The Spiritual Significance of Numbers in Scripture – Number 5

Grace Through Faith

[Study Aired January 11, 2025]

Beginning in Genesis the number five is connected to grace through faith. It was through faith that Joseph waited for his dreams to be fulfilled, and when they were he showed great favor to his full brother by the same mother, Benjamin:

Gen 45:22  To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

Signifying the fruits of the work of grace, Joseph presented five of his brothers to Pharaoh:

Gen 47:2  And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

Those five brothers in this story signify Christ presenting those His Father has given Him to His Father.

Signifying the grace and mercy we have been given and which we, as “the temple of God”, will in time extend to the whole world (Rom 11:30-32), nearly every measurement of the temple was a multiple of five.

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.

There were three entrances to the tabernacle. Three signifies the process of us as we are being judged. The first part was the gate of the court which was twenty cubits wide and five cubits high hung upon four pillars:

Exo 27:16  And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.

Exo 38:18  And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.

The second was the door of the tabernacle:

Exo 26:36  And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.
Exo 26:37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

The length of the court of the tabernacle was a hundred cubits:

Exo 27:9 And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits [5×20] long for one side:

The width (breadth) of the court was fifty cubits:

Exo 27:12 And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits [5×10]: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten [5×2].

The measurements of the wings of the cherubim are “five cubits”:

1Ki 6:24 And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.

2Ch 3:12 And one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was five cubits also, joining to the wing of the other cherub.

The height of the chapiters placed on the tops of the pillars before Solomon’s temple were five cubits each:

1Ki 7:16 And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:

The lavers in which the Levites washed themselves and the offerings were ten in total with five on either side of the temple:

1Ki 7:38  Then made he ten lavers of brass: one laver contained forty baths [5 times 8]: and every laver was four cubits: and upon every one of the ten bases one laver.
1Ki 7:39 And he put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over against the south.

The candlesticks “before the oracle” were five on the right and five on the left:

1Ki 7:49 And the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold,

The implements of the temple were in fives:

2Ch 4:6 He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they [the Levites who were not priests] washed in them; but the sea was for the priests [only] to wash in. [‘We have a sea as well as an altar, in which they that serve the tabernacle have no right to wash.]

Heb 13:10  We have an altar [the golden altar of incense within the first holy place], whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

The candlesticks which give light to all who are within the temple of God are in multiples of five:

2Ch 4:7 And he made ten candlesticks of gold according to their form, and set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.

The tables at which the priests within the temple dined and the basins out of which they were fed were in multiples of the number five:

2Ch 4:8 He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred basons of gold.

The measurements of the “molten sea”, used only for the cleansing of the priests, signifying the cleansing of all those “who first trusted in Christ” (Eph 1:11-12; Rev 15:2), were all multiples of five:

1Ki 7:23  And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits [5×6] did compass it round about.

While this molten sea was literally filled with water for the cleansing of the priests, that same ‘molten sea’ becomes ‘a sea of glass mingled with fire’ in Revelation 15:

Rev 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had [by grace through faith… first] 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.

Both water and fire cleanse us, but the fire follows the water:

Num 31:23  Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

This all relates to the Lord’s “nation of kings and priests… who first trusted in Christ [who] will rule with Him a thousand years.” It will be “though [our] mercy they [the rest of the world] shall receive mercy” (Rom 11:30-31).

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

What we are being told is that “Ye are the temple of God” and “by grace are ye saved through faith.” The ‘mingled with fire’ is the chastening work of grace experienced by “every son He receives” (Heb 12:6).  The grace of God chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live Godly lives in this present age (Tit 2:11-12). That chastening grace is the significance of the number five.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world [G165: ‘aion’, age];

Understanding what grace does gives us a much deeper understanding of what this verse is saying:

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, [chastening] grace did much more abound:

We are self-righteous stubborn sinners, but God’s chastening overcomes us.

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.

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

That is the positive significance of the number 5. It is only “by [chastening] grace… through faith” that anyone comes to Christ, and both the grace and the faith are a gift from God.

What we are told is that the whole world is God’s “offspring” and that He will not lose a single soul:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

These are Paul’s words to the pagan Athenians:

Act 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
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.

All men of all time will be saved “by grace… through faith”:

Gal 2:11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. [hypocrisy]
Gal 2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before [them] all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Gal 2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

The wise and foolish virgins were five each:

Mat 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

The five foolish virgins are a negative application of the number five.

The holy anointing oil was of five parts, four spices and “and a hin of olive oil.” The four spices were measured in shekels which were divisible by five:

Exo 30:22 Moreover the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 30:23 Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred  shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much,  even two hundred and fifty  shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels,
Exo 30:24 And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin:
Exo 30:25 And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

The title ‘Christ’ (G5547) means ‘anointed.’ Christ was His Father’s anointed, meaning He had been given His Father’s spirit without measure:

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

It was “the spirit [without] measure” that kept Christ from ever sinning. We have been “sealed with the holy spirit of promise”:

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
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,

We have been given an “unction of the spirit” which gives us the ability to discern those who are “not… of us”, but Christ alone is referred to when we are told that ‘God gave not His spirit by measure unto Him’.

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.
1Jn 2:20  But ye have an unction [G5545: ‘krismah’, anointed] from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

This word translated as ‘unction’ here in 1 John 2:20 appears only three times in the New Testament, and the other two times are in verse 27 of this same chapter where it is twice translated as ‘anointing.’

1Jn 2:27  But the anointing [G5545: ‘krismah’] which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing [G5545: ‘krismah’] teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

The Lord’s spirit is signified by ‘the holy anointing oil.’

The incense was of five parts, the fifth being salt, translated as “tempered together.”

Exo 30:34 And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, [1] stacte, and [2] onycha, and [3] galbanum; these sweet spices with [4] pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight:
Exo 30:35 And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, [5 – salt] tempered together [Heb: salt- malach-4414], pure and holy:
Exo 30:36 And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.
Exo 30:37 And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the LORD.
Exo 30:38 Whosoever shall make like unto that [another Jesus], to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people.

David’s faith is signified by the “five smooth stones” which he “took out of the brook”, and he put them in his shepherd’s bag:

1Sa 17:38  And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.
1Sa 17:39  And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
1Sa 17:40  And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
1Sa 17:41  And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him.

The smoothness of the five stones signifies the trial of our faith by God’s chastening grace and the “washing of water by the Word”:

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

We are lacking five things at the time the Lord chooses us as his wife:

Eze 16:4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born [1] thy navel was not cut, [2] neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; [3] thou wast not salted [4414: malach] at all, [4] nor swaddled at all.
Eze 16:5 [5] None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. [The day we first come to Christ, while still in Babylon]

The children of Israel came out of Egypt “harnessed” which the CLV translates as “in five sections.”

Exo 13:18  But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed [H2571: ‘chomesh’] out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 13:18  Hence Elohim caused the people to turn about by the wilderness road of the Sea of Weeds. Deployed in five sections, the sons of Israel ascended from the land of Egypt. (CLV)

Some of the literal versions translate this Hebrew word H2571 ‘chomesh’ as “in the fifth generation” (ABP; CAB).

The ERR and the ECB both say ‘in ranks of five” for the word ‘chomesh’.

Exo 13:18  But God led Elohim turned the people about around , through the way of the wilderness of the Red Reed sea: and the children sons of Israel Yisra El went up harnessed ascended in ranks of five out of the land of Egypt Misrayim . (ERR)

Exo 13:18  and Elohim turns the people around, through the way of the wilderness of the Reed sea: and the sons of Yisra El ascend in ranks of five from the land of Misrayim. (ECB)

The stone cut out of the mountain without hands became a kingdom that destroyed and replaced the fifth kingdom of iron mixed with clay to become a new fifth kingdom which filled the whole earth:

Dan 2:32  This image’s [1] head was of fine gold, his [2] breast and his arms of silver, his [3] belly and his thighs of brass,
Dan 2:33  [4] His legs of iron, [5] his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

These five kingdoms of men signify the object of Christ’s grace which is working with His elect in this age, and will come to all “in Adam” at the great white throne. The significance of the number five is the grace and faith which the Lord has gifted to those “whom He wills.”

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

Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

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

Psa 65:4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [ that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

God’s temple is covered with the number five. The anointing oil is all measured in increments of five, and the components in the incense are described in multiples of five. We are the Lord’s temple, where the Lord dwells.

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 anointing oil separates to the Lord that which must be separated to Him. Nothing else can do so.

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

The sweet smelling incense keeps the Lord’s people connected to their heavenly Father through our prayers and supplications with gratitude:

Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

The Lord is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”, and we will do well to “declare His works with rejoicing.”

Proverbs 3:1-12 – For Whom The Lord Loves

[Study Aired Nov 14, 2024]

Proverb’s chapter one reminds us that Christ is our wisdom (1Co 1:27-31, Pro 1:1-7) and that there is an order to how God gives the body of Christ that wisdom through the church being guided by our head Jesus Christ.

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence. 
1Co 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 
1Co 1:31  That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

1Co 2:3  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 
1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

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

Chapter two makes it clear that there must be a strong desire and ongoing resolve in the heart of the believer to continue to abide in the truth as we pursue after wisdom whose value is greater than anything we can compare her to in the earth, “Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” and, “Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path“.

Pro 2:1  My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 
Pro 2:2  So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; 
Pro 2:3  Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; 
Pro 2:4  If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 
Pro 2:5  Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. 
Pro 2:6  For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 
Pro 2:7  He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. 
Pro 2:8  He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. 
Pro 2:9  Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

A main theme being  brought out in chapter three is how we are to pursue wisdom in order to learn the benefit and blessing that will result in the lives of those who continue to cleave unto Christ who is our wisdom (1Co 1:30).

The reward for God’s elect who are blessed in this age to be dragged to Christ (Joh 6:44) is to learn of the mind of him who is the way, the truth and the life (Joh 14:6, 1Co 2:16) to ultimately be in that blessed and holy first resurrection, which is what this 35th verse points to, “The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools” (Pro 3:35, 2Co 3:18, Rom 2:7).

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

Rom 2:7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 

Pro 3:1  My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: 
Pro 3:2  For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. 

We can all learn the law of God and then forget it, or hear it and not be a doer of it (Jas 1:22-25), also not benefitting us in any way; but to the one who is granted to have a heart that keeps God’s commandments and continue in them (Joh 8:31-32) as doers of the word, he shall find “length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee“. The promise of “length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee” refers to the life of Christ within us who is our length of days (“you have the words of eternal life“(Joh 6:68)), our life (Joh 14:6), and the one who gives us peace that passes all understanding as we are justified through the ongoing relationship that we have with Him and His body (Php 4:7, 1Jn 1:7, Eph 5:8).

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. 
Jas 3:15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 
Jas 3:16  For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 
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. 
Jas 3:18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.  

Eph 5:8  For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 

Pro 3:3  Let not mercy (Mic 6:8) and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 
Pro 3:4  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 

The next time we see the expression “bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart“ is in (Pro 6:20-21), which is in the midst of these verses, (Pro 6:16-19), that talk about the six things that God hates and the seventh which is an abomination unto Him, and can only be replaced by mercy and truth being formed in the inner man (Eph 3:16).

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? 

Pro 6:20  My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 
Pro 6:21  Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. 

Pro 6:16  These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 
Pro 6:17 1 A proud look, 2 a lying tongue, and 3 hands that shed innocent blood, 
Pro 6:18  4 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, 5 feet that be swift in running to mischief, 
Pro 6:19  6 A false witness that speaketh lies, and 7 he that soweth discord among brethren. 

Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 

We will find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man when we don’t forsake mercy or truth by continually binding them upon the table of our heart. Binding mercy and truth is what happens when we “keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother”(Pro 6:20, 1Jn 5:2).

None of this would be possible unless we were bound to the altar which is the cross (Psa 118:27-29), so we are being admonished in these sections of proverbs (Pro 3:3, Pro 6:21) to recognize who we are (1Co 3:16-17) and to understand that as that temple of God there is an ongoing cleansing work that is unfolding for God’s children, that Christ is performing within us (Php 2:12-13).

Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. 
Psa 118:28  Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee. 
Psa 118:29  O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 

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. 

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

Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 
Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 
Pro 3:8  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. 

The way that we are going to “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” is by putting off our flesh which can only happen through judgement (1Pe 4:17). It is then that we can acknowledge God in all our ways so that he can direct our steps. Our thoughts are brought into subjection unto God through Christ’s judgement in our heavens (2Co 10:5, 2Co 1:9). Then the action of our being led by the spirit of God will follow, bearing witness that we are His children (Rom 8:14-15). We are either going to acknowledge God so that he can direct our paths, or be wise in our own eyes and not depart from evil, and it will be by God’s chastening grace that His elect sons and daughters will go in a direction that our flesh does not want to go, a way that is precious unto God because it tries our faith and puts to death our old man (Heb 12:6, Joh 21:18, Psa 116:15).

2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 

2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

Joh 21:18  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 

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

Psa 116:15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

The rich reward of being led by God’s spirit shall be spiritual health, spoken of in these terms, “health to thy navel” and “marrow to thy bones“, meaning the center of our spiritual strength, typified by our physical core, as it’s called in modern terminology, as well as the core of our bones that needs to be healthy which is where the marrow is formed that is used to produce the blood cells for the body. That healthy production of blood represents our being in the word and nourished together as a many-membered body of Christ, each joint supplying in love and not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together (Heb 10:25) believing in the spiritual nourishment that God will provide for those who abide in the midst of ‘Jerusalem above the mother of us all’ (Luk 24:49), the spiritual umbilical cord for the manchild that we are (Gal 4:26, Rev 12:5).

Pro 3:9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 
Pro 3:10  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

Everything we have belongs to God and as God’s firstfruits we present our lives as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2) which is how we “Honour the LORD with thy substance“, acknowledging that He is the one who gives us the power to plant and water, as well as give us “all thine increase” (1Co 3:7-8).

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. 

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 
1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 

Our barns being filled “with plenty“, and our presses that “burst out with new wine” symbolize the treasure laid up in earthen vessels that God gives us through Christ (2Co 4:7, Col 1:27, Mat 6:19-21) as we present all our lives a living sacrifice, so we can lay up store in His garners (Mal 3:6-12).

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

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 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: 
Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 
Mal 3:7  Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 
Mal 3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 
Mal 3:9  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 
Mal 3:10  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse [“Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase“], that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven (Mat 6:19-21), and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 
Mal 3:11  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field [“So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine“], saith the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 3:12  And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. 

Pro 3:11  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: 
Pro 3:12  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. 

These last two verses we are looking at tonight explain what must occur in the lives of God’s elect in order to bring forth fruit, and again it is centered around the loving hand of our spiritual Father who receives His children through grace that chastens us, teaching us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lust in this age (Tit 2:11-13) so that we can lay up treasure in heaven (Heb 12:5-10).

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

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: [“My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction“]
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth [“For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth“]. 
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?[Pro 24:10] 
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 
Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?(Rom 8:18-19, 2Co 4:17-18, 1Co 10:13) 
Heb 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 

2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 
2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

The Book of Hosea – Part 12, Hos 12 and 13

[Study Aired June 29, 2024]

The final three chapters of Hosea conclude a captivating narrative of Ephraim’s physical journey, mirroring the spiritual journey of the Bride of Christ throughout the entire Book of Hosea. Just as physical Israel broke their covenant with God, the Bride has also spiritually broken her covenant with her Husband, Christ. Yet, she has been on a parallel though spiritual journey, brimming with the hope of glory (Col 1:27) in Christ and a promise of enduring repentance, salvation, and a divine union with her Lord and King. This journey of spiritual growth in our time and order is a beacon of inspiration and hope for Ephraim and the Bride, a reminder that no matter how far we stray, the hope of glory driven by Christ within finalises with the spiritual man. 

In this study, we will only review Chapters 12 and 13. Next week, God willing, we will discuss the somewhat hidden conclusion of the saga, which points to salvation. Chapter 14 vaguely hints at salvation as Ephraim is continually charged for her sins until the last verse of Hosea indicates salvation.

The book of Hosea presents four distinct elementary stages of Israel’s growth, each with profound spiritual significance. These stages, which may be more than coincidental, are spiritually significant. It’s worth noting that the books of the Bible were not originally and individually divided into chapters and verses. 

• The first of the 4 identifiable elements, meaning ‘the whole tribulation’ (Number 4) for Israel and the subsequent Bride’s growth, is in the first 11 chapters of Hosea, with that number foreshadowing the temporary ‘ruin and disintegration of the perfection of the flesh’, the “perdition” of man (Rev 17:11).
• Israel and the Bride’s second element is in Chapter 12 (10 primary Babylonian tribes + 2 priestly tribes, Benjamin and Joseph), which identifies the twelve tribes of Israel as ‘foundational’ (number 12) for the beginning of the Bride’s future spiritual creation.
• The third component of the book presents Israel’s deliberately designed and disastrous’ physical progression’ in the works of her flesh. This is followed by the Bride’s ‘spiritual progression’ to come into Christ, her inheritance. The number 13 of chapter 13 signifies ‘rebellion’, which is precisely what the Bride initially mirrors with Israel in the ‘progressive’ early stages of her creation.
• The final chapter of Hosea, 14 partitioned as 10 and 4, portrays the ‘completeness’ (10) and ‘spiritual progression’ (4) of her creation, which, in like notability, continues in the remaining eleven books of the ‘Minor Prophets’, concluding in Malachi, the twelfth book to form the ‘foundation’ (12), the beginning of the creation of her continuing the ‘progression’ of her and the world onward to the Last Great Day, the Lake of Fire, and the salvation of all. 

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

In the remaining three books, Hosea depicts the old Israel mirroring the Bride’s journey toward spiritual perfection. The sequence begins with the rejection of God’s Covenant in favour of physical wealth and sensual pleasures, as shown in Hosea 12. This leads to judgment in chapter 13 and offers a thrilling hope for repentance in chapter 14.

Exposé Significations:

Hosea 12:1-14

Hos 12:1  Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

What immediately springs to mind upon Ephraim feeding on the wind is Solomon’s dismal conclusions upon exhausting every possible sensual avenue for his pleasure. In speaking on the Lord’s behalf regarding man’s breathless search for wealth and pleasure, Solomon says,

Ecc 1:12  I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 
Ecc 1:13  And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
Ecc 1:14  I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Our pursuit of sensualities is making a covenant with the sins of Egypt, which collectively represent Sodom, Old Jerusalem, and Babylon. The Bride refuses those temporary delicacies by refusing to be a son of Satan.

Heb 11:23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. 
Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 
Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

The following verses, indicative of all scripture, and particularly for the Book of Hosea, remind us of breaking our marriage covenant with Christ, our husband.

The Lord’s Indictment of Israel and Judah

Hos 12:2  The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

Today, the English translation of “recompense” includes compensation, indemnity, restitution, requital, and similar terms. However, for Jacob, representing Israel and the Bride, it has a twofold meaning: first, negatively, to “return; to turn back; apostatise,” and second, to plead with the Bride to repent and “again” (215 times) return to her Lord and, for us, spiritually able because of the holy spirit.

Act 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the holy ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth [primarily within!].

Hos 12:3  He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: 
Hos 12:4  Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; 
Hos 12:5  Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial. 
Hos 12:6  Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. 
Hos 12:7  He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. 

Indeed, those verses indict Jacob since he represents old Israel and all who profess Christ’s name in Babylon, the world today and present works “by his [their sweat and] strength” contest God. By the Lord’s design, Jacob pulled a tricky supplanting manoeuvre (To supplant, circumvent, take by the heel) on his brother Esau before he was born! (Gen 25:19-28) That is outwardly carried forward through the history of the West, in particular, and their lust for wealth and power.

Ephraim and Jacob outwardly today, and for the most part, represent current Zionism and are still ‘supplanting’ other nations with destructive wars by his authoritarian strength for insatiable wealth and lordship. With tears, the pseudo-spiritual Ephraim claims Christ’s name, and the Lord strove with him for a season when relative righteousness was evident, but now he is a merchant of deceit with his putrid name going before him throughout the world today because of his love of lies and oppression. Jacob, represented as Ephraim and Babylon, ‘loves to oppress’ with deception in catching his neighbour and brothers by their heels. The ten horns of and on the Beast of humanity is fast waking up to ‘whore’ Jacob’s treachery and is prophesied to destroy ‘her’ with fire (Rev 17). 

Jer 9:3  And they [Ephraim /Babylon] bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. 
Jer 9:4  Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
Jer 9:5  And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

In the meantime, for our spiritual understanding, Jacob outwardly in the world rests in his decaying physical wealth, witless of his worse spiritual plight. It is only because of our Lord’s choosing that we see Jacob as our former selves, as all the seven churches of Asia, and poignantly as Laodiceans pre-empting our judgment.

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

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 
Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
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. 
Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 
Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the [Seven] churches.

Hos 12:8  And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin. 

Everyone, past, present and future, will see Jacob’s filth having flowed out of Babylon yet will remain humiliated and mute since they, too, will see that they are the Beast, the man of perdition. Nonetheless, the world will likewise see the remnant of Jacob, representing the Lord’s “little flock” (Luke 12:32-34. Paradoxically and figuratively, 144,000, veiled, that nobody could number since the world doesn’t know who they are) who have and are today coming out of Babylon and “returning” to rebuild by Christ’s might, the walls of the New Heavenly Jerusalem within. Hence, ‘they will find no sin within her’. (See the link and nearby studies regarding the 144,000 here: Rev 7:9-17 The 144,000

Hos 12:9  And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

That “solemn feast” day represents three holy convocations in the seventh month of Abib. The first represents the Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:23-25) and its grand calling to assembly first for the Elect of God in their time and order, on each ‘feast’ occasion, and following is the world. The Day of Atonement (Lev 23:26-32) is the second holy convocation for the Elect of God to recognise that they, too, in Christ’s likeness, are in preparation today in readiness to save their brothers and sisters, heralding the third ‘feast day’, the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:33-44) and the separate yet connected Last Great Day.

However, Jacob, like us, remains in these fleshy “booths” or “tabernacles” of corruptible flesh for the time being. The only difference is that Christ’s Bride is in the process of being created, hidden in Christ’s spirit and emulating Him.

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

1Pe 3:22  Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 

Hos 12:10  I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets. 
Hos 12:11  Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields. 
Hos 12:12  And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 

Just as Jacob served twice his hire (2×7 years) to Laban for his wife, Rachel, Israel likewise first served in the wilderness and spiritually for the Bride, witnessing twice the completion of the process (in the number 7). Today, she is figuratively preparing to keep Jacob’s sheep of the world as her second figurative 7-year hire for reward.

Hos 12:13  And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved. 
Hos 12:14  Ephraim provoked him [Christ] to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. 

Of course, Christ is the only sacrifice whose blood profoundly qualifies scorn upon the corruptible flesh of man that assuredly will not return to Christ void, first by his Elect’s death to the flesh and the pleasures of Egypt and Babylon, and secondarily the world’s.

This concludes Jacob mirrored by the Bride and the first of three predictable events by her whorish stubbornness in maintaining her own righteousness.

Now, in Hosea chapter 13, we will study the broad second of the sequence of events.

Hosea 13:1-16

The Lord’s Relentless Judgment on Israel

Interestingly, at the beginning of this study, the number 13 represents “rebellion” that unerringly brings judgment upon Israel and, today, the Bride. Our Lord parallels rebellion with witchcraft, which is the practice of sorcery in twisting Christ’s commands to make them more palatable to the flesh.

1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou [Saul, representing us] hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Exo 22:18  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. 

Of course, upon the opening verse of Hosea 13, Israel in the flesh is condemned to death, and for the Bride, it represents the death of all sins spiritually.

Hos 13:1  When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

When we first come to Christ, we are filled with passion to follow His every word and act righteously, diligently. This enthusiasm is symbolised by Israel’s ‘trembling’ at His word. However, when our Lord does not always immediately punish sin, we, like Israel, are emboldened to relax and subliminally think that Christ has overlooked the sin. Exalted, we go on to “sin more and more” and forget our Lord’s commands. Yet, in God’s timing, judgment is ‘relentless’ (Heb 12:23, Rev 19:11).

Hos 13:2  And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen [witchcraft]: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

The act of kissing anyone denotes accord with that person, and in Israel’s and our case, the belief in our own righteousness, the idol of our hearts. Dying to Christ’s commands is life, but following the crowds of Babylon and her multitudes of idol worship is dung. Just as chaff blows away in the wind, and dung returns to the dust of the earth, so, too, does our self-righteousnesses.

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

Hos 13:3  Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
Hos 13:4  Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
Hos 13:5  I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

Typified by Israel when times are tough, we, decreasingly depicted as ‘the Great Whore’, cry out to God to deliver us from our drought of spiritual understanding. Subsequently, it is wise for us, while it is yet “today” that we seek our Lord with all our heart and mind. In speaking of our former whoreish ways,

Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her [The Great Whore; Babylon the Great] plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. 
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 

Heb 3:13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 
Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Heb 3:15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 

Hos 13:6  According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
Hos 13:7  Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: [The Lord doesn’t immediately always chastise us, but stalks us like a lion or leopard]
Hos 13:8  I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul [Chest cavity ripped open] of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
Hos 13:9  O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
Hos 13:10  I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

Verses 6-9 represent all people, regardless of their ethnicity, when they are living prosperous lives free from physical and financial suffering. We eagerly anticipate enjoying the fruits of our labour, forgetting that we are created by the Lord for the destruction of the flesh and that our judgment and salvation in His time and order are guaranteed. Our Lord, lying hidden ‘by the way’, observes and controls all of our thoughts and actions from His spirit realm. Endlessly typified by Israel satiating herself luxuriously before chastisement, we, too, as chastised children, look to our parents, the Father and Christ, for ‘help’ in comfort and righteous living. 

Psa 84:11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 

Verse 10 reminds us of Peter’s solemn reflection when he and the other disciples anxiously mulled the drinking of their Lord’s symbolised blood and eating his body, he says in verse 68 of John 6, beginning in verse 66…

Joh 6:66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 
Joh 6:67  Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 
Joh 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 
Joh 6:69  And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

Isa 46:9  Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 
Isa 46:10  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: 
Isa 46:11  Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. 

Hos 13:11  I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

Of course, no more distinguished “King” is there who was taken away in purposeful “wrath” at the cross than Christ, yet He does come again to His chosen “little flock” whose ‘hidden sins’ are gloriously exposed for her eyes alone to see spiritually in the New Covenant. Meantime, old Israel is alive and well depicted as Babylon and the world dances in their strong delusions that their sins are forgiven without chastisement and acknowledgement since Christ allegedly paid for them on the cross. Hence…

Hos 13:12  The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

…nonetheless, judgment will come swiftly in the Resurrection to Judgment, the Lake of Fire, as it comes upon a labouring woman.

Hos 13:13  The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
Hos 13:14  I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

The Lord is the plagues upon Ephraim in the flesh; he only sees the outward plagues; however, those same plagues spiritually to the New Man in Christ he sees most brightly through signification. The entire Bible is hidden in profoundly deep parables and significations, particularly in the books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelations, and are given only for the Bride’s accelerating understanding in these latter days.

Rev 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified [Meaning: 1. to give a sign, to signify, indicate. 2. to make known] it by his angel [Christ to his Christs, the Lord’s Elect] unto his servant John: 
Rev 1:2  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. 

The terms “signify, signified, signifying” are not easily equated with the more broad application and use of the term “manifest,” yet they mostly have the same meaning for the Bride’s profound understanding. Following are some examples:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Since Ephraim represents the Bride of Christ, nothing will be “hidden” from her understanding.

Luk 8:17  For [The Bride alone…] nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. 

Rom 16:25  Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 
Rom 16:26  But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations [Within, and to the world in its own time and order] for the obedience of faith: 

Rev 15:4  Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? [Only the Bride] for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come [In their time and order] and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

Hos 13:15  Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
Hos 13:16  Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

Jer 51:1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon [in this case, Ephraim leading us into Babylon], and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

Eph 4:14  so that we no longer may be infants, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the dishonesty of men, in cunning craftiness, to the wiles of deceit.

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

Since the wind represents the personage of either Satan’s or God’s spirit, the first to come from the east is Satan’s spirit driven by God to dry up Ephraim’s wealth stored in the “great house”, her people represented as physical vessels. Her juvenile self-styled doctrines are depicted as pregnant women, Babylon’s harlot churches being prophetically dashed to pieces. The conclusion of all matters and coming from behind in Christ, the spirit of God in the Father. Positively, His spirit also comes from the dawning east to blow spiritual growth upon the equivalent ‘little house’ (“Little Flock – Luke 12:32-34), of God’s heavenly vessels, His Elect.

2Ti 2:20  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. 

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Hosea 13:15-16 broadly, yet subtly depicts the progression of any sin and is represented in 1 John 2:15-17 and our “love for the world”, and results in our judgment hopefully of and by ourselves before our Lord Himself needs to step in and outwardly judge us for our more humiliating inward spiritual judgment. 

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The most insidious sin in the progression to the greater sin is pride, which begins with the fleshy mind dwelling upon what the eyes unavoidably transmit. Upon not hearing the Lord’s paradoxical, still small voice of his trumpet blast to ‘resist the Devil’s’ amplified lust, we “excuse” (Rom 2:15) ourselves of the sin as classically did Adam and Eve, and our consciences make us “hide”. Therein the hiding lies the malignant act of “pride” since hiding denotes our fear of having the nakedness of our pride exposed in not acknowledging the sin and, worse, not driving out the giants of our land. The result is malignant pride.

Num 32:23  But if ye will not do so [drive out the giants ~ pride] behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

As the ordinary Christian partially sees and the Bride dynamically performs, the most potent and only form of ‘resisting’ we can attribute to Satan is the act of immediately asking Christ for his strength and him casting out the Devil. 

Ephraim, as does the incipient Bride and dolefully mused by Solomon, loves the sensualities of the world. That love of chasing the flesh is, as Solomon says, ‘labouring for the wind’ (Ecc 5:16) and he knows since he was the master of not denying himself of every conceivable earthy delight.

Ecc 2:10  [Solomon says] And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. 
Ecc 2:11  Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. 

Consummation

Every study a teacher hosts, and by Christ’s hands, he ambitiously builds the Temple that the Bride distinctly IS. Each time, at Christ’s bidding, “when he pleases,” in his chamber, we eagerly respond to receive his kisses of poetically “signified” love.

Rev 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants [The Bride alone] things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 

Son 1:4  Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee. 

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

God forbid we exhibit any whorish resistance common to our former selves to not eagerly and with patience “run the race” (Heb 12:1-3) by classically resenting our Husband’s impassioned and fiery advances. That is precisely what Ephraim portrayed as Gomer did to her husband, Hosea, in chapters one to 11. Chapters 12 and 13, just studied, are Ephraim’s husband’s response to her haughty (Isa 3:16) dismissal of his love, rebounding on her with relentless indictments and judgment (A major theme of scripture and Hosea).

Unwittingly, Ephraim, without the holy spirit and by design, had zero chance of consistently submitting to her Husband’s love. Without the holy spirit, ‘bed-chamber’ passion is flighty and tedious, as is mostly experienced by and individually by both husbands and wives in every carnal marriage, yet identified primarily as a female condition.

Next week, always Lord willing, we will review the last Chapter of Hosea and our Lord’s equally “relentless” love for the ‘World’, and particularly His Bride with His Hosea-like plea to Gomer for us to ravishingly engage Him for what He all along wished His beautiful ‘young wife’ would equally delight in His very essence, His Word (Gen 1:3, Psa 119:5, Mat 5:14-16, Psa 119:30, Eph 5:8, Luk 17:24, Mat 28:3).

[Study Aired April 6, 2024]

The presenter’s studies are designed not only for the Elect of God but also for the greater world and the many called and few chosen whom the Lord chooses to draw to himself. The repeated sub-themes by the teachers may seem repetitive, but they serve a purpose, hopefully dispelling the darkness in everyone’s Babylonian eyes.

Let us not dismiss the Lord’s desire for a deep spiritual connection with His people, likened to a husband’s longing for his vibrant and loving wife. This metaphor, though it may seem repetitive, underscores the intensity of the Lord’s love for His Bride’s creation since Egypt to the present day.

Understanding scripture and the identities of Christ and His Bride are rooted in the principle that the ‘natural precedes the spiritual.’ This theme is profoundly illustrated in Micah chapter 7, where we see a significant pattern: greater Israel’s behavior mirrors the individual Elect’s journey as an experience of evil to become the Bride.

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 

Ecc 1:12  I the Preacher [Solomon in the ‘natural’ representing Christ spiritually] was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 
Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

The sequential pattern of our behavior, which is classically depicted and largely concealed in the book of Micah, begins with destruction. This is followed by a troubling phase where the Lord’s very Priests deceive the nation, leading to ongoing chastisement. The hope of rescue emerges, with a King in the ‘natural’ being born as a Savior. Finally, we find salvation in the hope of the First Resurrection, a concept that is vividly expressed in Micah 7.

Christ is the man to have two wives, one beloved and the other hated. His beloved wife is this very day spiritually coquettishly engaging Him with delightful feminine flirtations that only a woman has the superiorly designed advantage to elegantly arouse her ever-willing Husband, Christ. We do not fully engage our Husband intimately until our wedding day; needless to say, our courting spiritual intimacies are singularly identifiable with marriage. This timeframe before the First Resurrection, although espoused and already considered married, is the engagement period where we Shulamite-like brightly and easily bewitch our Husband with our eager anticipation and engagement in His spiritual arousals – the natural comes before the spiritual – 1Co 15:45-49 (With a righteous wink, remember, no Babylonish eye-rolls…).

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

Son 8:4  I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please [Our marriage, the First Resurrection].

Since HE chose us, our daily naturally inherent flirtations simply by innocently being female spiritually lead to marriage. Only a harlot abuses her once beautiful feminine flirtatious quality specifically designed for ‘one’ man adulterously ~ and exhaustively, the world does!

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

Deu 21:15  If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
Deu 21:16  Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son [the younger] of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:
Deu 21:17  But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

Hate H8752 – 1. to hate, oppose oneself to, bear a grudge, retain animosity against, cherish animosity against. Note: Hate to most people has been expressed in their minds as a particularly vicious and venomous expression and not simply opposition and hostility primarily for this cause a wife’s almost universal decline of physical intimacies reflected spiritually in all men and women as seen in the parable of the sower. Nonetheless, “hate” in these last days will manifest more venomously.

A Rebellious (Hated) Son

Deu 21:18  If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 
Deu 21:19  Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 
Deu 21:20  And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 
Deu 21:21  And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 

Verse 16 of Deuteronomy 21 to an unspiritual eye is dreadfully convoluted. It seems to read that the firstborn is to receive the more significant inheritance over his younger brother, and this is precisely what the Muslim world with violence against Jews and Christians (unwittingly one and the same) is dedicated to believing. Throw into the mix Esau and Jacob’s clashes with Leah and Rachel, and the secular world throws up their hands in confusion to default to simply mutter the ten-second sinner’s prayer and believe that Jesus did it all on the cross for them saved in their sins just as they are.

As the secular world rolls its harlot eyes as we once did, giving up on the preconceived boring nature of spiritual arousal by the prolonged flirtatious research into who are the free woman and the bondwoman. Lord willing, if they prolonged their arousal by genuinely asking Christ for His kisses (Pro 27:6), like the Elect, poetically, they would see a brilliant flash of fingered lightning extending into the clouds of their heavens of understanding. (Of high scientific interest connecting the natural to the spiritual with thunderstorms, a lightning positively charged “leader” (Christ) extends down magnetically to the negatively charged earth, man, and as soon as it touches (a chosen Elect), bam, a lightning flash of spiritual manifests and instantly lights up the multi-forked pattern of neuron connections in his cloudy brain, his heavens, and God speaks as thunder).

“… the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn” is represented by Esau, who abdicated his birthright and afterwards, with bitter tears, tried to re-inherit his status without any hope of success (Gen 25:19-34).

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened [We who know to whom we are espoused], 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.

Only to the Bride of Christ is it given to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Lord consistently in scripture ends His chastisements of His Elect with the glorious hope of being that Bride. So, too, does the final chapter of Micah 7 repeat that most potent theme.

Wait for the God of Salvation

Mic 7:1  Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit.
Mic 7:2  The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. 

That “me” in verse one represents both Christ and His Elect. Jesus in the ‘natural’ is rejected from man’s Babylonian ‘grape harvest’, the rejected “grape-gleanings”, since He represents no comeliness; he looks like Lazarus, ridden with sores and filthy clothes where (ironically, the “little…) dogs” figuratively tend his sores (Luk 16:19-31, Mat 15:21-28) by experiencing the incredible value of crumbs from the Master’s table.

Isa 53:1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 
Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 
Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 
Isa 53:4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 
Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 
Isa 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Christ is that bunch of grapes the hurried pickers quickly see as not worthy of vintage since he physically appears diseased. He, too, is the gleaner of the harvest whose eyes light upon the bright, plump bunches He has tended as the vinedresser as He similarly seeks good figs and not the ‘naughty’ (Jer 23:2).

Pro 3:9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 

2Ti 2:6  The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.

Lev 23:39  Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 

Exo 22:29  Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

In verse 1 of Micah 7, Christ, the barley harvest, desires the “firstripe fruit”, which parallels the little harvest of souls, the Bride of Christ, from the first planted wheat harvest. He demands the first and the best of every kind of fruit and grain harvest, including the firstborn males in Israel, according to the Mosaic Laws. Of course, those first firstfruits paradoxically forfeit their birthright to the younger; nonetheless, our Lord likewise demands the best spiritual fruit from them, his new and younger ‘first fruit’, His Bride.

Exo 11:4  And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
Exo 11:5  And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts [Even Egypt’s firstborn set the pattern and were sacrificed for Israel’s sake].

Exo 13:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 13:2  Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 

Christ as “The [first] good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.” Our Lord, by design from before the foundations of the world and Genesis, begins the creation of a wife who will submit to His headship as did Solomon in his heart create the Shulamite in “the Song of Songs which is Solomon’s”! (Song of Solomon).

However, we know that the firstborn Esau, in his great passion for satiating his physical hunger, forfeited his birthright to his younger twin brother, Jacob and set up the God-ordained pattern consistently through scripture that the elder will always serve the younger. That incredibly important pattern of doctrine resolutely points to Old Israel, the Lord’s first wife, abdicating her inheritance to her younger sister, the new covenant Bride of Christ symbolised by Solomon’s Shulamite.

Gen 25:21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 
Gen 25:22  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. 
Gen 25:23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, [Esau and Jacob] and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people [Jacob] shall be stronger than the other people [Esau]; and the elder shall serve the younger. 

Gen 25:29  And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: 
Gen 25:30  And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. 
Gen 25:31  And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 
Gen 25:32  And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Gen 25:33  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 
Gen 25:34  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright. 

Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 
Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. 

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the [spiritual] firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 

The church of the firstborn is the “firstripe fruit” Christ’s “soul desires” in Micah 7:1 and the first of the firstfruit who is upright among men in verse 2.

In the meantime, Micah summarises his Book in these first few verses of the coming Bride’s experience of evil he is giving mankind and she, and ALL for her sake. She begins as a whore and becomes the faithful city, the Heavenly Jerusalem above. Again, it all is a paradox and parable designed for her alone to understand and for her elder sisters remaining in Babylon to happily live in the unwitting deluded luxury of self-wisdom and ironic confusion of mixed doctrine. (Babylon H894: Phonetic: baw-bel’- Definition: babel or Babylon = confusion (by mixing) 1. Babel or Babylon, the ancient site and/or capital of Babylonia (modern Hillah) situated on the Euphrates)

1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 
1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 
1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Mic 7:3  That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

Doing evil earnestly with both hands is a double witness against us when in Babylon since both hands know precisely what the other is doing as he flaunts his self-righteousness. He thus semi-consciously judges himself, his conscience condemning him ~ but he doesn’t care about the ‘pricking brier’ (verse 4) since the reward of unjust gain is uppermost in his mind.

Mat 6:1  Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 
Mat 6:2  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 
Mat 6:3  But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 
Mat 6:4  That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Mic 7:4  The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. 

Thus, the summary of Micah continues with reflection upon Old Israel’s ways that mirror ours spiritually when our Job-like hedge is taken away when we willfully, by the Lord’s hand, hear the watchman’s trumpet blast and fail to take action upon our sins.

Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 
2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 

Mic 7:5  Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 

No greater echoed act of us lying in a woman’s bosom is there than Sampson with Deliah and we formally in Babylon, our elder sister’s bosom and her lewdly tutoring us in false doctrine. Precisely as the lesson was with Sampson and Deliah and us in Babylon, the Lord sets it up for an occasion against us when our hedge is temporarily pulled down for our indulgence in lusts. However, out of darkness comes light, and our experiences of evil are for our ultimate good to gain dominion over our flesh. Sampson dishonored his father and his mother by going against their supposedly better judgment.

Jdg 14:3  Then his [Sampson’s] father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. 

Mic 7:6  For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

The Body of Christ is painfully conversant with their spouses, family members, and friends, effectively being enemies of the cross. Even more fearfully remembered are those brothers who formally ate and drank with us at our Lord’s table.

Joh 13:18  I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. 

1Co 11:19  For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Mic 7:7  Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 
Mic 7:8  Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. 

It is a dreadfully sobering occasion our Lord performs by periodically revealing heretics in our midst. We plead with them in tears and prayers, yet, like any ‘occasion’ the Lord has set upon his servant before his birth to be an apostate, we grieve his departing the little flock since he was ordained just like Pharaoh to do the Lord’s will (Eph 1:11-12). Our Lord has given His Elect to rise from the fiery chastisements and become His first fruits.

Lam 3:33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. 
Lam 3:34  To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 
Lam 3:35  To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 
Lam 3:36  To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. 
Lam 3:37  Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? 
Lam 3:38  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? 
Lam 3:39  Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 
Lam 3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

Mic 7:9  I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. 
Mic 7:10  Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

We are mightily blessed to see that our worst enemy is us, the man of sin, to see the shame of our nakedness and cry out to Christ to cover us with His righteousness. That understanding washes our clothing from the dung of our many filthy streets of vile scheming within. We are initially worse than our brothers in Babylon since we held the Lord’s truth, yet unrighteously. It is only by our Lord’s choosing that we are separated from our twin brother, Esau and that our supplanting machinations are first beaten out of us to be given headship over him. It is not wise for Esau to gloat over our demise, worse for us to boast over his loss of inheritance.

Oba 1:10  Shame shall cover you [Esau] from the violence against your brother Jacob, and you shall be cut off forever [Cut off from the hope of the First Resurrection].
Oba 1:11  On the day of your standing on the other side, on the day that the strangers were capturing his force, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.
Oba 1:12  But you should not have looked on the day of your brother on the day of his alienation; nor should you have rejoiced over the sons of Judah in the day of their ruin; nor should you have enlarged your mouth in the day of distress.
Oba 1:13  You should not have entered into the gate of My people in the day of their calamity; also, you should not have looked on his evil in the day of their calamity. Nor should you have sent out against his force in the day of his calamity.
Oba 1:14  Nor should you have stood on the crossways to cut off those of him who escaped; nor should you have shut up his survivors in the day of distress.

The endlessly repeated theme is our learned joyful recovery from chastisement for Christ to rebuild the walls of the Shulamite Bride we are, the Heavenly Jerusalem, with her embedded breasts in the walls symbolic of her heavenly motherhood.

The Lord’s “decree” in Micah 7:11 (below) is Cyrus’ command that the kingdom worship Daniel’s God with the rebuilding of Old Jerusalem but prophesying the finished walls of the Heavenly Jerusalem, his Bride now a Wife. She, a ruling mother in the One-Thousand Years, doesn’t glory over her children who are not given the spiritual capacity to obey consistently but are forced to obey for fear of her Lord’s ‘rod of iron.’ The impenetrable wall that she is, locks out humanity during the One Thousand Years. Clearly, she is a mother represented by her breasts like towers embedded in her city walls where humanity sees her as a woman, even a disciplining mother wielding an unyielding iron rod.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar [Equivalent to Esau] is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and [Egypt, Assyria, Sodom, Esau, Babylon and Old Jerusalem as one] is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 

Son 8:10  I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his [Christ’s] eyes as one that found favour. 

Mic 7:11  In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.

‘Are to be Built’

Stem -Qal See [H8851] Qal is the most frequently used verb pattern. It expresses the 

“simple” or “causal” action of the root in the active voice.

Mood -Infinitive See [H8812]

Count-4888

The “decree” is our Lord’s mandate reflecting his rebuilding of Heavenly Jerusalem. Darius, King of Persia, upon finding a role where his predecessor Cyrus had signed off that the walls of Jerusalem should be rebuilt, put into effect the ‘decree’ since it was a law of the Medes that once such a command had been instituted and sealed with the King’s signet ring, it was an ironclad legislation. Even though the subsequent verses speak in an ambiguous tense, notice that the decree is “far removed”, meaning that Micah is speaking of a future event that we know is Christ’s completion of building His Wife. Cyrus represents the physical enactment of rebuilding Jerusalem, and Darius represents the spiritual Heavenly Jerusalem as a future event.

Ezr 6:1  Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. 
Ezr 6:2  And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written: 
Ezr 6:3  In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits; 

Mic 7:12  In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 

How appallingly bright is the delusion of verse 12 today with our spiritual understanding that the literal Old Jerusalem, represented as greater Babylon, symbolised by Zionist Israel AND Esau, both today, viciously fighting for the physical fortress of world domination from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. Unwittingly, the dismal irony is that their plans will remain desolate since our Lord is building a Heavenly Jerusalem, and the kings of the world will have their pitiful image chopped into chaff and blown away in the summer wind (Dan 2:31-45).

Isa 41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

People are hills, mountains, nations, kings, kingdoms, etc., and God is bringing chastisement to the world’s nations, and He will do it through His Elect. 

Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

Mic 7:13  Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

However, the world’s dominating kingdoms remain desolate and will shortly be made even more desolate just as our ‘fruit’ has spiritually been desolate while the Lord fulfils His decree in creating His Elect as the Heavenly Jerusalem. In the period between now and the First Resurrection, we are being fed our Lord’s inheritance while outwardly, our brothers in Zion unwittingly await the rod of iron as in the days of old.

Mic 7:14  Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 

Isa 58:10  And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 
Isa 58:11  And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 
Isa 58:12  And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 
Isa 58:13  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 
Isa 58:14  Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 

Mic 7:15  According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things. 
Mic 7:16  The nations shall see and be confounded at all their [the Elect’s…] might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 

Beginning with the rulership of the world with the rod of iron in the One Thousand Years and culminating in the Resurrection to Judgment, every human conceived since Eve will horrifically come to understand who it is who rules with Christ. The Lord’s Wife is represented as Joseph in the following verses:

Gen 45:1  Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. 
Gen 45:2  And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. 
Gen 45:3  And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. 
Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me [the Elect] a father [second in command under Christ] to Pharaoh [God], and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt [the World].

Mic 7:17  They [the Jews who say that they are spiritual Jews, and are not inclusive of the World] shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee. 

Licking dust like a serpent is worshiping God at the feet of Christ and His Wife’s feet.

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

Just as earthworms are forced out of the earth by a lot of rain, so, too, will this world’s kingdoms of men, within and without, be forced out of fear to hear the ‘water’ of Christ’s commands. Even though earthworms use exceptionally wet times to mate, similarly in spirit, humanity eating dust will be imbued with the seed of God’s spirit.

God’s Steadfast Love and Compassion

Mic 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
Mic 7:19  He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Mic 7:20  Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. 

What a glorious end to the Book of Micah, as do all books of scripture spiritually conclude!

Isa 52:10  The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us [first in his Elect] unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will 
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Amen!

The Book of Micah – Part 6, Micah 6:1-16

[Study Aired March 30, 2024]

The Lord’s word from Genesis to Revelations has the same broad theme of sin, repentance and forgiveness, represented in two female legends representing churches: the Lord’s former ‘hated’ wife, symbolizing the Old Testament covenant, and today in the creation of His Bride, symbolizing the New Testament covenant.

Solomon’s one thousand wives and the ten tribes of Leah’s children in Israel symbolise the various Christian denominations and all spiritual dogmas that couldn’t match Solomon’s wisdom. Despite his one thousand wives being hand-picked ethnic beauties, they lacked a deep connection with his wisdom, precisely like the Christian denominations since the cross weary Christ.

Ecc 7:27  Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one [eliminating methodically], to find out the account [to find a wife who would compliment his physical intellect and wisdom]:
Ecc 7:28  Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand [the whole of a matter ~ unwittingly resulting in the coming Christ] have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.

Solomon represents Christ and the 700 concubines and 300 wives, all of whom are lawful wives upon marital unity equals 1,000, meaning the entire world of Christian churches. These numbers symbolize the vastness and diversity of the Christian faith. They equally represent the ten tribes of Israel in exile in Babylon, and the same Babylon has remained with us to this very day, primarily as Babylonian Christianity. These Babylonian wives, who all claim Christ as their savior, are witless to their representation as the same dull women of Solomon’s harem. They only see the likes of Micah and all the prophet’s work as mostly wearisome historical accounts with very little application to themselves, precisely as we all once did. One of our oft-repeated chapters to substantiate that account is Isaiah 4, which, to the spiritually trained eye, is a short but rich summary of what Micah and the prophets, with the same pattern with different wording, endlessly repeat.

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven [the complete (fullness) process of a thing] women shall take hold of one man [Christ, and for this exercise, Solomon], saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
Isa 4:2  In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

In other words, we will choose a preacher who will teach pleasant words to sensually tickle our ears and stomp on this Lake of Fire ballyhoo because we (deludedly imagine that we…) are married to Him! Yet, in their subconsciousness, they, “the sinners in Zion”, are silently troubled because they really are unsure of their foundation.

There is a massive time-lapse between Isaiah 4:1 and verse 2 of a symbolic 2,000 years since the cross, during which time only the Lord’s Bride in that age and hidden from the world is given to be washed by His word to become fruitful and glorious to her Husband. 

Isa 4:3  And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
Isa 4:4  When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

(Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? [only the Bride]).

Isa 4:5  And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.
Isa 4:6  And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

The Lord’s Bride is today going through her period of age-lasting burnings in learned joy and comfort since her Lord is the tabernacle and shadow in her heated, stormy trials of life.

The Book of Micah’s seven chapters are a progressive account of Israel having reached the pre-designed end of the Lord’s patience, with chapter six clearly stating the Lord’s charge against Israel. Of course, for the new Christ being dragged to understanding, Israel represents us, the individual, who needs to recognise and acknowledge his sins for a startling and joyous outcome.

The Indictment of the Lord

Mic 6:1  Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
Mic 6:2  Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.
Mic 6:3  O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
Mic 6:4  For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
Mic 6:5  O my people, remember now what Balak [baw-lawk] king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD.

Balaam, the son of Beor answering Balak from Shittim to Gilgal, represents Israel’s whoredoms with the daughters of Moab. Those Moabite daughters engaged the Israelites in all sorts of physical prurience that represented a spiritual correlation and the classically memorable saga of Balak seeking divination from Balaam to curse Israel for us to learn about ‘idols of the heart.’

Num 25:1  And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
Num 25:2  And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
Num 25:3  And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor [Baal worship]: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.

It sounds preposterous and bombastic, but Micah 6:1, as is the entire Bible, astonishingly is mostly only for the Elect of God to understand (Luk 8:9-15)! So, Micah says to her, “Hear ye now what the Lord says, Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.” It is His Bride alone who is given to understand that the Lord, through Micah, is speaking to her to arise and give an account of her sins before Him, to hear His indictment of her since creation for the exact pattern of sin, chastisement and repentance repeated endlessly in Israel.

Micah emphasises that we are to remember what Balak and Balaam did. So, what did those notable characters do?

For brevity’s sake, you can read the full account of Balak’s colorful escapades in Numbers chapters 22–25, with a reference in Judges 11:25.

Balak – Phonetic: baw-lawk’– Definition: Balak = devastator 1. a king of Moab who hired Balaam to curse Israel.

Balaam – Phonetic: bil-awm’ – Definition: Balaam = not of the people n pr m 1. the son of Beor, a man endowed with the gift of prophecy. From H1077 – 1. not, hardly, else

In summary, Balak is dreadfully fearful of the children of Israel and the terrifying stories accompanying them from Egypt to the plains of Moab, where Balak and Balaam, the kings of Moab and Midian, lived. Balak realised that he and his subjects are no match for the children of Israel and sought assistance from Balaam. Their dread is the earlier reference to Babylonian Christianity’s unspoken dread and evil conscience for dismissing pretty much the entirety of scripture with their own bread and water, particularly when they see the Lord and His Saints in their glory at the First Resurrection.

Balak initially is us in Babylon seeking confirmation of our self-righteousness from a co-harlot church represented as Balaam, rather than going directly to our accuser, in this case, Israel, for mercy and forgiveness.

Mat 5:23  Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 
Mat 5:24  Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 
Mat 5:25  Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Mat 5:26  Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Balak represents us when we don’t seek the Lord’s counsel because, at heart, we know it will not be what we want, and like Balak, we unwittingly curse God by going to any of the wolves in sheep’s-clothing ministers represented as Balaam, in Babylonian Christianity.

Num 22:6  Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed. 
Num 22:9  And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee? 
Num 22:10  And Balaam said unto God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, 
Num 22:11  Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth: come now, curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out. 
Num 22:12  And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.

Balak was going to pay Balaam most handsomely for his curse upon Israel, but he initially objected to going against the Lord’s admonition not to curse.

Num 22:18  And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more. 
Num 22:19  Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the LORD will say unto me more.
Num 22:20  And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.
Num 22:21  And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. 
Num 22:22  And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. 

Our Lord doesn’t respond kindly to a double-minded man for the Balaam we sometimes are, who refuses to listen to his commandments to which we are all hopefully becoming increasingly guiltless.

Thereafter we are well-versed in the hilarious account of Balaam having a serious chastising chat with his ass. The ass was given a better vision than Balaam and knew not to defy the Lord but rather to wait as instructed to hear divine counsel on the matter. Nonetheless, Balak doggedly insists that Balaam curse Israel on four different occasions by pretending to inquire of the Lord for a personally more favourable answer. For our equally dreadful learning, both Balak and Balaam had a dangerous idol of their hearts which we mimic anytime we don’t first enquire about Christ’s directions when our dismissed evil conscience tells us otherwise.

Eze 14:1-11  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 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; [in other words, our Lord will likely give us our lust for a severe chastisement!]
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.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
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 [… the Bride learning to be a prophet] shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
Eze 14:11  That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.

So, upon us being chastised for our multitude of idols of our heart, what do we humbly do to be in unity with our Husband?

What Does the Lord Require?

Mic 6:6  Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 
Mic 6:7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 
Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? 

1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
1Sa 15:24  And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. 
1Sa 15:25  Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
1Sa 15:26  And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.

Saul’s refusal to heed the Lord’s commandments, like Balak and Balaam, results in a clear crystal response: obey His word, or we will be rejected from being the Wife of Christ.

The following is our rod of chastisement (not the thousand years of rulership with a rod of iron upon the surviving world at Christ’s return) for disobedience before we see a glorious ending in salvation in Micah’s last chapter, chapter seven.

Destruction of the Wicked

Mic 6:9  The LORD’S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

God’s word is a fiery rod that straightens up every one of His Elect, the heavenly ‘city’, before they are judged and appointed praiseworthy to be His Bride in this age.

Isa 30:19  For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem [heavenly Jerusalem within]: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 
Isa 30:20  And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers [‘thy name’, the Christs appointed by the Christ as we judge ourselves so that we do not have to be judged]:

Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 
Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

Isa 30:21  And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

Mic 6:10  Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

A “scant measure that is abominable” is our slothful treasuring of the children of our enemies who represent the seeming minor sins, the crumbs of leaven in our lives.

Deu 20:16  But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Deu 20:17  But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: 
Deu 20:18  That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God

The Amorites and Moabites are as evil as each other and slated for utter destruction.

Zep 2:8  I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached [1. to reproach, taunt, blaspheme, defy, jeopardise, rail, upbraid] my people, and magnified themselves against their border.
Zep 2:9  Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation:

Mic 6:11  Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

Israel’s sins are a foil for our sins, being spiritually equal to Sodom and Gomorrah’s physical vulgarities. When the idols of our hearts are not swiftly judged, we grow bold to commit more outrageous sins and are thus considered ‘rich’ men full of spiritual violence and deceit. In those circumstances, we are highly likely to obtain a more favourable counsel from a soothsaying secular source than a word from God we know will be unpalatably true.

Mic 6:12  For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
Mic 6:13  Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting [Chastising] thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins [unable to produce the fruit of the spirit].
Mic 6:14  Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down [sickness and casting forth unripe and rotten fruit] shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.

If we insist on idols of the heart, the following verse condemns us to limping.

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 
Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Mic 6:15  Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine. 
Mic 6:16  For the statutes of Omri [Definition: Omri = pupil of Jehovah] are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach [1. to reproach, taunt, blaspheme, defy, jeopardise, rail, upbraid] of my people.

It is a desolate note on which to finish Micah’s chapter six since it is we who are Christ’s “pupil” and have walked in the ways of Ahab, who lusted after Naboth’s vineyard and was ruled by his wicked wife Jezebel’s counsel, to acquire the land through Naboth’s murder. It means that we can’t rob our Lord to acquire good spiritual works by murdering his word. The only way into the Lord’s house is through the front door.

Joh 10:7  Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
Joh 10:8  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 
Joh 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Particularly in the last several years, the Bride of Christ has become far ‘more abundantly’ joyful for her chastisements rather than being somewhat childlike in hiding or accusing our brother sent by the Lord to correct us, giving rise to our excusing ourselves.

Next week, always Lord willing, is chapter seven and the last of Micah. By the Lord’s will, and beginning with His Bride, is that the end of a thing is better than its beginning for her and her children.

Ecc 7:7  Surely oppression [Chastisement without relief] maketh a wise man mad; and a gift [a bribe like Balak’s] destroyeth the heart. 
Ecc 7:8  Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 

Psa 30:1  A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David. I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. 
Psa 30:2  O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
Psa 30:3  O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. 
Psa 30:4  Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 
Psa 30:5  For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

The Books Romans, Part 19 – From Suffering to Glory

[Study Aired November 21, 2023]

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 
Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 
Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 
Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 
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. 
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The wisdom contained in the Word of God remains hidden from the natural man. The first Adam, bound by the limitations of his earthly, sinful, carnal mindset, cannot comprehend the relationship between suffering and glory.

In Romans chapters 1-7, the Apostle Paul reveals the profound transformation from the carnal law of Moses to the law of the spirit. Paul discusses the dilemma of sin, emphasizing the struggle faced by mankind in the grip of sin’s power. Through vivid imagery, he paints a portrait of mankind bound by the limitations of the law, shackled in a futile attempt to attain righteousness through their own efforts.

In Paul’s revelation, a shift occurs—a transition from the external, letter -of-the-law approach to the internal, transformative work of the spirit. As he meticulously unravels the intricacies of our nature and sin, Paul sets the stage for the unveiling of God’s grace. The law of the spirit emerges as the liberating force, breaking the chains of legalism and offering a pathway to righteousness through faith. In these chapters, Paul lays bare the need for a radical shift—from the external conformity demanded by the law of Moses to the internal renewal wrought by the law of the spirit—culminating in a journey toward freedom and true righteousness in Christ.

Paul uncovers the depths of mankind’s sinfulness as they adhere to the limitations of carnal law. In stark contrast, he brings to light the transition made possible by embracing the power of the spiritual law through God’s grace. Grace acts as a mentor, leading us toward a deeper understanding of true righteousness. Within the realm of suffering, the pathway to glory unfolds.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died (suffered) for us.

Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Tit 2:11-15 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching (chastening) us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

The transition from the law of Moses to the law of the spirit becomes a turbulent journey for the carnal mind. Moving away from the carnal law and embracing the spiritual law introduces significant challenges and discomfort. This shift marks the dismantling of the old and paving the way for the new. It is within this change that the true depth of suffering, an essential component of our transformation, is experienced.

Galatians 3:24-25 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Hebrews 7:18-19 For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Colossians 3:9-10 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Romans 8:18-30 highlights the journey from suffering to the glorification of God. Paul explains how the challenges we face as believers connect to God’s glory. As we transform from the old to the new, our minds and spirits undergo a significant, though challenging, modification. Amid difficulties, we start to see the beautiful glory of God emerging.

The apostle Paul, in the early chapters of Romans, meticulously outlines the pervasive nature of sin that blankets mankind. Romans 3:23 succinctly declares, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Here, Paul establishes a universal truth, laying the foundation for the redemptive narrative that unfolds in later chapters.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrated his own love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

As we progress into Romans 5:8, a profound revelation surfaces: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This verse underscores a foundational principle in our faith, emphasizing God’s love demonstrated through Christ’s sacrificial act on the cross. In our state as sinners, Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection becomes our sole source of hope, presenting a perfect model for how we should live.

Romans 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:1-2 shines as a source of hope, declaring, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Within these verses, Paul emphasizes the life-changing influence of God’s grace, laying the foundation for the examination of suffering and glory in Romans 8:18-30.

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 

Paul’s statement here resonates with the conviction that the hardships we endure in this present age pale in comparison to the extraordinary glory awaiting us in this age and ages to come. It’s a perspective shift, a recognition that the struggles are but a temporary prelude to a revelation of unparalleled magnificence within us. After all our life is but a vapor.

Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

In verse 20 Paul states that creation, mankind, has been subjected to a condition of “vanity.” This term implies a state of emptiness, futility, or purposelessness. More importantly, Paul notes that this subjection to vanity was not a willing choice on the part of the creature. The subjection is attributed to God, “by reason of him.” This solidifies God’s sovereignty in orchestrating the state of his creation. However, the inclusion of “in hope” adds a layer of optimism. Despite vanity, there is a hopeful purpose behind this subjection. This verse hints at God’s plan at play, a purposeful subjection that serves a higher goal. It echoes themes found elsewhere in Paul’s writings, suggesting that God, in His wisdom, is working out a plan of salvation for all of mankind. The doctrinal implications of this verse are significant. Men cannot willingly choose their way in the world. We are all subject to the potter’s hand as he sees fit.

Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Jer 18:1-6  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 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. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

Romans 9:20-21 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? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

We are his workmanship that does not have power over our own way. God has put suffering within us to show there is no hope in the flesh.

Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The groaning of creation serves as a metaphor for the common experience of men, linking the struggles of mankind with the broader journey towards redemption and adoption. Paul urges an awareness of our inner groans, intertwining our personal challenges with the collective path of mankind towards salvation. Additionally, he contrasts the encompassing scope of “the whole creation” with the distinctiveness of “the first fruits,” emphasizing the unique role and significance of those who are experiencing the process of salvation in this age.

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 

Hope, an intangible yet powerful force, acts as the anchor of our salvation. Paul unravels the paradox that when hope transforms into reality, it no longer carries the essence of hope. However, its most potent form emerges when one patiently awaits the unseen. This calls for steadfast anticipation firmly rooted in promises that lie beyond our immediate perception.

Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 
Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Here, Paul speaks of the realm of prayer and the spirit’s role in our communication with God. The spirit, in its profound understanding, intercedes on our behalf with unutterable groanings. It speaks to the depths of our needs, surpassing the inability to communicate our needs.

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. 

Paul’s assertion here stands as one of the most frequently cited verses, proclaiming God’s orchestration of all things for the benefit of those who love God. This declaration offers assurance that amid the elaborate design of life’s struggles, there exists a comprehensive purpose unfolding. Men are not given to understand the ways of God stating that God sends suffering to strengthen us. We are called to a higher calling and must endure until the end to achieve salvation.

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

Heb 5:11-14 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Experiencing the exercise of our senses involves enduring the challenges and sufferings that are placed upon us. This process is essential, as it equips us with the discernment needed to differentiate between the truths and falsehoods present in the world. Through these trials, our skills are honed and refined, granting us a heightened awareness that enables us to navigate the complexities of so called reality with clarity and insight.

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. 
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

God’s plan encompasses the concepts of foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification, unfolding as the blueprint orchestrated by God. It portrays God’s comprehensive plan to bring believers into the process of salvation, ultimately conforming us to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is through suffering we become the sons of God through hope given to those that love God.

Heb 12:3-29 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 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: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

In Romans 8:19-30, Paul explains why we experience periods of suffering. It’s a challenging process, transitioning from following the law of Moses to embracing Christ’s teachings, which is impossible for the carnal mind to grasp. This journey reveals that our difficulties are part of a larger narrative of salvation and acceptance. God, in His infinite wisdom, ensures that even the profound suffering in life contributes to the outcome of life for those who love Him. We are molded by God, like clay in a potter’s hands, moving from intense suffering to something glorious. Patience, guided by the Spirit, directs us on this journey, shaping us to be more like Christ and concluding with deliverance for believers—a result of God’s sovereign plan.

Psalm 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Lam 2:1-22 Part 2, In your patience possess ye your souls (Luk 21:19)

[Study Aired August 19, 2023]

Most folks get very uncomfortable in the presence of another’s rage. Some boldly challenge the brawler, hopefully with a greater storm to overwhelm and dominate. Their arrogance in victory is equally loathsome.

It is ridiculous to believe that our Lord is perpetually in a state of carnal-like anger as if He is sitting on His throne like King Saul, smouldering for an opportunity to pin us against the wall. In a sense, it is true, yet His anger is righteous. The key is to be angry and not sin.

Eph 4:26 Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath, 
Eph 4:27 neither give place to the Devil.

The lying doctrine of eternally writhing in the flames of hell, rotisseried by a grinning Devil is not conducive to spiritual change. Like the wryly amusing seventeenth-century military adage says, “The floggings will continue until morale improves.” Similarly whipped and beaten, that is how Israel in the wilderness felt, and we, too, until our eyes were opened. To Israel and us as old Jerusalem, that droll quote could have read, “The floggings will continue until hearts are changed.”

Ecc 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 

Yet, most frustratingly, as old Israel experienced in the wilderness and we in Babylon…

Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 
Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Isa 54:6 For Jehovah has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were rejected, says your God. 
Isa 54:7 For a little moment I have left you; but with great mercies I will gather you. 
Isa 54:8 In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says Jehovah your Redeemer.

Jas 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 

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. 
Jas 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. 

Isaiah 54:8 is a more spiritually accurate version of the military maxim following the blessing of the holy spirit. Yet, the physical precedes the spiritual. Old Israel experienced many literal floggings and stonings to precede the spiritual. Well, “morale” did increase since we in Babylon circumvented the floggings and stonings with the invention of a different Jesus who would love us “just as we are” as we blindly continued to dance spiritually naked.

In Chapter Two of Lamentations, let us reflect spiritually upon our chastisements and the peace our blessed inheritance will produce. Our Lord guarantees that the floggings will continue at His hand until morale (confidence) improves.

Eze 29:16 And it shall be no more the confidence [4009 – 1. trust, confidence, refuge 
act of confiding b. object of confidence c. state of confidence, security] of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

1Jn 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He is revealed, we may have confidence [G3954 – 1. freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech a. openly, frankly, i.e. without concealment b. without ambiguity or circumlocution] and not be ashamed before Him in His coming. 
1Jn 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does righteousness has been born of Him. 

Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Heb 10:32 But call to memory the former days, in which (after you were illuminated) you endured a great fight of afflictions,
Heb 10:33 indeed being exposed both by reproaches and afflictions, and while you became companions of those who lived so. 
Heb 10:34 For you both sympathised with my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. 
Heb 10:35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence [G3954], which has great recompense of reward.
Heb 10:36 For you have need of patience, so that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise.
Heb 10:37 For “yet a little while, and He who shall come will come and will not delay.”

It is only the Lord’s Elect who fully understand His methodology of chastisement that assuredly does produce morale that is trust and confidence for an outstanding end.

Heb 12:6 for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” 

We can now go forward with that spirit knowing why…

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

Lam 2:1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! 
Lam 2:2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. 
Lam 2:3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. 
Lam 2:4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. 
Lam 2:5 The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. 
Lam 2:6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
Lam 2:7 The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. 
Lam 2:8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. 
Lam 2:9  Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD. 
Lam 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 
Lam 2:11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. 
Lam 2:12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
Lam 2:13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? 
Lam 2:14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. 
Lam 2:15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? 
Lam 2:16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. 
Lam 2:17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries. 
Lam 2:18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
Lam 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street. 
Lam 2:20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? 
Lam 2:21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied. 
Lam 2:22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD’S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed. 

Interpretations

Lam 2:1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! 

Classically, there was no greater recording of a cloud representing blindness than the Earth from Eden to Noah covered in dense fog with never an expansive blue sky. Similarly, a painfully slow dawning occurred with Israel in the wilderness, even though they physically saw the law in fiery clarity compared to the Egyptians, yet, unwittingly, they, too, were blind. Christ makes no apologies for repeating His spiritual truth everywhere in scripture; likewise, here, when looking back on Solomon saying in His clouded blindness, “Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.” (Son 6:13).

So, we ‘return’ to Jacob, symbolically representing God speaking to Rachel. She is us in our clouded blindness for what our Father is doing within us through Christ. As we come out of Babylon, we are somewhat bewildered for not being able to bring forth the spiritual fruit of our womb manifested as Christ’s righteousness. We try and try to keep His commands and anxiously cry out to Him to give us ‘children’. We get a little afraid and nervous about not being in the First Resurrection. In time, we learn through His chastising grace that we gain eternal life through our God-given patience and Him birthing our spiritual womb’s righteous fruit. We, as Christ’s footstool, even upon his knees, become his birthing stool, the stone on which we are conceived (H70 – 1. wheel, disc a. potter’s wheel b. bearing-stool, midwife’s stool. H68 – 1. stone (large or small) a. common stone (in natural state) b. stone, as material 1. of tablets 2. marble, hewn stones) and the Lord’s Elect are the birthing stool (Exo 1:16) of the world as it seeks to kill us as Herod did Jesus birthing of us.

Gen 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. And she said to Jacob, Give me sons, or else I will die.
Gen 30:2 And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said, Am I in God’s stead, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?
Gen 30:3 And she said, Behold my slave woman Bilhah [H1090 – troubled H926 – 1. to disturb, alarm, terrify, hurry, be disturbed, be anxious, be afraid, be hurried, be nervous]; go in to her, and she shall bear upon my knees, and yea, let me be built up from her, me also.

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it? 
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience. 

Luk 21:19 By your patient endurance you will gain your souls. (BSB) 

Rom 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 
Rom 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Our Lord and we will not remember the flesh and its anguish, the “footstool” we were in the Kingdom of God. Christ gives birth to us, and we, upon His knees, give birth to the world of humanity in the Resurrection to Judgment. At that point, Christ’s final words on the cross become a reality, 

Joh 19:30 Then when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished! And He bowed His head and gave up the spirit.

Lam 2:2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

The parental portrayal of Jacob, Rachel and Leah is pivotal to understanding that we are swallowed up by our unrighteous habitations before becoming the heavenly daughter of Judah, Jerusalem above. The casting down of our idols of the heart, our “strongholds” painfully brings forth righteous spiritual fruit.

Joh 15:8 In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you shall be My disciples. 
Joh 15:9 As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love.
Joh 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

Lam 2:3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn [self-righteous strength] of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

We are coming out of being the Whore who says she has a husband (Rev 18:7). In the meantime, we have been sullen and angry like Rachel in our impatience for not being able to bear righteous children, and we blame God.

We decreasingly feel forsaken for not being blessed with the sensualities of the flesh for the bewildering simplicity of being blessed with marriage, even a righteous husband or wife, in existing marriages. We grievously lament to God that we are worthless and think we will not make being his Bride singled out like sulky Cain for special condemnation. Well, that thinking is gloriously true.

Isa 54:7 For a little moment I have left you; but with great mercies I will gather you. 
Isa 54:8 In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says Jehovah your Redeemer.

Lam 2:4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

In being given greater power to not look back upon the sensualities of Sodom, we increase by His hand in faithfulness as we increase our pace out of the furious fire behind, increasingly clothed in lightning brilliance yet not seen by Babylon.

Luk 17:24 For as the lightning which lights up, flashing from the one part under heaven, and shines to the other part under heaven, so also shall the Son of Man be in His day.

Eze 1:13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
Eze 1:14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

The Lord only regards the relevance of the flesh for its multiple physical elements pointing to its spiritual counterparts. Eventually, he slays all our sensualities that are ‘pleasant to the eye’. Rachel was supremely pleasant to Jacob’s eye, and she, along with all her (the Bride’s) associated and tumultuous “inventions” (Ecc 7:29), will have served their purposes and disappeared. The flesh profits nothing (Joh 6:63).

Lam 2:5 The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

This experience of evil flesh from Eden to the end of the One Thousand-Year rule with the rod of iron, with a focus on Israel, the Lord’s wife, is designed for our lust to increase. 

The Lord orchestrates the entire affair to intentionally make us spiritually fat (Psa 73:6) in another Jesus. For the creator himself is our enemy (Deu 32:1-16. Pro 16:4). In that regard, I’ve had non-believers, Gentile Christians ask about my faith, and upon the above understanding, angrily reply that Christ is a psychopathic unmentionable so-n-so. Only his Bride, the younger daughter of Judah, looks behind and delightedly understands her Lord’s intentions for his erroneously assumed blasphemous “psychopathic” stance (Jer 29:9-11). 

Jud 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 
Jud 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Jud 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

We are born in the clouded darkness of mourning and lamentation and raised in the glorious light of day.

Psa 30:8 I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication. 
Psa 30:9 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? 
Psa 30:10 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper. 
Psa 30:11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; 
Psa 30:12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

Lam 2:6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

A garden and a tabernacle represent the safety of a temporary covering (H7900, H1588). The Lord banished Adam and Eve with the intended violence of a flaming sword that turned each and every way from Eden. The garden was a hedge of protection from the wild beasts of the outside field where Adam and Eve initially only knew “good” and not “evil”. Adam and Eve laid the foundation for mankind, particularly the Lord’s people, to despise his goodness. It is the pattern from Eden to the One Thousand-Year reign for the Bride’s God-given understanding. She alone is given to know the reasons for her destruction and mourning.

Lam 2:7 The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. 

The Lord’s abhorrence of His sanctuary is the worthlessness of our labours in the flesh to achieve righteousness. From the beginning of creation, he planned to hand us over to the enemy for affliction hedged in by the hallowed walls of our nominal 40,000 synagogues of Satan, our palaces within. No greater noise reverberates the rafters of Christendom than the saved as we are now in our sins by the delusion of Christ having done it all for us. No mention of Colossians 1:24 and “rejoicing 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.” 

In Old Covenant times, the most outstanding solemn feasts of the seven occurred three times a year. Yet, our entire journey in the Lord is a ‘solemn feast’ since the Feast of Booths and the Eight Day feasts encompass from beginning to the end the Bride’s passage of awakenings.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice [to what extent? The whole of one’s body figuratively 8 days], holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 

2Ch 8:13  Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles. 

2Ch 7:9 And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.
2Ch 7:10 And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

Lam 2:8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. 

No wonder our former Babylonian selves threw up our hands in frustration and worked out our own salvation in delusion. Understanding the Lord without his spirit is looking upon Shulamite-like blackness. One minute he tells us to keep the feasts and then disband them.

Amo 5:20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? 
Amo 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. 

Lam 2:9  Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD [Isa 42:19].

Our self-professed multitude of naked prophets within can’t understand the Lord’s word without his spirit. We begin as false prophets and by his spirit become prophets of faithfulness.

Num 11:27 And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. 
Num 11:28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, make them cease. 
Num 11:29 And Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would God that all Jehovah’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them! 

Rev 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he will begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets. 

Lam 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 
Lam 2:11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon [H5848 –  1. to turn aside a. (Qal) to turn aside, turn (in order to cover)] in the streets of the city. 
Lam 2:12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom.

Mankind, from Adam to the end of the rulership with the rod of iron, are sucklings awaiting maturity in the Resurrection to Judgement. Only their ‘mother’, the younger daughter (Rom 9:12-13) of the Lord’s people, will be given the spirit of truth to understand the eight days (highlighted by feast days) to finalise creation.

Lam 2:13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
Lam 2:14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. 
Lam 2:15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? 
Lam 2:16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 

The Body of Christ expects her greatest humiliations are yet to come as this world rapidly descends into the depths of the abyss. As AI (‘ai’) surveillance strengthens, no doubt the Elect of God will be cast most realistically their historically unrighteous acts and new contrivances to smear our Christ’s name. Impervious to a righteous account, that happens outside the Body today with every man’s hand increasingly against his neighbour.

If the Lord has supplied us with enough oil for our spiritual lamps, we will be immune to the vicious accusations that the IWWB studies will unrighteously engender (John 15:18-27). 

Mar 13:10 And the gospel must first be published among all nations [primarily within]. 
Mar 13:11 But when they [enemies within and without] shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. 
Mar 13:12 Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death [righteously and unrighteously spiritually and hopefully not physically].
Mar 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 

Luk 6:21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 
Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you [The Body have each other as friends], and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. 
Luk 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Lam 2:17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
Lam 2:18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

Wow! There it is! All things are the Bride’s (1Co 3:22). Our tears precede our imminent jubilation.

Zec 2:7 Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. 
Zec 2:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

Lam 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street. 
Lam 2:20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this [to the Bride, of course!]. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? [YES!]

During the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 66-73 CE, she, representing the “daughter of Jerusalem”, out of the desperation of hunger, ate her physical children, and so we devour our unrighteous children within. In the meantime, Satan, too, constantly requests the Lord’s permission to devour us.

Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 
Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne [protected].
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Even though we have “come out of her”, we still live in the wilderness that is Babylon and undetected, growing rich in our Lord’s righteousness for the duration of that figurative three and a half years.

Lam 2:21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied. 
Lam 2:22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD’S anger none escaped nor remained [thankfully, and hopefully our enemies within]: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Our swaddled sins are idols of the heart we stubbornly clutch that is the consummation of our lust of the eyes and flesh fixed with nails to our hearts.

Jer 10:3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Jer 10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

No greater ‘solemn day of our terrors’ will there be than to be cast into the Lake of Fire to deal with our sins we should have in this age.

The Lord is “mine enemy” (Lam 2:5, Php 3:18-19) who consumes our idols and every idle word contrary to His. 

Lev 19:28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

As we mature, we learn in patience (Luk 21:19) to recline in the Lord’s fiery coals as we animatedly converse with him as prefigured by Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace (much more agreeable than the poetry of Satan’s rotisserie). We learn not to beat ourselves up for the seemingly tedious workmanship He has committed us. Flailing and gashing our conscience is forbidden, and I am becoming less of a chief whip upon myself. Our gnashings and gashings upon ourselves can unwittingly become adorning scars, signs of our fake humility, more mortification than holiness for change.

Pro 27:5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Pro 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

May the Lord continue to be our ‘enemy-friend’ until all that is left is golden friendship. 

1Ki 11:1-4 “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”

[Study Aired March 10, 2022]

1Ki 11:1  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 
1Ki 11:2  Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 
1Ki 11:3  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. 
1Ki 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 

With God’s mercy in our life we can apply our hearts unto wisdom and number our days.

Psa 90:12  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Solomon ruled as king over all Israel for forty years (1Ki 11:42), and in the end it was revealed that he was not given to apply his heart unto wisdom as king David in type and shadow did.

1Ki 11:42  And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

1Ki 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

The Godly wisdom was there in Solomon’s life at one point, and we could say in type and shadow that he had “tasted of the heavenly  gift” of Hebrews 6:4, but he was corrupted by his love for “many strange women” (1Ki 11:1) which we know represents churches where false doctrines reside turning our hearts away from the Lord if God allows this. It was these actions that caused Solomon to stop applying his heart to wisdom, unlike David who typifies the elect who are chastened and scourged by a sword that does not depart from his house or our house, which house represents the temple we are (2Sa 12:10, Heb 12:6, 1Co 3:16). Solomon, on the other hand, was brought into this bondage of ungodly relationships by loving the world, represented by “the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.” (1Jn 2:15-17, Php 3:7-8)

1Ki 11:1  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

[“I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David” (1Ki 11:38) is a promise by God whose conditions can only be met through Christ, and so, although a sure physical house was built for Solomon, the spiritual house, the temple of God which was his body, was corrupted by “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” In the positive, Solomon can and does represent the elect during the thousand-year reign who will rule over the riches of mankind’s kingdoms (Rev 11:15), the silver and gold and ivory as well as the ape and peacock of  (1Ki 10:22) that was brought to Solomon from afar. However, in the negative all these physical liberties given to Solomon corrupted him and caused him to forget God’s commands preventing him from continuing in those things which were required of him as king. Thus, he lost sight, at least in type and shadow, of Christ’s words in Luke 12:15: “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” This brings to mind what God tells us will naturally happen to all of us unless the Lord continues to keep us humble in this life, and we know these events of Solomon’s life were written for our sakes upon whom the end of the world are come (Deu 8:10-11, 1Co 10:11)].

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, [Mat 10:39]

[If God gives us the ability to continue in the truth (Joh 8:31-32, Php 2:12-13) and value the eternal words of God more than anything in this life, we will join each other in this comparative statement Paul was inspired to write telling us as the body of Christ we will lose all things, (Rev 2:10)  in order to gain the life of Christ, which cannot happen without going through much tribulation and persecution and fiery trials. Despite all of that affliction and suffering, we will be shown to be more than conquerors through Him (Rom 8:38-39) as a result of being given to endure unto the end (Php 2:13) as we keep our eyes on Christ who promises “I will give thee a crown of life” as a result of our working out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we press toward “the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php 3:14)]

King David, like Solomon, also reigned forty years (1Ki 2:11) and both time periods represent the much tribulation and many trials [40] that we must endure in order to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection (2Ti 2:12). Solomon can be seen as our old man who must decrease, while David can represent the new man, Christ in us, as our hope of glory whom God promises will increase  and will not deny Himself in that process of overcoming within us (Joh 3:30, 2Ti 2:13).

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

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 
2Ti 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful [Christ in us (Col 1:27)]: he cannot deny himself. 

It takes both forty years, however, in order to create the new man represented by the number eighty (forty plus forty). This brings us back to Psalm 90:1-13 where we read of “a prayer of Moses the man of God” that explains what God does within those eighty typical years of our life and how he uses forty of them to destroy the man of sin within us, represented by Solomon [40 year reign] and builds up the new man represented by king David [40 year reign].

Psa 90:1  A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 

Psa 90:10  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength [Php 4:13] they be fourscore years [80 years], yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

When we read this section of scripture (1Ki 11:1-43), if we keep this principle in mind that both David and Solomon are within us, then we will get the message of the books of Kings and every book of the bible that is admonishing the body of Christ to hold fast to our crown and be confident “that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Rev 3:11, Rev 2:10, Php 1:6, Gal 5:1, Php 4:1). Here is that prayer of Moses which in type and shadow reveals the certainty of God’s deliverance in the life of those who have His spirit, that enables us to go through the fiery trials of this life that will refine the gold and silver of God’s word within us.

Psa 90:1  A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations [thinking within] .
Psa 90:2  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God [Eph 1:4]. 
Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 
Psa 90:4  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night [2Pe 3:8]. 
Psa 90:5  Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 
Psa 90:6  In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 
Psa 90:7  For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Psa 90:8  Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 
Psa 90:9  For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

[All of these verses we’ve read (Psa 90:3-9) are the narrative that leads up to the passage that reveals the new man that is formed through a lifetime of much tribulation]

Psa 90:10  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years [80], yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away [Job 5:7, Jas 4:14]. 
Psa 90:11  Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath [Rom 11:22, Act 10:35, Ecc 12:13]. 
Psa 90:12  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom [Rom 2:13].
Psa 90:13  Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. 
Psa 90:14  O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. [Rom 11:5, Rom 11:11, Rom 11:20-26, Rom 11:31-32] 
Psa 90:15  Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. 

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

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 

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 [“I will give thee a crown of life“]:

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 

Php 4:1  Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

This section of scripture in the book of Timothy admonishes the body of Christ as to what we should and shouldn’t do in our service to God and will help brighten our understanding of what God is teaching us through this section of 1 Kings where we learn that Solomon’s heart became corrupted by “his wives [who] turned away his heart after other gods” so that he “was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” So we are admonished today to cry out to God as Christ did (Heb 5:7) and fear Him and ask Him to “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

1Ti 6:1  Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour [Rom12:1], that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed [Php 3:14-15, 1Jn 1:7]. 
1Ti 6:2  And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort [Christ is our believing master (Joh 13:13-15, Luk 6:46)]. 
1Ti 6:3  If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; 
1Ti 6:4  He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 
1Ti 6:5  Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. 
1Ti 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 
1Ti 6:7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 
1Ti 6:8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 
1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
1Ti 6:10  For the love of money^{G5365 G5366 [rich young ruler (Mat 19:21)]} is the root [“a” root not “the” root – see most other translations] of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

[“For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.“]

1Ti 6:11  But thou, O man of God, flee these things; [“Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches” (Pro 30:8)] and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness [“feed me with food convenient for me” (Pro 30:8)]. 
1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. [flee fornication (1Co 6:18), flee idolatry (1Co 10:14), flee youthful lusts (2Ti 2:22)]
1Ti 6:13  I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things [Joh 6:63, Joh 6:68], and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; 
1Ti 6:14  That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: 

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, [Rom 6:23] and was heard in that he feared; 

1Ki 11:1  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;

God has called His children to overcome all these “strange women” which the wretchedness of our flesh could not begin to overcome except the Lord deliver us (Rom 7:24-25, Joh 8:36), and so we are admonished to flee all these ‘women’ that represent churches: “the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites” knowing that it is Christ in us who is giving us the power to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we overcome through Him (Php 2:12-14).

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. 

Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

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

Together “with the daughter of Pharoah”^H6547 (Rev 17:1-5), these women typify the fleshly parts of Babylon within me that must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming which will destroy (2Th 2:3-7) the part of my heart that is yet being held captive by her lies, as Solomon in type and shadow was experiencing  (2Co 6:17-18).

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: [“the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites“]
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: [We all go into Babylon and by God’s grace come out of her (2Co 6:17)] and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

[flee fornication (1Co 6:18),  flee idolatry (1Co 10:14),  flee youthful lusts (2Ti 2:22)]

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 

• Moabites,H4125  H4124 [spiritually learning the way of the heathen (Jer_10:2) typifies this incestuous spirit of H4124 where we have children with our father the devil’s children while in Babylon]

• Ammonites,H5984  H5983

• Edomites,H130  H123

• Zidonians,H6722  H6721 – H6679 – H6718 [negative use of fishers of men, hunters of men]

• Hittites;H2850  H2845  H2865 [where God’s spirit is there is liberty (2Co 3:17) but without his spirit we see what the foundation of all these Babylonian woman or churches is founded upon having no stay of bread or water (Isa 3:1, Jas 3:16, 2Ti 4:18)].

H2865 châthath  khaw-thath’

A primitive root; properly to prostrate; hence to break down, either (literally) by violence, or (figuratively) by confusion and fear: – abolish, affright, be (make) afraid, amaze, beat down, discourage, (cause to) dismay, go down, scare, terrify.  Total KJV occurrences: 48

Links to other studies on the spiritual significance of these peoples:

• Ammonites and Moabites
• Edomites
• Zidonians
• Hittites

How blessed we are to have God’s love shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5-6, 1Jn 4:17-19) to overcome that confusion and fear, that violence to God’s word in Babylon that while it is abiding in our heavens beats down Christ and discourages us, and dismays us and scares us and terrifies us until the appointed time that God says enough (2Th 2:3, 2Th 2:6).

Rom 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 
Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 

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. 
1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 
1Jn 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us. 

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; [when God says enough]

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

That man of sin is revealed through the chastening and scourging God gives His children the ability to endure, and it is through that correction, through that suffering, we learn obedience (Heb 12:6, Heb 5:7).

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,[Rom_6:23] and was heard in that he feared;

1Ki 11:2  Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

In type and shadow, Solomon was not just thinking above what was written (1Co 4:6), which is always the starting point of any of our divergent paths which take us away from God’s word (Jas 1:15, Gen 3:6), but he was getting right in bed with those he ought not have. By these actions he was shedding abroad his perverted sense of what love was in the lives of all these women, committing for our sake spiritual fornication before God to remind us not to lust after these things “as they also lusted” (1Co 10:5-6). Solomon demonstrated how our flesh wants to take occasion with the liberty God gives us, and instead of ‘coming out of her my people’ “Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you“, Solomon went in to them and they in unto him resulting in his reaping what God said he would sow if he did this, “Surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.“

1Ki 11:3  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Solomon’s heart was turned away from God, and the numbers in these verses reveal the beastly nature of man that has seven heads and ten horns (Rev 13:1):  “Seven hundred wives” who were “princesses” and “three hundred concubines.” God is showing us through these ordained scenarios of Solomon’s life what we are before God comes in and starts to destroy the man of sin within us, the beast with seven heads and ten horns. Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines gives us the grand total of our fleshly relationship in Babylon 1000 that must be judged and destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our heavens (2Pe 3:8).

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

2Pe 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Solomon’s actions in this verse (1Ki 11:4) typify someone operating in their flesh and not in the spirit (Gal 5:16-21): “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” He was not being portrayed as someone who was fighting the good fight of faith as his father king David had done, whose life typifies the fruits of righteousness that come about as a result of being “a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will” (1Ti 6:12, Act 13:22, Gal 5:22-26).

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 
Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 

1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 

Act 13:22  And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. 

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 
Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

As we get older we can either see our old man perish and our new man thrive (2Co 4:16, Psa 92:13-15), or we can see our old man negatively thrive and whatever relationship we had with Christ fall apart and come short (Eze 18:24, Heb 4:1). That is the major lesson we are to take from the life of Solomon who started off very strong in God’s service but became distracted and took his eyes off of the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ (1Co 9:24-25, Php 3:14-15). These things “happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1Co 10:11).

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, [1Co 15:31] yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Psa 92:13  Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 
Psa 92:14  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; 
Psa 92:15  To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. 

Eze 18:24  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die [Rom 6:1-5].

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear [Heb 5:7], lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 

1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 
1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things [Luk 21:19]. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 

Solomon, in type and shadow, was not able to handle the truth, as the riches of God’s word were only residing in him superficially and became choked by the cares of this world (Mar 4:3-7). The lesson for God’s people is to pray for a greater sense of urgency as we near the end of this age praying for each other that our faith fail not (Luk 22:32) and that we might receive the blessing of having an “honest and good heart” upon which God can “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Mar 4:8-9, Luk 8:15).

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: 
Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. 
Mar 4:5  And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: 
Mar 4:6  But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 
Mar 4:7  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 
Mar 4:8  And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased [1Co 3:6]; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. 
Mar 4:9  And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

Luk 8:15  But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart [1Co 2:16], having heard the word, keep it [Rev 1:3], and bring forth fruit with patience [1Co 9:27, Luk 21:19].

[Study Aired March 6, 2022]

Jer 32:23  And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:
Jer 32:24  Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it.
Jer 32:25  And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans
Jer 32:26  Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 32:27  Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
Jer 32:28  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:
Jer 32:29  And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.
Jer 32:30  For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD.
Jer 32:31  For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,
Jer 32:32  Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer 32:33  And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
Jer 32:34  But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.
Jer 32:35  And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
Jer 32:36  And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;
Jer 32:37  Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
Jer 32:38  And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
Jer 32:39  And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
Jer 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
Jer 32:41  Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
Jer 32:42  For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
Jer 32:43  And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 32:44  Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD.

Our last study ended with Jeremiah buying his cousin’s field which was in the hands of the Babylonian army. The sale was legally witnessed and sealed as a type of how the Lord has promised to give His elect the preeminent position in His kingdom as “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

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

Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

‘Firstfruits’ are just that. They are not the only fruits. They are merely the first of many. They are the pillars at the door of the Lord’s temple through which all in Adam will eventually be brought back to their God:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only [not just the firstfruits], but also for the sins of the whole world.

1Ki 7:21  And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.

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

Jeremiah’s purchase of his cousin’s field while in prison, typifies how the Lord is aware of our election even while we are in the chains of the sins of a Babylonian harlot who has never lived up to her marriage covenant:

Jer 32:23  And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:

“They have done nothing of all that you commanded them” brings these words of Isaiah to mind:

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,

The seven women of the next chapter of Isaiah are ‘seven’ in number because they typify the complete apostasy of this harlot, Jerusalem, and the complete nation of Israel:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Isa 1:24  Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
Isa 1:25  And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
Isa 1:26  And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

Right there is the formula for the work the Lord is working in His people. He has ordained that the vessel He made of clay first be marred in His hand, and then His hand will make it anew as He sees fit to make it by turning His hand upon us and purely purging away our dross and taking away all our corruptible tin. He will then restore our judges and counselors and only after He has done all of this, He will call us “the city of righteousness, the faithful city.

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he [the Lord] wrought a work on the wheels.
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.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

So much for the damnable false doctrine of God giving mankind a will that is free of “His own will”:

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

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.

Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

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

It is the Lord, not us, who is working all things after the counsel of His own will, not ours, and according to His good pleasure, not ours. That “good pleasure includes being first made a marred vessel… made to be taken and destroyed:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Unless otherwise qualified with a phrase such as “the rest of the dead” or “when the thousand years are expired”, the plural pronouns ‘these, they, them and those’ always include you and me. Keep that in mind as we continue to see how the Lord is purging us of our dross in “this present time” (Rom 8:18):

Jer 32:24  Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it.

The Hebrew word for ‘mounts’ is:

H5550
סוֹלְלָה    סֹלְלָה
sôlelâh    sôlelâh
so-lel-aw’, so-lel-aw’
Active participle feminine of H5549, but used passively; a military mound, that is, rampart of besiegers: – bank, mount.

Jer 32:25  And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

During the middle of the siege the Lord tells Jeremiah to buy his cousin’s field, to demonstrate his faith that the Lord will bring Israel back out of Babylon. It all happened to them, and it is written to show us how we are to keep the faith amid our severest trials and when the darkness seems so impenetrable. As is usual with how God works, He requires a witness to how His temple is built:

1Ki 7:15  For he cast two pillars [2Ch 3:17] of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. 

These two pillars are the same as the two olive trees mentioned in Revelation 11.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Jer 32:26  Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 32:27  Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
Jer 32:28  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:
Jer 32:29  And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.
Jer 32:30  For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD.
Jer 32:31  For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,
Jer 32:32  Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer 32:33  And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
Jer 32:34  But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.
Jer 32:35  And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Someone once asked me, “If God is working all things (Eph 1:11) and if He ‘makes us to err’ (Isa 63:17), how then can He say, “It never came into my mind that they should do this abomination.” The answer is that the Lord is not denying He sent an evil spirit to put it in the mind of His people to commit this abomination:

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

1Ki 22:21  And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
1Ki 22:22  And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

When the Lord says, “Neither came it into My mind that they should do this abomination [burn their children alive]” He is contrasting what is in His heart with what is in the heart of the flesh of our self-righteous, rebellious old man who condemns his fellow man to eternal hell fire.

Jer 32:36  And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;

Notice how the Lord had just said…

Jer 32:28  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:

…and then put those same words in Jeremiah’s mouth and said, ‘whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence’. This is a demonstration of the Truth of what the Lord had earlier told Jeremiah:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

That is how the Lord speaks through all who are faithful to the words of the Lord. The Lord’s true prophets, like the Lord Himself, never say anything of themselves. The Lord’s true prophets speak only “that which has been written” and already spoken by the Lord “in the heavens”:

Mat 18:18  Verily I say to you, Whatever things ye may bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever things ye may loose on the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens. (YLT)

Joh 8:28  Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

‘Lifting up the Son of Man’ refers to His crucifixion on the cross. It is only after we confess to being guilty of His death that we will know who Christ is:

Joh 12:32  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
Joh 12:33  This he said, signifying what death he should die.

Realizing this fact will help us understand the message of Jeremiah to his people and the message of Paul to his people when he made this statement:

1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

It is ours to acknowledge that we have ‘lifted up’ the Son of Man, and we have placed Him on the cross for our sins and that we must live out our part in “the world” which must endure His wrath upon the kingdom of our rebellious, unfaithful and self-righteous old man. These are the “things having been bound and loosed in the heavens” and written down for our admonition:

1Co 4:6  And these things, brethren, I did transfer to myself and to Apollos because of you, that in us ye may learn not to think above that which hath been written, that ye may not be puffed up one for one against the other, (YLT)

All of mankind, in and of themselves, are guilty before God, requiring His chastening. When His “chastening and scourging” had done their purifying work then:

Jer 32:37  Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
Jer 32:38  And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:

Just as the promised land typifies dwelling in peace with and being of one mind with the Lord, so “all countries whither I have driven them in Mine anger” typifies in contrast all the false doctrines which separate us from the mind of the Lord. ‘Gathering us’ to Himself means He is making us of one mind with Himself by destroying and burning up all those false doctrines with His Truth as this next verse makes clear:

Jer 32:39  And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

“One heart and one way” is the exact opposite of “all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger.” There are a few who are given this “one heart, and one way, that… fear me… [and are] the first to trust in Christ”:

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

“I will give them one heart… that they may fear me… for the good of them” is just another way of saying, “being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” While we do not know whether we have been given that ‘heart’, if the Lord has given us a heart to “fear [Him] forever” then there is no chance that we will do otherwise simply because He is the One who is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and our fate in not in our own hands. It is He who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will.”

Jer 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

This is not a promise that we will never act self-righteously nor ever again transgress against our Lord and His ways. Rather, here is the meaning of this promise:

Psa 89:27  Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
Psa 89:28  My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
Psa 89:29  His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
Psa 89:30  If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
Psa 89:31  If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
Psa 89:32  Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
Psa 89:33  Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
Psa 89:34  My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

These words are repeated by King Solomon:

Pro 3:11  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
Pro 3:12  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

These same words are repeated in:

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

Jer 32:41  Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
Jer 32:42  For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.

“I will… do them good… I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them” come to us only through “chastening… scourging [and being brought] to [our] wits’ end”.

This is how the Lord displays His goodness in this age:

Psa 107:18  Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
Psa 107:19  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psa 107:21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

It is you and I who first “abhor all manner of meat” and want only the ‘milk and honey’ of the promised land. It is we who after time in the Lord’s service “do business in great waters” and come to see that our storms of this life were all a work of the Lord to drag us to Himself. Only “then” do we appreciate all those devastating trials that had brought us to our wits’ end. If we do not see the order in which the Lord operates, then we can and we will miss the spiritual message the Lord is imparting to us.

These verses in Psalms 107 clarify the meaning of the phrase “His goodness” in:

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?.

Another New Testament doctrine which teaches us that the Lord’s ‘goodness’ is expressed through His chastening hand is:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

That Greek word, ‘paideuo’ (G3811) is the exact same word translated as ‘chasten’ in Hebrews 12:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [G3811: verb, paideuo], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening [G3809: noun, paideia], God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth [paideuo, G33811] not?

Does grace “teach” us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts? Of course, it does, but the fact is that ‘teaching’ comes through a spiritual spanking and scourging which is completely hidden when you translate ‘paideuo’ with the English word ‘teach’ here in Titus:

Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, chastens] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

What a huge difference it would make if the translators had consistently used the English word ‘chastening’ instead of ‘teaching’. A consistent translation using the word ‘chastening’ would go a long way toward giving this next verse an entirely different connotation than the ‘greasy grace’ inflection it has been given by many who believe in the damnable doctrine of ‘substitutionary atonement’. Read this verse now with the knowledge that ‘the grace of God chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts…’:

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

With this new understanding of the function of the grace of God in our lives Romans 5:20 now accords with the message of “Whom the Lord loveth He chastens [paideuo], and scourgeth every son He receiveth”, instead of the “let us sin that grace may abound” message that was already circulating even as early as the epistles of the apostle Paul who poses that very question:

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Paul asks this question in anticipation of what he was already hearing as the naturally permissive response to his doctrine of “the free… gift by grace… is of many offences unto justification” and “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

Rom 5:15  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Rom 5:16  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

“The free gift… of many offences unto justification” is not the freedom to sin without severe consequences. Rather, ‘the free gift’ is the gift of God’s chastening, scourging grace:

Rom 11:22  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

We have all lived many years of our lives as spiritual ‘bastards’ while thinking we were sons. We all self-righteously tithed and kept days, months, times and years, with no earth-shaking chastening taking place in our lives.

Even at that time the Lord already knew all those who were and who were not His elect. He already knew who He “first loved” and who would later be the beneficiaries of His chastening grace:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,  according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
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);
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Fields and lands, cities and mountains and valleys one and all typify the powers and principalities of the kingdom of our old man, all of which are destroyed and then replaced by the doctrinal Truths of the kingdom of our New Man, Christ, and His kingdom within us:

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

The Lord has “returned [our] captivity” here and now in “earnest” and in the down payment of His spirit within us. As “sons of God” we are at this very moment ‘kings and priests’ but awaiting “the manifestation of the sons of God”:

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.

If Christ is within us, then we are “heirs with Him”:

Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba [G5 is the equivalent of H2: ‘Father], Father [G3962: ‘Pater’, Father].
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

That is the encouraging hope with which this chapter closes:

Jer 32:43  And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 32:44  Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD.

Knowing that He was about to die, our Lord told Pilate:

Joh 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

The two times the word ‘world’ appears in this verse are both G2889, the Greek word ‘kosmos’. Christ tells Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”

“But now is my kingdom not from hence” will not always be the case because we are assured:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world [G2889] are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

If we are granted, through the Lord’s chastening grace, to “cast down every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring [them] into captivity… to the obedience of Christ” in “this present time”, then we will be given power over the nations of “this world”, this ‘kosmos’. Then we will fight for our Lord, and we will rule the nations of this world with a rod of iron for a thousand years just prior to the great white throne judgment through which is the chastening grace by which we will bring all men of all time to our Lord and to His Father:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28  And I will give him the morning star.

That “Morning Star” is Christ, and He is “the Day Star” of:

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

It is through the brightness of this ‘Day Star’ that His servants are now fighting the good fight of faith within and burning out all that offends in His kingdom within us.

Look at the Greek word translated as ‘Day star’:

G5459
φωσφόρος
phōsphoros
foce-for’-os

From G5457 and G5342; light bearing (“phosphorus”), that is, (specifically) the morning star (figuratively): – day star.

‘Phosphorus’ burns very hot, and it is with this ‘fire’ “in [our] hearts” that we will also then fight against and be given dominion over the kingdoms of this kosmos.

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

Remember how Christ appeared at His transfiguration in the mount:

Mat 17:2  And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

It is with the light of “the Sun of Righteousness” that we will be given the dominion over the kingdoms of this world, both within first and then outwardly in this ‘kosmos’.

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

That concludes this study, and here are our verses for next week’s study:

Jer 33:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
Jer 33:2  Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name;
Jer 33:3  Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Jer 33:4  For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;
Jer 33:5  They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
Jer 33:6  Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
Jer 33:7  And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
Jer 33:8  And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.
Jer 33:9  And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.
Jer 33:10  Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,
Jer 33:11  The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.
Jer 33:12  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
Jer 33:13  In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the LORD.

Jer 10:14-25  It Is Not in Man That Walks to Direct His Steps

[Study Aired June 6, 2021]

Jer 10:14  Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 10:15  They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Jer 10:16  The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
Jer 10:17  Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
Jer 10:18  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.
Jer 10:19  Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
Jer 10:20  My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
Jer 10:21  For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Jer 10:22  Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Jer 10:24  O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
Jer 10:25  Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

The title of this study is taken from the words of verse 23. We will come to see just how revolutionary it is to tell mankind that his will is not really his will. Such a doctrine was extremely unpopular both then and now. First we will continue where we left off with the Lord proclaiming the Truth of verse 23 in these words from our last study:

Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Jer 10:12  He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Jer 10:13  When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

The Lord said all that just to contrast Himself with who we are as “corruptible flesh and blood” (1Co 15:50).

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

So, we continue to learn about the judgment of the Lord upon the corruptible kingdom of our old man:

Jer 10:14  Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 10:15  They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

I was surprised to learn that the word translated as “brutish” here is most often translated as ‘burn’, ‘kindled’ or ‘put away’.

Here are the various ways this Hebrew word is translated in the King James Version of the scriptures:

H1197
בּער
bâ‛ar
Total KJV Occurrences: 113
burn, 19
Lev_6:12, Deu_5:23, 2Ch_4:20, 2Ch_13:11, Neh_10:34, Psa_79:5, Psa_89:46, Isa_1:31, Isa_10:17, Isa_40:16, Isa_44:15, Jer_4:4, Jer_7:20, Jer_21:12, Eze_5:2, Eze_39:9-10 (2), Nah_2:13, Mal_4:1
away, 16
Deu_13:5, Deu_17:7, Deu_19:12-13 (2), Deu_19:19, Deu_21:9, Deu_22:21-22 (3), Deu_22:24, Deu_24:7, Deu_26:13-14 (2), Jdg_20:13, 2Ki_23:24, 2Ch_19:3
put, 13
Deu_13:5, Deu_17:7, Deu_19:12-13 (2), Deu_19:19, Deu_21:9, Deu_22:21-22 (3), Deu_22:24, Deu_24:7, Jdg_20:13, 2Ki_23:24
brutish, 11
Psa_49:10, Psa_92:6, Psa_94:8, Pro_30:1-2 (2), Isa_19:11, Jer_10:8, Jer_10:14, Jer_10:21, Jer_51:17, Eze_21:31
kindled, 9
Exo_22:6, 2Sa_22:9, 2Sa_22:13, Psa_2:12, Psa_18:8, Psa_106:18, Isa_50:11, Jer_44:6, Eze_20:48
burned, 8
Exo_3:2, Deu_4:11, Deu_9:15, Est_1:12, Job_1:16, Psa_39:3, Isa_42:25, Lam_2:3</u
burning, 6
Isa_4:3-4 (2), Isa_30:27, Jer_20:9 (2), Jer_36:22, Eze_1:13
burnt, 6
Exo_3:3, Num_11:1, Num_11:3, Jdg_15:5, Jdg_15:14, 2Ch_28:3
burneth, 4
Psa_83:14, Isa_9:18, Isa_62:1, Hos_7:6
kindle, 4
Exo_35:3, Isa_30:33, Isa_43:2, Jer 7:18
take, 42Sa_4:11, 1Ki_14:10, 1Ki_16:3, 1Ki 21:21
become, 2
Isa_19:11, Jer_10:21
eaten, 2
Exo_22:5, Isa_6:13
taken, 2
Deu_26:13-14 (2), 2Ch_19:3
brought, 1
Deu_26:13
feed, 1
Exo_22:5
heated, 1
Hos_7:4
set, 1
Eze_39:9
taketh, 1
1Ki_14:10
took, 1
1Ki_22:46
wasted, 1
Num_24:22

Notice that all the verses listed for the two words ‘put’ and ‘away’ are all the same verses with a couple of exceptions. That is because they are all two English words being translated from one Hebrew word, in this case the Hebrew word ‘ba’ar’. In the context of this statement, what we are being told is, “Every man [has put away the Lord] in his knowledge.”  The positive application is to “put evil away from the midst of thee”:

Deu 13:5  And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn  you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

The word ‘evil’ is translated from the Hebrew word ‘rah’ and the words ‘put’ and ‘away’ are translated from the one Hebrew word ‘ba’ar’. That phrase appears over ten times. The most common translation for this Hebrew word ‘baar’ is ‘burn’ or ‘burned’, as the burning of wood. This Hebrew word appears three times here in Jeremiah 10. It first appeared in verse 8 of this chapter:

Jer 10:7  Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish [H1197: ‘ba’ar’] and foolish: the stock [Hebrew: ‛êts, wood] is a doctrine of vanities.

Lev 6:12  And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn [H1197 ‘ba’ar’] wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.

The offering of Christ is burned upon the ‘wood’ of our corruptible flesh, which the Lord is in the process of ‘putting away’. In the negative context of this study, what we are being told is that “every man [has put away the Lord] in his knowledge”.

Physical idols are “falsehoods”. “Every founders… molten image” typifies every false prophet and his false doctrines. As we have established, physical idols in the Old Testament typify spiritual “idols of the heart” (Eze 14:1-9) which are false, lying doctrines of men which come between ourselves and Christ as “the stumbling block of [our] iniquity” until we are dragged out of ‘Babylon the great’ by the holy spirit:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me  [G1670: ‘helkuo’, ‘drag’ against one’s will (Rom 7:15: Rom 9:16)] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,  Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

There is a great honor being bestowed upon every man who is being dragged out of Babylon and into “Jerusalem above, the mother of us all” (Gal 4:26). Jeremiah informs us of the blessings of that honor:

Jer 10:16  The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

Our “portion” or inheritance is in the Lord. He alone “is the former of all things”. We are His inheritance, and He is our inheritance, our ‘portion’:

Deu 32:9  For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

The statement, “Israel is the rod of His inheritance” is the Old Testament foundation for these New Testament revelations:

Eph 1:17  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

What a wonderful revelation! His inheritance is “in [us]”, and we are also informed that we have obtained “an inheritance… in [Him]”:

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
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:

Our inheritance is in Him, and it is all being done “after the counsel of His own will”, but it entails the judgment and the daily dying of our old man before we can receive our inheritance in Him:

Jer 10:17  Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
Jer 10:18  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

2^nd Samuel 22 and Psalms 18 make clear to whom “the fortress” refers. It refers to the Lord’s people, you and me, as the Lord’s wayward, rebellious people:

2Sa 22:2  And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

Psa 18:2  The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Like all of us, King David lost his first love and had to be judged and chastened and scourged to be brought back to the Lord with a whole heart as Jeremiah confirms:

Jer 10:19  Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

What exactly is it that we must bear? It is our own judgment which is even now come upon the house, the “tabernacle” of God (1Pe 4:17):

Jer 10:20  My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

The “great whore” of Revelation 17 and 18 is the Lord’s own house. This great harlot is the seven churches of Asia who “all forsook” the apostle Paul and whose sins are exposed in Revelation two and three:

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

[Here is the link to the spiritual significance of the number seven:  The Number Seven]

“All they which are in Asia” would include “the seven churches of Asia” (Rev 2:1). ‘Seven’ indicates that the apostasy of the Lord’s wife was already complete when Paul penned 2nd Timothy. The apostate, Diotrephes was so well established before the death of the apostle John that he was able to cast the Lord’s true followers out of the very church established by the apostles of our Lord:

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
3Jn 1:10  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

This complete and total apostasy is a theme that runs throughout the prophecies of both Isaiah and Jeremiah:

Jer 10:21  For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

This is the third time in this one chapter where the word ‘brutish’ is used. It may appear to be speaking of some bad pastors, but you and I were ‘bad pastors’ when we once subscribed to all the false doctrines of the great whore.

“The pastors” are the leaders of the Lord’s people. This situation is prophesied of in Isaiah 3:1:

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,

The ‘brutish pastors’ do not believe that “the Lord… hath taken away from [His people] the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water” because they are the very Nicolaitan leaders who constitute these “seven women” of the first verse of the next chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women [“The seven churches of Asia… all they which are in Asia”] shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

Any woman who does not want her husband’s food or His clothing is not a faithful wife, and the Lord will not be party to such an arrangement. His definition of His love is to “chasten us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts” and to avenge Himself of our rebellious disrespect. He accomplishes this through wicked and evil men:

Jer 10:22  Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘bruit’ is ‘shemuah’, and this is how it is translated elsewhere in the Old Testament:

H8052
שׁמוּעה
shemû‛âh
Total KJV Occurrences: 27
rumour, 9
2Ki_19:7, Isa_37:7, Jer_49:14, Jer_51:46 (3), Eze_7:26 (2), Oba_1:1
tidings, 8
1Sa_4:19, 2Sa_4:4, 2Sa_13:30, 1Ki_2:28, Psa_112:7, Jer_49:23, Eze_21:7, Dan_11:44
report, 4
1Sa_2:24, Pro_15:30, Isa_28:19, Isa_53:1
fame, 2
1Ki_10:7, 2Ch_9:6
bruit, 1
Jer_10:22
doctrine, 1
Isa_28:9
mentioned, 1
Eze_16:56
news, 1
Pro_25:25

It obviously means “rumor, tidings, report, news” and is speaking of  the impending chastening coming upon us.

This is a repetition of what Jeremiah said in chapter 9:

Jer 9:11  And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Jer 9:12  Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
Jer 9:13  And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

When we turn our backs on our Lord and receive the doctrines of the great whore, we are actually receiving the doctrines of the great red dragon:

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat [Greek: ‘thronos’ throne], and great authority.

As the natural wild beasts we all are by nature, we gladly receive the doctrines of the dragon, and it is those doctrines which become his ‘den’, his dwelling place within us.

This is the prophesied event that would come upon the Lord’s own people when they turn their backs on their own spiritual husband:

Deu 32:34  Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Deu 32:35  To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Deu 32:36  For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
Deu 32:37  And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,

The book of Job demonstrates that Satan is nothing more than the Lord’s “hand” (Job 1:11-12 and 2:5-6). That being so, the Sabeans and Chaldeans were the Lord’s own sword sent by Satan, as the Lord’s hand, to try Job and reveal to Job just how self-righteous he was (Job 1:15-17 and Job 27:5-6). King David was familiar with these verses of Job and made this statement:

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psa 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

“The wicked” are the Lord’s sword and His hand which He uses to bring trials upon His elect in this present time to humble and purify us in preparation for His service as His “saviors” of all the rest of mankind. It will be ‘through our mercy that all others will receive mercy’:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

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.

Our next verse gives the lie to the false doctrine of free will and because the Lord has given the brutish pastors eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, He has also blinded them from being able to see or hear this fact:

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Jeremiah had the books of Moses, Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Isaiah to read and meditate upon. Those books all proclaim the total sovereignty of God and the fact that mankind is mere clay in the Lord’s hand, as Jeremiah clearly states in:

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.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

The doctrine of the total sovereignty of God is foundational to every book of scripture. All scripture teaches that God has made all things for Himself and that He is in the process of humbling all men intending from before the beginning of the world, to drag all men to Himself.

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

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

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
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:

It is because the Lord has given us an experience of evil to humble us by it that we are made to cry out to Him:

Jer 10:24  O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

“With judgment [and] not in [His] anger” is how the Lord always expresses His anger and His wrath, because even His wrath and His anger are “created for Himself” and for the plan and purpose He is executing. That includes the most egregious sin of all time, the death of His Son:

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

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Act 4:29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,

Jeremiah was made to know that the Lord’s anger and His wrath are never out of control, but are always measured to accomplish the changes He is working in His creatures. It bears repeating what we were just told:

Jer 10:19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

These words reveal that the Lord’s wrath is always measured and is always for our good, and it is never out of His control. This verse also applies to that wrath which we are told “fills up the wrath of God”:

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.

Filling up these plagues is the entrance into the temple of God. Filling up these “seven last plagues” in our own lives is passing through the fiery sword which guards the way of the Tree of Life, and we will never know life eternal without passing through the ‘fire’ of that “fiery sword” which is the Word of God.

Enduring the fiery experience of the seven last plagues is called “the patience of the saints [who] keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The blessing of God is only on those who read, hear, and keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book” including chapters 14-16; the seven last plagues:

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

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.

Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

“Truly this is a grief and [we] must bear it” (Jer 10:19)

The Lord drags us to Himself by bringing us low through great trials which cause the most stubborn carnal mind to ask, “Lord, what would you have me do?” Saul of Tarsus, who by the Lord’s chastening grace came to be the apostle Paul, is a perfect example of just how persuasive the Lord can be and is:

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.
Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Just like Joseph’s ten brothers who wanted him dead, but instead ended up bowing down to Joseph, Saul of Tarsus was given a similar experience of bowing down to the very man he was persecuting.

What neither Saul of Tarsus nor Jeremiah understood at that time was that physical Israel was merely a type of spiritual Israel. Paul put it like this in:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in thespirit, and  not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Christ was the first to reveal that physical Israel was just a type and a shadow of the true “Israel of God”.

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

Bringing that revelation to His own people almost cost Christ His life at His very first recorded message to the people of His own hometown:

Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luk 4:20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luk 4:22  And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Luk 4:23  And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
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 blasphemous to a physical Jew to tell him that God is as much a God of the Gentiles as He is of the Jews. All religious Jews believe only the letter of these words:

Deu 7:6  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Here are the first two verses of Deuteronomy 7:

Deu 7:1  When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
Deu 7:2  And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

When Moses wrote those words at that time, they had nothing more than an outward letter for letter meaning, but the holy spirit reveals in the New Testament that “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life”:

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

Christ tells us that His words are not to be understood letter for letter, but rather His words are spirit and must therefore be understood spiritually:

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

This statement by Christ is the basis for Paul’s statement, ”Not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2Co 3:6).

Christ was prophesied to be ‘like Moses’:

Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

“Like unto thee” means that Christ would be a reformer as Moses was. It was through Moses that tabernacle worship with its priesthood and attendant daily offerings was introduced. Christ also introduced “the time of reformation”:

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

Reformers always face great resistance to their reforms. That is why both Moses and Christ were first rejected by the Lord’s own people. That is why the Lord’s own people first rejected hearing His voice:

Exo 14:10  And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Exo 14:11  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

Just a few weeks after the Lord used Moses to lead Israel through the Red Sea, the Lord attempted to speak directly to the people, but He was again rejected with these words:

Exo 20:18  And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
Exo 20:19  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

The smoking mountain typifies our physical, carnal life of rebellion against our Lord. The thundering, lightnings, and trumpets all typify the judgments of the Lord against our ‘mountain’, and we simply cannot at first appreciate what the Lord is doing. Only Moses, typifying Christ in us, can approach the smoking, burning, dying ‘mountain’.

So, the revelation of “the things of the spirit” and the fact that all of this happened to them and it is written for our admonition”, the admonition of physical Gentiles like Naaman the Syrian and the widow of Serepta, was not revealed to the physical nation of Israel at that time.

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

As we just read, the revelation that “he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly” was rejected by the nation of Israel when Christ revealed it to the people of His hometown of Nazareth. He and His message of “the things of the spirit” were so unpopular with the people of His hometown of Nazareth that they attempted to murder Him for even suggesting that the gospel would go to the Gentiles.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We are all just as guilty of first rejecting our Lord as were the people of Nazareth. So it is by the Lord’s design that “every man’s works shall be tried by fire”, and the fire will try every man’s works of what sort it is”:

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.

Paul is addressing these words to what the people of Nazareth would consider to be heathen Corinthians, but the Truth of Christ’s reformation is:

Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then  are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

If we have been baptized into Christ, we are Abraham’s seed, because Abraham himself was but a type of the true “father of the faithful”. Just as Christ is “the true bread from heaven” He is also ‘the true Father of the faithful’. It is our own rebellious “old man” and any others who are not “in Christ” who are now counted as spiritual heathens.

That is the spiritual application of the last verse of this chapter:

Jer 10:25  Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

The Lord’s “fury” and His wrath are not just for the purpose of venting His anger with our sins. Whether it is in “this present time” or at the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death, the Lord’s wrath is His judgment upon the rebellious, carnal kingdom of our old man, and this is what His judgments produce within “every man”:

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

This is where we are. We are “in the way of [His] judgments… waiting for His judgments to burn away all the “wood, hay, and stubble” within the kingdom of our old man and establish Christ as our new King. “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God…”:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

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?

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study:

Jer 11:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 11:2  Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Jer 11:3  And say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,
Jer 11:4  Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:
Jer 11:5  That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.
Jer 11:6  Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.
Jer 11:7  For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.
Jer 11:8  Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.
Jer 11:9  And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer 11:10  They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
Jer 11:11  Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
Jer 11:12. Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.