GOD'S TIMETABLE

We suggest that you try to do one each week.  This will  keep your interest in them active.

We are sending all lessons in  plain text, unless you want them in Word or Wpwin 7 format.

We suggest that you print these out and put them in a binder for future use.

  Here's all you do:

  1.. Read the lesson carefully.
  2.. Fill in the answer sheet.
  3.. Email it back to us.

We will grade your lesson and return it to you with you next lesson.

These lessons have been scanned and may contain typing errors. We would appreciate any that you point out to us.

May God richly bless you as you proceed.

Your Instructor
Harold Smith   Phone 1-902-643-2199

                        STUDIES IN PROPHECY  BY DAVID BOYD LONG

EVERYDAY PUBLICATIONS 230 Glebemount Avenue Toronto, Canada M4C 3T4

I am grateful to the above author and Publisher for their kind permission to use this material for
Email Bible Lessons.
 

INTRODUCTION

    Man's timetables are always contingent. Weather, strikes, mechanical failure, bomb threats,
hijacking, many things cause frustrations, delay or cancellation. Still it is good to have a plan,
but one must remember all man's plans are fragile.
    God the Almighty has a timetable for His dealings with men and nothing can upset it. There
are many spirit beings who do everything they can to foil God's plan, but they cannot. God's
timetable cannot fail.

    This new book on prophecy is based on three premises:
    1. God is omniscient, He knows the end from the beginning.
    2. God is omnipotent, He is well able to carry out His own plans.
    3. God has told us something of His plan for man in the Holy Scripture.

    David Boyd Long has been studying and teaching God's Word for many years. In this book,
with pungent, irreversible argument, Scripture after Scripture is elucidated to substantiate the
doctrine that Christ will come for His Church before the great tribulation sets in, before the
Millennium. Similarly every stage of God's Timetable is presented with Scriptural authority in a
heart warming manner.

     God's Timetable
Contents:
God has a Timetable for the World
God's Timetable for Israel's Future
God's Timetable in terms of Gentile World Empire
Links between Prophecy in Old and New Testaments
Coming World Rulers - Civil and Religious
The Coming of the Lord to take the Church away
Final Convulsions of a Dying World
Future Judgments from God: When?
Where? Why? Who?
Christian Rewards
Christ's Coming in Glory and His Kingdom on Earth
The Eternal State: The sevenfold consummation of the purpose of God

LESSON 1

           GOD HAS A TIMETABLE FOR THE WORLD.

     Bible Prophecy is simply God's revealed plan for the future of His creation. This creation,
which was once perfect, Gen. 1.4 etc., was later marred by the entrance of sin, Gen. 3.17, but has
been promised ultimate blessing and perfection through Christ and His work, ROM. 8.18-25.
     In spite of this declared purpose of God many people seem to feel that events simply drift
along, occasionally pushed forward or backward perhaps by men in positions of power. The
Christian believes that God is working out His own program at His own pace and according to
His own timetable, for he knows that the Bible says, for example:-
 

  The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will, Daniel   4.25.
   I will overturn, overturn, overturn it ... until he come whose right it is, and I will give it to
  him, Ezek. 21.27.
   I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle .. then shall the Lord go forth and fight
  against those nations ... and His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives ... and
  the Lord shall be king, Zech. 14.1-9.
  The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
  footstool, Ps. 110.1 with Matt. 22. 44.
  God hath put in their hearts (i.e. the kings of Europe) to fulfill His will ... until the of God
  shall be fulfilled, Rev. 17.17.

TIME-CHECK - ABRAHAM TO THE EXODUS

     In Genesis 15.13-16 God gave Abraham the outline of a plan for his descendants which
contained a very sped time-check open to confirmation as it unrolled in the future.  Read the
passage carefully in a good, that is, an accurate translation, and mark its main points.
  1) The immediate descendants of Abraham would be strangers (pilgrims) without possessing
  the land for 400 years from the time of the statement.
  2) The whole nation would become slaves. (serve)
  3) They would be afflicted and oppressed.
  4) The nation so treating them would be punished (judged) by God.
  5) This direct intervention of God in judgment would open the way for their liberation
      (they shall come out).
  6) At their liberation they would have "great substance" or wealth, though they had toiled for
  centuries without pay.
  7) In the fourth generation they would "come hither again", that is, they would return to
  Palestine where the conversation was taking place.

     Here, unlike the mumbled double-talk of the pagan oracles, all is clear, concise, emphatic,
and it does not take much Bible research to prove that every one of the seven statements was
fulfilled to the letter:-

  1) From Genesis 15 to Exodus 12 is 400 years. In Exodus 12.40 we are told that the total
  period of sojourning was 430, but that would be counted from Abraham's entrance into the
  land in Genesis 12, thirty years earlier.
  2) Though no one could have foreseen slavery for the whole race, yet it actually came about
  and is historically attested.
  3) Even as slaves they were treated with unusual cruelty and oppression in Egypt.
  4) God did finally intervene, breaking Egypt's power.
  5) Only through that judgment was Israel liberated; not by legislation, change of Egyptian
  attitude, or revolt of the Israelitish slaves.
  6) In spite of more than 200 years of unpaid slavery, Israel did come out with great wealth,
  because the Egyptians forced this wealth on them to hasten their departure on the night of the
  Exodus to avert further catastrophe, Ex. 12.35, 36. So great was this wealth that in the desert
  they later built with it the Tabernacle, lavishly ornamented with gold, silver, and gems which
  they could never have possessed by any other means.
  7) It was in the 4th generation that they were liberated, as God had said; Levi, who went into
  Egypt with Jacob, followed by Kohath, Amram, and Moses.

      This first section of timetable takes us all the way from covenant with Abraham to the
  Exodus from Egypt, all meticulously spelled out and all miraculously fulfilled.

TIME-CHECK - EGYPT TO CANAAN

     Immediately following the liberation from Egypt  we have another prediction by God
involving verifiable time factors.  The distance from Egypt to Mt. Sinai, approximately 150
miles, was covered in two months by the slow moving horde of probably more than one million
people, Ex. 19.1.
     They stayed in camp at Sinai about one year, Num. 10. There God made His covenant with
them, gave them His laws as well as instructions for the building of the Tabernacle, and there
this building was made and erected. They left Sinai the second month of the second year from
Egypt, Num. 10:11, and would likely take about the same time, two months, they  reach the
borders of Palestine at Kadesh-barnea, Num. 12.7 13.26; 32.8. Here they disobeyed God in
refusing to cross over and take possession of the land, staging a rebellion and in their desperation
threatening to kill Moses and those who stood with him so that they could "return to Egypt,"

Num.14:
     Because of this rebellion God said that the whole nation would wander around in the desert
for forty years until all over the age of 20 had died; a sentence from which only three men were
exempted, Moses, Caleb and Joshua, Num. 14.30. reason for the number of years - forty - is
explained as one for each day they spent in spying out the land instead of taking God's word for
it in faith, Num. 14.33,34.

    This prediction was again accurately fulfilled, for not until forty years later did the surviving
younger generation cross Jordan into Canaan - led by Joshua and Caleb as God had foretold.

TIME-CHECK - THE BABYLONIAN EXILE

     Many predictions, useful in confirming the accuracy God's Word, we pass over, because they
are not directly connected with the subject of timetables. One very striking time-check, however,
appears in connection with Israel's exile in Babylon, and this we urge you to study carefully.
    In Leviticus 26:40-45, about 1,500 years before Christ, God told the Israelites through Moses
that if they disobeyed His Word He would punish them in a variety of ways. One thing was
mentioned specifically, namely, that if they did not allow the land to enjoy its sabbatical rest by
lying fallow for one year in seven He would take them away from the land into captivity, so that
in their absence the soil would run wild and uncultivated making up in this way for the
sabbatical years they had denied it - a year for a year.
     After entering Palestine the Hebrew people were ruled by a succession of judges, priests, and
prophets for somewhat less than 500 years, and during that time they apparently did not fail in
this particular matter. But during the latter period of about 490 years under her kings we gather
from several passages that this sabbatical year of land-rest was violated, as indeed were many of
God's laws for their well-being.
     God remonstrated with His people through the voices of the prophets, without much result,
and at last Jeremiah, about the year 496 B.C., brought them a message of judgment from God in
Jeremiah 25.8-12. This was to the effect that, since they had refused to listen, and continued to
violate the year of Sabbath, God was going to do as He had threatened in Leviticus 26 by
removing them to Babylon for a period of seventy years.
     Again, as at Kadesh-barnea, there is a mathematical justice or retribution in this. In violating
for 490 years the one-year-in-seven rule they owed the land 70 years of rest, so God is saying
that they will remain in Babylon as exiles for exactly that period. Far from such an exile
appearing at that time to be inevitable, a great many false prophets and advisers were busy
saying how foolish such a prediction was, and persecuting Jeremiah for continuing to make it.
Nebuchadnezzar had invaded Palestine twice in the preceding years and still everything was
going on much as usual in the land, so the false prophets prophesied "Peace, peace!" and there
was little sign that God would keep His word and send Israel into exile.
     Yet six years or so later the Babylonish armies came on a final military operation. They.
captured and dethroned the  king, deported the mass of the population to Babylon and scorched
the land with fire and sword, leaving it a desolation where little but wild animals remained and
these in time took over whole areas of it. The keeper of the national chronicle writing by divine
inspiration in 2 Chronicles 36.20,21 says that all this was done so that the land might make up
her lost sabbatical years in fulfilment of the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah.
     God's Word was again fulfilled to the letter, as it had been in the previous instances, and they
remained in Babylon for 70 years until God overthrew that nation by bringing the Medes against
them. Later, with a change of dynasty a Persian king called Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to
their land exactly 70 years after their deportation. Jeremiah, who had remained in the land with a
small and poor remnant, understood this timetable. So did the writer of 2 Chronicles 36.22, and
so did Daniel who was one of the deportees, Dan.9.2.

Another Timetable

    And at this precise moment when this timetable was  running to a close, God gave Daniel
another timetable involving another period of 490 years of Israel  national history, which would
carry right through to the coming of Messiah and His rejection and "cutting off" by His own
people; the subsequent destruction of the holy city by the Romans, and then, after a long period
of dispersion, to the kingdom of Messiah and the consummation of God's plans for Israel and the
whole earth.                                      ~
     Surely, if as we have seen God has so meticulously kept to all His other revealed timetables
we have no reason to doubt that He will keep to this last one given to us in Daniel 9 and which
we shall consider in the next chapter.

LESSON 1                      TEST PAGE           GOD'S TIMETABLE

Please highlight this page and copy and paste it to email us
It would help us greatly if you would put your answers in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Study the questions well and select true or false T-F- with a "x".

1. God sets up whom He will in the kingdoms of men T___F___

2.The timetable of God is found in 2 Kings 12: T___F____

3. Abraham was told his seed would not possess the land for 600 years T___F____

4. From Gen. 15: to Exodus 12: is 400 years T____F____

5. The Jews were treated kindly by the Egyptians while in Egypt T___F____

6. The children of Israel camp at Sinai about one year T___F____

7. There were only four men of war that went into the promised land T____F____

8. A Sabbatical year was one year out of every seven T___F____

9. 490 years is the key to God's timetable T____F____

10.Daniel give us the present timetable of God T___F___
 

Your Name:

Mailling Address:

Zip Code

Questions or Comments:

Did you say your MEMORY VERSE? -----------------------------

Have you taken the Lord Jesus as your Saviour?  YES         NO

When? ------------------------------------------------------

Send answer sheet ONLY to email us  Copy and paste it to your emailer and send it to us. We will send you the next lesson
Return to Home Page