THE SONS OF ISSACHAR AND UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES

What is Happening and What Does it Mean?

This week, I am going to take some time to provide readers with an understanding of the story of the Sons of Issachar and the significance of what the Bible says about this ancient tribe and the relationship of their story to our present day. I started this newsletter because I could see warning clouds on the horizon and the difficulty of even finding reliable information, let alone knowing what is significant. I believe that we will see progressive and ongoing challenges to people of faith and it is important for us to understand the times and what to do.

I was fascinated some years ago to read about the “Sons of Issachar” (1 Chronicles 12:32) in the Old Testament. The particular verse that caught my attention and has stayed with me is that this tribe, in particular their 200 chiefs, were “men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do”. This period in Biblical history was a challenging one because King Saul, who had reigned in Israel for 40 years, had been killed in a battle with the Philistines and there was a disputed kingdom with variable numbers of men of the 12 tribes aligning with David who the prophet Samuel had anointed king around 15 years earlier. In reading through the account in 1 Chronicles 12, I calculated that the number of fighting men who joined David at that time was 340,800. This is a large number but given the population at the time, there must have been at least several hundred thousand men who had not joined the new king. 1 Chronicles 12 provides all the numbers from each of the twelve tribes and it is interesting that with the tribe of Issachar, this is the only one where the narrative tells us more information and that the 200 chiefs of the tribe of Issachar had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do and “all their brethren were at their command”. We don’t know the total number but presumably it was all of the tribe. The Sons of Issachar are singled out as having “understanding of the times” and knew “what Israel ought to do”. To have understanding, they must have been well-informed and have been able to deduce how the events of the day impacted Israel and how God was at work. To know “what Israel ought to do”, they were able to assess the information that they had gathered and must have proposed an action plan for Israel. The understanding of the times seems important for us today as often it can seem like we are faced with a random series of events and it is hard to make sense of what these mean.

This seems to me the issue of the hour – what do we need to understand about our times and then what do we need to do?

I am going to attempt to answer these questions by providing more information about the tribe of Issachar and the significance for us today.

WHO WERE THE SONS OF ISSACHAR?

Jacob and His 12 Sons

Issachar was one of the 12 sons of Jacob, the third of the patriarchs of Israel (Abraham and Isaac being the grandfather and father of Jacob, respectively). Jacob had a complicated domestic life, having fled from his brother whom he had cheated out of his blessing. He then worked for his uncle Laban for 7 years to be able to marry the girl he loved, Rachel. Laban tricked him into marrying Rachel’s less attractive sister Leah but then Jacob was able to marry Rachel as well. This set up a competition between the women for their husband’s affection and the currency of competition in those days was sons. Rachel had difficulty in conceiving, but Leah had four sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah) and this produced conflict in the family because Rachel was barren and so Rachel gave her maid to Jacob as a surrogate. Rachel’s maid Bilhah produced two sons - Dan and Naphtali. Then Leah stopped bearing children but to compete with her sister, she also gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob and as a result there were 2 more sons – Gad and Asher. Genesis 30 tells this story and then we hear about how Issachar came to be born.

Leah’s son Reuben, the eldest of Jacob’s children, gathered mandrakes from the field where the wheat was harvested. Mandrakes are a type of root vegetable like a potato and were reputed to have aphrodisiac qualities and to enhance fertility. Rachel asked Leah for the mandrakes and Leah gave them to Rachel in exchange for Rachel’s agreement that Leah could spend the night with Jacob. This exchange resulted in the birth of Issachar (his name means reward), Leah’s 5th son, and with this background to Issachar’s birth, things didn’t look promising for him. He was the 9th child in a blended family where there were likely to have been daily tensions and inter-sibling rivalry. It’s a therapists dream but fortunately there weren’t any about in those days!

Jacob Prophesies About His 12 Sons on His Deathbed and The Tribe of Issachar Grows

Many years later, on Jacob’s deathbed in Egypt, he prophesies about each of his 12 sons and for Issachar he says that he is a “strong donkey” who saw that “rest was good and the land pleasant” and who “bowed his shoulder to bear a burden”. It is fascinating to read Joseph’s final words to his sons which are detailed and critically significant to the future of Israel. We often think that as parents, our children are empty vessels to be filled up, yet each come with their own destiny under God’s hand. Then later in the Biblical narrative (Numbers 1), we read about the census being taken in the wilderness of Sinai by Moses. This occurs after the children of Israel left Egypt and we find that the men of Issachar 20 years and above were 54,400. This is quite a growth in the tribe from the handful who entered Egypt and by the end of the 40 years in the wilderness with Moses, the sons of Issachar had grown to 64,300 (Numbers 26:25). This was about a 20% increase and was the largest growth in numbers of all the tribes. The tribe of Issachar must have been clever and productive.

The Sons of Issachar Grow in their Prophetic Destiny

When Israel crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land, Moses commanded the tribe of Issachar to stand with the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Joseph and Benjamin to bless the people, while the remaining 6 tribes stood on the opposite mountain to warn Israel about potential curses if they did not stay true to the Lord God. Around this time Moses blesses each of the tribes and says that Issachar will “rejoice in their tents” (Deuteronomy 33:18-19) and so are considered likely to have been a tribe called to study God’s word.  Moses also blessed Issachar together with the tribe of Zebulun as those who would “call people to the mountain and offer sacrifices of righteousness”. So Issachar is a God-fearing tribe, and men who are students of God’s word.  Later under Joshua when the land was divided between the tribes by lot, Issachar drew the fourth lot, a small but fertile region near the Jezreel valley. The area was just south-west of the Sea of Galilee and the tribe had the Jordan as their eastern border (see map).

So the sons of Issachar were well-placed in the centre of the tribes of Israel to gather information and as “tent dwellers” to study God’s word. Many years later during the time of the prophetess Deborah who led Israel before the installment of Israel’s first king Saul, the “princes of Issachar” supported Deborah in the successful attack on the troops of the Canaanite King Jabin, and the resultant liberation of the nation (Judges 5).  Some years later at the time of King David’s reign in Israel, the tribe of Issachar had grown to 87,000 and is described in 1 Chronicles 7:1-5 as “mighty men of valour”. It is shortly after this that we find that the Sons of Issachar are described as “understanding the times to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicle 12:32).

I hope that this meander through the Bible provides a picture of the “Sons of Issachar” – a studious and industrious tribe that prospered in the desert during the hard times of the 40 wilderness years. They were ready to go into battle when led by a godly leader and were hard-working, committed to righteousness and submissive to authority. They were influential and from their study of God’s word and the prevailing circumstances, knew what Israel should do. These qualities are those much needed today, in a world with so much turmoil and the challenge of discerning what we should do.

Now, to understand what to do, it is important to understand what God is doing, so that we are working with God and not against him. God is at work in history to bring about the redemption of creation under the rule of His Son Jesus. He has appointed times and we need to understand these.

What Do We Need to Understand About God’s Appointed Times?

The Hebrew word (מוֹעֵד)  mo’ed  or its root – is used almost 900 times in the Old Testament and means appointed time. It is mostly a word used to refer to significant times appointed by God and can also mean a special assembly or feast. We need to remember that for God, 1,000 years is as a day (2 Peter 3:8) and so we wade each day into the slow-moving river of time and everything can seem random to us. However, we need to remember that as we step daily into the river of God’s plan, which ultimately is to bring about renewal of the world – a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1), nothing is random and we need to be alert every day to what God is doing.

God has set appointed times and we can see this clearly when He spoke to Moses as he led the children of Israel in the desert of Sinai and proclaimed what is translated in the English Bible as holy convocations (Leviticus 23) but the Hebrew root word is מוֹעֵד – mo’ed – appointed time or time appointed beforehand by God.  The 7 feasts of the Lord are mo’edim (plural of mo’ed) –  are appointed times.  The first 4 of the 7 feasts of the Lord outlined in Leviticus 23 were fulfilled by Jesus when He became flesh and walked on the earth (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Weeks or Pentecost) and they are springtime/early summer (northern hemisphere) days of convocation. The northern hemisphere autumn or fall feasts (Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles) are celebrated today amongst our Jewish brethren and are mo’edim, appointed times, directing us to the return of the Lord.

Clearly, God has appointed times and seasons and these appointed times and seasons are set out in a number of the prophetic books of the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament, most notably in Matthew 24 where Jesus gives a private briefing to His disciples on the Mount of Olives, shortly before his death.

We can see God’s hand determining the rise and fall of kingdoms most clearly in the book of Daniel where in Chapter 2  Daniel interprets a troubling dream for the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar who reigned in Babylon from 605 to 562 BC. The king had a dream about a statue of a man made of different metals, and Daniel not only told the king the dream but with God’s guidance, interpreted the dream as being related to the future rise and fall of kingdoms. These future kingdoms are agreed by scholars to have been the Babylonian Kingdom (head of gold), MedoPersian Empire (chest and arms of silver), Greek Empire (belly and thighs of brass), Roman Empire (legs of iron) and the last kingdom (feet made of iron and clay) - that would exist in the time leading up to the return of the Lord. God had already declared to Isaiah:

“Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

So – God Himself controls the rise and fall of civilizations and kingdoms and we need to be looking out for God’s “appointed times”. Some of these can be seen by examining what happened in the rise and fall of kingdoms following Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Also when God speaks to Abraham about his descendants inheriting the land of Israel, He tells Abraham that this will be after four generations because the “sin (or depravity) of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Genesis 15:13-16). This was another mo’ed or appointed time. Another example is from Daniel who understood that the children of Israel were under a mo’ed or appointed time in Babylon of 70 years prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah (Daniel 9:1-2) and that the time for the exile of Israel was coming to an end.

I believe that we are in our own mo’ed and the signs are clear. Wickedness and lawlessness are increasing in our civilization and what is evil spoken of as being good and what is good being spoken of as evil (Isaiah 5:20). It is evident that the US is in moral and physical decline which will change the international order and this will be linked to increased pressure for a global government – the UN 2.0. The rise in international conflict will lead to the rise of a global leader to “save us” and there is clearly potential for the first time via digital technology for everyone to have to take “a mark” (Revelation 13:17) to be able to buy and sell. This has even been trialled with “vaccine passports” and now there is a push for a universal digital ID. All these pieces of information enable us, like the sons  of Issachar, to understand the times and that we may be coming to another significant mo’ed – appointed time in God’s timetable, leading up to the return of Jesus.

Jesus Speaks of a Future Appointed Time Marked By Intense Signs Prior to His Return

In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples come to him for a private briefing on the Mount of Olives just before Jesus is crucified.  Jesus had just prophesied the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, which was the wonder of the age, and they had three questions: 1) when will this happen 2) what is the sign of you coming 3) when will the end of the age be? Jesus makes the following key points in his answer (with some amplification from me):

1)         Take care of deception because many will come in His name (and remember deception is so clever because it is deceiving and therefore hard to recognize)

2)         You will hear of wars and rumours of wars – don’t worry about them

3)         There will be a progression of warning events – which Jesus likens to a woman in labour ie the signs will initially be mild but will increase in intensity:

a.           Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom

b.          Famine, disease and earthquakes will come

4)         Jesus’ followers will be betrayed and killed and many of the followers will be offended and hate one another

5)         False prophets will rise up and will deceive many in the church and beyond

6)         Lawlessness (evil tearing down of God’s laws) will gain hold which will result in love growing cold.

7)         Endurance in these circumstances is the key to salvation

8)         The Gospel of the Kingdom (Jesus coming to reign on earth and defeat Satan) will be preached to all nations.

THEN THE END WILL COME

Now, there have been arguments in the church for 2,000 years about these events and whether they have taken place already or are yet to come. Jesus says “of that day and hour, no-one knows” but He clearly describes a time and a season and points to the prophet Daniel and the “abomination of desolation” set up in the reconstructed temple in Jerusalem as a key sign of the time to come before His return. We need to watch for the signs but a number of world events are indicating that we may be in the prelude to the rise of a global government and a “man of lawlessness”.

After 20 years of research and reading a variety of opinions arising from the Old Testament prophetic books, I believe that we are moving into another mo’ed - “appointed time” leading up to the return of Jesus. It won’t be good enough, as one preacher is reputed to have said: “Jesus is coming back – look busy”! Being busy will not save us but what will is being spiritually prepared and putting our trust in Him in the middle of the greatest deception and evil of all time.

What Do We Need to Understand About the Signs of the Times As Modern Sons of Issachar?

The “appointed time” – mo’ed - that God has planned in advance is one when the rise in lawlessness and evil will bring about the cry of His people to intervene and to send His Son to defeat the antichrist. The antichrist is the man of lawlessness, who is certain to arise in the not distant future. You don’t have to be a prophet of God to understand the times and their significance. Here are a few key signs of our times that are related to the key points made by Jesus in Matthew 24:

1.          Lawlessness is abounding – throughout the Western world, God’s laws are being rejected in favour of changing gender identity from that with which we were born, promotion of homosexuality, animal rights being equal to human rights, promotion of lawlessness by defunding the police, governments spending money they don’t have, destruction of national borders, promotion of inequality based on skin colour and gender, destruction of the family and the roles of parents and many other fundamental changes  (laws concerning the environment, medicine and health, the definition of family, freedom, privacy, choice and personal responsibility). Jesus pointed to similarities to the “days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37) associated with His return. When we read about the days of Noah in Genesis 6:5 where “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. It is hard to argue that we are not currently living in these days.

2.          Authoritarian government is on the rise – it would have been inconceivable just over 2 years ago to think that individual freedoms could be terminated at the stroke of government pens with lockdowns and masks mandated without any evidence of their efficacy.  Then the Nuremberg Code implemented after WW2 and which said that in medical situations “the voluntary consent of the human subject is abolutely essential” was swept aside by most Western governments. Destructive and experimental vaccines were implemented in a way that even Stalin would have been unable to imagine. Biosecurity legislation has formed the basis of a Trojan horse wheeled in by Western governments in the name of public health and safety, to oppress entire populations.

3.          Free Speech is Being Shut Down and “Ministries of Truth” Are Set Up - Deception is on the Rise - not only have the mainstream media conspired against us with the “Trusted News Initiative” that involves Big Tech and major news filtering out information that is deemed disinformation, but legislative initiatives are on the way almost every day. In the UK, the Culture Secretary is introducing an online safety bill which will stop information deemed “unsafe” from being allowed. In the US, the Department of Homeland has just implemented a Disinformation Governance Board which will aim to block information unfavourable to the government. Similar legislation will be implemented in most countries and views that are deemed to be unacceptable will be forbidden. We are definitely entering the Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” era.

4.          Wars and disease  - even the experts did not forecast the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has tipped the international scales and even increased the threat of nuclear war. Further conflict is coming as countries like China and Iran sense the ineptness and incompetence of the Biden government. Warnings are being given of a new pandemic worse than COVID-19 and we need to take notice as these same players warned us just months before the China virus was released or escaped from the Wuhan laboratory.

5.          An Evil One-World Government is coming – the combination of a “climate emergency” and coming “pandemics” are providing the grounds for global government and there is a push towards a UN 2.0. James Corbett has outlined the coming international fora in the next few years: there is Stockholm+50 in early June this year to promote “bold action and urgent choices for a healthy planet”; the follow-up will be the UN Summit of the Future to be held in September 2023 in New York and says it will be about “global cooperation and reinvigorating inclusive, networked, and effective multilateralism” (who knows what this means but it is certain to be bad); and then in May 2024, the World Health Organisation plans to have all nations sign up to a Global Pandemic Treaty. This treaty will emerge from a “process” which means that there are WHO bureaucrats writing the treaty as you read this newsletter. It will be signed by most nations (unless President Trump is returned to office) and undoubtedly provide overarching powers to the WHO that will supersede any national legislation.

These are part of the building blocks of global government that, similar to the European Union, will emerge from the consultations and we will find ourselves under the control of global bureaucrats as global treaties will trump national legislation.

6.          Persecution of Christians – Jesus warned of persecution in Matthew 24 - “they will deliver you up to tribulation and you will be hated by the nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9) and today it is assessed that 312 million Christians (1 in 7 in the world) experience high levels of persecution. Persecution of Christians will increase and for Christian believers, we need to be ready to stand for our faith.

What Do We Need to Do?

In the midst of “many troubles, toils and woes” it is important that Christians are ready to speak of the hope that is in us. Jesus will return to put all evil under His feet and to rule and reign. There will be a new heaven and a new earth and those who put their trust in Jesus will be His people and will dwell with God. This is indeed good news!

We are in the midst of a spiritual battle which is as old as the foundation of the human race. A key part of preparation is to “put on the whole armour of God”. St Paul elucidates that this armour involves: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit (the Word of God), and praying always in the Spirit. As well as these important preparations, we need to be alert to what is happening around us and to prepare practically, which I have covered in an earlier post

THINGS ARE LOOKING BAD - WHAT THEN SHOULD WE DO?

The Sons of Issachar are an example to us of diligence, faith, preparation and influence. We need to continue to study and understand the times and then ask God what to do.