. Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he has done harm to this people; and Thou hast not delivered Thy people at all. Lord, for many years I have pointed out the Middle East Peace Accord and compared it to Your prophecies. Many people have taken note. Now at the brink of such events, when it is time for You to pour out judgments upon this world, where are You? When are you going to take your enemies to task?

In Moses day, God immediately answered Moses questions in reverse order. So let's follow in the same manner. Let us see if there is an answer for our questions as well.

Question Number 3: Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he has done harm to this people; and Thou hast not delivered Thy people at all.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he shall let them go, and under compulsion he shall drive them out of his land."

Exodus 6:1

In our modern application, the Lord is saying, "Now you will see what I will do." And this best describes my feelings for the moment. We know that the first events of the great tribulation are to come suddenly and quickly. Those that are not watching diligently will be overcome by those events. We are cautioned not to be asleep, lazy, or mocking. In particular, we are not to be drawing a conclusion that the Lord has delayed His coming and therefore turn back toward the world.

Let's be real on this point, the ball is clearly in the Lord's court. It is up to the Lord to allow the abomination of desolation and the great tribulation; we can't make it happen. So we wait. Here we are at the waiting game again. The measure of real faith and believing a promise is whether you can wait for it. Those who quit and give up because "nothing happened" for awhile don't really believe it to begin with.

Moses used his staff first and it didn't impress Pharaoh or his magicians. So Y2k wasn't all that impressive to some. January 1, 2000 rolled through with no apparent Y2k disaster. At least that is what the media and the government said. All those people who prepared were a little befuddled by the non-event that it seemed to be. Many of you may have anticipated more than actually happened and may have a tinge of embarrassment as a result. Don't discount your wisdom quite yet.

Not one single expert (a person who really understood the implications) said that the Y2k impact would be the weekend of January 1. Virtually everyone in their respective fields said that we should make our first real assessment around the third to fourth week of January and the real impact assessment should made around the end of February 2000. Why? Because the real impact of Y2k is hundreds and thousands of glitches taking effect later. No one expected the entire computer system of the world to collapse overnight. The fact is that many critical and suspect computer systems were shut down for the rollover. Only now are we finding out whether the fix worked or not.

Some computer fixes were in fact called patches. Computer patches are famous. Most of them cause their own kind of problems, and some of them don't really fix the original problem. To date, certain credit card processing computers are billing customers over and over and over again for the same thing purchased once. The reality of this won't hit until the February bill arrives. Petroleum refiners which use a lot of computer process controls are having numerous difficulties. It seems that a large number of oil refineries are having trouble staying on line to produce refined petroleum products like fuel and oil. Some oil insiders are very concerned with the domino effect of recurring problems and the resulting economic difficulty.

I mention these things to explain what some computer fixes are like. Let's say a man has a credit card that has been charged to the limit and can not be used again (the original Y2k problem). The bill must be paid; but he doesn't have the money to pay (for the real repair). So, he gets this ingenious plan to buy some time (a computer patch) and he simply gets another credit card. He draws cash from the second card to pay the first. Question: How long do you think his ingenious scheme will last? The obvious answer is not very long and he has complicated his payment plan dramatically. The same can be said for Y2k in some respects.

The real story of Y2k, however, is not the computer problems or the lack thereof. It is how people have reacted and are reacting to the problem. Prior to January 1, 2000, we heard a distant voice proclaim that it would be a meltdown B the end of the world as we knew it. No reasonable person, and I was in communication with many, thought this would happen. I served as a panelist in public forums on this subject and I assured everyone that a sense of "normal" would prevail right up to the coming of the Lord. The Bible says so. Y2k was simply a single, common dismay that would effect all nations. The Bible says that also. We watched the eyes of the world turn and focus on a single event. By the way, the next time you will see such a singular watched event, it will be the death of the two witness laying in the streets of Jerusalem followed by the Son of Man returning on the clouds of heaven.

In the weeks that have followed the turn of the year, we have also heard from certain voices discrediting and devaluing anyone who called for preparation or who actually prepared. Think about that for a moment. The Bible teaches that a man who sees danger coming and prepares is a wise man. The unwise man is the one who doesn't prepare. Yet, these voices are suggesting that the government, businesses, and individuals who prepared were paranoid for nothing. More than that, these same detractors still don't understand the real implications of Y2k and that the effect of it is still to come (if it does). But with boldness and bravado, they speak as though Y2k is history and everything is A-Okay. Everything is not A-Okay. Anyone saying that Y2k is not and will not be a problem is like a guy proclaiming everything is fine five minutes after the Titanic has struck the iceberg. The ship is definitely taking on some water; the question is whether the "patch" will hold.

Don't be discouraged because you believed the wisdom of the Bible and "prepared." The staff of Moses went on to do other things as well.

Question Number 2: Why didst Thou ever send me?
God's second answer to why Moses was called is direct and specific as well.

God spoke further to Moses and said to him, AI am the Lord; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them. And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned."

Exodus 6:2-4

Why was Moses called? Why have I been called? Why is anyone called? It has to do with God's promises made to our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It has to do with God manifesting Himself to us and others. It has to do with God fulfilling His Word.

What promises had God made to Abraham about Israel being in Egypt? What would the call of Moses have to do with those promises?

And God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions."

Genesis 15:13-14

God said to Moses that He would bring the people out with many possessions and judge Egypt. This is why God called Moses, to make His word good as He had spoken to Abram.

For us, in this modern time, God is doing the same thing. Yeshua has promised to return again. He has said that His faithful servants will be waiting at the gate. He has said that others would be in the house getting drunk, mocking and scorning others. I don't believe that preparing for the Lord's return early will be treated with disdain by the Lord. Maybe we are advanced in the timing, but our faith in Him is based on Him and what He has promised. We know the Lord will return one day, but the question for us to answer is really about faith.
I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?

Luke 18:8

I'm sure Moses wanted vindication and confirmation. My hope is that God will soon vindicate my call and the call of many brethren who have repented already and desired to see God Almighty. Don't let mockers and scorners discourage your heart. Let God be the judge of your heart.

Question Number 1: O Lord, why hast thou brought harm to this people?
God's answer is going to address what is in our hearts.

And furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.

Exodus 6:5

I believe the Lord knows what is in our hearts as we prepare for the possibility of the great tribulation. I believe He knows the nature of this world and how it must change. I believe He also desires that all peoples would repent and be delivered from this world. Therefore, I believe we should hang in there with Him and let Him do what is best. If I have to make bricks without straw (be patient) for awhile, so be it. I believe He will come and that this present world is not a permanent situation.

The February deadline for a Middle East Peace Accord (the final status talks of Jerusalem) is in deep trouble. Pundits on both sides of the negotiation speak of the virtual impossibility to tackle all the issues between them. Only Barak, Clinton and Arafat maintain a straight face while talking about the deadline. In recent days, even the President has acknowledged the idea of a delay.
The temporary negotiation with Syria and the possible turnover of the Golan Heights came to a screeching halt. Two hundred fifty thousand protestors voiced their opposition without qualification and Barak was confronted with the real possibility of losing his job. On the Syrian side, the old ways finally emerged. Syria insisted that Israel agree to the old 1967 borders before starting the real negotiation. This is classic Arab/Israeli negotiations. Let me put this in simple terms for us here in America. The Syrian position is that what is Syria's is Syria's; what is Israel's we will negotiate for. By granting Syria this position, Israel has no negotiating position to work from for security arrangements, water rights, or the protection of inhabitants in the affected areas. So how does all this failed negotiation with Syria fit into the prophetic scenario? Quite a bit actually.

According to Scripture, the end time events in Israel are to include war B a war from the north. Any war from the north must include Syria. I would remind everyone that the prophecy concerning Damascus has not yet been fulfilled.

The oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city, And it will become a fallen ruin.

Isaiah 17:1

But back to the negotiations with the Palestinians and Arafat…
The rhetoric is shifting to unilateral actions: Palestine’s declaration of statehood without Israel's agreement; the likelihood of war is looming on the horizon. Meanwhile, I don't see the evidence of an altar getting ready to be setup on the temple mount. In fact, in recent days a conversation between the number two negotiator for the Palestinians and Bill Koenig of Koenig's Watch on board an international flight out of Israel has shed specific light on this issue. Bill was able to ask directly about temple mount negotiations in the final status talks. The negotiators answer was precise and specific. The temple mount is a very sensitive issue and he did not believe that Israel would receive any amount of land on the mount in the present negotiations. In the follow up with Bill, we discussed how the Biblical scenario must include the false prophet as he will have authority to set up an image. I asked if the negotiator was aware or involved in the Vatican understandings. Bill had asked him why Arafat goes to see the Pope every time there is a negotiated event with Israel. What was the Vatican's role in all this? He said he really didn't know other than that Arafat is a friend of the Pope. Regardless of our expectation that the Vatican will play a role in the final status negotiations of Jerusalem and be involved in temple mount issues, the fact remains that those elements are not an active and visible part of the present final status talks. Therefore, this winter is looking bleak for the altar to be set up. By the time you read this sometime in February, if the altar is not already operating, then it is impossible to see the altar shut down for the start of the Great Tribulation.

Meanwhile, the Pope's visit is on for March. The European Union is marching forward. But all three events must be present: an altar is shut down in Jerusalem on the temple mount, the false prophet sets up an image, and the antimessiah comes to power through the 10 kings coup — then the abomination of desolation begins. If the abomination of desolation does not begin, then the great tribulation does not begin. If the great tribulation does not begin, then we should not expect the Lord to return three and half years later. So where does that leave us…

We are watching and waiting just like the Lord told us to do. However, without the start of the great tribulation this winter, we must re-evaluate the Middle East Peace Accord in the prophetic scenario. Without the great tribulation beginning in the midst of the seven-year covenant spoken of by Daniel, then we are hard pressed to say that the seven year agreement is the one spoken of by the Prophet. Even though it matches many prophecies, we must step back from the conviction that it is the fulfillment of those specific prophecies. Why? Because we believe that God's word is without mistake. We must find events that match the prophecy completely. Somewhere in this process of matching events and prophecies is the volatile subject of our own expectations.

If you have attended my previous seminars and heard my teaching, you know that I have warned against mixing expectation with prophecy. This was the mistake of the first coming and I fear is a common mistake in understanding the second coming. We are not immune in making such a mistake. I say Awe" because I have made the mistake in the past and believe it is still present with most believers.

What if the great tribulation does not begin this winter and the peace negotiations dwindle on and don't match the prophecies after all. How will I feel and how will you feel about all the preparation you made in your heart? Will you feel embarrassed that you warned family members and pointed out these events for others to see? I would imagine some of you will feel disappointed. I think I will to a certain extent. The last question answered by God speaks to His compassion and understanding of our situation.

If the abomination of desolation with the altar shutdown, image set up, and the antimessiah coming to power doesn't happen this winter, then the Middle East Peace Accord was something that harmonized with the prophecies, but it wasn't the specific fulfillment. We must look for another. Above all else, we must seek God's understanding of the events, even if it conflicts with our expectations.

Do you remember when John the Baptist was at the end of himself and He asked Yeshua if He was the one, or should they look to another?

"Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?"

Matthew 11:3

All those feelings we have of anticipation have been expressed before. And like Moses and John, the Lord did come through B although it wasn't quite what they expected. Maybe that is where we are. Maybe the last of our expectations are about to be laid down and the prophecies are about to be fulfilled. When Yeshua answered John, He referred to the prophecies.

And Yeshua answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."

Matthew 11:4-5

Yeshua told them to watch the prophecies being fulfilled. As we wait for the end time sequence to begin, we have no choice but to watch the prophecies and focus on what God has said He will do.

But what if God doesn't do what He said? I admit the question is there; that question has been there from the beginning. Every generation has had to answer it. I have decided that the only answer that makes any sense is the one that the Lord Himself gives.

Remember this, and be assured; recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, "My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it."

Isaiah 46:8-11

God is in the business of remembering us. He calls us for His purposes and He brings to pass what He has planned. The Lord is probably measuring us. Let us be measured as His servants; let us be waiting on the Lord, balanced between faith and hope.

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