Ephesians Lesson 30 of 39 part 2

Genesis 15:13b-16

"...and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: (we know God did judge Egypt) and afterward shall they (the children of Israel) come out with great substance. And thou (Abraham) shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. (Abraham lived to be 175) But in the fourth generation they* shall come hither again**: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."

*the children of Israel who had been down in Egypt all those years. **back to their promised land in Canaan. And why did God wait all those years to bring them back to Canaan.

In other words, God is going to give those Canaanite tribes (the sons of Ham), at least a couple of hundred years to clean up their act, which was possible even for a pagan if he wanted to. But did they clean up their act? No, they kept going deeper and deeper into the gross immoralities, and the things that had plagued the human race. They had gone so far down that when Joshua was ready to bring the children of Israel into the Promise Land, from the east side of the Jordan, what did God instruct them to do? Kill every Canaanite in the land. Makes no difference whether it was a new born infant or a person of many, many years, put them to death. Why would God say that? Because they were corrupt. 

If you put something good in with something corrupt, the corruption does not become good, but rather the good becomes corruption! So God says to Caleb, "You have got to cleanse the land of them." Well it was God’s judgment on their wickedness. So all the way up through their history there comes points of time periodically when God says, "I have had enough" of them and their idolatrous behavior.

The great next event before God judged the Canaanites was God’s judgment on mankind with Noah’s flood, and after the flood we find God judged Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 19. So God’s judgment fell on those people also. And God’s going to judge the world again, because the Bible is just screaming, "There is a judgment coming." Now we are not saying when, but we know according to Daniel, Luke, Matthew 24, and Revelation and other books, that day is coming. In fact on our way back to our study in Ephesians let’s stop for a moment in the book of Luke, chapter 21. You know when we make these little detours, we think, we have to hurry up and get through this chapter or that chapter, and then we stop and think, no, this is a Bible study, and as you know by now we are not on a fast track, so we will just study as we go. There is something here in Luke chapter 21 that we want to point out to you. Here Jesus is speaking during His earthly ministry.

Luke 21:20-22

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compressed (encircled) with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh (Daniel 9). Then let them which are in Judea flee to mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter therein to. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled."

A lot of people get misled here in Luke, and think that this is the Battle of Armageddon, when Jerusalem will be compassed, but it is not. This is the prophecy that Titus and the Roman Army in 66-70 AD will destroyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem, it was awful. My, Josephus gives an account of it that is just unbelievable. Over a million Jews were slaughtered, unmercifully, when Titus finally overran the city of Jerusalem. He raised his troops ensign or flag over the temple grounds, the very ensign of a pagan god. Also you want to remember the pagans had no mercy, and the Romans of course became more infuriated than ever because of the Jews stiff resistance. One of the things that raised the ire of the Roman soldiers so much was when they were trying to scale the walls, the Jews would pour hot boiling water over them. Well that was enough to infuriate anybody. But this passage here all happened between 66-70 AD. What confuses readers so much, is the language here is much the same as in Matthew 24 which is all Tribulation and end time events. Now verse 23.

Luke 21:23

"But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people."

What is the controversy with the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel at that time? They had rejected their Messiah, and crucified Him! And after all the pleading, and after all the miracles, that Christ performed in the midst of those Jewish people who were so blind to whom He was, what was their cry? Let His blood be upon our children, and our children’s children. They did not know what they were saying did they?