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Isa 44:9-20 – Part 2- He [That Builds an Idol] Warms Himself, and Says, Aha, I Am Warm, I Have Seen The Fire

This is the second part of our study on how the Lord makes us plant, nourish and work so very hard at twisting the Lord’s words and constructing the idols of our hearts that we actually think we have endured the fire that is His Words. We work so hard we actually tell ourselves “Aha, I Am Warm, I Have Seen The Fire” of the Lord’s Word (Jer 5:14), all the while being in “strong delusion” and “feeding on ashes”, totally unaware that “a lie is in [our] right hand”.

Here are the last verses we covered in last week’s study:

Isa 44:14 He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.
Isa 44:15 Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
Isa 44:16 He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:

Notice that the emphasis is upon all the effort we put into building this idol. Look at the personal pronouns in these verses… “the strength of his arms… his rule… he marks it… he hews him down cedars… which he strengthens for himself… he plants an ash…”, etc. Not one mention of God and what He does in any of these verses.

What is an ‘idol’ in spiritual terms? It is always good to be reminded of the meaning of the words we are studying in light of the scriptures themselves. Here is the spiritual meaning of and ‘idol… an image or a molten image’:

Eze 14:1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired 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.

It is because of what is in our hearts that we are said to be worshipping an ‘idol’ or an ‘image’ or a ‘molten image’. A molten image cannot of ourselves be moved and therefore it is “fastened with nails that it should not be moved… that it might remain in the house”.

Isa 41:7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

Going back to verse 13:

Isa 44:13 The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

“He fastens it with nails that it should not be moved… that it may remain in the house” tells us just how attached we all are to our false doctrines, and to the idols of our hearts. When the Lord Himself deceives us then there is nothing which we of ourselves can do to deliver ourselves out of our own deception:

Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;

So much for that “idol of [our] heart” which teaches us that God would never have punished Adam and Eve for doing what He made them to do. These verses tell us that when Adam and Eve were deceived it was the Lord Himself who deceived them and then He punished them by casting them out of the garden of Eden, and cursing the ground and making it bring forth “thorns and thistles”, typifying the fruit, of the lies and deceits of our cursed composition.

The Hebrew word for ‘figure’ in verse 13 is:

H8403
תַּבְנִית
tabnı̂yth
tab-neeth'
From H1129; structure; by implication a model, resemblance: - figure, form, likeness, pattern, similitude.

We just naturally make our heart’s idols after “the figure of a man” (Isa 44:13). Our heart’s idols are thought and doctrines which fit the patterns of our own thinking and our own minds and our own understanding. That is the meaning of “after the figure [pattern] of a man”.

The most common translation for this Hebrew word, ‘tabnyith’, is the English word ‘pattern’.

H8403
תּבנית
tabnı̂yth
Total KJV Occurrences: 20
pattern, 9
Exo_25:9 (2), Exo_25:40, Jos_22:28, 2Ki_16:10, 1Ch_28:11-12 (2), 1Ch_28:18-19 (2)
likeness, 5
Deu_4:16-18 (5)
form, 3
Eze_8:3, Eze_8:10, Eze_10:8
similitude, 2
Psa_106:20, Psa_144:12
figure, 1
Isa_44:12-13 (2)

Here is a very good example of how the holy spirit has used this Hebrew word, ‘tabniyth’:

Exo 25:9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern [H8403: tabniyth] of the tabernacle, and the pattern [H8403: tabniyth] of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

The point the spirit is making is that “the figure of a man” is “enmity against” (Rom 8:7), [and] contrary to God and “to the image of His Son”.

We are specifically told:

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We are even plainly told:

Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Only if we are given to realize that our ways are not His ways, that our thoughts are not His thoughts and only if we are given to lean not to our own understanding, only then will He begin to conform us to the pattern, the ‘tabnyith’, and the “image of His Son”. It is all His work:

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.

We must be made aware that the scriptures do not teach what the King James English teaches:

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

This is a grievous mistranslation based upon the idol of our hearts which teaches that we are “free moral agents”, with flesh and blood, which can and will inherit the kingdom of God in complete and total contradiction to what the scriptures actually teach from Genesis to Revelation, which is:

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

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

The scriptures teach that our days are written for each of us in advance, “before the world began”, and that flesh and blood was never intended to inherit the kingdom of God:

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

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

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

We are the Lord’s ‘tabernacle’, and when our hearts, minds and doctrines are “conformed to” the mind and doctrines of Christ, that is when we will begin the process of having no “idols of [our] hearts”, and we will then begin to be “conformed to the image of His Son”. Then His ‘tabernacle’ will be being built “according to all [He has shown us”, and He will begin to be pleased to dwell within us. Our old man will begin to decrease and the mind of Christ increases in us day by day:

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

2Co 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day

Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

The Hebrew from which the word ‘created’ is translated in Genesis 1:27 is in the Qal stem and is the equivalent of the Greek aorist tense. It denotes a simple statement of fact without any regard to tense.

The Concordant Version captures the proper translation of:

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.

God is in the process of creating man in His image, and that process will not be completed until we “cease from our own works as God did from His [and we] enter into His rest” from our sins. There remains yet another step before we are completed and we are truly “created in His image [and] conformed to the image of His Son”:

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.
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:

Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own work, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

With this understanding, let’s return to the idols of our hearts which we are ‘creating’ in “the figure of a man”, according to the thoughts of a man and not according to the mind of God:

Isa 44:13 The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure [Hebrew: ‘tabnyith’] of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

This word, ‘tabniyth’ also appears in:

Exo 25:40 And look that thou make them after their pattern [‘tabnyith’], which was shewed thee in the mount.

“The pattern shown you in the mount” is the house plans for the Lord’s house. Moses was commanded to build the tabernacle according to the exact pattern, the exact ‘tabniyth’, which was shown to him by Christ Himself.

As a contractor I have built many homes from the ground up, and I had to sit down with the people who were paying me to build their home and sign a contract, a “covenant”, agreeing to build their house according to their plans. No contractor worth a dime would dare to vary from the plans he is given. To do such a thing is a legal breach of contract, and that contractor will not be paid for refusing to follow the plans he was given and which he signed a contract to follow.

Yet that is exactly what we have all done with the Lord’s house plans, which are His Word. We are not at liberty to add to or to take away rooms and doors and windows and the quality of the materials with which we are building His house. All of that is meticulously specified in our contract with the Builder with whom we have contracted to build Him a house.

1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Our “spiritual sacrifices” are our attentiveness to our Lord’s words and the zeal we have in being faithful to His doctrines and His Words. Those are the quality materials He has ordered for the construction of His temple.

He has ordered “stones” for His walls, and we have taken it upon ourselves to build His house with “bricks for stone”. He has ordered the highest quality mortar, and we have substituted “slime… for morter”:

Gen 11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

Those are the materials with which we have built our own ‘tower of Babel’, and they are fitting types of all the false doctrines with which we first attempt to build a house for our God.

The New Testament consistently reveals that we are that ‘house’, and that the Lord dwells in us as His temple:

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

The only temple in which Christ dwells is one in which His mind and His thoughts and His doctrines dwell. If we believe false, lying doctrines then He is not going to live within us. Being purged of false doctrines is a process that takes time, and Christ will “bear with the weak” babes who are simply not yet able to consume the strong meat of His doctrines, but He will not ‘bear with’ a mind that is ‘enmity against God’ and is rebelling against His Words, nor will He bear with a mind which cannot be entreated. When Christ is truly dealing with us and dragging us to Himself, He makes us “easy to be intreated” by His Words:

Jas 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

On the other hand, if we are “filled with bitter envying and strife” then we certainly cannot claim to be “endued with [Godly] knowledge:

Jas 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Jas 3:14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

When such non-entreatable men tell us: “You must believe what we are saying”, while ignoring all the scriptures which command us to seek “a multitude of counselors” (Pro 11:14; 15:22; and 24:6) and “be persuaded of your leaders and be deferring to them” (Heb 13:17 CLV), those who know the True Shepherd’s voice will very soon discern that spirit and “will not follow… a stranger”:

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

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

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

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

Joh 10:5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

"A graven image" is a false God. A false God is false because everything he stands for and teaches is a lie or has been tainted by lies.

Satan was made to be a very accomplished deceiver and to lie to all men. Neither Adam nor Satan experienced a ‘fall’ to become what they are. Rather, by the mouth of our Lord Himself, Adam was flesh and blood, which was never meant to inherit the kingdom of God and Satan is what He was “from the beginning”. Satan did not ‘fall from heaven’ to become Satan. Satan was and is in our heavens from birth just as “that old serpent the devil” was in the garden of Eden “from the beginning”.

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

It was the Lord Himself who created him as such simply because His plan called for an adversary, so He made Himself an adversary.

Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Lest we miss the point that the Lord’s “hand has formed the crooked serpent”, the Lord also poses this question:

Ecc 7:13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

The first and and most enduring lie of the “crooked serpent” was and is "You shall not surely die". As with many lies, this lie is mixed in with the Truth "You will become as Gods, knowing good and evil".

Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: [The most enduring lie of all time]
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. [True! Verse 22: "The man is become as one of us, to know good and evil..." ]
Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Truth mixed with a lie makes the entire conversation a lie, and "the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water [is] taken away” and replaced with idols of our hearts.

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

According to the holy spirit, that first sin embodied all the sin that is in the world:

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh [the tree was “good for food”], and the lust of the eyes [it was “pleasant to the eyes”], and the pride of life [“a tree to be desired to make one wise], is not of the Father, but is of the world.

When Adam and Eve first disobeyed their Lord, they committed the first act of idolatry by placing the words of the serpent above the words of the Lord.

Now let’s continue to see how the idols of our hearts subject us to the same act of idolatry and the same fruit of that sin:

Isa 44:15  Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
Isa 44:16  He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:
Isa 44:17  And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

These words are a perfect description of how we plant, nourish, and manufacture our own doctrines with no fear of adding to or taking away from the truths of the Word of God:

Deu 12:32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

At first we have no fear in either adding to or taking away from the Lord’s Words. We have all believed many lies such as, “You shall not surely die…”, "Why, you are made in God’s image, and you are already endued with an immortal soul which cannot die’." It is a lie, but we are given over to believing a lie, and in so doing, we are both adding to and taking away from the words of our Lord.

Isa 44:18 They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

As we all know, the “He” here is not referring to the Devil who is Satan. It is referring to God Himself, whose plan and design, from the beginning, requires that we are first “marred in the Potter’s hands” (Jer 18:4). The scriptures consistently teach:

Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

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

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

When we are given by God “eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, then this is how we react to the Lord’s counselors and His teachers and the leaders He gives us:

Isa 44:19  And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?

Earlier we were told that this is all speaking of the work of our own hands, meaning our own minds and hearts. This entire chapter is all about how we construct our own idols of our own hearts. We plant these lies and false doctrines. Then we nourish and refine them and then we harvest them and manufacture our hearts idols. In this deceived state everything that happens confirms to us that our heart’s idols are truly our God, because we are told that God will ‘answer him that comes to the prophet with his idols of his heart’ “according to the multitude of those idols”. They are multitudinous and so are the Lord’s answers to such men.

Just look at these words:

Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, [Isa 44:16]
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

Let’s take the time to look at what we were told earlier in this same study:

Isa 44:14 He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.
Isa 44:15 Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
Isa 44:16 He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: [Rev 13:13]
Isa 44:17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.
Isa 44:18 They have not known nor understood: for he [the Lord Himself] hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

We have all lived out every one of these words. We have all been full of our own “idols of the heart”, and we have truly seen and are experiencing, “the fire” which is the word of God (Jer 5:14). These words apply to “every man [and they apply to] every man’s works”:

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.

This truth concerning this certain fire, which is the word of God, is repeated in the book of Revelation:

Rev 15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
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.

These seven last plagues “fill up the wrath of God… against all… unrighteousness of men” including, and especially all the “idols of [our] hearts”.

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

I say ‘especially the idols of our hearts’ because it is evident that while the Lord disapproved of the adultery of the woman brought to Him, and He even told her “Go and sin no more”, His real ire was reserved for the self-righteous religious old man within us who dragged that poor blatant sinner before Him to be stoned, while being completely unaware of our own far more insidious spiritual adultery and hypocrisy and spiritual nakedness and idols of our hearts, which have us looking down on those who our flesh deems as spiritually worse sinners than ourselves. These words are addressed to “He that has and ear let Him hear…”

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

“The Lord dwells in the heavens” in which all of these things are taking place:

Psa 123:1 A Song of degrees. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

“The heavens themselves” are our hearts and our minds into which He has entered to cleanse and to purify for Himself a house fit for His dwelling:

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

Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens [the physical temple in Jerusalem] should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves [our hearts and minds] with better sacrifices than these. [Calves and goats - vs 19]
Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands [the literal, physical], which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself [our defiled hearts and minds], now to appear in the presence of God for us:

The Lord’s plan requires that some of those who are chosen and who are anointed of God to be “enlightened… taste of the heavenly gift… be made partakers of the holy spirit… taste the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come” and the outward and inward nature of that age and that kingdom, will “return to [their] vomit and [their] wallow in the mire” from which they were delivered:

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.

2Pe 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
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.

These words are the answer to the question Peter poses in his first epistle concerning those whose judgment is not completed “in this present time” (Rom 8:18).

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

1Peter 2:21-22 is where they will appear. They will appear with those who return to their vomit and their wallow in the mire at the time of the great white throne judgment, the resurrection of judgment (Joh 5:28-29), the resurrection of the cursed (Mat 25: 41), the lake of fire, which is the second death (Rev 20:15), and indeed “it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness” and the way to avoid leaving the body of Christ, than to have known these truths and then rejected them for their own pride and the idols of their hearts.

We have all sinned willfully, and we have all returned to our vomit and to our wallow in the mire, and we have still been brought to repentance because:

Mat 19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Mat 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
Mat 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

“The eye of a needle” is not a gate in Jerusalem which, if a camel gets on its knees it can go through that gate. If that were the case, then it would not be impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. However, it is indeed “impossible” for men to restore to repentance those whose hearts the Lord has hardened, and it is “impossible… to make straight that which the Lord has made crooked”:

The Lord has written into His book “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9 and Tit 1:2) that some will taste the heavenly gift, partake of the holy spirit, know the power of the age to come in this present time and still reject Him and His doctrine and be cast into the lake of fire. He has already made that decision as to whom will be those so cursed. We are all “marred [and] made crooked” in this present time, but some are given by the Lord’s hand and foreknowledge to do what is impossible for men and to repent in this present time. Our crooked ways are His work just as much as our repentance and obedience:

Lam 3:9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

And when He makes our ways crooked, then it is true that we plant, nurture and work very hard at manufacturing our own doctrines in complete rebellion against the doctrines of our Lord:

Isa 44:20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

So it has all been predetermined, and the best thing we can do is to follow the Lord’s instructions which He gives us right after posing the question, “If the righteous scarcely be saved where then shall the ungodly and sinner appear?"

1Pe 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

That is our study on how the Lord deals with the idols of our hearts. Here are our verses for our next study in which we are again encouraged to “commit the keeping of [our] souls to Him in well doing [because He is] a faithful Creator” who loves all of His creatures.

Isa 44:21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.
Isa 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
Isa 44:23 Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
Isa 44:24 Thus saith the LORD , thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
Isa 44:25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;
Isa 44:26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:
Isa 44:27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
Isa 44:28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.