[Study Aired September 27, 2026]

We paused our last study with these questions:

“If Christ’s ministers are not to lord it over the Lord’s flock, and if Christ Himself tells us we are not to exercise dominion over each other as the Gentiles do, then what is the function of the elders and ministers within the body of Christ? Did Christ have any authority over His apostles? Was Christ given any power over those who followed Him? Do Christ’s ministers have any power or authority over the Lord’s flock?” (End Quote)

Today we will, Lord willing, answer each of these questions. Answering this apparent contradiction will inform us of why the Lord has a “firstfruit” harvest, and a “bride”. It will inform us of what the mindset and the temperament and function of the ‘firstfruit… bride’ must be if we are to be granted that blessing.

To answer these questions about whether God’s minister have any authority over His flock, let’s examine a few of the verses which appear to contradict the doctrine that God’s ministers have “[no] dominion over [your] faith.”

We are told this of Christ’s own style of teaching:

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Mat 7:28  And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
Mat 7:29  For he taught them as one having authority, [Greek: exousia, G1849] and not as the scribes. 

‘Hear and do these sayings of mine and you are building on a rock. Hear and do not these sayings of mine and you are building upon the sand.’ Christ certainly did “teach as one having authority”, what is the holy spirit telling us of His authority? Is it telling us He had great authority over all who heard His sayings.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Greek word which is translated as ‘authority’ in Matthew 7:29:

G1849
ἐξουσία
exousia
ex-oo-see’-ah

From G1832 (in the sense of ability); privilege, that is, (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence: – authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.

These are the New Testament entries for that word exousia:

G1849
ἐξουσία
exousia
Total KJV Occurrences: 103
power, 61
Mat_9:6, Mat_9:8, Mat_10:1, Mat_28:18, Mar_2:10, Mar_3:15, Mar_6:7, Luk_4:6, Luk_4:32, Luk_5:24, Luk_10:19, Luk_12:5, Luk_22:53, Joh_1:12, Joh_10:18 (2), Joh_17:2, Joh_19:10-11 (3), Act_1:7, Act_5:4, Act_8:19, Act_26:18, Rom_9:21, Rom_13:1-3 (3), 1Co_7:37, 1Co_9:4-6 (3), 1Co_9:12 (2), 1Co_9:18, 1Co_11:10, 2Co_13:10, Eph_1:21, Eph_2:2, Col_1:13, Col_2:10, 2Th_3:9, Rev_2:25-26 (2), Rev_6:8, Rev_9:3 (2), Rev_9:10, Rev_9:19, Rev_11:6 (2), Rev_12:10, Rev_13:4-5 (2), Rev_13:7, Rev_13:12, Rev_14:18, Rev_16:9, Rev_17:12, Rev_18:1, Rev_20:6
authority, 28
Mat_7:29, Mat_8:9, Mat_21:23-24 (3), Mat_21:27, Mar_1:22, Mar_11:27-29 (4), Mar_13:33-34 (2), Luk_4:36, Luk_7:8, Luk_9:1, Luk_19:17, Luk_20:2 (2), Luk_20:8, Luk_20:20, Joh_5:27, Act_9:14, Act_26:10, Act_26:12, 1Co_15:24, 2Co_10:8, Rev_13:2
powers, 8
Luk_12:11, Rom_13:1 (2), Eph_3:10, Eph_6:12, Col_1:16, Col_2:15, Tit_3:1
right, 2
Heb_13:10, Rev_22:14
authorities, 1
1Pe_3:22
jurisdiction, 1
Luk_23:7
liberty, 1
1Co_8:9
strength, 1
Rev_17:13

This word ‘exousia‘, meaning power and authority, is used in connection with both God’s witnesses as well as the beast, each in his own predestined turn:

Rev 11:6  These [two witnesses] have power [exousia] to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power [exousia] over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all [seven – Rev 16] plagues, as often as they will.

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him [the beast] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

So Christ tells us that ‘exercising dominion and authority upon others as the Gentiles do’, “shall not be so among you”, and yet we find that He Himself “spoke as one having authority”, ‘exousia‘, which is most often translated as ‘power’.

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion [G263 katakurieuō] over them, and they that are great exercise authority [G2715: katexousiazō – pronounced kat-ex-oo-see-ad’-zo] upon them.
Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

Mat 7:29  For he taught them as one having authority [exousia, G1849], and not as the scribes.

Notice that the Greek word translated ‘authority’ in Matthew 20:25, which “shall not be so among you”, is a different word from the word translated ‘authority’ in Matthew 7:29.

Before we demonstrate that there is no contradiction at all between Matthew 7:29 and Matthew 20:25-26, let’s look at a few other of the places where this word ‘exousia‘, which is translated as ‘authority’ in Matthew 7:29, appears:

Mat 9:1  And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.
Mat 9:2  And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. 
Mat 9:3  And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.
Mat 9:4  And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
Mat 9:5  For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?
Mat 9:6  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power [Greek: exousia – authority] on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.
Mat 9:7  And he arose, and departed to his house.

1Pe 3:22  Who [Christ] is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities [G1849, exousia] and powers [Greek: dunamis, G14111] being made subject unto him.

Here is Peter telling us plainly that this ‘exousia‘, this ‘power’, this ‘authority’ given Christ, places the “angels and authorities and powers… subject unto [Christ]”.

The question now becomes, has Christ given this same power and authority to His children? What does Christ Himself tell us?

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power [Greek: exousia, G1849] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

This brings us back to those verses brought up in Tony’s Thursday night study:

Psa 91:11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Psa 91:12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Psa 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Nothing empowers “the enemy” more than his lies and false doctrines, typified throughout scripture as seducing spirits and doctrines of devils being taught to us by the serpent, the devil, and the dragon.

Mat 15:9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Col 2:22  Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

1Ti 4:1  Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Heb 13:9  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

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.

Now if one of these “doctrines of devils” is injected into the body of Christ, Christ Himself has given His children power over all such powers and authorities, whether those powers are coming from without or from within His body. This is power [over what is taught as the Truth of the Word of God.

How is it possible to have “power… over all the power of the enemy” and not have dominion over the faith of a brother or a sister? The answer to that question is:

Mat 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Mat 18:18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Clearly the power, the authority, G1849, ‘exousia’, is the power of  persuasion of the heavens of our minds and is not the G2715, ‘katexousiazo’ the “power”, the “dominion” which the Gentiles exercise over the kingdoms of this world.

Christ is not just us an individual. We are indeed also Christ (Act 14:22), but we are Christ only as a “many member[ed] body”:

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.

Here is how Peter asserts this power and authority over all powers and authorities when external governments attempt to affect the actions of the body of Christ from without:

Act 5:27  And when they had brought them [The apostles], they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
Act 5:28  Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.
Act 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Peter did not claim to be an infallible Pope. He used the pronoun “We”. He did not tell the leader of the Jews that the outward kingdom of God was here on this earth at this time, as a brother insisted we are to do just a few short years ago and as the Roman Catholic church proclaimed for over four hundred years (1073—1517). In other words, Peter asserted his power only over the kingdoms of this world within himself only in the same way Christ exercised that same power. That is what is meant when we are told:

Mat 7:29  For he taught them as one having authority [G1849, ‘exousia’ power], and not as the scribes.

Christ always spoke for His Father:

Joh 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Christ and Peter were both willing to give up their physical lives to the outward political governments of this age for the reward of an inward spiritual life in this age in down payment form, and as “the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14) in the age to come. As Christ told Pilate:

Joh 19:9  And [Pilate] went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
Joh 19:10  Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power [G2634: katakurieuō] at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

Paul demonstrates the power and authority we all have, and with which we are to deal with the doctrines of devils which attempt to infect the body of Christ from within or from without:

1Ti 6:3  If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
1Ti 6:4  He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
1Ti 6:5  Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

2Ti 1:13  Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 
2Ti 1:14  That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. 
2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia [“The seven churches of Asia”, (Rev 1:4)] be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

The apostle John tells us the same:

2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 
2Jn 1:11  For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

The difference between ruling the house of God in this age and ruling the nations during the millennium is the difference of realizing that God is using this present dispensation to produce sons who have conquered the kingdom of the beast within every man. Such ‘sons’ will then be qualified to rule over the kingdoms of this world for a thousand years, as we are promised in Revelation 2:27 where we are told what awaits those who have been granted the honor of becoming overcomers in this age. These promises include those who have fallen “asleep in Christ” over the past two thousand years, as well as those saints who will still be living in these earthen vessels at the time of the appearing of Christ at the first resurrection. The first resurrection takes place at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ and His bride, His elect, “we… who first believed in Christ” (Eph 1:12). This is what is promised to those who are granted to partake of that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” (Rev 20:6):

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.

The word translated ‘rule’ in this verse has much in common with what we read about a Godly ruler in this age, but it is a different word. Here is this Greek word, and here is Strong’s definition of this word:

G4165
ποιμαίνω
poimainō
poy-mah’ee-no
From G4166; to tend as a shepherd (or figuratively superviser): – feed (cattle), rule.

Here are all the entries for this word:

G4165
ποιμαίνω
poimainō
Total KJV Occurrences: 12
feed, 4
Joh_21:16, Act_20:28, 1Pe_5:2, Rev_7:17
rule, 4
Mat_2:6, Rev_2:27, Rev_12:5, Rev_19:15
feeding, 2
Luk_17:7, Jud_1:12
cattle, 1
Luk_17:7
feedeth, 1
1Co_9:7

This word actually appears only eleven times, because the word ‘cattle’ is a double count of ‘feeding cattle’ in Luke 17:7. Of these eleven entries it is seven times translated as ‘feed, feeding, or feedeth.’

The word obviously is associated with feeding God’s people. Whether they are converted or not, they are still His, and He feeds them all.

Eze 18:4  Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

The difference between feeding God’s children at this time and during the millennium is the same as the difference between feeding God’s children for forty years in the wilderness and feeding them at this time. In other words Christ is, at this time, in the process of gathering His elect under His wings as a hen gathers her chicks. The “rod of iron” is not the emphasis of this dispensation, whereas being ruled with “a rod of iron” is the emphasis of the authority of God over the kingdoms of this world during the thousand-year reign of Christ and His elect.

The phrase “a rod of iron” appear four times in the Bible, and three of them are in the book of Revelation:

Psa 2:9  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 

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 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.

Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

So the feeding of that period of “a thousand years” is for an entirely different purpose than the feeding of God’s flock at this time. The manchild of the woman of Revelation 12 is given to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and we are told when that will take place:

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.

The overcomers of Revelation 2:27 are the woman’s manchild who will rule with Christ with a rod of iron for a thousand years. The feeding of those who will be living at that time will not produce a single overcomer because there will be no ‘wicked one’ to overcome during that period. Read this link for much more on this point:

http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/gods-purpose-for-the-millennium/

Conclusion

To conclude this study, I will again quote what Christ has commanded us to avoid:

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Mat 20:27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
Mat 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. 

Mat 23:8  But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
Mat 23:9  And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Mat 23:10  Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
Mat 23:11  But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Mat 23:12  And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Paul’s doctrine accords with Christ’s words:

2Co 1:24  Not for that we have dominion over [G2961: kurieuo’ the dominion exercised by the princes of this world] your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

Yet we are told by the same Lord:

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power [G1849] ‘exousia’, authority] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power [G1411, ‘dunamis’, “strength power, ability”] of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

So there is no contradiction in telling us that we have no dominion over each other’s faith, while at the same time telling us that we are to submit ourselves to our leaders who must render an accounting of how they have been overseers of the Lord’s flock. While we have no dominion over each other’s faith, if we are in Christ, we do have “power… over all the power of the enemy”, and we have power and authority over all of His lying serpents and scorpions, and we are commanded to tread upon those lies, even if they are coming from “any man who is called a brother”, and we are to follow our Lord’s instructions in Matthew 18:15-18, and cast him and his lies out of our fellowship before his leavening lies leaven the entire body of Christ as we are instructed in:

1Co 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1Co 5:11  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
1Co 5:12  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
1Co 5:13  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

When we follow the commandments given us in Matthew 18…

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Mat 18:18  Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

…we will not be dominating each other’s faith because “the church” itself is a united and healthy body of one man, “the man Jesus Christ”, and He alone is dictating what is and what is not Truth, as we are instructed:

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.

If Christ is living His life within us, then we will have His mind and…

1Jn 1:6  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

If indeed “any man that is called a brother… is lying and not doing the Truth”, then we have been given power over all the power of the enemy, and the gloves are off. It is incumbent upon every leader in the body of Christ, as the Lord’s angels (messengers), to “tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon.”

Psa 91:11  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Psa 91:12  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Psa 91:13  Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

If we are Christ’s, then we are also His angels:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things [same angel as the angel of Rev 19:10]
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another”, and there will be no desire to attempt to dominate one another’s faith. If ever there is such a desire on the part of any brother, obedience to our instructions in Matthew 18, will purge us of the rebels:

Eze 20:38  And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

When the rebels are purged we will then “have fellowship with Him”, and we will be “of the same mind” to the extent that we will be able to say with the rest of the body of Christ:

1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

The Song of Solomon, Part 10 – The Company of Horses, and the Chariot That Draws the World Home

[Study Aired September 26, 2026]

Introduction

The last study concludes with the Shulamite, deeply feeling somewhat imposter-like, although deeply graced, asking her Lord why He should choose her (Son 1:7). Internally, she vividly recalls her similarity to her sisters in Solomon’s harem — though with a greater sense of righteous conscience — aware that they, as a cortege of young women thrust together often do, discuss and compare their intimacies (paradoxically, a strange phenomenon rarely found among men). Particularly when chosen for intimacy, from among one thousand wives, would have been extremely arid. Typically, their lust for them was not necessarily driven by an eager desire to be intimately acquainted with Solomon. Rather, as young women often do, indiscreetly debate their individual experiences as raunchily did Ahola and Aholabah (Eze 23:20), the knowledge of being desired and chosen evokes far more romantic allure and competitive envy than the notion of an eagerly desired unified spirit, which ultimately and inevitably leads to coition—and spiritual fruitfulness from our Husband and Lord. As with Old Israel with her Husband, a tedious paradox preferably avoided — and the Lord of the Old Covenant, and Solomon, as do all husbands, mostly silently and often bitterly endure (Col 3:19).

The Shepherd who hides His Bride even from herself does not leave her question unanswered for long. She has just asked where He feeds His flock (his teeth in kisses) at noon. His answer arrives, and it arrives strangely — not with directions, but with a mirror held up to the very sisters she has already left behind. He says,

Son 1:8-11 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

If Thou Knowest Not

Notice the shape of the answer before its content. Solomon does not simply tell her where He feeds His flock. He turns her gaze backward first, toward the very tents she has already fled, as though her own certainty about Him cannot be fully secured until she has looked, one more time, at what she left. Not only that, but he laments their disconnectedness from really knowing him, and he doesn’t want her to ever be beguiled by their tired old artifices, to which she four times in the SoS viscerally agrees.

Son 2:7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Sheep and goats are not a contrast between the saved and the yet-to-be-judged and saved, in any final sense. They are the few who were chosen, set against the ones who temporarily were not — specifically for the first resurrection. Ultimately, the signified goats and “other sheep in other pens”, almost indistinguishable from Babylon, who don’t hear the Shepherd’s voice, will hear Him in the Resurrection to Judgment. Goats equate to the flesh and carnal mind. She remembers that she, too, is a signified goat, occasionally succumbing to the mere fact of being flesh, yet strengthened by the power of her Lord’s signified sacrificial goat in transition to being an emblematic sheep. It stands to reason that only sheep hear the Lamb of God’s voice for their marriage to the Groom (Lev 16:8-10, 21-22).

Joh 10:15-16 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Joh 10:26-28 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

The goats she is sent to feed are the young of the “first company”: by the world’s standards, gifted, beautiful, quick-witted, endlessly frolicking beside the forty thousand tents of Orthodoxy each Sunday, clever as any kid ever born, and just as immature in what actually matters.

Mat 18:3-4 Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom does not ask for a kid’s cleverness. It asks for a lamb’s dumb, trusting humility — and this is precisely the trade her sisters have never made, still clattering their eager little hooves toward shepherds’ tents that will feed them everything except what their souls actually require (Isa 53:7). Incidentally, goats, when being injured or mauled by predators, bleat their heads off, while sheep rarely ever voice their pain, only with pained grunts.

Notice what she is commissioned to do about it. She does not condemn them; though she does so overwhelmingly, to deaf ears, she feeds them, typical of callow youth, without their gratitude. Her commission is not to force-feed, but to observe from outside, beside the shepherds’ tents, not inside them — she is not sent to join the tents she has left, nor is she permitted to abandon the kids simply because their shepherds have failed them. She feeds what she can reach, from outside the fold that raised them, exactly as her own Husband once fed her from outside every fold she was raised inside (Luk 15:3-7; Matt 10:14).

Mat 18:5-6 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

This is why the warning attached to the kids is so severe, and why it lands, without exception, on whoever is entrusted with feeding them — not on the kids themselves for their immaturity, which was never their choice, but on any shepherd, false or otherwise, who mistakes their cleverness for readiness and feeds them accordingly.

Solomon’s frank purpose in challenging her with “if she knew not” was to cause her to feel viscerally, and thus profoundly honour and respect, the choosing he (Christ in us) gives her — the reverent awareness of the magnitude of being His Bride.

A Company of Horses in Pharaoh’s Chariots

Here, the Song turns from pasture to battlefield, and the shift is not accidental. Love, rightly understood in this Song, has never been separable from war — not war against her, but war being waged on her behalf and within her, against everything Eden left standing.

He compares her to a company of horses: uniform, disciplined, white — no longer the red, black, or pale creature Babylon once bred her to be. Scripture’s own catalogue of horses supplies the exact anatomy of what has changed in her.

Rev 6:2, 4, 5, 8 And I saw, and behold a white horse… And there went out another horse that was red… a black horse… a pale horse.

Read locally, within the heavens of a single soul rather than merely across the skyline of nations; each horse names a movement of Christ’s own conquest within her. The authentic white horse is Him overcoming her remaining enemies from within, particularly the counterfeit white horse whom her sisters ride. The red horse is Him taking a false peace from her, forcing a division between her carnal mind and her spirit, which is trying to discern his holy spirit, where she had long preferred a comfortable truce. The black horse is the deliberate famine He allows in her when His Word has been perverted or withheld, so that she learns to hunger correctly. The pale horse is death itself, applied specifically to the flesh, proving what no amount of religious effort could otherwise teach her: that what is born of Adam cannot inherit what belongs to the spirit.

Zec 6:5 And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.

Four spirits, one dispatching office — and she is no longer merely the territory these horses ride across. She has become one of them, a white horse herself now, ridden by a rider who conquers through her rather than merely upon her. This is Joseph’s own inheritance applied directly to her: second in the chariot, not first, yet unmistakably the one through whom the King’s authority now reaches a kingdom that cannot yet see the King Himself.

Which of these four has been at work in you most recently, and have you welcomed it as conquest or resented it as loss? The famine that strips a false doctrine from you feels, in the hour it arrives, exactly like abandonment. It is not?

The Chariot and the Power It Carries

Horses and chariots are not synonyms in this vocabulary, and the distinction matters more than it may at first appear. The horse is the strength itself, indicative of men’s assumed spiritual strength. The chariot is the instrument that carries that strength into the field where it can actually be used.

Psa 147:10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. 

Eze 26:7, 10 Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon… with horses, and with chariots… thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots.

Tyre’s judgment is not primarily a lesson in ancient geopolitics. It is a diagram of what happens to every fortified tower of self-sufficient religiosity when the same horses and chariots are finally permitted to enter its gates from the north, where Scripture consistently locates the seat of the Lord’s own dwelling from which judgment descends to the south.

Chariots, used rightly, are never a boast. Adonijah’s attempt to multiply chariots and horsemen for himself stands as a warning against the opposite use — fleshly strength assembled to exalt a man’s own name rather than to carry the Lord’s.

Psa 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Even the chariot that finally rescues can arrive wrapped in fire rather than gold. What appeared to Elisha as a chariot of fire was never decoration. It was the precise shape a trial takes when it is sent to make the Word suddenly, unbearably visible — the horses of fire supplying the warfare against the flesh, the awe of the chariot of fire supplying the furnace in which that warfare becomes something the watching eye can no longer deny it has seen.

The fiery chariot represents the fiery process of God’s judgment that separates us from the old/carnal way of thinking and enables us to see and receive the exalted Christ and His spirit. Our “baptism by fire” refines us so that we can eventually administer righteous judgment ourselves.

A final, quieter detail is worth pressing before this section closes. When Israel finally prevailed over the kings of the north at the waters of Merom, the instruction given was not to keep the enemy’s chariots as trophies.

Jos 11:6, 9  …thou shalt hough their horses [cut; hamstring], and burn their chariots with fire… and Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

The horses being hamstrung is not merely defeat — the power is disabled at its source, and the instrument that carried it is reduced to ash rather than repurposed for a nobler rider. This is the standing warning against every attempt to sanctify the flesh’s own machinery by simply pointing it toward godlier ends. Adonijah made the same mistake in reverse, assembling fifty men to run before his own chariot before his father’s throne had even cooled, mistaking the trappings of authority for authority’s substance. The lesson repeats in both directions: fleshly strength is not converted by being aimed correctly. It is hamstrung, and something entirely new runs in its place.

The Incomparable Distinction between Pharaoh’s Horses and the Bride

Son 1:9 I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.

Before this glory was hers, it was a costume she manufactured herself, and Job’s own catalogue of creatures exposes precisely what that manufacture cost her.

Job 39:19-20 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.

Psa 18:8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

Christ, represented as a horse in Psalm 18:8, smelled the battle before the foundation of the world was laid, and He gave the horse its grandeur and strength, not the reverse. Just as the Father accomplishes all things through His Son, Christ manifests the same glory through His Bride, the Church, in a hierarchial manner. Ultimately, this influence extends through her to her Children of the world, conceived since Eden, numbering as numerous as the sand of the sea. Accordingly, she is poetically seen at first in the genuine grandeur of Pharaoh’s horses of Egypt, equivalent to the carnal glory and riches of Sodom and Old Jerusalem.

Historically, the kingdoms of men are signified by the riches of royal headship, reflecting the nation’s wealth and strength. In ancient Egypt and across the Bronze and Iron Ages, royal chariot horses were not just beasts of burden—they were extensions of the king’s divine power and military propaganda. Pharaohs and rulers of neighboring empires (like the Hittites, Assyrians, and Mycenaean Greeks) spared no expense, transforming their steeds into breathtaking, moving monuments of gold, leather, and plumage.

Based on temple reliefs, tomb paintings, and surviving artifacts — such as the leather harnesses found in Tutankhamen’s tomb — royal chariot horses were typically decorated using several distinctive elements:

• Ostrich Feathers: The most iconic feature of a pharaoh’s horse was a towering crown of dyed ostrich plumes fixed between its ears, waving majestically as it ran and adding dramatic height and theatrical flair.
• Solar Disks and Religious Symbols: Stiff head plates, or frontlets, often featured sacred motifs like the solar disk (representing Ra), the lotus plant, or the uraeus (royal cobra) to signal divine backing and protection in battle.
• Gilded and Coloured Leather: Harnesses were crafted from high-quality layers of dyed leather—often in vibrant shades of red, blue, and green—heavily embossed or overlaid with gold leaf.
• Metal Amulets and Disks: Bridles and cheekpieces were heavily studded with polished bronze or gold disks that caught the sunlight, flashing blindingly as the chariot advanced.
• Decorative Blinkers: Horses wore beautifully carved or painted leather blinkers, often featuring the Eye of Horus to ward off evil and protect the animal from flying debris.
• Exquisite Blankets: For ceremonies, parades, and hunts, the horses were draped in heavily embroidered, lightweight cloths featuring complex geometric patterns or depictions of defeated enemies, symbolizing the king treading over his foes.

However, the operative word is that Solomon “compared” her to the stateliness of Pharaoh’s horses. Although Christ’s throne is symbolized by a chariot with interlocking wheels that do not turn when it goes, He does not possess a chariot—He is the chariot whose will, his spirit, goes wherever He wills without a wheeled mechanism (Eze 1:15-21). Solomon delineates the unparalleled contrast between Pharaoh’s arrogance, grandeur, and ceremonial display—symbolized by numerous horse-drawn chariots signifying his authority and strength—and her, whose strength, authority, and royalty derived solely from her Lord. It is her former archenemy within, the Great Whore, who, like Pharaoh, gloried in spectacle.

Rev 17-18  …I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy… that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come… The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls… and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

Her “chariots” were her many vehicles of beguiling, fornicating doctrines that deluded humanity.

Son 1:10-11 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

Cheeks of Jewels, a Neck of Gold, Borders of Silver

Cheeks — H3895 lechiy
1. cheek, jaw, jawbone
Related to a root associated with softness and the place where speech and eating both originate.

Notice which part of her face is praised first. Not the eyes, which see; not the lips, which kiss; but the jaw, the place from which her own words have finally learned to proceed rightly. The jewels praised here adorn the very instrument of her speech — a fitting tribute for a woman whose changed vocabulary has been the whole substance of this Song so far. The wisdom and speech of an unremarkable woman, if indeed they cause kingdoms to rise or fall righteously (particularly within), do something quite baffling to the people — particularly men. Suddenly, her relative uncomeliness becomes beautiful—written in her eyes, where her every bodily member and joint, her entire ensemble, is seen as beguilingly beautiful in passing.

1Pe 3:1-4 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands… Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart… the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Num 15:38  …that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments… and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue.

Ribband — H6616 pathiyl
1. cord, thread, twisted thread, wire
From H6617, to twist, to braid.

A single strand does not hold a garment together. A twisted cord does — many threads, braided into one strength, which is a hidden picture of the Bride herself, gathered from a thousand scattered sisters into a single, twisted cord of blue, God’s own royal colour, bound now to a single hem.

Gold and silver, promised to her here as ornament, were never mere metal in this vocabulary. Gold signifies the truth of God’s Word in its most refined, incorruptible form — a truth that must first pass through fire before it can be called gold at all.

1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.

Notice what gold is measured against in that verse: not merely lesser metals, but wood, hay, and stubble — material that looks entirely serviceable until the same fire that refines gold arrives to test it, at which point the difference between what is precious and what was only ever flammable becomes impossible to disguise. Gold, in this economy, is never natively gold. It is ore first, indistinguishable from the worthless rock surrounding it, until judgment’s own fire is applied and everything that was never truly gold is burned away, leaving behind only what fire itself could not diminish (1Ki 18:38). Her borders of gold, promised here, are therefore not a decoration bestowed for good behavior. They are the visible record of a woman who has already been through that furnace once and did not come out as ash.

Silver carries its own particular freight, closer to the wound than gold’s more general glory.

Silver — H3701 keseph
1. silver, money
From H3700 kasaph, to long for, to be pale [sick from love — Son 5:8] with longing or desire.

The same root that names the metal names the ache — silver was, from its very etymology, the price paid for something desperately wanted. This is why silver is the currency of atonement: someone’s word; the price of Joseph, sold by his own brothers, the thirty pieces later paid for a greater Joseph, betrayed by His own. What adorns her neck and hems her garment is not decoration for decoration’s sake. It is a redemption price, worn openly, refusing to let her forget what she actually cost.

Closing: Plumage or Scar

Set the two horses side by side one final time, because the study has been building toward exactly this comparison and will not let you leave without making it.

Pharaoh’s horse wore ostrich plumes between its ears, gold disks flashing with every stride, and a blinker carved with the Eye of Horus to ward off what its rider refused to confront. Every inch of that animal announced a king. Not one inch of it had been paid for with anything the king himself had suffered. It was a spectacle purchased with another man’s labor, worn to make strength look divine without strength ever having been tested.

Her silver is not that. Her silver is keseph—the ache made metal, the price of a longing that cost the Payer everything and cost her the humiliation of knowing exactly what she was worth on the market the day He bought her. Pharaoh’s gold said, look at me. Her silver internally says, ” Remember what this took; the pain and suffering tried in the fire was akin to her Husband’s pain of the cross.

Now examine your own ornaments, because this study is a mirror of hers.

There is a version of your faith you have learned to wear like plumage — the fluent paragraph about grace, the visible discipline everyone compliments you on, the testimony polished smooth from retelling until it no longer costs you anything to say it aloud. It flashes. It draws the eye. It can be assembled, every part of it, without you ever having gone back to the ore and asked whether the fire actually touched you or whether you simply painted yourself the color fire leaves behind.

Here is what that costs, precisely, if it is left unexamined: a faith worn as decoration ceases to function as evidence. It becomes Pharaoh’s horse — magnificent, admired, and utterly unable to answer the one question that matters: not how good this looks, but what this actually took from you. Every rehearsed testimony that no longer trembles when you tell it is one more gold disk sewn onto a bridle, catching light it never generated.

Ask it plainly, today, before the plumage has time to arrange itself into an answer you like better: is there a single piece of your (imagined) faith right now that you perform fluently but no longer feel — a scar you have quietly recut as jewelry?

Hag 2:7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house [the Bride] with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Hag 2:9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, [“The first shall be last, and the last, first” principle] saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, [The Heavenly Jerusalem] saith the LORD of hosts.

The repair is not complicated, though it is not comfortable. Find the one conviction you can recite without a flicker of cost, like Solomon looking and looking upon the Shulamite for understanding, and don’t stop mulling it until you have sat with what it actually took — His silver, not your gold — long enough for the ache to return to it. Wear that one openly instead this week, unpolished, and let it cost you something in front of at least one other person before you let yourself speak it smoothly again.

A horse dressed for spectacle and a horse dressed for war can stand in the same stable and look almost identical for a moment. Only one of them has ever smelled the battle. The other is waiting to be found out.

End of Part 10

Next: Son 1:12-14

The Song of Solomon – Part 9

I Am Black, But Comely

[Study Aired September 25, 2026]

Introduction

The last study closed on a woman who had learned to wait before she ever learned to run. This one opens on the same woman making a confession that sounds, to any ear still tuned to Babylon’s frequency, like an apology. It is not one. What follows is not shame dressed as testimony. It is testimony that happens to be wearing shame’s old clothes, cut from a fabric her sisters have never once removed—nor could.

Son 1:5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

The Word Before the Confession

“I” — H589′ aniy
1. I (first person singular pronoun, used only as subject)
Strong’s: contracted from H595.

The lexicon offers nothing more exotic here than the plainest possible pronoun — no hidden verb for singing folded inside its consonants, whatever devotional traditions have wished onto it. But plainness is its own argument. She does not open with an excuse, a qualifier, or a plea for context. She opens with herself, named and undefended, the way a witness opens testimony before a court that has already threatened to disbelieve her. The song is not hidden in the word. The song is what her willingness to say “I” without flinching makes possible in every line that follows.

Black, Dark, and Night: The Triad of the Unlit Mind

Three words move through Scripture as close relations of the same family, and this study will not let you mistake one for a mere colour, another for a mere hour, and the third for a mere absence. Black describes a condition. Darkness describes a corruption. Night describes a rule. Together they diagram, with more precision than any single word could manage alone, exactly what the natural mind is before light is permitted to enter it.

Black — H7838 shachor
1. to be black (of skin, hair)
From H7835, a primitive root identical with H7836 through the idea of the duskiness of early dawn.

The root beneath black shares its consonants with the Hebrew for the last hour before sunrise — the darkest, coldest portion of any night, and, not coincidentally, the portion immediately preceding light’s arrival. Even the lexicon refuses to let blackness stand as a static, hopeless colour. Its own etymology places it one breath from dawn.

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

This is the first verse of Scripture to describe the human condition, though no human has yet been formed. Every soul who will ever be born inherits this verse before any other — formless, void, and dark, before any spoken word moving across it. In this system’s grammar, blackness is not primarily what a person does. It is what a person is, natively, before the spirit moves.

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Darkness is not an accident that slipped past God’s attention. It is created, deliberately, by the same hand that later commands light to divide it. This single verse forecloses any theology that would allow the reader to treat his own darkened years as a mistake requiring an apology rather than a curriculum requiring completion.

Where blackness names the condition, darkness names its operation — the specific mechanics by which the condition keeps itself hidden from the one living inside it.

Pro 4:19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

Pro 7:9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.

Note precisely what darkness does not require: conscious malice. The man in Proverbs 7, without a hint of God’s word, even blatantly stating that there is no God, does not walk toward the harlot’s door believing himself wicked. He walks toward it with a resolute delusion, rejecting his pricked conscience of believing himself, at worst, merely curious, at best, entirely safe. Darkness is not the state of knowing you cannot see. It is the state of not knowing that you don’t know — a blindness so complete it cannot even correctly diagnose itself as blindness.

Act 9:4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 

1Ti 4:2  Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 

Psa 53:1 To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.

Not an endorsement: The Psa 53:1 text does not promote atheism; it, in Orthodox Christianity, condemns the mindset of those who live as though God does not hold them accountable. So black are their minds that they will overwhelmingly hold that concept all the way to the Lake of Fire. (Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity…”)

Definition of “Fool”: The Hebrew word used here (nabal) describes a morally deficient or impious person, referring to ethical corruption rather than a lack of intelligence.

Context: The above verses in both Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 explain that these individuals turn away from moral behaviour and act selfishly because they believe no higher power is watching.

Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

However, the Orthodox Christians from whom the Elect came are only one step above those who say there is no God, since all have a God-given conscience. The difference is that those who do believe in God have a more acute sense of conscience pricking.

Rom 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 
Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 
Rom 2:16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Night completes the triad by naming the rule under which such blindness is permitted to operate for a season.

Gen 1:16 …the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.

The lesser light governs night — a real light, not a total absence, which is precisely what makes night more dangerous than blackness alone. A man in total darkness knows, at minimum, that he cannot see. A man governed by the lesser light believes he can. The moon has always signified, in this system’s established grammar, the Old Covenant order, Old Israel, and the church that inherited her shape without inheriting her repentance—a real, borrowed illumination, sufficient to convince its subjects they are walking in day.

Jn 11:10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

This is why Satan’s most effective disguise was never total darkness but calibrated moonlight—an angel of light, as the Elect once were, convincing enough that entire congregations mistake its glow for the sun. Night is the realm in which a man can sincerely, passionately, even eloquently defend a female doctrine that is quietly starving him—in his own chamber—focused as Adam was upon Eve, preferring lust in darkness.

Pro 4:16 For they sleep not [the antithesis of the Bride who’s asleep, but her heart is awake], except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

Psa 139:12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee [the Elect/Christ’s who don’t need a physical sun].

Here, the whole triad resolves under a single sovereignty. God is not confused by any of the three conditions this study has just named. He does not require the black to become comely by her own scrubbing. He ordained the blackness as the very material out of which comeliness, in due season, would be carved. This is the pattern of Genesis itself — darkness first, then light spoken over it, never light pretending the darkness had not existed.

Black to Her Sisters, Chosen by Her God

Blackness, applied to the Shulamite, has never once concerned pigment. It concerns comprehension. She is black to her sisters precisely because they cannot read her — a woman who has walked away from every time-honoured artifice of sensual siege, the same artifice they still polish nightly, believing it strength rather than servitude.

1Co 1:27-29 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise… and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen… That no flesh should glory in his presence.

She comes from behind with no gift her sisters would recognise — no scholastic degree in Babylon’s theology, no inherited pedigree of religious respectability — and this is precisely her qualification, not her disadvantage. What her sisters see as blackness, heaven has already logged as the raw material of glory through her Husband’s gift of the holy spirit.

1Co 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser [Solomon’s wisdom signifying the gift of the holy spirit] than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 

Isa 53:2-3 …he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men… we hid as it were our faces from him.

Nobody in Orthodoxy, and nobody in the world Orthodoxy has shaped, currently sees Christ as comely. They will not see His Bride as comely either, for precisely the same reason: comeliness of this kind is a spiritual perception, not an optical one, and the optic they are using was never designed to register it.

Where, in your own circle, have you mistaken a former companion’s new blackness — their sudden refusal to keep playing a game you both once played fluently — for coldness, pride, or betrayal, rather than considering that your own eyes might simply lack the light required to read what changed in them?

Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

The Tents of Kedar

Tents — H168 ’ohel
1. tent, nomad’s dwelling, symbolic of wilderness life and transience
From H166, to be clear, to shine.

A tent, by its very root, is named for the temporary light it does not adequately hold — a shelter built for a people still travelling, still exposed, still without the settled architecture of a permanent house. This is her present condition, honestly stated: a wilderness dwelling, not yet the Temple, though already Temple-shaped in promise from which light barely escapes.

Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Mat 5:15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Kedar — H6938 Qedar
1. dark; a son of Ishmael; his descendants
From H6937, to mourn, to be dark, to grow black.

Ishmael himself is not the definition of blackness — he is one particular case study within it, the son of the bondwoman, born after the flesh rather than the promise, and therefore falling naturally under a symbol far larger than his single genealogy. Egypt, Esau, Babylon, and Kedar all take their place in the same family of flesh-manifestations, each one a separate dialect of the identical darkness.

Gen 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman [the Bride]. 

Even the patriarch’s own affection for the flesh-born son pictures a temptation this study will not let you excuse quietly in yourself: the quiet, sentimental wish that the elder, the familiar, the already-established order might simply be allowed to stand, rather than yielding, as God’s actual design requires, to the service of the younger.

The Curtains of Solomon, the Veil That Would Not Hold

The curtains of Solomon’s own tabernacle-shadow, and the deeper veil they foreshadow, describe the deliberate blinding under which the Old Covenant kept its own house dim — a blinding David’s own servants tried, through Abishag, to resuscitate, and could not, because what is torn cannot be re-hung by devotion alone.

Mat 27:50-51 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake.

Top to bottom — not bottom to top, as a man might tear reaching upward in effort, but from the height only God occupies, downward, into the reach of everyone standing beneath it. The tearing was never her achievement. It was accomplished over her, and only afterwards within her, and the earthquake that followed did not stay outside the building.

Luk 5:36 No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.

This is precisely why her sisters’ idol of husbandly intimacies remains confounded throughout this Song. They keep trying to patch a torn veil with fabric cut from an already finished garment and cannot understand why the tear only widens with every attempt. Consistently, all that remains of their vain husbandly ministrations is an unfinished foundation “upon the threshold” of their boudoir—their Temple established on sand.

1Sa 5:3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD [Christ]. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
1Sa 5:4 And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

Closing: The Sin That Remains Because You Say You See

Here, this study stops describing her and starts describing you.

Jn 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Name it precisely. There is a doctrine you have defended this year, against the multitude of counsel, in a room or in your own head, with more confidence than you have ever tested it. A habit of reading Scripture arrives already knowing what it will find, and is never once disappointed, because it was never actually looking. That is not sight. That is night, governed by a lesser light bright enough to make you certain, and dim enough to make you wrong.

This is what it costs, precisely, and no gentler accounting is available: every doctrine defended from certainty rather than examined in trembling becomes one more curtain you have personally helped rehang after God already tore it down. You are not merely mistaken in such moments. You are labouring, with real effort, “against” the very earthquake sent to free you.

A change is available to you before you finish reading this page, and it does not require you to already know what you have been wrong about. It requires only this: name one conviction you have never once allowed Scripture to contradict, and hand it, today, to the possibility that it might be Kedar’s tent rather than the Temple. Sit in that possibility without resolving it by tonight. That discomfort is not punishment. It is the first hour before your own dawn.

The alternative is a black that never becomes comely — not because God withheld the light, but because you kept insisting, sincerely and at length, that you already had it.

The anger of her mother’s children, and the vineyard she was never meant to keep

The veil has been torn, top to bottom. What follows in these two verses is the sound made by everyone still standing in the room when the tearing happened — and it is not, on the whole, a grateful sound.

Son 1:6-7 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

My Mother’s Children Were Angry With Me

Not strangers. Family. This is what makes the anger in verse six so much sharper than ordinary persecution — it arrives from the same household, wearing the same surname, invoking the same inheritance she once shared without question. Scripture reserves a specific, chilling description for this particular anger.

Rev 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet.

The claim under dispute was never about ethnicity. It is spiritual inheritance — who actually belongs to the household of promise, and who has only ever inherited its address. Her mother’s children are every voice, robed in the correct vocabulary of covenant and chosenness, that has never once submitted to the covenant’s actual demand: come out of her, and be separate. They grow angriest not at her failure but at her departure, precisely as the age nears its own reckoning, and their borrowed tower of understanding nears its own collapse.

Has anger ever risen in you, quick and almost involuntary, toward someone who left a room, a habit, or a belief you both once shared — not because they wronged you, but because their leaving quietly asked whether you should have left with them? Sit with that anger before you explain it away. It is rarely about them.

The Wrath That Belongs to the End of the Age

This anger does not remain a private family quarrel. It escalates, across the whole of prophecy, into the final recorded wrath of the nations against a throne they can no longer pretend not to see.

Rev 11:18-19 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come… And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

What the nations experience as external catastrophe, the Bride experiences, first and privately, as internal opening — her own temple within unlocked, her own dead works exposed to the same lightning. She does not merely survive this earthquake. She welcomes it, glad of the very hail that sweeps every refuge of lies from the ground she used to call solid.

Isa 28:17 …the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

They Made Me the Keeper of the Vineyards

Here is the confession beneath the confession. She was not idle before Christ found her. She was busy, conscripted, exhausted — enslaved to the maintenance of vineyards that were never hers, tending harvests that fed everyone except her own soul. Bewildered by why her time-honoured boudoir ministrations never satisfied her husband—a mirror of Solomon, who too suffered 1,000 disunified spirits from flabbergasted wives holding ransom of an Eve/Jezebelle-like fatale ( fuh-TAHL) dynamic. In literature and film, a femme fatale is a woman who is fully aware of her hypnotic pull over men and uses that sexual power intentionally to manipulate or destroy them. Her impudence is her calculated, or, as with the everyday virtuous homemaking Orthodox Christian wife, her God-given refusal to conform to Christ’s wifely roles.

This is the precise shape of religious labour performed inside a system one did not choose and cannot leave without appearing ungrateful: the dank walls of inherited ceremony, the rusted pomp mistaken for enlightenment, the forty thousand separate vineyards each insisting theirs alone is the true one. She kept them faithfully, by outward measure, and harvested nothing for herself in the keeping.

Jn 15:1-3 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Notice what actually cleans a branch in this passage. Not effort. Not the branch’s own determination to bear more. The word, spoken directly over it, does the purging — precisely the labour her former vineyards could never perform on her, however many hours she gave them.

Where, this week, have you kept a vineyard out of obligation rather than fruit — a commitment, a role, a religious performance sustained because leaving it would cost you your family’s approval rather than because it has fed your own soul for years? Name the vineyard. Do not yet decide what to do about it. Only name it.

Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Jer 3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Why Should I Be As One That Turneth Aside

Her question is not rhetorical insecurity. It is Paul’s own arithmetic, run privately: if I am chief of sinners, on what possible ground am I preferred above my sisters in the same harem, the same captivity, the same inherited darkness?

Eph 1:4-6 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

The answer is not her merit. It is His pleasure, decided before any vineyard existed, for her to keep badly. This is the only ground that can hold the weight of her question without collapsing into either false humility or quiet pride.

Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand.

One lump. Two vessels, shaped by a hand that owes neither vessel an explanation. She was drafted, not because the clay of her own composition was superior, but because the Potter’s hand, at that particular turn of the wheel, closed around her rather than her sister standing an arm’s length away.

Unblinded, Unburnt

One final privilege remains folded into her question, easy to miss beneath its humility: she is now permitted to look for Him directly, at noon, in the full, unshielded heat of His presence—a privilege that once required a mediator to survive.

Exo 33:20 Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Moses himself was hidden in the cleft of the rock and shown only the afterglow of a glory that had already passed by. What was once fatal to look upon directly, she now seeks at noon, unshielded, because the mediator who once stood between the face and the fire has, in her case, already taken the fire into Himself.

Psa 84:9-11 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed… For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Sun and shield in the same title — the very light capable of blackening every unprotected face on Sinai’s summit becomes, for her alone, covering rather than consumption. This is why she need not turn aside to any companion’s flock to find rest at noon. She has been given the one flock whose Shepherd does not require her to survive Him from a distance.

Closing: The Anger You Have Not Yet Named as Yours

Return, once more, to where this study began, and let it now land somewhere closer than her sisters.

Someone in your life has spiritually departed from something you both once shared, and it has irritated you longer than you have admitted. You have called it discernment. You have called it a concern for their soul. Examine the timeline honestly: did the concern begin before or after their leaving made your own staying look, for the first time, like a choice rather than an inheritance?

This is what such unexamined anger becomes if it is permitted to stay unnamed: not a passing mood, but a slow, respectable hostility toward anyone whose obedience makes your own comfort visible as compromise. It will not announce itself as hostility. It will announce itself as loyalty to the family, to the tradition, to what your mother’s children have always believed. And it will cost you the very thing her question in verse seven was actually asking for — unhindered access to a face you have not yet dared to seek at noon, in full light, without a companion’s flock to hide behind.

The vineyard you are presently keeping out of obligation will not release you by your own announcement. It will release you the same way it released her: with one honest confession that you have not kept it well, spoken to the only Husbandman ever entitled to ask for an account of it. Bring Him that confession today, plainly, without the customary vineyard-keeper’s excuses — and let the purging, however it comes, begin where it always begins: at the word spoken directly over the branch, not at the branch’s own resolution to somehow try harder.

Remaining a faithful keeper of someone else’s vineyard, respected by everyone in it, is a smaller and colder inheritance than this study can allow you to walk away still believing it is enough.

End of Part 9

Next: Son 1:8 — the Shepherd hides His Bride even from herself

“Divine Order In Creation And Scripture” – Part 8

“The relation of the numbers 15 and 50 in scripture”

[Study Aired September 24, 2026]

The statement “And I will add unto thy days fifteen years” found in (2Ki 20:6), and the combinations of numbers that make up the number 15 further confirm that the fifteen extra years of life that were given to Hezekiah who was “sick unto death”(Pro 16:25), are a parable that reveal how it is by grace through faith, 5, that God’s elect are given extra life (Eph 6:3) as we are delivered from these bodies of death by living by the faith of Christ (Gal 2:20), whose flesh and blood are the abundant life we are called unto, and if we are granted to continue in (Heb 6:3), will set us free (Eph 2:8, Rom 7:23-25, Gal 2:20, Jhn 6:55-56, Jhn 8:31-32).

Eph 6:3  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

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.

Jhn 6:55  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Jhn 6:56  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Jhn 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Jhn 8:32  And ye shall know the truth,[Jhn 14:6] and the truth [Jhn 6:63] shall make you free.

15 Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number Fifteen – by Mike Vinson

50 Fifty = Liberty (no notes for original study done by Mike in 2006)

Liberty (the significance of the number 50) in this life comes about as a result of the process of grace through faith (3×5=15) that God’s judgement upon His people brings (1Pe 4:17). It is only with the spirit of God working within us (Rom 8:9) that this liberty can be experienced, which will lead to going onto perfection on the third day [Luk 4:18-19, Rom 8:21-23, Gal 5:1-6, Gal 5:13, 1Pe 2:16-19, 2Co 3:17-18, Luk 13:32).

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty [5×10] wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Gal 5:2  Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Gal 5:3  For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Gal 5:4  Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.[3×5]
Gal 5:5  For we through the Spirit wait [Rom 8:14-16] for the hope of righteousness by faith.[Col 1:27]

In order to be blessed, “That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth”, with the liberty that is found in Christ our Saviour, the first commandment with promise must be kept which is this, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right” (Eph 6:1-3). This commandment has a natural and spiritual application to it (1Co 15:46), the natural being to give honour to our physical fathers and mothers. Our spiritual Father is God and our spiritual mother is Jerusalem above the mother of us all, and to contrast the love we have for God and Christ and His body we are told this in (Mat 10:35-39).

Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

If we are obedient children, being received of God in this age (Heb 12:6), we are going to learn obedience by the things that we suffer as Christ did (Heb 5:8, 1Jn 4:17) and we will be looking diligently “lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled” (Heb 12:15), obeying our Father and Christ, acknowledging “that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (keeping of the commandments of God – Heb 12:11-17, 1Co 7:19, 1Jn 5:2-3, Rev 12:17, Rev 14:12, 1Co 14:37).

The 15 years of extra life freely given to Hezekiah typifies our life and liberty in Christ today that is preparing God’s people as the bride of Christ (Rev 19:7), the saviours who are filling up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in this flesh (Col 1:24) so they can come up in that blessed and holy first resurrection ready to rule (Rev 19:7, Oba 1:21).

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him:(Php 4:4) for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.[the bride who was blessed to die daily by God’s favour, favour that takes us through a process of grace through faith for 15 symbolic years (1Co 15:31, Luk 12:32)]

The mind of Christ within us knows that we must suffer as He did in order to cease from sinning (1Pe 4:1), which suffering is the means to the end by which we will overcome the incurable disease of flesh, the sickness unto death (2Ki 20:1) that cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 15:50-52). However it’s not enough to know that we must suffer, we also must be helped in our unbelief so our confidence matures regarding what God has promised He can and will do through the body of Christ (Tit 2:12-13, 1Co 10:13, Heb 12:6).

As surely as Peter’s denial of Christ that was prophesied by Christ to occur would happen, so too the grace and faith needed to overcome that spirit in time that was also spoken of by Christ when He told his disciples, “Ye shall drink indeed of my cup“, reminding us that Christ will not deny Himself within us the work that God is doing as our hope of glory (Mat 26:34, Mrk 14:30, Mat 20:23, 2Ti 2:12-13). It was for our sakes that Judas forsook God in this life, not finding repentance in this age, not being told as Peter was by Christ, “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men”, but rather Judas was encouraged by Christ to do what He did the night he betrayed him, “And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly”.

Mrk 14:30  And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. [grace being prophesied in the midst of Peter’s denial of Christ twice+thrice=5]

Mat 20:23  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, [1Co 10:13] and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities:

It is through God’s chastening grace that is represented by the number 5 (Heb 12:6, Tit 2:12-13) that God’s elect are being taught to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts in this life. It is through the much tribulation that we must go through (Act 14:22, Rom 5:3-4) that we are becoming assured that we are more than conquerors through Him who gives us the power to overcome. This suffering and overcoming is richly demonstrated in the supernatural type and shadow examples on that subject found in (Heb 11:1-40), which confirm both the absolute need to suffer and the power of God that will be given to us so that we can be more than conquerors through the faith of Christ (2Th 1:5, 2Co 12:9, Rom 8:35-39, Rom 3:27-28).

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:

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Rom 3:27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Rom 3:28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law

As mentioned in the title we’ll look at how our liberty 50 today comes about as a result of the process of grace through faith that we are going through 3×5=15. I’ve compiled some number combinations and verses regarding the subject at hand.

5+5+5=15

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox,[our flesh] Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day 5 and to morrow 5, and the third 5 day I shall be perfected. [Christ proclaiming how liberty will come about via a process of judgement that takes a life time]
Luk 13:33  Nevertheless I must walk to day 5, and to morrow 5, and the day following 5: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. [Christ proclaiming where liberty is found in Jerusalem above, the church, the mother of us all (Eph 2:6, Gal 4:26, Heb 10:25)]
Luk 13:34  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Mat 11:4  Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:
Mat 11:5  The blind receive their sight 1, and the lame walk 2, the lepers are cleansed 3, and the deaf hear 4, the dead are raised up 5, and the poor have the gospel preached to them 6.

[Those who are coming out of “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” below in the earth are being given spiritual sight 1, and are walking with the faith of Christ 2, being forgiven of our sins that are likened unto leperousy 3 that brings death (Rom 6:23). Now we are hearing the things of the spirit 4 being raised in heavenly places 5 “the deaf hear, the dead are raised up” and our impoverished lives which were without Christ are now receiving the gospel of the kingdom of God which is within us if we are His 6 (Rom 8:9, Luk 17:21). These six actions that John would be shown regarding Christ typify what Christ is doing today within his own flesh 6 and blood, the church (Col 1:24)]

Lev 23:34  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.

[the feast of tabernacles is also a time of witness against the flesh of mankind as Christ’s words and actions unto John the baptist were. When God’s judgments are in the earth men will learn of this process of judgement 15, but there is no conversion as of yet, just like John who was yet in prison, hearing the message but yet in bondage (Isa 26:9). There is an acceptable time to preach the gospel, and a predestined time and order for when that message will be received within the hearts of all of mankind, each man in his own order (1Co 15:22-24). Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind (Isa 42:19), to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Col 1:24, Isa 53:5) Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Eph 1:6-7)]

7+8=15

Seven represents completeness, but that completeness of overcoming is a process that is being worked within us by Christ who is the new man represented by the number 8 (Php 2:12-13, Rev 17:11, Lev 23:34).

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 8 both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.[2Th 2:7-8]

Lev 23:34  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.

6+9=15

Hearing the word of God if not mixed with faith does not change the hearer, which is what the thousand year reign will demonstrate (Heb 4:2). It is the trial of our faith, the grace of God that is happening in the lives of God’s elect that is precious unto Him, as it conforms us to the image of His beloved Son (Rom 12:1-2, 2Co 3:18).

Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

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.

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.[going from glory to glory or obedience to obedience is made possible by God’s judgement 9 that is upon the flesh 6 and bones of Christ (Eph 5:30) (9+6=15)]

These numbers 6+9=15 remind us that flesh 6 must be judged 9 and that judgement can only be accomplished through a life long process (3×5=15). When God’s judgments are in the earth, meaning in the body of Christ because we have his spirit within us (Rom 8:9) we will learn righteousness. When God’s judgments are on the earth via the body of Christ for a symbolic 1000 years the world will learn of His righteousness but no conversion inwardly will take place (Isa 26:8-9).

5+10=15

Simply put, grace 5 has to be added to flesh 10 by God in order for us to be able to endure to the end and be saved, (Mat 24:13) and very few are called to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” and be saved in this age (Mat 22:14, Php 3:14, Php 2:12-13).

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

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

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</b

4+11=15

The whole of humanity 4 has to go through 11 Eleven = The Ruin And Disintegration Of The Perfection Of The Flesh which will be accomplished by a process of judgement upon our carnal minds (3×5=15)

3+12=15

Three is the Three = The Process of Spiritual Completion.

Judgment is upon the earth, earth, earth 3 foundation 12 of our hearts and minds that is being conquered and overcome by grace through faith (3x5=15)

2+13=15

It takes the witness 2 of Christ in our lives as our hope of glory (Col 1:27) to overcome the rebellious flesh we abide in 13 Thirteen = Rebellion. That flesh can only be conquered and go unto perfection on the third day by a process of spiritual completion that is accomplished by grace through faith, of which Christ is the author and finisher of (Eph 2:8, Heb 12:2) (3×5=15)

1+14=15

Spiritual progression 14 Fourteen = Spiritual Progress and Spiritual Progression comes as result of the day of the Lord 1 which is accomplished by a process of spiritual completion through grace and faith (3×5=15).

In (2Ki 20:1-11) we learn of Hezekiah who typifies God’s elect who are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). Those numbers above are there to show us some examples in God’s word that demonstrate that the number 15 has to do with the process of salvation that God’s elect are experiencing first, as a kind of first fruits of God’s creation (Jas 1:18).

In this last section of the study will look at the number 50 and some relevant verses that show us how 50 liberty is connected with 15.

5×10=50

Lev 25:10  And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.[symbolizing the salvation of all, the land representing our bodies that are immeasurably indebted to God]
Lev 25:11  A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.
Lev 25:12  For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

30+20=50

These numbers (30+20) demonstrate how liberty is going to come to all the world. The sum of 30 and 20 is 50. Grace and faith must apply to both the head and the body, Christ being represented by the head 30 and the body represented by 20.That grace 50 will be applied to all men in time. Christ never had to repent of sin (2Co 5:21), but he was in sinful flesh that learned obedience by the things that he suffered (5×10) (Heb 5:7-9), and those sufferings prepared him to be our high priest who now can and will save His children. If we are granted to suffer as Christ did, if we are granted to be armed with the mind of Christ, it will be reflected in our seeing the value of that suffering as well as being accompanied with the strength of Christ who will make it possible for us to bear the cross we are each called to carry (Rom 5:10, Heb 11:26-27, 1Pe 4:1-4). 

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
Heb 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Liberty through Christ and His Christ (30+20=50):

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.

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.

Lev 16:9  And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering [30].
Lev 16:10  But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat [typified by Joseph 20], shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him,[30+20=50] and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

40+10=50

This last combination of numbers demonstrates the same point that it is through much tribulation 40 Forty = The Number Of Trials upon the flesh 10 Ten = Completeness Of The Flesh that God’s people will inherit the kingdom of God. The number 50 grace through faith (Eph 2:8) is being endured in the lives of those who are being saved in this age (5×10=50). The multiple of ten reminds us that while we are in this flesh we will suffer and be persecuted as Christ was and will be more than conquerors through Him. God is our comforter and liberator through all our trials and afflictions (Jhn 15:20, Rom 5:10, Psa 34:19, 2co 1:3).

We’ve seen how 15 and 50 being multiples of 5 have many ways they can be looked at to help us understand how we are being liberated through Christ. Both numbers are very revealing and their sum adds up to 65 which is a fitting number seeing this whole study is about how grace 5 is applied unto the flesh 6 of God’s elect who are the first to be judged in this life (1Pe 4:17).

May God grant us great courage (Jos 1:7) and power through Christ to endure to the end as His kind of first fruits, via grace through faith (Mat 24:13, Jas 1:18, Eph 2:8) knowing and believing that it is through the trials that we endure in this life that we will be strengthen and able to produce much good fruit (Num 14:9) born of the righteousness of Christ within us (Gal 2:20, Luk 6:43-45, Jhn 15:5).

Jos 1:7  Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

Num 14:9  Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

Jhn 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Book of Colossians 2:14-15 Nailing It to His Cross

[Study Aired September 22, 2026]

“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” Colossians 2:14–15.

Where the Last Study Stopped

The last study took the first six verses of this passage and stopped. Before we take the last two, it is worth recalling what the first six settled.

Paul had named a danger. Someone might carry these people off (G4812) “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Teachers were at the door of that church with something to add to Christ — a wisdom held elsewhere, a discipline, ranks of beings between a man and God.

Against that Paul laid six verses of ground. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, bodily. These people are complete in Him, and He is head of all principality and power. They were circumcised by no hand, buried, raised, and made alive — and every verb of it was one they did not perform.

It ended on one more thing done to them: “having forgiven you all trespasses.” That raised a question the last study named and did not answer. If the trespasses are forgiven, what became of what stood written against them?

Paul answers that first, and the answer takes three verbs. Then he says what became of those who stood over them.

Four things stand in these two verses: What the writing was, and what was written on it; Who it stood against, and how it reached men who never received the law; What became of it — three things done to it, and all three at one cross. Then the powers: put off, shown openly, and set against what this letter had already said of them in chapter one. Three of the words in these two verses stand nowhere else in all of Scripture.

Blotting Out the Handwriting

He begins with what was written.

Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out (G1813) the handwriting (G5498) of ordinances (G1378) that was against us, which was contrary (G5227) to us, and took it out of the way, nailing (G4338) it to his cross.”

Something was written against the Colossians. It is gone.

Start with the thing itself. “Handwriting” is cheirographon (G5498), a word used nowhere else in Scripture. There is no second place to weigh it against, so the sense comes from the lexicons, and they give it as a document in a man’s own hand — a bond he has signed. Paul does the thing itself in another letter, though he does not use the word: “I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it” (Philemon 1:19). That is the picture: an obligation, acknowledged in writing, by the man who owes it.

Now what was written on it.

“Ordinances” is dogma (G1378), and Paul does not leave us guessing. The verb built on it stands six verses on (G1379) — “why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” (Colossians 2:20) — and then names them: “Touch not; taste not; handle not” (Colossians 2:21). Just before that he had listed “meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days” (Colossians 2:16).

Those are the laws of Moses. Writing to another church he joins the word to the law itself: “the law of commandments contained in ordinances (G1378)” (Ephesians 2:15). And the word names binding requirement delivered to churches: “they delivered them the decrees (G1378) for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4).

So the decrees written on it were the ordinances of the law, and the bond is what those decrees held a man to. That keeps both halves of the verse: a writing of ordinances, and an obligation standing against men.

Paul is not describing a page that someone tore up. What kind of writing can be nailed to a cross?

Hebrews answers it. It speaks of a covenant made with the fathers and broken — “they continued not in my covenant” (Hebrews 8:9) — and of another to come, whose terms God says He will “put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10). Written. Nowhere on a page. Of the first, that God “hath made the first old” and it is “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).

That is the kind of instrument in view. A covenant binds. It sets terms. Its terms can be written where no page exists. The same book assigns the very things Paul names — meats, drinks, washings — to that first covenant (Hebrews 9:1, 9:10). It does not use Paul’s word there; it makes the same list belong to the same covenant.

Hebrews 9:1 “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.”

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

So the handwriting was not a scrap someone tore up. It was an obligation, and it held men the way a signed bond holds a debtor.

Now who it held.

Paul states it plainly: the writing was “against us.” He was a Pharisee. He could say of himself, “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6), and he says the writing stood against him. Not against the Gentiles who never had it. Against the man who kept it best.

He explains that elsewhere. The law speaks to those under it, he says, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19). Being outside it did not leave the Gentiles innocent: “as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law” (Romans 2:12). To the Ephesians he names a second effect — a wall standing between two peoples, broken down at the cross.

Ephesians 2:14–15 “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 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.”

So the writing cut two ways. It stood against the people who had it, and it shut out the people who did not. 

“Contrary to us” is hupenantios (G5227). It is used once besides here, where a fiery indignation “shall devour the adversaries (G5227)” (Hebrews 10:27). What was written was no inconvenience standing between them and a blessing. It was an opposing party.

Then what became of the writing. Three things.

It was blotted out. “Blotting out” is exaleiphō (G1813), and the verb by itself decides nothing, because Scripture uses it of very different things. Of sins: “that your sins may be blotted out (G1813)” (Acts 3:19). Of a name: “I will not blot out (G1813) his name out of the book of life” (Revelation 3:5). Of tears: “God shall wipe away (G1813) all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17). Sins, a name, tears. The verb names an erasure, and what is erased is named beside it. Here what is named is the writing.

Notice what was blotted out together with it. The clause just before says “having forgiven you all trespasses.” Those are not two acts laid side by side. Paul says elsewhere that sin is not reckoned where there is no law — “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13) — and that “the strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). The writing did not make these people sinners. It made their sin chargeable. Blot out the writing and the charge has nothing to be written on.

It was taken out of the way. Carried off, so that it no longer stands where it stood.

And it was nailed to the cross. “Nailing” is prosēloō (G4338), used nowhere else in Scripture. The bond was not filed away where it might be produced again. It was fastened, in public, to the cross where Christ died. What was nailed there was not the law’s goodness. Paul calls the law holy, and the commandment “holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12), and says faith does not make it void but establishes it (Romans 3:31). What ended was the bond men were held to, not the righteousness the law spoke of. The Lord Himself said He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it, and that not one jot or tittle should pass from it “till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17–18).

It was not nailed up at a distance from these people. Something else hung there that day, written over His head, naming the charge against Him — “set up over his head his accusation written” (Matthew 27:37). John records the same written charge, giving the title in his own words (John 19:19) “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. The writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.” The writing against us was fastened to the same wood. These people had already been told in this passage that they were buried with Him and raised with Him, and Paul says it of himself plainly: “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). What is done to the Head is where the body is.

One thing more. Two sayings here might seem to pull apart. Hebrews says the first covenant is “ready to vanish away” — something still passing. Paul says the writing was blotted, carried off, and nailed up — something finished. Scripture speaks both ways about one thing, and this series has met it before: God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:6) while we still walk about on the earth. The nailing was the act. The vanishing is what men see of it in time.

Paul writes “against us” and “contrary to us.” Not against them. He is not describing someone else’s trouble from a safe distance. The writing had his name on it too.

Spoiled, Shewn, Triumphed

Forgiveness was one half of it. There were also the powers — the thrones and dominions the teachers were pointing toward, the ranks a man was told to climb. Paul says what the cross did with those.

Colossians 2:15 “And having spoiled (G554) principalities and powers, he made a shew (G1165) of them openly (G3954), triumphing (G2358) over them in it.”

Read the two verses together and something seems to answer itself. Verse 8 warned that a man might spoil them. Verse 15 says Christ spoiled the principalities and powers. They would carry you off, and He carried them off.

However, that is not what Paul wrote. The word at verse 8 is sulagōgeō (G4812). The word here is apekduomai (G554). They share nothing but the English the translators chose for them.

Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil (G4812) you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

Colossians 2:15 “And having spoiled [put off] (G554) principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

What it does carry is a thread that entered four verses back. Apekduomai stands twice in Scripture, both times in this letter: here of the powers, and later of the readers — “ye have put off (G554) the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9). Its noun stood four verses back, where these men were told of “putting off (G555) the body of the sins of the flesh” (Colossians 2:11). So the same root is used three times in this letter. The body of the sins of the flesh, put off. The old man, put off. And here, the principalities and powers put off.

Colossians 2:11 “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off (G555) the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”

Applied to the powers it raises a question the letter does not answer, since the form Paul uses will bear either a stripping of them or a stripping off from Himself. The other place the word stands shows why: at 3:9 it is the readers who put off the old man — the subject stripping something from himself. The KJV takes the first reading here. We need not choose between them, because what the verse states either way is that the powers were dealt with at the cross, and that they were shown openly.

Paul says next that the powers were shown. “Made a shew (G1165) of them openly” is deigmatizō (G1165), another word that stands nowhere else in Scripture. Its longer form is used of men who crucify the Son of God afresh and “put him to an open shame (G3856)” (Hebrews 6:6). That is the sense — something held up where it can be seen.

Paul is not content to let the verb carry it alone. He adds “openly” (G3954), which is a phrase of its own and not part of the verb.

“Triumphing over them” is thriambeuō (G2358), and it stands in one other place: “thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph (G2358) in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14). The same verb at both ends of it — something God works in us there, something Christ does to the powers here. What the two hold in common is a victory carried where it can be seen. And “in it” could look back to the cross, the nearest thing   named, or to Christ Himself. Either way the place of the triumph is the place of the dying.

Reconciled, and Triumphed Over

Now the hardest thing in the passage.

Back there he wrote that God was pleased “by him to reconcile all things unto himself… whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20). The powers are among those things — He made them, and made them for Himself (Colossians 1:16). Here, at the cross, He puts them off and makes a shew of them openly. Reconciled, and triumphed over.

Colossians 1:15-17 “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

These are not two separate dealings. The reconciling was made “through the blood of his cross.” The triumph was “nailing it to his cross… triumphing over them in it.” One cross for both.

What cannot be said is how it ends. Paul tells us what these beings are to Christ, and he tells us what the cross did to them. He never sets those two sayings side by side and tells us what they amount to together. That is a gap in the letter, not a defect in the question.

It is a gap this series said would close here. The third study set the reconciling of “all things” at 1:20 against the powers put off at 2:15, and said the answer would wait at this verse. It does not wait here. What such beings were made for, and what the cross accomplishes in that, are weighed across the whole of Scripture. That is a study of its own, on what the principalities and powers were made for.

What These Verses Establish

Read whole — these two verses and the six that carried us to them — the passage names a danger and then buries it under the Person Jesus Christ.

A man may be carried off. Paul does not identify the thing that would carry him off by what it teaches, but by what it is patterned after — the traditions men hand down, the rudiments of the world, and not Christ. Against that stands one sentence: all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, bodily. Everything else here is drawn out of it.

These people are filled full in Him, and He is head over the very ranks a teacher would send them climbing toward. They were circumcised by no hand, buried, raised, and made alive, by a working that raised Christ from the dead and is the same working that exhausts the apostle who tells them so. The writing against them was blotted out, carried off, and nailed up where Christ died, and the powers were put off, and shown openly.

They did none of it. It was all done to them. Verse 8 tells them to watch; the seven verses under it give them nothing to do. The order of standing before doing holds again, and holds it in the strongest form the letter has yet given. What is new is the position: the warning came first this time, and the ground was laid underneath it rather than before it.

The fullness dwells in Christ; the church is filled in Him, and the letter never trades the one for the other. All of it was done to a people who could not have asked for it. What holds them holds us on the same terms, and for the same reason: not because we laid hold of the fullness, but because it dwells where God put us, in Christ.

Next study: (Colossians 2:16–19)

“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.”

2 Samuel 2:1–32 David Becomes King of Judah

[Study Aired September 21, 2026]

Chapter 2 of Second Samuel under review today can be divided into three sections. The first section has to do with David inquiring from the Lord regarding where he should go, which ultimately resulted in David being made king of Judah. The second section focuses on the conflict between Abner and Joab, resulting in a bloody contest beginning at the pool of Gibeon. The final section deals with the calling for truce by Abner after the pursuit of Abner by Joab, for killing his brother Asahel.  

David Anointed King of Judah

2Sa 2:1  And it came to pass after this, that David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the LORD said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron. 
2Sa 2:2  So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail Nabal’s wife the Carmelite.
2Sa 2:3 And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.

As we are aware, David was anointed by Samuel to become king of Israel before the conquest of Goliath. 

1Sa 16:13  Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. 

With the death of Saul and Jonathan, he did not immediately try to seize power as king, but waited with patience for the Lord to work things out for him. His enquiry as to where he should go shows how David was waiting upon the Lord to accomplish that which he had promised. It implies that we need to be patient in order to receive the Lord’s promise.

Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 
Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 
Heb 10:39  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. 

In the Bible, cities also represent churches. Hebron means ‘association.’ David going to Hebron signifies that being associated or being part of the church of Lord’s elect is a requirement to being crowned as king when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

The fact that it is mentioned in verse 2 that David went to Hebron with His two wives is to remind us that although we are called and chosen as the Lord’s elect to belong to the church of the first born, represented by Abigail, we still had ties with the church system of this world or Babylon, signified by Ahinoam. It is instructive to note that Ahinoam means ‘my brother is a delight’ and that of Abigail denotes ‘my father is joy.’ What this means is that when we were in Babylon, we considered our brothers and sisters as our focus of delight. In other words, our attention was more on men than the Lord. However, in the church of the Lord’s elect, our focus is on our father, who is represented by Christ, who is our joy. 

Psa 48:2  beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.    

David bringing the men who were with him each with his household to the cities of Hebron in verse 3, is to let us know that in the fullness of time, we shall lead our families to Christ.

2Sa 2:4  And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, That the men of Jabeshgilead were they that buried Saul. 
2Sa 2:5  And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabeshgilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the LORD, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him. 
2Sa 2:6  And now the LORD shew kindness and truth unto you: and I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing. 

The men of Judah coming to anoint David as king over the house of Judah speaks of our future reward of being made rulers over the kingdoms of this world in the fullness of time, when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. 

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. 

The mention of what the men of Jabesh-Gilead did in respect of risking their lives to remove the body of Saul, and those of his sons, from the house of idols of the Philistines to give them a befitting burial is to remind us that in the fullness of time, we shall show mercy to our brothers and sisters in Babylon, who are fallen victims of the flesh. 

1Sa 31:11  And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul; 
1Sa 31:12  All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. 
1Sa 31:13  And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days. 

In other words, the mercy or kindness we have received from the Lord shall be meted out to our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. 
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! 

2Sa 2:7  Therefore now let your hands be strengthened, and be ye valiant: for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them. 

The men of Jabash-Gilead represent the Lord’s elect, and here in verse 7 the Lord is enjoining us, His elect, through David, to be strengthened in Him and to be courageous. The reason for this admonition by David was that their master Saul was dead and that the house of Judah had anointed him as king of Judah. Saul here represents our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world who have been disqualified because of their unbelief. This implies that if we are not strengthened in Christ and are courageous, we, too, shall be disqualified. 

The second reason why we should be strengthened in Him is that David had been anointed as king of Judah. Because of the reward of ruling with Christ in the fullness of time, as depicted by David’s appointment as king of Judah, we are admonished to be strengthened in Christ and to be courageous, just like when the Lord commissioned Joshua to take the role of Moses.

Jos 1:6  Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. 
Jos 1:7  Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. 

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. 
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 

Ish-bosheth Made King of Israel

2Sa 2:8  But Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;
2Sa 2:9  And made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

Abner signifies the leaders in Babylon who are appointed by their Pastors to assist them in their rulership. The fact that Abner appointed Ishbosheth, Saul’s son as king over the people of Israel is to make us aware of the way leadership is chosen in Babylon. It depends on people’s lineage to the founder or the one who started the church. This is what we see in many churches all over the world. When the founder is too old or passes away, the successor to the church is either the son or daughter. It is also important to note that in the case of Ishbosheth, there was no mention of him being anointed with oil to become king. It shows how the leadership of the church system of this world is devoid of the spirit, which is represented by the anointing oil. 

Jud 1:17  But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
Jud 1:18  How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
Jud 1:19  These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

2Sa 2:10  Ishbosheth Saul’s son was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 
2Sa 2:11  And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. 

The number forty signifies a period of trial and testing, purification and preparation for a new beginning. More details of this assertion can be found in the iswasandwillbe website. Ishbosheth being forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, means that throughout this age, our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world are being tried and tested in preparation for a new beginning in the fullness of time. We were also tried and tested, when we were in Babylon, which made us come to realize that we are the worst sinners, and unless the Lord intervenes in our circumstance, there was no way we could become His obedient children. This was what happened to the people of Israel in the wilderness.

Psa 95:10  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 
Psa 95:11  Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.  

It is important to note that Ishbosheth reigned over Israel for two years. The negative application of the number two speaks of divisions, chaos and confusion. Ishbosheth reigning for two years in Israel therefore signifies the chaotic dispensation which we experienced during our time in the churches of this world. 

David reigning in the house of Judah for a period of seven and a half years suggests that the work of David, a symbol of the men of faith whom the Lord used in the Old Testament is not complete without us. 

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 
Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.  

The Battle of Gibeon

2Sa 2:12  And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
2Sa 2:13  And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together by the pool of Gibeon: and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. 

The pool of Gibeon represents the word of the Lord, while Abner and his men signify the church system of this world. Joab and his men, on the other hand,  denotes the Lord’s elect. The fact that Joab and his men sat at one side of the pool, while David and his men sat at the other side indicates that what separates the church system of this world from the Lord’s elect is the word of the Lord. As we are aware, our brothers interpret the word of the Lord differently from the Lord’s elect as they focus on the letter of the word. On the other hand, the Lord’s elect interpret the word of the Lord in the spirit. 

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

2Sa 2:14  And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise. 
2Sa 2:15  Then there arose and went over by number twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. 
2Sa 2:16  And they caught everyone his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side; so they fell down together: wherefore that place was called Helkathhazzurim, which is in Gibeon. 
2Sa 2:17  And there was a very sore battle that day; and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David.

The number twelve means ‘foundation’, and we know that Christ is the foundation. The fact that twelve people were chosen from both sides indicates that in building our foundation in Christ, we all start by using wood, hay, stubble before we are given to build with gold, silver, precious stones. The wood, hay and stubble represent the false doctrines which we imbibe and causes us to become victims of the flesh. It is instructive to note that the place where they fell was named Helkathhazzurim, which means ‘fields of sword.’ As we are aware, a sword represents the word of the Lord and the fields of sword means we have a worldly word of the Lord, which is false doctrines, since ‘field’ represents the world.  Therefore, what we are being told is that it is false doctrines that put us to death. 

In verse 16, we are reminded that both Abner’s men and Joab’s men fell. It shows that we stumble as the Lord’s elect, just like our brothers and sisters in Babylon, before we are given to overcome. In other words, we start our walk with Christ with the foundation of wood, hay and stubble, before we are given to overcome as we replace our foundation with gold, silver and stones. It is important to note that in verse 17, it was mentioned that Abner and his men were defeated. This shows how in the final analysis, we, as the Lord’s elect, are victorious as our foundation is replaced with gold, silver and stones.   

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 

2Sa 2:18  And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe. 
2Sa 2:19  And Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. 
2Sa 2:20  Then Abner looked behind him, and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered, I am.
2Sa 2:21  And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him. 
2Sa 2:22  And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? 
2Sa 2:23  Howbeit he refused to turn aside: wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place: and it came to pass, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.

As indicated in verse 18, Asahel was gifted, with his feet as swift as a wild gazelle. He represents our brothers and sisters in the body who are gifted. Spiritual maturity is not the same as gifts, and therefore we must be prepared to listen to counsel from our brothers and sisters in our walk with Christ. As we can see in this story, Abner told Asahel twice that he should turn away and fight with the young men, but he refused. Asahel wanted to do something great by capturing Abner. 

Rom 11:20  Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
Rom 11:21  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 

On a positive note, Abner represents our brothers and sisters who are experienced in this struggle against our flesh and can guide us in our walk with Christ. When we take a look at the scripture, we see Paul and Barnabas submitting to the counsel of the elders, although their understanding concerning the issue raised about the Gentiles was far deeper than the elders. Many who have left the fellowship thought that their understanding was far better than that of the elders and therefore were not prepared to submit to the counsel of the elders, as we see in the case of Asahel. As a result, we become spiritually dead as we see Asahel dead through the butt of the spear from Abner. The butt of the spear signifies false doctrines, which has put to death many of our brothers and sisters who were so gifted. 

Jer 9:23  Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 
Jer 9:24  But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. 

2Sa 2:24  Joab also and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that lieth before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. 

Joab and his brother Abishai pursuing Abner to take revenge for the death of their brother Asahel implies that they were still of the flesh, since vengeance is of the Lord. This is to make us aware that in this journey of faith, it takes a lifetime for our flesh to be destroyed completely. That is why we need patience, after we have done the will of God, to receive the promise.

Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.  

2Sa 2:25  And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one troop, and stood on the top of an hill.

The children of Benjamin gathering themselves together after Abner instead of David shows us how the church system of this world has many children, while the church of the Lord’s elect, signified by David and his men, are relatively small in number.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. 

2Sa 2:26  Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour forever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren? 
2Sa 2:27  And Joab said, As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother. 
2Sa 2:28  So Joab blew a trumpet, and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more.  

Abner calling for a truce was to avoid a great slaughter of his men. Joab accepting the truce indicates that as the Lord’s elect, we should be men of peace and that we should not put a stumbling block of iniquity before our brothers and sisters to cause them to become spiritually dead. This stumbling block of iniquity is false doctrines, represented by the sword used to slay many. 

Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? 
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 

2Sa 2:30  And Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David’s servants nineteen men and Asahel.

The number nineteen means judgment of the flesh. The fact that nineteen men were missing or dead from the camp of David after the fight with Abner and his men signifies that as His elect, it is through the judgment of our flesh that our flesh dies. 

2Sa 2:31  But the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin, and of Abner’s men, so that three hundred and threescore men died. 

Abner’s men who died were 360 and here they symbolize our brothers and sisters in the churches of this world. The number 360 = 10x3x12. What this means is that it is at the fullness of the flesh after the final rebellion against Christ (the significance of the number 10) that our brothers and sisters in Babylon shall go through the process of judgment (the significance of the number three) in the lake of fire, which will result in them becoming like Christ (the significance of the number 12). 

2Sa 2:32  And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which was in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and they came to Hebron at break of day. 

Asahel represents the Lord’s elect and Bethlehem signifies the house of bread, which stands for the church of the Lord’s elect. The fact that he was buried in a sepulchre in Bethlehem implies that as His elect, our flesh is destroyed in the house of the Lord or in the church of the firstborn.

As indicated, Joab and his men represent the Lord’s elect. In the Bible, the night refers to the time that we are in darkness as we are overwhelmed by the flesh. 

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  

Joab and his men travelling all night and getting to Hebron at break of day is therefore telling us that our journey with Christ is like a long night where we are overwhelmed by our flesh, and it is when we come to the church of the firstborn (significance of Hebron which means ‘association’), that the day breaks or the light of the gospel of Christ shines in our hearts and mind to become like Christ.

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:  

May His name be praised forever. Amen!

Alleged Contradictions in Scripture – Part 7

“Walk… In The Fear of The Lord”, Versus “Perfect Love Casts Out Fear”

[Study Aired September 20, 2026]

Act 9:31 Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Introduction

Should you and I “Walk in the fear of the Lord”? If we do fear Him, does that mean we are not made perfect in love?

I hope that you have been brought to see that just as the fear of man correlates with the love of this world, so it is with the fear of God. Those who fear man love this world, and those who fear God love God and “the things of the spirit.” Just like every alleged contradiction we have studied to this point, the things of the spirit are understood only by those who have been given to “receive the things of the spirit”, and those who have not been granted that gift will take “some of the word” and attempt to make it contradict “the sum of Thy Word.”

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV, ESV)

2Pe 1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture at all is becoming its own explanation. (CLV)

1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: [“the sum of thy word”, (Psa 119:160, Joh 6:63)]
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

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.
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.

There are those who know nothing of any of these truths, or who do not know how to apply these truths, who use that statement in 1 John 4:18, (“He that fears is not made perfect in love”) to teach that we need not fear God under the New Testament. More than that, some even teach that if you do fear God, you are not made perfect in love. As is always the case, such people have no idea or have forgotten how to apply all the above verses, and they have forgotten what ‘love’ is or what ‘love’ produces in those who do have “the love of God”.

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.

Let us establish that the Greek word for ‘fear’ in both Luke 12:5 and 1 John 4:18 is:

G5399
φοβέω
phobeō
fob-eh’-o

From G5401; to frighten, that is, (passively) to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, that is, revere: – be (+ sore) afraid, fear (exceedingly), reverence.

Here are all the entries for this Greek word in the New Testament:

G5399
φοβέω
phobeō
Total KJV Occurrences: 93
fear, 35
Mat_1:20, Mat_10:26, Mat_10:28 (2), Mat_10:31, Mat_21:26, Mat_28:5, Luk_1:13, Luk_1:30, Luk_1:50, Luk_5:10 (2), Luk_8:50, Luk_12:5 (3), Luk_12:7, Luk_12:32, Luk_18:4, Luk_23:40, Act_13:15-16 (2), Act_27:24, Rom_11:20, 2Co_11:3, 2Co_12:20, Heb_4:1, Heb_13:6, 1Pe_2:17, Rev_1:17, Rev_2:10, Rev_11:18, Rev_14:7, Rev_19:4-5 (2)
afraid, 29
Mat_2:22, Mat_14:27, Mat_14:30, Mat_17:6-7 (2), Mat_25:25, Mat_28:10, Mar_5:15, Mar_5:36, Mar_6:50, Mar_10:32 (2), Luk_2:8-9 (2), Luk_8:25, Luk_8:35, Luk_12:4, Joh_6:19-20 (2), Joh_19:8, Act_9:26, Act_18:9, Act_22:29, Rom_13:3-4 (2), Gal_4:11, Heb_11:23, 1Pe_3:6, 1Pe_3:14
feared, 18
Mat_14:5, Mat_21:46, Mat_27:54, Mar_4:41, Mar_6:20, Mar_11:18, Mar_11:32, Mar_12:12, Luk_9:34, Luk_9:45, Luk_18:2, Luk_19:21, Luk_20:19, Luk_22:2, Joh_9:22, Act_5:26, Act_10:2, Act_16:38
fearing, 6
Mar_5:33, Act_27:17, Act_27:29, Gal_2:12, Col_3:22, Heb_11:27
feareth, 4
Act_10:22, Act_10:35, Act_13:26, 1Jo_4:18
reverence, 1
Eph_5:33

Of the 93 times this word appears, it is translated as ‘reverence’ only one time:

Eph 5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence [Greek: phobeo, fear] her husband.

Here is that Greek word from which 5399 is taken and which is also translated as ‘fear’:

G5401
φόβος
phobos
fob’-os

From a primary φέβομαι phebomai (to be put in fear); alarm or fright: – be afraid, + exceedingly, fear, terror.

Here are the entries for this word:

G5401
φόβος
phobos
Total KJV Occurrences: 47
fear, 41
Mat_14:26, Mat_28:4, Mat_28:8, Luk_1:12, Luk_1:65, Luk_5:26, Luk_7:16, Luk_8:37, Luk_21:26, Joh_7:13, Joh_19:38, Joh_20:19, Act_2:43, Act_5:5, Act_5:11, Act_9:31, Rom_3:17-18 (2), Rom_8:15, Rom_13:7 (2), 1Co_2:3, 2Co_7:1, 2Co_7:11, 2Co_7:15, Eph_5:21, Eph_6:5, Phi_2:12, 1Ti_5:20, Heb_2:15, 1Pe_2:17-18 (2), 1Pe_3:2, 1Pe_3:15, 1Jo_4:18 (3), Jud_1:23, Rev_11:11, Rev_18:10, Rev_18:15
terror, 3
Rom_13:3, 2Co_5:11, 1Pe_3:14
exceedingly, 1
Mar_4:41
feared, 1
Mar_4:41 (2)
fears, 1
2Co_7:5

There are really only 46 entries for this word because, as you can see, the words ‘feared’ and ‘exceedingly’ are both translated from this one Greek word ‘phobos’ in Mark 4:41:

Mar 4:41 And they feared exceedingly  [G5401: phobos], and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Of the 46 times this word appears in the New Testament, it is translated as ‘fear’, ‘terror’, ‘feared’ and ‘fears’ in every case. It is never once translated as revere or reverence. But just for the record, this is the Webster’s dictionary definition of the English word ‘revere’:

“1. Fear mingled with respect and esteem; veneration.

“When quarrels and factions are carried openly, it is a sign that the reverence of government is lost.

“The fear acceptable to God, is a filial fear, an awful reverence of the divine nature, proceeding from a just esteem of his perfections, which produces in us an inclination to his service and an unwillingness to offend him.

“REV’ERENCE, v.t. To regard with reverence; to regard with fear mingled with respect and affection. We reverence superiors for their age, their authority and their virtues. We ought to reverence parents and upright judges and magistrates. We ought to reverence the Supreme Being, his word and his ordinances.”

Here is what we are told of how we ought to relate to this word ‘reverence’ in the Old Testament:

Lev 19:30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

Psa 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

Psa 119:38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

The word ‘duty’ here in Ecclesiastes 12:13 has been added by the translators and is better left off. The fact is that mankind is not complete without a healthy Biblical fear of God.

This is what the Old Testament tells us is the relationship of a son to his father:

Lev 19:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
Lev 19:3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.

Having been a child in need of discipline, I can vouch for the meaning of those words, “fear every man his mother, and his Father.” As much as I hated going to school as a child, I dreaded coming home if my mother had said that morning, “Just wait until your father comes home.” Every mother is just as qualified to administer chastening, as is every father. Ideally that is what my mother should have done. A rebellious carnal child needs a healthy fear of his mother and of his father, and that is just as true today as it was when these words were inspired of the holy spirit “for our admonition” (1Co 10:11).

Pro 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Yes, these words “were 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.

Fully aware of how politically incorrect these words are today, they are nevertheless the Truth of the Word of God:

Pro 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

The book of Proverbs gets more explicit by the chapter:

Pro 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Pro 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

What does all this chastening produce in a son? A child, either a physical or a spiritual child, when chastened by a loving, God-fearing father, a physical or a spiritual father, learns to fear God and keep His commandments (Ecc 12:13):

Pro 23:15 My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Pro 23:16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
Pro 23:17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.

Our lips are speaking “right things” when we teach our children that the fear of their parents produces love for those parents. It is an undisciplined spoiled child, who has been given everything he wants, who grows up to hate others and murder even his own parents.

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,

Did the coming of Christ and His New Covenant nullify this principle? This is what the New Testament teaches us till this day:

Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, 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?

A child who fears to disobey a loving father is a well balanced, respectful, and loving child who will grow up to be of the same mind as his loving father. However, the carnal mind witnesses abusive fathers and declares that all fathers who discipline their children are abusive fathers. That is the same undiscerning, fascist mindset that says that anyone who drinks alcohol is a drunkard. There is a time and a place for everything, including chastening a child:

Ecc 3:1  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecc 3:2  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which isplanted;
Ecc 3:3  A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecc 3:4  A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecc 3:5  A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecc 3:6  A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecc 3:7  A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
Ecc 3:8  A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

It is not at all ‘adding to the word’ to say… ‘a time to chasten your children and fear God.’

Truly, a mind which does not “fear God and keep His commandments” is not a “whole man”!

Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. [the words “duty of” are added by the King James translators]

The ACV gives us a much better translation of this verse:

Ecc 12:13 [This is] the end of the matter, all has been heard: Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man. [‘of’ is added] (ACV)

Old Testament Only?

Let’s ask and answer the question: Is the fear of God just an Old Testament doctrine? Did “the times of reformation” brought in by Christ change our need to fear God and keep His commandments? After all, as some are quick to remind us:

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

Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

Let’s examine what the New Testament scriptures teach on this subject so we can know for certain whether we need to fear God under the terms of the New Covenant. The New Testament reveals that the Lord’s sanctuary spoken of in Leviticus 19:30 is nothing less than you and me if we are God’s elect.

Lev 19:30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

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.

“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” Is that something you or I should fear under the New Covenant? If indeed “perfect love casts out fear”, what does the New Testament teach about whether we should fear God? Is it possible to fear God and still have “perfect love?”

The answer is that once we know what “the love of God” is (1Jo 5:2-3), then we can see clearly that it is impossible to be perfected in love without having the fear of God, as we are about to see.

This is what we are told is the doctrine of the New Testament concerning whether we are to fear God:

Heb 4:1 Let us therefore fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Rev 11:18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

Rev 19:4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
Rev 19:5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.

It is manifested in all these verses that “perfect love casts out fear” is not referring to the fear of God.

According to the New Testament, we are 1) to “fear… lest we come short… of entering into His rest; 2) Those who “fear [God’s] name” are to be rewarded at “the time of the dead”; 3) A vital part of “the everlasting gospel” is the proclamation that we are to “Fear God and give glory to Him”; and 4) finally, we are told that a voice comes directly out of the throne of Christ commanding us: “Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.” That is the New Testament doctrine of who is to fear God in “the time of reformation” in which we live:

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

So ‘phobos’ really does mean ‘fear’ and can rightly be translated “feared exceedingly” in the context of seeing a man walking on water in the midst of a terrible storm:

Mar 4:41 And they feared exceedingly [G5401: phobos], and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

To conclude this study on the apparent contradiction between these two verses:

Act 9:31 Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Let’s ask and receive our answer from the Lord Himself about this question. If the scriptures actually teach us to fear God as a child fears his father, did our Lord Himself fear His heavenly Father? Christ Himself has inspired Isaiah to admonish us:

Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Having inspired Isaiah to give us that warning, this is what Christ, our ultimate authority, taught us during His proclamation of the everlasting gospel while He was on this earth in an earthen vessel:

Luk 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
Luk 12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

There it is out of the mouth of Christ Himself! “I will forewarn you whom you shall fear… I say unto you, Fear [God]” So Christ’s doctrine concerning the subject of ‘the fear of God’ is the same doctrine in the New Testament as it was in the Old Testament.

Finally and most conclusively, we are told that Christ has lived a life which was exemplary for us and that we “should follow His footsteps”:

1Pe 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Did our ‘Example’ fear His Father? Yes, He did, and this verse concludes this study showing that the fear of 1 John 4:18 refers to the fear of men, as Christ told us there in Luke 12: 4, “Be not afraid of [men]”. Christ Himself feared no man, yet He left us this example:

Heb 5:7 Who [Christ] in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Perfect love casts out all fear of men. It does not cast out the fear of God, rather perfect love is based upon the fear of disobeying a loving God who is our heavenly Father.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, 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?

The Song of Solomon – Part 8

The Fragrance of the Name, and the Dragging of the Virgins

[Study Aired September 19, 2026]

Introduction

She has asked. That much was settled in the closing line of the last study (My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?), and Scripture does not leave a plea like hers hanging in silence for long. Notice what His answer is not. First, it is not a sentence. It is a scent — fragrance arriving in the room before the words that explain it, the way a physician’s hand often reaches the wound before his diagnosis reaches the tongue.

Two verses will occupy the whole of this study, and they must be heard once, whole and unbroken, before either is permitted to be taken apart.

Son 1:3-4 Because of the savour of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

Underneath both verses runs a single, uncomfortable question that this study will not let you set down for long: not merely whether you love Christ, but whether what is presently being formed in you is fit to become, in the fullest and most terrifying sense of the word, His own anointed extension — Christ’s Christ. 

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

Saviors — plural — ascending a spiritual mountain that is becoming their own, to execute a judgment that Is, Was, and Will Be their own, in a kingdom that remains, even after their ascent, entirely the LORD’s. This is not self-worship. It is the furthest possible thing from self-exaltation: a life so thoroughly emptied of its own claims that Christ Himself becomes the one living inside the vacancy. That is the standard this study will keep returning you to, quietly and without relief, as these two verses are opened.

1. The Savor of the Ointment, and the Name Poured Forth

Long before any daughter of Eve learned to fear her husband’s silence, a different silence was broken by a different scent, rising from an altar built by a man who had just watched the whole earth drown.

Gen 8:20-21  And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD… And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.

Notice the order: the curse remains — the ground still gives up its bread only in sweat, the wife’s garden still bears its thorns — and yet the fragrance rising from that altar is enough to secure, from the very beginning, the eventual good end of both resurrections. Judgment is not cancelled by the scent. Judgment is answered by it.

Savour — H7381 reyach – ray’-akh
1. scent, fragrance, aroma, odour
2. odour of soothing (a technical term for sacrifice to God)
From H7306, to breathe, blow, smell, perceive odour.

The root beneath reyach is the same root that supplies Scripture’s ordinary word for breath and spirit—the very organ through which discernment itself operates. A savour, in this vocabulary, is never merely detected. It is breathed in, taken into the same faculty by which a soul comes to perceive truth at all. What God smells at Noah’s altar is not incense. It is the shape of an argument His own justice will accept.

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

Exo 27:20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. 

Zec 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 

Ointment — H8081 shemen
1. fat, oil, fatness
2. oil, olive oil, as staple, medicament, unguent, or for anointing
3. (metaphorically) fat, fruitfulness, abundance
Strong’s: from an unused root meaning to shine; i.e., (by analogy) to be, or causatively, to make oily or gross.

To shine by becoming oily — the lexicon’s own etymology already carries the doctrine before a single sermon is preached on it. Oil does not merely anoint; it makes the anointed surface catch and throw back light it did not generate on its own. This is the whole of the Bride’s coming glory in a single unused root: she shines because she has been made, deliberately, oily with a substance not her own.

Olive oil, throughout this system’s established doctrine, represents the holy spirit — the very power and nature of Christ, and of His Father. The anointing oil of the tabernacle was compounded, sealed, and reserved for one purpose alone. 

Exo 30:31-32 This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations. Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.

Upon man’s flesh — upon those still outside the camp, still Babylonian in condition, however loudly they sing His name on a Sunday — it was never to be poured. This is not exclusivity for its own sake. It is the same principle that governs every locked chamber in this Song: what is holy cannot be handed indiscriminately to dogs without ceasing, in that instant, to be holy.

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Not some of it. The sum — the whole, undivided total. This is what Christ’s name, His doctrine, His reputation, is compared to here: not a fragrance dabbed sparingly, but an ointment poured forth without rationing, until the whole room is filled with it.

2Co 2:15-16 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life.

The same fragrance, breathed by two different congregations, yields opposite verdicts — not because the ointment changes, but because the nose that receives it has either been trained by chastising grace or corrupted by flesh. This is worth sitting inside for a moment rather than rushing past.

When Christ’s word is poured out plainly in your hearing — not softened, not negotiated — does it register in you as savor of life, or does some part of you, however quietly, still recoil as though it were the smell of your own fleshy death approaching? The honest answer will not be spoken aloud here. You need only know it before you turn this page.

Aaron’s own anointing pictures where this fragrance is meant to travel once poured—not evaporating at the crown of the head, but descending deliberately until the whole body is covered.

Psa 133:2-3 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments: As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. 

This is why, while still clothed in the flesh He would soon lay down, Christ Himself declined a title not yet fully His to claim.

Mat 19:17 Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

He was not disowning His own goodness. He was refusing to receive, ahead of schedule, the fullness of a name that His own resurrection had not yet secured. The oil had not yet finished descending to the garment’s skirts. Her own name, if she is honest, is still descending the same way — further along the beard than the crown, perhaps, but not yet at the hem.

1. Drawn, and Dragged, and Run: The Fate of Ten Virgins

Everything gentle in the previous section now meets its counterweight. The Bride does not glide toward this fragrance. She is hauled toward it, against a gravity she did not choose and cannot, on her own strength, overcome.

Draw — H4900 mashak
1. to draw, drag, seize, prolong
a. (Qal) to draw out, drag along, lead off, draw down
b. used of drawing a bow, drawing out a sound, prolonging patience, and dragging a condemned man to execution.

This is the same root that describes the slow, groaning draw of a bowstring under tension, and elsewhere the dragging of a body toward judgment. It is not the word Scripture would have chosen if a gentle beckoning were intended. We are not lifted from a well by a windlass. We are dragged, most often against the whole weight of an inherited self-will, until the heart, still resisting, finally, and often painfully, agrees with the hand pulling it.

This dragging does not discriminate at first. All ten virgins of the parable answer the same summons.

Mat 25:1-4 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish… but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The five foolish are not unbelievers by profession. They are, or akin to, Orthodox Christianity in its fullest, most sincere expression — dragged toward the same Bridegroom’s name, singing of Him with real charismatic delight every Sunday of their lives, and unknowingly worshiping another Jesus entirely—the inverse of the Shulamite who says, “Son 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled…”. She is asleep, but the key factor is her heart being awake, actively anticipating His arrival, which counts infinitely more than her sisters, whose entire mind, body, and spirit lack the urgency of desire.

2Co 11:3-4  …as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ… if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached… ye might well bear with him.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. 

Their failure is not a failure of enthusiasm. It is a failure of unity—the very failure this study has already traced in Solomon’s own house. He kept a thousand wives, and the number itself is doctrine before it is arithmetic: ten, in the grammar this system has already established, signifies the whole of a thing. His thousand wives signify the entire company of Old Israel and Babylonian Christianity together, signified virgins every one of them on their wedding night, and harlots within the year — not because they withheld their bodies, which they freely gave, but because not one of them thought to bring oil enough to keep a lamp burning once the bridegroom’s presence itself was no longer novel.

Ask what is actually being rationed in your own vessel this week: is it oil — the costly, deliberate reserve of Christ’s own word, gathered before the lamp is needed — or is it merely the confidence that your own natural warmth, your own charm, your own competent performance of devotion, will be enough to carry the flame when the Bridegroom finally arrives. Every foolish virgin believed the second thing until the door was already shut.

The number attached to the wise is not incidental either. Five, within this study’s established grammar, signifies grace received through faith—the very grace that teaches by chastisement rather than by flattery, burning every hindrance to ash before it calls the vessel clean.

Exo 26:1; Eze 42:16-20…the tabernacle with ten curtains… he measured it by the four sides… five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

Every measurement of the Temple runs in multiples of five, because the Temple itself, Scripture insists elsewhere without metaphor, is you and me.

Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

III. The Chambers, and the Race That Only One Company Finishes

All ten virgins run. Only one company is brought inside.

The word ‘chambers’ describes the innermost sanctuary of a royal household—not the courtyard where petitioners wait, not even the hall where guests are received, but the private rooms reserved for those who belong to the family by right. To be brought there is to be granted a fellowship no outer court permits: deeper understanding of a word too costly to be shared with a crowd.

The wise virgins can run with such reckless joy only because the cost of the road was never charged to their own account.

Isa 53:11-12 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities… because he hath poured out his soul unto death.

Php 2:6-8 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant… he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

He emptied Himself of reputation so that her name, in turn, could become ointment poured forth rather than ointment hoarded. This is the pattern Obadiah’s saviors and Paul’s crucified self both point toward: glory received only ever as the far side of an emptying, never as the reward of a performance.

Heb 12:1-2  …let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

The Wine That Was Kept Until Now

Wine already named in the prior study returns here with its full range restored. It can signify, positively, the exhilaration of the spirit and the joy of rightly received understanding; or, negatively, the counterfeit intoxication Paul warns against directly.

Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.

The progression across this opening chapter is deliberate and ought to be tracked as a single unfolding motion: wine, first — the initial exhilaration of a love better than any earthly intoxicant; then ointment — the settled fragrance of a name now trusted; then chambers — the inward room where fragrance and exhilaration both mature into fellowship. Desire is not abandoned as she progresses. It is escorted, deeper, into a room desire alone could never have entered on its own.

This is also why the New Covenant she now drinks under cannot be poured into her old wineskin.

Luk 5:37-39 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles… No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

Every soul still insisting that the old is better — the old order, the old covering, the old, familiar management of the curse — is accurately describing its own present palate, not the actual quality of the wine on offer. At Cana, the pattern is inverted precisely where Scripture’s governing law of reversal requires it.

Jn 2:9-10 Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

The old wine, first in time, is destined for the Resurrection to Judgment. The new wine, last in time, is destined to be first — the only wine served at the one wedding that matters, kept deliberately until now.

1. Therefore Do the Virgins Love Thee

The world has its own doctrine of virginity, and it is stated with the same confident condescension every fly-blown ointment produces.

Ecc 10:1 Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

Its argument runs, roughly: restraint enhances nothing; experience alone qualifies a person for love; and the ancient counsel to wait was never more than fear wearing the mask of virtue. It is worth answering this argument honestly rather than dismissing it, because the honest answer is more interesting, and more devastating to the argument, than mere refusal would be.

The mind treats desire as a motivational state before it ever becomes a physical one — attention, memory, and anticipation gradually assigning one particular person an extraordinary and specific significance the brain’s own reward pathways did not attach to anyone else. What deliberate restraint preserves is not some manufactured biological bonus. It preserves novelty, exclusivity, and imaginative space — the very conditions under which that significance can concentrate on a single face rather than being gradually spent across many.

An unopened letter can occupy a mind more completely than the letter already read. An unopened door commands more imagination than the room already familiar. This is not sentiment. It is simply how attention behaves when it has not yet been permitted to exhaust its object.

So picture her, then, at seventeen or twenty, standing at the threshold where girlhood has fallen behind, and a woman’s judgment has unmistakably arrived. She has known desire—to imagine otherwise is not purity but a lie about her humanity. She has simply refused to spend it indiscriminately. That refusal did something to time itself: every year deferred did not starve her longing. It banked the fire beneath the ash, so that when he finally stands before her — a particular man, with a particular laugh, particular weaknesses, particular kindnesses — he does not have to compete against a crowded gallery of former significances. He simply walks into a room that has been deliberately kept empty for him.

Consider what has quietly filled your own room in the years before Christ’s own arrival there — not merely which sins, but which lesser significances were allowed to occupy the space reserved, from before the foundation of the world, for Him alone. Are you, even now, still clearing that room, or have you stopped noticing what remains in it?

None of this makes her righteous by her own restraint. Correct that confusion before you let it stand.

Rom 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Eph 1:13-14…ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Her waiting was never the currency that purchased her. It was simply the shape faith took in her, once purchased — a down payment already reckoned to her before she ever kept a single vigil. She did not preserve an experience for its own reward. In Babylon, before she knew her own name, she was already being given, by a mercy she could not yet name, the strength to make one right choice inside an experience of evil neither of them had chosen — and by the time this Song opens, she has already walked through that fire once. She is not approaching her testing. She has already made herself ready inside it.

Psa 37:4-5 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

This, finally, is what the virgins love: not a doctrine of denial, but a Bridegroom whose own emptying of Himself taught her that desire held in trust, rather than spent in haste, was never deprivation. It was rehearsal — for a chamber, an ointment, and a wine that could not have been rightly received by a heart still crowded with lesser claims. What Obadiah calls saviors ascending, what Paul calls Christ living where self once lived, both begin here, in a woman who learned to wait before she ever learned to run.

End of Part 8

Next Part 9: Son 1:5-7

The Song of Solomon, Part 7

[Study Aired September 18, 2026]

“Let Him Kiss Me” — The Bride Who Had Already Made Herself Ready

Introduction

Sin entered the world the way rot enters timber — not with an axe-blow, but with a silence left standing too long in the damp. Adam’s wound, signified in his injured privy and stones, was never merely physical shorthand for shame. It was the sign of impotence: his dereliction of anointed duty to head his wife with the covering of the Lord’s own word, while the two of them still stood, unashamed, in Eden itself, before the fruit was ever reached for. He did not forbid. He did not warn. He did not question his own motives — whether, in that suspended moment, he stood for his Maker or against him. He watched her lust to be wise as God, and he stood by, mute, while glory hardened into shame in front of him.

By the Lord’s own design — to curse the entire world, unwittingly, with an experience of evil it could not otherwise have known — that single passive watching became a threefold cord, not a thread, binding Eve and every daughter after her to stand selectively against a husband’s headship for the whole span of human history, all the way to the Second Resurrection.

Ecc 4:12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

That cord was never meant to be broken by ordinary strength. It was woven to demonstrate, beyond every excuse, exactly how thoroughly mankind stands against Christ—the evidence scattered visibly across forty thousand harlot Orthodox Christian churches, each bearing His name while still resisting His headship.

Only the Bride of Christ is given to reverse this, to become His Wife. It must be said plainly, because the burden is so easily misplaced: the children — the redeemed as numerous as the stars of heaven, born in the ages beyond to Christ and His Wife — are neither required nor given to reverse their parents’ curse themselves. That labor belongs to the Bride alone. The children’s portion is different: in the Great White Throne, through fiery stress in that same fire she once endured — fearfully named by those who never understood it, the Lake of Fire — they will acknowledge their sins and, with profound godly fear and obedience, honour their parents: Christ’s Wife, Christ Himself, and the Father.

Solomon, though made of the same corruptible flesh as every other son of Adam, stands as Adam’s deliberate antithesis — not deceived, as Adam himself was not technically deceived either, yet where Adam’s clear sight produced only passive surrender, Solomon’s becomes, under the spirit, a rehearsal of the New, transformed spiritual Adam, Christ, who goes before His Bride to show her — while He, too, had likewise suffered in the flesh, filling up behind His own afflictions in His body for her sake — the very way by which her curse is reversed. 

1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Under the power of that same holy spirit, Solomon becomes poetic narrator and creator of his Shunammite — signifying Christ’s own uprightness, and His own creation of His Bride.

Ecc 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

He is given infinitely more wisdom than Eve, who received only enough—disastrously—to know good and evil, seized wrongly in the Garden. Solomon’s wisdom is wielded rightly, ordained to pen this Song almost entirely from the Bride’s own perspective — her curse already, remarkably, reversed before he ever set pen to parchment.

Picture her, then, as she truly is: a mature, virginal maiden, nominally seventeen or twenty, raised from infancy by devoted parents toward a single unwavering purpose — to be virtuously married, a helpmeet fashioned and named for one man before he ever laid eyes on her. Her entire girlhood becomes, in retrospect, an unashamed kind of psychological foreplay, prepared as Esther no doubt was prepared: a mental priming, a cognitive readying of mind and emotional state, woven from physical attractiveness, social charm, and psychological allure — the most honoured education ever bestowed upon a young woman, the elegant and righteously coquettish art of home-building, a Temple within her, architected from birth for One Man, who signifies the one true Church, Christ’s own Wife.

Gen 2:18, 20 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him… but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

This is precisely what the outstanding Abishag bloomed toward, in near perfection; yet one can’t help but suffer with her God-given greatest commission cut short. Normally, such devotion stymied in its infancy would cause bitterness. Nevertheless, since she was a signified Bride of Christ, although designed to never reignite the Old Covenant, most in the same situation would respond like a woman scorned—bitterly. Scripture doesn’t say, but because of who she was as a fleshy mirror of the Bride, we can think kindly of her as a type of the Elect, not commissioned to enter the First Resurrection and marriage to our Lord. Abishag warmed a King who could not respond, who represented a covenant already dying. Solomon’s Shunammite, by contrast, actualises what Abishag’s story could only gesture toward.

She enters the Song already a changed woman — trembling with virginal anticipation, held in a sustained, carefully managed foreplay across much of the book’s length (Son 2:10-13). Four times throughout the Song of Solomon, she turns and charges her sisters, the daughters of Jerusalem, to cease stirring her love before its hour — sensing, perhaps, beneath Satan’s own subtle influence, their hope that she might stumble exactly as they once did. The accuser is before the Lord day and night, requesting occasion for the Elect to falter today, the way Israel’s Babylonian captors once mocked their captives for a song, demanding a display of joy from a people they had just stripped of everything joy required.

Son 8:4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

Psa 137:3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Sarah’s own testimony to Abimelech becomes, read spiritually, the Bride’s testimony also: she is her Husband’s sister, daughter of the same Father—yet not, in the flesh, daughter of the same mother. Babylon has her own daughters, her Leahs set before her Rachels, her counterfeit lineage of harlot churches claiming the same Father’s house. This one, though born in that confused and weeping company, has become His Wife.

Gen 20:12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

This young Shunammite girl’s preparation and presentation are precisely the union Solomon himself, for all his wisdom, understanding, and amorous splendor, could never find. Amid a thousand wives — the most beautiful women his kingdom could gather — not one machination among them could manufacture what only union of mind and spirit provides. The whole of Ecclesiastes stands as his lifelong lament for exactly what the Son 1:2 now stands as the first proof, at last, that such a union is possible.

Exegesis — Song of Solomon 1:2

Son 1:2  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

1. Fresh First Love, Not Dreary Virtue

This is not the dreary, mercy-filled intimacy of an outwardly dutiful Orthodox homemaker, dedicated at least in appearance to being a Proverbs 31 wife, while her heart remains confusedly unravished when she knows it should be captivated — and, in turn, freely beguiling. That condition has a name: “akrasia”, the knowing of what one ought to do or become, coupled with a strange, familiar powerlessness to close the distance.

Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

The Shunammite carries none of that paralysis into her opening line. Hers is fresh, young, first love — barely contained, about to be fully realized. Ask yourself, quietly: where in your own devotion has akrasia set in — the wanting without the closing, the assent of the mind unmatched by the surrender of the will?

2. The Grammar of Ambush

Notice what the eye so easily glides past: the sentence begins in the third person and ends in the second. “Let him kiss me” — spoken of him, at one remove, as though to companions gathered near. But before the sentence closes, the distance collapses: “thy love is better than wine.” He has become Thee. She began describing her Beloved and, before the thought could finish, found herself speaking directly to Him. This is no inconsistency. It is the oldest grammar of desire — the grammar of a heart too full to sustain the safety of description, and very likely the holy spirit itself lending her words a fluency her own tongue, unaided, could never have reached.

How many of your own prayers begin in the safe third person before collapsing, unbidden, into Thou? That collapse is not loss of composure. It is prayer ceasing to be rehearsal and finally becoming real.

3. Kiss as Kindling — The Fire Beneath the Word

The Hebrew behind kiss is nashaq, drawn from a root meaning to kindle, to burn — in the Niphal, to be kindled; in the Hiphil, to make a fire, to burn. What she asks for is not a cool, ceremonial touch. She asks to be set alight.

Psa 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

The Son’s anger here is no carnal irritation. It is the burning of a jealous God — the very heat once turned against His adulterous first wife, Old Israel, when her whoredoms could no longer be endured. That fire has not cooled; it has simply changed its object. It now burns hot, spiritually, for His Bride — the little flock, the few given first to put their trust in Him — kindling her toward transformation for the First Resurrection, a total consuming fire dressed this time as joy rather than judgment.

Isa 54:6-8 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit… For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee… but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

The kiss she begs for is that same fire, aimed now toward blessing rather than wrath — His word proceeding from His own mouth, carrying the flame.

4. The Righteous Kiss and the Deceitful Kiss

Not every kiss in Scripture is worthy of the name she gives it here. Christ desires a righteous kiss — not lying kisses, not kisses offered to idols, not Adam’s own salacious lust for Eve dressed up as tenderness.

Pro 24:26 Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer.

Pro 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Hos 13:2…they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

2Co 13:12 Greet one another with an holy kiss.

Luk 7:45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

Simon the Pharisee offered Christ no kiss at all — correct doctrine, cold devotion. The sinful woman, despised by the room, could not stop kissing His feet. The Shunammite’s plea belongs entirely to the second company. Hers is not the kiss of the calf-worshiper, nor the kiss of the betrayer in the garden. It is the kiss of a woman who has, at last, a right answer to give.

5. The Terrible Mechanism of Allure

Every woman shaped by Babylon knows, from bitter and deceitful experience, that a cunningly presented form followed by elegant kisses will instantly arouse almost any young man, particularly a virgin. This was, in the beginning, essentially what Adam wanted from Eve as well. Had God not made this mechanism so nearly irresistible, whoredom and harlotry could never have expanded as they did — and it is precisely because they did expand so dynamically that God can show the budding Bride her own former ways with unflinching clarity.

Pro 7:9-10 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

Pro 5:15-19 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well… Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

The mechanism that ruins the simple youth at twilight is not a different power from the one now consecrated in the Shunammite’s kiss. It is the very same allure, no longer weaponised, no longer stolen — given instead, freely, to the one Husband for whom it was always intended.

6. Two Loves — The Curse of Snares, and the Love That Surpasses Women

Solomon, of all men, understood that most women’s hearts — by the very curse traced through this whole study — are, apart from the Bride’s reversal, snares and nets.

Ecc 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands; whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. 

The Hyper-real Bride and the Merely Real Brother

Consider first what Solomon has actually built in this Song and what he has not. His Shunammite is a hyper-reality— describing a condition in which the real and the fictional are seamlessly blended, so the spectator cannot clearly distinguish where one ends and the other begins. It is a simulated environment or concept that people perceive as “more real than reality”—an enhanced version of the real world that effectively replaces it—and that satisfies daydreams and fantasies better than actual reality can. 

Accordingly, Solomon’s construction of the Shulamite-Bride is so exquisitely, so relentlessly perfected across eight chapters that she outshines every wife who ever breathed. She is more real than reality: an image assembled by inspired longing to satisfy a hunger no living woman, however devoted, could fully meet. This is not a flaw in Solomon’s art. It is the very nature of prophecy working through poetry — the ideal painted so vividly that it becomes, for a moment, more convincing than the imperfect flesh around it.

There stood, centuries before Solomon ever dipped his pen, a love requiring no such artistry, because it needed none. It was not composed. It happened. Two young men, one a shepherd anointed in secret, the other a prince (1Sam 20:31-31) who had every earthly reason to call him a rival, met on a battlefield’s edge and were undone by each other in an instant that no poet staged.

1Sa 18:1 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

This is the difference worth pressing without softening: the Shunammite, however true to the Spirit that inspired her, remains a hyper-real ideal, sculpted from longing. Jonathan and David were not sculpted. They were witnessed. It is precisely because their love was lived rather than composed that it becomes the cleaner, truer type of a bond that Scripture insists is not fiction either — the bond between the Father and the Son.

A Love Freed From the Weight Marriage Was Built to Carry

When David laments Jonathan, he is not describing a standard companionship. He is mourning a man who stripped off his own robe, sword, and bow, and gave them to David — surrendering, in that single unrecorded breath, his own claim to a throne he might otherwise have inherited.

1Sa 18:3-4 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.

Marriage, however sanctified, is an institution built to carry weight: survival, legacy, household, raising children, managing a shared roof and a shared purse. Every one of those burdens is good, ordained, and fruitful — and every one of them introduces friction that no love, however sincere, entirely escapes. What passed between Jonathan and David carried none of that structural load. Their covenant relationship in God’s word sustained it, spiritually representing the covenant of love among God’s elect, whereas marriage in Babylon is entered into out of duty. For this reason alone, Jonathan’s and David’s love could reach a purity of intensity that God likewise designed marriage to sustain in exactly the same way. 

Their bond had its own crucible — not a shared home or a shared budget, but a shared battlefield, a shared exile, a shared terror of a father and king who particularly wanted David dead, and even his own son—a tragic negative representation of the Father and his Son agreeing to Jesus’ death. A wife looking in from the outside might sympathize with that particular fire. She could never have stood inside it beside him the way Jonathan did. Because neither man needed to perform the role of provider, protector, or romantic ideal for the other, both could arrive entirely unmasked — weak, frightened, uncertain — without the anxiety of unsettling a romantic dynamic that was never there to unsettle.

1Sa 20:41…and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.

Two men weeping without shame, in full view of each other, precisely because nothing about the moment required either of them to be strong for the other’s sake. This is not the language of romance. It is the language of two souls who, by then, had nothing left to prove and nothing left to hide.

What the World Itself Has Not Been Able to Deny

Scripture is not the only place that preserves this pattern. Long after David wept over Jonathan’s body on Gilboa, the world itself would keep rediscovering, almost against its own expectations, the same unmarried intensity. Typical of many Greek deities and mythologies, the classical Greek legend of Damon and Pythias, typically inspired by — one condemned to die, the other standing as surety for his return, each willing to be executed in the other’s place — became, for a thousand years of moral instruction, the standing proverb for a friendship that outbid every romantic pledge of its era. Centuries later, the French essayist Michel de Montaigne (mohn-TEN-yuh), mourning his friend Étienne de La Boétie (ay-TYEN, duh, lah, bwa-TEE), tried for pages to explain a devotion he ultimately confessed could not be explained, only witnessed, offering at last only this: because it was he; because it was I. He was explicit, in the same essay, that this was a different order of love than marriage could offer — not its rival, but its own distinct country, unburdened by the very obligations that give marriage its proper, different glory. This is the love Babylon, the world, would rather drape in romance than bow before God’s word: a love sweetened with stolen waters and the illusion of Sodom-like forbidden wisdom, thrilling the senses for a moment, until, like the awakened consciences of Adam and Eve, it turns and pierces them (Pro 9:17). 

Modern research has only confirmed what Scripture and legend both already knew. Studies of adolescent boys’ friendships have documented an intimacy—confided secrets, physical affection, declarations of love between friends—that quietly erodes as culture teaches young men to perform stoicism instead, a documented loss researchers have named, without exaggeration, a crisis of connection. Soldiers who have shared combat consistently describe a bond to the men beside them that outlasts, in depth if not in kind, bonds to spouses waiting at home — not because marriage was lesser, but because the crucible was different, and unmasking under fire forges something marriage’s own proper structure was never designed to forge in quite the same way. Women, too, know their own version of this: the friendships formed in shared grief, shared labour, shared trauma, where the instinctive response to threat is not flight but drawing other women close—a pattern researchers studying stress response have aptly called tend and befriend—a psychological behavioural pattern that describes how humans (especially women) respond to stress by protecting offspring and friendships and seeking social support. Like Ruth and Naomi, they befriended each other through shared grief. Mary and Elisabeth befriended each other through social isolation.

In contrast, the impossibility of the love Jonathan and David had, in a romantic context, the “tend and befriend” response can manifest as an artful, highly attuned expression of emotional and physical intimacy. A woman focusing her energy on a male partner often subtly tends to him by creating a soothing, sensory sanctuary—whether through a calming touch, preparing a comfort meal, as nefariously did Amnon require inordinate affection of Tamar (2Sam 13:5-12, Col 3:5), or cultivating a relaxing space that eases his external stressors. At the same time, she befriends him by building a deep, exclusive emotional alliance. She listens with intense presence, offers validating micro-reassurances, and uses soft, intentional eye contact to foster a secure, private world for the two of them. This combination of nurturing care and magnetic connection safely disarms a partner’s stress defenses, replacing tension with mutual warmth and trust. This is the result of Adam and Eve’s curses and the tension they create, deludingly pleasant → desirable → consumed → but ultimately death. The Shulamite, having left her sister’s vineyard, refuses to suffer any longer.

The most potent, ultimate representation of a false face in all of scripture is Judas Iscariot, specifically epitomized by “The Judas Kiss” (Luke 22:47–48). In this moment, the ultimate sign of affection, loyalty, and discipleship—a kiss—is weaponized to execute the ultimate betrayal. Jesus directly exposes this false face by asking, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Ask yourself, without flinching from the answer: is there a friend in your own life to whom you have shown a face — your spouse, your family, even your own reflection — rarely seen, not because that friend is loved more, but because nothing there required you to perform? What does that unmasking teach you about the parts of yourself that remain hidden, even imaginatively, from Christ?

The Chain That Runs Upward: Father, Son, and the Wife Who Is Also a Husband

None of this diminishes marriage. It clarifies what marriage was always meant to typify, and what it was never meant to typify. A carnal marriage is itself a type and shadow: the husband signifying Christ the Head, the wife signifying the Church, His body and Bride, their becoming one flesh signifying the Church becoming one with Christ.

Eph 5:31-32 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

That Christ-and-Church relationship is itself only the second link in a longer chain. For the Head of Christ is God—Christ submits to and receives all things from the Father, just as a wife submits to and (theoretically, in Babylon) receives all things from her husband.

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

The pattern, in full, runs: Father, then Christ, then Church — Head, then Husband, then Wife. The physical wife shadows the Church. The physical husband shadows Christ. Christ Himself, submitted, receiving, beloved without rivalry, signified as Wife to His own Father’s Husband-headship, shadows a bond that no earthly marriage was ever built to carry, because marriage carries household and legacy. This relationship carries neither — only glory, freely given and freely returned, world without end.

This is why Jonathan and David, not any husband and wife in Scripture, stand as the truest earthly rehearsal of that innermost bond. Their love, freed from domestic weight, freed from the necessity of legacy, sustained by nothing but chosen covenant and shared soul, is the nearest the visible world has come to picturing what passes, eternally and without shadow of rivalry, as seen between the Father and His only Son — a love the Son Himself named, without exaggeration, as preceding the very foundation of the world—where, and as a result of that zealous dynamic, ironically there is an inheritance.

Jn 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

There are, then, two loves in Scripture: the adulterous love born of the snare-heart, and the covenantal love that seeks nothing but the beloved’s good — whether between two men bound by nothing but soul, or between a Father and a Son bound by nothing but the Father’s spiritual glory freely shared. What makes the Shunammite singular — and it must be pressed here without softening — is that she alone, of every woman in Scripture, is given to hold both loves at once inside a single covenant: the platonic, unmachinated purity of Jonathan’s bond, and the full, unashamed heat of passionate desire. She is not required to choose between them. Her reversed curse makes her the one woman for whom passion and purity are, at last, the very same thing. 

7. “Better Than Wine” — Effervescence and the Silent String

Wine — H3196 yayin — comes from an unused root meaning “to effervesce”: a fermented thing, prone to intoxication, appearing in this precise form some one hundred and thirty-seven times in the Old Testament. It is the drink of banqueting, of celebration, of the merry heart.

Pro 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

In its best sense, wine signifies the holy spirit itself and the understated gladness it produces. Yet even this — even the best, most sanctioned effervescence available to the natural man — she declares surpassed. The word rendered then carries the sense of separation, of standing apart and above; and remarkably, its own root elsewhere denotes the string of a harp, a single apportioned chord. Her love is not merely a better vintage of the same drink. It is an entirely different instrument — not one string plucked among many, but the fullness of music itself, beside which even the sweetest fermented gladness falls silent.

8. The Wisdom Redeemed — From Eden’s Theft to the Tabernacle’s Weaving

The very wisdom Eve lusted after in Eden — to be as wise as God — was never, in itself, forbidden to women. It was the manner of its taking that cursed her. That same wisdom, rightly given and rightly received, appears again centuries later in the hands of consecrated women weaving the Tabernacle’s curtains. Again, one thousand four hundred seventy-seven years later, beginning at the cross, the Bride’s own pattern — the Heavenly Temple within — is woven directly by her Lord and Husband.

Exo 35:25-26 And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands… And all the women whose hearts were stirred up in wisdom spun goats’ hair.

Act 7:47-49 But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

Even the detail of goats’ hair is not incidental — a notoriously wily animal bearing coarse fibre, its manner not unlike the same cunning that once ensnared Adam, now spun instead into the very curtains of God’s dwelling place. What was stolen in the Garden is consecrated in the Tabernacle. The Shunammite’s kiss belongs to this second lineage, not the first.

9. Ravished Unto Life, Ravished Unto Ruin

Beneath her breasts lies her heart — H3820 leb, the inner man in both its ruin and its glory, the signified seat first of self-will and chaotic understanding, the center from which every feeling radiates. Its root, remarkably, gives both to ravish, to become intelligent, to get a mind, and, in another form entirely, to make cakes, to bake cakes. In other words, her heart is felt viscerally beneath her breasts.

Phren (G5424) the midriff, the parts of the heart; the mind; the faculty of perceiving and judging.

1Co 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding [G5424]: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding [G5424] be men. 

Wine and kisses exacerbate a ravishment the Bride already, implicitly, understands — learned in her youth from a wise mother, in the magnificent, patient art of Abishag-like ministration. Her wisdom begins in her heart; even modern science has begun to concede what Scripture has assumed all along: that the heart carries its own memory, its own quiet intelligence, apart yet integrated with the reasoning mind.

The same root, wielded without love, becomes horror. Amnon, lusting for his sister Tamar, demanded she bake him cakes — H3834 Labiybah, is seen, drawn from this very word for heart — signifying his own corrupted longing to be as ravished by her as he imagined she might be ravished by him. The same Hebrew word also means adulterous “cakes” offered to the queen of heaven in Jeremiah 44:19; here, Tamar presents them as Amnon’s idol. What followed was rape, humiliation, and, most chillingly of all, hatred: the perpetrator despising his own victim the instant his lust was spent.

2Sa 13:15 Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her.

Jer 44:19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men? 

This is the terrible shadow the Shunammite’s bright plea stands against. The identical word, ravish, can mean either communion or catastrophe, depending entirely on whether it is offered in covenant or seized in appetite. She offers hers. It is never taken from her.

10. Breasts That Destroy, Breasts That Build

The Hebrew word for breasts, H7699 shad, is derived from a root meaning “to ruin, to destroy, to spoil, to devastate.” The young man who lingers near the harlot’s house learns this the hard way: her breasts, her kisses, undo him utterly. Yet the very same allure, consecrated, does the opposite in the Bride — it builds. Where the harlot’s house ruins, the Bride constructs a dwelling place for her Husband.

Isa 66:1-2…where is the house that ye build unto me?… but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

The house God actually seeks was never brick or cedar. It is the poor, contrite, trembling heart — precisely the heart the Shunammite offers in this opening plea. What ruins the fool becomes, in her, the very material from which a Temple is raised.

11. Already Ready

All of this — the kindled kiss, the righteous versus the deceitful, the two loves, the wine surpassed, the wisdom redeemed, the heart rightly ravished, the breast that builds rather than destroys — is only possible because she does not begin this Song working toward readiness. Solomon has her already made ready before the opening kiss.

Rev 19:7-8  …the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

She has already been washed; the washing is presupposed, not narrated. What we hear, in Song 1:2, is not the beginning of her transformation but its first audible fruit — a woman already “spoken for”, already kindled, asking now for nothing more than the kiss she has, in some hidden sense, already received.

12. Closing — The Verse That Contains the Whole Song

Everything this Song will unfold across the chapters still ahead — the search through the midnight city, the wedding procession, the blazon of praise, the near-loss of prophetic “forsakeness” (Mar 15:34), and its restoration, the final unquenchable declaration that many waters cannot drown — is already folded into this single opening plea: a woman kindled, righteous in her desire, holding passion and purity as one, her wisdom redeemed, her heart rightly ravished, her allure no longer ruinous but building, at last, a house for the Husband who made her ready before she ever opened her mouth to ask.

Psa 27:9; 2Th 2:16; Mar 15:34 – Hide not thy face far from me… hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace… My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

She has asked. What follows is His answer.

End of Part 7

Next: Son 1:3-4 — the fragrance of the Name that draws the virgins after him

“Divine Order In Creation And Scripture” – Part 7

“What is the spiritual significance of 360 or circles”

[Study Aired September 17, 2026]

There is no direct reference to the number 360 in the bible, however Christ did say that there are twelve hours of light in a day (Jhn 11:9). In this study we will explore how this parable ties into the number 360.

Jhn 11:9  Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
Jhn 11:10  But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
Jhn 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. [Christ is the only one who can awaken us spiritually from spiritual death (symbolized by 12 hours of darkness “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep“), which is what we are in His eyes when we cannot see or hear spiritually (Mat 8:22 , Luk 8:10)]
Jhn 11:12  Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.

Why is Christ making a point to explain that there are twelve hours of light in the day, when in reality in the northern and southern hemisphere there can be days upon days of light or darkness, and physically there is only one place on earth where there is consistently almost equal amounts of twelve hours of light and darkness, at the equator?

This equal light and darkness is in itself a parable (Rom 1:20) showing us that when we can discern good and evil, light 12 and darkness 12, from a foundational point of thinking, that foundation being Christ 12, then we will have light. This statement of Christ’s in (Jhn 11:9) is another way of saying “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”(Heb 5:14), or day and night, not stumbling any longer or being drawn about by the false doctrines of mankind that come from darkness (Eph 4:14-16 , Jhn 11:10).

Eph 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Jhn 11:10  But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

Jhn 11:9 is a parable as all of Christ’s words were (Mat 13:34). The twelve hours of light represents the time that we are baptized into Christ’s death (Rom 6:3). 3X4 equals 12 and so Lazarus who was in the grave for 4 days typifies that process of judgement 3 that all 4 of humanity [3×4=12] in time will need to experience in order to be raised to newness of life. That is why Lazarus is found within the context of this statement of Christ (Jhn 11:9 , Jhn 11:11).

Jhn 11:9  Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

Jhn 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

Jhn 11:39  Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

But what about the number 360, how does this come into play. We know that twelve hours of light is a parable that refers to our eyes and ears being open in Christ who is the Sun of righteousness abiding in His people (Col 1:27 , Mal 4:2) and that there are 12 symbolic hours of light that are juxtaposed with 12 symbolic hours of darkness, and God is in control of both of them. This is what (Isa 45:7 , Eph 1:11) reveals. The light and darkness add up to 24 and the One who is in control of both is Christ who is identified with the number 12 which gives us our third 12 that adds up to 12+12+12=36. Christ is the one who is doing the foundational work within the body of Christ and light and darkness are the same unto him with whom we have to do (Psa 139:12 , Heb 4:13). In other words without Christ as our foundation 12, the two other 12s that represent light and darkness is what will spawn all the vain philosophies of mankind that are the sandy foundation of the world.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

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:

Psa 139:12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Now the number 360 should take on more meaning to us seeing it represents Christ’s cycle of life, from birth to death, which is confirmed to be in the earth, earth, earth, [the church is the earth] hear the word of the Lord found in (Jer 22:29 , His entire life was in the church of which he is the head (Mat 12:40 , Luk 13:32)).

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

Mat 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox,[our flesh] Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.[Christ and his body shall be perfected on the third day]

If we are hearing the word of the Lord it is because Christ 12 is in the midst of our earth, earth, earth, as the author and finisher of our faith (Eph 2:8). The 12, 12, 12, that has Christ as its foundation represents the church that Christ builds upon himself as the chief corner stone of that church (Mat 16:18 , Luk 20:17).

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Luk 20:17  And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?

The bride of Christ is hidden from a world whose foundation, (which was all of ours at first) is built upon sandy ground, representing fleshly thinking that leads to death, and wants to see a sign but cannot interpret the parables of Christ without Christ within (Mat 7:26-27 , Pro 14:12 , Pro 16:25 , Mat 12:39-41).

Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Pro 14:12 , Pro 16:25). (This house represents the way that seems right unto us, and must fall and then a new foundation is built through Christ the builder of the spiritual house Psa 127:1)

Mat 12:39  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: [a parable given to the world that hides the truth of God’s workmanship that we are in Christ]
Mat 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Mat 12:41  The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

It is when our 12 earth, 12 earth, 12 earth (360) is judged that 3+6=9, nine representing judgement, that we are able to move forward in faith (1Pe 4:17), the faith of Christ 12 which is our solid foundation and new house He is building that will withstand all the fiery darts of the adversary (Mat 7:24-25). Whatever is not done in faith is sin (Rom 14:23) and so it is by God’s grace that sin is being destroyed in our lives as we go through a chastening process 3 upon our flesh 6 that brings us to cease from sinning (1Pe 4:1) so that ultimately we will be saved by grace through faith (judgment 36×10 upon flesh=360).

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

The number 360 also represents a circle or a wheel and the faith that God gives the church is something that is operating in each member in the measure that God has determined for every season of our life. We are each one of us a wheel within a wheel (Ezk 10:9-10), or a joint that is supplying to the building of the ark or temple of God (Col 1:24). Every part is necessary just as God cannot and will not have a hole in the ark somewhere that will cause the church to sink in times of great stormy duress (Mat 16:18), but rather this ark consists of the spiritual qualities we read of in these verses (Eph 4:16 , Php 2:1-4), which keeps us all spiritually afloat in this perverse and crooked age we’re living in (Heb 11:7 , Heb 5:7 , Psa 127:1).

Ezk 10:9  And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone.
Ezk 10:10  And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth [“they four had one likeness“], according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Php 2:1  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.[“they four had one likeness“]
Php 2:3  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Php 2:4  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; (Heb 5:7) by the which he condemned the world [the world of sin within us and without], and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

What does the wheel or wheels do?

If we are as Christ then these verses that speak of a wheel will have some application in our own lives as well (1Jn 4:17).

Negatively the use of the word wheels is first used in (Exo 14:25-28) which describes how the Lord destroys the Egyptian within us by taking away our ability to move forward and then destroys our old man by a baptism of water.

Exo 14:25  And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
Exo 14:26  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
Exo 14:27  And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
Exo 14:28  And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

It was “Hiram out of Tyre” a type of the elect, who was hired by king Solomon to make many of the temple furnishings, and the first mention of a wheel that he would have fashioned is found in (1Ki 7:32).

1Ki 7:32  And under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.

These four brazen wheels held up the molten sea and gave it the ability to be moved. In this chapter (1Ki 7:13-51) we learn that this whole system of washing [the molten sea] the sacrifices that would be offered to God has a base that is described in these terms which are symbols of the elect who will be administering judgment upon the whole world. The elect will take God’s word to the world via [four wheels](Jhn 3:17 , Jhn 20:21). Those wheels will break the vessels of clay to shivers (Rev 2:27), with a rod of iron one day. The thousand year reign of the saints is a shadow of things to come, a natural ruling over the kingdoms of this world without (Rev 11:15) that will culminate in the elect judging the nations within mankind’s hearts in the lake of fire, great white throne judgement (1Ki 7:42-44).

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.

Hiram: 1Ki 7:40; 2Ch 2:13, 2Ch 4:11, Huram

1Ki 7:42  And four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars;
1Ki 7:43  And the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases;
[the pomegranates are symbolic of the healing blood of Christ and the elect will have the virtue given to them as it was to Christ to heal the world when they touch the hem of Christ’s garment, His spirit within the elect that will heal (Luk 8:43-47 , Exo 28:33-35)]

Luk 8:43  And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
Luk 8:44  Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
Luk 8:45  And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
Luk 8:46  And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
Luk 8:47  And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately

Exo 28:33  And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about:
Exo 28:34  A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.
Exo 28:35  And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD, and when he cometh out, that he die not.

The four wheels represent the whole 4 of the elect who operate as “one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea” (1Ki 7:44). The wheels in this instance represent the positive judgement that God’s elect will administer unto all the world. The wheels that were taken off of the Egyptian chariots represent God’s judgement or vengeance upon sin that wants to rule over us but will be conquered by Him (Exo 14:25).

1Ki 7:44  And one sea, and twelve oxen under the sea;

Exo 14:25  And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.

Who is the wheel?

Christ is the wheel who is working in us both to will and to do of God’s good pleasure (Php 2:12-13).

We are blessed to be in the midst^G3319 of that throne right now where “out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices:[symbols of judgement] and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God”(Rev 4:3-9).

Rev 4:3  And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
Rev 4:4  And round about^G2943 the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
Rev 4:5  And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
Rev 4:6  And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst^G3319 of the throne, and round about the throne^G2945, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
Rev 4:7  And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
Rev 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
Rev 4:9  And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
Rev 4:10  The four and twenty elders [24] fall down before him [12] that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

G2943 round about kuklothen koo-kloth’-en
Adverb from the same as G2945; from the circle, that is, all around: – (round) about.
Total KJV occurrences: 4

G2945 round about the throne kuklō
Thayer Definition:
1) in a circle, around, round about, on all sides
Part of Speech: adverb
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: as if dative case of kuklos (a ring, “cycle” – akin to G2947)

G3319 midst mesos mes’-os
From G3326; middle (as adjective or [neuter] noun): – among, X before them, between, + forth, mid [-day, -night], midst, way.

This section of Revelation (Rev 4:3-9) has its type and shadow relationship revealed in (1Ki 7:13-51) and in both instances it is talking about a place of judgement and mercy where His “lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” are being heard and manifest through the church (2Co 2:14 , Eph 3:4 , Eph 3:10) who is represented by the “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God”. The connection with the number 360 has to do with judgement as we saw, and now we’re seeing where that judgment is taking place today (1Pe 4:17), and where it will be administered in the future by the saints who will be the saviours that come up on mount Zion to do that judging (1Co 6:3 , Oba 1:21).

2Co 2:14  Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

Eph 3:4  Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

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

The circle reminds us that God’s work is not random or without purpose. He is working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11). What begins in darkness does not remain there. What is fleshly or carnal is brought under judgment. What is judged is brought through a process of death and resurrection, and what is raised is brought into newness of life in Christ.

This is why the words of Jeremiah are so fitting:

“O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.” — (Jer 22:29)

The threefold “earth” reminds us of the complete earthly process of judgement through which God works in mankind starting with the elect of God (1Pe 4:17). Christ entered into the heart of the earth, the church (Col 1:27 , Rom 8:9) and He is the One who brings us out of spiritual darkness or death into life typified by this statement regarding Lazarus (Jhn 11:11)

“Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

One final thought regarding the stone that was rolled back from Christ’s tomb. This round (360°) stone was designed to be rolled and represents Christ and our need to be crushed under that stone as we die daily, which results in our being dead to sin and alive in Christ, imagery that is centred around the sepulchre of Christ for our sakes (Mat 21:44 , Mat 27:60 , Rom 6:3-4 , Mrk 16:3-6 , 2Co 4:15).

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

Mat 27:60  And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Mrk 16:3  And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
Mrk 16:4  And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.[type of Christ]
Mrk 16:5  And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.
Mrk 16:6  And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.