The Time When the Messiah will be Subject to the Father
When reading the Scripture, very often we overlook important passages, especially when the main Biblical event has come to its completion, and we relax our efforts to learn. For years the present author has been perplexing as to the meaning of a certain verse in the Scripture, even a phrase, in the first letter of Shaul (Paul) the Apostle to the Corinthians. We read thus in 1Co 15:28:
And when all are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself shall also be subject to Him who put all under Him, that Elohim be all in all. (1Co 15:28)
The phrase in question in 1Co 15:28 is Elohim be all in all. So, what does the phrase Elohim be all in all mean? When it pleased Elohim to reveal His Son to Shaul on the road to Damascus, that he might bring Him to the nations, Shaul did not immediately share the direct revelation of the risen Messiah with anyone, neither did he go up to Jerusalem, to the other disciples. But he went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. And after three years he went up to Jerusalem (Gal 1:15-18). Why did Shaul have to go to Arabia and who told him to go to Arabia, unless he had received the command from the same one who caused the Road to Damascus rude awakening in the first place?
Doubtlessly, Mount Sinai was the objective of his journey into Arabia where Mosheh (Moses) and Eliyahu (Elijah) had been before him in solitude. As Shaul dwelt there, with unlimited opportunity for communion with the Messiah, his mind must have been turned in the direction of the revelation he was called to receive that he would write about later in his letters to the assemblies. So, what was the revelation Yeshua did not tell the other disciples during the time of forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension, which He did reveal to Shaul on Mount Sinai? Because we find in Shaul’s letters new elements in his teachings that are not present in the letters of the apostles Ya’akov, Shimon, Yochanan, and Yehudah: namely, the mystical level of understanding of the pre-existence of the Messiah. Later on, Shaul’s teachings would heavily influence the Rabbinical teachings on the matter of, what the Rabbis refer to: the transcendent nature of the Messiah, to such an extent to say that the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters (Gen 1:2) was the Spirit of the Messiah. In other words, in the Rabbinical teachings the Messiah was understood to have preexisted with YHVH.
R. Shim’on ben Jaqish explained in Bereisheet Rabbah 2:4: ‘And the spirit of Elohim hovered over the face of the water’—this is the spirit of King Messiah, as it is written, ‘And the spirit of the YHVH will rest upon him.’ (see Isa 11:2). This interpretation of the Sages should not surprise at all, because it has been actually hinted in the scrolls of the prophets where we find verses such as Eze 1:26-28 and Dan 7:13-14. We should not be surprised either, that the Apostolic Writings (aka the New Covenant) influenced the Rabbis to revoke, for instance, the Rabbinical prohibition of healing on Shabbat (see Mat 12:10). So, we can expect that when Shaul went to Arabia [Mount Sinai], he went there to receive the continuation of the revelation of the Messiah that began on the road to Damascus which was the sudden turning point in Shaul’s life.
There at the mountain, the apostle must have received the knowledge that the Messiah was not just the Prophet YHVH promised to Mosheh, but that that Prophet would be the Son of man Ezekiel saw sitting on the throne in heaven; that that Prophet would be the image of the invisible Elohim (see 2Co 4:4; Col 1:15-16). And since 1Corinthians 15 deals with the end-time events, the completion of time, in order to understand the apostle, we need to go back to In the Beginning when everything has started.
In Part I of the present author’s book Reckoning of Time, he made the efforts to restore to his best knowledge and ability the reckoning of time from the creation of the universe until the completion of the sixth millennium. The Scripture begins with the creation of the first week in whose pattern we see a shadow picture of the world that will exist for 7,000 years in the model to follow: six days work is to be done, and the seventh day is a rest for YHVH:
Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart. “Six days you labour, and shall do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yehovah your Elohim. … For in six days Yehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Yehovah blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart. (Exo 20:8-11)
The Jewish sages describe the whole human history as a seven-millennium week, consisting of 6,000 years of human labor in developing the Creator’s world and a seventh millennium, that is “wholly Shabbat and rest, for life everlasting” that is the Era of the Messiah. Hence, we may find the Creation pattern in the allotted time for mankind to labor, thus: 6 days x 1,000 years = 6,000 years = 120 Jubilees.
In Part I of the book Reckoning of Time the goal was to restore the Sabbatical and Jubilee years from the Creation of the world to the last 6,000th year. And in Part II and Part III the goal was to restore the events of the last three and half years of the world as we know it. This time of turmoil, wars, and natural disasters is well known as Jacob’s troubles or the tribulation. For more information concerning this critical period of 1,260 days, the reader may refer also to the complementary articles in Prophecy Insight.
We studied in Chapter Two Scenarios for the War of Gog of the book Reckoning of Time that the land is to be cleansed after the war for seven months for the burial of Gog’s armies and seven more years for the cleansing of the land in the aftermath of the war. And when the war is over and the land is cleansed from all iniquities, only then everything will come to completion and the Messianic Kingdom will be ushered.
As said in the beginning of the chapter, Zechariah’s prophecy about the War of Gog is the darker of the two scenarios. According to it, Israel will be the focus of Gog in this war, with the battle being waged in Jerusalem. While the prophecy in Ezekiel concerning the War of Gog, the war will be waged outside of the land of Israel, and Gog and his destruction will be in the focus of Elohim’s wrath, not Israel. The six thousand years will end with the first war of Gog of Magog.
And on Rosh HaShanah of year 6001, begins the Millennium Kingdom when the new Temple is built by the Messiah (Zec 6:12). And when the thousand years of the Messianic Kingdom will end, Satan will be released from his prison, and he will go out to lead the nations and Gog of Magog to gather them together for battle. And fire came down from the heaven and consumed them. (Rev 20:7-9) With that being said, we can proceed to our topic in 1Corinthians 15. We read,
For as all die in Adam, so also all shall be made alive in Messiah. And each in his own order: Messiah the first-fruits, then those who are of Messiah at His coming, (1Co 15:22-23)
The first fruit sheaf is the forerunner of all the harvest. In the Messiah all who are His are presented to the Father in the order: first, Yeshua the Messiah, the first-fruit of the resurrection, then, His own who will be found worthy by the Messiah at His second coming.
But the living ones at the coming of Yeshua will not go before those who are dead. Because He will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the chief [seventh] angel, and with the blast of the [seventh] trumpet of Elohim, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then, the living will be caught away together with them in the clouds to meet the Messiah in the air to be always with Him (1Th 4:15-17). But only those who have endured to the end will be saved. (Mat 24:13), because the end of all has drawn near, Apostle Shimon Kefa (Peter) warns, all are to be sober-minded. (1Pe 4:7)
then the end, when He delivers up the reign to Elohim the Father, when He has brought to naught all rule and all authority and power. For He has to reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. (1Co 15:24-25)
Then, Yeshua the Messiah has to establish His Father’s kingdom here on the earth and reign for a thousand years until He has subdued all enemies, all rule and all authority and power under His authority. Because, the Father has made him rule over the works of His hands; He has put all under His [Messiah’s] feet (Psa 8:6). Because, let this mind be in us: the Messiah, being in the form of Elohim, did not regard equality with Elohim, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and came to be in the likeness of men. And being a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death on the cross. For this reason, YHVH has highly exalted Him and given Him the authority that every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, in order to confess that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of the Father. (Php 2:5-11) See also (Heb 2:8). Because it has been foretold that the Son of man will come with the clouds of the heavens, He will come to the Everlasting Father to be given rulership and the reign, that all nations will serve Him. (Dan 7:13-14, 27) See also Mat 11:27, Mat 28:18; Luk 10:22, Joh 3:35, and Joh 13:3.
But the last enemy to be brought to naught is death. (1Co 15:26) See also Rev 1:18. For “He has put all under His feet”. But when He says, “all are put under Him,” it is clear that He who put all under Him is excepted. And when all are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself shall also be subject to Him who put all under Him, that Elohim be all in all. (1Co 15:27-28)
Lastly, the end, when death itself will be destroyed and the kingdom finally handed back by the Messiah to the Father, the Creator. And when He has subdued all enemies under His feet, He will deliver up the kingdom to Elohim the Father and be subject to Him who gave Him all the authority to do that. And this is the order of authority: the authority of woman is her husband or father, the authority of every man is the Messiah, and the authority over the Messiah is YHVH Elohim. (1Co 11:3) Because, the Messiah Himself said, ‘My Father is greater than I.’ (Joh 14:28) Therefore, at the end of all times the son is to subject Himself to the Father, too. All of this is to fulfill what has been written that Elohim be all in all. Because there are different kinds of deeds Elohim has done, but it is the same Elohim who is working all in all (1Co 12:6).
And this is the secret of His will: to administer at the completion of time, to gather together in one all in Messiah in whom all obtained an inheritance, according to His purpose working all matters, according to His desire, for those having trusted in Messiah, in order to become the praise of His glory (Eph 1:9-12). Because, YHVH has given them wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Yeshua the Messiah, so that they should know what the expectation of His calling for them is: to be one all in the Messiah (Eph 1:17-18). And YHVH put all under His feet and gave Him to be over all to the completeness of Himself who fills all in all (Eph 1:22-23). Therefore, at the completion of the seventh millennium, when all enemies will be subdued in the second war of Gog of Magog, Yeshua the Messiah will hand back what has always been of the Father, in order that Elohim be all in all. Therefore, the present author’s best understanding of the phrase that Elohim be all in all is that the secret of His will is to gather together in one all in the Messiah at the completion of time. But, this is not all in all in all.
In a broader context of the entirety of the Scripture, the verse 1Co 15:28: then the Son Himself shall also be subject to Him who put all under Him, that Elohim be all in all means that when the Messiah will made Himself subject to the Father, He [the Messiah] will hand back to the Father the power and the authority the Father has given Him, as it was In the Beginning. This is the question that needs to be asked. After the Messiah has been made Himself subject to the Father, so that Elohim be all in all, as it was before the creation, what would be His [Messiah’s] fate? The Scripture is silent on this. However, asking a question is often more important than finding an answer. An answer is always a matter of a personal opinion, but the question shows that there is a pursuit for knowledge.
Yeshua Messiah is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. (Heb 13:8)
For more insight on the end-time prophecy, please, visit Prophecy Insight and Part II The Last Kingdom of the present author’s book Reckoning of Time.
Navah
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days.