Jan 13, 2017

Hosea 13:7-9 says,

⁷ So I will be like a lion to them; like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside. ⁸ I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and I will tear open their chests; there I will also devour them like a lioness, as a wild beast would tear them. ⁹ That is your destruction, O Israel, that you are against Me, against your help.

Because of the false images of God which they worshiped, attributing things to Him which were not true, He was to become “like a lion” and “like a leopard” and “like a bear” to Israel, slashing at them with tooth and claw “as a wild beast would tear them.” This prophecy is perhaps the first to suggest the rise of the four beasts in Daniel 7. Babylon was to manifest the lion (Daniel 7:4), Medo-Persia was the bear (Daniel 7:5), Greece was the leopard (Daniel 7:6). Daniel’s nameless beast with iron teeth and ten horns appears to describe the “wild beast” of Hosea 13:8.

This wild-beast judgment fulfilled a part of the Law of Tribulation found in Leviticus 26:22,

²² And I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted.

Hosea introduces us to these wild beasts, telling us, in effect, that God is in them—that is, God controls these wild beasts, for it is God Himself who is to tear Israel apart. The prophet implies that these beasts were nations, not animals as such. However, this is an early revelation, and he leaves it to another prophet to give us more details at a later time. It is left to Daniel to identify these beasts more precisely with specific nations and to give us a more precise order of their appearance. Hosea lists the leopard before the bear, but Daniel shows clearly that the bear was to come before the leopard.

Israel and Judah Ruled by Beasts

Hosea speaks in another way where Daniel is largely silent. Hosea tells us that these beasts were sent to judge Israel-Ephraim, whereas Daniel focused mostly upon Judah and Jerusalem. By linking Daniel with Hosea, we are able to piece together the full scope of the prophecy. The four beasts were to affect not only Judah, but Israel as well, even though technically, Assyria was not one of the four beasts.

Babylon was one of the provinces of Assyria during the time of the Assyrian empire. Babylon then conquered Nineveh in 612 B.C. and overthrew Assyria, and in this way Babylon rose up from a province to an empire.

The same occurred later when Persia overthrew Babylon. Each time one empire was overthrown, the victor replaced it and became the next beast in Daniel’s prophecy. The lengthy time of these “wild beasts,” was to be a period of “seven times,” or 7 x 360 years (Leviticus 26:18), which meant that Israel, as well as Judah, was to be affected by the rule of beasts. Note too that Jeremiah 27:7 said of King Nebuchadnezzar, “all the nations shall serve him.” Hence, Babylon was given authority over “all the nations,” whether he actually conquered them or not. This Dominion Mandate was then given to the bear, the leopard, and the iron-toothed nation in succession.

It is clear, then, that God gave Judah’s Dominion Mandate to the beasts, as well as Joseph’s Fruitfulness Mandate inherent in the Birthright. Not only did they rule the earth, but they also claimed its resources. And as long as each beast retained its power—backed by the divine court—the Kingdom of God lacked the authority to rule the earth. Likewise, the overcomers lacked the lawful ability to become manifested sons of God. The Kingdom of God, then, had to take a back seat and submit to the beasts for a period of “seven times.”

Daniel tells us that at the end of the final beast’s “little horn” manifestation, the saints of the Most High God would be given jurisdiction (Daniel 7:21, 22). In his earlier prophecy about the great image, the rise of the Kingdom of God was pictured as a “stone” which was to hit the image on its feet at the end of the age (Daniel 2:34, 35). The growth of this “stone” into a great mountain filling the whole earth depicted the last world empire, ruled by Jesus Christ and the overcomers, i.e., the “saints of the Most High.”

This great event, this revolutionary change in the history of the earth, was to return both of the Mandates to those who were truly called to reign with Christ as manifested sons of God. The overthrow of the last beast empire means that the saints are to be given both the Dominion Mandate of Judah and the Fruitfulness Mandate of Ephraim. As Hosea 1:11 tells us, Judah and Israel were to “appoint for themselves one leader,” Jesus Christ, reuniting the Scepter and the Birthright for the first time since Jacob divided them among his sons in Genesis 49.

The End of Beast Rule

The fact that both Israel and Judah were to come under the dominion of these beasts had other prophetic implications. The “seven times” judgment in Leviticus 26:18 was to be applied with different time periods, because Israel’s judgment began more than a century earlier than the judgment upon Judah.

Israel’s tribes on the east side of Jordan were taken into captivity in 745 B.C., and Samaria was taken in 721 B.C. These two dates give us the start of Israel’s “seven times” of judgment, ending from 1776-1800 A.D. America’s founding in 1776, followed by the construction of the nation’s capital in 1800 technically ended Israel’s 2,520-year captivity. America’s ministers at the time recognized this, including Timothy Dwight, president of Yale. It appeared to them that America was the stone kingdom of Daniel 2:34, and they preached many sermons about this.

However, as so often happens, they lacked sufficient understanding of the broader picture. They failed to see how Judah’s “seven times” had to come to pass before the fullness of prophecy could be fulfilled. Judah and Jerusalem had capitulated to King Nebuchadnezzar in 604 B.C. (and only later was the city destroyed in 586 B.C.). Judah’s “seven times” judgment extended from 604 B.C. until 1917 A.D., when British General Allenby took Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire at the close of World War 1.

Other prophecy teachers, such as H. Gratton Guinness, foresaw and foretold this event in the late 1800’s, for the light given to him was greater than that given to the preachers at the time of America’s founding. But even Guinness failed to take into account the lost century from 164-64 B.C., when the third beast (Greece) lost control of Jerusalem. As long as Jerusalem was independent under the Hasmonean priest-kings, God’s “seven times” contract with the beasts could not be fulfilled. Hence, that century could not be counted toward the “seven times” allotted to beast rule.

So a century must be added to the year 1917 to account for the lost century, bringing us to 2017. Because past prophecy teachers were given only a partial revelation, we must ask ourselves with some humility whether or not we truly know even today the full scope of this revelation. We are as convinced today as they were in the past that we are seeing the complete picture, and so we must prepare our hearts accordingly. But we are only human, and revelation is progressive. Events themselves will prove all things as they come to pass.

Times of Preparation

It is apparent, however, that the “seven times” judgment upon both Israel and Judah have come to a conclusion. Israel’s judgment ended with the founding of America and the construction of the nation’s capital. Judah’s judgment ended at the close of World War 1 in 1917. But events themselves proved that the captivities had not yet ended.

The Federal Reserve Act in 1913 brought an extension of captivity to America and to the world, fulfilling what John called “Mystery Babylon.” Since the four beasts had run their course, Babylon’s rule was being rerun in a new form. It appears that the divine purpose for Mystery Babylon was to complete the beasts’ contract, and that this was to last a hundred years.

On November 29, 1947 the United Nations passed the Palestinian Resolution, dividing the land between the Jews and Palestinians. This event occurred thirty years into the century extending the rule of the beast. Because the final beast in its form known as Mystery Babylon yet had another seventy years to complete, it is plain that the formation of the Israeli state did not mark the end of beast rule, nor even the end of Judah’s “seven times” of captivity.

Knowing the times and seasons, it is clear that the Israeli state, which was declared in May 1948, marked the time when the Jewish leaders put themselves on the feet of the last beast, ignoring Jesus’ warning in Matthew 21:43, 44. Jesus warned them about the great stone was going to hit the feet of the beast, saying, “on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” But the Jewish leaders, who were intent on ruling the world by fleshly means—and by the spirit of the beasts—worked hard behind the scenes to carve out their niche in the world’s beast system.

Since the long-term prophecy appears to end in 2017, it appears that the resolution of this situation will be seen after the Israeli state has been in existence for seventy years.

It seems appropriate, then, that the time allotted to modern Mystery Babylon began 2,520 years after Nebuchadnezzar first took the city of Jerusalem in 604 B.C. Even as Babylon’s original time was limited to seventy years, so also 1917 plus 70 years brings us to 1987, the 120^th Jubilee year from Adam. (See my book, Secrets of Time.) From this point of reference, we have observed a progression of revelation regarding the fall of Babylon. Though the Soviet Union began to collapse at that time, after being in power for 70 years (to the day), its collapse marked only the start of the fall of Mystery Babylon.

Since then, we have been engaged in spiritual warfare and intercession to prepare for the fall of Babylon—or more to the point, to prepare to rule with Christ in the Age to come. If Mystery Babylon had fallen fully in 1987, the saints of the Most High would have been caught unprepared, and we might have experienced the chaos seen in Russia in those early years. But God was merciful enough to give the saints time to prepare.

Perhaps the time to prepare is the thirty-year period from 1987-2017, which is the difference between seventy and a hundred years in the time allotted to Mystery Babylon. The early years of this preparation saw the transition from Saul to David from 1993-2000, as I have explained in other writings. From 2000-2006 was a further transition, and the year 2006 was the end of the 2,520 years since the completion of the second temple in 515 B.C.

All of these events have proven to be critical in the development of the saints of the Most High, so that they could be prepared to rule the Kingdom. The divine decree transferring jurisdiction to the saints of the Most High became official on October 16, 2014, and at that time we understood that this marked the final time to prepare to rule the Kingdom. We also saw the end of the year 2017 as being the next great—and perhaps final—moment of transition.

Time will prove all things, of course, but we know that none of this will be possible apart from a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we await this last great “rain” of the Holy Spirit, which will truly prepare our hearts—and the hearts of all the people of the earth—for the coming of Christ and the new administration of the Stone Kingdom.

This is part 41 of a series titled "Studies in the Book of Hosea." To view all parts, click the link below.

Studies in the Book of Hosea