Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with Lessons in the Latter Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in. Today's episode was inspired by the number of parents that I know who are in crisis.

They sense the time is close to the day of the Lord, and they're fearful about choices their children are making, and how those may impact their eternal well-being. This episode is for parents. It's called Raising Children Who Stray.

Raising kids to follow the ways of the Lord as they get older has never been more challenging. Now, here's what I've heard recently from parents of young people.

First, let me say something about these parents. All of them have walked with the Lord for years. All of them have been diligent to raise their children in a godly home, worshipping together, having regular family devotions, praying with them and protecting them from ungodly influences.

And yet, all of these parents are dealing with a major shift in behavior.

One girl came home on break from a Christian college and told her mother, "I think I am bisexual." In another family, the daughter identified herself as multi-amorous, which means she has many romantic or sexual loves, no matter what gender.

Still another family is dealing with a son who is in the throes of gender confusion, saying he wants to be a girl. And the daughter of another family moved in with her college professor.

Now, for parents like these, the doubts and fears and questions are endless, especially in light of the times that we're living in. God knows the pain you feel when the child that you gave life to and raised suddenly veers off in a direction you never envisioned.

Rest assured, I did not win the Parent of the Year award, but in this episode, I want to provide some perspective that I've been learning that may help if you're facing a similar crisis in your family.

Principle number one has to do with the timetable that we are in right before the day of the Lord. Let me remind you of the Tofne or picture that we've talked about a lot in this series called The Seven Day Plan of God.

In the natural, God created the world in six days and set apart the seventh as special. It's called the Sabbath. The Bible tells us that every day of the Lord is as a thousand years. And Jewish doctrine teaches that God has given man six days or 6,000 years on Earth, and then comes the seventh day, called the day of the Lord or the Lord's Day.

This is the kingdom, and it lasts a thousand years.

I explain this in depth in the episode How Close Are We? But in a nutshell, Jesus died at the end of day four, the year 4,000 since creation. There are many passages that tell us what happens next, but I want you to listen to Hosea 6. The prophet wrote, "After two days, he will revive us, and on the third day, he will raise us up that we may live before him."

Now, this is God's language revealed in this verse. "After two days, he," referring to Messiah, "will revive us." Remember, one day equals a thousand years. So in this one verse alone, we see that after Messiah's death, we have two more days, 2,000 years more until we reach the year 6,000 after creation. And that's when we are raised up on that third day. That's the resurrection.

Now, there is a difference of opinion as to when Jesus died. Some say he died in 28 AD. Others say it was 30 AD. But 2,000 years from that date puts the year 6,000 as early as 2028, which is only five more years.

Now you can see why parents are feeling stressed out. We sense the time is running out for our families to be on the right path altogether, waiting to be raised up by the Lord at the year 6,000, which is the same time that all hell breaks loose on Earth for the next seven years, referred to by many as the tribulation. We don't want our children left behind to go through that, and this is where we need God's perspective.

Some years ago, when the Lord was teaching me about this seven-day plan of God, he turned my attention to the timeline of the patriarchs, whom I had been studying for some time. Now, to visualize it better, I created a linear timeline, and I divided that line into seven parts, and I labeled them day one, day two, and so on until I got to day seven, and I made that day a different color, since God said to separate or sanctify that seventh day differently.

He then prompted me to overlay the names of our first seven patriarchs onto this timeline. Day one was Adam, day two was Seth, day three, Enoch, day four, Canaan, day five, Mahalalel, day six, Jared, and day seven, Enoch. And when I laid it out, I saw it. Enoch was our seventh patriarch. What happened to Enoch? He was raised up on day seven to live with God.

This is an example of a Tofne, and if you have ears to hear, there is a lot of wisdom here. The Lord then directed me to look closely at the life of our sixth patriarch, Jared.

I spent months researching everything I could find on Jared to learn what he went through during his time of parental leadership of God's children. I want to share some of it because it gives insight into what you are possibly going through now with your son or daughter. Remember the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, referring to the Old Testament, "Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages has come."

Now listen again to that last phrase. It says, "upon whom the end of the ages has come." This is us. We are living at the end of the ages. So these examples and stories that our Jewish forefathers lived through were written to give us direction and help now.

Now, before I tell you what happened to Jared, I need to warn you. What you are about to hear may make you feel like your family situation is hopeless, but it is not. We have to look at the full council of God. And I will end this episode with some key principles to restore your hope that God truly has your family safely tucked away in his heart, no matter what is going on.

So what happened in Jared's time?

I encourage you to read the full story for yourself, but I found Jared's backstory in the ancient book of Jasher, which is a historical book that's mentioned several times in our Bible. Jasher wrote that during the time of Mahalalel, he was patriarch number five, the sons of men became even more corrupt. Before Mahalalel died, here's what he prophesied to his son Jared, quote,

"Hereafter, there shall come a great destruction upon this Earth on account of the children of Cain. God will be angry with the world and will destroy them with waters. But I also know that your children will not listen to them, and that they will go down from this mountain and hold intercourse with the children of Cain, and they shall perish with them. Oh, my son, teach them and watch over them that no guilt attached to you on their account. Fulfill your ministry before them until you enter into rest yourself."

Now, true to his father's prophetic word, most of Jared's children left the mountain of God where they had lived safely, and they joined the children of Cain in the valley. This was relatively easy for them to do because you see there was a huge breach in the protective barrier that God had originally set up to surround the children of God. Here's what happened.

It was during Jared's generation that the watchers left their assigned places in Heaven, and they came down to Earth and began having sex with earthly women, and they produced a new race of people called Nephilim, half angel, half human. This infuriated God, because these were angels who had been given the assignment to watch over his children. In other words, those spiritual authorities and principalities that God assigned to watch over our families defected.

They not only left their position of guardianship, but they turned against us to fulfill their own lusts at our expense. That's why today's families are increasingly hit by a greater spiritual battle than we have ever experienced in earlier times in our history. You see, evil principalities grow when evil becomes more accepted in a geographical area.

Now, you might ask, well, why didn't God assign other angels to replace them? Good question. But we read in Romans 11 that the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. The Lord does not obviate or take back his call. What happens though, is the situation makes it more difficult to walk in the ways of the Lord if the spiritual atmosphere where we live becomes more entrenched in darkness.

If your son or daughter has rebelled against your godly influence and the principalities over the area they live in are evil and no longer on the watch for their good, then that child is out there in the world spiritually naked so to speak. Now, that doesn't mean that child is doomed. But the parent cannot obviate the free will of that child. We can only pray for God's mercy that the discipline of the Lord will lead them to return to the Father as the prodigal son did before it's too late.

Let's learn more from Jared. Jasher wrote, quote, "As Jared was standing like a lion before the bodies of his fathers, praying and warning his people, Satan envied him, and he changed his appearance into a beautiful apparition, because Jared would not let his children do anything without his counsel." Unquote.

Now, this reveals one of Satan's tactics. He transforms himself into something beautiful, appealing, and enticing. This person, whom Jared described as the most beautiful person he had ever seen, seduced him by talking him into leaving the mountain of God to go down into the valley of Cain, saying he had been sent by Jared's forefathers to come for him. This was a lie, a huge deception.

Now, wherever your children have gone, they have been seduced by what appears to be beautiful to them. When Jared got down into the valley of Cain and saw the behavior of the people, Jared's very soul wrenched itself from them. Neither would he taste of their food or of their drink. He wept, and then spread his hands and he prayed with a fervent heart and with much weeping, and entreated God to deliver him from their hands.

And no sooner did Jared begin to pray than Satan fled with his companions, for they could not abide in a place of prayer. He wept and he prayed, "Send your angel to draw me out of the midst of them, for I do not have the power to escape from them." In his mercy, God sent his angel to lead Jared back up the mountain. But when he returned to the patriarchal cave, he found the bodies of his ancestors thrown about, and the lamp that was supposed to burn all the time was put out.

Jared was heartbroken that he had failed in his guardianship of the children of God. Although the Lord forgave Jared and he was able to rekindle the lamp, his children and grandchildren nonetheless began to go down from the Holy Mountain and mix with the children of Cain. Jared pleaded with tears, and he told them what would happen if they did.

He said, "Oh my innocent and holy children, know that once you go down from this Holy Mountain, God will not allow you to return to it again." But they would not hearken to his words. When they looked at the daughters of Cain, at their beautiful figures and at their hands and feet dyed with color and tattooed and ornaments on their faces, the fire of sin was kindled in them.

But after they had thus fallen into this defilement, they returned by the way they had come and tried to ascend the Holy Mountain, but they could not, because the stones of that mountain were a-fire flashing before them. And then Jared turned to his son Enoch and said, "You, my son, abide in this cave and minister diligently all the days of your life, and feed your people in righteousness and innocence."

As Jared died, tears streamed down his face for the children of Seth who had fallen in his days.

Now, there are several principles I want to take note of here. Principle number one, it was during Jared's time in God's seven-day timetable that the angelic watchers left their job, and they became obsessed with mixing their DNA with God's children. Demonic seduction was strong, and sadly, the majority of children of godly parents were swept away into all manners of perversion once they chose to hook up with the children of Cain.

Now, I want to propose to you here that we are seeing a timetable issue. We are living right before day seven, and this is what happened in the sixth generation. The culture was turned over by the Father for the power of evil to run its course.

Principle number two concerns the warning that Jared passed on to his children. I believe it's the same warning that today's parents are to give.

I plead with you, if you go down the mountain, if you choose by an act of your will to go in the direction of the children of the world, you will not be able to return. Now, this is a harsh word, but bear with me. This is the timetable. I believe God is directing us to understand that for this season, right before the day of the Lord, there will be mass defection from everything godly. At that time, there will be no ability to come back.

Now, what comes to mind is the verse in 1 Corinthians 6:9 which says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" That is God's standard, period. That is the standard we must teach our children. Now, bear with me because hope is coming.

Principle number three concerns the question many parents have, "What about my child? I believe he or she came to the Lord early in life. Surely God remembers that, and they won't be lost forever." If that is your question, let me suggest four things for your consideration to give you some hope.

First, though the word says the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, I want to point out the difference between the word inherit and the word inhabit. A person can be allowed to inhabit a land, but not be granted the rights of ownership and oversight.

Jesus is coming at the resurrection for his proven and tested family, for those godly and faithful believers who are meant to inherit the kingdom, to rule and manage with him. But to give you hope, the laws of inheritance found in the Book of Numbers are pertinent to this discussion, because the kingdom is genealogically measured. God is very family-oriented. He knows who are his. He knows your children and what they have done.

A second thing worth considering here is the story of Abraham and Lot. They belonged to the same family. Abraham lived a godly life. Lot did not. Lot was lured into making money in a corrupt city, living among a godless culture. He was not a good man.

He did awful things. He offered his virgin daughters to the men of Sodom, who were coming to rape the angels visiting him. And yet, the Apostle Peter in his second book refers to Lot as righteous. He writes about God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and he said, "If God rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial."

Lot was not righteous in our eyes, but in God's eyes, he was covered by the bloodline covenant that God made with Abraham, his patriarch. The reality is that Abraham was spared through living through the devastation of the world around him. He lived above it. Lot, however, had to live through the wrath of God being poured out on his world, which was Sodom, but his life was spared and his legacy continued into eternity. That should give you hope.

A third aspect to note is that Lot was visited supernaturally by angels. He had a divine encounter before having to endure his tribulation. I see this as a promise that just as God showed himself faithful to Lot because of his covenant with Abraham, I believe this wayward generation who are part of godly families will have such a life-changing encounter with the angels of God at the beginning of the seven-year birth pangs that they will be given supernatural strength to endure what is coming.

And the final thing I want to present for your consideration is based on what I know about the character of God and Jewish doctrine concerning the end of days. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has long been considered in Jewish doctrine as a picture or Tofne for the seven-year birth pangs. Lot had to go through it, but ultimately God spared him.

In like manner, if your children have not returned to the Lord before the resurrection occurs, then like Lot, I believe they will have to go through the tribulation. But all is not lost. In fact, I believe the evidence shows that these children, the ones who have strayed, could very possibly be God's secret weapon during this horrible seven-year period.

I want you to think about this. You, as godly parents, have deposited God's light and his truths into your children. It would be just like God to meet them in a miraculous way after we are gone. They will know the Lord as never before, and God's light will shine through them through the coming darkness.

Jewish doctrine teaches that at the resurrection, God deals with three groups of people. Group one is the righteous. These will be taken right then to be with Messiah in Heaven for seven years. Group two is the wicked, for whom the full wrath of God has been prepared.

And group three is referred to as the average, who are given seven years to repent. I want you to think about this. In his providence, many of you may have been called to raise a generation of children who remain.

But as God honored Lot's covenant relationship with Abraham, I believe he will honor your covenant relationship with your children. My hope and prayer for you is that on that day when you are raised up, your children, if they remain, will hear the words of Isaiah, "Arise, shine, for your light has come. For behold, darkness shall cover the Earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you."

God knows that you have sown your seeds in sorrow. But I believe your children will come forth as gold and return home to shouts of joy. To God be the glory. Thank you for being with me today. Please share this podcast and encourage others. You'll find it on my podcast page at CandaceLong.com/podcast. I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Latter Days. God bless.