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feast: The Third Day (Part Two)


Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 24-Oct-16; Sermon #FT16-08-AM; 71 minutes

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As a biblical motif, the third day indicates a colossal turn-around from hopelessness and despair to victory and jubilation. The third day rally, or revival motif, recurs throughout Scripture. For example, it manifests itself in David's sacrifice at the threshing floor of Aruna, when David finally realized the horrible depth of his sin. This action rallied Israel, leading to the construction of Solomon's Temple and a golden age for Israel. On the third day of creation, the sea and land were separated and seed life began to germinate. Another example is Jonah's revival from the belly of the great fish on the third day, which prefigured Christ's resurrection on the third day, at which time He was restored to His former glory. His post-resurrected body established His identity as the Messiah and Son of God. The disciples at that time internalized prophetic connections that were previously only academic in their thinking. Isaac's rescue from certain death was another third day event, providing a type of Christ's resurrection. Because of Abraham's sterling obedience on this third day, his physical and spiritual offspring were richly blessed. After three days, Pharaoh's butler was restored, as Joseph's interpretation of his dream forecasted. Esther's petition before the king, restoring the well-being of her people, occurred on the third day. The Great Tribulation, using a year for a day principle (two days of Satan's wrath and one day of God's wrath), will have its dramatic turn-around on the third day, when God's government will destroy and rep




On the first day of the Feast, we began to consider the biblical phenomenon of important events that happened on the third day. Well, we looked at only two of these events, the third day of creation in Genesis 1 and the plague on the land after David numbered Israel back there in II Samuel 24. We could see a few of the common themes pop out in just those two examples. The creation example, of course, was the more complete of the two being the first mention of the third day in Scripture and the motifs that carry through the Bible were introduced in that.

To get us up to speed so we can look at a few more of these important examples, I am going to reiterate the common themes. Not all of the third day events have all of the themes. That is a bit of a caveat. So you do not necessarily need to see them all in a third day event, but they usually have several of them and they help us to grasp their true meanings when we see those themes pop up.

Usually these third day events, and the themes that are in them, point to more significant spiritual events. You know, the third day events that happened in the Old Testament are precursors, types if you will, of what happens in New Testament times and in spiritual ways. And if we look at these third day events through that lens, we will get a whole lot more out of them, get the the true implications.

But I opened that sermon with the example of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, three days of hard, bitter, bloody fighting there in that little town in south central Pennsylvania. This example introduced the idea that third day events are often a decisive or pivotal time in the progression of events, particularly in the progression of God's plan. Though Gettysburg—that battle and especially the third day of that battle—was a day of death for both sides, both sides lost thousands of men, either killed, wounded, or missing. And it was also a day of defeat for the Confederate Army and essentially spoiled the entire war for them. Meaning that it was a turning point in the war,

Mike [Ford] bought me a book (he gave it to me this morning and I should have brought it up here), on the battle of Gettysburg. But they said "the turning point of the war," that was the subtitle of the book. So a lot of people can see that that is what happened there. And it happened on the third day. The third day was the decisive day when everything changed, things were kind of balanced in the first two days, but in that third day, the Union forces prevailed and everything changed from that point out.

So the third day in the Battle of Gettysburg began the process of reforging the Union and rebuilding what had been destroyed, and restoring peace and prosperity across the land. And though it is not a biblical third day, it follows the biblical pattern of the third day in that it set the stage for revival and restoration, which are two of the main themes of third day events.

We also saw that some of the third day events parallel the Feast of Tabernacles as it foreshadows the time of reviving a broken people, rebuilding the ruins, restoring true worship, and setting in motion reconciliation with God. And we saw this in an example or two from the prophets: that these people would come back into the Land, the remnant of Israel would come back into the Land and they would begin to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, who is at that time ruling over the Land, having set up His Kingdom and they will begin to rebuild the ruined places and they will begin to revive as a nation after being humbled in the great Tribulation and begin to be the nation that they should have been all along.

If you will, please turn with me to the book of Hosea where we will see this again. We are going to look at Hosea 5 and read the first five verses, skip down to verse 13 and read all the way into chapter 6, verse 3. First we will get a kind of a background of all that is going on here.

Hosea 5:1-5 "Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For yours is the judgment, because you have been a snare to Mizpah and a net spread on Tabor. The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter, though I rebuke them all. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; for now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled. They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the Lord. The pride of Israel testifies to his face; therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them."

Here is the state of the nation of Israel. They are in terrible straits in terms of their relationship with God. They are idolaters and they are violent and they are rebels and it hardly seems like anything can be done with them. But let us drop down to verse 13. Something happens in the meantime.

Hosea 5:13-15 "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jerab; yet he cannot cure you, nor heal you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like the young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away, and no one shall rescue. I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will diligently seek Me."

What happens is that God intervenes. Israel and Judah decide to go to some other, human power and God said, "That's enough, I've had it!" And He begins His judgment and great wrath comes upon them. But it is all for a good purpose. It is for a purpose of turning Israel and Judah back to Him; and with as stubborn and stiff-necked as Israel and Judah have shown them to be all throughout their history, they need a very horrible, terrible lesson to finally get their attention.

Hosea 6:1-3 Come [this is after the rending and the tearing takes place], and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth.

So after two days, it says here, He will revive us. But we can see that in the two days that take place before the third day, Israel and Judah are in that terrible position, that terrible condition in which they are far from God and going through terrible trials and punishments. And on the third day is when light begins to dawn. The third day is when He begins to revive them and restore them.

This happens with a small remnant of Israel, as we see in other places, because Israel is essentially tithed and only one-tenth return, only one-tenth are left after all the plagues, after all the wars, after all the scattering and whatnot that happens. And they finally come to the point where they say, "I've had enough, I've been humbled enough," and they will turn and seek the Lord. And it is on the third day that God allows that to happen. He begins the process of restoration and it begins with a call to repentance there that we see in the first verse of chapter 6. They will finally turn and seek the Lord and the revival and the redemption, the restoration, begin on that third day.

Now, there is some question about what "day" means here in Hosea 6:2 because it does not seem that it is an actual, literal day. It could point to a prophetic year as we understand, as Charles [Whitaker] mentioned about the Day of the Lord being a full year, so that it describes two years of tribulation and then one year, the third year, being the Day of the Lord when the remnant begins to turn to God. It could also point to the longer prophetic day. This is something we have not necessarily taught too much in terms of this particular prophecy, but as a day is 1,000 years, and that they go through 2,000 years of being away from God. And on the third day, things begin to turn around. The third day, then, would be the Millennium; and that fits—think about it—since Christ there has been two 1,000 year days, and the third day would be right about now. We would either be just at the beginning of it or just about to begin that third day.

Either way you look at it, it is something that is going to happen soon, and quickly. The church has generally taught the first, that it would be a year for a day, not 1,000 years for a day. But the latter is certainly possible too. God works on all kinds of levels and it would work out quite well as both.

So that is how the third day ties in to the Feast of Tabernacles. But we are not in the Feast of Tabernacles. We are on the last day, the Eighth Day, and we will get to that, how it ties in there a little bit later.

Now, in the account of the third day of creation in Genesis 1, we saw God separating the land from the seas suggesting an uncovering of things, of a revealing of what was hidden. Third day events often expose a secret thing, a hidden truth that turns tragedy into joy. What good would the earth be if it was just covered with water? We are not fish! We have to have land on which to dwell. And so God revealed the land on the third day and then He populated it with plant life so that we can use it for food and whatnot.

I also want to mention that we discussed just briefly the idea of eu-catastrophe as part of the third day themes. In Greek, eu-catastrophe is literally "a good catastrophe." And even though that sounds a little paradoxical or oxymoronic, it is actually a thing. That is because in stories, you often have terrible things happening in the story and it seems like everything is just going horribly and the hero is going to die and the goal is not going to be reached. But suddenly, in the end, something changes, something good comes in from outside and helps the hero, turns the story from despair into joy and gladness and victory. And that often happens in a third day scenario. So you go from pain and despair, doom and gloom, to triumph and rejoicing.

Oh, also, I should remember to add this in there because there is a lot that came out of Genesis 1; that God created plant life on that day. It said it was the grasses and the regular plants, the bushy plants and whatnot, vegetable plants and the trees, and they all bore fruit. They had seed in themselves and they produced after their kind. These are also third day motifs with the bare earth, the moist earth having just had the water run off it, suddenly sprouting with verdant life and not just a little bit of verdant life, but a great deal, almost an overabundance of life. You notice how your yard gets after a rain and you do not go mow it and suddenly life springs up and you have got a mess back there. Well, that is kind of how it is on that third day. God says, "Ok plants, grow." and up they went and the whole earth was covered with plants.

The motifs here that come in third day scenarios are abundant life and taking the symbolism of being the bare ground that would look dead. The others motif is life out of seeming death. And of course, these lead to spiritual concepts like spiritual, abundant, eternal life and the idea of revival or resurrection, life from death.

Finally, this is still part of the introduction here so we can get a running start on all the themes, we read about David's choice of a three-day plague as punishment for numbering Israel. Now, the third day is not only the day on which the plague ended, which was a good thing, I am sure those 70,000 people who died did not think the plague was a good thing, but the ending of a plague was a good thing. And that was the day on which David finally really understood how deep his sin was and he repented. On that day also he bought the threshing floor of Araunah where the Temple would be built. And he, of course, offered the sacrifice that caused the plague to be withdrawn there.

But this opened up another step in God's plan and it made things begin to move forward. And that part of the plan focused on the restored unified worship of God in the Temple. David himself did not build the Temple, but he got everything ready for the Temple. He collected all the materials, made all the plans available, and Solomon, after David died, raised the Temple and the unified worship of God there began.

Of course, it was in the Tabernacle, but the Tabernacle was a temporary thing. It could be taken down and it was easily destroyed by moths and just age and wear because it was made of things that were not as durable. But when God said to David, "Ok, your son can build the Temple," it was made out of stone and metal and very durable things that would last. And the building would have lasted for a long, long time had not Nebuchadnezzar come around. But even so, it was made of something much more permanent and showed that God's way is a way that is eternal.

So the fifth third day began the unveiling of the Temple motif in Scripture. And would you not know that the Temple itself, the second Temple, the one Christ came to, was finished on the third day of the month of Adar in the sixth year of King Darius. So even the last bit, the finishing touches, were done on a third day and you can find that in Ezra 6:15.

We will continue, now, to explore the Bible's phenomenon of the third day and we are going to see more of these common themes that emphasize things like revival and restoration and revelation and resurrection and abundant life and all those other things that we saw. It is amazing how much can come out of one little symbolic feature in the Bible. But we are going to see that this day is a day of hopeful expectation despite what is happening at the moment. Remember I said the third day usually shows it is doom and gloom and then something happens to turn it all around so it becomes joy and victory. And if we have faith in God, when these third day times come, we will see the good to come. We will know that, "Hey, if I just wait a little longer, if I endure to the end, if we just let God work, we will see the good coming and be able to make it through with hope."

I would like to read a series of scriptures starting in Matthew 12, verse 40. I am sure you have seen these a lot in your years in the church but I want just to read them as a long string of scriptures. Jesus is speaking here. The scribes and Pharisee asked for a sign from Jesus about who He was and what He was up to. He says He is not going to give them a sign except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

Here, you have three days here, three full days, three full nights in the heart of the earth.

Let us go to chapter 16, a few pages over, verse 21. This is after Peter recognized, because of God the Father's revelation, who Jesus was. And after telling them that the church would be built, Jesus says,

Matthew 16:21 From that time, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Matthew 17:22-23 Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up." And they were exceedingly sorrowful.

Matthew 20:17-19 Then Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and just crucify. And the third day He will rise again."

All right, a couple more chapters. Matthew 27, verses 63 and 64. This is the Pharisees trying to make sure that what Jesus said would not come to pass. But let us start in verse 62.

Matthew 27:62-64 On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.' Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.' So the last deception will be worse than the first."

Finally, let us leave Matthew and go all the way to I Corinthians the 15th chapter. Let us start in verse 3.

I Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

This is the most obvious third day event, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which happened on the third day. We did not go through all of the gospel writers accounts of this, just Matthew was sufficient for our purposes right there. But they use several different phrases to define this. They use the third day to time the resurrection but they also use, as we saw here in Matthew 27, "after three days." And they also use the most exact "three days and three nights" from the prophet Jonah. And "on the third day." Though these are all different phrases, they are all correct, and they help to pinpoint the exact time when Jesus was raised from the dead.

And I mentioned, the most exact is "three days and three nights." It was after three days and on the third day, there could only be one second of time when that occurred, which would be right at the end of the 72-hour period that is three days and three nights. So He was right at the end of that. And all of this, Paul says in I Corinthians 15:4, happened according to the Scriptures, that all of this was prophesized beforehand that it would happen on the third day. It was part of God's timeline. He wanted it to happen exactly at that time to fulfill all of that third day symbolism and give us all of the encouragement in the themes that we see from this third day. And of course, He had other reasons as well.

But what it shows here is that it fit the pattern of what God was doing in His prophetic plan, and the third day symbolism is very important.

Let us go through another series of these verses to look at another different angle on this. Let us go to Luke 13. These are all from Luke, the writer Luke, not necessarily the gospel of Luke. But let us go to Luke 13 to get another angle on this.

Luke 13:31-33 On that very day some Pharisees came saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill you." And Jesus said to them, "Go tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.' Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem."

That is one. Let us go to chapter 24. We will read the first seven verses here and then skip down. This is the women coming to the tomb.

Luke 24:1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

This was what we call Sunday morning, early on the first day of the week, and they had purchased spices on Friday and they laid them over until after the Sabbath so that they could anoint the body of Jesus.

Luke 24:2-8 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'" And they remembered His words.

Let us drop down to verse 13. Now He is speaking or walking with two disciples who do not recognize Him, as we will see here.

Luke 24:13-27 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him. And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?"

Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have you not known the things which happened there in these days?" [I always find that funny because He was the one that it all happened to.] And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. But Him they did not see." Then He said to them, "O, foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Drop down to verse 44. Finally, He is with all of the disciples.

Luke 24:44-48 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." And he opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things."

Let us go to then Acts the 10th chapter. Peter is speaking here, preaching the gospel to the household of Cornelius, and we will just break in here in verse 34.

Acts 10:34-43 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: "In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

And we are witnesses of all these things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."

That is that number of passages that we are going to go through there.

While these are similar to what we saw in Matthew and in I Corinthians, there is a difference here. There is a distinctive emphasis more than just a matter of timing. The timing is mentioned, but there is a bit more emphasis in the surrounding verses.

Now the first one there in Luke 13 speaks of His ministry in terms of three days. It is kind of like a day for a year where He had two years of which He ministered in terms of healing, casting out demons. That is the two things that He mentioned there; He was also preaching. And then He says, on the third day He would be perfected or that His ministry would be completed. That is one way to look at it. But the margin shows, if you go back to Luke 13 and look in the margin, at least in the New King James, where it says that "I shall be perfected," it is clearly referring to His resurrection. It is a literal revival, one of the great themes of the third day.

But there is one thing that it also suggests. Not just the fact that He was resurrected, that He came out of death into life, but it also suggests the full restoration of His divine powers and nature. Let us go to Philippians 2. What I am showing here is that the themes of the third day come out quite clearly in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And here He Himself is not only brought back to life but is fully restored, and that has great significance for all of us because we are saved by His life. Not just His life, but all the power that He has been given. And let us see what had happened here starting in verse 5.

Philippians 2:5-11 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God [this is before His incarnation], did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore [now the resurrection occurs] God has also highly exalted Him [He has ascended to heaven] and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue [that is interesting] should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So when He came, when He became a man, He had to give up almost everything—to go from being very God to being, well, what essentially was one sperm, the smallest cell in all the human body. He divested Himself of great power and glory to become a man. He had to give up all of that power and ability that is inherent to being in the form of God. And His death, of course, took even more from Him. It took His life and the puny abilities, puny powers of man until He was nothing. Being in the form of a servant in the likeness of men was quite a letdown, a put down. Very clear, He humbled himself greatly!

But on the third day, as Matthew 28 says (which we went over in another sermon), all authority in heaven and on earth was restored to Him and He became what He was once again, with all power and glory, and God gave Him authority over everything so that He could bring, as it says, every tongue to confess that He is Lord. Is there not a little bit of a link there with the Last Great Day? Because all of this does not stop with us. We are not the only ones that are going to confess or that have confessed. But it says every tongue.

Now in Luke 24, I am going back to what we read in Luke 24, the emphasis is still different. Here, the emphasis is on the fact that Jesus is revealed conclusively on the third day as to who He really was—is. If there was any question in anyone's mind, like in these two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, all of that was answered. His resurrection and His post-resurrection power, His post-resurrection body, and everything about Him after the resurrection, unveiled the reality of His identity. Not just the Son of God, not just Israel's Messiah, but very God. So this theme of revelation comes out very clearly.

One of the things that it also did here, it also revealed, He did personally, He revealed His pervasive presence in the Old Testament. Luke 24:27 and Luke 24:44-45 shows Jesus Himself opening up the Scriptures and pointing out in verse after verse after passage after passage, where He was in the Old Testament and how His life and His death and His resurrection was prophesied by the prophets. It was all there if they had only had eyes to see and ears to hear.

But now, with Jesus Christ explaining these things to them, it opened up new truths to them that they did not understand before. They saw connections that they had never seen before. They had great insight into the Scripture so that just a few weeks later, Peter was able to preach an astounding sermon on the Day of Pentecost that put all of these factors together. And what was it, 3,000 people were baptized.

They began to understand amazing things about the mind and the plan of God and how all of these things were going to work out. All of these mysteries that had confounded the Jews for so many centuries began to fall into place, in their minds, as the disciples and now the apostles of Jesus Christ. And with the giving of the Holy Spirit and with the guidance of Jesus Christ, both in person and in Spirit, all of those things now made sense. So we have the revealing or the unveiling of the Scriptures that happened on or because of what happened on the third day.

Finally, let us in this section here, notice the similarity in thought between Luke 24:46-48 and Acts 10:39-43. The common theme between these two passages is that Christ's death and resurrection made the disciples witnesses of these astounding events. Remember it said there, "it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and arise from the dead, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached, and you are witnesses of these things."

And then Peter said essentially the same thing in Acts 10, that they became witnesses. They would now be sent out from Judah, out from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria and then to the other parts of the earth, as it says there in Acts the first chapter, and they would preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God and they would make new disciples, baptizing them and teaching them the things that Jesus Christ had taught them. And this was all just one facet of the wonderful results of that astounding event that happened on the third day, when Jesus came to life again.

This is where the third day parallels the fulfillment of the Last Great Day when all peoples will have the opportunity for salvation, as it says in Revelation the 20th chapter. I might as well just read that.

Those were the beginnings there in 31 AD after Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and this is where it is ending, all of that work of witnessing.

Revelation 20:11-13 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

So the witnessing that began with the apostles there in Judea after the day of Pentecost will culminate with everyone, as Paul said, confessing the name of Jesus or confessing Jesus as Lord. Because without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His life returned to Him in the resurrection from the dead, as it says in Romans the fifth chapter, because we are saved by His life, it says there, otherwise there is no hope. But since it is now a historical and spiritual fact, Jesus did rise from the dead, Jesus did ascend to heaven, and He now provides us succor and help and all those other things that He does for us in leadership and guiding us, not only we, but all of those billions of people who have never heard of Him or His way of life can be resurrected and have the gospel preached to them and they can accept the sacrifice that He made for them.

The third day opens up God's plan of salvation to all mankind. And I should just mention here before we leave this, that His going to the Father there in His ascension on that day also installed Him in the office of High Priest and Mediator. It made possible reconciliation with God, which is another theme of the third day. So all of these things coming together in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, particularly His resurrection. And it is no wonder that the apostles in their preaching that we see in the New Testament, mention the resurrection so often because it was the key, the keystone of everything. Once that happened, it opened up great vistas to their understanding and they could see that if they pointed people back to the resurrection, they too could begin to see the wonder of this remarkable event and all the things that it revealed to those of us who have the Spirit of God.

By the way (this is just a totally off the cuff remark), but I was looking in my email this morning (I get a daily email from Amazon's Audible.com) and the book of the day, the deal of the day was, The Dry Bones, of all things. I think it was a murder mystery. But I thought, of all days for this book to be made the deal of the day. . . We will not go to Ezekiel 37 but that is often something we talk about on the Last Great Day.

So, in this ultimate third day we see in Christ's resurrection, we see the major themes of the third day played out: revival through resurrection; restoration of Jesus to glory; revealing of Jesus as very God and Christ in the Scripture, not only the revealing of who He was, but also the revealing of Him in Scripture; and the unfolding of the wonderful effects that have and will come about because of that glorious third day event.

I should also mention that another thing that came out of that, because there are just multiple, multiple themes that come out of that, but also the restoration of Israel began in that event through the church. The church was now guaranteed to last forever, as it were, the gates of the grave would not prevail against it, and then the spiritual Israel, the Israel of God, as it says in Galatians 6:16, would be established and do its work. And then of course, ultimately, physical Israel will be grafted into spiritual Israel.

Let us go to another third day event. Back to the beginning of the book in Genesis 22. If you know your chapters, you know that this is the classic Old Testament third day event, the binding of Isaac, as the Jews call it. We often call it the sacrifice of Isaac, but he was not sacrificed. He was just bound.

Genesis 22:1-14 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Then on the third day [there it is] Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we [notice that, we] will come back to you." So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son [he had to carry it up there]; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" [Notice the confidence here with Abraham.] Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. [Notice, nothing from Isaac and just think of that in terms of "He opened not His mouth."]

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me." Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the Lord [Yahweh] it shall be provided."

As I said, this is the classic Old Testament third day event. It is clearly a type, we understand it, of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like many of those third day events, the other ones we find in the Bible, on the surface it is a quite dark tale. It is the story, if you will, of an old man sacrificing his beloved only son and heir at what could be seen as the cruel whim of his God. That is how the deconstructionists would look at it. But at the very last split second—this is the eu-catastrophe—God stays Abraham's hand and to the man's heartfelt relief provides a substitute: a ram caught in the thicket. This is eu-catastrophe at its finest. This is the turning of the tide in which good and joy and triumph comes out of sure defeat.

But notice what this produced. Notice what this test of Abraham produced. God's supreme test of Abraham's faith confirmed His knowledge of the man's obedience and loyalty. I am sure that some would think this to be a cruel test. But it was a necessary one. God felt it was necessary to learn just how solid Abraham's character really was. He had tested Abraham a great deal throughout his life. He had made him wait 25 years for this boy—from the first time that He mentioned it to the time that it actually happened. And then some say it was 25 years later that He did this. Others say it was 33, that it would be just like Christ. I do not know. But He gave him all those years of joy with his son and then He gave him this command. "Go, kill that only son and heir, your beloved son, whom I gave you, on the Mount."

You might think this is cruel or some might think this is cruel, but with God in control of the situation the ends, here, justified the means. He had to know. He had to know for sure. He had to know if Abraham would give God everything, that he would lay it all out on the line. We can say, seeing a theme from the third day event, that Abraham's character was revealed to be of solid sterling. Unlike probably any other man's has ever been. Abraham, as the progenitor of Israel and maybe even greater than that, the father of the faithful, as he is called in the New Testament, passed his test. And now a very large cog in the machine of God's plan was firmly set in place. Abraham was the one that God would work through. And him and his son, and his son's sons, and his grandson's 12 sons and all the people that would come from them, and then the church, and then Israel coming into the church after having repented, and then the world, and then the dead, and then everyone. In a way, it all hung on this moment and Abraham shined—he passed his test. We could see that Abraham was foundational to all that came after. And God had to know.

Speaking of revelation in the typology of Christ here that we see in this event, we are revealed a major theological and prophetic element. I am sure that Abraham knew of the prophecy of the Seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, so he likely knew of the idea of a Savior coming to defeat the Serpent who incited humanity to sin. But we really do not know how extensive what you might call his theological knowledge was. It certainly was not what Paul knew. Paul, being that much later, about 2,000 years later, having seen all the history and of course, with Christ's revelation, knew a great more theology, intellectual theology, than Abraham did.

Abraham, though, was the master of practical theology. He had put it all together and made it all work in life as he lived before God. But he also knew some of the sacrifices. We know that in Genesis 3:21, as early as that, that God made tunics of animal skins and He made them to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness and shame, so there He might have made a sacrifice, gave them an example of what it would cost to cover sin, at least in terms of those animal sacrifices. And in Genesis 4:3-4, of course, Cain and Abel themselves gave sacrifices. You know, Abel gave of the flock and Cain of the field. So there was some theological knowledge there.

But what we see here in Genesis 22 is the idea of a sacrificial Savior that not only was He going to come to defeat the Serpent by bashing in his head, but now He would come as a sacrifice to give His life. We also see that in the typology which Isaac showed: that He was the only and beloved Son of a loving Father. Those ideas enter the theological arena.

And also there is another one there: the idea of a substitution sacrifice in the ram. So not only was He a sacrifice, not only was He the beloved Son of the Father, but He was also a substitute, that we do not have to lay ourselves down on the altar. He will allow Himself to be caught in a thicket and put on the altar as our Substitute. And I am sure there is some significance in the fact that it was a ram. Usually rams are thought of in their symbology as a leader. So the ram, I guess in terms of the sacrificial animals that were given in the Tabernacle and in the Temple, the ram was the most like the lion. It was the one who would lead. And of course, Jesus is called the Lion of Judah. I think this is maybe showing him in His kingly, in His noble aspect.

Obviously, these things that come out of Genesis 22 marks an incredible leap in understanding the general nature of Christ's sacrifice. There are other things that we learn. I mentioned that it will be God's only Son. We see that in Isaac being Abraham's only son. It is also shown that this sacrifice would occur in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, specifically in the place where God wanted him to be sacrificed so that later it would be done in the same place for real. We also see that God will provide a substitute for humanity. Another one that we see here in Genesis 22 is that it involves a resurrection. We see that in Isaac. The beloved Son was restored to life and to the bosom of His Father just as Isaac was restored to Abraham.

So once again we see multiple third day themes coming out in this passage. And there are more, I just gave you some of the most obvious. There are many more third day events in Scripture. You may wish to look into some of them and I will just give you a list if you care to pursue this any further. I am not going to, as far as I know, but it might make for some good study.

Pharaoh's butler and Pharaoh's baker had third days involving Joseph.

Joseph and his brothers had a third day experience in which Joseph was revealed to them.

Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordan on the third day.

Jonathan and David met on the third day to warn David about Saul's determination to kill him. That was an important one. It may not seem so, but it got David out of Saul's general vicinity. I mean, obviously, God was in charge, but it would not have done for David, of the line of Jesse, who would be the progenitor of the very King of kings and Lord of lords, to be killed by Saul.

Jonah, obviously. We saw that in Matthew 12:40. Jonah was revived on the third day and spat out upon the beach so he could go tell the Ninevites to repent.

And one I was going to do and I decided at the last minute not to do, was that Esther fasted for three days. And on the third day, she presented her petition to the king, taking her own life into her hands because she had not been summoned. And by doing that, she saved all her countrymen, all the Jews, from Haman and his plot and so on.

There are a lot more. I just gave you what I thought were maybe some of the more interesting ones.

We have seen the third day to be a significant motif in Scripture. It brings out messages of revival and of restoration, of revelation and resurrection, and many more things. Third days may seem dark and calamitous and disastrous, but in the end, catastrophe is averted and great blessings and growth and productivity ensue in short order and God is glorified.

Let us finish, if you will, in Exodus, the 19th chapter. Exodus 19, one of the most momentous of third day events in Scripture.

Exodus 19:9-20 [please just get the feel of this, if you will] And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever." So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, 'Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.' [It shows you the penalty for disobedience.] When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain."

Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives." Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

We now await another third day—one like this—when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will return in similar glory and cloud and darkness and lightning and thunder and trumpet and earthquake and the voice of an archangel. He comes, not to bring His law this time, but to put down all rebellion and to set up His Kingdom. To bring peace and justice, abundant life and prosperity to all peoples, to everyone, and eventually to all of the dead. Those three days will come soon, we are assured. Two days of Satan's wrath, one day of God's wrath, and at the end of that third day, Christ will return.

So until that happens, sanctify yourselves for the third day. Maintain your relationship with God. Remain among those who love His appearing. Endure to the end, to rise to meet Him in the air. Moses had to walk up that mountain as maybe the only one at the time who was truly converted. When God said, "Come," Moses went up. And we have that chance to do the same thing: to rise to meet Him in the air. And then, when that happens, we will be able to enjoy the wonderful, indescribable reward that He will bring with Him for us.



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