Chapter 1

 

In God's message to the Church of the Laodiceans, we read of its need for “eye salve” (Revelation 3:18). We all have our areas of blindness, for Paul himself said that “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1 Cor. 13:9). When we trace the history of biblical blindness, we find that it has been with us in some form or another at least since the days of Moses. In this book we will attempt to show the origins of that blindness, its purpose, and its end. In seeing its cause and effect upon the Church in the twentieth century, we can perhaps receive some of this divine eye salve to help us see more clearly the plan of God.

The Blind Servant in the Book of Isaiah

The prophet Isaiah wrote his book during the time the Assyrians were conquering and deporting the ten northern tribes of the house of Israel. Hence, this was Isaiah's prime concern and focus, and he devoted most of his book to prophecies regarding those “lost tribes of Israel.” He says less about the southern house of Judah, though he does not ignore them completely. (See Isaiah 36-39.) One of the most unique themes that Isaiah sets forth is the “blind servant” theme. Essentially, he tells us that the house of Israel is God's blind and deaf servant (42:19). A more secondary theme is that the Israelites were God's “witnesses” (43:10). This is quite a paradox, because a witness in a court of law can only report what he has seen or heard, but if the witness is both blind and deaf, how can he possibly be a credible witness?

But God loves doing the impossible, and it seems as though He never does anything without first creating an impossible situation. The paradoxes of Scripture form the basis of a subtle divine humor that we often miss. Isaiah tells us in 44:18 about these blind Israelites,

¹⁸ They have not known nor understood; for He hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

Let's see. God blinded the eyes of the house of Israel, so that they cannot see, and He shut their hearts, so that they could not understand (hear the word). Then He made them His witnesses, by which all things are established in the earth. Am I missing something here? Oh, yes. Just to make it difficult, by the way, God said in Isaiah 44:5,

⁵ One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel.

But these who would claim to be Israel “are their own witnesses,” (44:9) not God's witnesses. That is, they may believe that they are worshipping the God of the Bible, but their words and lives do not accurately bear witness to the character and works of God. In contrast, God promises true Israel in Isaiah 44:3,

³ For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.

To understand how God has blinded the eyes of Israel, we must have certain biblical keys that will unlock the doors of truth.

Key #1: Israel and Judah

The united kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon became a divided kingdom after Solomon died. Thereafter, the kingdom itself was called Israel, or the house of Israel, but it consisted only of the ten northern tribes. The southern house of Judah consisted of Judah, Benjamin, and most of the Levites.

The full story is found in 1 Kings 11, where the prophet Abijah told Solomon that because he had departed from God, the kingdom would be taken from him and given to another. Solomon's son would be given the tribe of Benjamin (along with Judah, of course), but the kingdom itself would be stripped from him. When Solomon died, the kingdom was given to an Ephraimite named Jeroboam, but Solomon's son, Rehoboam, reigned over the southern House of Judah.

From this point on, the Bible speaks of Israel and Judah as two distinct nations. The definition of “Israel” changes. Up to Solomon's day “Israel” meant the entire nation of all twelve tribes, but after the split in the kingdom, “Israel” usually referred to the northern House of Israel, as distinct from the House of Judah to the south. Furthermore, the prophecies to Israel and to Judah are quite different, for each nation had a destiny to fulfill.

Key #2: The Sceptre and the Birthright

When Jacob blessed his twelve sons, he gave the birthright to Joseph (or actually, Joseph's sons when he adopted them in Genesis 48:13-16). With that birthright came the right to be called by the name which the angel gave him, the name of Israel (Genesis 48:16). Judah, on the other hand, received the Sceptre. That is, the messiah, the king of Israel, would come through his family. These things are verified by 1 Chronicles 5:1 and 2,

¹ Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.

² For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's.

This is why the northern ten tribes retained the name of Israel after the split in the kingdom. It was because the northern tribes included the tribes of Joseph, whose right it was to the name of Israel. Judah never had that political right, although in the genealogical sense, they were Israelites, because they were descendants of Jacob-Israel.

This key is very important, in view of Isaiah's word that “another shall . . . surname himself by the name of Israel” (Isaiah 44:5). The obvious implication is that a people other than the descendants of Joseph would take the name Israel for themselves and thereby lay claim to the birthright and the birthright name, Israel. Judah was not the birthright holder, nor ever could they be, for it was given to Joseph, not to Judah. This is an important and useful key of truth.

Key #3: The Two Works of Christ

The divine law tells us in Leviticus 14:1-7 that it takes two doves to cleanse a leper. Leprosy is the biblical type of our incurable death-ridden nature. The first dove was killed in an earthen vessel over running water (14:5). The second was dipped in the blood of the first and let loose into an open field (14:7).

Jesus came and was killed in an earthen vessel (this mortal, earthen body). In the second appearance, we read in Rev. 19:13, “And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.” This identifies Him as the second living Dove being loosed in the open field. The field is the world (Matthew 13:38).

The same pattern is found in Leviticus 16 in the things done on the Day of Atonement. The priest killed the first goat and sent the second alive into the wilderness.

This key is directly related to our second key. The second appearance of Christ, with his vesture dipped in blood, not only acts out the part of the second dove, but also identifies him as “Joseph.” Genesis 37:31 says,

³¹ And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood.

In other words, Jesus' first appearance was as the first dove, and He came through the line of Judah. His second appearance is as the second dove, and this time He comes with a Joseph ministry. The first time He came of Judah to lay claim to the Sceptre that Jacob had given to Judah. The second time he comes of Joseph in order to lay claim to the birthright given to Joseph.

The prophetic promise to Judah was fulfilled in Jesus' first appearance. He was born in Bethlehem of Judea (Matthew 2:1). That work was finished when He said on the Cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). But there was still another work to be done needed to fulfill the prophetic promise to Joseph. That promise was to be “a fruitful bough (son).” The Hebrew word for “bough” is ben. It means a son.

The tree was planted with Jesus' death and burial. It sprouted in His resurrection. Now we have come to the time where the tree must bear fruit.

Key #4: The Cursed Fig Tree

The remnant of Judah in Jesus' day did not accept Him as the messiah, their king. There were, of course, many individuals who did accept Him, but as a nation, they clearly rejected Him (John 11:11). As a consequence, at the end of His ministry, Jesus laid a curse upon the fig tree that represented the nation. Matthew 21:19 says,

¹⁹ And when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.

Jesus prophesied that it would not bear fruit when it came time for the fruit to be eaten. This fig tree, then, is the one Jesus mentioned later in Matthew 24:32-34, saying,

³² Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.

³³ So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

³⁴ Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.

Many today understand that Jesus was here referring to the cursed fig tree. It is widely accepted that the cursed fig tree that had withered from the roots up in Jesus' day suddenly began to put forth leaves in 1947-48 when the Israeli state was created. We agree with this. Strangely enough, however, many also believe that the Jewish fig tree nation founded in 1948 is going to bear fruit, though Jesus specifically said in Matthew 21:19 that it would not. Consequently, this is an area that deserves further investigation, so that we might understand the mind of God and know what He is doing in the world today.

Isaac: The Pattern Blind Servant

Isaiah's prophecies explain the hidden meaning of the life of Isaac, who was the prophetic pattern that his descendants were to follow many years later. Abraham had offered Isaac on the altar as a living sacrifice to God. Obviously, this was also a picture of God giving His only son as the sacrifice for sin—and this is the pattern of Jesus on the Cross. However, the pattern is also fulfilled in the corporate body of Israel, the descendants of Isaac. Abraham's act dedicated Isaac to God as a servant people. By extension, since all of Isaac's descendants were “in his loins,” his posterity as a nation would be God's servant nation.

In his later life, Isaac decided to bless his oldest son, Esau, before he died. He sent Esau out to find venison. Meanwhile, Rebekah heard what was happening, and she devised a plan by which to give Jacob the blessing. They took advantage of Isaac's blindness. Jacob dressed like Esau and managed to trick Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau. Naturally, when Esau returned with the venison and found that he had been supplanted, he was furious. The story is told in Genesis 27.

³⁸ And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

³⁹ And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold thy dwelling shall be [lit. “be away from”] the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;

⁴⁰ And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

Isaac must have known, either consciously or by the Spirit, that Jacob sinned against Esau and would therefore have to pay restitution to him eventually in order to restore the lawful order. It was certainly God's intent to give the birthright and blessing to Jacob, but Jacob should have waited for God to do it, rather than lie to his father to make sure God got it right.

So Isaac prophesied that Esau would receive the dominion at some future time. Jacob would have to give the birthright back to Esau for a time, in order to allow God to give it to Jacob in His own way and time. But the story of Isaac does not give us any further details. To learn how God would accomplish this, we must read Isaiah.

Esau Absorbed by Judah in 126 BC

It is a matter of well-known history that the Edomites (i.e., Idumeans) were conquered by John Hyrcanus in 126 BC and forced to become Jews. This can be found in any encyclopedia, including the Jewish Encyclopedia. The story is told in great detail in Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, ix, 1, where we read:

“Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would be circumcised, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submit-ted to the use of circumcision and the rest of the Jews' ways of living; at which time therefore, this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.”

An editor's footnote on this same page in Josephus' book quotes another ancient historian named Ammonius, who says,

“The Jews [i.e., Judeans] are such by nature, and from the beginning, whilst the Idumeans were not Jews from the beginning, but Phoenicians and Syrians; but being afterward subdued by the Jews and compelled to be circumcised, and to unite into one nation, and be subject to the same laws, they were called Jews.”

This is confirmed by the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1925 edition, Vol. 5, p. 41, which says, “Edom is in modern Jewry.” From that point on in history, there has been no nation of Edom, or Idumea. As Ammonius said above, the Idumeans were united into one nation with this remant of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. Hence, we must either spiritualize these prophecies entirely, or else look to the Jews for the fulfillment of prophecy of both Judah and Edom. As we will show, they are indeed fulfilling both sets of prophecies at the same time without contradiction.

The Birthright Returned to Esau in 1948

As we saw earlier, Isaac in his blindness blessed Jacob thinking he was blessing Esau. Because Jacob lied to his father and violated the divin e law to obtain the blessing, God blinded Jacob's descendants (true Israelites) in order that they too might be tricked into giving back the blessing to Esau. It was “an eye for an eye.” God's lawful judgment was absolutely just. Thus, in 1948 the true Israelites gave the blessing back to the Jews, who were only too happy to take the birthright name and surname themselves by the name of Israel.

The true Israelites had migrated from Assyria into Europe to become the Caucasian peoples. God blinded them to their true identity over the years, for they were called by many other names. In fact, God removed from them the name of Israel, because He had cast them off for a time. Of course, Isaiah also prophesied of this when he told the Judahites of Jerusalem in 65:11-15,

¹¹ But YE are they that forsake the Lord, that forget My holy mountain. . .

¹² Therefore will I number YOU to the sword, and YE shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, YE did not answer; when I spake, YE did not hear; but did evil before Mine eyes . . .

¹³ Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, My servants shall eat, but YE shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but YE shall be thirsty; behold My servants shall rejoice, but YE shall be ashamed.

¹⁴ Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but YE shall cry for sorrow of heart . . .

¹⁵ And YE shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen; for the Lord God shall slay THEE, and call His servants by another name.

Note the contrast. Isaiah was speaking to the people of Jerusalem and Judah, who were not following the true God. He prophesies terrible things upon them, in direct contrast to “My servants,” that Isaiah identified previously as the house of Israel.

This was a prophecy to the Judahites in Isaiah's day, who would be taken to Babylon in another century. But it is also prophetic of the next course of judgment by the hand of Rome, when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. The Jews refused to believe that they had done anything wrong in crucifying Jesus, whom they called an imposter and a blasphemer. Even when judgment came, they simply blamed God for their misfortunes, not comprehending how God could allow these terrible things to happen to them, for they thought they were doing everything correctly in the sight of God. Thus, they became increasingly angry and bitter instead of seeking God to find out how they had sinned.

Meanwhile, however, God's true servant people, the house of Israel that had been carried away by Assyria 800 years earlier, were increasing in population and migrating across Asia Minor and across the Caucasus mountains into Europe, where they were known by other names, even as Isaiah had prophesied. These became known by later scholars by the general category, “Caucasians,” since many had crossed the Caucasus mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. In actuality, they were the physical descendants of the house of Israel. The history is easily proven, now that archeologists have unearthed all the evidence in the past 150 years.

God then saw to it that the Gospel went first to these Israelites, because He intended to Christianize His servant people, that they might bring the Gospel to the rest of the world. However, in the Pentecostal Age (33-1993 AD), the spread of the Gospel was greatly hindered by the rise of oppression in the Roman Church. Thus, it was not until quite recently that the great missionary movements began. Even so, the message has been spread by God's blind and deaf servant people who did not really know who they were or why God had chosen them to bring the Gospel to the rest of the world.

The End of the Matter

In 1947-48 the Spirit of God was poured out in a new and powerful manner in the “Latter Rain” movement. At the same time the Church essentially returned its blessing and birthright to Esau by its enthusiastic support for the Israeli state formed on Nov. 29, 1947 by the United Nations resolution. In May 1948 the British pulled out, and the Israelis seized the reins of government, declaring independence of the “State of Israel.”

This also fulfilled the prophecies of the fig tree that began to put forth more leaves (but no fruit, of course). The remnant of Judah (fig tree) came back to life in a national sense. The two branches of modern Jewry, each with its set of prophecies to be fulfilled, ushered in the time where the end was “near, even at the doors” (Matthew 24:33).

On November 29, 1996 the Israeli state completed 49 years and entered the 50^th year from the moment Jacob (Britain, “Union Jack”) sold his birthright back to Esau because of his sin in lying to his blind father, Isaac. God caused modern Jacob to sell his birthright, because he owed a debt to Esau for his sin. Their 50^th year was complete on November 29, 1997.

From the date of Israeli independence, which was declared on May 14, 1948, the 50^th year would not actually end until May 14, 1998. Nonetheless, no matter how we date their Jubilee, it is plain that their time has expired to surname themselves by the name of Israel. The law specifies in Leviticus 25:10,

¹⁰ And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession . . . .

From September of 1996 to October of 1997 was the great Jubilee year dating back to Adam, as we explained in detail in our book, Secrets of Time. It is time for true Israel to be healed of his blindness and return to his inheritance, the birthright. The Israeli state was supposed to give up the name of Israel and return it to its rightful inheritors. They obviously did not do so. Hence, they must now deal with God in His court for violation of His Law.