Ecclesiastes 3:1, To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
- In Hebrew that is entire verse is only 4 words. Zeman (to every thing there is a season) ‘eth (and a time) chephets (every purpose) shamayim (heavens)
- Zeman means ‘a set time’, appointed time, time (Neh 2:6; Est 9:27, 31; Ecc 3:1)
Is there a significance to Iran’s Islamic Republic under the Islamic Ayatollah being 40 years old today? I believe so, but first I must give some references to show how this will fit into the Last Days prophetic timing. From the Bible and history, we see that 40, 70, 50, 100, 400 are some significant time limits on nations. I do believe that Iran is now in the last of the last of the Last Days and they are fitting perfectly into Ezekiel 38:5, called Persia. But also, since the reign of the ungodly has come to fullness, we are hearing that great revival is happening in the underground church. We are ready to see a clashing of the kingdoms of light and dark in the nation of Iran, to the Persians under cruel Islamic rulers.
Genesis 15:13, Then He said to Abram: “Know (yada) certainly (yada) that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. (16) “But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
- Yada is a Hebrew word meaning to perceive, understand – but also in a carnal intimate natures as Adam ‘knew’ (yada) Eve and she conceived.(Genesis 4:1)
- For the Israelites, there had to be a fullness of time of the iniquity of the Amorites that had occupancy of the Promised Land. But God did promise them a ‘time limit’
Jews in Bondage in Babylon for 70 years:
- Daniel 9:2, in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10)
Church in Russia in Bondage for 70 years:
- In the 1930’s a Christian woman gave a prophetic word about a man arising named Mikhail with a mark on his forehead. She continued that there would once again be freedom to worship and revival would come to the nation. This freedom would last for a short time, however; then repression would begin again. History marks that darkness was approximately 70 years
- Mikhail Gorbachev was born 1931 and came into power of the USSR March 15, 1990 – December 25, 1991.
- The USSR socialist state began 12/30/1922 and ended 12/26/1991, but the oppression began before 12/30/1922. When I was in the USSR in 1991, we saw the spiritual starvation for the Word of God.
- In those years there were the most horrendous, oppressive times in darkness, where the church had to go underground.
In E.W. Bullinger’s classic book on “Number in Scripture”, the number 40 is “a period of probation, trial and chastisement – (not judgment, like the number 9 which stands in connection with the punishment of enemies, but the chastisement of sons, and of a covenant people)… But where it relates to enlarged dominion, or to renewed or extended rule, then it does so in virtue of its factors 4 & 10, and in harmony with their signification.”
- 40 years of probation by Trial
- Israel in the Wilderness (Deut 8:2-5; Ps 95:10; Acts 13:18)
- 40 years of probation by prosperity in deliverance and rest
- Under Othniel Judges 3:11; under Barak Judges 5:31; under Gideon Judges 8:28
- 40 years of Probation by prosperity or enlarged dominion
- Under David 2 Sam 5:4; Under Solomon 1 Kings 11:42; Under Jeroboam II, 2 Kings 12:17-18; 13:3, 5, 7, 22, 25; 14:12-14, 23, 28; under Jehoash, 2 Ki 12:1; under Joash, 2 Chron 24:1
- 40 years of Probation by humiliation and servitude
- Israel under the Philistines, Judges 13:1; time of Eli, I Sam 4:18; under Saul Acts 13:21
- 40 years of Probation by waiting
- Moses in Egypt, Acts 7:23
- Moses in Midian, Acts 7:30
- 8 of the great periods of 40
- Moses on Mt Sinai 2 times for 40 days; 40 days of spies in the Wilderness; 40 days of Elijah on Horeb; 40 days of Jonah and Nineveh; 40 days of Ezekiel on his right side to symbolize the 40 years of Judah’s transgressions; 40 days Jesus tempted by the devil; 40 days Jesus was with His disciples after the Resurrection
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