You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
12 To whom
he said ['amar], This is the rest [m@nuwchah] wherewith ye may cause the weary [`ayeph]
to rest [nuwach]; and this is the refreshing [marge`ah]: yet they would ['abah] not
hear [shama`]. KJV-Interlinear
12 to whom he
has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they
would not hear. ESV
Tongues is the prophecy. And we need to clarify a little from yesterday’s study.
The question is, ‘How do you know this prophecy does not apply to the end times or even in our times, but only the time of Jesus?’
And the answer is really simple.
The Old Testament, most of it, applied to the times of the Israelites or the Jewish people. We call that latter part, the dispensation of the Age of Israel. All prophecies written within that period, apply to that period. And Isaiah was in that period, the Age of Israel.
Now, the Age of Israel was interrupted when it had only seven years to go, by our dispensation the Church Age.
We also refer to ourselves as the Age of the Royal Family, the Bride of Christ, the Royal Family, and all of these are one and the same dispensation. Our dispensation begin with Pentecost, and will end at the Rapture. Then the Age of Israel will resume and complete its final seven years. Those seven years are what we refer to as the Tribulation.
As far as the Jews back then knew, they expected the Messiah to arrive, and to immediately set up His kingdom on earth. But that did not occur.
God did not reveal our dispensation to the Old Testament people, so it was referred to as the hidden or secret or mystery age.
Since we were never revealed to anyone, then no prophecies could apply to our time.
And you say, what about the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 and of many others things that seem to be fulfilling of prophecies? Well, when Jesus and Paul spoke, they listed historical trends that would occur to indicate the ending of our time, such as population increases, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, and so forth. And, since when the Tribulation begins, there will be a nation of Israel in existence, then of course it would have had to come into existence prior to the Rapture. But remember that Israel, from back then, did not get obliterated until about forty years after the Cross, when the Romans sacked the nation, destroying virtually everything.
Likewise. When the anti-christ takes control over the world, he is not born after the Rapture. He will have to be born prior to the rapture, in order to grow up to an age and position sufficient enough to give him access to take control.
So, a lot of things will occur during our age, but we are not the fulfillment of prophecy during our age. We are the preparation footstool, for the preparation of those final days. Preparation is the key word, so far as our dispensation is concerned.
Also, the prophecy of tongues, speaks of the teaching of doctrine through a foreign language, since the Jews were not teaching truth from their own language. So it was a reprimand of sorts, suggesting their loss of the right of custody of the scriptures, but never indicating a change in historical dispensations.
So, they lost the right to teach, when the gentiles took over. And that loss occurred back then, not since then, and not in the future.
And now for this verse.
To whom God has said. And this refers to the Jewish people, to whom God had been communicating the scriptures, through the prophets for many, many centuries.
This is my rest. God taught doctrine through the scriptures, but the Jewish people, did not listen. Instead they fabricated their own regulations through the Levitical priesthood, and had bastardized the whole purpose of the scriptures.
My rest, is the peace and fulfillment which is made available to each person who believes and who studies and who grows up in their spiritual life.
The refreshing, is the comfort and peace and security and the relaxed mental attitude of spiritual growth and spiritual maturity, which comes to everyone and anyone who legitimately and consistently pursues the daily study of the Word of God.
So, since they did not listen, to their own teaching, they lost the right to teach. That loss went to the gentiles. And that occurred back at Pentecost, over 1900 years ago.
