Good afternoon and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Bible study. In the last couple of studies, we have been asking the question, “Why is October 7, 2015 the likely end of the world. We started with a review of why May 21, 2011 was the start of Judgment Day and how God locked in that date.
We also saw how the Great Tribulation of 8,400 days, which ended on May 21, 2011, fits perfectly with the 1,600 days of judgment on the world to form 10,000 overall days of judgment.
In our study last Sunday we looked at the number “10,000,” a number of completeness. Today I thought it would be good to look more closely at the number “1,600.” We get this number from Revelation 14:20:
And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
This “1,600 furlongs” is set in the context of Judgment Day. Someone said that this is pointing to Christ being judged and that the blood spilling out of the winepress had to do with Christ being slain, but the context will not allow for that. If you read verses 14 through 20, it is clearly speaking of the end of the world and the final judgment of mankind. It is the wicked that are under the wrath of God. This is the same winepress that is mentioned in Revelation 19:15:
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Obviously, this is the wrath of God upon all the unsaved people of the earth. It is an equivalent verse. It is also mentioning the winepress and there is no possibility that it is anything other than Judgment Day, which began on May 21, 2011. That is significant because that date was locked in by the Bible and we also know that it is a prolonged period of judgment. The question has been: How long will it be until Judgment Day is completed? That is what we have been searching for all along. What is the duration of Judgment Day and how long will it be before God completes it? So that is why the number “10,000” is so important. You take the “8,400 days” of the Great Tribulation and you add “1,600 days,” and it forms “10,000 days.” It is 10,000 days from May 21, 1988 when judgment began at the house of God and the days have been ticking off since that date, day by day, all the way to May 21, 2011, which was day 8,400. Then Judgment Day began and it was like the counter continued, day by day, until we get to where we are now. I do not know what day it is right now, but I know that October 7, 2015 will be the 10,000th exact day since God started the judgment at the house of God.
Even the language that says, “judgment begins at the house of God” implies that it must be completed at some point. That was just the beginning. The Great Tribulation was the beginning of judgment and went for an exact 23 years (8,400 days) and we had thought God would complete His judgment over a five-month period that would end October 21, 2011. We were wrong about understanding the reference to five months in Revelation, chapter 9. It was not a literal five months, but a figurative five months and the actual time, in all likelihood, will be 1,600 days, ending October 7, 2015.
Now if God had said the blood would come out of the winepress for the space of 1,600 days, we would have to think that we should not take it literally because it is from the Book of Revelation. In the Book of Revelation, when God says, “three and one half days” or when He mentions the “thousand years” or when He mentions “twelve hundred and sixty days,” they are all figurative references — no other number is literal. That is where we made our mistake with the “five months” of Revelation, chapter 9. Now we understand that figuratively, so we have that in the proper perspective.
So if God had said “1,600 days,” we would not think He was talking of literal days. But since God said “1,600 furlongs,” we know that God hides truth in the Bible and we know He speaks in parables and without a parable He did not speak, so we search the Scripture and we see that measurement can relate to time, like in Psalm 139. We can get the spiritual teaching that the furlongs do typify days and then we combine the “1,600 days” with the “8,400 days” to make that perfect “10,000 days.”
Also, if that 10,000th day had fallen on the fifteenth day of the fifth month in the Hebrew calendar, it would not mean anything. Or, if that 10,000th day fell on just any day that was not significant, it would not mean anything, but when it falls on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and the last day of harvest and then we see that the context of Revelation 14 is, indeed, “harvest.” Christ is thrusting in the sickle and commanding us to reap in the harvest and then He provides that number of “1,600” which takes us to the last day of the feast of harvest, the 23rd day of the Hebrew seventh month, and it becomes very significant.
Well, what about the number “1,600”? The number “1,600” is a very special number because it breaks down to “40 x 40.” There are not many numbers in the Bible that have that kind of emphasis on the number “40.” It is probably the supreme number that emphasizes the number “40.” It is not the number “80” which is only “2 x 40,” but it is “40 x 40,” which means that you can count from 1 to 40 and then start counting again from 1 to 40 and you would have to do that for a total of 40 times. In the Bible we know the number “40” points to testing, trial and judgment. I do not know if you were aware that it also points to judgment, but it does in some places.
First, let us look at how the number “40” points to testing. It says in Matthew 4:1-2:
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Christ was in the wilderness and without food for forty days and forty nights and Satan comes and tempts Him. It was like when Satan entered into the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve. Of course, Adam and Eve were deceived and disobeyed God and that was what Satan was trying to do to Christ. He was trying to get him to disobey God on any point; Satan does not care about what area there is disobedience in, but he just wants man to be disobedient to God. If he could get the Son of God (eternal God Himself) to disobey in any manner, he would have the same victory over God that he had over man, who was created in God’s image. Of course, it did not happen and the Lord Jesus did not sin, but rebuked him. It says in Matthew 4:10:
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
But the important thing we are looking at is the number “40.” Jesus was not just fasting for 38 days in the wilderness, but it was “40” days and “40” nights and that is a “doubling” of the number, too. God could have said He fasted for 40 days and we would have assumed it included the nights, too. We would just assume that because that is how we use our language. If we asked someone asked how long they were away and they said, “We were away for seven days,” we would not think they left during the day and came back every night; we would understand they were away, day and night, for seven days. Yet, God very specifically describes it as “forty days and forty nights.”
It reminds us of the flood account in Genesis 7:4:
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
We know that the seven days, spiritually, can represent 7,000 years, as “a day is as a thousand years,” it says in 2Peter, chapter 3. So, historically, God said this on the tenth day of the second month in Noah’s calendar. The seven days passed and on the “seventeenth day of the second month” God brought the flood. It says in Genesis 7:11-12:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
On the “seventeenth day of the second month” it began to rain. And how long did it rain? It rained for “forty days and forty nights.” Why did God cause it to rain for forty days and forty nights? Could He not have caused a deluge with thirty days of rain? Or, maybe it should have been more days of rain because it would require such an enormous amount of water to cover over the highest mountain by 15 cubits, so why not cause it to rain 50 or 60 days? But God brought the rain on the “seventeenth day of the second month” and caused it to rain for exactly “forty days and forty nights.” We know that was the judgment on the earth of that time when God destroyed the first earth and we also know this relates to May 21, 2011 because exactly 7,000 years later (on May 21, 2011) God shut the door of heaven. It did not rain on that day, but God brought judgment, so the reference to “forty days and forty nights” is significant because if we are understanding things correctly, there is the number “40” in view. The “1,600 days” of judgment is “40 x 40.” It is not just a doubling of forty, but it is a much greater emphasis that is taking place with a number that represents “40 x 40.” God is judging the world all the while the door of heaven is shut; He has ended His salvation program. In causing it to rain “forty days and forty nights” on the “seventeenth day of the second month,” it could be that He is giving some insight into the duration of Judgment Day that turns out to be a very likely “1,600 days,” with the number “40” playing a key part in that number.
Let us take a look at Deuteronomy, chapter 25. In Genesis 7:11 we saw how the number “40” is involved with the date of judgment and that ties into May 21, 2011. In Deuteronomy 25 God also uses the number “40” in relationship to judgment in Deuteronomy 25:1-3:
If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, *if *he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.
God is saying that in judgment, the judge may pronounce a judgment of “forty” stripes. He cannot pronounce a judgment of “forty one” stripes. We know that God is under His own Law and this means that the Law of God puts a limitation on the wrath or punishment of God for sin. There cannot be a place called “Hell” where people suffer for ever and ever and ever, without end, because then there would be no limitation on the punishment. God does speak of Judgment Day as the meting out of stripes in Luke, chapter 12, where He said that there would be some that would receive more stripes and others would receive fewer stripes. For those that received more stripes, it would mean more wrath in the Day of Judgment, but there is a limitation according to the Law of the Bible: “Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed.” What does that tell us about the number “40”? It is the maximum or the limit. It is the completion of the punishment and you cannot go beyond forty because, if you do, you have broken the Law of God.
Of course, “1,600 days” is more than “forty days,” but it is a spiritual principal that God is establishing with the number “40.” There must be a set limitation and a just judge cannot just continue to beat and beat and beat someone with no end in sight for evermore. This fact alone proves that there is no place called “Hell,” where there is eternal wrath upon the wicked. That would be a violation of Deuteronomy 25. We know that, but God is also indicating that the number “40” is involved with judgment and it has to do with the maximum penalty of His wrath. In administering stripes or pouring out the wrath of God, “40” is set as the final limitation. So when we think of the number “1,600,” which is “40 x 40,” it is as if God is making reference to this Law and He is saying, “I am going right up to the limit or boundary of the Law of God as far as the completeness of punishment.” The 10,000th day would also be the 40th “40,” which would fall on October 7, 2015, the 1,600th day since May 21, 2011. It seems to tie in with adherence to this Law in Deuteronomy 25.
Let us go over to Deuteronomy 8:1-5:
All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which JEHOVAH sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which JEHOVAH thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of JEHOVAH doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so JEHOVAH thy God chasteneth thee.
Just some interesting side notes. The word “prove” is the word “test” and also the reference to “suffered thee to hunger” reminds us of Christ hungering in the wilderness when He was being tested. Here, God is speaking of the “forty year” wilderness sojourn that He also mentions in Numbers 13:23-25:
And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.
If you remember, how long were they to be in Egypt, according to Abraham? When would they come out? It would be after being afflicted 400 years, which is “10 x 40.” When Moses was 40 years old, he thought he would be the deliverer, but he was too early because he did not understand the reference to the time they would be “afflicted” as opposed to the actual time they would be in Egypt. Moses was wrong. Then Moses was driven out of Egypt and went into the wilderness. And how long was he in the wilderness? He was there for another 40 years. So the 400 years is approaching and Moses is 40 and it was not full time. So Moses leaves for 40 years and he comes back at the age of 80 years old (2 x 40) and then Israel is delivered from Egypt, but they are a rebellious people and God first has them search the Promised Land. There were 12 spies sent (one from each tribe) to search the land for forty days. Caleb was one of the chief among them and how old was he when they searched the land? Joshua 14:7 says that Caleb was 40. They searched the land for 40 days, but they came back with an “evil report” and God pronounces the “judgment,” which will be “40 years.” It says in Numbers 14:1-5:
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath JEHOVAH brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
Then it says in Number 14:27-35:
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith JEHOVAH, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. I JEHOVAH have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
Was this just a “test” or was this a “test” plus a “judgment”? The “40” years was the punishment for their murmuring. The punishment was that they would die as they wandered around in the wilderness and their carcases would fall there. In another place God said that He swore in His wrath that none of them would enter into that land. It was forty years of wrath and it was forty years of testing at the same time. That is also what God did on May 21, 2011. It is not for 40 years and we can be thankful for that, but it is “40 x 40” days of wrath for the unsaved and “40 x 40” days of testing for the people of God.
Notice the similarities between Israel and their deliverance from Egypt and what took place on May 21, 2011. I jotted down a few of them. How many Israelites left Egypt? It was all of them. Were there any left behind? What does that represent? We know that Egypt was called the house of bondage and Pharaoh was a type of Satan and Moses was their deliverer and Christ delivered all the elect. All the Israelites being delivered from bondage in Egypt would represent all the elect being delivered from captivity to sin and to Satan. May 21, 2011 was the deadline that the Bible gives us and the world had up until that time to beseech God and cry out to Him for mercy because He would complete His salvation program by that date, which means He would save the last one to be saved before He shut the door to heaven on that day. Therefore, He saved all “spiritual Israel” and delivered them all by May 21, 2011. So that is one similarity between the coming out of Egypt and the spiritual deliverance of the people of God.
Israel wandered for forty years and it appears the elect will be tested for “40 x 40” or 1,600 days. God speaks of that 40-year period as a single day in Hebrews 3:8-9:
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Why does it not say “days”? God refers to the entire period of time as a single day. It is His prerogative to do this, if He wants. So the entire “forty years” is called “the day of temptation.” And we are currently living in Judgment Day (singular), although it is a prolonged period of time, which is very likely 1,600 days, so this is another similarity.
I did not point this out as we were reading Numbers, chapter 14, but it says in Numbers 14:32-33:
But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
God does use the word “wander” in other places when He speaks of wandering in the wilderness, so you could almost skip over it, but the original Greek word is only translated as “wander” here. In dozens of other places, it is the word “feed,” which relates to feeding sheep. It is the word that is found in Ezekiel 34:14:
I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
It is the word “feed” and it is only translated as “wander” in Numbers 14 and it has nothing to do with “wandering around in the wilderness.” It has to do with “feeding” sheep or animals, so God says, “And your children shall ‘feed’ in the wilderness forty years.” The reason He says that is because another similarity is that God likens those that came out of Egypt as a flock of sheep. It says in Psalm 78:51-52:
And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
The Israelites were a “flock of sheep.” And what does Christ say in John, chapter 21, referring to the time after great catch of fish is brought in, typifying the great multitude saved during the Great Tribulation? He said, “Feed my sheep.” He said it three times. The purpose of God for this particular period of time after the Tribulation is to “feed the sheep.” God fed the Israelites in the wilderness over the course of forty years after that great deliverance and now He would have the great multitude that He saved out of the Great Tribulation “fed” spiritually in this 1,600-day period.
Maybe the most encouraging similarity is what happened to Israel after 40 years. What happened to them? They entered into the Promised Land. They crossed over Jordan and they entered into the Promised Land which typifies heaven. So our hope and expectation is that after “40 x 40” days (the last day of Tabernacles that God relates to the “last day” in the Gospel of John), we will be “raised up” in the resurrection. The Bible does relate the last day of Tabernacles to the resurrection and the rapture. That is a fact. And October 7, 2015 is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and, therefore, is qualified to be the day of the resurrection and the rapture in which God will raise up His people and the people of God will enter into heaven, after going through the simultaneous period of testing and judgment.
These are a few of the similarities, so we can see that as God is using the number “40” in association with Israel in the wilderness and it does relate to our present period of time.
We also know there is a severe “test” and “trial” involved with the number “40.” Let us go over to 1Peter 4:12:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
It continues and then leads into the verse that says that “judgment must begin at the house of God.” It is set in the context of the beginning of the end, the Great Tribulation, so this statement in verse 12 is being addressed to the elect: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.” I missed this when I did the study in Revelation. This word “fiery trial” is only found three times in the New Testament, once here and twice in Revelation 18 and I did not make note of it then. It says in Revelation 18:9:
And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
The word “burning” is the same word translated as “fiery trial.” And it is repeated in Revelation 18:18:
And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
The context here is the “fall of Babylon” and Babylon falls after the historical seventy years, which typifies the Great Tribulation. It is Judgment Day. The word “burning” relates to the time immediately after the Tribulation.
If we go back to 1Peter and substitute the word “burning” in verse 12, it would be a more accurate translation than the words “fiery trial.” They came up with “fiery trial” because they did not think it made sense to say “burning.” It would read, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the burning which is to try you.” Think about this. It is the “burning which is to try you,” and this reminds us of 1Corinthians, chapter 3. It says in 1Corinthians 3:13:
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
When God says, “Beloved, think it not strange,” to whom is God talking? He is saying, “Think it not strange concerning the burning which will try you, because you will be left on the earth in the Day of Judgment.” Remember that statement in Isaiah 24:6:
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
So the unsaved inhabitants of the earth are “burned.” They are under the wrath of God and, for all intents and purposes, they are destroyed — it is just a matter of their utter destruction or annihilation at the conclusion of this period of time. But the elect, the few, are left, alive and remaining on the earth unto the coming of the Lord. God keeps His people and He holds them fast so they will endure unto the end, but He calls this a fiery trial.
We have read this in Daniel, chapter 12, many times, but it says in Daniel 12:10:
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
So, we will be “purified, and made white, and tried,” and this relates to the fire. The fire “tries” and “refines.” The word “tried” is Strong’s #6884 and it is the same word translated as “refine” in Zechariah 13:8-9:
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, JEHOVAH is my God.
The word “refine” is the same word that is translated as “tried” in Daniel 12:10. He will bring them “through the fire, and will refine them as silver.” There is a very interesting passage in Proverbs 25:4:
Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.
The word “finer” is from the same word, Strong’s #6884. It can be the “refiner” or the “trier,” who is God, but He has to “take away the dross from the silver,” and when we look up the word “dross,” God relates it to the unsaved within Israel. He says in Ezekiel 22:18-22:
Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I JEHOVAH have poured out my fury upon you.
This is the process of purifying silver and I was “Googling” it to find out, but today they do it differently. They use chemicals, but there are still some that use a furnace or fire. They put the silver into the fire because it will burn away the impurities, which is called “dross,” and it makes the silver more refined or pure. They may actually do this process more than once. There is an initial process and then they put it in this thing called a crucible and into the furnace, where the fire continues to purify it more and more. It appears that what God has done is that He started the process of purification by bringing judgment upon the churches. That was Step #1. It was the process of separating the wheat and the tares and it was, basically, burning away the dross from the silver. The silver was the true believers. As God called out His people, we know that the wheat came out and the tares remained behind and, finally, at the end of the 23-year Great Tribulation period, all those left in the churches were bundled as tares for the burning. They were like dross.
Here in Proverbs 25:4, it says, “Take away the dross from the silver” (Step #1: Judgment on the churches) and then it says, “and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.” Once you have the dross removed, the process is still not complete. Now you have the vessel for the “finer,” which will be “tried and purified” even more.
It appears this is what God has done. He started the process with judgment on the churches during the Great Tribulation. Now, in Judgment Day, He is completing the process with the severe testing and trying of those that profess to be His people outside the churches. He is refining them as silver is refined.
I think we will end here. The number “1,600” is very interesting, as we look at this “40 x 40,” and, especially, as it adds to “8,400” to make “10,000,” and how it falls on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles or harvest. Lord willing, in our next study, we will look at the significance of it being the last day of Tabernacles and the last day of harvest.