Last week I painted with some pretty broad strokes while addressing “the four winds of the earth.” This week I want to do it again with a perspective that is both historic and prophetic, and will lay the groundwork for addressing some things in more depth later.
In a general sense, the coming of the change of the ages will be like the century that saw transition between the times of Samson, Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon. Let me explain. As we see in the Bible chronologically, Samuel was about twenty years old when Samson died. Samson represents the move of God that began in the late forties and early fifties, which had extraordinary power, but lacked character. I say that “in a general sense” because some of the ministries from that period did have godly character. However, there was so much corruption in the movement that it seems most of the ministries born out of that time ended badly.
Whether we like it or understand it, the Lord will give His power to ministries that He knows will fall, just as He gave the purse to Judas who He knew to be a thief. Even so, these ministries can do great damage to the enemies of God’s people, just as Samson did a lot to keep the Philistines in check from further plundering of Israel. The great power ministries of born out of the forties and fifties likewise accomplished truly great feats which were a great benefit to God’s people. For this they should be honored.
Samuel represents the prophetic ministry that is being raised up to prepare Israel for God’s king or authority, which represents the apostolic ministry of the last days. Because of Israel’s impatience for this authority, they had to suffer a corrupt apostolic (Saul) before the king that God had determined for the would be mature enough for the job. Saul did fight many of the battles of the Lord, and won many victories, but he also lost some. However, he would be filled with fear and jealousy so that instead of helping to mentor the coming authority that God had chosen, he would resist it. The Lord used Saul’s flawed character and opposition to the true things of God to help prepare the true authority, David.
David accomplished many things—one of the most important was the land that God had promised to Israel through Moses was finally conquered under him. This represents the people of God finally walking in all of His promises because the true apostolic fought the battles that it was called to fight.
David is one of the greatest warriors and worshipers in Scripture. This will be the nature of the true apostolic that is coming. A special friendship and intimacy with God will be the hallmark of their lives. They, too, will be prophetic, just as David was one of the great prophets in Scripture. Some of the most important Messianic prophecies, and prophecies of the end times are in the Psalms that David wrote.
Even though it was David’s heart to build a permanent dwelling place for God in Jerusalem, he was not allowed to do so. However, understanding that he would not be able to do the job, he resolved to prepare for the next generation to do it. He not only stored the materials required, but he even made the business transactions to secure everything else needed for his son to complete it.
Another important accomplishment of David was that he brought the presence of God to Jerusalem, which was represented by the ark of the covenant. David made a place for the Lord in Jerusalem, which means “city of peace,” but it was not yet His permanent home.
Until the millennial reign of Christ on the earth, which is represented by Solomon’s reign, the Lord dwelt in tents. Tents are mobile. This is because until the millennial reign of Christ, the Lord will move from place to place. This is why we have seen the manifest presence of the Lord jump from movement to movement throughout the age, never staying in one place very long. His blessing may remain on these movements long after His manifest presence has left, but if you want to be where the advancing move of God is, you must be ready to move with Him.
As we saw with Solomon, the Lord’s permanent dwelling place with man will be constructed during that time. It was also the time of the most extraordinary prosperity ever experienced by any nation on earth. This prosperity was the result of both Saul and David’s battles, and the peace that their battles ultimately made possible for Israel. This was also when the Queen of Sheba came to hear Solomon’s wisdom, and brought such an extraordinary gift of treasure to Israel, representing the nations bringing their wealth during the millennial reign of Christ.
We must always keep in mind that prophetic types in Scripture are guidelines, not absolutes. Seldom do they exactly fit what they prophesy. In this prophetic timeline, some would think that we are in the time of Samuel, some Saul, and others David. In the small scale of things, they may be right. You can see this timeline being followed in the development of many churches and movements, on their smaller scale. But overall, we seem to be in the time just proceeding Samson’s death.
If this is true then the “Samuel” type prophetic ministry has had some prophetic experiences and is growing, but is still quite immature. It is also learning some essential lessons from watching Samson. Israel may have a hint that Samuel is being raised up as a prophet, but he really has not been established yet in the eyes of the people and neither has he deserved it. There is still much maturing to do. But in due time Israel will know that a prophet has been raised up in Israel.
The prophecy given concerning Samuel in I Samuel 2:10 was “... He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed." Samuel was born to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming king. Many believe that Israel rejected the Lord by demanding a king, but the Lord had promised them a king, and Samuel was coming to prepare for him. Israel rejected the Lord by demanding their own king in their own time instead of waiting for the Lord’s king in His time.
In a similar way the main purposes for the prophetic ministry, which is now maturing, is to prepare the way for the apostolic that is coming. We can also expect the church to demand the restoration of the apostolic ministry before God’s chosen apostles are mature enough. We will likely have to deal with a “Saul type” apostolic ministry. This is what the church will have demanded and is really their own apostolic. The Lord does listen to and will honor the requests of His people, just like when they were in the wilderness and demanded meat from Him. He gave them meat until it ran out of their ears. For this reason we can expect God’s true apostolic ministry to arise in a time when the church is sick of the whole apostolic thing, just as David became king after Israel had become sick of their own king.
The church now is also in a similar condition to what it was in Samuel’s time, and will elaborate on this more next week. The main point that I am trying to establish here is that for some time to come we will still be preparing the way for future spiritual generations. Samuel prepared for the king and the king prepared for his son, who would build the permanent dwelling place for the Lord. We must begin to think strategically, and even generations ahead. We must be willing to fight battles and set aside the provisions for the next generation.
It is a terrible pride that makes us think that everything is for us and that we are the end of all things. It is a great righteousness before the Lord to be willing to prepare for the generations to come. One of the major subjects of this present study is how “…the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous” (Proverbs 13:22b). The first part of that verse states, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children” (Proverbs 13:22a). A good man is thinking generations ahead, and to date the church has not done well in this, but we must begin.
We must always keep in mind that this is not about us, but Him. The kingdom is His kingdom. It is an unfathomable honor to be able to help prepare the way for His kingdom in any way. We are laying the groundwork for it now. We are here to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord and the establishment of His rule over the earth. He is the true King that is coming. The prophets and apostles are coming to lay the foundation, but the kingdom cannot fully come until the King does.
