This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program.
I have been announcing September 29th as the eve of the Lord’s Feast Yom T’ruah/Rosh hashanah and on this day the Lord’s new year calendar will begin, the year 2020. Yom T’ruah will begin the 10 days of repentance. October 8 will be the Lord’s day of Yom Kippur which is the day of sealing. The book of Revelation has themes of Yom Kippur running through it; judgments, incense, bowls, the Temple being open, the altar, the unsealing of the judgments, sealing of the 144,000, the sealing of Satan in the bottomless pit. The Lord’s feasts are shadows of His plans for His creation and for Israel. Colossians 2:17
So, the good news is Yeshua is coming back in the clouds, and those who love Him will be resurrected and will go into His Kingdom on the earth. It will be a physical kingdom.
Today we are still going to pursue studying the resurrection. Specifically, we are going to look at Yeshua’s death and resurrection, both of these events were accompanied by earthquakes. Then we will examine some passages in Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones and if we have time we will go over some of the earthquakes in Revelation.
I will recite the Shema from Deuteronomy 6: Hear O Israel, the Lord God the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Psalm 24
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein. The temple priests quote this passage over the altar and it depicts the Lord’s sovereignty over all the earth.
Let’s pray:
YHVH Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness and help us to be conformed to Your likeness and image. Help those who have ears to hear to prepare for the persecution, the resurrection and the Messianic Age. I pray wisdom, knowledge and understanding to permeate your remnant bondservants. A royal proclamation has already been delivered in Revelation 11: the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Messiah, and He shall reign forever and ever.
So, for a few programs we have been looking at passages in the word concerning the resurrection. I had mentioned in one episode that Yeshua’s main focus was on the resurrection and emphasizing to those who followed Him that He was the resurrection, meaning He brings to us eternal life. There are people who teach the rapture only, as if there is not going to be a resurrection, or the rapture is going to occur first but according to I Thessalonians 4, the resurrection is first and then the caught up. I do not understand how it can be taught backwards, but I do believe that Paul understood the chronological order of events at the coming of the Lord.
Today we are going to look at earthquakes in the word and their relationship with resurrections. Earthquakes have been used to highlight some important events in the Bible, but I find them particularly significant with the raising of the dead.
Earthquake in the Old Testament is mentioned six times, but I did not count those times when other words were used in the place of it; words like shaking, rattling, or quaking, the translators instead preferred to use these terms in place of earthquake.
Earthquake can be found ten times in the New Testament with seven of these being mentioned in the book of Revelation. However, of the seven found there, only four are distinct earthquakes. For instance, Revelation 11 has a description of the same earthquake three times. So there are actually four earthquakes in Revelation. And so four is the number that covers the world as a whole. The altar of God in the Tabernacle and temple had four horns that were elevated up from the altar representing the four corners of the earth: north, south, east and west. The altar is a symbol of God’s sovereignty over all creation. These earthquakes in Revelation show the world His sovereign power over the earth. They bring great afflictions and great changes to the nations.
Earthquakes were found to be from the beginning in Genesis 1 when the dry land was commanded to come forth from the waters. When the land mass appeared, it appeared as one large continent. There are those who say that the land mass had been uplifted and the ocean floor depressed during a great faulting process that established the “foundations of the earth.”
In Revelation the earthquakes will change the landscape of Israel and the nations, the surfaces of some areas will change in preparation for the King’s return. Israel’s boundaries will be enlarged and will extend into the Arab nations. I know that Zechariah states that the Mount of Olives will split in two when Yeshua steps on it. The Jews interpret this to be an earthquake.
The global Flood in the days of Noah was the greatest sedimentary and tectonic event in the history of our planet since creation (see Genesis 6-9). One of the primary physical causes of this great judgment was the “fountains of the great deep,” all of which were “broken up” on a single day (Genesis 7:11). The verb for “broken up” (Hebrew baqa) means to split or cleave and indicates the faulting process. The enormous upheaval (probably associated with faulting of seafloor springs) unleashed a year-long global flood. This changed the one continent into several continents throughout the world. When I was in elementary school I was taught there had at one time been a large land mass area, one continent, but through some cataclysmic event, or several of them, this land mass broke into continents as we know them today.
So in the beginning, in Genesis, there were earthquakes and at the end, in the book of Revelation, it finishes out with four earthquakes. Two of these earthquakes will release the dead.
In Greek the word for earthquake is seismos. The Biblical Hebrew for earthquake is ra’ash from the primitive root ra ash to undulate, earthquake, quaking, tremble, shaking, and rattling. So, the translators use different word descriptions for a word to better describe the context of a passage or passages. In Hebrew it would be the same word rah-ash. It can be a daunting task to be completely accurate, therefore, the reason for so many translations.
For several weeks I had been pondering on earthquakes. Before His crucifixion, Yeshua mentions them in His discourse on the end of the age at the Mount of Olives in Matthew 24. Anyway, thinking on these things and reading about the four earthquakes mentioned in Revelation, I got to thinking on the resurrection of Yeshua. I thought to find perhaps a pattern that could help us come close to understanding when the resurrection would take place in Revelation. I think I have found it.
First let’s take a look at the death and resurrection of Yeshua from Matthew starting chapter 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His Spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52. And the graves were opened; and many (it doesn’t say all bodies)bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
This is awesome, the descriptive imagery captured here is fascinating. None of the other gospels present Yeshua’s death in such detail.
This gospel reports there was an earthquake at the death of Yeshua, the dead saints rose up from their graves; not until the resurrection of Yeshua (three days later) did they go into Jerusalem.
Matthew 28:2
Now after the Sabbath (this is the regular Sabbath, not the High Sabbath mentioned in Luke 23:54. The high Sabbath days were preparations for the Lord’s feasts in Leviticus 23), as the first day of the week (this is Sunday) began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. (The angel rolled away the stone so the disciples of Yeshua would be able to look in and see that He had indeed risen from the grave, not to let Yeshua out of the tomb).
I am getting pressed for time let’s go to Ezekiel 37 and we will make some comparisons from it to other passages in the Word.
37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise (noise in hebrew would be kol, it means “to call aloud,’’ “proclamation,” “voice” and where have we seen this before? I Thessalonians 4:16, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of an archangel, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air) and behold a shaking (shaking in Hebrew is rah-ash means to undulate, earthquake, quaking, tremble, shaking, rattle), and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. (Yeshua stated in Matthew 24: 31, and He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.)
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.
The ancients or sages interpret this section to be referring to Israel being regenerated at the end of days; and we would understand that to be at the Lord’s return when He will defeat Gog/Antichrist and the regenerated righteous will inherit Israel. These will go into the Messianic Age.
I am going to read a translation of Ezekiel 37 by Frances Werner. It is poetically primitive in its language, but it captures the visual of what YHVH is purposing for Israel.
But anyway, I am at the end of the program. I hope these scriptures have blessed you and enlightened you today.
Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic blessing.
If it is God’s will I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from wrinkles, spots and blemishes. Love God, love your neighbor.
