“If those days were not shortened there would be no flesh saved alive” – Including the Lord’s elect

[Study Aired February 15, 2021]

Mat 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

In the sense that the secular humanist beast who will turn on the great whore of religion and “eat her flesh and burn her with fire…”, and in the sense that the beast will be totally incapable of distinguishing the Lord’s elect from the religions of the great whore, the point is well taken that “no flesh would be saved alive” certainly includes us as the Lord’s elect.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

The ‘eating her flesh and burning her with fire’ has been taking place within the Lord’s elect for the past two thousand years (Rev 1:3), and it is taking place dispensationally and outwardly at this very moment as secular humanism turns against all the religions of this world.

I hope in this study to demonstrate just how true the premise is that the ‘no flesh saved’ includes His elect, and at the same time demonstrate how true it is that God will provide “a way to escape that [we] might be able to bear” our trials as we “read and hear… the words of this prophecy and keep the things which are written” in this “revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:3).

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

There are three stories in scripture which reveal that the Lord’s elect would indeed be destroyed along with all flesh, if the days of their trials were not shortened.

Those three stories are 1) the story of Joseph, 2) the story of Daniel and His fellows, and 3) the story of Mordecai and Esther.

The kings who rule the world of their time in these three stories are all troubled to the point of losing sleep, and each of these three stories the Lord uses His elect to save both themselves and the kingdoms of this world.

This ‘troubling’ is how the Lord deals with all of us. His ‘troubling’ of world leaders, as the scriptures demonstrate, is the Lord’s method of operation. We have three such events recorded for us in scripture.

The first was Pharaoh:

Gen 41:1  And it came to pass at the end of two full years [after Joseph had correctly interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh’s butler and baker], that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
Gen 41:2  And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
Gen 41:3  And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.
Gen 41:4  And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.
Gen 41:5  And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
Gen 41:6  And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
Gen 41:7  And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
Gen 41:8  And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.

God’s elect “who first trusted in Christ” are always the target of the great red dragon and all His children, but what they simply are not given to understand is that their every move to entrap the Lord’s elect is nothing more than a pit and a trap into which they themselves will fall. Their every move is a spider’s net into which they are being entangled by the Lord Himself, as is demonstrated for us all in the story of Joseph and His brothers who sold Him into Egyptian slavery. This is the first story of how the Lord has and will orchestrate the affairs of this world to threaten the destruction of His own people, and then use those very same circumstances to deliver His people. In the story of Joseph, the Lord used Joseph, as a type of ‘His anointed… His Christ’, to save himself and Egypt and all of Canaan from a deadly seven-year drought. It was the Lord Himself who, through this drought, made Joseph’s brothers to bow down to and do obeisance to him thus fulfilling the very dreams of Joseph for which they had so hated him.

Joseph was given to know that he was to judge his brothers severely and mercilessly before revealing himself to them:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Joseph did not deny that his brothers had chosen to sell him into Egyptian slavery. He twice said, “You sold… me… into Egypt.” Then he reveals that our will is not really our will at all when he tells his brothers, “So now it was not you that sent me here, but God.” The old man within each of us is proof positive that we are nothing more than self-centered pawns in the Lord’s chess game, and it is a rigged game in which our old man, and the father of our old man, cannot hope to win, and our heavenly Father and His son, our new man, cannot possibly lose.

Nebuchadnezzar is the second of these three troubled kings:

Dan 4:4  I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace:
Dan 4:5  I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Notice that in the story of Daniel being given to tell Nebuchadnezzar what he had dreamed as well as the interpretation of his dream, Nebuchadnezzar “was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.” Because he had forgotten his troubling dream and because none of his wise men and religious leaders were able to tell him his dream and also correctly interpret the dream he had forgotten, he had every intention of destroying all the wise men of Babylon including “Daniel and his fellows” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar in this story typifies our old man, the beast within us who rules our whole world:

Dan 2:1  And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him [Gen 41:8 and Est 6:1 – All three kings were troubled and could not sleep].
Dan 2:2  Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
Dan 2:3  And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.
Dan 2:4  Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.
Dan 2:5  The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
Dan 2:6  But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.
Dan 2:7  They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation of it.
Dan 2:8  The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.
Dan 2:9  But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me the interpretation thereof.
Dan 2:10  The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.
Dan 2:11  And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. [True at that time]
Dan 2:12  For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
Dan 2:13  And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

So, yes, indeed, the Lord’s elect are always being “hated by all men… for this cause”, meaning the natural man insists that religious people have no proof of their God being real. Nebuchadnezzar’s god was Nebuchadnezzar himself all the way until the Lord, in type and shadow, judged Nebuchadnezzar and made him eat grass and live out in the field like an ox for seven years.

This judgment was also preceded by giving him troubling dreams:

Dan 4:4  I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace:
Dan 4:5  I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Again, the Lord Himself strikes fear in the heart of the ruler of the world before He deals with him.

Dan 4:28  All this [mentally deranged curse] came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 4:29  At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.
Dan 4:30  The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
Dan 4:31  While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
Dan 4:32  And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will [Gen 33:3; Lev 26:18,21, 24 and 28].
Dan 4:33  The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.

Nebuchadnezzar, as a type of us, worshipped himself until he, as a type of us, ‘fell seven times’ before the Lord made a change in him:

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

The restoration to Nebuchadnezzar of his kingdom after spending seven years as a maniac in the field with the cattle, makes him a type of the Lord’s elect who all “fall… seven times”.

However, before that day comes, he is under the influence of the same secular humanist spirit which is taking over the entire western world, and it is affecting all of modern mankind, “all the kings of the earth”, who have for so long been subdued by the great whore:

Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Religion is ‘the great whore’, and religion is falling into disrepute with all flesh, and this is what the flesh, symbolized by the number ten, is doing to the religions of this world at this very moment (Meaning of the Number Ten):

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast [secular humanism], until the words of God shall be fulfilled. [Until the Lord has used secular humanism to judge the great whore of religion]
Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

It is most instructive for us to notice that as much as Nebuchadnezzar worshipped himself, at the same time the Lord made him to have great regard for Daniel’s connection to our Lord. Notice that the Lord’s words to him through Daniel are as a last resort when the Lord troubles him:

Dan 4:7  Then [first] came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.
Dan 4:8  But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying,
Dan 4:9  O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.

The powers that be will be flourishing as they are today before the Lord begins to “trouble” them.

Dan 4:4  I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace:
Dan 4:5  I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

The third Biblical example of how the Lord troubles the powers that be before He judges them is King Ahasuerus:

Est 6:1  On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Est 6:2  And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.

“That night” refers to the very night Haman was constructing some gallows on which to hang Mordecai. Here is what happened that very day:

Est 5:9  Then went Haman forth [from Queen Esther’s first banquet] that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.
Est 5:10  Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife.
Est 5:11  And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
Est 5:12  Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the king.
Est 5:13  Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.
Est 5:14  Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.

In the story of Mordecai and Esther, Haman typifies the great red dragon who is seeking to destroy the Lord’s elect, the ‘man child’, who is born of the woman and is destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron:

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Haman, in type, is the son “of [his] father the devil” (Joh 8:44), that old serpent, the great red dragon (Rev 12:9 and 20:2). He is intent upon destroying the Lord’s typical elect, but he is totally unaware that even his hatred of the Lord and His doctrines and His people is all a part of a plan put in place by the Lord Himself before Haman was ever born, as the scriptures reveal:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. 

How long before we are born did God have “the days that were ordained for [us… written in His book”? Here is the scriptural answer to that question:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 

Tit  1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

If indeed the Lord has had “all… [of our] days… written in [His] book… before there were any of them”, then it follows that He would also have to have pre-planned all the days of all the lives of all the associates of His elect. In other words, He would have to be working “all things after the counsel of His own will” including the lives of Haman, his wife Zeresh, all his sons and everyone else who has ever been born.

Is that a scriptural doctrine? Yes, of coursem that is exactly what the scriptures teach from Genesis to Revelation:

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Even as Haman was basking in the apparently certain prospect of fulfilling the king’s proclamation to destroy all the Jews in his kingdom, the Lord, through Estherm was causing Haman to set himself up for the ultimate humiliation and for his own death and destruction. Just look at how the Lord has provided for the success of our new man at the expense of our old man, and look at how the Lord protects His children from their enemies. Before Haman had begun to construct the 75-foot high gallows from which he intended to hang the Lord’s typical elect, the Lord, through Queen Esther, had already begun to entreat the king to answer her petition to come to her first banquet, to which she had also invited Haman. Totally unaware of the Lord’s all-knowing sovereign hand at work on behalf of His elect few, Haman left that first banquet to go home and brag to his family and all his friends that he alone had been invited to be with Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus, on the first night of Queen Esther’s banquet, and that Queen Esther had invited him alone to be with her and the king the next night.

It was that very night, the same night the king could not sleep and the night he had read of Mordecai saving his life, that at the suggestion of his wife and all his friends Haman began preparing the “fifty cubits” (75 foot high) gallows on which he intended to hang Mordecai. But the Lord was “working all things [in this story] after the counsel of His own will” and this is what He worked to deliver His typical elect the very next night, the same night Haman intended to petition the king for the hanging of Mordecai:

Est 6:1  On that night [the night of Queen Esther’s first banquet] could not the king sleep [Gen 41:8 and Dan 2:1] , and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Est 6:2  And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.
Est 6:3  And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.
Est 6:4  And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
Est 6:5  And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.
Est 6:6  So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?
Est 6:7  And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour,
Est 6:8  Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:
Est 6:9  And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour.
Est 6:10  Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.
Est 6:11  Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.
Est 6:12  And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered.
Est 6:13  And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.
Est 6:14  And while they were yet talking with him, came the king’s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.

This was all a work of the Lord himself. The king had no idea who would be in the court. He had no intention at this point of humiliating his most trusted assistant, Haman. He actually thought he was honoring Haman also by having “one of the king’s most noble princes”, to use Haman’s own words, to deck Mordecai out in the king’s royal apparel, set him on the king’s horse and lead the man the king delighted to honor through the streets of the city declaring that this is the man the king delights to honor. Nevertheless, by the words of “[his] own mouth (Luk 19:22), Haman was humiliated, and the worst was yet to come when that very night Queen Esther explains to the king in Haman’s presence that it is her people Haman is seeking to destroy.

In the end, the Lord protects His people and destroys their enemy. Haman is hanged on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, and his wife and children are put to death. Mordecai and Queen Esther inherit all Haman’s wealth and are used by the Lord to save all their people. Mordecai, like Joseph, was made “next to the king” in the kingdom of Persia.

All three examples here are mere types of the fulfillment of this promise to us if we are granted to endure the hatred of this world to the end:

Rev 2:25  Nevertheless that which ye have, hold fast till I come.
Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
Rev 2:27  and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of my Father:
Rev 2:28  and I will give him the morning star.
Rev 2:29  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. (ASV)