Not All Receive the Gift of Tongues

Posted March 11, 2004, updated April 2026 

Introduction

This study was originally published 22 years ago in response to several questions from a brother who believed that unknown tongues was a Biblical doctrine. At that time I had not yet written anything on this subject and I told Sandi that when she posted this that we would probably lose as much as 50% of our readership. I knew that many, if not most, of the people attending our conferences back then believed that unknown tongues were the sign that you had received the gift of the holy spirit.

This study was done in response to questions from a reader who seemed to be sincere. They were questions I had myself at one time, and I was excited to share what I had learned with this reader, but I knew very well how tenacious this particular false doctrine is to those who have spoken in unknown tongues, and I was right about losing many readers when I let everyone know that I considered the doctrine that “Speaking in unknown tongues is the initial evidence of the gift of the Holy Ghost” is a false doctrine. Yet that statement is an article of faith among many Pentecostal and Charismatic congregants. The acceptance of this false doctrine has continued to grow in popularity in virtually every Christian denomination, both Catholic and Protestant. They read these verses and because they have no ability to discern spirits, they fall for that lie:

Mar 16:17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mar 16:18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Hi Mike!

Thanks for your response. I do want to discuss this subject of speaking in tongues. I just wanted to explain how I’ve believed this. I had a few thoughts about your statement that not everyone who has the Holy Ghost receives the gift of tongues.

Thanks, M____

Hi M____,

Yes, Paul makes it very clear that not all who receive the Holy Ghost receive the gift of tongues when he lists all the gifts and offices and then poses seven questions. The obvious answer to every one of those seven questions is an emphatic, No! His point being that each member of the body has a different function. No one sincerely seeking to know the mind of God on this subject can read the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians and conclude that everyone who has the Holy Ghost must speak with tongues. Read that chapter. After each question Paul poses, ask yourself, “Does this person have to speak with tongues to have the Holy Spirit?” The only verses where the answer is yes will be the verses which deal with the gift of tongues. Yet Paul assert that they all have the “selfsame Spirit”.

1Co 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

Tongues are mentioned only three times in the book of Acts:

1. When they were first given on the day of Pentecost in Act 2, as a sign to the Jews from all over the world, followed by Peter’s witness to all those Jews.
2. At Cornelius’ house, in Acts 10, as a sign that the gospel was to go to the Gentiles, again followed by Peter’s witness to both the Gentiles present and as a sign to Peter himself and the Jews that were with him that the gospel had, indeed, been given to the Gentiles.
3. To the 12 men at Ephesus, again as a sign, to the very “Jews of Asia,” who were later to be so instrumental in attempting to stop Paul’s ministry as “the apostle of the Gentiles” ( “Tongues are for a sign to unbelievers.” That is the only scriptural purpose given for this gift. Tongues, in scripture, are always real languages.

Let’s just let the scriptures speak for themselves. I will embolden a few words for emphasis:

1Co 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

1Co 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and [that] no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. [There; if you have Christ, you have the Spirit]
1Co 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1Co 12:5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
1Co 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
1Co 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
1Co 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
1Co 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
1Co 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
1Co 12:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
1Co 12:21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
1Co 12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
1Co 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
1Co 12:29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
1Co 12:30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
1Co 12:31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

The many members with many gifts and functions have only one “Holy Ghost”- verse 3. The “more excellent way” is the way of ‘agape,’ love. The love of God is totally ignored by many who actually teach that “Speaking with unknown tongues it the initial evidence of the gift of the holy spirit.” To these immature and deceived brothers speaking with ‘unknown tongues’ is by far a more reliable sign of how close one is to God in the mind of many than the “more excellent way” revealed in ‘the love chapter’ of 1 Corinthians 13.

I know this is true, because I was just such a person as a teenage Pentecostal. I remember clearly how shocked I was  when it was pointed out to me that Paul said that he would rather speak five words which could be understood than ten thousand words in a tongue no one understood:

1Co 14:19  Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

These gifts here in 1 Corinthians 12 are listed in descending order of importance. Tongues are always the last gift mentioned. Paul concludes with the admonition to “covet earnestly the best gifts.” Notice how Paul characterizes those who prefer to edify themselves by displaying their gift of tongues instead of edifying the church:

1Co 14:20  Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

Why then is it that the emphasis today is the exact opposite as the so-called ‘gift of unknown tongues’ is becoming more and more mainstream in so many churches?

Apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments are all around, but they can’t hold a candle to the popularity of ‘unknown tongues.’ Why is that? Could it be that a healing is a bit harder to perform? Well, in truth, that is certainly not the case for God, but that is the case for the Adversary. Yet it seems that the only gift being sought so diligently by most Christians is ‘unknown tongues.’

Again, the obvious answer to every question Paul poses concerning whether all possess all of the gifts is an emphatic NO! Not every one who receives the Holy Ghost, talks with tongues, and NO one speaking in the true spirit of God speaks in ‘unknown tongues’ because such a doctrine is not even mentioned in scripture.

The “Holy Ghost,” is “Christ in you.” That is why He said, “The Father will take of mine and give to you.” That is why Christ said, “I will not leave you Comfortless. I will come to you.”

That is why we are told that ‘the parakletos’ is “the comforter which IS the holy ghost…”:

Joh 14:26  But the Comforter [G3875: ‘parakletos’], which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Notice where this verse appears and what Christ had just said:

Joh 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. [The ‘we’, and the ‘our’ refer to Christ and His Father]

Christ’s teaching is that He and His Father will come and make their abode within us. There is no mention of a “third person” because we are told that this “parakletos, which is the holy ghost”, is Jesus Christ:

1Jn 2:1  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [G3875: ‘parakletos’] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Our ‘advocate”, our “comforter” is our “parakletos”… Jesus Christ the righteous” That is what Christ meant when He told us the Father had given everything to Christ. When He said that, He was referring specifically to the holy spirit, which Christ said He would send to us:

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come [“The Comforter”, (Joh 15:26)], he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Joh 16:15  All things that the Father hath are mine [Including the Father’s spirit]: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Christ had already told us that “the spirit of Truth” is the same as “the comforter.”

Joh 15:26  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

[Be sure to read Is God a Trinity? on the web page.]

In Act 2, it says that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues. Okay, here we have them all speaking in other tongues. There seems to be an indication that, when a person is filled with the holy spirit he ‘begins to speak’ .

Of all the conversions mentioned in the book of Acts, from the 3000 on the day of Pentecost to the Ethiopian eunuch, to all the people Paul and Barnabas brought to Christ, to Paul’s and Silas’ jailer, etc., tongues are mentioned only three times. 1 Corinthians 12 explains why. Not every part of “the body,” needs the same gift. Besides that, the only tongues mentioned in Acts 2, or anywhere else in scripture, are real languages, spoken clearly by people who weren’t even able to interpret what they were saying. They were of no value to the person speaking, as far as being edified by what was coming out of their own mouth. However, those words were very edifying to “unbelievers,” and that is why tongues were given to those to whom they were given in the New Testament.

Act 2:5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem [unbelieving] Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

These as yet unbelieving Jews knew that these men were all uneducated “Galileans.”

Act 2:7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

The languages spoken by those given the gift of tongues are enumerated, and not one of the languages is referred to as being an “unknown tongue”:

Act 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Act 2:12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? [This was a “sign to these unbelievers”]

I have never denied that on the day of Pentecost, “they all spoke in other tongues [languages].” This is a bonafide gift of God. This is the real thing. If the Spirit is moving in this way, as is claimed, why have we not one modern case of such an event. Television  and news magazines have from time to time been forced to admit to a Bonafide healing. Personally, I have yet to see or hear of any such event as was witnessed by thousands on the day of Pentecost. I want to experience such a miracle, but I want it to be as real as it was that day when “speaking with tongues … profit [ed] you, …[by] speak[ing] to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine” (1Co 14:6). This is what happened with real languages on the day of Pentecost, and every time tongues are mentioned in scripture. Again, there is no mention in scripture of ‘unknown tongues.’

We know this is so because Paul goes on to tell us that the tongues he is discussing in 1 Corinthians 14 are so real he makes this statement:

1Co 14:7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds [Distinction means that it has significance to someone in the room], how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
1Co 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound [how in the world can anyone be certain about a language that is not mentioned in scripture and is understood by no one on earth?], who shall prepare himself to the battle?
1Co 14:9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood [does this sound like Paul is talking about ‘unknown,’ tongues], how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
1Co 14:10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
1Co 14:11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
1Co 14:12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.

That last verse is in contrast to: He that speaketh in an [foreign] tongue [when there is no one there who needs that particular tongue] edifieth himself [hey, look at me, I’ve got my gift]; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church (1Co 14:4). The “edifieth himself” of this verse is not talking about spiritual edification, because the man himself does not understand what he is saying in the language he is speaking. Nevertheless, it is a real language under discussion, as real as the languages on the day of Pentecost, or Paul would never have made the statements we have just quoted or the statement that follows that:

1Co 14:5  I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

An ‘unknown’ tongue would serve no purpose whatsoever. It is a false ‘sign’ because no one can possibly know whether it was being properly interpreted, because it isn’t even a language. That is why Paul poses the question, “How shall it be known what is spoken?” (verse 9). Paul is not even talking about ‘unknown tongues.’ He asks that question in the context of having no one around who would be benefited by the real foreign language being spoken. ‘Unknown tongues’ as that phrase has come to be understood, are not even part of the discussion in 1 Corinthians 14, or anywhere else in scripture.

You ask:

“In Luke it says wait until you’re endued with power from on high. Do you believe that at salvation you receive the Holy Ghost as well?” (End Quote)

The phrase “at salvation” is not in the scriptures. I am not intending to offend you, but the way you have framed this question, demonstrates that you are not aware that ‘salvation’ is a continual, “dying daily” (1Co 15:31) process. Of course you receive the Holy Ghost when you receive Christ. The Holy Ghost is the Holy Spirit which God the Father gave to Christ who then gives His Father’s spirit to us.

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth [“The Comforter”, (Joh 15:26)], is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Joh 16:15  All things that the Father hath are mine [Including the holy spirit]: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Joh 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost [Which is “the Spirit of Truth”, (Joh 15:26)], whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Joh 15:26  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

Here is Christ telling us the comforter and the spirit of truth are the holy ghost which the Father has given to Christ. That is how Christ can say “He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you”.

Both English words ‘ghost’ and spirit’ are translated from the same single Greek word ‘pneuma‘. The Greek for ‘holy ghost’ is Hagios Pneuma. The translators have done us a very great disservice by not giving this Greek phrase a consistent translation.

Ephesian 4:30 tells us not to grieve the holy spirt of God:

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Why did they not translate that verse as… “And grieve not the holy ghost of God…” Could it be that doing so would indicate that the spirit of God is not a person but that of which God consists… His all powerful, ever present, everywhere present spirit.

Getting back to your use of the phrase… “at salvation”, the apostle Paul demonstrates the fallacy of that phrase when he speaks of our salvation in this way:

Rom 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

How does “salvation nearer” square with the concept of “at salvation?” Again he says:

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, [Why not ‘Holy Ghost of promise?’]

Then he also reveals this:

Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

These verses reveal that ‘salvation’ is a continual “working out” process. We receive the ‘Holy Spirit [Ghost] of promise immediately “after ye believed.” Just because the twelve men at Ephesus had never even heard of the Holy Spirit does not mean that one must wait for a so called “separate work of the Spirit.” Those twelve men were still under “the baptism of John” and were completely unaware that Christ, through His Father’s spirit could come and dwell within them:

Act 19:1  And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
Act 19:2  He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
Act 19:3  And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
Act 19:4  Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
Act 19:5  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 19:6  And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
Act 19:7  And all the men were about twelve.

John’s baptism was to repentance, but it did not include the conversion that comes with the gift of the holy spirit. As Christ told Peter, His own apostle the night of His apprehension by the Jews. This was after Peter spending three and a half years as Christ’s apostle:

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luk 22:33  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34  And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Like Peter before his conversion, the twelve men at Ephesus were not yet converted because they had not yet received the holy spirit. Even then we still must “endure to the end” to receive our salvation:

Christ is always the final word on any subject and the statement that ‘we must endure to the end to receive our salvation’ is Christ’s own words:

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

This Truth is repeated by Christ in Matthew 24:

Mat 24:12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many [who believe in Christ] shall wax cold.
Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

So, to answer your question as to what I believe, based on these and many other like scriptures, I do believe that you receive the Holy Spirit immediately upon conversion, but I do not believe that you are mature in the Spirit at the moment you become aware of your need for a Savior, and the fact that a Savior has been provided. Salvation is an ongoing process. Though you have been given God’s Spirit, right from the beginning, God’s Spirit does not make you mature and complete right from the beginning. The steps involved in our maturing process are outlined for us in Israel’s experience and history. Paul tells us that this is so in:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

I am sending you another email on this subject of salvation. It is entitled The Seven Steps To Salvation.

We will pause this study at this point and continue with this brother’s questions in our next study.

The Fowl of the Air – Part 2

[Study Aired April 19, 2026]

God’s elect know the difference between gifts of the spirit and fruits of the spirit. You may heal the sick and cast out devils without having Christ living His life in you (Luk 10:8, 9, 17).

Luk 10:8  And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:
Luk 10:9  And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

Luk 10:17  And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Christ sent out the seventy two by two long before He said this to Peter:

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

You may truthfully prophesy what will happen in the future, and not have Christ living His life within you:

Deu 13:1  If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Deu 13:2  And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Deu 13:3  Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

How do we know whether we truly love the Lord?

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

However you cannot and you will not have “the fruits of the spirit” governing your life if Christ is not living His life within you. You will not and cannot love your enemy without Christ being in you.

Christ warns us not to follow after signs, miracles and wonders right here in Matthew 24:

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs [G4592: ‘Semeion’, miracles] and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Right after telling us that false Christs and prophets shall show great miracles and great wonders, Christ makes this statement:

Mat 24:25  Behold, I have told you before.
Mat 24:26  Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

“Secret chamber” would certainly include a ‘secret rapture’, and according to Christ we are to “believe it not” because this is what it will actually be like when He does appear again:

Mat 24:27  For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:28  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

“I have told you before” is old English for ‘I am telling you in advance’ not to fall for any variation of the false ‘secret rapture’ doctrines nor any variation of a ‘place of safety’ theory. There is nothing ‘secret’ about being caught up to be with Christ in the air. That event will be “as the lightning shineth from the east even unto the west.”

Luk 17:23  And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

Look at what precedes this statement:

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

What Christ is telling His elect is that if they are granted to remain vigilant and diligent to the end, and to serve as the flesh and bones of Christ’s “earthly tabernacle” in this present wicked age, then they will be glorified with Christ at the time of His appearing to rule the kingdoms of this world for one thousand years, before judging angels and the souls of men in something called the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death (Rev 20:7-15).

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.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

I get so many letters asking me, “How does one know they are God’s elect? How do you know you are going to be saved and be in the first resurrection?” The answer to the first question is that God gives you the faith that you are indeed His elect. The answer to the second question is that you don’t know you will be in the first resurrection to the point of being able to take your election for granted. That’s why The Lord admonishes us to ‘be vigilant, be sober.’

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Be on your guard every moment. Christ tells us that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into:

Luk 12:39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Luk 12:40  Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

The whole point of Christ telling us that we are to stay vigilant and “ready” is so we will always be on our toes. The apostle Paul gives us the same admonition:

1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

The Lord does not want us to ever become complacent and take our salvation for granted. Completely rid your heart and mind of the ‘once in grace always in grace’ false doctrine. Realize that there is a great and pressing need for vigilance. That spirit of vigilance is all part of God’s plan. Replace that false doctrine with this doctrine:

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, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
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.
Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Continuing with Christ’s words “which are spirit” in Matthew 24:

Mat 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

I’ve entitled this study the ‘fowl of the air’ because of these eagles. They are unclean birds, and they eat the carnal meat which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, as Christ clearly states:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

It is our rebellious, carnal-minded old man who is “devoured up” by the eagles and the fowls of the air:

Pro 30:17  The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

Luk 17:36  Two men [our old and new man] shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Luk 17:37  And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

We must be willing to give up the life of our carnal-minded old man. We must come to see that “the man of sin, the son of perdition” is our own carnal-minded old man who has all his life been deceived by all the lies of all the false ministers of the churches of Babylon. That is the negative application of what these eagles, “the fowls of the air” do:

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Christ tells us the fowls “devour [us] up” at that stage of our walk when the seed of God’s Truth ‘falls by the way side.’

Mat 13:3  And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls [Eagles over a carcass] came and devoured them up:

Eagles eat dying dead meat. That ‘death’ and dying is at this time a process we must endure to the end. It is “through death” that a new man is conceived:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die [become a carcass], it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The Truth is counterintuitive to our natural carnal mind.  We cannot just naturally connect the death of our old man with the life of our new man. Nevertheless, we are commanded to offer ourselves up to the Lord as a “living sacrifice… dying daily”:

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Paul sets us the same ‘dying daily’ example which Christ left for us to follow:

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

We are “crucified with Christ… daily.”

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Our dying old man is dead meat for those unclean “birds of the air.” The positive application of “where the carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together” is that as the adversary devours up our old man, Christ is coming into our lives. As we die to the flesh, we are giving up the flesh, but it is not a pleasant thing to do. We don’t give up the flesh willingly. It takes a catastrophe in our lives to drag us to Christ:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

That is the positive application to ‘the fowls of the air… devouring us up.” For the few who the Lord opens their spiritually blinded eyes to see the dying of our carnal-minded old man and being devoured by these eagles is essential to the birth of the new man who is even now being formed out of the same lump of clay:

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel [our ‘new man’] unto honour, and another [our carnal minded old man] unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: [Our old man]
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, [our new man] which he had afore prepared unto glory,

Exo 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

The Lord is patient and merciful toward us and “endures with much longsuffering” the rebellions and the disobedience of our carnal-minded old man. In time, if we are granted to abide in His Word, “of the same lump” of this same “earthen vessel” He begins to form a new man which will in time truly be made into His likeness and His image. While He is in the process of transforming us into His image, He Himself dwells within us as “earthen vessels”:

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure [“Christ in us the hope of glory”, (Col 1:27)] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

It’s through this dying to the flesh that God brings us to himself. I’m going to repeat John 12:25.

Joh 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

King David used the positive application of the word ‘eagles’ to eulogize the death of the Lord’s rejected anointed King Saul:

2Sa 1:23 Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

In their death, they were not divided. Jonathan could not bring himself to leave his father, and yet he actually helped David just as our flesh, “the same lump”, actually helps us to become a new man. As Jonathan who could not separate himself from his father, we, too, are in these clay vessels, our flesh, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God and is not discarded until physical death. May the Lord grant us to be willing to die daily to our old man as our new man increases within us.

The story of Jonathan’s love for David, yet dying with his rejected father, King Saul, “…happened to him and [it is] written for our admonition” (1Co 10:11). We must realize that it was God who created Babylon. It is God who calls Nebuchadnezzar His servant:

Jer 25:9  Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Jer 27:5  I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

God is the one who is responsible for all things; he ‘works all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1:11). Our wicked old man is nothing more than the Lord’s servant to bring us to the Lord.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

That is what “the fowls of the air” generally represent, especially unclean fowl like vultures and eagles. They signify all the false doctrines of our heavens which “devour us up.”

The ‘eagles’ of Matthew 24, just like Nebuchadnezzar, are the Lord’s servants. Matthew 13:4 and 19, tell us what these “fowls of the air signify”, and 1 Corinthians 5:5 tells us exactly what they do:

Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan [“The prince of the power of the air”, (Eph 2:2)] for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

These ‘fowls’ are false doctrines. The ministers who preach them are the adversary’s false ministers who come to us as an angel of light (2Co 11:14-15) and then “devour [us] up” (Mat 13:4). Another way scripture expresses this process is the story of the earth opening up and swallowing Korah (Num 16:28-33). The earth opening up and swallowing Korah is simply a type of us being swallowed up by the false doctrines of the churches of this world, signified by the earth, the ground:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

We are dying daily to that earth, the world. The story of Korah signifies the people of God who are brought up out of Egypt but who are not doing the things which the Lord tells us to do (Luk 6:46). We are spiritually being devoured by the birds of the air. That’s what these eagles, the Lord’s servants, do in His service when He is using them to judge us.

When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s baker’s dream he demonstrated the spiritual significance of ‘the birds of the air.’

Gen 40:16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation [of the butler’s dream] was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
Gen 40:17 And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
Gen 40:18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Gen 40:19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
Gen 40:20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
Gen 40:21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand:
Gen 40:22 But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Gen 40:23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

These birds ate the baker’s flesh; they destroyed his flesh. Where did Joseph get the idea that this is what this meant?

Joseph knew what “the fowls of the air” ate, and the Lord gave Joseph to know what it meant when the baker told him that ‘the birds did eat the bakemeats, meant for Pharaoh’, out of the uppermost basket on the baker’s head. Pharaoh was prophesied to hang the chief baker who would then be eaten by the fowls of the air, and that is exactly what happened.

The creatures of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the earth itself are all scriptural types of mankind, and they all typify the Lord’s people:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

Most of mankind are not God’s elect in “this present time.”

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.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

The minds of God’s anointed, like King Saul who was God’s rejected anointed, are first filled with the doctrines of the fowls of the air. That is where fowls live. They live in the heavens of our earth. They were not created on the sixth day with the beasts of the earth. The fowls of the air were created on the fifth day so that all of the spirit beings were created just ahead of men, the day before, to serve as the Lord’s servants to provide the foil against which the Lord would show His elect what He is doing with His creatures. It was on the sixth day that mankind, who the Lord refers to as “earth, earth, earth” (Jer 22:29), was created as the incomplete image of his Creator. It is at this point the Lord begins His sovereign work with mankind, showing us our relationship with our God. Mankind was created on the sixth day because Adam was the unfinished and the not yet completed son of God.

Lam 4:19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

It is in the wilderness that we are persecuted. We are persecuted by those who are swifter than eagles.

Mat 13:31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven [Christ in us, (Col 1:27)] is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Mat 13:32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

This is the parable of the mustard seed. What are all the parables? All the parables are about the kingdom of God within us from now until Christ appears. The principles revealed in the Lord’s parables will still be applicable to His saints when that day arrives. The heavens of the kingdom of God must be “purified” (Heb 9:23) because they are full of the false doctrines of the fowls of the air.

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. [Christ’s sacrifice for you and me is much better than the blood of animals]

Rev 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

This is “the fowls of the air” again, the unclean fowl doing what they are ordained to do with the Lord’s people. We read back in Exodus where God said, I brought you (Israel) up out of Egypt on eagles’ wings:

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

When God brought them out, he said, “I brought you unto Myself.” God did not take Israel directly from Egypt into the promised land. He took them ‘on eagles’ wings… into the wilderness” for 40 years. What happened in the wilderness? The woman that brought forth the manchild was given eagles wings to go “into the wilderness”. Her “manchild” son was caught up and seated with Christ in the heavens, but she herself was given two wings of an eagle and was taken into the wilderness. The great whore of Revelation seventeen is also “in the wilderness”, because she is the woman of Revelation 12 who brings forth the manchild:

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. [Eph 2:6]
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Just 50 days after leaving Egypt ‘on eagles’ wings’ Israel, God’s own people who eventually “brought forth a manchild” named Jesus Christ, also committed spiritual fornication against her husband by making a golden calf and proclaiming it as ‘thy gods which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt’:

Exo 32:3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Exo 32:4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

That is the beginning of the history of Israel in the wilderness. They continued to complain and rebel against their own God for the next forty years. It all signifies the function of the great whore of Revelation 17. This “great whore” is not just any whore. This is the Lord’s own unfaithful wife who “brought forth a manchild” and then was given the wings of an eagle to fly into the wilderness where, just as the Lord sustained His unfaithful wife, Israel, this woman is also “nourished” while the Lord deals with her “in the wilderness”.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

This ‘time, times and half a time’ is the same amount of time as the time spent by the two witnesses in the streets of that great city, which ‘city’ is what the great whore is called:

Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

The two witnesses witness for Christ and against the works of that great city for a time, times and half a time. In the streets of that great city the two witnesses are witnessing for Christ and against this very woman of Revelation 12 who appears in the very next chapter. The two witnesses are going to speak for a 1,260 days against this woman which is the same time the woman spends being nourished from the face of the serpent there in the wilderness.  A time, times and half a time is the same as 1260 days, and the woman who brings forth the manchild is the same woman as the great whore of Revelation 17-18. In both chapters 17 and 18 she is referred to as “that great city”:

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

Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

It is all the same time, it is just hidden so that 1,260 days tells us that this is the time of our witnessing to the people of God, and this is the time of their hearing us witness. It is the same period of time. What happens during this time?

Num 14:22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Num 14:23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
Num 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

Notice what is in this ‘great city’ which was taken into the wilderness on eagles’ wings:

Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. [“Fowls of the air”]

What are the fowls of the air? They signify the false ministers who are the purveyors of all the  false doctrines of that great adulterous woman.

We will conclude this study with a few admonitions about the work of these ‘fowls’:

Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Matthew 13:19 explains that.

Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

The Fowl of The Air

[Study Aired April 12, 2026]

What is signified by “the fowls of the air?”

This study concerns the prophecy of Matthew 24, specifically verse 28:

Mat 24:28  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

I take this title from the Lord’s words in Mark 4:

Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

What is Christ telling us when He makes this statement concerning such an obvious truth about what eagles do?

We’re going to answer that question in this study. The spiritual significance of flesh being consumed by the fowls of the air will take up most of our Bible study because our carnal-minded flesh is just naturally and by default subject to all the lies, false doctrines and deceptions with which “the prince of the powers of the air” (Eph 2:2) has deceived the whole world (Rev 12:9).

Christ’s first words to His disciples makes this clear:

Mat 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
Mat 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

When you read the Bible, you see the words in front of you and think of the temple that they were standing in front of and how huge the stones are. They are huge stones, and it is a wonder how they actually got those stones there. What’s in your mind is the physical, but, I am telling you as Christ tells you later in this chapter, “Let him that reads understand.” When you hear ‘There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” this is not talking about the stones of the temple to you or me as God’s elect. This is talking about what’s in our lives. If we don’t see these spiritual truths behind these physical letters, then we are not getting anything out of what Christ says later in this chapter.

Let me go back to make this point.

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

These are the stones in the temple that we need to be thinking of.

Mat 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (age- Greek: aion)?

I want you to notice that this is not addressed to the multitudes. The Matthew 24 prophecy, according to the gospel of Mark, was addressed privately to just four of the Lord’s apostles:

Mar 13:3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,
Mar 13:4  Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?
Mar 13:5  And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:
Mar 13:6  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

This prophecy was originally addressed to but four of the apostles and notice that in Mark’s account the first words out of Christ’s mouth is a warning against the work of ‘eagles eating carcasses’ and function of ‘the birds of the air.’ What you are about to hear is something that a few people got to hear at the time it was first revealed. What is being said here, once again, is talking about the end of my age and your age, not the end of someone else’s age. It has to be applied personally and inwardly.

Mat 24:4-5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

If you think Christ was speaking to these four disciples about events 2,000 years in the future then please explain this verse to me:

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

There are many people who come in Jesus Christ’s name and who teach about Jesus Christ and who do many wonderful works in the name of Jesus Christ, but they don’t have one bit of use for the words of Jesus Christ.

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

This is who Jesus Christ is talking about here. He’s not talking about the occasional person who claims to be ‘Jesus Christ’ like Sun Yung Moon. He’s talking about “many” people, and many means the majority. Most people will come in Christ’s name, saying that He is Christ and will deceive most people; in other words, the Christian religion. Let’s just call things what they are.

Mat 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Once again, let me say it again so we can stay focused: Christ intended for us to apply all of this inwardly. Realize that this is talking to all of us including me. I, Mike Vinson, have been deceived; Mike Vinson was taken into the Babylonian system of the Christian religion that claims to know Christ and does many wonderful works in his name. Mike Vinson was deceived, he was one of the many deceived, and if you don’t see that these words also apply to you, then you are probably going to go to church every Sunday thinking you are not deceived.

Mat 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Mat 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

“They shall deliver you up… and shall kill you.” Why would “all nations” hate a dead man? It is after you begin to die to the flesh that you begin to be hated. They will ‘deliver you up to be afflicted’ and will kill you. That’s good! That’s the best thing that happens to you when you begin to die.

Mat 24:10-11 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

Who is he talking about here? Heathen people? No, the many people who are deceived thinking they know Christ. That’s what we are talking about. Christ is talking about people who have been called, who have accepted him, who come in His name, do many wonderful works and deceive people. At that point, many are offended and betray one another and hate one another.

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

This is many coming in Christ’s name, saying they are following Christ, using Christ’s name, claiming they love Christ’s name and doctrine and they deceive many, most, the majority. That’s the litmus test right there, because God is love. While you can talk love all day, it is hard to live love, it is hard to turn the other cheek. You can’t do it. It takes Jesus Christ in you to do it. This is what separates the called from the chosen, this verse:

Mat 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Nobody is saved right now. We are in the process of being converted, but being converted is not saved. “He that endures to the end shall be saved.” When they are resurrected, they are saved. You are converted, you are living a good Christian life, but read Ezekiel 3, and it will come right out and tell you, no matter how good a life you live, if you turn your back on it at the end, all your good works account for nothing. No matter how evil you have been, if you turn from your evil works, all your evil works count for nothing. It is what you do at the end that counts. The workers that came in at the last hour received their wages before the people who had been there working all day, doing the same works as the other people.

If you have the love of Christ, you are not the least bit perturbed at what God does. All things are of God to you. He could give the house away, and you would say “Amen, Father!”

Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

What does Matthew 24:14 mean to you? Does it mean that the churches of Babylon have to get the gospel preached in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America and the whole world? That’s been done for years. The gospel has been preached in all the continents of all the world for many years. If you still think that nations and kingdoms of Matthew 24 are outward nations, then you are apt to also think of the abomination of desolation is also outward and it will take place in some outward temple in some outward nation. That is how the whole world thinks of this prophecy. The churches of this world teach that Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation are both speaking of ‘end time events.’ They teach that all these things are yet future and are ‘out there’ somewhere in Europe or in the middle east. Most Christian ministers teach that the abomination of desolation will occur in a future temple yet to be built in Jerusalem. If indeed that is what you believe, then you don’t understand verse 15 at all:

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

“Whoso reads, let him understand” reveals that very few will understand what “the abomination that maketh desolate” means. “Whoso readeth let him understand” is telling us that only those who are “given ears that hear, and eyes that see” will understand. It is all to be understood as a message to the spirit within those who are given the spirit. God is spirit, and all that we see and touch is His way of getting through to us what is going on in the powers and principalities we are really wrestling against. These verses tell us about how the Lord communicates with His spirit within us:

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [spiritual words]
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Greek actually reads “comparing spiritual with spiritual.” The word ‘things’ is added by the translators.

What did Christ tell us about His words:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth [G2227: ‘zoopoieo’, to make alive]. ; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life [G2222: ‘Zoe’, life].

With the understanding that the Lord’s words “are spirit” let’s ask, “What does the holy place mean?” “The holy place” is you; it is your heart and your mind; that is ‘the holy place.’ We are very clearly informed that spiritually speaking, which is what Christ tells us His Words are, “you are the temple of God.” The holy place is “the holy of holies” in the second room of the temple. It is the last room into which only the high priest was permitted to enter, and that was only once in the year on the day of atonement:

Heb 9:7  But into the second went the high priest alone once every year [On the day of atonement, Lev 16:16-17], not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Paul repeats this revolutionary Truth three chapters later in this same epistle and then again in his second epistle to this church:

1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

What is ‘the abomination of desolation?’ It is “the beast… the man of sin [you and me] the son of perdition [our dying old man] who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God [“which temple ye are”], showing himself that he is God.” “The abomination that makes desolate” is you and me ruling in our own lives; it is our ‘beast’ within, empowered by the great red dragon, (Rev 13:2) having you and me for lunch, eating the dust that we are. That is the abomination of desolation. If you are given to see that “ye are the temple of God” and that you are also the man of sin sitting on God’s own throne within His own dwelling place, His own temple, then you can also see clearly that when Christ speaks of the gospel of the kingdom being preached in all the nations, this is also an inward statement speaking of all the powers and principalities within you, and within me, within each of us. Then you will see that beast, that man of sin, sitting on the throne in your heart, doing what he wants and never having lost a battle:

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Once you see the inward application of scripture, then you finally have a handle on who “the man of sin” is.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

What Paul told these Thessalonians when he was with them was the same thing he told the Corinthians when he was with them… “Know you not that ye are the temple of God…” (1Co 3:15-16)

Now we can finally understand that what Christ taught His disciples in Matthew 13 was preparing them to understand His prophecy in Matthew 24:

Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Continuing on in Matthew 13 where Christ is explaining how we are to understand His words in Matthew 24 and everywhere else:

Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see [spiritually], and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear [spiritually], and have not heard them.
Mat 13:18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and [spiritually] understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one [“the fowls of the air”, (Mar 4:4)], and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

What is he talking about here? How does this have an inward application? Let’s let Christ finish what He is telling us here in Matthew 13 so we can apply the principles He is giving us here to what He tells us later in Matthew 24:

Mat 13:20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Mat 13:22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

‘He that received seed into stony places, receives it with joy, yet has no root in himself’ and does not ‘endure to the end’ when persecution comes because of the word, and he also who received the seed among the thorns is choked by the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and becomes unfruitful. What Christ is telling us here in Matthew 13 is just confirming what Christ had already taught us in:

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

“Few there be that find it” here in Matthew 7 is the same message Christ is giving to us in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 where He tells us that it is not given to the multitudes of Christians who come to Him to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto [the multitudes] in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you [the “few… that find it”] to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them is it not given. [the “many there be which go in… the broad way”]

With this knowledge that few are given to understand Christ’s spiritual words let’s return to His words in Matthew 24:

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Mat 24:16  Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Mat 24:17  Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Mat 24:18  Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
Mat 24:19  And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Mat 24:20  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
Mat 24:21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
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.

If this is not to be applied internally and spiritually, then how can it have any application for that time? Where was the abomination of desolation and the great tribulation 2,000 years ago? Why would Christ say, ‘Woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days’? It should be clear to all of us that Christ does not think any less of a pregnant woman nor a suckling child than He thinks of you and me.

If you don’t see this internally and spiritually, then you will never understand the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation says “the time is at hand [to] read, hear and keep the saying of the prophecy of this book.”

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Both Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation prophesy about a ‘great tribulation’ and ‘earthquakes’ and all kinds of trials and plagues. Both tell us that these prophecies “are at hand” and both tell us these things will be fulfilled in “this generation… for the time is at hand.” Revelation 1:3 is exactly what Christ says here in Matthew 24:

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Once you accept that everything Christ prophesied came to pass in that generation, and that ‘His Words do not pass away’ but continue to be fulfilled in every generation since those words were first spoken… once you are given to accept that as a truth, not to be negotiated, then you will understand why Jesus Christ says so many times in the book of Revelation, ‘I am he that is, was and will be.’ Once you get a handle on the ‘is, was and will be,’ nature of Christ’s Words, then the word of God opens up to you in a way that it will never be understood otherwise.

‘But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened’ (Mat 24:22). How does that apply generation by generation? Right here it is:

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.

1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
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:

That’s the days being shortened so the elect can “bear it.” If Jesus Christ is not in us, if He Himself is not living in us daily, and the days are not being shortened so we can bear it in our flesh, nobody would make it, no flesh would be saved alive.

Right at this juncture in your walk, when you are beginning to see that you are in Babylon:

Mat 24:23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

Don’t believe it! All this talk about a secret rapture is a bunch of lies.

Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs [G4592: ‘semeion’] and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

That Greek word ‘semeion’, translated as ‘signs’ here in Matthew 24:24 is the same Greek word translated as ‘miracles’ in Revelation 13:

Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles [G4592: ‘semeion’] which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

Spiritual gifts are not a synonym for the love of God or the fruits of the spirit. Spiritual gifts do not signify a mature son of God. The immature disciples of Christ were given to cast out demons and heal the sick long before they were even converted:

Luk 10:9  And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

Luk 10:17  And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luk 22:33  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34  And he said, I tell thee, Peter, this day, before that the cock shall crow thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Here is a Biblical Truth which is understood by very few. Paul tells us the church at Corinth “came behind in no gift”, and yet he tells them they are “yet carnal… babes in Christ”:

1Co 1:4  I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
1Co 1:5  That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1Co 1:6  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Skipping ahead to chapter three:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

God’s elect mature sons know the difference between gifts of the spirit and fruits of the spirit. You cannot and will not have “the fruits of the spirit” if Christ is not living His life in you. You will not and cannot, love your enemy without Christ being in you.

We will pause this study on “the fowls of the air” at this point and finish it in our next study.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/how-to-behave-yourself-in-the-house-of-god/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-behave-yourself-in-the-house-of-god Sun, 05 Apr 2026 02:50:26 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=35864 Audio Download

How to Behave Yourself in the House of God

[Study Aired April 5, 2026]

1Ti 3:14  These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:
1Ti 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

The first thing we need to notice in this study is that nowhere in all of scripture are we told that Peter, or any other single man, “is the pillar and ground of The Truth.” What this verse, along with “the sum of Thy word” (Psa 119:160) teaches throughout scripture is that “the church of the living God… is… the pillar and ground of The Truth.”

In the first epistle of John we are told this most powerful Truth:

1Jn 4:13  Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
1Jn 4:14  And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
1Jn 4:15  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
1Jn 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

We know and believe the love God has toward us to such an extent that Christ Himself calls us “…Jesus of Nazareth whom you persecutest.”

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Christ had already taught this very doctrine earlier when He told us:

Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

The same principle applies to those who persecute Christ and His body:

Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Those are but a few of the scriptures which clearly state that Christ identifies with His church. Not once does He confer His identity upon any one man. It is always conferred upon His body, the church.

Who exactly is Christ of whom we are told “as He is” (1Jo 4:17)? The gospel of John has exactly seven ‘I Am’ statements which tell us who Christ is and therefore who we in Him are:

1. “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35) Are we bread? Nowhere are we called ‘the bread of life’, but if Christ is in us and if we share His Word with others then we are indeed “as He is in this world” (1Jo 4:17)

2. “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12) Are we the light of the world. In this case Jesus comes right out and tells us that if He is in us then we too are “the light of the world” (Mat 5:14 and 1Jo 4:17)

3. “I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7) Are we, in Christ ‘the gate of the sheepfold? No, we are not overtly called the gate. Christ alone has that title, but He in us will certainly ‘stand at the door and knock” simply because we are as He is in this world (1Jo 4:17).

4. “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11) Are we shepherds of the Lord’s flock? Yes, we are explicitly called ‘shepherds of the Lord’s flock (Joh 10:2;1Pe 5:2 and 1Jo 4:17)

5. “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25) This title belongs to Christ alone. Nevertheless we are still told that like Him ‘from our bellies will flow rivers of living waters’:

6. “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) This title belongs exclusively to Christ. Nevertheless through Him within us, we can show others that Christ is ‘the way, the Truth and The Life’ (1Jo 4:17).

7. “I am the true vine” (John 15:1) Are we “The True Vine”? Of course not, not of ourselves. But we are branches on The True Vine and as such we must bring forth much fruit” through feeding the bread of life to others. (Joh 15:5).

Joh 15:8  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Joh 15:9  As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
Joh 15:11  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

We should indeed be rejoicing in our calling even as we are “hated of all men” (Mat 10:22, Rom 9:18).

We are also called ‘the body of Christ’ of which body He is ‘The Head’:

Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

We are not ‘The Head of the body’, but we are “His body which is the church”, as Paul reveals in this same chapter just six verses later:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Exactly who is part of His body which “fills up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ”? The answer to that question must be decided by each of us, and we must surely count those with whom we fellowship to be that ‘body.’ If we do not consider each other to be Christ, then why are we fellowshipping together? If indeed we do count His church to be Christ Himself, then we must never “lean to our own understanding” when differences arise in our midst over doctrinal matters. That is what we are commanded to do, and that is the example we are given by the Lord’s original apostles when the question arose about the need for circumcising Gentile converts.

Pro 3:3  Let not mercy and truth [“The church is the pillar and ground of The Truth] forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
Pro 3:4  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
Pro 3:8  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

1Ti 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Here is how we are expected to behave ourselves in the house of God when we disagree with others in the Lord’s body which is the church:

Act 15:1  And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Act 15:2  When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

Why did the church at Syrian Antioch decide to “go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question?” They decided to do so because they knew what the scripture taught concerning how we are instructed to handle difficult decisions. Here is the earliest Biblical instructions on the proper, godly way of settling hard questions within the Lord’s house:

Deu 17:8  If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;
Deu 17:9  And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:
Deu 17:10  And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:
Deu 17:11  According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.
Deu 17:12  And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
Deu 17:13  And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

It is the Lord who picks our leaders by having us to bring before him men who are “known among you” as men of integrity, to be our leaders:

Deu 1:13  Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

You are all well aware of all the years of unpaid service which has been given for your sakes by every one of our elders. Each of us is aware of the solemn requirements of our calling. James warns us:

Jas 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. (BSB)

Hebrews 13:17 instructs us to obey our leaders because “they are keeping watch over your souls as those who must give an account.”

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you. (CLV)

In Acts 20 Paul warns the Ephesian elders to pay close attention to yourselves and to the flock over which the holy spirit has made us overseers, because grievous wolves will enter in among us not sparing the flock. He even warned us of what we have experienced more than once about men among our own elders arising and speaking perverse things:

Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Here is what Peter commands the Lord’s elders to do:

1Pe 5:1  The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
1Pe 5:2  Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
1Pe 5:3  Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
1Pe 5:4  And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Christ Himself warns us:

Luk 12:48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

The Lord had told the apostles, through His Word, to take ‘matters of controversy within your gates to the priests and judges that be in that day.’ Nowhere in all of scripture are doctrinal matters decided by just one man’s judgment. One man may indeed speak for the priests and judges but only after “the apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter”:

Act 15:6  And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.

Every one of the apostles and elders gave their input before James declared what the holy ghost had told them to do about this question at this time:

Act 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

“When there had been much disputing” is speaking about disputing between the apostles and elders… “the judges in that day” who all stepped up and shared with the other elders what the Lord had given them to contribute to the settling of this “controversy with thy gates.” It was thoroughly discussed by ‘wise and understanding men’ who are known among you and have been placed among you by the Lord Himself.

Deu 1:13  Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.

“Take you wise men… and I will make them rulers over you” means that it is the Lord Himself who is working within His body ‘both to will and to do of His good pleasure… after the counsel of His own will’:

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:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings” does not mean that the elders cannot express differing views on the ‘controversy with our gates’. They most assuredly did express their differing views. Nevertheless this was the consensus of the apostles there in Jerusalem, and Peter, Paul and Barnabas were very zealous to be obedient to these decrees:

Act 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
Act 15:29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

What Philippians 2:14… “Do all things without murmurings and disputings,” is telling us is that once a consensus is reached we are to “share it with the churches”, which is exactly what Paul and Silas did immediately following that conference in Jerusalem concerning whether the Gentiles were required to be circumcised.

This is how careful Paul and Silas were to abide by “the decrees of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem”:

Act 16:1  Then came he [He and Silas] to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
Act 16:2  Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
Act 16:3  Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.
Act 16:4  And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.

Paul was so careful to abide by ‘the decrees of the [consensus] of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem’ that He circumcised Timothy, whose mother “was a Jewess”.

Peter, Paul, and Barnabas were all very careful to accept the judgment of the judges.

Deu 17:11  According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

That is what “Lean not to thine own understanding” looks like.

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Anyone who refuses to seek the counsel of the elders of the church cannot in any way claim to be “acknowledging [God and His Word]” and that person’s path is not being directed by Christ, rather it is being directed by his father the devil (Joh 8:44).

Anyone who refuses to seek the counsel of his elders is nothing but “wise in [his] own eyes and is not at all ‘fearing the Lord and departing from evil’, because this is what the Lord admonishes us to do:

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you.

Moses had made it clear that all males in Israel must be circumcised, and no one in the conference at Jerusalem was openly and overtly demanding that the Jews had to forsake that ritual to be saved. The early church was still under the law of Moses as James made so very clear in Acts 21, many years after the Jerusalem conference of Acts 15:

Act 21:17  And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
Act 21:18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
Act 21:21  And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
Act 21:22  What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
Act 21:26  Then Paul [Because Paul was also keeping the law at this time] took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Every single elder at that conference in Acts 15 agreed that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised to be saved. Notice carefully that Peter, Paul and Barnabas had made clear to the other elders that in their minds the Lord “put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith… we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we [Jews] shall be saved even as they.” Notice that Peter did not say ‘they shall be saved even as we [by practicing ritualistic outward circumcision]. What Peter, Paul and Barnabas concluded was not at this time the consensus of the other apostles and elders. They all agreed that the Gentiles were not required to be circumcised, but they absolutely did not agree at that time that the Jews did not need to keep the law of Moses.

Notice how James included the teachings of the synagogues to be the teachings of Moses which he and all of the apostles except Peter, Paul, and Barnabas considered as necessary for Jewish Christians to observe and keep:

Act 15:20  But that we [The apostles at Jerusalem] write unto them [Gentile Christian converts], that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21  For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

Verse 21 in the minds of the apostles at this time was not a negative thing. James and the apostles all expected all Jewish converts to continue attending the synagogues in their area and to be “zealous of the law.”

What now were Peter, Paul and Barnabas to do? Should they argue with the consensus of the elders or should they submit and keep the law of which Peter had just said:

Act 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
Act 15:8  And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
Act 15:9  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Act 15:11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. [By grace through faith (Eph 2:8) and not by the works of the law]

The Jerusalem apostles no doubt felt they had scripture on their side because this is what the Lord had indeed told Abraham:

Gen 17:10  This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
Gen 17:11  And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Gen 17:12  And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
Gen 17:13  He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
Gen 17:14  And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

We may think at some point, that the apostles had come out from under the law because of all the changes and reforms Christ had instituted in Matthew 5-7. Time and again He would quote the law of Moses and then follow what He had just quoted with the words… “But I say unto you…” and the “…But I say unto you” would invariably be the exact opposite of what the Law of Moses dictated:

Mat 5:38  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

‘Resist not evil’ is the exact opposite of ‘An eye for an eye’.

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

“Love your enemies” is the exact opposite of “hate thine enemy.” Yet the Lord had shown Peter, Paul and Barnabas that he had begun the “time of reformation”, and the law of Moses was “fading away” and being replaced by “the law of the spirit of life” (Rom 8:2). Fortunately for the church of that day, the apostles Peter, Paul, and Barnabas knew the Lord’s words of:

Deu 17:8  If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;
Deu 17:9  And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:
Deu 17:10  And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

Peter, Paul and Barnabas were all familiar with the three times repeated admonition to submit to the multitude of counsellors:

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.

It is for our admonition, and as an example to all of us that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas were “persuaded of their leaders and deferred to them” rather than to lean to their own understanding, even as the Lord had shown them what would be the accepted truth at a later date. It was much like David acknowledging Saul as “the Lord’s anointed” even though he had already been anointed to become King Saul’s replacement. King David was anointed by Samuel, the same judge and prophet who had anointed King Saul.

Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, were being told at that conference over the question of Gentiles being required to be circumcised in order to be saved, that their doctrine would replace the law of Moses even for the Jews. Like David, they would have to wait for the Lord to reveal when He would make that replacement obvious to all. It took time for Israel to submit to David as their new king, and it took time for the doctrine that the Lord had put no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles to be accepted as the new Truth. It became impossible to live by the law of Moses when the temple was finally destroyed in 70 A. D.

Very shortly before the destruction of the temple the holy spirit made this revelation to Paul while he was still a prisoner at Rome:

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall between us; [The Jews must continue living under the law of Moses as agreed to in Acts 15]
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17  And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Eph 2:21  In whom all the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph 2:22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

When the Lord destroyed King Saul it became evident that David was now the king, and when the holy spirit decided to make it clear it became evident that the Jewish Christians were no longer under the law of Moses.

This is very good advice for anyone who claims to tremble at the Lord’s Words:

Ecc 5:1  Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
Ecc 5:2  Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

In conclusion when “a… controversy within [our] gates arises” let us all be obedient to the law and “be persuaded of our elders and defer to them”:

Deu 17:8  If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose;
Deu 17:9  And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment:
Deu 17:10  And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee:

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you.

If we tremble at those words and are obedient to them, then we will reap the benefits of the peace and joy that comes with these words:

Psa 133:1  A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Eph 4:1  I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Eph 4:2  With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Eph 4:3  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Let us all behave ourselves in the house of God, the pillar and ground of The Truth.

The Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number 40

[Study Aired March 29, 2026]

In this study we will see that the number forty in its positive application signifies periods of trials and testing, purification, and preparation, always leading up to and producing a more mature and fruitful place of service. This period of being tried, whether for forty days or forty years precedes a new and much better beginning. This positive application of the number forty is first demonstrated in the forty days of rain which brought in the world wide flood:

Gen 7:4  For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

The old world was completely destroyed in the flood, and out of that death and total destruction a new world was born signified by the number eight.

2Pe 2:5  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Noah also waited forty days after the tops of the mountains appeared before he sent out a raven:

Gen 8:5  And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
Gen 8:6  And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Gen 8:7  And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

The number forty is the product of 5×8. Five signifies God’s chastening grace, through the faith of Jesus Christ, and eight signifies new beginnings or the new man. Therefore the number forty signifies the grace through faith, which is required to put our old man to death and to begin the birth of our new man, “Christ in [us] the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Our “fiery trials” should be seen as the chastening hand of the Lord in our lives. The Lord’s chastening is the work of His grace with which He favors His elect and chosen disciples:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [G3811: ‘paideuo’], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Paul also tells us that God’s grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, Chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously , and godly, in this present world;
Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

The number five signifies that work of grace through faith, and the number forty consists of  5X8=40. Grace through faith produces a new man who has endured forty days of afflicting his soul.

Lev 23:26  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:27  Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Lev 23:28  And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Lev 23:29  For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.

The prophet Elijah spent forty days walking to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai), where he was given to know that he was about to enter into a new stage of his life after fleeing for fear of Jezebel’s threat to take his life:

1Ki 19:8  And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
1Ki 19:9  And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1Ki 19:10  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1Ki 19:11  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
1Ki 19:12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
1Ki 19:13  And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1Ki 19:14  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1Ki 19:15  And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria:
1Ki 19:16  And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.
1Ki 19:17  And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
1Ki 19:18  Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

Again we see forty days of fasting preceding an epochal change in the life of Elijah as it was in the lives of Moses and the life of Christ.

The number forty eight times amplifies the significance of the number five. The number eight signifies a new beginning in which the flesh begins to be put off on the eighth day, and a new man begins to be formed on the eighth day. Expressed in another way the number forty is a five times amplification of the number eight. Since eight signifies new beginning or divine intervention, that concept is amplified five times signifying the function of grace through faith, which is the significance of the number five.

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_five/

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-spiritual-significance-of-numbers-the-number-eight/

The number forty therefore represents a time of trial which produces a spiritual transformation, where the old self begins to be stripped away and a new existence as a new man begins. Christ Himself began an entirely new life only after forty days of fasting and confronting the beast in the wilderness.

Mar 1:13  And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

As this story demonstrates, the number forty is associated with those times of adversity and spiritual combat. The worst ‘beast’ any of us will ever face is the ‘beast’ we look at in the mirror every morning. There is no worse enemy any of us will ever confront. Christ’s own flesh was the worst beast He ever faced yet, because He was given the spirit without measure, He never once succumbed to those fleshly desires. His subjection to a new and much better man is signified by the number forty. Christ spent forty days dying daily to the physical desires of His flesh, followed by a lifetime of dying daily to the pulls of the flesh of His old man.

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

On a national level Israel spent forty years waiting for the death of that generation which came out of Egypt. The carcasses of that unbelieving generation died in the wilderness typifying what must be done to our own old man:

1Co 10:5 But not in the majority of them does God delight, for they were strewn along in the wilderness.
1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CLV)

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

In the stories of the forty days of rain which brought on the worldwide flood of Noah, and in the forty years of wandering in the wilderness until the generation which came up out of Egypt had died, and Christ fasting forty days while dealing with wild beasts in the wilderness, these stories all admonish us that the Lord is in the process of purifying us for His service as “saviors” of “the rest of the dead” who do not come up out of their graves in “the resurrection of life.”

Joh 5:25  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
Joh 5:26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [“The first resurrection]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920: ‘krisis’ judgment, “the great white throne judgment”].

Christ had to endure this time of forty days of afflicting His soul to prepare Him for the temptations of the adversary which He faced “afterward”.

Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Being hungry ‘after forty days’ is not telling us that Christ was not hungry from day one. If that is not true, then Christ was not “in all ways tempted as we are” (Heb 4:15). The point being made is that it was after the forty days of fasting that the tempter came to tempt our Lord. However, Christ was given His Father’s spirit without measure and rebuffed every temptation of the adversary:

Joh 3:34  For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

Christ received of His Father an unlimited anointing. Christ was given “the fullness of the holy spirit”, which enabled Him to speak His Father’s Words perfectly and to do all His Father gave Him to do without any constraint.

Fasting forty days prepared Christ for the new life He would now live in His Father’s service during His ministry:

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

‘The will of [His] Father’ was revealed in all of the ‘…but I say unto thee’ changes of the law made by Christ in His new “law of the spirit of Christ”, which He revealed in His teachings in Matthew 5-7. This new way of life began to be taught by Christ only after He fasted for forty days.

Mat 5:38  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

“Resist not evil” is the exact opposite of “an eye for an eye…” Here is another ‘But I say unto thee… change in the  law’ of Moses:

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

“Love your enemies” is the exact opposite of “hate your enemy”. Truly Christ has brought in “the times of reformation”:

Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

The law of Moses has indeed been changed to “the law of the spirit” (Rom 8:2). “The time of reformation” is now upon us, but it had to be preceded by Christ fasting forty days.

“The letter of the law… for the lawless” (2Co 3:6, 1Ti 1:9) which the Lord gave to Moses was also given to him only after Moses had fasted forty days:

1Ti 1:7  Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

Christ enjoyed another forty days which he spent with His disciples preparing them for their new life which they would experience after His resurrection:

Act 1:1  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Act 1:2  Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
Act 1:3  To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Such an incredible reformation from dying letter to living spirit had to be preceded by a forty-day fast. Even the “carnal commandments” of the law of Moses were given only after Moses had fasted for forty days.

Exo 34:28  And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Upon seeing the golden calf Aaron had made for the people, Moses broke the tables of stone on which the Lord had written the ten commandments, and Moses returned to the mount and fasted a second forty days:

Deu 9:9  When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
Deu 9:10  And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
Deu 9:11  And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
Deu 9:12  And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

The second forty days are recorded in this same chapter:

Deu 9:18  And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

This was all done in preparation for entering into the promised land where all the mind of God was ideally to be put into practice in the lives of the Lord’s people. Moses fasting for forty days on Mount Sinai, and Christ spending forty days with His disciples after His resurrection were both in preparation for the new mission He had in store for His Israel.

Gal 6:15  Certainly, it doesn’t matter whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.
Gal 6:16  Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God. (GWV)

Another observation we can make concerning this number forty is that whether it is the forty days of rain which brought on the flood of Noah or the forty days of fasting which Moses and Christ experienced, this number is used to separate two epochs of time in our lives. Those two times are the time we spend in the first natural realm and the time we begin to experience in the realm of the spirit:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Just as Abraham mourned over the loss of his own flesh, his first son, Ishmael, and just as King David mourned the death of King Saul, it is only natural and even Biblically proper that we mourn the loss of our own flesh, both through the forty days of those who are embalmed and the total of seventy days mourning of the loss of our old man, signified by the death of Israel in Egypt:

Gen 50:2  And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Gen 50:3  And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.

2Sa 1:11  Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that were with him:
2Sa 1:12  And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.
2Sa 1:13  And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.
2Sa 1:14  And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the LORD’S anointed?
2Sa 1:15  And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died.
2Sa 1:16  And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the LORD’S anointed.

One of the negative applications of the number forty is that King Saul’s reign was forty years:

Act 13:21  And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

Another entry which can be considered as a negative application is that Moses permitted a maximum of forty stripes for corporeal punishment:

Deu 25:2  And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.
Deu 25:3  Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

While we want to overcome the fear displayed by the ten spies who gave the land a bad report, yet it is good to take the time, to ‘spy out’ what we are going up against before we go where the Lord is leading us. Moses sent spies to spy out the land for forty days, and Christ Himself teaches us to “count the cost” before we begin building a tower or go to war:

Luk 14:25  And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:28  For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Luk 14:29  Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Luk 14:30  Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Luk 14:31  Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32  Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
Luk 14:33  So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

The Lord is very honest and straightforward with us. If we put anything – wife, children, mother, father, or country – ahead of our love and devotion to Him, then we are not worthy to be His disciple. This admonition is telling us to be aware of this requirement before we commit to becoming a good soldier of Christ:

2Ti 2:3  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2Ti 2:4  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Exactly how does a “good soldier of Jesus Christ do battle? Exactly what are his weapons of war?

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Those are the weapons of our warfare, and the minute we take up physical and natural weapons we have at that moment lost all the protection that Christ and His Word afford.

As ‘soldiers’ and ‘spies’ we are employed by the same king, and that king is Christ, who tells us to spy out the land for forty days and become aware of the strength of the enemy, but at the same time realize that even our greatest enemy, even the greatest giant in our land, our own ‘old man’, is nothing more than a tool with which the Lord is forming a new child within the womb of His church.

Num 13:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 13:2  Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe [twelve men] of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
Num 13:25  And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

It takes forty years of a life preparing us to be worthy of beginning to enter into our new life. During that forty years we are sustained on physical manna, protected from the heat of the Sun by a cloud by day, and given light by night by a pillar of fire. In other words, at this stage we “come behind in no gift [and yet we] are still carnal babes in Christ, typified by the church at  Corinth:

1Co 1:4  I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
1Co 1:5  That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1Co 1:6  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

That may sound like a real blessing, and indeed it is a blessing for an immature babe in Christ who must be given everything needed to stay alive. But when we have everything handed to us on a silver platter we are not yet capable of accepting the concept of dying with, and being crucified with Christ. At this earlier state of our spiritual development we are simply thankful to learn that Christ died for us:

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

The fact that Christ did die for the sins of a repentant world is what the holy spirit calls ‘the milk of the word’ and none of us can begin life eating strong meat. Paul makes us all aware of this spiritual fact in the very next chapter of 1^st Corinthians:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The Lord has ordained that forty weeks followed by a short period of extreme pain are required for the normal birth of a healthy child. If indeed the invisible things of God are understood by the things that are made, the Lord is indeed demonstrating how His mind works to bring forth His firstfruit manchild with whom He will rule this world.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Christ tells us that “many are called but few are chosen” are the concluding words of the Lord’s parable of the wedding feast. That may sound disheartening to the natural man, but for those few who are chosen, nothing can come between them and their Lord:

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Those verses are the epochal transformation for which our forty years in the wilderness and our forty days of fasting are preparing us to inherit, and nothing will rob us of that inheritance nor separate us from our Savior. Our lives are of Him, through Him and to Him:

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Spiritual Significance of  Numbers – The Number 19 and The Number 20

[Study Aired March 22, 2026]

The number nineteen consists of the number nine and the number ten. Nine signifies judgment, and ten signifies the flesh. Therefore this number is connected to the judgment of the flesh which is demonstrated by the destruction of the nation of Judah in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule:

2Ki 25:5  And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.
2Ki 25:6  So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.
2Ki 25:7  And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.
2Ki 25:8  And in the fifth month, on the seventh day  of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:
2Ki 25:9  And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.
2Ki 25:10  And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

Here are the links to the studies on the number nine and the number ten:

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/spiritual-significance-of-numbers-nine-the-number-of-gods-judgment/

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/spiritual-significance-of-numbers-ten-is-the-zenith-of-the-flesh/

The tribe of Naphtali received 19 cities, with their villages, as part of their inheritance in the Promised Land. Their inheritance from God was in the northern most part of what would become Israel. It encompassed the entire western section of the Sea of Galilee.

Jos 19:38  And Iron, and Migdalel, Horem, and Bethanath, and Bethshemesh; nineteen cities with their villages.

Isaiah prophesied that the land of Naphtali and Zebulon would someday see a shining beacon in their lands.

Isa 9:1  Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
Isa 9:2  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

This prophecy, which only the book of Matthew records as being fulfilled, came true during the life of Jesus within the tribe of Naphtali which inherited 19 cities.

Another significant fact concerning this number is that each year it takes 19 days to observe all of God’s annual Feast days. These commanded yearly celebrations are the Passover (1 day), Days of Unleavened Bread (7 days), Pentecost (1 day), Day of Trumpets (1 day), Day of Atonement (1 day), Feast of Tabernacles (7 days) and Last Great Day (1 day). Nineteen days are required to signify the completed judgment (9) of God, upon all flesh, (10).

That judgment has a negative application for the flesh and a positive application for the spirit because life comes only “through death”:

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The Spiritual Significance of The Number 20

Positive-Being Prepared For Service

Negative-Being Prepared For Judgment

The number twenty first appears in scripture in the story of Abraham bargaining with Christ to spare the destruction of Sodom. Abraham started out asking the Lord to spare Sodom if 50 righteous were found in the city and ended up asking for the Lord’s mercy if only ten righteous were in the city. Twenty was his next to the last request:

Gen 18:31  And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.
Gen 18:32  And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.
Gen 18:33  And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.

This can be seen as a negative application of the number twenty inasmuch as not even twenty were being prepared for the Lord’s service in all of Sodom and Sodom suffered the Lord’s judgment for her sins.

The first positive application of the number twenty, demonstrating that it signifies preparation for service is in the story of Jacob who served his uncle Laban for twenty years:

Gen 31:38  This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.
Gen 31:39  That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night.
Gen 31:40  Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
Gen 31:41  Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times.
Gen 31:42  Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

The Lord had told Jacob to return to the land of his father and Jacob did so.

Gen 31:3  And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

If the Lord had not been with him those 20 years in his uncle Laban’s service Jacob would not have been prepared for the trials which he endured on his return. Laban pursued him with the means to do Jacob great harm.

Gen 31:29  It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
Gen 31:30  And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
Gen 31:31  And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.
Gen 31:32  With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.

He was also told that his brother, Esau was coming with four hundred men, and he wrestled with Christ all night the night before confronting his brother, Esau. His twenty years in Laban’s house, suffering “affliction and labor”, serving his uncle, and ‘having his wages changed ten times’ prepared Jacob for the Lord’s service.

Several years after Jacob’s return to the land of his father his son, Joseph was sold by the hand of his jealous brothers to Midianite merchantmen for twenty pieces of silver:

Gen 37:28  Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.

Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver signifying that the Lord was preparing him for a life in the Lord’s service, whereas Christ being sold for thirty pieces of silver signifies His service has been offered and the judgment of Christ’s flesh was immediately at hand.

Mat 26:14  Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
Mat 26:15  And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Jabin, king of Canaan, oppressed Israel for twenty years before the Lord used Deborah and Barak to deliver them from that bondage:

Jdg 4:1  And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.
Jdg 4:2  And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
Jdg 4:3  And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

The Lord always hears a repentant cry, and He sent Israel deliverance via Deborah and Barak:

Jdg 4:4  And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
Jdg 4:5  And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Jdg 4:6  And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?
Jdg 4:7  And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.

The Philistines, in the days of Samuel, the last judge of Israel, won a battle with Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant back to their land where it was a plague to each of the five cities to which they sent it for seven months. The ark was such a curse upon the Philistines that they sent it back to Israel. It spent a little time in the city of Bethshemesh where it again became a curse to the people because they had presumptuously looked into the ark:

1Sa 6:19  And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
1Sa 6:20  And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
1Sa 6:21  And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.

The men of Kirjathjearim came and took the ark to the house of Abinadab where Abinadab’s son Eleazar was “sanctified… to keep the ark of the Lord”:

1Sa 7:1  And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
1Sa 7:2  And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.

The twenty years the ark was in Kirjathjearim was in preparation for Israel to demand a king of Samuel. The next time we hear any mention of the ark is when King Saul orders Ahiah the high priest, to bring the ark of God:

1Sa 14:18  And Saul said unto Ahiah, Bring hither the ark of God. For the ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel.

In verse 2 of this same chapter we are informed that Ahiah was the high priest in the days of King Saul:

1Sa 14:1  Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison, that is on the other side. But he told not his father.
1Sa 14:2  And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men;
1Sa 14:3  And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD’S priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.

We are not given the exact date when the ark was taken from Kirjathjearim to be with the high priest, Ahiah in King Saul’s camp but the twenty years in Kirjathjearim was in preparation for this service to the new king.

In another negative application of this number twenty it is very interesting to notice that the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah starting with the splitting of the kingdom during the rule of Rehoboam the son of King Solomon, both had 20 rulers before they were carried off into captivity. The northern kingdom started with Jereboam, the son of Nebat, and ended with Hoshea. The southern kingdom started with Rehoboam and ended with Zedekiah.

King Ahaz, who is considered to be one of the wicked kings of Judah reigned 20 years before his son Hezekiah, the most righteous king since King David, began his reign:

2Ch 29:1  Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2Ch 29:2  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

Twenty years of witnessing his father Ahaz’s wicked rulership prepared Hezekiah to be of great service to the Lord and to the Lord’s people.

2Ki 18:2  Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.
2Ki 18:3  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.
2Ki 18:4  He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
2Ki 18:5  He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.
2Ki 18:6  For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.

That is the fruit of being prepared twenty years for the Lord’s service under his wicked father, King Ahaz.

King Solomon spent seven years building the house of God and then spent another 13 years building his own house for a total of twenty years of construction on those two projects. Hiram, king of Tyre, had supplied Solomon with raw materials and skilled craftsmen. To show his appreciation Solomon gave King Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. Upon inspection Hiram was very disappointed with Solomon’s gift and returned them to Solomon:

1Ki 9:10  And it came to pass, at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses,—the house of Yahweh, and the house of the king;
1Ki 9:11  Hiram king of Tyre having supplied Solomon with timber of cedar, and with timber of fir, and with gold, according to all his desire, that, then, King Solomon gave unto Hiram twenty cities, in the land of Galilee.
1Ki 9:12  And Hiram came out from Tyre to view the cities which, Solomon, had given him,—and they were not pleasing in his eyes.
1Ki 9:13  So he said—What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them, Unfruitful Land, as they are called unto this day.
1Ki 9:14  Now Hiram had sent to the king,—a hundred and twenty talents of gold. (REV)

King Hiram was so disappointed with the twenty cities Solomon had given him that he “restored [them] to Solomon”:

2Ch 8:1  And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house,
2Ch 8:2  That the [twenty] cities which Huram had restored to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

Samson judged Israel for twenty years:

Jdg 16:29  And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
Jdg 16:30  And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
Jdg 16:31  Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

The scriptures record twenty different messages which are conveyed through dreams. The first such dream warns Abimelech not to go near Abraham’s wife:

Gen 20:2  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
Gen 20:3  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.
Gen 20:4  But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
Gen 20:5  Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Gen 20:6  And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
Gen 20:7  Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

On his way to Haran while fleeing from his brother, Esau, Jacob dreams of a ladder to heaven, which Christ later reveals as signifying Himself:

Gen 28:12  And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Joh 1:51  And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Jacob is given a second dream where the Lord tells him to leave Laban’s employment and return to his father:

Gen 31:10  And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled.
Gen 31:11  And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.
Gen 31:12  And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
Gen 31:13  I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

Jacob’s employer, his wicked uncle Laban, is warned in a dream to do no harm to Jacob:

Gen 31:22  And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.
Gen 31:23  And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead.
Gen 31:24  And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

Joseph dreamed that his brothers would bow down to him:

Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6  And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7  For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

Joseph dreams a second dream. In this dream his brothers and his parents all bow down to him:

Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Gen 37:11  And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

The next two dreams are those of the butler and the baker:

Gen 40:2  And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
Gen 40:3  And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
Gen 40:4  And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them: and they continued a season in ward.
Gen 40:5  And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
Gen 40:6  And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad.
Gen 40:7  And he asked Pharaoh’s officers that were with him in the ward of his lord’s house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?
Gen 40:8  And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.
Gen 40:9  And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
Gen 40:10  And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:
Gen 40:11  And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.
Gen 40:12  And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:
Gen 40:13  Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
Gen 40:14  But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house:
Gen 40:15  For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.
Gen 40:16  When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
Gen 40:17  And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
Gen 40:18  And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Gen 40:19  Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
Gen 40:20  And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
Gen 40:21  And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand:
Gen 40:22  But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Gen 40:23  Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

The next dream mentioned in scripture is Pharaoh’s two different dreams. In the first dream Pharaoh sees seven fat cows eaten up by seven starved cows. His next dream was of seven fat ears of corn being eaten up by seven very thin ears of corn. (Gen 41)

A soldier in the Midianite army dreams that a cake of barley tumbled into the camp of Midian and smote a tent and overturned it. His companion interprets the man’s dream and tells him the Lord has delivered Midian into the hand of the Lord and Gideon.

Jdg 7:13  And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
Jdg 7:14  And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.
Jdg 7:15  And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

King Solomon is told by the Lord in a dream to ask anything and it would be given to him:

1Ki 3:5  In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.

King Nebuchadnezzar is shown, in a dream, all the empires that will rule the world right up to the establishment of the Lord’s kingdom at His appearing:

Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Nebuchadnezzar’s next dream reveals his own punishment for his self-righteous pride:

Dan 4:13  I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven;
Dan 4:14  He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches:
Dan 4:15  Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth:
Dan 4:16  Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.
Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
Dan 4:18  This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation: but thou art able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.

Daniel himself has a dream about the four great empires which will rule the earth before the Lord sets up His kingdom on this earth:

Dan 7:1  In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Dan 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

In Revelation 13 it is revealed to us these same four beasts are really one composite beast within every man, and it is this beast which has been reigning in the kingdoms of this world all along, and he will continue his rule until the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands destroys this beast and become a kingdom which will not pass away.

The last five dreams are recorded in the New Testament. The first three are given to Joseph, whom they supposed was Christ’s father. These dreams had to do with Christ’s supernatural birth and protecting Him from the wrath of Herod. (Mat 2:13-23)

The next dream recorded is that of the Magi being informed in a dream to avoid Herod on their trip returning to their home. (Mat 2:12)

The twentieth dream recorded in scripture is that of Pilate’s wife warning her husband that he should do nothing to harm Christ (Mat 27:19)

There are other events which may appear to be dreams but they are not called dreams. The disciples Peter, James and John saw the vision of Christ’s transformation on the mount. In this case we are told it was a vision.

Mat 17:9  And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia telling him to ‘Come over here and help us’. We are told this was a vision (Act 16:9). An angel stood by Paul the night before his ship wrecked and assured him that not one person would be lost at sea. But that event was not called a dream. (Act 27:23)

In conclusion, all of the twenty dreams recorded in scripture, and any mention of the number 20, like Jacob’s 20 years of service to Laban, has either a positive or a negative application of preparation for service whether that service is for good or evil.

The number twenty consists of two tens which signifies that our body of flesh (10) is being used of the Lord as a means of being preparing us to be given a spiritual body:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number 18

[Study Aired March 15, 2026]

We have already learned that the multiplication of any number simply amplifies or matures that number’s meaning. For example, if the number six signifies incomplete mankind, created on the sixth day, then the number 666 amplifies and matures that concept of an incomplete mankind. If twelve signifies foundations, then 144,000 would amplify and mature that concept.

Our study today is concerned with the number eighteen, which is a multiple of the number nine. The number nine is unlike any other number in that no matter which number you multiply it with, the product of that number will always reduce back to nine when added together. If we multiply 9×2=18, and the sum of the numbers which make up that product will always equal 9 because 1+8=9. 3×9=27, and when you add 2+7 it equals 9. 4×9=36 and 3+6=9… 5×9=45 and 4+5=9, etc. etc.

The spiritual significance of the number 9 is judgment which leads to salvation as demonstrated by this verse of scripture:

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Here is an in depth study on what the scriptures reveal the number nine signifies spiritually: https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_nine/

If indeed the number nine signifies the Lord’s judgments, leading to repentance and deliverance, and knowing that multiples of any number amplify and mature that number, we should expect to find that principle being demonstrated throughout the scriptures, and indeed in the first two places when this number eighteen appears in scripture that is exactly what we see:

Jdg 3:14  So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
Jdg 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.

Israel’s subjection and enslavement by Eglon the king of Moab, is the Lord’s judgment upon them for their sins. It was their judgment which led to their repentance and their deliverance. ‘When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.’(Isa 26:9)

The next time we see this number 18 is in:

Jdg 10:7  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.
Jdg 10:8  And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
Jdg 10:9  Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

What is the result of the Lord’s judgment of our sins and our repentance for those sins?

Jdg 10:10  And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.
Jdg 10:11  And the LORD said unto the children of Israel,  Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?
Jdg 10:12  The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.
Jdg 10:13  Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
Jdg 10:14  Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.
Jdg 10:15  And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.
Jdg 10:16  And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Jdg 10:17  Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.

Once again, the Lord’s judgments of our sins produces the repentance of those sins and the deliverance we all so desperately need:

Jdg 11:32  So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
Jdg 11:33  And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

The sins and the judgment of those sins of Israel, leading to the repentance and deliverance from those sins, is signified by this number 18. That was the number of years Israel was oppressed by her enemies. Paul tells us that all these things happened to Israel and they are written for our admonition:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

The ‘Israel’ of the Old Testament signifies those who are now claiming the name and character of Jesus Christ. It is now we who must come to see our sins and repent of those sins before we can be delivered from our bondage of desiring to be as the nations and the people around us.

The next time we see this number 18 is in the story of the destruction of the tribe of Benjamin for raping to death the concubine of a Levite who had spent the night in Gibeah, a city of Benjamin, in the home of a man of that city who had invited him to his house for the night. We will see in this story that both Israel and Benjamin lose 18,000 men each in two separate battles.

The men of Gibeah had demanded that the host send his Levite guest out to them so they could do to him what the men of Sodom had wanted to do to the two angels who had been invited into Lot’s home. The Levite gave the men his concubine and the men of Gibeah raped her to death. The next day the Levite cut her body into twelve pieces and sent a piece to each tribe of Israel hoping for revenge for the loss of his concubine who had given her life for him. The story of what had been done to the Levite’s concubine outraged the entire nation, and they determined to discipline Gibeah for this atrocity:

Jdg 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
Jdg 20:12  And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?
Jdg 20:13  Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:
Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

Israel wanted only the guilty men, but all of Benjamin refused to punish these perverts among themselves. Benjamin was of Israel, and what had been manifested at Gibeah was lying dormant in all Israel and is dormant in all flesh. The Lord used this occasion to punish both Israel and Benjamin even though Israel inquired of the Lord daily before going to war.

Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
Jdg 20:15  And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
Jdg 20:16  Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
Jdg 20:17  And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
Jdg 20:18  And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

It is in this situation amidst the loss of thousands on both sides that both Israel and Benjamin lost 18,000 men in two separate battles:

Jdg 20:25  And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

These “eighteen thousand” were just on “the second day.” Israel lost many more on the first day:

Jdg 20:19  And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
Jdg 20:20  And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
Jdg 20:21  And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

Eighteen plus twenty two equals a loss of 40,000 men of Israel in just two days with apparently very few of Benjamin being slain. It is plain for all to see the Lord was not happy with either side. Nevertheless, He did give Israel the final victory over Benjamin for the atrocities committed by the men of Gibeah against the concubine of a Levite.

Jdg 20:26  Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
Jdg 20:27  And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
Jdg 20:28  And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

Israel was given to exercise a much better strategy on the third day acting as if they had come to fight in the same manner as they had the first two days. Then they intentionally fled before the men of Benjamin while “liers in wait” came out of the fields and burned the city behind the Benjamite soldiers causing them to flee for their lives:

Jdg 20:29  And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.
Jdg 20:30  And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
Jdg 20:31  And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
Jdg 20:32  And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.
Jdg 20:33  And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.
Jdg 20:34  And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.
Jdg 20:35  And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.
Jdg 20:36  So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
Jdg 20:37  And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
Jdg 20:38  Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.
Jdg 20:39  And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
Jdg 20:40  But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
Jdg 20:41  And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.
Jdg 20:42  Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.
Jdg 20:43  Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
Jdg 20:44  And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
Jdg 20:45  And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
Jdg 20:46  So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.
Jdg 20:47  But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
Jdg 20:48  And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

Israel was given deliverance from the sins of Gibeah while Benjamin was almost wiped out as a tribe.

Jdg 21:2  And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;
Jdg 21:3  And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

Israel was given to find a way to give wives to the six hundred Benjamites who had survived and were at the Rock Rimmon for four months. In the end they, too, were delivered and returned to rebuild their cities and the foundation of Israel was preserved in the twelve tribes.

The spiritual lesson in this story is the same as the story of the sin of Achan:

Jos 7:10  And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
Jos 7:11  Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Jos 7:12  Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Jos 7:13  Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

Israel had just destroyed Jericho, and they were moving on to war against another very small city called Ai. For some strange reason they were defeated by this very small town:

Jos 7:5  And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
Jos 7:6  And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
Jos 7:7  And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
Jos 7:8  O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
Jos 7:9  For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

The Lord revealed to Joshua there was someone who had taken for himself what the Lord had forbidden, and for that reason a curse was upon the whole nation. That ‘someone’ was Achan, who confessed his sin and was put to death:

Jos 7:19  And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.
Jos 7:20  And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:
Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:22  So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:23  And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.
Jos 7:24  And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
Jos 7:25  And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
Jos 7:26  And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.

Once the sin was repented of and removed then the Lord delivered Ai into Israel’s hands, and Israel destroyed their enemy with the same strategy used by Israel to destroy Benjamin many years later:

Jos 8:10  And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
Jos 8:11  And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.
Jos 8:12  And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
Jos 8:13  And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
Jos 8:14  And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

While the number 18 is not mentioned in the story of the conquest of Ai, the principle of judgment leading to repentance followed by deliverance, signified by the number 18, is very evident.

The next appearance of this number eighteen is when King David was renowned for slaying 18,000 Syrians in the valley of salt. At that time the Lord delivered David from all his enemies:

2Sa 8:13  And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men.
2Sa 8:14  And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

This was following David’s trials and his judgment at the hands of wicked king Saul. At this time David was humble and was delivered from all of his enemies.

Another appearance of this number eighteen, is in giving us the measurements of the two huge copper pillars at the front of the temple of Solomon. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. That is 27 feet or 8.23 meters high:

The placement of these two pillars, which were 18 cubits high, at the front of the temple signifies that we are being delivered from our sins after being judged for those sins and repenting before entering into the house of our Lord.

We find this same number with the same significance in the New Testament. Christ makes it clear in Luke thirteen that this number signifies the repentance and deliverance which we all must experience when being judged of the Lord:

Luk 13:1  There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2  And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4  Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

This same number with the same spiritual significance appears twice more in this same thirteenth chapter of Luke:

Luk 13:10  And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
Luk 13:11  And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
Luk 13:12  And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
Luk 13:13  And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
Luk 13:14  And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
Luk 13:15  The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
Luk 13:16  And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
Luk 13:17  And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

This woman was delivered from “a spirit of infirmity” which kept her “bowed together to the extent that she could not straighten herself up for 18 years. But at that point she was delivered from that infirmity and made whole.

There is much more that can be pointed out in scripture concerning the number eighteen but I will close this study at this juncture by pointing out that eighteen is three sixes, three signifying the process of judgment and six signifying our incomplete, carnal-minded old man who is in the process of being delivered from that sad state through the Lord’s judgments:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

That is truly good news!

Spiritual Significance of the Number 17

Seventeen Signifies Divine Intervention in Pivotal Events

[Study Aired March 6, 2026]

The first mention of the number seventeen is:

Gen 7:11  In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

This seventeenth day of the second month in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life is the day the fountains of the great deep were broken up; a never before recorded event. This event began the universal flood of Noah.

The next mention of this number seventeen is the day of the month on which the ark came to rest on solid ground for the first time since the flood began on the seventeenth day of the seventh month in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life.

Gen 8:3  And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
Gen 8:4  And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

The beginning of the flood and the end of the flood both occurred on the seventeenth day of the second and seventh months respectively. Both were the result of divine intervention.

The next time we see this number ‘seventeen’ is in:

Gen 37:2  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph,  being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.

This seventeenth year of Joseph’s life is also a time of divine intervention in a pivotal event as Joseph will later reveal to his brothers when he reveals himself to them when they come down to Egypt to buy grain. This seventeenth year is the year in which Joseph informed his father of some evil his brothers were committing. This is the year his father made him a coat of many colors because he loved Joseph “more that all” of his other sons. This seventeenth year is the same year the holy spirit once again intervened to give Joseph two dreams which he, by divine ordination, shared with his brothers and his father, Jacob. Revealing that God has ordained that His elect will rule over their fellow Christians, who must be given “an evil report” (Gen 37:2), is exactly what made Christ so hated by the church of His day. Revealing that God’s elect will rule over “those who say they are Jews [Christians] and are not [Rom 2:28-29]”, is the very same message which causes the Lord’s elect to be “hated of all men” (Mat 10:22) until this very day.

The gift from his father of the coat of many colors, and Joseph sharing the dreams the Lord had given him with his brothers and his father was a recipe for what then occurred:

Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren:  and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6  And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7  For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Gen 37:11  And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

This hatred of Joseph and the dreams the Lord gave him in his seventeenth year are also divine interventions, and it is Joseph himself who tells us that is the case. He twice states specifically that his ten brothers, signifying fellow Christians, did indeed sell him into Egypt as a slave. Then Joseph confirms what the apostle Paul tells us about how our own will is a work of God, even when that will is to do evil:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Now let’s look at what Joseph tells his brothers about their own will:

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.

When Joseph tells his brothers, “It was not you that sent me hither, but God”, he is telling us the same thing Paul tells us:

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:

The next mention of this number seventeen is at the death of Jacob.

The number 17 is 2×8+1. Those factors indicate our progression toward spiritual maturity signified by (2×8) plus divine intervention, signified by (1). It was divine intervention which brought the flood upon the earth on “the seventeenth day of the second month” (Gen 7:11), and it was divine intervention that brought the ark to rest in the mountains of Ararat on the same “17^th day of the seventh month” (Gen 8:4).

Joseph himself tells us in Genesis 45:8 that his brothers selling him into Egyptian slavery in his seventeenth year was also by divine intervention. Here again is where Joseph reveals this Truth:

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me [typifying God’s elect] a father to Pharaoh [typifying the Father], and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt [Typifying the elect being given to rule this world during the thousand-year reign].

Pharaoh installing Joseph as the ruler of Egypt signifies the Father giving Christ and “His Christ” the rulership over all the earth during the thousand-year reign. Joseph’s brothers signify the churches and religions of this world who hate anyone who is faithful to the words of Christ and are not afraid to say that they are the true sons of God while their brothers are worthy of the evil report of not doing the things Christ tells us to do:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord [Claim to be a Christian], and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Joseph telling his dreams to his brothers might appear provocative, nevertheless him doing that signifies Christ telling the “Jews that believed on him [but would not] continue in [His Word], that they were “of your father the devil”, and “ye seek to kill me” (Joh 8:37). Christ is telling these Jews that they are not Jews, and that in the end they would come and bow down to Him to the earth:

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45  And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world [For 1,000 years]? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels [In the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death]? how much more things that pertain to this life?

The great white throne judgment is God’s judgment on “the rest of the dead” (Rev 20:5) who live only after the thousand years are “fulfilled and expired” (Rev 20:5, 7), and it is this “resurrection to judgment” (Joh 5:29) which will effectuate all men having the mind of Christ and His Father because the scriptures tell us that ‘learning righteousness’ is the product of any and all of God’s judgments:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness [Be given the mind of Christ and His Father].

Even though Joseph told his brothers that it wasn’t they who sold him into Egypt, but it was God who caused them to do so, and even though Joseph promised to ‘nourish and care for them’ (Gen 45:11), they did not believe him, and instead they projected their own carnal mind upon Joseph and convinced themselves that Joseph was intent on taking revenge on them at his first opportunity. When Jacob died they were certain Joseph would now get his revenge upon them, and they told Joseph that Jacob had told them to tell Joseph to forgive them:

Gen 50:15  And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. [The last thing on Joseph’s mind]
Gen 50:16  And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17  So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him
Gen 50:18  And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
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.
Gen 50:21  Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

Gen 47:27  And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.
Gen 47:28  And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

The death of Jacob, after living in Egypt for seventeen years, signifies the greatest divine intervention in the affairs of mankind of all time. Jacob was signified by ‘the sun’ which bowed down to the earth before Joseph in the dream the Lord gave Joseph when he was seventeen years old. For that reason Jacob, in this story, signifies the death of the carnal-minded ‘old man’ of Joseph’s brothers and “the fulness of the Gentiles” (Rom 11:25-26) when “all Israel shall be saved” in the lake of fire. That is the ultimate divine intervention, and it occurred after Jacob had lived in Egypt for ‘seventeen years’.

Even though the word ‘seventeen’ or the word ‘seventeenth’ are not to be found in the New Testament, the number is still to be found in its negative application in reference to “the beast” and his “father the devil” (Joh 8:44). Instead of the number ‘seventeen’ we see a dragon and a beast with seven heads and ten horns. The head signifies the intellect, and horns signify power in scripture. The only difference between the “great red dragon” and his child “the beast” is that the crowns are on the seven heads of the dragon and the crowns are on the ten horns of the beast:

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

The crowns being on the seven heads of the dragon suggest that the beast which has crowns upon its ten horns is capable of being tempted and manipulated by the dragon.

Indeed the dragon who is also called ‘Satan and the Devil’ is also called “the tempter”:

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

It was Christ who made it clear that our old man, ‘the beast’  within us, is “of your father the devil.”

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The beast within each of us is signified as having seven heads and ten horns with ten crowns on his ten horns. These crowns on his horns signify that our beast thinks of himself as very powerful while our father the devil with seven crowns on his seven heads instead of his horns is called “the deceiver” (Rev 12:9) who is given to manipulate all that power and to “deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth”:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

This final pivotal battle between a beast with seven heads and ten horns, led in his rebellion against Christ and “the camp of the saints”, by his father the devil, a great red dragon who also has seven heads and ten horns, adding up to 17 forces of evil, once again signifies divine intervention in pivotal events in the history of mankind, which is the most prominent significance of the number seventeen in the scriptures.

Before closing we must point out how the various integers of this number seventeen also have great spiritual significance. For example 9+8=17: Nine, as we have seen, signifies judgment, and 8 signifies new beginnings and our new man. Therefore, these two integers of the number seventeen also signify the judgment of our new man leading to his salvation and deliverance from sin and death:

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death [By the utter destruction of both the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon, and his seven-headed and ten-horned son, the beast].

11+6 = 17: Eleven signifies the destruction and dissolution of the kingdom of the beast, and six signifies the beast himself. The subjugation of both through their utter destruction will take place at the great white throne judgment/ lake of fire/ second death:

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

12+5=17: We will conclude our study of the spiritual significance of the number seventeen with the spiritual significance of these two integers, 12, the scriptural and spiritual number which signifies foundations, and 5, which signifies grace through faith.

It is “by grace [we] are saved through faith” (Eph 2:8-10). While Christ in us will produce good works, those works are not ours, but they are the works of a living Jesus Christ who lives within us and causes us to want to produce good works, which we, of ourselves could never perform:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

That is the spiritual significance of the number 5, and when it is combined with the number 12 we become part of the foundations of the city of our God, the New Jerusalem:

Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Rev 3:13  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 21:14  And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number 16

[Study Aired February 27, 2027]

If the number eight signifies new beginnings as in the putting off of the flesh on the eighth day (Lev 12:3), Christ being resurrected on the eighth day (Mat 28:1-7), and Christ calling all men to Himself on “the eighth day, that great day of the feast”, signifying the great white throne judgment (Joh 7:37, Rev 20:11-15), then sixteen, 2×8, amplifies the putting off of, and the destruction of, our old man,  the birth and the new beginning of the new man, and the great white throne judgment with the assurance of salvation for all men of all time through the faith of Jesus Christ. The number sixteen simply amplifies and extends that all of those messages.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 list 16 qualities of love, demonstrating how this number amplifies the positive significance of the number 8:

1Co 13:4  1) Charity suffereth long, and 2) is kind; charity 3) envieth not; charity 4) vaunteth not itself, is 5) not puffed up,
1Co 13:5  6) Doth not behave itself unseemly, 7) seeketh not her own, 8) is not easily provoked, 9) thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6  10) Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 11) rejoiceth in the truth;
1Co 13:7  12) Beareth all things, 13) believeth all things, 14) hopeth all things, 15) endureth all things.
1Co 13:8  Charity 16) never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Charity (love) is what God is, and the number sixteen amplifies that love by the putting off of the flesh on the eighth day (Lev 12:3), Christ being resurrected on the eighth day (Mat 28:1-7), and Christ calling all men to Himself on “the eighth day, that great day of the feast”, signifies the great white throne judgment (Joh 7:37, Rev 20:11-15).

Joh 7:37  In the last day [the eighth day], that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [By which all men will be dragged to Christ]

1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1Jn 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world [G2889: ‘kosmos’].

Mat 28:1  In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week [the eighth day], came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Sixteen is 4×4, which confirms and emphasizes the all-encompassing effect of circumcision on the eighth day, resurrection on the eighth day, and the salvation of all signified by the last great day, the eighth day of the feast of Tabernacles.

Sixteen is 15+1, fifteen signifying by its three fives the number of spiritual progression towards spiritual completion, the sixteen, being 15+1 is signifying the completion of that progression toward becoming a new spiritual body.

The Number Three

The Number Five

The completion of our progression from our rebellious, carnal-minded old man to the destruction of that old man and the birth of a repentant, submissive new man in the faith of Christ, requires sixteen days to cleanse the Lord’s temple, His house, which temple we are:

2Ch 29:17  Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end. [Finished cleansing the Lord’s temple]

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy [our filthy, defiled, old man]; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

The sixteen souls that Zilpah, the handmaid of the despised wife, Leah, “bare unto Jacob”, signify the whole of the church which Christ has chosen from the weak and despised of this earth:

Gen 46:18  These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls.

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

The eight boards, which formed the west end of the tabernacle, were supported by sixteen silver sockets. Two silver sockets under each board to hold it upright.

Exo 26:25  And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

Exo 36:30  And there were eight boards; and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets.

It is instructive for us to notice that the west end of the tabernacle is as far as one can go into the tabernacle. The west end of the tabernacle is where the ark of the covenant and the cherubim were located, signifying the Lord and His Christ. That is where the sixteen silver sockets were located. Those sixteen sockets supported the eight boards which held up the curtain on the west end of the tabernacle.

There were thirty-two thousand female survivors of the war with Midian. It was the Midianites who had seduced Israel at Peor when the Lord would not permit the prophet Balaam to curse Israel for the king of Moab. Half of the thirty-two thousand were given to the people who had not gone to war, and the other half were kept by the men who had gone to the war and of that half the Lord took His tribute.

All the males of Midian were slain, and there were sixteen thousand women who were spared of the slaughter of the Midianites who had “had not known men” and had not participated in the seduction of Israel at Peor.

Num 31:40  And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the LORD’S tribute was thirty and two persons.

The half of the virgins of Midian that went to the people who had not gone to war was another sixteen thousand:

Num 31:43  (Now the half [of the spoils of the war with Midian] that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,
Num 31:44  And thirty and six thousand beeves,
Num 31:45  And thirty thousand asses and five hundred,
Num 31:46  And sixteen thousand persons; )

Of course there is a negative use of the number sixteen. Both kings of the northern kingdom of Israel and kings of Judah who reigned sixteen years were both evil kings who did not fear the Lord

2Ki 13:10  In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years.
2Ki 13:11  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein.

Sixteen years returns to its positive application signifying one of the good kings of Judah who was sixteen when he began to reign:

2Ki 15:1  In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign.
2Ki 15:2  Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.
2Ki 15:3  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done;

Azariah is another name for Uzziah, king of Judah. Azariah was sixteen when he began to reign. He was a good king, and his son Jotham was also called a good king of Judah whose reign lasted sixteen years:

2Ki 15:32  In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign.
2Ki 15:33  Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
2Ki 15:34  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.

Ahaz was another evil king of Judah who reigned sixteen years:

2Ki 16:2  Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.

Shimei, a descendant of Simeon, had sixteen sons and multiplied much more than his brothers:

1Ch 4:27  And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brethren had not many children, neither did all their family multiply, like to the children of Judah.

Sixteen signifies that there were more chief men of the sons of Eleazar than the sons of Ithamar of the families of the priests.

1Ch  24:4  And there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar; and thus were they divided. Among the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen chief men of the house of their fathers, and eight among the sons of Ithamar according to the house of their fathers.

While Shimei, a descendant of Simeon, had sixteen sons, Abijah, king of Judah had fourteen sons and sixteen daughters:

2Ch 13:21  But Abijah waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters.

We have already mentioned Uzziah, who is also called Azariah, who began his reign at sixteen years of age. What I failed to note was that Azariah’s reign was one of the longest in the history of the kings of Judah:

2Ch 26:3  Sixteen years old was Uzziah [Azariah] when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

Sixteen is 10+6 which signifies in its negative sense the perfection of our flesh. The flipside of that coin is the perfection of our new man.

The Number Six, Part 1

The Number Six, Part 2

The Number Six, Part 3

Ten is the Zenith of the Flesh

Sixteen is 12+4 signifying the whole of the foundation of the family of God and the city of God:

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the [12] tribes of the children of Israel [12x12x1000].

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth [The whole world].

The Number Four

The Number Twelve

Sixteen is also 4×4. Any number multiplied by itself will always amplify the significance of that number. Just as the sixteen sockets supporting the eight boards at the farthest end of the tabernacle, so does this number sixteen, 4×4, signify the meaning of the whole work of the Lord’s whole creation.

Sixteen is 11+5 signifying the grace through faith (5) which brings a new man out of the destruction and dissolution of our old man:

Joh 12:23  And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

A single seed buried in the earth will ‘die’ and decompose. In the process of decomposition, it gives up its life, and in doing do it spouts into a plant which will produce many more seeds. A caterpillar goes through this same 11+5 process of wrapping itself in a coffin-like cocoon, literally dissolving, the spiritual significance of the number 11, and coming out of that cocoon as a beautiful butterfly now capable of ascending into the heavens, the spiritual significance of the number 5. That is the spiritual significance of 11+5 which equals 16.

The Number 5

The Number Eleven

Sixteen is 13+3, signifying the process of the judgment (3) of the rebellion of our carnal-minded old man, signified by the number 13.

The Number Three

The Number Thirteen

I will close this study of the number sixteen with its sum of nine plus seven. Sixteen is 9+7 signifying the completion, 7, of our judgment, 9.

The Number Seven

The Number Nine: The Number of God’s Judgment

While the religions of this world dread ‘the day of judgment’, the Lord’s elect are aware of the fruits of all of the Lord’s judgments. Look at Isaiah’s mindset when considering the fruits of the Lord’s judgment. Isaiah and Paul and Peter all express their great gratitude for the Lord’s judgments, and they all meditate on the outcome of His judgments:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Isaiah 26:8-9 is the product of 9+7. These two verses are that which the number sixteen signifies spiritually.

Here is how Paul thinks of the judgments of God:

1Co 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1Co 11:29  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
1Co 11:30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

I am that person who has eaten and drunk unworthily and have been weak and sickly among the Lord’s body. It is my desire to be judged in this present time and not be judged at a later time. It is the ‘desire of my soul’ to be found in the way of the Lord’s judgments and to learn righteousness… in this present time’ and not at a later judgment. It is much better to be chastened of the Lord in this life than to be chastened of the Lord at the great white throne judgment. Here are the advantages of judging ourselves in this present time, which in reality is the Lord’s chastening grace working in our lives:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [G3811: ‘paidueo’], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Not one Christian in a thousand or more realizes that the Lord’s chastening and scourging IS the display and the work of His grace in our lives spoken of in:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, chastening and scourging] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Knowing what ‘grace’, the Lord’s love, does in our lives, knowing that grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lust and to live Godly lives in this present world’ adds a whole new meaning to this verse of scripture:

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace [God’s ‘paideuo’ His chastening and scourging of Hebrews 12:6] did much more abound:

If the Lord chastens and scourges us in this present time then we are of all men most blessed as the apostle Paul reveals:

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.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

It is “ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the spirit, groaning within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies”, living out the spiritual significance of the number 7 being completed, added to the spiritual significance of the number 9, being judged now, in this present time.

Peter was inspired by the same holy spirit of God and said the same thing about the number nine doing its spiritual work in our lives in this present time:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Paul tells us that all of our persecutions and all of our tribulations, are a token of our salvation:

2Th 1:4  So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
2Th 1:5  Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

It is through much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom of God, but the suffering is not worthy to be compared to the glory to be revealed in us if we are granted to have a part in the blessed and holy first resurrection and come out of our graves with a new spiritual body, which is the spiritual significance of 2×8 and 7+9… the number sixteen.

Is Jesus Returning Soon?

[Posted February 27, 2026]

Hi, question about eternal life and final redemption. What will life with eternal life be, and is Jesus returning soon?

Thanks, S____,

Hi S____,

Thank you for these questions. You ask… “What will life with eternal life be, and is Jesus returning soon?”

A few verses come to mind in response to the first question:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Joh 17:4  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Joh 17:5  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

If the Lord is in the process of dragging one to Himself, those will be very encouraging and exciting words. “Knowing God and Jesus Christ” means we will have their mind, and we will think as they think. We have the down payment of that mind even now if Christ is living His life within us. However, it is a daily struggle to keep that mind and destroy the carnal mind with which we are all born. That struggle will be over, and we will “be like Him”:

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 

A believing Pharisee named Nicodemus asked Christ this same question, and this is Christ’s answer:

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Like Nicodemus our carnal mind cannot conceive of being “born again” and becoming as “the wind”, invisible yet clearly moving things around “after the counsel of His own will.”

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.

Notice, it says… “who first trusted in Christ.” The mention of being ‘first’ necessitates that there will be others who will trust in Christ after His “firstfruit” harvest at the first resurrection.

That brings us to all the blessings pronounced upon “he that overcometh” in the ‘seven churches’ of Revelation 2 and 3:

1) Rev 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. [Christ is ‘the tree of life’… (Joh 1:4)  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.]

2) Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.]

The reason we are not “hurt of the second death is that we are “the first to be judged, (1Pe 4:17) the “first to trust in Christ” (Eph 1:12) because we are the first to be “offered as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1); the first to die daily (1Co 15:31). We as His “firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” are the first to be “crucified with Him” (Gal 2:20). Being the first to “be crucified with Him”, we therefore “shall not be hurt of the second death” at the second judgment at the “great white throne… judgment” (Rev 20:11-15).

3) Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

The “hidden manna” is the “hidden words of wisdom” of Christ:

Joh 6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Joh 6:34  Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom [“hidden manna”, (Rev 2:17)], which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

4) Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I 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 unto the churches.

Being give eternal life in the “blessed and holy… first resurrection” necessitates being given power over the physical nations of this world for a thousand years. That rulership will be beyond the ability of the nations to resist and they will be ruled “with a rod of iron”. ‘The morning star’ is also Christ (Rev 22:16).

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Rev 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

5) Rev 3:5  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Anyone whose name is not in “the book of life” is cast into the lake of fire at the great white throne judgment which follows the thousand-year reign. Therefore this verse is a promise to the overcomer to be given a part in the “blessed and holy first resurrection.”

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [had their names in the book of life]
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

“The first resurrection” is contrasted with “the second death”, because “the second death… is the lake of fire” which occurs only “when the thousand years is expired.”

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [over a thousand years earlier] was cast into the lake of fire.

6)Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

All who enter the temple of God must pass through the five pillars at the door of the sanctuary, and all who enter into the holy of holies must pass through the four pillars which separate the holy place from the holy of holies. The Lord’s overcomers will be the channel through which all men of all time will be brought to God. They are the “saviors who come upon mount Zion to judge the house of Esau” [signifying all of the false doctrines of Babylon the great the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth].

7) Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Wow! What a promise! What a reward! What glory! What an honor! Christ’s overcomers, will be given to rule with Him for a thousand years, after which they will be granted to “judge angels” and “the rest of the dead” who were not in the ‘blessed and holy first resurrection’.

There you have it! That is the meaning of “knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.”

Here is hoping to see you in that “blessed and holy first resurrection”,

Here is the answer to your second question concerning when Christ will return:

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

No one knows the day or the hour of the return of Christ:

Mat 24:36  But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Mark tells us that Christ Himself does not know the day or the hour of His return:

Mar 13:32  But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Mar 13:33  Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
Mar 13:34  For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Mar 13:35  Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Mar 13:36  Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
Mar 13:37  And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

Peter repeats this admonition from Christ:

2Pe 3:1  This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: [of what Christ taught concerning the timing of His return]
2Pe 3:2  That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. [This is the spirit we must guard against]
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2Pe 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
2Pe 3:12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

So, yes, definitely. Like Christ and Peter, I believe Christ will return soon. I believe He will return in my own lifetime, but that is NOT a prophecy. That is simply being obedient to these words from our Lord and His apostles.

Your ‘fellow servant’, Mike