“Divine Order In Creation And Scripture” – Part 3

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

[Study Aired August 13, 2026]

Last week we looked at how Christ and His body are not divided. This week we’ll look at how division is used in God’s word in a positive way (2Ti_2:15, Isa_28:10).

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Isa 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Regarding fractions, we know that 0.1 is the same as 1/10, working our way up, 0.2=2/10, 0.3=3/10, right up to 1.0=10/10

Looking at these fractions, which are numbers that have been divided, we can use this illustration to remind us in type and shadow that there are measures of God’s spirit (Rom_12:3-5) and that God is working with us to bring us to a point of wholeness, singleness in Christ (2Co_11:3, Rev_17:14), represented by the number 1 or 1.0 [unity] (Eph_4:13).

Rom 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Rom 12:4  For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
Rom 12:5  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.[Eph_4:16]

Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:[Luk_21:19, Rev_3:10]

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity^G572 that is in Christ.

haplotēs hap-lot’-ace From G573; singleness,[one body] that is, (subjectively) sincerity (without dissimulation or self seeking), or (objectively) generosity (copious bestowal): – bountifulness, liberal (-ity), simplicity, singleness

Gideon‘s Army reduced or divided to the glory of God: 

Two sections of scripture that connect with this story of Gideon’s army are found in Romans chapters 11 and 9 (Rom_11:30-36, Rom_9:17-26): God always wants us to remember that we are His workmanship and that our salvation is not dependent on anything that we bring to the table, although we do work out our own salvation with fear and trembling when we know it is God who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure which is to give us the kingdom (Php_2:12-13, Luk_12:32).

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!
Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

[God’s power is a two edged sword (Heb_4:12) and the way Pharaoh’s heart was softened and hardened was to remind us that the blindness of this world and the bondage of sin is something that God is causing through Satan, the god of this world, who is typified by Pharaoh here (Jas_1:13-18, 1Ki_22:22). We know boasting is excluded by the law of faith (Rom_3:27), and sin is something repented of by God convicting us of it via the riches of His word that we are blessed to hear with spiritual ears (Rom_2:4, Rom_10:17) so we can be delivered from our sins through Christ who is able to wield that sword righteously in our heavens unlike Peter who cut off the ear of the servant (Jhn_8:36 , Christ is Heb_4:12)]

Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy,[Rev_11:3, Col_1:27, Zec_4:6, Rom_8:9] and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Rom 9:25  As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Rom 9:26  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

With these verses in mind, here is Gideon’s story:

Jdg 7:1  Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
Jdg 7:2  And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.(Eph_2:8, Rom_3:27 , Deu_7:22)
Jdg 7:3  Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
Jdg 7:4  And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.Jdg 7:5  So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his
tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
Jdg 7:6  And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
Jdg 7:7  And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you,(2Ti_2:12) and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.[three hundred men]

The called, and chosen and faithful are represented by Gideon’s army that was whittled down or divided from 32,000. Of this lot 22,00o departed early from mount Gilead and there remained 10,000, both numbers representing multiples of ten that represent the flesh, the way that seems right to us (Pro_14:12), our old man that must be put off via judgement (32,000 + 22,000=54,000 and 5+4=9 which is judgement).

The number 2,000 that is connected to 32,000 and 22,000 bears witness that this dividing of the army is a work of the Lord. The 300 that remain represents the new man, who is the 8th of the seven and will be more than a conqueror through Christ, enduring to the end (Rev_17:11).

Caleb is typical of those who have God’s holy spirit within (Num_14:24 , Rom_8:9 , Col_1:27 ), telling us that Christ is the only way we can make war against the powers and principalities we wrestle against (Eph_6:12)). This picture of the preparing of Gideon’s army is reminiscent of the parable of the Sower that results in many seeds not going onto maturity except for those that God had ordained Jdg_7:4-7 , Gal_3:16]. In Gideon’s case the few of (Mat_21:14) are represented by the 300 that remain, which is a symbolic number that tells us a process of judgment must be upon the few who are called and chosen to endure to the end (1Pe_4:17-18) in this life, being made ready through judgement [3x10x10=300](Rev_19:7)

Christ grew in “wisdom and stature“ (Luk_2:52) and we being like him (1Jn_4:17) grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour via judgment (2Pe_3:18, 1Pe_4:12, 1Pe_4:17). Christ having the spirit without measure does not mean that He didn’t have to grow (Joh_3:34), but rather that the spirit given by God was the assurance that Christ our high priest would mature and never sin as a result of that power given to him to overcome every trial in this life as our spotless, sinless sacrifice, and finisher of our faith. Christ went on to tell his disciples that they would drink the cup prepared for them (Mat_20:23), and that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church (Eph_1:13-14, Rev_7:4 , Rom_5:10). That cup we drink represents the trials and much tribulation that we must endure (Act_14:22) in order to grow and go unto maturity in the Lord, being able to quench all the fiery darts of the adversary, so that we can one day rule under Christ (Eph_6:16 , 2Ti_2:12).

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

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

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

God made provision for Christ’s physical struggles in the flesh, and His experience of evil in this life was for our sakes so that we could have a high priest (Heb_4:14-16) who could identify with all that we go through in a life that can now see him increasing as we decrease (Joh_3:30), another most important ratio to contemplate of the author and finisher of our faith (Heb_12:2). Our old man is incrementally being divided and conquered by Christ, by little and little, and so our trials continue to nourish us in this life (Exo_23:30, Num_14:9).

Joh 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease.

Heb 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. (Rev_3:10)
Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

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.

Before we look at some more concrete examples of the positive use of division in the bible, there is a wonderful example of this in nature that can serve to help us understand how the spiritual organism of the body of Christ is growing day by day (Rom_1:20). That example is seen in plants. The process is called Meristematic Cell Division, which describes how a plant fractionalizes to grow and in time to bring forth fruit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meristem).

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

I don’t want to spend too much time on the science of plants, but rather just make the point for now that this Meristematic Cell Division parallels very wonderfully with how God’s spiritual creation is developing.

God is the husbandman who oversees all of His creation and has in like manner as with plants, created the conditions for all of humanity to grow, so that ultimately all the harvests of God, will be saved via a process of judgment (Barley, Wheat, and Grapes Deu_16:16), and God will be all in all (Jas_5:7, 1Co_15:28).

We are in His hands and ‘Paul plants and Apollos waters‘, but God gives the increase (1Co_3:6) as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is the Vine Jesus Christ (Jhn_15:5) who we are connected to who is working in us as God’s workmanship (Eph_2:10) both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php_2:12-13). Ultimately just as with the healthy physical plant, God has deemed that the bride of Christ will be made ready and that readiness will be reflected in our being stablished, strengthened, and settle at His hand (1Pe_5:10).

Jas 5:7  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

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

What about bread?

Bread is also very analogous of the growth process that is happening in the body of Christ. When Jesus says it is one seed not many seeds (Gal_3:16) the same is true of the positive representation of bread in his word, where a woman, the bride of Christ takes leaven and puts it in “three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Mat_13:33).

Again ‘three’ being the process of judgement which is upon the body of Christ that is unfolding as we are sanctified by His spirit (Jhn_17:17). In this case the leaven growing in us is a positive use of leaven that is likened unto the word of God that must mature and be rightly divided within us if it is going to mature us in this age.

Jhn 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

What comes to mind is how the loaves and fishes were multiplied (Mat_14:17-21, Mat_15:36-39), remembering that this bread represents the wave offering of (Exo_29:23-24, Lev_8:26-28, 1Co_10:17) which is typical of Christ’s life on this earth. This includes the two loaves being offered in (Lev_23:17) that represents Christ’s body the Church (Col_1:24). Grace and truth comes by Jesus represented by the 5000, and it is all the world that will partake of this bread of life, in time, represented by the 4000. The 4000 can also represent the complete compliment of God’s elect, the entire body. This all shows us the power of God to accomplish what He has determined for mankind from the foundation of the world (Eph_1:11).

1Co 10:17  For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

Mat 14:17  And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
Mat 14:18  He said, Bring them hither to me.
Mat 14:19  And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
Mat 14:20  And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
Mat 14:21  And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

Mat 15:36  And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
Mat 15:37  And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.
Mat 15:38  And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.
Mat 15:39  And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.

If we add these two numbers, we get 5000+4000=9000 which represents judgement that is now upon the house of God preparing us to be the 9 pillars, which will distribute the bread of life from the temple (Eph_3:10) that we will be to the rest of the world one day. In that temple there are five pillars at the front and four pillars at the back toward the holy of holies. This number [5] represents the grace and faith that the whole world [4] will experience via the judgment that the saviours who come up upon mount Zion will bring to all the world (4), delivering them as Joseph did with his brothers via that judgment of God’s word, which is likened unto bread (1Co_3:16). Bread is sweet in the mouth, as is the gospel message of the salvation of all, but it is bitter in the belly for our old man who must be destroyed in order for us to enter into the kingdom of God (Rev_10:9-10). Judgment is that one event that is common to all men, and the means that God has devised to save his banished is through Christ and His body who were the first to be judged and “scarcely be saved in this life” (2Sa_14:14 , 1Pe_4:17-18).

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

Judgement is process that takes time, as does the growth of a newborn in his mother’s womb. Christ’s words and works throughout his life were a parable for us to understand this growth process that must take place in His children. Being roughly nine months in Mary’s womb is also a parable of how judgment is on the church (1Pe_4:17), starting with the head, Jesus Christ, and then the man child who represents the body of Christ. A child in the womb grows via the dividing of cells, and this physical phenomenon is also a parable that connects with the story of the loaves and fishes if we can see that the body of Christ is one body made up of many members (Eph_4:16).

Next week, God willing, we will continue to look at the use of number combinations in scripture, not just the meaning of any single number that is critical to know, but also how some of the real time applications of those numbers or combination of the numbers, can reveal hidden treasures of God’s word for us (Pro_25:2).

Pro 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/book-of-colossians-115-20-the-preeminence-established-before-the-warning/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-of-colossians-115-20-the-preeminence-established-before-the-warning Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:15:12 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=36731 Audio Download

Book of Colossians 1:15-20 The Preeminence Established Before the Warning

[Study Aired August 11, 2026]

“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. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:15–20).

Why This Comes Here

Twice already Paul has done the same thing. He gave thanks for a faith and love that grew because of a hope already laid up, and he prayed for a people already made meet for an inheritance — and both times the point was aimed past the Colossians at the teachers waiting in chapter two. Before the warning arrives, the ground is taken.

This passage takes that ground a third time, and takes it highest. Chapter two will name the error plainly: a spoiling “through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world” (Colossians 2:8), and a “voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen” (Colossians 2:18). Every part of that error has one shape — it offers the Colossians something to add to Christ: another mediator, a treasury of wisdom to be found somewhere other than in Him, angels to be worshiped between God and men. Paul has already said where that treasury is: “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). He answers the error before it is spoken, and he answers it not with a rule but with a Person. He sets Christ so high, over the old creation and the new, that there is no room above Him for a supplement and no rank beside Him for a rival.

The establishing moves in four steps: Christ the image of the invisible God; the firstborn of every creature, holding the heir’s portion over all He made; the One before all things who holds them together at this hour; and the head of the church, firstborn from the dead, first in the new creation as He is in the old. The whole passage is one long establishing of preeminence, built to make the coming warning unanswerable.

The Image of the Invisible God

Paul begins where the error most needed correcting: with who Christ is in relation to the God no one has seen. “Who is the image of the invisible God.”  The word for “image” is eikōn (G1504). Its plain sense is a likeness that answers exactly to what it represents — the head stamped on the coin the Lord held up when He asked, “Whose is this image and superscription?” (Matthew 22:20). Used of Christ it carries further: not a likeness that merely resembles, but one that makes the original known. Paul uses the same word of Christ elsewhere — “who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4) — and Hebrews reaches for a kindred figure, “the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), the stamp that bears exactly the likeness of the die. So John, having said “no man hath seen God at any time,” at once adds that “the only begotten Son… hath declared him” (John 1:18). The unseen God is not pointed to from a distance; He is declared in the Son.

What the Son makes known is not a shape. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), and of the Father Paul says that He is the One “whom no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). What is shown in the Son is not the Father’s form but the Father Himself; His will, His heart, His character, so truly that to have known the Son is to have known the Father. The Lord said as much to a man who was looking straight at Him. Philip asked, “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” — and the answer came, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:8–9). Philip’s eyes were full of Christ as he asked; what he had not done was know Him. Nor is that knowing seized by the natural man; it is given: “neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). What the false teachers would seek through angels and visions — access to the unseen God — is not won by climbing a ladder of beings. It is given whole in the Son.

Paul does not leave the word as bare resemblance. He fills it in the same breath: by this image “were all things created.”

Firstborn — the Heir’s Portion

Then comes the word the whole passage turns on: “the firstborn of every creature.” The Greek is prōtotokos (G4416), and its force here is settled by what Paul says next.

The word does not always speak of birth-order. Scripture uses it repeatedly where sequence is plainly not the point. God calls Israel “my son, even my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22), though Israel was not the first nation on the earth. He says of David, “I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27) — and David was the youngest of Jesse’s sons, the one left with the sheep when the others were called before Samuel (1 Samuel 16:11), made firstborn by appointment. In such places the word names the heir: the one given the ruling portion and set higher than those around him.

Which sense Paul intends here he does not leave to guessing. The very next clause is joined by a word that gives the reason: “for by him were all things created.” The title rests on the fact that Christ is the maker of the whole created order — and a maker is not one of the things He made. Firstborn of every creature is a word about rank: the heir’s portion, held over everything that was made and grounded in the fact that He made it.

By Him Were All Things Created

The proof now widens into the largest claim in the passage, and Paul states it so that nothing is left outside it. “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible.” Then he names the very ranks a man might be tempted to court: “whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.” John states the same thing from its negative side: “all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3).

All things means all things. Paul says it at the opening and says it again at the close — “all things were created by him, and for him” — and the second saying stands in a settled tense: made, and standing made, which is the very tense he will use again of holding in the next verse. Between the two he names every division he can: heaven and earth, visible and invisible, every tier of the unseen order. Whatever the false teachers revered, whatever mediating powers they set between man and God, Paul has already named as a thing Christ made — a created thing does not stand above its maker.

Every power the Colossians were being urged toward owes Him its existence — and more than its existence. The short phrase “and for him” says the whole order was made toward Christ as its end, which is what Paul says of God’s works altogether, “for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things” (Romans 11:36), and what the elders say before the throne, “for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11). The powers a man might court do not merely owe Christ their being; they exist for His sake. There is nothing in them to be gained that was not already meant to end in Him.

Before All Things, and Holding Them Together

Paul presses further still: “and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Before all things — prior to them, the One in whose priority they find their beginning; and more than prior, present. The word for “consist” is sunistēmi (G4921), set in the same settled tense as the second “created” of verse 16 — a standing fixed in the past and holding still. All things have been held together in Him and are held together in Him now. Hebrews says it in the same breath as the express image: He is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). He is not only the origin of the universe but its present cohesion, the One by whom it remains a universe and not a ruin. Take Him away and the creation does not merely lose its history; it loses its coherence in this moment.

This is the deepest subordination of the powers yet. It was not enough to say Christ made the thrones and dominions; He holds them in being at this hour. The powers men worship, Christ upholds — and that is as true of whatever we might be tempted to set beside Him as it was of the angels offered to Colossae. To reach past Christ to a lesser authority is to reach past the hand that holds that authority in being.

The Second Firstborn: Head of the New Creation

Here the passage turns, and the turn is deliberate. Christ’s supremacy over the old creation is established — image, firstborn, maker, sustainer. Now Paul asserts the same over a new one. “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

“The beginning” is archē (G746), a word that carries more than sequence. It names the origin from which a thing proceeds and the rule that governs it — the source and the chief. Which of those Paul intends is fixed by the company the word keeps: it stands between “the head of the body” and “the firstborn from the dead,” and both of those are words of rank. The same noun stands behind the “principalities archē (G746)” of verse 16, those who hold rule. So it says He does not merely go before those who rise; He is why they rise, and He rules them when they do.

The word firstborn returns with it, doing in the new creation what it did in the old. There it was firstborn of every creature; here, “the firstborn from the dead.” He was indeed first in time out of the grave — Paul calls Him “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). The title does more than mark an order of events. John names Him “the first begotten of the dead” and in the same clause “the prince of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5) — the rank is bound to the rising. Paul says plainly what family the title makes Him head of: God’s purpose is that His Son should be “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The company raised into His life shares that life without displacing Him.

Then Paul states the aim of the whole: “that in all things he might have the preeminence.” The word is prōteuō (G4409), to hold the first rank, to be chief; it stands nowhere else in the New Testament, and Paul uses it here. This is the sentence the entire passage has been building toward. Over the old creation and the new, over the church He heads and the cosmos He holds, the design is one: that in everything, without exception, Christ should be first. The error offered the Colossians a Christ who shared that first rank — with angels, with a wisdom sought elsewhere, with rule-keeping, with mediating powers. Paul says He shares it with nothing.

The Fullness, and the Peace Made by Blood

The passage closes where the letter’s argument will keep returning: to the Father’s pleasure and the Son’s cross. “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”

All that God is dwells in Christ, and it dwells there by the Father’s good pleasure. Nothing is kept back in reserve to be sought elsewhere, through some higher rank or secret knowing; the fullness is not spread across a hierarchy of beings with Christ somewhere on the ladder. It dwells in Him wholly. Chapter two will say it again and draw the conclusion in the same breath: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9–10). What dwells in Him fully is what we are made full with. There is nothing left over to go looking for.

The supremacy is not an abstraction to be admired. It is exercised toward reconciliation, and the means is named without flinching: “the blood of his cross.” The One who made all things and holds all things together stooped to make peace by dying — “he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). That the highest should reconcile by blood is the pattern the whole letter honors — the settled thing done first, at cost, before it is seen or felt. The reach of that peace is as wide as the making: the same “all things” He made are the “all things” He reconciles, “whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”

What These Verses Establish

Read whole, the passage is one unbroken assertion of the first rank of Christ, laid down before a single warning is uttered: the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature holding the heir’s portion over the very powers the coming error would exalt, the One who is before all things and holds them together at this hour, the head of the church and the firstborn from the dead. In Him the whole fullness of God dwells by the Father’s pleasure, and through His blood peace is made toward all things in heaven and earth.

This is why the passage stands exactly here. Every supplement chapter two will offer has already been answered by establishing that Christ is first in all things, and that all things else are His creatures, held in being by Him and made for His sake. There is no rank above Him to appeal to, no fullness beside Him to seek, no mediator between Him and God to be worshiped, because the beings a man would worship are things He made. The argument of chapter two is defeated before it is heard, and it is defeated by preeminence. The standing established for the Colossians in the first two studies — a hope laid up, a fitness granted — rests on a Christ supreme over everything that is. And the ground under our own feet is the same ground: the One who holds the ground of all things.

Threads Held for Later

Two questions are left open on purpose, as the first two studies left theirs.

The first is carried from the start: is our hope kept above us in heaven (1:5), or does it dwell within us as “Christ in you” (1:27)? This passage does not resolve it, but it deepens the Person in whom the answer lies. Whether kept above or dwelling within, the hope is the One in whom all fullness dwells and by whom all things consist — and when we reach 1:27 it is this Christ, image and firstborn and sustainer and head, who is named the hope of glory.

The second the passage opens for the first time. Paul says Christ reconciles “all things… whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” How wide is that reconciliation, and what does it finally accomplish? The verse establishes that all things are gathered back to peace under the One who made them; it does not spell out what that peace amounts to in every creature. That is a matter for the sum of Scripture, which says elsewhere that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive… every man in his own order” (1 Corinthians 15:22–23), and that God “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11).

A difficulty stands in this same letter, one we ought to feel rather than step over. The principalities and powers reconciled in verse 20 are the principalities and powers of whom Paul says a chapter later, that Christ “spoiled” them and “made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). Reconciled, and triumphed over — the same orders, the same writer, the same epistle. We name the question here where Paul first raises it, and we take it up when we reach 2:15 itself: not by making one verse carry more than it says, but by letting it establish what it does establish — that whatever reconciling of all things there is runs through the blood of the cross of the One who is first in all things.

Next study: (Colossians 1:21–23) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.”

1 Samuel 28:1–25 Saul and the Medium at Endor

[Study Aired August 10, 2026]

In today’s study, we are going to look at the final war of king Saul’s reign as the Philistines gathered to fight against the Israelites. The study also points out David’s unusual position with the Philistines in terms of where his allegiance is. The study also focuses on Saul’s desperate state when the Lord refused to answer him, with the final part of the study highlighting Saul’s visit to a medium at Endor in his desperation.

The Philistines Gathered Their Army Against the People of Israel

1Sa 28:1  And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men. 

The Philistines gathering their armies together to war against the Israelites shows us the continual war against our flesh as long as we live here on earth. This constant battle against our flesh is described as follows:

Gal 5:17  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 
Gal 5:18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Achish represents our flesh. The fact that David was living at Gath under Achish means that he was still influenced by the flesh even though he represents the Lord’s elect. Achish asking David to go out with him to battle against the Israelites implies that when we are under the influence of the flesh, our flesh uses us through the influence of the devil, to fight against the Lord’s people. For example, when Jesus was here on earth, the devil through Peter wanted to discourage Him from going to the cross. In response, Jesus rebuked Peter as follows:

Mat 16:21  From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 
Mat 16:22  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 
Mat 16:23  But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

1Sa 28:2  And David said to Achish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever. 

Achish telling David that he would make him his bodyguard forever implies that when we are under the influence of our flesh, we end up protecting our flesh from destruction by the fire of the Lord’s word. In other words, we come to be appreciative of the fact that we cannot win the war against our flesh and therefore our flesh is strengthened.

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

1Sa 28:3  Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.  

Samuel represents the Lord’s elect. Ramah means ‘a hill’ and in the Bible, hills represent places of worship.

Psa 24:3  Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 
Psa 24:4  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

Isa 2:3  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 

Samuel being dead and the whole of Israel lamenting him and burying him in Ramah, therefore, signifies that the church system of this world considers the Lord’s elect as spiritually dead in the corridors of their assembly. 

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 

In verse 3, we are also told that Saul had put all those who had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land. It shows that when we started our walk with Christ in Babylon or the church system of this world, we did put away unclean spirits or false doctrines in our lives. However, these spirits are always finding ways to return to us.  

Mat 12:43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 

1Sa 28:4  And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. 
1Sa 28:5  And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. 

As indicated, the Philistines represent our flesh. It is instructive to note that these Philistines were camped at Shunem which means ‘double resting place.’ It shows that when we are not of Christ, our flesh is doubly at rest within us. On the other hand, it is when Christ comes to us that we are at war with our flesh, as their resting place within us is destroyed over time.  

The Israelites were encamped at Gilboa which means ‘bubbling fountain’ which represents the word of the Lord. When we start our journey as children of Christ, we have access to the truth of the word of the Lord. However, in this case, Israel here represents the church system of this world or Babylon whose leaders are characterized by Saul. The fact that Saul was afraid and his heart greatly trembled when he saw the host of the Philistines, show us that when we were in the church system of this world, we did not think that we can win the war against our flesh as we see his deadly wound healed.

Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

1Sa 28:6  And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.  

When we are dominated by our fleshly desires, it is impossible to hear from the Lord, as we see Saul not being answered by the Lord when he enquired of Him. 

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 
Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 

Pro 1:24  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Pro 1:25  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 
Pro 1:26  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 
Pro 1:27  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 
Pro 1:28  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 

Saul Visits a Woman with Familiar Spirit at Endor

1Sa 28:7  Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. 

Saul seeking for a woman with familiar spirit shows us that we become worse off during our time in the church system of this world, where the false doctrines in our heavens, signified by the unclean spirit that had gone out of us, returns with seven other spirits. As we know, the number seven means complete. The fact that seven other spirits come to reside in us indicates that we become overwhelmed by the complete false doctrines propagated by the false apostles parading in the corridors of the church system, making us worse off. That was what happened to Saul as he consulted a woman with a familiar spirit at Endor. 

Mat 12:43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 
Mat 12:44  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Mat 12:45  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.  

1Sa 28:8  And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. 

Here in verse 8, Saul disguising himself as he put on other raiment to see the woman with familiar spirit at Endor suggests that it is not obvious to see the deplorable state of the church system of this world, led by these false apostles, signified by Saul, unless the Lord opens your eyes to see and your ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. 

2Co 11:13  For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 
2Co 11:14  And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 
2Co 11:15  So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (ESV)

It is also instructive to note that Saul and the two men accompanying him, came to the woman by night. The woman with familiar spirits here represents the church system of the world or Babylon, and it is only in the night, when the moon reigns, and the sun which signifies Christ is not available. It is when the light of the sun or Christ has not shined on us that we become susceptible to the woman or the church system of this world. 

Pro 7:9  In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: 
Pro 7:10  And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
Pro 7:11  (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
Pro 7:12  Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) 
Pro 7:13  So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, 

1Sa 28:9  And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? 

The woman telling Saul and his two men that they pose a trap for her life to bring her to death as a result of Saul’s decree to cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land implies that Babylon or the church system of this world knows that she is not faithful to her husband Christ because of her actions and that she is on her way to the chambers of death. In other words, the church is spiritually dead.

Pro 7:24  And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. 
Pro 7:25  Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, 
Pro 7:26  for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. 
Pro 7:27  Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. 

1Sa 28:10  And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. 

Saul assuring her that no punishment would happen to her for her deeds  signifies that the church system of this world does not think she would be punished for her sins. Our brothers and sisters in the churches of this world think that because the Lord is merciful and that He does not deal with us according to our sins, that they will not face punishment for their actions. 

Psa 103:10  He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 
Psa 103:11  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;    

However, this is not the sum of the Lord’s words. We are told in the word of the Lord that whatever a man sows, that is what he reaps.

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 
Gal 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 

1Sa 28:11  Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. 

Necromancy is the magical practice of communicating with or summoning the spirits of the dead, typically, to foretell the future, gain hidden knowledge, or influence events. We can see that the woman practiced necromancy which the Lord had forbidden the people of Israel from practicing. Saul dealing with this woman shows that we become worse off during our time in the churches of this world as we go back to our vomit as dogs.  

Pro 26:11  As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. 

2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

1Sa 28:12  And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. 

It was when the woman saw Samuel that she perceived that it was Saul who was making the request. It is when we are given eyes to see those who are the Lord’s elect that we come to see the deception of the leaders of the church system of this world represented by Saul. That is when we come to see how we have been deceived when we were in Babylon.

Jer 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. 

1Sa 28:13  And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. 

The woman seeing gods ascending out of the earth speaks of the first resurrection, when those who died in Christ and also His elect who are living shall arise to meet the Lord in the air. 

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 
1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 

1Sa 28:14  And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.  

The fact that the woman saw an old man come up indicates that in the resurrection, we shall be recognized by those who know us. The old man being covered with a mantle or cloak suggests that we do not yet know what kind of body we shall resurrect with. When we shall see Jesus, we shall be like Him.

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.  

The word of the Lord makes it clear that it is only Jesus Christ who has risen from death. All others, from Adam to date, are still in their graves. 

Job 14:12  So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. 
Job 14:13  O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! 
Job 14:14  If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. 
Job 14:15  Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. 

This implies that what Saul perceived as Samuel, may be a spirit in the form  of Samuel speaking, to make it look like Samuel coming out of the grave to talk to Saul. The Lord indeed deceives us according to the idols of our own hearts.

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; 
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

1Sa 28:15  And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. 
1Sa 28:16  Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? 

Saul’s inability to hear from the Lord caused him to be sore distressed. The question is, “What will make the Lord not answer our petition?” The word of the Lord provides the answer as follows:

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 
Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.   

It is our sins that cause us to fall away as the Lord departs from us. This was the situation in which Saul found himself, as he could not renew again unto repentance. 

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 

1Sa 28:17  And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: 

The Lord taking the kingdom from Saul and giving it to his neighbor David implies that we, His elect, have been shown mercy at the expense of our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world in this age. 

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.  

1Sa 28:18  Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day. 

It is important that one of the things that disqualified Saul from the kingship was not executing the fierce wrath of the Lord upon Amalek. In other words, he could not overcome Amalek, who represents our flesh. Without overcoming the flesh, we are not going to sit on thrones with Christ.  

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. 

1Sa 28:19  Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. 

The Lord delivering Israel into the hands of the Philistines indicates that being in Babylon implies that we are under the domain of our flesh. The prediction of the death of Saul and his sons shows us that being under the dominion of our flesh implies being spiritually dead. 

1Sa 28:20  Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night. 
1Sa 28:21  And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said unto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me. 
1Sa 28:22  Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou goest on thy way. 

Saul having no strength in him as a result of not eating bread all day shows that there is scarcity of the word of the Lord in the church system of this world. It is the word of the Lord that sustains us and therefore where there is scarcity of the word of the Lord, we do not receive the strength of the Lord to sustain us. 

1Sa 28:23  But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, compelled him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed. 
1Sa 28:24  And the woman had a fat calf in the house; and she hasted, and killed it, and took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof: 
1Sa 28:25  And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night. 

The food provided by the woman is the false doctrines of man’s wisdom and traditions which are prevalent in the church system of this world. These false doctrines represent great swelling words of vanity which made us worse off when we were in Babylon.  

2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 

We thank the Lord for His mercy towards us in favoring us in this age. Amen!! 

“Divine Order In Creation And Scripture” – Part 2

‘Christ is not divided’

[Study Aired August 6, 2026]

 God’s elect endure today in seeing the invisible God by the faith of Christ (Rom 1:20, Col 1:15-16, 1Ti 1:17), and in the realm of numbers, zero is a good representation of the invisibility of God, in the sense that physically zero cannot be divided, and spiritually God and Christ are not divided (1Co 1:13).

1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

 Zero is not visible or divisible but it certainly has the power to change the landscape of a number very quickly, just as the faith of Christ can in the lives of true believers. Faith like the number zero is not seen, and yet faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen“ (1Jn 2:24-25, Joh 17:3).

1Jn 2:24  Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
1Jn 2:25  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.(Heb 11:1)

 Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.(Heb 11:1)

In (Mat 25:25) we read of the fearful and unbelieving servant who we all start off as, who is a shadow of the truth that our earthly works are not accompanied with the faith of Christ and the love of God,(Heb 4:2, Rom 5:5, Rom 8:28), and therefore cannot drive out fear (1Jn 4:18), leaving our talents buried in the earth (Mat 25:25), as opposed to being laid up in heaven “where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal“ (Mat 6:19-20). Those works that are ordained of God for his children are built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, and are tried in the fire today to the glory of God (1Ti 6:19, 1Co 3:9, 1Co 3:16, 1Pe 4:12).

Mat 25:25  And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,[Mat 25:25] where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

1Ti 6:19  Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come,(1Co 3:14) that they may lay hold on eternal life.

It is one talent that is buried and given back to God that has no zero connected with it in (Mat 25:25). However, the productive fruit that is brought forth has a zero in each measure of productivity, representing what God has done in us through Christ both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:12-13), “some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold“. Even that which the one servant had is taken from him and given to the one who had more talents and was spiritually bearing fruit, to demonstrate that every talent must be founded on Christ (Mat 25:29). The talents or gifts that God gives His children must be accompanied with the fruit of the holy spirit, otherwise even that which we seem to have will be taken and given to someone else, that is what this verse in Revelation is reminding us and results from our being found with our own righteousness and not that of Christ (Rev 3:11, Php 3:9).

Mat 13:8  But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

[judgment that is upon God’s people today is what is needed in order to bring forth spiritual fruit, some 100+60+30=190, and it is God’s 1 workmanship that is being judged – 9 – today, our flesh 6×10=60 that is going through a process 3×10=30 that is accompanied with pruning that makes it possible for us to scale that spiritual productivity or receive the increase that comes from God alone (Joh 15:2-4, 1Co 3:6)]

Mat 25:29  For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Joh 15:2  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.
Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.(Col 1:27, Rom 8:9, Php 2:12-13)

The positive use of the number zero is a shadow of the truth that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen“ (Heb 11:1). How we can come see him who is invisible, is by putting off the carnal mind which takes the life of Christ working in us to accomplish this as our faith is tried (Heb 11:6) and becomes very precious via the trials (Col 1:27, Rom 8:7-9, 1Pe 1:7, Isa 13:12). The type and shadow of this process is read here in Hebrews, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king:(Mat 25:25) for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible“(Heb 11:27).

God can and does work through Christ to change the spiritual landscape in our lives as we go through afflictions, persecutions and much tribulation that are required to put off our flesh (2Th 1:5, 2Co 12:9, Php 1:29) making it possible for us to see or know God and Christ (Joh 17:3, 2Co 3:18, Php 2:12-13). Signs and wonders are for the unbelieving who long after the loaves and fish, the visible miracles that God says are for the unbelieving (1Co 14:22). Eternal life comes to those who are seeking the invisible God, those who are blessed to acknowledge that this life is a vapour that is passing and that we are in constant need of the grace and faith of God which is a gift from Him, given to those who are being saved in this age (Eph 2:8).

Heb 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

1Co 14:22  Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 Do Not Grow Weary in well doing:(Gal 6:9)

The Father is ever present, just as Christ is now, and yet invisible to our physical eyes, unless Christ manifests himself as He did to His disciples after he was resurrected (Luk 24:39). That visible way that Christ revealed himself to his disciples was going to be replaced with not knowing Christ after the flesh or ‘visibly‘ (2Co 5:16), but rather in our hearts and minds having received the holy spirit, the hope of glory within (Heb 12:25, Joh 20:29, Luk 8:10, Col 1:27). That is why this ultimate warning is given to us in Hebrews (Heb 12:25) which, if we are granted to hold fast to, will see us holding fast to our crown, and looking to the author and finisher of our faith with confidence (Rev 3:11, Heb 12:1-3, Rom 12:1-2, Php 1:6).

Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:(Rom 8:14-16, Pro 3:5-8)

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 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,[Luk 21:19]
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.[1Pe 4:1, 1Co 10:13]

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.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

The question is asked, is Christ divided (1Co 1:13), no he is not, and could not be because of the spirit of God given to him without measure while he was in his flesh (Joh 3:34). It is when the spirit moves us or quickens us (Joh 6:63, Mat 10:19) that we can feel the effect of that substance spoken of in (Heb 11:1). The positive representation of zero can be seen as the spirit of God, and the negative representation of zero can be represented by the will of man, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God (Mrk 10:18, Luk 22:42). God is sovereign over the operation of all numbers, the light and the dark (Jer 17:3), the peace and the evil (Isa 45:7, Mat 7:11) and has already determined who is going to fulfill His will on earth as it is done in heaven, until our last breath (Luk 22:42, 1Jn 4:17).

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

Mat 7:11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Zero added to one, is one, but visually if you put zero next to one on the right side you get ten [10]. The first Adam is 10 [flesh], that without God‘s spirit is against God as Adam and Eve were, and all flesh [10], that we are called to bring into subjection unto God (Gal 2:20). “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.“(Joh 1:18). Adam and Eve were seeing Yahweh, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, so they were seeing him physically not spiritually, and we don‘t see him with the mind of Christ, until the spirit is given, the grace and truth that we receive through Him. The second Adam who has the spirit without measure declares God to us, Christ “the Son of the living God“ and yet we still don‘t see him or understand the gospel message within until the holy spirit is given to us (Mat 16:16). It is on Pentecost and going forward that what has been revealed to us through Christ‘s witness during his days when he was in the earth (Heb 5:7) becomes a testimony of his life, and power, and soundness of mind in the true believers (1Co 2:4-6, 2Ti 1:7).

Both numbers for the first and last Adam (1Co 15:45) have a zero beside them, which represents the invisible component that is doing the work in Christ and Adam (Joh 3:34, Joh 5:30, Eph 1:11). The first Adam lives and moves and has his being in Christ [-10] (Act 17:28), and the church which can do nothing spiritually (Gal 6:3-4, Joh 15:5) except it be in Christ, are now connected to the vine, and although nothing of ourselves, are able through Christ to reflect his life on this earth [+10](Act 17:28, Joh 15:5).

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

Gal 6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Gal 6:4  But let every man prove his own work, (Eph 2:10, Mal 3:10, Joh 6:44) and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

Joh 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.

The negative and positive numbers in our heavens can be seen as the light and dark or the peace and evil, that God is working in our lives (Isa 45:7) to a glorious end (2Co 1:20, Psa 139:12). We start off as that first -10, marred in the hand of the Potter creation, to become something new as the positive ‘flesh and blood‘ life of Christ, replaces our Adamic first man Adam thinking, which is carnal (Joh 6:55-57).

Joh 6:55  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Joh 6:56  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. (Rom 8:9, Col 1:27)
Joh 6:57  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

Nothing:

In this last section today, we will look at the word nothing^G3367 in the bible and see how it correlates with the number zero.

In order to be something and not nothing we need to acknowledge that our own efforts and accomplishments in the earth are nothing and of no value until we are given to acknowledge that we are His workmanship (Eph 2:10) who makes us of great value, and highly favoured (Mat 10:31, Luk 12:32, Luk 1:28) in His sight because of our hope of glory within us who causes us to savour the things of God and not of men (2Co 2:16). That is when we begin to offer our lives a living sacrifice that can only be accepted upon the burnt offering Jesus Christ (Rom 12:1, Eph 1:6) who gives us the power to go without the camp (Gal 6:3, Col 1:27, Joh 5:19, Joh 5:30, Joh 15:5, Heb 13:13).

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.

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Mat 5:13  Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Joh 5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.(Rom 8:14-16)

Joh 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.

“the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”(Php 3:14) that we are pressing toward, is reflected in our not being negatively trodden under the foot of men (Mat 5:13), as we resist the devil and cleave to Christ (Jas 4:7) so that we can overcome all his attempts to destroy the church (Mat 16:18). It is with the fiery darts of the devil that persecutions are brought upon His body, the church, persecutions that work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose, and are experiencing God’s love being shed abroad in our hearts (Mrk 10:30, Rom 8:28). Our old man is trodden under foot positively for the duration of Christ’s ministry within us and by God’s grace and the faith of Jesus Christ we can endure to the end all said persecutions and be saved (Col 1:24, Rev 11:2, Eph 2:8).

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.

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

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.(Php 1:29)

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Today we are learning of the great power of God that can be manifested in those who are given to humble themselves under His mighty hand, abasing ourselves so that in due time Christ can be exalted within us (1Pe 5:6). What we are promised is that what God has started in us He will finish through the author and finisher of our faith, and nothing shall take us out of the hands of our Father or Christ (Joh 10:28-29).

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

Mat 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Luk 1:37  For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Luk 6:35  But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful andtothe evil.

Joh 10:28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.[“For with God nothing shall be impossible”]
Joh 10:29  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.[“For with God nothing shall be impossible”]

Next week Lord willing we’ll continue to look at more scriptures that demonstrate how there is a divine order in all of God’s physical and spiritual creation. The use of numbers in scripture play a vital role in revealing that divine order (1Co 14:40, Eph 1:11, Rom 8:28-29).

1Co 14:40  Let all things [the natural and the spiritual] be done decently and in order.

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:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren (1Jn 4:17).

Book of Colossians 1:9-14 The Prayer that Follows the Thanksgiving

[Study Aired August 4, 2026]

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:9–14).

The Prayer Joined to the Thanks

The passage opens with a hinge: “for this cause.” It looks back before it moves forward. What was the cause? The faith, love, and hope Paul had just given thanks for in verses 3–8; the fruit already borne. Because the seed had taken root, Paul now prays; the prayer rises out of the thanksgiving, not apart from it. This matters for reading the whole. Paul is not praying that dead men might come alive. He is praying that living men might grow. The people already have the life; the prayer is for its increase.

Notice the echo between the two passages. In verse 6 the gospel bore fruit “since the day ye heard of it.” In verse 9 Paul prays “since the day we heard it.”  From the day the word landed and was known, two things began at once — fruit in Colosse, and prayer in Paul’s prison. The fruit did not end the praying; it deepened it. Paul saw the seed take root and prayed the harder for its growth.

Filled With the Knowledge of His Will

The petition itself is single, though it branches: “that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” One request — to be filled — and everything after it described that fullness. The word for “knowledge” here is epignosis (G1922), and it deserves care, because it is easy to over claim.

Epignosis is gnosis (plain knowledge) with the prefix epi fastened on. The best-attested force of that prefix here is intensive: a fuller, more thorough, more settled knowing than bare gnosis, and the standard lexical authorities read it that way. Some writers press it further and make epignosis mean specifically “knowledge gained by experience,” but that sense is not secured by the word itself and should not be leaned on. The safe and sufficient point stands without it: Paul prays not that the Colossians would acquire some knowledge, as though they had none, but that a knowledge they already possess would be filled up to the brim. This is aimed straight at the error waiting in chapter two — teachers who prized a secret, higher gnosis. Paul asks God to give the real thing, in full, so the counterfeit has nothing to offer.

The content of that knowledge is bounded: it is the knowledge “of his will.” It is not knowledge as an end in itself, not speculation about the unseen orders Paul will name in verse 16, but knowledge of what God wills — which, in this letter, means Christ and the walk that answers to Him. The two words that follow, “wisdom and spiritual understanding,” keep it from drifting into the abstract. Wisdom is knowledge applied; understanding is knowledge that discerns.“Spiritual” knowledge governs both — this is understanding produced by the spirit, not native cleverness, of a piece with the love “in the Spirit” that closed the first passage.

The Purpose: That Ye Might Walk

Here is the pivot that keeps this prayer from becoming a request for mere information. Paul does not stop at being filled with knowledge. The knowledge has an aim: “that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” Knowledge is for walking. The whole structure of the sentence bends toward conduct.

This is the answer to a real danger — the notion that the Christian life is chiefly a matter of knowing the right things. Paul will have none of it. The knowledge he prays for lands in the feet. “Walk” is Scripture’s ordinary figure for the whole course of a life, step after ordinary step, and “worthy of the Lord” sets the measure: not worthy in the sense of earning — verse 12 will demolish that — but worthy in the sense of fitting, a life that matches the Lord to whom it belongs, the way a weight set in a balance answers the weight on the other side.

What that walk looks like Paul spells out in four branches, and they are worth seeing as a single growing thing rather than a checklist. First, “being fruitful in every good work”— the same fruit-language as verse 6, now turned outward into deeds; and Paul elsewhere joins these very two, the walk and the works, as God’s own preparation: we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Second, “increasing in the knowledge of God” — and the two feed each other: knowledge produces the walk, and the walk deepens the knowledge. One does not wait for the other to finish. You do not learn all of God and then obey; you obey, and in obeying you come to know Him further. The Lord states the loop as a rule: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17) — the doing opens the knowing. Third, “strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power” — the strength is measured not by the believer’s reserves but by God’s; it is the strength perfected where the believer’s own runs out, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Fourth, the strength is spent on a surprising object.

Strength Measured Out for Patience

One might expect “strengthened with all might” to end in something visibly mighty — great works, bold deliverances, mountains moved. Paul ends it elsewhere: “unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” The whole of God’s glorious power, and its issue is the capacity to endure. That is a rebuke to a certain appetite in religion — the craving for the spectacular — and it is deliberate. The hardest thing the divine strength does in a believer is hold him steady, and cheerful, under what does not move.

The two words are not idle repetition. Patience is the endurance that outlasts circumstances — the pressure that does not lift. Longsuffering is the endurance that outlasts people — the provocation that keeps coming. Over both stands “with joyfulness,” which is the true weight-test of the strength. Grim endurance any hard man can manage for a while. Endurance with joy is not native to us; it is power “according to his glorious power,” and nothing less accounts for it.

The Turn to Thanks: Made Meet

At verse 12 the prayer turns to thanksgiving — “giving thanks unto the Father” — and the ground of the thanks is a single, decisive verb: the Father “hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Everything the study has been circling gathers here.

“Made meet” translates hikanoo (G2427), from hikanos, sufficient or adequate. It means to make fit, to render competent, to qualify. Paul does not say the Father is making us fit, gradually, as we improve. He says the Father made us fit, at the moment of grace. The fitness for the inheritance is not the finish line of the Christian walk; it is the starting gun.

Weigh this against verses 9–11. Paul has just prayed for knowledge, worthy walking, fruit, strength, patience — all of it real, all of it commanded. A careless reader might conclude the walk is how one becomes fit for the inheritance. Verse 12 forecloses that reading in one stroke. Before a single step of the worthy walk is taken, the believer has already been “made meet.” The walk does not qualify us; it flows from those already qualified. Paul says it outright later in the same letter: “ye are complete in him” (Colossians 2:10) — not becoming complete, but complete already, in Him. This is the same order the first study found in verses 3–5, where faith and love grew because of a hope already laid up. 

One difficulty remains, the kind the first study named at verse 6. “Made meet” is spoken of people who are plainly not yet perfect — the very people Paul is praying would grow in knowledge and endurance. So the fitness is not a fitness of attainment; they have not attained. It is a fitness of standing — the same “in Christ” standing the first study leaned its whole weight on. We are fit for the inheritance, not because our character is finished but because we have been placed in the One who is the inheritance. Take away that standing, and the word “meet” is a lie about people who are visibly unfinished. Keep it, and it is the plainest truth in the passage.

Three Verbs of Rescue

The thanksgiving does not stop at hikanoo. It unfolds the gift in three acts, and they belong together: the Father “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Delivered, translated, redeemed. Read them as one motion.

Delivered — rescued, drawn out — “from the power of darkness.” Not merely from darkness as a place but from its power, its authority, its dominion. The believer was not a tourist in that realm but a subject under its jurisdiction, and the first act of grace is a rescue out from under a governing power. This is not self-improvement in the old country; it is extraction.

Translated — the same verb the first study met in verse 13, here in its own place — “into the kingdom of his dear Son.” The word carries the sense of a whole population moved from one realm to another, the way a conqueror would transplant a people across a border. Rescue from is only half; there is a rescue into. The believer is not left standing in no-man’s-land between two kingdoms but is set down inside another one, under a new King. Note who does the moving in every verb: the Father. The subject never changes. We are delivered, we are translated, we are made meet — always the object, never the agent.

Redeemed — “in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Here the passage names the price of the whole transaction it has been describing. The rescue was not a costless decree. Redemption is a purchase-word; it assumes a bondage that had to be bought out of, and the coin is named exactly: “through his blood.” Lest anyone spiritualize redemption into a vague uplift, Paul defines it with a plain apposition — “even the forgiveness of sins.” That is what the blood bought. Not primarily an escape from circumstance or a promotion in knowledge, but the cancelling of guilt. The whole soaring paragraph — knowledge, walk, strength, inheritance, kingdom — finally rests its foot on this: sins forgiven, at the price of blood.

What These Verses Establish

Read whole, the passage moves in a single arc with the cross at its foot. Paul prays that a people already alive would be filled — with a knowledge of God’s will that is not speculation but the ground of a walk. That walk is worthy in the sense of fitting, and it grows in a loop: knowledge feeding conduct, conduct deepening knowledge, the whole of it carried by a strength measured out not for spectacle but for joyful endurance. Then the prayer turns to thanks, and the thanks names the reason any of it is possible: the Father made us fit — a finished act, done to us, not by us — delivering us out of one kingdom, translating us into another, redeeming us by blood unto the forgiveness of sins.

The shape matches the first study exactly, and deliberately. There, faith and love grew because of a hope already secured. Here, the worthy walk grows out of a fitness already granted. Both refuse the religious instinct that would make the walk the cause of the standing. In Colossians the standing is always first and the walk always second, and the whole argument of the letter turns on keeping that order. The teachers of chapter two will reverse it — do this, keep that, know the secret, and then you will be complete. Paul has already answered them before they speak: you are complete, made meet, delivered, translated, redeemed; now walk as those who are. It is God’s settled way to speak of the finished thing before it is seen. Already He has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6) — the seat plainly future in experience, yet named in the past tense as a thing accomplished; and “whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30) — the glory still ahead, yet already spoken as done.

A Thread Held for Later

The first study left a question hanging on purpose: is our hope kept above us in heaven (1:5), or does it dwell within us as “Christ in you” (1:27)? This passage does not resolve it, but it tightens the knot in a useful way. Verse 12 speaks of an inheritance “of the saints in light” — plainly future, plainly ahead, a portion not yet entered. Yet verse 13 says we have already been translated into the kingdom — present, accomplished, done. So the same tension the first study noticed in the hope runs straight through the kingdom: an inheritance still awaited, and a kingdom already entered. Paul is unbothered by holding both. We will let it stand until 1:27 forces the matter, and we take it up then.

Next study: (Colossians 1:15–20) 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. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

1 Samuel 27:1–12 David Flees to the Philistines

[Study Aired August 3, 2026]

The study highlights David fleeing to the Philistines and living in Ziklag, under king Achish. The reason for going to the Philistines was that David feared that one day, he would die by Saul’s hand. In Ziklag, David and his men were involved in secret raids of Israel’s enemies. However, David deceived king Achish that he and his men were actually raiding his fellow Israelites.  

David and His Men Went to Gath

1Sa 27:1  And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand. 

David saying that he shall perish by the hand of Saul one day implies that as the Lord’s elect, we must be weary of the devices of the devil which will cost us our lives of being robbed of the kingship as he uses our brothers and sisters from the church system of this world (Saul) as his instrument to put us to death spiritually. 

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.  

David going to the land of the Philistines suggests that if he remained in Israel, he shall surely be killed by Saul and his men. This action by David signifies that if we remain as the Lord’s elect in the church system of this world or Babylon, we shall surely die spiritually. The Philistines represent our flesh and being under the influence of our flesh means being of the world. David going to the land of the Philistines, therefore, means hiding among the people of this world, just as Jesus did when his brethren from the church system of His day wanted to kill him because of His message. We, His elect, are in this world and not of this world. We are therefore hiding in plain sight among the people of this world, from our brothers and sisters in Babylon. 

Joh 8:59  Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. 

Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way, 

It is when one is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven that we are recognized or seen as the Lord’s elect among the people of this world. It is the same as Jesus being recognized by the disciples when their eyes were opened after a meal. It is when Jesus serves us the meal of His word that our eyes are opened to recognize who Jesus is. As He is, so are we. It is when people’s eyes are opened by the meal we serve that they recognize who we are – representatives of Jesus.

Luk 24:30  And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 
Luk 24:31  And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. 

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 

1Sa 27:2  And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 

David went over from Israel to Achish, king of Gath, with six hundred men. The number six is the number of man. Therefore, David going to Gath with six hundred men indicates that they represent mere men, like the Philistines, who have received the grace of the Lord. That is why many cannot recognize the Lord’s elect. 

Jdg 3:31  And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.

Act 14:14  Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out,
Act 14:15  And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: 

What distinguished David and his men from the Philistines and the people of Israel was that they were going through the Lord’s judgment, when they went to Gath. Incidentally, Gath means ‘winepress’, which stands for judgment. It is also instructive to note that Achish means ‘I will blacken.’ It emphasizes the point that David and his men were undergoing the judgment of the Lord. During times of judgment, it seems our heavens are blackened, as we cannot see the light from the sun, which represents Christ.

Paul, during the time of his journey to Rome, experienced the judgment of the Lord, such that he could not see the sun or the stars for many days. All of us have in one way or another, experienced, or are yet to experience, the judgment of the Lord where we wonder whether the Lord, who is the sun, is with us.

Act 27:18  And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; 
Act 27:19  And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. 
Act 27:20  And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. 

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. 

1Sa 27:3  And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. 
1Sa 27:4  And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.  

As indicated, David dwelling with Achish at Gath shows that David was undergoing the judgment of the Lord. The fact that every man lived with his household at Gath shows us that everyone’s work shall be made manifest through the judgment of the Lord. 

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. 
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 

In another perspective, David and his men living among the Philistines in Gath shows us that they were still of the flesh, and as a result, they could not please the Lord. When we are of the flesh, it is impossible to bear the testimony of Christ, and our brothers and sisters of the church system of this world do not see us as a threat to their perceived status as heirs of the Lord. That is why Saul did not continue his pursuit of David. In a similar vein, Esau, who represents people of this world, stopped his pursuit of Jacob, who signifies the Lord’s elect, when he realized that Jacob had gone back to Babylon (Haran). It shows that when our lives are not different from our brothers and sisters in Babylon, we do not pose a threat to them. 

Gen 27:43  Now therefore, my son [Jacob], obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; 
Gen 27:44  And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away; 
Gen 27:45  Until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? 

David and His Men Came to Dwell at Ziklag

1Sa 27:5  And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? 
1Sa 27:6  Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. 

In spite of David’s status as heir apparent to the throne of Saul, he was very respectful to Achish, the king of Gath, such that he called him Lord. It implies that we must submit to those in authority. We must look to the leaders of this world as God’s ministers, who are executing the Lord’s will as they reign over us. 

Rom 13:5  Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 
Rom 13:6  For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 
Rom 13:7  Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. 

1Sa 27:7  And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. 

It is instructive to note that David stayed in the land of the Philistines for a period of sixteen months. The number sixteen is an amplification of the number eight, which signifies the birth of the new man. It is the birth of the new man which causes us to reign over the flesh. 

2Ch 27:6  So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.
2Ch 27:8  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.

2Ki 15:2  He [Azariah] was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. 

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

What we are therefore being told in verse 7 about David’s stay in the land of the Philistines is that it was during this period he started reigning over his flesh. Through the Lord’s judgment, we learn righteousness as our flesh is dying and the new man attains ascendency over our flesh. At this point, we begin to exhibit more of the qualities of the new man. Our love (obedience) for the Lord is deepened as we put off our flesh on the eight day, which is amplified in the sixteenth day, resulting in the following:

1Co 13:4  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 
1Co 13:5  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 
1Co 13:6  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 
1Co 13:7  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 

David’s Raids Against Israel’s Enemies

1Sa 27:8  Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. 

The Geshurites, Girzites and the Amalekites all represent our flesh. As indicated, David’s stay in Gath was characterized by the amplification of the new man, as the old man or the flesh continues to die. The defeat of the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites shows various phases of our victory over the flesh, as the Lord’s elect, represented by David and his men. If we are to please the Lord, then we must overcome the flesh which is hostile to God.

Rom 8:6  For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 
Rom 8:7  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 
Rom 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 

Gal 5:17  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 

For example, Geshurites means ‘proud behavior.’ The defeat of Geshurites therefore represents our victory over the pride of life in our walk with Christ. Girzites means ‘cutters off.’ David’s victory over Girzites refers to our victory over the flesh which cuts us off from the life of Christ. Amalekites are descendants of Esau, and as we are aware, Esau was a man of the field, and we know that the field represents the world. What this means is that the Amalekites signify our love of the world which is characterized by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The defeat of the Amalekites by David and his men indicates that David and his men were being delivered from the love of the world. Loving the world means that we exhibit the following characteristics:

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
Gal 5:20  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 
Gal 5:21  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

David and his men overcoming the Geshurites, Girzites and the Amalekites means that we are being delivered from the deeds of the flesh, as the flesh is dying daily. The dying of the flesh results in us producing the fruit of the spirit which shows itself in the following:

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 
Gal 5:23  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 
Gal 5:24  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 

1Sa 27:9  And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish. 

David leaving no man or woman alive indicates that in our war against our flesh, we should be ruthless, such that we do not allow some areas of our flesh to still exert dominion over us. There are many who think that we cannot overcome the flesh, and therefore they allow certain habits of the flesh to flourish under the guise that we cannot completely eradicate sin in our lives. Yes, the Bible does not speak about complete eradication of sin in our lives, but sin must be rare in our lives as the flesh is being destroyed daily. 

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 
Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 
Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.  

In verse 9, David and his men killed all men and women during their raids, but took the sheep, oxen, asses, camels and apparel. The sheep, oxen, asses and camels represent spiritual riches in Christ. As we are being given victory over our flesh, our spiritual insight is being enriched. It also means that our Lord will supply all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.

Php 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Php 4:20  Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

2Co 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:  

The apparel or garment taken from the conquest refers to the righteousness of Christ being imputed on us, as we continue this journey of overcoming the flesh.

Rev 19:8  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.  

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.     

1Sa 27:10  And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites. 

The Jerahmeelites were the descendants of Jerahmeel, the great grandson of Judah. The Kenites were the tribe from which the father-in-law of Moses was a member. To the people of this world, symbolized by Achish, our victory over the flesh is hidden from their sight as shown by David not disclosing the specific victories that he had won with his men. Instead, they think that we are like them who are hostile to the church system of this world because we do not participate in the churches’ activities. 

1Sa 27:11  And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. 

Again, in this verse, the emphasis is the thoroughness of our victory over the flesh such that we leave nothing of the flesh alive to hurt us. This implies that we must not entertain any leaven or false doctrine which empowers our flesh to cause havoc in our walk with Christ. 

Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 
Gal 5:10  I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. 

1Sa 27:12  And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant forever. 

What Achish, the king of Gath, said about David in regard to the people of Israel’s hatred for him, is true in the sense that we are hated by our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world or Babylon because of the truth we speak.  They consider us as spiritually dead in the streets of the church system of this world.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 

The people of this world, represented by Achish, think that we are like them or working for them (servants) since they hate the church system of this world. However, we do not hate our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world because they refuse to hear us. Rather, we appreciate how the Lord had used them to bring us to Christ and that it is through their unbelief that we have received mercy from the Lord to become His elect. Our confidence is that in the fullness of time, the mercy we have received from the Lord shall be extended to them to become part of the children of the Lord.

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! 
Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 
Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 
Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen. 

Call No Man on Earth Father

Re: Matthew 12:48-50

[Study Aired August 2, 2026]

Many people have a question regarding Christ’s words in Matthew 12:48-50. I will back up to verse 46 to get the context:

Mat 12:46  While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Mat 12:47  Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
Mat 12:48  But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
Mat 12:49  And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Mat 12:50  For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

Christ here has informed us that if we “do the will of [His] Father” we are “[His] brother, and sister, and mother.” Christ did not mention us as His Father because His Father is “the holy spirit of God” and only “His mother and His brethren stood without desiring to speak to Him.”

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

So Christ’s Father is not mentioned here in Mattew 12:49-50. Add this to that fact and many, myself included, have taught that it is a sin to ever refer to any man as a father other than one’s physical father:

Mat 23:9  And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

There are two  other statements of our Lord which are not meant to be taken literally, and “call no man on earth father” is one such statement.

“Judge Not”

In Matthew 7:1 Christ tells us:

Mat 7:1  Judge not, that ye be not judged.

This is one very abused verse of scripture which many carnal Christians use to justify avoiding hard, necessary decisions which must be made and enforced within the body of Christ to keep the whole lump from becoming leavened with sin. Here is what Paul told the Corinthian church which was tolerating fornication in their midst:

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3  For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

In the next chapter Paul chides the church at Corinth for suing each other instead of going before the church elders with their differences:

1Co 6:5  I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

Right there in Matthew 7 Christ Himself, after telling us “Judge not that you be not judged”, makes this statement:

Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

How can we possibly “beware of false prophets” if we do not judge them “by their fruits”?

“Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents”

Another statement of our Lord which is not to be taken literally is that the man who was born blind and his parents had never sinned:

Joh 9:1  And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Is Christ really telling us “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents” ever? There are His words! Of course the “sum of God’s Word” (Psa 119:160, ACV) state very clearly:

Psa 14:2  The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
Psa 14:3  They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Paul repeats this fact in the New Testament:

Rom 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Had the man who was born blind ever sinned? Has His parents sinned? Of course, they had. Paul bookends this discussion in this same chapter with this inspired Truth:

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The Bible Means What It Means, Not What It Says

Let’s look at what these two apparent contradictions have in common. In the case of “Judge not that ye be not judged”, Christ was merely making the point that we must be merciful in judgment because we will be judged with the judgment we mete out. We are reminded also that “mercy rejoiceths against judgment”:

Mat 7:2  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Matthew 7:2 is the very next verse, and it explains what Christ meant by ‘Judge not that ye be not judged”.

In the case of the man born blind and his parents not sinning, the point Christ was making is that the Lord had predestined that man to be born blind.

Indeed, it was the holy spirit which inspired the apostle Paul to call Timothy his ‘son’ six different times in his epistles:

Paul refers to Timothy as his “son” (teknon) six times in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and 1 Corinthians.

Here are those six times which AI provided me when I asked, How many times did Paul call Timothy his son?

“Based on the provided search context, Paul refers to Timothy as his “son” or “child” six times in the letters of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and 1 Corinthians.

1 Timothy 1:2: “my true son in the faith”
1 Timothy 1:18: “my son”
2 Timothy 1:2: “my dear son”
2 Timothy 2:1: “my son”
1 Corinthians 4:17: “my beloved sons” (addressing the whole church, but citing Timothy as his son in the Lord in vs 14-15 context)
Philippians 2:22: “as a son with [his] father” (describing Timothy’s service to Paul)” (End Quote)

The Greek word translated as ‘son’ in each of these verses is ‘teknon‘ which simply means ‘a child’. Look at the first entry. It is typical of the others:

1Ti 1:2  Unto Timothy, my own son [G5043: ‘teknon‘, child male or female] in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now look at the definition of the Greek word translated ‘my own’, G1103,:

– Original: γνήσιος
– Transliteration: Gnesios
– Phonetic: gnay’-see-os
– Definition:
1. legitimately born, not spurious
2. true, genuine, sincere
– Origin: from the same as G1077
– TDNT entry: 13:07,1
– Part(s) of speech: Adjective

– Strong’s: From the same as G1077; legitimate (of birth) that is genuine: – own sincerity true.
Total KJV Occurrences: 4
• own, 2
1Ti_1:2; Tit_1:4

• sincerity, 1
2Co_8:8

• true, 1
Php_4:3

Timothy was ‘legitimately and genuinely’ born into Christ through Paul’s ministry. Paul goes on in his epistles to Timothy and others to refer to Titus and Onesimus as his ‘sons’ who he has begotten in Christ:

Tit 1:4  To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Phm 1:10  I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten [G1080: gennao’] in my bonds:

As I recall in a previous discussion, I pointed out that the word ‘man’ in “call no man your father on earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven” refers only to men who have no part in fathering the Lord’s children, and are seeking their own glory.

Mat 23:5  But all their [“Scribes and Pharisees, vs 2] works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
Mat 23:6  And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Mat 23:7  And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
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.

The Greek word translated as ‘master’ in verses 8 and 10 is G2519, ‘kathegetes‘. It is defined as a “a guide… a leader… a teacher“, and it is equated in the context as being a ‘Rabbi’:

Mat 23:8  But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master [G2519: ‘kathagetes’], even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

‘Kathagetes’ is a contraction of the Greek preposition G2596,  ‘kata’ and the Greek verb, G2233, ‘hegeomai’, to lead, to go before, to be a leader.

– Original: καθηγητής

– Transliteration: Kathegetes

– Phonetic: kath-ayg-ay-tace’

– Definition:

a guide
a master, teacher

– Origin: from a compound of G2596 and G2233

– TDNT entry: None

– Part(s) of speech: Noun Masculine

– Strong’s: From a compound of G2596 and G2233; a guide that is (figuratively) a teacher: – master.

Is Christ actually telling us we are not to have leaders? Of course not!  Such is also the case with telling us not to judge and telling us the man born blind and his parents had not sinned.

We are all aware that the holy spirit tells us that God Himself has placed teachers in the church:

1Co 12:28  And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

The word translated as ‘teacher’ here in 1 Corinthians 12:28 is ‘didaskalos.’ Nevertheless, both ‘didaskalos’ and ‘kathegetes’ both mean ‘teacher’, and Christ said we are not to call any man our ‘kathagetes’, ‘master’, or ‘teacher’.

So what is the difference between these two words, ‘kathagetes’ and ‘didaskalos’? Here is how AI answers that question:

“The primary difference lies in their connotation of authority and their specific usage in the New Testament. Didaskalos is a general, widely used term for an instructor or master, often associated with the role of teaching within the church to build up the body of believers, similar to the Hebrew Rabbi.  In contrast, Kathegetes carries a stronger nuance of leadership, guidance, and authority, appearing specifically in Matthew 23:8-10 where Jesus warns against seeking such honorific titles for oneself.

“While both words can be translated as “teacher” or “master” in English, Kathegetes is linked to the concepts of lord, master, and overseer, emphasizing the authority of the guide. Didaskalos, however, focuses on the function of instruction and is used extensively in the epistles to describe roles like apostles, prophets, and pastors who serve the community rather than lord it over them. The distinction highlights a theological contrast between self-exalting authority (Kathegetes) and humble, service-oriented instruction (Didaskalos).” (End Quote, emphasis mine)

That difference is not detected when you translate both words simply as ‘teacher’. No one would dare deny that 1 Corinthians 12:28 declares that “God has set… teachers… in the church.” What God has not placed in the church is teachers who think they have dominion over our faith, and Paul was well aware of this difference:

2Co 1:23  Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.
2Co 1:24  Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

Paul lets us know that we have no dominion over each other such as Rabbis and ‘kathegetes’ exerted over those in their charge. Nevertheless, as a spiritual ‘father’ and a teacher, a ‘didaskalos’, he sets them and us the example which he expects them and each of us to follow.

There are no chapter breaks in the original Greek manuscripts, and the narrative continues in the very next verse of scripture:

2Co 2:1  But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.
2Co 2:2  For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
2Co 2:3  And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
2Co 2:4  For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. 

What Paul is referring to is what he had to deal with in the first epistles to this church at Corinth. In the fifth chapter of the first epistle of Corinthians Paul expressed his dismay at the fact that he had heard that the whole church was taking pride in their own tolerance of fornication in their midst:

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

These Corinthians were proud of their tolerance of sin in their midst! Being loving and fatherly does not make one weak and stupid. “We that are strong… receive them that are weak in the faith”, but we do not swap our meat for their herbs, nor the fact that we esteem every day alike for their observance of days, months, times, and years, and esteeming one day above another (Rom 14 and 15 and Gal 4:9-10). Neither are we to tolerate fornication among ourselves.

Nevertheless, we do bear with the weak in faith and acknowledge that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” What that means is that we bear with those who are still weak in the faith and give them the time that is needed to mature spiritually.

That is the difference between ‘kathagetes’ and ‘didaskalos’. ‘Kathagetes’ is teaching as an authoritarian, and ‘didaskalos’ is teaching as “a helper of your joy.” That is the same message the Lord is delivering to us when He tells us to “call no man on earth Father…” No verse of scripture stands on its own. Every verse must have at least one or two witnesses. That is why we are told “the sum of Thy Word is Truth”:

2Pe 1:20  Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

The CLV is a better translation of this verse:

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

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

These principles apply to Matthew 23:8-10 just as much as the rest of scripture, and the rest of the New Testament sees Paul, Peter, and John, one and all, claiming to have begotten children in Christ, and referring to themselves as the ‘gennao’ of those children whom they have begotten.

We have already seen Paul tell us that he had begotten his son Timothy. He also tells us that he had begotten Onesimus:

Phm 1:10  I am appealing to you concerning my child, whose spiritual father I have become during my imprisonment, that is, Onesimus, (NET)

Here is the King James Version of this verse:

Phm 1:10  I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten [G1080: ‘gennao‘] in my bonds:

The NET is a better translation because it applies the meaning of ‘gennao’, meaning ‘to father’.

G1080

γεννάω

gennaō

ghen-nah’-o

From a variation of G1085; to procreate (properly of the father, but by extension of the mother); figuratively to regenerate: – bear, beget, be born, bring forth, conceive, be delivered of, gender, make, spring.

Total KJV occurrences: 97

It is true, according to AI, that the Greek word ‘gennao’ is used four times in relation to women:

“Specific Instances of Women and gennao

Conception/Begetting: In Matthew 1:20, the verb is used in the passive voice to describe that which was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit (“the child conceived in her”).

Giving Birth: The verb is used to describe women giving birth in the following passages:

Luke 1:13: Regarding John the Baptist, it says his father will rejoice “when he is born” (or gives birth to him).
Luke 1:57: “Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered; and she brought forth a son.”
Luke 23:29: Jesus refers to women who will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts which never nursed” (literally: “which never gave birth”).

John 16:21: Jesus compares the disciples’ sorrow to a woman in childbirth who, when she is delivered [G1080, ‘Gennao’], remembers the anguish no longer because of the joy that a child is born into the world. ” (End Quote)

Nevertheless, ‘gennao’ appears 84 times in the New Testament, and 80 of those 84 instances refer to men begetting sons.

The verses which lay this question to rest as to whether we can refer to those who bring us to Christ as our ‘father’ are:

1Co 4:15  For though ye have ten thousand instructors [G3807: ‘paidagogos‘, “schoolmaster”  in Christ], yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I [as your spiritual father] have begotten you through the gospel.

Php 2:22  But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.

Paul was not hesitant to make those statements because he was not seeking to be “called… father.” He was simply pointing out that he had been used by the Lord to father Timothy, Titus, Onesimus and many others in the faith.

Paul, inspired by the holy spirit, did not understand Matthew 23:8-10 to literally mean “call no man on earth father.” It is clear to anyone who does not have an idol of his heart that the sum of God’s Word uses this Greek word ‘pater’ to refer to the apostle Paul as the spiritual ‘pater’ of the Corinthian church; Timothy, Onesimus, Titus and others. What Christ meant, as the contrast between the words translated as ‘teacher’ in 1 Corinthians 12, ‘didaskalos’ and the word ‘kathegetes’ in Matthew 23:10 demonstrate, is that we are not to think that anyone on earth is our ultimate authority or our ultimate ‘Father’. No man on earth has any dominion over our faith. The sum of the Word of God is always the first and only authority of our heavenly Father.

I will conclude with the NET version of 1 Corinthians 4:15:

1Co 4:15  For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, because I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

While it is true that Christ did not include the word ‘father’ (Greek ‘pater’ in Matthew 12:50), He did inspire Paul to claim to be the ‘father’ of those who came to Christ through his ministry, and he called himself the ‘father’ (Greek “pater”) of the church of Corinth, and the father with whom Timothy was working in service to the Lord. That was the consensus of the elders.

I hope this helps us to see clearly that we need never apologize to anyone for displaying gratitude for what one’s spiritual ‘father’ in Christ has done to bring us to know Christ and His Father.

Your ‘pater’  with whom you labor in the Lord’s service, Mike

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/divine-order-in-creation-and-scripture-part-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=divine-order-in-creation-and-scripture-part-1 Thu, 30 Jul 2026 04:12:46 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=36629 Audio Download

“Divine Order In Creation And Scripture” – Part 1

Sequence of Numbers in Genesis

Building on the numbers series that Mike was inspired to present to us, this mini series looks at some of the ways the holy spirit inspired numbers to be used in God’s word. Not just the meaning of any single number, which is critical to know, but also how some of the real time applications of those numbers or combination of the numbers, can reveal hidden treasures of God’s word for us (Pro 25:2).

Pro 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

This opening study has to do with the sequence, or order of the creation in Genesis and some of what those sequences of numbers show us.

Sequence of numbers in creation:

There is a forming and filling event with the days of creation shown in God’s word. The natural event of the creation week (Rom 1:20) reveals many things about how God’s workmanship which we are, is being ordered (Eph 2:10).

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

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Forming and filling:

Day 1 was filled with Day 4.

Day 2 was filled with Day 5.

Day 3 was filled with Day 6.

Day 1 God creates light and darkness, not the sun, moon, and stars, but light and darkness (Gen 1:5), and then tells us what will fill Day 1 (light and darkness Isa 45:7) on Day 4. There are three days needed before the fourth day brings forth the sun, moon, and stars. We know that ‘three’ represents the process of judgment, telling us that our heavens are formed through a process. The sun, moon and stars appear on Day four, but that does not mean that they are perfected, just that they are in place to accomplish God’s ultimate goal of making a new creation in Christ.

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. [typified by that part of creation on day 1]

Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day,[sun] and the darkness he called Night [moon]. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

These first six days of God’s creation signify the physical work that sets the stage for God to enter into His rest on the seventh day. The natural work precedes the spiritual work, or rest, that happens on the seventh day (Heb 4:4-10). The sun, moon and stars are in place, and those signified parts of creation are used to show us what is going to happen in (Rev 17:11), each man in his own order.

Heb 4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.(1Co 15:46)
Heb 4:5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:[when we believe we can do the work of God and enter into His rest]

[belief comes on the seventh day when God’s people enter into a rest as God did (Heb 4:9-10, Christ our rest today explained in these verses Php 2:12-13). When we believe, we can do the works of God and enter into His works because we now know at this point and time that it is Christ doing the work within at that day (Joh 14:20)]

Heb 4:7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

[in other words the Sabbath was no rest, just a type of the rest found in Christ that was yet to come]

Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.(Rom 8:9, Col 1:27)
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his (Zec 4:6).

We are not complete even on the seventh day but it does represent the beginning of that completeness that will happen when the new man [8] is formed out of that seventh day (Rev 17:11). The 6 days of creation are inside, or part of, the 8th day which represents the new man who is being spiritually circumcised [Lev 12:3], something that can only happen because of the complete work that must occur on the 7th day (Rev 15:8) in order for us to enter into the temple in the fullness, in the blessed and holy first resurrection (1Co 13:12). This transformation into becoming a new creation requires the true witness of Christ’s life within us, represented by the number two that works on the number six to give us the new man [8] that God is forming in each of His children.

Rev 17:11 And the beast [mankind the number 6] that was, and is not, even he is the eighth [the new man], and is of the seven [going on to perfection], and goeth into perdition [which bring about perfection that is accomplished by the destruction of the 6.6.6. beast via a process of judgment that Christ 2 is executing as the author and finisher of our faith].

Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

That’s the first sequence 1 and 4, and now let’s look at the sequence of 2 and 5.

The same principle is applied of something being made to be filled with something. The firmament was made on the 2nd day that represent God’s spirit which every living creature lives and moves and has their being in, where God can work all things according to the counsel of His own will, and nothing is impossible (Act 17:28, Psa 139:1-4, Heb 1:3, 1Co 8:6, Eph 1:11). All things would include the great fish that swallowed up Jonah (Joh 1:17), Balaam‘s donkey that talked (Num 22:21-35), the parting of the Red Sea (Exo 14:21-22), etc… all events that occurred to provide instructive prophecy (1Pe 1:12, 1Co 10:11) for those who would be the first to enter into Christ’s rest.

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Psa 139:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Psa 139:2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Psa 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Psa 139:4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The first, second, and third days were created as a platform to be filled by the fourth, fifth, and six days, revealing that without Christ who comes in on the seventh day (Col 1:27, Rom 8:9) we are incomplete. All those physical things created typify things within us that need to be in place before the natural can go unto perfection on the seventh day.

Day 1 is eventually filled with the sun, the moon and stars on Day 4, but is not complete. Day 2 is when the firmament was created that is needed for birds and fish to survive Day 5 but it is not complete. Birds represent spirits, and fish represent mankind that harbours those spirits. Day 3 brings forth the land, seas, and plants of which animals will thrive and humans will be given dominion over (Gen 1:26). Again this dominion is only typical of the spiritual dominion that all mankind will one day have through Christ, and a process is being discussed as the number three is what it takes in each instance to go from the formed state to the filled state, just as judgment must be upon the house of God (1Pe 4:17) where a process is unfolding, a dominion over sin, that will conclude in our going unto perfection on the third day (Luk 13:32).

123 4

234 5

345 6

 The last sequence is Day 3 that is filled up with Day 6. The land and the sea of Day 3 represents our bodies, and the plants represent the incomplete nourishment that is needed to sustain both beasts, animals and humans, on Day 6 (Ecc 3:19). The sea is a lower state of awareness which represents all of mankind, akin to the camp outside of the court, and the court is more akin to the land, but still carnal and not the temple which represents the body of Christ (1Co 3:16).

Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

Those animals need to be in place in order to be sacrificed on the seventh day where we can go without the camp and present ourselves a living sacrifice by the strength of Christ that makes it possible for us to be as he is in this world, at this time (Heb 13:10-13, 1Jn 4:17).

Heb 13:10 We have an altar,[1Co 3:16, Gal 2:20] whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
Heb 13:11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
Heb 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Now the stage is set to introduce the pinnacle of God’s incomplete physical creation, that was very good for what it was intended to produce in the end (Gen 2:1-25).

“They shall be one flesh” (Gen 2:24), and complete each other, in the same way that all these physical things being discussed in chapter one were filling, completing, or setting the stage for what God is going to teach us through the relationship of Adam and Eve and all their descendants. This natural relationship of Adam and Eve is only the type of the oneness that will come to those who are given the spirit of God within making us one with our husband and head Jesus Christ (1Co 11:3).

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.

If Adam and Eve were marred in the hand of the Potter which they were (Jer 18:4), then the creation itself which represents what is abiding within each of us is also incomplete, and not capable of inheriting eternal life (1Co 15:50).

What is spoken of Adam and Eve in (Gen 2:23-25) is true of all of humanity. These verses describe both a negative and positive example of unity, or oneness that can only be found in Christ (2Co 11:3).

Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Adam and Eve were not of us (1Jn 2:19, Jer 18:4). They were in the earth and were about to be driven (Gen 3:24) from the garden which is a type of our going into Babylonian captivity which we all must go into and then come out of in God’s ordained time (2Co 6:17). It is through the dragging out process of God (Joh 6:44) that we can come out of Babylon our former mother where we initially go into exile, to then begin to cleave unto the church of the first born, where we can provoke one another unto love and good works (Heb 10:24-25).

1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Gen 3:24 So he drove^{H1644 = “divorced” (H853)} out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

In this series of studies we’ll look at different uses of numbers in the bible, be it in patterns, combinations of numbers, multiples of number, sequences, addition, subtraction, fractions, or divisions that can be “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”(2Ti 3:16). All those combinations and uses of numbers relates back to the same point of God providing lessons for us that can help us understand how the bride is being made ready, so that she is one with her husband spiritually (Rev 19:7).

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/col-11-8-faith-and-love-grow-from-a-hope-laid-up/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=col-11-8-faith-and-love-grow-from-a-hope-laid-up Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:46:35 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=36604 Audio Download

Faith and Love Grow From a Hope Laid Up

Colossians 1:1–8  Part One of a Study in Colossians

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: as ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit” (Colossians 1:1–8).

The Letter Before the Lesson

Before we look for anything beneath these verses, we should hear what they plainly say to the people who first received them. Colosse sat in the Lycus valley of Phrygia, near Laodicea and Hierapolis (Colossians 4:13, 16). Paul did not plant this church and had never seen it face to face—he says as much: “as many as have not seen my face in the flesh” (Colossians 2:1). The assembly was founded instead by Epaphras, a Colossian by birth (Colossians 4:12), who carried the gospel home to his own city and later carried a report of the church back to Paul in prison.

These first eight verses follow the ordinary shape of a first-century letter: sender, recipients, greeting, thanksgiving; but this thanksgiving is doing work. Before the warnings of chapter two arrive, warnings against teachers peddling philosophy, ordinances, and the worship of angels—Paul quietly certifies three things. What the Colossians received from Epaphras was “the word of the truth of the gospel,” the genuine article, needing no supplement. The man who brought it was “a faithful minister of Christ,” his credential stated before his message is ever challenged. That gospel has already done in Colosse what it does everywhere: it has borne fruit “since the day ye heard of it.” To its first hearers, then, the plain sense is commendation.

One small honesty belongs to the passage before we go further. Verse 6 says the gospel “is come unto you, as it is in all the world.” Scripture uses this manner of speaking elsewhere—“their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” (Romans 10:18)—and Paul repeats it in this very chapter, “preached to every creature which is under heaven” (Colossians 1:23). Paul means the gospel’s reach, not a completed count.

The Soil in Which Everything Grows

Paul names himself “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God”—a sent one whose commission begins not in himself but in God. That single phrase sets the key for everything that follows. The apostleship is received, not achieved; and the whole passage will go on to describe a life that is given rather than generated. The letter opens by placing its own authority outside the natural man.

The recipients are “saints and faithful brethren in Christ.” Two words govern the entire reading of this passage: in Christ. This is not a note about where the Colossians live but about the sphere in which they now stand before God. Paul defines that sphere plainly in the same chapter: God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). That verse tells us what in Christ means—a real move from one realm into another, the new ground in which everything else grows. Take away that phrase, and there is nothing left to give thanks for; the faith, the love, and the hope have no place to stand apart from it.

Why Hope Comes First

Paul names three things among them: faith, love, and hope. He sets these three together often—“and now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three” (1 Corinthians 13:13); “your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). That habit by itself proves nothing about this passage. What matters is the order Paul gives them here, and that order turns on a single small word.

Paul gives thanks “since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.” The faith and the love are said to exist for the hope. That word “for” translates the Greek dia (G1223), and in this construction it commonly carries the force of because of. We can watch it do exactly that in two plain places: “he knew that for envy they had delivered him” (Matthew 27:18), where envy is plainly the cause of the delivering, and “many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman” (John 4:39), where the saying is plainly the cause of the believing. So verse 5 reads: faith and love exist because of the hope. Hope is not the last and least item on a list; it is named as the spring from which the other two rise.

This hope is no vague sentiment. It is “laid up for you in heaven.” The words “laid up” translate apokeimai (G606), to be stored away, deposited, kept in reserve. The word appears only a handful of times, and each one shows the same picture. A servant hands back his master’s money, “which I have kept laid up in a napkin” (Luke 19:20)—a deposit held intact and produced at the reckoning. Paul at the end of his course: “there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness… which the Lord… shall give me at that day” (2 Timothy 4:8)—stored now, given then. The hope of Colossians 1:5 is that kind of thing: not a feeling the believer works up, but a thing already banked in heaven, waiting to be disclosed.

This is why hope can be the root and not the afterthought. A hope still uncertain could ground nothing; but a hope already secured can ground everything. Hebrews states the same order plainly: “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is not the thing hoped for; it is the substance of it — the hope stands first, and faith takes firm hold of it. The order runs backward from most religious instinct. Not: believe hard enough and love well enough, and heaven may follow. Rather: the inheritance is already laid up, and out of that settled certainty the faith takes hold of Christ, and the love pours out toward the saints. Where the hope is dim, faith wavers and love cools; where the hope is stored and guaranteed, faith stands and love flows. Paul, later in the same letter, tells us finally what that stored hope is: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The hope is not an abstraction but a Person.

A Word That Bears Its Own Fruit

Where did this faith, love, and hope come from? Not from the Colossians’ natural religiousness, but from a word that came to them from outside—“the word of the truth of the gospel… which is come unto you.” The word is a seed. The Lord Himself makes the definition: “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). And the sequence in Colossians matches the parable term for term. The good-ground hearer “heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit” (Matthew 13:23)—heard, understood, bearing fruit—and Colossians 1:6 runs in the same three stages: the Colossians “heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth,” and the gospel “bringeth forth fruit.” The word for that “bringeth forth fruit” is karpophoreo (G2592), the very verb used of the good-ground hearer in the Lord’s parable.

Two more witnesses stand entirely outside the parables, so that the point does not hang from a single context. Peter: we are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). James, using Paul’s exact phrase from this passage: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth” (James 1:18). Beneath them both lies the old promise in Isaiah: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please” (Isaiah 55:11). The word is a living seed that does its own work. The Colossians’ faith and love were not their contribution to the gospel; they were its harvest.

It is worth being careful here, for Scripture does not use the figure of “seed” in only one way. In the very next parable the Lord says, “the good seed are the children of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:38), and Paul can make the seed to be Christ Himself (Galatians 3:16) “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Scripture scopes its symbols by their setting. So we do not claim that seed always means the word. We claim only what the texts above actually show: where the figure is seed sown, heard, and bearing fruit in hearers, Scripture repeatedly names that seed as the word—and Colossians 1:6 wears exactly that figure.

The fruit is the word’s own doing, not the sower’s. The Lord pictures a man who casts seed and then sleeps and rises, “and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself” (Mark 4:27–28). This is why Paul, who never saw the Colossians’ faces, thanks God rather than congratulating the farmers. Epaphras was a sower, not a source. That is not to say the word works apart from God—Paul is clear elsewhere that “neither is he that planteth anything… but God that giveth the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:7). The word works of itself as against the preacher’s power, not against God’s. Epaphras made nothing grow; God did, through His own living word.

Heard, and Then Known

There is a phrase easy to pass over: the gospel bears fruit “since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.” Two things are joined—hearing and knowing—and they are not the same. There is a hearing that stays on the surface, and a knowing that becomes inward possession. The Lord marked the difference: “If ye continue in my word… ye shall know the truth” (John 8:31–32). This is the difference between the seed on the trodden path and the seed in good ground. The same word falls on both, but only in the second does it grow roots and bear. A man may hear for years and remain barren. The day of knowing is the day the seed enters the honest heart and life begins—which is why Paul dates the fruit from that day, “the day ye… knew the grace of God in truth.”

A Word Carried, a Love in the Spirit

The passage closes with Epaphras, “a faithful minister of Christ,” through whom the Colossians “learned” the gospel, and who “declared unto us your love in the Spirit.” We need not dig for a hidden meaning in a greeting; the plain fact is instruction enough. It shows how the word of truth travels—not as a bare idea floating into the air, but through a fellow-servant who himself stands in Christ and carries the seed to others. The word that begets is a word ministered.

Notice the last phrase of all: the love Epaphras reports is love “in the Spirit.” This is the quiet key to the whole thanksgiving. The love among the Colossians is not the natural affection of the old man polished up, but a love produced by the spirit of God—for “the fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22), and “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5). Two witnesses settle it. The love among these brethren is not human warmth refined; it is the Christ’s own life flowing out through them.

What These Eight Verses Establish

Read together, the passage traces the whole shape of a new life—with hope at its root, where Paul places it. A word comes from outside the natural man, the word of truth, and is not merely heard but known, striking root as the day of grace dawns. That word plants a hope already laid up and secured in heaven, and out of that settled hope faith lays hold of Christ and love pours out toward the saints. The whole of it is the Christ’s work, carried by faithful servants, so that even the love among believers is love “in the Spirit” and not the affection of the flesh. This is not the old man improved. It is the appearance of a life that was not there before, rooted in a hope the old man never possessed.

This is why these eight verses stand at the very head of the letter. Chapter two will confront teachers offering supplements—philosophy, ordinances, rule-keeping, the worship of angels. Paul’s opening move is to establish that the word the Colossians already received is a living seed that has already borne fruit, and a hope already banked in heaven. A seed needs cultivation, not additives. A deposit needs faith, not further payments. The argument of the whole epistle is planted in its first eight verses.

There is one question worth naming before we close, even though we will not settle it yet. Verse 5 puts the hope in heaven, laid up and waiting; but later in the chapter Paul says the hope is “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27). Is our hope kept above us, or does it dwell within us? Paul says both, in the same breath of the same letter. Rather than smoothing that over quickly, we will let it wait, since Colossians 1:27 needs its own study before we can hold the two together. We will come back to it.

Next study: (Colossians 1:9–14) For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

1 Samuel 26:1–25 David Spares Saul Again

[Study Aired July 27, 2026]

Our study for today can be divided into three sections. The first section deals with Saul’s renewed pursuit of David. This forced David to sneak into Saul’s camp and finds him sleeping. The second section focuses on David’s  refusal to kill Saul but choosing to reason with him. The final part of the study highlights Saul’s confession of his sin of wanting to kill David.

Saul’s Renewed Pursuit of David

1Sa 26:1  And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon? 
1Sa 26:2  Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 

Ziphites means ‘smelters.’ Hence they represent all those whom the Lord uses as instruments of His judgment. As instruments of the Lord’s judgment, it is no wonder these Ziphites went to report to Saul of the hiding place of David and his men, to put more fire under David and his men. 

These Ziphites are likened to us when we were in Babylon where we persecuted the Lord’s elect, just like Paul, when he was pursuing the Lord’s disciples before his conversion. 

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.   

Hachilah means ‘dark’ and Jeshimon signifies ‘wilderness.’ David hiding in Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, implies that David is hiding in this dark world which is a wilderness. As we have stated previously, Jesus hid among the people when they wanted to kill him after his first preaching in the synagogue. Therefore, David hiding in the wilderness means David hiding in the midst of the people of this world.  

Isa 14:17  That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?    

Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him (Jesus) out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. 
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way, 

Saul’s relentless pursuit of David demonstrates how our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world regard us as a real threat to their reign with Christ. Saul choosing three thousand men of Israel in verse 2, is to show us the state of our brothers and sisters in the church system. The number three thousand in the negative context represents those who fall away in the heat of the battle against our flesh. 

Exo 32:28  And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. 

Jos 7:4  So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. 

What verse 2 therefore implies is that we must all fall away first, before we are given to become overcomers. 

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

1Sa 26:3  And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 
1Sa 26:4  David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come in very deed. 
1Sa 26:5  And David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched: and David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him. 

As indicated earlier, Hachilah means dark. The fact that Saul and his men dwelt in Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon shows that our brothers and sisters are darkened in their understanding of the word of the Lord due to lack of water and food in the church in the wilderness (Jeshimon). We were at a certain stage of our walk also darkened in our understanding when we were in the churches of this world, just like David, before he escaped from Saul.  

Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 
Eph 4:20  But ye have not so learned Christ; 

David coming to know where Saul and his men lay signifies our coming to understand our spiritually dead state, when we were in the church system of this world or Babylon.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) 

1Sa 26:6  Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee. 
1Sa 26:7  So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him. 

David, together with Abishai, his nephew, risked their lives to observe Saul and his men at their camp. The fact that they were two implies that they serve as witnesses of Christ. David and Abishai going to the camp of Saul and his men, therefore, signifies how as the Lord’s elect, we are not ignorant of the devil and his devices. 

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 

Our defense against the wiles (clever tricks or lies) of the devil is to put on the full armor of the Lord, so that we can be able to stand. 

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 

It is significant to note that David and Abishai observed that Saul and all his men were sleeping, with Saul’s spear stucked in the ground. The spear is comparable to the sword, which is the word of the Lord. 

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 

The spear being stuck in the ground means that it is partial buried by earth. In other words, the word of the Lord is tainted by man’s wisdom and tradition. What we are being told therefore, is that our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world or Babylon, represented by Saul and his men, are spiritually asleep as a result of the false doctrine (contaminated word of the Lord) propagated by their leaders. We were also in this situation, until the Lord came to us to show us the truth of His word. 

2Pe 2:1  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 
2Pe 2:2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 

1Sa 26:8  Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time. 
1Sa 26:9  And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD’S anointed, and be guiltless? 
1Sa 26:10  David said furthermore, As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish. 

Abishai thought that the Lord had given David the opportunity to avenge his enemy, Saul, when they found them sleeping in the camp. David however, ordered Abishai, not to stretch forth his hands against the Lord’s anointed. As the Lord’s elect, we are not to fight our own battles. The battle belongs to the Lord, and therefore, it is the Lord who avenges our enemies on our behalf. 

1Sa 17:47  And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.  

2Ch 20:15  And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 

When we take up the sword against our enemies, it shows that we are fighting our own battle and as a result, we shall perish by the sword. This was the lesson that the Lord Jesus taught Peter, when he took a sword and cut the ear of one of those who came to arrest Jesus. 

Mat 26:51  And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

1Sa 26:11  The LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let us go.
1Sa 26:12  So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul’s bolster; and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen upon them. 

David taking the spear and a jar of water from the camp of Saul and his men signifies the Lord taking away the truth from the church system of this world, and giving it to us, His elect, who are privileged to be given the understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom. As a result, we are refined by the fire of the word of the Lord, while our brothers and sisters become worse and worse. 

Mat 13:10  Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 
Mat 13:11  And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 
Mat 13:12  For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 

It is instructive to note that the Lord caused Saul and his men to fall in deep sleep. This is what the Lord is doing today. While we are being enlightened to know more about Christ, the Lord has darkened the understanding of our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world, such that seeing, they see not, and hearing, they hear not. 

Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

David Choosing to Reason With Saul

1Sa 26:13  Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off; a great space being between them: 
1Sa 26:14  And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king?
1Sa 26:15  And David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord.
1Sa 26:16  This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD’S anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster. 

The king’s spear and the jar of water that David took from Saul when he came with Abishai, were used as exhibit, to demonstrate how Abner had been negligent of his duty to protect the king by sleeping deep. As a result, he must die. This incidence brings to mind the time that Jesus was in agony in the  Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. He was with the disciples and expected them to keep watch with Him, but they all fell asleep. It shows how we operated under the influence of our flesh when we were in the church system of this world. The flesh being weak, we were not able to keep watch during our stay in Babylon. 

Mat 26:40  And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 
Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Mat 26:42  He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 
Mat 26:43  And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.
Mat 26:44  And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 

1Sa 26:17  And Saul knew David’s voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king. 
1Sa 26:18  And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand? 
1Sa 26:19  Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.
1Sa 26:20  Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. 

Saul hearing the voice of David and calling him his son shows that he did not understand why he kept pursuing David to kill him. This indicates that he did not have his own free will to do what he wants. Just as the Lord raised Pharaoh to resist His will of letting the children of Israel go out of Egypt to the promised land, the Lord was using Saul as His instrument of judgment of David, His elect. All of these throw out of the window, the false doctrine that we have our own free will and can do what we want.

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

David struggled at this point in his life to understand the significance of what he was going through as he questioned Saul in verses 18 to 20. He did not know that the Lord was using Saul as His instrument of judgment to destroy his flesh. We all struggle to understand why we sometimes go through what we go through. This is what Paul said about our struggles:

2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 

The verse above shows us that even when we do not have all the answers to our hardships, we must still cling on to hope. 

In verse 19, David made a profound statement that if it is the Lord who had stirred up Saul to pursue him, then he would let the Lord accept an offering. It indicates that the Lord wants us to offer our bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him. This is the spiritual worship that the Lord is requiring from each of us as His elect, and He is achieving it through His judgment of our flesh.

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. 

Saul’s Confession of His Sins

1Sa 26:21  Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.   

This is the second time in this study of the Book of Samuel that we see Saul admitting he had sinned. In the first instance in 1 Samuel 24:17, Saul repented of his actions against David at that time, and went on to declare David as being more righteous than him. However, he continued to pursue David. Repentance alone is not enough. We must bring forth fruit that commensurates with our repentance as indicated by Jesus as follows: 

Luk 3:8  Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 

1Sa 26:22  And David answered and said, Behold the king’s spear! and let one of the young men come over and fetch it. 
1Sa 26:23  The LORD render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for the LORD delivered thee into my hand to day, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed. 

David prepared to return the spear of Saul shows us that when we repent of our sins and start to lead lives commensurate with our repentance, the Lord will ensure that what we have lost in Him shall be regained.

Joe 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 
Joe 2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 
Joe 2:27  And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.  

We, the Lord’s elect, are the ones who are mourning in Zion as a result of the Lord’s judgment of our old man. As indicated in verse 23, the Lord will render to us His righteousness and His faithfulness in the fulness of time. 

Isa 61:3  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. 
Isa 61:4  And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. 
Isa 61:5  And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. 
Isa 61:6  But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. 
Isa 61:7  For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. 

1Sa 26:24  And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the LORD, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. 
1Sa 26:25  Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place. 

In verse 24, David told Saul that as Saul’s life had been precious to him that day, may his life be precious in the sight of the Lord and that he is hoping that the Lord would deliver him from all his trouble. As we shall see later in this study of Samuel, indeed, the Lord was faithful to David and delivered him from all his troubles. This is David’s testimony of how the Lord came to his aid in the fulness of time:

Psa 34:6  This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 
Psa 34:7  The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 
Psa 34:8  Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 

Psa 34:19  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 

These verses are to let us know that the Lord will surely show up in the fullness of time, to deliver us from all our troubles. Are you weary of what you are going through? Have you lost hope of the situation that you find yourself in and that there is no way of escape? Let’s lift our eyes off our circumstance and look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He will surely come to our rescue in the fullness of time to restore all that the locust, the cankerworm,  the caterpillar, and the palmerworm had eaten. Remember that against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and became the father of many nations. Against all hope, let’s lift our eyes off our circumstances and look to Jesus, who is able to do exceedingly beyond what we can ask or think. 

Rom 4:18  Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 

Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
Eph 3:21  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

In verse 25, Saul ended up blessing David and prophesied that David shall do great things and shall still prevail. This implies that in the fullness of time, our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world and the people of this world shall rejoice and bless us as saviors or the sons of God. 

Rom 8:18  I am sure that what we are suffering now cannot compare with the glory that will be shown to us.
Rom 8:19  In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are. 
Rom 8:20  Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope 
Rom 8:21  that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. (CEV)

Thank you Jesus, for the privilege of knowing you in this age. Amen!!