Similarities Between Exodus and Revelation, Part 3

It’s been over a year since I wrote part 2, but ever since  I wrote part 2 I’ve been praying about how and when to write part 3. Then today, as I as reading Hosea 2, I saw it.

The parallels between Revelation 12 and Exodus 16-19 are strong, but I’d never seen them before. It took reading through Hosea 2 to see this.

Okay, let me unpack this. I hope I do it well!

Revelation 12:6 “The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”

The Israelites were led into the wilderness, this woman fled into the wilderness, but God had prepared a place for her, and God was going before them. In both instances, His will was to provide for them.

In Exodus, God provided manna, quail, water that had been bitter turned sweet, water from springs, even water from a rock.

In Exodus 19:, God had this to say to the Israelites:

I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

Revelation 12:14 has this peculiarly parallel verse:

The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness

But it’s not the same. In the first instance, God bears them on eagles’ wings and brings them to Himself. In the second instance the woman has the eagle’s wings.

Follow me for a second here, and if, after you’ve read through it, you disagree with me, I’d love to hear your point of view. But this is what I felt the Lord was showing me.

In Exodus, God was manifesting Himself to the Israelites with outward signs. If the woman in Revelation 12 is a picture of the Church, then in the last days God will be manifesting Himself through His people. Which is why she has the wings and can fly. It’s the Lord through her.

The Man-child (Jesus) is taken up to heaven, but she is not. She’s in the wilderness for 1,260 days, the amount of time discussed in other places as being the duration of the Great Tribulation.

Later this week we’ll be celebrating the Feast of the Tabernacles. There are 5 commanded feasts (plus one fast) the Israelites kept. There are three feast in the spring:

Pesach (Passover), Waving of the Sheaves (First Fruits), and Shavout (Pentecost, Feast of Weeks).

These feasts were fulfilled in Christ’s first coming. He was the Passover Lamb and the First Born of the dead (the First Fruit). Shavout was fulfilled in the coming of the Holy Spirit. It was originally meant to celebrate the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Now we have the Law written in our hearts.

The other two feasts, the fall feasts, the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles, are pictures of the end of the age, the End Times. God gave these feasts so we would practice and be prepared for when the time came. The Feast of Trumpets is about marshaling and preparing, being alert, awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom, and bringing food to the Lord (maybe so it can be distributed like the five loaves and 2 fish were?). We’re not told many specifics about the Feast of Trumpets, but we are told specifics about the Feast of Tabernacles. It was to remind us of how God protected people in the wilderness and provided for them every step of the way. For seven days, people were to dwell in booths. Temporary dwellings. This was to remind them of how the Israelites lived in tents or booths in the desert between slavery and the Promise Land.

I know that after we give our lives to the Lord we live as aliens on the earth, and this feast is a picture of that. But what if it’s also a picture of how life will be for the Church at the end of the age? What if we’re to be in the desert, in temporary dwellings, and the Feast of Tabernacles, or Feast of Booths, is rehearsal for that?

Heaven is paradise, not a desert. So why is the woman brought into the desert? What if we’re not raptured out of here beforehand but are presented before the world as witnesses of His glory? Protected by His glory. Faithful witnesses, just like Jesus was. Jesus, who “tabernacled among us” (John 1:14).

The literal translation of Psalm 84:1 is: “How lovely are your dwelling places,” or “How lovely are your tabernacles.” And the Psalm goes on:

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baka [desert region, literally 'valley of weeping'],
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
⁷ They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

(emphasis mine)

In this world we will have trouble, but take heart–Jesus has overcome the world! And He is coming back for us.

Many have very strong thoughts on this subject; I do like to hear them.

All I ask is you keep it friendly

Similarities Between Exodus and Revelation, Part 2

I hope this encourages you to look these passages up!

The second similarity I see between Exodus and Revelation? The sea of glass.

In Revelation 4:6, we are introduced to the ‘sea of glass’ that is before the throne of God. This ‘sea’ also shows up in Rev. 15:2, where it is mingled with fire.

This ‘sea of glass,’ when seen from heaven, is as clear as crystal.

But has it ever been seen from earth?

I’m going to suggest yes, but it looks different.

In Exodus 24:9-11, God invites the leaders of Israel to join Moses up on the mountain. It’s very likely that 75 people were there to witness this scene: Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, the 70 elders, and Joshua who simply wouldn’t leave the Lord’s presence (see v. 13). While on the mountain, they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a pavement of sapphire (sometimes translated as ‘lapis lazuli’) that was as blue as the sky. They saw this pavement as blue from below, but if they were standing in front of the throne I wonder if it would be as clear as crystal.

We see this example in nature: astronauts also see the earth as clear as crystal, but when we look up during the day we see only blue sky. Also, when we look at a large body of water it looks blue, but if we were looking up from inside the water we wouldn’t see blue but clear.

But if the sea of glass is the pavement of sapphire, why is this important?

After the Israelite leaders saw the Lord they ate and drank (a picture of communion). But they were still separated from the Lord.

In Rev. 21:1 it says that there is no more sea. In other words, there is no firmament separating heaven and earth, God and man. He makes all things new!

There are a few other places in the Old Testament where the pavement of sapphire is mentioned, but I’m going to leave that up to you to find. (Hint–look in Ezekiel.)

Also, if you note anything interesting in the passages, feel free to share!

Happy Sunday to you!

 

See Part 3 here.

Similarities between Exodus and Revelation, Part 1

As I promised in a different post, I’ll discuss the similarities between Exodus and Revelation.

Before I dive in, I want to bring up a verse from Hebrews. God’s word is alive and active. I’m not bringing up these similarities to say, ‘Hey, look how well I read.’ (Most of what you’ll read I learned from other teachers and studied myself to make sure it’s there.) Neither is this to say, ‘Look how the bible all ties together.’ Although that is really cool.

I believe God is showing something essential in the similarities between Exodus and Revelation, something that some of us, if not all of us, will need for our lives. And the lives of those around us.

One of the first similarities that pops out to most people is how one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 bears a remarkable resemblance to Moses. He turns the water to blood and strikes the earth with plagues as often as he sees fit. We better hope this guy is like Moses if we’re alive when he is. Moses was reluctant to do anything unless the Lord instructed him to, and more often than not Moses swung to the mercy side of the pendulum.

Rev. 16, the chapter about the bowls of wrath, is another place where there are a number of similarities to the plagues on Egypt in Exodus 7-12. Here are a few:

• Sores on people’s skin.
• Water turns to blood.
• Darkness.
• Terrible storm with huge hail. In Revelation, the hail is 100lbs. each.

These are several examples for right now. But don’t take my word for it–go look it up and prove me right or wrong.

See part 2 here.

See part 3 here.

Jesus, our safe Savior, Part 7

Well, what if (yes I’m going to say it) there was no pre-Tribulation rapture? What if Jesus has one Second Coming (like He promised) and we are on the earth until the seventh trumpet? Would the Lord keep us safe while the world undergoes tribulation unequal to anything from all of history (see Matt 24:21)?

In the book of Revelation there are 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls of wrath. The seals are pretty crazy: war, famine, death, sky rolling up like a scroll, stars falling. The trumpets are a bit scarier: water turning to blood, a star called Wormwood turning drinking water bitter, locusts the size of horses stinging people, an army of 200 million fierce warriors.

Somehow it has crept into sermons and minds  that if Christians are on the earth during the tribulation (rather than being raptured out beforehand) that means God is subjecting us to His wrath. To follow this logic would be to say that God subjected the Israelites to His wrath when He sent the plagues to Egypt. But that is forgetting the Goshen principle.

Since there are so many parallels between the book of Revelation and the Exodus story (I’ll write a blog on this soon for those who aren’t familiar), follow me for a moment here. When the plague of turning the waters of the Nile to blood hit, this affected all of Egypt. When the Lord sent the frogs, it affected all of Egypt. When the Lord sent the gnats, it affected all of Egypt. But look at what He says about the fourth plague, the flies:

Exodus 8:²² “‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. ²³ I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow.’”

And once the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, God provided for them (fresh water to drink, manna and quail), sheltered them (a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night) and fought for them. This isn’t just history, this is a lesson in how God will deal with us (see 1 Cor. 10:11).

Jesus said some strange remarks about this principle from Luke 21:

¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish.

So the Lord will keep us safe in the midst of tribulation, whether we face a personal tribulation or the one that affects the whole earth. It may not be the protection we expect, but if we stand by the All Consuming Fire we will escape the flames (see Daniel 3).

I’m sure I’ve opened up a can of worms, so feel free to argue or agree…