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Hi, my name is Dean Smith, and in this podcast, I ask do you have a Bodiam stronghold in your mind?

Bodiam Castle, located in South East England in the county of Kent, is one of Britain’s more popular castles because of its massive size and very photogenic moat.

You have probably already seen pictures of it, and aren’t even aware of it.

But there is something deceptive about this imposing castle, that’s guarding Britain’s Southeastern coast.

It is not all that it seems. It is more smoke and mirrors than mortar and stone.

King Richard II gave Sir Edward Dalyngrigge permission to build the castle in 1385 as he had been a faithful servant fighting for the English king in the Hundred Years War.

It seems back then, like a car, you had to have a license or “crenellate” as it was called then to build a castle as kings wanted to control who could build a castle, because it could be used for you or against you.

When Sir Edward started construction he went all out. He built it quickly and because of its location in South East England, the castle was an ideal spot to protect the country’s southern coastline from invasion by the French.

And when he was finished, it was an imposing structure.

The castle with its massive, perfectly hewed walls and its mammoth drum towers on each corner of the castle was a picture of power in Southern England.

Sir Edward even went one step further and built Bodiam in a low basin of land surrounded by rolling hills.

Aside from the smashing scenery, it allowed him to create a lake-sized moat to surround the castle using a natural spring in the area.

There were only two narrow wooden bridges providing access to the castle’s two gates. The handful of invaders who could navigate the bridge at one time would be easily picked off from the archer slots in the drum towers or have burning oil poured down upon them from the battlements above.

But looks are deceiving.

Unknown to the French, Sir Edward was shaking in his boots over the terrifying thought that someone might actually lay a siege against Bodiam Castle because if they did, the castle was in serious trouble.

In fact, there is a debate going on about whether Bodiam Castle should be considered a castle or a fancy little manor house.

Why?

When a person actually gets close to Bodiam Castle, you quickly realize it is one big optical illusion.

Once visitors are inside, they are shocked by how small it is, because from the approach it looks like an enormous, imposing fortress.

So how did Sir Edward create this picture of deception?

First, when Sir Edward was creating the windows, they were purposefully made proportionally smaller the higher up they went giving the impression that the towers were massive looming structures.

In fact, the archer windows at the top of the towers are so narrow, it would have been almost impossible to shoot arrows through them.

The imposing drum columns guarding the four corners were also tapered to give them an exaggerated towering perspective.

At the top of the castle walls, the battlements are so small, they would have been almost useless in fending off an attack.

And the lake-sized moat that surround the castle was the key to this elaborate deception because it kept invaders far enough back that they would be unable to detect the deception.

But those examining the moat today suggest that due to the earthworks not being that substantial, the water could have probably been drained in a day.

But nevertheless, the cunning illusion worked because while dozens of Britain’s castles lie in ruins, Bodiam is still standing revealing the power of optical illusions, that delude people into thinking one thing, when the opposite is true.

When Moses led Israel out of Egypt into the promised land, he ran into problems with an optical illusion, that was rooted in a deeper emotion of insecurity of the Hebrews.

The Hebrews had just spent several years in Egyptian captivity. Treated as slaves, they were not only beaten physically but mentally as well by their Egyptian overlords.

And though God had powerfully delivered them from this captivity, that slave mentality, that they were no good, was still hanging over them.

And it showed up on the border of what would eventually be Israel after Moses sent in 12 men to spy on the Promised Land. The Bible says ten of the spies came back with an evil report.

But look at what they said.

33 There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:33 NASV)

Notice how they described the giants, by first describing themselves — we looked like grasshoppers in our own sight.

When I look at grasshoppers scurrying along the ground, I realize how easily I could squish them with my foot. The giants in the Promised Land weren’t that big and the Hebrews were not that small.

But 10 spies had turned these giants into monsters.

It was an optical illusion created by fear, magnified by their own personal feelings about themselves. They were still slaves living in Egypt, even though they were out of their captivity.

And a study a few years back at Penn State University in the United States revealed how bad this problem is. For a full month, the researchers asked a group of 29 chronic worriers to keep track of everything they worried about.

Then a few weeks later, they followed up with this group and asked them what happened to all those worries that they had written down.

The researchers found out that 91.4% of the things these people had been worrying about never came to pass and for several people in the study group, it was actually 100%

Another study came to a similar conclusion and reported that 85% of the people in its test group reported that the things they worried about never happened.

And of the 15% who reported that they did, 79% stated they were exaggerated and easier to deal with than expected. This meant that 97% of them were worrying about fake or exaggerated fears.

Fear magnifies our concerns, making them bigger than they actually are.

Fear exaggerates. It changes men into grasshoppers, large men into monsters, and manor houses into impenetrable fortresses.

Many times throughout the Bible, God tells His children to “fear not.”  Because our real enemy is fear, not giants or an enemy army.
God knew that if He did not deal with this fear emotion, His people could not move forward because they had created invincible barriers in their minds.

When David wrote Psalm 34, he was at this point trying to stay one step ahead of reprobate King Saul who was trying to kill him while trying to find refuge in the neighboring nations.

In the midst of this, David writes:

I sought the Lord and He answered me,
And rescued me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4 NASV)

The word megûrâh, translated fear, has its roots in a person traveling in a strange land where he doesn’t know the people, and he doesn’t know their culture.

He doesn’t know if they will be friends or foes and because of this the person is full of fear and apprehension.

David was scared.

Other versions state that after seeking the Lord, God delivered David from all his fears.

But the best translation of the Hebrew word, nâtsal, is rescued.

God rescued David from his fears. David did not need rescuing from a powerful vicious army, he needed to be rescued from his thinking.

God pulled down the fear stronghold that had captured David’s mind.

This was his real enemy.

And many of us have fear strongholds in our minds, and we need to realize they are Bodiam Castles that are made up of lies and deceptions, and God is ready to deliver us today.

READ: Bodiam Castle: My trip to one of the most ingenious castles in England AND 85 Percent of What We Worry About Never Happens AND Most things you worry about will never actually happen: Exposing Worry’s Deceit: Percentage of Untrue Worries in Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treatment: Science Direct

Over the years, Hollywood movies about Israel’s exodus out of Egypt have traditionally portrayed Pharaoh Ramses who reigned between 1303 BC and 1213 BC as the Exodus pharaoh.

However, there is universal agreement among Bible scholars that it definitely wasn’t Ramses because the Exodus took place several centuries before Ramses showed up.

Hi, my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to recant a previous podcast where I suggest that Amenhotep who came to power in 1525 BC was the pharaoh of the Exodus.

We know Amenhotep had a son who died as an infant and that fit well with the tenth plague, which saw the firstborn in Egypt killed,

But there is one verse.

Yes, a single verse completely disqualified Amenhotep, and I missed it. It’s really quite sad when you think of it because with Amenhotep’s firstborn son dying it fit the puzzle perfectly when it came to the last plague, the death of the firstborn.

But sadly, this single verse tells us that the Exodus did not take place until many years after Amenhotep had died.

The Pharaoh of the Exodus ruled sometime between Amenhotep and Ramses.

According to Exodus 7:7, Moses was 80 years old when he led Israel out of Egypt. Amenhotep was long gone when the Hebrews left Egypt.

We know that Moses spent about 40 years growing up in the pharaoh’s court after the pharaoh’s daughter found him lying in a basket floating on the Nile River.

Then he spent the next 40 years working as a shepherd in Midian, when he fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian guard who was beating a Hebrew slave. While in Midian, God called Moses to return to Egypt and take the Hebrews to the Promised Land.

So this leads to the tricky part, can we figure out what Pharaoh was in power when Moses was found floating on the Nile River. Because if we can determine that, we only need to add 80 years, and we should be able to calculate what Pharaoh was in power at the time Moses led Israel out of Egypt.

In Exodus 1:8-10, we are provided with three clues as to the identity of this pharaoh:

8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are [a]too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land. (Exodus 1:8-10 NASV)

First: We are told that there was a new King who rose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

According to Keil & Delitzsch, a classic Old Testament commentary, the word new describes something completely different, not newer as in a buying a newer car to replace an older one. It’s different in a semi-trailer tractor versus a small car.

The word is used in Judges 5:8, to describe new gods. This is not describing new upgraded versions of old pagan gods, but rather a new completely different class of gods who were different from Jehovah

Secondly: We are told that this new king had no idea who Joseph or the Hebrews were. With Joseph and his extended family having been invited to live in Egypt by an earlier pharaoh, how is it possible that this new pharaoh suddenly had no idea who Joseph and the Hebrews were?

Thirdly: This new Pharaoh then decided to put the Hebrews into slavery because he was concerned that they would join with Egypt’s enemy if they decided to attack.

But the Hebrews had previously been invited to live in Egypt as friends by the previous pharaoh because of Joseph.
Why were they now considered potential enemies by the new pharaoh?

What happened? What changed?

These are all telling statements as they describe a chaotic period in Egypt’s history, around 1800 BC, when the Hyksos successfully invaded Egypt and drove the Egyptian government into the southern half of the Nile Delta.

As an occupying force, the Hyksos controlled the Northern half of the Delta. When they took over, they kept many of the same traditions and customs of the Egyptians and even used the term Pharaoh to describe their leaders.

The Hyksos ruled northern Egypt for about 200 years. They were Semitic, cousins of the Hebrews. This meant the Hebrews and Hyksos had a similar language and culture, and it explains why Joseph was able to eventually become second in charge in Egypt.

But that all changed in 1550 BC when under Pharaoh Ahmose, the Egyptians in the south were finally able to drive the Hyksos out of Northern Egypt and regain control of their country.

And that is why we are told that there was a ‘new’ king in Egypt. He was different from the Hyksos pharaohs who had previously sat on the throne.

It explains why Ahmose did not know who Joseph was and having just driven the Hyksos out of Northern Egypt why Pharaoh Ahmose was concerned that the Hebrews who were culturally similar to the Hyksos would join the Hyksos if they ever decided to re-invade Egypt.

This resulted in Pharaoh Ahmose putting the Hebrews into slavery.

It was during Ahmose’s reign, that Moses ended up being raised by one of the pharaoh’s daughters in the royal court.

Now if Moses was born during the reign of Ahmose, it should be fairly easy to determine who the Pharaoh was 80 years down the road.

It should be fairly easy, except for a couple of things.

Though we have a list of pharaohs who ruled Egypt after Ahmose, there are major disagreements on how long these dynasties lasted. When biographers list the years a particular pharaoh ruled, there is invariably a footnote that the years are in dispute.

Secondly, Moses was not born in 1550, the first year of Pharaoh Ahmose’s reign. When Ahmose revealed he was concerned about the Hebrews joining the Hyksos, he first tried to slow their growth by putting them into slavery.

When that failed, he then ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the male babies. When they refused the Pharaoh then ordered the Egyptian army to kill the male babies by throwing them into the Nile. It was during this final stage that Moses was born.

This whole process would have undoubtedly taken several years.

And the Bible provides one more clue to the Pharaoh’s identity that ironically will be important. We know that the Pharaoh was a man, as God told Moses to confront the Pharaoh as ‘he was walking by the Nile’ in Exodus 7:15.

So let’s start the countdown to 80 years.

First, we have Pharaoh Ahmose who drove the Hyksos out of Northern Egypt and ruled between 1550 BC and 1525 BC. He was the new King that rose to power mentioned in Exodus 1:8. Moses was born during his reign. Ahmose ruled for a total of 25 years.

Ahmose was followed by his son Amenhotep I, the guy I originally thought was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Amenhotep ruled 21 years between 1525 BC and 1504 BC, and it was possibly towards the end of his reign that Moses killed the Egyptian guard and fled to Midian. A total of 46 years have now passed.

Amenhotep I is followed by Thutmose I. He was possibly the son, Amenhotep, but that is not certain. Thutmose I ruled 13 years, between 1506 BC and 1493 BC. A total of 59 years have passed.

Thutmose I is followed by his son, Thutmose II. Like his father, he also ruled for 13 years between 1493 BC and 1478 BC. A total of 72 years have now passed.

However, when Thutmose II died at around 30 years of age, a strange thing happens. His wife, Hatshepsut, who was also his half-sister, takes the throne. This is one of the rare occasions a female held the role of the Egyptian pharaoh. She ruled roughly 20 years (very roughly) between 1478 BC and 1458 BC.

Some believe even during Thutmose II’s reign, Hatshepsut was the real power behind the Egyptian throne.

Though her reign brings us to a total of 92 years, we know that she was not the pharaoh of the Exodus, because we are told that the Exodus pharaoh was a man.

Hatshepsut was followed by Thutmose III and the dates for their two reigns are a bit blurred as for several years, she served as Thutmose III’s co-regent until he was old enough to rule.

In fact, at one point Hatshepsut declared herself to be Pharaoh, while at the same time calling Thutmose III the next pharaoh.

So based on the 80-year countdown from Pharaoh Ahmose, there are only two possible contenders for the Pharaoh of the Exodus, either Thutmose II who ruled before Hatshepsut or Thutmose III who came after. The problems with dating the times of the pharaoh’s reigns make both of them possible candidates.

Thutmose III is known as one of Egypt’s most powerful rulers and turned Egypt into an international superpower and gained the reputation of being a military genius among modern historians with some even calling him the Napoleon of Egypt.

And we know from the archaeological record that Thutmose III was a great builder, which included the construction of over 50 temples. And of course, construction is a major part of the Exodus story, because the Pharaoh ordered the Hebrews to find their own straw to construct his bricks.

But we can’t completely eliminate Thutmose II from this discussion on the best candidate for the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

Thutmose II was a minor Pharaoh that had few successes internationally, but recent archaeology suggests he was involved in several construction projects, which fits the Biblical narrative.

In his book, Old Testament History, Famed Bible scholar, Alfred Edersheim, makes the case for Thutmose II based on a couple reasons.

First, Thutmose had a prosperous, but brief reign that collapsed very suddenly, which coincides with the Hebrews plundering Egypt of their gold and silver when they left and the destruction of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea.

Secondly, his mummy, which is on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, is covered in scars showing evidence of major cysts that fits with the sixth plague of boils mentioned in Exodus 6.

So this is a recant, as I am now convinced that Thutmose was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. My only problem is I can’t decide if it was the second one or the third one.

Hi, my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to talk about the appearance of the Spirit of Jezebel in the end times.

There is a theory circulating among those who study end-times theology, that as we near Christ’s second return we are going to see a revival of the ancient gods who once plagued Israel.

This is the premise of Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Return of the Gods, where Cahn argues that we may not necessarily see Baal idols popping up around the world, but rather the spirits behind these idols will try to reassert themselves.

Though these idols were typically manufactured out of wood, clay or stone to represent various gods, the Hebrews understood that there was more going on than just idol worship as there were demonic and evil spirits behind these gods.

We read in Deuteronomy:

“They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded” (Deuteronomy 32:16-17 NASV)

This was the real problem. They were actually making sacrifices to demons or evil spirits.

So what spirits could possibly be making an appearance in the end times?

In his book, Cahn discusses three major satanic spirits:

One of the curious things about Baal is that the ancients believed it also controlled the weather and is often pictured with a thunderbolt in his hand.

So is this manifesting today?

I wonder because many are starting to refer to climate change extremists as religious cult.

In an article written for Time Magazine entitled, ‘The Case For Making Earth Day a Religious Holiday’, New York professors, Paul Greenberg and Carl Safina called on the government to make the annual Earth Day event, a religious holiday since it’s sandwiched between Easter and Passover.

Earth Day originally set aside to demonstrate support for the environment has been hijacked by Climate change extremists in recent years and now they want to make this a religious holiday

There was also the evil spirit behind Asherah, a female goddess that went by different names in other countries, Ashtoreth or Astarte. Considered the mother of all gods, it was a fertility god that included temple prostitutes and sexual orgies as part of its worship (Jeremiah 2:28). Could this evil spirit be connected to the flood of pornography we are seeing in society?

But aside from those two examples, we may even have a prophetic warning about one of those ancient satanic spirits making an appearance during the end times in the Book of Revelation.

In the first two chapters of Revelation, the Apostle John provides messages to seven churches of Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Though these churches existed during John’s day, many suspect that John’s warnings were also prophetic and revealed problems and spiritual attacks that the church would face in the end times.

If that is true, then this may include an attack by the Spirit of Jezebel.
In chapter two, John describes a situation taking place in the church of Thyatira involving a woman who John referred to as Jezebel:

20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. (Revelation 2:20 NASV

This individual had usurped prophetic and government authority in the church and was leading members into sexual immorality and acts that would compromise their faith.

In other words, she was eroding the church from within, rather than through an outward assault.

I don’t believe John was describing a woman named Jezebel, but rather John used this name to reveal that she was being influenced by the spirit of Jezebel, an evil spirit that haunted Israel a few hundred years earlier.

The apostle was pointing readers to another Jezebel — a Phoenician princess mentioned in 1 and 2 Kings, who married Israel’s King Ahab.

It was an arranged marriage intended to solidify a peace treaty between Israel and Phoenicia.

Because of Jezebel’s association with females in both the Old Testament and New Testament, many focus the story on women. However, it is important to realize Jezebel is not a woman, but rather a demonic spirit that equally influences both sexes.

Jezebel’s marriage to Ahab was a thinly veiled invasion of Israel, not by physical troops, but rather by spiritual demonic forces.

When Jezebel arrived she brought with her — 400 prophets of Asherah and 450 prophets of Baal.

These false prophets represented two powerful gods in the Phoenician religious pantheon. Jezebel was leading a super-charged demonic force combining the spiritual wickedness associated with two other ancient deities.

Jezebel was there to take over a nation.

Almost immediately, Jezebel set up two idolatrous temples — one at each of Israel’s capital cities.

She established a Baal temple in Samaria and one for Asherah at the main palace in Jezreel, where Ahab and Jezebel resided (1 Kings 16:32-33). We are told in 1 Kings 18:19, that the 400 prophets of Asherah ate with Jezebel at her table.

Not surprisingly, these were the centers of political power in Israel, because I believe the Spirit of Jezebel is one of the satanic principalities or rulers the Apostle Paul referred to in Ephesians when he wrote:

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 NASV)

The word ‘rulers’ translated as ‘principalities’ in the King James version is the Greek word “arche.” It refers to ruling Satanic angels that have forces beneath them. In this case, Jezebel was the leading principality with evil spirits and demons associated with the worship of Baal and Asherah in a supporting role.

The spirit of Jezebel is unique in its goal to invade and conquer countries and organizations such as churches by usurping authority from the inside. They are not attacking from the outside, they are rising up within.

After Jezebel arrived in Israel she took her place at Ahab’s side. 2 Kings 9:30 suggests that she was an attractive woman and may have used sex to seduce Ahab, but whatever happened the writer of 1 Kings says:

25 Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him. (1 Kings 21:25 NASV)

Notice how it says that Ahab sold himself to do evil. Selling means an exchange took place. We don’t know exactly what Ahab received but it was payment for allowing evil to flow into Israel.

But the ultimate goal of Jezebel is to seize control and we have an interesting story in (1 Kings 21:1-16) that sets the stage for Jezebel’s eventual power grab.

Beside Ahab’s palace in Jezreel was a vineyard belonging to a man named Naboth. Ahab saw it every day from his palace wall and the more he saw it, the more he wanted it.

The king approached Naboth asking if he would be willing to exchange his property for a better vineyard the king owned or take the equivalent in money. Ahab offered Naboth a deal that he couldn’t refuse.

But the farmer refused because the land was the original part of the inheritance his family received when Israel entered the Promised Land.

Ahab didn’t handle the rejection very well. He was depressed, refused to eat, and moped around the palace like a little child. When Jezebel eventually found Ahab, he was lying on his bed facing the wall (v 9).

When she asked him what had happened, Ahab wined about Naboth’s refusal to sell his vineyard.

Jezebel told her husband and king, “Arise be joyful, I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

At that point, Jezebel sent a letter to the elders of Jezreel using Ahab’s seal and was essentially usurping the king’s authority. She ordered the nobles in the city to find two people who would accuse the farmer of cursing God and the King. The two men delivered their murderous words, and the elders ordered Naboth to be stoned.

With the owner gone, Jezebel told the king to take the land. Who could stop him now?

This story reveals the strategy that the spirit of Jezebel will employ in the end times, to gain power. It will try to exert influence if four critical areas:

The first involves the breakdown of the family.

In this incident, we see by this point the relationship between Ahab and Jezebel had degenerated from one of a husband and wife to that of a mother looking after her child.

This was largely due to Ahab abdicating his God-given role as leader of the family and king of Israel.

As Ahab pouted, facing the wall like a five-year-old petulant child, Jezebel stepped in like his mother vowing to make things better.

One of the four goals of the Jezebel spirit is to break down the God-ordained family structure.

How many families in America are fatherless through divorce or unmarried women becoming pregnant and forced to raise children on their own.

And it is not just America. England’s Office for National Statistics reported that in 2012, 47.5% of children were born to unwed mothers. If that trend continues, they expect over half the births in the following years will be in the homes of unmarried women.

In 2019, the Daily Mail reported on a study by University College London that found divorce has a negative impact on children.

The researchers followed 6,000 children between the ages of three and 14, and discovered that if their parents divorced when the children were in primary school or early teens it resulted in “an average 16 percent rise in the intensity of emotional problems,” which often revealed itself through bad behavior and mental health issues.

The Daily Mail added this warning:

The study, published by University College London’s Institute of Education, confirms earlier research pointing to the suffering of children in divorced families.

Other studies have found that divorce is linked to poor health among teenagers and an increased risk they will drift into drugs, crime, joblessness or early pregnancy when they are older.

The second thing Jezebel did was seize political control. She sent the letter to the nobles (leading men) and elders of the city in Ahab’s name, using the Royal seal ordering Naboth’s arrest.

The seal was created by a signet ring with an image on it that was superimposed on a letter and other official Royal documents by pressing it into wet clay or wax.

Jezebel was forging letters and usurping the power of Ahab.

The Spirit of Jezebel likes to be secretive. It haunts the shadows and dark places of power pulling the strings from the background through influential advisors. It manipulates those with close connections to leaders in order to be able to control them.

To the unknowing, it seemed like it was the King who was making the decisions, but another was secretly pulling the strings.

Jezebel had enough control that she could make decisions in the name of the King. She had stolen the king’s authority. Lower levels of government intimidated by Jezebel meekly caved into her outrageous demands.

This is not to say that when the time is opportune, Jezebel won’t emerge from the shadows and blatantly try to take control. But this is not how it starts.

The third thing that Jezebel did was gain control of the justice system.

The elders at the gates represented the judicial system in Israel. In Deuteronomy 16:18 we read that the elders served as the country’s judges.
People with problems or disputes would bring their cases to the elders for a ruling.

Jezebel manipulated the justice system using Israel’s law which prescribed the penalty of death for blasphemy (Deuteronomy 13:9-14) and the need for two witnesses to make the accusation stick (Deuteronomy 17:6-7).

When Jezebel ordered the elders to find false witnesses she had corrupted the justice system to do her bidding. The judges did exactly as they were ordered ensuring the verdict had the appearance of legality.

When we are praying for our county, we must remember to pray for our justice system, which can bring down verdicts that impact the spiritual nature of a nation – positively and negatively.

The last thing Jezebel tried to do was to assert control of the spiritual life of the nation. It does this by redefining what it means to be a Christian in order to compromise people’s faith as that spirit was doing in Thyatira, where people were being taught to accept immoral acts as Christian.

This was all coming from within the church, from people with authority inside the church.

In her letter to the elders and nobles of the city, Jezebel ordered these leaders to proclaim a city-wide fast. These fasts were calls to repentance – in this instance, Jezebel was calling them to repent over Naboth’s supposed blasphemy.

Notice how she tried to shame Israel for this supposed sin. The whole city was called to repent. The spirit of Jezebel uses this tactic to blame and shame.

It was a fake sin and a fake call to repentance.

These calls to repentance were normally made by the prophets (see 1 Samuel 7:6). By her actions, Jezebel had seized spiritual and prophetic control of the nation. On the outside, this call to repentance appeared so spiritual, but it covered up a horrendous evil.

In our modern context, Jezebel desires to redefine what it means to be a Christian, moving people away from their true Biblical faith, in the process creating a false Christianity.

At this point Jezebel’s overthrow was complete. But it would not last, as God would deliver the nation from the Spirit of Jezebel (2 Kings 9:31-33).

There are indications that these ancient evil spirits that once plagued Israel are being reactivated in the end times, and it’s time to start praying.

READ: A ‘Dark Trinity’: Jonathan Cahn Says America’s Brutal Culture Wars Really About ‘The Return of the Gods’ AND Divorce really DOES have a negative impact on children: Study shows boys over seven are most likely to behave badly if their parents are separated

Hi, my name is Wayne Johnston, and today on this podcast, I want to talk about the BIG Test.

Anyone who has ever had to do a final exam in high school, college, university or tech school, knows how much fun they can be.

Sick to your stomach.

Headaches.

Tired from cramming and OD’ing on Red Bull or coffee.

But what if you were told you didn’t have to take your big final exam, and they just decided you were good enough that they were going to give you your diploma without it.

Now I know personally of people who would say, ‘Wow’, I dodged a bullet and say thank you, and they would never look back.

Me, maybe you, would always second guess yourself, and wonder if you really made it, if you are really well bona fide.

Testing by God, may not be fun either, but it is never to destroy us, it is to prove us, even to ourselves, that we are well bona fide for the job.

But where do temptation and testing intersect or do they? When does testing cross the line and become a temptation?

After reading and studying testing versus temptation in the Bible, it is clear they come from two different places for two different purposes.

Testing from God brings fulfillment, a destiny. It equips us and approves us, and approves us with others. It brings us a positive, disciplined life.

Temptation is never from God.

I want to quote from James 1:13:

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. (James 1:13 NKJV)

Temptation always has the same end game. It is to push us towards evil, failure, and sin.

The reason that James says that God can’t be tempted by evil is that there is no evil in His nature.

So when God works in our lives, it is always to redeem us, to make us better. God can’t be tempted, so He does not tempt anyone.

Satan is the opposite. With him, it is always to rob, lie and destroy.

Long after I got my degree in theology, I went to technical school and did a welding program. That is when I got a clearer picture of the difference between temptation and testing.

Sometimes it may all feel the same, but they are different.

When you study welding, you soon learn that there are two basic types of testing, destructive and non-destructive.

The destructive testing involves practicing a weld and then doing a test that destroys the piece you are working on to see how well the weld is holding. They cut it, bend it and mangle it, to prove it was a good weld and then when the test is over, they just throw the piece into the scrap bin.

But there are also non-destructive weld tests that are done so that when someone welds an important structure, they have ways of testing the weld to make sure it will stand the pressure without damaging the weld.

Now I said all that because I want to focus on one person right now, the life of Joseph.

Joseph was someone in scripture who understood all about being tested and proved and about being tempted as well.

I want to quote from Psalm 105:16-19:

Moreover He called for a famine in the land;
He destroyed all the provision of bread.
17 He sent a man before them—
Joseph—who was sold as a slave.
18 They hurt his feet with fetters,
He was laid in irons.
19 Until the time that his word came to pass,
The word of the Lord tested him. (Psalm 105:16-19 NKJV)

An interesting verse from Psalms about the life of Joseph.

I want to focus mainly on verse 19:

Until the time that his word came to pass,
The word of the Lord tested him.

What word? This is talking about Joseph’s dreams.

In Genesis 37, we read that these dreams revealed that not only would Joseph’s brothers bow down to him, but the whole world.

Great dreams and visions mean a great work of God in a person’s character. Great gifting and talents may come easy for some, but character development takes much work.

Each time Joseph got more rejected and pushed down, his response was always the same, look to God and serve on.

Joseph was rejected by most of his family, but years later, his brothers would bow before him, not knowing who he really was.

This is where Joseph has his ultimate test and passes. He could have given into temptation and done anything he wanted to his brothers.

But when his brothers finally stand before him in fear, Joseph wasn’t about revenge. He was about preserving life, not taking it.

And Joseph’s response was, he couldn’t hold back his weeping.

In Genesis 45:5, we read what I consider to be Joseph’s diploma:

“For God sent me before you, to preserve life.“

And Joseph goes on to share with his brothers, don’t be afraid, I am not here to punish you. I am not here about revenge. I am long past that, I am here because God sent me before you.

God tested me. God put me in this place, and I am here to preserve life.

Joseph saws God’s thumbprint all over his testing and trials, and he understood his place in God.

The true character of Joseph is shown in this scene where his brothers bow before him, and he literally has to leave the room temporarily because he can’t stop weeping.

The weeping revealed Joseph’s heart.

I want to finish this podcast by focusing on the heart and not the head.

I have known too many brothers and sisters with amazing gifting, talents and callings from God, but they seemed to have failed their final exams.

Rejected or hurt, betrayed by others. Somehow in churches, pastors got offended and walked away from God’s call on their lives and sometimes from God Himself as well.

They could not see God’s character test in their rejection, and now they are the rejectors.

Joseph wept for his brothers. He saw God’s thumbprint all over his circumstances and he knew he was to preserve life, not take it.

God give us a heart like Joseph’s and not one of anger, pride, and offense.

Hi, my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to share the remarkable healing of a three-month-old baby girl in Corpus Christi, Texas, reported by Shawn Akers for Charisma News.

Britany Garza’s took her daughter, Saveah to a local hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas after someone accidentally upended her daughter’s stroller. But when Saveah started having seizures, she was immediately transferred to the Dricoll Children’s Hospital, where scans revealed the seriousness of Saveah’s condition.

They not only found bleeding in Saveah’s brain, but she also had two broken ribs and a broken collar bone.

Britany turned to a friend who attended New Life Church in Corpus Christi pastored by Mike and Bonnie Fehlauer.

When Adrienne received Britany’s text, she was at a youth group meeting being led by Mario Carrete, the church’s youth pastor.

Adrienne asked Carrete if he would go with her to the hospital and pray for Saveah.

After arriving at the hospital, Carrete told Britany that he was “going to pray by the blood and stripes of Jesus” that her daughter would be healed.

Carrete said his church had seen instantaneous miracles in the past and added that he was believing for Saveah to “be discharged the next day.”

Almost prophetically, the next morning there was miraculous news. The doctors had decided to perform a second brain scan on Saveah but were surprised when they could not see the brain swelling or bleeding that had appeared on the scan the day earlier.

With that immediate danger gone, they decided to let Brittany take Saveah home with instructions to return in three days for a follow-up scan of her brain. The doctors also wanted to check on the broken collarbone and ribs in case they required additional medical intervention such as a cast.

Three days later, the doctors were baffled again when the follow-up scans not only revealed Saveah’s brain was fine but strangely the collarbone and ribs no longer showed any signs of being broken.

Either all three previous scans were wrong or Saveah had been miraculously healed.

When Pastor Carrete referred to Saveah receiving healing through Christ’s stripes, he was referring to Isaiah 53:5, where the prophet foresaw how physical healing would be available through the suffering of the Jewish Messiah:

We read:

“But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed.” (Isaiah 53:5 NASV)

It was a prophetic picture of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

In this verse, we read that healing would come through the wounds that Jesus received during His crucifixion. Other versions, translate the Hebrew word as stripes, and it referred to the flogging and beating that Jesus received at the hands of the Roman guards, who used whips with shards of pottery or sharp stones attached at the end.

It was a merciless punishment that would rip open the flesh on a person’s back, and it was through this brutal beating that Christ brought healing to the world.

But the Apostle Peter brings an interesting twist to this verse from Isaiah when he tells believers this healing is available today:

We read:

“He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24 NASV)

But notice the tense, Peter says you have been healed. It is in the past tense.
In other words, our healing has already taken place.

It is a matter of perspective, we are not praying for healing, but rather to access what has already been provided through Christ’s death and available by faith.

And a strange thing happened with Saveah, and it is not the first time that I have heard of this happening.

Not only did this three-month-old baby get healed of a brain bleed, broken collar bone and two broken ribs, but it seems she was healed of something that Carrete didn’t even specifically pray for.

Britany said prior to the accident, Saveah was having metabolism problems and not gaining weight. In the three days following her accident which included a stay in the hospital, Saveah put on four pounds.

Because of what Christ suffered, we have received healing, past tense, now believe it.

READ: But God: Injured Infant Miraculously Healed After Faith-Filled Prayer

Hi, my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to talk about two incidents in the Exodus account, when God delivered Israel out of Egypt, that has always puzzled me.

The first is why didn’t the Pharaoh just order a hit job on Moses. As the tyrant over Egypt, it would have been the simplest way of dealing with this upstart who was demanding that the Hebrews be allowed to leave to worship Jehovah.

Now it could be argued that God was protecting Moses, and that was undoubtedly true, but the Bible does not record a single instance when the Pharaoh even attempted to knock off Moses.

What stopped the Pharaoh from even trying?

The second thing that puzzled me, was this: Why did the Pharaoh order all the baby boys born to the Hebrew women to be thrown in the Nile River?

Initially, the pharaoh had told the Hebrew midwives to kill them, but they basically refused, and the pharaoh issued that second order.

The Egyptian soldiers were the ones no doubt responsible for enforcing this edict, but why throw the babies in the Nile? The simplest thing would have been to kill them on the spot.

Why go through all that extra effort?

Well, I believe the answer to these two questions has an odd connection and that connection involves Hapi, the Egyptian Nile god.

It is a story of how God conned a conman or more accurately how God allowed the Pharaoh to con himself.

To figure out what happened here, we need to understand that Egypt had two major gods. Though they had dozens of gods, including the moon god and Osiris the god of the dead, two rose to the top during Egypt’s history.

The first was the tag team duo involving the sun god, known as Ra, and the pharaoh, who as the son of Ra, was considered a half-god.

Now it was common for ancient kings to consider themselves as half gods and this claim may even be traced back to the Bible.

At the Tower of Babel, the world was divided into different languages. The distinctive histories of these nations started at this point, but everything that took place prior to Babel was common history to all nations.

This is why you find stories of a worldwide flood in almost every culture around the world.

But that common history also includes an incident recorded in Genesis 6:1-4, when the sons of god married the daughters of men producing offspring who were called men of renown, supra-powerful individuals who rose to leadership during this time.

I am convinced that these sons of gods were actually fallen angels who had relations with women.

Though God brought this to an abrupt end through the flood, these stories about half godand s half men still circulated in ancient cultures. So ancient kings grabbed onto demigod stories by claiming a similar lineage with hopes of putting fear in the hearts of their subjects.

The second major god was Hapi, the god of the Nile.

In 2000, archaeologists working at the underwater ruins of the ancient Egyptian city of Heraklion discovered three massive pink granite statues 5.7 meters in height portraying an Egyptian pharaoh and his wife, along with Hapi. They were equal on the god podium.

Not surprisingly, Hapi was also considered a fertility god as the Nile was vital to the survival of Egypt and along with other offerings, living virgins were sacrificed annually to Hapi to serve as his bride.

Hapi, which was portrayed with a human body and the head of an animal, was also known as the father of the gods. He was a major god in Egypt.

And the Bible seems to hint at this god when the prophet Ezekiel gave a prophetic word against the pharaoh and Egypt, which quickly takes an unusual turn:

“Speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God:“Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.’” (Ezekiel 29:3 ESV)

Notice how the prophecy shifted from the pharaoh to a condemnation of a dragon that lived in the Nile, which even claimed to have created the Nile.

And for the next five verses, God vividly describes what he is going to do to that dragon. It was going to get ugly.

So why the sudden shift from the Pharaoh to this Nile monster?

In Deuteronomy 32:16-17, Moses made an interesting statement:

“They made Him jealous with strange gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons, who were not God,
To gods whom they have not known,
New gods who came lately,“

The Jews understood there were actually demons or evil spirits behind these ancient gods. I believe at this point, Ezekiel was now describing a more sinister being, the demonic spirit behind the Nile God.

So with these beliefs embedded in the Egyptian culture, the order to throw the Hebrew babies into the Nile appears to have been little more than a ritual sacrifice to the Nile god.

So this leads to the story about Moses’ arrival in the Pharaoh’s court.

Because of the order to throw the Hebrew boys into the Nile, Moses’ mother hid him for three months. But with this becoming increasingly difficult, she took her son down to the Nile and put him in a waterproofed basket.

The basket, containing Israel’s deliverer, bobbed along in the Nile current above the gaping jaws of the demonic monster.

Untouched, the child was eventually found by the daughter of the Pharaoh and raised in the Royal family.

But how Moses ended up in the Pharaoh’s court is a story in itself, because it seems God took advantage of Egyptian belief to bring in the deliverer.

As mentioned earlier, Hapi was considered a fertility god and archaeologists have found images of women, particularly the affluent ones, bathing in the Nile for this ritual purposes, as they believed the Nile god increased fertility and even prolonged life.

If Pharaoh’s daughter was down at the Nile for just such a ritual bath, it would explain why she eagerly accepted this baby lying in a basket.

Though she realized he was a Hebrew child, she believed the Nile god had miraculously provided a son for her – the ultimate fertility rite.

But here is where it gets strange because, in Exodus 2:10, we read:

“She [the Pharaoh’s daughter] named him Moses, because, she said I drew him out of the water.”

In an article for TheTorah.com, Dr. Rabbi David Zucker writes that in Egyptian the word ‘Mose’ means son or born and was a common prefix in Pharaoh names like Ahmose, literally the son of Ah, or Thutmos, son of Thoth.

By claiming she drew him from the water, the Pharaoh’s daughter was intimating Moses was birthed out of the Nile. Moses was the son of Hapi, one of Egypt’s most powerful deities.

As he was being raised in the Pharaoh’s court, Moses would have been considered at the very least the provision of Hapi, or perhaps even worse the half-god son of Hapi.

Because of the number of years that would pass before Pharaoh and Moses had their final showdown, this Pharaoh was not the one who Moses was raised under, but was also fully aware of the mystique that surrounded Moses.

Of course, as the son of Ra, the pharaohs believed they were half-gods. So with this delusional mindset, did the Pharaoh believe he was facing another half-god, the son of Hapi?

Then if that wasn’t bad enough. In the very first plague mentioned in Exodus 7:17, Moses turned the Nile into blood, killing all the fish and making it undrinkable.

Trapped by his beliefs, the Pharaoh could only presume that Moses had at the very least seriously wounded Hapi, or even killed him.

Then in Exodus 10:21, in what would be construed as a direct assault on the Sun god, Ra, Moses turned the sky dark for three days. The Pharaoh, the son of Ra, summoned Moses and said the Hebrews could go, but they had to leave the flocks and herds behind.

But Moses said no, their flocks would have to go with them. And it seems that the pharaoh was running scared and ready to cave to this demand because we are told in verse 27, that God had to harden the Pharaoh’s heart, so he would say no.

Conned by his own belief system, the Pharaoh was officially spooked. Was he dealing with a half-god similar to himself, but one powerful enough to dispatch Hapi?

In the end, the pharaoh was too terrified to launch a personal attack against Moses. It seems that God used the pharaoh’s own beliefs to con the conman and protect Moses.

Hi my name is Alexander and in this podcast, I want to talk about a strange occurrence taking place today, scientists are warning that the Euphrates River is drying up.

You may know that prophets in the Bible predicted this would happen thousands of years ago, and they said it would be part of the apocalyptic events of the end times.

The Euphrates River, one of the longest rivers in Asia, originates in Turkey and flows through Syria and Iraq. Recently, scientists have become worried about the Euphrates river, and its twin, the Tigris. Their scientific opinion is that the rivers will soon dry up.

The cradle of ancient civilizations formed near those rivers, and they are important in many Bible stories. They also form a huge freshwater system that millions of people depend on today in the heart of the Middle East.

The Bible predicted that the Euphrates would dry up thousands of years ago, and that will be important for events at the end of this age.

Huge armies, from the east, will travel across the dry rivers, as they invade the Middle East and Israel.

In the north of Israel is the wide valley of Megiddo. The Hebrew word for valley is “Hor.” So, the final battle, where God intervenes, will be in Hor Megiddo, known to us as Armageddon.

The Euphrates river system will block this invasion, or make it easy. The Bible predicts easy.

The prophet Isaiah, who lived 2700 years ago, was one of the first to warn of the death of the Euphrates. He prophesied: quote

The Lord will divide the gulf of the Egyptian Sea; he will wave his hand over the Euphrates River and send a strong wind; he will turn it into seven dried-up streams, and enable them to walk across in their sandals. (Isaiah 11:15) Unquote

And in his vision of the apocalyptic events leading up to the second coming of Christ recorded in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John stated that the Euphrates’ dried river bed would play a significant role:

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and dried up its water to prepare the way for the kings from the east. (Revelation 16:12)

That is the prediction; the rivers will dry up, and large armies will travel from the east to the Middle East. The words are clear, but how is that possible? Imagine predicting the end of the Amazon, or the Mississippi rivers. Who would believe you?

The Bible makes predictions that seem impossible. Can we trust the Bible? So when will the mighty Euphrates dry up?

Well, scientists are warning that the Euphrates river system could dry up by the year 2040, and they are not referring to the Bible when they say that.

If you do an Internet search with keywords like “Euphrates” and “drying” you will probably be surprised by the large number of articles and videos on the subject.

For example, in her article entitled, ‘Desert’: Drying Euphrates threatens disaster in Syria‘, for phys.org, Delil Souleiman and Alice Hackman write it is on the verge of happening. She writes that part of the problem stems from several hydroelectric dams on the river in Turkey and Syria and this combined with a severe drought is now threatening the very existence of the river.

Syrian farmers who eke out an existence along the rivers say they have never seen the water so low, and it’s threatening their livelihood, Souleiman and Hackman write.

We know this is happening.

A prediction that was impossible is now possible. An impossible fairy tale is now a scientific reality. A light just came on.

I believe that we are living in a time of Bible prophecy. The lights have come on, and the stage is being set, just as the prophets predicted.

And this is not the only one.

Until the year 1948, most of the world did not expect to see a reborn Jewish state of Israel. In 1948, the impossible miracle happened, and that ancient nation returned. And then, in 1967, Jerusalem and the site of the ancient temple returned to Israel.

The world was surprised, two times.

Other lights came on, over several years, and today, the impossible promises in the Bible are possible and realistic. The Bible predicted a world just like the one we are living in, and that seemed impossible until recently.

We are living in interesting times.

It is interesting that Jesus spoke to an audience, and predicted what we are experiencing, two thousand years ago: quote

“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21: 28 to 31)

When we see the beginning, when the impossible becomes possible, we should look up. The ancient promise that rivers would dry up shows us a piece of our future.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast.

READ: ‘Desert’: drying Euphrates threatens disaster in Syria

Hi, my name is Wayne Johnston and in this podcast today, I want to talk about redemption. The Bible is the Book of God revealing His redemptive plan to restore mankind to a place of rest in Himself.

And I just love all those ‘R’ words.

I want to share one of my favorite redemptive stories from the New Testament, because it reveals the heart of God, that He is the God of not only the first but the second, third and fourth chances.

In Acts 13:1-5, we read:

13 Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

Preaching in Cyprus

4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. (Acts 13:1-5 NKJV)

The great apostolic team of the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas, take on a young assistant in verse 5, by the name of John Mark, a young believer from Jerusalem, to help them.

But almost immediately, in verse 13, we see a problem showing up:

13 Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. (Acts 13:13 NKJV)

It got too hot for John. As a young believer, he bails on them and runs home to mom.

Paul was a person who you didn’t do that to.

When I taught at Bible school, I often taught New Testament history, and I would get to this part, and I would set them up by asking a question: ‘If you had a chance, as a young Bible school student, to go on a mission trip with one of two people, Paul or Barnabas, who would you pick?”

And I would ask, ‘How many would go with Paul?’

And most of them would say, ‘Paul, yeah Paul, yeah, yeah.’

And then I would ask how many would go with Barnabas, and hardly anybody would put their hands up, except for me. Maybe it was because I was a little devious, a little older, and maybe a little wiser.

But I would go with Barnabas any day of the week.

Because Paul was hard-driven. He drove himself hard, and Paul was a take no prisoners type of person.

In Paul’s world, if you weren’t getting stoned at least every other day, you weren’t up to the job.

But the problem doesn’t stop there, when we jump ahead to Acts 15:36-41, we read of a serious conflict that took place between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, who Barnabas wanted to rejoin their team:

36 Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.” 37 Now Barnabas [a]was determined to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. 39 Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. (Acts 15:36-41 NKJV)

God now has two teams out instead of one.

And this sharp disagreement happened and this type of thing still happens today, because we are human.

But Barnabas, the son of consolation, which is what his name means, takes his young broken cousin, who had bailed on them. He takes him underwing, and slowly puts him back together.

He works with Paul’s reject and gives him a second chance.

Have you ever had a mentor in your life, who picked you up and cleaned you off and got you back on the right road?

It’s a great calling.

In verse 39, the Greek word for dispute means to ‘dispute in anger, or sharp contention.’

It was no small thing. This team was now broken up.

Barnabas, it seems, forfeited his special place of ministry with Paul.

Barnabas was willing to take his reputation and his call as part of God’s ‘A Team’ and he forfeits that to bring hope to this Bible school dropout.

Barnabas ends up kind of in the backwater after this and doesn’t get mentioned much more in the New Testament.

Looking ahead many years, Paul is now an older man. He is in prison.

And he is writing to Timothy with this interesting request:

11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. (2 Timothy 4:11 NKJV)

He wants Mark, because he is useful.

This is Paul saying that.

The Greek word translated useful or profitable, the root word means ‘well done.’

Don’t you want to hear that from your Savior in the end, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant?’ That is what the word useful means.

And towards the end of his life, as an older man, Paul is saying, ‘Hey, he was put back together by Barnabas. He is useful. He is well done for the Kingdom.’

John in the meantime had also become a companion and help to a guy by the name of Peter. You might have heard of him in the New Testament.

So at the end of this story, we read of the second chance given to a Bible school dropout. Barnabas puts his reputation and ministry on hold and on the line by putting his cousin back together.

As for John Mark, well he ends up becoming a help to both Peter and Paul. Talk about redemption, they were two of the big names of the New Testament.

But his greatest legacy is that John Mark ends up writing the second book of the New Testament, the one that bears his name, the Gospel of Mark.

It is the one and the same man.

We serve a God of second, third and fourth chances.

But we also need men and women in the kingdom, like Barnabas, who are willing to put their lives on hold and take the broken, put them back together and make them ‘well done’ and profitable for the kingdom.

Hi, my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to talk about two Old Testament prophecies that seem to specifically point to Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

Because of the controversy surrounding one particular passage, Jewish Synagogues no longer recite it during synagogue services and the other passage actually gives the time when the Jews could expect the arrival of the Messiah.

In a recent article, Joel Rosenberg with All Israel News estimated that there are one million Messianic Jews in the world today, who believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Though not a small number, considering there are about 15 million Jews in the world today, perhaps even more, for the most part, they have rejected Christ.

This rejection was demonstrated in a story that emerged out of a Florida public school in November 2022, when a Jewish woman complained to the school board about a New Testament bible verse that a teacher at Wiregrass Ranch High School had painted on the pavement of her parking stall.

The verse from Philippians 4:13 reads:

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Pasco County School District allows employees to decorate their rented parking stall as long as they pay for it at their own personal expense.

In an interview with WFLA-TV, the Jewish woman said she felt that the verse was attacking her as she tied it to the Holocaust when Jews were murdered and Christians were not.

However, the school board’s legal teams said that the verse wasn’t a violation and allowed it to remain.

It’s unfortunate, considering evangelical Christians are probably Israel’s and the Jew’s closest allies today.

There are dozens of prophecies in the Old Testament that speak of a coming Jewish Messiah, but there are a couple in particular that seem to specifically point to Christ.

For centuries, Isaiah 53 was included as part of the rotational scripture readings during synagogue services, which included readings from the first five books of the Old Testament and the prophets.

Christians are familiar with this chapter in Isaiah as it describes the ministry and crucifixion of Christ.

Part of it includes:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hid their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not…. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; (Isaiah 53:3 and 5)

Curiously, Jewish Rabbis considered Isaiah 53 to be prophetic and speaking about the coming Jewish Messiah, whom they understand would be a suffering servant.

In fact, referring to Isaiah 53, the Babylon Talmud an ancient Jewish commentary on the Old Testament described him as the leper messiah, writing:

The Messiah, what is his name. The Rabbis say the ‘leper scholar’, as it is said, ‘surely he has born our griefs and carried away our sorrow; yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted. Sanhedrin 98b

And as the New Testament writers watched Jesus’ ministry unfold, they quickly realized that Christ was fulfilling the Isaiah 53 prophecy.

For example, in John 12:37-38, the apostle John actually quoted Isaiah 53:1 which spoke of no one believing the message of the Messiah to show that Jesus’ rejection by the Jewish priests and Pharisees and others was actually prophesied centuries earlier.

In chapter 8:16-17, Matthew quoted Isaiah 53:4, which spoke of the Messiah healing people’s infirmities, as the apostle witnessed Jesus healing the sick and casting out demons.

Then in Mark 15:27-28, Mark quoted Isaiah 53:12, which reads that the Messiah would be numbered with the transgressors, which he saw fulfilled as Christ was crucified between two known thieves.

Despite this chapter in Isaiah prophetically speaking of Jesus, for the next few hundred years following Christ’s death and resurrection, the Jewish synagogues kept Isaiah 53 as part of their Scripture readings.

But things changed as Christianity grew in popularity and along with it increased awareness of Christian’s claims that Isaiah 53 was connected to Christ.

The passage eventually became so problematic for synagogue leaders, it was decided that Isaiah 53 would no longer be read during services.

It became known in certain circles as the forbidden chapter as they would read to Isaiah 52, then skip over to Isaiah 54 during the readings.

Dr. Eitan Bar, an Israeli-born, Messianic Jew who is a regular contributor to One for Israel, wrote:

“The 17th-century Jewish historian, Raphael Levi, admitted that long ago the rabbis used to read Isaiah 53 in synagogues, but after the chapter caused “arguments and great confusion” the rabbis decided that the simplest thing would be to just take that prophecy out of the Haftarah readings in synagogues. That’s why today when we read Isaiah 52, we stop in the middle of the chapter, and the week after, we jump straight to Isaiah 54.”

Along a similar vein, in a YouTube video entitled, “The most compelling Messianic prophecy in the Bible,” Dr. Michael Brown, who is also a Messianic Jew, told the story of what happened to a friend, a fellow Jew, who became a believer in Jesus as well.

He told his dad that there was an Old Testament prophecy which revealed Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. His dad agreed to read the prophecy. but specifically said it had to come from a Jewish Bible, not a Christian one.

When he showed his dad Isaiah 53, he said I told you not to use a Christian Bible, and then the son revealed that they were reading from the Jewish Bible that the son had received at his Barmitzvah.

While it is simple to avoid the controversy surrounding Isaiah 53 by simply ignoring it, the next Old Testament passage offers a different problem.

What if there was an Old Testament prophecy which predicted when the Messiah would arrive and said it would happen in the first century AD?

Well according to California’s Shasta Bible school professor, Tom Meyer, there actually is and he points to a passage in the book of Daniel as evidence.

First, we need to provide some background to this book.

While in captivity in Babylon, Daniel realized that when God judged the Jews and sent them into captivity, He had also promised to restore them back to the Promised Land in 70 years.

Daniel knew that their time in captivity was just about up and entered into a time of fasting and prayer for the nation to be restored to the Promised Land .

This promised restoration took place after Persia conquered Babylon in a bloodless cue and eventually published an edict allowing all the peoples taken into captivity under the Babylonians to return to their homelands.

But as Daniel prayed for this promised restoration, God dispatched an angel to Daniel with a message, that also included additional information about the eventual arrival of the Jewish Messiah.

The angelic message reads:

25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. (Daniel 9: 25 NIV)

There are three things that we can gain from this message.

First, in an interview with the British newspaper, The Express, Meyer points out that the word for Anointed One is the Hebrew, ‘Mashiach’, and literally means Messiah.

Secondly, we read that the Messiah will show up in seven sevens and sixty-two sevens after the edict goes out to restore or rebuild Jerusalem and the temple

But what are the seven sevens and 62 sevens referring to?

Some Bible versions have translated the Hebrew word ‘shabu’, which is translated as sevens in this passage, as seven weeks.

Sevens refers to the two Sabbaths that Israel practiced as part of its religious calendar. The first involved the weekly sabbath where the Jews worked six days and rested on the seventh, hence the weeks.

The second involved years, where they were told to work the land for six years, and then to let it rest on the seventh. It was called the ‘land Sabbath’, and according to Leviticus 26:32-35, when God judged Israel, the length of time they spent in captivity was tied to their violations of the land sabbath.

And for this verse in Daniel, connected to their Babylonian captivity, Meyer believes seven years is the correct interpretation.

This means ‘seven sevens’ refers to 49 years and ‘sixty-two sevens’ would equal 434 years and once these numbers are added together, it means that the Messiah would show up 483 years after the order had been given to rebuild Jerusalem.

Now if we interpret sevens as weeks, instead of years as Meyer suggests, it means that the Jewish Messiah would show up in 483 weeks or about nine years.

So, what happens if we translate shabu as years?

Well, unfortunately, there is still more math involved. Because according to Meyer, the Jewish year is actually made up of 360 days, not 365 days as we use.

So, we need to take the 483 years times it by 360 days and we end up with 173,880 days.

Of course, this leads to the final step determining the start date for this countdown. What year was the edict proclaimed allowing Nehemiah to return and rebuild Jerusalem?

In 1879, archaeologists discovered a cuneiform cylinder in the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon dating to 538 BC. It was created during the reign of the Persian ruler, King Cyrus, and decreed that people taken captive by the Babylonians would be allowed to return to their homelands.

However, according to Nehemiah 2:1, the order giving Nehemiah permission to return to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem did not take place until the 20th year of Artaxerxes’ reign.

Nehemiah was the King’s cupbearer, meaning he was the one who tasted Artaxerxes’ food to make sure it hadn’t been poisoned

According to Wikipedia, Artaxerxes ruled Persia from 464 BX to 424 BC and since this permission was given in the 20th year of Artaxerses’ reign, the order allowing Jerusalem to be rebuilt was given around 445 BC.

When Meyer added the 173,880 days to 445 BC, he ended up at 38 AD, around the time that Jesus was executed by the Romans.

Now there is some disagreement on the date when the Persian government issued the order allowing Jerusalem to be rebuilt, but we are only talking about a handful of years difference. And similarly, we can’t be absolutely certain about the year Christ was executed and again any discrepancy involves just a few years.

Whatever the case, this prophecy suggests that the Anointed One would show up sometime in what we know as the first century AD.

Of course, there is only one potential candidate for the Jewish Messiah in the first century and that is none other than Jesus Christ.

But Meyer goes one step further.

Because in the very next verse in Daniel 9:26, the angel goes on to say:

“The Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.” (Daniel 9:26)

The angel tells Daniel two more things.

First, the Messiah would be cut off, which Meyer believes is a reference to the crucifixion of Christ.

And secondly, the angel said that Jerusalem and the sanctuary, a reference to the temple, will also be destroyed.

This was fulfilled when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and obliterated the temple in 70 AD.

Though for the most part, the Jews have rejected Christ, these two prophecies provide a compelling case that Jesus is their Messiah.

But that rejection will not last forever.

In Romans 11:26, the Apostle Paul stated that a day was coming when the Jews will finally recognize that Jesus is their Messiah and states that all Israel will be saved.

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Hi, my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I hope to answer the end of the age question — does end-times prophecy suggest a third temple be built in Jerusalem before Christ’s second coming?

Now let me be absolutely clear on one thing, I believe the restoration of Israel as a nation in 1948 is a critical marker in end-times prophecy, but I am not sure that the same holds true for the Jewish Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

I am delving into this topic again, because I have been shocked by all the news, borderline celebration, over the arrival of five red heifers in Israel on Sept 15, 2022.

They were shipped from Texas to Tel Aviv for the Israeli-based Temple Institute, an organization composed of Orthodox Jews wanting to see the construction of a third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

These were not just any regular cows, they were unblemished red heifers that had been previously inspected with a magnifying glass by a Jewish Rabbi to ensure that they were totally red and had no off-colour hairs.

Though unblemished at this point, it’s possible the heifers may develop off-coloured hair as they mature making them unacceptable for a sacrifice.

Nevertheless, people were celebrating because many believe the heifers’ arrival was another necessary piece paving the way for the construction of the third Jewish temple because the red heifer sacrifice was integral to the functioning of the Jewish temple.

In an article for Charismanews, Nicole Jansezian explains that the temple is not necessary for conducting the red heifer sacrifice and expects that one could be sacrificed as early as next year.

Jansezian explains that according to Numbers 19 the ashes from the red heifer are necessary for the purification of priests. Since the whole animal was burned, it produced a large reserve of ashes, and there have only been nine Red heifers sacrificed in Israel’s history.

But not only are Christians celebrating their arrival, a Christian businessman in Texas also played a major role in acquiring the heifers.

Certainly, the Temple Institute has been busy the past few years in its preparation for the construction of a third temple.

Along with the purchase of the red heifers, it also constructed most of the furniture, utensils and priestly clothing needed for the operation of the Jewish Temple.

This includes the altar of sacrifice used to sacrifice the animals. Constructed in 2015, it stands five meters or 16 feet high with large ramps on either side. The only thing missing is the Ark of the Covenant on which the presence of God rested in the early temples and tabernacles.

They have also started a school to train the priests on how to perform the sacrifices. Those applying for positions not only had to be from the tribe of Levi but also direct descendants of Aaron, Israel’s first high priest. They also had to be born in Israel, meaning they had been born after Israel became a nation in 1948.

Those applying had to meet another obligation. They had to be ritually pure meaning they had never come in contact with a dead person. As part of the application, they were asked if they were born in a hospital or had ever visited a sick person in the hospital or a cemetery.

The Temple Institute has also ordered architectural drawings for the third temple that meets both modern design regulations and also Biblical requirements.

In addition, a group has already started to prepare the stones necessary for the construction of the temple. The stones had to be carved by hand away from the temple, so the work could not be heard at the temple site. They also can not use metal tools when carving stones.

So while major moves are underway to prepare for the construction of a third temple, there are still some major obstacles hindering its construction.

When the Romans destroyed the last Jewish temple in 70 AD, they absolutely levelled the site, leaving no indication of where it was located on the Temple Mount.

And though Jerusalem has been under Israeli control since the 1967 six-day war, the Temple Mount is controlled by the Muslims through the Jordan Waqf, who recently had been demanding more control of the site.

Thirdly, there are now two Muslim buildings on the Temple Mount, the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock the latter of which is Islam’s third most holy building and many believe it was actually built where the Jewish Temple once stood.

Though there is still room for a Jewish temple on the mount, the Muslims would absolutely forbid it. Certainly, Israel could force the issue, but allowing the temple to be constructed could provoke Muslim uprisings in Israel and even attacks by other Islamic nations.

But Orthodox Jews seem determined to build a third temple and Christians who study end-times prophecy believe it is a necessary part of the prophecy and point to several passages as evidence.

One of them is found in the Apostle John’s vision of the end-times recorded in the Book of Revelation.

John writes quote:

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. 2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. (Revelation 11:1-2)

Since by the time John had written Revelation, the second Jewish temple had already been destroyed by the Romans two decades earlier, this verse suggests there will be a third temple constructed.

Then in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses three and four, Paul writes that at the end of the age the man of lawlessness, the antichrist, will set himself up as god in the temple of God. Again it is argued for this to happen, there will need to be a physical temple in Jerusalem.

There are also Old Testament passages that speak of a third temple. The prophet Ezekiel writes about an unusual temple in chapters 40 through 48.

Its unique design was not used in the construction of either Solomons’s or Herod’s temple, which Jesus visited.

The Jewish rabbis believe that Ezekiel was describing a temple that would be constructed after the arrival of the Jewish Messiah.

While these passages seem to point to a physical temple, others are not convinced. They argue that these passages could be referring to a different kind of temple, a spiritual one.

We get the first reference to this spiritual temple early in the Gospel of John when Jesus outraged the Jewish elite and spoke of the temple being destroyed but then rebuilt in three days.

The Apostle John writes:

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2:19-22 ESV)

John clearly states that Jesus’ body was the Temple. Remember this is the same John who wrote about measuring the Temple in the Book Revelation. What temple was he mearuring?

Later, the Apostle Paul would explain that Christ’s body is the church and then he went on to state that the Church, which contains the Spirit of God, is now God’s true temple. And when Paul made that statement in Ephesians 2:20-22, the temple in Jerusalem was still standing. So at this point in human history, there were now two competing Temples, the church and the one standing in Jerusalem.

Clearly, in this and other passages, the temple is not a physical stone building but rather a spiritual one.

So that brings us back to Ezekiel’s temple because as I mentioned earlier, the Jewish rabbis believed it would be constructed during the time of the Messiah.

Since Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, this means that the temple associated with Christ would be the temple that Ezekiel was foreseeing. In other words, the church is a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s temple.

And we do see similarities.

Ezekiel 47:1-2 speaks of a river flowing out of Ezekiel’s temple that would bring healing to the nations.

Then curiously in John 7:38, we read of Jesus standing up in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles stating that anyone who believed in him out of them would flow rivers of living water.

In verse, 39, John says that the water flowing out of Ezekiel’s temple, was the Holy Spirit that fell on the Day of Pentecost?

Secondly, Ezekiel’s temple was much larger than either Solomon’s or Herod’s temple and the Jewish rabbis believed this was necessary to accommodate an inflow of gentiles.

After the Holy Spirit fell upon the gentiles, it led to such a move of God among the Gentiles, that they dominated the early church.

Ezekiel’s temple also differed from the other two temples in that it did not have a separate court for the gentiles or a court for the women which both Solomon’s and Herod’s temples had. And in Galatians 3:26, the Apostle Paul noted that there are no divisions between gentiles and Jews, slaves of free or men or women in the church.

Like Ezekiel’s temple, the dividing walls were gone.

But though it could be argued that the church is a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s temple, this would not necessarily prevent the Jews from wanting to see the construction of a third temple.

Obviously, some want it.

But will it happen?

First, with the arrival of Christ, a major transformation took place in the Kingdom of God. With the Holy Spirit now residing inside believers, there was a shift from a physical temple to a spiritual one.

And with Christ’s perfect sacrifice, there would no longer be a need for animal sacrifices and along with that any need for a special priesthood to handle the sacrifice. And in 1 Peter 2:9, the Apostle Peter says that all believers are now a part of the royal priesthood.

But like I said, though God no longer has any interest in a physical stone temple, it is possible the Jews will still construct one.

But there is a very odd story in the Book of Matthew that suggests it may not.

Shortly after Jesus had cleansed the Temple chasing out the Levites who were selling sacrificial animals and changing money, because of how outraged the priests were, the Lord decided that they should spend the night at Bethany.

As they were on the road, we read in Matthew 21:18-21 that they encountered a fig tree. Jesus decided to check the trees for figs, but there were none because it was out of season, so Jesus cursed the tree killing it.

Why would the Lord curse a tree for not bearing fruit out of season?

Some argue that Jesus did not realize that figs were out of season. However, this was an agrarian society, everyone would know when crops were harvested much like we know when wheat is harvested today.

But if we apply the sandwich theory of Bible interpretation, it reveals that this story was not about the fig tree, but was actually about the Temple.

As we read the Gospels, we often find odd stories that seem to be totally out of context with the passages before and after.

The sandwich theory states similar to a sandwich which has bread at the top and on the bottom, the main ingredient is between the slices of bread. So if the passages before the story and immediately after are discussing the same topic, then the incident in middle is also about the same thing, even though it seems unrelated.

In fact, it is the meat of what is happening.

Immediately before the Fig tree story, we have the cleansing of the temple, and immediately after, we have Jesus and the disciples returning to the temple and being confronted by the Jewish priests about what had happened the previous day.

Because both pieces of bread are about the temple, this means the fig tree is about the temple as well.

So if this story is symbolically about the temple, then Jesus approached the temple expecting to find fruit, there was no off-season for the temple.

In fact, the temple was corrupted by the money changers and those selling sacrificial items.

Even if a person brought their own animals to be sacrificed, invariably the priests found some flaws, but fortunately, they had previously inspected animals for sale at the temple, at a premium price, of course.

Of course, you couldn’t purchase these animals or pay the temple tax with unclean Roman or foreign currency, but wouldn’t you know it, they had Levite moneychangers who could exchange that unclean Roman currency for approved temple money.

I think you are getting the drift. It was corrupt and people were being taken advantage of.

So if we are reading this fig tree story correctly, Jesus was in fact actually cursing the temple. It was being replaced.

And the Lord finished by saying:

”Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”

In Mark 11:20 the gospel writer states that the fig tree was dead from the root up. There was no possibility of regrowth.

So if this story was about the temple, it meant that Jesus had just cursed it. Its days were numbered, but not only numbered, it would never be rebuilt.

Some may think that I am reading too much into this story.

Well, three chapters later, Jesus delivered the news in Matthew 24:1-2, that the temple was going to be absolutely obliterated and there would not be even one stone laying upon another.

The Temple was being replaced.

And the fait accompli took place in 70 AD when the Romans completely destroyed the temple.

Then in the second last chapter of the Book of Revelation, in the Apostle John’s description of the end times, he describes New Jerusalem with these words:

“And I saw no Temple in the city; for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb of God.” (Revelation 21:22)

So I am not sure we should be looking for the construction of the third temple in Jerusalem as part of end-times prophecy. But this is just my opinion.

Thanks for joining me on this podcast and I will catch you again.

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