Audio Download

“The first man is of the earth, earthy:
the second man is the Lord from heaven” Part 3

(Pro 20:21-26)

[Study Aired October 23, 2025]

Pro 20:21 An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
Pro 20:22 Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.
Pro 20:23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.
Pro 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Pro 20:25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry.
Pro 20:26  A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.

Keeping with our theme of “The first man is of the earth, earthy: [and] the second man is the Lord from heaven”, we’ll look at the next  6 verses of Proverbs chapter 20 with the thought of how we naturally, as the first man Adam, seek out an earthly inheritance at first for our flesh.

[Esau’s 12 princes represent the foundation of man’s fleshly endeavors (Gen 17:20), and the seventy souls that come out of the loins of Jacob represent all the elect (1Pe 1:12, 1Co 10:11) who are established in the earth much later than Esau (Exo 1:5). God tells us the first to be established will be last and the last will be first (Mat 20:16)].

If God is working in our hearts and minds, our perspective changes by God’s grace and the faith of Christ regarding what is truly needful and necessary to be pursuing in this life (Php 3:8-11, Mat 6:33).

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness (Gen 17:20), which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Exo 1:5)
Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

We have need of patience to possess our souls as we wait on the Lord to lead and guide us in spiritual battle (Luk 21:19, Psa 27:14), where He faithfully provides for our continual sojourn of dying daily (Col 1:27, Php 1:6, Joh 18:9).

Psa 27:14  Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: [He will daily clothe us for battle if it is His will that we ask, seek, and knock for the things that we need Mat 6:33, Eph 6:10-18]

Joh 18:9  That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

Every believer has received a precious inheritance from the Lord — not of silver or gold (1Pe 1:18-21), but of spiritual riches, divine promises, and a calling to live as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17-18, Heb 11:25-27, Php 3:13-14).

1Pe 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
1Pe 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1Pe 1:20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
1Pe 1:21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt:(Php 3:8-15) for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
Heb 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

God’s word shows us how we are to protect that inheritance and not let any man take our crown, especially the man we see in the mirror every day (Rev 3:11). That crown represents the spiritual gold that God’s word is, that is now no longer wrapped around the idol of our hearts, but rather is placed on our head which is where our thoughts are miraculously brought into subjection unto God so that we can glorify him in these earthen vessels that possess such a great treasure (2Co 4:7).

Our resisting against the devil regarding the thorns and briars that represent false doctrines, is the life-long goal of God’s people (Mat 24:13), and it is the trial of our faith that is precious unto God as they will burn up the lies of the devil [thorns and briars] represented by the platted crown on Christ’s head. As those lies are destroyed the purified gold needed [word of God] to fashion a crown of life for His children is accomplished through the fiery trials of this life (Heb 12:2-4, Mat 27:29, 1Pe 1:7, 1Pe 4:12).

Heb 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. [thorns and briars]

Mat 27:29  And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

In this study, we’ll look at what must be done to not neglect, or trade away [Esau’s birthright] our inheritance, and pray the God of all grace will be merciful to us to not let us squander this high calling by carelessness, pride or compromise (1Pe 5:10).

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Pro 20:21  An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

Esau’s inheritance was forfeited for a bowl of red pottage that symbolizes our pursuit of fleshly endeavors, with immature perceptions of God’s word that are not meat but an altar of pottage, “An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning”, where we are looking to hastily take the immediate reward that in the end will not be blessed, as opposed to living a lifetime of sacrifices that will culminate in the seven last plagues being poured out upon the kingdom of our old man, so that we can enter into the temple of God and inherit eternal life (Rom 12:1-2, Rev 15:8).

This judgement which is upon the body of Christ (1Pe 4:17) strengthens us in the Lord so that we do not fear the consequence of what others may say of our position of being on the cross, as we carry that weight by the life of Christ within us, through whom we can present ourselves a living sacrifice to God and endure all things at the altar which is the cross, where we eat the life of Christ as opposed to pottage (Mat 10:38-39 ,  Heb 11:25-26, Heb 13:10, Joh 6:53).

Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

Joh 6:53  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Joh 6:54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Pro 20:22  Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.

Part of protecting our inheritance is accomplished by trusting the Lord to defend and vindicate us, rather than acting in the flesh (Rom 12:19).

Rom 12:19  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Rom 12:20  Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head (Mat 5:44, Luk 6:27, Luk 6:35).
Rom 12:21  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

“Wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee” (2Th 3:3-5), is something God’s elect can accomplish through Christ alone (Psa 27:14, Psa 37:34, Pro 20:22), and while we wait we are told to pray for our enemies and those who falsely accuse us (Mat 5:10-12) and the LORD will strengthen our hearts with His word (Psa 104:15). We are to “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14), and when we forgive others’ sins, God will forgive ours and we will continue to be blessed to perceive His presence and guidance in our lives via the holy spirit (Rom 8:14, Mat 6:12-13).

2Th 3:3  But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
2Th 3:4  And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you.
2Th 3:5  And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

Psa 27:14  Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: (Psa 104:15) wait, I say, on the LORD.

Psa 37:34  Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

Pro 20:22  Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.

Mat 5:10  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Psa 104:15  And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.

Pro 20:23  Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.

The literal meaning of this proverb heralds back to ancient marketplaces where economic deceit was used to take advantage of the unsuspecting public. The lesson for God’s elect is that dishonesty and deceit with the word of God corrupt the spiritual life, whereas not thinking above what is written (1Co 4:6) preserves the purity of our inheritance, where double standards will destroy it. In (Amo 8:4-7) we read:

Amo 8:4  Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
Amo 8:5  Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? [this symbolizing the corrupting of the word of God to make merchandise of the brethren (2Co 2:17)]

2Co 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

Amo 8:6  That we may buy the poor for silver [10 second sinner’s prayer], and the needy for a pair of shoes; [another gospel shod on the feet of Babylon (Eph 6:15, 2Co 11:4)] yea, and sell the refuseH4651 of the wheat? [a falling off that is chaff (Isa 3:1)]

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

Amo 8:7  The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works [Mat 12:36].

Mat 12:36  But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Joseph typifies God’s elect who are the first to trust in the Eternal God and who will explain one day to all the world that “Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?”. No one verse seems to more perfectly explain this point then (Gen 50:19-20). The way that seems right to man, our understanding of the path to salvation in other words, leads to death for our first man Adam whose self-righteous spirit can only be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our lives, which is the only way the elect could have ever inherited an inheritance or double portion in this life (Pro 14:12, Php 3:9, 2Th 2:8).

Gen 50:19  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Joseph, in type and shadow, was saying don’t fear me, “Fear not: for am I in the place of God?” but rather, “fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mat 10:28). “The way” God will destroy “both soul and body in hell” is explained in the very next verse that reads, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father”.

There are two doves in (Lev 14:6-7), one that represents Christ who dies for us, and the other that represents the elect who are kept alive and loosed into the open field, a story that parallels with the two sparrows spoken of in (Mat 10:29). These two birds, in both instances, symbolize the means that God has devised to redeem all of His creation (2Sa 14:14).

Mat 10:28  And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Mat 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

Lev 14:6  As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:

Lev 14:7  And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Pro 20:25  It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry.

This verse is explained by the actions of Esau that represents our first man Adam who must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ coming into our heavens to give us the strength to stop making these wrong decisions, being hypocritical in our flesh, which we will be until we’re not, by God’s grace (Rom 7:24-25, Rom 8:37).

Gen 25:28  And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Gen 25:29  And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
Gen 25:30  And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
Gen 25:31  And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
Gen 25:32  And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Gen 25:33  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Pro 20:26  A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.

Christ is the “wise king” that we fall on at first, and if we are blessed to continue in the truth, we will be crushed under the stone to powder (Mat 21:44), which is what “bringeth the wheel over them” typifies.

Mat 21:44  And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Spiritually, we guard our inheritance by allowing God’s wisdom to expose and remove sin from our lives, which can only be accomplish through [dia G1223] the resurrected life of Christ within us (Col 1:27, Joh 8:36).

Rolling away the physical stone that covers the sepulchre of Christ represents no longer knowing Christ after the flesh (2Co 5:16). Now we know the spiritual wheel, Jesus Christ and Christ in his Christ (Eze 1:16), who cannot be held by the grave (Mat 28:2-4, Act 2:24, 1Jn 4:17) and is now building the church through judgement in our heavens that crushes us to powder, like a millstone that can easily crush a grain of wheat.

Eze 1:16  The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel [Christ and His Christ].

Mat 28:2  And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
Mat 28:3  His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: [“lightning” = judgement (1Co 6:3), and “raiment white as snow” = righteousness of the saints (Rev 19:8)]
Mat 28:4  And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

The stone that covered the tomb of Christ was a physical representation of Christ, who brings life through the destruction of the man of perdition within us who will be crushed and destroyed by the coming of his brightness into our heavens. If we are granted to die daily and be buried with him in baptism (the tomb), we will be raised with him in the end (Rom 6:3-5).

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: (both in the earnest of this resurrection (Eph 2:6) and one day in the fulness of this event in the first resurrection (1Co 15:52))

The angel that moved that stone represents the elect who are used of God to pour out the seven last vials that crush us under the stone, which represents the words of God that Christ administers to the body of Christ in this age through the church (Eph 3:10).

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

The great earthquake in this verse (Mat 28:2) represents God’s judgement and “The angel of the Lord descended from heaven”, reminds us that our strength comes from God above through Christ, who gives us the power to roll the stone back. The angel “came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it” symbolizing what Christ told Peter, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter [angel], and upon this rock [Christ] I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. “ (Mat 16:18).

Mat 28:2  And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

Our “wise king”, Jesus Christ, does indeed “scattereth the wicked” within each of us, “and bringeth the wheel over” each one of us in this age, if we are His.

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the last four verses of this twentieth chapter of Proverbs.