Study 7 – Light, day from night, and for signs and seasons by Fay Berry 2018

Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Study 7 – Light, day from night, and for signs and seasons

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth (Gen 1:14-17). He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knows his going down (Psa 104:19). And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding” (Dan 2:21).

God is the substance of the “shadow’ of the heavens. God is so far above us; even higher than the “heaven of the heavens,” so very far above and beyond us that we could have no hope of “knowing him” if he had not decided to bridge “the chasm” that is fixed between us by sending us his son in “the likeness of sinful flesh” so tat we can begin to understand “His righteousness” andd so that we can become “like him.” He has given us the “heavens” and “the things that are therein,” to teach us about “times and seasons” and “days,” and “years.” He has shown us “unspeakable things” about the “heavens of the heavens” which are so faxt and distant yet too small for him to dwell in. Yet he has promised us a “seed” to save us from our sin, and promised that this “seed” will be as numerous as the stars of heaven. He has described how he will destroy those who try to “ascend into heaven” now, before his “time” and without his permission,and how we can survive the “night of Egyptian darkness. He promises that one day his “glory will cover the earth, as the waters now cover the sea.” And the tells us that one day there will be “a throne in heaven,” in the “heaven of heavens,” that will replace all the man-made “political heavens” that currently are in existence in our “kosmos.”

So what are “the heavenlies” of God? And “when will these things be?” That is the question the apostles asked Jesus in the days before he ascended into heaven. They asked “Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1:6-:7). But what Jesus did tell them was that when they received “the comforter,” or the Holy Spirit, “That they would receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). So the Apostles, when they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, did learn the answers to many of their questions about “times” and “seasons” and “days” and “years.”

When David wanted to build God a “House’ for him to dwell in, the concept pleased God, but God had a problem. How could God dwell in a “house made with hands?” “Behold, the heaven and the heaven of the heavens is Gods, the earth with all that therein is” (Deu 10:14) how could God possibly dwell in any house that David could make? David understood this, and he said to God “Who is able to build God an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?” (2 Ch 2:6). “Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worships thee (Neh 9:6).”Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee: how much less this house which I have built!” says Solomon (2 Ch 6:18), becuse “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” Psa 115:16).

But God loved David and Solomon and he found a way to dwell with man. It was his angel, the “angel of the Name” who dwelt between the Cherubim in the Most Holy Place within the four tabernacles “made with man’s hands.” God promised there would be a time when “in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen 22:17) “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Ecc 3:1) and there will be a time when “the heaven and earth will praise him, the seas, and every thing that moves therein” (Psa 69:34).

But before that time due to man’s wickedness, much has to be accomplished in God’s purpose, so then God will “cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light” (Eze 32:7) because “our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of heaven: they pursue us upon the mountains, they lay wait for us in the wilderness (Lam 4:19) and “the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth (Psa 79:2).

Then God will act against “the wicked,” “so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground” (Eze 38:20). “Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her” and then “the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.” As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. (Jer 51:47-50). And Jesus spoke a parable about the wickedness of those who did not believe and obey his word. When asked what God would do about their unbelief and failure to render to him what was his, “They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons” (Mat 21:41).

Nebuchadnezzar was one such king who believed that his kingdom had been built up by his own hand, his own strong arm, and gave not glory to God. His power and the might of his arm had grown such that it was likened to a great tree with spreading branches. “The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it (Dan 4:12). “Wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of te field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given to thine hand” O Nebuchadnezzar, “and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou ar that head of gold” (Dan 2:38). Nebuchadnezzar thought that his greatness was due to his majesty, to his strength, and did not give God the glory. In the day that he made his boast toward heaven, he should have understood that it is God who rules in the kingdom of men. He it is who “changeth the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding” (Dan 2:21).

The Bible speaks in Rev 6:14, of “a great white throne” in heaven, and about “him that sat on it, from wose face the earth and the heaven fled away” (Rev 20:11) and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The man upon the throne, of course, represents God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And He says, “If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season, Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers” (Jer 33:20-21).

And when will this be? This was the question that the Apostles asked Jesus, that he promised to answer for them when they received the Holy Spirit. And so what is that answer for us, now, in our day and time? “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Rom 13:12). If we walk with God during this “night of Gentile darkness,” we will not stumble, and we will patiently wait for Jesus’ return. We will not be like “the wicked,” who “grope for the wall like the blind, and who grope as if they had no eyes: who stumble at noonday as in the night; and are in desolate places as dead men (Isa 59:10). “If a man walk in the night” and if he “stumbleth,” it will be because “there is no light in him” (Jn 11:10). Jesus said that he “must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day” for “the night comes when no man can work” (Jn 9:4), for “when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa 26:9). The wicked will not learn, therefore “they will grope as if they had not eyes: they will stumble at noonday as in the night: they are in desolate places as dead men” (Isa 59:10).

Even the righteous are warned to watch, “for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night,’ (1 Th 5:2) “in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (2 Pet 3:10). This of course is speaking of the political “heavens” and the “works and deeds of men which are wicked. But “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. So the deeds and works of wicked men are spoken of by John in Rev 8:12, when “the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.”

So much of what Jesus spoke was in parables and he used types and analogies to all the people. It was only to his disciples that he spoke plainly. Jim Dillingham told me that when God speaks to man he speaks in an intentionally complex way. Why did he do this? Well, Jim’s answer to me was, “I believe that it is a filter that God uses. He has written a book that almost all can read, but only those with “seeing eyes” and “hearing ears” can understand it. There have been few people in this world that God has spoken “face to face,” such as Moses, but God says to those who love him “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter” (Prov 25:2)”

By Fay Berry 2018