Bully's Blog

[Link to parts 1 and 2.]

In Revelation 4-5, Jesus ascends and opens the New Covenant scroll (Firstfruits). As Moses, He then opens the Law to Israel (Pentecost). These open seals lead into the partial judgments of the Trumpets. They summon a new generation of Israel and warn the old. The last trumpet, as in Joshua, is itself “seven thunders” (John’s “Little Book”) that bring total destruction to the defiant city, in this case, Herod’s Babylon (Atonement). This is the last trumpet Paul referred to.[1]

The event just before this, the sixth trumpet, is the last witness of the Apostolic church. The final epistles are all addressed to Jews. The writer of Hebrews alludes to the terrors of Sinai:

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more [shall we not escape] if we turn away from Him who [speaks] from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the [Land], but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:25-27)

As Moses and Elijah, two legal witnesses, they sat on thrones and judged Israel with plagues.[2]

And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake…

The Lord shook the Land as He had promised and the walls of “Egypt/Sodom/Jericho” began to collapse. Peter Leithart writes:

“The conquest of Jerusalem corresponds to the initial battle of the conquest of Canaan, the destruction of Jericho. This comparison is true not only in the generic sense that both cities came under God’s condemnation, but in the more specific sense that both marked the first battle of a war of conquest. By Jesus’ day, many Jews had become Egyptians and Canaanites (Rev. 11:8). During the first generation, the church was like Israel in the wilderness, awaiting permission to enter on their full inheritance and letting the sins of the Canaanites become full. Conquest there was in the first generation, as there was before Jericho; but it was the second generation, those who lived through and beyond the destruction of Jerusalem, who first entered fully into the land of the new creation. The wilderness imagery of Hebrews 4 is, on this reading, applicable specifically to the generation living between 30 and 70. When that generation had passed, Jericho was destroyed and the conquest of the whole Abrahamic inheritance began in earnest.”[3]

Only Jewish saints are measured (numbered) in Revelation, so these 7000 were not the wicked, but those who had not bowed the knee to “Baal” (Romans 11:4). These Christians “surrounding” the city were its “wall of fire”. By “tithing” them out of Jerusalem, the Lord removed the stars, the firmament “glories”, and they ascended to become the walls of a New Jerusalem. Now there was no more barrier between the old city and the throne of God. The seventh trumpet brings the inhabitants of the city face-to-face with the Ark.

Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)

James Jordan writes:

“Not every Israelite was a true Israelite, for being a member of true Israel was never a matter of race but of calling and election (Rom. 9:6-13). The Remnant is to the ungodly nation as Jacob to Esau, and as Israel to Egypt. The refusal of Israel to enter the New Covenant is analogous to Pharaoh’s refusal to hear God. Just as God raised up Pharaoh, so He raised up Israel. God dealt with Pharaoh by showing Him mercy between each plague, with the result that Pharaoh got harder and harder against God. Similarly, Israel became harder and harder under the judgments God visited upon her throughout Old Covenant history. Each time God withdrew His judgments, Israel became worse than she had been before (9:14-18).

The Remnant had readily confessed that God was the Potter and they were the clay (Is. 64:8). They were ready to change under God’s reshaping hands, and enter the New Covenant. Apostate Israel, however, resisted God and became a broken pot, henceforth good for nothing but unclean uses (9:19-22). God was mixing the soft Remnant clay with the Gentiles and making a new, more glorious pot (9:23-26)…

During this Interim, however, the Remnant still existed and had a function. They had not yet become completely blended with the Gentiles into the Church. The Remnant within Israel protected her from wrath. God was willing to spare Sodom if only ten righteous people were found in it. Jerusalem is called Sodom (and Egypt) in Revelation 11:8, and Paul says that it is Remnant in Sodom that preserves her (Rom. 9:27-29). When the Remnant flees, and the rest of it slain, then Sodom will have no more protection…

[Paul] says that at the present time, there is still a Remnant of Israel. He is one such, he says. He points back to Elijah. The nation might have been destroyed in Elijah’s day, except for the Remnant 7000.”[4]

Peter Leithart sees the same pattern in the books of the Kings. He writes:

“Why the delay of judgment throughout 1-2 Kings? Two reasons: First, judgment is passed, but Yahweh waits for the sin of the Amorites to come to completion, for sin to ripen to be utterly sinful. Second, Yahweh gives time for the declaration of judgment to work repentance among a remnant. Hence: Elijah pronounces the end of the Omride dynasty; there is a long delay, during which Yahweh forms a remnant. This remnant forms no doubt partly because some want to escape the wrath to come. A generation passes, and then judgment falls. Hence also: Jesus declares the temple and Jerusalem doomed; but there is a generation delay during which the Lord forms a remnant within Israel that seeks to escape from the wrath to come.”[5]

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[1] See The First Resurrection.
[2] See The Two Witnesses.
[3] Peter J. Leithart, Covenant Recapitulation in New Testament History, www.biblicalhorizons.com
[4] James B. Jordan, The Future of Israel Re-examined.
[5] Peter J. Leithart, Delayed Parousia, www.leithart.com